Just Because

This came on the iPod last week when I was driving up the road from Nottingham and at first I had no recollection of who it was but as soon as the penny dropped I decidied that the whole album warranted a play.

I think that along with Selected Ambient Works volumes 1 & 2 this is Richard D James' most accessible work and although it was very of it's time it still sounds essential today and the clear vinyl looks great on the turntable.

In other news, even the ash cloud which seems to have moved away from Scottish airspace could not stave off the cull as contingency plans were put in place for those who could not travel to Scotland tomorrow to be informed of their fate by other means.

Roll on tomorrow!

Polygon Window - If It Really Is Me

All The Best, Bob

As you will be aware Bob Dylan is seventy today.

I started listening to Dylan in my early teens as a mate of mines father was slightly obsessed with him. I loved a lot of what I heard but some things, like the born again Christian albums Saved and Slow Train Coming just did nothing for me.

I remember staying up to listen to him on Live Aid and being bitterly disappointed as he was pish, nearly as bad as the previous year when Ben told me that he had been absolutely woeful at St James' Park, Newcastle. So I never really had any desire to see him live. I will stick to my albums.

Here is my favourite ever Dylan song from the acclaimed 1975 album, Blood On The Tracks. Simple Twist Of Fate, for me is one of the most beautiful songs of love and longing that I have ever heard and I never get sick of listening to it. I know that Dylan will always be seen as the archetypal protest singer and produced arguably the greatest songs in that field during the 60s but for me it's always this track that I think of when anybody mentions Dylan.

Happy Birthday bob.

Bob Dylan - Simple Twist Of Fate

My Coco

Stellastarr first caught my attention when they were supporting the Raveonettes at the Wah Wah Hut either in 2003 or 2004. That night they were absolutely amazing but their was something very familiar about the sound. Before the Raveonettes came on Stiff and myself, as is our want, tried to pin down who they sounded like but there wa such a mixture of 80's British indie that it was kind of difficult but one influence we were able to agree on was Stuart Adamson, as a lot of the guitar playing had that styling and sound which was synonymous with the guitarist with the Skids and band leader of Big Country.

I have seen Stellastarr on three subsequent occasions and they were excellent each time, giving their all and looking like they were having a great time.The last time at the ABC 2, the guy standing next to me turned at the end and said to me "best fucking tenner I've ever spent, they were magic".

Here is the third single from their first album, released in 2004 and failed miserably to do anything in the charts or ever get any radio play at the time. If you like what you hear I can thoroughly recommend the first two albums, however I found the last album to be a bit of a disappointment.

Stellastarr* - My Coco

The Boy Wonder Returns

There was reason to rejoice this week at the news that  Roddy Frame will be making a long awaited return north of the border this October. Not only that but he will be touring with a band , for the first time in over a decade. The starting up of all this nonsense was as a direct result of Mr Frame's last visit to Glasgow. So you know that momentous things come in the wake of a visit from the Boy Wonder.

This would have been reason enough to celebrate this weekend but it was also the 21st birthday of my oldest nephew, jesus, that makes me feel old,  who I think will have a rather sore head this morning.

Last night I really did morph into my father at D's party when I found myself saying " all this shit sounds the same" although my father would have been a bit more eloquent about it. What is it with the use of vocorders and "singers" on helium? I think that if  I ever met this David Guetta character I would resort to extreme violence. Still we did get two Stone Roses and one Strokes tune which I think was intended to placate the oldies. However note to any aspiring DJ's and young folk alike it is not ironic to like Shang A Lang, it is just a pish song by a dodgy 70s boy band, ok?

Oh,  and I also found out that one of my nephew's lecturers is a blogger familiar to a few of us. Small world isn't it!

Anyway here is a song from a bygone age when songs had real lyrics, real instruments and not a vocoder in sight.

Aztec Camera - Spanish Horses

Come Go With Me, Again

Today's post is a re-up, a bit slack, I know but someone asked for this brilliant Gloria Jones track and it would have been churlish for me to ignore the request.

I'm back on a soul tip this week, after digging out Frank Beverley last week I have been listening to a lot of the stuff. It had taken a back seat here recently.

Here is Gloria Jones, who is probably best known for Tainted Love, which until recently I didn't realize that she recorded when she was only 18. The track posted today is the title track from her 1966 album recorded for the Uptown label and was originally recorded by the doo-wop group the Del Vikings.

Gloria Jones - Come Go With Me

Thanks to both Davy H and Danny for putting me on to 2 brilliant versions of the song Giving Up which was sampled on yesterday's post. The versions are by the Ad-Libs and Gladys Knight & The Pips.

It's Friday . . Let's Dance

A bit late but a belter of a tune, nonetheless.

Here is the best track and first single from an absolutely outstanding debut album.

Life Is Sweet and Exit Planet Dust the album the track comes from were both released in 1995 and were the blue print for loads of copies in the name of Big Beat some excellent but a lot more dross over the subsequent years.

Right I'm off to pour myself a Gin and Tonic, I believe that I have earned it this week.

Have a good weekend people.

The Chemical Brothers - Life Is Sweet

Get A Fucking Life!

So, here I am sitting in a hotel restaurant in Nottingham and not for the first time cursing the fact that I did not pay attention while I packed my bag. Not only has the T-shirt I packed got a couple of marks on it ( fact: washing clothes at 30 degrees does not get rid of stains no matter what Unilever tell you, in reality stains appear that weren't there before) but also I have forgotten to pack my book, the essential piece of kit for the anti-social single business traveller.  Nothing says,  "I am not in the slightest bit interested in striking up a conversation" more than a thick book and the one I'm reading at the moment is a belter, A Big Boy Did It And Ran Away by Christopher Brookemyre.

