Thursday, July 24, 2025

It Starts With a Birthstone 200 Albums For 2025 # 159 Gina Birch

 


                                              'In a school when I was two PiD that afternoon.'

If in doubt namedrop Gina Birch and Ana de Santos and bang on about Raincoats and how long you've been into them. Ask Horsegirl. Ask anyone who's working in any Rough Trade Shop ever. Listen to Gina Birch's new album Trouble.It's great. You'll be watching Sammu & Rosie Get Laid again. Make you feel like you're 17 again.

I Thought I'd Live Forever, the opening track sets the whole thing up perfectly. It's the world as observed from an angle of alterno cool. The late seventies and early Eughties alternative DiY perspective writ large.  

Then Causing Trouble is the whole refusenik manufesto in frdge magnet form. And that's no slur. It's like a cult rainbow.. 'I'm a girl and I shall not conform, in fact I'll smudge my eye shadow if I bloomin' well want to.' And then a checklist of the cool squad. Yoko One, Delia Derbyshire, Joan Fontaine. Kathleen Hanna, Nina Simone. .Are you writing all these down.

It's the world. If it decided to spin the other way from the way it's cureently spinning and threatened to click off its axis. Goodness knows it mightn't be the worst idea the way things are going. It all has a splendid dubby slightly haunted air. Fabulous frankly.  

500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 442 Neil Young - Silver & Gold

 


We know what  Neil Young sounds like. This was his first of the new millenium. It has a sure tread and a nostalgic tone.I'm not enturely sure if I would rather lusten to it than Harvest or Last Of The Gold Rush but for devotees it does the job




Lazy Days - The British Progressive Pop Sounds of 1975 # 54 The Winkies - Trust In Dick

 





Song(s) of the Day # 4,152 Chris Stamey

 

Chris Stamey of the dBs has an album out. It's called Anything Is Possible . It's nice timing on the recent loss of Brian Wilson because the Beach Boys are a key presence on here These are well crafted tuneful pop songs in the tradution if dBs, XTC, Split Enz and The Beatles. . 

Wednesday, July 23, 2025

500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 443 Ghostface Killa - Supreme Clientele

 





It Starts With a Birthstone 200 Albums For 2025 # 160 Vinyl Williams. - Portasymphony

 



Vinyl Williams.New album Portasymphony.Starts off sounding like lift music. There are worse things. Second track the vocals kick in. . We're carried off into the Californian ether. It's a bit bland sometimes. Bit there are words things than that too.

As the tracks move the mood kucks in . The beats are tight and funky. The drummer is wicked. You feel you're on a beach. Possibly the one under the pavement.  Wiles away a funky fifty minutes.

Lazy Days - The British Progressive Pop Sounds of 1975 # 53 Pretty Things

 





Song(s) of the Day # 4,151 Autocamper

 


If in doubt find yourself a Slumberland album. Autocamper's latest What You Do All Day is the latest contender.' Not Anorak, not Twee, Not Lucky Just Pop. ' I don't wish to be picky. But What You Do All Day seems like all four to me. And all the better for it. 

Tuesday, July 22, 2025

Lazy Days - The British Progressive Pop Sounds of 1975 # 52 Kestrel - Take It Away

 





250 Albums- An Arbitrary Rumble Through My Record Collection # 170 Split Enz - True Colours

 


For me the period between 1978 and 1982 in terms of my musical and personal journey was a question of fiding my taste. And Split Enz were a part of that journey. I think I was looking for intelligence, wit, melody and a certain resilience and idiosyncratic perspective and they played a strong hand on all fronts.

True Colours performed in different markets and is probably the bands best known album. It was quirky but Poppy;It has a cover that resembles the kind of painting that you might find yourself staring at one Saturday afternoon in a Modern Art Gallery and wander off eventually none the wiser. 

