Shit, Luton!

Deep, deep joy, back down in Luton for a couple of days. I just love the half four rise and still being expected to function in the afternoon. On the bright side I may come back up the road with a fully functioning lap-top, although I will not bank on it.

Ulrich Schnauss - In All The Wrong Places

And Then There Is No Mystery Left

This came on the mp3 player the other day. I had nearly forgotten how good this was. Time to listen to the album again but if I do I know that I will play it over and over until I sicken myself with it once more.

Rilo Kiley - Portions For Foxes

. . . And No More Songs To Sing.

The more I delve into the output of the three labels run by Stan Lewis out of Shreveport Louisiana the more gems I discover and not all of them on the Jewel label by any manner of means.

Today's track is the 62nd release on RONN Records by a guy called Willie Rogers who I think had been listening to more than a couple of Sam Cooke sides as his singing style is very similar. That's When I'll Stop Loving You is a gorgeous bit of deep soul which I wish I had found along time ago, as putting this on a compilation tape I think would have made many a girl's heart melt. As it is I am having a great time on my own discovering more and more from the depths of Shreveport.

Enjoy

Willie Rogers - That's When I'll Stop Loving You 

Mellow Sunday

There is quite a battle going on for the right to take up residence on my turntable at the moment from two completely different albums.

Firstly there is the remix album of a certain Mr Weatherall's latest project the Asphodells which is quite brilliant with all the remixers adding something to the original tracks.

Thee other I must warn "contains jazz" and the gorgeous warm vocals of Gregory Porter. The album, Liquid Spirit is the singer's third and first for Blue Note is just the thing for a Sunday, or any day really.

Here is just one of the many highlights from the album.

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance

Mr Weatherall has been up to loads recently, most of which have been documented at the Bagging Area. This week's posted remix of the collaboration between Wayne Coyne and Moby being particularly memorable and I am also looking forward to the remix of Come With Me by Jagwar Ma being available on Vinyl. These recent productions are as good as anything he produced during the early nineties when everything he touched sounded wonderful.

The other night I was listening to the recently delivered Asphodells remix album which is another great piece of work by Weatherall in partnership with Tim Fairplay. Listening to this got me thinking of the great Weatherall single from 2009 that never was, Brother Johnston's Travelling Disco Consultancy. The bearded one had aired the track on a 6mix if I remember correctly and there was great excitement, in this house anyway at the thought of  a vinyl release. Alas this never came to pass, however the track was included on the Andrew Weatherall vs The Boardroom Volume 2 cd.

A big,  brash, disco for the noughties 9 minute plus extravaganza which will not disappoint.

Have a good weekend people

Andrew Weatherall - Brother Johnston's Travelling Disco Consultancy 

The Dorian Gray Of Post Punk Returns

I am really excited about the fact that Roddy Frame is going to tour High Land Hard Rain in it's entirety in December, thirty years after it's first release. I know that a few people including JC have been grumbling at the price of the tickets, from twenty five to fifty pounds a seat, which is a bit much, I opted for the cheap seats. There are very few people that I would pay this kind of money to see, well come to think of it, nobody other than the boy wonder could make me part with over twenty quid.  Frame is different,  I have yet to have left either a solo gig or an Aztec Camera one anything other than elated with a renewed belief in the goodness of humanity ,which soon wears off. In fact if someone had asked me for another twenty quid on leaving last year's Paisley Abbey gig I would happily have handed over the money.

It has also been confirmed that a remastered version of the album is being produced and if the remastering is anywhere near as good as that on the Clash box set then it will be an essential purchase.

I really cannae wait.

Here's the last song from High Land Hard Rain recorded at Paisley Abbey.

Yip, I Kinda Remember That Feeling

I'm going to keep the mellow, some would say miserable, vibe going with today's choice.

I just love this song, it just conveys that Sunday/Monday morning come down perfectly. Not that I've had a hedonistic weekend for quite some time but I can just about remember what the aftermath felt like.

Bright Eyes - Lua

Expanding Your Horizon

Listening to Meursault will not make you a shiny happy person but sometimes it's quite good to get a bit introspective and moody. Whenever I put something on by them I'm unable to do anything else, I find myself immersed in the music and lyrics. Last year's Something For The Weakend demands that you drop anything that you are doing and for the duration of the album you sit and listen. It is not an easy listen, Mamie for instance is a heartbreaking song, but heartbreaking in a good way and I find a real sense of loss and sadness about the entire album but it is something that I keep going back to again and again.

When the album first came out Song By Toad Records produced a deluxe package which included the vinyl and cd copies of the album along with a T-shirt, badges lyric book and a further cd of demos of songs from the album all housed in a lovely tote bag. As you know I am a sucker for this kind of thing and duly ordered it.  Last night I was listening to these demos and decided that the version included on the cd of my favourite song from the album needed to be posted  I'm not wonderfully bleak will help sales of the album but that's how I find Settling and much of the album.

Meursault - Settling (demo)

It Keeps Raining

Need I say more.

Oh, one thing, instead of putting on the heating, try putting on a jumper, it's not that bloody cold yet and it's not like British Gas or whichever robbing bastard of a utilities company you are at the mercy of needs the money.

Fats Domino - It Keeps Raining

Mellow Sunday

Here is a sublime collaboration between King Creosote and Jon Hopkins this was the third single from their  Diamond Mine which should be in every right minded person's collection. Not the sort of thing that that twat Jeremy Clarkson would buy. There is not much that Kenny Anderson puts his name to that I don't love and this is no exception.

