All Dead Yet Still Alive

A House's Endless Art was mentioned on Twitter the other day. The Dublin band nearly had a hit with it in 1992, a list of dead artists names and dates set to music. It starts with Oscar Wilde ('All art is quite useless') and goes on with Turner, Toulouse-Lautrec, Warhol, Hemmingway, Hendrix, Yeats, Monet, Beethoven, Vicious, Tennyson, Man Ray, Henry's Moore and Miller, Presley, Miro, Bach, Brahms, Kerouac, Pollock (above), Picasso, Degas, Dali, Ian Curtis and a load more before finishing with Mickey Mouse.

It's a record I really like but I don't need to hear it that often. They got criticised at the time for having a list of endless artists that included no women (the female artists then turned up on the B-side).

Endless Art

Additionally

I always quite liked Add N To X and their analogue, electronic noise, although browsing my record collection I didn't like them enough to buy much by them. Not everyone liked them- The Face once published a review of them that read 'Add fuck to off'.

Metal Fingers In My Body

Justice Tonight

Mick Jones, Pete Wylie and The Farm have been touring for the past year as the Justice Tonight Band, in aid of the Hillsborough Justice Campaign. A number of Clash/Wylie/Farm songs performed by the Justice Tonight Band could be appropriate following today's report on the Hillsborough disaster- I Fought The Law, The Day That Margaret Thatcher Died, Stay Free, All Together Now, Clampdown....



Today the truth, tomorrow justice.
And remember, don't buy The Sun.*


* I'm a Man Utd fan by the way. Today our petty rivalries mean nothing. 

Can Do

Sometimes I can listen to Can and think 'yep, they are massively influential and I can tell why; this is utterly brilliant, mutant, avant garde, funky, groundbreaking, krautrocking genius'. Sometimes I wish they'd written some tunes to go with all of that. But I'd rather live with them than without them. This one is off Tago Mago.

''Oh Yeah''

Hawley Philharmonic

Richard Hawley performed a set accompanied by the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra for 6 Music recently, a selection of songs off his latest album and some older ones. You can listen to it here (but only for the next few days). Introduced by Jarvis Cocker at the Great Hall at Magna near Sheffield, it's in two parts and doesn't start until about half an hour in. I'm not always a fan of orchestral versions of pop songs but this is stunning in parts. Hawley has a track record of playing in off the beaten track places, playing in gig in The Devil's Arse a few years back. The Devil's Arse is an underground cavern in Castleton, Derbyshire.

I Spy The Smiths

These I-Spy books were popular in the 1960s and 70s, supposedly to keep children from being bored on long car journeys. You had to tick off things from each page. Harder or rarer spots were worth more points. If you completed a book I think you could write off somewhere for a certificate or something.

The Smiths split up twenty five years ago last month. I was reminded of this while reading one of The Vinyl Villain's The Smiths On British TV posts (Vicar In A Tutu here). Something else occurred to me. I think The Smiths may be the only band I could complete an I-Spy page for, having seen all four members in an everyday environment. I wondered about New Order and whilst not seeing Bernard or Hooky was probably worth more points at various times in Manchester's recent history, and I've seen Stephen a couple of times, I don't think I've ever spotted Gillian Gilbert. Similarly I've seen three of four Stone Roses out and about but I  never saw Reni. But maybe no-one did.

So, The Smiths. I bumped into Mike Joyce (almost literally) a few years ago at Broadheath retail park. Broadheath retail park is as dreary as it sounds, a huge car park surrounded by sheds containing DIY shops, cheap sports goods, a McDonalds and a Toys R Us. Mike was wheeling a trolley into a DIY store as I was exiting. Or maybe it was Sainsburys in Altrincham. It was somewhere just south of here anyway. 'Sorry' I mumbled. 'That's Mike Joyce' I whispered to  Mrs Swiss. This was not too long after his court case win and I noted he was wearing a new looking leather coat.

Andy Rourke is a Sale lad, grew up not too far from here. I've seen him in town at least once, Dry Bar I think. Not too many points for a bassist are there?

Johnny Marr? Again, spotted a couple of times, the most memorable being in the late 90s in a now defunct nightclub (can't remember it's name) on Oldham Street where we'd gone to see Andrew Weatherall dj. He was playing techno, one of my party wasn't getting it at all. Johnny Marr turned up in a floral shirt and stood with his party and wife Angie not far from us. Not much frugging from Mr and Mrs Marr I'm afraid but a good points total I think.

Morrissey, whatever you think of him, must bag the most points though especially as he hasn't lived in Manchester for years and is somewhat reclusive. For some reason I'd gone with Mrs Swiss and a few friends for an afternoon pint in The Railway in Hale village, just round the corner from where CJ and his cousin N were renting rooms in a house owned by another friend. The fact that we were afternoon drinking puts this somewhere between 1994 and 1998. We ordered and took our pints into the front room,where to our surprise the only occupants were Morrissey and a big bloke with a skinhead. Morrissey glanced in our direction but largely ignored us. One of my party attempted various bits of low level attention seeking to get a reaction from Moz (putting a cagoul on with the hood up and pulling the draw strings tight around his face, etc) while the rest of us attempted to play it cool. Morrissey ignored us, chatted to his friend and then swept out. That must be worth a good few points eh?

