So Is The Sun

A bit of psychedelic soul, very Sly & the Family Stone(y)and a bit of a stomper for you this Monday morning. If this sounds familiar to Jam fans, Trans Europe Express from the Gift owes more than a small debt to World Column and if not given writing credits alongside Paul Weller, Boller, Kaplan and Johnson bloody well ought to. So In The Sun was released on the Capital label in 1969 and was big in Black pool, Cleethorpes and Wigan in 1976.

The World Column - So Is The Sun

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance

I need something a bit uplifting what with all of the shit going on at the moment in the World, Syria , Trumpf (the f being deliberate,  trumpf being vernacular for a fart) , the price of US soul singles rocketing on Discogs due to the dissolving pound , the thought of another Independence Referendum, I could go on but I don't want to depress people even more on a Friday. I have decided to post a brace of songs full of so much positivity that they can't help but raise your mood and get your feet moving. Both from 1987, the heady early days of House and both on the DJ International label.

Airdrie take on Peterhead tomorrow, the game is a 17:15 kick-off and will be beamed to the masses eagely wanting to witness the silky skills on show in the Scottish League One on BBC Alba, so if you find yourself at a loose end tomorrow evening and have access to the Scottish Gaelic channel  tune in.

Have a good weekend people

Joe Smooth feat. Anthony Thomas - Promised Land

Sterling Void & Paris Brightledge - It's Alright

Go For It

When I first heard this thirty five years ago I was less than impressed. I'm not sure if it was from the b side of Silver Lining or from the album, Go For It as I can't remember which came out first, I suspect the album. I can be certain that it was in Stiff and Bat's bedroom.  Later on the tune would be used on Sportscene,  the Scottish Match of the Day, only much better. it is now synonymous with SLF taking to the stage at the Barrowlands in a hail of pints.

Stiff Little Fingers - Go For It

Sleepwalking

It's been a few years since I last saw the Raveonettes live. They haven't played these parts since December 2012 and it's not looking likely that they will be heading over the Atlantic any time soon, They are in the process of producing a new album which you can pre-order through Pledgemusic which entitles you to get a new track digitally each month. The songs are sounding good but not brilliant. I think that the duo's last consistently very good album was Pretty In Black way back in 2005 the five subsequent albums have had their moments some quite a few but none has had the impact on me that Pretty In Black did.

The Raveonettes - Sleepwalking

In The Past

This is another garage track original where I wrongly thought that the later cover was the original. For years I thought that In The Past was a tune by the Chocolate Watch Band but it turns out that it was originally recorded in 1966 by We The People as the plug side of their fourth single, however the local radio station preferred the rather "wet" in my opinion, flip St John's Shop making it a hit in the Orlando area, if no where else. I can't quite understand this as In The Past is a cracking tune and is a hell of a lot better than the later cover.

We The People - In The Past

No One To Love

In it's original form this record is rare and worth a pretty penny a vg copy sold for 1850 quid a few years back. My copy of course is the re-release on the outta sight label.  On the 1967 release No One To Love was actually the flip, (I Owe You) Something was the a-side but the  b-side is the better track. The song has a very dramatic intro,  a smouldering vocal and some lovely strings all in all a very classy piece of  Detroit soul which incidentally was produced by George Clinton in his pre P-Funk days.

Pat Lewis - No One To Love

RIP Billy Franks

Until I was forty I didn't have a clue who Billy Franks was. Twenty three years previously I had heard a song of his which had left an impression on me but which through the years I had nearly forgotten about but not quite.  Every so often a snippet of the long forgotten song would get lodged in my brain and frustrate me for ages until I eventually forgot about it until the next time. If you are interested you can read the full story of my discovery of  what the song was and who was singing it here.

Last night through a tweet from Simon, of the much missed The Songs That People Sing blog I learned of the passing of Billy Franks a couple of weeks ago, far too soon aged only 60,  which saddened me greatly. I do not profess to being as familiar with the man's music as I should have been but people whose opinion I respect such as Simon, Davy H and Tony (DVD) rated him as a song writer and performer  and expressed such admiration for the man and the album I bought on the back of their recommendations, Eventide lived up to the hype which if you do not own you certainly need to rectify immediately.  I do wish that I had seen the man live, from all accounts it could be a deeply moving experience.

Although not the correct time of year it feels right and proper to post the song that was stuck in the back of my head for so many years.

Rest easy Billy

The Faith Brothrs - Easter Parade

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance

A bit of tech house for you today with a great remix, would you expect anything else from Four Tet, of a Bob Holroyd tune. African Drug was originally released in 1994 and if it sounds familiar to you it may be as it was one of the tracks dropped on Coldcut's seminal Journey By DJ's mix. it has. It was updated by both Four Tet and T Williams in 2010 and released on Phonica Records.

No football this weekend as Scotland are making up the numbers in a qualification group for some tournament or other that we will not be attending due to either some new and novel way of failing to qualify or more likely just because we are not terribly good. Still we do have a manager who doesn't appear to be shady but you never know.

Have a good weekend people.

Bob Holryod - African Drug (Four Tet Remix)

Sparkle Mix

John Peel was seldom wrong, apart from where Springsteen was concerned but his comment that "Even if they never made another record, they'll have achieved more than most o us do in our entire lives"  about Geek Love by Bang Bang Machine was spot on. They did produce more music but none of it came close to this tune. This version comes from the remix ep from 1993, a couple of years after the original release. This 12" contained a very laid back mix by Mixmaster Morris and this mix by Ray Shulman.

