Monday's Long Song

Over the weekend I was suddenly struck the need to hear Tangled Up In Blue, one of Bob Dylan's finest songs- the words, the playing, the production and the singing, the way he paints so many vivid images of five minutes, the internal rhymes and the lovers crossing paths as the song shifts back and forth in time and across places, Delacroix and Montague Street, New Orleans and the great north woods. The ending, where Dylan returns to find the her, and he sings that all those people he used to know are an illusion to him now, 'some are mathematicians/ some are carpenters' wives', a line that always jumps out- mathematicians and carpenters' wives is so specific and so odd.

Having scratched my Tangled Up In Blue itch I sat down and listened to Blood On The Tracks all the way through. There's an argument thatit's Dylan's best album. It's definitely his best album of the 70s and after shedding fans and critical adoration with a run of albums in the first half of the decade (Self Portrait, New Morning, Dylan and Planet Waves all have their moments but none touch his 60s work or Blood On The Tracks) it can be viewed as a comeback with nine absolute top drawer Dylan songs (and Lily, Rosemary And The Jack Of Hearts which is fun but for me inessential). 

It's widely seen as an album that describes the breakdown of his marriage to Sarah Lowndes following an affair he had. Jakob Dylan says the album is 'about my parents'. Dylan denies that the album is autobiographical or confessional, saying in Chronicles Vol. 1 that all the songs were inspired by short stories by Chekhov (Anton Chekhov not Star Trek's Mr. Chekhov). I'm not sure Dylan is a completely reliable witness but then again, he's Bob Dylan, who are we to doubt him?

Four songs in to Side One of Blood On The comes the epic seven minutes and forty eight seconds of Idiot Wind. It starts off with a complaint about someone who has it in for him, 'planting stories in the press', and goes on from there, by turns reflective, indignant, vindictive and despairing. Some of it is aimed at a 'sweet lady', some at himself perhaps, the idiot wind that blows 'every time you move your mouth... it's a wonder that you still know how to breathe'. There's biblical imagery, fortune tellers, boxcars and lone soldiers, a chestnut mare and a priest wearing black on the seventh day. The idiot wind blows everyone away and eventually the nation, 'from the Grand Coulee Dam to the Capitol' (and this is the mid- 70s of defeat in Vietnam, Nixon's disgrace and resignation so the idiot wind has blown all the way to the very top).

In the end though it blows on him and on her- 'Idiot wind/ Blowing through the buttons of our coats/ Blowing through the letters that we wrote/ Blowing through the dust upon our shelves/ We're idiots babe/ It's a wonder we can even feed ourselves'.

Idiot Wind

Forty Five Minutes Of Japanese Psyche

For the last two months Ernie of 27 Leggies and myself have been engaging in a long running duel- think Ridley Scott's masterful 1977 film The Duellists where Harvey Keitel and Keith Carradine engage in a long running feud during the Napoleonic Wars. 

Mine and Ernie's duel is not due to an imagined slight and a stain on an officer's honour- at least I don't think it is- but is a duel of Japanese psyche bands, a to and fro  between two music blogs, each raising the stakes slightly with a post featuring obscure Japanese rock bands playing psyche, acid, prog, punk, ambient, psychedelic, noise and jazz inflected rock. Ernie went last with a post in May celebrating Kuunatic. Today's Sunday mix is something of a post holder while I consider where to go next, forty five minutes of music made by a variety of Japanese psyche bands featured either here or at 27 Leggies. Three quarters of an hour of Japanese psyche may not be your Sunday morning cup of green tea but in the spirit of adventure and experimentation I offer it up anyway. 

Forty Five Minutes Of Japanese Psyche

• Boredoms: Free (End Of Session Version)
• Kikagaku Moyo: Zo No Senaka
• Bo Ningen: Triangle
• Kuunatic: Desert Empress Pt. 1
• Yura Yura Teikoku: Dekinai (Extended Remix)
• Kikagaku Moyo: Majupose
• Yura Yura Teikoku: Sweet Surrender (Remix)

Boredoms are from Osaka, a noise rock band who formed in 1986 and have a huge, rambling back catalogue. They formed a friendship with Sonic Youth and as a result got exposure in the USA and played 1994's traveling circus Lollapalooza. Free is a cover of a song by Phish,  a rather lovely and chilled ambient track that leads us gently into the mix...

... whereupon Kikagaku Moyo take over- heavy, overloaded psychedelic rock, drums and guitars, wah wah pedals and valve amps pushed to their limits, chanted vocals, sitar, theremin. Kikagaku Moyo formed in 2012 and went on hiatus in 2022, a decade of psyche. Zo No Senaka is a live recording, the band playing a wedding at Hasenheide near Innsbruck and the album recorded and given to the guests and helpers with a further 300 copies made available to fans via the band's website. 

Bo Ningen's Triangle is the fifteen minute closing track from a 2021 re- recording of the band's 2011 debut album, a rebuild. I shaved four minutes off the start here, so that Bo Ningen kick in where Kikagaku Moyo left off. Bo Ningen are a fearsome live band and have found many supporters in the UK and Europe. They've played with Damo Suzuki, Savages and Faust and Bobby Gillespie has sung with them. 

Kuunatic are an all female trio from Tokyo who make 'tribal, dramy, tale music' (their description not mine) with keys, bass and drums and three way vocals. Experimental prog and psyche merged with sci fi and Japanese folk while wearing robes and headdresses. What's not to like?

Yura Yura Teikoku (translation- the wobbling empire) formed in Tokyo in 1989, underground psychedelia but with a commercial edge that led them to New York's DFA who put out a 2007 EP with Dekinai on one side and Sweet Surrender on the other. Terrific James Murphy endorsed electro/ punk funk. 

