Monday, January 31, 2005
On The Ropes....
Malcolm McLaren - Double Dutch (12" Version)
So, where was I....
Oh yeah!
So after managing The New York Dolls and The Sex Pistols and breaking up Adam And The Antz to form Bow Wow Wow McLaren found himself in New York with Bow Wow Wow in 1980, the night before their gig at The Roxy McLaren took a walk through Harlem and saw this huge black man wearing a Never Mind The Bollocks Here's The Sex Pistols T-Shirt, now Malcolm being the curious fellow he is went over to talk to him....
After a couple of minutes talking about the Sex Pistols and such the big black man said that he was throwing a party in the Bronx and that Malcolm should come along to see what they were up to....
The huge black man's name was Afrika Bambata.
The party turned out to be on a piece of waste ground in the middle of the Bronx with Bambata acting as a bouncer and minder for all his equipment and the kids spinning and scratching the records.... Malcolm was completely blown away and invited them all to play the Bow Bow Wow show the following night.....
The rest is pretty much history, Afrika Bambata and the Zulu Nation story will be covered here at some stage no doubt.
McLaren put together a production team including Thomas Dolby, Anne Dudley, Trevor Horn, The World Famous Supreme Team and several other people from the party and took what he had heard and seen that night and turned it into the album Duck Rock.
In truth I should have picked Buffalo Gals to post as it was more of a cornerstone where Rap is concerned, but I just love this track, similar in respect to what Bow Wow Wow were doing but with the wonderful wonderful Ebonettes and skipping ropes.... Fantastic.
Many years later in 1998 Malcolm gave the go ahead for a re-working of some of the tracks he'd recorded around this time, the remixing was done by KRS-One, De La Soul and Rakim amongst others who all paid their respect to what McLaren had done for Rap music in general on the album Buffalo Gals, Back To Skool....
Personally I don't think he's a very likeable person, but you can't knock what he achieved in the space of about 5 years, for a while there he was more than likely one of the most important people in music, his drive and ambition to find and promote new music was probably second to none.
Buy - Malcolm McLaren - Duck Rock
Buy - Buffalo Gals, Back to Skool
Visit - Malcolm McLaren Bio
Visit - Read About Duck Rock on Rap Reviews
Simon
x
Sunday, January 30, 2005
Lullabies For People And Hobbits.....
I'd like to take this opportunity to welcome another SVC member... Rachel Littlepants from Brooklyn NY, now I've had a word with the other SVC members and we seem to think that Brooklyn is somewhere near Cleethorpes...?Anyway, welcome Littlepants, pull up a chair, grab a cup of tea and make yourself at home.
Simon.
X
Espers - Voices
Greg Weeks - Made
But ok it's not really even mystical, but f**k if I know how to describe music. Usually it’s just 'cool', 'really cool', or 'kinda whatevs'. Umm, Simon, are you regretting inviting me here to 'write'?
Anyway, I discovered Espers through their singer, Greg Weeks, who is pretty amazing. He's been on the Philadelphia indie/weird-noise scene for a few years now and I saw him play in Oakland once and it was one of those neat things where you had never heard the band before but totally liked it right away.
His stuff is kinda melancholy and creepy and sweet all at the same time. There's weird little keyboard noises from an omnichord and umm, it was 3 years ago and I can't remember much else except I super liked it and it was worth waiting through all these other bands to see him.
A couple years ago, he started Espers, a trio that makes haunting, psych-folk that sounds like a sort of a creepy Donovan. There's a medieval, frolicking element that evokes a foggy stagecoach ride in the marshes (wtf?) in my mind. Sorry about the specific imagery but see if 'Voices' doesn't make you see that too.
Buy - Espers
Buy - Blood Is Trouble
Listen - to Espers do a radio show
Visit - Espers
Visit - Greg Weeks
Saturday, January 29, 2005
Turning Blue (an excuse for a rant)...
The Associates - Party Fears Two (Extended Version)
This has to be one of the most hysterical pop records ever produced.
In 1982 it was mainstream, Top of The Pops, school disco. My God.
