Jesus Wept!

Say Yes!

We all know what we've got to do.

Comet Gain - Say Yes!

Gold!Frankinsense!FR!

I absolutely adore this tune and always have since I first heard it, over a decade ago now. And it gives me a glow and a big grin comes across my coupon after I've dug the single out off the boxes in the cupboard on the half landing put it on the turntable and Leo wanders around the house singing this but it also causes an ache in my heart for obvious reasons.

Make tiny changes and hopefully a rather large one on Thursday. Here's hoping.

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

Monday's Long Song

Most probably the only song recorded to namecheck a Scottish referee, well until somebody records "Who's The Mason In The Black?" anyway but that doesn't actually put a name to one, although I know a few people who could list many that they suspect but I digress. Mogwai did not only record a song about a referee but a an official who it appeared to me had a great dislike for my team, a failing that he passed down to his first born, although I think the son is just pish and incompetent rather than having an agenda although I could be wrong. 

For the first two days of my honeymoon I was left to my own devices, Lynn having caught a pretty bad case of food poisoning from calamari on the evening of our arrival in Barcelona. The first day between running back to the hotel every couple of hours to check on her I spent most of my time and a wee bit of our money wandering about the record shops of the city of which at the time there were plenty. On the second day I decided to seek out and maker a pilgrimage to Camp Nou as I knew that Lynn would not be in the slightest bit interested in going there once she had recovered. When I eventually found it I discovered that on the Wednesday night there was a Champions League game against Dynamo Kiev. I thought that this would be a great introduction to football for Lynn, who at the time had never been to a football match and duly handed over about a third of our remaining holiday funds on two tickets for the game.

I wouldn't say Lynn was ecstatic at the prospect when I returned to the hotel and told her where we would be going on a couple of nights time but she didn't explode either which I took as a good sign although was probably due to the after effects of the recent food poisoning.

So on the Wednesday night we arrived at the stadium and climbed and climbed and climbed up to near the very top of the stadium behind one goal and sat down. When the announcer after listing the teams that night got to the officials I nearly chocked on my beer as we were informed that the referee for the evening was one Hugh Dallas from Scotland! Was there no hiding place from the man from Bonkle.

The score I hear you ask, what was the score? Sadly this was not a classic Barcelona line-up under the management of Louis van Gaal  and they were gubbed  0 - 4, with up and coming Andre Shevchenko netting a hattrick. 

Lynn has yet to attend another football match. Every time I suggest accompanying me and Leo to The Penny Cabs Stadium she just laughs for some reason.

Mogwai - Hugh Dallas 

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance

Here's a repost of a repost. I really want to get the Friday posts back up and running but just haven't found the inspiration yet, so I thought I would post a selection of previous ones and see if that gets me going.

Today's posting is a re-post from the very early days of the blog April 2009 as I haven't had a chance to think of anything for today, Back then it  wasn't a It's Friday  . .  Let's Dance post .

Have a good weekend people.

By 1990 the acid house party was well and truly over what with the adverse publicity, the hounding of promoters and the fact that every single seemed to come with an acid house remix, stick a couple of wobbly 303 sounds on your record and you were sorted.

Dance music, however was going from strength to strength. It seemed to be fragmenting into dozens of sub genres,a new one created every week or so, this record responsible for one of those. Then there was indie dance, dance music that the NME and thousands of students could identify with as it still had guitars. Every white rock band seemed to name drop influential dance producers and state in interviews that there had always been a dance element to their music or some such shit.

I first heard Testone in the early hours one Sunday morning. When it was dropped, I remember that it stopped me in my tracks, one of those "what the fuck is that!" moments, as I hadn't heard anything quite like before. If my memory serves me right (which is debatable, as a lot of the details around this period are hazy) I wasn't the only one, I think that half of the club were motionless with a mixture of bafflement and awe on their faces, Bleep Techno had been born.

All of Sunday and for much of the next week I couldn't get the track out of my head and would go on and on about this amazing tune that I had heard to anyone that would listen, I really am quite a boring git. When I eventually got hold of the track and played it to a couple of friends all they could say is "is that it?". As I've said before some people just didn't get it.

Testone was released on the Sheffield based label Warp, in my view the most influential and innovative of all the UK techno labels. It was a collaboration between Richard H Kirk of Cabaret Voltaire and DJ Parrot and took their name from the title of a 70s Curtis Mayfield album.

Sweet Exorcist - Testone

I have also included the video for the track below which was directed by Jarvis Cocker, no less.

First Date

This track from the American soul singer and actress from Havre De Grace, Maryland was included on the double Big City Soul compilation released on the excellent Goldmine Soul Supply label. A lovely mid tempo piece of sophisticated 60s soul. First date was pencilled in for inclusion in a subsequently unissued lp on Wand.

Nella Dodds - First Date 

[Retreat]

There has been a lot of new music floating about recently that has grabbed not least from an old blogger's label, Castles In Space, more of which later in the week. But today we will have a look at a collaboration between Lydon Scarfe from The Black Lamps and his friend Sam Horton,  It has been described as an ambient album but it is oh so much more. I think that Memorial Device's quote on Twitter from Big Patty "from now on music has to sound like a building coming down or forget it" is pretty apt. You can buy the download of the album for three quid and the cd for £8 from here. A purchase you will not regret. I guarantee.

Monday's Long Song

Today's track is a bit different from those that have graced this slot over the past few months. Will I Ever Be Inside You is the title track of the second album by Paul Quinn and The Independent Group and something of a lost classic. The band consisted of some of the great and the good of Scottish music, with members of Aztec Camera, The Commotions, The Bluebells, Del Amitri,  Postcard label boss Alan Horne and of course in Quinn himself the voice of Bourgie Bourgie. And what a voice it is, lush deep and hugely melancholic. Although Will I Ever does not quite reach the heights of Stupid Thing it is a song that should be known and recognised a lot more widely than it is. The whole album is ripe for re-release, in my opinion anyway.