Mata ne. 

Oblique Saturdays

A series for Saturdays in 2026 inspired by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt's set of cards, Oblique Strategies (Over One Hundred Worthwhile Dilemmas). Eno and Schmidt created them to be used to unblock creative impasses and approach problems from unexpected angles. Each week I'll turn over an Oblique Strategy card and post a song or songs inspired by the suggestion. 

Last week's Oblique Strategy suggestion was What is the reality of the situation?

My Oblique responses were a new song from Mike D and The Aloof from 1994. The Bagging Area Oblique squad came up with some excellent suggestions. ilradz4evuh suggested a slew of Happy Mondays songs, all benefiting from the input of a producer (John Cale, Martin Hannett, Paul Oakenfold and Steve Osborne, Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth, and Sunny Levine and Howie B). Al G suggested Liverpool's The Real People (a band I saw twice back in the day, once in their home town and once at G- Mex supporting Pixies). This is the song Al G proposed, from The Real People's 1991 self- titled album...

The Truth

Rol went with Soul II Soul and The Beautiful South. Ernie plumbed for Gil Scott Heron's B Movie. JC came up with The Jam and Crass (a second Oblique Saturday showing for Crass) and Edinburgh's Sons Of The Descent. Over on social media Chris threw African Head Charge and Professor Stretch in. 

The variety of responses and the sheer range of songs thrown up by a short Brian Eno penned cryptic remark is ace. 

This week's Oblique Strategy card says this- Emphasise differences.

In 1973 Iggy Pop had a third roll of the dice with The Stooges, now Iggy and The Stooges. The monstrous groove of the original band had become something more akin to hard rock with the addition of new guitarist James Williamson. The failure of the first two albums, the debut and Funhouse, had seen the band spiral into chaos and addiction. They broke up, Iggy was on smack, Dave Alexander was an alcoholic. Singing as a solo artist with Colombia he moved to London with Williamson to make an album. Once there they failed to find a rhythm section that worked and so they flew former- Stooges the Asheton brothers over, with Ron reluctantly accepting he'd play the bass. With Bowie producing they recorded an album- Raw Power. 

Raw Power is a high octane blast of, well, raw power. From the opening frenzy of Search And Destroy it rattles and shakes, roars and thunders, proto- punk, one of those albums that inspired a thousand others. It ends with Death Trip...

Death Trip (1997 Iggy Pop remix)

'Sick boy sick boy going wrong/ Memory losing grip/ Girl I wanna take you out with me/ Come along on my death trip'

Iggy was on a one way trip at this point, heading towards the exit door. A death trip.

Incidentally, the version above is from Iggy's remixed/ remastered 1997 version, an opinion splitting version. Bowie's original 1973 version was often criticised for being muddy and unclear. Iggy redid it, in an attempt to compete with late 90s rock radio, everything pushed into the red but clarified for radio. Lots of people hated the new version- both Asheton brothers for two, Robert Quine and Don Fleming for two more and David Bowie himself. 

The Iggy mix does emphasise the differences, the distortion is audible but the instruments are separated and punchy. For two generations brought up on Bowie's 1973 mix though the wound up tension and ferocity of the original would always be the one. 

From Death Trip in 1973 to Lust For Life in 1977. 

Lust For Life

In between Iggy had finished off the second version of The Stooges on tour, the band and a bunch of bikers coming to blows while the band played (captured on Metallic K.O.). Iggy's drug issues deepened and he checked himself into a mental institution. Bowie rescued him, took him on the Station To Station tour and the pair then relocated to West Berlin in an attempt to wean themselves off their respective drug addictions (Bowie cocaine, Pop heroin). I guess it made some sense at the time but West Berlin was one of the strangest places in the world in 1977. Going there to get off drugs was a brave decision. It paid off. The made two of the best records of Iggy's and David's careers. Of anyone's careers in fact. The Idiot and Lust For Life (both should really be seen as part of Bowie's Berlin trilogy).

The road from Death Trip to Lust For Life is in itself an exercise in emphasising differences. Bowie and Pop were too, Bowie cerebral and arty, a megastar, a life as a work of art while Pop was a washed up rocker, an exercise in living as hard as you can all the time, primal.

'I'm worth a million in prizes/ I'm through with sleeping on the sidewalk/ No more beat my brains/ With liquor and drugs/ I got a lust For Life'.

Another way of emphasising differences is to look at where a band starts and where they finish. In the seven years between 1976 and 1983 The Clash went from this...

White Riot

...to this...

Death Is A Star

I'm not sure many bands ever traveled as far musically and stylistically as The Clash. Strummer, Jones, Simonon and Headon emphasising the difference, between White Riot and Death Is A Star, between ferocious two chord punk and impressionistic cinematic modern jazz. 

Feel free to drop your own emphasising differences suggestions in the comment box.

Lost Tapes In Dub

B:Dum B:Dum Sound* are a lesser known early 90s Mancunian act, a foursome who made dub infused with shots of post- punk and house. Their lost recordings are slowly but surely making their way onto the internet in various places. Last year a four track EP was released by Ramrock- The Lost Tapes EP is led by There Is No Question, a long slice of dubbed out digitalism with the gnomic vocals and lyrics of singer Gears. Do/ Don't, Only A Ghost and Mercy keep the flame burning with deep bass, hiss, space and echo and serious rhythms- dub you'll want to shuffle around to. The Lost Tapes EP is at Ramrock's Bandcamp. 

