Finally I May Get To See Meursault Live

Tonight I'm off to see Frightened Rabbit as part of the music bit of the Festival but I'm more excited about finally getting to see Meursault, well I may get to see them. My boss decided to arrange the team meeting for today which would have been all well and good in the past as they were held in Edinburgh however the changes that were made whilst I was on holiday resulted in me joining a new team who have their meetings in Manchester, bugger. Not taking any chances on cancelled flights by FlyMaybe as soon as the meeting is over I will be on the M6 and trying to beat the Manchester to Edinburgh land speed record.

Frightened Rabbit - Heads Roll Off

Meursault - Nothing Broke

How about a bit of Krautrock to start off the week, krautrock with a twist in that it is from Brighton 2006 not Cologne 1976.

M's first day back at school today and not a moment too soon, wonder if my parents had the same thoughts, my father maybe my mother certainly not, being a teacher.

Fujiya & Miyagi - Conductor 71 (This track comes Weatherall approved, it says so on the sticker on the front of the cd)

Everybody Loves A Cover . . . Right?

A brace of contemporary covers for you, well from last year anyway.

First up are the Mystery Jets with their cover of a Leonna Lewis song, no wait, come back it is rather good. I hadn't heard the original or hadn't been aware that I had until fairly recently as I'm strictly a radio's 4 & 6 person. I caught it while at my parents house, who have Murdoch TV and when I'm there I tend to flick through the music channels much to the chagrin of both my parents and M who wants to watch Spongebob or the Clone Wars. I never thought that this would happen to me, shock horror, but I have to admit that I quite liked what I heard a track by a TV talentless show winner. Musical snobbery aside, it is a good track but whether it warrants being the biggest selling single worldwide in 2008 is an argument for another day. Anyway, I think that the Mystery Jets, an indie band from London do an ever better version.

Mystery Jets - Bleeding Love

Secondly we have a duet from Florence (without the Machine)and Kid Harpoon covering a Bruce Springsteen song.

In my spotty youth I loved Springsteen, The River and Nebraska were albums that my mate Ben would play all the time. Then came Born In The USA and I have to admit that even before Reagan appropriated the song for his re-election campaign I felt uncomfortable with the album. There was something about it that just put me off. From the first time I heard Born In The USA I didn't like the song. I was an earnest left wing anti Pershing and Cruise missile campaigner so anything that was so in your face proud to be an American ( or so I foolishly misinterpreted) as this song seemed, was guaranteed to get my blood boiling.

I think Born In The USA is the album that created stadium rock. I realise that there had been many stadium gigs before this but I do believe that this album was the blueprint for all those bands who have since sat down and intentionally written albums that would sound good in a stadium and for that I think Springsteen has a lot to answer for.

I'm digressing here but the point is that when I first heard I'm Going Down by Florence & Kid Harpoon the song was vaguely familiar but I would never have remembered that it came from Born In The USA, if it had not been pointed out by a friend. The reason being that even though I listen to Sprinsteen quite frequently, I think that I may have played I'm On Fire or My Hometown from that album but would never even think of playing the whole thing so had completely forgotten that there are indeed some great tracks on it.

The stripped down approach which Florence and Kid Harpoon take brings out the essence of the track and something you could imagine Springsteen himself approving of. Strangely enough, Catherine Feeny did something similar to I'm On Fire, another track from Born In The USA.

Florence & Kid Harpoon - I'm Going Down

That Bellshill Beat

I played this for the first time in ages this morning, Duglas T Stewart the man responsible for so many twee indie bands and for putting Bellshill on the map for something other than the consumption of tonic wine.

Seriously, how good is this record?

BMX Bandits - Serious Drugs

Rilo Kiley

My introduction to Rilo Kiley came via a cover mount cd from Word Magazine. The track was from their second album The Execution of All Things which I duly went out and purchased. The album lived up to the promise of the free track. It reminded me of label mates, Bright Eyes with the strong lyrics and great tunes but with the added bonus of Jenny Lewis' voice and what a voice she has.