Paul Quinn and The Independent Group - Will I Ever Be Inside You

Monday's Long Song

I have posted this track a couple of times over the nearly 11 years that this blog has spluttered on. But I think that it's about time it was featured again. It will take a bit of commitment from anybody who is minded to listen to it as it lasts for 28 minutes. The track just builds and builds,  layering sounds upon sounds over an underlying drone. it's all fuzzy, blurry, sweet white noise which sucks you in and before you know it nearly half an hour has passed and there is nothing else to do but to press repeat.

I just wish that this had been released on a physical format although that would probably not fit in with the ethereal nature of the track.

Somfay - Fricative White (From A Whisper To A Scream)

When It Comes To My Baby

You just know he means it when Ronnie sings " cause my love is so strong" , he certainly puts his heart and soul into his rendition of this Ashford and Simpson penned song released on Scepter in 1965. I love everything about this record, the backing vocals, the dramatic backing, the lot. Magic stuff.

Btw, Ronnie is actually a very well known Country and Western artist. Bet you would never have guessed that?

Off to Luton for a couple of days, which is nice.

Ronnie Milsap - When It Comes To My Baby 

Thirty four years Ago Yesterday

And I don't care what Gary Mullholland says in "Fear of Music", for me it still sounds as good as it did when I was an angsty 16 year old looking for a band to call my own.

Never did do the backcombed hair though

The Jesus and Mary Chain - In A Hole

The Jesus and Mary Chain - Something's Wrong

Monday's Long Song.

I'm not sure what it is about Austin, Texas, it could be something in the water or the proximity to Mexico but more than a few bands that are "out-there" or  experimental bands seem to hail from there, going back to the 13th Floor Elevators through to The Black Angels and Thousand Foot Whale Claw. Recently I have found a new one to add to the list, Dallas Acid, a trio who have just released there latest album, The Spiral Arm. The album started off as a live performance at the Planetarium in San Antonio as the soundtrack to a visual journey to the Cosmos, you don't get much more outthere than that.
Unfortunately the version of the title track is somewhat edited in the YouTube clip below as the album version is nine and a half minutes low and can be listened to in it's entirety and purchased here.

Otis

Sometimes a little bit of Otis is all you really need.

Otis Redding - That's What My Heart Needs

Hello In There

Digging out the John Prine track for yesterday's post inevitably led me to today's as it is a cover of a track from the Illinois singer's first album. This particular rendition comes from a gig that I have mentioned a couple of time before on the blog, the Big Day, June 3rd 1990 when between 250 000  and 400 000 revellers wandered about various venues in Glasgow and caught some of the largest pop and rock acts of the time at George Square, Glasgow Green, The People's Palace and Custom House Quay on the Broomielaw where some of us were lucky to if not wholly witness at least hear the coming together of a major rock,  star an indie heroine and the Big Nosed Bard from Barking covering Hello In There as well as earlier catching Aly Bain giving it big licks on his fiddle,



What a day that was!

Natalie Merchant had recorded Hello In There as a b-side to the 12" version of Eat For Two the previous year but I have always thought that the backing was way to jaunty for the song. See what you think.

10 000 Maniacs - Hello In There 

Mondays Long Song

I'm not sure how good for the psyche on a Monday morning a song about a crumbling marriage and a double murder is but this has got to be one of the most upbeat tunes to go along with some of the darkest lyrics that I know. The original of Lake Marie can be found on Lost Dogs and Mixed Blessings  released in 1995. I don't own as much by John Prine as I think I should do. I do have his eponymous first album, a copy of which every house should own I think.

Lest We Forget

For

Cpl Andrew Wingate

Pvt James Little

7 % Solution

I really wish that this tune would have fitted in with the Monday theme but it is two damned short, it should be at least three times as long as it is. All About Satellites and Spaceships is the opening title  track from the debut album by 7% Solution from Austin Texas. The rest of the album is typical of the shoegaze sound and not too bad but didn't grab me the way this does, although there is very little to it, I find that when I play it I tend to just stop what I'm doing and really listen for some reason

7% Solution -  All About Satellites and Spaceships

Monday's Long Song

Like SA over at the Bagging Area, I also saw Moon Duo last week. Not in Manchester but at a new venue for me BAAD (Barras Art and Design) behind the famous Ballroom and across the road from ST Lukes. I had attended a couple of record fairs there but not a gig and it turned out to be a great we venue. I will not be giving you an in depth review of the night as I could not compete with Adam's excellent piece from last Wednesday, suffice to say it was fucking magic. Although I think it would have worked in a seated venue what with the lightshow and me getting on a bit but that's a personal preference and has hew haw to do with the performance.

High Over Blue was an unused track from the sessions for the Circles album which was released on a limited single sided 12" single for the Belgian label Sleeperhold Records and on a second disc on the Australian edition of Circles. It is for all intents and purposes a sprawling jam drenched in reverb, noodley guitar solos and undecipherable muffled vocals but we are not averse to long improvised jams hereabouts.

Not a bad way to spend twenty one and three quarter minutes on a Monday.

Moon Duo - High Over Blue

By The Way Bawjaws...

. . . we're still in the EU, So get it right roon' yea!

Happy Anniversary Doll

At 15:00 twenty two years ago today I made possibly the best decision I have ever made. On that crisp November day I said yes and married Lynn. There have been loads of ups and downs since, some huff, shouting matches and more than one disagreement over the merits of the Fall and MES in particular but I haven't once regretted that decision,

The Proclaimers - Life With You