The lyrics told stories about genuine life dilemmas. The guy in the corner of the office who no-one really likes and doesn't actually much like himself really. Why people stick together. Partially through fear. . The grief of parting when you're young. It has a certain Existential edge which is always a clincher for me. It comes from an angle as so many records did in those days. It stands up getting on to fifty years on. I wish it had a lyric sheet. 

It Starts With a Birthstone 200 Albums For 2025 # 161 Fieldress - It's a Lot

 


It's good to have some things you can rely on. Our course seems set. A clear week of sailing ahead on It Starts With a Birthstone. If in doubt Ahab has found, give Starbuck a turn at the wheel and Captain Ahab (that's me, me hearties), can slink off to the hammock on the deck, hang up me false leg and allow his first mate to set the course and the soundtrack.

A couple of days ago Starbuck (AKA Darren Jones, as good a friend as a Blog Captain ever had), came on deck with a fresh list of suggestions and I'm gratefully  ticking them off as we head towards Mid July and a family wedding celebration.

This morning oire from Oakland, California's .excellent scene. Fieldress, an eclectic bunch, and their latest album It's a Lot. On first listen I'd say it's a lot of charm and beauty. A heady brew of Jazz, Folk, playfulness at every turn. Melody, mystery and no little harmony. In short just what the captain ordered. Fix yourself a measure of grog Starbuck. Steady as she goes. Altogether, splendid stuff ! 

Song(s) of the Day # 4,150 Walter Mitty & His Unknown Orchestra

Man overboard !!! Temporarily locked out of my account.Humph. In the meantine while I wait for my new password to arrive I write out my reviews on a Word Document, Old school if you like and way for normal serice. Hmph. The ways of the midern world bemuse me somewhat.

Never mind I have the splendidly named Walter Mitty & His Unknown Orchestra’s Yikes Almighty to bide,me over. Old school alternative American whimsy of the best sort. Hold the line me hearties. Plain sailing up ahead.

P.S. Ordinary service reviewed ahead of schedule. Land Ho ! 

Monday, July 21, 2025

It Starts With a Birthstone 200 Albums For 2025 # 162 Preoccupations - Ill At Ease

 

Canadians Preoccupations kicked off in 2015 as Viet Cong. A name change was deemed sensible, so as not to offend the sensibilities of of the politically sensitive / controlling. Almost a decade later on they're back with a new album Ill at Ease and it covers a lot of ground. 

Post Punk is a term that comes to mind. It's been an unavoidable catch all umbrella term for too long now. Preoccupations have a Pop sensibility as much as a Rock one and this vacillate between Joy Division and OMD at times. Intensity is nothing to be scared if it seems. 

I'm not sure how often I'll listen to this. Last iught as I listened as the sun set I felt it lacked some of the rigour of the likes of Protomartyr , Big Thief or Ought, but it's a polished sound which will appeal to young professional couples opting for a night in and some quality time over a bottle of wine and the latest HBO binge fest. There's much here that glistens. Give it time. Towards the close I found it began to glow..  

250 Albums- An Arbitrary Rumble Through My Record Collection # 171 Lou Reed & John Cale - Songs For Drella

 '                             


                                       'This is a Rock group called the Velvet Underground.'

Lou Reed was not a sentimental man. Neither was John Cale. There's no room for sentiment in art. Life is tough. It's a war out there. They knew they slotted together well. There is a famous photograph of them sitting tigether under a Christmas Trees in the Seventies with faces that curdle the lens. You never get the impression that they liked each other very much . But they knew what the other brought to the table.

1990' Songs For Drella written for Andy Warhol has an elegaic, poignant edge,You can feel the regret. The anger. The artistic respect. It's an exercise in paying dues. 

Song(s) of the Day # 4,149 Billy Marten

 

You get the sense that the record company folk couldn't believe their luck when Billy Marten. It's a box ticker of what I imagine they're looking for in the modern artist. Sensitive, sturdy , hidden depth, bruef ecoes if Joni Mitchell, and all that early Laurel Canyon vibe .

