The NME At The Gates

The House Of Love - Rock Your Baby Written by Howie Casey of KC And The Sunshine band, "Rock Your Baby" was a number one for George McCrae in 1974 and is reckoned to be the first disco record of all time. Here Guy Chadwick and his plangent beat group The House Of Love depart from their usual thrumming alternative rock sound to bring that disco sound screaming into the 1990s.

The Fatima Mansions - (Everything I Do) I Do It For You Number one for 16 weeks in 1991, this song will always give Canada's Bryan Adams a place in the nation's heart. It is also clearly indelibly etched in the heart of The Fatima Mansions' Cathal Coughlan, who turns it inside out and writes all over its entrails in this hypnotic total remake. Cathal too is no stranger to cover versions, having entranced the rock world in the 1980s when in Microdisney with a moving rendition of the theme from Sons and Daughters

Curve - I Feel Love Donna Summer's classic number one from 1977 is still the ultimate Eurodisco record, a maelstrom of electronics and sex. Curve-normally noted for their hypnotic spook rock-take a rare trip to the dancefloor and give a blasting tribute to the genuis of "I Feel Love"'s influentual writer and producer Giorgio Moroder.

The Spastics Society in the UK who benefited from the release of this album in 1992, renamed themselves Scope and you can get information about them, and make a donation here

Keep Your NME's Closer

The Blue Aeroplanes - Bad Moon Rising Gerard Langley is the rock poet who leads Bristol's Blue Aeroplanes, a band who at one time had 12 members, all of whom insisted on playing guitar. Here more than a few of the Aeroplanes assemble themselves to thoroughly trounce Creedence Clearwater Revival's 1969 Number one hit in an energetic and heartfelt fashion

Tori Amos - Ring My Bell 1979 and Anita Ward's innuendo-ridden disco hit tops the charts with its rude implications and brilliant "pyooweee!" drum noise. 1992 and Tori Amos-the US chanteuse already noted for her moving piano-only version of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit"-brings a distinctly rock sensibility to Anita's hit. Versatile stuff pop music eh?

Ride - The Model A 1981 hit for Kraftwerk, this 1977 song is here rendered faithfully by Oxford's Ride who elected to drop their standard glittering guitar stylings and go keyboard crazy. Prehaps Ride will go the whole hog and, like Kraftwerk, release "The Model" in German. We can only wait with baited breath.

The NME Within

A real mixed bag today:

Sinead O'Connor - Secret Love Once a number one for the great Doris Day in 1954. "Secret Love" goes uptempo and brassy in this new version by Sinead O'Connor, herself something of a fan of the classic torch song, wther it be "Someday My Prince Will Come" from Sleeping Beauty or indeed your actual Prince song "Nothing Compares 2 U"

Ned's Atomic Dustbin - I've Never Been To Me Charlene - where is she now? "I've Never Been To Me" was her only hit, a 1979 number one whose thoughtful sentiments and moody melody have by and large been ignored by Ned's Atomic Dustbin, who bring to the song a dance sensibility it had previously lacked. The Neds-normally a scrunching Midlands alternative rock act with two bass guitars-are the only band here named after an episode of The Goon Show. I expected to hate this track but it is one of my favorites on the album, how could I have doubted the mighty Neds??

The Jesus And Mary Chain - Little Red Rooster In their early days The Rolling Stones did so many songs wriiten by other people that their manager Andrew Loog Oldham became confused and announced that the band's version of Buddy Holly's "Not Fade Away" was the best song the Stones ever wrote"! "Little Red Rooster was the band's first number one in 1964 a sexually unambiguous take on the Howling Wolf original. Here it is given a new feedback menace by East Kilbride's Jesus And Mary Chain, themselves previously best known covers wise for their bizarre version of Smokey Robinson's "My Girl".

Be My NME

So I thought I'd also copy the sleevenotes for each of these songs, which as I mentioned are all from the "Ruby Trax" album produced by the NME in 1992 to celebrate the magaizne's 40th anniversary. Profits went to the Spastics Society in the UK, and the album featured favourite NME artists at the time covering number one singles from the previous 40 years. So today we have:

Suede - Brass In Pocket 1979 and The Pretenders have their first number one with the great "Brass In Pocket". Singer Chrissie Hynde is curiously unenthusiastic. "Listen to that woman's voice," she tells NME. "I hate it." Time has, however, proved her wrong. "Brass In Pocket" is a top rock classic, as evidenced by this new version from upcoming emperors of rock Suede-whose Brett Anderson is prehaps fonder of his own voice than Chrisssie was of hers.

Saint Etienne - Stranger In Paradise The only group here named after a minor French football team, Saint Etienne are versatile types, having previously given us a glowing dance remake of Neil Young's "Only Love Can Break Your Heart". Now they turn the shimmering dub pop gleam that enhanced Saint Etienne greats like "Join Our Club" and "Nothing Can Stop Us Now" to "Stranger In Paradise", thus joining the company of Tony Bennett's 1955 number one (and versions by Bing Crosby, Eddie Calvert, The Four Aces, and for all we know Dumpy's Rusty Nuts). Is that a reference to Mudhoney right at the end of the song?

Cud - Down Down Status Quo's archetypal boogie was their first number one in 1975 and its version here by Cud, kings of lion pop (who remembers this NME created scene?) is the most original since Dexy's Midnight Runners turned "Marguerita Time" into a waltz. Cud singer Carl brings the hip-swinging spirit of Tom Jones to a track best known for virtually inventing the concept of head-banging.

Hulk Is Hulk

Cover versions by NME faves will start tomorrow when I've had a chance to count the ballots on Billy Bragg yes or no. In the meantime feel free to let me know what songs you'd like to hear. In the meantime today we'll delve into the world of New Zealand's premier pop duo The Brunettes. They have recently been touring the US supporting the likes of The Shins and Rilo Kiley, and their blend of 60's girl groups, Jonathan Richman, and wry observational lyrics must have gone over well if the recorded versions are anything to go by. The duo have been together since 1998 and have released three EPs and two albums and although their pop sensibilities have always been there, the more recent releases, the album "Mars Loves Venus" and the EP "When Ice Met Cream" from this year show their sound really developing.

