Why's she in this chart? Look at the name. Look at the picture.
'My thing was more like consumerism, plastic artificial living. Especially as I had done that whole thing of travelling around and living in harmony with nature. There was so much junk then. The idea was to send it all up. Screaming about it, saying: 'Look this is what you have done to me, turned me into a piece of styrofoam. I am your product. And this is what you have created: do you like her?'
A band I was only aware of until recently as backing singers when Captain Sensible made his brief, odd entry as a chart topping solo artist in UK in the early eighties. They deserve greater attention. They put out a set of fine independent singles at round about the same time. Here are two of them.
As The Motel's Total Control is Song of the Day, here's a re-post for something about a band who took their name from it, and their most recent album which I discovered last December.
'Total Control's Typical System from last year has been the other album I've been listening to this week, along with Andy Shauf's Bearer of Bad News. The two records couldn't be more different but they're both wonderful, assured pieces of work. While Shauf is deeply introverted, Total Control is an assault of sound and ideas.
A collective from Melbourne, Australia with a shifting line up of musicians involved in a range of other projects. They're a very modern collective, although they might not sound it on the surface. Their sound is rooted in seventies Punk and Post Punk. Synthesiser keyboards are a huge part of their sound and over the course of the album you hear snippets of Tubeway Army, PiL, Joy Division, Psychedelic Furs, Gang of Four, Wire, Mission of Burma, the original Ultravox, Suicide, Human League and Pere Ubu. Even The Stranglers at one or two points. The band apparently were also inspired by the California Hardcore scene and groups like The Adolescents and The Screamers, who I'm less familiar with.
They never echo one particular influence too much too irritate however, and what they make of the ingredients is strikingly original and at times overwhelming over the course of Typical System. It's difficult to tell what they're singing about often but there's clearly a great deal of intent in what they're doing. In Liberal Party, they actually successfully revive and reinvigorate that weird, otherworldly feel of the first Roxy Music album, most obviously Ladytron. There's a fair feel for glamour and sensuality here along with the full on assault of every other track.
They must be a remarkable experience live. Also it's well worth tracking down the few interviews on the net with lead singer Dan Stewart. You might like to start here, or here to get a sense of the overall philosophy behind what they're doing.In the meantime, the record speaks fairly forcefully for itself.'
Possibly in a field of his own in this particular countdown. A wealth of great recordings, all delivered in that weary, weathered and utterly distinctive manner. There was also something vaguely seedy about Hazlewood, but that was part of the package, as was the ever-present droll, sardonic, self-depreciating sense of humour. He knew that life was never a straight road.
I spent the day in York in a country, despite its surface civility and calm, in complete turmoil. Some retail therapy was inevitable and the first Motels album was one of three albums I bought. It's a strange beast, not really New Wave, although this was how it was packaged by a major record level looking to capitalise on the Punk phenomenon, (not yet an explosion in the States as it had been in the UK but nevertheless causing considerable ripples). The guitars for example generally lean closer to Journey than Elvis Costello & the Attractions.
Signing bands like The Motels up was the major label's response to all this but they were looking for bands to shift units in a way the artier CBGBs were never likely to. You can look at The Motels as a sleek commercial upgrade on the Patti Smith Group just as The Cars stepped in for Television. Total Control is the standout song on the record. Creeping and measured, with a bank of synthesisers and weeping saxophone supporting the ticking, metronomic guitars as the song swells and ebbs. It was the band's first hit, making the Top Twenty in New Zealand and Australia. It's no wonder. It must have sounded great on the radio and sountracked a thousand breaking relationships. An apt song for today as well as yesterday.
'The saga of the 13th Floor Elevators was an Old Testament tale and Roky Erickson was its Job. In 200 years time there will be only two '60s bands that count - The 13th Floor Elevators and the MC5.'
Julian Cope
High praise indeed, and it certainly seems that Erickson and the Elevator's stock is rising all the time fifty years on
This song from a Liverpool band came out in 1982 and was so omnipresent on evening radio at the time as I remember that you would have been sure it was an actual hit. In actual fact it fell short of the UK Top 50 although, oddly, it did make the Spanish Top 10. Nevertheless, it still sounds great to me. The band split and members went on to feature in The Las and The Icicle Works. It's arguable that they never played on a better record than this.
Called by Marc Riley, 'the finest living Englishman' and he's onto something. Godard is a true emblem of the individualistic spirit of those early British Punk days. Never achieved anything remotely resembling a hit record, he was nevertheless responsible for several very fine ones. A living example of the value of not following the herd.
A small find in my own personal universe yesterday. The only solo album from James Kirk, 2003's You Can Make It If You Boogie, irrefutable proof, (if it was needed), that the genius of early Orange Juice was not all about Edwyn Collins. This is a fine record, showing twenty years on, that spark was still intact.
