#11 Go-Go's - Beauty and the Beat LP

This one takes me way way back to being a 13 year old in my mum's car listening to American radio stations and constantly switching over to hear anything interesting. It was a steady diet of garbage, with a few 'new wave' hits that occasionally crept through. Joe Jackson's 'Stepping Out', Devo's 'Beautiful World', and The Go-Go's - 'We Got The Beat' & 'Our Lips Are Sealed' were a few that would crop up with some regularity.

We had escaped recession hit England for a few years in the US. My dad had had enough of the grim British 70's. As The Fall sang, "O'er grassy dale, and lowland scene
Come see, come hear, the English Scheme.
The lower-class, want brass, bad chests, scrounge fags.
The clever ones tend to emigrate
Like your psychotic big brother, who left home
For jobs in Holland, Munich, Rome
He's thick but he struck it rich, switch".

The US in the early 80's was a much more positive place than the UK, but this reflected badly in the music. The UK was still reeling from the kick up the arse of punk, and had moved on to 2-Tone, Antmusic, post-punk, and the like while The Jam & The Clash still ruled most young male's record collections. The coal miners were fighting the police on a daily basis, while Thatcher was deep into the process of cutting entire sections of society off from the rest of Britain. Things were pretty grim. In the US, however, everything seemed fairly peachy, at least on the surface, and the radio reflected it with unlimited AOR. (Of course, something was certainly stirring in the US musical underground but this was still too underground for a little suburban kid to know about - yet)

Anyway, this was my soundtrack to getting to Little League baseball games, and going to spend money earned on my paper route, so I bought this vinyl copy of the album years later as an excercise in nostalgia. It's not one I've put very often, as I'm not really much of a pop person. The Go-Go's did have a degree of West Coast credibility, though, coming out of the LA punk scene. Belinda Carlisle used to be known as Dottie Danger when she was in the Germs. Not much evidence of punk in this record, to be honest, and the best songs are the singles, with the exception of 'This Town', which is probably the highlight of the album. The whole thing just rolls past in about half an hour, so it's really not a hardship listening to this new wave slab.

A few photos of Mission of Burma at Brudenell Social Club

No need to bother with a review - they were great as ever!

 

#10 Stereolab - Refractions in the Plastic Pulse Remix 12"

The Refractions in the Plastic Pulse 12" was supposedly somewhat limited, so I got hold of a copy despite my natural suspicion of remixes. I enjoyed side 2, a remix of Contronatura that is so mellow that it includes the sounds of someone snoring (or perhaps that was just my dog). It's one of their finer songs, and this is an intersesting diversion from the original.

Side 1 is the real shocker. Autechre has created the 'Feebate Mix', so called as I imagine they had to return their fee for having turned in such a horrible mess. I'm all in favour of remixers creating something wildly different from the original, deconstructing it, or making an utter racket, but this is just awful. The vocals have been sped up to sound like Alvin and the Chipmunks (the 12" plays at 33, so it wasn't on the wrong speed) and then there's all kinds of abrasive noise chucked into the mix like Jim Foetus clearing an old studio of his. I love a bit of noise, but this is just hugely annoying. It should have been pressed in edition of one & thrown at full force at Autechre, hopefully severing their mixing digits.

#9 - Oxes LP

The whole 'Math Rock' (a term some say was coined by Courtney Love) genre has evolved into something incredibly formulaic (pun intended). Wikipedia tells us that Math Rock "is characterized by complex, atypical rhythmic structures (including irregular stopping and starting), odd time signatures, angular melodies, and extended, often dissonant chords." Their albums are also full of 'amusing' song titles for instrumental tracks. I find it all a bit tiresome these days, but occsionally find time to put one of the earlier examples of the genre.

 

The Oxes were a classic Maths Rock band, but with a sense of humour and a meaty sound. I actually prefer their second album 'Oxxxes', which is catchier and more assurred, but this is the one randomly grabbed off the shelf. They were a band I wished I'd seen live. At the very least, they would stand on large boxes, towering above the audience, but I'd have loved to have seen this ludicrous piece of rock theatre - "In late 2004, the group began doing an encore that consisted only of a reenactment of the opening scene for 2001:A Space Odyssey, introduced by the drummer as a one-act play and a new direction for the band. The two black boxes where stacked longways to resemble the monolith in the film, and Miller and Freeland began a free jazz rendition of Also sprach Zarathustra.  Fowler would slowly reemerge from an inconspicuous place in the venue, completely naked, bearing an object resembling or meant to symbolize a large bone. As the musical climax arrived, he would become increasingly enraged, much like the ape in the film, and eventually tear down the monolith and run off on all fours."

 

 

#8 Rough Trade Shops/Green Man Festival Psych Folk 10"

10" single featuring Doves, Pete Greenwood, Sam Amidon, and Sleepy Sun.