Although their label Lil Chief is based in New Zealand they sell/ship the newer releases from within the US. Today's songs are a song each from their last three CDs

Visit the bands website here

Buy their music here

Yes, We Do Take Requests

I picked up the vinyl box of the NME's Rubytrax compilation yesterday which features a whole bunch of top bands in 1992 covering their favorite number one singles. So what I thought I'd do is give you a list of what's on the albums and you can email me if you have something you'd love to hear. Email me at steve@redrosesforme.com or post a comment, and over the next week I'll post the most requested songs here.

The choices are:

The Wonder Stuff - Coz I Love You, Billy Bragg - When Will I See You Again? Jesus And Mary Chain - Little Red Rooster, The Mission - Atomic, Fatima Mansions - (Everything I Do) I Do It For You, Saint Etienne - Stranger In Paradise, Wedding Present - Cumberland Gap, Aztec Camera - (If Paradise Is) Half As Nice, Dannii Mingoue - Show You The Way To Go, Welfare Heroine - Where Do You Go To My Lovely, Blue Aeroplanes - Bad Moon Rising, Senseless Things - Apache, Teenage Fanclub - Mr Tambourine Man

Carter USM - Another Brick In The Wall, Blur - Maggie May, Tears For Fears - Ashes To Ashes, House Of Love - Rock Your Baby, Frank & Walters - I'm A Believer, EMF - Shuddup Your Face, Suede - Brass In Pocket, Tori Amos - Ring My Bell, Kingmaker - Lady Madonna, Marc Almond - Like A Prayer, The Farm - Don't You Want Me, Ned's Atomic Dustbin - I've Never Been To Me, Boy George - My Sweet Lord

Jesus Jones - Voodoo Chile, Bob Geldolf - Sunny Afternoon, Johnny Marr - The Good, The Bad & The Ugly, Cud - Down Down, The Fall - Legend Of Xanadu, Siinead O'Connor - Secret Love, World Party - World Without Love, Inspiral Carpets - Tainted Love, Elektric Music - Baby Come Back, Ride - The Model, Vic Reeves - Vienna, Tin Machine - Go Now, Curve - I Feel Love, Manic Street Preachers - Suicide Is Painless.

Bolivian Adventure

So today we return to Treeball who I mentioned earlier in the week in relation to their contribution to the Endearing Record IPX EP series. After purchasing their two albums, 2002's "The Strawberry Blonde School Of Class" which you can get from iTunes in the US and 2004's "National Treasure" which arrived from Finnland in 4 days!! I can report back and say the IPX EP is but the tip of a vast iceburg of pop goodness. The best thing about their music is that they fully exploit the fact they have two fine vocalists in Nick Triani and Astrid (last name?) and use that relative endangered species in modern pop, the duet, to great efffect. The most relevant recent comparison I can think of is the best moments of the Britta Philips/Dean Wareham album who also mix in shades of The Velvet Underground and The Go-Beetweens. Both of today's songs are from their more recent album, and if you visit their website there are more downloads inlcuding the video to the song "Monkeys"

The band's website resides here

Buy their music from Stupido Shop here

Lemon Peeler

The Gigolo Aunts are one of those bands that produced a consistantly high standard of album but I never really paid much attention to as the likes of Teenage Fanclub and Fountains Of Wayne always topped my Byrds/Big Star/Power pop chart. In fact the biggest interaction I had with the band were letting them know where Portsmouth's only health food store was when they popped into HMV when they supported The Wonder Stuff in the city. Like many bands though, they had that ONE song, the one they would always be known for and that would end up on lots of movie soundtracks or TV themes. In their case it was "Where I Find My Heaven".

I think the band are no more as vocalist Dave Gibbs recently released an album under the name Kid Lightning, moving in a more Americana direction i noticed with fear that he's been hanging out with Counting Crows, his website also features a Phil Collins cover MP3 if you're interested. Consider yourself warned! He also features on yet another one of the IPX EPs mentioned below which is where this song comes from.


The old Gigolo Aunts website is here

and The Kid Lighning website is here

Pancake Bay Weather Station

So after having the whole weekend to repeatedly play "One Thousand Reasons To Stay...One Reason To Leave" the album by Paper Moon I decided to not delay the inevitable and post a couple more songs by the band today. The band have made an album that has drawn comparisons to the likes of Juliana Hatfield, The Sundays, Ivy, and I would add to that the pop exuberance of Frente! They're currently in the process of recording a new album and judging from the demo versions of these songs posted at their myspace.com page, it's gonna be even better than their first. Both of today's songs are from their first album which you can buy from endearing reocords at the link below.

Buy the bands releases here

The Band's website can be found here, and more songs can be heard at their myspace.com page which is here

In A Matter Of Speaking

The Intercontinental Pop Exchange are a series of split CD EPs released by Endearing Records of Canada. A simple concept, get two bands with similar styles to contribute three or four songs (and now also videos!) to a CD, package it in a classy card sleeve with great artwork and details of the bands, seal it in a bag with a cute little badge and Viola! the perfect introduction to some wonderful music. Each of the EPs are well worth getting and as well as being availabe seperately you can now get them in package deals to save yourself a few pennies. I primarily bought the EPs as My Favorie featuring on the most recent (IPX7) but have since discovered a couple of new bands, Paper Moon from Canada and Treeball from Finland, who I'll write a bit more about later.

In the meantime here are just a few of the bands/songs featured so far. From IPX1 are Thr Paperbacks from Winnipeg who to me sound somewhat similar to The Weakerthans, adopting a similar storytelling style of lyric writing. From IPX2 also from Winnipeg are Paper Moon who list influences like That Dog, The Cardigans & Juliana Hatfield, have released one album so far with anothet to hopefully follow soon in early 2006. Treeball hail from Helsinki and were formed by songwriter Nick Triani who used to be in a UK band Supermodel. His new band are big on smokey duets and have released a couple of albums so far, the first of which is on iTunes in the US. Lastly but not leastly the four My Favorite songs included on IPX7 include one new one, a cool remix of "Homeless Club Kids" and a couple of their other songs. You also get two great videos of the band.

The Intercontinental Pop Exchange EPs can be purchased here

Endearing Records main webpage with package deals on the EPs can be found here

The Paperbacks live here

Paper Moon live here

Treeball live here

aaaaannd My Favorite reside here

The Ghost Of David Hyde

After Robert Forster and Grant McLennan split up The Go-Betweens for the first time at the beginning of the 90's, Lindy Morrison and Amanda Brown formed the short lived Cleopatra Wong. The band released two EPs, "Egg" in 92 and "Cleopatra's Lament" the following year. Sadly both releases suffer from being a product of their times in that what could be some great songs are swamped in bad fake strings synth sounds and horrible drum machine production. A couple of songs however sneaked through the net when the producer wasn't looking I guess so that's what we have here for you today.

