I have such fond memories of Our House being out as a single in the early days of MTV. Part of what made POP music so attractive to my 6-year-old self, that sense of fun and melody. Always loved the single cover too, with their painted faces in the billiards rack.
I've been listening to Absolutely a lot lately. Disappear is such a wonderful song. That lovely descending chord sequence, and the melodies too, their delivery creating that special sense of ineffable meaning found in truly great songs.
R.I.P. Ken Russell. I was just saying again last week how brilliant the filmLisztomania is. Like Beatlemania, though long before, Franz Liszt would inspire delirium amongst his concert audiences. Poet Heinrich Heine is credited with the term 'Lisztomania'. In the film, The Who's Roger Daltrey plays Liszt, while Paul Nicholas is his archenemy Richard Wagner. Ringo Starr plays The Pope and Rick Wakeman appears as Thor, a Viking Wagner attempts to reanimate. I picked this up for my friend Craig MacNeil two years ago and he practically insisted I watch it before sending it to him. So glad I listened to him. The soundtrack is ace, and this lovely number is my favourite:
Liszt's Liebestraum No. 3, played by pianist David Wilde.
In January of 2005, I moved back to London and, wandering down to a part of the Portobello Road I'd never been to before, happened upon Honest Jon's Records. The shop also functioning as a record label (I didn't know at the time of its association with Damon Albarn) had just released collections by Candi Staton, Bettye Swann, and Willie Hightower. Intrigued by what promised some lovely soul, but not wanting to spend too much on records and artists I'd never heard before, I opted for the first two, having always been a sucker for the female voice. I got home and fell in love.
Bettye Swann's version of Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye remains one of the most gorgeous songs I've ever heard. Such sweet melancholy tinged with everloving joy. Her voice brings a great sigh of pleasure filled with everything, heavenly backing vocals adding to its depth. The rolling piano announcing the stately horns beginning at 2:28 until the end is one of my favourite sections in all of music, it makes your heart melt. Everything about this song, its feel, its performance, is perfect.
Two years later I'm back in London, this time at Flashback Records in Angel and seeing Bettye Swann's The Money Recordings, I buy it immediately. Rushing home to listen, I find, on the other side of the pop spectrum now, a delicious opening track called Make Me Yours. Simply joyous, a POP delight.
My favourite Slits song was always Vindictive. I was enormously excited the first time I heard it and it still thrills. Such commanding energy, it sounds like they're ripping and tearing the song and everything else apart. Riotous fun. I never really knew what they were singing and it seems a lot of other people didn't either.
The other day I finally got around to listening to the free cd that came with the first issue of Alan Moore's Dodgem Logicmagazine. You can download the whole thing for free here. And the last song is a lovely acoustic reminiscence by David J, whose work (Bauhaus, Love & Rockets, solo records, The Sinister Ducks with Alan Moore and Alex Green) I have always loved. Here's my review of his just-released solo album, Not Long For This World, a great record and featuring one of the best songs of the year, The Last Cigarette.
And here's Space Cowboy, from 1992's Urban Urbane, a delicious pop rush:
A bit of a departure from the usual pop stuff on here, but I've found that people who have good taste don't tend to limit themselves stylistically. A few hours ago it popped into my head to see if the first Bullroarer 7" was online. A record I loved on its release in 1997and bought extra copies of to give to my friends, who needed to hear it. We were all in Boston, MA then and seeing them play was inspiring. They created this wonderful, rampant, psychedelic ROCK, tapping into primal energy and soaring with visions. Tom Hohmann is one of the most precise, powerhouses of a drummer you could ever wish to hear. I remember him telling me that the first time he ever played drums was tripping on the day Kurt Cobain died, he broke 2 plastic rods off a multiple plant hanger and sat down at his buddy's drum kit. And Colin Langenus once had 3 people screech as high and loud as they could in order to demonstrate what the ringing was like in his ears. They made a highly original beautiful noise and you can download their entire discography for free.
I went to see The Damned's 35th Anniversary Tour last night at The Roundhouse. I've reviewed it for godisinthetvzine so I won't say too much, except it was what I was looking forward to most this year and it did not disappoint. They were playing Damned Damned Damnedand The Black Album in their entireties, plus a hits encore. Damned Damned Damned was a joyous explosion of raw energy, especially the anthems "Neat Neat Neat" and "New Rose", but it was The Black Album portion of the show for me that was truly wonderful, being one of my favourite albums and containing two songs of the highest quality.
"Wait For The Blackout" is MAGNIFICENT. Riotous fun from note one, a guaranteed feel-good pick-me-up. Hugely catchy riff, great melodies, wonderfully fun subject matter, amusing middle-8, killer outro. A perfect song, in my opinion.
