HALF-TERM REPORT!!! The 25 Best Albums Of The Year...So Far.
Here we are again then - halfway through the year already and time once more to have a little look at the movers and shakers, album-wise, that are filling my ears with joy and raising the roof down here at No Static Towers. Once again it's been an incredibly healthy start to 2018 - in fact, if I was to put forth a Top 50 now I would be more than happy with the final list and we haven't even bid June a friendly farewell. I'm fairly certain that a hefty swathe of the following 25 records will most likely miss the cut come year's end - especially as there will be big releases from personal faves like Pearl Jam, Alice In Chains and The Jayhawks released in the forthcoming months - but for now, this is my rundown of the best albums of the year. And I make no apologies for the record that's bagged top spot. Regular readers of this here blog will no doubt have guessed what it is already.... 25: A Perfect Circle: 'Eat The Elephant' 24: Eels: 'The Deconstruction' 23: Moby: 'Everything Was Beautiful, And Nothing Hurt' 22: Unknown Mortal Orchestra: 'Sex & Food' 21: Tracy Thorn: 'Record' 20: The Breeders: 'All Nerve' 19: Shame: 'Songs Of Praise' 18: Courtney Barnett: 'Tell Me How You Really Feel' 17: Black Rebel Motorcycle Club: 'Wrong Creatures' 16: Ty Segall: 'Freedom's Goblin' 15: Jon Hopkins: 'Singularity' 14: Belly: 'Dove' 13: Khruangbin: 'Con Todo El Mundo' 12: David Kitt: 'Yous' 11: Jack White: 'Boarding House Reach' 10: Howlin Rain: 'The Alligator Bride' 9: Johnny Marr: 'Call The Comet' 8: Beach House: '7' 7: Wooden Shjips: 'V' 6: The Liminanas: 'Shadow People' 5: Hookworms: 'Microshift' 4: Mark Kozelek: 'Mark Kozelek' 3: Buffalo Tom: 'Quiet And Peace' 2: Stephen Malkmus And The Jicks: 'Sparkle Hard' 1: Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever: 'Hope Downs'
Thursday, 21 June 2018
Matt 'Guitar' Murphy R.I.P. 1929-2018
Sad news from the rock and roll coalface this week as I learnt of the death of the legendary blues guitarist Matt 'Guitar' Murphy, who was most known for his lovely performance playing himself in the 1980 musical action comedy 'The Blues Brothers'. I spent many a chilled evening in the early 80's watching that aforementioned movie with my brother and marvelling, not only at the crazy stunts, but also at the glorious music contained within. It was my entry level into the wonderful world of the original rhythm and blues scene and Murphy's playing, as part of the Blues Brothers Band, was a real highlight. And his scenes with Aretha Franklin, who played his long-suffering wife, were an absolute joy. Matt: "Don't get riled sugar." Mrs. Murphy: "Don't you 'Don't get riled, sugar' me! You ain't going back on the road no more, and you ain't playing them ol' two-bit sleazy dives. You're livin' with me now, and you ain't gonna go slidin' around witcho ol' white hoodlum friends." Matt: "But babes, this is Jake and Elwood - The Blues Brothers!" Mrs. Murphy: "The Blues Brothers? Sheeet, they still owe you money, fool." Born in Mississippi, Murphy learnt to play the guitar as a child before moving to Chicago in his late teens. There, he hooked up with Howlin' Wolf and Little Junior Parker and recorded a number of tracks with both. Although his guitar playing was exemplary, good enough even for the legendary Freddie King to copy Murphy's style on the classic 'Hideaway', his lack of vocal ability meant that he increasingly found himself filling his days as a glorified session guitarist. However, it was whilst playing with harmonica virtuoso James Cotton in the 70's that fortune smiled on Murphy. Saturday Night Live comedic superstars John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd were in the audience one night and chose Murphy to be their guitarist in their new project - a touring RnB revue, featuring stellar talents like Steve Cropper, Donald 'Duck' Dunn and Alan Rubin, that eventually snowballed into a movie and countless albums. After Belushi's death in 1982, The Blues Brothers Band decided to continue on as a going concern, employing a revolving door of vocalists including Eddie Floyd, Sam Moore and even the Italian singer Zucchero. In 1988 the band toured the UK and it was here in London - at The Town & Country Club in Kentish Town (now known as The Forum) - that I was lucky enough to meet the man in question. As part of that year's London Blues Festival, the BB Band put on a fantastic show that I attended with my stepdad. Due to a long-standing connection with one of the road crew, my stepdad was able to get us backstage before the gig where beers were consumed, photos were taken and nervy exclamations along the lines of "You were great in the film" and "What was Belushi like to work with?" were thrown at various members of the group by my callow 18 year old self. Steve Cropper was generous enough to give me one of his guitar picks - emblazoned, but of course, with the legend 'Pick Of The Crop' - and all the way through this pre-gig meet and greet, Matt Murphy was an absolute gent. Sweet, self-effacing and more than happy to answer any questions that came his way. I even got a photo of the great man stringing his guitar in preparation for the show. The gig itself was superb and Murphy was on tremendous form, sharing lead guitar duties with Cropper and raising the roof with his signature solo on the evergreen 'Sweet Home Chicago'. The whole experience is well up there in my list of 'Best Ever Gig Moments' and, along with the fact that I'm still watching The Blues Brothers movie well into my fifth decade, means that Matt Murphy will always be one of my personal heroes. Rest in peace dude.
Tuesday, 15 May 2018
HIDDEN GEMS!!! The 20 Greatest Lost Singles Of My Record Buying Life
Last year, on this here blog of mine, I waxed lyrical about my favourite underrated albums that I just can't live without. The albums that, over the years, have burrowed deep within my ear canals and wrapped themselves around my inner speakers - never to let go. Now, as a companion piece of sorts, it's time for the lairy little brother to take centre stage. Ladies and germs, I give you The Greatest Lost Singles Of My Record Buying Life! (Cue fanfare...)