So it is either look like a total jobsworth and read a study protocol while waiting for dinner or just sit here and soak up the atmosphere and as I may be being made redundant next week there is no way I am expending more of my time on work tasks than is totally necessary so I sit here and absorb the surroundings.

Behind me is a group of what I take to be sales reps all trying to out do each other and the words of Colonel Kilgore pop into my mind " You hear that, you hear that son, BULLSHIT, nothing else in the world sounds like that". Christ, do these guys actually think that the other clowns are listening let alone believing  this pish? The four Yorkshire men don't come close.

So I turn my attention elsewhere. Across from me sit a trendy couple in their early twenties who are each staring intently not into each others eyes but into their smartphones, thumbs going ten to the dozen. As I sit here watching this I wonder if they are texting each other but after a few minutes the guy raises his head says something and then shoves his phone in the girl's face and they both snigger and then go back to their handsets. The sharing of screens and sniggering continues until I get bored and again scan the room.

What I find is at least five other single sad sacks sitting fiddling with phones either trying to give off the impression that they are important or to stave off the boredom and the feeling of utter loneliness that spending a mid week night in a hotel in the heart of the Midlands really means.

My steak frites eventually arrives, my interest in my surroundings subsides and I get on with the job in hand, order another beer and try to forget where I am.

Tami Terrell - Lone, Lonely Town

Lying Awake

Sticking with the British Girl Groups for the moment and here is my favourite of the lot.

Lying Awake was originally recorded in the US by Bernice Swanson. In this version Mark Wirtz of "Grocer Jack" fame enlists the help of Dany Chandelle, The Ladybirds and most probably the kitchen sink, to produce a track every bit as bombastic and dramatic as anything produced by either Shadow Morton or Phil Spector, an absolutely amazing track.

The track can be found along with another 21 tracks recorded during the 60s on the third instalment of the excellent Dream Babes series, this one entitled Backcomb 'n' Beat.

Dany Chandelle and The Ladybirds - Lying Awake

Terry

Ok, it may not be quite as good as Leader of the Pack but Terry by Twinkle has a charm all of it's own.

Right at the start of one of my favourite books, Fuel Injected Dreams, the dj and main character Scott goes into this spiel about how he is on a death trip, only playing trashy, records about death and starts listing the tunes that he is playing such as Dead Man's Curve, Tell Laura I Love her, Happiness Is A Warm Gun etc and every time I read the passage this song by Twinkle pops into my head.

Although it is a pale imitation of the Shangri-La's classic, I think that there is a lot more sadness in Twinkle's voice than there is in Mary Weiss's.  Maybe Twinkle really has lost the love of her life and Mary has just lost her latest love but then again I may be reading far too much into a throw away pop song.

A couple of not very interesting facts about the song. Firstly, it was banned by the BBC for being tasteless and secondly Jimmy Page was one of the session musicians on the track.

What was it Phil Spector once said about little symphonies for the kids?

Twinkle - Terry

Haunted Dancehall

We haven't had anything from Lord Sabre here for quite some time.

In 1995 the Sabres of Paradise released a series of records, one on 12", one 10" and a single sided 7" single where various luminaries of the dance world such as the Chemical Brothers and LFO remixed tracks from the previous year's excellent Haunted Dancehall long player, with varying degrees of success.

The final release in the series was the single sided 7" where In The Nursery don't remix the final  track from the album but actually perform it as a beautiful but also slightly unsettling piece of modern classical music.

Not the sort of thing that you would want to listen to on a Sunday if you were comimg down from a particularly hedonistic weekend. Not something that troubles me much these days or I suspect many of the people who visit here apart from maybe Mondo of course, as those kinds of weekends are sadly distant memories!

Right I'm off to do the weekly shop. Life on the edge.

Sabres of Paradise - Haunted Dancehall (As Performed By In The Nursery)

Random Thought

Do you think that when you sell 500,000 downloads they frame a gold piece of paper with a download code on it? It would be a bit disengenous to present a gold disc.

Here is a track that probably failed to sell even a thousand singles in it's day, sadly.

Clarence Williams - No Rest For The World

It's Friday . . Let's Dance

Although all of the decent weather has deserted us up here and left us with the wind and rain, I am trying to keep up the sunny demeanour and remain positive which is quite difficult at the moment what with all the speculation of the dreaded word that starts with Re and ends in dundancy coming out of every second persons mouth. It seems to be a foregone conclusion just to what extent. Any way by this time two weeks hence we will know our fate.

But until then, let's dance and be merry.

Please Romy, Jamie et al give this a full release on vinyl and make my summer. I am getting really hacked off with ridiculously small pressings of essential bits of vinyl.

Have a good weekend people.

The xx - Shelter (John Talbot Feel It Too mix)

Nothing To Do On Friday Night?

Remember Johnny Reb?

I featured them a few months ago and posted the excellent track Nine On The Line. Well they are playing Nice And Sleazy in the town on Friday night with a couple of other bands. If you've got nothing else on the evening of the 13th  and are in the Glasgow area you could do worse than head to Sauchiehall street and see 3 bands for the princely sum of 2 quid.

If you go here you can download for free, the stuff they recorded with Boz Boorer in Portugal

Doors open at 8pm, see you there.

Johnny Reb - Emile (part 1)

Philip, from the band sent me a jpg of the poster to go with this posting but Blogger doesn't seem to like it which is a pity 'cause I like it, so here's one you can download for yourself.

