Maureen Tucker “Playing possum”

I don’t like the Velvet Underground.

I used to. I still like the idea of The Velvet Underground, what they tried to do, their motives, the lot. But John Cale was right: “the songs are hypes”.  A few years ago I realised that I didn’t want to hear their music any more and I got rid of all my Velvet Underground and related recordings. Except this one.

This is the purest recording by one of the loveliest people ever to grace the ‘orrid world of rock and pop with her presence. She’s a great and revolutionary musician. 

Published in: on May 22, 2008 at 3:44 pm Comments (0)

Mike Rep & The Quotas : “Mama was a schitzo, Daddy was a vegetable man”

No visual media could possibly aid my description of this monumental recording, so if I were you I’d go straight to http://detailedtwang.blogspot.com/ (a fine upstanding institution in its own right) and find out for yourself just how choice this fare is. But I’m not you so you’ll have to make up your own mind. Damn.

 

 

Published in: on May 20, 2008 at 2:58 pm Comments (0)

B is for…

…Beatles and Byrds. I dislike both groups immensely.

But I like this beetle

and I like this bird

immensely. Well, there you go.

 

Published in: on May 19, 2008 at 7:35 am Comments (0)

Felt “Index”/”Break it” (Shanghai SRTS 79 / CUS-321)

No, of course I don’t own a copy.

2 tracks, both an unaccompanied distorted cheap guitar recorded on a mono cassette player, bash bash bash, chunka chunka, chord A to chord B, add the little finger, take it off and back again. Oh, and what might be a bit of mumbling in the background, although, unlike their Midlands contemporaries Swell Maps, Felt didn’t credit anyone with actually ‘mumbling’. And on and on it goes (especially the longer ‘A’ side); you try really hard to listen to it, to catch every nuance, but it defies that process utterly. It’s just there and you exist parallel to it. You can’t really relate to it. No verse chorus thing, no conventional structure, no bleedin’ letup. One texture, one approach, one sound. It’s not sinister or wistful or angry. There is no mood; it’s just someone playing a guitar. That’s all it is. That’s all you can say about it, really.

Apart from that it’s as choice UK 70s DIY as it gets. Of course it was only the start and the legend lives on, but even if they’d never recorded another note Felt’s infamy would surely have be guaranteed by this single.

 

 

Published in: on May 17, 2008 at 6:59 pm Comments (0)

Danny and the dressmakers #2

Here’s some more evidence of dressmakers at work.

First 3 pages of “The boy’s book of ill-treating amplifiers”.

More anon.

 

Published in: on May 15, 2008 at 7:32 am Comments (0)

David Essex “Rock on”

You all know this one. ‘Tis a great record. (”On and on” is crap;
I thought it might be a dub, but sadly it’s a shit ballad.)
Prove it?
Just the facts:
Produced by Jeff Wayne aka Klaus Trophobe with garden shedloads of echo, 3-D bass, slinky glissandi strings, hardly any drums, nitpicking guitar and fag packet afterthought lyrics.
Stood out a million miles on the radio when it came out.
Covered by Def Leppard!
Nominated for an Emmy!

And where do we go from here?

 

Published in: on May 14, 2008 at 11:30 am Comments (0)

A is for…

“I thought this was a music blog!”  I hear you wail in torment.

Wellll……it is. 

But  I was thinking about the sadly defunct UK freakbeat combo The Aardvarks and couldn’t find a pic of them, so here’s the bassist.

Or not, as the case may be. Ho ho ho. A superb beast, nonetheless.

Watch out for an animal beginning with the letter ‘b’ coming to a blog near you soon.

Published in: on at 11:12 am Comments (0)

“I hate the Stones and I hate blues”

Despite the fact that I can only truthfully go along with 50% of the actual statement, if there’s been a better opening lyric line then I’d very much like to hear it.

Additionally, it takes its inspiration from the occult classic “Chirpy chirpy cheep cheep” by Middle of the Road which was #1 in the UK for about 3 years in the early 70s, causing me severe neurological damage in the process. But I’ve forgiven it and as such can enjoy Denim’s sublime offering of musical misanthropy for the gem it is. Case you didn’t know, it’s Lawrence out of Felt & chums.  Perfect period piece “oo-ee-oo” backing vocals, squiggly synth, not many chords, glitterstompf & a surgical lyrical dismemberment of the “you have to own at least one record by and/or see (insert name of cruddy supergroup here) live at least once” school of thought.  All in all, a most satisfying art object.

 

Published in: on May 12, 2008 at 3:00 pm Comments (0)

The flower lady and her “assistant”

“Garage music is not bad, because Christ was born in a manger, which was probably like a garage of that time.” 

 

 

 

Published in: on May 9, 2008 at 11:33 am Comments (0)

Popes “Knup in your eye”

I think you should all go here

http://illudiumphosdex.livejournal.com/27831.html

and get yourselves a bad education.

 

 

Published in: on May 8, 2008 at 8:17 pm Comments (0)