I think that it is just as well that I bought the album before I read up on the band. As when I read that the 2 founding members were child actors from the Valley, I could feel my inherent prejudice against precocious child actors turned musicians come to the fore. The charge of tweeness which was levelled at them more than once, I thought was a little harsh, however if I had read these reviews prior to listening to the album I would probably have steered clear of them. A lesson was learnt, give things a chance before dismissing them.

Later the same year (2004) the band released an even better album in the form of More Adventurous. This album was a more polished affair with string arrangements and better production. Two singles were released from the album, the anti-war Bush baiting It's A Hit and the wonderful Portions For Foxes although there is not a track on the album that I would skip.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the follow-up, 3 years later entitled Under The Blacklight. This album has to be one of the most disappointing releases for me since EXTRMNTR. It is way too glossy, the production far too slick and the songs just not in the same league as the earlier material. I did wonder how much the critical acclaim and success of Lewis' first solo album contributed to the lacklustre tunes on this release, was she reluctant to give the band her best songs instead wishing to keep them for her second solo outing. That was until the release of said album which was just as disappointing, in my opinion as Under The Blacklight. Several reviews likened the forth album to Rumours era Fleetwood Mac. A Fleetwood Mac for the 21st Century is not something which is needed.

It looks as though Rilo Kiley are now no more and it is sad that the last thing that they produced was as slick and corporate as it was, but if you disregard this album and look back at the previous 3, Rilo Kiley leave a better than average back catalogue.

Rilo Kiley - With Arms Outstretched (The song on the Word cd)

Rilo Kiley - 15 (The only track from the final album which, to me, is any good)

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance

Justin Robertson is not your average dj/producer, how many others have a degree in philosophy ? He started working in the record shop Eastern Bloc in his native Manchester at exactly the time when the city was yet again coming to the attention of the rest of the world via the baggy and acid house scenes.

He started remixing and his talents were utilised by the likes of the Shamen and the Sugarcubes before releasing his first single Lionrock/Roots and Culture on his own Most Excellent label, the single was subsequently picked up and re-released by de-Construction who he continued to record for releasing 2 albums and quite a few more singles before moving on to Concrete where he recorded probably Lionrock's best known track outwith dance circles with Rude Boy Rock which if I'm not mistaken was later used in an add for some Sony product.

The track posted is the follow-up to Rude Boy Rock, Scatter and Swing which personally I love but at the time was blasted by others as being a bit too commercial.

Lionrock - Scatter & Swing


Below you will find the youtube clip for a track which I have been meaning to feature on the Friday section of this blog as it is the best dancer I have heard this year. I have had 7" for a couple of months now and was going to feature it as it was in a limited run of 500 7" singles on Acid Jazz and I believed that it should be heard by the wider world. However, Eddie Pillar, for it is the work of that old mod, has rightly given it a full release on a different label. So I implore you to go out and buy it. I am confident that once you hear it you will want to get hold of it. I liked the original but this just pisses all over it.

Just Because

How about a bit of a cajun cover version of an old Chuck Berry tune. Have no idea why this was running about my head today

Johnnie Allan - Promised Land

Hoi Smith, Where's The Bloody Album?

The work ethic that Mark E Smith bangs on about in every interview he does seems to have eluded him of late. It has been over a year since the last album launch which was also a rather tardy release. I keep checking the "unofficial" Fall website, hoping to see a post informing the masses of the imminent release of a new album by the gruppe, but nothing. The nearest their is is the live cd/dvd package of the gig at the last night of The Hammersmith Palais which I have pre-ordered twice already and will not hold my breath for it actually being released on the 24th August.

Another thing which has pissed me off this year is the distinct lack of Fall gigs north of the border, one earlier this year and that was part of a festival. I wasn't paying fifty quid to see forty five minutes in the dubious acoustics of the Arches. I may be mad but I'm not stupid.