Poster

Music Played And People Sang

For along time I was under the mistaken impression that Bang Bang was originally recorded by Nancy Sinatra and it wasn't until about 1999/2000 with the aid of the internet that I discovered that it was written for Cher by Sonny Bono and released early the same year that Sinatra would cover the track, 1966.

I prefer Nancy's interpretation there is something really beguiling about her version, the almost whispered vocals and the tremelo effect is a lot subtler than the inferior Sonny and Cher version which kind of loses it half way through when it goes all gypsy campfire stylee.

Therre is a rather good version of the song by Isobel Campbell whose soft vocals and sparse instrumentation basically mirror the Sinatra version. I also quite like the Audio Bullys track from 2005 which samples the vocal. However the "original" Sinatra version would be my preference any day.

Nancy Sinatra - Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)

A Giant Step Each Day

I had written this whole spiel about how Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space is almost spiritual and all about the melancholy of the lyrics in tracks like Broken Heart and the lush orchestration etc, etc but when I read it back it was the biggest load of pretentious bollocks I'd ever written and that's saying something.

So instead, here is the first track from the best album of 1997 and surely a contender for the best album of the 90s.

S-----------d - LAGWAFIS

Love Inks

After the distractions of last week it is time to get back to the original intentions of this blog, in other words to inflict my somewhat dubious taste in music on anybody prepared to read the nonsense I type here.

Love Inks first came to my attention a couple of months ago when the track Blackeye, which was later to become the first single started floating around the blogosphere. There was something in Sherry LeBlanc's vocal delivery which sucked me in straight away to what is a lovely track which may or may not be about domestic violence.

The trio hail from Austin, Texas and their debut album, ESP was released last week. On a couple of tracks the sound is reminiscent of Mazzy Star but a little less intense if you know what I mean. The album is not up there with All At Once or Mazes by Moon Duo but then again very few albums this year will be but it is still well worth purchasing if you like your indie on the poppier side..

Love Inks - In My Dreams

Please, God No!

I have been pondering this over the last week, but  it really is too horrid to contemplate.

What if David Cameron wasn't quoting that twat who used to make crap films and even worse insurance adverts but was misquoting Jamie T?

Can you imagine Dave and Sam listening to this in their crib? After the revelation on Radio 4 last week that Ed Vaizey listened to the Redskins in his youth and obviously understood fuck all of the lyrics, anything is possible.

Jamie T - Calm Down Dearest

What A Week.

I am going to make no apologies for boring you with " a bit of politics" as I think after the week that has just passed it may just be warranted.

The week started off pretty intense with the assassination of that fuck-wit Bin Laden and I know that in the eyes of a lot, if not most Americans and a considerable amount of Muslims that is what the week beginning the 1st May 2011 will be remembered. But up here in the northern part of the United Kingdom and especially West Central Scotland it will be remembered for a momentous shift in the psyche of the ordinary punter,  no longer prepared to be taken for granted by a party that no longer looks out for their interests or even takes into account the opinions of their core voters.

I have stated before that I am no Nationalist, in fact I get quite a bit of stick when I say that I am British first and then Scottish and have no truck with anti-English sentiments (apart from all the pish we have to put up with about 1966),  but for the first time in my life I voted for the SNP, not because I want independence, although sometimes I have to give myself a shake when I read the comments of tossers like AA Gill, Quentin Letts, Kelvin MacKenzie and the like. But because for the first time since Donald Dewar we have a First Minister with some back bone and stature, although his smugness does get to me and more than a few times I would have readily punched that "sonsie face". I realise that politics is about more than the cult of personality but when you have a clever, quick witted, articulate person in the spotlight it does help.

I joined the young Socialists in 1983 and come from a proud tradition of Labour Party activists, my grandfather being present in George Square in 1919 when the then Coalition government sent the troops in, which must have been sickening as he had enlisted in 1914 and survived the horrors of the Somme and Ypres. My uncle was a Union leader in the steel works in Lanarkshire in the 1960s and 70s who regularly spoke at Labour National Conference during those days. So it was with a heavy heart that I left the Labour Party in 2004 but I still voted for them and found it increasingly hard to justify to myself let alone anybody else in subsequent elections why I was doing so.

I am not saying that Alex Salmond is a modern day Manny Shinwell, far from it but I have realised over the past wee while that times have changed and party loyalties aren't what they once were, indeed,  if they ever were for some of the muppets we did vote for in this part of the country.

I heard someone recently say something which has resonated with me over the past week,  that " we should no longer vote for our parents and the past but instead should vote for our children and the future" and for me at least,  there was only one party with any vision for the future.

It is no longer enough to  invoke the spectre of Thatcher,(Labour)  because as a nation I don't think that we are scared of her progeny any longer and  since 1999 we have been able to hold our heads high and have found the self-esteem that was lacking or had been trampled down prior to devolution.

This rather incoherent and disjointed  rant was brought on by having one too many gins and for some reason I felt that this song was applicable as I have visions of  quite a few former career politicians in Scotland  crying into their favourite new world wine while listening to this song having realised that now like many others they will have to try and find some other gainful employment.

Sly And The Family Stone - Que Sera Sera

The Return Of "Sturdy Girl"

 

Back by popular demand for one last appearance!

Here is a rather splendid, sampletastic track from Fab Samperi to get your weekend off to a funky start.

Have a good weekend people.

Fab Samperi - Alcoholic Drinks ( The Captain remix)

It's Friday . . Let's Dance

I have to admit that in the early to late nineties I wasn't too fond of Jeff Mills take on Techno things like the Waveform Transmission eps I found rather harsh and abrasive and completely lacking in soul. So I therefore didn't spend a lot of time listening to his stuff. My views on Mills were further strengthened when a mate of mine gave me his Live At The Liquid Rooms, Tokyo cd mix to listen to. I had read all the reviews in MixMag etc that Mills one of the greatest DJs and how this was the epitome of what the techno mix cd should be. On listening I found it to be sloppily mixed set with someone with attention deficit syndrome, the tunes did not seem to flow and I found it painful to listen to all the way through.