Obviously I'd like to make it clear these are all random encounters, and not stalking.

Please, Please, Please, Let Me get What I Want (Live USA 1986)

This is a cracking live version of Please, Please, Please from the Thank Your Lucky Stars bootleg.

Double X

The xx release their second album, Coexist, today. Somehow I find them an easier band to admire than to love. Their first album was impressive but I never really got into it like I should have. The sound they create, the dubsteppy stuff, the sparse guitars and bass, the space, the twin vocals, are all done very well. This is a bonus track called Reconsider. Which I'm going to try to do.

Bass Reprise

A bit more Renegade Soundwave for your Sunday evening- a version of Women Respond To Bass (an assertion that I'm no nearer to clearing up). Acid Ted's been posting a load of RS as well. You can probably squeeze some in before the closing ceremony.

Women Respond To Bass (Women Respond In Heaven)

I Went To A Party I Danced All Night

I've just remembered I was meant to be doing some Surf Sunday posts. Sorry George, I'll try harder next week.

I think it was Dirk from Sexyloser who tipped me off to this, and my mp3 player has shuffled it up twice in the last few days- Nouvelle Vague, French loungecore/bossa nova/easy listening interpretors of punk, tackling a Dead Kennedys song and turning it from a fratboy anthem into something else entirely, particularly the inspired one-off vocal.

Too Drunk To Fuck

Plus a picture of John Steinbeck looking dapper, a man who would surely never be too drunk for a bit of hows-yer-father.

Harder Than You Think

This picture shows what happens when an athlete at the top of his game wins a major event, as David Weir did a couple of nights ago at the Olympic Stadium in London.

I'm sure I can speak for a lot of people when I say I've found the Paralympics to be just about the most inspiring thing I've seen for ages. The coverage has been a little patchy by Channel 4 in terms of showing actual live action but the excitement and interest it's stirred up has been phenomenal, especially when so much of it has been about the sport itself and not just the disability. Perhaps people will start looking at disability differently. And though it seems unfair to pick any of the athletes out the performances of David Weir, Hannah Cockcroft, Ellie Simmonds, Jonnie Peacock and Sarah Storey have brought tears to the eyes. I'm just wondering if we can find an event to start training our son IT in. He'll be seventeen when Rio comes around.

Channel 4's coverage has been soundtracked by a catchy little horn sample and a fragment of voice. This began to nag at me so I googled it. It turns out it's a Public Enemy song from 2007, which made me realise I haven't bought (or possibly even heard) a new Public Enemy record since, ooh, the last century. It was just as surprising to find that Harder Than You Think is riding high in the UK charts. It doesn't surprise me that it's selling, I just didn't know we still had a chart. Here's Chuck and Flavor doing the right thing...



Which reminds me; why did 80, 000 people boo George Osbourne at the Olympic Stadium?
Because the Olympic Stadium only holds 80, 000 people.

U R Sound

This is the bosun John Vincent, from Ernest Shackleton's polar expedition ship Endurance. Nice hat, necker and jumper combination, just the thing for winter 1912/2012.

This is from Adrian Sherwood's new Survival And resistance album, dubbed out and lovely, just the thing for  autumn 2012.

U R Sound

The Return Of Friday Night Is Rockabilly Night 72

Last week's rockabilly post got clobbered by the DMCA, which I thought was a bit odd for a song released back in 1956.

Tonight's offering is from Charlie Feathers, a man who played rockabilly though this one is more hillbilly blues. The kind of low key song you can stick on the end of a mixtape after building up to dancefloor madness beforehand.

It's Just That Song

Numbers Add Up To Nothing

Cowboy Junkies Trinity Sessions album was one of those records that came out of nowhere and obsessed people for a while. A friend of mine and myself listened to little else for what seemed like ages. The follow up, The Caution Horses, wasn't too bad either but it missed the church that the previous album was recorded in. This accordion led version of Neil Young's Powderfinger is good in all the right places.

In 2004/5ish my brother-in-law's band (then called Bocca) played above a bar in Leicester (The Lamplighters I think). Long after the evening and gig had finished three of the band and myself were standing at the bar talking and we decided, seeing as the gear was still set up, to play an impromptu version of Powderfinger there and then to an audience of the barman and three bikers who'd surely ended up in the wrong bar. Emboldened by alcohol and a very small and indifferent audience we staggered/swaggered through it. I managed to remember most of the words. At the end the barman told us that was it, he was closing. As we walked past the bikers one of them said 'That was shit lads. Enjoyed it though'.

