Givin' Up

I know very little about this track apart from it is on Gusto records, I bought it in 2000 and it has a Van McCoy sample which I'm not familiar with.

If anybody out there can help me with the track the sample comes from, it would be most appreciated.

Hairy Diamond - Givin Up

Why Have I Never Heard This Before?

Yesterday L and I decided to take a trip in to Glasgow, more specifically Byres Road much to the consternation of M who is realising far too early that weekends are for doing as little as possible.

On loading up the car with more kit than a platoon of soldiers would need for a week in the field, I found out that I had left my keys in the ignition of the car all night, which due to the fact that the car is a Saab meant that the battery was flat, those clever Swedes. What a twat, was lucky that nobody had noticed the keys in the unlocked car. So had to borrow a set of jump leads before we could go anywhere.

On arrival in the West End after a quick look around Fopp, which is bloody difficult with a push chair; and for the umpteenth time not finding anything that I wanted to buy, we headed down to Oxfam music, which had similarly proved fruitless on the previous visit.

What a difference yesterday, within 10 minutes I had a potential 15 12" singles without checking the 2 other "dance" bins that some geezer with an extremely stupid looking ethnic hat was hogging, thanks btw. By this time M was bored, Ly was looking slightly dischuffed and L was starting to get restless, meaning  "feed me", so I decided on 11 of the 12" singles, which came to a very reasonable £11.49. Not a bad haul.

One of the singles was on Junior Boy's Own and by Lemon Interupt. I was in 2 minds over this, as when I first looked at it, I thought I had it. But on closer inspection, the track I thought was the a-side was actually the AA and the A side was a track that was totally unknown to me, so decided that it was worth the 99p, even if just to fill a gap in my JBO twelves. Thank fuck I didn't put it back or an absolute belter of a track would have remained unknown to me.

When I got home and played back my purchases, I left the Lemon Interupt 'til last. When I put it on, it started pleasantly enough but as the tune progressed it just got better and better. A bit of a Balearic feel to it, not unlike Fallen by One Dove or Come Alive by JB Orchestra. I'm a sucker for spoken lyrics and a laid back vibe. I still can't believe that I haven't heard this before. It is, however a bit different from anything else by Lemon Interupt or Underworld.

Enjoy!

Lemon Interupt - Eclipse

Tracks of My Year

I've thought long and hard about this and whether to post on not. I know that best of lists are totally subjective and that nobody will be in the slightest bit interested in what I deemed to be good this year but what the hell. I like lists even if it is just to shake my head and tut tut at in a very condescending manner.

Anyway, I make a best of compilation up for my mate and his 2 brothers every year and thought that I would share the results with anybody who can be arsed to read. The number of tracks is down to how many I can fit on 2 cds.
 
1 - Meursault - Red Candle Bulb
2 - La Roux - In For The Kill (Skream's Let's Get Ravey Mix)
3 - The Third Degree - Mercy
4 - Withered Hand - Oldsmobile Car
5 - Chew Lips - Solo
6 - Jamie T - Chaka Demus
7 - Withered Hand - I Am Nothing
8 - The Jezabels - Disco Biscuit Love
9 - Joy Orbison - Hyph Mngo
10 - The Joy Formidible - While The Flies
11 - Unknown - Unknown (Wax 20002 side two)
12 - The Big Pink - Velvet
13 - Burial & Four Tet - Moth
14 - Andrew Weatherall - Brother Johnston's Travelling Disco
15 - Real Estate - Fake Blues
16 - The Fall - Slippy Floor (mark mix)
17 - The Wave Pictures - If You Leave It Alone
18 - God Help The Girl - Come Monday Night
19 - Dark Star - Aidt's Girl's A Computer
20 - Slow Club - Trophy Room
21 - Myron and E with the Soul Investigators - Cold Game
22 - Fuck Buttons - Olympians
23 - Speech Debelle - Spinnin'
24 - Raveonettes - Last Dance
25 - Gui Borrato -Take My Breath Away
26 - Clubroot - Sempiternal

I know tracks 1 and 4 are the same song but they are both brilliant and technically the Jezabels came out at the end of 2008. But it's my list my rules, you are all free to make up your own.

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance

Here's a bit of speed garage sampling Nina Simone from 1997. This sub genre of garage was basically sped up garage with mega heavy baselines  and timestretched vocals and effects. It was popular for about a nano second during 1996/97 before the next hip genre came around. A couple of other fine examples of speed garage were 187 Lockdown's Gunman and Armand Van Helden's remix of the Sneaker Pimps Spin Spin Sugar.

