Slumberland is gearing up for its 30th birthday with a singles club. So I've come up with 30 hits from Slumberland.
True, it might have been neater to have done 30 7"s from the label, but that would mean missing loads of classics. Also true: I might have missed some favourites anyway. Send your complaints to the usual address, or better still make your own list.
These aren't in any order of preference. They're all great.
Velocity Girl - I Don't Care If You Go
This is where I first checked in with Slumberland. There weren’t a lot of ways to find out about the international pop underground in 1990, not at least if you were still at school and everyone else was into mainstream stuff. So I took a risk by mailorder on a band named after a really good record. Turns out they had made a really good record as well, one I’m nowhere near sick of hearing 28 years later.
Small Factory – What To Want
Hands down, Small Factory and Velocity Girl were my favourite singles bands of the early 90s. If I’d have been the morbid teen who put a list of their desert island discs in their back pocket in case they were found dead in a graveyard, these bands would’ve featured.
The Aislers Set - Long Division
At their best - which was frequent and often - The Aislers Set wrote their own 1960s girl group hits with stop start rhythms and handclaps. Because the Brill Building was shut they recorded in a garage. This reminds me a little of My Boyfriend’s Back.
The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - Come Saturday
Their debut could have hardly been clearer in its intentions by modifying The Field Mice’s This Love Is Not Wrong to This Love Is Fucking Right! Come Saturday is fuzzy like Sensitive and fast like Freak Scene. No surprise they went supernova.
Weekend - Red
Go on, name a better ep of the last 10 years. Sorry, you’re wrong. Yes it’s still available. And if you don’t own this but have seen My Bloody Valentine one of their reformation gigs, your excuses had better well be bloody good.
The Earthmen – Cool Chick #59
During grunge’s imperial period, Australia’s The Earthmen took it back to the basics of 80s harDCore and punk, but kept the idea that the best tunes were from even a bit before that. Like the 1960s.
The Artisans - Start Again
Jazz Serenade is one of the great lost singles from one of the great lost bands. They tried to sound like Josef K years after everyone stopped and years before anyone tried again. God, they were good. Thanks to Slumberland there were two more songs on a compilation.
Go Sailor - Long Distance
Amy Linton and Rose Melberg in one band? Yes please! What could go wrong? Absolutely nothing. This is pop perfection.
Rocketship – I Love You Like The Way That I Used To Do
No one, apart from Stereolab on a good day, could match drone with such huge tunes. History has shown Rocketship were right all along. It seemed so obvious then. It still does. If you’re coming to this fresh, I envy you.
The Clientele - Porcelain
If everyone who heard The Return of the Durutti Column formed a band they’d mostly be shit. Felt and The Clientele heard it, at different stages, and were consequently brilliant.
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