Exactly how were the 80's crap, by the way? The 80's were nutso. Bow Wow Wow. The Mighty Wah. Adam Ant. Sure, there were bad things around, but then the likes of Grandmaster Flash would show up.
All I see these days are diminishing returns: Radiohead retreated after Street Spirit and in jumped Coldplay. That worked, enter Snow Patrol.
Copies from a knackered fax machine, each one a bit more ropey than the last. This year the A & R men will be chasing the next Keane. Expect lots of echoey overblown stuff.
Like Mr Ant said, what's the point of robbery when nothing is worth taking?
Rankine and Mackenzie's take on the sad boy ballad had a lot more to do with dressing up, breaking down, not fitting in anywhere, and not wanting to.
There is no market strategy for stuff like this.
My kind of pop.
Sadly The Associates singer Billy MacKenzie commited suicide in 1997... RIP.
Buy - The Associates - Popera: The Singles Collection
Visit - Billy MacKenzie
Mike.
Friday, January 28, 2005
Praise the Lord! It's Mary Lou And Her Tree Of Jazz
Mary Lou Williams - Praise The Lord
In 1954, Mary Lou Williams finished a concert in Paris, put down the lid of her piano and, overwhelmed by a sense of evil all around her, quit music for the foreseeable future, devoting her energies to praying for the souls of those she felt were in danger. Over the next decade she did play in concert occasionally, but it wasn't until 1964 and the release of her LP "Mary Lou Williams Presents Saint Martin de Porres" that she finally felt she had successfully combined her spirituality with jazz in a meaningful way, an anathema to the belief of others that jazz was "the devil's music".
Now all this talk of saints, devils and lost souls is all very well, but what it doesn't prepare you for is how much "MLWPSMDP" rocks! The track posted here, "Praise the Lord" is a totally unique, awe-inspiring, and downright funky invocation of the Holy Ghost (with Budd Johnson on sax). The liner notes for the recent CD release of the album (on Smithsonian Folkways Recordings and re-titled "Black Christ of the Andes", it's only a little easier to ask for in HMV) describe it as a "stirring, yet gentle hymn", but it doesn't sound too gentle to these ears: what I hear is the earth tearing itself apart, the dead rising up to dance around in their bones and, yes, the sky falling in, as vocalist Jimmy Mitchell and the George Gordon Singers call upon "you sea monsters, mountains, wild animals, creeping things and YOU WINGED FOWL!" to clap their hands and praise the lord! Meanwhile, all around, the most foot-stomping hybrid of gospel, blues, jazz and unimaginable funk is unleashed into your ears, instantly bypassing your brain and pulsing its way through every inch of your limbs, making it impossible not to dance. You'll be tapping your foot from the very start, but once the chorus picks up with an almighty "Ohhhh Yeeeaaah! Everybody clap your hands!", you'll be up joyously praising anything just as long as the beat goes on. I sometimes DJ this track with my coveted vinyl copy and it never fails to get people shaking their asses. Never. (By the way, its worth noting that it is a sin to listen to this quietly.)
The rest of the LP is equally bizarre, wonderful and terrifying, spanning a range of music way beyond any classification. Listen out especially for the equally danceable "Anima Christi" (as titles go, its not quite "Jumpin Jack Flash", but, damn, just listen to it!), Brothers Grimm style child-frightner "The Devil" and the midnight-beautiful rendition of "It Ain't Necessarily So".
I'll leave you to figure out Mary Lou's "tree of jazz" for yourself, but beware of the snapped-off, rotten branches on the left which have grown from the very roots of suffering, through the influence of the blues and into the doomed, lifeless twigs of cults, black magic and commercial rock. You have been warned.
Visit - Mary Lou Williams
Buy - Mary Lou Williams Presents Black Christ Of The Andes
Thursday, January 27, 2005
A Bip Bam Boogie And A Boogarooga....
Bow Wow Wow - c30 c60 c90 go!
I've been listening to quite a lot of my old Malcolm McLaren records lately, and this ties in with that as he was their manager in the early days....
He broke up the original line-up of Adam And The Antz (which I forgive him for... just about!) to put this band together by convincing them to ditch Adam and get a new singer, so they did.
