I don't generally post this kind of thing here but Pharrell does this light pop thing pretty much better than anyone else.
Sunday, January 15, 2017
Urlatori Alla Sbarra
Translating as Howlers in the Dock, here are some clips from a 1960 Italian Rock and Roll film starring Mina, Adriano Celentano and most curiously Chet Baker, who features in the bath here. A treat for anyone, like myself who loves this kind of pop culture kitsch!
Thirty Days of C-86 # 15 Shop Assistants
A characteristic of the C-86 bands was that they weren't reaching for the stars. Most of them were not built to last, with only Primal Scream and The Wedding Present really forging lasting careers and breaking out to a larger audience. Shop Assistants, (the utter bland disposability of the name being the whole point) were actually one of the more important bands of the scene and their single Safety Net, an emblematic moment to represent its ethic. Still sounds great!
Song(s) of the Day #1,092 The Flaming Lips
I haven't been a great fan of the Flaming Lips over the course of the last thirty years. Liking the occasional song and finding much of their other work sprawling and self-indulgent, (which of course it is, it's just a question of whether you go for these features of what they do as a listener). But I did have an enjoyable hour or so listening to their new album Oczy Mlody on Friday night.
The Lips are no longer a zeitgeist band as they were a decade or so back for a while, but seem perfectly content with this state of play. Oczy Mlody is best heard at a sitting, (there's some kind of over-arching concept here but you're unlikely to have the foggiest notion what it might be), it gets increasingly more melodic as it goes on heading toward a finale which touches on transcendent beauty. Here are the two pre-release songs from the record. Nice to have something to set my list of albums of 2017 at this early stage. We geeks appreciate these kind of things.
Saturday, January 14, 2017
January 14th 1969 Dave Grohl
When Grohl sets the song below off, it's one of my very favourite 'drum moments'.
The Heart of Rock and Soul # 729 The Animals
'Eric Burdon was the best singer in the first wave of the British Invasion (the second wave brought Stevie Wonder), but if it were just up to Burdon, 'Don't Let Me Be Understood' might be as draggy as Simone's original. What snaps it to life is Alan Price whose "tremendous organ phrases" (as producer Mickie Most once called them) work with Hilton Valentine's seething guitar to create a language all their own. You could call it the blues and you wouldn't be far wrong.'
Thirty Days of C-86 # 14 Age of Chance
Age of Chance were a band apart but certainly players in the C-86 scene. Ahead of their time in terms of their sound and mash up attitude. This was their big indie single of 1986.
Song(s) of the Day # 1,091 Carsick Cars
One of my own interesting personal discoveries this week was a whole set of interesting, alternative young Chinese guitar bands. Of course I should have known they existed but it was great to chance upon them and also how fresh they sounded to my ears.
Carsick Cars are probably the best known internationally of all of these groups. Here are a couple of songs from their most recent album, 2014's 3. Fired by the influence of Sonic Youth, (who they've supported, as well as playing an All Tomorrow's parties festival), and The Clean and Krautrock most obviously, but they take templates like these and re-ignite them with their own energy and fire. There's also an interview with them below where they talk about what they do. More from this scene over the coming weeks.
Friday, January 13, 2017
Things Found on my Local's Jukebox # 180 The Lightning Seeds
This sounded nice tonight. A song I've been thinking about all week having played it non-stop after probably not having heard it previously for a good fifteen years. Nobody at all was listening to it in Rosie's apart from me. They never are. At least not on a Friday night!
Songs About People # 274 Paul McCartney
As good a time and place as any to post a tribute to another Beatle. Particularly as it comes from one of the C-86 bands.
Thirty Days of C-86 # 13 Rosemary's Children
To a fine b-side by a pretty much forgotten band. Highly indebted to The Beatles and particularly John Lennon's nasal sneer. It wasn't particularly common to hear the Beatles influence on the C-86 bands, (Byrds, Velvets, Buzzcocks, Ramones and Orange Juice were far more commonly detectable). but they're undoubtedly here. And used to good effect.
