Fallout

In light of recent events where a considerable number of very good established blogs have been pulled over the last couple of days I will carry on here as long as possible before this plug is deleted. A couple of years ago I set up Across The Kitchen Table at Wordpress but only sporadically updated it. Last week for some reason I decided it was time to update Wordpress and for the week since have been trying without success to import all of my posts from Blogger, The titles and the comments have been pulled over but none of the text has, not sure why but I will keep trying. If the worst happens I will be found at acrossthekitchentable.wordpress.com.

So let's crack on with the music. I loved the first Moon Duo album and was even more impressed by the remix album which followed. I think that this album took up residency on the turntable for a good while back in 2011. Here is one of my favourite mixes from the project where Sonic Boom aka Peter Kember does what he does so well taking drugs to make music to take drugs to.

Moon Duo - Fallout (Sonic Boom mix)

I Am Very Angry

The Vinyl Villain has been pulled this morning. I got in touch with JC to see if there was a problem as he hadn't posted for a few days and on Blogger it said that the blog has been removed. JC was unaware of anything but checked and it appears that the Man has decided to pull the blog for copyright violations. If I hear anymore I will let you know.

Yet Another Ridiculously Limited xx Remix

I'm not sure why The xx insist on releasing 12" remixes in extremely limited runs as they can't make that much money from them. The only people I see profiting from this are the scumbags who buy the releases and immediately put them up on Discogs and Ebay at inflated prices.

Anyway, last month saw the release of three new remixes by who I take to be hip new producers from Germany as the twelve came out on Berlin label Innervisions. All are quite different from the Four Tet and John Talabot mixes that we have come to expect. They are sparse,  rather minimal and absolutely brilliant.

I may actually be talking pish in the first paragraph, it looks lik this has had a repress as there seem to be loads of copies out there at a quite reasonable price.

The xx - Reunion (Ame remix)

Just Your Fool

Today's wonderful piece of soul comes from Leon Haywood and was released in 1975. To be honest with you I have kind of neglected this track as the b-side Consider The Source is very good and hads gotten the majority of the plays. But the a-side, which is quite different in style is a great track as well.

The weather seems to have broken slightly and is considerably colder up here, it is probably warmer than it would be in a normal year at this time but due to the mental heat we have been having it feels quite cool.

Leon Haywood - Just Your Fool

What's In Yir Box? V

Firstly, apologies if this post is a little incoherent and rambling, nothing new there you say. We were out yesterday at a BBQ for a friend from Australia who is going back to Oz this week, it started at 4 and went on until the wee small hours. I am actually feeling better than I deserve to be but I fully expect to crash hard sometime this afternoon.

Back to the music and it's on to the V's as there are no Us in the box, not surprising really. Anyway fortunately for me as it means that I don't have to try and think for too long there aren't that many Ws either.

First up we have the Vaccines and Post Break-Up Sex. The Vaccines have their critics and I was very cynical about them when they first came out but they had won me over with this their second single an every day tale of adolescence and your girlfriend/boyfriend finishing with you and then shagging somebody else very shortly afterwards. It was quite disturbing when Max at seven started singing the chorus. The other reason that there has to be a Vaccines record in the box is the memory of Max's face when they took to the stage at Latitude, it was a long time since I saw somebody so happy and enthralled at a concert, magic.

After the Fall and The Jesus and Mary Chain, The Velvet Underground would be number three on my list of  bands, so when a couple of Record Store Days ago a single containing two of my favourite tracks by the group it was a forgone conclusion that it would be high on my priorities that day.  Foggy Notion is the epitome of cool, there is just something about Lou Reed's delivery and the guitar sound that although insistent sounds really laid back and similarly I Can't Stand It that makes you want to dress in black with a pair of wrap around shades on.

Lastly we have a bunch of chancers from Dundee with their first single. The first time I saw the band was purely by chance when one lunch time I decided to go up to Fopp( as you do), when my office was in the centre of Edinburgh. When I got there, there was this bunch of scruffy weans setting up equipment in the shop, so I decided to hang around,. What I heard of the set impressed me that much that I bought the single and went back to work. The last time I saw the band was equally as fortuitous, as earlier this year we were wandering through Kelvingrove Park  in Glasgow when we heard the dulcet tones of Kyle Falconer echoing round the area, as The View were performing just up the hill a bit. Although the band have a good back catalogue if you forget the second album I don't think that they have ever bettered Wasted Little DJ's, their first single.

So that's yir whack for the Vs, next week quite a considerable number more Ws and a few from artists with the surname of Wilson

The Vaccines - Post Break-Up Sex
The Velvet Underground - Foggy Notion/I Can't Stand It
The View - wasted little dj's

The Vaccines - Post Break-Up Sex

Just Because

It's Saturday, it's still sunny and this is so, so good.

New Order - Regret.

it's Friday . . . Let's Dance!

I am not going to moan about the heat even although I am melting, it is fucking magic, it is good to see people with smiles on there coupons for a change and peely wally Scots with some colour that doesn't come from a bottle or one of those melanoma machines. However I could do without all the saggy flesh that is on show, especially the burnt red raw stuff. I went to Airdrie last night to get Max and my season tickets ( I know child abuse, but it's character building) on the scooter and it just felt great. Hopefully I will get a chance over the weekend to get back out for a ride.

Anyway, I was thinking of posting something balearic, maybe off of the 101  Cafe del Mar compilations that have been released over the past nineteen years  which could be listened to with an Estella Damm but who needs the white isle when either Saltcoats,  Ayr or Scarborough will be more than adequate.  Today's track is a bit of blissed out down tempo early trance courtesy of the Drum Club. So crack open a bottle/can of whatever you fancy, I will have a Guinness and thank fuck it is the beginning of the weekend.

Have a good weekend people.

The Drum Club - Follow The Sun

Past Lovers

This is one of the most  beautiful,  melancholic pieces of music I have. It's up there with Rembrandt Hat by Andy White, Jonathan Richman's That Summer Feeling and Thirteen by anyone but especially the Kathryn Williams version with it's ability to make me nostalgic, slightly sad but also smile at the same time.

I think that Gordon McIntyre is a much underrated song writer and the works of Ballboy should be better known that they are. Past Lovers came out in 2003 and is another excellent song that the Great British music buying public totally ignored. Tragic really.

Ballboy - Past Lovers

Proper Techno

Here is a track from SCB that came out earlier this year on the Think And Change album sampler volume 2 which just builds and builds. I would love to hear this in a club environment. Proper techno.

I'm down in Manchester for a couple of days, so probably nothing to see here until Wednesday night/Thursday.

