Out With The Old . . .

. . . and in with the new, as they say.

Good riddance to 2017, the year that started off badly got better and then from October took a turn for the worse once more.  A time that got me questioning the people and things that should matter in my life and also made me come to terms with an uncomfortable fact about something that I thought was a given. In time I may rant on about it at some length but for now the sore has yet to scab over.

There were some highlights of course. The Jesus and Mary Chain restoring my faith and convincing me that middle aged "rock stars" could still be relevant. There was also tons of good music including the unbridled triumph of the return of Mick Head. It would also be remiss of me not to mention the highlight of the year when a load guys with the optimism of youth rapidly receding in the rear view mirror met, many for the first time in Glasgow in May for the weekend,  got drunk together talked shit without a serious cross word being uttered and had a thoroughly enjoyable time. The less said about the Prof's beetroot falafel the better. I know that everybody is heartily sick of hearing about it but it was rather special.

I have never been a big fan of New Year being quite a misanthropic person, which is particularly difficult in Scotland where there is absolutely no getting away from these  three days of getting totally full of it, dewey eyed with nostalgia and unrealistically hopeful for the year ahead. So much so that for a few years during my early 20s I refused to acknowledge it at all. After getting in tow with L this became impossible as she loves any excuse to party and I was dragged from one gathering to the next until the dying embers of the 2nd of January after which life could go back to normal and I no longer had to feign interest in what others were up to.

I am however quite looking forward to tonight as I don't have to leave the house and the guest list only includes our close friends and their offspring.

I would like to thank everybody who has looked in here over the last year and especially to thoise who have left comments, all of which are appreciated especially the negative ones, I have especially loved the few from Maria baiting me regarding Trump and Brexit.

Health and happiness to you all for the coming year and beyond.

Jimi Hendrix - Little Drummer Boy/Silent Night/Auld Lang Syne

Let It Go

Scunnered with rich food, bevy and relations yet? Here's the perfect antidote,  a bit of retro psychedelia with west coast harmonies and a bit of jingly jangly guitar.

Merry Christmas One And All

Thank fuck that elf on the shelf pish is over with.

I hope you all get from Santa what you deserve, me I'm still hoping for that Bobby Kline 7", one of these years, maybe.

btw E-I-O E-I-O Airdrie, Airdrie.  We showed Ayr Utd how it's done.

The Housemartins - Caravan Of Love 

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance

Blue fucking passports eh, let's fucking rejoice.

The kind of fuckwits that are having orgasms over this are probably the same people that make the Friday before Christmas the worst night in the year to work in a bar, well if you don't live in Lanark because that honour is given to Lanimer day but let's not get into that at the moment. My thoughts are with all the folk up and down the land who have to pour alcohol to amateur drinkers tonight and also the hardened drinkers who will be unable to get inebriated in their local quietly this evening. If you had Rez on on a loop inside your head tonight would probably be more bearable.

Airdrie are at home tomorrow to Ayr United, the league leaders and managing a draw would be a huge achievement.

Have a good weekend people and if you are heading out tonight I will quote Sergeant Phil Esterhaus "Hey let's be careful out there"

Underworld - Rez

Not Long Now

Many have disagreed with me about this but they have all been wrong.  Kirsty and Pogues, Fairytale Of New York is a great record,  Merry Christmas (War Is Over) is very good and I won't have a word said against The Raveonettes Christmas song but this is the original and best, no contest.

Darlene Love - Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)

If Carlsberg Did Weekends

This song, for me will always be synonymous with Nice and Sleazy's on the first Saturday night in May of this year in the company of the reprobates pictured above and Aldo. Right about the time that this came on I was peaking again after maybe ten minutes of quiet contemplation. If this was not the best weekend of the year, then it was right up there, nah it was the best which I suppose to some may sound pretty sad but what could be better than spending a weekend talking shit about lots of things but mostly music, taking in some third tier Scottish football and trekking round a load of pubs with a genuine bunch of international chancers ?  I really can't think of much apart from Airdrie winning the play-offs and promotion to the Championship.

The young DJ in Sleazy's that Saturday night played some top tunes and another one in particular that was so good I had to ask what it was and then typed the title into my phone or I should say thought that I had typed it into my phone as when I checked it the next day there was just a note with a random load of letters like what you would find on the Countdown thingy but I'm fucked if I could make out what the title or artist, or it could have been an attempt at both, was/were.

Atlas Sound - Quick Canal

btw - this post was scheduled before JC's better piece on The Sound Of Being Ok and I couldn't be arsed changing it.

Space Is Deep

My mind was well and truly blown last week when I read the article about Oumuamua, the first observed object known to be from beyond our solar system that came, saw and then buggered off at 98.000 miles an hour, fuck sake! The rock is estimated to be up to quarter of a mile long and 130 feet wide and kind of cigar shaped. But not up here no, in Scotland it has been called the intergalactic jobby! We really can't help ourselves, first we had Hurricane Bawbag and now this.




Pondering the stars inevitably got me thinking of some Space Rock and this tune got lodged in my brain. It was originally on Hawkwind's third album Doremi  Fasol Latido from 1972 but this version is taken from the following year's live masterpiece Space Ritual. I am by no means an expert on this bunch of madmen and eccentrics but I had a few bits and pieces and a couple of years back an 11 disc box set of their albums and singles from 1970 - 74, This Is Your Captain Speaking . . . Your Captain Is Dead was released and was at that point pretty cheap, so I took a punt and from then on every now and again I get lost in some mad, mental prog rock which I have to say I thoroughly enjoy.

Hawkwind - Space Is Deep

Christmas In Vietnam

I think of the lousy Christmases I've had in the past, put them all together and they would still pale into insignificance next to being thousands of mile from home spending it fighting a war.

I really don't think that John Wilson and John Wessler were exploiting the fact that there countrymen were spending the festivities in the jungle or on a muddy base camp. The vocals on this the only record they released are far too heartfelt and emotional for that. I think that it was a plea for the people back home in 1966 to spare a thought for those not so comfortable in South East Asia.