Enjoy

King Creosote and Jon Hopkins - John Taylor's Month Away

Most Wanted

The last time that I posted something by this duo I received a DMCA complaint so we will just refer to them as the duo. The track comes from probably my  favourite album from 2011 which still takes up regular space on the turntable these days, if you haven't already you really need to check it out.  The music harks back to the golden age of girl groups and everything including the kitchen sink productions.

Duo - Most Wanted

Totally unrelated picture of Sharon Tate which I happened to have.

It's Friday . . . Let's Skank

Outside of dance music aficionados Rude Boy Rock is probably the only Lionrock track that most people know of. Well it did hit the heady heights of #20 in the UK Top Forty in 1998. The track is built around a fair bit of the track Nimrod by the Skatalites and is just the kind of thing to temporarily blow away the September blues.

When not watching Airdrieonians getting gubbed I will spend the weekend  mostly listening to the remastered Clash studio albums,  which arrived earlier in the week. I was somewhat amazed at the sound of London Calling last night.

Have a good weekend people.

Lionrock - Rude Boy Rock 

Unmarked Helicopters

It's about time that this lot toured the UK again. I know it's a bit of a trek from down under but if thousands of bar staff can do it so can a band.

This comes from the group's second ep from 2009, The Man Is Dead,  for me their best release as it includes Disco Biscuit Love. But all three eps and the debut album are worth a listen.

The Jezabels - Unmarked Helicopters

Spaced Out Star Child

I think that this is a lost classic of sorts. Not included on the album that bears it's name, Screamadelica took up side two of the excellent Dixie Narco ep and I think that it is kind of forgotten about as the lead track from the ep was Movin' On Up. It is another immaculate production by Andrew Weatherall and Hugo Nicolson.

Primal Scream - Screamadelica

Fine Lines

I always get a bit melancholic on the long drive down the road from Aberdeen. It may have something to do with the good times that I had up there all those years ago and the fact that when I shave in the mornings the coupon looking back at me doesn't bear much of a resemblance to that boy of eighteen, who although a bit of a miserable git was still quite an optimistic fellow.

This came on the ipod today between Dundee and Perth  and by the time I had played it for the third time my face was streaked with tears, not sure why, although a beautiful song it doesn't hold any special resonance to me. It could be something to do with that stretch of road. Years ago while travelling on the same bit of the A90 I had a similar experience, although that time it was my own fault. I was playing a tape that I had compiled a couple of days previously. If the truth be told it was quite a depressing compilation, not quite on a par with " You Couldn't Drink This Tape Happy" but on its way.  By the time that I got to the same stretch of road that I was on today when John Martyn started, then it was the Pogues version of A Band Played Waltzing Matilda  which was followed by a live version of The Green Fields of France by Eric Bogle, some of you may know the one, where Bogle introduces the song with the story of when he visited Flanders after which he wrote the song. I very nearly went into total meltdown, well you would be wouldn't you! I pulled into the next  lay-by smoked a couple of JPS and composed myself.

Today I was somewhat wrenched out of maudlin mood when the mp3 player selected Don't Touch That Stereo by Trouble Funk, I put the foot down, gunned the car, well if you can gun a Toyota,  towards the M90 and Edinburgh while telling myself to get a grip.

John Martyn - Fine Lines

Little Rena Scott

When Rena Scott was twelve she won a competition on a radio station in Detroit and was picked to sing on The Motown Revue Show at the Fox Theatre in the city where she performed with the original Tempations. By the age of fifteen she had cut her first single and at the ripe old age of seventeen signed to Epic. The following year she was singing backing vocals for Aretha Franklin. A back story to rival any of those on the x-factor, although it may lack the tragedy element, although later she would have her ups and downs in a career which continues to this day.

Here is that first single that she recorded when she was not yet old enough to leave school.

Little Rena Scott - I Just Can't Forget That Boy

Sunday Blues

I really can't be arsed.

Here is some rather good trumpet playing

Chet Baker - Almost Blue

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance

Just like most of everything that appears on the telly these days, today's post is a repeat, it's probably the only way I'm going to sustain flogging this dead horse of a series! This post first appeared on Friday 10th July 2009 when I was still quite fresh to this blogging lark.

Have a good weekend people.

Today's number comes courtesy of Amsterdam in the early 1990's.

Get Down Tonight is by Fierce Ruling Diva and is basically a techno track built round a KC and the Sunshine Band sample. The track is tucked away on side c of the double pack 12" Anarchic Adjustments by the duo.

For the life of me I cannot understand what possessed me to buy this 12" as after digging it out and listening to it last night, this track is the only redeeming feature on an otherwise piss poor, in my opinion, couple of records. The music is not the sort of thing that I was listening to back then. It is, however, the sort of thing that a lot of people I knew were getting absolutely out of their faces to, this,  a lot of stuff coming out of the Netherlands, music as well as E and the tunes that the Clubscene label up here in Scotland were releasing were very popular in the Central Belt of Scotland and the North East of England.

Fierce Ruling Diva are probably best remembered for the track You Gotta Believe, which I also have in my collection for some reason. I'm not sure that any drugs would ever have been good enough to make me want these singles.

A few years later, I do remember an add for crap American beer using another track built around the same sample.

Fierce Ruling Diva - Get Down Tonight

Leaving Here

The first version of Leaving Here I ever heard was the live version by Motorhead which was part of the Golden Years ep. It was years before I released that it had originally been a soul song written by Holland-Dozier-Holland and released as a single in 1963. The Motorhead version is said to have been inspired by the 1965 recording of the song by British R&B band the Birds.