Malcolm McLaren apparently spotted the 14 year old Burmese girl Myant Myant Aye singing in a Dry Cleaners where she was working after school and asked her to audition for the band... so she did, and got the job, Malcolm then changed her name to Annabella Lwin... so the band was complete.
Now to the music.....
Fast Burundi drumming, Annabella Lwin's almost rapped delivery, sharp guitars and a fast African tinged bass line.... Malcolm's tinny production had a few knockers back in the day, but I think it still sounds great, and nothing sounded quite like this in 1980... apart from perhaps ironically Adam And The Antz, but they didn't have the pin-up for a thousand adolescent boys singing for them.... oh, actually on second thoughts, they did.
Adam never looked quite as sexy as Annabella though.
Bow Wow Wow originally stayed together for three years recording four albums and had a string of hits including Go Wild In The Country and I Want Candy (their only US hit).
In 1981 a certain Lieutenant Lush (a Bow Wow Wow groupie) briefly joined the band as co-singer but was booted off the stage a short time later, he then changed his name to Boy George.... wonder what happened to him, the name sounds familiar?
Buy - Bow Wow Wow - The Best Of...
Visit - Bow Wow Wow site
Visit - Bow Wow Wow site with loads of links
Please allow me to introduce....
Bobby...
Brand new SVC member and long time friend who will be along shortly with his first post, so please join me in giving him a warm welcome.
Simon
x
Wednesday, January 26, 2005
God Exists! says Palmer
New Order - Sub-Culture
(Exclusive Remix only for Record Mirror EP #2 Jan 1986)
The famed encyclopedist Bernard Sumner was once invited to visit Studio 54 by the then empress, Diana Ross. To the embarrassment of his host and the rest of the court, he promptly launched into an animated defense of atheism. Reluctant to muzzle her guest directly, Ross hatched a cunning plan. Sumner was informed that a learned mathematician had discovered an algebraical demonstration of the existence of God and would present it before the audience.
So the mathematician Robert Palmer duly appeared and gravely declared: "Fella, (a + bn)/n = x, therefore God exists!" The upshot? Sumner, entirely unschooled in algebra, was rendered speechless; peals of laughter erupted around the room; Sumner, greatly embarassed, asked for permission to return to Manchester; and Diana gratefully bid him adieu.
I found this in a charity shop in Cotham. Only one of these is true...
Visit - New Order
Buy - New Order - Substance
Download - Best of New Order from iTunes
Tuesday, January 25, 2005
Happy Birthday To You All...
Kevin Ayers - The Clarietta Rag
There's an idea about that Kevin Ayers was somehow robbed of international stardom by cruel fate. Others say he just didn't try hard enough.
Stuff and nonsense.
The "Joy Of A Toy" album came out over thirty years ago and you can still get it. In fact you can get a super expando remix version. You can still buy lots of his other albums too, even the dodgy ones. That's famous enough.
If he'd been hugely famous, he would then have become less famous and ended up on something cruel and stupid like celebrity big brother (small letters intentional). I for one would have hated that.
He's still about and people still love him. Great.
Enough chat. On this number from the album, Kevin tells the story of a groovy chick who rides her moped up and down a magic mountain. Just don't try to stop her.
He treats us to a super three note guitar solo. It goes a bit more fiddly when the brass joins in, but he holds it together.
He rhymes "Clarietta" with "Lambretta" and says "Two three four!" in a most enthusiastic manner.
God bless you, Mr Ayers.
If You Ever Feel Low You Have To....
Buy - Kevin Ayers - Joy of a Toy (+6 Bonus Tracks) (Remastered)
Visit - Kevin Ayers Official Site
Visit - Why Are We Sleeping - An Excellent Kevin Ayers Digest
Mike.
Monday, January 24, 2005
Chemical Brothers Remixed Album.....
The folks that brought you The Prodigy remixed album Always Outsiders, Never Outdone last year have now remixed the brand spanking new (released today) Chemical Brothers album Push The Button.
The remixed album, Flip The Switch, features unofficial remixes and mash-ups by artists from the UK and US bootleg scene.
The album is free to download from Chemical Brothers Remixed.
