Wednesday 29 June 2011

A Bit Of Soul Will Do The Trick



It's 02:07 on the morning of the 24th of June and have run out of ideas for the mid week post while I'm sunning my self on the beach in Cornwall.

If all else fails bung on a bit of soul, that was always what I did in the pub when I lost inspiration. Here is a outstanding piece of deep soul from Doris Duke.


Doris Duke - I Don't Care Anymore.

Monday 27 June 2011

Covers Week, Day 8?



I know on the last post I said that that was the covers finished but I played this last Thurday night and thought that it should be included.

I've not really kept up with REM since the early nineties, the last album I bought was Out Of Time and the only reason that I bought that was I had just won 140 quid on the Grand National after putting money on Seagram and I was in a record shop with money burning a whole in my pocket, but I digress.

At school I had a mate who really liked REM and had bought everything from their debut murmur onwards but it wasn't until Life's Rich Pageant that I really took any notice. I remember when Ben played me that album I took notice of it and went out and bought it myself, don't know what it was about it but I really liked it and still do.

Superman, the last track on the album and not even listed on the credits is my favourite REM song and a song I never tire of hearing. It was originally recorded by a band called the Clique in 1969 and was the b-side of their single Sugar On Sunday. I have no idea what the original sounds like and have never really been curious to find out either.  As well as being on Life's Rich Pagaent, Superman was also released as a single on I.R.S. in 1986.

REM - Superman

Sunday 26 June 2011

Covers Week, Day 7



Let's go full circle and finish with another cover version of a classic Springsteen song which will be equally as frowned upon as the Airborne Toxic Event's verion of I'm On Fire.

The first time I heard Frankie Goes To Hollywood's version of Born To Run was on the bus down to Barrow In Furness in 1984. It was on somebody's Saturday morning show on fabulous Radio One and whoever it was had been given a promo copy of probably the most eagerly awaited record of the year and was playing a few of the tracks from the album. I thought that it was brilliant although the hippies  and the older folk on the bus thought that it was a travesty. For me it was an original take on the track,  full of energy, played at a hundred miles an hour and the bass was great.

Why was I on a bus going to Barrow you might ask? Well at that time in the Vickers yard they were building the most destructive ships that the world has ever seen, the Vanguard class submarine which is capable of deploying 192 independently targetable warheads. This was my first CND demo outside of Scotland and my parents thought that I had gone into the town to buy a pair of denims when they eventually found out where I went I was grounded for a considerable amount of time, but it was worth it. Not only did I hear Born To Run but I also heard Redemption Song for the first time that day and met quite a few cool anarchists.

Frankie Goes To Hollywood - Born To Run

Saturday 25 June 2011

Covers Week, Day 6



The band featured today's version of another cover version  was responsible for the worst fashion crime I have ever perpetrated.  As a result of Age Of Chance's performance of Kiss on the Whistle Test in 1987 I decided that it would be cool to wander about the streets of Lanark and Aberdeen wearing a cycling top but with no bike or bicycle clips in sight.

I remember discussing the performance with Stiff at the time,  both of us thought that their cover version of the Purple One's best song was brilliant but it was the fashion which we thought was really cool and I rushed out and spent a fortune on what I thought was a cool as fuck cycling top, the actual one in the picture above. Stiff would be able to tell you whose top tit was that I shelled out for was a copy of but me I didn't have a clue.

The very top turned up a few years ago when Stiff found it during a clear out, I had given him it when I no longer thought it fashionable (which unfortunately for me was a year or maybe more after buying it and not the next day) and to make matters worse the shirt still fit the bastard whereas it would have had to be at least double the size the have fitted me and even then would have looked absolutely awful.

So, here is another song that the Age of Chance covered brilliantly/ ruined depending on your point of view on their 1986 mini album, Crush Collision.

Age Of Chance - Disco Inferno

Friday 24 June 2011

It's Friday . . Let's Dance To A Cover Version



I'm sure that I have loads of dance cover versions but my mind has gone blank as I is now in holiday mode. So you will have to make do with a track that was first posted in August 2009.