SCB - Dissipate

8-3-1

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned Lisa Stansfield when in a modern soul post. Stansfield herself is responsible for a track that was huge on the scene, so much so that the track was bootlegged and released out on 7" vinyl. 8-3-1 was released as a cd single in 2001 and was one of the standout tracks from that year's Face Up album.

I once nearly met Lisa Stansfield, when she was at the height of her fame. I was returning from an exhausting week in Holland with sixty odd Primary school children. We had stopped at a service station when one of the girls spotted Stansfield returning to her coach which led to maybe a dozen girls rushing over. Stansfield was having none of it and quickly got into the coach. The kids were told to go away in very unambiguous terms by the Rochdale singer's "security" and they returned to hassling the staff at the service station instead. One girl turned to me and said " does she no know who we ir?and she isnae Madonna onyways".

Lisa Stansfield - 8-3-1

Whit's In Yir Box? T

We resume this series after a two week break with the letter T. To be honest I thought that there were more singles for this letter than there actually are.

The first single is a Spanish ep from Vince Taylor, primarily bought for Brand New Cadillac. Like most people of my age and musical preferences I first heard the track as a cover by the Clash and it was quite a few years before I even heard the original and a considerable period before I got my hands on it on vinyl. Apparently Vince was a bit of a nutter who left the music business to become an aircraft mechanic and died at the very early age of 52 from cancer. The other tracks on the ep are good especially I Like Love but not a patch on Brand New Cadillac.

I really liked Duffy's fourth single Mercy,  thought that it had a really good retro soul vibe to it but didn't expect the cover by the Third Degree to be so much better, more infectious and more of a dancer. I defy anybody to listen to this song and be able to stay still if they can they are probably dead or fans of One Direction.

It looks as though the Ts are full of cover versions or originals that are better known by other people and the next single would become better known when covered by a young Elvis Presley three years after the original was released. There is something primal but beguiling about Big Mama Thornton's vocal on Hound Dog. My copy is the "dodgy" unofficial pressing released in 2010 but I have seen copies of the original on eBay that weren't that expensive and thought about it a couple of times but there are other pressings that I would replace before this one, as the quality is pretty good.

54 - 46 takes me right back to when I was 18, wearing an MA1 and Docs and frequenting Scooter Club dances. I first owned the track on the Trojan Explosion album which was great value as it contained nearly every ska tune played at these dos on one piece of vinyl and also a couple of gems that weren't such as Bob Marley's Small Axe. Seven or eight years ago I found a re-issue of the single on Beverley's with Pressure Drop on the other side but unlike the pressing of Hound Dog this isn't that great with quite a few clicks and pops on apparent mint vinyl but still worth having nonetheless.

Next up is a single that I originally had on 12" vinyl which was borrowed by a girlfriend who gave it, the album it came from and a whole load more of my records to Oxfam in retribution when we finished, a story for another day, possibly. The Trash Can Sinatras came out at the tail end of the purple patch that Scottish music went through in the mid to late eighties, Obscurity Knocks being their first and best single. Listening to this song usually puts me in a good mood, even when I remember the fate of my original copy, it's one of those tracks like Honey At The Core by Friends Again that conjure up visions of sunny days when everything was so much simpler. Happy Days! Years later i got to see them opening for Roddy Frame on the first night of the ABC in Glasgow and was really disappointed, not that they were rubbish or anything just really boring.

Surfing Bird is another song that was played at Scooter Club dos but The Cramps version usually accompanied by some pretty hard core slamming on the dance floor which sometimes would end up in real violence. The original version by the Trashmen is probably associated in a lot of people's minds with Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket. The first few bars of this track usually leads to absolute bedlam in this house as both boys love this mad tune.

Next up we have probably Phil Spector's second finest moment. I am still amazed that River Deep Mountain High bombed in America. From all accounts the recording of the song was fraught and that dozens of musicians and backing singers were used on it. It is said that it cost $22 000 to record a sum unheard of at the time. But the results are astounding, the phrase "wall of sound" never being more apt than it is on this track and what a vocal performance by Tina Turner, even if it did take her hundreds of takes before Spector got what he wanted.

The final single in the T section is by the Twilight Singers but not the one that should be in the box, that should be Teenage Wristband but for some reason it was only released on cd single. Feathers, the follow-up is an alright track but. the b-side Number Nine is a slow burning epic of a song and the first time that Dulli and Mark Lanegan collaborated I think. The opening organ kind of makes me think of You Can't Always Get What You Want but when that deep, deep voice of Lanegan starts you know that you are in for something a bit moody and dark. What we end up with is some kind of sleazy epic, wonderful.

Vince Taylor - Brand New Cadillac
The Third Degree - Mercy
"Big Mama" Thornton - Hound Dog
Toots & The Maytals - 54 - 46
The Trash Can Sinatras - Obscurity Knocks e.p.
The Trashmen - Surfin' Bird
Ike & Tina Turner - River Deep Mountain High
The Twilight Singers - Feathers/Number Nine

"Big Mama" Thornton - Hound Dog

Poolside

We were at a 40th birthday party in the function room of a pub last night and it felt like being in the mosh pit in the Barrowlands when seeing the Pogues circa 1987, jesus it was hot!

Anyway here is a rather blissed out cover of Harvest Moon to accompany your beer in the sunshine this afternoon.

Not sure what I think of this version to be honest.

Poolside - Harvest Moon

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance

Not as bad  first four days back at work as I expected even with a trip to my favourite town to learn about WIIFMs and WICMs for the umpteenth time and this heat!

Today's track comes from an album released in 1993 and which for me, after listening to again a couple of times this week stands the test of time in a form of music that is constantly shifting and changing. Well it was produced by Andrew Weatherall, Jagz Kooner and  Gary Burns so what else did I expect, really.

Have a good weekend, me I will be melting somewhere!

Play loud or through headphones for best effect

Sabres of Paradise - Still Fighting

Luton Again

When you are reading this I will be in Luton for some of that stuff that Mr H does so well. I can hardly contain my excitement as I type this at the thought.

Here is a bit of Rockabilly from a woman you wouldn't mess with, or "go home to with a burst pay packet" as we say up here, let alone cheat on.

Joyce Green - Black Cadillac

Locked Together

No ranting today, just a beautiful song by the amazing Kenny Anderson. I don't think that there is anybody more prolific but at the same time relatively unknown. This track comes from the 2005 album KC Rules Ok but you've all got a copy right? If not get your act together.

Max has been to a lot more places on holiday in his nine years than I had by the age of 16 but he still rates Anstruther on the East Neuk of Fife as his favourite place in the world.

King Creosote - :Locked Together 

Back To Work!

Well, if that's my holidays then I've had them. Not really. Got a week in Machrihanish at the beginning of August to look forward to, when no doubt it will pleut tous les jours.

