It Starts With a Birthstone - 200 Albums for 2024 # 128 Yeah- Ming & the Rumours I Can't Have It All

 

Another band from the clearly blossoming  Oakland Califirnia music scene. Yeah- Ming & the Rumours I Can't Have It All is a quite lucious leftfield Pop album, somewhere between The early Beatles, the early Lovin' Spoonful  and the early Velvet Underground if they had abandoned any pretence of wanting to write seedy dirges about S&M, prostitution and mainlining heroin and sing songs about falling in love that their mothers might like instead. 

Let Mo Tucker sing half of their songs and Nico to sing the other half providing she made an effort to sing in tune under threat of packing her back off to Cologne otherwise an made her wonder whether she still had Federico Fellini's telephone number somewhere among her leather and syringes. 

This is an utterly charming, unpretentious record. Yeah Ming occasionally throws the F word in to show she's not to be messed with, even though she sounds as if she's really sweet as apple pie. The Rumours meanwhile play it straight, inhabiting a world where it's always 1965, which given the way the world has gone since, might not be exactly the worst idea.

Altogether this is a record and band that lays down its and their cards down right from the off. If you're won over the first track you'll be in love by the time Side B runs off unto its run out groove. Yea-Ming & the Rumours come on like Wes Anderton's wettest dream, This is an album that plays to uts own rules and instincts. I wish more people made records like this.  

500 Greatest Albums of the 1980s ... Ranked! # 275 The Fall - Bend Sinister

 

So I've got fifty minutes so I thought I'd listen to  a Fall album as it's appared on one of the charts that I'm working my way throughas it's a daily routine I've set for myself. 

I have nothing against The Fall. They're a fine band who made numrous fine records down the years. What bugs me is their followers and the nature of their cult. The way Fall fanatics and they are almost invariably male fanatics babble about them as if they would like to imply that they were personally separated from Mark E. at birth. From my knowledge of the man he generally despised such devotees more than anything  and made every effort to humiliate them deeply when he came across them. I don't like such people whe I run across them in life and so don't idolise Pop stars with such missnthropic mindsets and tendencies.

Bend Sinister is a mid Eighties album which is immediately recognisable as a mid Eighties Fall album. I lasted ten minutes today.  

Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,835 The Raconteurs - Broken Boy Soldiers

 

Oh Jack White !

New York in 100 Songs - # 94 Harry Nilsson

 

Song(s) of the Day # 3,832 Moon Diagrams

 

Deerhunter drummer and co-founder is here, with Cemetry Classics his second album under the sobriquet Moon Diagrams. It's a name which falls in line with its title. Its  haunting and  ghostly from the off.

Echoing and withdrawn, it's not a record whuch dots 'i's or crosses 't's. All atmosphere and muffled avant garde noise occasionally coming into sharp focus and sounding like outtakes from Suicide's second album. It's by turns a startling.and disorientating record.

I found the record startling and enveloping in the way so much of Deerhunter has been over the years. Cemetry Classics makes no efforts to be accessible and is all the better for the fact that it doesn't

New York in 100 Songs - # 95 Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five

 

               A gamechanger. That manic laughter on the edge of losing it, still transports me back. 

500 Greatest Albums of the 1980s ... Ranked! # 276 David Sylvian - Brilliant Trees

 

A memory. A very happy one. How listening to Climate of Hunter by Scott Walker, on a Facebook group which I'm a member of, which didn't quite do it for me, led me to listen to David Sylvian's fabulous Brilliant Trees from the same year and wallow in this happy memory for an hour:

'Everyone should have a girl or a boy next door in their youth. I did. Emma Kate Pailthorpe was her name. We both liked each other. But I was too shy to do anything about it. I was eighteen. Somerimes we chatted at college. Teddington. One evening in 1984, (the year this came out), I was alone in the house, (my parents and sister were elsewhere for some reason). I watched Top of the Pops. 

