Tuesday 31 January 2012

Immaculate Deception

Youthful japes featuring demos, soundscapes, outtakes, literary readings, groovy covers, bogus raps and even an utterance or two from the Madgeness herself.

This could well be my favourite of the Yoof's vast oeuvre; it's certainly the one I've listened to the most; consequently there is a little surface noise.
But who cares? It includes 'Into the Groovey'!
And Gordon's deadpan delivery of 'Addicted to Love' reveals the lyric as being something truly sinister - or is that just me?

Ciccone Youth - The Whitey Album (1988)

Needle Gun
G-Force
Platoon II
Macbeth
Me & Jill/Hendrix Cosby
Burnin' Up
Hi! Everybody!
Children of Satan/Third Fig
Two Cool Rock Chicks Listening to Neu
Addicted to Love
Moby-Dik
March of the Ciccone Robots
Making the Nature Scene
Tuff Titty Rap
Into the Groovey

Decent vinyl rip @320kbs
Eternal Youth here

Friday 27 January 2012

Here Comes Sickness

One of the last gigs I went to before I left London for the green green grass of my now adopted home was Sonic Youth and Mudhoney together at the Kilburn National back in 89.
And my, it was ripping!

I'd caught Mudhoney a few times: with Soundgarden (SOAS [got to be one of my all time favourite gigs]); with Nirvana (National), and with Tad (twice: once at the National, along with Nirvana, and once in Fulham); and no matter who they were up there with, they always played a blinder; never failed.

I hadn't seen Sonic Youth before; but they certainly satisfied. Big time!
As does this.

This split 7" encpsulates those times for me absolutely.
The bands in homage perform a song by each other.
Loud, dirty, gritty, in ya face rude and brash.
That was the eighties.
This is the eighties.
Here I come, diving right on top of ya.
Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

Sonic Youth & Mudhoney - Sub Pop Singles Club #2 (1988)

Sonic Youth - Touch Me I'm Sick
Mudhoney - Halloween

Decent vinyl rip @320kbs
Fill ya boots here

I've got more of these if there's any takers....

Tuesday 24 January 2012

The State I'm In

The state of music blogging is all rather depressing at the moment, and I do wonder whether it would be a complete waste of time to add anything new.

Many links on this blog are now dead; although where I do give an option (Multiupload or Sharebee) Deposit Files and Wupload should still be live, and at present, all Mediafire links remain good.

If you do find something you want and there's no living link, comment and I'll upload a Mediafire link in its place.

Life's too short for me to methodically go through and replace everything, so I'm at your behest; happy to share MY music collection with anyone who wants to listen.

Pip pip. roy

Tuesday 17 January 2012

Twisted Pair

Probably the least familiar of Otway & Barrett's oeuvre, Way Bar actually features the most successful single release by the duo, the peculiarly not like them at all 'DK 50-80', a big kind of New Wave number featuring overdubs and effects, orchestrated backing singers and tons of production.
Yeah, not like them at all.

And 'New Wave' isn't the only genre visited on this album; as per their other recordings the pair refused to be limited by paradigms, and happily performed punk, country & western, pub rock, folk (although pretty twisted) and some of that Otway styled singer-songwriter thing, which probably is a genre all of its own.

What with all the genre hopping, larks, and Otway's insistence in singing lengthy emotional ballads, Otway & Barrett must have been a nightmare to market.
(I remember seeing them one time, and Barrett insisted everyone go off to the bar or "Have a game of darts, or something," as Otway introduced another slow, heartfelt number he was about to perform. O, the pathos, the pathos.)
It's said Polydor really didn't understand John Otway; believing he was going to go on and become a role model or mouthpiece for the new generation.
Willy must have found that hysterical.

John Otway & Wild Willy Barrett - Way Bar (1980)

Birthday Boy
DK 50-80
Cry, Cry
21 Days
Medieval Dance
Body Talk
Baby's in the Club
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
When Love's in Bloom
Day After Day
Come Back Darling

Decent vinyl rip @320kbs
Have a threesome here

Saturday 14 January 2012

Horny Devil

Straight up!
There's no irony here, surreal or otherwise.

This set of recordings captured Snakefinger in full homage mode; and for a skinny bloke from Tooting, he sure could play the blues.
Backed up by a biggish band (Vestal Virgins and others, including Eric Drew Feldman on bass), one that included a fistful of glorious horns, some gorgeously authentic rich sounds are created: blues standards never sounded so good.

Of all the versions of 'I Can't Be Satisfied' I've heard, none is better than this version, and well worth the bother (of downloading) on its own.

Despite the big band styled jazzy blues making up the majority of this album, there are a couple of numbers Snakey performs solo: 'If You Haven't Any Hay' being particularly wonderful; perfectly accompanied by the most gracefully deft playing.

The final track, the lengthy instrumental 'Stolen Moments', has a marvellous thuggish, noir quality about it, finishing everything off very nicely nicely.