A brilliant and really warm ten days in the south west of France was had by all, especially the mosquitoes who have been using me as a feeding ground, must be all the bad cholesterol that appeals to them.  Beaucoup du vin et le canard was consumed and I am even more portly than I was previously.

Anything been happening in my near two weeks of splendid isolation?

A Brit has won Wimbledon, you say!

No, never.

On my ferry home anyway,  you could have been excused if you had thought that Andy Murray was from some country even more despised than France to the population of the largest nation in our United (?) Kingdom. I know that I cannot base my judgement on the two or three hundred English people on a particular boat at a particular time but I was rather disappointed and a tad incensed at the contempt that there was for the Scot, there I've said it, although he left the country when he was fifteen for Barcelona, and let's face it who wouldn't if they got the chance, he still sounds Scottish, then again so does Sir Sean and he hasn't lived here since the fifties but don't get me started on him. I and probably the majority of people north of Carlisle are under no illusions that he would have been Scottish in the English press on Monday morning had he not beaten the world's number one. No the Serb had not been paid to throw the match like the couple from the West Midlands sitting next to me remarked at the end, in all fucking seriousness!

I am not one for tennis. When I was a kid the only thing that the second week of Wimbledon meant to me was the start of my school holidays. I have always thought of it as a sport for the rather privileged, you don't find many tennis courts in housing schemes or see many normal punters on the seats at Center Court, and nearly as anachronistic in it's outlook as golf.  However,  when stuck on a boat for nine hours with nothing else to,  do as we did not have a cabin I decided to watch the final, christ,  I would even have watched the Grand Prix or something equally mind numbing to pass the time. It wasn't long until I was really getting involved and vocally cheering on Murray as others from my homeland, as I do consider myself as British, rooted for Djokovic. At the end I was more relieved that the Scot had won rather than pleased as it wiped the smug satisfying looks off of the coupons of some sitting around me.

I don't believe that the whole of the English nation is so small minded and bigoted as the ones I encountered on Sunday, just like not all Scots are drunks with a penchant for anything deep fried in batter, only some of us. But there is a section of the society that needs to take a hard look at itself, the same section who in the middle of France should also review the strategy of shouting at a waitress and breaking an English word down into syllables as it isn't going to get you anywhere and probably just reinforces the preconceived contempt that she probably already had.

How dare you people make me think that our "sonsie faced" First Minister might have a point and also have me banging on about a sport that I really couldn't give a flying fuck for!

Oh, and just before I finish, Murray's victory cannot be compared to the English team winning the World Cup in 1966, as suggested on the Today programme yesterday morning, you can have that one, as you haven't stopped banging on about it for fifty three fucking years!

Sorry for the rant, but I needed to get that off my chest.

Here is a bit of soul.

Doris Duke -I Don't Care Anymore

Break In Transmission

Since there seems to be a bit of a modern/cross over soul vibe going on at the moment. I will leave you with my favourite cross over soul tune, written by Bobby Hebb and just one of the brilliant tracks off of her 1972 album on Mainstream.

Nonsense will resume here on the 8th/9th July

Alice Clark - Don't You Care

En Vacances

Tomorrow morning we will begin the long trek to Portsmouth to get the ferry to St Malo and then head down to our friends house in le Gurcan just outside Sainte-Foy-la-Grande. This is the crossing that we used to do avant les weans. We would embark at Portsmouth get drunk and find a bit of floor to kip on, or if flush when we booked the ferry splash out for a recliner. When the boys came along, we thought that getting a cheap b&b at Dover and then the short crossing was better for them than kipping on the floor but this year rather than suffer le Boulevard Peripherique, we would do the overnight crossing, splash out for a cabin and have a shorter drive the other side.

I am really looking forward to going back to the house, it has been three years since we were last there and the scars of that nightmare have nearly healed but I am not yet ready "to look back and laugh about it" as JC suggested at the time.

Anyway, just to let you know that not a lot will be happening around here until 8th July.

I have taken to listening to The Waterboys over the past few weeks and am quite glad the records have stood the test of time. I sent Stiff a text saying how good The Whole Of The Moon sounded and he replied " the reason why it was so popular back then was because it was brilliant", never a truer statement uttered.

The Waterboys - Strange Boat

(A Case Of ) Too Much Love Making

It took me will into my thirties to appreciate the subtler, more floaty sounds of Modern Soul.  From the age of about 16 I had immersed myself in the pounding, stomping 60s sounds that were the staple diet of the Northern Soul fan. I loved the sounds of Stax and Atlantic as well and even dabbled with the sounds of Philly and disco but tailor mades and modern soul were a step too far. That was until I found myself in the modern room at a Weekender for the first time and realised that I liked what I was listening to. So much so that I was there for over an hour and posted missing.

(A Case Of) Too Much Love Making is a prime example of the kind of thing that I would have dismissed out of hand a decade or so ago. I would have been horrified if somebody had suggested that I would not just like but actively seek out a record produced by Barry White and with a backing track including the strings of the Love Unlimited Orchestra.

Oh, how times have changed.

btw,  Lisa Stansfield had a fair stab at this on her third album, So Natural.

Gloria Scott - (A Case Of) Too Much Love Making

What's In Yir Box? S

We come to the letter which has the most entries in the box.

First up we have a bit of Italian, New Orleans fusion and the best use of harmonica and banjo together that I have in my collection. In The River by Fab Samperi was one of those records that the first time I heard it, it stopped me in my tracks and I knew that I would not be happy until I had. It took quite a bit of searching before I found a copy of this bad boy I can tell you.

I have always liked St Etienne but thought of them as a singles band rather than as somebody that I would sit down and listen to an album by all the way through,  up until quite recently, Foxbase Alpha being the only album that I owned but those singles both seven and twelve inche being well into double figures. I have had a great time over the last few years discovering the very many brilliant album tracks that up until then I was ignorant of. But for me it always comes back to the first two singles.  The second of which, a cover of the Field Mice song, sung by Donna Savage edges it. For me it is a brilliant summer song and evokes long sunny days coming down after a brilliant night of excess and over indulgence that really comes into it's own just as you are starting to feel human again. The first single in it's 12" Weatherall remix form is in the big box.

No self respecting record box would be complete without a Sex Pistols record and for me it has to be the EMI promo copy of Anarchy In The UK but as I don't own a copy of this rather pricey artifact I will make do with my copy of Pretty Vacant. A better song in my opinion, I think the intro is full of foreboding and Lydon's vocal is at its menacing best on this single.

Fife's finest, The Skids were responsible for more than a few great singles , I can think of six truly great and a further five really good ones. Woman In Winter is probably my favourite although Circus Games and Charade come close. One thing that does kind of bond all the singles together is the fact that I have never been able to work out what the fuck Jobbers is going on about in any of them, with the possible exception of Charles, who worked in a factory.