Only trouble with new album Dog Eared. It never breaks for cover. Or threatens to. It's astonishingly risk averse. Constructed from the kind of components that would generally slot together with potent vigour. That's lacking here. It's bland I;m afraid.

Sunday, July 20, 2025

Lazy Days - The British Progressive Pop Sounds of 1975 # 51 John Miles

 





It Starts With a Birthstone 200 Albums For 2025 # 163 Petite Amie - Hay Vaces

 

Petite Amie ! Little Friend !. Hey my French is pretty basic but I have my moments. Petite Amie c'est es mon nouveau meilleur amie. They're triff !

Latest album Hay Vaces is a zinger ! Gallic esprit, Verve. Glass overflowing souffle light melodies. Out of Mexico City but switching between Spanish and French at will and frequently charming the birds from the trees.

500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 444 Midlake - The Trials of Van Occupanther

 


Some kind of Folk Masterpiece. Not a millin miles away from Getty Rafferty. Meets John Grant. Thoas Hardy meets Ursuka le Guin. And all the better for it.



Song(s) of the Day # 4,148 Roy Harper

 


I'm in Canterbury at the family home of my beloved parents. They're ninety years old and have seen and experienced an incredible amount. Multitudes. They are at church at the moment. They will return soon and we will eat together and then later in the afternoon I will pack my bags and catch a train to Canterbury West. Get off the train at St Pancras and cross a road to Kings Cross and catch another train and return to Newcastle to my flat and hit the sack pretty immediately. 

Tomorrow my alarm will ring.I will rise early. Send a song to someone special. Run my bath , fix breakfast and start again. An online lesson will  start at 8.15 with insurance people in Dussledorf. We'll laugh and learn. .We all must all walk this way. Living life a day at a tume, Putting bread on the table.Learning. What do they say 'lifelong learning'. The first thing you need to recognise is that life is a mystery essentially. And that change is inevitable.And go from there.  .

Yesterday there was a wedding ceremony down the road from my parents where my marvellous. Spanish  sister in law lives in a large house with her family.  It was a wonderful celebration of life and love.And endurance. Immaculate creation and existance. I've just popped down the road to see her and her daughter and her husband  who were rising to clear up and get started on the new day.To thank them and bid them farewell. Until the next time we're together . 

Big fat raindrops are dropping outside in Canterbury. After seeing my sister in law I nipped back and bought my mother some croissants and a pint of semi skimmed milk for my mother. What my mother wants my mother gets. My parents have  just arrived home . My mother has rushed to the TV set and tried to get a pictire. The Sky set has failed due to irregular weather. I said 'Why don't we talk to each ohter?' I fear this has fallen on deaf ears.

So I'm back upstairs listening to Roy Harper's Stormcock on headphones in my small box bedroom at the front of the house while my mother prepares Sunday lunch. Roy Harper always reminds me of a dearly departed friend. Thirty years ago when I was so much younger, much younger than today I used to visit him on Friday afternoons in his flat in Dortmund when the working week was mostly done. 

Matt would roll fat joints and we'd pass them back and forth beween the two of us while Nick Drake, Roy Harper and Kevin Coyne records played on his stereo, Then we'd switch to Grunge, Led Zep or The Beatles or R.E.M. He'd pick out his acoustic guitar and play a passable version of So.Central Rain while the shadows darkened before we were called out into the night to catch a tram into town to commune with fruends in some German hostelry. Those were the days.

But there's no point dwelling on the past because time marches on. The one thing we must all realise is that time has a remoresless tread and will sweep all befoer it. Stormcock, which Matt always used to insist was the Roy Harper album, sounds pretty good to me.

There's an interview with Roy Harper in the current edition of Uncut. I read it on the train down to Canterbury on Friday night. When asked about his legacy, the legacy of his artistic spirit he said

;' That's a kind thought. But I don't think any of us can afford to think about anything like that. There are hige changes coming along in any case. Legacy as a concept  might be incredibly irrelevant. It might be possible that within fifty years we might be looking at this age n the way we now see Cicero or the Jurrasic era. AI is one thing but certainly the changes that are coming are are going to carry us into a very different place than the one we occupy at present . So thinking of me and my legacy is pure rainbow.'