More recently in March this year B:Dum B:Dum's epic twelve track album SBG In Dub came out on the group's own Bdum Bdum Sound label. Experimental, spacey, rhythmic dub techno in a hundred shades of dark. Five tracks in a variety of versions from a time when Manchester was a bit burnt out from the long tail of Madchester and the Hacienda. In No State (4 To The Floorsteppa) is serious dub, an instrumental with rocking bass and drums. The Understated Mix is taken further, the vocals suggesting fellow Mancunians A Certain Ratio and a guitar line summoning Bernard Sumner's 80s playing. 

Turn The Silence Down (DubDisco) is dub and post- punk spliced together, basement music with alienated vocals from Gears and the samples/ programming giving the track an On U Sound/ industrial edge. Ancoats before it was gentrified. 

There are three versions of Mind Is A Temple, the Sainted mix pushing the bass to the fore and the hi hat riding the rhythm as whooshes and static echo the sonic palette of Berlin's Rhythm And Sound. Gears vocals appear again, like a voice singing from the radio drifting into the song. There are twelve tracks on SBG In Dub, all of which are worth your time and attention if lost Mancunian dub/ post- punk is the sort of thing you're into. Which of course it should be. Get SBG In Dub at Bandcamp. 

* I'm not sure how we're styling the band's name-  there are various versions including B:Dum B:Dum, bdum, bdum sound and B-Dum B-Dum. It all adds to the mystery and confusion. 

Giant Sized

Giant, the debut album by The Woodentops, came out forty years ago this week. It's a fantastic album, a slice of 1986 that is in some ways a unique sounding record, one that was a little out of step in 1986. It's indie but sounds little like the main indie attraction of 1986 (The Queen Is Dead) and had little in common with the other big indie hitters of that year- The Fall, Billy Bragg, R.E.M., The Housemartins, Husker Du and The Shop Assistants all made the NME's albums of 1986 with Giant pitching in at number 36*.

Rolo McGinty formed The Woodentops in South London in 1983 having spent some time in Liverpool playing bass with The Wild Swans and then joining The Jazz Butcher. The Liverpool connection s present with Frank de Freitas (brother of Bunnymen drummer Pete) playing bass in The Woodentops and them being joined by Simon Mawby, Alice Thompson and Benny Staples on drums. Staples added something different to the band- he played standing up and had a rack of hub caps that added a real bite tot he percussion and rhythms. Rolo strummed his acoustic guitar like he was trying to scrub several layers of it away and the use of acoustic instruments like marimba and accordion made them sound different. The songs were crafted, beautifully sung, hypnotic, upbeat and infectious. On disc they popped out of the speakers. Live they were twice the speed, hyper energetic and Rolo sang like his life depended on it. 

Good Thing

There isn't a bad song on Giant- Get It On, Good Thing and Give It Time are an uptempo and punchy opening trio, the swooning, rattling Love Train follows. Love Affair With Everyday Living sounds like nobody but The Woodentops. Travelling Man, Last Time, Everything Breaks make a strong final three songs. Their energy and speed hen playing live is caught brilliantly on Hypno- Beat, a live album released in 1987 with the band recorded playing at The Palace in Hollywood. It's been noted I think that was the night The Woodentops discovered ecstasy. The performance is most definitely ecstatic. 

The Woodentops found their way into the record box of the legendary Alfredo, a DJ playing records at Amnesia in Ibiza. Alfredo played whatever he liked- rock, soul, disco, early house, reggae, instrumentals, Belgian New Beat, ambient, New Age, anything that suited the mood of the outdoor dance floor and that people could enjoy under the stars. Why Why Why became part of the Balearic Beat, The Woodentops energy and dance rhythms fitting in with Alfredo's vision and spirit.  

Rolo posted on social media on Tuesday marking the fortieth anniversary of Giant's release and saying what a happy time it was for the band, hard work but great fun visiting countries they never imagined they'd play. He recounted being in a club in Kyoto, the Rubba Dub, and having an emotional moment standing looking at the band and road crew having the time of their lives on the dance floor and becoming teary eyed at the sight. 'The Giant tour... peak happiness all round', he wrote.  

Happy 40th birthday Giant. 

The Woodentops story didn't stop with Giant and it goes on still. Last year a revitalised Woodentops released Fruits Of The Deep and this week have put out a remix of one of the songs from the album, the Too Good To Stay (Night Club Mix)- funky, infectious, uplifting, danceable, indie rock.  Get it at Bandcamp.

* The NME's end of 1986 Albums of the Year is here and it's an interesting top ten showing that the NME's writers were of a fairly broad mind in the mid 80s. The indie ghetto they were famed for is not evident in the top 10 or the top 50. Prince topped the '86 chart and the top 10 found places for Mantronix, Run DMC, Paul Simon's Graceland, Cameo, Janet Jackson and Anita Baker as well as Sonic Youth (Evol at 4), The Fall (Bend Sinister at 7) and The Queen Is Dead (number 9). Melody Maker had The Beastie Boys at number 1 along with The Smiths, Prince, Elvis Costello, Throwing Muses, The The, R.E.M. and Big Audio Dynamite, with Giant coming in at number 16. 

River's Song

Richard Norris never stops, a endless flow of music coming from his monthly subscription at Bandcamp via his studio in Lewes. The latest piece of music is River's Song, the first fruits from a forthcoming album. Richard acquired some clips of 8mm film and then asked on social media for people to send him any further pieces of film they might have. The album, titled 8mm, is a musical response to those flickering images, past lives clicking and flickering by, captured by 1960s cine cameras on Kodak film. 

River's Song is a tremendously affecting and evocative piece of music, three minutes of treated piano/ keys very much in the Hauntology arena, the ghosts of people and lost places preserved on an obsolete film format several decades ago. River's Song is a version of lost futures idea of hauntology, as expounded by Jacques Derrida and Mark Fisher, captured in three minutes of piano. 