I suppose if you had to pigeon hole Slow Club they would be called nu-folk or some such thing. I think that they make a great racket and whose lyrics are very witty and clever. I just love the frenetic pace of Trophy Room and the drumming reminds me of the Woodentops.

I wasn't the biggest fan of Shoegaze when it sort of evolved in the late 80s,  early 90s. I did like My Bloody Valentine but I think my prejudice lay in the fact that I saw it as progression of Goth which I really despised. Another thing that put me off was the awful dress sense and the uncleanliness of its followers with their matted hair, holey jumpers and manky footwear. How could these people not keep their trainers clean for fucks sake? The whole lot of them needed to be rounded up and stood in front of a fully functioning water cannon. I did however, love the first Slowdive album and Catch The Breeze in particular.

Strychnine by the Sonics is a song I came to courtesy of Mark Edward Smith and his cover version from a Peel session back in 1993. When I eventually got my hands on a Sonics compilation I found out that Strychnine wasn't their only great original track, Psycho and The Witch being nearly as unhinged as the track the Fall had covered. They also made a great job of covers themselves, whether it be The Night Time Is The Right Time,  Louie Louie or the numerous others.

What can I say about Sonic Youth apart from they have recorded some great stuff over the years, they have also produced some things which I find practically unlistenable. One thing I would never have said was " You know who I think Sonic Youth should collaborate with? Chuck D. You know I can really see that happening". But it did on the second single from their excellent 1990 album Goo. Possibly the band at their most accessible.

I once described Handsfree by Sonny J to be the bastard child of Nancy Sinatra and Quentin Tarantino, if he made music and not films but my description was influenced by the video for the track which is very Tarantioesque but I still think that it is the sort of tune that could crop up in one of his films, the strange mix of the country vocal and the mariachi horns.

Up The Junction is just my favourite kitchen sink drama song and one of the best records ever, period. But I always wondered why having a bath on Sunday was an event worth singing about,  was it that unusual? We are back to personal hygiene issues again. Does anyone own a copy of this on black vinyl as I think the only copies I have ever seen are on lilac coloured plastic?

Gangsters is another classic, the start of a label, musical genre, youth movement and the habit of people wearing ill-fitting Sta-Prest trousers and three button jackets that looked good on the members of the Specials etc but not so great on your average 10/11 year old in Lanarkshire. But what a tune and also with The Selecter on the flip side you get two great bands on one single.

There are times when I think that Spiritualized are the best band in the world. I'm not sure why I Anyway That You Want Me is in the box over Smile or Good Dope Good Fun or any the others. Probably because it was the band's first single when they were more of a band. Pierce sets his stall out from the beginning on this cover of the Chip Taylor song, although the sound would get much deeper over the years all the elements are there right from the off.

Phil Spector has had quite a few mentions on this blog and Silence Is Easy will undoubtedly be his final production unless he gets a group together in prison but I think that those days of prisoners producing music while incarcerated in correctional institutions are over. To be honest this is not a bad record for him to be associated with. I would however like to hear, if there are any, the recordings that Starsailor made of the track before Spector got his hands on it.

One of the best gigs I've ever been to was in 2003/2004? when I saw The Raveonettes, as I said last week the Raveonettes gigs are always great even the night that the mixing board blew up. The reason that this gig was so special was not only the headline band but the support also blew me away that night. I had never heard Stellastarr before but from about half way through the first number they had me sold, the energy was amazing and after two or three songs I was a fan. They had a sound deeply indebted to British indie of the 80s, I could hear bits of the Cure, the Bunnymen and a whole load of the best bits of Big Country. Somewhere Across Forever was the band's first single and is a prime example of the energy and sound of the band. I have seen them live on three further occasions and after the last a guy standing next to me turned round and said "that was fucking brilliant, I bought a ticket on spec, best fucking tenner I've spent in a long time" and he was not wrong.

Long suffering readers of this nonsense will know of the dilemma that happens every March for me.  To go or not to go, that is the question and see SLF at the Barrowlands on St Patrick's Night. It's not because the band will be rubbish,  as they never are, it's just that with maybe with one random thrown in , you know what the set is going to be and it's quite depressing to see the amount of people that the last thirty odd years really haven't happened for. The Clash excepted, SLF are my favourite punk band and at one time there were 5 singles in the box but over the last couple of years three have had to make way for other things with only Suspect Device and Alternative Ulster, the first two singles remaining. Alternative Ulster was the second single I ever bought,  from a stall at Wishaw market. Suspect Device although the first single by the band was purchased or more probably swapped a couple of years later, not quite sure which. The thing about these singles and everything up to and including At The Edge is the rawness and sheer force of the sound, even now all these years later there is an energy off of these singles that is missing from a lot of  punk records, I'm not saying that Jake Burns and the boys were more "real" and meant it more than any of the rest but they did really capture that sense of urgency in the recording better than most.

The final single in the S's is by a band who were hailed by the NME at the time as the saviours of indie rock. I have always been suspicious of such claims and to be honest at that point in time I wasn't particularly bothering about white middle class boys with guitars and vared not a jot if the genre were thriving or not, so I was a little late to pick up on the Strokes but when I heard Last Nite, I really enjoyed what I heard and bought the single, quickly followed by the album. From the outset the track always sounded quite familiar but it was a while until I realised what it reminded me off, American Girl by Tom Petty,  a big favourite of my mate at school Ben, the boy who introduced me to R.E.M.

So that's yir whack for the S's.

Fab Sameri - In The River
St Etienne - Kiss And Make Up
Sex Pistols - Pretty Vacant
Skids - Woman In Winter
Slow Club - Trophy Room
The Sonics - Strychnine
Slowdive - Catch The Breeze
Sonic Youth - Kool Thing
Sonny J - Handsfree (If You Hold My Hand)
Squeeze - Up The Junction
Special A.K.A. - Gangsters
Spiritualized - Any Way That You Want Me
Starsailor - Silence is Easy
Stellastarr* - Somewhere Across Forever
Stiff Little Fingers - Suspect Device
Stiff Little Fingers - Alternative Ulster
The Strokes - Last Nite

Squeeze -Up The Junction

1988 Rap Week part 5

Well, this is not technically rap but it did come out in 1988 and I did play it last week.

I really like this cover of a Bacharach and David standard, it reminds me of the Smith and Mighty covers of Walk On By and Anyone Who Had A Heart which incidentally were both also released in 1988.

Bomb The Bass - I Say A Little Prayer

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance

Since it is 1988 hip-hop week and it's Friday I was going to post Hip-House by DJ Fast Eddie, see what I did there? but I'm fucked if I can find it! So here is a slab of house music from 1988 that I found in the cupboard tucked away with the rap and indie twelves last Saturday.