This week I was informed that I will have to go to Berlin with work in October which just so happens is when the Fall have penciled in a few dates round the country, none in Scotland as yet but you can bet your bottom dollar that when the Scottish dates are announced it will be the bloody week I will be in Berlin and I don't think that the powers that be will be very sympathetic or realise the importance of seeing the Fall live.

The Fall - Garden (Peel session)

The above post was just another excuse to slip on something by the world's greatest band

Lead Me On

Today's track was a crossover hit at the turn of the century. It was an in demand record on both the modern and northern dance floors and an original 7" will cost you upwards of £50 these days.

Lead Me On by Gwen McCrae was given a full release by Universal in 1972 but as is often the case with tracks posted on this blog did not see much chart action. The song was an old gospel - blues song recorded by Bobby Bland which Gwen injected with a lot of soul and a smokey late night feel.

Gwen McCrae - Lead Me On

GDMFSOB

I have avidly collected the works of Josh Davis since the first time I heard In Flux which was also my introduction to Mo Wax, James Lavelle and the whole headz culture which I eagerly embraced.

There is something about collages made from snatches of dialogue, samples, laid back beats and turntablism that floats my boat. I can got lost in these strung out, cinematic odysseys and long ago stopped trying to spot the samples.

The one thing about DJ Shadow is that every so often he does something that once you listen to it makes perfect sense but on first hearing of, you think, what is he up to? This was what went through my head when I first got my hands on Mashin' On The Motorway and noticed that the main track was a collaboration with Roots Manuva. However after listening to the track it was such an obvious pairing, the pre-eminent turntablist and the UK's best and most unorthodox rapper.

If you get the chance check out his mix cd with Cut Chemist, Brainfreeze, another venture which on hindsight is exactly what he should have done.

GDMFSOB would possibly have been the phrase I would have uttered when the alarm went off this morning, if I resided on the West Coast of the USA as opposed to west central Scotland where we just say, shit!

DJ Shadow - GDMFSOB (UNKLE uncensored)

One Goodbye In Ten

Shara Nelson is best known for her vocal on one of my top 5 favorite tracks, Unfinished Sympathy. Before this she had released a single as a solo artist and also worked with Jah Wobble and Adrian Sherwood.Unfinished Sympathy wasn't here first collaboration with Daddy Gee, Mushroom and 3-D, she had previously supplied the vocals for their cover of the Bacharach & David's classic The Look Of Love when they were still the Wild Bunch.

The track posted, One Goodbye In Ten was the third single from her first solo album, What Silence Knows and was co-written by Pete Wiggs and Bob Stanley (Saint Etienne). As with Unfinished Sympathy, there are lush strings and a huge sound to the track. It also reminds me of the track Waking With A Stranger which featured here earlier this year.

Shara Nelson - One Goodbye In Ten

I've Got The Bends From Pressure

I was digging through a pile of 12" singles last night to rip to I-Tunes and came across a my James singles and decided to stick a couple on. I had forgotten how much I liked James.

A friend introduced me to them via the Stutter album in about 1987 and I must have played Johnny Yen over and over again. I followed the band from then on buying the following 2 albums but it wasn't until Sit Down that I started buying the singles. I suppose the highlight for me was the Weatherall mix of Come Home, where Weatherall made an already great song into a strung out 8 and a half minute masterpiece.

The band were always on the ball with their re-mixers all of whom seemed to add a little something to already good tracks making them that little bit different from the remix by numbers going on in the baggy scene (for want of a better term) at the time.

The remix posted, is another mix of Come Home, remixed by Youth, bass player with Killing Joke, Butterfly records owner and much sought after producer and re-mixer during the early 90s. Check out his collaboration as the Fireman with Paul McCartney, Strawberries Oceans Ships Forest (Fuck me, just checked on Discogs and it's up there for 160 quid, may need to sell my copy as it isn't that good). The Youth Pressure Dub mix was on the b-side of the Sound 12" which I remember buying from Tower records in Glasgow one drunken night when it used to be open til midnight, dangerous stuff.