The version posted comes from the following year and is possibly my favourite version of the track, I love the laid back vocal which is kind of at odds with the tempo of the track.

The Who also covered this song but I also think that Magic Bus owes more than a little to this track.

Jimmy Hanna With The Dynamics - Leaving Here

Summer Swansong

For those of you experiencing the swansong of summer and to remind the rest of us of when the sun was shining, here is a particularly good remix off one of Sade's best from a white label containing the edit posted and also one of Couldn't Love You More

I have always loved Sade's voice but a lot of the songs for me were ruined with that horrible mid 80s production and always felt that I was not well enough dressed to be listening to her music.

Sade - Give It Up ( Vin Sol and Matrixxman edit)

On The Real Side

Shake of the post summer blues, the melancholic vibes are all over the place at the moment, with a bit of classic Blackpool Highland Room soul. Ian Levine sure could pick them.

Larry Saunders - On The Real Side

Watcha Gonna Do?

I'm straying into Swiss Adam Friday night territory here.

I've been sitting on this single for a while, not sure why. I intended to post it a while ago and then forgot all about it.

It's not often that you get an original Rockabilly artist who is still performing today but Hayden Thompson at the age of seventy five is still on the go, well, according to Wikipedea anyway.

Watcha Gonna Do was originally released in 1961. It is quite a laid back bit of rockabilly that would not be out of place on a Tarantino soundtrack. I absolutely love the sound of the guitar on this.

Hayden Thmpson - Watcha Gonna Do

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance

Today's track sample's one of my favourite Nancy Sinatra tracks and was actually a top 5 hit in the UK, not something that can be said for many of the tracks featured in this Friday spot. The track was released in 2005.

And that's about all I've got to say.

Have a good weekend people

Audio Bullys feat Nancy Sinatra - Shot You Down

Let Freedom Ring

At the weekend I had decided that I would post this on Wednesday, then completely forgot until I watched the excellent documentary on BBC Two last night.

So, better late than never.

It must have been something to have been part of that march.

Moodswings - Spiritual High

Lay Your Head Down

I posted this song way back in the early days of the blog and thought that it deserved another airing. I read once, somewhere that the album that Lay Your Head Down came from and the song in particular was described by one critic as music to kid on you are making sophisticated casual sex to. I have no idea what sophisticated casual sex is but I suppose that with some soft lighting and the appropriate amount of alcohol the album could be conducive to getting it on to, not that I have ever put it to the test. I just think that it is a rather lovely album. This song is particularly gorgeous and has the ghost of the Velvet Underground all over it.

Keren Ann - Lay Your Head Down

Just Because

It reminds me of thoughts of lust, thoughts of power, thoughts of love and the thoughts of Chairman Mao

Billy Bragg - The Warmest Room

The Chokin' Kind

A week or so ago I mentioned Z.Z.  Hill's version of the Harlan Howard song The Chokin' Kind  that Joe Simon had a hit with in 1969 and I can't think of anything better to post on this Bank Holiday, not one which I would normally have taken but now that my holidays have been anglicised I have no no option.

Have a good day no matter what you are doing.

Z.Z. Hill - The Chokin' Kind

Covers Week Part 7

Yesterday Swiss Adam over at the Bagging Area mentioned the new Clash box set of cds, dvds. posters badges etc that comes in a ghetto blaster shaped box which  will set more than a few men of a certain age's  pulses racing especially at the very reasonable price,  but it's cds. The release that has made me review my lack of finances again and search, to see if there is any spare cash floating about is the vinyl remastered box set of all the studio albums with the exception of Cut The Crap. I have to admit that this has got me salivating, as my copies of both London Calling and Sandinista are a bit worse for wear, whether this justifies the investment in the box set is another story and trying to convince L of the validity of my argument may be a step too far but it would be good to listen to Sandinista without all the background noise there is due to my poor care of the vinyl. In my defence,  the vinyl is not in great shape due to my drunken attempts to try and convert anybody and everybody to the brilliance of said album, mostly to no avail.

On Monday I stated that I didn't rate that many cover versions of Clash tracks but that the Clash had  done some excellent covers in the past. It was not my intention to finish off this week's posts with something by the band as, well that would be a bit obvious and also, surely everybody who visits this blog already owns copies of everything the band has ever done. But things changed last night.

But first the back story.

A few weeks ago Max declared that he wanted to be a punk, we are still not sure where this came from but stupidly we decided to humour him and on our return from France my copy of Never Mind The Bollocks and more disturbingly Public Image, Metal Box and Album were liberated from the cd shelves. The next thing I knew I was roaring at him, much as my father had done to me,  to turn down Bodies and explaining to him that DMs were too expensive for school shoes, he's bloody nine, ffs! He is especially taken by John Lydon and has been watching interviews on YouTube and the Winterland concert, especially No Fun over and over. Last week he watched Punk Britannia, I expected him to fall asleep during the first episode but he was still awake when episode three started, I know bad parenting but I thought, it's better for him than the bloody X-factor.

Getting to the point of the post, last night he was watching Winterland again and I said, "do you want to see the most exciting piece of live punk footage?" well it is for me anyway, and he said sure, so I typed the clash and I fought the law into YouTube and as if by magic the promo was there.