Secret Life's uplifting cover of Stevie Wonder's As Always was the 9th record to be released on the Cowboy label in 1992 and was a bit different from the progressive house tracks which the label had released up until then as these were the days of leather trousers, biker boots and long hair. The instantly recognisable production on the track was done by messers Farley and Heller for Boy's Own.

Have a good weekend people.

Secret Life - As Always (Gospel mix)

As you are reading this I will either be listening to the dulcet tones of SpongeBob emanating from the rear of the car or being bombarded with the question "Are we there yet" for the hundredth time from Maxyboy, as we will be making the long trek south to Bude in Cornwall for round one of the summer holidays, thought it best to stay well clear of la Belle France for a year or so after last year's escapades and near physical and mental meltdown.

So next weeks posts will be few and far between, I have done a couple more covers posts to finish off the week and have a belter of a tune for next Friday and am hoping to finish a post for Monday and Wednesday before I go.

Thursday 23 June 2011

Covers Week, Day 4



I don't know that much about Mechanical Bride, apart from her name is Lauren Doss and she has a knack of producing great cover versions. I have posted before her cover of Rihanna's brilliant Umbrella which she released in 2007, To be honest with you after buying that single I didn't investigate any further and kind of forgot about her until earlier this year I heard her version of Sound And Vision which is just as good as her version of Umbrella.

Mechanical Bride - Sound And Vision

Oh and if you didn't catch it last time here is Umbrella.

Mechanical Bride - Umbrella

Wednesday 22 June 2011

Covers Week Day 3



I never really got into Arab Strap, I know shock horror! I think at the time when they first came out there were too many other things vying for my attention. I don't think that I consciously didn't listen to them I think that they were just too far down on the list.

The first time that I can remember actually hearing anything by then wasn't actually by them at all but might just have well been. It was a remix of a David Holmes track retitled The Holiday Girl and as far from the original it is possible to get but still be able to retain the title.

Anyway, here is a belter of a rather relaxed remix of a song by pomp rockers Van Halen from the 2003 release the rather brilliant Shy Retirer ep which contains another cover which may make an appearance in another form later in the week.

Arab Strap - Why Can't This Be Love

Tuesday 21 June 2011

Covers Week Day 2



I've mentioned before that when I was a teenager and a member of  CND I hung about with a group of older folk who thought that they were hippies what with the patchouli, Italian Army jackets,  taking the legs off their beds and shit but they did introduce me to some different music some good a lot up it' own arse gash. One album that Jim gave me was Janis Joplin's greatest hits which I must admit that I loved at the time and still do, that Southern Comfort, 40 Luckies a day voice still sends shivers up my spine. But all that "man" patter during Ball and Chain really does my head in.

From the first time I heard the album one track always got me and it wasn't for a few years that I realised that it was a cover version and it wouldn't be for a few more years before I heard the original, which although good, in my eyes at least isn't nearly as good as Joplin's version.

The other day while reading Just Kids which I posted about the other day I read another passage which amazed me and sort of led to me having the idea for this week of covers.

". . .  Janis was the queen of the radiating wheel, sitting in her easy chair with a bottle of Southern Comfort, even in the afternoon. Michael Pollard was usually by her side. They were like adoring twins, both with the same speech patterns, punctuating each sentence with man. I sat on the floor as Kris Kristofferson sang her " Me and Bobby McGee", Janis joining in the chorus. I was there for these moments, but so young and preoccupied with my own thoughts that I hardly recognised them as moments."

Janis Joplin - Me And Bobby McGee.

Monday 20 June 2011

Covers Week


I know, I know lazy blogging featuring cover versions but I do like a good re-interpretation of a song, even if all it means is a different vocal and the rest of the track virtually sounds the same. As long as it is done well then it's alright by me although there are some rules, well one.

Rule number one: Do not cover classic soul tunes by the likes of Otis Redding, Sam Cooke, Martha Reeves etc. Got that Michael Fucking Bolton, Phil Twat Collins and others of your ilk. If it is perfect don't bother.