The Smiths played Heaven Knows, Morrissey with a small tree hanging out of his back pocket. They also played the video for Sylvian's Red Guitar. The most beautiful man in the world and he came from Catford. There was a ring on the doorbell and it was Emma-Kate.One of the most beautiful girls in the world. At least at that point in my life.

 Her cat had killed a bird and she was very upset and had it in a matchbox. We went round and buried it in her garden. Then we went in and watched Some Like it Hot. She made some cookies. A friend of hers came round and we all watched the film together. This anecdote is not a Pulp song. Nothing happened at all. Still one of my very favourite memories though. 'I'm drowning in my nostalgia' as David sang on Brilliant Trees. Enjoying listening to this more than Climate of Hunter I'd have to say. Tracks Three, Five, Six. Really. Hardly likely to attract the youth vote back in '84 when they had Sylvian and Morrissey. Sylvian particularly took Scott's place as the most beautiful man in the pop world.'

Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,836 Jay Z - 4:44

 

It Starts With a Birthstone - 200 Albums for 2024 # 129 Helado Negro - PHASOR

 

I like records that sound like they're floating or drifting in space. OK Spiritualised I guess meet the criteria though they're going about it in a slightly obvious manner. Can. Sun Ra. Funkadelic. Records that appear set adrift frrom their moorings like Tintin and The Thompson Twins in Explorers on the Moon when their rocket ship finds itself beyond the earth's atmosphere and the rules of gravity no longer apply..

Helado Negro's new record PHASOR sounds very much as if it's floating in space for the whole of its 9 song 35 minute duration. It Starts has history with Helado. I've liked previous records from him down the years and I cerainly like this. A lot.

Negro is sometimes billed as a Sound Artist whatever that is. His music certainly doesn't restrict itself to immediate categorisation. He's a modern artist. The Guardian describes him as 'like hearing Arthur Russell play a Macbook instead of a cello.'

This has a delightfully playful Hispanic Space Age edge. It's easy listening in the respect that it's very easy to listen to certainly not that it's bland or lazy in any respect. Quite the opposite. So fix yourself tostado con tomate, aceite y jamon. Y relajate.' Damos y caballeros. Estamos flotando en el espacio.'

Song(s) of the Day # 3,831 Ok Cowgirl

 

I didn't immediately find much that appealed on my intial browse through New Release playlists late on Friday and early on Sunday morning. Patience as they say is a virtue. I'm starting to chance upon some good records.

Ok Cowgirl's debut Couldn't Save Us From My Mind among them. They hail from, you got it, Brooklyn, and specialise in emotive Indie dreaming of a rather endearing hue.

This is generic soul searching, but it's not afraid to feel and in a world that seems to be surrendering to heartlesness this is good enough for me. Lead singer and songwriter Leah Lavigne is all heart and has a lovely voice. The band ring out the emotions with no little craft. I'll give it 8.  

Songs About People # 1,407 Claire Danes

 

Claire Danes gets hazed, druggy. Indie- tribute that mentions smoking a joint. 

New York in 100 Songs - # 96 St. Vincent

 

As someone who has always struck me as incredibly 'Big Apple' it's almost inevitable that St. Vincent has a song called New York. Like so much of her output I find it easier to respect than warm to. It has a typically projected theatrical psychosis. She lacks warmth though she clearly has critical wit. Nice tune.

500 Greatest Albums of the 1980s ... Ranked! # 277 The Vaselines - Dum-Dum

 

'Much beloved of Kurt Cobain.Great melodies overloaded guitars, saucy lyrics - a perfect combination.' 

Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,837 Jacques Brel - No 4

 

To listen to Jacques Brel is almost to listen to a bygone world. A magical experience of re[ise and reflection.

. 

It Starts With a Birthstone - 200 Albums for 2024 # 130 Soft Covers - Soft Serve

 

I prescribe Soft Covers,They have the remedy for all your maladies. In the words of their Spotify bio,' 'Homemade and well loved Pop from Naarm, Melbourne, taken out of the oven a little too early and left out on the line a little too long.'