This post is done. My mother has found a documentary on silverback gorillas to watch. It's time for lunch.

Saturday, July 19, 2025

It Starts With a Birthstone 200 Albums For 2025 # 164 Suzanne Vega - Flying With Angels



It's difficult to distance music appreciation from personal experience.That's inevutably what we wrap oir tastes and judgements aroind. It's virtually impossible to disentangle perseptions and associations and why would we even want to.  Suzanne Vega reminds me of a girlfriend I went through university with who really liked Marlene on the Wall when we started going out and so I have an association of her and that song in particular. which is related unextricably to the time when we were falling in love. I love that first album still.I could make a reasonable argument as to why I rate it but to what degree is my appreciation related to rose tinted spectacles of an incredibly special moment in my life ?

We went to see Vega when she played the university we were at in the second year. It's a slightly darker memory for a number of reasons. Vega was touring her second album Solitude Standing and it wasn't a particularly memorable gig or pleasant evening for reasons I won't trouble you with.. As a result I find it difficult to play the second album now without my memory banks clouding the experience although there's nothing wrong with  Solitude Standing. But I just can't view it objectively. It has bad associations so I'd rather play the first.

Never mind all that. Suzanne's back and she has new ware to flog Flying With Angels. .It's her tenth album and by now you know pretty much what it's going to sound like. She found her groove right from the off and has stuck to her path. She was once a waif like poetic sould with a bit of an edge who made you want to move to Greenwich Village and find a similar type to move into a loft with. 

She's still a craftswoman, an artisan. Some songs here work better than others. When she starts to rock out on Witch I felt she could rein it in a little, At times the rhymes are slightly glib. The songs where she appreciates the moment and goes in with the surgeon's knife there are some gentle affecting flashes of inspiration,, Chambermaid was a particularly affecting twist on Dylan's I Want You, Last Train From Mariupol is an indication that romance will never be dead. I had a nice forty minutes with this last nighr. It's an accomplished and dignified record worthy of her name,  Her name is Suzanne...

It Starts With a Birthstone 200 Albums For 2025 # 165 The Nightingales - The Awful Truth

 

Robert Lloyd is not your average Rock & Roll figure to put it mildly. They are forbears and paralells. Most obviously Captain Beefheart and Pere Ubu's David Thomas. Never mind Gargantua and Pantagruel if you're looking to impress your mates. Have you seen them live. You really should? But really he's earned his moment given his committed willingness to step up to the plate and swing for all he's worth for countless years.

Latest album The Awful Truth is a rompathon and no mistake. A mix and match. By turns Glam, Punk, Rockabilly and everything in between. It's damned good fun for the whole Rock & Roll family. The likes of Marc Riley  and Steward Lee will be dressing up in their finery to strut their stuff and embarass younger relatives. It's not what you'd describe a coherent listen. But that's never been what you go to The Nightingales for.. Excellent stuff !

Lazy Days - The British Progressive Pop Sounds of 1975 # 50 Jethro Tull

 





500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 445 Coldplay - Viva Le Vida

 


Here come Coldplay. 'Oh good' I hearr you cry. I luke the second album because it wil always remind me of someone who us fundamental. That doesn't mean I have to have their babies. Diminishing returns for the most part.




Song(s) of the Day # 4,147 Vinyl Williams

 



Vinyl Williams.New album Portasymphony.Starts off sounding like lift music. There are worse things. Second track the vocals kick in. . We're carried off into the Californian ether. It's a bit bland sometimes. Bit there are words things than that too.

As the tracks move the mood kucks in . The beats are tight and funky. The drummer is wicked. You feel you're on a beach. Possibly the one under the pavement.  Wiles away a funky fifty minutes.