I'm off to see the Amazing Snakeheads tonight.

Have a good weekend people.

Kraze - The Party (Club mix)

Just Because

It's Fucking brilliant and I am officially on annual leave yea ha!

Best use of a Shirley Bassey sample I have ever heard.

Public Enemy - Harder Than You Think

1988 Rap Week part 4

I first heard public enemy in 1987 when I got a loan o the first album, Yo Bum Rush The Show from a mate in Aberdeen. It was good but not great, I think that there may have been a problem with the pressing as I remember it sounded pretty muffled at the time.

The second album, It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back was a huge jump on from the Yo, it was loud and proud, there was no ambiguity around the meaning of the raps,  Chuch D said what the meant and meant what he said and the production by Bomb Squad (Hank Shocklee and Carl Ryder) was so dense but still clear, still don't know what some of those noises are that have been incorporated within the mix of some of the tunes.

The album spawned a whole load of singles of which Don't Believe The Hype is probably my second favourite behind Bring The Noise.

Public Enemy - Bring The Noise

1988 Rap Week part three

Today's joint comes courtesy of Monie Love.

I Can Do This was the first single by the Brittish rapper. Monie Love was a protege of Queen Latifah. The backing track sounds a bit dated but the rapping is top class.

Monie Love - I Can Do This 

1988 Rap Week part two

There is a certain naivety about the samples on this Graeme Park mix of Eric B & Rakim. To me it seems that due to the new technology samples were used just because they could, is there any other reason why you would sample some of the most recognisable lines that Humphrey Bogart ever uttered at the beginning of a hip hop song other than because it can be done.

Eric B & Rakim - Put Your Hands Together (Parkside mix)

1988 Rap Week part one

On Saturday while cleaning up the house I had an urge to listen to some old school Rap and Hip-hop, first of  all I dug out Adventures on The Wheels of Steel by Grandmaster Flash which was given the Max seal of approval and I was instructed to play it again, so to keep the peace I did what I was told. After this I gravitated towards the cupboard that houses 12" singles that aren't post 1990 dance tunes and started pulling out some singles. Eric B & Rakim, nice followed by a bit of Roxanne Shante, then a bit of Public Enemy  and so on but after about the 4th or 5th record I realised that they were all from 1988. It appears that I was heavily into my hip-hop in 1988, mainstream granted but hip-hop none the less.

As I played these tunes an idea for a week long series came to me and so this week I will be mostly playing hip-hop. For those of you under the age of forty, there will be no bitches, or hoes referred to, no talk of popping caps or of firearms at all, violence will be eluded to but more through a blistering verbal assault as opposed to the physical kind.

First up, is a 12" single I remember buying from Woolies and playing very loud to my then girlfriend just returned from unsuccessfully emigrating to Australia, who was less than impressed by this sort of music. An absolute belter of a jam built upon a Lyn Collins sample from 1972. I have posted this before but it is brilliant.

Rob Base & D.J. E.Z. Rock - It Takes Two

What's In Yir Box? R

This week's selection is a little more expansive than that of last week but still maintaining the quality, well with the exception of one  whose merits can be argued, not on the basis of the single but by the gobshite lead singer being a legend in his own lunch hour, which tends to make an objective view of his music quite difficult.

To kick off we have the Ramones with their 1980 cover of Baby I Love You, I could have included Rock N Roll Radio or Do You Wanna Dance? in the box at one time but the Ronettes cover is there because it was the first thing I heard by the Ramones and also the first thing produced by Phil Spector which not only led me to listen to further Ramones records but also to the joys of the Ronettes and the rest of the Spector back catalogue, although it would be a further ten years or so before I would come out the closet regarding my love of the sounds of  the deeply troubled producer and 60s girl groups more generally.

My love affair with the Raveonettes started by chance in autumn 2002. I was sitting in the "rest area" in the Edinburgh office when the company I work for still had an office in Scotland, scanning the Scotsman when I saw a bit in the listings section talking about this  Danish duo who were playing King Tuts the following evening, the article mentioned the Jesus And Mary Chain, Buddy Holly and the Cramps as influences. So as I had nothing better to do the following night and went along.

Not knowing what to expect I was blown away from the outset when they started with prolonged feedback which evolved into Everyday, the Buddy Holly classic and for the next forty minutes or so I was in feedback and minor chord heaven. I have stated on many occasions that the recorded output of the duo does not fully reflect the intensity of hearing them live, you can't really say performing because there isn't really any performance but the sound generated is something else. That's not to say that the records aren't good, they are just different from the live experience.

At one time all nine 7" singles were in the box but some had to make way for other things and so three remain. The third single, Beat City on lovely white vinyl still has the rawness of the early days when every thing was recorded in B flat minor. That Great Love Sound from the first full album proper was the one which I thought would see the band break through as it was poppy enough to attract the mainstream but still "cool" enough for the hipsters, it actually got to number 39 in the UK charts in 2003 but the next time I saw them they were still playing King Tut's, to a bigger audience but not the breakthrough I had predicted.  The third single by Sune and Sharin in the box is from the third album, by this time they had been punted by the major label and all hope of them becoming the next big thing had gone. The single was released on Fierce Panda and is full of lovely feedback, Mo Tucker like drumming and lovely sweet harmonies which makes the song feel all the more sinister.

Next up is the single eluded to in the opening paragraph, Rock N Roll Lies by Razorlight. I first saw Razorlight strangely enough when they were supporting The Raveonettes, I really liked the noise they made but even then you knew that Johnny Borrell was a cock, who thought more of himself than the rest of the room did. I have to admit that I went to see them a further three times to diminishing returns and the final lot of tickets just after Somewhere Else was released I gave to a work colleague as I really couldn't be arsed. Rock N Roll Lies is a good indie rock tune but the reason that the single remains in the box is because of the b-side, a complete rip-off Patti Smith's version of Gloria but I still really like it and it reminds me of how good they sounded on my my first encounter with them, as In The City was certainly the highlight of the set.

I discovered a fair bit of music due to the Tube, not least the next single. I'm almost positive that it was the video for Good Technology that I saw on the Tube and not a live performance. Whatever it was that I saw  it made me seek out the single from either Virgin or HMV on my ever increasing trips into the city at the weekends at the time.

The next band also had a memorable appearance on the Tube. I was not a big fan of the SWP,  some of Chris Dean's politics didn't sit well with me and his harsh statements about Billy Bragg and Neil Kinnock really riled me but his lyrics and tunes were and still sound fucking brilliant, none more so than Keep On Keeping On and the flip side Reds Strike The Blues. They were also, probably the coolest looking band of the time, a lot cooler then The Style Council for me.

