Archive for January, 2008
Carry Moonbeams Home In A Jar
Well, tonight has been whirlwind of Scottish indie’ness. I decided at some point after tea to make a comp of some Scottish groups so started to pull some discs oot!! So far I have ripped tracks from the likes Primal Scream, Ballboy, AC Acoustics, Dawn Of The Replicants, Jesus And Mary Chain, Nectarine No.9, Rezillos, Skids, Paul Haig, Hipsway, Josef K, Cocteau Twins, Cosmic Rough Riders, Teenage Fanclub, and Ruby.
There is plenty of stuff I need to get my hands on which is buried under the bed but in the meantime here is picture of Simple Minds before they were crap. “Life In A Day” is still a classic.
Touching The Flame
I picked up the Arcade Fire cd “Neon Bible” cheap last night. I’d heard plenty of tracks elsewhere and have various ones on magazine compilations but hadn’t actually bought any of their albums yet. “Neon Bible” is quite good and is of the same veign as Grant Lee Phillips’ and 10,000 Maniacs’ Americana folk style indie rock sort of stuff boh of whose stuff I have loved since their earliest releases.
Tell ‘Em What To Say Mace
Spent the weekend tuning to all sort of stuff from Mogwai to the Spree but a compilation I made of De La Soul remixes is still bangin.
Er, word.
Alive & Kicking
Turned back the clock this morning to listen to some Win. How funked can a Scottish band be? They first came to light on the 80’s McEwans Lager adverts which were totaly ahead of their time and the first adverts to use genuine bands’ singles much like Levi seemingly started afterwards.
Win was Davie Henderson and Russell Burns band post The Fire Engines and pre Nectarine No.9 both of which are fine bands.
McEwans “Alive & Kicking” ads also featured Hipsway’s track “Tinder” and the punchline of “Alive & Kicking” was culed from a Simple Minds song of the same name.
What’s In A Name
On my mucker’s Blipfoto page a discussion took off about buying music because of an interesting sleeve and we both gave examples. I had heard of the 5, 6, 7, 8’s when they appeared in Kill Bill Vol.1, and they were cool, but when I saw their Teenage Mojo Workout album somewhere I jumped on it.
Any album with a title as brilliant as “Teenage Mojo Workout” deserves to be bought purely on the strength of the title alone.
Described by GM jr. as “screamin’ Japanese birds” it rocks like the aural car crash that it is. Totally sonic. These gals are wild.
Everything Is Alright
Missed a day yesterday but had some Steel Pulse banging in the bus after seeing a Hugh Fernly Whitingstal ( I dunno!) show where he visited Handsworth area of Birmingham. Jah man.
However tonight I’m banging out the latest mix on DJ Ztrip’s website which had recorded for a radio show called Indie103. Check it out.
Rainbow’s End
Top chill albums are the sounds for today with Talk Talk’s “Spirit Of Eden” continuing to astound twenty years down the line. Talk Talk are unfortunately known by the masses as being eighties electro popsters but Mark Hollis later decreed that the first two albums were for the purposes of gathering revenue to allow the band to work they always intended.
Spirit was recorded over a twelve month period in the studio funded by EMI who handed the band a blank cheque to record the new album and who agreed not to intefere in the process which saw the band record solo jams in the dark and later take it all and turn it into six songs in the mixing studio.
I think EMI puked when they were handed the tapes however the album stands as an absolute classic (twenty) years ahead of it’s time.
Artwork was by James Marsh.
EMI In The Ditch
Been indulging in a bit of Gang Of Four web action tonight while blawing my lugs oot with “Solid Gold” at full throttle. The Funky Four are presently recording part of their new album in London Town however as they are signed to EMI time will only tell if it sees the light of day on that label.
Dave Allen, the ‘Four’s staccato bassist, has an excellent blogger on all things musical.
An Afternoon Visit To Grouchos
I was in Dundee this afternoon and dropped in to Grouchos the used second hand record shop and picked up a couple of bits and boppers for a few quid. They were Teenage Fanclub’s “Hand Made”, which is very disappointing for a fannies release,
Andy Partridge’s second volume of demos “Fuzzy Warbles”, which is good as I have a soft spot for obscure Xtc recordings, a Tracey Thorn “It’s All True” cd single, a Paul Steel “Your Loss” single demo (hoorah!) and a Wannadies “Disko” cd single which strangely has a live version of “Shorty” as an extra track which clocks in at over five minutes – two minutes of which are just crowd applause. And the point of that was – what?! Wannadies live are the baws though and has me reaching for some top live shows I have on disc. “Fuzzy Warbles” is on rotation tonight though.
Geneology
Had a wee rush of blood and dug out some old Gene gubbins this morning. Unfortunately the thing closest to hand as I rushed out the door was their death rattle live album called Rising For Sunset which was, by Gene standards, pretty poor. It’s a shame bands set their minds to do a live recording and get all set up to release a specific show, or in this case one cd culled from two consecutive nights, lined up specifically with the intention of releasing a live cd (which is considerably inexpensive compared to a studio album).
How do they know the shows will be any good. Anyway, Matin Rossiter’s voice was shot and band played sans their 5th member, ex-Stle Councillor Mick Talbot which just seemed to add to the fact that we were short changed. So it’s out with that and in with the band’s masterpiece Drawn To The Deep End which would make a bastard weap. God bless you boys.