Second Of June

Back in 2024 The Jesus And Mary Chain returned with an album called Glasgow Eyes, one that sounded like the Reid brothers were enjoying the freedom of a creative spurt. Scuzzy synths, FX and drum machines were added to the guitars and it was a fairly intense and uncompromising record, one with a certain amount of swagger to it. Towards the end of the album was this song...

Second Of June

And it seemed most apt to post today. 

'There's a blood moon on the rise and murder in your eyes', Jim drawls as William strums an acoustic guitar and a drum machine patters away. 'Brother can you hear me calling you?' he carries on and then as if to remind everyone who they're listening to, in case they'd forgotten who was making this music, 'Face the sky/ Take cover before you die/ The Jesus and Mary Chain'. 

Monday's Long Songs

Sonic Youth's albums breakdown into three phases for me: the first phase is from 1982 to 1988 where they released increasingly inspired albums for indie labels SST (in the US) and Blast First (in the UK), culminating in Daydream Nation; the second is from 1990 when they signed to Geffen and released several albums that in one way or another were a response to being on a major label (Goo, Dirty and Experimental Jet Set, Trash And No Star); and then a long third phase from 1995's Washing Machine through to the end in 2009 with The Eternal. A big part of this third phase was the band becoming elder statesmen of indie- punk, no longer the youthful punks of the early 80s, and having to find ways to keep moving forwards without repeating themselves. They also were hugely affected by two events, the death by suicide of Kurt Cobain in 1994 and the Twin Towers attacks of 2001. 

Washing Machine was their ninth album and released not long after their headlining stint on the Lollapalooza tour. They'd had a period where they all explored side projects and Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon had a child, their daughter Coco. They decamped to Memphis, Tennessee to make Washing Machine, a most un- Sonic Youth place on the face of it, but they wanted to disconnect from the usual environment and surroundings and free themselves to make an album in a more relaxed way. 

Washing Machine opens with The Diamond Sea, a song that clocks in at just under twenty minutes (and a song they released as a single). In 1991- 2 Sonic Youth had toured with Neil Young and Crazy Horse and had been an influence on Neil releasing Weld, the feedback driven live album from the tour. In return, on The Diamond Sea Sonic Youth sound the most like Neil Young and Crazy Horse they ever would, the song a long ballad with overblown guitars and a very Neil opening line, both in the lyrics and Thurston's drawl- 'time takes it crazy toll'. The last line, and it's difficult not to hear the song as a tribute to Kurt Cobain in many ways, is another Neil Young sounding line- 'And love is running wild on the diamond sea'. 

In November 1995 the band were on tour again, playing Austin, Texas on the 15th. Towards the end of the set Thurston introduces the song by telling a story about the band playing Austin years before and meeting Terry Pearson who became their soundman from that point on. Then they fly into the song, Lee and Thurston's guitars wailing and roiling and Thurston singing like Neil Young. It's slightly shorter than the album version, just fourteen minutes, but it's a heck of a way to spend a quarter of an hour, the four Sonic Youthers locked in and on fire, a tremendous racket- the guitars blaze and glow like fireworks, coupled with a great tune and some emotional tension. And the re- entry after the feedback/ noise freak out section crescendo with Thurston back into the song's end section with the line 'time takes it's crazy toll' is fantastic. 

The Diamond Sea (Live in Austin, November 1995)

Neil Young released Weld in 1991, a double album of songs recorded during the long tour and a third disc called Arc made up entirely of feedback. During the tour Neil and Crazy Horse developed the songs, many of them becoming longer and longer and more feedback driven. He took to covering Blowing In The Wind and adding air raid siren FX. The first US led Gulf War was going on at the same time and Neil said the band would see news reports on CNN and then go on stage after 'watching this shit happen... singing songs about conflict'. He added, 'we couldn't just go out there and be entertainment'. 

Cortez the Killer is from 1975's Zuma, a tale of imperialism and slaughter extended for nearly ten minutes live in 1991. It's the song that kicks off disc two of Weld, Neil and Crazy Horse at their live best.

Cortez The Killer (Weld Version)

Humanity As An Act Of Resistance

David Holmes' regular slot at NTS, God's Waiting Room, has been transforming in recent times from the purely musical into something political, a two hour radio show with something to say- Humanity As An Act Of Resistance. David still plays music, searching the racks and digging in the crates for the obscure and overlooked- ambient jazz, cosmische, drones and rock 'n' roll- but he splices it all with excerpts from interviews, TV news, documentaries and spoken word. The last three episodes have all been subtitled Humanity As An Act Of Resistance: The Epstein Class. It's not always easy listening but it's a vital piece of reportage, pop and politics. The latest one is at Mixcloud here. 

The previous one, broadcast in April, includes two new tracks by The Five Techniques, a Holmes musical collective that put out a single he recorded with Paul Weller, a project running alongside Humanity As An Act Of Resistance. Resistance In The Dark was remixed by fellow Belfast artist Autumns. The remix EP is here, with the Autumns remix, an Arveene one and two versions by Alex Patchwork that are abstract dub/ drum 'n' bass, Paul Weller, Roisin El Charif and David Holmes spun into entirely new sonic spaces. 

There were two further and as yet unreleased tracks by The Five Techniques on the April edition of Humanity As An Act Of Resistance including one with Ian Svenonius on vocals- that show hasn't been uploaded to Mixcloud as far as I can see but anything with Ian Svenonius' involvement is going to be good. His Charge Of The Love Brigade album as Escape- ism was a 2025 highlight and back in 2011 he recorded the song which provided Andrew Weatherall with a banner and an entire ethos. 