For this list, I've tried to avoid well-known one-hit wonders - songs like 'Mmmm Mmmm Mmmm Mmmm' by The Crash Test Dummies and the gorgeous '74-75' by The Connells - as well as steering clear of singles by established acts that for whatever reason, didn't connect with the public. I'm thinking of 'Popscene' by Blur; 'Did It Again' by Kylie; 'I Pronounce You' by Madness and the frankly astonishing 'Mountains' by Prince - which somehow didn't even crack the Top 40 in this country. Instead, I've chosen 20 utterly fantastic singles that, upon first hearing, I genuinely thought would be massive. A few of these tracks did make the chart over here but, in the main, these 45's slipped through the net and passed most people by. The oldest songs here date from the mid-80's and the most recent is from 2006. That nigh-on two decade time-frame basically encapsulates the bulk of my singles buying life. In recent years of course, downloading and streaming has taken the place of physical single releases. Indeed, most acts these days will only drop a 'lead track' online to promote a forthcoming album. At the risk of sounding like a grumpy old fart, I fear something has been lost along the way....
Anyhoo, that's enough of my yakkin'. And so, without further ado, eyes down for my latest list...
20: THE ROCKINGBIRDS: 'GRADUALLY LEARNING'
The Rockingbirds were a London-based band that, early on in their career, embraced the classic country-rock sound of The Flying Burrito Brothers and fused it to their janglesome, indie-rock aesthetic with great aplomb.Their self-titled debut album, released on Heavenly Records in 1992, was a delight from first to last and although this glorious lead single garnered rave reviews and a fair amount of radio play, it failed to chart and the band never really recovered. They split in 95, and although there has been sporadic reactivations since then, they remain a tiny footnote in British indie history. A real shame, as this song is divine. Opening with a chiming piano riff, and embracing banjos, pedal steel guitars, horns and strings, the track features head 'Bird Alan Tyler singing his heart out to a new-found love as the tune swells to a wondrous singalong climax that should have even the shyest of souls joining in lustily whilst cutting a rug.
19: THE NYMPHS: 'IMITATING ANGELS'
In 1992, not long after the massive worldwide success of Nirvana, Pearl Jam and the rest of the grunge bands, record companies far and wide did their usual thing of signing any combo that looked the part and who might make a quick buck. Nirvana's label - Geffen Records - thought they'd struck lucky once again after fast-tracking the signing of LA-based goth-rockers The Nymphs. Led by lead singer Inger Lorre, the band's debut album sat on the shelf for 18 months - during which time the band all but imploded. Indeed, by the time of it's release in the UK, the group were no more. Lorre's outrageous behaviour - mostly heroin-induced - no doubt didn't help either. On-stage bust-ups were frequent and Lorre also sped up the band's demise by urinating on the desk of their A&R man. All of this sadly overshadowed the music, which was a sparky and vibrant mesh of grunge, glam and punk. The album was great but this lead single - which incredibly didn't even chart here - was the cherry on top. Featuring a tremendously catchy guitar riff, the song is a tribute to a close friend of Lorre's who had recently died. Like most songs from that alt-rock era though, the dark lyrical content is swathed in gloriously uplifting music and a chorus for the ages.
18: GIGOLO AUNTS: 'WHERE I FIND MY HEAVEN' American power-pop combo Gigolo Aunts - named after a Syd Barrett song - were formed in New York in the early 80s and gained very little traction outside their home state for nigh on a decade until this breezy 3 minutes of jangly indie was used in the movie Dumb And Dumber.
Written by lead vocalist Dave Gibbs, the track features a recurring guitar riff and a simple chorus that repeats the title twelve times. Sometimes though, that's all you need. Celebrating the little things in life that bring you joy, this ridiculously catchy track was a big hit in the US before just breaking the Top 30 over here when it was subsequently used as the opening music for long-forgotten sitcom, Game On. The band never repeated the success of this track and have disappeared back to the margins with occasional releases and gigs since. This tune though, is an absolute joy.
17: THRUM: 'SO GLAD' Scottish quartet Thrum formed in 1992 and split less than three years later after releasing just one album - the excellent 'Rifferama' - and a brace of singles. The first of these, the truly stupendous So Glad, somehow failed to find an audience upon it's release in early 93, even though it married the crunchy riffs of the prevailing grunge scene with the melodic indie nous of fellow countrymen Teenage Fanclub. The band's secret weapon was vocalist Monica Queen who sang like an astounding meld of Tammy Wynnette, Janis Joplin and Maria McKee. The band had a brief taste of fame when they performed this track on the infamous early-90's post-pub Friday night controversy magnet The Word. After they split, Queen went on to perform with Belle & Sebastian, Snow Patrol and The Jayhawks. There was a reformation and a second album a few years ago but So Glad will always be their calling card.
16: SLOAN: 'UNDERWHELMED'
Historically, Canada's music scene has always been healthy, hale and hearty. The names just trip off the tongue: Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, K D Lang, Alanis Morrisette, The Band, Rush, Cowboy Junkies, Arcade Fire. And many, many more. It was no exception in the 90's when the whole alt-rock explosion took over the western world leading to hitherto unknown Canuck combos like The Tragically Hip, Barenaked Ladies, Moist and Sum 41 all getting their moment in the sun. One of the best bands from this period were Sloan. Hailing from Nova Scotia, this four piece - who are still all together today - have been peddling a hugely Beatles-influenced power-pop sound for over twenty-five years. This track, from their debut album, is the closest they've ever come to perfection - 5 minutes of driving, fuzzy rhythms and chiming melodic riffs that just cry out "Indie disco!" Written by all four members of the band, who throughout the duration share some splendid harmony vocals, the song tells the well-worn tale of an insecure, nerdy guy's unrequited love for an aloof, too cool for school girl who is way out of his league. The perfect 90's indie anthem then. It also features one of my all-time favourite lines:
"She wrote out a story about her life, I think it included something about me, I'm not sure of that but I'm sure of one thing - her spelling's atrocious."
Magnificent.
15: PHANTOM, ROCKER & SLICK: 'MEN WITHOUT SHAME' Some of my older readers may remember that in the early 80's there was a short-lived, but massively successful, craze for all things rockabilly. The movie Grease may have started the 1950's fixation in the late 70's but a few years later the charts over here were filled with bands dressed in colourful suits and brogues and sporting huge quiffs atop their bonces. One of the most popular of these bands were New York's The Stray Cats, who had a number of big hits during this period.
Quite soon afterward though, lead singer Brian Setzer left the group to go solo, and the remaining members - double bass maestro Lee Rocker and drummer Slim Jim Phantom - were suddenly left in the lurch and looking for a new singer. They settled on guitarist Earl Slick - who'd served his apprenticeship in David Bowie's band - and quickly released a self-titled album. The long-player itself was hit and miss but this single was just huge. Fusing a massive sounding rock and roll drum beat with searing, hard rock inspired guitar riffs and thundering along tremendously for a mighty 6 minutes, this should have been a worldwide smash. As is the way though, it fizzled away without trace and the trio broke up soon after.
14: THE BENS: 'JUST PRETEND'
The Bens were a short-lived supergroup of sorts made up of American singers Ben Folds and Ben Kweller and Australian songsmith Ben Lee. Getting together in 2003 and touring across Australia for a few months, the trio used the experience as a period of winding-down after their solo endeavours. Folds had had a good few years of continued success with his Ben Folds Five combo, Kweller had hit big with his post-grunge band Radish before flying solo and Lee had enjoyed huge acclaim in his homeland as well as writing songs for Evan Dando. Originally conceived as a bit of a laugh, the response from fans was so positive that a four track EP was released. Featuring one track written and performed by each Ben, the other track was this delightful harmony-laden slice of Americana that in an ideal world would have ruled the roost. After this little sojourn into modern-day Crosby, Stills & Nash territory, the troika of Bens drifted back to their day jobs, with differing levels of success.
13: CRACKER: 'LOW' Cracker were - and still are - a Californian alt-rock combo formed by David Lowery ( who was once the singer in criminally underrated post-punkers Camper Van Beethoven), and who have been releasing solid albums for almost 20 years now and touring consistently without ever really breaking into the mainstream. The closest they came was in 1993 when the excellent 'Kerosene Hat' album hit big in the US charts.
This first single from it, a gnarly slab of post-grunge rock and roll, just missed out on the charts in this country and it's still a mystery to me as to why. Considering how many lesser bands of a similar ilk were succeeding around the same time - I'm looking at you, Bush - Cracker's lack of success makes me shake my head in despair. I can only imagine that Lowery's lyrics in the song - pretty blatantly about heroin addiction - may have caused the band's record label to ease up on promoting it. However, the song has had a decent second life, turning up in movies as disparate as The Perks Of Being A Wallflower and The Wolverine, as well as appearing on a fair few compilations. Cracker still perform regularly in the States and this song is still the main encore.
12: WHIPPING BOY: 'WE DON'T NEED NOBODY ELSE' Whipping Boy were a four piece indie band from Dublin who, heavily influenced by The Velvet Underground and The Fall, scrabbled around their local music scene for a few years before finding their own sound and releasing a low-key debut album in 1992. This led to a major deal with Columbia Records who, in 1995, released the band's astonishing sophomore effort, 'Heartworm'. Huge critical acclaim followed - one Irish publication called it "an earth-shatteringly powerful experience" - although commercial success passed the band by. My theory on this incredible album's lack of popularity is based on it's appearance smack-bang in the middle of the uptempo Britpop party summer of 95. Due to the record's dark and downbeat tone, it would have stood a better chance a couple of years later when The Verve's 'Urban Hymns' and 'OK Computer' by Radiohead were ruling the roost.
Indeed, you could quite easily draw a line between that latter album and 'Heartworm' itself. The lyrics and subject matter of this mind-blowing single are a case in point. A painfully raw and emotional account of a love affair gone sour and the brutal descent into domestic violence that followed it, lead singer Fearghal McKee's spoken word verses are impossible to ignore, before the chorus kicks in with a wall-to-wall blast of frenzied guitars. The pivotal moment in the song is when McKee speaks the following lines: "I hit you for the first time today, I didn't mean it - it just happened. You wouldn't let me go to the phone, you wanted to make love and I...did not. Now I know the distance between us. Christ, we weren't even fighting - I was just annoyed. Silence, and you started to cry. That really hurt you said. Yeah? And you thought you knew me". To this day, 23 years later, it's still as shocking a verse as you're ever likely to hear. But it's also heartbreakingly honest and truthful, which in turn gives it - and by extension the whole song - a rare kind of emotional heft. It proves McKee's credentials as a phenomenal songwriter, but - like every other song on this list - it just didn't happen for him and his band. Columbia dropped them not long afterwards and they eventually split. A true cult classic.
11: FLOWERED UP: 'WEEKENDER' In the late 80's - after the euphoria of the acid house drenched summer of 88 had died down - I, like many like-minded souls around me, fell in love with the whole indie-dance/baggy movement that had emerged from Manchester. The Stone Roses and The Happy Mondays were the obvious progenitors of the scene, and other bands such as The Charlatans, Inspiral Carpets and New Fast Automatic Daffodils also hit big around that time. As always though, there were stragglers and hangers-on aplenty. Candy Flip, The High and Northside are remembered with scorn these days - if they're remembered at all that is. One of the bands who at first fell into this latter category of bandwagon jumpers were Flowered Up. Formed in Camden in 1990 by brothers Liam and Joe Maher, the group eventually settled on a 5-piece lineup and started touring. Joined on stage by dancer Barry Mooncult (who wore a big foam flower on his head - hey, it was the 90's), the band soon gained a big enough following to hook themselves a record deal and release a debut album and a couple of singles that scraped the Top 40.
However, it was a disagreement with their label over the choice of their next single - the staggering Weekender - that put paid to their career. A mindbending 13 minute long epic extolling the virtues of 24/7 hedonism and at the same time vitriolically denouncing those who just save their good times for Saturday night, this massive tune embraced the baggy sound of the time and melded it with 60's inspired psychedelia, late 80's acid beats and samples from the movie 'Quadrophenia'. It was a huge quantum leap from the group's earlier material and quite frankly is the one and only reason to remember Flowered Up in the first place. The single was eventually released in the summer of 1992 and reached number 20 in the charts, and was accompanied by a short-form video which celebrated the alcohol and drug fuelled activities of the lyrics. Weekender's success - it earned almost universal acclaim from the music press who variously described it as aggressive, unique and breathtaking - looked to lay the groundwork for the next stage of Flowered Up's career but unfortunately, internal squabbles and disagreements got in the way. As did drugs. Lots and lots of drugs. There was an attempt at a reunion in 2007 but nothing came of it. Liam Maher sadly died of a heroin overdose in 2009, tragically followed by his brother Joe in 2012. Their legacy is this extraordinary time capsule of an era when anything seemed possible and the nights were long, expansive adventures involving tremendous music, questionable fashion choices and responsibilities that stretched no further than making sure you had enough cash in your pocket for the evening's festivities. To quote the sample used at the end of the song, as spoken by Phil Daniels' character Jimmy in 'Quadrophenia': "You can take that that mail and that franking machine, and all that other rubbish that I have to go about with, and shove it right up your arse!"