Debut album Soft Serve serves up eleven even and dreaming two or three minute charmers that make it feel like it's always going to be sunny, even if the actual sun has just gone behind the clouds wherever you happen to be.

Sweet. This is sweet. But never saccharine. Brightly Poppy. Good natured and laced with wit and generosity, Firmly in line with Courtney Barnett and Go Between their antipodean forbears. I'd wager they've listened to a bit of Lemonheads in their time too. Never a bad idea.  

I love it when leftfield beatniks sing out of tune. Pretend not to care when they care deeply/ A book should be written about this but I'm leaving that to someone else, Soft Serve isn't soft at all. I'd say it's a winner. Male and female lyricists harmonising as if Mamas & the Papas never went out of fashion and a law has hust been enacted ensuring they never will be allowed to ever again. In a word. Ace!

Song(s) of the Day # 3,830 Myles Cochran

 

I read a interesting though slightly foolish  article yesterday. Under the headline The Big Idea, Guardian journalist Rebecca Nicholson asked Are We All Beginning to Have The Same Taste? The sub-heading Music May Be At The Forefront Of A Rush To Conformity was similarly gloomy and generalist in tone and seemed to base its premise on the admittedly slightly disorientating phenomenon of Taylor Swift but frankly was not remotely persuasive in any way and certainly didn't strike me as .a Big Idea,Just a crap one. 

Frankly Rebecca Nicholson no we're not Beginning to Have The Same Taste! I get tired of this Glass Half Empty theorising posing as profundity. Algorithmically generated playlists may offer us endless sad songs about rivers if we want them to but ultimately personal choice is greater than it's ever been and we shouldn't succumb to numb post-millenial gloominess and resignation. It's not smart on any level frankly. Life is the truly great adventure and it's up to us to reap it's great harvest and harness its possibilities and opportunities profer. 

So instead of giving Taylor Swift's latest TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT (note the portentious CAPITALISATION) another listen in an attempt to either finally like or understand it you might prefer to listen to Myles Cochran's latest You Are Here instead.. It's not spectacular or groundbreaking but it may take you into a dream and onto a journey. It's a disarming Americana style instrumental album.

Somewhere between Brian Eno and Ry Cooder. It'll paint landscapes in your head. And despite what the cynics say, those landscapes will be entirely of your own making. just as your fingerprints and record collections are not the same as anyone else's. Why should your tastes or opinions be any different ? Technology shouldn't shape us unless we choose to allow it too. You're unique unless you choose not to be. And don't let Rebecca Nicholson or anyone else tell you otherwise.    

Labelled With Love - A History of the World in Your Record Collection - # 32 Merge Records

 

A fabulously eclectic record .label,

Songs About People # 1,406 Audre Lorde

                                                       Fiercesome song for a warrior lady.

 

New York in 100 Songs - # 97 Sonic Youth

 

This is the record I think of when I think of Sonic Youth. It's fierce, uncompromising, gnarled. And very, very New York. 

500 Greatest Albums of the 1980s ... Ranked! # 278 The Cult - Love

 

                                                I confess I always found The Cult rather comical.

Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,838 The Tragically Hip - Fully Completely

 

Rather generic and unremarkable Grunge lite sound.

.

It Starts With a Birthstone - 200 Albums for 2024 # 131 Den Der Hale - Pastoral Light

We're going to wait 'til the midnight hour. When there's no one else around. Then head down to the nearest cemetery dressed all in black and shake, rattle and roll our chains to our heart's content. February 2024 Soundtrack to this time honoured ritual. Den Der Hale. 

Swedish Post Psyche out of Malmo. Take a look at this sorry gang of dimestore hoods. They're Andy's Babies lets put it that way. Brian Jonetown's Massacre's misbegotten children.  Latest album Pastoral Light finds them setting their controls for the heart of the sun. You're not getting there in those shades and tight fitting leather troosers you Scandinavian jessies.

