Week In Music August 10-16th

I watched that 2005 Piccadilly Jim film which caused me to start the Piccadilly Jim audiobook which in turn got David Devant & His Spirit Wife's 'Gentleman Jim' stuck in my head for much of the early part of the week. Wodehouse and Letterkenny have been the things getting me through this pandemic, I can't recommend them enough. And Jonathan Cecil's readings of Wodehouse's books are absolutely wonderful. The perfect proper British voice to portray such high comedy. 

Watched that Salad Days: A Decade of Punk in Washington, DC (1980-90) documentary. Very good. Took me back to my late teenage years. Had a discussion over on Facebook about everyone's favourite Fugazi record. Mine's Margin Walker, with Repeater a close second. There were some votes for The Argument which I'd never really given a proper listen to. So I did. It's very good and 'Nightshop' stood out. 

I've loved that Embrace record since I first heard it back in 1993. I remember people calling it emo, and being confused years later when something called 'emo' had blown up but didn't really sound like Embrace. Also confusing was that British band Embrace coming along later on. 

Superexciting this week I interviewed Steve Kilbey of The Church for my Etcetera ETC With Young Southpaw podcast. He's recorded a new album which he wrote in one week back in the spring. It's called 11 Women and is really good. 'Josephine', which you can hear the studio version of at the end of the podcast, is one of my songs of the year. It's one of those timeless tunes, it sounds so familiar but yet you can't quite place it, as someone said to him, "like it's always been there". We had an excellent conversation dealing mostly with the magic and mystery of songs. Video of the interview will be on YouTube soon. Here's a version of 'Josephine' from one of his Monday evening IG shows

I watched Autoluminescent, the Rowland S. Howard documentary the other night. Loved it. Gave me a whole new appreciation for the man and the artist. Reminded me that it seems every time I walked into the Rough Trade shop on Talbot Road in London since 1999, I'd see a copy of his Teenage Snuff Film cd. I miss walking in there and seeing that. And of course 'Shivers' has been stuck in my head since, I even recorded a version today that's now on FB and IG. Such a classic. It would take more time than I've got now to go into how that song has been with me throughout the years. I remember covering it at Jacques in Boston at an early rock stone show. Here's the Young Charlatans, the original version I believe. I was also psyched to find their demos are up for free download at Rowland's site. 

And 'Autoluminescent', what a tune!

Also, 'Shut Me Down' is gorgeous

Saw the awesome band name Illuminati Hotties and had to check them out. Digging the album. This tune is great, super catchy

Been digging this Suzi Analogue EP and saw on Twitter that today's her birthday so I listened again

Bought the Flashback Records compilation earlier this year and listening to Samuel Barton's 'We Painted Our Faces And Gave False Names' from it today I was blown away. It's SO. FREAKING. LOVELY. Ever since I was a teenager there's always been a place in my mind that music like this takes me to. A twilight rocky ledge over a misty sea that seems like the end of the world both in time and place. Joy Division's 'Atmosphere' would take me there, The Cure's 'Plainsong'. I love this

Mikey Georgeson & The Civilised Scene

Mikey Georgeson & The Civilised Scene's Blood & Brambles came out earlier this week on pop-Z and is my Pop Album Of The Year So Far. My Quietus review is here. 'I See What You Did There' is an astoundingly good tune.

And here's the excellent video for the first single, 'My Heroine' (previously known as 'One More Dose' on Mikey's Demonstration Songs . You can grab those for free if you want, I highly recommend them.)

David Devant & His Spirit Wife...

Happy New Year Everybody!  This year I'm going to endeavor to keep up this blog more, as I've been letting it slip lately.  And it occurs to me that I've never actually done a post about David Devant & His Spirit Wife!  I've always meant to, they're my favourite band, and I think Mikey Georgeson is one of our best, perhaps the best, songwriters.  I guess I've always thought it would take forever with all I've got to say about them.  Having flown back from the States yesterday in order to see them perform at The 100 Club, for my first New Year's Eve in London, today, despite being jetlagged and exhausted, I'm going to set that right and do the post now, start the New Year properly.

I've written quite a bit about them this year.  And about a month ago the idea came to me that I should write a book about Devant and The Elevator Drops.  Two bands, one from each side of the Atlantic, that I always felt should've been huge, and always saw similarities between, both being great theatrical pop.  If anyone has anything to say about either for the book, please get in touch.

Living in America, I missed out on Devant in the 90's.  Some great articles from that time here, here and here.  But I didn't hear them until 2006.  And was so excitedly blown away when I did! Having caught Mr Solo  at The Windmill, I immediately bought his All Will Be Revealed and started to investigate further.  Pimlico was the first thing I heard and fell in love with it by the end of the first verse.



With this on repeat, it was actually a few weeks before I got to anything else.  And then it was Radar.  That riff is just Awesome, insistent.  And, as with Pimlico, the lyrics were extraordinary, evoking wonderful playful universes, really something very special.  And the songs were so catchy!






The songs to me, like all the best songs, seemed instantly familiar but would slip through one's memory when you tried to place them, for they are in fact all their own.  Last night at the gig, I was thrilled that they played the old B-side One Hand, which I'd never heard live before.  Such a great song, it reminds me of the 60's 45s that my mom used to play when I was growing up, but for the life of me it doesn't exactly sound like any of them.



And the A-side of that single is Cookie.  What an excellent tune.



There's so many songs I could name.  The first two records, Work Lovelife Miscellaneous and Shiney On The Inside, I consider perfect albums (every song being great) and two of the best albums of all-time.  The first time I ever got to see them live was the best show I've ever seen.  And every one since then has been Amazingly Great.  Sticking to the tunes they played last night (for now), next up is the classic Ginger:




And then Miscellaneous, the ending to the live version never failing to make one feel good, that everything, as they say, "will be alright".  In 2009, I saw Devant play at a church in Brighton.  The setting being perfect with the lush red carpet.  During the chant of "Work Lovelife Miscellaneous" as the final song, Vessel led us all down the centre aisle and out of the building, across the road and into the pub.  Where they proceeded to play four more songs acoustic with Vessel standing on the bar.  It was AWESOME.  They even did Life On A Crescent, one of my absolute favourite songs of all-time.

Miscellaneous live at The 100 Club, 2010:



Live at The Buffalo Bar, 2009:





This last performance is from the cult classic sitcom Asylum, starring Simon Pegg, Julian Barrett, and Jessica Stevenson, co-written by Edgar Wright and David Walliams, and which featured Devant as the "house band".  Ginger was the show's title music.

And then there's I'm Not Even Going To Try, perhaps the most FUN song ever recorded.  A song that brings Joy to an audience only too happy to chant "AUNTIE MABEL" and answer the brilliant lyrics with "HE'S NOT EVEN GOING TO TRY".



Ah, I'm very jetlagged and need to get to bed but hopefully this will provide a good introduction to a truly fantastic band.  More to come...

Mikey Georgeson - "Moth In The Flame Of Carnality"...

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:





And now there's a more fleshed-out band version:

Luxemboug & Mr. Solo...

'The Luxembourg Underground', an article I wrote for my friend Cheap & Plastique's magazine, is now online.  Some of my all-time favourite music.  Tons of links and free music there.  Interviews I did with David Barnett, Mikey Georgeson and David Shah will be posted on that site over the course of this week too.  I'm still ill so I'll leave it there for today.

POP PERFECTION: