The Runaways - Cherry Bomb

Album: The Runaways Chart pos:N/A

The queens of jailbait





The film The Runaways (finally) came out in UK cinema's last week and being a big (abeit casual) admirer of Jaon Jett's solo stuff I decided to watch it. Even though the film didnt blow me away I still rather enjoyed it and Dakota Fanning and Kirsten Stewert were pretty good playing Cherie Currie an Jaon Jett respectively, I think it helped that I didn't know a great deal about the band.

It seems the more you know about a musical artist/band the more you hate the biopic. I saw the Serge Gainsbourg biopic and hated it because I felt upset that large chucks of his life was missed out. I hoped to see Gainsbarre upset France Gall by telling her La Sucettes is an metaphor for fellatio. So one day i hope to start buying some Runaways albums and reading their autobiography only to realise that despite the good performances the film is crap.

Looking from the video its quite unnerving seeing a fifteen year old gyrating in a basque and stockings.

Herbie Hancock - Chameleon

Album: Headhunters (Columbia,1973) Chart pos:N/A



Chameleon from Herbie Hancock's blockbuster album Headhunters was one of the first albums that showed me that Jazz wasn't (necessarily) a form of musical masturbation. Possibly the main reason I loved the album was the fact that it wasn't a million miles from the synthesized funk that Stevie Wonder was pedalling in the early seventies before he lost the plot and made concept albums about the lives plants and collaborated with Macca. Chameleon which its funky synthesized bass line is a joy to behold alongside a reworked version of Watermelon Man constituted one of the finest first sides on a jazz LP.

Minuitemen -This Aint no Picinic

Album: Double Nickels on the Dime (SST, 1984) Chart pos:N/A



Double Nickels on the Dime is a strange album, if the fact that the songs are only about 90 seconds on average would make you think this band sounds similar to Wire you'd be mistaken. The band sounds a bit like Credence Clearwater Revival with slap bass one minute, then veering between folk and free jazz the next. Although Mike Watts' slap-bass thing is a bit too RHCP alike for my linking (Flea is a big fan of this group btw) the album still has some great moments. This Ain't no Picnic which was written after D.Boon was told off for changing radio stations at work is defiantly one of the standout tracks. The video had the band performing being inter cut with archive footage of the much reviled then president (especially by the punk crowd) Ronald Regan. Its a shame that a year after making this record D.Boon was killed in a car crash.

Nina Simone - Mississippi Goddam

Album: Nina Simone in Concert (Phillips, 1964) Chart pos:N/A

A show tune without a show.


Nina Simone was inspired to write this song after the shooting of Medgar Evers in 1963. The songs jaunty opening leads to a darker commentary on civil rights era American. Lines like 'Oh but this whole country is full of lies/You're all gonna die and die like flies' bleakly convey Nina Simone's own anger at the state of America. Possibly one of the greatest songs about racial tension in the 60's.

Happy Mondays - Tart Tart

Album: Squirrel and G-Man Twenty Four Hour Party People Plastic Face Carnt Smile (White Out)(Factory,1988) Chart pos:N/A



Shaun Ryder's only claim to fame in the mid 1990's was being barred from being able to appear on live TV (although to be honest i think Chris Evans was more deserving of this fate). When you look past the the chavvy image Shaun Ryder is an underrated lyricist. Anyone who can string together offbeat lines such as 'A maggot sleeps on her desk he wears a sleeping bag as his vest/ And he's getting too too bothered about the spots on his chest, chest, chest' is a genius in my opinion. Mark E Smith may have all the critical kudos when it comes to gritty kitchen sink surrealism, but Shaun Ryder ain't far behind. Its just a shame that he took the party way to far and the band imploded way too soon.

Unfortunatly that TFI appearance is on youtube but the bastards at Channel 4 have disabled embedding.

Sousxie and the Banshee's - Peek a Boo

Album:Peepshow (Polydor,1988) Chart pos: UK#16 US#53



A couple of years ago i went through a bit of a Sousxie Sioux phase which didn't last long as I realised that i wasn't a massive fan. Despite this i did like some of her albums but I generally found them a bit patchy easier to admire than like. This admiration is probably down to the fact that they invented gloomy post-punk a while before Joy Division managed to get their nightmarish vision on to wax.