As I said above, I did not intend to post the Clash doing a cover but sometimes it is worth posting the obvious, 'cause we tend to forget how brilliant this band were and when you see a kid some thirty four years after the recording, watch with a big smile on his face and at the end video can only say "wow" you know that he knows that he is experienced something a bit special.

Strummer once said "Any pimple-encrusted kid can jump up and become king of the rock'n'roll world" but what he failed to say was that very few over thirty years later can make another kid nearly say to his father "fucking hell!"

Covers Week Part 6

Six fecking nothing! Jesus that was a mauling.

It is time to take solace in the healing and redemptive powers of soul music and no, that doesn't mean Tina Turner's horrible Simply The Best for all the musically challenged Huns out there.

In keeping with the theme of the week, here is Otis Redding absolutely slaying the Sam Cooke penned Shake live in London.

Otis Redding - Shake

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance

Finding a dance track that I have that fitted in with the covers theme and that I had not posted before proved to be a bit of a problem last night. Could I think of any? No I'm sure that I have more than the Ballistic Brothers interpretation of  A Love Supreme, Secret Life's version of As Always and Fire Island and Loleatta Holloway doing the Style Council but for the life of me last night I couldn't think of any. Every time I thought of something and pulled it out it turned out to be just a track based around a sample, like the Audio Bullys liberal sampling of one of my favourite Nancy Sinatra songs or that thing on FFRR which used loads of Blue Monday but called it How Does It Feel.

Eventually I stumbled upon Jon Carter's version of a Creedence Clearwater Revival track, not sure that this constitutes a dance record but Monkey Mafia did produce dance tunes, the 12" is filed in with the dance and I couldn't be arsed searching anymore, so it will have to do. So you have to just shuffle along to it or even just do the head nodding muso thing.

Have a good weekend people.

Tonight I'm off to see my team getting humped by the Huns for what won't be the last time this season, so the weekend can only get better. Still I will get to see the Excelsior full for the first time and the club will get some cash out of it.

Monkey Mafia - As Long As I Can See The Light

Covers Week Part 4

During the mid and late 80s quite a few tracks came out that went on to become favourites of mine that due to my ignorance I was not aware were covers, no world wide wide to consult back then and for some of these tracks it took the coming of the internet if not to find out that the tracks were covers but to hear them for the first time. As I type this I can only think of one other example apart from the track being posted but there were quite a few others and when I remember what they are I will update this post.

As mentioned above today's track is one of those tracks, more than that it was a track that I heard frequently at Scooter Club dances during the late 80s and subsequently forgot all about until Dirk over at Sexy Loser posted today's track in May last year. Since then it has been nagging away in the back of my head until a couple of months ago I decided that I had to buy the 12" single that it was included on.

I'm In Pittsburgh (and It's Raining) was first recorded by The Outcasts,  an American garage band in 1966.  It was covered by The Vibes and released on their "The Inner Wardrobes Of Your Mind" 12 inch single nineteen years later,  was a favourite with the bequiffed,  bowling shirt and creeper attired brigade within the scootering fraternity and probably caused much carnage on the dancefloor.

Itis a belter of a song, the original is good but this is so much better.

The Vibes - I'm In Pittsburgh (And it's Raining)

Covers Week Part 3

I'm not really that fond of covers of New Order tunes, at the moment I can only think of another one that I like other than the song I am going to post and it is of the same song.

Jeremy Warmsley's version of Temptation was released as a double a-side with The Boat Song on Transgressive Records in 2008. I don't really know that much about Warmsley but I do love this version of New Order's forth single. Again like yesterday it is not radically different to the original, a bit of a faster tempo but I love the sound of the piano and it sounds as if Warmsley is really enjoying performing the song.

Jeremy Warmsley - Temptation

Covers Week Part 2

On the back of John Wilson's interview with the three surviving members of the Clash and archives of Joe Strummer on Front Row a couple of Friday's ago. I sat down the following day and listened to London Calling in it's entirety for the first time in ages, only getting up out of my chair to flip over and then change the vinyl. The album is still brilliant and still contains no filler. Last Tuesday I repeated the pleasure and have listened to it through several more times on the mp3 player and computer since then and have come to the conclusion that this is my favourite album.

Which brings me to today's track, there aren't many good covers of Clash songs, check out the Manics version of Train In Vain as evidence. There are plenty of good Clash covers, with the exception of Every Little Bit Hurts from The Clash On Broadway album which I have never been able to warm to but I digress. The version of Lost In The Supermarket by The Afghan Whigs is one cover which I think is pretty good, not radically different or anything, I like Dulli's and the backing singers vocals. It comes from a tribute covers album called Burning London which has the likes of No Doubt, Moby and The Indigo Girls covering some of Stummer and Jones' tunes none of which I can remember being any good apart from Dulli's effort.

The Afghan Whigs - Lost In The Supermarket

Covers Week Part 1

I love a cover version I do, so I thought that maybe I could do a week of posts of some of my favourite reinterpretations, I suspect that I could do a month of posts no problem as I used to have a playlist of the covers I liked best  that had more than forty songs before the last Itunes upgrade which wiped all my playlists.

When it comes to cover versions soul music is a tricky category to get involved in,  as over the years there have been tracks that I have thought for were the original versions but have turned out to be covers and not just the first group to have thought "that's a good tune, were having that" and on a couple of occasions the reverse has been true.

So, as far as today's track is concerned I think that it was first recorded in 1968 by the O'Jays as a b-side to Look Over Your Shoulder and has since been covered by quite a few acts, I have three different interpretations but I think that the version posted by Linda Jones and the Whatnauts is the definitive one. It has just the most amazing vocal performance by one of the best soul singers ever. This was a track that was championed by Ian Levine at the Blackpool Mecca and I believe was released posthumously as Jones died on 14th March 1972, between matinee and evening shows at the Apollo in Harlem, at the age of 27.

If this was the only song that she left, it would be enough, however although not commercially successful, she did leave a pretty impressive back catalogue of songs which you should check out.

Linda Jones & The Whatnauts - I'm So Glad I Found You

What's In Yir Box? Y

Well this is it the last letter in the series and up until a couple of weeks ago there wouldn't have been anything in the box under Y, Nobody's Diary by Yazoo is in another box but not good enough to warrant entry into this box.

I'm not sure why I didn't buy Maps at the time as I had bought previous singles and eps but I had been oblivious of this release until it was too late, it was still available on cd single but the 7" single was already going for double figures and although I liked it I didn't feel it was worth the inflated price it was going for, so settled for having various versions of the song on mp3. Butt I have always been on the look out for a reasonably priced copy on Vinyl. So when I saw a copy on ebay at an acceptable starting price I put in my bid and waited expecting to be outbid but nobody did and so ten years after it's release I now own a mint copy of Maps.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Maps

I have really enjoyed listening to all of the singles for each letter on the Saturday night prior to doing the post over the past six months and have no idea what I will do instead, I will probably have to be more sociable on a Saturday evening now, not having the excuse "I've no time to watch  **** (insert crappy Saturday evening telly show here), I've got to listen to these singles for tomorrow's post".

Here is the list of selected tunes in full.

AC/DC - You Shook Me All Night Long
Blancmange - The Day Before You Came
The Crimea - Lottery Winners On Acid
Dashboard Confessional - Hands Down
Frightened Rabbit - Heads Roll Off
Guillemots - Trains To Brazil
Horrors - Who Can Say
Inspiral Carpets ft MES - I Want You
Jumbonics - Last Nite
Kid Canaveral - Smash Hits
Lucky Soul - Lips Are Unhappy
Modern Lovers - Roadrunner (twice)
N.W.A. - Express Yourself
Orange Juice - Blue Boy
Pretenders - Stop Your Sobbing
Paul Quinn and the Independent Group - Stupid Thing
Razorlight - Rock n Roll Lies (In The City)
Squeeze - Up The Junction
Big Mama Thornton - Hound Dog
Vaccines - Post Break Up Sex
Jackie Wilson - Because Of You
The xx - Do You Mind (Tour ep)
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Maps

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance

Today's post is in honour of and inspired by my nephew. I used to despair about  the boy's taste in music it was all that Euro trance shit and gangster rap, the only redeeming fact was that he disliked Mumford and fucking Sons nearly as much as I did.

L like so many other teenagers  in this neck of the woods could not wait to attend the rite of passage that is T in The Park. I was a little concerned about this as the boy is quite vague at the best of times and wondered how he would get on in amongst all the chancers and wideoes but he survived to tell the tale.

I saw him a couple of weeks ago and I asked him how he had got on at T and was informed "It was the best time in my life, absolutely amazing"

So I enquired about who he saw and his favourite act and his answer stunned me, he said that he had been blown away by Ritchie Hawtin and also the Slam boys had been brilliant and so had Green Velvet. He had seen quite a few bands but the Slam tent was by far the best part of the festival.

So in honour of L surviving his rite of passage and his new found love of minimal techno and wobbly acid lines I will post my favourite remix by the Canadian producer and exceptional DJ.

Have a good weekend people, safe in the knowledge that some of the younger generation are acquiring a decent taste in dance music.

System 7 - Alpha Wave (Plastikman Acid House Mix)

Wow!

I was listening to Z.Z. Hill's version of the Chokin' Kind the other day and decided to dig out Joss Stone's cover from her first album which was released when she was fifteen or something.  I couldn't find it in my itunes, so searched through the cds but to no avail, must have got bored with it and given it to someone before I even uploaded it.

Anyhow, I still wanted to listen to it as I remember being pretty impressed with it at the time so went on to YouTube where I found the video below which just about blew me away. If only the girl had continued with the soul and not been manoeuvred down the road to copying American R&B, as her voice knocks Adele's into touch and is right up there with Amy Winehouse's.

Into The Unknown

It's first day back at school in west central Scotland today and Leo's first day, I'm sure he will be fine but for the first day in four and a bit years Leo is going it alone, Rover is staying at home! I'm sure the boy will be fine.

Max asked me if I remembered my first day at school and I had to admit that I have no recollection and a very vague one of starting High School.

Clem Snide - I Love The Unknown

Buzz Buzz Buzz

It's a while since we had anything from the Cramps here.

On this track Ivy, Lux, Nick and Bryan build an "original" song around an obscure instrumental track from the late 50's called The Green Mosquito which was produced by Alex Chilton from Big Star and was released as the band's second single in 1978.

The Cramps - Human Fly

The Best Two Minutes This Monday

This is the best two minutes of music that you will hear today, guaranteed. What a vocal!

This is the b-side of Sit Down and Cry from 1968 and a vastly superior song to the plug side.

Jean Wells - Can't You Feel it

What's In Yir Box? X

A couple of weeks I said that the posting for W was the penultimate post in this series, at the time it was but now this is the second last post as in the last two weeks I was successful in finding a reasonably priced copy of a single that has to go straight into box but more of that next week.