Bang Bang Machine - Geek Love (Sparkle mix)

As it's nearly Friday you can also have the Mixmaster Morris mix. Don't say I'm not good to you.

Bang Bang Machine - Geek Love (Irresistible Force mix)

So What

Christopher Gaylord on the evidence of So What was listening to a lot of Rolling Stones  prior to writing and recording this great piece of Garage Rock released in 1965.  I love the wailing harmonica on the track and if the way that Chris Gaylord spits out the lyrics he has more than a little contempt for the girl he is singing about. The Lyrics hailed from San Diego, California and released four singles from 1965 to 1968.

There doesn't seem to be much love out there for the garage rock, however I am going to persevere until I run out of what I consider to be good songs.

The Lyrics - So What

Ain't No Love Lost

The original version of Ain't No Love Lost was released on the Scepter label in 1972 and when you first hear the track you wouldn't have to be a genius to spot that it was produced by Curtis Mayfield. The version posted is the marvelous Tom Moulton mix who updates the sound for 1975 and the beginnings of the disco scene. For years this version was only available on the Disco Gold album along with another Moulton mix of a Patti Jo tune, Make Me Believe In You until recently when both were released on a 7" single.

Patti Jo - Ain't No Love Lost (Tom Moulton mix)

You Don't Mean Me No Good

I have a real fondness for 60s girl groups, probably even more than I do for female fronted indie bands. So it is quite strange that I have never sought out either of the Jelly Beans earlier records on Leiber and Stoller's Red Bird label. Not sure why this is so, as I do love You Don't Mean Me No Good, a stomper of a song full of attitude and the handclaps make you sit up and listen. This was released in 1965 and of course failed to chart the  final ingredient needed to make it one for the northern fraternity to seek out.

The Jelly Beans - You Don't Mean Me No Good

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance

It's twenty five years since Slam released Dove's Fallen on their Soma Quality Recordings label which seems like both yesterday and a very long time ago. I loved Fallen which just reinforced my belief from the first hearing of Eterna that this label was going to be something special. Twenty five years on sadly Dove, or One Dove as they were to be know were around for an all too brief period but both Soma and Slam are going strong with a new double album from Stuart and Orde  out imminently on the label. Here is the last collaboration between Dot and the boys, a dark piece of minimal techno. Posted is the vocal mix which sadly contains all too little of Dot's dulcet tones.

Not sure what's on the cards this weekend. Airdrie are away to Alloa Athletic, the league leaders and if the previous two weeks dismal performances are anything to go by we are in for a mauling. Sort it out Kevin!

Have a good weekend people

Dot Alison - Cry (Slam Vocal mix)

Phase I

You might have guessed that I have a bit of a thing for long drawn out space /kraut type things. I think that this goes back to when I used to hang about with the older hippy types in my early teens who introduced me to things like Gong and Can and I realised that songs didn't have to be short, sharp and punchy. So over the years I have been rather partial to tunes on the more self-indulgent spectrum of music. To be honest, I find Gnod a bit hit or miss some of their stuff I love but other things I have bought listened to once, maybe given it a second go and then filed for posterity. The collaboration with White Hills, Drop Out With White Hills II, first released in 2010 is a record that I keep coming back to. The album feels like it is one long jam session (see even the hippy language is flooding back), and when I ripped the vinyl I didn't bother to separate the tracks but just recorded the sides in their entirety. I have posted side 1 (Phase 1 as it is titled) which consists of three tracks, the very short opener, Bits, the meat of the side,  Run-A-Round full of prominent bass, powerful drumming and repetition and then the come down at the end, Streams. The album is best listened to in one sitting and then if you have the time listened to again but who does these days.

Gnod/White Hills - Phase I

Bye Bye Allo Darlin'

I received some sad news the other week that Allo Darlin' have decided to call it a day in a very Allo Darlin' way while they are all still friends  Wait, don’t be sad! Although we are generally a reflective and nostalgic bunch, this is not an overwhelmingly sad decision or twist of fate for us. Most bands have to stop actively recording and playing shows at some point, especially those like us who don’t have this as our day job. 

Allo Darlin' at their most melancholic always cheered me up their is something really comforting in Elazbeth's tone and when they are doing the winsome pop thing there are few better. Live they were always fun to watch, when the ukelele was produced for Tallulah you could here a pin drop and I always went home happy after a night listening to a band of decent human beings.

Allo Darlin' -Some People Say

Allo Darlin' - Henry Rollins Don't Dance

Pain And Sorry Filled My Mind

Another blistering, raucous piece of US garage rock for you, I know absolutely nothing about this piece of music apart from the fact that it is rather brilliant.

The Blue Chips - Where 

Pain Is The Name of Your Game

I am ashamed to say that I had no idea who Ural Thomas was until I saw this single on Nick Waterhouse's Pres label last year so I initially thought that Ural must be a friend of Waterhouse's or an artist that he had toured with. When I dug a little deeper I found that Thomas hails from Portland Oregon, knows as "Portland's Pillar of Soul",  had released three singles including a deep soul ballad version of today's track back in 1967 and then appears to have given up recording until 2011. Nick Waterhouse produced Pain Is The Name Of Your Game which if you are familiar with his two albums will be quite evident as it has the same sort of sound and feel to them. Talking about Waterhouse albums, his third, eagerly anticipated, well by one quarter of this household anyway , third full release, Never Twice is due out this Friday.

