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.
When we were leaving the ABC on Saturday night with our ears ringing a condition that would not subside until well into the following day, I turned to Stiff and said "I wish Spiritualized would tour again" and funnily enough Stiff had been thinking the same thing. You see the Jesus and Mary Chain gig nearly reached the decibel level of the last time we saw Jason Pierce and Co, in the same venue way back in March 2012.
So I thought today that I would post a remix of the first Spiritualized single, the Chip Taylor written classic recorded previously by The Troggs and Evie Sands. On this single J Spaceman and the band he put together after the demise of Spacemen 3 find themselves in a meditative laid back mood. The remix is not radically different from the single release other than Ian Caple has added beats and some spiritual samples. This is about as close as the Spaceman came to jumping on the "indie dance" bandwagon which was son prominent at the time, although I never read in any interviews Pierce stating that there had always been a dance element to his music.
I appear to be having a problem with Wednesday's when it comes to this blog. I seen to have run out of steam by the middle of the week these days.
So when all else fails post a track by the Cramps. Get Off the Road is the final track from A Date With Elvis and b-side on the 12" version of What's Inside A Girl. and finds Ivy taking over vocal duties on what I always thought would make a great theme to a trash fifties film about a female biker gang and after a little bit of googling it turns out that it was on the soundtrack to a film not a fifties movie but one from 1969 entitled "She- Devils On Wheels" directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis, an American "Splatter" filmmaker. I am not familiar with Herschell's oeuvre but from what I've just read it sounds as though this sort of thing would be regular viewing for Lux and Ivy.
Something Wild started out as an R&B band heavily influenced by the Rolling Stones but as you can see from the title of today's track by mid 1966 the band's influences were coming from a different source, the Height-Ashbury area of San Francisco to be precise where they would hang out as often as they could even although they were from Santa Maria some 250 miles away. Therefore they were getting more into the emerging psychedelic music scene and even called their label that Trippin' Out was released on Psychedelic Records just if anybody was still in doubt. The title of both the label and the record made radio play increasingly difficult as when any station did dare to play the record they were then inundated with complaints from parents saying that they were encouraging drug use, which lead to the record getting little to no traction. Which is a pity as it is pretty good especially the last 30 or o seconds of feedback wigout.
Returning home after an amazing night on Saturday at the ABC in Glasgow more of which later in the week I decided to take to Twitter to inform anybody who would take any notice of what a brilliant evening I had had only to be confronted with the sad news of the passing of Charles Bradley which brought me down quite a bit. I'm pretty sure that it was due to Craig Charles that I first heard Bradley and I'm sure my first thought was that this guy was trying to sound like James Brown it wasn't until listening to more of the singer's output that I realised that that was only a part of his sound, there was also a bit of Otis in the voice but one thing that wasn't in any doubt was that the man could sing. He is probably best know outside of soul circles for his cover of Black Sabbath's Changes, which would also turn out to be the name of the Screaming Eagle of Soul's, third and final album.
Bradley worked as a cook for years but supplemented his income singing in clubs until the mid 90s when he returned to Brooklyn to be reunited with his mother and gig as a James Brown impersonator. He met Bosco Mann a co-founder of Daptone records who introduced him to Tom Brenneck who would go on to produce Bradley and with his band the Menahan BAnd would back the singer on his productions.
Here is another of Bradley's cover versions, although when I bought it I wasn't aware that it was originally by Nirvana and is apparently from the Nevermind album.
I was all set to post some quality drum and bass courtesy of Goldie and Grooverider today until I got kind of waylaid last night.