As far as the Xs are concerned there is only one group that I have in this category and this time last year all of their singles were in the box but just before the start of this feature I decided to limit them to two singles in the box.

I came quite late to the xx as the hype from the NME in particular but basically everywhere put me off and I didn't even listen to them. They seemed to me to be the latest band of LDN hipsters and therefore their music would be of about as much relevance to me as any of the other bands the NME had hyped up to astronomical proportions over the previous few years. That was until I heard the forth single, or more accurately clicked on a link on someone's blog to the video for VCR. I did not expect what I heard, there was something in the sparseness of the song that really caught my attention, it reminded me of Your Silent Face, not that it sounded anything like the New Order classic but something in the coldness but not uncomfortable coldness of the track which is similar. Anyway, enough with the analysis shit, I realised that this was a group that I had misjudged and it was time to go back and listen to their previous releases and I have subsequently become a bit obsessed with The xx and an avid collector of their too limited, over priced remix 12" singles.

The other single by the band that has remained in the box with VCR is the Tour ep which consists of the band's interpretation of Hot Like Fire by Aaliyah, Do You Mind by Paleface ft Kyla, Teardrops by Womack & Womack and Blood Red Moon, apparently by Sandra D but I have never heard it. I am a sucker for cover versions and absolutely love all the tracks on this even the one I didn't know before hand.

So that was the Xs.

The xx - VCR
The xx - Tour ep

The xx - Do You Mind

Things I've Seen

My collection is littered by random singles by random acts that I have never followed up especially from the late 90s early 2000s  and most on cd single, a format I only purchased if I really had to. I think that these singles are in my collection mainly due to the fact that Woollies in Lanark had a pretty good bargain bin and as soon as a single went out of top forty then they would be marked down to 99p and chucked in the bargain bin.

The 2000 release Things I've Seen I think is an example of this, not a bad tune, a bit too much like the Fugees but still quite good but I can't imagine I payed full whack for it. As I said above I very rarely paid full price for any cd singles.

Anyway, not a bad song for a Saturday, not a great one but still they can't all be belters.

Spooks - Things I've Seen 

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance

Right., I'm back from less than the most relaxing week in Machrihanish that I've ever had but for now I'm not going to go into details, suffice to say I am not "chilled".

Unlike France I have been able to connect to the rest of the world so that may have something to do with my less than zen like state. I have dipped in and out of Twitter,  read the blogs and kept up to date with JC's holidays, talk about kicking the fucking arse out of a birthday, I thought some of my mates had gone over the top when they were forty but the Vinyl Villain has made them look like rank amateurs and fair play to the man, as Mr H said to me a while ago in a comment "we pass this way but once, so rip the pish out of it if you can". The last bit I added myself but I'm sure that is what he meant.

One thing on Twitter began to bug me this week, it appeared a while ago but I ignored it thinking that it would go away but it hasn't and 6 fucking Music are giving it the air of publicity and therefore legitimising it at the same time which is not on and that is Cassette Shop Day!

There never was a fucking shop that just sold cassettes!

This day has been made up by guys in there twenties, in skinny jeans that barely cover their arses, sporting facial fucking hair and wearing plaid shirts, who have never had to deal with a fucking C120 that has decided to break in their home or personal stereo and has then had to spend the next fucking six hours trying to get the remains of the tape of off the rollers inside the machine while electrocuting yourself ever so slightly as the only way of doing so is to cut the tape with those very small scissors that females seem to have or tweezers that also have to be purloined from your girlfriend or mother while the play button has been deployed. They just think that they are being ironic. 

Well you can just fuck off,  as some of us remember just how pish cassettes were, still have them as part of our collections and certainly don't want any more, so that they can squeak and rumble when we are trying to listen to the music and yes,  I will put up with pops and crackles of vinyl but the sound of a dog's plastic toy or the rumble of T20 tanks, distant it may be but a rumble it still is, are not conducive to a pleasurable listening experience, I exaggerate only ever so slightly.

Nobody ever bought a cassette because the quality was better than vinyl. Pre-recorded cassettes were bought for two fucking reasons.

Firstly, you bought it because you did not have a record player

or

because you wanted to play the music in your car, on your walkman, ghetto blaster or all such devices and then if you had any sense, you bought the vinyl and had a stock of TDK 90's to tape the album on.

Nobody walked into a record shop, yes that is what they were called, and decided I'll have the tape because it is so much better than having vinyl!

In this day and age there is no fucking need for this second rate medium for listening to music, mp3 fill this catagory. I can be as nostalgic as the next person for a compilation tape, (not a mixtape as that term did not enter common parlance until people started recording dj sets in the late 80s/early 90s,  which are mixtapes), as the next person but give me a break as far as pre-recorded tapes go, they were shit and they still are.

I must confess that in 1992 I bought the cassette single of the Blue Room by the Orb. I bought it for one reason. I was hitching down the road from Aberdeen after spending 4 weeks unsuccessfully trying to find some work and sponging of a lovely girl who deserved better and hadn't heard the track yet so bought it on cassette to listen to on my personal stereo on the way down the road, as I didn't have a portable record player but the following week when I cashed my giro I went and bought the 12" single.

Sorry about that but I needed to get that off my chest.

I was going to post the Blue Room but it ain't a very dancey tune, is it. So here is a track by Fatboy Slim that never came out on cassette.

Have a good weekend people

Fatboy Slim - Wonderful Night

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance

I don't know what the fuck is going on with Blogger, last week they sort of forced me into signing up for a Google + account which I instantly disliked as I was no longer billisdead but was me. I tried to get back to my old account but couldn't.

Last night I tried to log into my Blog but my account had been suspended I feared the worst and the blog had been pulled but apparently my name is not a real name. Fortunately I was able to retrieve my old Blogger account and I am now me again.

Anyway back to the music. I can't believe that this track is over thirty years old it still sounds as fresh as fuck to these ears.

ESG ( Emerald, Saphire and Gold) was a band formed in the South Bronx by the four Scroggins sisters and their first couple of singles were produced by Martin Hannett, the second of which You're No Good was actually released on Factory Records.

Today's track Dance was originally released as the a-side of the group's third single, ESG Says Dance To The Beat of Moody released in 1982 but re-released in 2004 on a white label 12" and again on 7" in 2010.

There will be nothing to see here until next Friday as we are off for rain, tears and tantrums to Machrihanish today for a week.

Have a good weekend people.

ESG - Dance

I'll Wear It Proudly

I've grown up with the music of Elvis Costello in the background as he was a staple in the Wilson house along with the Undertones and Skids and if a new album came out the first time I would have heard it was blasting out of Bat and Stiff's bedroom. For years I believed that Elvis Costello had released something on Motown as this was a joke between Willie and John which took on mythical proportions and which they perpetuated for years.

Only every so often did I take the time to actually listen to the man's music and lyrics which was almost always a rewarding experience and I must confess that it is a long time since I listened to a whole album, these days it is mostly single tracks that pop into my head and more likely than not they are tracks that have been included in the many Greatest Hits/Best Of Packages that are available.

The other day I'll Wear It Proudly from the 1986 Costello Show album King Of America, sprung to mind after reading DVDs comment about the Ws in the box. This song is one of my favourites of Costello's and right up there with Alison as one of his two finest love songs.

Many moons ago when I was trying to impress a girl that I had yet to get it together with I made her up a not so subtle compilation tape which was supposed to convey how I felt about her. It was full of things like Honey At The Core, Perfect Skin, you know the sort of stuff but the final song on the TDK D90, as they were always TDK D90s was I'll Wear It Proudly, surely she would get the message from that song?

A few days later I met her and after about twenty minutes I plucked up the courage to ask her what she thought of the tape, at this point I could feel me taking a beamer and something in my stomach was doing cartwheels. I waited for what seemed like ages and then she said "It was alright, I liked most of it but that Elvis Costello song at the end is rubbish, I really can't stand him".

I was stunned and didn't really say anything.

I would like to tell you that my infatuation with her ended right there and then but it didn't and I pursued her for a few more weeks before she got the message. We went out for a few months but in the end we realised that we weren't really suited and we parted due to musical differences as you do.

Mr Costello's work appears to pique the interest of the DMCA, so.

Pertinent track

Relevance of the picture? None really just another female I was infatuated with around this time.

Le Thug

On the road home from Aberdeen yesterday I was thinking about the lack of new music that I was listening to and buying as it seemed that everything that I have been listening to lately was either old soul or new releases by established acts such as the Fuck Buttons, still not sure what I think about the latest offering and a smattering of house and techno twelves.

So last night I was chuffed to fuck when I clicked on Song By Toad and found that Le Thug had released an ep, digital granted but beggars can't be choosers. If you remember I enthused about their track on Song By Toad's RSD split 12" and cd, especially Swam which I still think need a proper release. Not sure what it is about this group that I like more than all the other shoegazey type bands but there is something,  although I do think that they could up the bpm count a little. One of my mates was less than impressed by them when we discussed the post I had done but then again there is no accounting for taste.

Anyway I think that you all should go here and buy the digital ep. It really is very good.

Emperor Of My Baby's Heart

I know very little about Kurt Harris, well nothing in fact, apart from this single was released on the Diamond label in 1964.

Enjoy.

Kurt Harris - Emperor of My Baby's Heart

What's In Yir Box? W

We come to the penultimate letter in the box and I must admit that this has been less of a chore than I thought that it might about three weeks in.

First up is the part time rock star full time legend that is Pete Wylie in the guise of Wah with Story Of The Blues. There is not much I can add to what I, SA and plenty of others have said before about this record other than to reiterate just how wonderful it is in both the 7" and full 12" versions. This is another of those records I have multiple copies of as every time I see it in a charity shop I buy it.

Next we have a single the a-side of which I have to confess can't have been played more than a handful of times. It is a split 7" with Wake The President on the a-side but it's the other side by The Kingfishers I Love, the Vic Goddard penned song Make Me Sad. It is a bit jingle jangle and harks back to the mid 80s which is probably why JC likes it as well but it is a cracking tune.

I fell in love with the song He Called Me Baby late one night on my way home from work in  Edinburgh when I was listening to Radio Two, a rare occurrance. Bob Harris played the Candi Staton version of the song and I very nearly stopped the car to listen more closely but then it was gone. It was a few years later that I heard the Ella Washington version which graces the box. It is a slower piece that retains the country feel of the original song but is still an excellent piece of Southern soul. I think that I still prefer the Staton version slightly.

There are quite a few records in this box that are in there on the strength of the flip side and the next piece of vinyl is another in that bracket. Is That Clear by Nick Waterhouse is a good piece of old style r&b but the b-side a cover of I Can Only Give You Everything is head and shoulders better. It is one of those tracks that when you listen to it you imagine smoke filled dark clubs populated by guys in sharp suits and girls in mini dresses and bobs or beehives. The album that the tracks come from is worth investing in.