Music's Not For Everyone

Oblique Saturdays

A series for Saturdays in 2026 inspired by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt's set of cards, Oblique Strategies (Over One Hundred Worthwhile Dilemmas). Eno and Schmidt created them to be used to unblock creative impasses and approach problems from unexpected angles. Each week I'll turn over an Oblique Strategy card and post a song or songs inspired by the suggestion. 

Last week's Oblique Strategy suggestion was Humanise something free of error.  

My reactions to this were Farley Jackmaster Funk and Daryl Pandy's Love Can't Turn Around and Kurt Vile. From the Bagging Area Oblique Saturdays Squad came the following- Ebony Steel Band covering Kraftwerk (Ernie), Daft Punk's Human After All (Al G), anything by The Fall (JC), King Davis and The House Rockers and We All Make Mistakes (Rol) and R.E.M.'s Everybody Hurts (Walter). Here's Mark E. Smith and the 1979 iteration of The Fall with a tale of pharmaceutical misadventure.

Rowche Rumble

Today's Oblique Strategy card is this- What is the reality of the situation?

What is the reality of the situation? didn't do much for me at first, an oblique strategy that left me unresponsive. Maybe it was the heat, but it just didn't spark much in me. Eventually I got to this- the reality of the situation is that this is a music blog and part of what it does is help spread the word about new music. Mike D, former Beastie Boy and now solo artist, has released another single- What We Got, a song that harks back to the Beastie Boys sound of Check Your Head and Ill Communication but also sounds like something fresh and new. 

What we got? 'Retired MC/ Need a Plan B', Mike raps.  

What is the reality of the situation? also took me to this.

In 1994 The Aloof released their debut album Cover The Crime, a dub- techno lost classic by a group made up of two Sabres Of Paradise (Jagz Kooner and Gary Burns), a Red Snapper (Rich Thair), Ricky Barrow and Dean Thatcher. The third track on the album is this one...

Society

The vocal, a robotic/ reggae call and response, worked its way to the front of my mind while I pondered what to do with this Oblique Strategy card.

'Society... this is... reality... this is...society... this is... reality...'

Nine minutes of thundering drums, breakbeats, sirens and mid- 90s dub techno tension. 

Feel free to make your own responses to What is the reality of the situation? in the comment box.

Where Were You?

There was an article at The Guardian earlier this week about The Mekons and how they made their debut single Where Were You? It's here. The band formed in Leeds in 1976 inspired by seeing the Anarchy tour pitch up at the Polytechnic, the Sex Pistols and The Clash. Gang Of Four formed almost immediately, Mekons a little later. This was the key impact of the first flush of punk, the number of people standing and watching, knowing they wanted to do something and the seeing the Pistols and thinking 'I could do that'. 

There's a heartwarming comment in the below the line section where a reader recounts seeing The Mekons soundcheck and speaking to guitarist Tom Greenhalgh and asking him what the chords for Where Were You? were. Later on that evening during the gig as the band played the song, Tom shouted the chords out as he played them, the flame that was lit by the Pistols and The Clash and the Anarchy being handed on again. 

Where Were You?

The intro's clanging guitar chords and rattling drums are really special and then it all kicks in. As noted in the article by Jon Langford, the song is about male loneliness, an anti- macho lyric inspired partly by Buzzcocks. The songs goes off like a flare and later the lyrics and guitars/ drums have done everything they need to, it stops suddenly. 

There's loads more to The Mekons, they have become the longest lasting of the first wave of punk bands, surviving line up changes and fashions and diving into country and folk, 80s alternative and occasionally dub. In 1988 they released Ghosts Of American Astronauts, a sweetly sung 80s indie song with the still astonishing first line, 'Up in the hills above Bradford, outside the napalm factory/ Ghosts of American astronuats, glow in the headlight's beam'.

 

Renascent

The best news for ages came yesterday- a new Durutti Column single with an album to follow in July. Vini was very unwell following a series of strokes in 2012 which left him unable to play guitar for a long time and it looked like would be no new Durutti Column music. 

Liars came out on Wednesday, following some gnomic social media posts the night before. Long term cohort/ drummer/ friend/ manager Bruce Mitchell is on board as is Kier Stewart. The single is Liars, a dreamy, ambient piece with synths, choral backing vocals and some distinctive guitar playing on the top, layers of blissed out sounds and then, one minute in, Vini's voice, speaking softly. It's a total joy that there's some new Durutti music after sixteen years and when it didn't look possible for so long, and it's fantastic that Vini has got himself into a place where he's been well enough and confident enough to do it. Welcome back Vini and welcome back The Durutti Column. 

The album Renascent is out at the end of July in a variety of editions and formats. You can find them here. Vini's music has been resurgent in the last few years. Blood Orange sampled a piece of Durutti Column on this song from last year, The Field. 

Blood Orange, otherwise known as Devonte Heynes, was new to me until recently but he clearly has a large and devoted following judging by the YouTube numbers and comments and the song is rather lovely. 

The last time there was any new Durutti Column music was a 7" single in 2014, Free From All The Chaos, with singer Caoilfhionn Rose and a video filmed in and around Fletcher Moss gardens and the River Mersey in Didsbury, a place I know very well from childhood and since. 

What's The Meaning Of Life?

There's a Wordpress version of this blog, identical to this one which is hosted by Google Blogger. When I started in 2010 Google had a nasty habit of deleting entire blogs- every single post gone at the flick of a switch, usually under pressure from the DMCA (a 1998 US law to protect digital copyright). Google took down The Vinyl Villain in this way for copyright contraventions (posting songs). I use the Wordpress version of Bagging Area as a fallback and as a backup in case Google ever pulled the plug on this- that threat seems to have gone away, music blogs really aren't the enemy in modern music. I still back this blog up over there every day, it's probably prudent to have a backstop I think. 