Ural Thomas & The Pain - Pain Is The Name Of Your Game

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance

One half of the duo that recorded the original of today's track won't be happy with this post, he described the remix as "girly disco music" if you hadn't already guessed we are taking about possible the greatest remix of all time and it isn't by Andrew Weatherall, the quote is from Eric B and the remix is by Coldcut. For all of Eric B's disdain for Seven Minutes of Madness as it was subtitled became the benchmark for remixing. made a name for Coldcut but not much richer, they were paid 700 quid for it and became a hit all over Europe. I never tire of this record. I have also included Coldcut's deconstruction of the track, where they identify all of the samples and where they came from which is pretty informative, who'd have thought they sampled Playschool.

Last weekend we had the kid on Lanarkshire derby when Motherwell took on Hamilton, tomorrow sees the real deal when Airdrie host Albion Rovers, three points would be good. I will be spending the rest of the weekend fixing Max's bedroom wall and then re-hanging the radiator that he pulled off the wall from lying along the top of it!

Have a good weekend people.

Eric B and Rakim - Paid In Full (Seven Minutes of Madness)

Coldcut Deconstruct Paid In Full

She's The One

A recent post on the consistently brilliant if a bit intentionally obscure at times (joking Badger/SWC) When You Can't Remember Anything sent me in search of my vinyl copy of Foxbase Alpha. I have heard this lp described as less of an album than a collection of songs in different styles from dub to cool jazz to house  and if you believe Wiggs and Stanley and why wouldn't you it came about through a series of accidents and they were learning and making it up as they went along. All I will say is that it hangs together pretty well as an album and is as enjoyable to listen to now as it was back in the heady, optimistic slightly chemically enhanced autumn nights back in 1991.

The picture above is the Subbuteo edition that came out in 2009,  The gullable consumer that I am,  how could I resist owning a 6" Saint Etienne Subbuteo figure,

Saint Etienne - She's The One

Honey Child What Can I Do?

On the first couple of times I saw Isobel Campbell perform Ballad of The Broken Seas, Eugene Kelly did a sterling job of filling in for Mark Lanegan and we were treated to a rather fine version of Son of A Gun by The Vaselines. I say that Kelly did a great job that was until the first time I saw Lanegan with Campbell which changed my opinion completely not by anything Eugene Kelly had down, it was just that he wasn't Mark Lanegan who although saying very little and moving even less filled the stage with his presence and you had the impression that Campbell was in awe of him. I know that L was more than a little impressed and taken by him. Here are two examples of Honey Child What Can I Do for you to compare and contrast.

Isobel Campbell & Eugene Kelly - Honey Child What Can I Do?

Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanaegan - Honey Child What Can I Do?

Love Special Delivery

I'm going through a bit of a garage/psych phase at the moment. If that's not your bag don't worry as I don't own all that much. Another similarity with Northern Soul this genre has is that for quite a lot of the best records there is very little known about the artists. Take today's track by The Fire Escapes, a cover of Love Special Delivery by Thee Midnighters, there is a question mark over whether they were even a real band or just a load of studio musicians brought together by producers Hank Levine and Larry Goldberg to lay down this and flip side Blood Beat which were released on GNP Crescendo Records in 1967. Whatever the true story is they make a rather fine fuzzed up racket on this galloping track.

The Fire Escape  - Love Special Delivery

There Is Nothing Else To Say

This 1967 release on Audio Arts in the States was a minor hit according to the Northern Soul Top 500, however,  elsewhere the release date is recorded as 1967, with a release the same year here in the UK. No matter when it was released it is a classic bit of soul in a similar vein to the Four Tops, I love those strings. This was a big play at the Twisted Wheel.

The Incredibles - There Is Nothing Else To Say

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance

I  have been pretty busy this week and as usual hadn't given much thought to Friday's tune. Last night I was flicking through the 12" box that contains the 100 or so full size pieces of vinyl that would be grabbed in case of an emergency and tucked in there with the likes of Fallen by Dove, Someday by CC Rogers and William, It's Really Nothing was Beat Dis by Bomb The Bass. Which got me thinking "did this really deserve to be in the box? So I pulled it out and played it. Of course it did. twenty nine years later it still sounds great, not dated and it also brought back a flood of memories. This is one of the records that switched me on to electronic music and away from thrashy, shambolic guitar bands. Also without this record it is arguable that "the stupid yellow circular face now known simply as a smiley" may not have taken on the cultural significance that it did in the late 80s.

This week the Diamonds take on East Fife at the Excelsior tomorrow, the first home game in three weeks and only my second of the season.

Have a good weekend people.

Bomb The Bass - Beat Dis

Stoli, Ushankas and Adidas Trackies

I loved the Age of Chance so much so that I saw them live through the fug of concussion once. I was in Aberdeen, my first year at Uni and my mate Stiff and Hazel came up for the weekend which started calmly enough, a few beers (Crucial Brews) on Friday night, dancing at the Union, trying to avoid the fucking goths sitting about the dance floor, well I tried to avoid them Stiff just danced and if a member of the undead was stepped on in the process so be it. Then a kebab and a frozen,  drunken walk home as there were five of us going back to my place, so  Hazel and the two Susan's got the taxi promising to send it back but after half an hour Stiff and I realised that we would be walking and so set out on foot. I was sure that I knew a shortcut but what should have been a half hour stagger at the most turned into a two hour trek but we did find the Beechgrove Garden, the location for an extremely popular gardening programme at the time in Scotland.