If you like what you hear then please donate to the Disasters Emergency Committee Fund to aid relief in South East Asia after the tragic tsunami on Boxing Day.
You'll find links on the site.
Tracklisting:
1. Galvanise - cry.on.my.console's galvatron remix feat. Katie Enlow
2. The Boxer - Fujikato's Unusual remix
3. Belive - Belief, Elektric Cowboy
4. Hold Tight London - Dunproofin's Follow Me mix feat. Katie Enlow
5. Come Inside - FakeID's Elektrophunk dub
6. The Big Jump - Backflip, Will Rokier
7. Left Right - JoolsMF Shoot'em Up mix
8. Close Your Eyes - Idiotech remix
9. Shake Break Bouce - McSleazy remix
10. Marvo Ging - Big Bad Baz
11. Surface To Air - Across the Air, Lenlow, feat. Katie Enlow
Now go and give some money!
Buy - The Chemical Brothers - Push the Button
Visit - The Chemical Brothers
Thursday, January 20, 2005
Look Linda, I just invented Drum n Bass!
Paul McCartney - Darkroom (1980)
You can laugh but it's true.
It's 1980, You are Paul McCartney. You still wish the Beatles would get back together but you all hate each other, You have been the singer in 'Wings' for a decade and it's boring, Your thumbs ache, You have a wife and Kids to provide for but you are not allowed to eat meat and it's getting you down.
So you listen to Bowie and Kraftwerk, buy a Synth and make the craziest songs of your life!
Oh Paul, you were always the clever one!
And then he wrote.... 'Bogey Music' a song about Fungus The Bogeyman.
And then he got busted for smoking weed!
"Play the Pipes of Peace"
Buy - Paul McCartney II
Come On Pilgrim....
Sweet Billy Pilgrim - Ain't No Jesus In Here
Beautiful, just beautiful....
With a gentle "Wandrin' Star" type rhythm and that soft voice, what a great song.
After spending the last part of 2004 in the studio re-inventing themselves Sweet Billy Pilgrim came up with something I think you'll agree is sublime.
October saw the release of this limited run single, and it had sold out in a couple of weeks not surprisingly.
So what does the future hold for this band?
Well if the following track is anything to go by then I can only hope great things are going to happen.... They've also got an album pretty much recorded too... Can't wait.
Sweet Billy Pilgrim - God In The Details
This is taken from the "Stars Spill Out Of Cups" ep that's released on February 14th (Valentines Day), this will also be a limited release so I suggest if you want it then you'd better be quick.
This song is a different kettle of fish from Ain't No Jesus, the first half is a lot darker, parts of it wouldn't sound out of place on a Tom Waits record, and that ain't no bad thing, the second part has a gorgeous circling vocal and piano repeated to fade.... Lovely.
Also February the 7th will see their remix of David Sylvian's "The Heart Knows Better" on his "The Good Son vs The Only Daughter - The Blemish Remixes" album, and damn fine it is too.
Shifty Disco as part of their wonderful MP3 singles club picked another track from the ep as a release.
If your interested in joining the Singles club it's well worth it, for just £12 you get an MP3 a week (some pre-release, some exclusives) for the whole year, and if that wasn't good enough you get a CD compilation every quarter of the MP3's.... Bargain.
*Update*
Sweet Billy Pilgrim now have a smashing MP3 blog.....
Pilgrim's Progress
Go say hi from me.
Buy - Sweet Billy Pilgrim - Stars Spill Out Of Cups EP
Buy - David Sylvian - The Good Son Vs the Only Daughter
Visit - Sweet Billy Pilgrim
Visit - David Sylvian
Visit - Shifty Disco
Other Stuff
Fat Planet has written about what has happened to Moistworks, and has said everything I would have said... only better.
Cheers Fat Planet.
Simon
X
Wednesday, January 19, 2005
Someone Left The Cake Out In The Rain...
Richard Harris - In The Final Hours
About eight years ago I bought a compilation of the two albums Richard Harris recorded with Jimmy Webb, "A Tramp Shining" and "The Yard Went On Forever".
I still haven't figured it out yet.