Thursday, July 17, 2025

It Starts With a Birthstone 200 Albums For 2025 # 166 Jimmie Kilpatrick - Jimmie

 

The Sound of American Failure. It's a trope. A broad slope. Genrally heavily unfluenced by Pavement these days. But why should I car. I like Pavement.

Jimmie Kilpatrick is the latest slacker loser . On his latest and presumably debut album Jimmie he's dressed for success. But what do you know. Success it never comes. 

This is a well worn road by now. Let's face it. Originality is hard to come by these days. And why bother . If you've got a handful of Replacements, Pavement and Sebadohrecords and not enough inclination to lay down a new path across the Rock & Roll woods. Innocent fun! Actually a very fine record within given permaters. 

Lazy Days - The British Progressive Pop Sounds of 1975 # 48 Brian Protheroe

 





250 Albums- An Arbitrary Rumble Through My Record Collection # 172 Laurie Anderson - Big Science

 


When I started collecting records when I was about seventeen I bought a lot of records latgely because I felt I ought to. Guided by The NME and my idea of the counnterculture. The person I was constructing. The person I wished to be. I don't think I even thought about it. As Richard Hell suggests I think we were all just lost in being young, 

I bought Big Science becuse I thought I should have it. Because O Superman was evrywhere. I haven't really listened to it until recently. It seems to be about alienation. How the rules we construct to describe the world we are in don't make much sense. I find it strangely calming. 


500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 447 Arthur Russell - Calling Out Of Context

 


Of course I've been into Arthyr Russell since the floor. Amend that. Before the flood ! Of course seriouslyhe's a phenomenon and it's a delight to get a brief listen to Calling Out Of Context breathing in and exhaling as I head into Donnesrstag. This came out un 2004 and us Geoff Travis managing the archive. Morrissey should be ashamed of himself.



Song(s) of the Day # 4,145 Unifora

 


Chicago. Seemingly the global epicentre of youthful unrest and Punk Rick energy and attitude right now.  Unifora, all youth, hair, unruly bookshelves chord changes and guitar action. A fantastuc album called More Gums Than Teeth which twists and turns and then darts off into the hillside.

This is marvellous stuff. They're my new favourute band and this record will not be confined. Two songs in and I'm enslaved. There's more invention here than at an Inventor's Conventuin. Crisp, sinuous and frankly brilliant. You need to sign up for this. See you at the barricades babe

Wednesday, July 16, 2025

Lazy Days - The British Progressive Pop Sounds of 1975 # 47 Mott

 





It Starts With a Birthstone 200 Albums For 2025 # 167 Domino Kirke - The Most Familiar Star

 

The Most Familiar Star by Domino Kirke  An alluring record that I discovered yesterday evening and have been playing since as we work our way into Donnerstag and towards the end of April. Domino is UK born and New York based and is apparently singer, songwriter, producer and doula. 

Yes I have no idea what doula means either frankly. In any case this is a rather lovely and arresting album. Otherworldly , Provocative. I like records with character and mystery that encourage interaction and engagement, response from the listener and this certainly did that for me on my last day in Canterbury for a while before heading back to Newcastle this evening. 

It Starts With a Birthstone 200 Albums For 2025 # 168 There's a Tuesday - Blush

 

 'I bought myself a birdfeeder. Because I'm working on being kinder.'

Blush. By There's a Tuesday. On a Sunday. Well you can't have everything, It's a good record anyhow Odd cover. A tuger. Sprinting past a reclining fight dog. Not the best.But you can't have everything The record's good.

They're from Aotearoa. That's in New Zealand Pop Pickers ! Gee thanks It Starts With a BirthstoneBloggy One Mates. That's you Darren Jones ! You might like this. Sleek, slightly glum Alternative Guitar Indie Pop. Twin female lead . Breeders . Veruca Salt.

Blush doesn't sound like either.. If I had a gun put to my head. Nit that I anticipate it. I'd say they listen to Big Thief now and then Good thinking There's a Tuesday. But they're on their own road. And it's a good one.An A Road perhaps. But well built.