But this isn't a post about that. The dashboard at Wordpress has added a box in the centre of the screen headed 'Daily Writing Prompt'. The first time I noticed this box the daily writing prompt was this...

'What's the meaning of life?'

Which is kind of a biggie isn't it? And presented as a quick writing prompt for a poor blogger lacking in inspiration. 

Soul II Soul grappled with it back in 1989 and Jazzie B found some answers- dreaming of your goals, positivity, elevating your mind, feel free to experiment, implement your ideas, feel the feeling, let your body take control.

Get A Life

Then the drop comes and Jazzie lets us have it...

'So there it is, work it out for yourself/ Be selective, be objective, be an asset to the collective/ Get a life'.

There's worse advice.

A year later Jane's Addiction closed their still superb sounding second album Ritual de lo Habitual with Classic Girl, a Perry Farrell love song for his partner and muse Casey Niccoli with some gorgeously restrained chiming chords played through a flange FX pedal. At the end Perry throws in 'They may say 'Those were the days'/ But in a way you know, for us, these are the days', and as I thought about Jazzie B's meaning of life, Perry's seemed equally well reasoned. 

I love Classic Girl, five minutes of music that just hits all the spots. 

Classic Girl

Two days ago, as this unreal heatwave hit us and we began to bake Wordpress offered this as a writing prompt- 'what's a moment that made you question reality?' 

This Could Be You, Us, Or Anybody

Broken Chanter's new album- This Could Be Us, You, Or Anybody Else- is in the grand tradition of Glaswegian guitar bands, lyrically downbeat but with an eye towards the future and musically stirring. The sense of despair David MacGregor feels about many aspects of modern life is palpable- the first song is called The Future Is Bright And I Don't Want It, a song for the present complete with rousing, ringing guitars. The sleeve notes outline a variety of progressive causes and end with a call for Scottish independence. The album's first single was A Year Without Summer (a song with synths and keys alongside the guitars, striking a different musical tone).

MacGregor's disappointment with the state of the world- right wing populists that want to divide us using the politics of envy and victimhood, techno- feudalism, social media as a force for disconnection rather than unity- is clear. But despite this, he urges empathy and protest, unity in the face of 21st century breakdown. On Piazzale Loreto the drums skip and the bass bounds, optimistic music (and with hand claps provided by the blog legend that is JC from The Vinyl Villain). Piazzale Loreto is the public square in Milan that Mussolini was hung in, suspended by his ankles, after being executed by Italian partisans in 1945. 

On To The Victims They Call Citizens the band rattle and shake like Talking Heads and closer to home, the ramshackle attempts by early Orange Juice to sound like Chic. Atrocity/ Adverts/ Idiocy is urgent indie- funk, the slashing angry guitars echoing those of Gang Of Four and on final song CENTRS Broken Chanter show they can do the sweeping and soaring tunes with vulnerable and melancholic vocals as well as anyone else and just as you think that's it, they kick up a real storm, a swirling noise of drums, guitars and synths as a crescendo and a finale; a call to arms and a call for unity, to come together while the world goes down in flames around us. 

You can listen to and buy This Could Be You, Us, Or Anyone Else at Chemikal Underground and at Bandcamp. 

It Takes Two

It Takes Two by Rob Base and DJ E- Z Rock is one of 80s hip hop's defining songs, the Lyn Collins Think breakbeat (a James Brown sample) being the undercarriage of the song. It Takes Two is 1988 rap/ sampling culture laid out on a plate, a hyper- dynamic slice of music with the 'it takes two to make a thing go right' line, slap bang at the centre of the song. Rob Base rhymes over the top, laid back but on it. 

It Takes Two

Sadly Rob Base died a few days ago on 22nd May, aged just 59. Having turned 56 just a few days before that, it seems a very young age to depart. Rob left a certificated banger behind him, one of those tunes from the late 80s/ early 90s where hip hop, house and indie were found next to each other in DJ sets and on dancefloors.

Rob Base RIP.

Forty Five Minutes Of Velvet Underground Cover Versions

Listening to Michael Stipe's slim catalogue of post- R.E.M. songs recently led me to a 2021 tribute album, I'll Be Your Mirror: A Tribute To The Velvet Underground And Nico- an album of covers of all the songs from the banana sleeved 1967 album that invented as many bands as The Beatles or Kraftwerk did. It's a hit and miss affair as these tribute albums often are but there are a few highlights and Michael Stipe's cover of Sunday Morning is one of them with strings by Hal Willner, the New York producer who worked with Lou Reed and Marianne Faithful among others. Stipe's sister Lynda sings backing vocals on the song, the opening tune on an album that is one of his top three records of all time (one of the others being Patti Smith's Horses and the third possibly Television's debut). 

It led to me going through my collection in search of other Velvet Underground cover versions- there are many. In the mid- 80s the release of V.U. and Another V.U. gave the Velvets a further shot in the arm, the new slew of previously unreleased songs inspiring a new generation of bands. This is a forty five minute mix of Velvets covers with one unofficial edit- remix thrown in. There are so many I've left out a second edition could easily follow. The Velvet Underground never get old, never get tired, familiarity never breeds contempt. They are a band that keeps giving. 