This 2010 Green Man festival tie-in (it came free with the Rough Trade Shops: Psych Folk 10 CD if you bought it at the festival) somehow made it home relatively unscathed after being bought in the inevitable pouring rain, and enduring a few days in a progressively muddy tent. As I write, this was the last festival I've been to after not managing to go to a single festival in the UK in over a decade where the heavens haven't opened. I somehow even managed to get utterly drenched at an indoor festival - while waiting for the doors to open at Supersonic a few years back, it pissed it down on the queue, with nobody wearing wet weather gear. Ramping up the price each year, way ahead of inflation in the style of the Royal Mail, railway & electricity companies has soured my relationship with British festivals in general too.

Onto the EP itself, the first thing you notice that the wacky tricksters have pressed one side at 33 and the other at 45. Cue mutterings of "oh, for fuck's sake" from 100% of people who spin this disc. On the 33 side, we have The Doves, who I've studiously avoided for their entire career purely on the basis of their name which sets new standards in blandness. Unfair, I know, but tough - they have plenty of fans already and don't need me. I noticed that they name checked Sebadoh at one point, but that wasn't enough to seek out a listen to their music. Now driven to listen to the Doves for the first time, I find they produce a sort of ambient background music, though this could be the result of the remixer (Chris Watson). Next time I make a film about people gazing across bleak marshlands at silhouettes of birds, I'll know who to call about making a soundtrack.

Pete Greenwood opens up the 45 side. I had to go back at listen to his song again, as I'd completely forgotten what the song sounded like by the time I came to write this, but was heartened to find it was a pleasant acoustic number that was actually quite catchy. Sam Amidon's track 'Way do, Lily' is next and I know it well as it's off his 'I See The Sign' LP, which was my favourite album of whatever year it came out in, so I actually would have preferred a rarer tune. Sleepy then comes along sounding like Hendrix's Star-Spangled Banner, goes all folky, and then cranks up the guitars again. It's really rather good. I shall seek more of them.

 

#7 Beach Boys - Pet Sounds LP

 

Oh boy, The Beach Boys Pet Sounds. Possibly the most discussed & loved album ever made. Just what I wanted to pull out at random and review...

 

I bought this for 50p at a charity shop a couple of years back. It's an original early pressing, but by the looks of things, it's been played an absurd number of times. Just check out how worn the label is near the central hole! The vinyl is worn and scratched, and I ended up playing just side one, as it sounded like the needle was being dragged along the pavement with the Beach Boys being faintly heard from a distant car radio.

 

This was owned by Sheila Holmes. Who she is, I don't know, but she must have absolutely loved this record, playing it hundreds of times. I've played a lot of records to death, but I've never worn through the label!

 

To tell you the truth, having it in my collection makes me a little sad. This record is the definition of 'much-loved' and it feels like it should be back with Sheila Holmes where she can take it out every once and a while and remember the days she lay by her dansette and listened to 'Pet Sounds' over and over again.

 

 

#6 Devo - Peek-a-Boo 12" single

 

Ah, Devo. They were my favourite band in my all-important 6th form years. My love for them really extended to their first two albums and their video compilations, bought at absurd cost in the days that VHS was still battling Betamax. Later albums were fun, but not world-changing.

 

I bought the 'Peek-A-Boo' 12" second-hand some time in the mid 80's for £2 and it used to get a lot of play for the b-side - 'Find Out'. The A-side 'Dance Velocity' & B-side 'Devo Dub' versions of 'Peek-A-Boo' added little to an already lightweight song. In fact in the' Devo Dub' version, it apparently just got rid of the vocal! This was back in the day when lazy record companys would apparently just pay a lacky to lean on a few buttons, extending a song by a few minutes and voila - a dance version for clubs.

 

Jerry Casale has described the album it comes from (Oh No, It's Devo!) as being what Devo imagined an album made by fascist clowns to sound like, and 'Peek-A-Boo' certainly fits the bill. Catchy & sinister in equal measures. I've never really enjoyed the song, and am always pretty eager for it to be over and for the next song to start, so the extended version just prolongs the agony. 'Find Out' makes up for it being an urgent tribal thumper with a darker feel, and much more lasting catchiness. It really should have been on the album, rather hidden on a b-side.

#5 Nirvana - In Bloom 12" Picture Disc

I'm doing a batch of 12" singles at the moment as I'd picked 16 records off the shelves at random and 3 turned out to be 12"ers and one was a 10". It seems quite a high proportion as I've never been overly keen on the 12" as a format. Sure, they sound a lot better than 7"ers, but they are often filled with remixed dross rather than the original song you wanted. Only rarely do they have an extra original song not found on the 7".