Song of the Day 1,090 Martin Stephenson & the Daintees
On the Spotify blurb about this band they are described as hailing from Tyneside, Scotland. This is a huge insult to the actual Tyneside which surrounds Newcastle, the northernmost city in England and the place where I live. Martin Stephenson & the Daintees are from here as described and they still play the region on a fairly regular basis and have a particular, specific, humorous and fond relationship with their audience. This is the opening track from their career high album, 1986's Boat to Bolivia, a warm, romantic record fit to be played in the slipstream of Prefab Sprout's Steve McQueen. Both bands were initially artists on the Kitchenware label.
Thursday, January 12, 2017
Songs About People # 273 Carlos the Jackal
Not so much a song as a track this time. A vaguely Japan sounding piece from Leeds based DJ Bonar Bradberry.
The Heart of Rock and Soul # 731 Phil Phillips
'It helps to know that Phillip's real last name was Batiste and that he was from Lake Charles, Louisiana, because it's hard to know where he got the syrupy beat of this swamp-pop ballad until you connect it to New orleans and the Cajun culture of the Mississippi River bayous. Phillips, a former bellhop and gospel quartet singer, allegedly wrote the song to prove his love to a hard-to-persuade girlfriend; whether it worked or not remains unrecorded but her, at least, Phillips sounds like he would have taken a deep dive if she hadn't bought this line.'
Thirty Days of C-86 # 12 The June Brides
'If the June Brides' single 'Every Conversation' was produced properly and put out on a major and plugged, it would be a number one, because that record is a classic pop song! It's a sin when a record like that sells only 700 copies.' Bobby Gillespie, NME, 1985
Ten years further on now. I'm in my first term at university and this stuff makes up a good part of my musical soundtrack.This isn't Every Conversation, but instead a single they put out in 1986 a year after they actually achieved an NME cover., (tellingly with their lead singer pictured standing at the back of the photo and pretty much out of focus). That lead singer, Phil Wilson, sings determinedly out of tune throughout this. But then that's the whole point.
Song of the Day # 1,089 The Alessi Brothers
I grew up in the seventies in a household which was soundtracked almost exclusively by the background hum of BBC Radio 2. So this means that many of the songs that I associate most with my early childhood are pure AOR schmaltz; Carole Bayer Sager, Helen Reddy and especially Oh Lori by The Alessi Brothers which was pretty much everywhere for a large part of 1977, supposedly the high summer of Punk. So here it is along with their other best known song Seabird. They're both very high class examples of what they do, this utterly crafted, mellow, middle of the road perspective of things and represents the way most people live their lives better than much of the stuff I post on here.
Wednesday, January 11, 2017
Songs About People # 272 Rodney King
The man attacked in the incident that incited the LA riots in 1991. He died four years back. Lenny Bruce is also mentioned in the title but this is for Rodney.
Thirty Days of C-86 # 11 Pop Will Eat Itself
Pop Will Eat Itself, before they turned fully Grebo, and got heavily into hip hop, and sampling ideas and sounds from the culture around them, were a pretty good approximation of a C-86 band with added humour in their early days. As here.
The Heart of Rock and Soul # 732 King Curtis & the Kingpins
'Not an instrumental, because Curtis vocalizes all the way through it, describing the proper way to make music cook. The recipe's great but pulling it off requires a master chef - maybe even a mix master. And they don't make 'em like that anymore.'
Song of the Day # 1,088 Lucy Dacus
The first track on Lucy Dacus's record from last year No Burden. I Don't Want to be Funny Anymore is a smart take on that feeling that's occurred to us all at some point in time; of wanting to be someone other than yourself. And she sings it in just the right wistful, ironic tone.
Tuesday, January 10, 2017
Songs Heard on the Radio # 178 Happyness
Happiness spelled wrong! A bit of louche Rock and Roll of the old school with a twist of The Only Ones and The Passions and a dash of early Cure. Always nice to hear. Happyness have an album coming out later on this year.
David Bowie - One Year On!
But for balance's sake, here's what I posted this time last year. Some personal memories:
'A very memorable day for millions of people today with Bowie's passing. Terribly sad of course to see such a true artist die but also a chance for us all to relive countless memories. Regardless of how great a fan you are, but surely almost anyone who has been alive for the best part of the last fifty years and loves music will have had many emotions and memories stirred. Here are a few of mine.