Like many bands that found themselves stuck in the eighties, the group went pop. Although Sousxie still managed to maintain some kind of dignity in the process. 1986's Peek-a-Boo is possibly one of the quirkiest pop singles from that era with its back masked instruments and its lyrical lifts from Jeepers Creepers.

Billie Holiday - I Get Along without You Very Well (Except Sometimes)

Album: Lady In Satin (Columbia,1958) Chart pos:N/A



While under the influence of alcohol I admitted to a female acquaintance that I'm a massive fan of Etta James. This led to her bringing up Billie Holiday, to be honest Ive never really tried to get into her music bar this song; (that was originally composed by Hoagy Carmichael). I was familiar through listening to Nina Simone's version but this particular reading of the song blew me away. As much as I'm a fan of Nina Simone , I think her version pales in comparison to Cher Bakers and Billie Holiday's. Billie Holiday sang it in the twilight of her career and it shows with the amount of substance abuse she endured had affected her voice. However this beautifully arranged song manges to eek out some beauty from her croaky, smack addled voice making it somewhat affecting.

The Crystals - And Then He Kissed Me

Album:N/A (Philes,1963) Chart pos: US#6 UK#2



I was in a video class a while back and when describing the Steadicam I instantly give the example of the scene where Ray Liotta leads Loraine Bracco kitchen of the Copacabana on a date. This little number from the Crystals sound tracked one of the finest scenes in a film which is possibly my favourite film of all time. This marks the fifth time I've mentioned a Phil Spector produced song in this blog, I must really like his production work (despite the fact he was a homicidal manic with a napoleon complex).

Buzzcocks - Why Can't i Touch It?

Album: Singles Going Steady (EMI, 1979) Chart Pos: UK#29 (B-Side to Everybodys Happy Nowadays)

Possibly the greatest B-side ever.



This is a band i keep on forgetting about until somebody looks through my MP3 collection and tells me how wonderful this band is. Singles Going Steady is possibly one of the greatest best-of's ever made in the fact that it flows as well as any of their albums. Which is pretty good for a compilation album that was tossed off for the US market. One of the lesser known songs on the album Why Cant I Touch It? was the B-side to the already brilliant Everybody Happy Nowadays, yet still manages to surpass the A-side. Even though the song deals with the same old themes that they dealt on every other song they did (e.g. teenage lust and sexual frustration) it manages to sound much different. This is down to the fact that the song has a relaxing, hypnotic and angular groove that's so damn good even if the song went on for another ten minutes, it'd still be difficult to press the skip button.

www.megaupload.com/?d=lpecfaf9

Johnny Ace - Pledging my Love

Album:N/A (Duke,1955) Chart pos:US#17



Watching allot of Martin Scorsese's films its easy to realise that he is the master of using popular music in films, even Tarantino pales in comparison. This song in particular was used within a fight scene in Mean Streets. Every time I listen to the song it seems to bring up images of Scorsese or Abel Ferrera's grittier films (the song was also used in Bad Lieutenant). Also what seems to strike me is how haunting this song sounds, much of this is possibly due to the fact that Johnny Ace like that guy from Chicago (the band not the city) blew his brains out playing Russian roulette* a year before the song's release. Either that or the fact it was also used in the film Christine.

*allegedly

Jimmy James & the Vagabonds - A Man Like Me

Album:N/A (Stateside/EMI, 1972) Chart pos:N/A



Since discovering Northern Soul music I have discovered that many British act liked to cover or steal from popular northern soul 45's. The Jam, The Dexys Midnight Runners and (ahem) Simply Red owed much to the rare soul music that was championed by the northern soul scene. This 45 in particular was the basis for the Dexy's mammoth hit Come on Eileen. Jimmy James originally was from Jamaica but ended up setting in the UK where he gained somthing of a following in the 60's and 70's. The Vagabonds also managed to have a professional rivalry with US ex-pat Soul singer Geno Washingington who in turn was the inspiration for the Dexy's other mammoth hit Geno.

Queen - Brighton Rock

Album: Sheer Heart Attack (EMI, 1974) Chart pos:N/A



A few years ago I was watching live at Wembley on DVD with my parents when midway though the show there was a yawn-a-thon solo by Brian May which lasted nearly ten minutes, the song was listed as Brighton Rock solo, which is odd because the song Brighton Rock from Queen's third album is one of their most underrated songs. While the song begins and ends with Freddie Mercury's castrato vocals singing a song about a courting couple on a seaside holiday. The middle section consists of a long guitar solo,which surprisingly works quite well in the confines of the five minute song.

