I think we're all agreed that Heart Beach's Counting was one of 2016's best singles (by "we" I mean "me, myself and I" and by "best" I mean I played it more than most other singles and I'm still not tired of it).
There are only a few songs as good as Counting on the Kiss Your Face album, but then that makes them modern classics. The whole album is great, though.
Like the Mary Chain they take simple pop tunes and record them with the lights off and sunglasses on (listen to Record). Like Southern Comfort they do nagging, ragged bliss (listen to Sleeping). And like Dum Dum Girls they do basic feedback and instant hits (listen to Brittle).
Sunday, 29 January 2017
Friday, 20 January 2017
Francoise Hardy interview, 1996
"I've got a very limited voice, which can be effective on some songs. I like the contrast between big music and a little voice. I really like the Jesus and Mary Chain."
Published 21 June 1996. I know it's a bit crumpled. It's been stuck between some Francoise Hardy records for over 20 years.
Published 21 June 1996. I know it's a bit crumpled. It's been stuck between some Francoise Hardy records for over 20 years.
Sunday, 15 January 2017
Buzzcocks show time's up for box sets
Buzzcocks' Spiral Scratch ep is being reissued. Great. Every home should have one. So is Time's Up, the semi-official bootleg album. Only completists really need that. It's not very good.
If you want both, that'll be £23. Fair enough. If you want both in a box, that'll be £50. I know. Although you do get some badges and photos and posters with that.
Remember NME's 2007 redesign which featured a "Weekly Planner catering for younger readers"? That was the magazine's death knell, a sign it had moved so far from its roots and mission, that its closure was inevitable. This box set stinks of the same desperation for the box set market.
If you want both, that'll be £23. Fair enough. If you want both in a box, that'll be £50. I know. Although you do get some badges and photos and posters with that.
Remember NME's 2007 redesign which featured a "Weekly Planner catering for younger readers"? That was the magazine's death knell, a sign it had moved so far from its roots and mission, that its closure was inevitable. This box set stinks of the same desperation for the box set market.
The £50 price tag is telling. This sounds like a record company trying to bring back the 50 quid bloke, a term coined by journalist and magazine publisher David Hepworth in 2003:
"This is the guy we've all seen in Borders or HMV on a Friday afternoon, possibly after a drink or two, tie slightly undone, buying two CDs, a DVD and maybe a book - fifty quid's worth - and frantically computing how he's going to convince his partner that this is a really, really worthwhile investment."
50 quid bloke died, possibly with Borders and HMV, replaced either by Vinyl Revival Man (repurchasing those cheap CDs from HMV with £20 180g virgin vinyl reissues) or by 79p download man.
Whoever buys this box set will have a hard time justifying it to anyone if they have to. It doesn't offer anything like value for money.
The marketing team have subtitled this 'Mk 1 Box Set'. Let's imagine what will be in Mk 2 Box Set. All 3 studio albums? What about Mk 3 Box Set? All the singles? Well, if that's the case then Box Sets Mk 2 and 3 would be a reissue of the 5x LP 1989 Product box set.
Then you could rightly say "ever get the feeling you've been cheated?"
"This is the guy we've all seen in Borders or HMV on a Friday afternoon, possibly after a drink or two, tie slightly undone, buying two CDs, a DVD and maybe a book - fifty quid's worth - and frantically computing how he's going to convince his partner that this is a really, really worthwhile investment."
50 quid bloke died, possibly with Borders and HMV, replaced either by Vinyl Revival Man (repurchasing those cheap CDs from HMV with £20 180g virgin vinyl reissues) or by 79p download man.
Whoever buys this box set will have a hard time justifying it to anyone if they have to. It doesn't offer anything like value for money.
The marketing team have subtitled this 'Mk 1 Box Set'. Let's imagine what will be in Mk 2 Box Set. All 3 studio albums? What about Mk 3 Box Set? All the singles? Well, if that's the case then Box Sets Mk 2 and 3 would be a reissue of the 5x LP 1989 Product box set.
Friday, 13 January 2017
Field Route - Dreaming
Field Route make extreme music. Extremely small, beautiful and poetic music. This kind of extreme indiepop seems to rile people no end, even though it takes an adventurous and thoughtful path as any blissed out rock or pscyh band.
If you want to annoy people, play this record out. Play it in a set with The Wake's O Pamela, The Field Mice's Emma's House and St Christopher's Crystal Clear. It's in that lineage. In the same way it's got the quietly rousing grandeur of The Walker Brothers, which riles no one. That's cultural perception for you.
I can imagine them releasing a stripped-back acoustic ep of New Order covers. Based on this excellent start (well, this is two of Horse Beach moonlighting, so they've got previous), whatever they do next will be worth catching.
Sunday, 1 January 2017
Bearcats - Break Up Stories
On New Friends Bearcats switch on the distortion pedal and give their guitars what I believe is technically called Hell all the while keeping the new wave beat - chugging bass and handclaps - going.
Turn Me Around sees them pitch their stall midway between Vivian Girls and Crystal Stilts - dramatically static, atmospheric and romantically fragile. Someone somewhere may already be carving the lyrics on their arm.
They go down that road marked '1982' or 'The Cure' or 'Blank Dogs' for Mickey and Mallory, the last track on this tape. I didn't go for that sound the last time it was revived and I'm still not biting. Still, 2 out of 3 of these songs are magic.
Turn Me Around sees them pitch their stall midway between Vivian Girls and Crystal Stilts - dramatically static, atmospheric and romantically fragile. Someone somewhere may already be carving the lyrics on their arm.
They go down that road marked '1982' or 'The Cure' or 'Blank Dogs' for Mickey and Mallory, the last track on this tape. I didn't go for that sound the last time it was revived and I'm still not biting. Still, 2 out of 3 of these songs are magic.
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