The first time I heard Eli Paperboy Reed was when Mark dropped (If You Want The Love Of A Man) Come And Get It at the final Blog Rockin' Beats night in The Flying Duck. I thought that it was an old tune, totally floored by the fact that at that time it was a new release. It was duly purchased, flogged to death and given a rightful place in the box.

My mate Ben was the big REM fan when we were at school. He was an avid reader of Rolling Stone and it was from an article there that he first learnt of the band from Athens, Georgia and duly decided to investigate further. It wasn't until he played me Life's Rich Pageant that I really took any notice, it impressed me so much that the following weekend I purchased the album. I have always loved Superman and to this day it is still my favourite REM song, a cover, I know. Heresy I hear you collectively cry.

There is not much I can say about That Summer Feeling, apart from, Jonathan Richman is a very wise man. For a young impressionable kid when I first heard this song from one of Bat's tapes I just thought it a great song but from my perspective as a middle aged curmudgeon some nearly thirty years later when it transports me back to when the summer went on forever, life was a lot simpler and all you had to worry about was whether she liked you as much as you liked her, it is a work of genius that always makes me smile and think of a golden retriever and a petulant girlfriend.

The last group in the box under R were like the first,  produced by Phil Spector but unlike the Ramones were responsible for the best pop single ever recorded, no arguments. that one was put to bed on the 18 November 2011 here. Be My Baby is not the only single by the Ronettes in the box, it is the only undisputed one but also present is I Can Hear Music which just pipped (The Best Part Of) Breakin' Up and Do I Love You and it was a close running thing and if I had room,  all four singles would be in the box. I sometimes think that I was wrong not having Breaking Up in there, as the C'mon baby" at two minutes 26 secs sends shivers up my spine. but then I put on I Can Hear Music and it's shivers from start to finish.

So that's the Rs, there seems to be a lot links between the songs here that there haven't been with previous letters, maybe there was but at the time I just didn't notice them. Anyway, tricky one to pick one from, a few have featured before and That Summer Feeling quite recently. So I've decided to post the b-side of the Razorlight single.

Ramones - Baby I Love You
The Raveonettes - Beat City
The Raveonettes - That Great Love Sound
The Raveonettes - Dead Sound
Razorlight - Rock N Roll Lies
Red Guitars - Good Technology
Redskins - Keep On Keeping ON
Eli "Paperboy" Reed & The True Loves - (If You Want The Love Of A Man) Come And Get It
Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers - That Summer Feeling
R.E.M. - Superman
The Ronettes - Be My Baby
The Ronettes - I Can Hear Music

Razorlight - In The City

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance

In honour of the summer of 2013 that was last week here is a lovely piece of Balearica courtesy of the 2 Bears and remixed by Darkstarr (Ashley Beedle & Colleen Murphy). Just the thing for when the weather is warm and there isn't a cloud in the sky, not too bad either when it's windy and the sky is overcast and grey, trust me.

I'm off for some root treatment, deep joy!

Have a good weekend people.

2 Bears - Church (Darkstarr Diskotek remix)

Song For A Friend

This is for a friend and his dad.

Richard Hawley - The Sea Calls (Live)

Fear Of My Identity

How about a lovely piece of summery west coast pop just as the weather is set to break.

Like yesterday's track this was an exclusive Record Shop Day release. Why queue up for three hours and spend silly amounts of money on the second Saturday in April, when I can do it for you and then drip feed the releases that I managed to get my hands on over the next few months.

I think this is the one that I've played most. I really like Best Coast, really good stuff a bit like Cults but with way shittier covers.

Best Coast - Fear Of My Identity

Never My Love

Here is an absolutely lovely rendition of Never My Love, probably the best know version of which was by the Association but it has been covered by countless artists. In 1999 the BMI announced that it was the second most played song on radio and television during the 20th Century which must have kept it's writers Donald and Richard Adrissi's bank manager happy. It is said that the record has been played that much that in the 32 years since it was released that the amount of times the track had been played amounted to 40 years of continuous play. I am even more impressed with myself in the fact that until I had bought the single I had never heard the song before!

This version was previously unreleased but came out on 7" for RSD 2013.

Donny Hathaway - Never My Love

Iain Banks 1954 - 2013

I have been deeply saddened by the passing of Iain Banks. I think that his books have brought me more pleasure over the years than those of any other. From the travails of Frank in The Wasp Factory, through the despair of Dan Weir in Espedair street to hoping that Prentice and Ash will get it together in the Crow Road, I have grown up and older reading his books, laughing out loud and also shedding the odd tear.  They weren't all brilliant but were always worth a read. I once, on a tour up north in my in-laws motor home got L and myself lost and nearly cowped the motor home trying to find the fictional town of Gallanch.

Here is a rather poignant passage from my favourite novel.

" We carry on in our children and in our works and in the memories of others; we continue in our dust and ash" - The Crow Road.

Go easy Iain

Kathryn Williams - The Ballad Of Easy Rider

What's In Yir Box? Q

Paul Quinn and the Independent Group, that's what.

Stupid Thing is just about the most perfect song of longing and loss from the simple piano and cello intro to the almost desperate sounding soaring vocals from Paul Quinn. For a 7" single it is quite long clocking in at over six minutes.  The single was released in 1993 on the reincarnated Postcard label and criminally  failed completely to grab the attention of the record buying public. An inferior, in my opinion, version of the song  was included on the group's second album , Will I Ever Be Inside of You.

For a more comprehensive look at the work of one of the most underrated Scottish singers head over to JCs bit of the Internet, here and simply search there

Wonderful stuff

Paul Quinn & The Independent Group - Stupid Thing

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance

The big shiny yellow thing in the sky is out again today, that's nearly a full week that we up in the grey country have been bathed in sunlight and we really don't know how to deal with it. I saw a lot of very bright red people about yesterday and a few walking like cardboard cut-outs today. Another thing that I wonder about, is what happens to people's dress sense as soon as we get a wee bit of heat? Pale blue people do not look right bearing flesh.

Anyway, the Lanimers is over, nearly time to take down my pirate bunting and flags and get back to normal, Hallelujah!

I think a bit of Belgian techno from the early 90s is the order of the day. Watch out for that acid line and those drums.

Have a good weekend, people.

Capricorn - 20Hz

Happy Lanimers!

It is Lanimar day in Lanark, basically our town's Gala Day.

This year the theme of the float Max is part of is Space exploration, so in honour of this here's the lead song  from Allo Darlin's album, Eurpoe released last year.