New Day, Fresh Start

Regular viewers may remember my excited anticipation way back at the start of the year for the forthcoming and long awaited debut album by Kicker well it's finally here, and "Wild Mercury Years" doesn't dissapoint. Taking up the baton passed on by their handful of wonderful singles it continues to mine the rich vein of classic guitar pop, but the added introduction of male vocals on some songs bring out memories of the likes of early Lloyd Cole, or The Caretaker Race. The whole album has the quality of a band unconcerned with the task of spotting the latest trend, but concentrating on their pure love of songs from across the musical spectrum. So you'll hear echos of 60's pop, indie guitars, northen soul, and even country. Then in "Local Gentry" you have a Lee and Nancy style duet that each time I hear I decide yep that's my favorite song on the album, and then after the next song it changes again.

The band have recently embraced myspace.com and here you can read their history and a list of band members that is closing in on The Blue Aeroplanes in its length. Both here and at the band's webpage you can download a whole slew of MP3's including a great song "Paraguay" which missed out on being a single and really should have been and two great acoustic versions of earlier singles.


Download - Kicker - Paraguay

Lots of Kicker MP3's can be found here

The Kicker myspace.com page can be found here

Get the band's CDs in the US from Darla here

I'll Only Pick A Book For The Way It Looks

If this is the case then "Belle and Sebastian: Just A Modern Rock Story" by Paul Whitelaw would definitely catch my attention with a cover and binding ignoring a shiny slipcover and going for a style where the page edges aren't finished, giving the book the look of something you'd pick up in a musty used bookstore not your local Barnes & Noble.

At first, the idea of a Belle and Sebastian biography seemed slightly strange to me, surely the band haven't done enough to warrant a book? However, once you start reading the book it beecomes apparent they have, it was just that the band have kept the drama and tensions far away from the public, or in this case the NME's, prying eyes. This means that instead of the normal music biography, cobbled together from press releases and magazine clippings, the author, Whitelaw, tells a history of the band gathered from interviews with almost everyone involved inlcuding departed members Stuart David and Isobel Campbell. The repsonses to his questions throughout appear extremely candid and Whitelaw himself, although showing a deep love for the band and their music, is not afraid to criticise them or some of their records. Although at times the band members themselves are their own greatest critics.

The main undercurrent of the book is Stuart Murdoch's relationship with Isobel, which at times led to the band almost breaking up, and his struggle to involve the other band members more while retaining his vision of what the band should do. This is handled very well by Whitelaw who doesn't turn Campbell into a scapegoat for the band's struggles, but allows all the parties to state their case. Filled with pictures the band members have provided, a full discography of releases, radio & TV appearences and all those cover versions they've played (and a handful of typos!!) this is a book most fans of the band will get a wealth of insight from.

To tie in with this today's downloads are two songs from the band's Peel session in 2001 and if you follow the link below to the webpage devoted to the book you'll find the chance to win an iPod along with links to purchase the book itself.


The webpage for the book can be found here

Watch out for the soup dragon

Never let it be said there's not a theme running through these posts. Take today, we have two songs, by two Scottish bands, both concerning the moon, and both from their respective first albums. Take it one step further you could also summon up the spectre of Belle and Sebastian as Looper features the talents of ex B&S member Stuart David and on the first Ballboy album "Club Anthems" which is a collection of their early singles they tried very hard at times to sound like them. Not a bad thing in my humble opinion and on their subsequent releases they've definitely developed their own sound. In the meantime Looper have been quietly releasing free MP3s on their website and hopefully one day will get around to a new album so I can stop having nightmares about their pants third release "The Snare"


Looper's website is here

Up the Wooden Hill to Bedfordshire

The horrible events of last week in London have left me thinking about the city and music that always reminds me of the times I've been there. Saint Etienne are the most obvious example, there's just some sort of London quality to them and is embedded in most of their albums. Their new one "Tales From Turnpike House" is a great example of this and in my opinion is their most consistant album for a long while. Not sure if there's a US release date yet but the UK version comes with a bonus EP of songs from a hopefully forthcoming kids album "Up The Wooden Hill" you can tell you're getting old when your favourite bands are looking at enough fans with children to justify something like this. I've gotta say the song "Let's Build A Zoo" is one of my favorite songs at the moment.



The Saint Etienne website can be found here

Down the dip

On the new Fountains of Wayne grab-bag compilation "Out Of State Plates" there's a faithful cover version of Aztec Camera's "Killermont Street" which I would love more if it didn't sound JUST LIKE the original but at least it got me delving back into Roddy Frame's back catalogue and reminiscing on the highs and lows of my associations with the band.....Hearing High land, Hard Rain an marvelling at what a complete stunning album it was/is and thinking even then he would never better it and that's pretty sad when you consider Roddy was I believe 12 when he made it......When for ten minutes back when "Somewhere In My Heart" was a top pop chart hit the band was the belle of Smash Hits and seeing the band at Portsmouth Guildhall surrrounded by screaming teenage girls who at least wasn't obscuring my view......Being told that a meeting in a small Southsea park wasn't as I thought a reconcilliation but a break-up but being given a copy of their "Dreamland" album as a parting gift that I made a big show of throwing in the nearest garbage bin. Oh heady days! So three Aztec Camera songs for your pleasure, "We Could Send Letters" from High Land, Hard Rain, their great cover of "Jump" from around the time of "Knife" their second album and the aforementioned "Killermont Street" from their third album "Love." It appears Roddy is touring in various places for the rest of the year and plenty of news can be found at the website linked below.


Aztec Camera website can be found here

Do You Come Here Often?

Probably a lot more often then I have done in the last couple of months!! I promise to try and do better, and thanks to all those people who commented on the lack of posts and said they actually missed my bad grammar and downloads of guitar bands who coulda shoulda been contenders. So for your listening pleasure we have two songs that March Records released as a very limited CD (150 copies apparently) to celebrate their 10th anniversary. That's tin by the way in case you're interested. The Cd featured some of the label's bands doing covers so here's Barcelona with a cover of Altered Images' classic "I Could Be Happy" and Holiday with the Beach Boys' "That's Not Me"


March Records can be found here

Where Are They Now?

