The actual election is bringing on The Great Depression. The first Jam record I owned was Funeral Pyre. I bought Ghost Town by The Specials at the same time, from WH Smith in Aldershot in case you were wondering. (I know you weren’t)
I was 10 years old then and the depressing part of it is how relevant it remains 36 years later. “The weak get crushed as the strong grow stronger” just about sums it up.
Anyway, voting is easy you’ve got to do is pick your 3 favourite songs from The Jam’s classic compilation and vote for them below.
The kids know where it’s at.
Paul Weller speaking in 2016:
“People say, ‘Why don’t you write any more political songs?’ But I would just write exactly the same fucking things I wrote thirty-odd years ago. Every time they fire a missile in the Middle East, that’s £850,000, right? And then they talk about the NHS, fucking selling it off or it crumbling. So nothing’s really changed, has it?”
“kidney machines replaced by rockets and guns”
“bullshit is bullshit, it just goes by different names”
Back by lack of popular demand, the wizards return with this second (here’s part one if you missed it) show dedicated to the genius of Mark E Smith.
This time they not only share a musical tribute to the great man, but also politely plough on with guest (informant) Will Neville’s Fall quiz and tell us how Will and Kicker first discovered Prestwich’s finest.
You can listen in (like a telephone thing) by clicking here or there:
Some of the physicality played and discussed on this show:
Showing scant regard for particular dates, but nevertheless wishing to respect the phenomenon that is Mark E Smith, the wizards come together to celebrate the great man’s 60 years of life and musical genius.
To assist them in maintaining the degree of accuracy they are rarely, er, rightly synonymous with, they have hauled in a proper journalist and all-round Fall expert in the form of Getitntothis‘s Will Neville. They also forced him to create a quiz. The bastards.
In this first part, of thankfully only two (Part Two is now available here), you get to hear how both Chorizo Garbanzo and Rebel Rikkit discovered The Fall and a whole bunch of Fall and Fall related music. And some terrible impressions. So, tune in immediately here and there:
Some of the physicality played and discussed on this show:
After the sad and unexpected death of Prince a year ago, many fine tributes were paid to him. But nobody did a better job of honouring his unique talent than Merseyside radio presenter / journalist Shaun Ponsonby. He put together 6 exceptional 2 hour shows for the radio station KCC Live telling Prince’s story chronologically and as Shaun puts it “let the music do the talking telling his life story as he would’ve wanted it”
We really can’t recommend these programmes highly enough, essential listening whether you’re a casual or hardcore Prince fan or even a newcomer to Prince’s music wanting to understand what all the fuss is about.
Here are links to his Prince shows followed by our interview with Shaun.
Shaun Ponsonby’s mug hidden by Prince’s mug on a mug
What was the first music you heard that got you interested in Prince?
I think if anything got me interested in Prince, it was his live performances. I was born in 1988, so I’m not old enough to have witnessed his commercial peaks. When I first became aware of him, he was a symbol and not being treated particularly well by the press. So I didn’t think much about him, he was just some weird dude. I liked 1999 when it was being blasted during the whole Millennium malarkey when that all went down, but I didn’t think much beyond that. It wasn’t until circa Musicology and 3121 when he started making more high profile appearances that I started understanding his depth, importance and sheer musicality. I kind of had him in the Michael Jackson/Madonna category before I learned more about him. I consume music in quite an obsessive way, and as soon as I become a fan of somebody, I dive in and learn everything, collect everything etc. So, I just got hooked.
Your shows provided a great balance between the 4 categories of Prince’s music output as defined by author Matt Thorne in his excellent (definitive?) book on Prince: officially released stuff, live recordings, unreleased material and side-projects with various proteges. There must be a lot of material that has never found its way out to the public. What have you never heard that you wish you could hear?
Up until recently, I’d have said The Flesh, but that finally leaked a year or two ago. Obviously Wally is something that we all really want to hear. I have always been fascinated by Wednesday. It was on an early running order for Purple Rain but was removed to make way for Take Me With U or something. I’m surprised that it has never leaked, given that it was so close to being on his biggest album.
Any tips on where people can get hold of the unreleased stuff?
Yeah, there is a great 30-something disc bootleg that basically collected together all the leaks up to that point. It has gone under two different names – “The Work” and a second version that adds a bit called “Work It 2.0”. That’s easy to find on bootleg sites (link here which may or may not work). Prince made it difficult to find bootlegs, but it also put a bit more sport into it. There is a site called Guitars 101 which has become my go-to place for boots. Prince was probably their most popular artist, but when he took a hardline on it they had to stop for fear of being sued. They now have a Prince request thread, where you post what you’re looking for and if someone has it, they will drop it to you in a private message.
I think your programmes, especially the last 2, did a great job of highlighting some of the less well known stuff.
Thank you, that does mean a lot.
So why do you think Prince lost so much of his audience after the early 90s?
I don’t think there is any one answer to this. I guess the obvious reason is the whole Warner Brothers fall-out. People didn’t understand what he was talking about. He was ahead of his time a bit there. Plus, he was selling stuff independently through the internet. I think Bowie was the only other artist doing that at the time, and people didn’t really know what to make of it. There are also the personal setbacks that he suffered, that I personally believe might have stifled his creativity a bit.
Some of the albums he was making were also either too much for a general audience (Emancipation), not designed for a general audience (Crystal Ball, N.E.W.S.), not what the public might have wanted from Prince at that time (The Truth) or the religious material was hard for people to stomach (The Rainbow Children). Come to think of it, I do wonder how much he really lost *his* audience. He might have lost the mainstream pop audience, but it seems as though the people who were really fans, and who were willing to go with him anywhere he was going to go musically did actually stick around, and he was able to utilise this when he went for his big comeback in 2004. I think Alan Leeds said “There are Prince fans, and there are Purple Rain fans.” I think that sounds about right.
Great quote that. So if someone is a newcomer to Prince’s music, one of those “Purple Rain” fans, what album would you recommend them listening to first to “get it”?
Oooh, that’s a tough one. I guess it depends what they’re into. There are so many different avenues to explore. If someone just liked the pop hits, I’d give them the likes of 1999 and Diamonds and Pearls, but if they liked things like Computer Blue, I’d get them into the likes of Sign “O” The Times. If they liked Darling Nikki, I’d go for Dirty Mind. If they went for Let’s Go Crazy, maybe The Gold Experience. Maybe I’d just show them some live performances! It is a tough one!
Purple Rain coaster, ideal for when you have to “Take Tea With U”
Do you think his insular lifestyle and individuality helped or hindered his music career commercially and/or artistically?