10: DROP NINETEENS 'WINONA' Back in the late 80's, the US state of Massachusetts was renowned for it's incredibly healthy and vibrant music scene. Bands such as the Pixies, Throwing Muses and Dinosaur Jr broke out from playing local gigs and started to gain major traction internationally - especially in the UK where the more discerning listener fell hard for this new breed of alt-indie heroes. The next wave of Boston bands included The Lemonheads, Buffalo Tom and Belly and all of a sudden New England's Puritan State was neck and neck with Seattle for the title of Best Place In America For Fantastic Music. Swimming along in the slipstream of all this glorious music were a little band called Drop Nineteens. Led by singer and guitarist Greg Ackell, the quintet were obviously influenced by their local peers, but also were very much in thrall to recently prevalent British shoegaze acts like My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive and Ride.
Their debut album, the really rather lovely 'Delaware', was released to some acclaim in the spring of 1992 and decent word of mouth allowed the band to travel over to Europe for a run of dates that summer. Indeed, I saw them perform a sterling set at 92's Reading Festival and can definitely remember thinking that they'd go far. Another prediction that went south! After some personnel changes and a middling second album a couple of years later, they split and moved on to other lives. That first album still shines though and this single from it - which was originally promoted as a tribute to Winona Ryder but is really about the desire for fleeting fame that some acts at the time were actively seeking - is a wondrous rush of distorted guitars, crashing drums and swooning vocals that comes very close indeed to matching the efforts of the aforementioned UK bands that Drop Nineteens so admired.
9: DARYLL-ANN: 'I COULD NEVER LOVE YOU' Daryll-Ann were a Dutch indie band who during the 90's released a batch of albums that, although successful in their homeland, never really broke big anywhere else.
The four-piece - led by singer and principal songwriter Jelle Paulusma - peddled a fuzzy and vibrant blend of janglesome grunge that brought to mind 'Thirteen' era Teenage Fanclub as well as Pavement and Dinosaur Jr. Their debut album, 'Seaborne West', is a delightful collection of chugging indie-rock but, before then, the band released the wonderful 'I Could Never Love You' EP - the title track of which still rattles along quite gloriously when it pops up on shuffle mode on my phone. Yet another plaintive paean to unrequited love - these fey indie chaps didn't have much luck in the romance department - Paulusma's lyrics describe his dismay at the realisation that the subject of his desire is out of reach: "I could never love you, there's someone who will. I could never love you, I'm alright but, still..." Ouch. The track ends with a tremendous instrumental coda, all driving guitars and harmony-laden "Whoo whoo's" from the band that can't fail to raise a smile. Yet again, this should have been gigantic but record company wrangles and inter-band acrimony led to a disparate and chequered history for the group that eventually led to their dissolution in 2004.
8: WENDY & LISA: 'WATERFALL' During the 80's the Big 3 American popstars of the age were Michael Jackson, Madonna and Prince. Although Jacko and Madge touched upon greatness on occasion, the real genius of this trio was the mighty Mr. Rogers Nelson of Minneapolis. His run of albums from 1983 to 1988 - 1999, Purple Rain, Around The World In A Day, Parade, Sign O' The Times and Lovesexy - are as groundbreakingly brilliant as anyone has ever produced. A monumentally important part of the first four of those records was Prince's band The Revolution. Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman were, respectively, the guitarist and keyboard player of that group, as well as contributing to the songwriting process and adding backing vocals to various tracks. After the Parade album was released, Prince shocked fans the world over by sacking The Revolution and moving forward with a new cohort of musicians. Stung by this betrayal from their friend, Wendy & Lisa channeled their frustration and anger into a suite of songs that they had been stockpiling during their tenure with Prince. Released in 1987, their eponymous debut album was - and still is - an absolute triumph. Oozing slinky funk and swathed in divine pop hooks, the album is as good as anything Prince subsequently released with his new band. High praise I know, but completely warranted.
Waterfall is a case in point. A five minute rush of swooning psychedelic funk-pop, with a chorus to die for, how it only reached number 84 over here is an absolute mystery - as well as a total travesty. Lyrically, the song could well be about Prince - the oft-repeated refrain of "people may come, people may go" in particular - but, due to the intelligence of the duo's songwriting chops, it could be about a number of things - lost love, most likely. Sadly, further singles from the album fared even less well, and even though the duo had a little bit of success with their second album - the single Are You My Baby was a minor hit over here - they eventually moved into composing and have been extremely prolific writing TV scores for shows like Heroes, Nurse Jackie, Carnivale and Touch. They have also done session work for, among others, Seal, KD Lang, Pearl Jam, Joni Mitchell, Grace Jones, Tricky, Sheryl Crow, Eric Clapton and Madonna herself. Happily, there was a reconciliation with Prince in 2004 and they contributed to his 'Planet Earth' album. They are currently touring with other musicians who worked with Prince as a tribute act of sorts. Waterfall though, will always be their finest achievement as solo artists. WHAT a song.
7: WILLIAM PITT: 'CITY LIGHTS' One late Sunday night in the mid-80's, whilst furiously trying to cram in homework I'd ignored all weekend, a long-forgotten DJ on whatever radio station I had on in the background played a song that caused me to completely forget what I was doing and just stare at the radio, slack-jawed in amazement. The song was City Lights by a chap named William Pitt. I hadn't heard from him before, and I haven't heard from him since. The archetypal one-hit-wonder, then. Although, as you can no doubt imagine, this wasn't a hit. In fact, it barely scraped into the Top 100 - reaching the dizzy heights of number 94 for one week only in 1987. I remember scribbling the name of the single into one of my school books and spending my next free Saturday trying to purchase it.