Allo Darlin' - Neil Armstrong

The Woodentops

I think that The Woodentops are an extremely underrated band. There were very few indie bands in 1986 who were making music for the dancefloor, I actually can't think of any other and for that reason alone The Woodentops should be given a bit more credit, they were at the forefront of what would later be tagged indie dance.

The track posted today comes from the more experimental second album but you wouldn't think of that from You Make Me Feel, as it sounds most like the stuff from the first album but tracks like Stop This Car  especially the 12" version and Tuesday/Wednesday are quite a departure from Giant and the album didn't do nearly as well. I have to admit that the album is pretty neglected in this household and I think that a couple of listens may be required.

You make me feel was the first single released from Wooden Foot Cops On The Highway in 1988 and is just the tune for this unexpected extended sunny period we are having up here.

The Woodentops - You Make Me Feel

and as a bonus also posted the b-side of the 12", the strange Late Night mix

The Woodentops - You Make Me Feel (Late Night mix)

Dum dum dum, dummy doo wah

As of the 01-06-2013,  my team has been allowed to have it's name back, so next season Airdrionians will be back in the Scottish League, second division granted but still there. Don't know what difference it will make on the park right enough but I feel positive.

If you are saying "so what, what's in a name?" ask anyone you know that supports that team from Glasgow that went out the game two seasons ago.

Roy Orbison - Only The Lonely

The Night

I posted this song during the first month of the blog when the "It's Friday . . . Let's Dance"  was anything that was vaguely danceable before it became the thing it is today.

This is one of the tracks that sums up northern soul for me. If somebody asked me for examples of what the genre was, this would be one of the tracks that would pop into my head straight away and it is also something that would confuse those not familiar with Northern Soul as it doesn't fit the profile in so much that it is not obscure and it is the product of four Italian Americans from New Jersey. But these are the reasons why the tune is northern soul because just as soon as you think you know what constitutes a northern track something comes along which doesn't seem to fit the bill but is embraced by the scene.

Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons - The Night

Apparently my posting a 39 year old record on my blog is severely impacting on the wealth of either B Gordy or F Valli, as there has been a copy right infringement warning. I suggest that you find yourself a second hand copy of the single on Discogs or Ebay.

What's In Yir Box? P

Where P certainly does not stand for pish. There are a more respectable number of singles this week

First up we have the single that this blog takes it name from. If you don't know the story check out the first post on the blog and it will tell you all you need to know about this song. All you really need to know is that it is a brilliant song in whatever form, the album version, the single version but for me the 12" mix is the one  and that is why I think that this is the only single that features in both my "best" singles box and also the 12"/album box. I will be forever indebted to  Debbie, wherever she is,  for first playing this tune to me.

The Pastels had been releasing music for five years before the release of Crawl Babies but this was the first single that really caught my attention. It was released in 1987 when I was eighteen and running about on a Vespa GS and listening to a lot of Northern Soul but the Pastels were the sound of now , then? When I play this these days I am transported back to a time when every cool  band seemed to be coming out of Glasgow or Lanarkshire. When I was riding into Glasgow at the weekend, going to Fopp and Listen and then down to Flip then over the road to pose in the Rock Garden in the uniform of the day either a bowling shirt or short sleeved American Marine Gunnery Sergeant shirt ( I loved that shirt!), green MA1,  faded 501s, oxblood Docs and flat top. A life time ago!

The next single from the box is Summer Babe by Pavement. Yet more indie!. Somebody once said to me " you like the Fall, don't you?  you should check out Pavement then" and so I did and I liked what I found but I have always suspected that the sound is quite contrived not that it makes it any less good but I do have that feeling. Shambolic is a word that I have seen more than once applied to the Pastels and rightly so, sometimes live but I would use the word to describe Summer Babe, I think it has a lot to do with the drumming and the lo-fi sound. Malkmus did make a huge mistake when he tried to cover The Fall on the Minor Leagues ep.

I saw Candie Payne years ago in King Tut's and she could hardly hold the mike she was that nervous but when she sang she had the place captivated. One More Chance was her third single and the one which I was sure would see her break through but it bombed not even reaching the top 100 in the UK. I think that the timing was out,  as if the single had been released the following year just after Duffy set the heather on fire with Mercy, there would have been an audience more receptive to this blue eyed sixties style soul. The single version of One More Chance differs from the album version, as it is produced by Mark Ronson who does exactly what you would Mark Ronson to do to a track.

I could be wrong, but I'm not sure that many people had high expectations from a release by John Lydon and PiL in 1986. A couple of years previously there had been an album and the brilliant collaboration with African Bambaataa but I don't think that anyone expected the tour de force that was Rise. I'm pretty sure that the first time I heard it was also the first time I saw the video and it was on The Tube not only was the song brilliant but Lydon on the evidence of the video had lost none of his menace.

We are back in 1987 with the next single from the pile. But it is a couple of months later, the flat top is still in place but I've relocated to Aberdeen and frequenting a place called the Mudd Club of a Monday night. Beaver Patrol is not big and it is not clever but it did fill the dance floor on those dreich Monday nights at the end of 1987, in Aberdeen at least. It wasn't until the mid 90s that I found out that it was actually a cover version. A couple of years later I was sitting, blootered,  in the back of a car outside the McDonalds at the Forge in Glasgow when one of the staff walked past and I had the sudden urge to roll down and hang out the window humming the tune of Beaver Patrol to her and then singing "litter patrol" on account of what it said on the back of her jacket which I found hilarious but the rest of the car just shook there head at and told me to " get in and roll up the fucking window!"

Next up is Elvis Presley with That's All Right, where it all began apparently and who am I to argue.

Followed by another Elvis record, the second ep from the film King Creole which includes my favourite Elvis track,  Crawfish. The scene where Elvis sings it in the film, is up there with the motorcycle escape attempt in the Great Escape, the "Charly don't surf" scene in Apocolypse Now or the final scene in Casablanca for my favourite film scene ever, seriously how cool does E P look in that scene? The ep also includes Young Dreams, Dixieland Rock and Trouble which I once had on 7" by Gillan and which if I remember correctly was rather good.

Stop Your Sobbing is probably the single I've owned the most copies of, currently on my fourth. I think the first one was scratched but the second and third both cracked, not sure if it was pressed on a bad batch of vinyl or I have just been rougher on this single than all the rest. There is something about Chrissy Hynde's vocals on this single that thirty three years later still gives me goose pimples. The first single by the band and for me the best single by a fag paper from Kid.

The last P in the box is by Primal Scream and it's not Loaded or Come Together, they are both in the big box but neither is it All Fall Down or Gentle Tuesday, it's  Sometimes I Feel So Lonely. I know that others consider this a Primal Scream ballad by numbers with all the right constituent parts but there is a certain something that really appeals to me, I love the banjo, the harmonica, and when the strings come in on the second chorus I get a wee bit weepy and even Bobby G's vocals and rubbish lyrics don't irk me. "Nothings as it seems, boy, you can be redeemed". It is actually quite lovely.