Things started to go wrong around lunch time on the Saturday when I remembered I had a bottle of Stolichnaya in the freezer that my mother had brought me back from her recent exchange in Moscow and Leningrad. So as Hazel went out with some of the others into the town Stiff and I sat around drinking shots of Vodka while taking turns wearing my bearskin Ushanka, another present from the USSR and saying "yavas lublu" and "nostrovia". When Hazel returned we couldn't bite our little fingers. We were supposed to be going out for dinner to Radar's, a cheap student eatery in the town, with some of my friends. Stiff sensibly bailed out, stayed in to watch Sportscene I on the other hand insisted that I was fine and ventured out.

A very stupid move, as when I stepped into the fresh air, I went down like a sack of potatoes cracking my head off the granite pavement. I got up staggered across to the bus stop and went down again. How I was allowed onto the bus will remain a mystery however by the time we reached Union Street I had been sick all over my mate John's suede jacket and was bundled into a taxi with a good Samaritan who took me back to the flat where I remember saying something incoherent to Stiff and then passed out on the floor where I remained until the next morning when I awoke with the mother of all sore heads.

The Sunday morning was a blur and when Stiff and Hazel left to go back down the road I decided to do my washing in the laundry. I was sitting there when a girl I knew asked me if I was alright. I said yes and then asked why? To which she informed me that I was sitting watching an empty machine going through a cycle with what she took to be my washing still in the laundry basket at my side!. I told her of the events of the previous evening after which she insisted on taking me to A&E to get checked out. I tried to protest as I didn't have time to wait around the hospital as I had a gig to go to but she would not take no for an answer.

After what seemed like hours, I was seen by a registrar, related the story once more was told that I probably had concussion and sent home to rest. I asked if it was alright for me to go to a concert and was told in no uncertain terms no. So an hour or two later I was in, I think,  The Venue watching a very loud Age of Chance promoting 1000 Years of Trouble.  My main memory of the evening is the band's DJ, Powercut resplendent in his Adidas trackie. I did not drink vodka after that until my very late thirties.

I think that Age of Chance would have played this track that night.

Age Of Chance Take It (Unlimited Credit mix)

Yeah

The Alarm Clocks were formed in 1965 in Parma, not the one famous for it's ham but the suburb of Cleveland Ohio and only ever put to tape two songs Yeah and No Reason To Complain. Both were recorded live and released on the band's own Awake label. Due to the complete apathy of the record buying public the band split up in 1967.  The record, unsurprisingly once you hear it became a big deal over the years for Garage and psych collectors and if you have a spare two grand you could be the proud owner of the one copy for sale on Discogs, or you could buy a copy of the album Yeah on Norton records which has both sides of the single plus the tracks from the band's demo tape and also three tracks from one of the bandmember's previous band. Both tracks also appear on the first in the series Back From The Grave with fifteen other hard to find garage tunes.

The Alarm Clocks - Yeah

Lack of Afro

I've been meaning to post this track for months but just never got round to out. Lack of Afro is Adam Gibbons. DJ. producer multi-instrumentalist with an ear for a great vocalist, one of whom just happens to be Juliette Ashby who sings on All Of My Love the flip side of I Got The Rhythm,  the first single from Lack of Afro's 5th album, Hello Baby  and first on his own label.  Ashby is just one of the guest vocalists on the album, others include. Elliot Cole who features on I Got Rhythm, Emma Noble and Joss Stone, remember her. The album flips from soul, through hip hop, funk and a bit of disco, if any of those float your boat then it is well worth taking a punt on and can be purchased here. As this can still be purchased the track posted is not downloadable.

Lack of Afro - All Of My Love

Good Good Feeling

Here's a bit of soul from the source, It is hard to believe that this record is fifty years old. The Falcons were formed in Detroit in 1955 and had a couple of hit singles in 1959 with Just For Your Love and the following year with The Teacher, both Wilson Picket and Eddie Floyd were members of the group although I think that Sonny Monro is the lead vocalist on the 1966 Big Wheel release featured today but I could be wrong. Everything about this song oozes class from the instantly recognisable intro to the lead vocal, the absolutely bang on harmonies and the horns. Just magic.

The Falcons - Good Good Feeling.

Going, Going

There have been a lot of really good albums released recently from the likes of King Creosote, Ette, Slow Club, Beyond The Wizards Sleeve and others which along with the pledges for the Raveonettes and The Orb and pre orders for future releases from Nick Waterhouse, the Lucid Dream and Toy have ensured that my bank balance is on a pretty sorry state. I think that on the whole it has been worth it.

There has also been the quite brilliant and at some times very surprising ninth studio album by the Wedding Present. This was also an album that was crowd funded through Pledge Music, with various packages on offer. It finally arrived last Friday.  On first listen of side one of the vinyl you would be mistaken for thinking that the wrong record had been pressed  as there are none of the jangly guitars that you associate with the band or Mr Gedge's distinctive vocals detailing relationships in all of their glory and heartache, in fact there are no vocals at all on the first four tracks. The songs on Going, Going are all linked and the result of trip across America that Gedge and  photographer Jessica McMillan undertook a couple of years ago.There is a dvd of short films that accompany the songs included in the beautifully packaged double lp but I have yet to watch them. Indie stalwarts make concept album shocker. The Lp is right up there with the best of the Wedding Present output but I do have difficulty with one track,  Secretary which for me is out of place and to be honest not very good at all but apart from that the other nineteen tracks are up to the standards you would expect from the band. Particular favourites at the moment are Spraque, with it's lovely strings and piano which is just too short and the final two tracks Rachel a song that could be said to be typical Weddoes fare but no worse for that and then the epic closer with it's nod to George Best, Like all other Wedding Present albums this is an essential purchase.