I think it depends on the project. If you want to have a big pop success, going all Howard Hughes is probably the wrong way to go about it. But at the same time I don’t think it made that much difference in the end. Given the success of Purple Rain in 1984, Sign “O” The Times was nowhere near as successful just three years later. But at the same time, was he even going for a huge, world conquering success with SOTT? I doubt it. And yet it was a huge artistic and critical success, and probably his definitive album. Similarly, he was able to pull out the Batman soundtrack and Diamonds and Pearls, which weren’t really huge critical successes, but sold bucketloads. With the exception of Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic I think when he actively tried to have commercial success, he was able to achieve it. Ultimately I see Prince as a creative cult artist who flirted with the mainstream at certain points in his career. It is interesting comparing Prince post-Purple Rain with Michael Jackson post-Thriller. Prince used Purple Rain to put him in a position where he could pretty much do what he wanted artistically. He used the Purple Rain money to build a massive studio complex so he could achieve what he wanted artistically, and he never repeated the Purple Rain formula. As much as I do love Michael, he used the Thriller money to build a zoo and an amusement park, and followed up Thriller with a series of albums that followed the Thriller format.
Paisley Park Studios. Admission is easy apparently.
Right at the start of show 1 you call Prince “the greatest musician in the history of popular music.” Can you think of anyone else who can compete in being **that** good in so many musical areas?
No. Not one. I’m dead serious. There is really nothing to say here. To be a virtuoso on so many instruments, to be an incredible singer whose voice I don’t think I ever heard truly falter, to be an incredible ferocious James Brown-esque dancer, to be one of the most charismatic performers and bandleaders on the planet? Damn. I’ll let him off for his lousy acting. He had to be a musician. There is nothing else he could have done with his life.
Nothing compares to him then.
He was notoriously possessive about the rights to his music. What little of it gets shared online is taken down very quickly. What do you think about his music having been made available on Spotify after his death?
He was very clear on his thoughts on Spotify, and he gave exclusive rights to Tidal for a reason. That said, I am glad it is on there personally, because I think he didn’t quite understand how the “current” generation comsume music (maybe he did and he just didn’t approve). But I wonder how much further into younger generations he could have reached if he would have allowed his music on YouTube and Spotify. For example, Beyonce covered The Beautiful Ones when she played Glastonbury. How many kids wondered what that song was and typed it in to YouTube, but couldn’t find it so just sacked it off? I agree with him on principle – and I do feel like it was a principled approach. He put his money where his mouth was and removed his music from platforms that didn’t pay the artist sufficiently. I don’t think it was just about him, I think it was about how he felt artists in general were treated.
Are there any tracks that you kick yourself for not including in the podcasts?
I don’t know if there are any I kick myself over, but the last programme covered a longer period of time than the others, so I would have liked to have gone into more detail and play more of the later stuff that I think deserves to be heard. But, I don’t think it would have worked thematically to split that into two halves or whatever. There are a few extra proteges and leaked material that I would have liked to have played too. But I think overall I gave a pretty good overview, and I think I did it justice.
Got to say I was surprised not to hear Release It from the Graffiti Bridge soundtrack, which as well as having all the quality dialogue between Jerome and Morris also has the funkiest drum loop in the world!
Ha! Well, I didn’t wanna dwell too much on Graffiti Bridge cos it was a bit of an odd period, and things were about to get interesting behind the scenes. I thought it was better to cover The Time in that period with Jerk Out from the Pandemonium! album. Although Donald Trump (Black Version) from the same record would be interesting now too!
It was great to hear Love Song, the song Prince collaborated with Madonna on her best album. I’d forgotten all about that. It starts off like a proper collaboraton then as it goes on it becomes far more of a Prince song than a Madonna song. Was there only ever this song that they worked on or has any other stuff surfaced from that session?
Prince actually played a bit of uncredited guitar on that record, including the title track. She was also supposed to be in the Graffiti Bridge movie, but turned it down because she felt it wasn’t worthy of her talents. That says a lot about the quality of the Graffiti Bridge movie seeing as Madonna of Shanghai Surprise and Who’s That Girl turned it down for being a lousy script!
Who else would you have liked to have heard Prince collaborate with?
It’s funny, he wasn’t really much of a collaborator. He worked with people, but it usually felt like it was mostly him taking the reins. Although, according to Susannah Melvoin, when Michael Jackson wanted him to work on Bad, Prince re-recorded the whole track, sent it back to MJ and said “Now, that’s funky”. I wanna hear that!
Presumably you’ve seen him live a few times. What are your best memories from that?
I got to see him three times, and they were all very different shows with totally different setlists. I missed the 21 Nights In London (exams, getting ready to go to uni, no money etc). I finally got to see him at the Hop Farm Festival in Kent in 2011.
[The pictures below are by Shaun]
It was pretty much everything you’d want the first time you see Prince – he just played the hits for two and a half hours. Jammed a bit at the start to sort the sound out a bit, and then he just went “Dearly beloved…”, and kicked off Let’s Go Crazy, Delirious, 1999, Little Red Corvette, Nothing Compares 2 U, Take Me With U, Raspberry Beret, Cream, Cool, Let’s Work, U Got The Look, Purple Rain, Kiss, Controversy, If I Was Your Girlfriend and Baby I’m a Star.
At various points he covered Michael Jackson, Bob Dylan and Sylvester and brought out Larry Graham to jam on some Sly & The Family Stone tunes. I know a lot of fans can’t stand Larry, but I’m a huge Sly fan so I got a kick out of it. If I was a veteran I may have been disappointed, but for the first time you see Prince, it was exactly what you want.
The second time was at the Manchester Academy on the small 3RDEYEGIRL club shows he was doing in 2014. We were right up the front, and it felt more like one of the legendary aftershows than a regular gig. I kind of had a moment at that show where I realised he was human. Could not believe we were there. My friend said to me “That was the closest I’ve ever come to a religious experience”, which pretty much summed it up.
The last time was on the 3RDEYEGIRL arena tour a few months later, and it was somewhere between the two shows. Not a stadium pleaser cos he played some real deep cuts (he played Empty Room as I recall), but it was definitely an arena show at the same time. He also pulled out Paisley Park at that show, which is a song I never considered he might play.
I only saw him once on the Nude tour, Wembley Arena June 22nd 1990. I remember him playing Joni Mitchell’s A Case of You at the piano which is one my favourite song from one of my favourite albums. I assumed that was a regular part of the live show at that time but I was checking that tour on setlist.fm recently and discovered that was the only time he played that song until about 5 years later!
That’s incredible. I love the way he would just slip things in like that. I think him and Springsteen are the only people who have the balls to do that so regularly in a stadium setting.