1. Kooks
'A very memorable day for millions of people today with Bowie's passing. Terribly sad of course to see such a true artist die but also a chance for us all to relive countless memories. Regardless of how great a fan you are, but surely almost anyone who has been alive for the best part of the last fifty years and loves music will have had many emotions and memories stirred. Here are a few of mine.
1. Kooks
Reminds me of my older sister who is no longer with us. This was from the hippest record in her collection, Hunky Dory, and is the song from it that most reminds me of her.
2. Moonage Daydream
Like many people Ziggy Stardust was the first Bowie album I bought. Perhaps the greatest otherworldly pop album ever made. A quite flawless record from start to finish and this features one of the greatest electric guitar solos in history courtesy of Mick Ronson.
3. Boys Keep Swinging
My first personal memory of Bowie on Top of the Pops with this video towards the end of the seventies. Even to my young, unformed mind it was clear that something was going on.
4. Sound and Vision
Probably my favourite Bowie song of all right now. At least a straight punch up between this and Golden Years.
5. Life on Mars
A Christmas in Budapest with one of the most wonderful and strongest people I've ever met. Listening to this together quite a few times.
6. Lazarus
Last Friday I went to an event in Newcastle called The Record Player at Tyneside Cinema where the whole of Bowie's last album as it turned out was played. It was quite a remarkable record and experience. Here's a track from it.
7. Quicksand
Finally, a memory from today. Third Hunky Dory selection so I guess by default it must be my favourite album.Like countless millions I spent a lot of today thinking about and listening to Bowie. This was the one that finally almost made me blub. Particularly with the line, 'knowledge comes with death's release', but really just the whole damned beautiful song.'
Things Found on my Local's Jukebox # 179 George Harrison
Skating over the obvious anniversary which is happening everywhere else today, here's a song from Harrison and All Things Must Pass about the girls who used to gather round the Abbey Road studios when The Beatles were inside recording. It sounded pretty great!
Songs About People # 271 Sophia Loren
'Walking down the street with a sad face. Always complaining about the rat race...'
And from Talulah Gosh to the Rolling Stones. They were never likely to share a bill! This is a track that didn't make the final cut of Exile on Main Street, and it's difficult to understand why on earth it didn't because it would have fitted in just fine. It's got something of the desperate feral prowl of Stray Cat Blues with dirty whorehouse piano and Jagger himself contributing a fine harmonica break. The lyric is also fluid and biting, ('the car you drive a rusty wreck. it's always you that pays the cheque, who said that life was warm and peachy') aimed at someone whose life is clearly on the skids. So it's not clear why Sophia is name-checked in brackets in its title or documented what she might have thought about it.
Thirty Days of C-86 # 10 Talulah Gosh
More thoughts on childhood. Here from the cusp of departure from it. Altogether now, 'You're my beatnik boy. You make me jump for joy...'! Ye,s it is a strange way for youths wavering on the verge of adulthood to carry on. Perhaps they don't want it to happen. Brighton's Talulah Gosh certainly wanted to stem a tide that ultimately cannot be stemmed. More than any other group from that era, they virtually wrote a manifesto and marched for the cause of remaining in a eternal, idealised childlike state. Partial leader of the band Amelia Fletcher has continued ever sense, followed the sensibility and determinedly fey resolve onward, over the course of almost three decades. She has also received an OBE for services rendered elsewhere in her nine to five, though some might argue that she deserved it for her work with Talulah Gosh instead. Sadly, they don't give out awards for this kind of achievement in the world we live in now. At least not yet.
Song(s) of the Day # 1,087 Burl Ives
Burl Ives is always a comforting, humorous voice, particularly in his childhood songs, as in the 1949 album Burl Ives Sings Little White Duck, where he calls you back to that place where we all feel safe and warm.
Monday, January 9, 2017
Songs Heard on the Radio # 177 New Order
How to survive the greatest trauma. New Order is a great, illustrative journey in this respect. For me, their music is at it's most powerful when the imprint of Curtis is still there, particularly as here from Power, Corruption & Lies, which I'd say is their great statement. Others would disagree. In any case they kept moving forward. And we can all learn from that.