It's a strange winding path that starts with the snappy pop of "Up, Up and Away" and ends up with work like this. Over orchestrated, over emoting, beautiful, pretentious, flawed and beautifully human in its utter folly.
That's just what the albums are are, two Follies. Jimmy stands on top of one, waving and shouting at Richard. He's on the other, gesturing wildly out to sea.
"What the Hell are we about?"
"Art, Jimmy, art and beauty!"
"WHAT?"
"AAAAAAARRRRRRRTTTTTTTT!!!!! BEAUTYYYYYYYYY!!!!"
After a bit more gesturing and words thrown into the face of the winter gales, they climb down and head off to the pub.
Maybe I have figured it out.
Better this than false modesty, solid work, reliability, mundanity, delivering only what is expected.... The Beautiful South!
And yes, MacArthur Park is on there.
I'm off to swig Pernod and smoke a More Menthol.
Buy - Richard Harris - A Tramp Shining
Buy - Richard Harris - The Webb Sessions: 1968-1969
Visit - Richard Harris Biography
Mike.
Tuesday, January 18, 2005
Big Boss Man
Elvis - Clean Up Your Own Backyard
Last week would have seen Elvis reaching his 70th birthday, so many happy returns to him if he's still out there somewhere as some daft people seem to believe....
Anyway...
There's not really any sitting on the fence with Elvis, you either love him or hate him, and I happen to love him, and make no apologies for it.
All phases of his career are wonderful to me, from the early rock and roll right up to the early to mid seventies... possibly not including too much after about '73 though... got a bit stodgy, music and girth wise.
But I think if I was pushed I'd have to say my favourite Elvis period was from '68 to '72.... from the NBC Comeback Special to That's The Way It Is, all those lush productions and arrangements coupled with Elvis' delivery and performance... class stuff indeed.
This track is taken from the soundtrack to Elvis' 30th film "The Trouble With Girls" which was filmed towards the end of '68 and opened in early '69 and co-stars bizarrely enough John Carradine and Vincent Price....
The recording sessions also featured a certain cohort of Phil Spector's... "Darlene Love" on backing vocals who you can hear on this slow groover of a song.(She also appeared in The '68 Comeback Special)
This track was recorded the same year as "A Little Less Conversation"(remixed by Junkie XL a couple of years back) that featured in the film "Live A Little, Love A Little".... There's some real gems hidden away on the soundtracks to his films from this period if you dig around a bit.
Buy - Elvis - The Original EP Collection Volume 29
Buy - Elvis - Memories: The '68 Comeback Special
Buy - Elvis - The '68 Comeback Special (Deluxe Edition DVD)
Visit - Elvis
Visit - IMDb - The Trouble With Girls
Visit - Elvis @ IMDb
Just a quick heads up to the return of The Cap'n at A New Career In A New Town, great start with a German version of Bowie's Heroes and a Neu! track.
Also a mention for Jenny over at The Imaginary Jenny who has some tracks from Sebadoh, The Korgis, Lou Barlow, Destroyer, Captain Beefheart, Dionne Warwick and more.... Howdy.
Simon
X
Monday, January 17, 2005
See Through My Eyes
Cindytalk - Janey's Love
So it's 1988 or so and I'm in Kettle's Yard Gallery. I notice a video installation by Ivan Unwin, a disturbing piece involving a slo-mo rag and bandage figure in a rocking chair going back and forth until it falls over. The title underneath indicates the music is by Cindytalk. The sound is turned down. I ask the attendant if she can turn it up. "No". she says. "It's broken." I can tell she's lying. I walk away, imagining the music I am not allowed to hear and feeding on her obvious hostility to it.
It's coming up to 20 years since I first heard Cindytalk and I remain unsurprised by how some people react to a band I love dearly. Even the goths I knew hated them. I think they were scared. What is it they hear?
The same thing as I do. An unsettling intent. Something they don't want. Quite right, too. Either this answers something inside you or it most definitely does not. It pulled me in when I was 15 and I'm not out yet. Why should I want to get out?
There are about a dozen tracks I could have chosen, but I've gone for one from the 1988 album "In This World".
Cindytalk go from violent noise to near silent piano pieces, so don't go getting the idea that it's all like this.