Johnny and Jon - Christmas In Vietnam

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance

In response to SA's week of German themed posting this week, here is a bit of early Teutonic Trance from 1992, I say trance I would place it more in the progressive house camp. I love this track from the icy spoken word vocals, the throbbing beat and the swirling analogue keyboards. Don't know anything about the three producers of this track apart from that they are German and that this was released on the German off shoot of Rough Trade Records, Rough mix. I'm not sure that I really need to know anything else really.

Cruelly robbed of a deserved, memorable win over Raith Rovers by a stoppage time equaliser, Airdrie are away at the national stadium tomorrow for a tough game against bottom side Queen's Park who are in desperate need of some points. Let's hope that the Airdrie Young Team play like they did last Sunday but without conceding late on but with this league you never know which makes it so interesting if somewhat frustrating.

Have a good weekend people.

Fruits Of The Paradise - A Man Like You 

The Tracks of My Year

Yip it's back, the most self-indulgent post of the year, the new tracks by which I mean the ones released over the past 12 months that I have been playing the most and are therefore my favourites of the year. This list does not include any of the garage/psych which I really got back into this year and if the truth be told became slightly obsessed with. It is about time that somebody wrote a trainspotter type book regarding this music but I digress.

Back to 2017 then, in the previous eight years that I have compiled this list only one person has featured on every one and it would be incredibly stupid of me if I missed him out this year.  In fact he has been so prolific that he could have filled half of this table easily but I limited Mr Weatherall's contributions to five, one original and four remixes which proved to be an extremely difficult task. Jamie xx/The xx only missed the first year and that was due to my late bandwagon jumping with them that didn't happen until early 2010 but a remix by Jamie xx of his band ensures their entry this year. As for the top spot, I honestly cannot decide between either of these instrumental Wedding Present tracks, one day Northern Ireland is the one, with its frantic tempo that eventually slows and then those wonderful horns, just about perfect and the next it's the almost mournful beginning of Scotland that grabs me and keeps me enthralled til the end and sends me home with that familiar feeling of almost glorious defeat that anybody that follows the national team can identify with, wonderful stuff. Even the Mick Head album hasn't spent as long on the turntable as this 12" single but that is due to the Home International ep coming out in April whereas Adios Senor Pussycat was the middle of October.

I would like to make special mention to Elizabeth Morris' new project Elva. Tailwind has such a beautiful laid back vibe but why is Morris not the lead voca

1.  The Wedding Present -  - Northern Ireland/Scotland
3.  Kamasi Washington - Truth
4.  Michael Head and The Red Elastic Band - What's The Difference (it could be any or all the tracks)
5.  The Jesus and Mary Chain - Always Sad
6.  Elva - Tail Wind
7.  The Regrettes - Seashore
8.  Phil Kieran Find Love (Weatherall mix)
9.  K.H. - ?
10. Mogwai - Crossing The Road Material
11. Hannah Peel - The Planet of Passed Souls
12. Mark Lanegan - Beehive (Andrew Weatherall mix)
13. Meursault - I Will Kill Again
14. Sister John - The Sweetest Moment
15. Go Home Productions - Girl Wants (To Say Goodbye To) Rock n Roll
16, Afghan Whigs - Arabian Heights
17. Nick & Brit - I Try
18, Siobhan Wilson - Whatever Helps
19. Bicep - Glue
20. Four Tet - SW9 9SL
21. Andrew Weatherall - Between Stations
22. The Charlatans - Different Days (Chris & Cosey mix)
23. The xx - On Hold (Jamie xx remix)
24. Luxembourg Signal - Laura Palmer
25. D_troit - Soul Sound System
26. Brian Jonestown Massacre - Groove Is In The Heart
27. Early Years - Fluxus (Xam remix)
28. Armando - 100% Dissin' You (Chabia + Jeff Solo edit)
29. Nomad - Devotion (Pangaea edit)
30. Jagwar Ma - Give Me A Reason (Michael Mayer Does The Amoeba mix)
31. The Just Joans - No Longer Young Enough
32. Best Picture - Isabelle
33. Night Beats - - Sunday Mourning (Jono Ma remix)
34. Goldie - Inner City Life (2017 rebuild)
35. Roger Waters - Deja Vu
36. Confidence Man - Bubblegum (Andrew Weatherall mix)
37. Burial - Pre Dawn
38. Warpaint - White Out
39. Curtis Harding On And On
40. The Sexual Objects - Sometimes







 

'Cos The Wine On Our Breath Puts The Love On Our Tongues

I dug out all of the Christmas records on Saturday and had a rare afternoon with the Phil Spector and Charlie Brown  Christmas albums amongst other assorted traditional fare. This is the first thing that I put on the turntable and it never fails to get the Christmas spirit bubbling.

Frightened Rabbit - It's Christmas So We'll Stop (Choir version)

oh, it's Christmas so here you go

Frightened Rabbit - It's Christmas So We'll Stop

Brains In My Feet

Time for some deep trippy psych today. Purple Canteen hailed from Jonesboro, Arkansas and recorded this absolute belter of a fuzzed up psych classic in a session in 1969 and that's about all I know about the band. There is a bit about the recording technique on Discogs but to be honest I couldn't be arsed copying it.

This one really should be played at extreme volume.

Purple Canteen - Brains In My Feet

We've Got Albums To Remember You By

Fifty years ago yesterday the world was robbed of possibly the finest most emotive male voice in soul music when the plane in which Otis Redding and the Bar-Keys were passengers in crashed on it's approach to Truax Field, Madison, Wisconsin. The only survivor from the crash was Ben Cauley the band's trumpet player, in total including the pilot and the band's valet 7 men perished.