Just going back to something you said earlier, what have people got against Larry Graham?
From what I can gather, a lot of the fans hold him to task for what they perceive as talking him into the Jehovah’s Witness faith at a vulnerable time in his life, after he lost his son. They see it as pretty underhanded. I haven’t read Mayte’s book yet, but I was flicking through it in a shop the other day and she seemed (emphasis on “seemed”) to reference it at some point too.
Right then, then et’s play “Fantasy Football for Bandmembers” Who from the various different lineups would you choose for the ultimate live Prince band? Obviously Prince can play his usual free role, he’s a utility player and can pop up wherever.
Oooh, interesting. I guess Sheila has to be on drums. I guess I’d go for…
Bass- Rhonda Smith
Keyboards- Dr Fink & Lisa Coleman
Guitar- Wendy Melvoin
I’d also have the NPG Hornz. I’d like to have Shelby and such there, but with considerably less “Get your hands up” bellowing.
What about Cat? Don’t you need her to rap?
Ha! Of course! Rather her than Tony M to be fair!
I was glad to hear you include that great bit of dialogue about The Time from Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back. Presumably you’ve heard Kevin Smith’s lengthy anecdote about the difficulties of trying to work with Prince.
I got the feeling that it was more just that he has lived in a bubble for so long. If I had spent 20 years getting everything I want at the drop of a hat, I am pretty sure I would be a bit entitled too. Musicians often tend to be pretty entitled as a rule anyway! Haha.
Have you ever heard Sinead O’Connor’s account of meeting Prince and what do you make of it? (video here). You’ve already mentioned Michael Jackson so this question is maybe more relevant to him but how easy is it to separate somebody’s conduct in private from their music?
I have heard the Sinead O’ Connor thing. I’m not sure how literal it is. She does have form for being a bit inconsistent, even within the different times I have heard her tell that story. Didn’t she say Arsenio Hall was responsible for Prince’s death last year and that she had proof and then took it back?
Kind of. She said that Arsenio Hall supplied him with drugs and then later retracted that after Hall threatened to sue. That’s not to say there’s nothing in it though. I’m a huge Sinead fan but she’s not the most reliable person even on events from her own life!
I wouldn’t excuse all the bad stuff he did (I think that’s the fundamental difference between Prince fans and Michael fans!) but there are certain things I’ll shrug off a little. He seemed to display some casual homophobia at times that is a little troublesome for me.
I have a couple of lyric questions that I’ve been wondering about for decades. I’m never gonna get to ask Prince so I thought I’d ask you instead.
From Sign ‘o’ the Times: “At home there’s 17 year old kids and their idea of fun is being in a gang called the Disciples high on crack and toting a machine gun”
Don’t you think that *does* actually sound like quite a lot of fun?
Ha! In a muscle-bound Hollywood kinda way, I guess! Funnily enough, at first I thought he was saying “being in a band called The Disciples”, so I thought he was just singing about some mega-violent, drugged out hair metal band.
It was sampled by the Young Disciples but they’re definitely not hair metal.
That sounds familiar actually, I’m sure I have heard it around! It’s a groove anyway!
From the same song “September my cousin tried reefer for the very first time. Now he’s doing horse. It’s June.”
This song came out around the time that me & my friends were trying reefer for the very first time. It is now 30 years later and none of us are doing horse. What do you think that says about Prince’s cousin?
I think the bigger question is should we have been doing horse all this time? Maybe life would be different!
Right, last one.
“I knew a girl named Nikki, I guess you could say she was a sex fiend,
I met her in a hotel lobby masturbating with a magazine”
Maybe it’s just me but a little clarification is needed here regarding locations and activities of the individuals involved.
Which of these do you think is accurate?
Scenario 1: Prince is in a hotel lobby and he’s masturbating (you can probably get away with that if you’re Prince). He sees Nikki who is also in the hotel lobby.
Scenario 2: Same as above but Nikki is actually in the magazine
Scenario 3: Nikki is in the hotel lobby and she’s the one who’s masturbating while looking at a magazine.
Scenario 4: Prince is not in a hotel lobby. He is masturbating in an unknown location whilst looking at a magazine in which he “meets” Nikki who is pictured in a a hotel lobby.
You’re the Prince expert, tell me what’s going on.
Honestly? I always thought that Nikki was literally masturbating with the magazine. Like, she had rolled it up and…you know…
I hope she didn’t get any paper cuts.
I was going to offer that as Scenario 5 but I thought that was just too far fetched.
Check out this picture of my bedroom in 1989.
Note the lifesize naked cardboard Prince. Do you have any unusual bits of Prince memorabilia?
Ah! That’s cool! No, I don’t have anything like that – just boring albums, DVD’s, old VHS, bootlegs, magazines, books and t-shirts. I wish I did have that kinda stuff though. I want a symbol necklace!
Us wizards have a parlour game we invented called One from Each. This is where you have to make a playlist but you are only allowed 1 song from each album.
These are gonna be off the top of my head, and they fluctuate quite a lot. (Chorizo’s choice from each album shown in brackets)
For You: Just As Long As We’re Together (same)
Prince: I Wanna Be Your Lover (Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad)
Dirty Mind: When You Were Mine (same)
Controversy: Do Me, Baby (Jack U Off)
1999: Little Red Corvette (1999)
Purple Rain: I Would Die 4 U (The Beautiful Ones)
Around The World In a Day: Condition Of The Heart (same)
Parade: Mountains (same)
Sign “O” The Times: I Could Never Take The Place of Your Man (same but because it’s a double album I’m going to cheat and pick a song from disc 1 as well, Forever in My Life)
Lovesexy: Lovesexy (Anna Stesia)
Black Album: Le Grind
Batman: Trust (Vicky Waiting)
Graffiti Bridge: The Question of U (Thieves in the Temple)
Diamonds & Pearls: Insatiable (Money Don’t Matter 2 Nite)
O(+>: 7 (same)
Come: Letitgo (I’ll sit out the rest because I don’t really know the albums from here)
The Gold Experience: Dolphin
Chaos and Disorder: I Like It There
Emancipation: Get Yo Groove On
Crystal Ball: Good Love
The Truth: The Truth
New Power Soul: The One
The Vault…Old Friends 4 Sale: Sarah
Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic: So Far, So Pleased
The Rainbow Children: Muse To The Pharoah
One Nite Alone: A Case of U
Xpectation: [don’t really have a favourite, I only ever put it on in the background]
N.E.W.S.: [don’t really have a favourite, I only ever put it on in the background]
Musicology: Musicology
The Chocolate Invasion: U Make My Sun Shine
The Slaughterhouse: Northside
3121: Get on the Boat
Planet Earth: Chelsea Rodgers
LOtUSFLOW3R: $
MPLSounD: No More Candy 4 U
20Ten: Laydown
Plectrum Electrum: WOW
Art Official Age: Clouds
Hit N Run Phase 1: 1,000 X’s & O’s
Hit N Run Phase 2: Baltimore
Favourite b-side: How Come U Don’t Call Me Anymore? Oh man, the b-sides. Can I have a few b-sides in my list to make up for all the albums I don’t know. 17 Days! I Love U In Me! Horny Pony from the Gett Off cassette single! She’s Always In My Hair! 4 the Tears in Your Eyes! Scarlet Pussy!