James also had some classic T-shirts, everybody used to bang on about Inspiral Carpets shirts but the James ones were far superior. I must have had about half a dozen different ones, none of which would remotely fit me these days if I had kept them.

James - Come Home (Youth Pressure dub)

John Hughes RIP

Although his films were formulaic and American, there was something about Pretty In Pink, Ferris Bueller's Day Off and my favourite, Some Kind Of Wonderful which made me watch and love them. I think it may have been to do with the great music that was used in the soundtracks or possibly Mary Stuart Masterson, Mia Sara and Molly Ringwald.

Whether it be the Smiths or Otis Redding in Pretty In Pink, or a little known Jesus and The Mary Chain track, albeit remixed in Some Kind Of Wonderful , Hughes had an ear for good music.

Sad to say that with Hughes' demise yesterday another part of my youth has been assigned to history.

If you fancy hearing good cover versions of songs used in Hughes' films check out American Laundromat Records High School Reunion, although no longer available on cd, I think it is still on ITunes.





Here are a couple of originals from the soundtracks and a couple of covers from the ALR cd
Stephen Duffy - She Loves Me

Otis Redding - Try A Little Tenderness

The Atomic Hep Cats - Bring On The Dancing Horses

The Caulfield Sisters - Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want This Time

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance

I take you back to my formative years, when ox blood Docs, Levi 501's and flat tops were the order of the day and you just couldn't get rid of the smell of 2-stroke oil.

I've posted before of the joys of the testosterone and brown ale fuelled events known as Scooter dances and how they always ended up one of 2 ways for our club, either embroiled in a battle or heading home in the mini bus sans at least one or two of our mob. Once we forgot one mate who phoned us up later saying that he was penniless and couldn't get home. He was told not to worry, get a taxi and one of us would pay for it once he got to the friend's house where we were crashing that night. We proceeded to empty the coppers jar and count out the 10 quid or so, left it on the coffee table for him and all went to bed pissing ourselves laughing. The next morning we were confronted by the moodiest bastard in the world but still couldn't stop laughing.

Back to the scooter nights and the strict music policy, it had to be punk, psychobilly and soul no deviation, no Smiths here or any other what was termed student music apart from probably the Wedding Present who were deemed thrashy enough.

Spear of Destiny's Liberator was a definite floor filler and also a stick on for the odd bloody nose or black eye from an over enthusiastic slammer. If slamming is dancing then this must be the slam dancer's anthem. Being a bit of a pussy I stayed well clear of the dancefloor during this track but loved it none the less.

Spear Of Destiny - Liberator (extended mix)

Funnily it seems a bit tame now!

Bat's 1977 - 1982 Compilation Tape Side 2

It's time for side 2 of the tape and this is the side which introduced me to a few new bands at the time. There are at least 2 tracks that I don't know what they are or who they are by but I'm sure that you clever train spotters will be able to put me right. There is one absolute stinker, I wonder if you can guess which one it is?

The Jonathan Richman track That Summer Feeling isn't on this tape, it would have made the title wrong anyway as it was from 1984, however this means that there is another tape lurking in the wine boxes which musically will be of a similar standard as it was compiled by the same person. Further investigation will proceed this weekend.

The reason that I have used the term compilation tapes as opposed to mix tapes is, as far back as I can remember we always called them compilations, the term mixtape only came into being at the beginning of the nineties and referred to acid house and dance tapes where the songs were actually mixed together. At least that is how I remember it.