Haven't you often wondered what previously top pop stars are up while waiting for the inevitable reunion tour. Well in the case of Sleeper frontperson Louise Wener instead of going off and having an ill-conceived solo career decided instead to start writing novels. Two books have so far come out "Goodnight Steve McQueen" which got good reviews and comparisons to Nick Hornby's "High Fidelity" and her most recent "The Perfect Play" based around the world of Texas Hold em poker. Both books are now out in both the US and UK (see the Amazon link below for great prices for both) with another book listed as out next year. Alongside this Ms Wener also appears to have an interesting side career which you can check out at the link below. Also today you can download two of the band's biggest, and better, hits.


Buy Louise Wener's books here

This Is A Public Service Announcement With Guitars

Today we have a couple of record/tour announcements for people in the US and a couple of great downloads for everyone else as well, especially whoever visited from Nepal. The Trashcan Sinatras are starting a pretty extensive US tour next week, and unlike their last visit are playing full electric shows. At the same time the band have released on their website a CD compiling some of those acoustic performances from last year when they played two shows at the sadly departed Fez in NYC. All the tourdates, how to get the CD, and a whole bunch of MP3 and videos can be found at their website including this great version of The Mekons' "Ghosts Of American Astronauts"

Download - The Trashcan Sinatras - Ghosts Of Amercian Astronauts

The band's website can be found here

Also jetting over to these fair shores are the excellant Dudley Corporation who will be supporting Pinback on various dates in support of their long awaited US release of their album "In Love With" The band very kindly wrote a song for our first red roses for me CD "Swanniesong" over five years ago so we're looking forward to finally thanking them in person.

Download - The Dudley Corporation - Swanniesong

Buy their new album here

Lots more downloads can be found at the band's website here

Palookaville

"Kylie's Got A Crush On Us" was written by Gerry Love of Teenage Fanclub for the mythical Glasgow band The Clydesmen and was a almost hit for The BMX Bandits which has featured at various times most of Teenage Fanclub. Well known for their great cover versions the other song here today is a cover of Camper Van Beethoven's "Take The Skinheads Bowling" phew.



More Teenage Fanclub MP3s can be found here

Funky Monkey

Todays tracks come from a 7" single released by the band Funky Monkey in 2002. I know little about the band but the A-side "Tomorrow's Girl" features the vocals of Saint Etienne's Sarah Cracknell while the b-side "L.A. Riot" is slightly more funkier than I'd imagine a riot to be. Both songs were featured on the band's CD "Join Us In Tomorrow" which is apparently a mixture of old songs and singles.

All I Am Is Loving You

Continuing on from yesterday and Scottish pop that emerged after the likes of Orange Juice and Aztec Camera we have The Bluebells who on the back of, I think, a car commercial scored a number one hit single during 93 in the UK with the re-rerelease of their song "Young At Heart" by which time the band had long since broken up but got back together to mime on Top Of The Pops. In their lifetime the band only released one album "Sisters" in 1984 but it still stands up as a fine album today but it is a strange mix of pop singles mixed with overtly political songs like "The Patriot Game" and the of its time "South Atlantic Way" after the band split the songs recorded for their next album eventually surfaced as the aptly titled "Second" but for a good introduction to the band there is also a singles album still available.

Swallows In The Rain

In the post-Postcard era of Scottish pop Glasgow bands were ensuring the clothes stores of the city were doing a roaring trade in Aztec Camera style checked shirts and fringed suede jackets. Of these some bands dented the charts with varying degrees of success (The Bluebells, Lloyd Cole & The Commontions) and others, like Friends Again really should have but for whatever reason it wasn't to be. The band released one album "Trapped and Unwrapped" in 1984 and several singles from it including Honey At The Core with the immortal line about moon boots chaffing! How could have not been a hit. When the band split the two songwriters James Grant and Chris Thompson formed Love and Money and The Bather respectively and released several albums between them.

California One

The Decemberists are one of those bands I knew existed and on the few times I heard a song of theirs I thought "I really like this" and then promptly forget about them. Well oh foolish me! Having now heard their three albums, including "Picaresque" out TODAY I have seen the error of my ways and if you haven't already implore you to do likewise. Definitely ploughing their own furrow the band take that mainstay of pop songs the sailors lament, or tales of Chim(b)ley sweeps and turn them into wonderful pop moments with a sprig of amateur dramatics thrown in for good measure. Basically the whole thing has the capacity to suck badly but the band carry it off with aplomb. Ten years ago the band would have found their spiritual home on El Records and now they're on Kill Rock Stars. Go figure. The songs below represent one track from each of thier albums and if you pop over to the Brooklyn Vegan blog you can find a live cover version of a Joanna Newsom song. If you like the image above you can purchase the limited edition poster of it at the link below as well.

Download - The Decemberists - The Soldering Life from "Her Majsty The Decemberists

Download - The Decemberists - How I Dreamt I Was An Architect from "Castaways And Cutouts"

Download - The Decemberists - The Engine Driver from "Picaresque"

The Decemberists cover Joanna Newsom here

The bands website canne be found here

Buy the poster show above here

Draining The Pool For You

Back after my own little spring break. I've meant to post concerning The Go-Betweens for probably as long as I've been doing this blog. Simply put, The Go-Betweens are my favorite band and have been for many years. In fact they played a big part in turning me on to indie music in general. I was lent a copy of their "16 Lovers Lane" album and fell in love with the pop simplicity of it. I was then steered in the direction of Aztec Camera, Orange Juice, The Smiths and the rest is history (and far too many albums). Sadly I never got to see the classic Go-Betweens lineup before they split but when songwriters Robert Forster and Grant McLennan got back together to record the album "The Friends Of Rachel Worth" and tour with it we got to see them three times in NY/NJ. Since then all of the band's albums have been re-released with the extra disc treatment and a new album "Oceans Apart" will be out in April. So for those who haven't heard the band before today we have a link to their UK label site where you can download a whole bunch of their best singles and by way of a change here we have a video clip of the band playing one of the songs from the new album.


