ace new 7 from loaded knife. it's chopped up funk hop, like luke vibert hooked up to a malfunctioning 50's american juke box. the b-side features various samples of market traders from soho's, berwick st. interesting stuff indeed!
Monday, June 19, 2006
Loaded Knife single reviewed by Rough Trade
Here's what Rough Trade say about our new single:
Wednesday, June 07, 2006
Blab Happy
Now on You Tube: my old band (1987-1993) performing Valentine, the track that got us a record deal. Thanks to Nick Clay from the fabulous Pink Noise, Hull's finest.
Here it is embedded ...
Here it is embedded ...
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
Os Mutantes
I've been lax in updating my blog, but I wanted to share with the world (and show off, basically) that last night I witnessed a historic moment - the first gig by Os Mutantes in 33 years. Arnaldo Baptista and Sergio were clad in doublets and hose. The performance at the Barbican, part of the Tropicalia festival, was witty, complex, proggy, psychededelic, uplifting. A privilege to be there.
Saturday, December 24, 2005
Adverts - Gary Gilmore's Eyes
I used to obsess about this track after hearing it late at night on Nicky Horne's "Your Mother Wouldn't Like It" show on Capital. I love the last line of the song! Listen to it here.
Saturday, October 29, 2005
Peel's singles box
Revealed: the contents of John Peel's singles box:
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Thursday, October 13, 2005
John Peel Day
John Peel by Jane BownI interviewed Andy Kershaw yesterday as part of my research for this rather nerdy piece about John Peel's favourite albums.
Sadly I missed last night's gig on the South Bank, but a work colleague who did go said that Mark Lamar said he and Peel were once the two of commiserating about Mark and Lard moving to the breakfast show, where their talents would be wasted. Lamarr said "Ah well, at least it's better than Chris Evans." Peel said: "Leukemia's better than Chris Evans."
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
The roots of power pop
Further to my post on the Everlys' Two Yanks In England, an album that I confess I'd not heard of until picking it up earlier this year, I've just read an enlightening review by Edd Hurt for Nashville Scene of the new Big Star biography and album. Hurt cites Two Yanks In England as the missing link between the British guitar pop of the Beatles and the Who and the power pop of Big Star:
"To say ... that all power pop derives from The Who is to ignore what may be the Ur-power-pop statement, the Everly Brothers’ 1966 Two Yanks in England, a brilliant, neglected (and recently reissued) record featuring songs by the Hollies, and a work that one-ups the Beatles by putting a peculiarly Southern American spin—lost, melancholy, subtly tortured—on the basic formula.
"Big Star, the Memphis band led by Chris Bell and Alex Chilton, are the group whose early ’70s albums go a step further and define power pop as a synthesis of British pop music and the West Coast post-folk-rock of the Buffalo Springfield, Gene Clark and Moby Grape, with an admixture of the spare, oblique style of Stax Records. And like the Everlys’ Two Yanks in England, Big Star’s albums give the Beatles back to Americans."
I can hear what he means; it's what's wrong with the Everlys' record in the sense that they don't sound as Swinging London as they'd hoped; but it's also what's great about the album in that they bring something to the table that the Beatles, Who and Hollies themselves aspired to: authentic southern soul.
Monday, August 01, 2005
Papa Oom Mow Mow
When he played the first Loaded Knife single, The Bird ("a brave step into the unknown"), John Peel said it was "based on" The Rivingtons' Papa Oom Mow Mow. In fact it was "based on" Surfing Bird, the punked-up composite Rivingtons rave-up (ie mixing The Bird Is The Word and Papa Oom Mow Mow) by The Trashmen, one of the most insane records of the era. Says MP3.com:
Yes, it was a nonsense song, but the members sang it with such spirit and élan, that it wasn't a "guilty pleasure" or an embarrassing novelty record -- it was silly, but it was also viscerally exciting like the very best R&B dance records, and sung that way.Cub Koda on All-Music Guide says they were "one of the great American teen-band combos of all time, their lone hit exemplifying wild, unabashed rock & roll at its most demented, bare-bones-basic, lone-E-chord finest".
There are also fine versions of Surfin' Bird by The Ramones and The Cramps, and I recently bought a lame 70s version of Papa Oom Mow Mow by The Sharonettes, who I don't know anything about, other than they weren't very good.
Anyone know any more versions? I feel a collection coming on.
Wednesday, July 27, 2005
Black Monk Time - The Monks
One of the most basic, loud, moronic rock'n'roll bands of the 60s, whose members were US servicemen based in Germany. Check out their excellent website, which has a wonderful account of how they discovered feedback.As you can see from this photograph, their image was second to none.
Me me me: Thanks to Chris Heard for this one, a 40th birthday present.