My Debut turntable also requires me to switch between 33/3 & 45 manually by switching the belt (essentially a rubber band) using a little tool they provided. To get at the belt, you've got to remove the 'platter', so the who production is sufficiently annoying to leave most 12" records unplayed for years. This wasn't the case with my old cheapo record player that was automatic, and I'd bought amost all these 12" records back then.

Anyway, that's enough whittering on about the annoyance of the 12" single and onto Nirvana. In Bloom is a weighty picture disc which was supposedly 'strictly limited'. Yeah, right. There's a bunch on eBay as I type, and not many bidders. The more I think about it, the more of a meaningless phrase 'strictly limited' becomes.

I bought 'In Bloom' at a short-lived record shop in Didcot, Oxfordshire. Suffice to say, I didn't pay much for it as local record shops were 'chart return shops' and record companies used to pile their new releases in them to be sold cheaply & therefore get them in the charts. Nevermind had already been out for over a year, and this release was just milking its success. Nirvana were still one of the very few bands that I liked that had got anywhere near the charts, though, so I snapped it up.

How often do I play it? Perhaps once before? What's the point - A-side just like the song on the album, so that's been heard enough times already. B-side - live versions of sliver (which I used to have on 7" before someone with light fingers filched it from my collection) and Polly. Live versions are almost wholly a waste of time unless they do something dramatic to the original song, and these two just rumble along, sticking closely to the original versions. They are pretty well recorded, but that's about it. So, a record that's more of an object than something to be played.

 

#4 Rediffusion - Golden Instrumentals LP

Yikes! What a shocking cover! I spotted this in a charity shop for 50p, and I'm surprised I didn't just flick past it without giving it a second glance, given the cheap & garish cover. The Rediffusion label was never a byword for quality either, being mainly known as a TV company (http://www.rediffusion.info/). I'm glad I did, though. It's a great album full of hugely catchy guitar instrumentals from the 50's & 60's and it came out in 1973. It's in mono 'electronically reprocessed to give stereo effect',

 

The titles that caught my eye were 'Wipe Out', 'Pipeline', and 'Tequila', but the whole album is full of similarly great tracks. Lots of surf and twangy guitar sounds. Many were million sellers, which seems extraordinary these days when you only have to sell a few hundred vinyl singles to get into the physical top 40 chart.

 

The whole thing whips along at a fair pace, with most tracks being just a couple of minutes long. Almost all are standouts - Santo & Johnny - Sleepwalk, Lonnie Mack- Memphis, The Fireballs - Torquay, Johnny & the Hurricanes - Red River Rock, The Dartells - Hot Pastrami. The only one I'm not that keen on is 'Happy Organ' by Dave 'Baby' Cortez. (The organ sounds a little out of place).

As a fan of the incredible 60's band, The Monks, it suddenly struck me that perhaps the track 'Torquay' was the reason for their being called 'The 5 Torquays' originally. It always struck me as being a little off that an American band stationed in Germany would decide to name themselves after a little seaside town in the UK...

 

It's a real shame this album is cursed with a shocking cover and a title that ties it with 1001 awful instrumental easy listening LP's as it would have been highly sought-after if on a decent label with a credible cover. In fact the sleeve notes by one 'Strollin' Steve' go on to say, "No sore thumbs here like you get in the usual collecvtions, no fill-ins, but one hundred per cent solid gold right from start to finish. This album must surely be nominated for the most sought after collectors collection of the decade. You mark my ears."

 

 

 

#3 Guinea Worm \ S&M compilation split LP

Well, this one is a bit of an oddity. One side features the band Guinea Worm, while the other is a compilation that supposedly originally came with a magazine. Mine didn't, but then I bought it cheaply on the basis that there was a Steve Albini interview on it.

 

This is precisely the sort of album that I own that just doesn't get played. You pull it out of the shelf, and spend a minute trying to figure out whon it's by and why you bought it in the first place, and then put in back, looking for a more obviously pleasurable listening experience.

 

But that's what this blog is really about. Picking albums out at random, and giving them a good listen, no matter how much your heart sinks when you first cast eyes upon it.

 

So, Guinea Worm side - At a guess, I'd assume that these are the guys that put out the S&M fanzine, and that this is something of a vanity project. It comes across as good noisy stuff that I'd prefer to listen to in a club with a pint of beer in my hand. A cathartic blast of volume where it doesn't matter too much when the songwriting isn't too spectacular. At home, it's on mid-morning, and completely out of place with my mood, so I notch it up as one to spin when I'm in fiesty mood and want to listen to a bit of a racket.