With Rat Scabies miming Dave Vanian's vocals:
Great BBC Session (October 9th, 1980):
From The Roundhouse gig last night (November 12th, 2011):
And then there's "History Of The World Part 1". An epic single which should've been #1 for weeks. Enormous in scope, vast darkness speckled with thunderous ethereal lights. Gorgeous melodies, insistent playing, hugely musical, carrying one on a grand sonorous journey.
Mike Read Session 9-10-80:
And an absolutely frantic "I Feel Alright" from last night:
My most important musical discovery in a very, very long time, perhaps even years, I came across the work of Mikael Tariverdiev at the end of Marcella Puppini's radio show when she was interviewing Stephen Coates of The Real Tuesday Weld. Heard as the last song here, this piece from the 1966 Russian film "Goodbye Boys" begins with a lovely, delicate piano, tiptoeing through the shadows of a marbled city, before changing course, slightly heavier and swaying now, joined by wistful humming, bouncing along on the back of a pickup truck through dirt and fields, out into the twilight.
Tariverdiev writes exquisite songs in the grand European tradition, often sung by the popular Russian singers of the day, and reminding me of Gainsbourg on more than one occasion. I can't find any of his work available to buy, so here is a double cd Best Of that seems to be a safe download.
I keep meaning to write many posts on David Devant & His Spirit Wife, Mr. Solo, and the man behind it all, Mikey Georgeson, who I consider one of our greatest songwriters. He has written the most songs I consider to be of the very best. Will get to those posts soon, but until then, here's a new one that's stuck with me since I heard it. Utterly lovely:
Yesterday I mentioned that The Afghan Whigs are my favourite covers band. Their takes on other people's songs are almost always a delight, often matching or outdoing the originals for quality. The recorded versions are mostly Motown and soul but live Greg Dulli would launch into seemingly whatever crossed his mind at any given moment (a tradition he continues to this day). Some of my favourites:
A perfect version of "Band Of Gold":
An astoundingly lovely "True Love Travels On A Gravel Road":
Dulli often changes major key classics into more menacing minor key versions, as is the case with "Come See About Me":
The other day I discovered this version of The Divine Comedy covering The Pixies' "Gigantic":
Which led me to today finding Neil Hannon covering the Pet Shop Boys' "Being Boring":
They've always been a great covers band, rivalling even The Afghan Whigs, who I believe have probably given us the greatest covers of other people's songs. But Mr. Hannon is such an excellent musician, he's able to play any song by ear; a highly entertaining part of the show often being his asking for people to shout out requests, though they must not be his own songs. Catching The Divine Comedy on the Absent Friends tour in Boston, MA, at TT The Bear's, we were treated to fun takes on Guns N' Roses' "Sweet Child O'Mine" & Oasis' "Champagne Supernova" with an amazing version of Prince's "Purple Rain".
Here's Neil doing The Human League's "Don't You Want Me" at The Lexington in London 4/11/10 (so wish I had known about this!):
With Cathy Davey performing "I Only Have Eyes For You" at Manchester Academy 9/11/10:
There's the 3 Magnetic Fields covers from the b-sides:
Jacques Brel's "Jackie":
A lovely lo-fi take on "Moon River":
Roxy Music's "Oh Yeah":
"Life On Mars?" with Yann Tiersen:
Kraftwerk's "Radioactivity" and "The Model":
Edwyn Collins' "Untitled Melody":
MGMT's "Time To Pretend":
Sacha Distel's "The Good Life":
Randy Newman's "Lonely At The Top":
And these last two come from the bonus disc of "Bang Goes The Knighthood", recorded live in Paris at Cité De La Musique, 23/9/08. I was at the second of these gigs, where Neil alternated between classic chanson and his own songs. Here's him doing Jacques Dutronc's "Les Playboys". And then one of my fondest gig memories when he went from Francoise Hardy's cover of Mina's "Se Telefonando" (one of my all-time favourite songs) "Je Changerais D'Avis" into his own "Tonight We Fly".
Yesterday Soph and I traveled to Wivenhoe to attend Martin Newell's book reading at the Wivenhoe Bookshop, for his new book, 'Stars On A Tray', a collection of his Saturday columns for the East Anglian Daily Times. I discovered Mr. Newell's (abundance of) work last summer when I stumbled across "Living With Victoria Grey: The Very Best Of The Cleaners From Venus" on the internet somewhere and fell in love with it. (I was so impressed that I listed "Discovering Martin Newell & The Cleaners From Venus" as one of my highlights of 2010 for Friendly Noise magazine) I was also astounded at the story behind the band, how many of their albums were very unconventionally released home cassettes and you'd have to send away or trade for them, but all yielding a lot of amazing pop songs. A few of these are due to get a proper, remastered, release very soon, but since it took me a while to track a lot of them down, here's some of the original cassette recordings here.