Talking about the Wedding Present, here is my favourite track from the last album, 2012's  Valentina, although there is a lyric that bugs me "and when you entered your number in my phone" which I don't think would have been possible as when the DDR was in existence and the Wall was still up,mobile phones were rather thin on the ground, so unless the character was a very early adopter or a city spiv he wouldn't have had one and it probably wouldn't have been able to have connected with the East German phone network anyway.  Apart from that it's a fucking great song. This is why I try never to listen to lyrics too closely as I have a tendency to over analyse them.

The Wedding Present - The Girl From The DDR

I'm A Man

At the weekend I was going through  the box containing my rather sparse collection of garage/psych 7" singles making a list of my most wanted and checking online to see the kind of money I was looking at, a pretty penny it turns out. This got me thinking of the similarities with the rare soul scene, the obscure non hit wonders, the even obscurer labels, the avid/fanatical collectors,  the price of the records and the obsession with original vinyl. I think that if in my mid teens I had been able to get my hands on as much of this as I had soul I may have ended up with a collection of music with a different emphasis but then again maybe not, as although I am no great dancer I like to have a go and soul is just better to dance to than the feedback fueled, frenetic sounds of garage rock.

Enough of ifs and ands, here is one hell of a noisy  cover of a Bo Diddly tune which is probably best known due to the Spencer Davis Group version. The version by The Litter was the b-side of Somebody Help Me released on the Warick label in 1967. The band were formed in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1966 and they disbanded in 1970 after going through more members in the four years than even Mark Edward Smith could go through. Their first single Action Woman was the first track on the original Pebbles album. I have absolutely no idea how you would dance to the last two and a half minutes of I'm A Man but it is a glorious racket.

The Litter - I'm A Man

Love Runs Out

Love Runs Out was originally the flip side of the 1965 release The Duck on the Dunhill label. The record was bootlegged in the 1970s by dodgy soul dealer Simon Soussain  and was covered up as "Let's Do The Duck" by Richard Temple. The artist was actually Willie Hutch, one time boyfriend of Brenda Holloway and the lead local on "Just A Boy's Dream" by the Phonetics. The Duck is a great dancer and a totally different song to the song of the same title by Jackie Lee, although I prefer the other side, which was re-released in 1977 on the ABC label as a split single with Lend A Hand by Bobby Hutton which featured here not that long ago.

Willie Hutch - Love Runs Out

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance

We are a wee bit more up to date this week with a track that's only five years old. What is it about producers of dance music and multiple aliases? I blame Norman Cook (see what I did there) myself. Maurice Donovan is just one of the nom de plumes that David Kennedy, co founder of Hessle Audio employs, others you may have heard of include Pearson Sound and Ramadanman. Babeh was released back in 2011 on the SSSSS label.

This weekend I will be mostly nursing my sore mouth as I suspect that by the time you are reading this I will have had one of my back teeth extracted. I have had a bloody abscess for a week with pain that not even Solpadol or Dihydrocodeine could shift.

Have a good weekend people.

Maurice Donovan - Babeh

"I'm Never Gonna Sing Another Song I Don't Believe In"

Pretty strong words which were uttered by Elvis when he was presented with the song "If I Can Dream" by  Walter Earl Brown as the song to finish  the Elvis' 68 Comeback Special for NBC TV.  The song was written by Brown after discussions with Elvis and his feelings at the deaths of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy earlier in the year, Tom Parker, Elvis's manager said that it wasn't an Elvis kind of song and wanted the finale of the show to be "I'll Be Home For Christmas" but Elvis got his way and when he recorded the song he reduced the backing singers to tears with the emotion that he put into the song .

The full quote was "I'm never gonna sing another song I don't believe in. I'm never gonna make another film I don't believe in" I'm not sure how true to this statement Elvis was, as surely he thought Mama Liked The Roses from the "From Elvis in Memphis" sessions was a piece of turgid sentimental pish as much as I do. I cannot comment on the final two films he made after the 68 Special, The Trouble With Girls or Change of Habit as I have never watched them but I suspect they were in much the same vein as most of the other films that he had made.

EP - If I Can Dream

Get Some

Lykke Li  is also from Sweden (Ystad where Wallander is set)) but didn't figure in my list of bands artists I used to quiz Klaus and his workmates about. There is more than a whiff of the Dixie Cups or the Strangeloves about Get Some, that's probably the reason that I like it so much. Wounded Rhymes is not a bad album it is just that this single is head and shoulders better than anything else on it.

Lykki Li - Get Some

Radio Dept

From about 2003 to 2008 I had to travel to Sweden quite often with work which apart from the flying and the price of a pint was quite agreeable, I like the Swedes, quite laid back, nothing seems to phase them and they have a great knack for mediation, especially when some French Study leader is going mental telling them things can't be done like that and if they insist on doing it that way then they (The French team) will pull out. I know that this is a sweeping generalisation and playing to national stereotypes but I speak as I find and I have yet to meet any who go into meltdown at the prospect of an unrealistic deadline or an impossible protocol.