Here's the shamefully masturbatory guitar solo from their Wembley 86 concert.



www.megaupload.com/?d=7V2QLGEB

Joan Jett - Bad Reputation

Album: Bad Reputation (Boardwalk,1981) Chart pos:N/A



Say what you want about the Shrek films the first two had quite an impressive soundtrack, the films led me to discover Nick Cave, John Cale and Leonard Cohen. One of the songs I loved on the soundtrack was Bad Reputation by Joan Jett. To be honest before listening to it i thought she was a throwaway one-hit wonder but when i heard this song I was blown away. The song sounds a lot like the Ramones in the way that its loud and fast no frills rock n roll which is possibly the reason why i like it. It made me realise her music was allot more edgier than I originally thought.

www.megaupload.com/?d=EC6U5NAL

Os Mutantes - A Minha Menina

Album: Os Mutentes (Polydor,1968) Chart pos:N/A

 Like Syd gone bossanova.



Os Mutentes (The Mutants) were Brazil's answer to the psychedelic bands that emerged both sides of the Atlantic. Their early music sounded something akin to Pink Floyd circa Piper at the Gates of Dawn goes Bossanova. A Minha Menina is one of the stand out tracks from the album but is at the same time the most conventional, as other songs have a more experimental edge was the band experimented with some rather offbeat sounds. The band recorded an English version titled She's My Shoo Shoo in 1970 that languished in the vaults for 30 years before being released in 2000.



www.megaupload.com/?d=ZQK4B3UL

Patti Smith - Everybody Wants to Rule the World

Album: Twelve (Columbia,2007) Chart Pos: N/A



Patti Smith reminds me a bit Iggy Pop in the fact that she one of those artists whose appearance seem to be frozen in time. I saw a recent interview where she appeared to be dressed in the same attire she wore on the cover of her debut album Horses. In 2007 Patti Smith released a covers album called Twelve, anyone who listened to her wonderfully reinterpret classics such as Gloria and Land of a 1000 Dances were faced with a rather dull lifeless album which sounded more conservative than idiosyncratic. But despite this i actually liked her version of Tears for Fears Everybody Wants to Rule the World even though as covers go its not whats she's truly capable of, its still a solid cover version.

Deep Purple - Child in Time

Album: In Rock (Harvest,1970) Chart pos:N/A

Thieving bastards of the world unite.



I was looking at this article on the top five thieving bastards on pop music and amongst dross like Black Eyed Peas and (obviously) Andrew Lloyd Webber there were seminal bands like Led Zepplin and Deep Purple. For one of Deep Purple's many live staples in the early 70's Child in Time they half- inched the main organ riff from psych-poppers It's a Beautiful Day's Bombay Calling even blatantly admitting it in later years. Still bearing in mind the stolen organ riff the song is still a classic.

www.megaupload.com/?d=KCRNKAOH

Oh and here's the song where they stole the riff.

George Harrison - Wah Wah

Album: All Things Must Pass (Apple,1970) Chart Pos: N/A



Despite never being a massive Beatles fan I still occasionally listed to the odd album and some of the John, Paul and Georges solo stuff. An album that i totally forgot about until just a minute was George Harrison's first post-Beatles album which is generally regarded as a classic. The phrase 'flawed classic' is far closer to the truth due to its third disc of George and a few famous friends fucking around in the studio. Apart from that the first two discs (in vinyl terms)  are pretty solid songwriting wise. My favourite song (and one of the most overlooked) is Wah Wah possibly because its the song which has the most amount of Phil Spector's production trademarks. 

Frank Zappa - Flakes

Album: Shiek Yerbouti (Zappa, 1979) Chart pos:N/A



Shiek Yerbouti is the better of his later rock albums. Flakes is a standout track on an album brimming with standout tracks. In this track Zappa mocks lazy manual workers while guitarist Adrian Belew does an impressive impersonation of Bob Dylan.





www.megaupload.com/?d=HJX2R7KW

King Crimson - 21st Century Schizoid Man

Album: In the Court of the Crimson King (EG,1969) Chart:N/A


Possibly the greatest song that Black Sabbath never wrote.