101 Essential Rock Records # 91 The Modern Lovers - The Modern Lovers

 


This is not actually an album. It's a set if demos that was released in this format and became a hugely influential record. It's one of the most important records in my collection for me. It's an expression of the purest imdividuality, enigma and artistic expression. It's got great tunes and extraordinary lyrics, the band rock intensively and fervently. It makes you want to dance and sing. And some of the ideas it expresses have been incredibly influential and fertile wuthin Rock & Roll and Independent and Oitsider Rock ever since, Ask David byrne for starters.

Jonathan Richman is an outsider and like the best outsiders has remained so. All the while inviting people into his world ando ut of the conventional one empowering and enabling creative endeavour. The best way of living your life imaginable. This is essentially a Punk or at least a Proto Punk vision and  set of recordings but Jonathan himself decided pretty quickly that Punk was too loud for him and some of the things it enabled were too brutal for his liking. So he moved on in his own direction and created his own universe over the next fofty tears and more. He has remained absolutely true though to the ideas expressed so graphically and powerfully here.  All in all that's a quite remarkabe achuevemnt. Honathan Richman is not on the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. 

250 Albums- An Arbitrary Rumble Through My Record Collection # 173 Santana - Santana

 

You can use music for many purposes. I'm currently channelling it as something of a restorative. To take me back to times and spaces. Particularly childhood but not only . Places in my life which are increasingly distant in terms of time and franly it feels, space.

 I come from a family unit of seven. We've since been reduced to five and the loss of the two who have departed is still a source of pain and loss to the five of us that remain. That's not a negative conclusion to draw I don't think. Just a basic facet of life,  A passage of experience you never completely come to the end of.

When I was nine my family moved from Nottingham to London. To Richmond Upon Thames to be precise. House prices had not exploded to the ridiculous degree they proceeded to. We moved into a cramped house close to Richmond Station, My three older siblings got the three bedrooms on the top floor as they were approaching their mid to late teens. My parents got the front bedroom on the first floot and my sister and I shared a room and I eventually moved into my own block bedroom at the back of the first floor a few years later when we moved beyond the au pair years and my sister and I got to the stage that we were relatively self standing. I walked my sister to school and back and my mum and dad could relax a bit.


The Sixties were not really completely over in Richmond in my area. The house next door was ours was home to a group of young people in their twenties and thirties who had an air of slightly grubby bohemianism about the, They threw continual celebratory partues late into the weekend nights, much I suspect to my mother's chagrin,

There were conspicuous squats all the way down Church Road the route I and eventually mu sister and I and I took to my Infants School. A glorious  walk for me from eight to ten to vusialise mow. All the way up Mount Ararat and right unto The Vineyard and the teeming scrum of childhood noise. Football,conkers, cricket when we used our fisted hands to punch a tennis ball past crouched fielders and run between brief wickets. The screaming riot of constant noise enveloping us in the cocoon of blissful and unrepeatable childhood. A passafe of  time to experience and then forever try to recover. 

   One of our teachers Miss Collins was a distictly hippie type. I seem to rememer her wearing a wug ir at least having a glorious permm a fair bit of pastel make up  and she wore fabulous multicoloured costumes. Beads and flares. Scareves, Earrings. She followed no apparent curriculum but allowed us to paint and draw pctures all day. Write and tell stories and when she'd run out of ideas lead us out into the playground to play french cricket at the end of most days. Bliss..

These are incredibly hypnotic moments of lost youth and while writing them what's the soundtrack been ? I'm using to carry me back there to the secret garden that everyone can access if the moment and soundtrack are right.. Uf yoy set the condotions. Like some DiY ouija board. 

Santana's first. It's a magical record pure and simple. A glorious freeform indulgence from distant history.A good six years before the period I've been documenting but it feels incredibly apt to describe just how exciting and freewheeling being that age felt from 1975 to 1977 for me and how it feels now reliving it in writing.