We met the man and he was very nice, funny and interesting, filled with a real passion for music and the life he's led. Some great stories. He seemed to really enjoy talking to Soph about The Plod, his first band, and was excited and surprised that Soph plays them at GlamRacket. We each picked up his, what looks to be highly entertaining, memoir of those days, This Little Ziggy.
There really is an incredible amount of music to delve into. Besides his solo work and The Cleaners (from both of which he continues to release albums and e.p.s at least once a year, details on his site), there's the Stray Trolleys (this took me a while to find but is great) and The Brotherhood Of Lizards. Here are some of my favourites:
"Goodbye Dreaming Fields". Lead-off track from his "The Greatest Living Englishman" album. Produced by Andy Patridge of XTC and Martin's best-known work.
The incredibly lovely "Mercury Girl" by The Cleaners From Venus:
"Victoria Grey":
"Marilyn On A Train" (the 'Blow Away Your Troubles' version is great too):
For more of an introduction to Martin Newell's life and work, there's the Cherry Red TV interview conducted by Iain McNay:
My friend Sean Drinkwater of Lifestyle and Freezepop interviewed Nick Rhodes the other day. Very exciting and excellent interview too. That Arcadia special edition sounds amazing. "Hold Back The Rain" has always been my favourite Duran Duran song. Huge, driving, joyous POP. John Taylor's bassline is, per usual, fantastic and Andy's suspended chords are just pure pop. I always get tremendously excited when I hear this at a club, one of those songs that wasn't *a hit* but everyone is always thrilled to hear. Stay Beautiful used to play this, Bedsitland still does.
I was greatly saddened to hear of the loss of Bert Jansch yesterday. Such an amazing talent, such a great body of work. I fondly recall hearing him for the first time in the early 90s (my friend Jon playing me Pentangle) and being in awe of his guitar playing. I've been (slowly) reading Dazzling Stranger: Bert Jansch and the British Folk and Blues Revival by Colin Harper all year. And there's so many of his records I have yet to delve into. But "When I Get Home" has always been my favourite of his. Such a lovely song; a sad, beautiful resignation, every note perfect.
As this is my 100th post (thanks everyone for reading!), I'd like it to be a song that's very special to me, Dusty Springfield's "Stay Awhile".
It was upon hearing this song after a late autumn afternoon spent shopping on the Portobello Road in 2003, and purchasing two polka-dotted teacups that were a major influence as well, that I thought "I want to start a band that sounds like today" and thusly formed H Bird.
To me its a POP DREAM, the epitome of that type of 60s song. And it clocks in at under 2 minutes!! (The Soft Close-Ups are getting there, our next single may well be one minute something) It evokes the magic of the moment, that special moment that pop can take you to. It's there in the title, "Stay Awhile", not forever, just awhile, enough to let whatever wondrous magic that's there unfold. That possibility inherent in all great POP - "Treat me right, must you run now? For the night's just begun now". And the enticement to let it all happen - "So come on baby!"
Diana Rigg (and oh how Emma Peel has influenced my own pop efforts) recorded 2 songs in 1970, "Sentimental Journey" , featured in Tom Stoppard's "Jumpers" play, and "Forget Yesterday" . These are the 7" versions but there are alternate versions for each as well (on Spotify). Shame there's no YouTube clips for these so here's her singing "You're The Top" in the film Evil Under The Sun:
Sophia Wyeth introduced me to this song by Stone the other day. I love it because not only is it a fun pop song, a sassy stroll down the boulevard, but it also contains my name and mentions cats and armagnac ; ) Annie Gautrat took the stagename of Stone because her haircut made her look like Brian Jones of The Rolling Stones.