I don't have the stomach or the mental tolerance these days for Question Time so am always looking for alternatives on a Thursday night and so last night rather than spending more time on Twitter or trying to finish my latest Brookmyre I put on Film 4 as Quadrophenia was on and that seemed like a better alternative than that smug Dimbelby and the rest . Just to set the record straight I was never a mod and Quadrophenia was not the reason I first bought a scooter, that was due to Absolute Beginners, no mirrors, carriers or whip aerials on that scooter, just a beautiful GS as the Italian makers intended it to look. So after about 10 minutes in I had the urge to listen to and Weekender which recounts the story of my late teenage years/early 20s better than the film from 1979, albeit without scooters. I still wanted to watch the film but the soundtrack was just not doing it for me and of course the Phil Daniels sample at the beginning and end of Weekender means that it is forever entwined with Quadrophenia in my mind. If you substitute a field somewhere in Scotland for Brighton, get rid of the Parkas and suits in favour of dungarees, flares and oversized T-shirts, a complete lack of animosity between warring tribes, soundtracked by repetitive beats then you have the picture.
You may be wondering why I am up so late on a school night, well the short answer is it isn't as it's the September weekend up here, four days that in bygone decades would have meant a severe bout of hedonism but now entails painting the bathroom and taking the kids to the loch if the weather is half way decent. But I can still just about remember when this weekend used to be about so much more, although we never did the Glasgow thing and decant to Blackpool for the duration.
I have decided not to post Weekender as it has appeared on two previous occasions but will post another record that makes reference to Quadrophenia, it has also featured before on the blog but only the once.
Tomorrow Airdrie's still manager-less boys are away to JC's beloved Raith Rovers and if they come back from Fife with anything less than a mauling it will be a bloody miracle. I will not be in attendance as a) I don't tend to go to away matches and b) it would be a bit tight to get back and then head into Glasgow in time for the Mary Chain, so I will be listening to Open All Mikes with trepidation.
Have a good weekend people.
Secret Knowledge - Sugar Daddy (Out Of Our Brains On The 5:15)
I am going to see the Jesus and Mary Chain again on Saturday night and I am really looking forward to it which is quite ironic as I was contemptuous of the idea of going to see them when they got back together for the Psychocandy anniversary shows spouting forth that the only reason to re-form was if you had something new to offer like an album. I'm not saying that I have any sway here but low and behold last year they released a new album. Coincidence? Well I will let you decide. Even then I wasn't overly keen and in fact swithered for quite a while as to even ordering the album but I did eventually. But it took the generosity of someone else to push me into going to see them.
As many will attest to the Vinyl Villain is one of the nicest, most genuine men you will ever meet, I'm not saying he is perfect, he does have that Smiths fanboy fixation that quite a few men of his age are similarly afflicted by but apart from that he's a good sort. Anyway, he offered me his ticket back in March for the Friday night at the Barras for the 6Music festival headlined by the Mary Chain which I readily accepted. I was still rather nervous wondering if they would be a sad pastiche of themselves or would it be possible to get near the levels of greatness that they reached back in the mid to late 80s. I needn't have worried they were excellent with the new material sounding as good as the stuff from when they were at their peak . Jim Reid even looked as if he was enjoying himself, still won't win any awards for audience engagement but at least he tried.
So on Saturday night I will find out if they really are any good or whether it was just a mixture of the
venue, atmosphere and rose tinted specs back in March.
Here are a couple of tracks from that show.
Jesus and Mary Chain - Always Sad (Live 6Music Festival 24-03-17)
Jesus and Mary Chain - Reverence (Live 6Music Festival 24-03-17)
(Those) Rogues are the second Canadian band that I have featured in this Tuesday spot that was never intended to run as long as it has. I have surprised myself with the number of mid sixties garage rock records that I actually own, granted most of them are like a fair bit of my northern collection, pressings or re-releases. I realised years ago that I didn't have the wherewithal to be part of the OVO brigade so never developed the contempt for non kosher vinyl.
Back to (Those) Rogues, no I have no idea why the brackets, were from Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario and were active from 1964 to 1967. They only released the one single recorded in Toronto in ealry 1967 but had already committed to tape enough original tracks to make an album which sadly never saw the light of day. For me the better side of the single is the b-side, Girl.