' here was a guy all reconstructed torn down looking like he's just crawled out of a drain hole, looking like he was covered in slime, looking like he hadn't slept in years, looking like he hadn't washed in years and looking like no one gave a fuck about him. And looking like he really didn't give a fuck about you! He was this wonderful bored, drained, scarred, dirty guy with a torn t-shirt.'
'A great example of the importance of recording subtleties in eighties black pop. Back in 1982, I found it impossible to resolve how great Junior's Stevie Wonder growls and homespun advice on not growing up any sooner than you have to sounded on the radio with how flat they sounded at home. Finally it dawned on me that I was listening to the British version of the record. Tee Scott had remixed for the American release (which also eventually came out in the UK) brightening the top and fattening the bottom until a not bad piece of Brit-funk became the equivalent of an outtake from Songs in the Key of Life. Without Scott's changes, Junior would never have had - or deserved - the only hit of his career.'
'United Artists released The Buzzcocks single 'Love You More', at 1 minute 29 seconds it was the second shortest single ever released. Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs 1960 hit 'Stay' was the shortest hit at one minute 28 seconds.'
A Breezy, melodic if slightly generic Australian English combo from London. But occasionally their songs leap from the box. Like here for example where guitarist Paul Rains begins to invoke the spirit of Johnny Marr's work in The Smiths. From their 2014 album We Come From the Same Place.
The first of three Velvets on here. A deep voiced viola playing, avant garde musician. Producer of The Stooges, The Modern Lovers and Patti Smith and maker of several utterly stately and smart solo albums.
A bit of Sixties Swedish kitsch. A cover of a Neil Sedaka song, which may be a second first for this blog in one post. Later taken higher in the charts by a disco Euro Pop version by Eruption in the seventies. Not my normal bill of fare but hey, it's a pop song.
Gauche, fey and utterly against the grain. 'He looked like a boyish Bowie with a great swoop of draping hair. He wrote great songs and dressed uniquely in flannel shirts, New Wave sports coats, and tapered trousers, like a cross between Joy Division, the Byrds and Creedence Clearwater Revival.
The first Orange Juice singles Falling and Laughing and Blue Boy were driven by Chic-style grooves played without Chic-level skill.'
Another great new album in a year that seems full of them. Xenia Rubinos's Black Terry Cat. Just two tracks but the whole record is a breath of fresh air. Jazzy, funky, soulful and consistently inventive and surprising.
Leader of Japanese band Les Rallizes Denudes, possibly the ultimate cult concern of all. Julian Cope writes about them, extensively and expressively in his book about leftfield rock from that land Japrocksampler.
Now I don't really like this song, and it goes against my instincts to post something on here that I don't much care for. But there's the Nick Cave quote at the top of the page and this is a particular, definitive memory for me and always will be and it's just come blasting out at me from my radio. When this single came out in 1979, I was at secondary school. My name is Bruce and the chorus appears to go, 'Don't bring me down, Brrrruuuuccceee!' The greatest nerds and irritants in my school would cross the length of the playground at break time to chant this at me with happy abandon. It seemed to go on for months, if not years. So, more than thirty five years on I'd like to say, thanks a lot ELO!
I haven't posted anything about Glastonbury this weekend because for the most part it's passed me by rather this year. Will need to catch up, which fortunately is easier to do nowadays. But here is P.J.Harvey delivering a moving and apposite reading from John Donne during her set there.
Two songs from the blinding new album from The Myrrors, Entranced Earth. Largely instrumental, though not entirely so. They're from Arizona and it sounds just like something emerging from the heat of the desert there.
The first of two Buzzocks on this countdown. Shelley was something of a trailblazer, sexually, lyrically and melodically championing a romanticism, (appropriately, given his name), that laid the groundwork for Orange Juice, The Smiths and a whole, lovelorn indie aesthetic. In many ways, retrospectively they seem a similarly important band to The Sex Pistols and The Clash.
'The Buzzcocks possessed a gift for marrying sweet backing vocals to leads that were at turns raw and sincere a la Richman ( a key influence) and camp as a row of tents as they say.'
This seemed appropriate last night on an evening in Rosie's when the heavens opened outside. I was after Fred Astaire but the jukebox let me down. Frank more than sufficed.
The day after a momentous day in British and European history, and for me personally a frightening one, (though I'll try not to get too political on here), here's something European I chanced upon yesterday. Brodka is a Polish artist who first came to prominence by winning that countries Pop Idol ten years ago.
This is her first album in English, Clashes, released a couple of months back. It's a very fine record, poppy, but informed by arty influences. A silky, dark, glowing object.