During his short recording career Otis recorded 6 albums all of which are well worth purchasing. His best known song "(Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay" was laid down three days prior to the singer's death and was released in January the year after his death and was Redding's only number one, although most people at Stax disliked the track and did not consider it R&B. Whether this track would have heralded a permanent change in direction for the singer nobody will ever know. However he also left another three albums worth of material that were released on ATCO from 1968 to 1970 and most of the material on these sound like SOUL to me. I've Got Dreams To Remember was included on the first of these "The Immortal Otis Redding" and was also released as a single in 1968.

Otis Redding - I've Got Dreams To Remember

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance

Warning - this post contains Trance

I know, I know, I have been rather disparaging about trance in the past,  however, a few decent, in my opinion, tracks did appear out of this genre and one or two I actually purchased.

Jam & Spoon  are probably best known for Stella and their remix of Age Of Love. Subsequent to this they teamed up with Plavka and released some really rather iffy commercial dance tunes,  the a-side to the track posted, Find Me (Odyssey to Anyoona) falls into this catageroy. The extended instrumental on the other side is a different beast completely, an intro that seems to build forever but when the enevitable breakdown does come in it turns the track into a rather mellow blissed out affair perfect for the sort of weather we are having at the moment.

The not so might Diamonds were victorious against Forfar last week in in what was not the most entertaining game of football but a win is a win. This week I suspect it might be different when we take on Raith Rovers (JC) on Sunday, as we are the featured game on BBC Alba, not quite sure how that happened but still. For the second week in a row I may bump into an away supporter that I know as strangely last week I met a guy who used to lodge with us years ago, whose "wee team" is Forfar, he really supports the ugly sister who resides in the East End of Glasgow.

Have a good weekend people.

Jam & Spoon - Odyssey to Anyoona 

Albums of The Year

It has been a very good year for albums, so much so that I still have quite a few that I haven't got round to buying yet.It felt like every week there was at least another two to add to the list. So my top ten here are from the ones that I actually purchased and I realise that there will be ones that I will get round to listening to next year that will have been smaefully over looked here. Of those that didn't make the ten, notable  mentions have to be made for  The Black Angels - Death Song,  The Brian Jonestown Masssacre- Don't Get Lost, Mark Lanegan Band - Gargoyle and Eat Lights Become Lights - Nature Reserve and I suspect that You Might Be Smiling Now by The Just Joans may have made the list had it been released before last week.

The biggest disappointment of the year by far was New Facts Emerge by The (once mighty) Fall which I keep going back to hoping that it's just me and it will eventually just click and I will get it but I'm afraid that for me it is a very poor album. Take care MES and make a speedy recovery so you can getr into the studio and produce another album that will blow us away.

10. Meursault - I Will Kill Again.

One of the highlights of 2017 was the return of Meursault and the forth album from Neil Pennycook and friends did not disappoint. It may not be the most uplifting of albums but it contains a dark beauty and the use of bit samples from Vince Guaraldi's "Christmas Time Is Here" is rather lovely.



9. Curtis Harding - Face Your Fear

Harding's second album continues on from his debut Soul Power. His sound has been described as "retro-soul" and of course it does hark back to the late 60s/early 70s and the sounds of Curtis Mayfield and tinges of psychedelic soul. For a excellent review from a blogger who describes the album far better than me go here and get the full sp from Craig.



8. The Afghan Whigs - In Spades

More songs of sleaze and debauchery from the dark recesses of the mind of Greg Dulli. One of the very few rock bands who you know have genuinely got soul. As ever Dulli's vocal delivery is always on the verge of losing it but he always seems to pull it back from the brink just in time.



7. The Regrettes - Feel Your Feelings Fool

I never thought that my find of the year would be a bunch of teenagers from LA making an album full of Riot Girl sentiments to a hybrid sound of DooWop, Punk and Surf Rock. But it is a breath of fresh air, full of attitude and very good songs. I'm still not sure that a middle aged man is the demographic that the band are aiming at tho'. They are also responsible for the most sing along chorus of the decade in Seashore  that you really can't sing out loud.




6. The Jesus and Mary Chain - Damage and Joy

This album was in and out of my Piccadilly Records basket on more than one occasion. One minute I was thinking "it's not going to be a patch on anything that they've done before" and the next "it's a Mary Chain album, you need to buy it" But up until seeing them at the Barrowlands in March I wasn't expecting much from this, so to say that it exceeded my expectations doesn't mean much but it turned out to be 100 times better than I expected even if nearly half of the tracks had been aired before in one form or another Live they were absolutely brilliant both times I saw them this year.



5. Mogwai - Every Country's Sun

It's what you expect from Mogwai but never formulaic or boring, quite a feat for a band who have been together for over twenty years. It also contains Party In The Dark which if we lived in a sane world would have been a huge hit single.



4. Andrew Weatherall Qualia

It has been a very busy year for the Chairman and when I come to produce The Tracks of My Year in the next week or so I suspect that he may feature a few times in one form or another.  Qualia is an album to be listened to in it's entirety, sure you can listen to the tracks on their own and they are all excellent pieces of abstract techno but you only get the full force of the when listened in one sitting either at home or on a long drive.



3. Hannah Peel - Mary Casio - Journey To Cassiopeia

Another album that needs to be played in a single sitting and I guarantee that you will play it more than once. Hannah Peel's concept album about an elderly lady from Barnsley who dreams of travelling in space to the constellation of Cassiopeia where Peel marries the sounds of a traditional colliery brass band and analogue synths may have you arching an eyebrow or going "aye right Drew" but have a listen you won't regret it, it is an incredible piece of music. Oh, and the cover is absolutely beautiful.



2. Sister John - Returned From The Sea

This album is just so intimate and lush when I first heard it it took me back to the feeling that I had the first time I heard the Trinity Sessions by Cowboy Junkies it has the same sort of atmosphere but whereas at times there is a coldness to that album, there is a warmth about Returned From The Sea. One for putting on when a gale is blowing and the rain is lashing down outside and you will soon reap the benefits of this lovely album.



1, Michael Head and The Red Elastic Band - Adios Senor Pussycat

It's Mick Head, what else do you need to know.