As much as I'm not a massive Prog Rock fan, King Crimsons music has dated reasonably well possibly because their best material was a pre-cursor allot of seventies hard rock. Even though ITCOTCK is a patchy album (anyone who can sit through 12 minute snooze-fest moonchild without dropping off the sleep deserves a medal) but theirs some real seminal moments on the album. 21st Century Schizoid Man the opening song is a mindblowing proto-metal jazz freakout that sounds ahead of its time.

Here's a documentary on their guitarist and sole founding member Robert Fripp, he's a tad creepy in serial killerish kind of way.

Love - Live and Let Live

Album: Forever Changes (Elektra,1967) Chart pos:N/A

Oh the snot hath caked against thy pants.



Forever Changes is in my opinion one of the greatest albums ever made, listening sounds like viewing the whole hippie movement die a slow death while getting front row seats. Beneath the occasional tweeness of the album, i came away with the impression that that all the late sixties managed to do was produce drug casualty after drug casualty. This can be seen on the track Live and Let Live where the lyrics seem to come out of some dark drug induced haze. Despite making a great album the band didn't have a happy ending with two members turning to crime by sticking up doughnut shops* and three members dying at a (relatively) young age.

*its a myth but it sounds good.


www.megaupload.com/?d=ZMHESVDF
Funnily enough one of my biggest regrets was never seeing Arthur Lee live before he passed on as he played in Somerset twice in 2005.

Cocteau Twins - Carolyns Fingers

Album: Blue Bell Knoll (4AD, 1988) Chart pos: N/A



Whenever this song appears on random on my mp3 player, I always listen to it all the way through. Ive always liked Liz Frazier's voice especially like on this song where she pulls her vocals up to the higher registers to the point where you think she could of made it as an opera singer. Some detractors have complained of the fact that her vocals are unintelligible (i think that's the point), but when their that good who gives a shit.

www.megaupload.com/?d=2gc3zbam

Radio 4 - Dance to the Underground

Album: Gotham (EMI,2002) Chart Pos:UK#94



Even though they weren't a particularly great band this song was possibly my introduction to post-punk music. I can remember hearing this song on XFM when i was eighteen and rushing out to buy the single. Even though they went on to do a few good songs like Absolute Affirmation and Eyes Wide Open, they faded from view in the mid-noughties. But by listening to this song i managed to discover great bands like Gang of Four and Public Image LTD (from which the band took the name from one of their songs).

www.megaupload.com/?d=G6LKO9AF 

Yellow Magic Orchestra - Rydeen

Album: Solid State Survivor (Alfa/A&M,1979) Chart pos:N/A



YMO are so revered in Japan that they were dubbed as their answer to Kraftwerk. Which isn't really fair as they sounded more like Giorgio Moroder if he discovered Japanese classical music. Even though they were poppier and less pared down than Kraftwerk they still weren't afraid of pushing boundaries (especially on their 1981 album Technodelic). The fact that their first two albums sound like video game music is that nearly every ten-a-penny video game composer in Japan has imitated their sound rather than the other way around.


www.megaupload.com/?d=9ogish0h

Funnily enough the tune was used in a coin op game in the early 80's.



..and used for a larger advert in Japan.

The Damned - In Dulce Decorum

Album: Anything (MCA,1986) Chart pos: UK#72




This little gem was featured in a Miami Vice episode (the one where Larry Fishbone is a bent prison guard) which is odd seeing a band such as The Damned was going through their goth phase which meant it contrasted heavily with the garish pastel suits and espadrilles.

In Dulce Decorum is a lost gem for their major-label era. Despite the overproduction which makes the band sound like some nondescript stadium rock band, it still holds up well.

Alice Cooper - Billion Dollar Babies

Album: Billion Dollar Babies (Warner,1973) Chart pos: US#57



I was thinking to myself if Bill Hicks would of lived who would be the targets for his vitriol. I must admit i found it hilarious when he viciously attacked rock stars hawking products.I think one of the rock stars he would have laid into is his childhood idol Alice Cooper.




This is because typing in the words Alice, Cooper and Commercial into You Tube and their is numerous commercials starring the Coop everything ranging from golf clubs (pretty fucking obvious), television Sets, hotel chains, car tyres and stationary. Personally I don't see what the fuss is about and I must admit I find the one with Ronnie Corbett quite amusing.