If I remember correctly the Epic mix of this was flogged to death at the time, the mix posted here is remixed by Rob Bee.

huff & herb - feeling good (Rob Bee's Sub For Murray mix)

If That's What You Wanted.

Far too much going on right now. I haven't had a chance to think about the blog this week. Should be able to get things on an even keel by the weekend.

In the meantime . . .

I haven't posted any northern soul for quite a while, so here is one of my favourites and number 9 in the Northern Soul Top 500. Frank Beverly would later find fame as the lead singer of the band Maze but here is the best thing that he's ever done, in my opinion.

Frank Beverly and the Butlers - If That's What You Wanted

Mix/Tapes

Here is another guy that I found courtesy of John in the Morning on KEXP, if you have never listened to it, give it a go.  I have never found another radio station that plays as many records that I like, 6 Music doesn't come close, apart from when Weatherall is guesting on the 6Mix but that's different.

Rocky Votolato, don't let the name put you off, started playing in a band called Waxwing, a rock band with punk leanings, however he began writing mellower songs which didn't fit in with the band's style and decided to go it alone. To date he has released 7 albums and the track posted today comes from the 2003 album Suicide Medicine, which is the best of the 3 albums I own.

Rocky Votolato - Mix/Tapes

Orange Sky

The first time I heard this track I reckon was early afternoon a good few years ago. At the time I was office based and to break the tedium, when not in meetings and such like I would listen to KEXP Seattle over the net. This radio station put me on to a good few bands, as I've probably mentioned before.

John in the morning which over here in the UK is actually Jon in the afternoon is exceptionally good. If only we could get these kind of tunes at that time in the morning, instead of Chris Moyles inane drivel and what ever has been deemed to be on the Radio 1 playlist that week.

One day John played this track and it totally stopped me in my tracks.  It sounded not unlike John Martyn but with better pronunciation. After playing the track John mentioned that this was the first time that he had been able to play the track since asking for it to be played at his mother's funeral a few months before, not the sort of revelation that you are expecting over the airwaves on what to all intents and purposes is a drive time show.

For a couple of days after I found myself going back to the KEXP website and playing the track over again. Through the wonders of the internet I found a copy of the 4 Songs ep and purchased it. Later, after extolling its virtues to friends late one drunken night I was informed that it had been played on the OC,  a series until then  I had been oblivious to.

Not the worst way to start a Monday.

Alexi Murdoch - Orange Sky

Candie Payne

Candie Payne was a lady I had high hopes for after hearing her first single, All I Need To Hear.  The cool sixties stylings of the track sounded like something from a film soundtrack from that era bringing to mind sharp suits and girls in mini skirts, bobs and too much eyeliner. She was a bit more poppy than Amy Winehouse, whose Rehab had yet to be released but which I had heard on The Funk And Soul Show when Eddie Pillar was sitting in for Craig Charles as he had been a naughty boy and actually was in rehab at the time.

I went to see Candie Payne in King Tut's a couple of months later and I don't think that I have ever seen anybody so scared of an audience in all my life, she was shaking when she started, however her voice was something else, understated but boy could she carry a tune and as I said at the start, I thought that she was destined for the kind of attention that Amy Winehouse got for her music before she became tabloid train crash  fodder.

Another couple of singles were released, Take Me and the download only By Tomorrow but she didn't get the breaks she deserved and both sunk without a trace. In May 2007 she released her debut album I Wish I Could Have Loved You More which charted in the UK album charts and a single with the same title which crashed into the charts at number 84! Her next single One More Chance was a desperate attempt by her record company to break the charts, Payne left the track off of her album as she didn't think that it fitted with the rest of the tracks. The record company however thought that with the assistence of Mark Ronson, producer of the moment , they would be on to a winner. Candie was proven to be right as the highest position the single reached was # 122. An injustice in my book as the track is good, especially in it's original form before Ronson did his thing to it.

Since then, nothing which is a real shame, as she has a better voice than Duffy, Adele and that Leona Lewis combined. Let's hope that she comes back with something soon.

Candie Payne - All I Need To Hear

Candie Payne - One More Chance (original)

Candie Payne - One More Chance (single Ronson mix)

And as an extra, the b-side to One More Chance, the other vocalist may be familiar and he also wrote the track.