Back On The Shelf

I'm still on a girl group and all things early to mid 60s at the moment. I have put Fuel Injected Dreams back on the book shelf half way up the stairs for another year or so but the sounds are still ringing in my head. Ever since I first heard Amy Winehouse's cover of Phil Spector's first hit has always been the song to accompany the last page of the book for me. There have been other covers of this 1958 classic, notably the version by Dee Dee Sharp and rather incongruous live version by Roger Waters and David Gilmour, seriously!  But this world weary version recorded for The Dermot O'Leary Show on Radio 2 is my absolute favourite and possibly even superior to the original.

Amy Winehouse - To Know Him Is To Love Him

I Never Dreamed

I Never Dreamed has graced these pages before but that was as an upload from a compilation CD of The Cookies, today's rip is courtesy of a vinyl copy of the 1964 Dimenson Records promo 7". This record has been very high on my wants list every since I first heard it but it has always been well out of my price range, however a copy came up on eBay a few weeks ago and for some reason only garnered the interest of one other bidder who I assume wasn't that serious about the record as I ended up getting it for a very good price, even when taking into account the customs charges, something that we in the UK will know a lot more about from 2019 onwards!.

I consider I Never Dreamed to be right up there with the very best of the Girl Group sounds and would go as far as to say it is in my top 5. The single was written  and produced by Russ Titelman and Gerry Goffin and arranged by Carole King and as I have written on these pages on numerous occasions failed to be a hit which to me is inexplicable as it is absolutely sublime.

The Cookies - I Never Dreamed

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance

Back to the halcyon days of 1992 with a bit of moody breakbeat from the label that was best known for the Prodigy and SL2 at that time,  XL. Liquid had made the big time with their previous single, the Marshall Jefferson sampling Sweet Harmony which rightly made the UK top twenty earlier in the year. The Future Music ep followed a similar sort of blueprint,  some well known samples,  a piano line and a wellchosen breakbeat, it was all about the break. Although the ep didn't have anything quite as immediate as Sweet Harmony it does consist of four very good slices of what for me is early drum and bass. My favourite track is the Todd Terry sampling House Is A Feeling, with it's minimal bassline, moody synths and essential breakbeat.

Unfortunately last week the Diamonds took another mauling away from home at the hands of East fucking Fife, for christ's sake! After scoring in the first minute, it appears that it all went downhill rapidly eventually being scudded 6 (six) one. It would be a lie if I said that either Leo or I are looking forward to tomorrow's home game against Forfar who are one three points and one place below us in the league. We can but hope that some kind of miracle has taken place this week during training, we will see.

Have a good weekend people

Liquid - House Is A Feeling

The Genius of Michael Head Part 1

A few weeks ago when posting a track from what I think is Shack's best album, Waterpistol that I was considering revisiting main member Mick Head's back catalogue. So here we go, and predictably enough we will start at the beginning.

(There's Always) Something On My Mind was the first single by Mick Head's first band, The Pale Fountains. The line up of the band included his brother, John on guitar, Andy Diagram on trumpet, who would later go on to be a member of James, Chris McCaffery on bass and Thomas Whelan on drums. The single was released on the Independent  Belgian label Les Disques du Crepuscule and off shoot Operation Twilight back in 1982. Although the single failed to grab the attention of the record buying public, the sound, in which you could hear the influences of Love, Burt Bacharach and of course coming from Liverpool, the Beatles pricked the attention of the A&R men from the majors and before the band's next single they would move onto a major label.

The Pale Fountains - (There's Something) On My Mind

Maximum R&B

Back in April Nick Waterhouse released L.A Turnaround on 7" single. This track was one of the highlights of his third Album, Never Twice. For some strange reason I never flipped the single over to find out what the b side was like until about a month ago, The track is a belter of a cove of an old unreleased R&B tune with some fabulous sax. In an interview for a magazine Waterhouse explained how he first came across the song.

"I Cry, was a long-lost unreleased tune written for Dean & Jean. I first heard courtesy of Dick Vivian's (Rooky's Records San Francisco) legendary 1980s mix tapes. It fit right in with the oeuvre of the "Never Twice" sessions so I cut it with my long-suffering and highly talented tour backup vocalist Brit Manor taking the lead and me trying my hand at the cool Everly style harmony. Ron Dziubla rips a tenor solo on this to rival the original"

For the past few weeks I haven't played the a-side once, I Cry is absolutely magic.

Nick & Brit - I Cry

Hew's Misstra Know It All

I think it was Stevie over at Charity Chic Music that commented recently that us Bloggers tend to overlook classic, popular records by artists in favour of the more obscure tracks or singles that never really made it. I must confess and hold my hands up to this. Frequently I have heard something by some artist on 6Music or a track has been thrown up randomly on the Ipod and I have thought to myself "I will need to post something by them but not that, everybody knows that, I will need to find something a bit more, well less known"

So on Friday night when I had an urge to dig out the single of today's track I decided that even although it was a hit and everybody knows it I was going to post it. He's Misstra Know-It-All was released in 1974 for and reached number 10 in the UK charts, so it was pretty popular and was the final track on Stevie Wonder's wonderful Innervisions album that was released the previous year.

The track is basically a 5 minute description of a con-man, with a plan and an answer for everything which was aimed straightly at Richard Nixon, the then president of the United States and thoroughly dishonarable character but it could be equally aimed at many clowns in the public realm at the moment, take your pick it's not hard to find one it is apt for.

Stevie Wonder plays every instrument on this track and supplies every sound apart from Willie Weeks bass playing.

Stevie Wonder -  He's Misstra Know-It-All

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance

This Black Friday shit has been doing my head in all week even more so even than Spreadsheet Phil and his budget and the fact that the UK seems to be in terminal decline and it appears that everybody is okay with that as long as we take back control of our fucking borders. And don't get me started on the loss of the European Medicines Agency.