Download Go-Betweens MP3s here

Excellant Go-Betweens website can be found here

Stuff I've written about the band can be found here

Autour De Lucie

The two songs today from Autour De Lucie’s debut album “L’ échappée Belle” which was released in 1994. Since then the band released three albums in the US and last year another self titled album in France only. Over the course of these albums the band have added more electronic sounds to their songs but these two are fine examples of the great music on this first album. I haven’t got anything else to say today as most of the websites with pieces about the band are in French and I only got as far as being able to tell someone the dog is in the garden in French. I checked and I found no mention of this in these articles concerned.


The band's website can be found here

Rainy Days and Mondays

If I Were A Carpenter released in 1994 was a (then) all-star tribute to The Carpenters, which, like most tribute albums was a decidely hit or miss affair. The best tracks on it take the original songs and add at least something a bit different to them while some you're much better off listening to the originals. What's probably most interesting is looking at the bands involved and seeing how their careers haave fluctuated in the last ten years. So alongside the still with us (Sonic Youth, Matthew Sweet) and the reformed (American Music Club, Cracker) we have the best forgotton (4 Non Blondes) and who the hell were they in the first place? (Johnette Napolitano). Two of the better songs were the covers by American Music Club and Shonen Knife and I wish I had the Paul Quinn versiion of "Superstar" to post as well, maybe someone could hook us up?


Buy The Album here

The new Peters and Lee

Why is it that any male/female duo that comes along are now labelled as "The White Stripes if blah blah blah"? Were the WWhite Stripes referred to as "Royal Trux if they took less drugs" so The Kills are "The White Stripes but even more bluesy" and on the front of "American Whip" the second album by Joy Zipper their record label have helpfully put a sticker telling the world that the band are like The White Stripes if they jumped into Brian Wilson's sandbox and started building castles. Or something like that. It's just as well the actual music contained within warrents looking past this sad marketing as the band have taken the dreamy classic pop quality of thier debut album and whereas the first album was made up of their demos this time they have beeen given time to let the songs develop totally and although the songs do look back to influences like The Beach Boys they also contain nods to the likes of Stereolab.

Download - Joy Zipper - Check Out My New Jesus from their debut album

Download - Joy Zipper - Out Of The Sun from "American Whip

More streaming songs can be found at the band's website here

Boo Up!

The Boo Radleys are definitely a band that history appears to have forgotten in terms of how popular they are. It wasn't until I looked up the history of the band that I realised they had a number one album in the UK with "Wake Up!" in 95. The problem was this was on the back of the top ten success of the "Wake Up Boo!" single which ended up being so overplayed that the albums that followed sold less and less copies so by the time their final album "Kingsize" appeared in 98 it peaked at a low 62. It seems that the band's earlier releases are now cruelly overlooked, with their first two albums "Everythings Alright Forver" in 92 and their best album "Giant Steps" in 93 displaying a band full of fire and imagination. Todays downloads are tracks from these two albums and their cover of New Order's "True Faith." The website listed below has a bunch of tracks from their earlier singles.

A Gentle Sound

At one point Factory Records came up with the great idea of releasing the cassette versions of their albums in larger card boxes with typically lush inserts. This may have been just so they could fit the title of the debut Happy Mondays album on the sleeve, but amongst the New Order albums they also brought out the mini album by The Railway Children in this format which I bought at the time because they included their debut single "A Gentle Sound" on the tape which they left off the vinyl version. After "Reunion Wilderness" the band moved onto Virgin records who tried to push the band by focussing on the pin-up qualities of vocalist Gary Newby and resorted to releasing up to five different versions of each single and still seeing it falter at 59 in the charts. After two albums, "Recurrence" in 88 and "Native Place" in 90 the band split until Newby kept the name and released "Dream Arccade" in 99. A great introduction to the band would be one of the best ofs currently out there and Newby has recently released anm album of acoustic versions of their most popular songs.

The Railway Children website can be found here

Bed, Table, Chair

The Edsel Auctioneer were Leeds' answer to Dinosaur Jr. and appeared around the time (98) when UK bands like Teenage Fanclub were taking elements from US bands like Dinosaur and Buffalo Tom, throwing in influences like Neil Young and producing a glorious pop noise. The two songs today were the double A Sides of their debut 7". The band released two albums "Simmer" in 92 and "The Good Time Music Of" in 95.

Kick Over The Statues!

One of my collection of surreal pop moments would be turning on breakfast television one morning to find, in the 7.55 “pop” slot just before the wacky weather forecast and the 30 seconds of new at 8.00, The Redskins' video for “Keep On Keepin’ On.” Suitably ready to smash the system I then went off to my work experience placement at Barclays Bank and put checks through a franking machine!
For one brief moment in the mid eighties the Redskins brand of Motown meets punk meets The Jam and political manifestos made perfect sense. Thatcher was bringing the UK to its knees and removing the last remnants of trade union power and music in the UK had embraced politics to such an extent that the likes of Wham! and Spandau Ballet were even writing social commentary. So when The Redskins appeared on the scene with NME writer and main Redskin Chris Moore declaring he wanted the band to sing like the Supremes and walk like The Clash we all pretended to know exactly what he meant. The band released a series of great singles and they were all featured on their only album “Neither Washington…Nor Moscow”


A history of the band can be found here

Buy the album here

The Anti Midas Touch

Isn't it nice when someone does your job for you? This is definitely the case with The Wolfhounds There really is no need to go into any detail about this fine band as the website linked to below contains everything you would possibly need to know about the band along with a slew of MP3's. You will also find there an unreleased Stereolab track. The two MP3s here today were both singles by the band. If aanyone out there has an MP3 of their song "Anti-Midas Touch" please let me know.

Also today after the shocking news concerning Edwyn Collins who was admitted to hospital over the weekend after suffering a brain haemorrhage I thought it would be apt to post the track below and hope his condition improves.


The complete guide to The Wolfhounds can be found here

The Cassingle Revival

The Lucksmiths are the other band that got me to where I am today.....

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Driving on what seems the wrong side of the road from East Brunswick to Princeton, the air conditioning not working so the windows wound right down, the warm summer air flooding in. I'm marvelling at fire hydrants & yellow school buses while she's doing her level best not to get us both killed. Both of us singing along, her loudly & in tune me vainly trying to hide my tunelessness but guessing by her occasional giggles failing badly........