Forty Five Minutes Of Velvet Underground Cover Versions

• Michael Stipe: Sunday Morning
• Lovekittens: What Goes On (Orbient Mix)
• Nhii: What Goes On (Nhiii Remix)
• The Kills: Pale Blue Eyes
• Thurston Moore: Temptation Inside Your Heart
• Cowboy Junkies: Sweet Jane (Mojo Filter Junkie Re- Love)
• Matt Berninger: I'm Waiting For The Man
• Kurt Vile: Run Run Run
• R.E.M.: After Hours (Live 1989)

Michael Stipe's cover version of Sunday Morning is a low key joy, clarinet and guitar leading us in and then Stipe's voice, making the most of Lou Reed's melodies and pop song sensibilities. The bassline is the one from Walk On The Wild Side, a nice little touch. 

Lovekittens were a an early 90s indie band who released two singles, one a cover of What Goes On which The Orb produced and then also remixed. Ambient house Velvets with cooing vocals. 

Nhii is a Brooklyn producer and musician who remixed/ edited What Goes On in 2020. What Goes On is a key Velvets song, two chords and some psyche organ and that endless Velvets groove. Nhii's edit rumbles in on Mo Tucker's drums and then splices a new rhythm and beat into it, 2020 dance music with a scuzzy edge. There's some acid thrown too and then Lou's vocal arrives, 'Baby be good/ Do what you should/ You know it'll be alright'.

The Kills cover of Pale Blue Eyes is a B-side from a 2012 single, The Last Goodbye. Jamie's guitar tone is perfect, a gnarly, distorted sound that works his amp beautifully. The bit n the middle where the whole song stutters is really cool too. There are loads of covers of Pale Blue Eyes- R.E.M. and Paul Quinn with Edwyn Collins both did memorable versions. 

Thurston Moore is on the I'll be Your Mirror tribute album,a cover of heroin with Bobby Gillespie on vocals. This cover from last year is better though, a Thurston Moore live favourite finally recorded in 2025 and then released on Sterling Morrison's birthday (29th August). 

Cowboy Junkies cover of Sweet Jane (as edited here Balearic style by Mojo Filter) turned up in last Sunday's mix too, a song I played at The Golden Lion back in February. Cowboy Junkies based their version on the one The Velvets did on the 1969 live album rather than the one from Loaded. Lou Reed approved of this. 

Matt Berninger (from The National) and his cover of I'm Waiting For The Man are from the I'll Be Your Mirror tribute. Velvet Underground songs are so well known and so them that bringing something new to them is difficult. Berninger strips the song down into a two chord clank, metal on metal drumming, and his weary, worn voice sounding like he knows exactly what it's like and how it goes when you're waiting for your man. 

Kurt Vile's cover of Run Run Run is also from I'll Be Your Mirror. He'd appeared on this blog once before this weekend, one post in fifteen and a half years. Now he's been on it twice more in two days. His cover of Run Run Run is a thrilling take on the song- it's a song that inspired a million bands to play dirty, distorted two chord rock 'n' roll, a fun song to play and Kurt sounds him and his band are having fun. Lou wrote the song on the back of an envelope on the way to a gig and its got one of those casts of Lou reed characters in the lyrics, Teenage Mary, Uncle Dave, Margarita Passion, Seasick Sarah and Beardless Harry all on the hunt for drugs. 

We started with Michael Stipe and we finish with him too, this time singing with R.E.M. in 1989 on the Green tour. They were still in the habit of playing covers for encores on this tour- I saw them at Liverpool Royal Court and they did this song there, the last one they did that night. They released four covers Velvets songs during the 80s, three of them rounded up on the Dead Letter Office B-sides album from 1987. 

Oblique Saturdays

A series for Saturdays in 2026 inspired by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt's set of cards, Oblique Strategies (Over One Hundred Worthwhile Dilemmas). Eno and Schmidt created them to be used to unblock creative impasses and approach problems from unexpected angles. Each week I'll turn over an Oblique Strategy card and post a song or songs inspired by the suggestion. 

Last week's Oblique Strategy suggestion was Don't break the silence.

My responses to this were A Life Of Silence by Scott Fraser and Timothy J. Fairplay plus Simon and Garfunkel, Bill Drummond's No Music Day and Mark Peters. The Bagging Area collective were prompted to suggest Enjoy The Silence by Depeche Mode (this had several suggestions), Elliott Smith, Delirium, Bjork's It's Oh So Quiet, Durutti Column, Crass' Sound Of Free Speech, Kate, Julian Cope, The Silence, Ranking Dread, John Cage, The Delgados, Deep Purple and Kula Shaker, and Fugazi. That list is a radio show/ mix tape in itself. Thank you to Jez, Beerfeuledlad, Chris, C, Rol, Japsikeliz, Ernie, hsd, JC and Walter. 

This week's Oblique Strategy is this- Humanise something free of error.

It didn't spark much in me at first, few initial responses which is what often happens when I choose a card. I can see how in the recording studio a band/ artist could apply that suggestion- mess it up, put the human element in, put  mistake back in that you took out earlier. 

Then I thought about house music and those early 80s records (and many made sicne) where the music is totally flawless in terms of being computer assisted. Programmed drums, sequenced basslines, Midi, synths and keys playing perfect electronic notes. And then an unmistakably human vocal on top that took the robotic/ programmed element and humanised it, something like this endlessly brilliant slice of 1986 Chicago house....

Love Can't Turn Around

Farley Jackmaster Funk and Daryl Pandy, Daryl being the very human vocalist.

I also then thought of this song by Kurt Vile, Bassackwards, a nine minute long opus from 2018 where the music is free of error- acoustic guitars, harp and drums all locked in, loose but controlled psychedelic folk-rock with little bursts of perfectly deployed backwards guitar and feedback and on top Kurt's vocal, very human and real, a long sigh in the face of existential dread. 