What Post Psyche means when its at home is anybody's guess. I guess it's just another way of saying it's getting incredibly late in the day. That's another question but Den Der Hale have certainly listened to the right records and crammed for their exams in earnest. 

Burning the midnight oil and reaping the rewards on exam day.Den Der Hale make a righteous, unholy row. I know my Suicide. My BJM. My Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and Black Angels. I know all that. I like all this.

The record has a creepy sleeve with a severed looking arm lain out on a wheel of descending slightly intimidating cycles which Andre Breton himself might have given the Surrealist Library stamp of cultural approval. 

Everybody cut out for a bohemian destiny needs to go through this phase at some point in their early adulthood . Den Der Hale are intent on going through theirs right now. A thoroughly good time having a thoroughly bad time is had by one and all involved. Me too. Excellent excorcism and no mistake.

Song(s) of the Day # 3,829 Wishy

 

Indiana Indie Popsters Wishy serve up a buzzy rush on latest album Triple Seven. Superchunk came to mind early on. My Bloody Valentine somewhere in the mix.

I'm not sure the impact of the songs here will make a permanent mark but they past half an hour of a Saturday morning highly pleasurably, 

Horse Jumper Of Love - Disaster Trick

 

HEY EVERYBODY! THERE'S A GREAT NEW HORSE JUMPER OF LOVE ALBUM OUT ! IT'S CALLED DISASTER TRICK !!! The wotld gives an incoherent shrug. Refuses to spin off it's axis. Life goes on.

But it's made It Starts With a Birthstone's day. I've just given it a listen and I think it's great. The guys who sat in the middle of class huddled in a chat and no one really notice. The Post Grunge guys. Buffalo Tom and Sebadoh's sulky nephews. Not as if Uncle Buffalo Tom and Auntie Sebadoh weren't sulky enough anyhow !

Boston Ma. half glass empty guys in ragged, hole ridden sweaters. They've been doing this for years and albums. I never tire of their schtick. It has Slowcore DNA and is distinctly Grunge lite. But they have good hearts and a way with melancholic melody I'm sure those who settle down with these guts won't regret it for a moment. 

New York in 100 Songs - # 98 Simon & Garfunkel

 

'Tom get your plane tight on time. I know your part will go fine...'

A song that will always remind mee of one of the best friends I will ever have. Anyone could ever have. Someone who came up to be with me at a funeral. 

Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,839 Mid Air Thief - Crumbling

 

Mid Air Thief are South Korean and dabble in Folktronica. Whatever that may be. It's in rude health on Crumbling which finds man meets machine. Intesresting but I moved on after a while feeling  the machine was talking rather too much to itself to maintain human interest depite the soul's struggle to surface. 

500 Greatest Albums of the 1980s ... Ranked! # 279 Henry Badowski - Life Is A Grand

 

Oddball 1981 album. Not a million miles away from Howard Devoto's sensibility. Also owes somethung to Syd, 

It Starts With a Birthstone - 200 Albums for 2024 # 132 Large Brush Collection - Off Center

 

Choosing your band name carefully is prudent I'd say when getting together and heading onstage and eventually hitting the road. It's like christening your first born. In music terms it's also worth remembering you're asking the general public to part with hard earned cash generally. Bum Gravy was never the best idea really.

Neither is Large Brush Collection I reckon. But persist because the band , out of hereAustin Texas, have a lovely sound. Purity. Debut album Off Center captures the awestruck Baroque wonder of Nick Drake's Five Leaves Left, gives it a gentle feminine twist.  I was reminded of Alison Statton of Young Marble Giants and Naralie Merchant or Hope Sandoval. Interesting mix. It takes those magical ingredients wind's them up and St's them in motion like a set of spinning tops.

That's it essentially. That's what LBC do. Sometimes you need to have a great simple template, set it in motion with minimal fuss and play minor variations on it across the length of a Long Player to cast an effective spell. That's what happens here and frankly it's all rather wonderful. I wonder whether they've actually got a Large Brush Collection too. Perhaps that's just too much to ask for. 