Anyway, my frequent trips to sometimes Gothenburg but mostly Lund coincided with what appeared to me to be a Swedish bid for world domination of Indie music. You couldn't swing a stick in indie circles without hitting another cracking single from the likes of Sambassadeur, The Acid Kings, The Concretes etc. One of my favourites was a band called The Radio Dept. As this band was from Lund and was named after a local petrol station come radio repair shop I thought that I could discuss them with my colleague Klaus when I was over next as he looked like an indie kid, well, come to think of it most of the workforce under 40 looked like your typical indie band follower, But when I mentioned then, he didn't have a clue who I was talking about and I knew that it wasn't my English he had trouble with as we could discuss the merits of certain EDC edit checks and clean file procedures all day long, it was just that he and everybody else I talked to had no idea how much esteem their indie bands were held in in the UK. He was quite pleased and rather surprised that I did not give a jot about Abba.

Here is the first single that I heard from the band and which made me seek out more and if you like this I would suggest starting with the debut album Lesser Matters.

The Radio Dept. - Where Damage Isn't Already Done

Seven Days Is Too Long

It's the August Bank Holiday down south today, one which my company since the closure of the office in Edinburgh makes me adhere to. Which although I take exception to having to fall in line with my southern colleagues I do secretly quite like as the boys are at school and L is at work meaning I have the day to myself. Today it will consist of getting some more miles clocked up on the scooter.  This weekend sees the largest of the UK scooter rallies at the Ilse of White and also the Brighton Mod Weekender, So in honour of both of these toady's track from 1967 is one that was huge on the scooter scene in the mid to late 80s and was covered by Dexy's Midnight Runners on the classic first album.

Chuck Wood - Seven Days Is Too Long

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance

I read somewhere recently that the 16th of next month sees the 20th Anniversary of the release of Better Living Through Chemistry, Fatboy Slim's debut album. I know that it's a cliche on reading such things to state that it makes you feel old and you don't know what happened to the time but the truth is it does and I don't. I remember buying this album from Fopp on Byres Road and flogging it to death at volume for quite a while, although at least three of the tracks were familiar to me having been released either as singles or on the first Brassic Beats compilation. It sounds slightly dated now but is still great fun. I've posted The Sound of Milwaukee before, however it appears that I haven't ripped the whole album, only that,  Everybody Needs a 303, Song For Lindy and 10th and Crenshaw, I was sure that the whole thing had been done a while ago, possible after the last time I did a Fatboy or Big Beat post but obviously not. It will be rectified by the end of the weekend but for now you will have to be happy with a repeat.

This weekend as there is no home game I am going to try and get more miles on the scooter so I can hopefully open it up before the snow starts.

Have a good weekend people.

Fatboy Slim - The Sound of Milwaukee

and as a bonus, here is a belter of a track that wasn't on the album (in the UK anyway) but the b-side of the Going Out Of My Head 12".

Fatboy Slim - Next To Nothing

FSOL Excursions - My Kingdom

My Kingdom is the third and final instalment in this short series and for me this is the best of the three, an absolute classic. It is a lot darker than the other two tracks, the album that it comes from Dead Cities, is a quite disturbing vision of a dystopian future. This maybe ambient Jim but not as we've known it. My Kingdom always makes me think of the Samye Ling Budhist temple in Eskdalemuir as it contains a sample from Ozric Tentacles whom I first heard and heard of from Maurice the monk on one of the occasion we went to visit him there. There are other recognisable samples in the track taken from the soundtracks of Once Upon A Time In America and Bladerunner which add the cinematic feel to the track.  I have a vague recollection to seeing a video late one night on MTV for this track but there is a distinct possibility that I have made that up or dreamt it after one too many smokes on the post club comedown somewhere as when I searched you tube there is a rather good video for the single version but not the whole thing and I was sure the one I watched was a lot longer than that.. Anyway, the track is well worth twenty seven minutes of your time as is the Dead Cities album.

The Future Sound of London - My Kingdom

The Lucid Dream

A few weeks ago I stumbled upon what I thought was a new band, The Lucid Dream, I heard this track Bad Texan and decided to investigate further, it turns out that the band that hail from Carlisle, Cumbria have been on the go since 2008 and have already released two albums which have earned them high praise and critical acclaim and a string of 7" singles (finger on the pulse as ever. They have already caught the attention of Huw Stephens at Radio 1 and most of the 6Music Djs. The music is sort of psych/spacerock with some shoegaze throwing in for good measure. The kind of stuff that Walter has noted last Friday seems to be the emerging sound for bands at the moment. I can hear a bit of Spacemen3/Spiritualized in the sound which is never a bad thing. Bad Texan is the lead track of 3 on an ep released earlier this year which is backed by two very good expansive 6Music session tracks and is worth seeking out and their third album, Compulsion Songs is due on the 23rd of next month. They are also on tour in the UK in September /October.  A band worth a watching I think.

Not for download as the single is still available. But if you like what you here the last lp amongst other releases can be purchased here

The Lucid Dream - Bad Texan

That Summer Feeling

Summer is nearly done and dusted and I haven't posted this. I was picking the wee one up from Beavers last night and while I was was waiting in the car and listening to Quincy Jones being interviewed on Radio 4's Front Row the lyrics "that summer feeling's gonna haunt you the rest of your life" popped up in my head. So when I got back home I dug out the single and stuck it on and for the rest of the evening I was pure filled with melancholy, man!