Here’s a playlist with all the “One From Each” songs listed above that are available on Spotify.
So where can people hear your radio show?
The programme’s off air for a few weeks but it usually goes out Wednesdays at 8pm and can be heard on www.kcclive.com. It will have a different name when it comes back, but should still be that time slot.
I’m also working on a new website – tentatively called Planet Slop after a column I did for Getintothis called Cosmic Slop (after the Funkadelic album).
In this long-anticipated return, the wizards take on the the big question that is on everyone’s mind with a frank discussion about the plight of Jonathan Richman on our roads. No shirking of responsibilities here.
We also get teenage punk tales from Rebel Rikkit, a John Peel quiz that felt even longer than it actually was and very fine review of the new (at the time) Husky Tones album.
Catch the fuck up with current events right here and there;
Well, Spring has sprung and Britain has brexited, but surely what you all are really interested in is what Kicker has been listening to recently.
Here, with reduced comment (because, frankly, who wants to read all that shite), is the latest Quarterly collection from the wizard least likely to attend a Crowded House concert.
Father – Dancing Major (from my prized 7″ single from Stoke’s finest, but now available on an excellent compilation on Emotional Response called Pop Chops – see what they did there)
Cavern Of Anti-Matter – Phototones (Stereolab bloke’s side project)
Au Pairs – We’re So Cool (Brummie post-punk of the highest order)
The Astounds – Objectivity Is So What Was (from a download only release last year from Dean Wells out of off of Capstan Shafts.)
The Bordellos – Vinyl Record Stamp Collector (everyone’s favourite St Helens’ band, just in time for RSD. From the wonderfully named How To Lose Friends And Influence No-One collection.)
Johnny Burnette & The Rock ‘n’ Roll Trio – Honey Hush (from 1956. Nineteen fifty-six!)
Robert Pollard – Instrument Beetle (100 LPs to choose from… this is from 2001’s Choreographed Man Of War. You should own them all.)
Tall Dwarfs – Meet The Beatle (the genius that is Chris Knox)
Car Seat Headrest – (Joe Gets Kicked Out Of School For Using) Drugs With Friends (But Says This Isn’t a Problem) (from last year’s Teens Of Denial and (a) song (title to be proud of).)
Chook Race – At Your Door (great new Brisbane band who may have heard the Go-Betweens.)
Kim Deal – Dirty Hessians (one of those KD singles that came out a few years ago, this is the B-side of the great Walking With A Killer.)
Happy Front – Weekend Away (from the ever-reliable Liquid Library stable)
Connections – John From Cincinnati (a highlight from last year’s Midnight Run album. Yet another Ohio band to die for.)
Doubting Thomas Cruise Control – Early Mortuary Behavior (from an old tape, a casseepee, in fact, called Moonchild/Jailface. All of their stuff is worth a listen despite the poor effort at spelling.)
Eric Gaffney – Phil Spectre Mask (co-founder of Sebadoh and, er, Jesus Christ. There’s A LOT to catch up on if you’ve not been paying attention.)
Skip Manning – Ham ‘n’ Eggs (from the 60 Songs From The Cramps Crazy Collection CD that is a treasure trove of goodness.)
The Third Bardo – I’m Five Years Ahead Of My Time (Nuggets. That’s all there is to it. Nuggets.)
Slushies – Sun Lion (This is on the same Moonchild/Jailface release as DTCC, but on the other side. It is also great.)
Mark Eitzel – In My Role As A Professional Singer And Ham (from the new LP, Hey Mr Ferryman.)
The Wyrd Interactions – Jonah Slide & His Suicide (Rob Hillfield is also in The Hillfields and the rather fantastic Rapid Results College, but this is his solo stuff. It’s all worth checking out.)
66% of this Costello obsessed podcast took the Detour to Manchester to see the last surviving Elvis flourish in his natural habitat playing various musical instruments whilst perched on a Blue Chair.
See if they could stand up for falling down or whether they ended up speaking Pidgin English in New Amsterdam click here or down there to find out!
The obligatory poor quality pictures keep coming.
Please note Elvis is with Chuck Berry on the big screen and Chuck is playing the same guitar as Elvis is playing for real in front of the screen. It was a memorial thing.
A surprisingly happy wizard does his best to cheer up the rest of the team in their first proper show of the year.
Things really get rolling with a quite literally colourful quiz, detailed reviews of new albums from both Smug Brothers and Eugene Twist, and there’s even time for an exclusive new track from Schizo Fun Addict, oh, and another of Chorizo Garbanzo’s hazily recalled tales to catch up on some sleep through.
To listen and download just click here or do the soundcloud thing down there.
As is right and proper, this podcast starts with a glimpse into the heady world of academia…
a manucian academic
Drink is the real theme of the show and tracks are played just because the wizards like the titles (take that discerning podcasts!). Kicker brings in a surprising guest, there’s a review of the new MFC Chicken album and what can only be described as a Stupid Quiz.
Rebel Rikkit’s World of Ska makes its way to Brum and Chorizo does his best to frighten those listeners (hello to you both) who fall asleep before the end of the podcast.
Tune in and breathe easily right here. Oh and there:
Some of the physicality played and discussed on the show:
Picking the best songs from 2016 is not an issue to take lightly.
So, Rebel Rikkit has taken his time to consider the selections before now delivering his verdict some 13 days after the end of the year.
Was it worth the wait? Has the curator’s curator cured or cursed? Has the collector’s collector collected or cashed out? Has…(shall we just get on. TTW Ed.)
Yes indeed, Rikkit calls 2016 here and down there and, may I say in tribute to one of our fallen, Listen With Prejudice!
As is tradition [We did this last year – TTW Ed.], the first quarterly of the year rounds up all those songs from 2016 that just missed the cut in being on my Best of 2016 list. The very best of the rest if you will.