Candie Payne - Shopping

Just Because

My second favourite version of this song after Chuck Jackson's.

Scott Walker -  Any Day Now

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance

ere is track 2, as there are no track listings on this 12" from the first Bassbin Twins ep. The track has more samples than you can shake a stick at. The break I think is from Justify My Love, although maybe madge nicked it from somewhere else. But there are quite a few to try and place. The rest of the ep is quite diverse, some ragga, a bit of ska and reggae.

The Bassbin Twins have recorded for a few labels associated with the big beat sounds, such as Skint and Southern fried.

Bassbin Twins - Track 2

Bloody Weather

When all else fails there's always the weather.

Haven't got much to say apart from when will this bloody rain end! I am in danger of losing my sunny disposition.

I popped in to see a mate yesterday on the way home from work to give him copies of both Fall gigs from the other week. He told me he had spent the morning chopping down trees. It wasn't 'til this afternoon that I thought about it, I suspect he may be building an ark.

The Jesus and Mary Chain - Nine Million Rainy Days

Deacon Blue - Raintown

The Just Joans - Lookin' Like Rain

No shortage of Scottish bands with songs about rain, funny that.

New Music - Super U

Some new music for you from a band who hail from Brighton,  Super U. They release their debut album, We Live In Bazakhstan on the 1st of December on Sack The Juggler records.

I don't really know how to describe their sound, there is a bit of everything in the mix, a bit of hip 60's, a lot of indie and quite a bit of folk. I've seen them being compared to Belle And Sebastian and a bit like Camera Obscura;  on a couple of tracks there is a nod in the general direction to B&S but they are not quite so fey and I just can't see the Camera Obscura comparison myself. I really like the album, there are a couple of melodies which I keep finding myself humming and the lyrics are witty, not sure about the flute though.

See what you think.

Super U - Dillinger 

Super U - We Hang On

The Bard Of Salford

Have been meaning to feature John Cooper Clarke for some time, ever since the Radio 4 programme about him. He has lived quite a life. He first came to prominence in the late 70's in the wake of punk and is usually referred to as a punk poet which doesn't do him justice.

He has supported many of the original punk and post punk bands, such as the Pistols, Souixsie and the Banshees, Joy Division and of course the mighty Fall, coming from Salford as he does. He has released 6 albums as far as I know. The backing band on most of these releases was was The Invisible Girls which included Martin Hannett, Pete Shelley, Bill Nelson, Paul Burgess and Steven Hopkins.

Last year I was really looking forward to seeing him support the Fall at the Queen's Hall, unfortunately he called of at the last minute due to a cold and I had to endure nearly 2 hours of Patti Smith, the soundman's choice, before the Fall took to the stage. Still, it could have been worse I may have had to put up with Safi Sniper. Just one of the joys of going to see the Fall.

I think that Cooper Clarke is a fashion guru to all goths.

I forgot to mention that in the Radio 4 programme it was revealed that for a while during the 80's Clarke was shaked up with Nico, yes that Nico and appeared on several Sugar Puff adverts, the man is a legend.

Here are a couple of my favourite tracks/poems.

John Cooper Clarke - Marjorca

John Cooper Clarke - Conditional Discharge

Links now working apologies if you couldn't download but that amongst other things is what the comments are for.

At the moment I'm re reading Fuel Injected Dreams by James Robert Baker for the umpteenth time. I have to thank the girl who also put me on to the Pale Fountains song  after which this blog is named for also introducing me to this book. About a year after I left Aberdeen I was up visiting friends when I bumped into her and she gave me her copy as when she had started reading it she thought that it would be something that I would find interesting.

The story revolves around an LA DJ, who has a chance encounter with a reclusive, megalomaniac record producer who was responsible for some of the biggest hits of the early 60's with the bands he created and famed for his production techniques but by the end of that  decade had dissolved into a gun toting, drug induced psychotic who keeps his wife prisoner in his mansion, sound familiar to anyone? This chance encounter has the DJ revisit his teenage years and one summer in particular and try to solve a mystery which happened then with some very strange and extremely disturbing results.

The book is kind of trashy and a bit dated now,  as it is set in the mid eighties but I think that it is still worth reading. On discovering that Baker was a screenwriter it did not surprise me as the book reads like a movie and it is easy to picture it as such. I always had Dennis Hopper down for the drug crazed producer.