Songs About People # 270 Stirling Moss
Now here's a man who deserves a song in tribute to him. Stirling Moss, old school motor racing champion, general dashing hero of the old school and thankfully still with us. Cohenhagen's Northern Portrait salute him in fine old school indie jangling style playing unplugged on the streets of Monti, Italy!
The Heart of Rock and Soul # 734 The Supremes
'If I thought that the crew at Motown fooled around, I'd think that using Diana Ross, the most uptight singer in either rhythm and blues or girl group music, to personify female horniness was one of the greatest jokes in rock and roll history. But Holland-Dozier-Holland never fooled, and there's no mistaking the meaning of the song ('Now when you're ill, you take a pill / When you're thirsty, drink your fill' plus a baritone sax that tugs the beat along like an intravenous fix of pure hormone), so I guess this must be the Diana Ross who dated Gene Simmons of Kiss. Who undoubtedly knew how to scratch it.'
Thirty Days of C-86 # 9 My Bloody Valentine
From Dama Scout to another evident influence of theirs, though possibly not this particular song and period of the band's history. This is from 1987, before My Bloody Valentine came upon their 'road to Damascus experience' with You Made me Realise. It's generic, (albeit with a more muscular rhythm section than most of their contemporaries already in place), but nevertheless wonderful. And the seeds of what they became are definitely there. The single sleeve has their christian names on it which is a nice touch and something they stopped doing thereafter as they began to take themselves and what they did more seriously. They all have immaculate C-86 bowl haircuts. A perfect snapshot of youth. No doubt purists of a certain wont prefer to go back here.
Song(s) of the Day # 1,086 Dama Scout
A new, young Glasgow / London and the two songs of theirs currently available on social media. There are familiar things on here, the Cocteau Twins influence is clear, but seems at the same time a fresh source of inspiration to draw on, and these two snippets are promising and make me at least, want to hear more from them.
Sunday, January 8, 2017
Songs Heard on the Radio # 176 Elvis Presley
This was quite odd to hear on the radio just now to say the least given that today is both Elvis's birthday and also Bowie's shortly before the anniversary of the latter's death and the name of his last album.
Pop Culture Documentaries # 2 Janis Joplin: Little Girl Blue
A genuinely moving and compelling document, released a couple of years back. Janis Joplin's story is one settled somewhere between pain, longing, the blues and a search for happiness and lasting freedom. . Onstage and off. Fame and lonelinessOh and heroin and booze. She didn't make it as we know all to well as we start the journey, but she still touched on moments of ecstasy that the rest of us will be lucky to ever experience.
The arc of her story is told with archive photos, concert footage and interviews from Janis herself and the other main players. Constantly return to an image of tracks shot from the back of a moving train, shifting from Sad Janis to Happy Janis and back again before she ran out of rail aged 27 in 1970 just as she'd kicked heroin, returning for one last hit, every junkie's great mistake.
The saddest irony of all is that she also seemed to have finally found love and achieved the musical grace she'd so long striven for with the recording of Pearl and particularly her version of Me & Bobby McGee which remains as somehow a definitive statement of her whole sad but memorable journey and its inherent contradictions. Well worth a watch.
Thirty Days of C-86 # 8 Close Lobsters
Somehow manages to marry New Wave and Shoegaze sensibilities sounding like some odd union between Eddie & the Hot Rods and the Pale Saints.
Song of the Day # 1,085 The Rings
'I'm walking in my brown shoes. Just walking in my brown shoes...'
The lone single from The Rings on Chiswick records and released in 1977. It's full of the great Punk and New Wave cliches, rhymes 'society' with 'free' and 'me' and then 'solution' and 'prostitution', and then proceeds to repeat the whole lyric in the second half of the song but is nevertheless, (or perhaps, precisely because of this), just great!
Saturday, January 7, 2017
Thirty Days of C-86 # 7 The Razorcuts
'I made a big pink cake. A birthday present for the human race...'
From a band that weren't really C-86, (That Petrol Emotion), to one that were almost definitively so. Taking their name from a Buzzcocks line and with a singer who desperately, desperately wanted to be Pete Shelley. Also neat employment of that Be My Baby drumroll.
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