But it is Friday and I will put aside all of my anger and instead be transported back to the distant past and the dingy clubs of 1990 when Anthem by N-Joi was just that. I loved that record at the time and to me it still sounds really good if at least two minutes too short. Interesting fact about this record, that Saffron, who would later go on to front the band Republica does not sing any of the vocals which were actually samples from Gwen Guthrie, Darlene Davis and Caron Wheeler.

Aidrie are away to East Fife tomorrow and they will have to play a lot better than they did last Saturday when they were beaten by a Highland League team in the Scottish Cup. Off the park there seems to be a chink of light as the consortium, which includes the stadium owners, the main sponsor and the Airdrie Supporters Trust have been given preferred bidder status for the shares currently owned by the ex Chairman who had all the grand plans and then bottled it after a year.

L and I are off to Dundee on Sunday night for an over night with my mate and his wife for his birthday so nothing to see here until Tuesday.

Have a good weekend people.

N-Joi - Anthem

Racing In The Street

I first read Fuel Injected Dreams when I was 19. The girl who put me on to the Pale Fountains also introduced me to the book. I was up visiting friends in Aberdeen after I had jacked it in and we were at a party where I bumped into Debbie. She came up to me and told me that she had been thinking about me and had something for me if I wanted to go back to her flat with her later. Well I thought that my luck was in, so a bit later on we left the party and headed for her flat. After making a pot of tea she went off to her room and returned with a book which she said she had picked up during the summer and as soon as she started reading it she thought of me and knew that I would love it. How right she was.

The story revolves around an LA graveyard shift DJ, who has a chance encounter with a reclusive, megalomaniac record producer who was responsible for some of the biggest hits of the early 60's with the bands he created and famed for his production techniques but by the end of that  decade had dissolved into a gun toting, drug induced psychotic who keeps his wife prisoner in his mansion, sound familiar to anyone? This chance encounter has the DJ revisit his teenage years and one summer in particular and try to solve a mystery which happened then with some very strange and extremely disturbing results.

The book is kind of trashy and a bit dated now,  as it is set in the mid eighties but I think that it is still worth reading. On discovering that Baker was a screenwriter it did not surprise me as the book reads like a movie and it is easy to picture it as such. I always had Dennis Hopper down for the drug crazed producer, although even by the late 80s he would have been too old to play the part.

I have read this book many times now and years ago I gave it to L when she was going overseas to visit her sister. I was rather hacked off when  L arrived home sans book, don't get me wrong very pleased to see her but slightly distraught about the missing novel. To this day she argues that she brought it back. I searched for this book but to no avail, this was pre or very early internet days and to make matters worse the book was then out of print, the author having committed suicide and subsequent major wrangles over his estate meaning that it was not available. Eventually after a few years searching and improvements on the web I tracked down a copy in a second hand book shop in southern California and payed quite a bit of money for it. It has, however been re-printed since and copies can be found on Amazon for as little as one pence, which may put you off, however it is worth the investment if you ask me.

Over the years I have bought copies of the book and given them to people that I have thought would appreciate this tale of music, lust, drugs and psychosis. Mostly the feedback has been positive but a couple of people have looked at me differently after reading.

I have never been that much of a car nut, I prefer being on two wheels, preferably 10" ones on a machine produced in Italy but I have always fancied "a gleaming blue '63 Corvette split-window coupe" on the back of this novel. Not sure that I could ever afford one or even the petrol for that matter and I would feel guilty about the environmental impact of the car but it would be cool.

Although Springsteen is not talking about a 63" Stingray but a '69 Chevy, not sure which model, I do think of this song when I think of the Stingray.

Racing In The Street 

Sometimes All You Need

Is a bit of Nancy and Lee.

I have been reading Fuel Injected Dreams again, it's a kind of biannual ritual and during this time I normally listen to nothing but 60s girl groups and but also I usually reach for other things from that era and Nancy And Lee are always in there.

I once saw Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan cover this at a gig a couple of days after the death of Lee Hazelwood and it was just as good as it sounds. Apparently their was a version of Campbell and Lanegan's second album Sunday at Devil Dirt that came with a free live cd which had them doing the song but I have never been able to get my hands on a copy.

Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazelwood - Sand

Della Reese 06/07/1931 - 19/11/2017

Rest Easy Della.

Della Reese - Compared To What

A Dark Corner

I don't know very much about this record apart from it came out in 1967 on Royal Family Records the Bourbons were part of the Texas Garage/Psych scene which could explain why this record kind of reminds me of the 13th Floor Elvevators. I find it quite sad that a band that sounded this good only produced the one single. Still one very good single is better than none at all or ten pish ones. I suppose.

The Bourbons - A Dark Corner

Psychedelic Soul

This single  by the Temptations wasn't Motown's first foray into the counter culture of the USA in the late 60s although this Whitfield and Strong penned tune it is for me one of the best and funkiest. My copy is not the best and I apologise for the noise but I put this on yesterday and knew that this was the tune to start the week with. Released on the Gordy label in 1969 and reached number 2 in the Billboard chart. On the single you can clearly hear that the track fades out rather than stops. In 2003 the full version was unearthed and released on the Psychedelic Soul compilation which shows the Funk Brothers at the top of their game. Magic stuff.

The Temptations - Psychedelic Shack 

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance

Some discoey House with a very 80s feeling baseline from a few years ago. Just the kind of thing to set you up for the weekend.

Airdrie take on Cove Rangers, who have scored 70 goals in only 16 games in the the Highland League , in the third round of the Scottish Cup at the Excelsior tomorrow and fuck knows what will happen! Leo and I will be in attendance and let's hope that there are hotdogs, as when Leo gets one we seem to win. It's as good a predictor as anything else at the moment.

Have a good weekend people.