In all honesty until recently I didn't think Alice Cooper would be my cup of tea until I read that he was a big influence on The Ramones and John Lydon so i decided to get Billion Dollar Babies and thought it was quite a good album. One of my favourite songs is the title track from the album where twee folkie Donovan does a surprisingly good vocal guest spot. Its enough to make anyone thing that he should of ditched being a folkie and embarked on a career in heavy rock instead.

Here's some Alice Cooper commercials.














And there's more from where they came from...

Neu! - Hero

Album: Neu! 75 (Brain,1975) Chart pos:N/A



Neu's third and final (official) album Neu! 75 was light years ahead of it's time predating post-punk by three years and Bowie's Berlin phase by two. Hero is borderline punk with its minimalistic thrashing guitars and nonsensical screamed vocals mixed with atmospheric keyboards for good measure. It sounds like a more harsher left-field approximation of what Roxy Music did on their first two albums. The original vinyl was two sides the first one continued from the ambient direction of the first two albums, while the second side experimented with a harder (but no less hypnotic sound).

www.megaupload.com/?d=KART5F4W

I discovered 7 Digital are selling thier entire back catalogue (including early live tracks and the final unofficial album Neu! 86) for only £6.99 which is a bit of a bargain as Amazon has it for twice as much.

http://www.7digital.com/artists/neu/neu-4/

Devo - Mongoloid

Album: Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are  Devo! (Warner, 1978) Chart pos:N/A

No thier not the flower pot men in boiler suits.


For a band that pissed off metalheads with thier cover of Satisfaction its a wonder that Devo is loved by punks and metalheads alike. Henry Rollins is a massive Devo fan even releasing some of thier albums on his Infinite Zero label when thier record label couldn't give a shit about releasing them on CD. A look on Spotify for weird Devo covers led me to some cover of Girl U Want by some obsure hardcore band and a slower version by Soundgarden. Rage Against the Machine and Nirvana also covered some of thier songs. The funniest though is a thrash metal cover of Mongoloid by Sepultura which is fucking odd (but not as odd as thier U2 cover).



But listening to Mongoloid from thier debut its easier to understand why punks liked Devo as in thier early  Devo's sound was raw and minimalistc as punk rock. But after thier third album Freedom of Choice they seemed to lean towards being a synth pop band rather than a rock band who used synths which was a pity.


www.megaupload.com/?d=8TNBEV1D

MGMT - Song for Dan Trecey

Album: Congratulations (Columbia, 2010) Chart Pos: N/A


MGMT's second album Congratulations was an album i expected to dislike, this is down to the fact that Oracular Spectacular was one of the most disappointing albums i ever bought and lets say was soon sold on EBay. Outside Time to Pretend and Electric Feel the only other song i liked was Weekend Wars which with its stylistic shifts kind of showcased the direction the band headed for their second album. With 2010's Congratulations they moved away from obvious radio hits. Despite going to extremes with Siberian Breaks which felt like many different songs shoddily thrown together the rest of the album worked. Song for Dan Treacy is an uptempo psychedelic number that pays tribute to the troubled Television Personalities front man is possibly the main standout track from the album.

Eric B. & Rakim - Paid In Full

Album: Paid in Full (4th & Broadway/Island, 1987)



One listen to Paid In Full and it's easy to realise where a great deal of modern day rappers from 50 Cent to Eminem pilfered their ideas from. Even though Paid in Full didn't shift a great deal of units it managed to inspire many MC's. Although i think the average Eminem fan may find Paid in Full a little to spartan for their tastes and i think Rakim's status is more of a rapper's rapper than a mainstream star.

www.megaupload.com/?d=l9wdawo4

Slowdive - Alison

Album: Sovulaki (Creation, 1993) Chart pos:N/A



In 1994 Shoegazing was dismissed as music for bourgeoisie students, much of this was down to the fact that by this time working-class bands like Pulp and Oasis were the order of the day. Looking back years after Britpop it's easy to see that the scene became too bloody conservative for its own good and deserved to die a swift death. Nowadays it seems that time has been quite kind to bands like Slowdive as the whole Shoegaze scene seems to be going for a revival and at a time where we've been spoon fed second rate Strokes copyists this can't be a bad thing. Alison from the 1993 album Sovulaki is one of their finest finest moment even though it sounds like nearly every other Shoegaze band with its reverby guitars and ethereal vocals it manages to be the nearest the band ever did to a genuine pop song. Unfortunately the band did one more album (1995's sparse Pgymalion) before splitting and reforming as folk/alt-country band Mojave 3.

Unfortunately the album is OOP at the time of writing but there is the possibility of their albums being re-released soon.

www.megaupload.com/?d=UHT2QJND

The Contours - A Little Misunderstnading

Album: N/A (Gordy,1966) Chart Pos: #85 US/ #31 UK (1970 re-issue)



The Contours were one of the multitude of Motown acts that slipped through the net. Their sole hit was 'Do you Love Me' which reached #4 in the US and the only other time they troubled the charts was with the same song more than a quarter of a century later after it was used in Dirty Dancing.  The thing is if it wasn't for the Northern Soul scene much of their oeuvre would have been forgotten. This number which was co-written by a teenage Stevie Wonder became a hit in the UK four years after its initial release due the fact that this song was a staple of Northern Soul all-nighters. It's a song that should have been big but for reasons unknown it slipped into obscurity.

Cymande - Brothers on the Slide

Album:Promised Heights (Janus,1974) Chart Pos:N/A

Like Curtis Mayfield gone rasta.



Cymande(pronounced Sah-mahn-day)came from Brixton via West Indies, their musical output was mostly ignored until the rare groves scene of the late 70's/early 80's. The song Brothers on the Slide has one of the funkiest bass lines ever committed to tape. Its no wonder that hip-hop acts like De La Soul and The Fugees went on to sample their material.

Unfortunately much of their materiel is OOP but some compilations available second-hand for under a tenner.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=wylxif0i

Suicide - Frankie Teardrop

Album Suicide (Red Star,1977) Chart Pos: You must be joking!



This is an odd post seeing that I've never listened to this song the whole way though. I usually get to the four minute mark when Alan Vega begins let out a high pitched scream over the minimalist electro, 9 times out of ten this scares the bejesus out of me and i reach for the stop button. From what I've heard after this point the ten minute epic becomes more of a primal scream therapy session caught on tape rather than a fully fledged song. That said Suicide's debut album isn't a bad album in a Lou Reed goes electro way but bloody hell is it claustrophobic.

http://rapidshare.com/files/9523706/Suicide__First_Album_.zip

Nolan Porter - Keep On Keeping On

Album: Nolan (Probe/ABC,1972) Chart pos:N/A




A while back when I went to see the documentary on Joy Division at the cinema there was a moment where the band described their attempts to get signed to a major label. The daftest moment was when some A&R guy from RCA tries to mould them into a soul band by making them play Nolan Porter's song Keep On Keeping On, a song which around this time was a popular song in Northern Soul circles. Bernard Sumner said the results were ridiculous as they tried to make Ian Curtis sound like James Brown. But it seems they took quite allot from this experience and the basis of the song Interzone from Unknown Pleasures is essentially the main riff of Keep on Keeping on.



The album Nolan has never been released on CD (hell there is even no allmusic listing) and vinyl copies are usually sold for over a hundred dollars and is usually snapped up by Zappa completests as the LP has the original members of the Mothers of Invention Jimmy Carl Black and Roy Estrada played on it. Its annoying that even the two cuts that he released from the album are non-existent on any in print northern soul compilation.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=2AS0LHE1

Eddie Kendricks - People Hold On

Album: People Hold On.. (Motown, 1972) Chart pos:N/A



Ex-Temptation Eddie Kendricks recorded output has always been difficult to obtain until recently as about 90% or so was unavailable on CD until fans badgered the record company for a limited release (which is out of print now, but available to download). The album People Hold On.. has had something of a cult following and is regarded as a lost 70's soul classic. I first heard this song on a cheap funk compilation that I had bought in France about 4 years ago. The mix of tribal drumming and Eddie Kendricks plea for unity among fellow African-Americans is possibly the best track on the album. Unfortunately while the albums good nothing sounds as out there as the title track although proto-disco classic Girl You Need a Change of Mind nearly reaches the same heights.

RIP Eddie Kendricks (1939-1992)

http://rapidshare.com/files/105331962/Eddie_Kendricks__-_People_..._Hold_On.rar.html

Dion - Only You Know

Album Born to be With You (Warner, 1975) Chart Pos: N/A



As much as I don't like the Arctic Monkeys thier one saving grace is the fact that they have managed to turn on thier youthful audience on to this song from Dion's album Born to be With You. In some quaters the album is regarded as the Pet Sounds of the seventies. Unlike Pet Sound this album was buried in obscurity (as it was only released in the UK) for nearly thirty years. Much of its rediscovery was down to the fact that Pete Townsend has been raving about it for years. On Only you Know Know Dion sounds like someone whose lived though hard times and is trying to find light at the end of the tunnel. Reading about his road to recovery from drug addiction puts this song into some kind of context.

Heres the Artic Monkeys cover

The Pixies - I Can't Forget

Album: I'm Your Fan (Atlantic,1991) Chart Pos:N/A



The Leonard Cohen tribute album has two bona-fide classics which makes it better than 99% of tribute albums. The songs in question are John Cale's version of Halelujah (as featured on Shrek) which is probably the definitive version of the song, sorry Jeff Buckley fans. The other song being the Pixies version of I Can't Forget which transforms one of the weaker tracks from 1988's Im Your Man album into a wonderful uptempo rock song. as anyone whose heard thier wonderful version of Neil Young's Winterlong can attest The PIxies had a knack for making other peoples songs thier own.

http://rapidshare.com/files/376151975/Im_Your_Fan.part1.rar.html
http://rapidshare.com/files/376151595/Im_Your_Fan.part2.rar.html

Pete Laughner - Cinderella Backstreet

Album: Take the Guitar Player For a Ride (Tim/Kerr,1995) Chart pos:N/A



A few days back i did a piece on Pere Ubu so I thought i would be a good idea to do a short piece on their original guitarist Pete Laughner who died prematurely from alcohol and drug abuse at the age of 24. All though the only solo work he left behind was a few roughly recorded demo's. The material was far removed from the punk scene which he emerged from. The melancolie dylan-esque number Cinderella Backstreet is one of the standouts from the scratchy demo's he left behind. He remains one of the greatest what-ifs in music as much of his material has gain a cult following and later this year a box-set is rumored to be in the works.

RIP Pete Laughner (1952-1977)

Faith no More - Annie's Song

Album: Introduce Yourself (Slash, 1987) Chart Pos: N/A



Faith no More's original vocalist Chuck Mosley didnt lasted only two albums with the band. Granted the guy couldnt hold a candle (or a tune in a bucket) to Mike Patton's vocals. Yet Faith no More's first two albums ain't bad despite Chucks flat vocals. Annie's Song From thier second album is pretty much standard Funk Metal enlivened by Roddy Bottums atmospheric, airy keyboards. Its one of the better songs despite the fact that the flat, tuneless vocals take a little getting used to.

Black Sabbath - Symptom of the Universe

Album: Sabotage (Vertigo,1975) Chart Pos:N/A



The period around Sabbath Bloody Sabbath and Sabotage is what i call their prog era. Sabbath Bloody Sabbath had Rick Wakeman guesting on keyboards while 1975's Sabotage had multi-part song structures and songs clocking close to the ten minute mark. Symptom of the universe is split between a heavy first half and a acoustic second half. In the space of the songs six minutes they manage to help invent prog and thrash metal at the same time, talk about killing two birds with one stone.

Donna Summer - I Feel Love (Patrick Cowley mix)

Album: N/A (Casablanca,1982) Chart Pos: UK#21






Its well known that if you want to listen to a version of Donna Summers hypnotic proto dance number anything less than the 12" version is a no go area, not even the album version or the shitty radio edits that you find on ten a penny disco comps. The finest version to go for is Patrick Cowley's remix. In this remix the hypnotic proto-dance masterpiece is stretched out to an epic 15 minuites without feeling overdone. This is the definitative version of the song and has been a massive collectors item on vynal especially withdrawn DJ only editions. The Mix was originally rejected around the release of the orignal single but didnt get released until 1982.

If you can download it from 7 Digital here for 99p.

http://www.7digital.com/artists/various-artists/12-80s-digital-edition/

Big Black - Kerosene

Album: Atomizer (Blast First,1986) Chart pos:N/A

Blessed are the geeks who inherit the earth.



Another band that 90% of people haven't heard of, but at the same time you would of possibly heard some of the records that the lead singer produced (or recorded as he puts it). The man in question Steve Albini has had a fascinating career from punk rock obscurity to major producer working with the likes of Page & Plant, Nirvana, Bush and The Pixies despite being one of the most spartan and anti-corporate producers in the industry.

