The Heart Throbs were a band I kept on seeing supporting other acts and they were always a good reason to drag yourself away from the bar and even, shock! horror! stand up! The first time I saw them was on a wonderful triple bill along with The Motorcycle Boy and "Darklands" era Jesus & Mary Chain. Around that time the band released their single "Bang" on Rough Trade, after a couple more singles they signed to One Little Indian. Three albums followed "Cleopatra Grip" in 1992, "Jubilee Twist" in 1992 and finally "Vertical Smile" in 1993. All three had some great songs, some almost hit singles, and more importantly risque (apparently) album titles. A steady stream of band members came and went and sadly the band firmly resides in the coulda been shoulda been pile. Today's downloads include the Bang single and a track a piece from the first two albums.
Hi! Remember us. This is Adrian, he's the reason you may have come here and wondered why nothing new has been posted. I'll do my best to update (in)frequently going forward. As a special holiday post here are two new Saint Etienne songs the band gave away to the attendees of thier Christmas show in London this week. The first is apparently a Cliff Richard cover and the second a brand new song by the band. Happy holidays everyone!
The Swedish Polarbears list their influences as "Old guys like The Byrds, Neil Young, The Beach Boys, Big Star and so on... And some later bands heavily influenced by them, like Teenage Fanclub, Weezer, The Posies, Redd Kross, Sloan." Without even downloading the songs below or visiting their webpage or myspace page and downloading another two you probably get an idea of what their songs will sound like. They even have a song about Mr. Norman Blake from Teenage Fanclub, and any of these songs would not stand out on the Fannies best work. On a windy, rainy day in September when you realize the screws you bought to put up some shelves are too damn small and you need to go out again, play these and put a smile on your face.
Camera Obscura continued their quest to play a session on every half decent radio show on the globe this yeart by appearing on Mark Radcliffe's show this week. At the same time I continued my quest to record and upload said sessions so here are two songs from the album "Let's Get Out Of This County" and a previously unreleased cover of a song by The Paris Sisters recorded by Phil Spector when his genius to insaneometer wasn't slightly more balanced.
- Camera Obscura - Let's Get Out Of This Country (Radcliffe session)
- Camera Obscura - Come Back Margaret (Radcliffe session)
- Camera Obscura - I Love How You Love Me (Radcliffe Session)
I first heard Damon Gough a/k/a Badly Drawn Boy when he appeared on the much hyped first Unkle album, alongside the likes of Richard Ashcroft, Thom Yorke and of course DJ Shadow, Mr. Gough delivered a great performance that delivered on the great reviews he had for his early blink and you missed them early EPs. Since then over the course of his own albums he has shown a rare talent for classic pastoral pop. If his hero and inspiration Bruce Springsteen had hailed from the North of England, songs about meeting Madonna may have emerged. In fact, Gough's forthcoming album "Born In The Uk" is the story of growing up in 70's Britain as the video for the title track illustrates. The downloads today include that very first Unkle song, a couple of album highlights and a cover of the Dexys classic "Come On Eileen"
So thanks to those fine people at Domino, it looks like The Triffids will get the legacy they deserve with all of the bands albums getting the deluxe re-release, extra tracks, fancy booklet treatment in the next year or so. First out of the gates is what many regard as the band's finest moment "Born Sandy devotional" The album was the first that many heard from the band and it's success in the indie charts led to their deal with Island Records and what was expected to be their big break. Featuring the classic "Wide Open Road" the other songs today prove it wasn't a one trick pony. Two of the songs were featured on the original release and "Convent Walls" is one of the nine extra songs featured on this release. If you following the link below to the Triffids mini site you can watch a video and get another download all for the price of your email address.
I always lumped Cud in with the likes of Stump and Bogshed, Peel favorites favoring angular sounds and wacky song titles. Their new compilation though "Rich And Strange" highlight that was just one side of the band who progressed from a shambolic, sound to almost polished quirkiness on their last album. In their career they even dented the UK singles charts a couple of times. The release of the compilation has also prompted the band to get back together for some live shows which have been well received so maybe new recordings will be on the horizon?