As I said I have read this book several times and years ago I gave it to L when she was going overseas to visit her sister. I was rather hacked off when  L arrived home sans book, don't get me wrong very pleased to see her but slightly distraught about the missing novel. To this day she argues that she brought it back. I searched for this book but to no avail, this was pre or very early internet days and to make matters worse the book was then out of print, the author having committed suicide and subsequent major wrangles over his estate meaning that it was not available. Eventually after a few years searching and improvements on the web I tracked down a copy in a second hand book shop in southern California and payed quite a bit of money for it. It has, however been re-printed since and copies can be found on Amazon for as little as one pence, which may put you off, however it is worth the investment if you ask me.

All of this was just an excuse to post a couple of tracks produced by a deeply flawed genuis, who bears no similarity to the character in the book.

The Ramones - Baby I Love You

The Checkmates - Love Is All I Have To Give

and a cover of Spector's first ever single which he recorded when he was 17 and the title of which comes from the words etched on his father's gravestone.

Amy Winehouse - To Know Him Is To Love Him

When Two Tribes Kind Of Co-exist

This post is inspired by a comment DVD made last night on The Ghost of Electricity and a review I read yesterday in the Guardian.

When I  was a youngster I was quite a confused individual, I initially didn't realise this until I moved to the town in which I still reside, as where I originally came from they had a more open minded approach to the things that mattered in life, ie music, for inconsiquential matters such as religion they were positively archaic but as a ten year old  I was not aware of this . Nobody batted an eyelid if you replied,  when asked about your musical preferences that you liked say the Clash and AC/DC for example. This, I found was not the case when I moved to Lanark, a conservative town in lots of ways including musical preferences, no blurring of the boundaries here.

My first day of Primary 7 would have been daunting enough, being at a new school but combined with a headbut from a boy who even then had "wee man syndrome" and a lack of knowledge of books of the bible it was nearly insufferable. The only think that made me want to go back was finding 2 at least slightly like minded individuals

I was sat behind 2 boys who were as thick as thieves and at play time it was these two that started the interrogation of my musical tastes. Stiff asked me who my favourite band was to which I replied Motorhead and the two of them looked at me as if I had some horrible contagious disease. Span then asked me who else I liked  and I said SLF which certainly got a better response but neither of them could understand how I could like both heavy metal and punk. With them it was either one or the other and the preference certainly wasn't heavy metal. During the subsequent questions it turned out that both Stiff and myself originated from the same town and all threeof us supported the same,  not so local football team, Airdrie, which helped secure a lasting bond.

The reason for my schizophrenic taste in music was due to the fact that I had 2 older cousins who influenced me, one into punk and one into NWOBHM (New Wave Of British Heavy Metal) as it was called at the time in Sounds. Kevin, his real name, but not a real cousin was into punk and had got me listening to the Skids, SLF, The Clash etc, never did like 999 though and the fact that he was an Aberdeen supporter was always a mute point. Then there was Stuart, real cousin, long hair, half length Cuban army jacket and into all things metal from Zeppelin on. My main problem was that I liked some of what I heard from both but not all of either which meant that I never really felt like I could be partisan about things.

Over the next couple of years Stiff's older brothers replaced Kevin in my education of what is now termed as post punk but to us was just punk or if you wanted to be wanky,  new wave. Stuart however remained a constant and took me to my first half dozen concerts for which I am eternally grateful and taught me about Hendrix and all that late 60's stuff , however I never could get his adoration for The Doors and Jim Morrison in particular, I always thought that he was a bit of a cock.

Anyway to the point of the post,  Stuart took me to see Motorhead at the Glasgow Apollo on the Ace of Spades tour, which was my first ever concert and my abiding memory is of going to school the next day and not being able to hear as my ears were still ringing. We were on the second row of the balcony and I remember being a little scared when you could feel the whole thing moving up and down under you.

For the next 2 years every birthday and Christmas I got a concert ticket from my aunt Lily and Stuart took me to the Apollo to see Whitesnake, UFO etc.

I really loved Motorhead and had every single, album and the two 12 inch singles (much under used format in heavy metal) which were released until Iron Fist the last album to feature Fast Eddie Clarke after which I stopped buying their records.

When I read the review in the Guardian, I smiled to myself and I do think it is great to see Lemmy still at it at the age of 63, although the  misogyny and the collection of Nazi memorabilia cannot be condoned. Not sure, from the comment, if DVD saw the band in Leeds but I think that if I got the chance I would go and see them again.