Buzzcocks - Promises
Orange Juice - Felicity
unknown track
Clive Langer And The Boxes - Half As Nice
The Farmer's Boy's - Country Mile
The Cure - Boys Don't Cry
The Knack - My Sharona
Angelic Upstarts - England (WTF?)
Squeeze - Is That Love
Soft Cell - Tainted Love
Jilted John - Gordon Is A Moron
Souixsie And The Banshees - Christine
Stranglers - Walk On By
The Clash - Spanish Bombs
The Jagz - Back Of My Hand
unknown track
The Dickies ? - I Like It (not sure it is them but it's the sort of thing they did)

Bat's 1977 - 1982 Compilation Tape Side 1

After writing yesterday's post I decided to root about the wine boxes and see if I could find the tape that I was going on about. Eventually after a bit of digging I struck gold and decided to go through it and to my surprise there are some tracks that I don't remember being on there, a couple I can't believe are included that I must have fast forwarded through, three that I don't have a clue what they are and one that's not there which I could have sworn was.

Here is a list of what was on side one.

Joy Division - Love Will Tear Us Apart
Undertones - Teenage Kicks
Aztec Camera - Oblivious
The Piranhas - Getting Beaten Up Is Part Of Growing Up
Pretenders - Back On The Chain Gang
Echo and The Bunnymen - Rescue
The Only Ones - Another Girl, Another Planet
The Cars - My Best Friend's Girlfriend
The Jam - The Eton Rifles
The Ramones - Needles and Pins
Blondie - Dreaming
Elvis Costello - Lip Service
Sham 69 - You're A Better Man Than I
Skids - Into The Valley
Unknown track

Most of the tracks are readily available these days but back then if you didn't have the vinyl you had to rely on mates with older brothers, cheers Bat and Tank.

If anyone can tell me what the unknown track is I would be grateful. Sorry for the sound quality of said track but it came off of a tape that I reckon must be 25 years old.

Side 2 tomorrow

Country Line

I recently purchased a wonderful, chunky old Technics 630 tape deck from ebay for the very reasonable price of 20 quid plus another £10 for next day courier delivery. It had been bugging me for some time that I no longer had something to play all my old cassettes on, actually ever since I made a half arsed attempt to clear out the cupboard on the half landing where all the junk gets forgotten about. During this futile attempt to de-clutter I came across 3 wine crates full of tapes, most mine but some L's and even though we no longer had the facility to play them I just couldn't bring myself to take them to the cowp.

Since getting the tape deck rigged up I have been delving into these crates, there are loads of Essential Mixes from 1993 to about 1996, plenty of Weatherall mix tapes and a whole load of my old dance mixes which I am too scared to listen to as there is bound to be some horrendous attempts at beat mixing and more than several train crashes.

There are also loads of bootlegs everything from Crass at the ZigZag Club, through the Smiths at the Barrowlands in 84 to really badly recorded Velvet Underground ones. Most of these were purchased at Revolver record stall at the Barras at over inflated prices, as the quality of the tapes that you took home never seemed as good as the ones the shady guy with the ponytail let you hear when you were buying them.

In fact the first tape I put in the deck was a Billy Bragg bootleg from a concert at the Barras in Nov 86 which I was at. Unfortunately the deck took a serious dislike to the TDK D 120 and chewed it up, which did not bode well, however up til now that is the only thing that the machine has chewed up, thankfully.

Getting back to the point of the post, while trailing through one of the crates I found a cover simply titled 77 to 82, a rather wide time frame for a single c90 granted but every track was brilliant. This was a tape that my best mate's elder brother had put together and I had "borrowed" in order to record. This tape was my introduction to Jonathan Richman's That Summer Feeling and the track I'm going to post today. There are probably loads more tracks I first heard on this tape but these are the only that stick out. It would probably have helped if W had listed the tracks on the cover and it would be handy if the tape was actually in the cover and I could play it but it's not and I haven't had the time to search for it.

The track is called Country Mile and it was the b side of the third single More Than A Dream by The Farmer's Boys.

The Farmer's Boys were a band from Norwich who formed in 1982 and split in 1985. They released 9 singles and 2 albums in their time and are probably best known for their cover of the Cliff Richard song In The Country, no don't click away, they were actually pretty good.

The Farmer's Boys - The Country Line

I'm hoping that I come across the c90 that D did for me back in 1987 which consists of From Across the Kitchen Table over both sides of the tape as mentioned in the first post on here, as I know that I haven't thrown that out.

Lone Justice

Lone Justice have featured on this blog before with their cover of Sweet Jane. The couple of tracks posted today come from their self titled first album, which is an absolute gem, very rough with Maria McKee's vocal delivery not dissimilar to Janis Joplin's.

I first saw Lone Justice on the Whistle Test and something about them got me interested. I can't remember just what it was, as country rock or cowpunk as some music journalist labelled them was not the sort of thing that I was listening to at the time ( I think I spent much of 1985 with Psychocandy on repeat). Something made my go to Glasgow in search of the album which did not disappoint on first listen and still sounded good at the weekend when I played it again for the first time in ages. It doesn't sound quite as raw now as I thought it did but McKee's vocal sounds as good as ever, she really can belt it out.

Lone Justice went on to make a second album which was not a patch on the first, it sounded too smooth, too well produced. I blame Bonzo, I blame him for a lot of things but this time with some justification. After the critical success of the first album Lone Justice went on tour with the Irish band and McKee started hanging about with them, then they go into the studio and produce a bland soulless album, coincidence? I think not.

Shortly after the release of the second album, McKee broke up the band and embarked on a solo career. The first 2 albums of which are excellent, however the following 2 I couldn't get into at all and haven't bothered with anything since.

Interesting fact or possibly not, Ricky Ross wrote Real Gone Kid about McKee after Deacon Blue supported Lone Justice.

Lone Justice - After The Flood

Lone Justice - Ways To Be Wicked

Back To Pit Boots and Purridge

I'm back to work today after 2 weeks rest and recuperation. It won't be that bad, I just wonder how many efficiency and cost saving measures have been implemented in my absence, it is a given that there will be at least one.

Spare a thought for L though as today is also her first day back after a little longer than myself, six and a half months to be exact. It is going to to be a bit of a culture shock for both her and our youngest, who will be packed off with his brother to their Gran's.

Here's one of L's favorite tracks and another which may very well sum up her mood tomorrow night.

Ted Hawkins - Bring It On Home To Me

Arctic Monkeys - Mardy Bum

FYI - "back to pit boots and purridge on Monday, Sarah", were the immortal words which my uncle Jimmy would say with a deep sigh every time it was back to work after a holiday, when I was wee I never understood why he would talk about pit boots when he worked in the steelworks.

The Power Of Advertising

I was watching the telly the other night and during the break Hannibal Lecter was banging on about the scene in Blade Runner where Rutger Hauer was on the rooftop and does the tears in the rain speech, in the vain attempt to get me to subscribe to Rupert Murdoch's Shit TV.

I haven't seen Blade Runner for quite a few years, it used to be essential post pub/club viewing with a few spliffs in one of my mates flat, when the debates would start over whether Deckard was a replicant himself or which of the 7 versions was actually the best. Personally I liked the voice over on the original release but I know most folk don't.

One thing that was never argued about was the soundtrack and how good it was. There was the odd gripe about the inferior New American Orchestra recording which was released in 1982 but when Vangelis' score was finally available on CD in 1994 this was no longer an issue. Since then there have been several bootleg soundtracks slipped out and Vangelis released a 3 disc version containing the original score, unreleased tracks and a third disc of music inspired by Blade Runner, none of which I have heard as having the 1994 version this package is very low on the wants list.

Due to Dr Lecter and Murdoch's advert i decided it was about time that I watched Blade Runner again, so headed to Amazon where it can be picked up in the "final" cut for a very reasonable £4.96 quite a bit cheaper than a subscription to satellite tv.

Here are two of my favorite tracks from the soundtrack.

Vangelis - Memories of Green

Vangelis - Tears In Rain