Bassackwards

The video is peak 70s beach nostalgia. 

I typed Humanise something free of error into Google and found a book by that title by Sarah Piegay Espenon, a visual research project about climate change and man- made weather modification. I imagine she took the title from Eno and Schmidt's Oblique Strategies. One of the reviews says that the book is 'an oblique response to... issues of power and left opened visual associations along the thin line between peaceful and hostile usage of geoengineering' (read it here and see some of the photos) which sounds like it very well fit in with some of the things Crass were concerned about in the late 70s and early 80s. 

Feel free to leave your own Oblique suggestions in the comment box. 

Friday Triplet

A bunch of new releases for Friday, the start of a Bank Holiday weekend and a half term holiday too for me, all reasons enough to celebrate.

First up, a new single from Number. Released back in January Number's album Pollinate is a blast of post- punk/ punk- funk/ wonky disco made by Red Snapper's Ali Friend and Rich Thair, a state of the nation/ world album you can dance to. Discoid came out as a single in early May and was followed this week by a remix by Tranquil Elephantizer, a six minute chugged up, hugely infectious dancefloor monster that doesn't let up. Over at Bandcamp you can get the remix, a radio edit version and a dub. More fun than you can shake a drum stick at, a critique of late stage capitalism clad in disco clothing. 

Next, Manchester label Sprechen are on a roll, one hit after another. The recent album by Lines Of Silence and EPs by Viper Patrol and The Thief Of Time are all part of the story as is the new four track EP from Matt Gunn- Complicata. Woozy, off kilter psychedelic cosmic disco, very much in the vein of  the much loved ALFOS nights, pioneered by Andrew Weatherall and Sean Johnston and now under Sean's solo stewardship. Be Born is a slo mo, star lit nine minute journey; synth arpeggios, pianos and pads, all aimed squarely at the sweet spot near the speakers. It shifts gear after two minutes forty, guitars and kick drum taking over. Sterndale Moonstomp follows, wide eyed and a little sweaty with a thumping bass drum. Quid Significat is a disco- funk odyssey, the 9 O' Clock Drop kicking in, ACR and 23 Skidoo taken over by synths. Complicata ends with Not A Hymn, another long one at nine and a half minutes that slows the rhythms but keeps the heat- squelchy, thumpy psychedelic dancefloor joy. Find the EP at Sprechen's Bandcamp.

There are further new releases coming from Sprechen this summer, including one by Birds Of Pandaemonium with some Richard Norris remixes that are typically great and Brighton's Higher Love label returns to action next month with an EP by Mass Density Human that is a woozy joy. More to follow nearer the time. 

Jim Baron is one of Crazy P and has a solo Balearic/ folk/ Laurel Canyon trip under the name JIM. His 2023 album Loves Make Magic was a Bagging Area favourite and the slew of remixes that followed it all added new dimensions. JIM's just put out a new single, Love Over Gold (not a cover of the Dire Straits song) with his daughter Edie sharing vocals, slow jam, off centre Balearic pop that grows a little more with each play. 

His Life In England

One of those treats that light up your life- got home yesterday, long day at work, exam season, had some tea, pottered round the kitchen loading the dishwasher and other mundane chores, went to the computer and opened up my emails and sitting in the middle of the unread pile in my Inbox was one from Heavenly Recordings that read, 'Dexys Midnight Runners Announce New Album LOVE/ My Life In England Pt. 1 single and video out now'

And on clicking on the link you find this blast of life affirming joy that is Kevin Rowland in full flight...

How much fun is that? The song, the singing and the video.

My Life In England Pt 1 is the story of Kevin's childhood, his Irish immigrant roots, his father and brother, the Irish community in Wolverhampton, rebel songs in social clubs and being taught to fight and love, and then on moving to North London discovering the joys of clothes, music and dancing. The song was originally recorded for a Dexys compilation in 2003, written by Kevin and Jim Patterson- the new version opens the new album, called Love because Kevin realised that all the songs one way or another were about love. It's produced by David Holmes, who had been wanting to work with the band since being eleven years old when his sister gave him a Walkman and his first cassette was Searching For The Young Soul Rebels and the first band he saw live. 

Back in 1985 Dexys released one of the great misunderstood albums of that decade, one that over time has grown to be recognised as a masterpiece. In 1997 after years out of print it was re- issued by Creation and Kevin renamed some of the songs including Listen to This, a song just packed to the brim with passion and feeling. 

I Love You (Listen To This)

Never Go Home

There's so much new music out there at the moment I don't feel like I can keep up with it, either as a listener/ fan or as a blogger. Jason Boardman's Before I Die label is at a point where every release is essential- this year the label has released Arrival and Kevin McCormick's One/ Common Place 12" and the Hawksmoor album Am I Conscious Now? which followed albums in 2025 by Klangkollektor and Sonnenspot. Now Before I Die has put out a 7" that is right up there alongside those other records, J- Walk's Never Go Home, produced in J- Walk's Stockport home studio. 

The A- side is a slice of late 80s indie indebted psychedelia, the sunglasses, repetition and Vox amps of Spacemen 3 and spirit of the pre- Screamadelica Creation records- some softly sung vocals, layers of guitars and keys, a woozy organ solo and hissy drums. It's a marvel. 

'You can never go home again/ There's no sense in trying'.

The B-side is Dub Never Go, a maximally dubbed out excursion with the Roland Space Echo in full effect and the ghost of King Tubby hovering around the room. The drums rattle and the bass bumps away, there's hiss and flutter, random bursts of distorted organ and acres and acres of echo. It's also a marvel. 

You can find it at Bandcamp, available digitally and (maybe) with some vinyl still available.