Squashed into an airline seat at four in the morning, somewhere over the Atlantic, still rewinding the previous week in my head, feeling like the kid who got up on Xmas morning to find not only the Subbuteo table football set under the tree but a stand full of plastic supporters as well. Looking out the window and the ever diminishing darkness, the deep red fire of sunset & the brightness of daybreak beyond. The comfort that I'm almost home, give or take several hundred miles, so I can phone at least & hear her voice again.

Looking down & suddenly realising I'm staring at Portchester, the castle & my parents house & then three hours later drawing into Portsmouth railway station and at that very moment it starts to pour with rain. Pretty much summing up my depression at being back here, back to mundaneness & even worse that now it felt like I'd managed to stand on half my table football team & the dog's eaten the plastic football. Or as The Lucksmiths put it:

"Here's me
Here's you
Draw a line between the two
This is cartography for beginners
On a map the gap's three fingers
But it's much more than that"

The song, "Guess How Much I Love You", one of many wonderful pop moments from their most recent album "A Good Kind Of Nervous" Songs that you'll want to hug, to laugh along to. Songs about train robbers wives & serial killers, about big dreams & stifled relationships delivered with a simple charm. Songs to treasure.

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When Amanda and I got married the band's "Guess How Much I Love You" was our wedding song which probably confused the guests expecting Celine Dion. When we put out our first CD, "A Boy, A Girl & A Rendez-Vous" they kindly recorded "Mars" for us, the vocals sang down a phone line between Australia and England and a resulting song that is different from all their others and one that was perfect for us. "Little Athletics" is another favorite from their album "A Good Kind Of Nervous" which is still the one I play the most. The band have just released another great EP which you can hear the title track of by following the link to the Matinee website below. You can buy a bunch of their recordings there and most of the others from the Microindie site also linked. The band are coming back to the US in late April for a short tour so if you can I'd highly recommend getting out to see them.

Download - The Lucksmiths - Mars

Hear the bands new single and buy lots of CDs here

Buy even more CDs here

The band's website can be found here

Just Moved In

Idha Ovelius it can be safe to say owes her relative success to her boyfriend/husband Andy Bell of Ride/Hurricane #1/Oasis fame. Bell inspired her to take up guitar after meeting him at a Ride concert and his influence no doubt helped her end up on Creation. This would usually be the end of this story but things took a turn for the interesting when her first album "Melody Inn" showed a songwriter with a deep love of the likes of Bobbie Gentry and eclipsed anything the plodding dull Hurricane #1 managed. Her follow up, "Troublemaker" was even better with the two songs here today examples of the strength of the music. Sadly nothing has been heard of Idha since but hopefully another poor Oasis album may mean Mrs Bell may need to go back to her day job.

Slip So Low

See See Rider were a band dogged with bad luck throughout their brief existance. Signed to Lazy Records, briefly in vogue as home to The Primitives and Birdland, the band also featured Pete Tweedie ex drummer of The Primitives. They picked up a bunch of press for their debut EP which featured the two songs here today "She Sings Alone" a fine example of Nico fronting the Velvet Underground via East Kilbride and "See See" on the flipside a longer, epic song that was probably their finest moment. At this point, when another single would have really pushed the band forward, singer May ROCK Marshall was involved in a motorbike acccident and it took over a year for the follow-up single to appear. The band then signed to Elektra but Tweedie then left after an onstage fight. He was then followed by guitarist Phil King who went on to join Lush.

For the story of play-doh Katamari Damacy and more pictures go here

Public Service or Hit Counting?

I'm sure people's perception of the point to blogs specifically MP3 blogs may be different from mine. I do this primarily to hopefully introduce people to music I love that they are often unlikely to hear otherwise. Usually because it's from ten plus years ago from a band that no longer exist and it only came out on vinyl. Now it is of course heartening to see how many people visit Turquoise Days on a day to day basis and to know people are listening to this music. New/Current bands are a different matter to me, If a band is releasing music now I have (so far) only linked to MP3 files that the band/label have posted because this is what the band want people to hear or something like a radio session that again the band did for the public to hear for free. What I tend to have a problem with is a blog posting a whole bunch of tracks or a link to a whole album by a band which have been ripped from a pre-release CD. Maybe I'm missing the point here but if all you want to do is download an album before its released why not sit on Limewire or whatever?

My point if I have one is the whole point of an MP3 blog to me is:

1. Go to blog, in this case Bzangy Groink

2. Read about Jyoti's favorite albums of 2004 and see mention of Say Hi To Your Mom

3. Download songs, discover a band making the most subtle of pop music that taps you on the shoulder several days after you heard it and whsipers the chorus into your ear so you can't forget it.

4. Go to store, buy both their albums, "Numbers and Mumbles" released last year and "Discosadness" from 2002.

5. Eagerly await forthcoming releases.

6. In the meantime check out more MP3 blogs not offering the new Beck album.

Download lots of great songs by Say Hi To Your Mom here

Born In A Maisonette

I'm sure the fact that Mighty Mighty spent most of their career on Chapter 22 records didn't help them. Some labels encourage collectors to eagerly await their next release and investigate every new signing. Chapter 22, well I love The Mission and Rose Of Avalanche so this jingly jangly indie band is right up my street. What is strange is the fact that the band managed one album when still around, "Sharks", and three, count em, three albums since they split. So for all you Mighty Mighty fans out there (there must be thousands judging by that release program!) we have the a-sides of two of their singles. Apparently the singer wanted a girl built like a car? I guess this was a specific car as my car is a 91 Cadillac with a leaky fuel tank and speakers that intermitantly blast me with feedback, almost nothing like my wife! Actually if anyone's interested email me with an offer, for the car that is. All of their albums can be purchased from Vinyl Japan at the link below.


Vinyl Japan and their landfill of Mighty Mighty releases can be found here

Lonesome Music

The Lonesome Music blog has sadly appeared to have gone into hibernation but one of the last posts features a downloadable American Music Club compilation. 24 songs from throughout their career this is the perfect introduction to the band and should show you if you don't know already why so many people love this band.
Download the zipped file here

The Strange Famous Mullet Remover

Two artists today who couldn’t be more different from one another on the surface but who’s recent, and not so recent, albums have been my most played at the moment. I’ll be interested to see if regular readers/listeners like both or either so please comment.