Friday, July 22, 2005
Two Yanks in England - The Everly Brothers
It's a blatant cash-in on the British Invasion, but quite entertaining nonetheless, with spririted versions of songs such as Somebody Help Me and Pretty Flamingo. The backing band is the Hollies, who were apparantly reluctant to give Don and Phil their best material.
The best thing about it, though, is the sleevenotes, which I reproduce verbatim in full below. Written by one Stan Cornyn, "the king of liner notes" according to the excellent Space Age Pop site, they purport to be the Everlys’ “own guide to London”, which they claim to know extremely well and in fact be “part of the whole scene”.
It reads as though they’re trying to convince themselves of this as much as anyone else, and becomes quite bewildering when we suddenly find ourselves in a marriage bureau “a bit out of town” in Manchester, “the Beatles’ homeland”. Still, I like the idea of Don and Phil watching art films at the NFT, and having a pint at the Thomas a Becket on Old Kent Road (no definite article for the bruvvers), a pub I used to frequent circa 1980 when a great mod R&B band called Hit and Run used to do gigs there.
THE NEW GUIDE
TO LONDON TOWN
Like the rest of the world, The Everly Brothers have discovered England. But Don and Phil Everly were explorers; they’ve been hitting London annually for a decade. They’re part of the whole scene there. They’re what’s happening in London, just as much as Jean Shrimpton, Terence Stamp, Mary Quant, George Hamilton & Co. London’s their kind of town, so will be yours too (if it isn’t already). To help prepare you, here’s some of the highlights from The Everly Brothers’ own London:
FOR MEN’S WEAR: Lord John Boutique on Carnaby Street, which features what best can be described as the peacock look. Begin with their $12.50 checked trousers. Then add a lavender corduroy topper and a flowered tie. And you have the neo-Edwardian look, which is the right thing to have.
FOR DISCOTEQUES: Sybilla’s is the newest and most promising. It’s at 9 Swallow Street, about ten yards off Piccadilly, and owned by George Harrison and photographer Terry Howard, among others. It’s named after the grand daughter of Marshall Field, another cementing of the Anglo-American alliance.
FOR BIRDS’ WEAR: The Bazaar, at 46 Brompton, SW3, where the Mary Quant look is in fullest flower. At this HQ, you can doll thyself with the latest in mini-skirts and the new must, a pants-suit with bell bottoms. Then walk out into Chelsea and knock the men loopy.
FOR ETHNIC R&R: Rust’s Rare Records, 38 Grimsdyke Road, Hatch End. They’ll be able to come up with the unavailable Bo Diddleys and even a few rare Everly Brothers sides. Worth the time rummaging.
FOR GAMBLING (LEGAL): The Clermont, 44 Berkeley Square, W1. Unlimited stakes at chermin-de-fer (£1 minimum at blackjack). High life and the jet set mix in Georgian splendour here. Easily the poshest craps palace in the world. The croupiers all seem to be named Brian.
FOR ANTIQUES: Sotheby’s Auctions on Bond Street. A Dickensian labyrinth of improbably connecting buildings, basements, staircases, and tunnels, where at one time or another you can buy anything. It’s not all Rembrandts. 75% of their sales are under $300.
FOR EATS: Parkes at 4 Beauchamp Place, SW3, is the highest class (high prices, too). Restaurateur Tom Benson serves highly original food in a small, dark basement. Make your reservation four days in front.
FOR GROCERIES: Bakers, Kensington High Street, W8, is best if you’re cooking at home. Eighty clerks tend 15,000 square feet, selling 50,000 eggs a week. Also boneless goose, tinned snails, Southern yams, and 150 varieties of jam.
FOR PUBBING: Thomas a Becket, the “local” on Old Kent Road. Entertainment by Ted and John, the Lino Bros. Pop art on John’s drums. Mostly men (their women are at home cooking). Noisy and musical, and not at all jetty.
FOR CINEMA: National Film Theatre, Waterloo Bridge, South Bank, SE1. No smoking. All foreign films subtitled or with earphone commentary. Fare from “Le Dejeunner sur l’Herbe” to “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.”
FOR ROOM MATES: Wasps & Co., 93/97 Regent Street. Want to share a flat? They offer a personal service for those wanting a roomy in any area of London.
FOR WEDDED BLISS: Ashley Marriage Bureau, 10 Corporation Street, Manchester 4. A bit out of town, but marriage’s a big deal, and you’ll visit The Beatles’ homeland on the trip. Established 1953, and they claim to offer a reliable, confidential service for those seeking happy-happy. “Successes throughout the country,” they say.
FOR ANYTHING ELSE: Anything for Anyone, 29 Paddington Street, W1. Need a nanny or a rare book or a ticket for a bullfight or or or? These blokes solve (or find) anything.
Me me me: I picked this album up in a shop in Aarhus, Denmark, earlier this year. The shop was next door to the jewellers where we got the soon-to-be Mrs 50pbloke's engagement ring. It was she who spotted the album.
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