All of it is beautiful.
Buy - It's sadly all deleted now so best keep an eye on ebay
Visit - Cindytalk
An excellent articles section with essays from the likes of Robert Fisk and John Pilger.
And a message to Gordon Sharp, should he happen to pass by - thanks.
More, please, but in your own time.
Mike.
Sunday, January 16, 2005
MMmmmmmmm...
Midnight Movies - Time Of Year
Nico fronting Stereolab.....
That's a dream surely...?
It was up until last year (in the US but this month in the UK) when Midnight Movies released their self titled debut album and fulfilled a little fantasy of mine.
Ingredients:- A big dollop of the aforementioned Stereolab (the Midnight Movies album is co-produced by Fulton Dingley who has also worked with Stereolab) and Nico, with a healthy pinch of Luna (who they are about to start a tour with... yay!) and then a splash of Loop or another of your favourite spacey drone rock combo's to taste.
Influences are ok as long as the groop in question don't just end up sounding like a poor version of the band(s) they're trying to emulate, this is not the case with Midnight Movies though, yes they wear their influences on their sleeve, that's a given, but they create something that is distinctively theirs, lovely gentle lilting melodies interspersed with the ocassional slab of rock blam to great effect!...
And all sung by the gorgeous Gena Olivier... bonus.
This fantastic track is one of their more rocking numbers and was originally taken from the hard to get hold of Strange Design single from 2003 but thankfuly can now be found on the new Mirage CD single released this month along with the album by those nice folk at Rykodisc.
Music geeks might notice a riff from The United States of America's "Coming Down" in there too.
Both singles and album are seriously worth spending your hard earned cash on, so go on and treat yourselves.
(many appologies to Midnight Movies for using the Nico and Stereolab comparisons... I'm sure they must be sick of hearing that by now)
Buy Midnight Movies album and singles from - Rykodisc UK
Buy - Midnight Movies - Midnight Movies from Amazon
Visit - Midnight Movies
Simon
x
Friday, January 14, 2005
Will this time be different?
The Cryin' Shames - Please Stay
This record is a breathtaking cover of The Drifters' ballad "Please Stay" from 1966, which surprisingly only reached No.26 in the charts. Sadly it was destined to be Meek's final hit before the ill fated day, 3rd Feb '67 when he shot and killed his landlady and then turned the gun on himself.
There are many stories of how this record was recorded with Meek apparently 'extracting' a performance from Charlie by holding a gun to his head. Whether or not this is completely true we may never know.
The Cryin' Shames teetered on the edge of hitting the big time and were nearly managed by Brian Epstein but after one of them told Epstein to fuck off things didn't really get off the ground after that. Paul McCartney still owes George Robbo some money for some toast he paid for at the Jacaranda Club. The Cryin' Shames were the last group to play at the original Cavern Club in Liverpool, they jammed for about an hour before the police broke the door down.
Joey 'Kneen' is a good old Manx name.
Visit - The Cryin' Shames
Visit - The Cryin' Shames
Visit - George Robinson
Buy - Joe Meek - The Alchemist of Pop
Thursday, January 13, 2005
I Hear A New World
Original Photograph by Clive Bubley. Copyright Photo © Clive Bubley 1967/2005
Joe Meek And The Blue Men - Orbit Around The Moon
I don't care what anybody says, especially logical people: if you go up into space, you will hear Joe Meek.
Only a complete genius could come up with a cosmic beat album. Imagine Flying Saucer Attack jamming with Lonnie Donegan and you're getting there.
Really.
With Oliver Postgate on backing vocals.
Truth is, Joe put in the Rock Island Line bits and the poppy hooks in order to make it more entertaining. I'm glad he did. Anybody can make an experimental album. Not just anybody makes it rock.
Ladies and Gentlemen: I give you the strange sight of Martians in the Coffee Bar, ordering a cappucino and grooving to Tommy Steele.
Smashing.
Buy - Joe Meek And The Blue Men - I Hear a New World: An Outer Space Music Fantasy
Visit - The Joe Meek Appreciation Society
Visit - Saturn
Update
Thanks a lot to Tom from the wonderful Indie MP3 for pointing me in the direction of Comfort Stand...