A couple of years after L and I got together we were at a gig and we were discussing the worst support bands we had ever seen and both of us named the same band, Girl. It turns out both of us were at the Glasgow Apollo to see UFO the same night many years before, which probably explains L's love of guitars although she would probably like me to mention the fact that she saw the Smiths 3 times, first in 1984 to keep the record straight as she really is an indie chick.

As for the 2 friends  from primary, we stayed mates and we disagreed about music lots over the years, Span's ventures into New Romantacism being something neither me nor Stiff could get our heads around. Later on, it  was probably easier for Stiff to understand Motorhead than when I came to him in 1986 with Marshall Jefferson's House Music Anthem and told him "this is the future" but that as they say is another story.

Motorhead - Motorhead

and a song written by Holland/Dozier/Holland and originally recorded by Eddie Holland

Motorhead - Leaving Here

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance

Shall we have a little bit of Ska infected Big Beat today from the man with more aliases than a con man  with loads of snidey names?

Here we have Norman Cook in the guise of Fatboy Slim, remix a release by Norman Cook in the guise of the mighty dub katz with writing credits to Norman Cook in the guise of Pizzaman. This track was originally released on the Southern Fried label in 1995 and entitled Son of Wilmot. I wonder if you can guess why?

Speaking of Wilmot, it appears that I have misinformed you, as I have been corrected by Curtis, the track that I posted on Wednesday as Wilmot's Last Skank is really Wilmot Meets Lord Scruffage, for 15 years I have gotten the tracks mixed up as my 10" has the labels back to front and nobody, until now has informed me of this. I have to confess that Last Skank is not one off my favourite Sabres tracks

mighty dub katz - magic carpet ride (fatboy slim latin ska acid breakbeat mix)

and now the correct version of

Sabres of Paradise - Wimot's Last Skank

Is anybody else bored with dance on a Friday?

Wilmot Revisited.

There was a comment over at Ctel's excellent Acid Test blog on one of his postings on the genius known as Andy Weatherall's Sabres of Paradise requesting Wilmot's Last Skank, a track I hadn't played for quite some time. It is the b-side of the Wilmot remix 10" single.

To be honest with you it is not that different from the version I posted here a couple of months ago, a bit  sparcer than the original and nearly a couple of minutes shorter, still very very good.

Sabres Of Paradise - Wilmot's Last Skank

World Destruction

Following on from yesterday's post with the first collaboration, at least that I can think of, between rap and punk. Here we have Lydon collaborating with African Bambaataa on the single World Destruction,  produced by Bill Laswell who would go on to produce PiL's Album two years later.

For a fifteen year old preoccupied with the imminent threat (I thought and I don't think that I was alone in that view at the time) of nuclear war and the lasting effects of a nuclear winter if you were unlucky enough to survive, this track did not instill in me a sunny demeanor or fill me with hope for the future; what with lines like "this is a world destruction, your life ain't nothing", references to Nostradamus and chemical warfare it isn't your typical party tune. But it is brilliant, at the time there was nothing like this and Lydon's near manic vocals used to send a chill down my spine. The video is pretty effective as well, in fact I think that the first time I heard the track was when I saw the video on the Tube.

I've posted both sides of the 12" that I picked up on one of my recent visits to Oxfam music, where the near mint copy was floundering in the racks for a mere 99p and which means I no longer have to play my scratched to death 7" copy.

Timezone - World Destruction

Timezone - World Destruction (dub)

And the rather brilliant video

Anger Is An Energy

When I first heard this single in 1986, it totally blew me away. At the time of the release of Rise, I, for one had kind of forgotten about PIL and the last thing that Lydon had done was his amazing collaboration with African Bambaataa but that had seemed to have been a one off as it was 2 years previously and very little had been heard from or about him until this single, which came as a bolt out of the blue to me but had probably been all over the inkies. It was a breath of fresh air and Lydon as scary sounding and looking in the video as he had ever been.

Twenty three years on and the song still packs a punch.

The design for the single and album cover was borrowed from the film Repo Man by Alex Cox, who the same year as Rise was released  Sid and Nancy.

PiL - Rise

Tagged

chocolategirl64 tagged me so I had better comply.

The rules are
1 You have to post a song that makes you happy
2 You can tag as many people as you want
3 Say one thing about the blog that you tag that will make them smile.

I'm gonna tag The Ghost of Electricity, as Mr H is always a gent, has an impeccable taste in both music and alcohol and bears a passing resemblance to a famous actor.

Roddy Frame - The Boy Wonders