This was pre-internet of course kids, so I ended up visiting a fair few record shops that day - eventually getting hold of it in a branch of HMV in Guildford. Thank you His Master's Voice! A few years later I managed to find a CD single of it online which still nestles snugly in my collection. Thank you Amazon! The song itself is a delightful meld of Europop style Balearic dance beats and swanky British synth-pop - I've always felt that Neil Tennant had heard this track before writing Domino Dancing for the Pet Shop Boys a year or so later. Swimming in acoustic guitars and a quite wondrous Italian House style piano riff, the track builds to a magnificent guitar solo that is impossible not to get up and throw some shapes to. All the while Pitt, who was an American singer living in Paris and embracing the uptempo pop sounds of his adopted continent, sings along in a dark and doomy voice that shouldn't fit with the music swelling around him but somehow does. Imploring his new flame to give up their old life and embrace the sparkling new horizons ahead, Pitt's plaintive howl of "you gotta try to get out and see some city lights!" is just glorious. The song was unsurprisingly big in the sun-kissed climes of Southern Europe - it was number one in Spain for a bit - but Pitt never troubled the charts anywhere else ever again. Where he ended up remains a mystery, but hats off to him for leaving us with this utterly joyful three and a half minutes. Thank you William!
6: THIEVES: 'UNWORTHY' In 1994, after his sudden and acrimonious departure from Britpop heroes Suede, guitarist Bernard Butler hooked up with London-born soul singer David McAlmont and released the Sound Of McAlmont And Butler album. A quite lovely collection of Bacharach & David style orchestral pop, it spawned the huge hit single Yes. The combination of Butler's indie smarts and swooning guitar fills and McAlmont's flamboyant appearance and skyscraping three-octave vocal range was a match made in heaven and their success together was deserved as it was welcome. Everyone knew who Butler was of course, but who was David McAlmont?
I had already discovered this marvellous talent a year or so previously when I picked up an single by a band called Thieves, who were made up of McAlmont and multi-instrumentalist Saul Freeman. Unworthy was a sumptuous Cocteau Twins inspired track, full of luxuriant strings and lavish chord changes. Once again depicting a tale of unrequited love, McAlmont's lyrics were even more intense, due to his struggle over embracing his homosexuality, and the song was obviously a far more autobiographical affair than most. The pivotal line - "It's no good, I want you in my room, my bed instead of my mind" - is as succinct a description of the lovelorn as there has ever been. As McAlmont opens his heart, all around him Freeman's music builds and swells, incorporating pop smarts reminiscent of The Associates as well as mid-80's era Scritti Politti style soul, and luscious Johnny Marr-esque guitar licks. It is just a stunning song that should have opened the door for the duo. However, whilst recording their debut album, McAlmont and Freeman fell out spectacularly and Thieves were no more. McAlmont went on to release the bulk of the sessions as a self-titled debut album, before hooking up with Butler. He has since skirted around the margins of the music scene without ever really breaking through. He and Freeman did reconcile a few years ago but no new music came of it.
5: LORRAINE: 'I FEEL IT' Lorraine were a quite horrifically named band from Norway who, in 2006, released this truly superb synth-pop masterpiece and just cracked the Top 30 in this country. Heavily influenced by New Order, Depeche Mode, Pet Shop Boys and their fellow countrymen A-Ha, the trio from Bergen had been playing together since their school days and gained enough traction to release their debut album in 2003. I Feel It was the first taster from their second album, and if you have any affinity at all for the bands mentioned above, then you'll love this.
A shiny, sparkling gem of a track, I Feel It features vocalist Ole Gundersen pleading with the object of his affection to throw caution to the wind and join him on the next stage of their adventure together. It comes across like an updated version of William Pitt's City Lights - which is no doubt why I love it so much. Fellow band members Anders Winsents on guitar, and keyboard whizz Paal Haaland surround Gundersen with all the delectable musical food groups that the very best synth-pop has to offer: shimmering keyboards, swishing percussion and a melody that grabs hold and doesn't let go. It really should have been the start of something big but, although the song was a minor hit throughout Europe, the band's terrible name went against them. Future releases were held back and eventually the trio renamed themselves Blackroom - which, to be fair, isn't much better. Momentum had been completely lost and after the release of the album 'PopNoir' - featuring a re-recorded version of I Feel It - they drifted away. Shame. All we really have left is this golden nugget of pop glory.
4: WHALE: 'HOBO HUMPING SLOBO BABE' More fantastic music from Scandinavia here - this time from Sweden, which in the mid-90's was the place to be for sophisticated indie, driving garage-rock and chunky rock n roll. The Cardigans, The Wannadies, The Hives, The Concretes, The Soundtrack Of Our Lives. There was tons of great stuff coming out of the land of the midnight sun. One of these cracking combos were Whale, who were ostensibly a duo - musicians Henrik Schyffert and Gordon Cyrus - and who had been collaborating on instrumental tracks for Swedish television. Upon deciding to make a proper record, Schyfffert recruited his then girlfriend, Cia Berg, to perform vocals.
The first fruits of their labours - released in 1994 - was this still utterly thrilling punky, funky, grungey ode to female sugar daddies - sugar mommies? - that used to bring the house down at rock clubs. Fusing hard rock guitar riffs, shouty vocals, dubby beats and lyrics that didn't really make a lick of sense - "Seeking candy, out of line, broken kneecap, fail with spine" - the track still to this day never fails to excite. The chorus alone is enough to make you grin from ear to ear, never mind the thunderous rhythm that bulldozers you from the first second to the last. It's all quite wonderful. It did nothing on it's original release but eventually climbed to number 15 some months later. Quite honestly though, they really should have given up after this but a middling debut album was released the following year, which although featuring that year's critical darling Tricky on a number of tracks, never caught on the way this single did. A second album slipped out a few years later by which time the band were going their separate ways. Cyrus went back to advertising, Schyffert became a TV comedian and Berg moved into presenting. All together now: "You hobo humping slobo babe, get it off, get off, get off of me!!!"
3: ADORABLE: 'SUNSHINE SMILE' Adorable were a whey-faced, black-clad indie quartet from Coventry who by early 1992 had moved away from their provincial roots and signed a record deal with the then achingly cool Creation Records. Joining a roster that included Primal Scream, Teenage Fanclub, Ride, Swervedriver and Slowdive would no doubt have built up the confidence of the band no end. Lead singer Pete Fijalkowski certainly embraced the persona of 'Famous Rock Star' with weekly announcements in the music press that he was the next big thing and his band would go on to greatness. It never happened of course - none of their singles were massive and their debut album - the pretty decent 'Against Perfection' - peaked at number 70. Creation eventually dropped them and then signed Oasis - who did end up taking the world by storm as well as delivering to the world the Gallagher brothers, world famous rock stars if ever there was.
Before all of that though, Adorable's first proper single - released in the summer of 92 - was without question one of the finest singles Creation ever released during their first period of success. When you consider that around the same time Creation released Movin' On Up by the Primals, Leave Them All Behind by Ride and The Concept by TFC, that's some going. Sunshine Smile was - and still is - one of my all-time favourite one-offs. A glorious janglesome beast of a tune, all chiming guitar fills and crunchy riffs with a crashing drum beat that drives the tune along thrillingly all the way to the magnificent instrumental coda when the song speeds up to it's climax. All the while, Fijalkowski sings lovingly about a woman who makes him feel perfect: "She's got a sunshine smile, the kind that warms up the corners of my cold room. She's got a sunshine smile, the kind that makes you forget again". It's just wonderful. Although some of their later tracks were pretty good, Adorable never came close to scaling the heights of this song ever again and by 1994 they were done with three of the band returning to 'proper' jobs and Fijalkowski sticking with music to limited impact. They will always have my gratitude though for leaving us with such a stupendous tune.
2: LAID BACK: 'BAKER MAN' Back in the late 80's there was an hour long programme smack bang in the middle of ITV's Saturday morning schedule called The Chart Show. It was basically 60 minutes of the latest music videos 'presented' by a colourful set of computer graphics that would inform you of a few tit-bits about each artist being played on screen. It was the perfect hangover cure - I can remember many a fuzzy 'morning after the night before' in my scuzzy bedsit, nodding along to acts as disparate as Technotronic, Pixies, Soul 2 Soul, Orbital and Skid Row. It was that kind of show. One morning in late 89, a video was played of a bunch of loons skydiving whilst dressed as chefs, policeman and bowler-hatted businessmen.
Some were playing instruments, some were holding plastic toys and some were holding loaves of bread. There was even a couple of female backing singers holding microphones and miming along to the chorus. It was one of the most weirdly compelling things I'd ever witnessed. And the song that this video was accompanying was even stranger. I figured out reasonably quickly that it was called Baker Man, as that was pretty much the entirety of the lyric, and I waited patiently for the graphics on the screen to impart some more information about this crazy crew of nut-jobs. Turns out they were called Laid Back and were essentially a duo from Denmark who had been peddling a relaxed, reggae-infused strain of synth-pop for well over a decade. John Guldberg and Tim Stahl had scored some minor success throughout Europe and America with songs like Sunshine Reggae and White Horse, but Baker Man was their first real foray into the UK charts. I was more than a little intrigued. Again, this was pre-internet so I had to seek out this single the old-fashioned way. I eventually managed to pick up a copy of the 12 inch single a couple of weeks later and the song has stayed with me ever since. It's an acquired taste to be sure, but those who like it really, really like it. I've had many a conversation - in hushed tones, natch - with the odd like-minded soul about the song's insane brilliance. It's one of those odd little tracks that shouldn't work at all but that somehow does. Set to a basic electronic synth beat, with proper old school syn-drums crashing away in the background, Guldberg - singing in a delightfully deep register that makes him come across like Leonard Cohen after an acid trip - regales us with the story of the Baker Man: "Baker man, is baking bread. Baker man, is baking bread..." There's something sung in African by guest vocalist Hanne Boel which back then I thought was "suck a bone now, come Johnny Wayne now", but which I've since discovered is the phrase "sagabona kunjani wena" - meaning something along the lines of "hello - how are you?" Then we're told that the night train is coming and we have to keep on running before, conversely, to relax and take it easy. Then, tremendously, the baker man is back - baking bread. It's all complete and utter nonsense of course, but due to the song's beat being so ridiculously groovesome, and the introduction midway through of a gloriously Clapton-esque guitar solo - not to mention the full-blown power ballad style saxophone break at the end - it's nigh on impossible not to fall in love with the whole shebang. It just about scraped the Top 50 over here - although it was a major hit throughout Europe - and was re-released in 2006 in a remixed format which rather fantastically got to number one in, of all places, Greenland. Splendidly, Laid Back are still together and have just released a quite astonishing version of House Of The Rising Sun that is almost as good as Baker Man. Almost, but not quite.
1: BANG BANG MACHINE: 'GEEK LOVE'
And so to number one in my list of Hidden Gems and Great Lost Singles and it's an absolute pearl. In 1992 I was working at a branch of a late, lamented record store chain and had been put in charge of purchasing singles from all the various distributors in the country. I mainly focused on indie and alternative releases - as that was my bag, man - and had struck up a decent rapport with Pinnacle Records who specialised in that area. Musically, everything was pretty rosy at that time with the Creation roster all doing great business, the grunge bands all smashing it big-time and a whole slew of discordant and spiky alt-rock bands from the US making decent inroads into the UK charts. There was also room for some complete one-offs - one of which was this extraordinary debut release from a four-piece combo from Worcestershire that the rep at Pinnacle put me on to (and he has my eternal thanks to this day). Formed in 1989 by vocalist Elizabeth Freeth and guitarist Steve Eagles, the band's lineup was completed by Stan Lee on bass and a chap called Lamp on drums. Covering a wide ranging group of musical styles, they weren't easily pigeonholed. There was some goth here, some alt-rock there, a little bit of ambient as well as some shoegaze. All of these sounds and influences coalesced magnificently into this first single. Geek Love was inspired by the travelling carnies and freak-shows of post-depression America and featured samples from Tod Browning's controversial 1932 movie 'Freaks'. The lyrics - sung by Freeth in a drifting, ethereal whisper - are short and succinct and just a little bit freaky themselves: "Waltz around her, waltz around her. Crystal mystery, my dreamlets. Midnight gardener and the rose garden. Designer children, Papa's roses. Janice, Maple, Clifford, Fisk - Apple and Leona, The Lizard Girl!" So far, so a little bit sixth-form poetry and slightly kooky to boot. But this is only half the story. What really makes this song so unquestionably special is the music. Starting slowly, the track begins with a hushed drum beat that comes across like a slightly more somnambulant sibling of Fool's Gold by The Stone Roses. Accompanied by some deep bass and some spine-tingling guitar licks, Freeth's vocals then kick in before the song launches into what can only be described as a complete and utter joyful noise. Pounding drums, driving riffs, swirling keyboards, funky bass, the aforementioned samples and a melody for the ages. Throughout this astonishing second act, Freeth repeats the refrain "To love, but never to be in love..." It is, without question, a total masterpiece and 10 solid minutes of utter wonder. And I'm not the only one who thinks so. Apart from bagging a few Single Of The Week accolades in the weekly music press, BBM's biggest champion was the god-like John Peel on Radio One who not only placed their song at the top of his Festive 50 for that year, but said of the band: "Even if they never make another record, they will have achieved more than most of us do in our entire lives". He knew his onions that Peel fella.