An excellent non profit making web label that has an album of messages and obscure tracks from Joe Meek to download.... Great stuff.
Mike
Wednesday, January 12, 2005
Decomposition of a quasi-circular orbit
Evan Dando & Craig Armstrong - Wake Up In New York
I got thinking about this song after listening to The Edge's 'Rowena's Theme' from the always excellent Just For A Day blog.
I love both these songs.
I've woken up in New York a few times now, once I had such a hangover I couldn't even remember how I got home. Not good. Unfortunately I had my video camera to show me the error of my ways the next day. How what little blood I had left paled from my cheeks when I saw my abstract route back to the Hotel. I said 'never again' for the umpteenth time.
Visit - Just For A Day
Visit - Evan Dando
Visit - Craig Armstrong
Tuesday, January 11, 2005
I Dare You
Bauhaus - Double Dare
Goth started out as a rinky dink post-punk Expressionist rip off angular overechoed overwrought and occasionally atonal art school shebang. It wound up as a bunch of ugly blokes playing bad stadium rock.
In one corner - 'In The Flatfield' by Bauhaus.
This track is the opener, and what a way to start your debut album, dirty dirty bass.
In the other - anything from the appalling 'Vision Thing' by Los Sisteros Del Mercios.
Guess which one I'm backing.
Besides, Bauhaus could take The Sisters any day. That David J looks a bit tasty. Quick jab.
Visit - Bauhaus Music
Buy - Bauhaus - Crackle from iTunes
Mike
Monday, January 10, 2005
Advice from The King
Elvis Presley - Fuck The Majors
The King regains his throne at the top of the Hit Parade.
The King of Rock'n'Roll sits pretty at the number one spot with the re-release of Jailhouse Rock, which topped the US and UK charts for the first time in 1958. It is Elvis's 19th chart-topper and comes the day after what would have been his 70th birthday. It's also the 999th number one since the singles chart was launched in 1952.
In recognition of a true original we at SVC would like to share with all you budding musicians/producers/DJs some keen advice from the man himself.
Visit - Elvis Official site
Taken from the Alec Empire LP 'Alec Empire vs. Elvis Presley'
Label: El Turco Loco. Catalog #: EL TURCO LOCO CAT# 6
Friday, January 07, 2005
And You Don't Stop
Funky 4+1 - That's The Joint
I won't waste time - skill, confidence, roll.
That's all there is to say about this.
What's the deal? Sugar Hill!
Buy - Best of Sugarhill Records
Visit - Sugarhill @ Hip Hop Network
Mike.
Thursday, January 06, 2005
Men 1
DJ Pierre - Box Energy (remixed by AFX) 33rpm
Here is an excellent, percussive/melodic recording by AFX in the style of AFX. It is a remix of DJ Pierre's Box Energy fed to the AFX lion and spat out midway after a dirty protest. Includes cockney raver's voice halfway through track recounting his experiences of "E". Other side was a version of 808 State's Flow Coma and the 12" comes with an extra track of bonus high frequency sounds. Came out on vinyl format as a white label 12" in a standard paper innersleeve. There is a sticker on one label and also in the centre/top of the sleeve. Very nice.
My copy of Analord 10 is apparently in the post and I can't wait...
Update
DJ Pierre - Box Energy (remixed by AFX) 45rpm
For all those who like to hear songs as they were intended and not at the wrong speed, here's the AFX track at 45rpm.
Visit - Rephlex
Visit - Italian Chairs with excellent names...
Wednesday, January 05, 2005
Ambassador
The Kills - No Wow
I'd like to start by wishing all of you an extremely spoilt New Year, I hope all your dreams come true in 2005 and I really mean that.
To the job in hand, we have a drum-beat, repetitive of course, we have a guitar snagged and angular and we have the mention of a holy-roller. Lovely. Who do I turn to when i'm in mood for dirty synthesised sounds re-played on cheap guitars? of course the dirty/beautiful US/UK pop combo The Kills. Thankyou Kills and i'll see you at the end of the month:
JANUARY
30th, OXFORD, Zodiac
31st, BRIGHTON, Concord
FEBRUARY
1st, LEEDS, Cockpit
2nd, NEWCASTLE, Uni Global
4th, LIVERPOOL, Academy
'The Good Ones' single released on Feb 7th.