This was first posted four years ago but I played the single yesterday for the first time in ages and thought that it warranted another airing on the blog. I had a bit of a crush on Stansfield back in the day when others were lusting over the likes of Harriet.
A couple of weeks ago I mentioned Lisa Stansfield in a modern soul post. Stansfield herself is responsible for a track that was huge on the scene, so much so that the track was bootlegged and released out on 7" vinyl. 8-3-1 was released as a cd single in 2001 and was one of the standout tracks from that year's Face Up album.
I once nearly met Lisa Stansfield, when she was at the height of her fame. I was returning from an exhausting week in Holland with sixty odd Primary school children. We had stopped at a service station when one of the girls spotted Stansfield returning to her coach which led to maybe a dozen girls rushing over. Stansfield was having none of it and quickly got into the coach. The kids were told to go away in very unambiguous terms by the Rochdale singer's "security" and they returned to hassling the staff at the service station instead. One girl turned to me and said " does she no know who we ir? an she isnae Madonna onyways".
I''m getting a bit peeved off with this exclusivity pish that's going on with vinyl releases at the moment, records being pressed in ever more limited runs. The Fort Beulah release was bad enough only 150 copies available exclusively through Love Vinyl in that there London place. But Kieran Hebden, aka Four Tet aka KH has gone one better and released a single sided 12" single with only 100 copies available from Phonica Records in store only , in you've guessed it the only place where music matters, our capital city and cultural hub where the only good music comes from, well Lauren Lavern, Idris Elba and the judges of the Mercury Music prize seem to believe that, but I digress. The xx used to be guilty of this with runs of 300 copies of this only available from Japan and 500 of that only released in Germany but I see that they have at least given fans a sporting chance with their latest 12" remix, 1000 copies available for pre-order from their website.
I know, I know , rarity value where music is concerned is not a new thing and one of my greatest loves, northern soul has probably got a lot to do with this commoditization of music, with the exorbitant prices some of the records on the scene fetch but there is a genuine reason for these records being scarce, most of them were local, small releases or bombed and as a result the vinyl was melted down or lost in storage somewhere. This recent marketing shit is different, it's bollocks and reeks of the worst excesses of capitalism where records are a thing to possess and lust over rather than listen to. Call me old fashioned but when I get a record I want to put it on the turntable and hear it not just look at. I love ripping the shrinkwrap off an album and getting that first whiff of vinyl as you prise it out of the inner sleeve and hear the slight crackle of the static that has built up. In days gone by it was even better as you had the anticipation as to what the album as a whole sounded like as there was no streaming prior to release and you would only have heard the lead single which had prompted you to purchase the record in the first place but I digress once more.
While we're on the subject single sided 12" singles at at least a tenner a pop are not value for money, even if the track is 10 minutes long. Sort it fucking out!
So after all that today's track is in the form of a Youtube clip, I would love to offer up a 320mbs/s rip of the track but as I am not unfortunate enough to live in the vicinity of Phonica Records and don't have a spare one hundred and fifty quid to buy one of the two copies on Discogs that will have to do.
The still manager-less Airdrie tomorrow are at home to East Fife and we will be looking for a better result that the 3-1 defeat away at Stanraer last week. I saw we, Stiff is otherwise engaged and Leo is away with L to watch his grandfather Hill Climb at Doune, so I will be on my own but hopefully Willie and father John will be in attendance.
My list of records to buy doesn't seem to be getting shorter. It seems that on a daily basis I have to add something, yesterday it was the new Four Tet one which will be released at the beginning of October. I haven't been able to buy a pair of trainers for some months and had to forget the limited edition beer proof Adidas Prost which looked the business. It has also meant that the priorities keep changing as one more limited edition takes precedence over another, in turn bumping other things further back in the queue. One such thing is the second (see that, not sophmore as I am not American) album from Canadian band Alvvays which is quite annoying as from what I've heard it is even better than their debut. although I haven't heard anything that quite matches today's track.