From her 1967 "Vive La France" EP, which also features the Serge Gainsbourg composition "Buffalo Bill":
Achingly gorgeous, wonderfully romantic. Drifting through gigantic lazy swirls of deep colour, sinking and sinking in their warm ecstasy, The Real Tuesday Weld's "Dreaming Of You" is one of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard. It was one of those moments, lasting long after the band finished performing it over the closing scene of Hans Richter's Dreams That Money Can Buy at the NFT, April 2005, where the song lingered within me and I was devastated not to have in my possession, to listen to over and over again. Luckily later that year, Comes With A Smile magazine featured it on Vol. 16 of their compilation series, How They Wash Away..., and I immediately special-ordered it. A "live" rendition was later released on The Real Tuesday Weld's The End Of The World album. The version with Stephen Coates singing is the one I'm most familiar with, seen and heard here live at the Corsica Arts Club in Elephant & Castle, London:
The film is a lovely, surrealist masterpiece, featuring dream sequences by Max Ernst, Fernand Léger, Man Ray, Marcel Duchamp, and Alexander Calder and RTW provided a live soundtrack that special evening, later released on the DVD. Here is a version sung by Cibelle, featuring beautiful footage from the final sequence of the film:
The new Real Tuesday Weld album is great, my review for godisinthetvzine is here. And here's Alex De Campi's excellent video for their majestic "Tear Us Apart":
Woke up with Julian Cope's "The Greatness And Perfection Of Love" stuck in my head:
And have been thinking, not for the first time by any means, what a great record World Shut Your Mouth is. Poppy almost in spite of itself, quirky and strange (not least of all in the chosen instrumentation which features a lot of Casio, back in 1984 before it was 'cool' ; ) , his first solo record has some quite wonderful songs on it.
The beautiful "An Elegant Chaos":
The excellent up-tempo "Quizmaster":
The demented rock of "Kolly Kibber's Birthday":
And then there's "Metranil Vavin". Quite an odd piece of pop to begin with, once you consider the song's subject matter it becomes bizarre. Originally a Teardrop Explodes song, recorded during their final sessions and later appearing on Everybody Wants To Shag...The Teardrop Explodes (still one of the best album titles ever), Cope re-recorded it for his debut solo outing. In the first part of his autobiography, 'Head On' (this and the follow-up, 'Repossessed', collected in the one volume, are highly entertaining. I've recommended them to friends who had no idea who Julian Cope was and they loved them), Cope speaks of a Russian dwarf poet named Metranil Vavin. Ever since reading of this character in 1995, I enquired in every poetry shop I came across, only to be met with puzzled expressions or blank stares. Finally in 2006, master sleuth scythrop tracked down some information for me, for which I was and am very grateful. An explanation here.
I LOVE this song. Its lovely soft sounds, its light joyous feel. The intro and chorus' descending chords complimented by the stagnant, yet ascending, octave synthbass joined at the end by the higher synth line, and "I am the city" each word going up before the chords travel down again.
One of the 7 songs ABBA recorded for the follow-up to The Visitors, which was provisionally entitled Opus 10. It was Steve Horry playing the song "The Visitors" last night at Keith TOTP's album launch that reminded me of this gem. "The Visitors" itself is an often-overlooked synthpop classic. Strange, dark and moody, with a wonderful sweeping (and what surely must be difficult to sing) melody. Bursting into the wonderfully poppy depiction of a mental breakdown in the "crackin' up" section.
James Iha wrote two of my favourite Smashing Pumpkins songs (and co-wrote "Mayonnaise", one of my all-time favourite songs). Sadly YouTube is blocking them in the UK, but hopefully these other links will work for everyone.
"Blew Away" is simply gorgeous. Light, ethereal, even the blissed-out guitar ending is weightless, these soft heights enveloped by the sadness in the joy, and the joy in the sadness.
And "...Said Sadly"is another perfect expression of joy and sadness wafting through one another. A b-side for "Bullet With Butterfly Wings", it is a duet between Iha and Nina Gordon of Veruca Salt. Lovely vocals from both, radiant in a delicate dream, over a melancholically lazy musical backdrop that builds as its pleas grow more and more passionate. Beautiful.
And "Mayonaise", co-written with Billy Corgan from Siamese Dream. One of the loveliest pieces of music I've ever heard, and lyrics so reminiscent of a certain time in my life. Listening to this song for me is often devastating.
I woke up very early this morning after going to bed rather late. As I lay there trying to get just a little more shuteye, not for the first time this week Smashing Pumpkins' "In The Arms Of Sleep" became stuck in my head. So I thought I'd post about the songs from the second disc of Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness, 'Twilight To Starlight', that I've always really loved but that weren't singles and I haven't heard mentioned a lot.
"In The Arms Of Sleep", its lovely minor brushed feel, shuffling home alone of an autumn evening, sweeping one's feet through the sidewalk leaves, its soft major turnaround.
Billy Corgan performing an acoustic version at a bookstore in Paris, 30 September 2010:
"Beautiful" is just that. A floating, dreamy meditation on love and desire, the heart rapturously overflowing on the "Don't let your life wrap up around you" outro.
An excellent stripped-down version of it from the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C., 6 January 1996:
And on the other side of the spectrum is "Bodies". An astounding rock number, its rhythm insistent and propulsive while the instruments sound like they're at war. Jimmy Chamberlin attacking the drums, the guitars bursting with ammunition, and Billy Corgan shrieking as his very soul is wracked with longing.