I am aware that lots of soul singers such as Otis covered the likes of Sam Cooke and nearly everybody in the Motown stable did versions of the same song but that is allowed, not some arse of a drummer from a prog rock band or a twat with a ludicrous mullet trying to do Dock Of The Bay and don't get me started about the twat who sends his hat first class on aeroplanes and his band doing People Get Ready.

I realise the hypocrisy of the previous paragraph and that I have less than no authority to decide who is allowed to cover which songs, however it is my ball, sorry blog and I'll do what I like.

First up is a cover of a Springsteen song by a band who I have seen live incorporate this song and also, Folsom Prison Blues into one of their own tunes to great effect on more than one occasion. Come to think of it, it would be probably be possible to fill a whole month of posts with covers of Springsteen songs.

At the last count I had nine versions of I'm On Fire by other bands and I think that this is up there with the Catherine Feeny version as the best. To be honest I'm not that into Springsteen's version from Born In The USA but live it is the business.

A couple of years ago a load of indie bands got together and recorded Springsteen songs for a compilation called Play Some Pool, Skip Some School to varying degrees of success, the cover of My Hometown is one of the rankest things I've ever heard. I also have a full cd of covers called Play Some Pool by The Wave Pictures which came free with their split single with Darren Hyman released in conjunction with Play Some Pool, Skip Some School.

Airborne Toxic Event - I'm On Fire

Nothing tomorrow, as I'm in Manchester overnight and didn't have time to do two posts on Sunday night.

Sunday 19 June 2011

The King At The Control



A brand new release of "lost tracks" from the father of dub is something to look forward to. So when the cd " King Tubby's Classics The Lost Midnight Rock Dubs pt 2" dropped through the letter box yesterday it was immediately popped into the drawer of the cd player.

Most of the dubs on the compilation date from the early 80s when Ruddock was busy working on plans to refit his studio with modern technology and replace the four track mixing desk that he had used from 1972 onwards. It states that some of the dubs on the cd have probably been created by some of Tubbs' apprentices which included Scientist, Prince Jammy and Philip Smart and a plethora of others. But all of the tracks have the distinctive feel of the great producer and are worthy of having his name stamped on them.

The compilation if not essential will enhance anybody with an interest in dub's collection.

King Tubby - Kingston Dub

Friday 17 June 2011

It's Friday . . Let's Dance



I'm going to stick with the Balearic thing with today's track, something that I can't believe that I had not ever heard before I came across the 12" single a couple of years ago in a second hand record shop.

Eclipse by Lemon Interupt is one of those tracks which will transport you to where it is always warm during the day, rain is something you get somewhere else and where the sunsets are a thing of sheer beauty each and every night. It is also a track with rather breathless seductively spoken female vocals a la Fallen or Come Alive which personally I'm a sucker for.

The track was released as a double a - side with Big Mouth on the other side in 1992 and this is why it's so puzzling that I hadn't heard it until recently as I bought nearly everything on Junior Boys Own at that time. The only thing that I can think is that I was skint at the time and didn't really like Big Mouth that much, which really was my loss.

After buying it and being totally blown away by it I started thinking "how many other great tracks have I missed out on" but checked myself quite quickly as thinking that way would lead pretty quickly to madness.

And on that note . . .

Have a good weekend people

Lemon Interupt - Eclipse

Thursday 16 June 2011

Just Kids



At the moment I'm reading Just Kids by Patti Smith. I remember it was book of the week on Radio 4 last year but it was one of those hectic weeks where I heard a couple of episodes but never got a chance to listen to the whole thing which I think now was a bonus because when I'm reading it I can hear Smith's voice which was so laid back and melancholic when she was reading it on the radio but I never heard enough to quite know what was happening and so the book has really grabbed me. If you haven't read it, you should really should, even if you're not interested in either Patti Smith or Robert Mapple Thorpe, it is a riveting testament of what it must have been like to be in New York at the tail end of the sixties.

This passage in particular blew me away:-

" I was wearing a long rayon navy dress with white polka dots and a straw hat my East Of Eden outfit. At a table to my left, Janis Joplin was holding court with her band. To my far right were Grace Slick and the Jefferson Airplane, along with members of Country Joe and The Fish. At the last table facing the door was Jimi Hendrix, his head lowered eating with his hat on, across from a blonde. There were musicians everywhere, sitting before tables laid with mounds of shrimp with green sauce, paella, pitchers of sangria and bottles of tequila"

Oh to have been a fly on the wall in the El Quixote or staying in the Chelsea Hotel at that time!

Leonard Cohen - Chelsea Hotel #2

Nineteen



How serious can life be at nineteen? Asks Mr H over at the TGOE.

For me it was rather a momentous year, the girl I mistakenly thought was the love of my life buggered off down under, I decided further education was no longer for me and jumped without fully thinking about it into an apprenticeship instead and it also saw me embrace whole heartedly that thing called HOUSE, which I had been dabbling in up until then.

A Guy Called Gerald - Voodoo Ray (Greg Wilson edit)

Wednesday 15 June 2011

Winona



The other week Colin posted a track by the Drop Nineteens, an American indie band from Boston on the go in the early nineties.

The band sank like a stone that side of the Atlantic but over here they were signed to Hut records on the back of 2 eight-track demos and had a modicum of success in the indie world. The band released two albums and three singles. I had totally forgot about them until a few months back when I got a promo copy of the 12" single of Winona for buttons from my favourite charity music shop.

Winona as you might have guessed was written about the famous klepto teen angst queen, Winona Ryder, which make two songs with the same title and subject matter that I know of. I have a suspicion that our favourite sociologist and author of And Before The First Kiss would have had a wee crush on said actress, well either her or Molly Ringwald like all sensitive indie type boys did in those days.

Drop Nineteens - Winona

Tuesday 14 June 2011

Raiding Your Mate's Dad's Cupboard



When I was at school I had a mate who's dad was a journalist on a national daily newspaper. In his time he had been the music critic for a couple of papers and knew a hell of a lot about music, one of his close friends had been Alex Harvey. But by this time he reviewed films, TV and the wrote the funniest TV listings ever.

When I used to go and see C I would marvel at the amount of vinyl that there was in the house and the state of the art separates system that S had. The records contained most of the best of music from the early blues of Leadbelly, through the jazz of Coltrane and Billy Holiday, the obligatory Stones, Beatles and members solo efforts but stopped somewhere around 1978/79, no punk what so ever. I think that the dawning of punk was when S's musical development ended.

One afternoon when I was visiting I asked C what all of the cardboard packages which were piled up on the kitchen table were, to which he replied "just records my dad gets sent by the record companies, he doesn't review them anymore but still gets sent loads". Then he showed me the cupboard on the half landing which was full of promo items of all kinds from Iron Maiden to Bob Dylan, albums & singles both 7 and 12". I nearly pished myself. I asked C if I could have a dig through the cupboard to which he said matter of factly "sure and if you see anything you like I will sell you it" Now being a 14 year old kid confronted with a treasure trove of vinyl all morality about buying C's dad's records, even if they had just been chucked in a cupboard went out of the window and on that first visit I purchased a couple of records, one of which was a pristine copy of Little Red Rooster by The Rolling Stones and a Dylan album.

I used to visit this magic cupboard every couple of weeks when I had saved up some money. 

C had embraced Thatcherism with open arms and was always on the look out for ways to make money. One of his schemes involved educating young teenage boys in the ways of the world during lunch time. Due to his parents' house's close proximity to the school and his collection of pornographic films he came up with a winning formula and charged anyone who wished to attend 50p for the privilege of watching couples copulate on screen while they ate their chips purchased from The Great Wall down thee road.

On one such occasion, while C was attending to his paying customers downstairs and I was digging through the latest load of promos all hell broke loose. I heard a women's voice screaming and looked out of the window to see teenage boys scattering out the back door. My only course of action was to walk downstairs as calm as possible say hello to J (C's mother) and get out and hoping not to be associated with the shenanigans which had been going on in the living room, which I duly did but the look on her face made me realise that my visits would be curtailed for some time to come.

About twelve years later at one of my soon to be mother in laws infamous 2nd of January parties  I met J as she and S were friends of the family. As we were talking she decided to regale the whole party with the story of when she caught Drew in her house watching porn at lunch time. I had to set her straight about it and when I told her that I was actually looking at the records in the cupboard to which L said " yeah, that will be right" and J retorted " I always knew you were a bit weird Drew".

Anyway, here is another single I liberated from the cupboard while the attention of my school fellows was elsewhere.

Orange Juice - Lean Period.

Monday 13 June 2011

I'm Not Satisfied.



At the weekend I managed to get a hold of the latest Originals release, The Winstons Amen Brother and Mantronix King of The Beats on the flip side.

The Winstons track has been sampled on a whole host of tracks and the drum break about a minute and a half in has been used in hip-hop, through Rave to Drum and Bass. The track was also used to great effect in one of the best Essential Mixes every by Portishead back in 1995 sandwitched between Spreadin' Honey and The Theme from 1999.

It was also used on the New York Rap remix of I'm Not Satisfied, mixed by Prince Paul and featuring a rap by N. Bowie but I have no idea who that is.

FYC - I'm Not Satisfied (New York Rap version)

Sunday 12 June 2011

Estelle



I'm still in a rather summery mood even though the sky up here is back to default grey.

Here is a rather splendid piece of laid back house (?) from A Man Called Adam which will transport you to sunnier climes this Sunday.

A Man Called Adam - Estelle

Saturday 11 June 2011

Every Day's A School Day



SA over at the Bagging Area posted the original of this last night.

I was slightly embarrassed when I downloaded and listened to it that I hadn't realised for twenty five years that it wasn't in fact a track by the Redskins!

It was the first track on the b-side of the 12" single of Keep On Keeping On and was subtitled Cole Not Dole  and I had never even thought of looking at the credits, assuming that it was written by the band.

The Redskins - 16 Tons (Cole Not Dole)

Friday 10 June 2011

It's Friday . . Let's Dance



Well the proletariat have had their day off in Lanark and with nothing more than empty wallets, sore heads and trashed clothes to show for it in a lot of cases. Still plenty of over time for the council workers clearing up the mess and the Police who spent the day turning a blind eye to under age girls and boys walking about blatantly drinking Buckfast and cheap cider.

But it's Friday and these things are of no concern to you.

This week still finds me with the urge to be dancing in a field all night somewhere and what better a soundtrack to the rising of the sun than this Balearic classic from 1989 which got to number 27 in the UK charts. The sample which was also used to great effect by Orbital on the glorious Belfast a year or so later and also to advertise muesli is O Euchari by Hildegard Von Bingen performed by Emily Van Evera. The version posted is Danny Rampling's Love Is . . .  mix from the remix twelve.

Have a good weekend people.

The Beloved - The Sun Rising ( Love Is . . . remix)

Wednesday 8 June 2011

Don't Let Him Waste Your Time



Just been over at the Vinyl Villain's bit where he is discussing the merits of the first Jarvis Cocker solo single and how he was disappointed in it. Sure it isn't vintage Cocker when sung by the man himself but in the hands of a true star for whom I think it was written it is something quite different. She did a similar thing to one of "the petulant one's" tracks,  Let Me Kiss You which is also wonderful.

What do ya think JC?

Nancy Sinatra - Don't Let Him Waste Your Time

Banish The Mid Week Blues Big Style



Guaranteed to beat the mid week blues.

I defy anybody to stay still while listening to this.

Shake was one of 10 absolutely incredible vocal performances on the 1965 Atlantic album Otis Blue/Otis Redding Sings Soul. If you don't own this album then there is a huge whole in your existence and I suggest you go here tout suite and rectify the situation.

Otis Redding - Shake

Tuesday 7 June 2011

A Strange Town, Indeed

My views on the week long festivities that is Lanimer week are well known to those who need to know and to the rest of the world who don't know what Lanimers is they don't matter.