Jonathan Richman - That Summer Feeling

Major Lance

Last week I mentioned Major Lance in relation to the Artistics. Here is probably his best loved track within the northern fraternity . You Don't Want Me No More was released on Okeh records in 1967 and bombed badly precipitating the Major's move from the label to Curtom records. But somebody obviously liked it as it was reissued in 1972. I read somewhere that this track became popular initially at the Blackpool Mecca. I don't think that Major Lance played the Mecca but he did play the Golden Torch in 1972.

Major Lance - You Don't Want Me No More

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance

Back to 1994 for today's slice of dance music, although I could have sworn that the record this is from was released a couple of years earlier but my mind isn't what it once was. I never got into the Stereo MC's enough to buy an album and only really bought the singles for the remixes by the likes of Slam, Leftfield, FSOL and of course Mr Weatherall, so don't really know if they could sustain interest for 40 odd minutes but I suspect not. I have already posted the two epic Weatherall dubs, Everything Grooves pts 1 & 2 from this 12" double pack but not his Sabres on Main Street mix where as you would suspect from the name he is ably assisted by Jagz Kooner and Gary. On this, I think that the whole vocal from the original has been left in but don't quote me on that as the only other version on this 12" is the instrumental original. The vocal is alright but I think that that would be the reason that I would lose interest over a  a whole album as for me it is far too similar to Step It Up and Connected but as I hadn't heard either of those for years, Everything sounded pretty good to me last night.

Tomorrow will be my first home game of the season, when Airdrie take on Stranraer and I am looking forward to it despite the 4-2 defeat last week.

Have a good weekend people.

Stereo Mcs - Everything (Sabres On Main Street mix)

FSOL Further Excursions

Today's FSOL excursion, is epic in nature and length, clocking in at just under 39 mins with all matter of samples, snippets of astronaut dialogue mix with the cries of exotic birds and the even stranger but gorgeous voice of Liz Fraser floating in and out of the mix. On the back of the 12" single the record is split into 7 "Paths" which can be listened to as separate pieces of music but I think it works best as a single entity to be listened to in it's entirety and once again if not get lost in get very distracted by. The third path is the part of the song that appears on the Lifeforms album which is also worth seeking out. Dougan and Cobain were so far ahead of the pack at this time everything they did was fresh and exciting, whether that be their two Radio 1 Essential mixes within months of each other,  "touring" radio stations down the phone lines (ISDN) live from their studio or the strange videos that they made to accompany these releases which I cannot find on Youtube. The expectation was always high when they released something new and I can't really remember any being a disappointment.

So take 40 minutes out and have a listen.

FSOL - Lifeforms

Beyond The Sun

The other night on Twitter SA posted a lovely picture of the sunset in Sale with the now legendary question asked of Rickie Lee Jones "What were the skies like when you were young" to which I replied attempting humour with "Grey and pishin' doon". Okay I thought it was funny whilst also being very very true. The sunset here was lovely last night and the previous night an' all by the way. Anyway, it got me thinking of another track I had that lifted the RLJ now famous reminiscences. It is tucked away at the end of the absolutely brilliant Crack In The Sky ep from last year by Clandestino. A 12" single that was made to soundtrack the balmy evenings that we have been having over the past few days which are sadly far too few and far between in this part of the world. So if you are in the UK and the weather hasn't broken yet tonight, get a cold beer sit out in the garden and give this a spin, better still buy a copy of the 12" in preparation for next year when you may have the opportunity to do it again. those of you such as George and Luca can just carry on as normal and there is absolutely no need for you to fill the comments with how good the weather has been for the last however many weeks/months.

The sunset above was taken a couple of weeks back in Machrihanish you can just about make out Jura on the horizon..

Clandestino - Beyond The Sun

Jagwar Ma

Yesterday WaIter posted an excellent,  very trippy, krauty new track from Jagwar Ma here and last night I found an email from a PR offering me a remix of the track by JD Twitch , I am not one to pass up anything that comes from Optimo and as I liked the original a lot I did not hesitate on clicking the link. I'm not sure what I expected but it wasn't the throbby Techno beast that confronted me, absolutely magic stuff and it's available for free download if you do the Facebook or Spotify thing.

This Heart of Mine

Today's piece of sublime soul isn't as obscure as some of the stuff that has featured here in the past. This one was actually a hit, reaching number 25 in the R&B Billboard when it was released in 1965. The Artistics started out as the backing singers for Major Lance but were then signed to Okeh records as a group in their own right in 1963, however it took two years and their third single release, this one for them to make any impression, however their career afterwards was pretty patchy and they called it a day in 1973 but reformed briefly in 1999 to record some tracks for Ian Levine's much maligned Motorcity Records project. Although this single did reach the charts and therefore must have sold fairly well, copies are scarce and command three figure sums. The song is a great example of male harmony group soul which leaves you with a warm glow even though the lyrics written by Barrett Strong are like most good soul songs full of potential loss and longing.

The Artistics - This Heart Of Mine

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance

Here a little jaunty upbeat piece of danceable music, well in it's original form at least to brighten up your Friday. This ep by the Berlin trio To Rcoco Rot was released in 2010 and also contains a Shackleton remix of Fridays, which it was my intention to post but for some reason, the glitchy abstractness of it annoyed me when I listened to it this morning, so you get the original mix of Forwardness and the Traversable Wormhole mix, (Adam X's alter ego). Both tracks come from the excellent Speculation album, one well worth tracking down. Enjoy!