So not your traditional Snakefinger, due to Snakey getting all traditional; but no matter what the genre, you can be certain: Snakefinger could only have done it well.

Snakefinger - Snakefinger's History of the Blues: Live in Europe (1984)

Natural Ball
36 22 36
Cryin For My Baby
I Can't Be Satisfied
Crosscut Saw
Every Day I Have the Blues
If You Haven't Any Hay
You Upset Me Baby
Preachin Blues
These Kind of Blues
Stolen Moments

Decent vinyl rip @320kbs
Get charmed here

Monday 9 January 2012

O So Dipso

Pitched somewhere between Beefheart and Max Wall, the voice of ex-Deviant, hack, journo and muso Mick Farren comes at ya from the very sodden, sotted depths of drunkenness.

One shouldn't readily assume songs as being autobiographical, but in this case....
Vampires Stole My Lunch Money
crystallizes Farren.
It is his thisness.

Punk perhaps inspired - Farren returning to the studio in 77 - and it seems others were willing to be associated and help out.
Sonja Kristina

and Chrissie Hynde

appeared as backing singers.

Wilko Johnson lent his idiosyncrasies to a couple of numbers.

Ex-Hawkwind thumper Alan Powell thumped; ex-Fairie Andy Coloquhoun added speed.

And old buddy Larry Wallis assisted and produced.

All in all: it's a classic.
If you haven't heard it before, you're in for a treat.
I envy you.

Mick Farren - Vampires Stole My Lunch Money (1978)

Trouble Coming Every Day (Zappa)
Half Price Drinks (Farren, Wallis)
I Don't Want to Go This Way (Farren, Wallis)
I Want a Drink (Farren, Wallis)
Son of a Millionaire (Farren, Wallis)
Zombie Line (Farren, Wallis)
Bela Lugosi (Farren, Coloquhoun)
People Call You Crazy (Farren, Coloquhoun)
Fast Eddie (Farren, Coloquhoun)
Let Me In, Damn You (Farren, Wallis)
(I Know From) Self Destruction (Farren)
Drunk in the Morning (Farren, Wallis)

Decent vinyl rip @320kbs
Drink up here

Saturday 7 January 2012

Hairy Fairies

The 'reforming' of Larry, Duncan, Russell, Twink and Andy in 1987, resulted in this rather nifty recording being made, and ended with a blinding performance while topping the bill at a real humdinger of a marathon all-dayer at Kentish Town's Town & Country Club.
(What an all-dayer that was...!)

On the night their set travelled back and forth through the years; singer and sound changing as they moved from one Fairies' phase to another.
Kill 'em & Eat 'em does the same thing, but with new songs: the Larry Wallis songs - making up most of the album - carry on from Kings of Oblivion; the rest pick up from where What a Bunch of Sweeties left off.

With the accumulation of five Fairies the overall sound throughout this album is solid and large.
The fact they hadn't played together as a band since around '77 made them tighter if anything, and it seemed that during the interim none of the Fairies (well, apart from Paul Rudolph) had forgotten how to be Pink.
Enjoy!

Pink Fairies - Kill 'em & Eat 'em (1987)

Broken Statue
Fear of Love
Undercover of Confusion
Waiting for the Ice Cream to Melt
Taking LSD
White Girls on Amphetamine
Seeing Double
Fool About You
Bad Attitude
I Might Be Lying

Excellent vinyl rip @320kbs
Believe in Fairies here

Tuesday 3 January 2012

Cry Me Arrhythmia

I stand by my previous comment about this album: it's not as good as their earlier e.p. releases. But listening to it this evening, the first time in what could well be four years (my, doesn't time fly?), it sounded mighty good. In places.

With the addition of some big horns, the Cardiacs first full length vinyl release A Little Man and a House and the Whole World Window ended up sounding a lot more prog than punk; at times reminiscent of Genesis, ELP, and even a little like - dare I say it? - The Enid (there, said it!).
It's all done in a wonderfully dramatic manner; beautifully played, gorgeously arranged, but... what?

Did Smith adopt a different approach to this product, compared to those he'd already released?
Maybe the fact that he was now making an album, a full length L.P., required a more serious attitude, an increased studiousness: less larks.
Perhaps growing up listening to all those hyperbolically produced progressive monsters of the previous decade more than rubbed off.
The Cardiacs' sound became orderly, less spontaneous, and a lot more accessible (commercial?).

(The colour drained a little.)

Okay, so compared to their earlier releases, this may have disappointed a little when it arrived, but as I said earlier, listening to it now, it's immediately obvious that this is a very carefully conceived and meticulously crafted piece; and despite my Tynan-esque diss, this knocked spots off much of the indie and alternative product of its time, and frankly, still does.

Cardiacs - A Little Man and a House and the Whole World Window (1988)

A Little Man and a House
In a City Lining
Is This the Life
Interlude
Dive
The Icing on the World
The Breakfast Line
Victory
R.E.S.
The Whole World Window

Excellent vinyl rip @320kbs
Quicken the pulse here