And with time at a premium, let’s get straight to it with a run down of the runners and riders:
Jeff Rosenstock – We Begged 2 Explode (from the album Worry.)
Shit Present – Sick Of Me (from the Misery + Disaster EP)
Beth Orton – 1973 (from the album Kidsticks)
Christian Fitness – Happiness Is Not For Amateurs (from the album This Taco Is Not Correct)
The Burning Hell – Men Without Hats (from the album Public Library)
Terry – 8 Girls (from the single 8 Girls)
Manray – Feelin’ Alright (from the Feelin’ Alright cassette EP)
Graham Repulski – The Next Great Cake (from the album Contaminated Man)
The Hayman Kupa Band – Someone To Care For (from the single Someone To Care For)
A Tribe Called Quest – We The People… (from the album We Got It From Here… Thank You 4 Your Service)
The Humdum Express – Double Edged Swords (from the album The Day My Career Died)
Kristin Hersh – Between Piety And Desire (from the album Wyatt At The Coyote Palace)
Robert Pollard – Little Pigs (from the album Of Course You Are)
Fog – Made To Follow (from the album For Good)
Gruff Rhys – Set Fire To The Stars (from the album Set Fire To The Stars)
Pete Astor – Do Nothing (from the single Do Nothing)
Ian Hunter And The Rant Band – Dandy (from the album Fingers Crossed)
Honey Radar – Fort Wayne Mermaids (from the album Blank Cartoon)
Sat. Nite Duets – Deep Peace (from the album Air Guitar)
The Dwarfs Of East Agouza – Baka Of The Future (from the album Bes)
All these tracks are too good to miss, so after listing to them below, why not go and buy your favourites and help support these talented musicians.
It’s Christmas time. There’s no need to be afraid.
We’ve already seen more than enough musicians dying this year and now it seems that Santa Claus gave The Grim Reaper a copy of this iconic 1984 photo and he’s started working his way through it. With 3 days of 2016 still remaining, Sting, Midge and the rest of them know that the greatest gift they’ll get this year is life.
Well, tonight thank God it’s them instead of you.
“Hey guys, is it just my tinnitus playing up or can anyone else hear the clanging chimes of doom?”
None of the musicians pictured feature in our latest podcast. Instead it includes 24 of Chorizo Garbanzo’s favourite new releases from 2016. This is podcast number 69, the sauciest of all the numbers, so it is appropriate that it is introduced by a certain sexy MF.
It’s that happy time of year again when I look back over the previous 12 months of music related ephemera and award my favourite things with the accolade everyone secretly desires, the Kickers of 2016.
you know you want one
Favourite song
You can hear me and Kicker Jr chewing the fat over my 23 favourite songs of the year right here, but there is clearly only one possible winner of the Kicker Song of 2016, the remarkably kind and hugely talented The Thyme Machine (with a video from Kicker Jr):
Favourite album
In order, these are my top 25 albums of 2016, all of which you need.
2. ESP Ohio – Starting Point Of The Royal Cyclopean
3. Lambchop – FLOTUS
4. Eureka California – Versus
5. Guided By Voices – Please Be Honest
6. Babybird – People Do Stupid Things
7. Pulco – Farmyard & Library
8. The Moles – Tonight’s Music
9. Yak – Alas Starvation
10. Graham Repulski – Re-Arranged At Hotel Strange/Contaminated Man/Boy Lung
11. The Julie Ruin – Hit Reset
12. Drive-By Truckers – American Band
13. The Wave Pictures – Bamboo Diner In The Rain
14. The Nosuns – Pawrawbaw
15. Honey Radar – Blank Cartoon
16. Joseph Airport – Is Reeling ‘Round The Punch Bowl
17. Christian Fitness – This Taco Is Not Correct
18. Connections – Midnight Run
19. Badgertrap – Man Shed Head Crisis
20. Datblygu – Porwr Trallod
21. David Bowie – Blackstar
22. Motorama – Dialogues
23. A Tribe Called Quest – We Got It From Here… Thank You 4 Your Service
24. Martha – Blisters In The Pit Of My Heart
25. Shirley Collins – Lodestar
And here, making up my top 50 albums for 2106, in alphabetical order, are 25 more albums I have really enjoyed and also highly recommend:
Bad Luck Jonathan – Bad Luck Jonathan, Bill Baird – Summer Is Gone, Baltic Fleet – The Dear One, The Bordellos – How To Lose Friends And Influence No-One, The Burning Hell – Public Library, Car Seat Headrest – Teens Of Denial, Leonard Cohen – You Want It Darker, The Frightnrs – Nothing More To Say, Darren Hayman – Thankful Villages Vol. 1 , The Humdrum Express – The Day My Career Died, Kristin Hersh – Wyatt At The Coyote Palace, Jon Langford’s Men Of Gwent – The Legend Of LL, Lightning In A Twilight Hour – And All The Ships At Sea, Parquet Courts – Human Performance, Robert Pollard – Of Course You Are, Jeff Rosenstock – Worry., Fatima Al Qadiri – Brute, Scott & Charlene’s Wedding – Mid Thirties Single Scene, Elza Soares – A Mulher Do Fim Do Mundo, Soda Eaves – Murray, Darling , Soft Hearted Scientists – Golden Omens, The Still – The Still, Sweet Benfica – Dip My Hands Into The Sun, The Wedding Present – Going, Going…, Working For A Nuclear Free City – What Do People Do All Day?
Best Compilation
Adventures in Home Taping Volume 3 & 4 (Post/Pop Records) – for the second year running!!
Urusei Yatsura – You Are My Urusei Yatsura Radio Sessions
Tim Chaplin – Boy To Make Me Worry
Tapes & Tubes – Retroactive
The Microphones – Early Tapes, 1996 – 1998
The Clean – Getaway
Lizardland – The Brotherhood of Lizards
Visitors – Poet’s End
Passenger Peru – Passenger Peru
The Robert Pollard Annual Output Roundup
Another bumper year in GBVworld with ESP Ohio – Starting Point Of The Royal Cyclopean, Robert Pollard – Of Course You Are; Guided By Voices – Please Be Honest; 2 songs with Bun E Carlos (Greetings from Bunezuela); 2 x ESP Ohio singles, and the re-release of Guided By Voices – Under The Bushes Under The Stars (on blue vinyl) and Robert Pollard – Not In My Airforce (now on separate album and EP).
In the wider GBV world, we also had 2 singles from Tobin Sprout; Doug Gillard on the Nada Surf LP (You Know Who You Are); Nate Farley & The Firewatchers split single with Motel Beds; Mitch Mitchell’s Terrifying Experience LP (Mother Angelina) + a demo debuted on a previous podcast; Todd Tobias – Gila Man LP; Jim Greer’s DTCV’s Confusion Moderne.
Here is a playlist of favourite songs taken from the pile above:
N.B. Tobin Sprout – When I Was A boy and DTCV – Le Silence Ne Porte Pas both unavailable on Spotify
The Bobby Pop Award For Prolificacy
Songs released in 2016:
Stephen Jones: 326 tracks (With a final Triple CD released on 28 December, this figure has now been amended. – TTW Accuracy Ed.)
Owen Chambers (Tremolo Ghosts): 62 songs
Robert Pollard: 51 tracks
Graham Repulski: 47 tracks
Worst Records Bought
Mark Kozelek – Sings Favourites. (He really needn’t have bothered.)
Neil Young – Earth. (Songs with the sound of bees over the top, anyone? At least Peace Trail was pretty good.)
Top 6 Music Related Books (Read This Year)
Bruce Springsteen – Born To Run
Robert Forster – Grant & I
Bob Mehr – Trouble Boys: The True Story Of The Replacements
Unable to rouse his fellow wizards in this season of hangovers, Kicker ropes in Kicker Jr to be on the receiving end of a definitive selection of the best songs of 2016.
Things kick off with a challenging instrumental (and gratuitous swearing) as Kicker throws down the obscurist’s obscurist gauntlet with 2 selections that have had no commercial release at all. Take that record labels! Some proper musicians also share their favourite songs of the year with us, so prepare to add to your must listen lists.
This is the physicality played where there was physicality to play:
As there were no other wizards around, Kicker also played one extra (long) track at the end, which would have made the cut if only CDs stretched to 90 minutes.
To celebrate the latest leg of The Wedding Present‘s tour, we invited some legends from the wild world of indie-rock to join us playing a parlour game we invented called “One From Each”
Each player has to choose 1 track from each of the band’s studio albums to make what surely must be THE ULTIMATE PLAYLIST.
The participants are:
Tim Pattinson – Drummer from John Peel favourites Prolapse and one of MJ Hibbett‘s Validators.
Kriss Foster – Scrabble guru, seabird enthusiast and leader of Lancaster’s premier purveyors of song The Thyme Machine
Seeing as it’s my blog post I get to chip in with my choices too.
We have all been to see The Wedding Present this week. I went Liverpool on Tuesday, Kriss saw them in Kendal last weekend and Tim and Frankie were at the Derby gig on Wednesday.
George Best (1987, Reception)
Tim: Anyone Can Make a Mistake
Very difficult choice this one, could have gone either of three ways. Festive 50 1987, I still didn’t get them, my tape of it criminally has the 4 or so tracks from it skipped, it would take a whole 2 more weeks and their gig at Manchester University on the Nobody’s Twisting Your Arm tour to finally succumb. Seeing them do the album back a few years ago was one of the best gigs I’ve ever seen, not least for bringing out the Non-Hits.
Kriss: A Million Miles
Great, great Weddoes tune. For me no one writes about love, jealousy and disastrous relationships as well or as honestly as David Gedge. From the opening gambit, “I must’ve walked past this doorway thirty times” to the climax and the ending, with probably my favourite Wedding Present lyric of all time, “you’re not like anyone I’ve ever met… at least not yet.” Arrangement wise, it’s jangly, fast and a classic Weddoes track.
Frankie: A Million Miles
Has to be “A Million Miles”. That was the first track off the album I heard on Peel and I was totally sold. The lyrics also seemed to legitimize my pulling technique of continually walking past girls until they said something to me. This rarely (never) worked but at last David Gedge knew my pain.
Chorizo: My Favourite Dress
Tommy (1988, Reception)
Tim: You Should Always Keep In Touch With Your Friends
I remember this LP cover from going round to a school mates house. His big brother had this and the Beggars Banquet sampler with The Fall doing Spoilt Victorian Child. That was the day I fell for the Fall, but I didn’t get The Wedding Present just then.
Kriss: My Favourite Dress
However many times I hear this song it always sounds as fresh, raw and emotional as the first time. David Gedge at his best, brutally stark and not dressed up or sanitized. “Slowly your beauty is eaten away By the sense of someone else, In the blanket where we lay”. The image of the “strangers hand on my favourite dress” is tragic, haunting and heartbreaking. Breathtaking.
Frankie: Never Said
A classic b-side which I already had on the white vinyl 7” of My Favourite Dress that came free with my copy of George Best. Yet again it seemed to make it OK to be completely useless at interacting with girls. This all happened while I was at Sixth Form college and completely informed my decision to choose Leeds Polytechnic as my Higher Education institute of choice. The UK’s capital city of hopeless indie kids.
Chorizo: You Should Always Keep In Touch With Your Friends
Bizarro (1989, RCA)
Tim: Bewitched
Angst ridden Gedge at his finest, we’ve all been there. Repetition Repetition Repetition. And their first (possibly) quiet/loud bit. And that lovely bit at the end too.
Kriss: What Have I Said Now?
This is difficult, especially when Bizarro has Kennedy and Brassneck on it. “What have I said now?” is the track that unlocked the Wedding Present for me. There was a recent Guardian article that described the Wedding Present and David Gedge as ‘something deeply ensnaring about the Wedding Present and singer (and only constant member) David Gedge, an acquired taste you can never shake’. And it’s true, when I first listened to them I found them to be impenetrable and all the songs sounded the same. Then suddenly I listened to ‘What have I Said now?’ and I got it! Like seeing a magic eye for the first time, or acquiring a taste for beer I ‘got’ the Wedding Present, that was at nineteen and I still listen on a weekly basis. Picked for sentimental reasons but still a great track.
Frankie: Take Me
I’d heard this on the Peel Session they did prior to the release of Bizarro and I remember sitting in my room taping it with a strange mixture of excitement and fear. Excited that it felt like it was never going to end, but then scared that my tape was going to run out! I accidentally saw them play a secret warm-up gig in Leeds for the Bizarro tour and this “Take Me” was a stand-out memory. My old blog on that gig is here if you’re interested.
Chorizo: Take Me
Seamonsters (1991, RCA)
Tim: Dalliance
A close cousin of Bewitched I guess. Brilliant album. I remember having a drunken conversation about this album with someone at Leicester Poly Friday night disco, trying to explain that each song on the album for me related to a different girl (all largely unrequited I think), can’t remember any of them now! Seeing them with the Wonder Stuff earlier this year re-confirmed that the best bit of any Wedding Present gig (or indeed ANY gig) is that bit at 2:46 when it explodes, never too old to throw yourself around to this. Glorious. And when not in a mosh pit, its essential air drumming! Probably my #1.