You will probably find me bangoing on about Antisocialists ( a brilliant title) in about 18 months time the way things are going just now.
I am beginning to really look forward to the prospect of the Michael Head gig at Oran Mor at the beginning of next month and if the two tracks from the new album that have been released so far are indicative of the rest of the album, well we will forgive Mick for the wait. This popped up on Twitter the other day and is absolutely lovely.
Is the Jimmy Mack who cut this single for Detroit's Palmer label in 1967 the same Jimmy Mack that Martha Reeves sung about and had bolted on her? I don't know, it's possible, could be, as the identity of the singer on this record has never confirmed at one time it was thought that he was Jimmy McEachin, however that was ruled out as he worked on the West Coast in L.A. He was then thought to be a writer and singer out of Chicago. Whoever he is he should be saluted for recording such an excellent dancer and I hope that he is/was aware of how much esteem My World Is On Fire is held in on this side of the pond, making the lower reaches of the Northern Soul Top , number 459. No mean feat.
The first weekend in September where the hell has the year gone. As you can probably guess from the last sentence I've not got much to say, so best just to tell you that today's track from Levon Vincent is a rather fine piece of modern squelchy acid that was released last year on his own Novel Sound imprint (Novel being Levon backwards). On the flip side there is a less than essential remix of Tubular Bells.
Four games in and Airdrionians have made a better start to the season than most of us expected. At present they are sitting joint third. Tomorrow the Diamonds make the long trip to Stranraer in previous encounters the honours have been even with 9 wins a piece and two draws so anything can happen. Let's hope that the youngsters who seem to be gelling well as a team can come up the road with a victory.
Back in 2002 I remember reading a review of an album in one of the music magazines that I still bought back then, it may have been Q but I doubt it as if it had a picture of Bonzo on the cover or an article relating whatever he and his wee pals were up to that month and most of the time that amounted to nothing but they still seemed to feature in the magazine, I refused to buy it, so the chances are low., Anyway what attracted me initially to the review was the band's name The Warlocks, which immediately rang bells as this was an early name used by Reed and Cale and on reading the review the album Phoenix was described in favourable terms to The Velvet Underground and Spacemen 3, with Sonic Boom collaborating on one of the tracks. I was sold and duly bought the album. There wasn't a great deal in the way of psych rock floating about back then and I flogged this album to death but strangely never bought anything else by the band, not sure why.
As you may have picked up I am quite partial to a bit of the drone and the longer and weirder the better so here is the final track from the album. I will warn you, it does go on for quite a while but that is part of it's appeal.
With all the doom and gloom filling the airways and the newspapers it's kind of hard to be upbeat about anything. It's at times like this that I like to find solace in some Scandinavian indiepop and where better than with the Labrador label. Days is the second track from, European, Sambassadeur's third album for the label released in 2010. However thinking about that title makes me somewhat depressed.
Love at a Price was the one and only single by Kempy and the Guardians , I know, seriously bad name by rights I should never have listened to this as the name suggests a particularly crap team of superheroes to me. Now, I don;t like to speculate but maybe the pish name chosen by the band from Oak Cliff, Texas had something to do with them only releasing the one single although they had two goes at it. It's not the song anyway as it's a great piece of fuzz tone garage which has a bit of a Yardbirds feel to it. Or it could be that in 1966 this record just got lost as we know that was a particularly good year for garage rock singles. The version posted is for me the better version, the second one released on Romunda Records.
Loleatta Holloway is probably best know for her wonderful disco records on the Salsoul like Love Sensation or Seconds or for the numerous samples of here voice that have appeared on many a house tune, Ride On Time by Black Box being one of the most blatant ones. But before her forays into disco she was signed to Aware Records out of Atlanta Georgia and in 1973 released a single "Mother of Shame" which was played as a current record at the Blackpool Mecca and from there crossed the country and became a bip play in the Wigan Casino. The track was co-written by Sam Dees responsible for one of my favourite northern tracks Lonely For You Baby.