A great live version from the United Palace Theatre, NYC, 7 November 2008:
"Za", lead-off track on Supergrass' Life On Other Planets. This song is just SUPERAWESOME. Its light, spacey intro, then a stroll through the chords of a perfect goodtime rock song, and its sentiment - "Face, such a beautiful face. But time waits for no one. So why don't we get it on? Yeah."
On Friday night I played a gig in Brighton with Socialist Leisure Party (Andy Hitchcock and Kevin House from Action Painting!, which was pretty awesome as I was a huge Sarah Records fan). A great night all around, I really enjoyed playing and Socialist Leisure Party were great, a really propulsive force, the noise and melodic sensibility combining in just the right way. Before I went on, the DJ played an amazing dark soul 7" and I'm so glad I went and asked what it was as I've been listening to Jackie Trent (who I hadn't heard of before) ever since.
"The Only One Such As You":
"Send Her Away":
"I Heard Somebody Say":
"If You Love Me (Really Love Me)" (apparently a remake of Edith Piaf's "Hymne A L'Amour"):
I've heard very few Joy Division covers that I've thought were good/worth doing. And none I can remember except this one*. Those songs were so perfectly rendered to begin with, the idea seems almost pointless. But I've always been mesmerized by the brilliance of this version of "Disorder" from Bedhead's 4-song EP. The sound is gorgeous, filling a great amount of space and giving the simultaneous illusion of a large amount of activity and a very slow shadowy procession imperceptibly oozing towards its conclusion.
The Joy Division original (one of my all-time favourite songs):
*Actually, Still (John Frusciante, Flea, & Josh Klinghoffer of the Red Hot Chili Peppers) do a faithful live rendition of it:
I've always thought Wire were what pop should sound like. Melodic, sonically and lyrically interesting, with music, words and subject matter consistently coming from unique perspectives. And the way the songs moved within themselves, creating atmospheres both familiar and unexpected, whilst also moving in, to me, decidedly pop directions.
People go on about The Flaming Lips' "The Soft Bulletin", which I must admit I've only ever heard in passing, and it's good, perhaps it's time to sit down and give it a proper listen, but to me 'Transmissions From The Satellite Heart' was always their masterpiece. Such a quirky, spacey but decidedly POP record. With one of the best drum sounds I've ever heard ("Slow Nerve Action" especially).
The excellent pop single "Turn It On":
And the lovely moody album closer "Slow Nerve Action":
"Slow Nerve Action" live at London's Astoria Theatre, October 23, 1999:
And then of course there's the live version of "What A Wonderful World" with Nick Cave, from Lollapalooza 1994, starting off 'nice' but ending up quite moving:
Donna Summer's "This Time I Know It's For Real". Such a joyous song, filled with the relaxation that comes from contentment, but still with a driving, tight pulse. I love the guitar figure and synth chords. The chorus is simply uplifting. And her use of the word "megaphone" inspired me to use it in my own "World's End". Co-written with Stock Aitken & Waterman, it was the first single off Another Place And Time.
I was reminded how much I LOVE this song last night. The Tear Garden's "Romulus And Venus". Such a lovely synthpop atmosphere fluidly housing this excellent tale of love and chains. My favourite thing Edward Ka-Spel has ever done. Though I also highly recommend The Legendary Pink Dots' "Under Triple Moons" as well.
I've been thinking lately that of all the bands, The Kinks have probably written the most poignant, wonderful pop songs, soaring just that much higher than anyone else. It's hard to match the perfection of Ray Davies' "Waterloo Sunset", "The Village Green Preservation Society" or "Days". But two songs I've long loved and have had on repeat lately were written by Dave Davies.
Was just reminded how lovely this song is, and, aside from the pop perfection of "The Rubettes" (of which this is a b-side) & "Future Generation", I've always felt was better than anything actually on the "How I Learned To Love The Bootboys" album.
My Facebook friend Anna just pointed this out, The Smiths on Charlie's Bus, April 1994, including a lovely, despite the uncomprehending audience, version of "Jeane" with Sandie Shaw :
And then there's always the Siouxsie & The Banshees/The Creatures/The Glove Play At Home special, from later the same year, that can only really be explained by LSD ; ) :
I've put up a FREE DOWNLOAD EP by my project H Bird today. Just type in 0 to get it for free. It features a new version of "Danger Makers" (the 'Live Grenades At Close Range Version' - taken from the episode of The Avengers we stole the title from ; ). A cover of Lifestyle's "Are You Coming On To Me?" and a version of "A Millionairess In A Ruby Ring", also known as The Oxford Dons theme. We recorded these all for a radio session that never happened so please help yourself. I'm quite proud of the Van Halen-esque guitar solo in AYCOTM?, and the whole song, bar one half-beat, is live one-take.