However, over the years I have grown to appreciate some if not all of Mills body of work and I especially like the Something In The Sky series of 12" singles which started in 2009 and is now up to volume 7. I only own a couple of these on vinyl and it would be nice if they were to be released all together on a double cd.

Here is side 1 track 2 from the latest installment for your enjoyment or I fear otherwise in DVD's case.

Jeff Mills - Something In The Sky Volume 7 track 2

Vote

If you haven't done so, get off of your arse and go vote, if you are in the UK obviously. I don't care who you vote for or if you spoil your ballot just do it.

The Redskins - The Power Is Yours

Crazy, Mibbies Aye, Mibbies Naw!

I haven't mentioned the elections for the Scottish Parliament before as I haven't wanted to bore people to death and if you aren't from this part of the world it is totally irrelevant to you anyway but I am going to mention it briefly just to say that for the first time since I was able to vote, I am going to vote for a different party, a party I never thought I would ever vote for in a million years and the thing is I don't feel sad or troubled in any way I actually feel quite liberated as I no longer have to try and justify things like the war in Iraq, my party cosying up to Mr Murdoch, try to hide my total disgust in the hypocrite that is Dr John Reid or seethe that Trident is still based in my neighbourhood. My grandfather and my uncle Jimmy will probably be spinning in their graves as I type this, both being Red Clydesiders but times have changed and the colour of the flag is no longer red.

The first three lines of this song kind of sum up how I am feeling at the moment. However, no matter how crazy I finally end up I will never be seen reciting the words to that racist, dirge that is Flower Of Scotland.

Alice Russell - Crazy

The Sun Is Still Shining

Well, that was quite an eventful bank holiday weekend and on a personal level quite illuminating.

Still the sun is still shining and I think some first class reggae from Lee Perry's Black Ark is the order of the day. Released in 1977 this was the first Perry production released on Island's Black Swan label and is quite, quite beautiful.

George Faith - To Be A Lover (Have Some Mercy)

Training Wheels

The other week over at the Vinyl Villain's as part of the guest bloggers series on Happiness and Sadness, Heather posted a beautiful track The Ghost Inside Our House from Cloud Cult. Go here to read her entry and find out more about Cloud Cult and Greg Minowa's heartbreaking story. I commented about a song from Advice To The Happy Hippopotamus which never fails to have me in tears due to the events that surrounded the making of the album and the sentiment of the song. What I didn't really think about was how the song would become relevant to me for other reasons so shortly after reading Heather's writing.

Yesterday I spent what began as a very frustrating but ultimately rewarding afternoon helping Max to learn to ride his bike without the aid of stabilisers or training wheels as they are also called. I have no recollection of learning to ride a bike, I'm sure it must have been a big deal and that my dad was the one who did the running along behind holding on to the seat as I did yesterday but I don't remember. I do know that I was younger than Max is now, as we grew up in a quiet cul-de-sac and not on a main road.

I would love to say that I had a Chopper to instill the idea that as a child I was cool but alas no,  I had a Grifter, a beast of a bike which weighed about ten tons and no matter how many times my dad fixed the gears and bought new cables would go back to default mode of being stuck in third within a week making it virtually impossible to ride the whole way up the hill from the shop back to our house.

Anyway, I digress back to yesterday and eventually after a lot of falling off, huffs, the odd venting of anger and I'm sure some swear words being uttered under his breath Max can now ride his bike without assistance.

Tomorrow's lesson how to turn corners and learning to stop without jumping off.

Cloud Cult - Training Wheels
.

It's Friday . . Let's Dance

On paper it was a match made in heaven, get one of the best djs and remixers of the day to remix an already great throbbing piece of progressive house by arguably the greatest dj and remixer of the time, what could go wrong?

Absolutely nothing,  David Holmes passed back an amazing piece of music that no matter where you played it it sounded wonderful. It was equally as powerful when listened to at volume at home as when dropped in the middle of a sweaty, smoke filled club. For me Smokebelch II is the pinnacle of the prrogressive dance sound, other tracks come close but none better David Holmes' mix of the tune in my opinion.

Right, I'm off to a wedding, seriously I am.

Have a good weekend people.

Sabres Of Paradise - Smokebelch II (David Holmes mix)

Just Because

I really like about 30% of Ryan Adams output and the rest leaves me unmoved.

This is one of my favourites

Ryan Adams - Come Pick Me Up

You Gotta Sin To Get Saved

I've spoken here before about how I believe that when Maria McKee was at her best she had one of the most emotional voices around and in Lone Justice's first album one of the best of 1985 if not the 80s.

Here is a belter of a track from her second solo album which I also think was her last consistently good album.

Maria McKee - Why Wasn't I More Grateful?(When Life Was Sweet)

Lund

The sun still seems to be affecting my choice of tunes at the moment. Today while driving back from Dundee, a city best viewed through the rear view mirror, I had an urge to hear some quality Swedish indie pop but as I had no playlist made up for this occassion, I decided on More Modern Short Stories From Hello Saferide and an excellent choice it was too.

Hello Saferide - Lund.

I have visited Lund on a few occassions and a very nice town it is too, however due to the R&D policy of our company I don't suppose I will be going for work again.

That's A Bit Poppy For You

It may be something to do with the sun but I had a hankering to hear this track last night. It sort of popped into my head and would not dislodge itself. So I thought that I would do the right thing and inflict it's annoyingly catchy, up beatness on others.