Song(s) of the Day # 3,828 Thirteen Senses

 

Cornwall's finest. The Bound & The Infinite the kind if album title that immediately appeals to me. The kind of thing that would have drawn in Melody Maker journalists fresh from their Literature degrees devouring Barthes and the other great French Post Structuralist writers.

This is questing, ambitious, artistic music. It takes flight and is rather magnificent in it's questing spirit, A band who've been active since the early millenium but away for a while. This reminded me of Talk Talk meets Pet Shop Boys. Happy to endorse that.

New York in 100 Songs - # 99 Joanna Newsom

 

In the promo for Sapokanikan, Joanna Newsom saunters through the streets of New York  Her songs always have a surreeal, dreaming quality. This one reels with giddy whirligig momentum. She's a rare treasure.

500 Greatest Albums of the 1980s ... Ranked! # 280 Brian Eno - Ambient 4: On Land

 

There are worse things to listen to as I prepare myself for another immersion in online teaching than Eno. Clears and focuses the mind. 

Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,840 Kyuss - Blues For The Red Sun

 

It Starts With a Birthstone - 200 Albums for 2024 # 133 Sad Eyed Beatniks - Ten Brocades,

 

In the words of Nilsson 'Thursday's such a crazy, lazy day.'  I love Thursday's. The end is in sight But unlike Harry I'm going to work today.

Having done my ablutions, what better way to prepare my way than make my way through Sad Eyed Beatniks Ten Brocades, A heady mix of Velvet Underground meets early Felt.

Sad Eyed Beatniks are out of San Francisco whuch seems to be the global capital of this kind of lip Indie ennui these days.

The dreamchild of K.Linn it seems this us hardly an original vision. It wanders paths laid don forty years or more but in the words of Luddites plying their trade since the Industrial Revolution 'If It ain't broke don't fix it. A charming, wan ride. 

Song(s) of the Day # 3,827 Thee Marloes

 

Neo Soul from Surabaya, Indonesia.  Thee Marloes would surely be right up Quentin Tarantino's street. Debut album Perak is cool and sleek..

There's something incredible poised and wonderful about this kind of venture. Retro Soul that makes you feel as if you're in a hot hotel lounge in South East Asia during the rainy season with fans whrrting overhead and a blue cocktail with an olive on a stick on the table in front of you.

The record never misses a beat. Initially I thought it might be best in the background. While you pretended to be James Bond. Or a Bond Girl. Or Noel Coward. Take your pick.

But I kept listening. And it became my album of the day yesterday. So it's It Starts With a Birthstone's Song of the Day.today. Records like these are the reason I keep doing this.  

New York in 100 Songs - # 100 LCD Soundsystem

 

'New York is what you make of it , It acts as a Rorschach test which you can proejct your feelings onto. It can be whtever you want it to be. Good or bad, it's a city of seemingly endless contradictionsm burdened by reoutations it couldn't care less to live up tom with a history unlike any other.'

Off we go. New York, New York, it's a wonderful town !

The Ultimate Genre Guide - 40 Best Glam Tracks - # 1 Mott The Hoople

 

'Mott's career saving hit for Mott was a soliloquym a street rap, a London love letter and an existential scream from a new generation. Handclaps, hipster jive, hope and disillusion. A chorus that the kids had waited for all their lives.for. A Glam hymn forever.'

Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,841 Dave Matthews Band - Crash

 

Look up Dave Matthews Band in any worth its salt dictionary, You'll find a picture of Dave Matthews Band next to it.  

500 Greatest Albums of the 1980s ... Ranked! # 281 Roxy Music - Flesh + Blood

 

There's a band playing on the radio..;

I love Roxy Music. Some discount them after Eno went, certainly their late Seventies and early Eighties reformation phase. Not me, Ferry in his suave way was every bit as driven as Eno. 

 Flesh + Blood was state of the art. Like an Anthony Price suit a sports car. Ferry had such an eye for detail and he had the best pit stop yeam going. Mackay. Manzanera.