Unfortunately, all this acclaim and praise was for nothing. Geek Love barely troubled the charts and the band later encountered problems with their new record label - GL had been released on their own imprint - and a slapdash debut album, not including Geek, was released a year or so later. Further singles and a second album all failed to live up to their initial promise and the band split in 94. Freeth and Lee married and started a family - with Lee dipping into music here and there - whilst Lamp became a sound engineer and Eagles tried again with various bands. Geek Love however, lives on. The original EP - which I was lucky enough to purchase all those years ago, and with my staff discount to boot - now goes for silly money online. It also made Number 16 on an online radio station's Top 20 Singles Of All-Time list. There was a book published on the band and Geek Love's influence in 2012 and there was even a Sunday Times article a year later. The very definition of a cult band, then. It's unlikely that Bang Bang Machine will ever reform and to be honest, I wouldn't want them too. They peaked with Geek Love and they have nothing to prove. It is the perfect Hidden Gem and The Greatest Lost Single Of My Record Buying Life.
Monday, 2 April 2018
LIVE REVIEW: THE WONDERSTUFF & NED'S ATOMIC DUSTBIN Shepherd's Bush Empire 31/3
In recent years, there have been many documentaries, articles and editorials appearing in the media and on television extolling the virtues of the great British indie music scene of the last 40 years or so. The usual history that is written goes a little something like this: Joy Division, New Order, The Smiths, My Bloody Valentine,The Stone Roses, Suede, Britpop. However, during the two years or so between the tail-end of the baggy scene in the late 80s and the arrival of Suede in 1992, there was another big UK indie movement that although hugely successful, seems to have been written out of the history books entirely. Based around the small West Midlands hamlet of Stourbridge, this scene came to be known - mostly by the three weekly music papers - as the Grebo Sound. The three bands at the apex of this movement - The Wonder Stuff, Ned's Atomic Dustbin and Pop Will Eat Itself - all very quickly journeyed from tiny gigs in the back rooms of pubs to headlining festivals, appearing on Top Of The Pops, and selling millions of records. And then, almost as quickly, they were all gone. Pop Will Eat Itself - or The Poppies to their fans - hit the ground running first, with a couple of minor hit singles in the late 80s. Their peak period was 1991-92 when they followed their huge 'Cicciolina' hit single with the excellent 'The Looks Or The Lifestyle' album. A massive US tour with Nine Inch Nails led to a more industrial and experimental sound in the mid-90s before head honcho Clint Mansell left the band to pursue a hugely successful soundtrack career in America. Co-founder Graham Crabb has continued with various iterations of the band since then, but they've never really regained their previous stature.
Ned's Atomic Dustbin - named after an episode of The Goon Show - formed in 1987 and immediately stood out from the crowd thanks to their use of two bass players in Alex Griffin and Mat Cheslin. With their lineup completed by guitarist Rat, singer Jonn Penney and Dan 'Dan The Drumming Man' Worton, the band soon found favour with the local scene after supporting The Poppies and The Wonder Stuff in quick succession. After a brace of sparky singles - including the magnificent 'Kill Your Television' - the band's striking debut album 'God Fodder' was released in early 1991, by which time they had already appeared on prime-time TV and sold out Brixton Academy. The following year's 'Are You Normal?' continued their strong run before the wheels came off after a fractious US tour the following year. Penney was diagnosed with anxiety and depression and a third album - the stodgy 'BrainBloodVolume' - was released after the band had been dropped by Sony. The band split soon after but have been revelling in the nostalgia circuit for the last few years and have toured solidly. The most commercially successful of these three bands, The Wonder Stuff, garnered huge critical acclaim with their debut offering 'The Eight Legged Groove Machine', a fantastic collection of jangly, raggle-taggle earworms. The tragic death of original bassist Rob Jones didn't halt their trajectory and by the time of 1989's 'Hup', their motormouth frontman Miles Hunt was calling his band "the best group in Britain". He may not have been right but he wasn't far off. 'Hup' was an excellent second set and the anticipation for 1991's follow-up was huge. 'Never Loved Elvis' didn't disappoint, entering the charts at Number 1, delivering massive hit singles in 'Size Of A Cow' and 'Welcome To The Cheap Seats', and allowing the band to sell out three nights at Brixton as well as headlining the following year's Reading Festival.
They even hit Number 1 in the singles chart with their duet with comedian Vic Reeves on 'Dizzy'. Once again though, a draining US tour was to be the end of them and by the time of 1993's 'Construction Time For The Modern Idiot' album, the band couldn't stand the sight of each other. A split was inevitable and even though Hunt has reactivated the band in recent years - releasing albums and touring constantly - he is the only original member left. My first live experience of The Grebo Scene - having fallen hard for some of the early records - was a trip to the late, lamented Astoria Theatre in Soho in late 1990 to witness the Ned's perform one of their first big London gigs. The support act were big, ballsy Leeds combo Cud but, upon arrival, it was immediately apparent that something special was afoot. The bass drum on the stage bearing the legend 'The Eight-Legged Groove Machine' kind of gave the game away. Hunt and company duly took to the stage as the 'secret' support act and a fantastic night was had by all. Over the next couple of years I saw The Stuffies, the Ned's and The Poppies on countless occasions - the Stuffies Reading headline slot and a storming set from Ned's at a Finsbury Park one-dayer headlined by The Cult and Pearl Jam stick in the memory - but, if I'm honest, I haven't missed them much since they all disbanded. I've seen adverts in the back of the music mags promoting their comeback gigs but I've never been that tempted to pop along and see how they've progressed - if at all. Until now that is! Something about the recent announcement of the 'Love From Stourbridge' tour piqued my interest and without too much hesitation, tickets were purchased. Both Penney and Hunt have said in recent interviews that this is not just a nostalgia cash-in, but a genuine appreciation not just of each other's music but of the fans and the enjoyable times they had back in the day. So here I am, on a dank and parky Saturday eve in West London, wondering if - after almost 30 years - Ned's Atomic Dustbin and The Wonder Stuff can do more than just give me a Proustian rush and a brief desire to give 'God Fodder' and 'Hup' another spin on the turntable.