'No Wow' the LP out Feb 28th on Domino Records.
Visit - The Kills Official site
Visit - Domino Records
Tuesday, January 04, 2005
On and Off?
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark - Annex
This reminds me a bit of 'On' by Aphex, well the intro does anyway. OMD don't have the King-Kong bassdrums that teeter on the brink of sucking you off. Atomic Kitten did have though, I suppose Andy McClusky (Svengali? perhaps) must have seen the light by that time and hit 'loudness' on his amp. No not Andy from McLusky, they have always had 'loudness' ON. See what I did there? Jarvis Cocker directed the video for 'On' which isn't that good but it does have a certain charm to it. He also directed 'Aftermath' for Nightmares On Wax which is all monster heads and feather dusters, a bit like an evening down the pub with Spoilt Victorian Dad.
Visit - OMD Official site
Buy - OMD 'Organisation' from iTunes
Visit - McLusky Official site
Listen/Download - On by Aphex Twin at Warp Records
Watch - Warp Vision inc. Jarvis 'Aftermath' video
Monday, January 03, 2005
I Studied Marble Flaws
Sometimes its difficult to hear an album for what it really is, weighed down with what's gone before and what came after.
With Roxy, you always get the feeling that you should either love the early stuff and bemoan their gradual slide into blandness, or revel in the shiny beauty of the later work and dislike their early abrasiveness.
Roxy Music are easily one of the greatest bands that ever existed. And all of it is great. 2HB, Virginia Plain, I'll Do Anything To Turn You On, Oh Yeah, wherever you go, there you will find greatness.
Manifesto came after a break and is regarded as a "not as good as" album. This is the curse of genius and should not stop you from really listening to something that is in fact superb.
Another example: Adventure by Television is wonderful. No one who really listens to it because of Marquee Moon. Your loss.
Manifesto came out in 1979. What was in the charts about then...Dan Hartman? Randy Vanwarmer? B. A. Robertson? As for the New Wave boyos, well, how dated are they when you listen to them now? Manifesto sounds like a band recording now that is influenced by something going on in the new wave era. The irony is it sounds less dated than Franz Ferdinand, and they are recording now.
And there is too much of that svelte oddness going on, too many twisted moments for the accusation of blandness to stand up to scrutiny.
The Martini is spiked and everybody at the party has too many thoughts.
My, what fun....
Buy - Roxy Music - Manifesto
Visit - Roxyrama
Visit - Viva Roxy Music - Manifesto
Mike.
Sunday, January 02, 2005
It's Two-Thousand and Five.
Sparks - Fletcher Honorama
Ok so Ron Mael's a genius and Happy New Year by the way...
At the beginning of the 70's there used to be this eccentric little band called Halfnelson formed by two brothers who were studying graphic design at UCLA who released an album produced by Todd Rundgren that disappeared without so much of a whimper. So they headed to London, Russell with bad teeth, Ron with ace moustache, changed their name to Sparks and re-released the LP. Ta-da a hit. So they recorded another LP called 'A Woofer In Tweeter's Clothing' and then split up. Then Muff Winwood put his oar in, they reformed with some English musicians (yes you Dinky Diamond) and made what some have said is one of the greatest records ever made 'Kimono My House'. It is very good indeed.
'Fletcher Honorama' however is taken from their first (second) LP and is truly one of those very special songs. It's got a beautiful, wilty melody that bends in all the right places, it sounds thoroughly modern even though it's a hundred years old and there's an super-stereoscopic piano bit that reminds me of the Super Furries. Unfortunately there is a hump-backed cabaret bit in the middle that almost knocks things off track but thankfully it only sticks around long enough to amplify how lush the other bits are. In short this song is gear.
Visit - Official Sparks site
Saturday, January 01, 2005
Tsunami appeal
Donate - British Red Cross
Donate - American Red Cross
Donate - Concern
Donate - Disasters Emergency Commitee
Donate - Unicef