This weekend although it is the first home game of the season, I will be in Drymen attending a friend's wedding instead. Airdrie made a promising start to the season last week with a 3-1 win away to Queen's Park. Let's hope they get a similar result against Livingston tomorrow.

Have a good weekend people.

To Rococo Rot - Forwardness

To Rococo Rot - Forwardness (Traversable Wormhole mix)

Olympics, hmmm

I can't really get enthused about the Olympics, being a lazy bastard doesn't help. But mostly I think it has to do with the IOC and their total capitulation to Putin and his drug cheats. I don't think that there is much of a difference between the IOC and FIFA,  both rather pathetic, morally bankrupt organisations.in my opinion. As for those overpaid, badly dressed golfers who have decided to pull out of representing their countries I hope that they  all suffer from just enough back pain so they  never win another competition and have to get a real job. Golf shouldn't be an Olympic sport anyway.

The above was just an excuse to post this song by Gordan McIntyre's Ballboy.

One last thing, how long do you think that it will be before every English commentators , and sorry guys, but they are  99,9% English , to stop compairing everything to 2012, just the next 50 years or so!

Ballboy - Olympic Cyclist

Motown In Dub

By all accounts I missed a great Fall gig a couple of Saturdays back at Oran Mor. I think I read "a return to form" but I also noted that Smith is still at the buggering off stage of periods of the gig patter and that the band had to drag him back on for the final couple of songs, so no change there then, well a slight change he did come back on and completed a 60 minute set.

What the fuck has this got to do with the title of the post Drew? I hear you ask. Well, the last time I saw the gruppe and decided enough was enough was way back in November 2012 when they played a not too bad gig at the Arches but on top of the previous two shit gigs in Edinburgh I decided enough was enough. At the Arches Dj Twitch was djing and produced a top set of rockabilly, dub and garage. One track in particular caught my ear and it was a dubbed out version of an old Supremes song from 1966 which I knew that I would have to seek out. After the gig I hit the laptop and after a bit of searching found out that the re-edit was done by someone called Manjah and was on a 4 track 12! single which took a bit of time and effort to track down but I was eventually successful. I know nothing about Manjah but according to his Soundcloud page he is located in Athens, Greece not Georgia. The bass on this can  move objects in the room when played loud and I suspect is not too good for the speakers.

Manjah - My Dub Is Empty Without You

Baby I'm Gone

You would be forgiven for thinking that today's frenzied piece of garage rock came out of the Midwest of the USA in the mid sixties. it was actually recorded in 2001 and first released in 2014 and re-released last month on an incredible small run of 200 clear vinyl 7", you can pick up a copy here for a very reasonable fiver + postage. The band hail from Southend-On-Sea and have been on the go since the mid 90s but as far as I am aware have only released this single and a 10" single back in 1998.. The lyrics are a bit rudimentary but the singer's wild harmonica playing makes up for it somewhat. Stirring stuff.

The Phrogs - Baby I'm Gone

She'll Come Running Back

Machrihanish was good, we had four out of six days dry but when it rained, christ did it rain! I got the kite out and flying. I wish I had found kites a lot earlier in life, they are great things for  getting rid of stress, I think that if I had had one when I tried to stop smoking the whole experience would have been easier but maybe not as I stopped smoking in January 2004 and the weather in Scotland at that time of the year isn't very conducive with kite flying. We also witnessed a pod of dolphins doing their thing for what seemed like ages off of Westport beach which was really cool. We did a bit of plane spotting too when we  spottted an A400m Atlas,  replacement for the Hercules approach Machrihanish airfield coming in to land, or so we thought as just as it was about to hit the runway it pulled up and headed west never to be seen again. My brother who knows about these things from spending twenty odd years throwing himself out of Hercules' (and was with us in his absolutely pristine caravan ) informed me that they were doing test flights and that the plane would spend that day doing similar manoeuvres at airfields up and down the country.

I would like to recommend Alan McGee's Creation Stories, however all the way through it I found myself thinking, "did ye aye?" (copyright Kevin Bridges) it was all just a bit of a yawn, On the front cover  Bobby Gillispie compares McGee to Malcolm McLaren and Anthony H Wilson,  not sure what Mr G was on when he uttered that statement but for me the arrogance is there but the wit and intelligence of either man is severely lacking. Don't get me wrong, I believe that without McGee we would never have had the Jesus and Mary Chain, Primal Scream or the Jasmine Minks and for those three I will be forever grateful but I just don't believe at least half of what's in the book.  That's maybe to do with having read David Cavanagh's excellent book previously and also due to some of McGee's statements in the press like "My Bloody Valentine were my joke band". In the end it just wasn't much of a read, probably why it's in the two for a fiver pile in Fopp.

Enough of this, it's the music your here for and as it's a Monday some soul of the northern variety is the order of the day. This is a classy "shuffler" of a track which was unearthed by Ian Levine and instantly became a classic. It came out of Chicago in 1969 on the Fip label. Sadly Mel Britt is another soul singer who is no longer with us as he died in 2013. He had a varied career, served with the army in Vietnam after which he worked in the steel industry in Gary, Indiana before moving to California to pursue a career in the music business touring with the likes of Junior Walker and appearing on the soundtrack to Animal House. As far as I know he only produced the one single but what a single it is.

Mel Britt - She'll Come Running Back