I've been watching a lot of Richard Herring stand-up lately, and his "Who is it that says po-tah-to anyway?" line keeps popping in my head. Which reminded me of this brilliant song by Rita Pavone, "My Name Is Potato", a favourite of the GlamRacket DJs. The strangeness of its verse smoothly slides, before you even realize, into a lovely smile during the pre-chorus before bursting into full-on GLORIOUS FUN.
The Richard Herring bit I refer to starts at 4:35:
And some more phenomenal stand-up from Mr. Herring. The mottos and "team" bits were new to me, excellent stuff.
I'm writing about this right now for godisinthetvzine, but last night I finally got to see Pulp live, after 17 years of trying and always missing them. It was TRANSCENDENT. And they played "Pink Glove" - which has always been my favourite Pulp song, and one of my favourite songs ever - second.
From last night (Wireless Festival, Hyde Park, 2011):
When The Jesus & Mary Chain released "Honey's Dead", it was a life-changing experience for me. "Far Gone & Out" is one of my favourite songs of all-time and as perfect a pop song as you can get.
Check out this appearance on Letterman with him holding up the "Honey's Dead" cd longbox at the beginning.
Woke up with this lovely and romantic Neil Hannon song stuck in my head. Written for the 10th Doctor's first episode, "The Christmas Invasion".
Perhaps it's because of my recent obsession with Jon Pertwee's "Pure Mystery" and that yesterday I must've listened to The Divine Comedy's "Something For The Weekend" at least 10 times, it having the most perfect middle 8, a glorious little piece of music in already amazing pop song:
Wow. My friend Kevin on Facebook just posted this:
Audio of New Order covering "Anarchy In The U.K." at the Greek Theatre, Berkeley, CA on 19/09/87. Apparently they closed the set with it. Searching for more info, the mp3 seems to also be listed as "Echo & The Bunnymen And New Order" and it's true that they played this gig together (with Gene Loves Jezebel supporting) but I can't find out any more info than that.
I have always loved The Damned. Dave Vanian has such an excellent and powerful voice (listen to the croon in the middle 8 below!) and is one of the best frontmen I've ever seen. I got to see The Damned play on Halloween in Boston once, it was AMAZING. It was only recently though that I learned about their garage-rock project in disguise, Naz Nomad & The Nightmares. A bunch of 60s garage/psych covers plus two originals, "Give Daddy The Knife Cindy" was released in 1984 (although it was meant to look like a reissue of the 1967 soundtrack to a b-movie). "Kicks" is my favourite from the album, but their cover of The Human Beinz' "Nobody But Me" is pretty great too.
David Shah (of Luxembourg, The Melting Ice Caps) and I make music as The Soft Close-Ups. Today we released a collection of our songs so far, which we've just had mastered. It can be downloaded here paying-what-you-like or for free (just type in 0). I also made some videos for 3 of the songs, starring some of our attractive female friends.
Devant played an ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC set of much older songs, none of which I'd ever seen live before, all but one song can be found on 'The Lost World of David Devant & His Spirit Wife' . BUY IT, you'll thank me : ) And that one song was an ace version of "Why Can't Someone Else". They opened with "Happy Accidents", which I've always loved:
I'm quite tired and going to bed in a minute so here are just some of my favourite Monochrome Set songs:
And there was much excitement when they played "Fat Fun":
With all this talk of the Suede reissues, and with Siouxsie & The Banshees' "Sleepwalking (On The Highwire)" coming on last night, I was reminded that at Suede's July 1993 fanclub-only gig Siouxsie and Martin McCarrick joined them for a cover of Lou Reed's "Caroline Says II". You think it should be the greatest thing ever...and it pretty much IS.
The Dead Milkmen's "Punk Rock Girl" was a classic on its release. Fun, incredibly catchy and deeply romantic with the light-hearted, care-free romance of youth. The suburban romance of dreamt urban anarchy, when young souls are compelled to paint the grey world every possible colour they can, whether it matches or not, whilst all the while being very aware its all still grey. Or maybe that's just how it seems to me now. Now that I'm old. When I was younger, it was just fun, incredibly catchy, and somehow deeply romantic ; )
"Beelzebubba" is a great album, my other faves from it being "The Guitar Song", "Born To Love Volcanos" and "Life Is Shit". I saw them in 1992 on the 'Soul Rotation' tour at Toad's Place in New Haven, CT and Rodney Anonymous dove into the crowd and was hauled outside by security who didn't realize/believe he was the singer. There was quite a funny delay, him being without his pass, before he was allowed back in and onstage.
This is also one of my favourite ever guitar solos.