I have a few singles and a couple of albums by The Wave Pictures. I first became aware of the band when Comrade Colin posted a track by them long ago on the excellent and much lamented  And Before The First Kiss . From the three singles I own the best has got to be If You Leave It Alone, a miserable song but in a good way, the plodding beat, the despondent singing by David Tattersall and the half arsed sax all make this although miserable , a thoroughly pleasurable listening experience.

Next up is a song that never fails to turn this residence into a madhouse. Kennedy is Leo's favourite song and I suspect the same is true of a lot of people who go to see Gedge and Co live as,  as soon as the first chords are struck the venue always erupts even when it's minus ten outside and the QM is barely half full. Lost your love of life? Then just put on The Wedding Present.

Delroy Wilson, the first of three Wilson's in the box has two singles present both of which are laid back mellow tunes which cannot help but reduce your stress levels, god they are better than beta blockers at lowering BP and should be available on prescription. To be honest To Be A Lover and Have Some Mercy are basically the same song with different words but I just can't choose between them, however if I had to eject one from the box it would be Have Some Mercy only because the vinyl is not as good and there is a little more background noise on it.

Next we have the most expensive single ever, last copy sold went for £25 742 in 2009. A more joyous piece of vinyl would be hard to find anywhere. Every time I have played it, the floor has been packed and it is also infectious as even people who have never heard the song, if any exist anymore, find themselves on the floor and jumping about with abandon like the rest of us. A few years ago I was rather concerned that the tune's use in an ad for fast food would diminish the record somewhat but I need not have worried as I still have the urge to get up and shimy as I type this and listen to the track and I also have a great big smile on my coupon. I have two copies of the single a repro of the original andbut in the box is a version released in 2004 to commemorate the 45th anniversary of the Motown label which has Chris Clarke's rendition on the flip.

From one northern soul legend to another, Because of You by the great Jackie Wilson is one of my top three northern tunes ever. There is something about the record that just epitomises the scene for me and I have some wonderful memories of going to all-nighters and being part of a full dance floor making moves to this song.

Someone who had the potential to be a modern soul legend but will be remembered by more people for the car crash that was here final couple of years rather than her brilliant voice and songwriting, sadly is Amy Winehouse. I have to admit that  Frank kind of passed me by at the time and it wasn't until I heard Eddie Pillar playing Rehab that I sat up and took notice, it was just fucking wonderful and such a brilliant piece of modern soul. It is a travesty that it didn't come out on 7", if there was ever a song from the last ten years that should have been put out on that format it was Rehab. Valerie, her cover of the Zutons song, never officially came out on 7" either but some enterprising bootlegger had the nous to produce a snidey version which I managed to pick up along the was and which is very firmly a resident of the box.

The final single in the box has a guest singer who has also lived the last few years of his life as a continuing story in the red tops and if, a couple of years ago somebody had asked me the question "who do you think is the next rock star to die" I would have put twenty quid on buying it before Amy and that is Pete Doherty. For Lovers is a bit of a haunting song for me and when I play it I always think that Albion by Babyshambles is a companion piece to it. Of Wolfman I know absolutely nothing other than he was a pal of Doherty's, he produced another couple of single neither of which I paid any interest to.

I was once asked in the pub years ago who I thought would die first Bobby Gillespie or Shane MacGowan and my twenty quid was firmly placed on the former but he seems to have got his act together recently, although it hasn't made his lyrics any better, not much chance of an Ivor Novello for Bobby G and Shane seems to be preserved by alcohol.

So that is the Ws

Wah! - Story of The Blues
Wake The President/the kingfishers - You Can't Change That Boy/Make Me Sad
Ella Washington - He Called Me Baby
Nick Waterhouse - Is That Clear
The Wave Pictures - If You Leave It Alone
The Wedding Present - Kennedy
Delroy Wilson - To Be A Lover
Delroy Wilson - Have Some Mercy
Frank Wilson - Do I Love You (Indeed I Do)
Jackie Wilson - Because Of You
Amy Winehouse - Valerie
Wolfman featuring Peter Doherty - For Lovers

Jackie Wilson - Because Of You 

Jody and The Kid

I thought that I really wanted to go and see Kris Kristofferson live until this morning when I decided to buy a ticket. One ticket was all I would need as for some reason nobody all fancied seeing the 77 year old troubadour. I duly put the search into Ticketmaster and yes there were still tickets available, however it turns out that I didn't really want to see him that much as when the price came up my interest waned.

So instead I will listen to his records in the comfort of my own home. Here is an extremely sentimental, some would say mawkish track that up until a few years ago I wouldn't have entertained but it appears that I have mellowed recently.

It would bring a tear to a glass eye, as they say.

Kris Kristofferson - Jody and The Kid

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance

I always feel that in this weather a bit of Farley and Heller goes down rather well, there is something about their style of  house music I think is suited to soaring temperatures and a sweaty disposition. So here is a track from the duo in their Roach Motel guise originally from 1994, although this re-edit comes from a decade later, remixed by Tom Stephan.

It is the first game of the season for Airdrieonians tomorrow, a local derby against Hamilton in the first round of the Ramsdens Cup, so hopefully I will be watching Airdrie getting off to an excellent startwhile being bathed in sunshine at New Broomfield.

Have a good weekend people.

Roach Motel - Wild Luv (Superchumbo's Roach Clip Re-edit)