Powderfinger

Archangels Thunderbird

Amon Duul 2 are a krautrock band I've generally given a wide berth. Unlike Can or Neu! they seem to proggy and not motorik enough. But this will do nicely.

Archangels Thunderbird

What it's got to do with four ladies from the 1920s getting ready for a variety of sports activities is anyone's guess.

Electric Sound Of Summer

I pointed you in the direction of Fuxa back in the Spring, who recorded this beautiful, blissed out version of the Fun Boy Three/Go Go's Our Lips Are Sealed. Whispered vox, analogue keys, primitive percussion, effects.



Something reminded me of it the other day and I realised I hadn't gone looking for the album, which came out in May. It's called Electric Sound Of Summer, and that title describes it pretty well. It's got wooziness all over it, the aural equivalent of the sun going down over a beer garden when you've had exactly the right amount to drink and everything feels good. On the other hand there's a sadness about it too. The sun will soon disappear behind the trees, a chill in the air, Autumn's just around the corner. Lovely stuff.

As well as the aforementioned cover there's a ten minute version of Suicide's Cheree, a cover of a Daniel Johnston song (below) and guest spots from Dean and Britta (from Luna and Dean and Britta), Seefeel's Sarah Peacock, and members of Spiritualized, Spectrum and Spacemen 3.

Some Things Last A Long Time

This Is Why Events Unnerve Me

New Order used to have a perfectly preserved back catalogue and legacy. They've pissed on it a bit in recent years- dodgy albums, collaborations with Scissor Sisters, bitter feuding between Bernard and Hooky, silliness, too many compilations and remixes. I don't resent them the right to continue to play and tour (I've been to see them several times since the early 2000s and loved them every time). It's just that the icy majesty they used to have has been tarnished.

Back in 1981 they regrouped following Ian Curtis' suicide and attempted to move on. Ceremony (Fac 33 Factory fans) was their debut single. In a lot of ways it's really a Joy Division song. With a Peter Saville sleeve and Martin Hannett production, using Ian's lyrics and none of the electronics or keyboards which would come to define New Order it remains a beautiful song. Deborah Curtis has said she wished they'd split for good following it's release, adding it was True Faith before she could bear to listen to them again. Amusingly Julie Burchill reviewed the single saying the lyrics were trite when compared to Joy Division. The band had to stick the JD rehearsal version through various graphic equalisers to decipher Ian's words. Two versions were released, one on March 1981 and one in September with Gillian Gilbert playing guitar. Ceremony is a great song, a JD/NO song. Later on the band would invent dance-rock. With Ceremony they're still learning to become a new band, feeling their way forward, creating something to keep them moving .

Ceremony (Alternative Version)

Bass Response

Renegade Soundwave's Women Respond To Bass- a short follow up post. Here's the track at youtube- very 1992 and none the poorer for it. I may have to go seeking a vinyl copy of this.



And as Ctel pointed out in the comments box this morning, there's more Renegade Soundwave here and amazingly the links are still live over four years after the posting.

And Tedloaf likes this one. I do too.

Robbery

Women Respond To Bass was the title of a 1992 Renegade Soundwave single. Unfortunately I don't have it, but the title always stuck with me. I don't know if they had any scientific basis for this claim. They formed in 1986, doing that late 80s dance thing of trying to combine house, hip hop, dub, sampling and industrial music into one dancefloor friendly noise. With a definite London edge to the vocals. Probably A Robbery was the nearest they came to a hit, reaching number 38 in 1989.

Probably A Robbery

Back to work with a bang today.

Five Man Army

It's a bit difficult to imagine now the impact Massive Attack had back at the turn of the 90s. Their debut lp, Blue Lines, had people who never normally bought that kind of thing listening to little else. On top of that, here was a British group, doing breakbeats, reggae, soul and rap properly. With Bristol accents. Almost all of that first lp is top stuff- Safe From Harm with it's massive sampled bassline (from Stratus by Billy Cobham) and paranoia, the gorgeous Hymn Of The Big Wheel, Horace Andy singing Be Thankful For What You've Got, the lighter than air Daydreaming (with Tricky).... and Unfinished Sympathy- contender for greatest British single of the decade ever, I'd have thought. This one ain't too shabby either-

Five Man Army

I don't think they've ever pulled it off again in such style, although the songs Protection (especially) and Teardrop are as good as anything on Blue Lines. But as a whole the subsequent albums didn't repeat the trick for me. Protection has good songs but doesn't feel as whole. Fallings out and shedding members they then became darker and darker, not enough light to balance things up. Angel is superb, a trip-hop Joy Division, but Mezzanine was an oppressive listen. Whereas Blue Lines was a joy from start to finish.

Expander

Future Sound Of London started out with their Expander album in 1991, a dance floor thing rather than their later ambient, off kilter, psychedelic voyage style stuff. The opening track sets the tone. Jumpin' and pumpin' techno. I can't quite work out if this sounds dated or not.

Expander