Just a quick post as I'm off to explore Queensway/take a look at Moscow Road again. This was the area where I'd always stay when I flew into London, as it's where the cheap hotels were. And Martin Amis writes about it in a few of his books, definitely in "Success" and again now in "The Pregnant Widow", which I'm currently reading. And I must say I love it, easily one of his best. I really HATED the last two (his Russian characters in "House of Meetings" don't work, as Russians, for me), but here he's not trying too hard.
Drop Nineteens' "Winona", from their 'Delaware' album, has been stuck in my head for days. A lost shoegaze classic. Dreamy chimey melody afloat on a slow flood of sound. I just watched this video for the first time in 19 years. WOW! I saw it back in 1992, asked for and got the cd for xmas that year. I still have the CD longbox (I recently learned this phenomena took place only in the States. Excessive, unpractical packaging but yet somehow very cool). I was very excited that my first ever solo rock stone gig (TT The Bear's, Cambridge, MA, November 2002) was opening for Paula Kelley & Aaron Tap (and Tahiti 80). Also check out their and Ad Frank's Bee Gee's cover band, The Boy Joys.
My friend Chris DiMenna hipped me to this song sometime last year when I was back home (check out his tumblr for lots of good psych, kraut, folk, rock etc. and cool artwork). From Volume 13 of the Ethiopiques series, Wallias Band's "Musicawi Silt". Such a KILLER GROOVE.
Eddie Argos mentioned the other day that he was going to play this song on his Resonance FM show, which reminded me how much I LOVE Girlfrendo (though this thought is never far from my mind). I fondly remember the day I first discovered them, flipping through the records at the Notting Hill Music Exchange, December 2003, shortly before the end of my first stay in London. And shortly after being intrigued by Living Death's "Vengeance of Hell" LP, I spotted this lovely cover:
And I was further drawn in by the POP! song titles. Guttingly, my suitcases were already bulging and I had no room to carry any more records back to the States, but I immediately bought 'Surprise! Surprise! It's Girlfrendo' when I returned home (I heard Dolly Mixture for the first time that week also, superexciting! This was the very beginnings of H Bird ).
The album is GLORIOUS POP! Sassy, fun, cute & romantic without being overly so, fantastic (both in quality and as in given to fantasy) and overwhelmingly melodic. "First Kiss Feeling Vs. Everyday Sensations" is PERFECTION, call-and-response shouty/singy girl/boy vocals, an argument over their relationship (and relationships in general) that transcends this, encapsulating both points of view into something that is purely uplifting. TheCarsThatAteParis has uploaded the 1997 Peel Session version of this and 2 of the 3 other songs played.
My other favourite is "Delicatessen", which I often think is the BEST SONG EVER WRITTEN. BURSTING with ENERGY and MELODY, a superfun supermarket crush. Everything about this song is just PERFECT. Some AMAZINGLY AWESOME lyrics:
"...'can I have some more of that Swedish cheese?'
He was hip and he weakened my knees
And in the corner of my eye
I saw him pick up apple pie
And when he asked for Hungarian bread
I thought of ways to his bed"
and further so by "From The Studios That Brought You Valerie And Her Week Of Wonders, Daisies & The Cremator". "Daisies" being one of my all-time favourite films and, though I've yet to hear or see it, "Valerie And Her Week Of Wonders" and its soundtrack are considered classics by people whose tastes I trust (plus I'm usually a sucker for the Czech New Wave anyway ; )
I looked it up when I got home and was presented with this stunningly catchy POP song:
And promptly bought the album. We listened to the soundtrack as we drove back into NYC the next day for an ace 1920's night, Wit's End. Excellent stuff. Mainly funky variations on this main theme (and another as well), nice orchestration (I particularly like the bass clarinet on "A Rabbit In Cage 6"), and cool (& LOUD) sound effects.
I'm dying to see the film. It seems to be up on YouTube here.