Charlotte Sometimes - How I Could Just Kill A Man

This Is Magic

I bought this ages ago on a whim as I liked the cover and have just got round to listening to it. Just the thing for this positively tropical Easter Monday.

Still don't know that much about her. The album was recorded between Berlin and Mexico and was released on the Fantomette label in Germany in 2009, so I'm right upfrount as usual.. I wonder if you can guess who the guest percussionist is?

Right we're off round the Loch

Jessie Evans - Blood and Silver

All At Once

My birthday present to myself was a ltd edition vinyl box set of all three Airborne Toxic Event which unfortunately will not be shipped until the 2nd May, however on Friday a surprise popped through the letter box in the form of the cd of the new album All At Once which will be released tomorrow.

Tell us what it's like? I hear you say. All I can say is it is wonderful. There is no way for me to be objective about this band, I just love them. Every time I see them they get better and better and this release certainly builds on the sound from the first album. I can hear a very strong Stuart Adamson influence in some of the sounds emanating from Steven Chen's guitar at times which is no bad thing. The song writing has also moved on from mainly songs about broken relationships on their debut to covering topics of war, the loss of loved ones along as well as  the obligatory songs about the opposite sex.

It is possibly the most consistently good album that I have heard this year, personal favourites include All For A Woman, The Kids Are Ready To Die and the the title track. The only track I'm not sure about is Welcome To Our Wedding Day, I'm not sure what it is, it just doesn't seem to fit it may be the near glam rock intro but apart from that I think that this may be the album that brings the band the sales and attention they deserve.

One thing, I still don't get the Arcade Fire comparisons.

  all at once by The Airborne Toxic Event

It's My Birthday And I'll Post What I Want To

Another year older!

Happy St George's Day English people.

The Fall - Ltfe Just Bounces

Easter Parade

"Hoi, where's the dance tunes?" I hear at least one of you mutter.

Well seeing as it's Easter, I thought me might have something different this Friday from the usual,  well,  past it's sell by date Friday feature. Another reason would be that I couldn't decide which dance track to pick on account of having given it absolutely no thought whatsoever this week.

Instead I thought that I would regale you with a story that explains no matter how many times Mr H over at The Ghost Of Electricity posts the Jones Girls or something similar I will always stick up for him and "gie him hauners" if the need ever arises.

When I was seventeen I went on my final caravan holiday with the family to Polperro, not a prospect I was overjoyed about at the time, being cooped up in the back of the car with my brother for the best part of 2 days and then spending a fortnight in a tin can on wheels with three other human beings in close proximity.

When we got there I kind of mumped and moaned my way through the first week, doing as little as possible, spending a small fortune on batteries for my red Sony Walkman and generally being an arse. However at the end of week one I met a girl from Ashington in Northumberland and things started to pick up. We had a liking for the same kind of music, Northern Soul and Indie and both had an interest in scooters.  We got on really well and were nearly inseparable for the next week,  my last but L's first.

At the end of the week as we said goodbye L gave me a tape, "something to remember me by" she said. On the way home I put the tape in the Walkman and listened to it with a heavy heart. It was all northern soul, the stuff that the purists sneer at,  Frankie Valli's The Night, The Snake, Out On The Floor and the like.  At the end of the tape however, there was a track that didn't fit in with the rest, an acoustic guitar strummed ballad sung by someone who to me at the time sounded a lot like Pete Wylie. I played the tape over and over again and made myself miserable thinking of my holiday romance. The tape however lasted only slightly longer than the relationship and snapped before I ever found out who it was by or even what the song was called.

I would be lying if I told you that ever since the song has haunted me. But it has popped into my head every so often and I have wondered what the hell the song was but had given up all hope of ever solving the mystery and over the years I had even forgotten the melody and could only remember the two words Easter Parade.

A couple of years ago while perusing the Ghost Of Electricity one day, Davy had posted a song by the Faith Brothers, a group who up until this point I had been criminally oblivious of. Davy waxed lyrical about Billy Franks so much so that I decided that he and the Faith Brothers warranted further investigation. So I visited Franks' website where there was loads of stuff to download and so I duly did. When I listened to the tracks I couldn't believe it; in amongst a lot of really good songs was the song that I had first heard from that Panda cassette over twenty years earlier and duh! it was called Easter Parade.

A few weeks later after finding a copy of a double pack Faith Brothers single containing the tune and being successful in the bidding I finally got to play the track without hiss or being ever so slightly wonky due to the tape being stretched and it was every bit as wonderful if not more and when I further found out what the single was about (wounded soldiers returning from the Falklands conflict and not being allowed to take part in the homecoming parade, at Thatcher's behest) it became even more moving.

So that is the convoluted story of why Davy H is a legend in my book.

Have a good Easter weekend people.

Faith Brothers - Easter Parade

Big Deal, I Think They May Be

When I was compiling my tracks of the year in early December, there was a track that I wanted to include by the duo Big Deal but decided not to on the grounds that I had only had the single for a couple of weeks and that I really couldn't base how good the track was in comparison ton other stuff that had been hanging around for a lot longer and the other reason was that I wasn't that impressed with their cover of Big Star's Thirteen. There was nothing wrong with it, I just felt that it was a bit of an obvious song for them to cover based on the sound of the a side.

I have no such concerns about the b-side of their second single, Talk released on Moshi Moshi last week. Locked Up reminds me of the Velvet Underground, with the fuzzy guitar and the lazy vocals. Talk is equally as good and both are well worth purchasing.

This and the Cults single are the soundtrack to these rather surprisingly sun drenched days we have been having of late for me.