 

S&M side - I doubt if this album features on any of the following bands discographies, but it includes Jon Spencer, Green Day, Girls Against Boys, Steve Albini, Steve Ignorant, Huggy Bear, and The Darling Buds amongst others - mainly in live mode & recorded in the early 90's. At this point, Green Day were still playing pubs (I saw them in a pub next to Euston Station around this time). A closer look reveals that all the live tracks and interview snippets were recorded in Wales, and you soon get the overall impression that this is a aural document of a boozy night out in Newport. Lots of noisy tunes, banter, and a snatch of 'Happy Birthday.' Steve Albini's part is simply explaing how Shellac is pronounced differently in North America and the UK. Perhaps the magazine explained a bit more about what was going on.  By the end, we have Huggy Bear bravely standing up to a drunken heckler who won't let them get on with it, and you think - 'glad I'm at home'.

 

#2 The Stranglers - La Folie

I bought my first Stranglers record in 1984, when Aural Sculpture came out. Not their greatest effort, but I'd been busily making up for lost time by devouring their previous efforts by way of three C90 tapes full of their first albums taped for me by a helpful school chum. La Folie was on one of these cassettes, and it was matched up with Feline on the other side. Feline, as I recall, was pretty dire - awful electronic drum sounds and a 'mellower' direction. I always have associated La Folie itself with the title track, which is a wistful lament sung in French,  (though atmospheric, a long way from 'Bring on the Nubiles'.) As a result, that particular tape got a lot less play than the ones containing their first 4 albums.

 

As years went on, I slowly and surely bought their early albums on vinyl, mainly from secondhand shops. I've got two copies of Black and White for some reason! Evidently from the sticker on the front, I bought this from one of London's Record & Tape exchanges for £2, which isn't a bad deal at all. So, how does La Folie stand up years after being paired with Feline & consequently given somewhat short shrift? Well, it turns out to be a lot better than I thought. Due to the afformentioned Feline fiasco, I'd always thought that La Folie had a bit of a crummy plastic sound to it, but in reality it sounds like vintage Stranglers. Quite a few stormers on there - 'Let Me Introduce You to the Family' & 'The Man They Love to Hate' stick out, as does 'How to Find True Love and Happiness in the Present Day'. 'Golden Brown' sticks out in a different way - a true classic that everyone knows (though only a minority seem to realise it's by the Stranglers!). Only one dud to my mind - 'Pin-Up'.

 

Anyway, while this certainly points to the softer direction the band was (temporarily) headed in, it's definitely one to be included as part of their first incarnation, when they were firing on all cylinders.

 

#1 Roger Miller - No Man is Hurting Me LP

So, the first LP picked at random from my collection. I say random, but my records are arranged by musical style, and this first record comes from the section where many of my favourite records lie, so I knew it was bound to be a decent start. Roger Miller plays guitar, sings, and writes songs for the unbelievably awesome Mission of Burma, but this LP was made near the start of their long hiatus, between 1984-86. As a fan of Burma, this album leapt at me when I spied it in a record shop just off Portobello Road. "US Mission of Burma Man £8" says the little sticker on the front, and I snapped it up, not even being aware of the albums existence before I happened upon it in this little shop. This was in a time before the internet, and discographies were the sort of thing you might happen upon in a fanzine if you were lucky. £8 was a little expensive for a second-hand record at the time, but still it was a no-brainer for me.

Anyway, this record is one that's very familier to me and gets played quite a lot. The new-wave look to the album cover is very of its time, but what's inside bears no relation to anything with a skinny tie & pleated chinos. Roger Miller seems to be bursting with ideas on this record, incorporating all manner of sounds and techniques to create an overall sound that really doesn't sound like anything else. His modified electric piano is at the core and blends dissonance and melody to great effect. You really get the impression that RM was having a great time making this record - the tinnitus which curtailed his playing with Burma was obviously no barrier to making music with oomph.

 

 

Reviews of 500 vinyl records selected relatively randomly from my record collection

I just moved all my records from one house to another. Not the most enjoyable tasks, as they weigh a lot and are easily damaged. It also meant taking down the IKEA Expedit shelves and putting them back together again (a factor in 6% of murders in Northern Europe). All in all, a ball-ache, but with a silver lining of actually getting to see some of my records for the first time in years.

The strange thing about having your records all stacked up nicely is that you hardly ever see the covers, just the spines. Those with a thin spine can go missing entirely. I realised that there were large numbers of records that I'd not played in years and got an overwhelmingly morbid thought that I'd probably never play a significant proportion of them again. It's far too easy just to play mp3's when using the computer or CDs when bobbing about the house.

Disturbed by my loved, but rarely used records languishing on the shelves, it struck me to make an effort to listen to a good proportion of them. In fact, not only that - to write out my thoughts on what they sound like, and what they meant to me when I bought them. Whether they ever got a fair hearing, or were they just a mistake, listened to the once and forever consigned to my shelves. Anyway, I randomly decided to try to check out 500 as that should keep me going for a couple of years and this blog will be the result.