It used to be the case that I would do anything rather than stay in Lanark on the Thursday in question but these past three years have seen my take the time off of work due to Max being either an Egyptian, a painter or this year a mushroom in the procession and I have to admit that I have quite enjoyed the the floats and the Pipe and Brass bands, it's just what comes after and the whole undercurrent of the thing that annoys me.

Another thing which fills me with bemusement about the whole thing is the amount of people who return for the festivities.  Over the last few years I have seen people that I haven't seen since school and people who now live all over the world but who get this pull to come back to the Royal Burgh for the week. I don't really understand this not being from the town and not really having an affinity for the place, it is just where I live.

It is really strange but seeing all of these people who I once went to school with me, only emphasises whose who aren't there, not those who through choice stay away but the others, this may sound a little melodramatic but it is honestly how I feel.

In particular I think of a school mate who I was great friends with up until an incident when we were sixteen which saw a parting of the ways of three close friends and new allegiances formed. A few years later we sort of reconciled our differences but were never close again.

It's not due to the Lanimers that I think of John  but because of the time of the year. I can't remember if he did enjoyt he celebrations but I bet that he did being born and bred in the town.

So anyway, this one's for Span.

Big Country - In A Big Country

Monday 6 June 2011

What's Happening



Bloody hell, it's Monday already and all I've got to show for the weekend is a sore back and some rather stubborn gloss paint which stubbornly refuses to scrub off.

I've always rather fancied having this track or Never Understand as a wake up call. Even I couldn't sleep through this glorious noise.

The Jasmine Minks - What's Happening

Sunday 5 June 2011

Still Painting



I'm still hard at it, got the glossing to do today, joy while L is out drinking as it is the start of the week long celebrations of serfdom that they have in Lanark, see here.

Anyway, I think that I will have a soundtrack of all things dubby today to try and keep my mood up.  Here is a Mad Prossefor remix of the latest Kills single, Satellite. I wasn't impressed by the last Kills album Midnight Boom but Blood Pressure is a lot better and worth a listen to.

The Kills - Satellite (Out Of Orbit Dub!!)

Saturday 4 June 2011

What A Way To Spend A Weekend!



It's that time of the year when L starts going on about the need for us (read yours truly) to" freshen up" the house. Now there wouldn't be a problem if by "freshen up" she meant spray a bit of polish or Fabreeze about the place but in Ls vocabulary "freshen up" is a euphemism for painting.

If there is one thing I hate more than Tory party leaders getting all moralistic on us it must be painting. It has to be the worst thing this side of water boarding. I realise these things have to be done and due to the fact that I don't has shed loads of disposable income it is down to me, my complete lack of patience or skill with a paint brush to do it. So instead of sitting here moaning I really should be putting on the old denims and be making a start.

When searching Google for a suitable picture for this rant I found something really disturbing. Every picture where people were participating in this torturous pursuit the people were always smiling. Is there a world wide conspiracy trying to kid us on that DIY will make us happy? It certainly won't have this miserable git grinning like a half wit.

Wayne Walker - All I Can Do Is Cry

Friday 3 June 2011

Why



Because it's sunny and I haven't been able to get this song out of my head all week.

Kris Kristofferson wrote some bloody brilliant songs, a  fact that I feel is rather over looked.

Kris Kristofferson - Loving Here Was Easier (Than Anything I Will Ever Do Again)

It's Friday . . Let's Dance



I don't know if it's the return of the sunshine but I have a yearning to be standing in a field in the middle of nowhere listening to some old school break beat emanating from humongous speakers, which is kind of strange because I never really got into the breakbeat/hardcore scene although I did take a shine to some of the tunes, such as Trip To The Moon by Acen,  SL2's On A Ragga Tip and Far Out by Sonz of a Loop Da Loop Era.

Another track that I bought in 1992 and played quite frequently was Don't Go by Awesome 3. The track has a great breakbeat, a catchy piano hook and extremely simple lyrics to remember when you are out your tree, what's not to love?

Have a good weekend people.

Awesome 3 - Don't Go