Deadboy - Des Niles 

Twee As F**K

JC's series "10 Days Of Twee" got me remembering when I kind of immersed myself in all things Twee around 2007/2008. At the time I was looking for something a bit different and for a wee while all of the Scandi Indie stuff  had been interesting me but around this time I decided to cast my net a bit wider and found two really interesting labels that were doing their own thing, WeePop! and Cloudberry, the former from London, England and Cloudberry from Astoria, Queens, New York City. What both of these labels had in common was the DIY ethos and the beautifully crafted Indie pop and lovingly put together releases. You even got free sweets from WeePop!, if the music wasn't sugary enough for you. These labels are where I first came across the Just Joans, The Manhattan Suicides , The Darlings and loads more.

 Cloudberry  also introduced me to the talents of the Pains of Being Pure At Heart ( has there ever been a more twee name for a band). Their first EP, This Love Is Fucking Right!" was released on the label and like all the other it was on a 3" CDR in a limited run of  100, mine's is number 61. I think that the title of the main track may be a nod to the Field Mice and that is not where the comparisons with Sarah Records end with this band from New York,  as I would suggest that the band have more than one record on the much missed Bristol based label in their collections and possibly also a few Slumberland records in there too.

The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - This Love Is Fucking Right!

The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - Orchard Of My Eye

The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart  - Doing All The Things That Wouldn't Make Your Parents Proud

You Better Run

Some major label 60s Garage sounds from a group that were actually quite well known. You have probably heard of the Young Rascals, or the Rascals as they went on to be know when they grew up from their number one single in the States in 1966, Good Lovin' or if you are a follower of Dr John Cooper Clarke's filling in  for Jarvis on the Sunday Service on  6Music you will know that he has appropriated their 1967 laid back Groovin',  another number one for the group from Garfield New Jersey in 1967, as his theme tune.

The tune we are concerned with was the follow-up to their first number 1, a very different tune indeed, You Better Run, a song with a brattish, near punk attitude which must have had those used to Good Lovin' scratching their heads. Needless to say after the achievemts of the previous single the label and band were disappointed with the position of 20 on the Billboard chart. They were to get back to chart topping ways of course with more chart friendly material and again unlike most other Garage bands they kept going for quite a few years eventually coming to an end in 1972.

The Young Rascals - You Better Run

On The Modern Side

Here is a very classy example of Moderns Soul, well I say modern it's 46 years old but let's not get into semantics.

Ann's second name may be bogus but there is absolutely nothing snidey about this tune. As far as I can find out this is the only record that Miss/Mrs Bogus ever recorded at least under her own name. It was released on Statue Records out of Tupelo, Mississippi and the last copy for sale on discogs fetched $1319 putting it well out of my price range.

Enjoy.

Link now up, sorry.

Ann Bogus - Don't Ask Me To Love Again

Lest We Forget

For

Cpl Andrew Wingate

Pvt James Little

It's Friday . . . Let's Jack

Proper old school Chi-town house from 1988 given a dusting down and a refit for 2017 and sounding just as great as it did nearly thirty years ago.  Top stuff.

Oh Happy Day

I received an email today informing me that Tim Badger, SWC and KC (now KT) are back with a new blog after their various pursuits in Austalia, or saving the world or getting married, you can work out who did what I expect, Anyway the new blog can be found here.

I have been looking for an excuse to post this version of one of my favourite cover versions. This version of The Edwin Hawkins singers song was performed on the Jools Holland show way back around the time of the release of Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space.



Spiritualized - Oh Happy Day (Later . . . With Jools Holland)

Keeping It Peel

It has been quiet round here recently. I have neither the time nor the inclination to think of the blog at the moment but thought that Keeping It Peel day should not go unmarked so here is one of the highlights from the Afghan Whigs session which was recorded on 22/02/94 and broadcast on 25/03/94. I'm not sure if I heard this at the time but I certainly wouldn't have taken any notice as at that time I had disregarded the Whigs as just another American Grunge band. A mistake not rectified until the early 2000s thanks to John Richards and KEXP.

The Afghan Whigs - My Curse 

John Peel - The Fall

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance

Last Saturday afternoon what with no home game to go to and completing the house work early, I was at loss as to what to do. I knew that Lynn was going out for a friend's birthday later on. Max was up to god knows what with his trackie wearing ned mates and Leo was busy taming T Rexs' on  some weird Playstation game. So I decided to footer about with the records. I am in dire need of another box for storing 7" singles as there are wee bundles of singles lying about the place. So I thought about re-arranging some of the boxes so when I get a further one it will either house an extension of another box or if warranted a whole category in one box. After a couple of hours I was no further forward in my task but had added a couple more bundles of records around the dining room, ones for ripping for the blog and another comprising of singles that I had dug out to listen to. I decided that I need to have the box first and then it will be an easier task.

So I moved on to filing a load of the 12" singles that are piled beside one of the Expedit's housing the albums, A - O to be exact. This is an easier tasks, some will go in a pile to go upstairs into the office, the ones that I will not play again for a while,  the indie type ones go in the cupboard and what's left being the ones that will stay out as I am still partial to listening to them.

So to get to the point of the post, you may be aware that a certain minor deity of a DJ/Producer/Recording Artist/taste-maker has been rather prolific of late, just how prolific was being revealed to me as flicked through this pile of records and I thought to myself that I might spend the evening revisiting some of the records that had been touched by the hand of god, or Andrew Weatherall to give him his name during the early 90s when almost everything he touched turned to gold.

This resulted in me scurrying about collecting 12" singles from everywhere they are stored in the house and creating a pile about three times the size of the original one. I started with a brace of productions for Primal Scream, Trainspotting and Screamadelica  and by the time I finished on Sunday night I had played 43 mixes by the Chairman. I would have continued with this but as I've stated I was on holiday and there was therefore painting to be done.

One of the mixes that I was pleasantly surprised by was the Cabin Fever mix of Skunk Funk which I hadn't played in years but remember being not that partial to, probably why it hadn't been played in years but last Saturday and last night it sounded pretty damn good and I think has the same sort of laid back vibe that Everything Grooves Pts 1 &2 has, two remixes he did for the Stereo MC's.