So we're now in a new house, and I've finally had time to pause after a whole bunch of painting. My soundtrack while I splashed paint in all directions including some on the walls was The Pipettes A giddy mixture of 60's girl group, Strawberry Switchblade (maybe just the polka dots) and some of the pop fun of the B52s mixed together with a grrrl power attitude, and in their recently released album "We Are The Pipettes" you get one of the soundtracks to this summer. Brighton based and sharing a label with The Go-Team from reviews it sounds like their live show is even better than their records so far. Rumors of a US tour at the start of next year abound, I for one will be bringing my paintbrush. The downloads today are from a variety of recent radio sessions and include some acoustic versions of songs from their album.
I don't need much excuse to post about certain bands, yes Camera Obscura, St Etienne and of course Belle & Sebastian I'm talking about you, and The Trashcan Sinatras. I just received the band's first DVD in the mail today, "Live At The Troubadour" features as the name subtly suggests a live show recorded in L.A. at the end of 2004, a KCRW radio session and a further ten songs from an earlier Troubadour show. As the booklet inside says; "These shows were quite an accomplishment for a band many didn't even realize still existed...a band people had nearly given up hope of seeing in concert again during their lifetime" Pretty much sums it up, and like the Go-Betweens DVD a perfect souvenir of that rare occurrence a comeback that is just a bad facsimile of their previous highs. Get the DVD at the link below and check out their huge archive of MP3's and videos. The following songs can be found there and are two Lennon covers and an acoustic version of one of their best songs.
- Trashcan Sinatras - Hayfever
- Trashcan Sinatras - Woman
- Trashcan Sinatras - Free As A Bird
Buy their DVD and download to your heart's delight here
Moose are a fine example of a band who got a whole bunch of positive press when they first appeared. Triumphed as one of the leading lights of the shoegazing movement this got them into the music papers but soon become a noose around their neck that they never really escaped from. Their first three EPs gave the impression they were destined for greatness but as they moved away from their original sound and brought in country and even soul influences they produced their most accomplished music but at the same time were still thought of as last year's big thing. All of their albums are fine purchases from the stunning artwork in but if I were to recommend one it'd probably be "XYZ" from 1992. They also were masters of the cool cover version although sadly they often ended up as freebie 7" singles that came with the vinyl versions of their albums where they covered songs by the likes of Colourbox, Wire and Bobby Gentry. Today's songs are a couple of early greats and a cover of "Everybody's Talking."
Voice Of The Beehive emerged in the late eighties in a burst of dress-up clothes, a sassy image, and a boatload of catchy songs. Mixing powerpop, sixties girl groups, a dash of Blondie, and kind of continuing where Strawberry Switchblade left off they had a handful of hit singles in the UK, mainly due to their label releasing them several times, usually in five formats at a time until the public surrendered. They released three albums, but by the third "Sex & Misery" most people were probably unaware it even came out. For the whole story you can check out the biography at the excellent website below and today's downloads include two singles from their first album "Let It Bee" and a song from their second "Honey Lingers."
In 1993 a compilation album was released called "Peace Together" which coincided with a series of concerts where, like the album, British and Irish musicians played and presented a united front calling for an end to the troubles in Northern Ireland. The album features many of these bands producing cover versions of songs I guess they thought were pertinent. The album also features the dreaded mass artist singalong, in this case the single "Be Still" that featured the likes of Sinead O'Connor and Feargal Sharkey. Probably the main selling point of the album was U2 featuring laughing Lou Reed on "Satellite Of Love" but my favorites are the songs featured today, Blur covering Elvis Costello's "Oliver's Army", Pop Will Eat Itself making Peter Gabriel's "Games Without Frontiers" sound even more menacing than the original, and finally My Bloody Valentine with, I think, one of the only two songs the band recorded once they signed to Island Records (the other being a Wire cover on another compilation).