 A period where a whole different set of values challenged the given ones and  the idea of freedom was actively sought, explored, enacted and celebrated. This a record I've only recently bought a battered second hand copy of on a whim. I play it quite regulrly and it always casts a spell. The lion's head on the sleeve describe the martialled. chaos and purest ecstasy of the album itself . It's cast uts spe on me for the last couple of hors and elped me write this. 

500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 448 The Archie Bronson Outfit - Fur

 


More school of Crazy Horse meets Dinosur Jr and swim downstream.




Song(s) of the Day # 4,144 Rip Van Winkle

 


To sleep perchance to dream.;' Robert Pollard is back. Well let's face it he doesn't go awy. As always, he's firing on all cyclinders. Rip Van Winkle Blasphemy. Get out of your lazy bed ! Get to work you idle waster.

Neil Young is the guiding star here Not Pete Townshend this time. Ragged Glory. Dissonance. Static on the radio. Heading into a blizzard. The best kind of frazzled derangement, We're off. Set the controls for the heart of the prairie.

Tuesday, July 15, 2025

250 Albums- An Arbitrary Rumble Through My Record Collection # 174 Carly Simon- No Secrets

 


'You walked into the party. Like you were walking onto a yacht .'  That song really shouldn't define Carly Simon. But it does define a certain time, An emotion. A desire. Maybe what lots of people would like themselves to be or be thought of by other people. How we deceive ourself.

Carly Simon is definitely the kind of woman any man in his right mind would love to go out with. Cool blouse and shoulder bag. She knows how to wear and the record is svelte. Impeccably played and perfect for a night in with the one you love.I've just put this on and keep playing it. It will do for this evening. It's like peaches and cream.

500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 450 Dirty Projectors - Rise Above

 


Jagged arty projection. Slightly bitty.




Song(s) of the Day # 4,143 Fruit Trees

                   

                     ' Fruit tree. Fruit tree. No one knows you but the wind and the air.'

It was true then it was free now. Fruit Trees thank the LA Didgers and Raymind Chandler on their Bandcamp page for current album An Opening. They know where they stand in the scheme of things.

They also might thank Karen Daltin, Sandy Denny. Fairpary and Pentangle. I could write a long list. But I don't wish to. I'd rather listen to this wistful, reflectuve, pained, veined but rather marvellous record.  There's a lot on here.Unpack at your leisure.

Monday, July 14, 2025

101 Essential Rock Records # 90 Ramones - Ramones

                                                            

                                                            'In a moment of passion....'

Ramones played at my uniiversity furst or second year. Everybody, but everybody played UEA between 1985 and 1990 the period where I was there. I didn't go to see Ramones but should have . I was into the artier edge of the CBGBs scene; Television, Patti Smith, Blondie, Suicide and Talking Heads. I think I had a certain ingrained suspicion of Ramones which was a kind of snobbery. I hadn't really listened to them and thought they might be something like Sham 69 or Genration X. I was pretty ignorant.

Eventually I bought Rocket To Russia because The NME nudged me in that durection and then I read Please Kill Me and educated myself and bought the first and third albums. I realised in many ways they could lay a claim to be the leading proponents of these years. Every bit as much as Patti, Verlaine or Debbie.And also they were snotty arty and street.There was a smartness in their dumb relentless assault. A pain. A snarl. A grubby purity. An umbilical cord to the original wind tinnel rush of dirty and pure Rock & Roll.



250 Albums- An Arbitrary Rumble Through My Record Collection # 175 The Special AKA - In The Studio

                                       

                                               'Why don't you come on over to my house for tea?'

Looking back you can detect a subtext in records you never noticed at the time. I've always felt the Eighties were not read accurately. Att the time and  since. It was a grim decade in Britain in many respects. A class struggle. A case of choosing sides. Because toy were obluged to.. 

Listen to this record. It tells it how it was in black and white, Jerry Dammers was never one to shy away from grim triths..Many of the Specials had jumped ship but he could still put out a crack squad. In black and white. Shades. Classy shoes.Horns.