Big Deal - Locked Up

So Many Days

Bloody hell, that was a quick week!

Back to the daily grind for me and I can't think of a better way to start than with this track,  a recent discovery. I'm not sure whether this should be classed as soul, R & B or whatever other catagory it may fall into. It is a brilliant track which should brighten up your Monday morning.

I know absolutely nothing about the Vonns. This track was on a split 7", released recently on Fryers, with another belter of a track,  Sad But True by Elaine Armstrong on the A side. Worth seeking out.

The Vonns - So Many Days

Record Store Day pt2

Well, that was quite an enjoyable morning.

Max was none to pleased when I got him up at the back of seven this morning for our trip into Glasgow but once he was up he was his usual self, a sullen teenager six years too early, on the way in I had to promise that if there was anything by AC/DC I would have to buy him it.

We got to Glasgow and parked in the Kings Street car park across from MONO at 08:15 and could see that quite an orderly queue had already formed and there were about thirty people in front of us when we joined. Then the mental calculations started if there were 500 copies of such and such and there were 150 stores taking part then how many copies of the Cults single did MONO get and how many of the people in front of me look like they are here to buy that single? I have to admit that Max did his best to distract me from such thoughts by asking "how long now?" every couple of minutes and to inform me that "Gran (my mother) thinks that you need to grow up and stop going to all these concerts and buying records" I would like to say that on hearing this I was shocked but on the contrary as he said it I could hear my mother saying it.

At 9:00 am on the dot the doors opened and the agonising ten minutes of watching people coming out smiling and trying to peer through their bags and find out what they had bought, before it was my turn at the counter,  began. My wants list was actually quite restrained this year with only two must gets on my list the afore mentioned Cults single and the ARP Pastoral Symphony remix 12".  That was until I saw the list on the wall in Monorail, there near the end was a single that caught my eye, The Velvet Underground Foggy Notion/I Can't Stand It, where did this come from? It was not on any of the lists I had seen. In the second or two that it took me to absorb this information my priorities had changed and this was the essential purchase of the day as these are two of my favourite VU tracks and last night I had included I Can't Stand It on my compilation cd.

After what seemed an eternity but in fact would have been less than ten minutes from the doors opening I got to the counter.

In as nonchalant a voice as I could muster I said " Have you got any copies of the Velvet Underground single left?"

" Yes" was the reply.

I nearly screamed like I would have if Andy Smith had scored the winning goal in the 1995 Scottish Cup Final but instead retorted "I'll have that then and also the Cults seven inch?"

I then went on to get a few other things, The Warpaint and Red Crayola sevens, The Hangover Lounge 10" which was a rash heat of the moment tihng which I am regretting now as it is a bit, well twee for me, the ARP 12" and of course Shoot To Thrill by AC/DC because as Max rightly pointed out " a deal's a deal, dad".

I have to say that I think that some of the stuff was a bit over priced,  eighteen quid for a 10" of The Queen Is Dead, the same for The Vaccines bootleg but maybe that's just me.

So then it was over the road to RubaDub to purchase a new stylus and the buy of the day as it turned out,  not a Record Store Day exclusive but the latest installment of Jeff Mills Something In The Sky series, pt 7 an absolute belter of a record.

All in all not a bad day out but I am well and truly skint now.

The Velvet Underground - I Can't Stand It 

Record Store Day 2011

Tomorrow is Record Store Day 2011 and I'm looking forward to going into Glasgow with Max and trying to get my hands on the records that are on my wants list. If it's anything like last year it will be a really good day. There was a definite buzz going on at Mono. I am not the most patient person in the world and hate queueing, I think that I may have some German blood in my veins but even I didn't mind the wait, although I was a bit anxious about not getting a copy of the Fall single but I needn't have worried.

Anyway to get in the mood this afternoon I decided to make up a couple of compilation cds up for the car and decided to go back to basics and complete the task without the aid of the laptop or itunes, no dragging and dropping today, all of the tracks would be from vinyl or cd and would be recorded in real time.

It's ages since I made a compilation this way, it's ages since I made myself a compilation full stop, these days I either just pick a play list on the mp3 player or rely on the machine's impeccable taste on random.

I had a basic outline. I wanted to do a recent dance cd and also an indie/northern whatever one where I would just open one of the singles boxes pick out the first random single that my hand got to and see where it went from there.  The dance one was quite easy as I knew the tracks that I wanted and kind of knew the order in which I thought it should go but was kind of hampered by not being able to use two decks for a couple of reasons, firstly that my old mixer is knackered and the other decks are packed away behind a pile of other stuff in the cupboard half way up the stairs. It would have been better to have the tracks mix into each other and then it could officially be called a mixtape but after playing it back it sort of flows alright and the gaps between tunes are kept to a minimum.

The second cd has not been so easy. Due to the time taken to record the first and listen back through it I haven't even started it yet!

I have randomly selected the first single, posted below and I will let you know how the compilation turns out.

Please go and support your local independent record store tomorrow as we would all be in a sorry state without them, check the website here for participating stores.

Have a good weekend people.

Random single out of the box is  . .

The Clash - Bank Robber

It's Friday . . Let's Dance

As you may have realised by now as I have mentioned it a few times that what got me back into dance music during the latter part of the last decade was dubstep. From the first time I heard Burial and the sounds being released on the Skull Disco label I was hooked.

The music has evolved over the past few years with some really original  material being produced by the likes of Skream, Joy Orbison, Benga and a host of others.

One of the most consistent producers on the housier side of this genre of dance music over the past year is Pearson Sound, aka Ramadanman, alias Maurice Donovan or to his family and friends David Kennedy.  He hasn't just released some of the best tunes that I've heard recently but also the best mix cd of the past ten years in his Fabriclive 56 compilation.

Here is side two of his recent release on the Night Slugs label under his Pearson Sound guise. The track is a refix of Deep Inside by Hardrive originally released on Strictly Rhythm in 1993 with vocals from Barbara Tucker.

Pearson Sound - Untitled ( Deep Inside refix)

Does This Mean I'm Moving On?

I think that my love affair with the Raveonettes is over.

I think that my enthusiasm for the band started to wain after the last album was released, it was a good enough lp with a couple of really strong tracks but it also had the truly awful Boys Who Rape (should all be destroyed). So when they toured a couple of months later it was more out of duty than expectation that I bought my tickets and I duly went along expecting to be underwhelmed. But once again the pulled off an absolutely blinding performance with the tracks from In And Out Of Control that were played being every bit as good as the best of the tracks from the previous four albums and the debut ep and both myself and Stiff came home happy with a set of Raveonettes mugs in hand.

I have the feeling that if and when they tour this album in Scotland it will be a different story. I think that the older stuff will be made to fit around the new album and the, although not that dramatic a shift in sound, it is a noticeable one and sees them going in a more shoegazey direction. There was always a gothic element to the racket they made but the early rock and roll and Velvets influence always came to the fore and that is probably why I loved them so much  but the sound and feeling to this album is much more moody and a whole lot less fun.

Don't get me wrong it is by no means a bad album, it's just not a Raveonettes one. With the exception of the first and second last tracks the rest of the album washed over me, it wasn't a struggle to listen to but then again it was no great pleasure.

So I think on reflection and repeated listens that the time has come to move on. Sune and Sharin it's not you it's me but then again we will always have King Tut's.

The Raveonettes - My Time's Up.

Does This Sound Dated To You?

I was looking for something a bit different to listen to the other day and decided to listen to Metamatic by John Fox. I haven't listened to the album as a whole for quite a few years, I have put on things like Underpass and No One Driving but only as individual songs.

What really struck me was that the music hasn't really dated all that much. Foxx's vocal style on the album I think is the main reason that you could date it to the beginning of the 80's but unlike, Foxx's contemporary, Gary Numan whose album Telecon released the same year as Metamatic is definitely of it's time and has not dated well at all. Whereas the track posted, Mr No I think could have been produced anytime in the last thirty years and if I didn't know better and somebody told me that it was recorded a couple of years ago I would probably have believed them. The track was originally a b-side on the No-One Driving single but was included in the 2007 re- release of the album.

John Foxx - Mr No

Slow Time Monday

Well the summer feeling didn't last long. Back to the default of pissing rain up here. But on the positive I'm still off for the week.

Here's a lovely bit of  indie pop to brighten up a Monday, I think that this will be right up Colin's street. Le Chanson de Prevert was written by Serge Gainsbourg and is concerned with the life of Jacques Prevert the French poet and screenwriter but of course you all knew that anyway,

Sambassadeur - La Chanson De Prevert.

It's A Bit Early But I've Got The Feeling

It has been a glorious day up here, not that I've seen much of it as I've spent the day gutting the cowp that Max calls his room. Later on we are going out to celebrate a mate's birthday the best Bangladeshi restaurants in the west of Scotland.

And what's more I've got a week aff to look forward to.

Jonathan Richman - That Summer Feeling

"If You're Gonna Play It Out Of Tune, Play It Out Of Tune Properly" pt 6

Mark Smith's love of mid to late 60's American garage bands is well documented and it comes as no surprise that he choose to cover a few classic tracks from this period including Strychnine by The Sonics.

The Sonics were formed in Tacoma, Washington in late 1960. Their first single The Witch was released in November 1964 on the Etiquette label, which was owned by another local garage band the Wailers. Between 1964 and 1966 when they left the label eight singles and two albums. Strychnine was included on the first album but was never released as a single while the band was in existence.

The band left the Etiquette label in 1966 and moved to Hollywood to record for the Jerden label but the band were not happy with the new more civilised sound that was produced and the band slowly disintegrated over the next couple of years, only to reform in 1972 to perform a live show. The band like so many others reformed again in the late noughties and as far as I am aware are still touring but don't know about recording.

The Sonics - Strychnine

The Fall covered the track for their sixteenth Peel Session broadcast on 13/03/1993 and has been known to be included in their live sets over the years.

The Fall - Strychnine

Who Does This Remind You Of?

New music by two sister from Dalston, who are apparently named after their favourite moment in a Melvins song which I find hard to believe, is it possible for two siblings to agree on anything apart from how much their parents annoy them? Anyway this is rather good but it does remind me of two dysfunctional siblings from East Kilbride, well if they had been female obviously.

2:54 - On A Wire

It's Friday . . Let's Dance

Today's track is for those of you who remember XL as the edgier off shoot of City Beat Records releasing rave tracks by the likes of SL2 and The Prodigy and not the home of soul lite Brit school alumni and American Indie Rock.

At the time I was not really into the Rave scene, preferring, throbbing epic tracks with huge baselines which frequently lasted over ten minutes over the in yer face 100mph, sped up vocal sample stuff with the rudimentary keyboard riffs, but now and again one of these tracks would agree with me and every so often I would go nuts for a track.  The tune posted falls into the latter category.

I don't know how many times I have played this 12" over the years but it has to be in high treble figures which will become apparent when you hear the crackles on the rip. But I have never tired of this tune and it always produces a huge grin on my coupon as soon as those breakbeats start and when the dum dum dum dum dum da dum drops 36 seconds in I'm in heaven and pretty much stay there for the duration and once it's over I usually have to play it again.

