One of a whole raft of Liverpool Eric's bands that John Peel played on his radio show in the early Eighties.
Sunday, June 19, 2022
Saturday, June 18, 2022
Green / Blue - Paper Thin
Minneapolis band Green / Blue have clearly got a decent work ethic. Only months after I reviewed their LP Offering with gushing, wholesome praise, they're back with another, their third album in all Paper Thin.
It's not as good as Offering. Very few alternative guitar records will be for me. this year There's still plenty to enjoy here mind.
Green / Blue capture and bottle much of the sound and spirit that made the American leftfield charge of R.E.M, The Replacements, Guadalcanal Diary and the Paisley Underground bands so thrilling. This time round there's also a healthy dollop of the British Gothic dread of the same period. The Cure, Joy Division and The House of Love come to mind particularly.
Paper Thin like Offering is very, very 1984. I'm not complaining. I hope they're making inroads. Because although their sound is very, very much of those times, they do it all very well.
Songs About People # 1,349 Mary Millington
Classic early Indie song for English model and pornographic actress Mary Millington.
Song(s) of the Day # 3,062 Mt. Joy
American Indie band that frankly sound like an English Indies band. Mt. Joy, based in Los Angeles but originally from Philadelphia, return with third album Orange Blood.
Incredibly heneric. This is a likeable record without ever threatening to be one you would press on anyone as one that you would press on anyone that they need to hear.
Something of a mix between The Shins and The Libertines. Or else something a lot less exciting like Snow Patrol. I enjoyed my listen through to it but there are certainly more essential things around.
Friday, June 17, 2022
Things Found on My Local's Jukebox # 507 David Bowie
Yesterday was the 50th Anniversary of the release of both Ziggy Stardust and the first Roxy Music album. I played a song from both. A remarkable day in music history.
Song(s) of the Day # 3,061 Mapache
Cosmic Folk tribute to Mapache's dog Roscoe who has been with them for their fourteen year ride. Gentle, laid back stuff.
Thursday, June 16, 2022
Things Found on My Local's Jukebox # 506 Roxy Music
Been lsitening to a lot of Roxy recently. What a phenomenon they were. First two albums especially. The ones with Eno on them. But also plenty more to marvel at all the way to Avalon.
Song(s) of the Day # 3,060 Son Parapluie
Isobel Campbell, once of Belle & Sebastian teams up with a group of musicians to compose and extended love letter to Paris as it once was. The record sounds pretty much exactly as you would expect it to.
Nothing wrong with that for a moment. Sung in French as it should be, anyone who has ever read Sartre, Camus or Cocteau or fallen in love with Audrey Hepburn, Serge, Jacques Dutronc, Francoise Hardy or Ratatouille for that matter should find plenty to enjoy with it.
The record does cast its net beyond the standard B&S strumming as it spins on. A set of remixes around central themes with production contributions from the likes of Martin Carr and Jah Wobble, it all coalesces wonderfully. Paris n'existe pas is a truly lovely album, one to truly lose yourself in and really believe that you're off on a bank holiday Air B & B break on the Left Bank.
Wednesday, June 15, 2022
Songs About People # 1,348 Andre Breton
Heavy hitting Surrealist gets cute and highly addictive tribute.
Unknown Pleasures
The first use of the image of the cover art for Unknown Pleasures originally published by Harold Craft for his 1970 PhD.
Sweet Dreams - The Story of the New Romantics # 14 Ultravox
I've always found this, and Midge's Ultravox quite ridiculous. But as Midge says in Sweet Dreams, everybody needed a video after this.
Song(s) of the Day # 3,059 Dion Lunadon
Dion Lunadon, yes that really is apparently the name the man wants to go by. The new solo album from the A Place to Bury Strangers soumds rather like one you might expect from a man with a name like this.
Namely, early Sixties fairground organ sound. Rock and Roll guitars. Greaser, Doo Wop and Punk romantic energy . Not a million miles from the basic Suicide template. Although Ian Svenonius' influence is also evident.
It's a fun album, though not perhaps one to take entirely seriously given that it's 2022. Still, if it ain't broke I guess. A new Rock & Roll thrill.
Tuesday, June 14, 2022
Kikagaku Moyo - Kumuyo Island
It's been neglectful of me not to share my thoughts on this. Kumuyo Island, the fifth and apparently final album from Japanese enigmatic longhairs Kikagaku Moyo.
KM have been putting out records and touring globally for ten years now, delighting fans of Jap Rock and Krautrock whose noble legacy they revere and further.
Now, apparently, they've decided on a hiatus. Whether temporary or permanent we're not yet sure. Regardless of which transpires this is a fine record, to bemoan their departure from the stage and hope for an encore at some remove.
With a band like this and textures as intricate and alluring as these, you do wish you understood their native tongue so you could have a greater understanding of what's going on though perhaps explicit understanding is not really required here..
The band name translates as Geometric Patterns and in some ways that's all you really need. From the off they've always made a beautiful and intriguing noise.
Never more so than here. This for the moment is a beautifully realised final act. Whatever comes next, they won't be forgotten.
Songs About People # 1,347 Joan Didion
The recently departed Joan, (in many ways a giant of 20th Century journalism), gets a song.
Sweet Dreams - The Story of the New Romantics # 13 Culture Club
Culture Club's first appearance on Top of the Pops. A pivotal moment in the Eighties.
Song(s) of the Day # 3,058 Andrew Bird
Andrew Bird is something of an Indie Rock stalwart, having been putting out records since 1996. Hailing from Lake Forest, Illinois but sounding very New York to me. Judging by his latest, Inside Problems, he's highly, highly intelligent and boy does he want you to know it.
Frankly, you could write a whole and reasonably long post about any song on the record should you wish to do so. There is so much going on, musically and lyrically on each track.
Musically, Bird operates somewhere between the schools of Dylan, Lou Reed and Steely Dan. The music itself has elemments of Chamber Pop, with string sections turning up on most tracks. Lyrically he dissects the contradictions of life and love.
How you react to all this is dependent on your tastes. I personally found it all a bit too self consciously clever and lacking in immediate hooks to make me think I'd be back to this one too often. I might be wrong, it certainly grows on you, the longer you listen. Worth a listen anyhow.
Monday, June 13, 2022
Duncan Hannah 1952 - 2022
A particular sad passing for me this weekend was Duncan Hannah, the New York based artist and scenester. I first came across him as an articulate and fascinating voice in Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain's essential Please Kill Me the story of the New York Punk scene.
Hannah was the archetypal man in the right place at the time. He was there for the very early CBGB's days. Hung out with Patti and Television, introduced Talking Heads to Warhol. He later became a notable artist.
He accepted my Facebook friend request a few years back though we didn't interact. He posted pictures of musicians, art wroks, films and books that he loved, generally without comment. He had an aesthete's eye. His illustrated memoris 20th Century Boy, is an essential document of the Seventies and what it felt like to be there. Where it mattered. I'll miss his posts.
Sweet Dreams - The Story of the New Romantics # 12 Duran Duran
The style decade begins. With The Face, i-D magazine and Smash Hits.
Best Ever Albums - Top 1,000 Albums # 614 The Cure - Seventeen Seconds
Fifth ranking Cure album on this list. Possibly my own favourite of their records. Rain on the window panes.in suburbia.
Sunday, June 12, 2022
Coming Up # 16 Elf Power
Athens, Georgia's Elf Power are new to me though they already have a considerable legacy. First emerging about twenty five years back at around the same time as the Neutral Milk Hotel set of bands, they've put out records and been active and then inactive for periods. Toured with R.E.M. That kind of stuff.
They have a new album Artificial Countrysides, their first in four years, due mid-July. Judging by the pre-released tracks it should be one to cup an ear to. For the likes of me, it also gives an opportunity to catch up with the highlights in the back catalogue in preparation.
The Mojo Collection - The Ultimate Music Companion # 22 Bill Fury - The Sound of Fury
'Only Billy Fury could really be considered the English Elvis.'
Song of the Day # 3,056 Sylvia Platters
Old school Indie bombing anthem. Not a million miles from The Swimming Pool Q's The Bell Rings.
Saturday, June 11, 2022
Coming Up # 15 Cass McCombs
Cass McCombs is one of the most interesting operators we have. He always goes his own way. He has a new album called Heartmind out on August 19th. Judging by this, one of the finest songs I've heard this year, it should be one worth waiting for.
Covers # 195 The Ebersole Hughes Company Singers
Such a great song. Young Marble Giants of course did the original. They've endorsed this. The Ebersole Hughes Company Singers is a great name for a band. They've just released their debut album which seems to be composed of covers. It's slightly variable. I'll investigate the record further and might report back.
The Dream Syndicate - Ultraviolet Battle Hymns & True Confessions
It's good to have The Dream Syndicate back with us in 2022. Their's was one of the more unexpected reformations when they came back in 2017 and started putting out records again in 2017. There have been a few more since.
Ultraviolet Battle Hymns & True Confessions their latest album, is just out. The key DS ingredients are in place. Velvet Underground and Lou Reed in particular, Television. Beat sensibility. But they're older now and they acknowledge that. There's a spaciness, an eeriness that wasn't there in their early days.
Ultraviolet Battle Hymns is not to my taste as much as the first two albums, The Days of Wine & Roses and Medicine Show. It would be difficult to top those two, particular Wine & Roses. There's a sultry, laidback sound that reminds me of some of the records of Dean Wareham another Velvets and Televison apostle. Some of the songs don't really seem to gel as well as they might.
I'm not sure I'll listen to this. They rock out occasionally in a pleasing way as on final track Straight Lines. I wish they'd done it a bit more. But I've got a blog to write and it didn't particularly grab my attention on first play the way for example Wareham's last album did. I imagine Dream Syndicate devotees will lap it up and as I said, I'm glad they're back.
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