It Starts With a Birthstone - 200 Albums for 2024 # 134 Libertines - All Quiet on the Eastern Esplanade

 

Is the world really waiting for the next Libertines record. I suspect not. They're hardly front page news anymore though they, or at least Pete was for a while. For the record I've always had a fair bit of time for the band. Cheekie chappies.

They were the British response to The Strokes who brought no end of vim, vigour and genuine excitement to my life when they showed up in it at the turn of the century. The Libertines came along a bit later and did a similar thing in a very English way. Doherty and Barat seemed a talented pair and the band had a proper good knees up stirring up London Rock & Roll memories. Down at the old Bull & Bush. La, la, la, la, la.

I was less interested in the tabloid notoriety, (in fact not at all) but always enjoyed the music though I never followed their fortunes that closely. They seem to be having a better time than they've had for a while on All Quiet on the Eastern Esplanade their latest as they make their way towards the big Five Oh. . 

It's all good fun and there was plenty that made me prick up my ears and touched me here. Songwriting duties traded between Barat and Doherty with Doherty's generally having the edge as they usually have done. Barat's contributions are hardly shabby by any means mind. Much of the bands appeal was always predicated on the ongoing, you suspect lifelong squabble between the pair. Banter between songs, references to Pop, Film and TV culture awash within them.

I'm not one to place albums within a body of work, particularly when I don't know it all. I imagine devotees will enjoy this greatly. I certainly did and will return. There are several songs here that rank with their best. They don't always look back like too much of Brit Pop did.  They comment on the sad here and now. Listen to Merrie Ol England. You get a neat snippet of White Cliffs of Dover at the close. They remain astute cultural magpies and commentators, picking at the debris  of a nation that may once have been great but hardly makes much of a claim to be so any longer. Strangely they remind me more of Blur than they ever have before here. There's even a quote from This is a Low. 'And the radio plays.'

Song(s) of the Day # 3,826 Oso Oso

Lethargic, slightly depressed but trying to put a bright face on it Indie Rock from Jade Lilitri out of Long Beach, New York. New album life till bones boasts a terrific sleeve. As if the Ray Harryhausen skeletons have decamped from Jason & the Argonauts screen and are rockin' American suburbia.

The record is cool. Geeky Strokes. I went to Oso Oso Radio on Spotify in search of further comparison points but didn't find anybody I just found plenty more interesting leads.

Anyhow  life till bones is loads of fun. The kind of slacker American indie that's all over my It Starts With a Birthstone 200 countown as we come towards my Top hundred. I'm increasing realise that along with raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, this is uncreasingly one of my favourite things. 

The Lyceum

 

The Ultimate Genre Guide - 40 Best Glam Tracks - # 2 Sweet

 

                                                          'Sweet's poignant farewell to youth...'

I See You Live On Love Street - Music From Laurel Canyon 1965 - 1975 # 68 Fleetwood Mac

 

The end of a road. Another one starts tomorrow.

500 Greatest Albums of the 1980s ... Ranked! # 282 The Beat - Special Beat Service

 

One of the best things about doing this series is the opportune to reflect on and re-evaluare my feelings for records and bands that I experienced as I was coming of age. The key years 1980 to 1985. The following five were me becoming an adult. That's another story.

The Beat. You couldn't help but enjoy them at the time. But like The Undertones it took a while to realise just how good they were. They were deceptive. Special Beat Service their third and final record found them looking Westwards. They're fondly remembered by many and I'll play their records as long as I'm alive 

Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,842 Traffic - John Barleycorn Must Die

 

Traffic are an incredibly cpmforting voice from Folk Rock past. John Barleycorn Must Die is as good a way to experience their bucolic, easy gifts as any. They will make you Glad immediately. Then go from there. Great start to the morning. 

It Starts With a Birthstone - 200 Albums for 2024 # 135 Sleater Kinney - Little Rope

 

If there's one thing that Corin Tuckey and Carrie Brownstein the remaining pillars of Sleater- Kinney are, it's survivors. For that alone they deserve respect.