I'm not sure if it's because of the use of the riff and vocal sample purloined from Ce Ce Rogers Someday that makes me love the track as much as I do. I remember the first time I heard it, I tried my damnedest to hate it, thinking that it was totally out of order lifting bits from that Marshall Jefferson produced classic but could do nothing but dance and grin like a demented Cheshire Cat and knew that I had to have it.

For me the breakbeats, that unmistakable piano riff and the vocal sample encapsulate the madness and the sheer joy of the dance scene during 1992 in 4:22 seconds better than any other record of that year.

Have a good weekend people.

Liquid - Sweet Harmony

Airborne Toxic Event

I'm off to see the Aiborne ToxicEvent tonight, if I get back down from Aberdeen in time, bad planning again on my part. I am really looking forward to this, as I've said before they are excellent live on the previous 6 occassions I have seen them each gig has been better than the last, Tonight however will hopefully be filled with stuff from the new album, All At Once which is released in the UK on the 25th April. The few tracks they played from this at the Pleasance in October last year were all belters and the tracks that have been posted on Youtube are of a similar standard.

Here is one of the tracks from the new album which will hopefully be played tonight.

Airborne Toxic Event - Numb

Caught By The Man Again

It looks as though DJ L may be looking forward to a future full of brushes with the law, if his first selection for the blog is anything to go by. The Man has pulled the Cults posting already, if you didn't get a chance to listen to the song seek it out elsewhere as it is worth listening to.

In the meantime here is a wee ditty by Gomez.

Gomez - Get Myself Arrested

One For The Commuters

After a week listening to a lot of dubstep and techno I think that it is about time for some thing a bit different and with a bit of a dunt from Cults I think that some brilliance from the Shadow Morton stable is in order.

I could spout a lot of pish about how good the Shangri-Las are but I think that DVD summed them up with this comment the last time I posted something by them:-

"I would argue - preferably over a beer or 2 - that the finest 'Girl Group' of all time wasn't the all-conquering Supremes, the timeless Ronettes, nor even the life-affirming Spice Girls! No sir, the most shining, yet anguish-laden, heart-wrenching and interesting pop music femmes were those "Tough girls with broken hearts" - The Shangri-Las.

Overarching both the rock n roll and the R&B circuit, four young, yet street-wise white girls from Queens, New York, hit the peak of their popularity 40 odd years ago in the whirlwind that was 1965.

At a time when the music industry was unrecognisable from what it is today, the cat-suited Betty, MaryAnn, Margie and Mary captured the world - whilst handing it a piece of gum .

For an imperious read please see the tremendous "Out In The Streets - The Inside Story Of The Shangri Las" by John J Grecco.

Past, Present & Future was very much in the girls' narrative storytelling, style and arrangement. Far too strong for most radio stations at the time, the undertone and implication is heartfelt and deep. Young girls were just not singing about such things in the hit parade or on the jukebox. Is it autobiographical?

The song "I Can Never Go Home Anymore" has a similar feel and emotional pull ... not to mention 'Leader Of The Pack'.

The music of The Shangri-Las has been widely covered - by artists as diverse as Aerosmith, Blondie, Louise Goffin, Agnetha Faltskog and Twisted Sister!

Perhaps it is the overwhelming passion which is the reason for such disparate interest?

Seek out the music of the Shangri-Las and share the smiles, (Knickerbocker) glory and bittersweet tears."

Nuff said me thinks


The Shangri-Las - The Train From Kansas City

Soothing Sounds For A Sunday

There are certain cds that I ask myself, why did I buy this on cd rather than vinyl, today's track comes from a case in point.

The White Room was released in 1991 and most of the other stuff from that year I bought on vinyl. I was living in Woodlands Road in Glasgow at the time, not far from Byres Road and my favourite shop in the world then, Fopp so I have no idea why I opted to buy it on an inferior format.

About ten years ago my copy of the White Room finally gave up the ghost and refused to play on any player, so the hunt began to replace it, the problem being that the cd was by then out of print and second hand copies were costing a fortune. Eventually I had to bite the bullet and buy an American import which is slightly different from the UK copy in that some of the samples have been omitted as the US label was obviously scared of being sued by Bonzo and the audience for sampling the crowd noise from Rattle & Hum.

All the above is a preamble to the apology that the version of No More Tears posted is the shortened 6 minute version available on the US release oppossed to the nine and a half minute version found on the UK release.

KLF - No More Tears

DJ L Suggests You Listen To . . . Cults

This is absolutely wonderful, just the right amount of 60s Girl Group/Spector influence. The only thing I would have added is some feedback in the background.

Cults - You Know What I Mean

Link taken down due to DMCA complaint. Look elsewhere for this track as it really is worth a listen.

It's Friday . . Let's Dance

We have had a couple of things kind of dub steppy this week and I thought that I would include one of the best examples of this, for me fresh and exciting genre which is increasingly making up the majority of my purchases.

Shackleton was the co-founder of the Skull Disco label which released consistently high quality and ground breaking twelves and a couple of excellent compilation albums  which if you don't own anything on the label are really worth having. The label was rolled up in 2008 and since then Shackleton has released a few singles an album and a mix cd and for me has more than filled the void of the lack of output from Burial over the last few years.

Last month Shackleton released a couple of singles on Honest Jon's Records one of which was a double which are both excellent and it is hard to pick out one track over the rest of them. But after a few listens I have chosen the original mix of Fireworks a rather eerie track that smolders for just over seven minutes.

And before any smart arse puts in a comment, no I wouldn't know how to dance to it either.

Have a good weekend people.

Shackleton - Fireworks