New York based Laura Cantrell has recently signed to Matador records for her forthcoming album but has already released two great albums “Not The Tremblin’ Kind” in 2000 and “When The Roses Bloom Again” in 2002. The first album moved John Peel enough to say:
“My favorite record of the last ten years and possibly my life is an LP by a New York woman born in Nashville called Laura Cantrell. It’s country, and I don’t know why I like it, but it has the same sort of effect on me as Roy Orbison had in the ‘60s.”
Yes both albums are to be found in the country section of your record store but this is country music that takes its influences from the roots of the genre mixes in folk and classic singer songwriters. It really is country music for people who have no interest in guys in cowboy hats singing about good ol boys. On her website there are a slew of fine downloads including this duet with Ballboy, an Elvis Costello cover and the title track of her second album, which was an outtake from the Wilco/Billy Bragg Woody Guthrie sessions.


Download - Laura Cantrell w/ Ballboy - I Lost You

Download - Laura Cantrell - Indoor Fireworks

Download - Laura Cantrell - When The Roses Bloom Again

Buy CDs and more downloads are here

Now this may come as a huge shock but I am no expert on hip-hop. Like most people as a student I brought “It Takes A Nation Of Millions”, “Three Feet High and Rising” and the first A Tribe Called Quest album but apart from dipping into the Quannum/Blackalicious catalogues I know little about the music. I know I have no frame of reference or interest in the majority of releases and I’m sure that’s just fine with Lil Jon or whoever. But every so often I’ll hear a track that is so good even I get it. One of those was “Makeshift Patriot” a free download from Sage Francis in the wake of 911, which perfectly captured my mood, and many of my friends at the time. This seemed to marked a shift in direction for Francis as his prior album “Personal Journals” was just that a rap album dominated by fear and loathing, boast free and was labeled as Emo rap by journalists who just love to categorize. The new album “A Healthy Distrust” sees Francis turns his gaze and lyrical dexterity to the world around him to glorious effect, delivering raps on the invasion of Iraq and raps gun fixation. Probably the closest album I have to this was the debut from The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy, which also combined rap with politics and at times industrial beats. Francis is also joined by Will Oldham on the track “Sea Lions” which many regard as the highlight of the album. The album actually ends with Francis’ tribute to his hero Johnny Cash so maybe he does have a link to Cantrell.

Sage Francis downloads from "A Healthy Distrust" can be found here

Download - Sage Francis - Different from "Personal Journals"

Sweet Peas

Cub were an all female trio from Canada who between 93 and 96 released three albums of ramshackle guitar pop that would appeal to fans of Go Sailor and Beat Happening. Todays song pretty much sums up everything that was good about them and can be found on their first album "Betti-Cola" Obviously the song should be called My Guinea Pig but I guess it wouldn't scan properly.

Today's other song is by, Manchester band I think, Laugh. Way back when the NME or Melody Maker did a benefit video cassette of indie bands for the UK housing charity Shelter. This included this song by Laugh and I very taken I was by it to. So taken in fact that I promptly forgot about the band until finding this single in a store recently. Apparenttly the band also released an album "Sensation Number One" on sub-aqua records so if anyone can knows more about the album let me know.

The Good Humor Man Is A Polar Bear

Go here for a Valentine's day video from Aberfeldy

Bring Trouble

Excerpts from Red Roses For Me 6 - The perfect solution is now at hand, it's called "Understand" it's by Brian and features eight perfectly formed pop gems bought to you by those bastions of good taste at Setanta. Recorded for a staggeringly small amount of money in a living room, Brian isn't in fact a band but one person. This gives my poor comparison of an overall feeling that this would sit somewhere between the pop sensibilities of early Lightning Seeds & the already mentioned before but hell lets be reckless Another Sunny Day some credence at least.

The songs get off to a fine start with the title track itself, a basic drum machine beat interwoven with chiming guitar producing a perfect simple melody & a mournful whisper in the ear vocal. This makes the don't worry I've been through it before chorus of "I Understand" actually ring true. "You Don't Want A Boyfriend" is a tear stained letter to THAT person asking that age old question "why are you going out with him when he treats you so badly, while I worship the ground you walk on?" As the song sums itself up "I've heard it said before & I find it's true, the more you give yourself away to someone the less they think of you"

Since then Brian released three EPs and a full length album "Bring Trouble" but nothing since 2000. A couple of the CDs including "Understand" is available at the Setanta store link below.

Brian releases are available here

Flippin Heck Tucker!

I feel like I have finally arrived or something. Actually I think the link below just proves you can sell any old crap on ebay. I have to say even with inflation I'm not sure my first attempt at a fanzine, produced on a typerwriter with pictures quite literally cut an pasted and then badly photocopied at work before anyone got in every morning is worth the massive 99p the bidding currently stands at but I can confirm it's one of the first few copies where I forgot how to spell Goodbye Mr Mckenzine on the cover.

Forget toast that looks like a member of The Arcade Fire, bid on a real piece of indie history! it's item number 3872330292 or you can find it by searching for red roses for me fanzine

When The Truth Hits Home

As the trend for mash-up mixes or whatever this week's name have taken hold you have of course been deluged by a lot of bad Beastie Boys/Jay-Z/Missey Elliott vs. whoever mixes but amongst the sea of mediocrity you have people like The Kleptones, the recent DJ Food megamix and Go Home Productions alias Mark Vidler who has consistantly produced mixes overflowing with imagination, humor and most importantly don't just take the acapella mix and try and cram it over another song.

Now, you may well be asking where this all fits in with the usual Turquoise Days fare, where's the tale of the smallish indie band who were met with apathy released some fine songs and then trudged back to their day jobs? Well in 1991 there was a band called Chicane who, yes you guessed it, released some fine singles, were met with apathy and that of course is usually that. But in this case fast forward a few years and it turns out Mark Vidler was a member of that band and started producing these great mixes. These got more and more attention with regular plays on the like of XFM in the UK and then he produced "Ray Of Gob" the mix which as he put it enabled him to give up his day job and concentrate on music again. Official mixes have followed for the likes of Bowie, The Vines and a chance to mix stuff for the new Gang Of Four release and he still finds time to produce tracks like the one posted on hiss website this week "Breakin' My Bloody Process" fuses Kasabian, The Music and My Bloody Valentine with bits of The Stone Roses thrown in for good measure. Check out his website and I guarantee you'll find at least one thing you'll enjoy. His blog linkeed below also contains a complete history of Chicane with a whole slew of songs to download.