The whole thing reeks of crime. It's very kirchen sink. Domestic crime. Inner city crime. Moral crime, Sexual crime. Racial crime, The handiffs are on. Come quietly sir.

 The reality that existed beneath the facade. But this has comedy and irony, defiance. alongside conflict and stark brutality. Period detail. 'Why don't you come on over to my house for tea?'  It sounds like nothing so mych as Ska meets Brecht & Weil. Directed by Joseph Losey

500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 451 Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Show Your Bones

 

Yeah Yeah Yeah's were the New Post Punk before it became all the rage. Karen O knew her Siouxsie from her Ari Up and insisted on her right to cut her hair badly and shriek her head off relentlessly if she wanted to.A slab of glorious technicolour noise.



Song(s) of the Day # 4,142 Gina Birch

                                    


                                              'In a school when I was two PiD that afternoon.'

If in doubt namedrop Gina Birch and Ana de Santos and bang on about Raincoats and how long you've been into them. Ask Horsegirl. Ask anyone who's working in any Rough Trade Shop ever. Listen to Gina Birch's new album Trouble.It's great. You'll be watching Sammu & Rosie Get Laid again. Make you feel like you're 17 again.

I Thought I'd Live Forever, the opening track sets the whole thing up perfectly. It's the world as observed from an angle of alterno cool. The late seventies and early Eughties alternative DiY perspective writ large.  

Then Causing Trouble is the whole refusenik manufesto in frdge magnet form. And that's no slur. It's like a cult rainbow.. 'I'm a girl and I shall not conform, in fact I'll smudge my eye shadow if I bloomin' well want to.' And then a checklist of the cool squad. Yoko One, Delia Derbyshire, Joan Fontaine. Kathleen Hanna, Nina Simone. .Are you writing all these down.

It's the world. If it decided to spin the other way from the way it's cureently spinning and threatened to click off its axis. Goodness knows it mightn't be the worst idea the way things are going. It all has a splendid dubby slightly haunted air. Fabulous frankly.  

Sunday, July 13, 2025

250 Albums- An Arbitrary Rumble Through My Record Collection # 175 The Movers - 1970- 1976

                                                                         

                                                                              'Soweto'

                     'Put the needle on the record. Put the needle on the record. And start again....'

Start the week. With this. The Soweto house band. Choice cuts . 1970 - 1976. Consider yourselve lucky. And dance. You're alive. A Christmas Present. From my sister. Organ parping. Rythym section shuffling. Dancefloow heaving. You're not in Gaza. Not in a Favela. They're dancing there. That's for sure. Dance, dance, dance. To the radio

250 Albums- An Arbitrary Rumble Through My Record Collection # 176 Teenage Fanclub- Thirteen

 


An album with a football on it. Called Thirteen in reaction to the press reviews of Bandwagonesque which was slated in some quarters for its reliance on the charms, chords and melodies of Big Star. Thirteen is an album I've never played enough to really get to know it. It didn't get great reviews or sell that well at the time butishould have done because its class.

I think listening to it now that I need to amend that. It sags slightly towards the end, perhaps needs pruning but there's a lot going on. It's a band in the process of maturing. It loves Byrds, Beatles, Badfinger, Buffalo Springfield. And err Big Star. Way to go, Teenage Fanclub remain leaders of the pack. This sounded spectacular to me this evening. And not purely because I'm in a good mood. . 

101 Essential Rock Records # 89 Patti Smith - Horses

 


I bought Horses becaise Michael Stipe told me too. Then I bought the three that succeeded it. I was 18. 19. Patti was a prmer. An educator. Militant. Strident. A guide. Read this. Try that. She's still burning but she'll never need to burn brighter than she did here. 

I'm listening to Horses as the sun sets at the end of my weekend. I might as well be listening to it for the first time. It's a star that never dims. A snake that sheds it skin and renews itself. A sun burning in a hot heaven. An alien landscape .A new road. And othe wondrous things. Add your own. Write a poem. Encouragement. Inspiration. Take the deep plunge.