The first and most notable thing about tonight is how many torn and faded t-shirts are on display. Both The Stuffies and Ned's were renowned for their merchandise in the early 90s - indeed, Penney has said that there was close on 80 different designs of Ned's t-shirts produced between 1990-93 - and most of them are getting an airing tonight. As expected, there is a large swathe of paunchy, balding middle-aged types - somewhere in the City there's an entire IT department full of empty chairs - most of whom look like they might have trouble getting up off the sofa each evening. But, man alive, do they prove me wrong later. There is a real crackle of excitement in the room though, with complete strangers congratulating each other on their choice of t-shirts and ageing indie kids of all stripes sharing war stories from the pre-Britpop trenches. First up on stage is Graham Crabb, de facto head honcho of the current PWEI lineup, who regales us with his DJ skills. Sporting a huge bandage around his head - which he describes as "not a fashion statement but a warning to men in their 50's not to skateboard down hotel corridors" - Crabb gets us all in the mood with some killer tunes. New Order, Happy Mondays, The Breeders, The Stooges, Primal Scream, The Prodigy - by the time his brief set is over, the gathered multitudes are champing at the bit. And then Ned's bound on stage - with the complete original lineup - and any worries I had about this being a bit of a sad throwback to more innocent times are tossed aside in seconds. Sounding beefier and more forceful than I ever remember them being, tonight Ned's are a revelation. Griffin and Cheslin's 'one high, one low' bass lines are thick and meaty but with enough bounce to get anyone moving, Worton's drumming is as frantic and pummeling as ever and Rat's guitar work is superb. The moshing starts almost immediately and never lets up - you haven't lived until you've seen a rather hefty chap of advancing years, bumcrack, overhang and all, crowdsurfing away like he was 16 all over again. Marvellous. Penney is centre stage of course, and even though he's a little more stiff these days and his dancing leaves a little to be desired, he's in fine voice all night. The tracks from 'God Fodder' and 'Are You Normal?' quite rightly make up the bulk of the set, with 'Cut Up', 'Grey Cell Green' and the magisterial 'Throwing Things' from the former standing out, whilst 'Not Sleeping Around' and 'Intact' - for my money their best song - from the latter sounding massive in this setting. There's some real deep cuts too. The standalone single from December 91 - 'Trust' - is a superb highlight of their back catalogue and is given a rollicking airing tonight, while 92's 'A Leg End In His Own Boots' sounds just as angry and vicious as it did 25 years ago with Penney almost spitting the lines "I must confess, I think it best, that I separate your breath from your body, it's only a shell - so don't you worry". They end, but of course, with the hits. Both 'Happy' and 'Kill Your Television' have stood the test of time quite wonderfully and during the latter the crowd go suitably bat-shit with the mosh-pit in particular turning into a veritable frenzy of old-man nutjob craziness. Do these guys realise there's another band to come? I'm grinning from ear to ear by this stage - I honestly didn't think I'd be having this much fun. Hats off Ned's, you still are Terminally Groovy.
Miles Hunt has never been particularly backward in coming forward - in the past he's been called cocky, arrogant and a mouthy wanker - and as he leads the latest version of The Wonder Stuff onto the stage (after a second DJ set from Crabb) it's obvious that he hasn't changed his personality in any way. If he's not prefacing the band's airing of 'Size Of A Cow' with the words "Let's get this piece of shit out of the way", or berating the elderly crowdsurfers for being "idiotic c***s" and warning them they'll be chucked out of the venue if they carry on, one can't help but smile at the fact that some things never change. Still sporting his mass of curly hair and jumping around in baggy trousers and Dr Marten's, it's as if the last 25 years haven't existed. Flanked by his wife Erika Nockalls on all manner of fiddles, guitarist Dan Donnelly, bass player Mark McCarthy and drummer Tony Arthy, Hunt and his crew are on fine form musically. If not quite as surprisingly exciting as the Ned's set beforehand, The Stuffies performance is still chock-full of glorious tunes, all performed brilliantly. 93's 'On The Ropes' starts proceedings - the only track from the final album that's given a spin - and the mosh-pit amazingly carry on where they left off, until Hunt's warning later in the set dampens the mood somewhat. There's a few new tunes sprinkled throughout the set, all of which sound fine, but it's all about the early classics. 'Red Berry Joy Town', 'A Wish Away', 'It's Your Money I'm After Baby', 'Give Give Give Me More More More' and 'Who Wants To Be The Disco King' from that first album are all fabulous tonight whilst the more expansive, Celtic-influenced tunes from the later records like 'CircleSquare', 'Golden Green' and 'Caught In My Shadow' prove what an excellent songwriter Hunt has always been. In fact, I wouldn't hesitate to compare The Wonder Stuff's catalogue of singles as a indie version of Madness's stellar run in the early 80s.
The band are on top form too, with Donnelly in particular a fine six-string foil to Hunt's crunchy, janglesome riffs. Nockalls fiddle playing fits in perfectly too. Coming across like an indie-disco version of Brienne from Game Of Thrones, Nockalls strides around the stage behind Hunt, adding those fondly remembered raggle-taggle riffs to the biggest hits. Wonderfully, there's room for some of my all-time favourite Stuffies tracks with the still thrilling 'Mission Drive' and the hilarious 'Cartoon Boyfriend' bringing the house down. Marks docked though for not playing 'Don't Let Me Down Gently' though. Still their best single. By the time the 11:00 curfew comes around, it's obvious that - along with the tiring mass of senior citizens down the front - Hunt has had his fill. I sensed a slight feeling of "this is a bit beneath me" from him earlier in the set, and it'll be interesting to see how he handles the rest of the dates on the tour. He certainly didn't seem to be as into the whole experience as the Ned's boys earlier in the evening. It didn't detract from the tunes though, and with a final burst of 'Unbearable' to end proceedings, Hunt and company are gone. All in all, this was a splendidly enjoyable evening and far more fun than it had any right to be. See you for the 40th anniversary eh chaps?