Aidrrie are away to Arbroath tomorrow who are sitting two places and three points above the Diamonds in the league. After last weeks excellent draw away to second top Ayr Utd there are high hopes that the team are coming into some form and so anything is possible this weekend, a draw would be acceptable but undoubtedly all three points would be preferable. In other news the club have appointed a couple of new Directors so possibly things are getting better. And the latest signed shirt to raise funds for the Sensory Room is a pure belter.

Oh and I will be spending the day filing all of the 12!" singles that I pulled out last weekend and have decided to have a full section dedicated to Weatherall remixes.

Have a good weekend people.

Galliano - Skunk Funk (Andrew Weatherall's Cabin Fever mix).

Feel Your Feelings Fool!

Is it wrong for a middle aged Scottish man to be enthralled by the music of some teenagers from Los Angeles California who make thrashy guitar music with songs about body image, feminism and dead end relationships? It may well be but I do love the noise that the Regrettes make and the fuck you attitude that they seem to have.

A few months ago I posted Seashore which I had head a couple of weeks previously and couldn't get out of my head and so I investigated further. It turns out that the group met at music school and had signed to Warner Brothers which would usually have had me running a mile while shouting manufactured nonsense, however I "parked" my preconceptions and listened to what I could find on the internet and everything I heard was great, nothing revolutionary but great put together punky songs with loads of attitude and so I bought the album which I have been listening to over the past couple of weeks when I think that I have overdosed on skally psychedelic rock. The only minus for me for this debut is the bloody awful cover.

Here is my favourite from the album at the moment which is a little different from the rest of the tracks. Not for download, sorry.

The Regrettes - Pale Skin

and here is a previous single which is also on the album

Waterpistol

Since the gig at Oran Mor just under a fortnight ago I have been immersing myself in all things Michael Head.  From the very early days of  the Pale Fountains, through Shack and the Strands stuff up to the ep and single with The Red Elastic Band and all the time waiting not very patiently for this week's long time coming Adios Senor Pussycat to be delivered by Ted the Postie. In fact since Monday I have been listening to Shack exclusively while painting. I'm on holiday, of course I'm painting what else would I be doing.

All of this got me thinking as to why I haven't posted more stuff by Mr Head. Of course the blog is named after my favourite Pale Fountains track which has featured on here in all mixes more than once,  another Pale Fountains song, Shack only once! and the Elastic Band stuff a few times. I'm not sure if it is the music snob unconsciously coming out in me in the fact that he is mine and a small band of obsessives little secret and I want to keep it that way, smug in the knowledge that Head is a special talent . But I don't think so as I would like as many people to know about how absolutely bloody brilliant a song writer and recording artist he is and then maybe this would help towards Michael Head getting the appreciation and perhaps renumeration he most certainly deserves, although I'm not sure he craves. A few times I have had Shack tunes in my head and thought,"I will post that" and then got distracted by something else and it wasn't the time.

So I think over the next few weeks I will rectify this situation by posting a good few of my favourite things. I may even have a pop at a couple of ICAs for JC, one on the Pale Fountains and the other on Shack, the later I know will be a very difficult proposition.

The only way to start is with possibly the unluckiest album of the 90s, the second Shack album, Waterpistol. This is often referred to as a "great lost album" which it probably is but I really don't like that category, as I have seen lots of albums which were neither really lost nor that great being hailed in this manner. I have also seen it being referred to as "the greatest album that you don't own", hyperbole? Probably but it is fucking tremendous, however I think I will stick with my categorisation.

The story of the album is one which if you wrote a screenplay around would probably seem a bit far fetched. Waterpistol was recorded in Star Street Studios in 1991 and produced by Chris Allison. Shortly after eventually getting Head to finish the tracks the studio went up in flames along with the master tapes of the album. But the bad luck didn't stop there, no Shack's record label then went bust. Fortunately all was not lost as Allison remembered that he had a DAT of the master tapes, but again, more lucky white heather,  they had been left in a hire car when the producer had been on vacation in the United States. When he realised that he had lost the only surviving copy of the recordings, months later,  Alison contacted the hire company and eventually tracked down the missing DAT. Although by this time the band had broken up, Head had fallen victim to depression, who wouldn't have, and also heroin addiction. And therefore it looked like that was it for the second Shack album.

Fast forward to 1995 when the tapes find their way to Marina Records, a German independent record label that specialised in releasing UK indie artists. they had already released albums by Paul Quinn and The Independent Pop Group and The Bathers (which JC and Brian probably own) amongst others and brought out the album initially on cd and then on vinyl in 1999.

On release the album was highly praised by critics but was missed by the record buying public who were all in thrall to the latest big thing "Brit Pop". The album was re-released in 2007 and again failed to catch the attention of a wider audience.

If you like jangly guitar music, I guarantee that you will love this album. It has been said that there is quite a bit of Stone Roses influence on the album and Michael Head himself prior to the recording sessions that he was influenced by the likes of The Charlatans and especially the Stone Roses album at the time and was heading in that type of direction.

Shack - Mr Appointment

You Didn't Say A Word

I have a suspicion that this tune was supposed to cash in on the popularity of James Bond when it was released on Cameo Parkway Records back in 1967 what with the very John Barry sounding backing track. Why it was resigned to the b-side of a very ordinary ballad is one of those mysteries that will never be solved. Instead of being an obscure northern soul rarity, albeit number three in the original Northern Soul Top 500 it could have been a billboard top ten. Completely ludicrous marketing decisions such as this is what northern soul was built upon.

Yvonne Baker - You Didn't Say A Word

Machine Gun

I have been thoroughly gripped by the documentary series on BBC 4 about the American War with Vietnam. I have never before heard the views of the North Vietnamese, the Viet Cong or the ordinary citizens of the country. My opinions regarding the war were most probably formed in my mid teens when I read Dispatches, Chickenhawk ,  A Rumour of War and saw the films Platoon and Full Metal Jacket but I suppose I had already made up my mind prior to this,  being a bit of a hippy and also by the fact that most of the music that I love from the late 60s, that isn't soul was most definitely on the anti-war side. I don't think that this series will change my mind but it has given me the impetus to revisit the subject and read some of the other books that I bought but never got round to reading.