So that's the Ps for ya.

The Pale Fountains - Across The Kitchen Table (dble pk)
The Pastels - Crawl Babies
Pavement - Summer Babe
Candie Payne - One More Chance
PiL - Rise
Pop Will Eat Itself - Beaver Patrol
Elvis Presley - That's All Right
Elvis Presley - King Creole Vol.2
Pretenders - Stop Your Sobbing
Primal Scream - Sometimes I Feel So Lonely

Pretenders - Stop Your Sobbing

I Think It's Time

Well, we have had nearly a week of dry and quite sunny weather, up here anyway.

"You'll have had your summer then"

Jonathan Richman and The Modern Lovers - That Summer Feeling.

Time Out

This is for all our dads and Davy's in particular.

The Pogues - I'm A Man You Don't Meet Every Day 

Loadstones

I have been regretting not going to see the Fall at the start of the month, not because the reviews were great, far from it, however it does seem that Smith's performances got better and he was visible a lot more the more that the tour went on. I think that I am regretting it because I'm beginning to think that there may not be that many more opportunities what with the fact that he doesn't seem to be fit enough and also that I find the new album less than essential. It has it's moments but has far too much filler for me and it seems that lyrically Smith is far from at his best which is quite ironic as the band from the bootlegs from this past tour seem to be on top form. Maybe after all this time I'm just "over" the Fall.

Here is my highlight from the last album which I think, if I'm wrong and I hope I am Smith gets fit and working properly again could be a monster of a song live.

The Fall - Loadstones

Alphabet Street

Alphabet Street was for me the last great Prince single, I quite liked Sexy M.F. but for me nothing after the lead single from Lovesexy ever came close to the very strange,  multi-instrumentalist's best output up until 1990.

I blame the Batman soundtrack, it all went a bit shit after that. I could be wrong but after a couple of the name changes and below par records I lost interest and have not really listened to anything since Musicology. He is still selling out tours and you can see his influence in artist such as Janelle Monae and any number of RnB acts but as an artist with vision who sets the trend, well I think that that is all in the past.

Sad really.

Thingy - Alphabet Street.

Not One For The Purists part 2

I am always going on about music that shouldn't be covered which is mainly any soul music from the 1960s, as I don't think that anybody kicking about today can do any justice to the back catalogue of the likes of Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, Aretha Franklin et al. Amy Winehouse could just about do it but unfortunately she's no longer around. Let's not get started on Michel Fucking Bolton!

However, when it comes to the re-fit, re-edit, remix what ever you want to call it that's a different story. I know that lots of people think that these tracks should not be fucked about with but I beg to differ. Whether it's Pilooski, re-editing Frankie Valli  or Dee Edwards, Lulu Rouge taking on Little Willie John or what White Label did with Plane by the Supremes, I can't wait to hear what these people do with the tracks and most of the time it's complimentary and makes you go back to the original with a new perspective.

A couple of weeks I got my hands on a 12" of soul edits by Pillowtalk where they rework classic soul from Bobby Hebb, The Festivals and Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell. The mix of Sunny is very good, I'm not that keen on the Festivals track but I wasn't that taken by the original either. The edit of "Ain't Nothing Like The Real Thing" is brilliant it has been stretched out to over 8 minutes and has been turned into a disco/house hybrid that I would think is guaranteed to fill dance floors. It has been played that often over the last couple of weeks that both boys are walking about singing "ain't nothing like the real thing baby, ain't nothing like the real thing" over and over.

Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell - Ain't Nothing Like The Real Thing Baby (Pillowtalk edit)

Not One For The Purists pt 1

I have it on authority that this tune is filling the dance floors at Northern and Modern soul nights up and down the country, I will have to take other people's word for this as it has been a while since I was at an Allnighter but I can imagine people loving and loathing this track in equal measure. The first time I heard it it was so cheesy I thought that I had taken my shoes off but after a few more listens I have to admit that I rather liked it and decided to seek it out on vinyl.

Okay, it's not the most sophisticated track in the world and the lyrics are basic to say the least but it is so upbeat that I think that only the most misanthropic amongst us or your average rare soul aficionado will really hate this.

Bob Sinclar - Tribute 

What's In Yir Box? O

If you thought last week's singles were rather scant, you will be even less impressed this week as we only have two Os in the box. I like to think however that it is quantity over quality, all killer no filler, I could pad out this post with at least another ten crappy platitudes but I think that  I will just let the music speak for itself.

First up we have possibly at a push my favourite single of the punk era, although I don't think it's a punk record but it definitely reeks of that period to me but it's not punk. Also the one single that Stiff's eldest brother owned that I coveted over all others. It is a single that for years I looked for pre and post internet,  looking for a mint copy,  it had to be mint as I knew that it would be played over and over and over again. It wasn't until relatively recently, within the last couple of years that I obtained a reasonably priced, M- copy of
Another Girl,  Another Planet and it is no exaggeration to say that a fortnight won't have gone by since without me playing it.

Even now, I get goosebumps and shivers when I hear that intro and when the song starts I can't help start jumping about like an eejit and what's that, a guitar solo in a record recorded in 1978, yes it is and it's glorious. AG,AP was a standard on my compilation tapes for years, copied from my copy on a TDK 90, the quality couldn't have been great as that D90 was played to death.

I think if push come to shove and I could only pick one tune from 1977 - 1980, then Another Girl, Another Planet would be that tune.

The other single under O in the box is Blue Boy by Orange Juice. I would love to tell you that I bought this single when it first came out and that I was into Orange Juice when I was eleven,  but alas no. I,  like most people my age would have to say that I only became aware of the band some three years later when I heard Rip It Up. I'm sure the band would have been played in the Wilson household before then, so I would have been exposed to them but for some reason they hadn't registered. I had a couple of friends whose older brothers were heavily into Orange Juice and Joseph K and I remember getting copies of Gregor's brother's albums and of course I got quite a few bits of the later stuff, such as What Presence and Lean Period from the friend who's father was a music journalist, a story  which I have blogged about before.

The reason why Blue Boy is in the box over  the previously mentioned number 8 single in 1983, or Felicity or L.O.V.E Love or the others I own is due to the sheer exuberance of the track, it seems to go at a hunner miles an hour and I just love the jangly guitar.

So in my fathers words "If  that's my dinner then I've had it". I promise that there are more Ps in the box and just wait 'til we get to the Ss. But I'm sure you will agree two better singles it would be hard to find.

The Only Ones - Another Girl, Another Planet

Orange Juice - Blue Boy