Actually just remembered about Crawl (if you were doing deluxe versions which we shouldn’t be) A very simple song, cant actually work out why its so good, but it is.
Kriss: Corduroy
The song they opened with when I saw them live for the first time. Loud, distorted massive sound but everything has a place. Much darker, edgier and aggressive than the jangliness of George Best. Brilliant song from an excellent album.
Frankie: Octopussy
One of the few songs on Seamonsters that I didn’t already know through Peel sessions, singles or gigs before I got a copy of this record home. Sat at the end of Side B it was obviously the last one I heard and still feels like a lost gem to me. I don’t think I ever even saw them play it live until the recent Seamonsters heritage tour.
Chorizo: Lovenest
The Hit Parade (1992, RCA)
12 singles released monthly throughout the year. Technically not an album but hey, who cares? My blog post on the Hit Parade singles and my David Gedge approved graph can be found right here.
Tim: Silver Shorts
Ah what fun. This year corresponded to leaving University and getting a job, and realising that November was going to be the first one I wasn’t going to be able to buy on the day it came out. I almost tried to hold off joining the real world until the January, just to make sure (what an idiot)! Thankfully the novelty was beginning to wear off by then so 11 and 12 were secured to complete the set. Silver Shorts – just a great tune.
Kriss: Flying Saucer
Ever since I heard this I’ve loved the image of the ‘flying saucer right inside my head’. Great tune!
Frankie: Silver Shorts
By the time they reached The Hit Parade I had left Leeds and was back in Deby working a full-time job. The first Monday of every month in 1992 I’d nip out of the office for lunch and head to the record shops to pick up the next 7” in the series. So The Hit Parade never felt like an album but my favourite of the singles was definitely “Silver Shorts” with the Twin Peaks song on the B-side. Living at my parents, my Dad had a swanky record player that you could put on repeat, so I remember spending the Easter weekend listening to this one about 200 times on the bounce.
Chorizo: Come Play With Me
Watusi (1994, Island)
Tim: Click Click
Probably the easiest choice of all of these, one of Gedge’s very best on what is a comparatively weak album. By this point there’s some real experimentation in the song writing and this strikes me as a sort of round, and is very clever. I’ve listened to this song god know how many times over the last 20+ years and still really struggle to come in at the right place with the air drumming. Whilst Rob and I have joked about it eventually being our turn to join either the Fall or The Wedding Present (Rob’s got no chance, he doesn’t look good in a short skirt and knee high boots). My biggest fear would be having to play this, because I’d never be able to come in at the right place. Air drumming failures aside, probably my #2.
Kriss: Swimming Pools and Movie Stars
It feels as if Watusi is often forgotten in the Weddoes canon but I’ve always had a soft spot for it. Maybe because it came on the back of releasing all the singles for Hit Parade people were all Gedged out. Swimming Pools and Movie Stars just edges out Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah for top spot on this one!
Frankie: Click Click
Watusi coincided with me finally moving out into a reasonably nice flat (as opposed to student hovels) with a mate who managed Way Ahead Records in Derby. This was known as the Year Of Many CDs as my collection seemed to exponentially increase as a result. Watusi kind of got lost in the glut, possibly because it underwhelmed me slightly. “Click Click” was the stand-out track, whilst rubbish like “Shake It” left me beyond disappointed.
Chorizo: Click Click
Saturnalia (1996, Cooking Vinyl)
Tim: Skin Diving
Very difficult choice, as an album, it’s okay probably better than Watusi, but no real stand out tracks. This era was a bit weird for me having previously hung out quite a bit with Tse Tse Fly a few years back, and then here they are as being half the Wedding Present!
Kriss: Real Thing
Saturnalia was always a bit of a slow burner for me but it did get under skin after a while. Real Thing always stood out off this album for me. Love the boy/girl vocals and the distorted guitars at the end. I enjoyed the shift sonically and it’ll be a mystery to see what they would have put out next had Saturnalia not been the last album before the hiatus.
Frankie: Venus
Saturnalia came out 6 months after the birth of my first child, so my memories of it are somewhat blurred. I doubt I even bought it on the day of release, and I certainly didn’t spend a lot of time listening to it. Which is probably why I’d choose “Venus” here as the first track on the CD it’s probably about as far as I got most times. Even now having gone back to it, I can say with conviction that this is by far my least favourite Wedding Present album. It felt like they were running out of steam and I wasn’t surprised in the least when David Gedge announced his solo project afterwards. My only disappointment there was that he didn’t heed my advice and call it “Gedge!” (the exclamation mark being important). Cinerama was a rubbish name for it in comparison.
Chorizo: Skin Diving
Take Fountain (2005, Scopitones)
Tim: Perfect Blue
After slowly turning back into the Wedding Present from Cinerama, this album is a cracking return of the name. There are a few that could have been the choice here, but as an album closer this is one of the very best. The tours for this album were also great, being the first time, in years they’d done really old stuff too, just a shame Simon Smith wasn’t there, the Finnish drummer’s snare was always too tight!
Kriss: Interstate 5
As good as anything the Wedding Present have ever done. Genuinely believe that Interstate 5 is one of the greatest Wedding Present songs off an album I love. Along with Seamonsters and George Best, Take Fountain completes my top three WP albums. With regards in Interstate 5 I love the arrangements of the guitars, I love the lyrics, I love how long it is! Excellent.
Frankie: Don’t Touch That Dial
The Wedding Present “comeback” didn’t surprise me either. Having attended Cinerama gigs throughout their lifespan it was obvious that audiences were dwindling, so reverting to The Wedding Present name seemed an obvious (if somewhat cynical) path to take. I still think of this as a Cinerama album as they’d debuted a number of the songs as Cinerama and the line-up was identical. They had this very technical drummer from Finland or somewhere and he seemed (to me) completely ill-suited to The Wedding Present. Witness the horrible off-beat ride cymbal on “Interstate 5” that drags, what should be a powerful opening statement, towards some sort of reggae excursion. That said, there are some brilliant songs on here and I struggle to choose between “Perfect Blue” and “Don’t Touch That Dial” as my favourites, but as it’s a strict “1 from each” rule, I’ll go with the latter.
Chorizo: Ringway to Seatac
El Rey (2008, Vibrant)
Tim: Boo Boo
Another one showing I’m a sucker for the moody ones. The only time I saw them round this time was at Indietracks. The problem with all these themed old tours is they don’t play the new stuff much after the year it comes out. I’d be keen on a “NO OLD SONGS” tour, but the gigs would be empty I guess.