The audio tapes of Lyndon Johnson discussion the war with advisors and Robert McNamara have been a revelation to me. This troubles me as LBJ I think was a far more intelligent person than the present incumbent in the White House, with some very able men around him, If he couldn't get the USA out of Vietnam, Trump really needs to get gone soon before things with The Democratic Peoples Republic of North Korea escalate any further or we are all doomed.

Whenever I read of Vietnam or watch something where it is mentioned, Machine Gun by Jimi Hendrix and The Band Of Gypsies is always the first song that comes into my mind. I don't think that I have ever seen it used in conjunction with any images of the war but from when I first heard it round about when I was 13/14 years old I have always associated it with Vietnam and of course that is what the song is about but it has always stuck and as soon as I think about the useless waste of life oand decimation of South East Asia that first thirty or forty seconds of Machine Gun go through my head, the wah wah guitar, the cymbals and then the rat a tat a tat of the snare drum.

The track was recorded live at the Fillmore East, New York either late New Year's Eve 1969 or very early New Year's Day 1970.

Band of Gypsies - Machine Gun

Fillmore Jive

I stuck Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain on for the first time in ages the other day and instantly berated myself for the fact. This used to be a constant play in our house but I'm not sure that L was that impressed, she has commented on Malkmus voice being irritating more than once, so there are some similarities with the Fall. I'm not sure why or come to think of it when I stopped playing this album as much but sometimes you do need a bit of a break from something to realise just how bloody marvelous it was in the first place. I think that Fillmore Jive would be in my top 5 Pavement songs. The thing I love about it is that it seems that it is all going to fall apart a few times but just when you think disaster is going to strike the band pull it back from the brink. It is also when I come to think of it quite a bit longer than most Pavement songs clocking in at 6.39.

Pavement - Fillmore Jive

The Other, Other Half

The Girl With The Long Black Hair by the Chicago Band The Other Half, who shouldn't be confused with any of the other three groups with the same name recording at this time, the most famous of whom would be the San Francisco band who originally recorded Mr Pharmacist. The Girl With The Long Black Hair was recorded as a demo in the Windy City  in 1967 and was never officially released as a single although 300 copies were pressed on the Orlyn label and sent to local radio stations and given to friends and family. I can find no further info on the band they seem to have just disappeared after this.

This is a bit less frantic than the usual fare posted in this spot but no less entertaining.

The Other Half - The Girl With The Long Black Hair

Make A Change

That's what half the nation were wishing Gordon Strachan had done earlier last night. Alas yet again Scotland failed to secure a place in another World Cup. I vaguely remember the 1974 World Cup but I do remember Ally's Army in 1978 vividly when a collective stupor came over the whole nation and we genuinely thought that we could go to Argentina and win. I was nine and it was great until we did a "Scotland" and went home at the group stages. Fun while it lasted. Max will be fourteen next month and has never seen his nation qualify for anything, France 1998 being our last foray. I fear that he may reach his twenties and still not see it happen.

Still, it was good of Strachan and the boys to deliberately not go through as a protest to Russia's Human Rights record.

I know nothing about Johnny Rodgers, other than he released this rather beautiful piece of soul on the Detroit label Amon in 1965. This was a huge play at Top of The World All niters in Stafford when Pat Brady spun the tune but covered it up as Make A Change by The Chandlers, devious folk those northern djs!

Johnny Rodgers with the Nu Tones - Make A Change

What A Night!

Scotland live to fight another day and Michael Head and The Elastic Band perform the gig of the year at Oran Mor.

Highlights? You ask, well that would have been the whole set. But here are just three





and just for Echorich



It really was a special night.

Natalie's Party

I'm in Luton today and tomorrow, deep deep joy. But I am getting away early tomorrow to catch the earlier flight as I'm off to see Michael Head and The Red Elastic Band at Oran Mor. To say that I have been looking forward to this gig would be a bit of an understatement as the last time he played Glasgow I was also away with work but unable to get out of. I expect the set list will consist of a lot of Adios Senor Pussycat the much anticipated album due out on the 20th of this month but I'm sure that there will be a smattering of older tracks from his days with The Strands and also Shack but not sure if any Pale Fountains songs will be aired though.

Shack - Natalie's Party (Youth Radio mix)

This Is What I Need Just Now

The only words I have at the moment are all angry sweary not very positive ones so I think that I will just "haud ma wheesht". So here's a bit of Otis at his best.

Otis Redding - That's What My Heart Needs

This Is Democracy?

No soul today.

I am raging about what is going on in Catalunya and our inept Foreign Secretary's response. This should not be going on in Europe, or anywhere fucking else for that matter.

Manic Street Preachers - If You Tolerate This Your Children Will be Next

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance

Some jazzy drum and bass for you this week courtesy of Goldie by way of a wicked Grooverider remix. Warning this track does contain a certain amount of noodling, and a trumpet or two. It takes nearly 7 minutes for the breakbeat to drop but when it does it is just perfect.  All in all a very classy track although over ten minutes doesn't outstay it's welcome. Still don't know how you would dance to it though.

In Airdrieonians news, I have to say that it's not looking good.  A two nil defeat last week to Raith Rovers sees the team sitting third from bottom, it is early in the season but it will be necessary to keep with the pack in order to ensure that they are still playing in League 1 next season. As the season goes on Airdrie may find it difficult as their isn't the strength and depth in the squad that they have had in previous seasons. Therefore even at this stage a home win against Queen's Park, who are struggling also and sitting one place below the Diamonds in the league, is essential. We can but hope. Some good news is that they now have a full time coach, in the shape of Stevie Findlay who previously coached the under 20s squad so knows a lot of the players already.

Goldie - Believe (Grooverider mix)