Go Home Productions mixes are here

The History of Chicane can be found here

Wensleydale

Tart not to be confused with those other bands Tart and Tart were based in Chicago in the mid nineties. At one point someone from Number One Cup was in the band and they released at least one other single apart from the one the song below "Kite" comes from. This song has a kind of Belly sound to it and I wish I could tell you more about the band or find some more recordings so if anyone can help apparently blogger have tweaked the comments process on here so maybe you could give it a try?

Tiger were music press darlings between 96-98 and started off releasing the single "Shining In The Woods" on Fierce Panda. What I especially like about this song is you can make up nonsense to shout out during the female vocal parts of the verses but maybe that's just me? The band released two albums on Island offshoot Trade 2 which are worth a listen especially the second "Rosaria"

Plink Plonk Fizz

I was so excited to be browsing ebay a week or so ago and find that Jim at Egg Records had released a CD EP by The Hardy Boys. The CD features what was meant to be a single in 1991 but never happened. I released a song by the band on a compilation tape around that time and had heard these songs then but managed to lost the cassette they were on at some point. So to get the chance to hear them again after all this time was such a pleasure. The EP also highlights the depth of the bands songs from the guitar pop of "Let The World Smother You" to the dancier "Plink Plonk Fizz" featuring a samplee of I believe future Loaded magazine editor James Brown extolling the benefits of ecstacy. Even better news is there will soon be a full length CD compilation containing everything the band recorded. This will include the other song you can download from Tom at indie MP3, "Harbour Lights" once again another side of the band.

Download The Hardy Boys "Let The World Smother You" and "Harbour Lights" here

The Egg Records website can be found here

Back In Your Town

In the late eighties Ric Menck and Paul Chastain seemed to be releasing singles under different names at an alarming but very welcome rate, The Big Maybe, Stupid Cupids, Springfields, and Velvet Crush all beared their hallmarks of great pop tunes infused with an appreciation of the best of 60s music. Added to this list can be the two singles they released on the Bus Stop label under the name Bag O Shells, the first of which is featured here today. "Markers" b/w "Almost Home" is probably one of my favorite 7" singles of all time, it just emcompasses everything that is just so right about the format and the two songs just scream out for an old fashioned record player that could be set up to replay a single without you having to get up and move the arm.

Download - Bag O Shells - Almost Home

Download - Bag O Shells - Markers

We Walk Around

So in the interests of picking up records I never brought with me when I moved to the US, and to find songs I really want to feature here I have frequently found myself "diggin in the crates" as I believe the cool kids call it at the used music stores in this part of New Jersey (Princeton record exchange, vintage vinyl) and here I have come to the conclusion that in your better used vinyl stores along side every 70s rock album you wouldn't want you will without fail find the very excellant one and only full length album by Colourbox. First things first, don't confuse this self titled album with their mini album of early singles also self titled. Easy to spot difference the mini album has a sleeve featuring a fetching photograph of a horse's penis.

Colourbox consisted of brothers Martyn and Steve Young and stuck out like a sore thumb on the 4AD rosta at the time that consisted of The Cocteau Twins and lots of bad goth bands. Colourbox were really a band out of time mixing samples, guitars and beats, dub influences and single sleeves of Jimmy Hill at long before dance "pioneers" Leftfield and Underworld discovered it. The last release featuring the band was the classic "Pump Up The Volume" under the MARRS name with AR Kane which in hindsight didn't appear to be much of a collaboration as one side is obviously a Colourbox track with the b-side sounding like AR Kane. Now you would think after a massive hit the time would have been ripe for more Colourbox recordings but that was it nothing else ever appeared and we just have the one album to remember them by and used record stores of America have a bin filler.

Half There And Dancing

Taking a quick diversion into the here and now today I want to recommend a band whose albums you can still find hopefully in your discerning music emporium and if not order from the links below. My Favorite are a New York based five piece taking ispiration from all the right people (The Smiths, New Order, Go-Betweens) and adding that little something, that spark that seperates the muscial haves from the have-not and never ever wills. The majority of their songs can be found on two CDs 1999s "Love At Absolute Zero" and 2003's collection of EPs and new remixes "The Happiest Days Of Our Lives" both albums are well worth purchasing and show a band in love with great music and adding a fresh twist to their songs to leave you thinking you've heard the songs before but its just because they're so immediately memorable. The downloads today, via their label Double Agents website, are a song from each album and you go to the website you can see videos and of course buy the albums.

Download - My Favorite - Working Class Jacket

Download - My Favorite - Burning Hearts

Buy the albums, watch the videos here

The band's own website can be found here

Heard It All

Today we have two bands linked together firstly as I only have one single by each and secondly as they were both of Creation records briefly and may be argued would have been better off staying there, hanging around the offcie making the tea and as a reward be allowed to bring out a new album every year. It appeared to work for Ed(ward) Ball!

Anyway, first we have The Bodines who after a run of excellant singles looked set for greatness. Major labels came a calling and they settled on the mighty Magnet label. For those who don't know Magnet were famous for getting hits but with artists of their manufactured/novelty genre. At some point they decdied what they needed was some credability signed The Bodines, made videos, got them on TV, re-released the classic single "Threase" and even kitted the band out in nice stripey t-shirts but alas it had little effect. After the bands one and only album "Played" the band split, reformed & split again but left behind some great songs like the one here "God Bless" a fine piece of C86 style jangle pop. For even more great downloads and a much better history you can visit Tom of indie mp3 blogs's page below.

Brighton's Blow Up released two singles on Creation including the wonderful "Pool Valley" I must confess I know bugger all about the band apart from that, and the fact they then released today's other download "Forever Holiday" for another label and made a video for the song of the band falling over alot on Brighton beach. If my hazy memory serves me correctly they then changed their name to something else (Spitfire?) which maybe someone out there can confirm. Yes I know you're out there!


More Bodines downloads can be found here

Candlestick Park

It's sad to think The Waltones will only go down as a footnote in pop history as the band that guitarist Mark Collins was in before joining The Charlatans. The band in the space of eighteen months released four singles and an album on Medium Cool (them again) before the label folded. The band resurfaced as Candlestick Park released one single and had an album scheduled which never appeared. The band in their short existence produced a slew of great songs three of which are here today. "The Deepest" and "She Looks Right Through Me" were both singles while "Bold" appeared on the great Medium Cool compilation "Edge Of The Road"