In his previous life as lead singer of Big Black, Albini perfected a kind a raw, noisy pseudo-industrial music with loud distorted guitars over a tinny drum machine. Lyrically Albini set its lyrics in some dark, violent small town milieu full of tales of incest, rape and spousal abuse. The song Kerosenes tale of small town angst is the main highlight off their debut album.

The cover of one of thier early Ep's Headache had pictures of shotgun victims after they'd blown thier head off on the cover. It was so so shocking record stores had to put plastic bags over the EP. I can remember buying the 'Rich Mans Six Track' as a teenager and opening it to find the words 'all you pussies can suck our cocks' and a pissed off rant about the CD format on the inlay cover. Thats pretty badass especially coming from a guy that looked like an accountant.

John Cale - Cleo

Album: Vintage Violence (Columbia,1970)



Recently I have been enjoying John Cale's solo meterial despite the fact that he can write some really terrible lyrics (but yet again Lou Reed wrote howlers). The song Cleo from his solo debut Vintage Violence sounds disarmingly innocent and cutesy especially seeing in the Velvets he played songs about smack, transexuals and other assorted freaks.


Here's some assorted John Cale video's

Minnie Riperton - Les Fluers

Album: Come Into my Garden (GRT,1970) Chart Pos:N/A

Offbeat psycadelic soul masterpiece.




As i have said before in a previous blog entry I hate Mariah Carey's music with a passion. One of her trademarks is to really hit the high notes for no other reason than to show off her five-octave vocal range, let's just say it doesn't impress me much. Until recently i would say the same about Minnie Ripperton who is possibly Mariah Carey's biggest influence by far. Here sole hit Lovin You is in my opinion possibly one of the most syrupy songs ever written epically when Minnie racked her voice up into the higher registers.


The turning point came when i was watching some clips from a documentary about her life they played the song Les Fluers in the background and quite liked it. Surprisingly enough I discovered before her success with Lovin You she made an album with psychedelic soul genius Charles Stepney. When I eventually got around to listening to it I discovered it want half bad. Les Fleurs is the opening cut is a lushly orchestrated number with Minnie singing from the perspective of a flower. Even though Minnies music has been sampled to death by hip hip artists its surprising that this is possibly the least sampled song in her oeuvre.

R.I.P Minnie Ripperton (1947-1979) Charles Stepney (1931-1976)

The Vines - Highly Evolved

Album: Highly Evolved (Heavenly, 2002) Chark pos: UK#32

Inpiring momont by an uninspiring band.



When the album came out in 2002 it didnt last long in my collection. It was an album made by people who thought the Beatles and Nirvana were the be all and end all of music. In fact it was possibly one of the worst albums I ever decided to buy and the last time I ever listened to the sycophantic British music press.

Recently I heard the song that was the sole reason for buying the album and its still a pretty good tune. At 90 seconds long it's the pinnacle of economic songwriting allongside Wire's early output. Even though craig Nicholls is a tuneless, burgerjavascript:void(0) munching stoner he sound on surprisingly good form.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=I1VI7SDF

The Jam - Ghosts

Album: The Gift (Polydor,1982) Chart Pos: N/A



This song is a favourite of mine, when I first heard I was in a dead-end job bored, overqualified and yearning for somthing more from life. I really felt the message of the song and I think there comes a point many peoples lives where we need to save ourselves from being lonley and bitter.

Pere Ubu - Non-Alignment pact

Album: The Modern Dance (Blank/Mercury, 1978) Chart pos:N/A


If it quacks likes a duck - Its a duck
It it walks like a duck - Its a duck
If it sings like a duck - Its probably Dave Thomas




Out of all the music i own (other than White Light/White Heat) this song pisses people off the most. This is because the first thirty seconds is a loud piercing din that one person compared to a fire alarm going off. After the thirty seconds up were presented with some aggressive Chuck Berry riffs and and some demented warbling courtesy of front man Dave Thomas. The rest of their debut sounded like Roxy Music being hijacked by an obese mental patient from Cleveland. But unlike the nihilism of other post punk bands Pere Ubu's music was a helluvah lot more quirky and offbeat than angst ridden.

As Pere Ubu's promo vids are (occasionally) hard to find I decided to post as many as possible