Petra Cernocká is the vocalist on this track and stars as Saxana, the young witch pupil, in the film. More info on her and the film at Funky Czech-In. I came across this other excellent song of hers while I was looking her up:
Last night at GlamRacket Soph played Boney M's "Rasputin" and once again, as every time I hear this song, I was thrilled. It's just so AMAZING. A disco song about Rasputin. That should be enough but there's so much more. In fact everything about this song is INCREDIBLY AWESOME. "Ra-Ra-Rasputin, Russia's greatest love machine". I still remember the first time I ever heard that line, being completely blown away. We were on a family holiday in 1996 and this song came up in a pub quiz. No one had ever heard of it except for my cousins, who had lived in Australia in the late 70s, and they loved it. Very intrigued, I managed to find "The Magic of Boney M" in the cut-out bin in Newbury Comics a few months later. Which introduced me to other such joys as "Daddy Cool" and "Ma Baker". And we've recently discovered that "Rasputin" is the ultimate boy-girl karaoke song. BEHOLD:
GlamRacket was also the Proxy Music single launch, which was very good fun. The idea of going to see a cover band always seemed quite strange to me (except perhaps when David Lee Roth hired a Van Halen tribute act for his backing band on the 2002 Sam & Dave tour) but Proxy Music are something different. I went along to see them three years ago at a friend's suggestion - "They only play songs from the first two albums, and a couple of Eno singles" - and it was just that. And it was Awesome. The sound, the look, the magic - all there. Evoking quite an atmosphere, with a good sense of fun about it as well. Last night adding in songs from "Stranded" too, including my favourite Roxy song, "Street Life".
The new single, "Lucky Number", however, is actually a Lene Lovichsong, which, per their introduction to it last night, the band noticed that when played at 33 rpm rather than 45, it sounds like Bryan Ferry. And now it does ; ) The instrumental passages alternating between the KILLER riff and BIG, awesome 70's freakouts, all in all a great rock song. Backed with a dirty, spacey version of "Baby's On Fire" sung by Heidi Heelz, which is rather excellent.
I'm back from America and my computer seems to have been fixed (fingers crossed). I could write many, many posts about Dolly Mixture, so much POP PERFECTION, and should get around to it soon (I've been particularly obsessed with 'Spend Your Wishes' lately), but first here's a POP SONG if I've ever heard one. From Debsey Wykes & Hester Smith's band post-Dolly Mixture, Coming Up Roses. They released one 6-song mini-album on Utility Records in 1989, "I Said Ballroom" (as far as I know it's out-of-print and there's no plans for a reissue so here it is), which features the pop gem, "I Could've Been Your Girlfriend". Those "hey-ey-ey"s in the choruses, OH YES.
It was late summer 1998 and my family was in London for the day, about to return to the States from a very nice European holiday. Everyone else used the day to rest at our hotel at Heathrow but I, knowing there were records to be bought and only hours to do it in, hightailed it to Notting Hill Gate and the Portobello Road. The Rough Trade shop on Talbot Road has always been very special to me, for it was the very first placed I sniffed out when I came to London for the very first time in 1992 ("16, clumsy and shy..."). I was too excited to sleep on the plane and had been up about 40 hours, but once we had checked into the hotel in Bayswater, I just took off and my innate sense of record shopping took me there ; ) That day in 1998 at Rough Trade, I took their "Essential Pop Listening" advice and bought The Rosehips compilation (but that's another post entirely) and also happened upon the 'Mojo' Soundtrack . It looked particularly awesome, with 2 Saint Etienne songs I'd never heard before ("Please" and "Constantly") and Nick Cave & Gallon Drunk covering "The Big Hurt".
Strangely, I've never met anyone else who seems to know this soundtrack and I can't find out much information on the film, let alone find the film itself (it appears to be a 50's Soho gangster film). There is an absolutely LOVELY 50's doo-wop song by Marc Almond called "Sequins and Stars" (this was the only place I could find to listen to it on the internet). David McAlmont doing "I Put A Spell On You", Nick Cave wrote and sang the title track "Mojo", and a wonderful rendition of "I Love How You Love Me" by Beth Orton.
Ah, back in America now, for a week. Very nice to be home. And for some reason, being home lately always reminds me of Flesh For Lulu's "Postcards From Paradise", which I seem to have put on every mix cd I've made for driving around back home these past couple of years. It's just PERFECT POP.
Whenever I'm off to America, as I am today, I always get Suede's "The Wild Ones" stuck in my head, for its "Its a shame your plane is leaving on this sunny day" line. It is one of my all-time favourite songs. I realize I must say that a lot ; ) but every since I first heard it when it came out in 1994 I've been in love with it. And whenever I've made a Top 5 Favourite Songs of All-Time list since then, this has always been on it. So so beautiful, everything about it.
I was quite sad to learn that The Kid had broken up. I had emailed Patrik Bengtsson because that blog post of mine was also appeared on God Is In The TV zine . And Patrik kindly wrote back letting me know there's a few The Kid songs I didn't have and assuring me they were all still quite busy creatively. Lots of cool art on Patrik's site, guitarist Frida Sjöstam has a lot going on design-wise and a live video there, and singer Mary-Anne has a new project Mary-Anne och Kalla Handen (Mary-Anne and the Cold Hand) with David Syndqviist of The Kick . Only one song so far, but WOW! what a song it is! I don't know what the title means or what she's singing about but it is GLORIOUS POP of the highest order, and you can download it for free.