- Blur - Oliver's Army
- Pop Will Eat Itself - Games Without Frontiers
- My Bloody Valentine - We Have All The Time In The World
The first three things that may come into your head if I mention Sandie Shaw 1. Winning the Eurovision song contest with "puppet On A String", 2. Not wearing shows and 3. Morrissey and The Smiths. Several things you may not realize about Sandie Shaw: She had three number one singles by the age of 21, was the first British recording artist to perform in the former Soviet Union, and the last to appear in Iran, Released albums throughout Europe singing in French, German, and Spanish, was the first British female singer to produce and own the copyright to her own material, and personally produces her own excellent website, complete with exhaustive discography and monthly newsletter at the link below. It's a tragedy that most people know little of her music beyond "Puppet On A String" as since the 60's she has produced a wealth of songs that should have her held in the same esteem as the likes of Dusty Springfield, but possibly because she never really made in an impact in the US she only received a degree of recognition when she became an icon for Smiths fans. After recording "Jeane," and "Hand In Glove" with them she had a resurgence and released the album "Hello Angel" and singles featuring covers of songs by the likes of Lloyd Cole and The Waterboys alongside some her best compositions. Today's downloads feature two unlikely until you hear them covers from the album "Reviewing The Situation," a single from 1967, and her take on a Lloyd Cole classic.
Camera Obscura during their currrent US tour stopped off at KCRW and played an eight song session, the full results of which you can listen to or even watch via the link below. The songs I've posted from it, really highlight how their live sound is a lot tougher than the recorded versions. The studio version of their cover of Sheena Easton's "Modern Girl" can be found on a CD free in the UK with this months Q magazine which should end up in your local Barnes & Noble in a month or so.
Good news! You can now download for free a new song from the not released for far too long Pernice Brothers album along with a video to go with it. Follow the link at the bottom of this. This album reunites Mr. Pernice with the producer of the classic "Overcome By Happiness" and if its half as good as that album I can't wait. Here's what my at the time not my wife said about that album back in the day;
"I loved what I heard. something about the sound of it, the longing in the vocals, the tender arrangements of the violins and guitars and horns, really struck me. the music was simple, but at the same time had a resounding sense of completeness. Try to recall the last time you listened to an album thatfeatured, among other instruments, a flugelhorn. And that flugelhorn's not all. In addition to the standard guitars, drums, and occasional piano, add three trombones, some violins and violas, and even the languid strummings of a harp. The title track starts slowly and sparsely, with joe's sandpaper vocals against a backdrop of simple drums and a hushed bass line building into a richly swirling number that melts easily into the next track. The characteristic twang of pernice's earlier work is absent here. the Pernice Brothers take pop sensibilities and flesh them out completely, a la belle and sebastian, to make for an album that's completely satisfying. I liked the layers. I liked the sound of joe pernice's voice. I liked that it felt like there was a pervading sense of loss or even melancholy in the songs, but that that feeling of absence was what tied everything together to make the sound complete. I thought about that a bit when I was first listening to the album, the idea of a lack of something somehow defining the greater whole. perhaps I am waxing a bit too philosophical here, but when I was listening to this album constantly for the first week or so I owned it, itall made sense to me, given things in my life at that point. the music was whole, filling, like a good meal. a meal complete with appetisers, wine, entree, anddessert. sonically, instead of nutritionally, balanced.
Today's downloads include the title track of that album, my favorite song from the last album "Discover A Lovlier You", the very first Pernice Brothers single which has never appeared on an album, and finally a track of a tour only EP.
The Pernice Brothers - Overcome By Happiness
The Pernice Brothers - Subject Drop
The Pernice Brothers - Square World
The Pernice Brothers - Ballad Of Bjorn Borg
Buy CDs and get your free Pernice Brothers MP3/Video downloads here
Whistler if mentioned at all were usually brought up as they featured ex EMF songwriter Ian Dench. Sounding nothing at all like his former band Dench, along with singer Kerry Shaw and viola player James Topham, swapped indie dance and shouty pop for gentle pastoral folkiness. They released two albums, "Whistler" in 1999 and "Faith In The Morning" in 2000 with a covers EP "Intermission" inbetween. The band emerged at the same time as Black Box Recorder and the vocal styles of each band always struck me as similar but Whistler were always less menacing. The songs today are from throughout their career and just checking on Amazon both albums are listed for a whole 1C each. How can you refuse?
The Boy Least Likely To appear to be on track to re-release each one of their singles twice, next up is "Hugging My Grudge" which if the re-release of "Be Gentle With Me" is any indication will feature a couple of fine b-sides. Plus you get another cool video featuring the animals on the album cover coming to life so who's gonna complain? Watch the video below and here a couple of songs from their KCRW session which feature whole band versions of a couple of their songs.
The Boy Least Likely To - Monsters kcrw session
The Boy Least Likely To - I'm Glad I Hitched My Apple Wagon To You Star kcrw session