Not everybody cares for what they do and have done for the best part of thirty or more years now. What they do best is The Shriek! The female equivalent of Munch's Scream. Riot Girl lives on through them more than any other band and thrillingly they stick to their Riot Girl apprenticeship and script. They should be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame immediately, If that august institution has the remotest understanding or appreciation for actual Rock & Roll and particularly Punk Rock instead of the vaguest actual dread of it..

New album Little Rope stands tall and proud. If you didn't like Sleater Kinney previously this is unlikely to be the record to convert you to the cause. They're pretty consistent frankly.They stick to the script they formulated way back when. It's always been one that does the job. 

When Bill Berry finally had his fill and vacated the drumstool of R.E.M. the band responded that 'a three legged dog was still a dog'. Fans soon discovered that it might still be a odg, but it was clearly 'a dog of a different colour' and in no way as the dog they'd loved so much forcoming up to twenty years. Sleater Kinney devotees have been coping with a similar scenario for a few years now since the departure of Janet Weiss from the SK fold which she'd been a part of since 1996. 

Weiss departed after reported 'musical differences.' What they might involve in detail is open to speculation for those who care. If SK seem slightly less SK than they once were for those who care about the ideal of 'the band'. everything here is consistent with the principles that they have always aligned themselves to.

For those who dislike their shrill and slightly discordant quality, that it must be said is exctly what they aspire to. It's what they consciously set out to achieve every time they set foot in a studio. To find fault with that seems akin to having a pop at Cindy Wilson an Kate Pierson for not always singing in tune. Another excellent Sleater Kinney record for those that like that kind of thing. I certainly count myself among that number.

Song(s) of the Day # 3,825 Belong

 

Bruising. Genuinely bruisng. It was a quality of music when I turned twenty and headed towards my thirties. Husker Du. Sonic Youth. Pixies. Mt Bloody Valentine. Sugar. Grunge.Some of these bands really had such power, resonance and dtive that you felt rhey were out to peel your skin where you stood. 

It's great to hear that quality. That dissonance. Ambient Shoegazy duo Belong are back and their latest record Realistic IX. creates 'sonic landscapes from dense sheets of guitar generated noise.' Largely lacking vocals though they do deploy the indistinct vocal device, the sound of Kevin and Belinda inhaling and exhaling breathlessly. Standing close to their mics as of they're making love to one another. That signature sound that made MBV so intense and remarkable.  

Belong, a New Orleans based duo look incredibly intense in their mugshots. They appear as if they've just been hauled into a cell and are expecting a long gaol sentence and stretch. This is a blistering record. Claustrophobic. Straining for air like Harry Lime at the end of The Third Man, his face pressed up against the vent, fingers clawing at he sky.

Turk Dietrich and Michael Jones have been working together for over twenty years now. Their debt to Kevin and Belinda, to Bob Mould and Grant Hart in particular is clear. But life itself is a work in progress and this is a very welcome addition to a noble canon.

The Ultimate Genre Guide - 40 Best Glam Tracks - # 3 David Bowie

 

The Ziggy fable pictured Glam as a Sci Fi New Testament, and its irresistible advance single, a euphoric call to arms, was the message to the flock that the Rock 'n' rill saviour was coming.'

I See You Live On Love Street - Music From Laurel Canyon 1965 - 1975 # 67 Howdy Moon

 

Base camp on this particular incline is in sight.

500 Greatest Albums of the 1980s ... Ranked! # 283 New Order - Brotherhood

 

'When they embrced technology . New Order also weirdly became a better guitar group.' 

I confess I found New Order slightly prosaic at times. Perhaps not a hip opinion to voice. Barney's voice was weak and slightly bloodless. I preferred McCulloch. Or Robert Smith. There's plenty going on on Brotherhood though. It sounds like a vigorous and disciplined workout. Nevertheless, they always miss Curtis' lyrical vision. Some things are irreplaceable. But they're in less pain.