Kriss: Spider Man on Hollywood
Sounds like it could have been off Watusi! My favourite from this album as it sounds the most like the Wedding Present!!!
Frankie: Boo Boo
Seems to have a fairly low standing among other fans I’ve spoken to but I really liked this album when it came out. I’ve not listened to it in quite a while but “Boo Boo” was my favourite at the time. Just checked again and it still is, although I can see why it’s not considered a classic Wedding Present album. A couple of weak songs and some fairly flat Albini production going on but at least they’d got a proper drummer in!
Chorizo: Don’t Take Me Home Until I’m Drunk
Valentina (2012, Scopitones)
Tim: End Credits
For the bass guitar alone, could be Steve Hanley playing it.
Kriss: Back a Bit… Stop
Didn’t really get into this album first time round until I heard the the Cinerama cover of the whole album. I really enjoyed that so I went back and listened to it. It was great as listening to it again I enjoyed it a lot more. Not vintage Weddoes in my humble opinion but still better than most!!!
Frankie: The Girl from the DDR
My main criticism of Valentina when it came out was that, whilst it contained a whole bunch of solid Wedding Present songs it didn’t have a killer track that grabbed me and stuck with me like their best albums did. This makes doing a “1 from each” tricky for me, but I’ll plump for “The Girl From The DDR” even though it’s one of several songs that I think were bettered by the Cinerama versions last year. Am I allowed to say that?
Chorizo: Deer Caught in the Headlights
Going Going… (2016, Scopitones)
Frankie: Rachel
My favourite on the new album is probably Rachel (I bet Tim says Santa Monica!)
Tim: Santa Monica and Bear
As its a double length album, I’ll have 2 choices. Santa Monica as correctly predicted by Rob, not least for its impressive use of recycling lyrics! But also Bear.
Kriss: Bear
I love Going Going, it’s their best since Take Fountain and I think it might even be in my top three Weddoes albums. Been on pretty much constant rotation since I got it. Favourite track has to be Bear. Such a great song and when they played it live in Kendal it was amazing!
Chorizo: Got to agree with Kriss, this album is right up there with their very best. Seeing as Tim has already bent the rules a bit with the double album thing, I’ll choose Fifty Six and Little Silver.
Official Wedding Present links:
Visit The Wedding Present online shop to buy their music
Check the tour dates to see when they’re coming your way (if you’re going to Manchester in May then see you down the front!)
Our latest podcast takes you behind the scenes with a bunch of old farts, no not the wizards…
bob dylan
We also venture into the teenage Chorizo Garbanzo’s lair, learn about Rebel Rikkit’s aversion to very high heights and hear about Kicker’s latest favourite Robert Pollard side project.
There’s also a rational and reasoned debate about the various qualities of current football pundits [this may well not be rational or reasoned and may involve justifiably lengthy personal attacks – TTW Ed.]
Oh, and we also once again forgot to say hello to listener Lee Anthony Beet, so hello LAB (as everyone calls you. Probably).
The wizards are in attendance once again as Canadian cult heroes, The Burning Hell, make it back to our shores; this time ripping it up at The Shipping Forecast in downtown Liverpool.
Have a listen to Kicker and Chorizo pre- and post-gig right here (and there):
Pictures from the front row
And some more…
The setlist
Kicker’s T-shirt Challenge
Did Chorizo correctly name all the acts on Kicker’s T-shirt?
Manchester was the place to be last week for the first date of Ezra Furman and The Boyfriends latest tour. The night was made even more special by a rare live appearance from the enigmatic Texas troubadour Delmore Huggs.
It’s fashion week on the Trust the Wizards podcast, so join us as we take a sashay down the catwalk of sound.
You’ll find us modelling the works of some musical stylists both old and new, something borrowed, but no real blues. We do have the eagerly awaited return of Kicker’s Question Time (well, he likes it), and a couple of hot off the recording press album reviews from the cool kids’ favourites Three Dimensional Tanx and The Wolfhounds. It’s all going on here
I thought I was alone until I realised I was in it.
the heart of south liverpool
Yes, me and friend of the pod, Texas Paul, spent last night very much watching the detectives. Actually Detective (or more properly the vowel eschewing DTCV) and three local Liverpool bands playing the second night of Evil Eye’s Day Of The Dead Weekender. This was the first time I had been to this particular burrito joint/venue in the south of the city, but I was immediately struck by the friendly vibe at the bar and was delighted to find a decent spec in the corner of an already packed front room when the first band started setting up.
This turned out to be the band Stadt Skulls, who announced that they were playing only their second gig. The three-piece (at least from my vantage point) sounded great and played pop punk in the style of Boyracer and Number One Cup. I was particularly impressed by the lead singer/guitarist’s ability to keep propping his glasses back up his nose mid lively song. The bloke next to me and Paul reckoned they sounded like Green Day, but they were much more interesting than that.
stadt skulls (yep, only three of ’em)
As The Skulls (as everyone is now calling them) were finishing up their set, I noticed a very tall American dude and a stylish petite French woman enter the bar. They clearly weren’t from around these parts and yet no-one batted an eyelid. No-one except me, of course, as I recognised them to be James and Lola from the headlining band or more specifically Jim Greer, formerly of Guided By Voices, Jim Greer, who has written the definitive story of GBV: Twenty-one Years of Hunting Accidents in the Forests of Rock and Roll. THAT Jim Greer. Tex managed to restrain the fanboy me from leaping up and embarrassing myself, but once The Skulls had finished I headed off to the back of the venue to find Jim and ask him to sign my copy of his book and the GBV EP he appears on. Despite to all intents and purposes interrupting their candlelit dinner (top quality burritos out the back albeit not cellophane shrink-wrapped), I was delighted to find a very welcoming set of people.
dtcv mid meal
As followers of this blog and podcast (hello to both of you) will know, to say I am a fan of Guided By Voices is a little bit like saying Donald Trump is a fan of the odd white lie. I fucking love the band and have been obsessively collecting their music for more than 20 years. In that time I have only seen them play live once, so to meet up with a former member and current pal of the band was quite a thrill. Jim indulged me in not only signing my book and record, but also in telling me tales about the band and highlighting a couple of little known truths (see below).
After chatting to the detectives for a while I went back inside with Kyle (the bass player) to see the next band. As we stood at the bar they started up with a burst of tribal drums that immediately grabbed everyone’s attention before launching into a set of Cramps/B52s surf guitar infused songs with reverb heavy Elvis (P not C) type vocals up front. Wow. They were excellent. Nobody around me was aware who they were so I politely enquired what they were called [“Yer fucking great, but who are ya?” – TTW Elocution Ed.] Turns out they were Big Safari and despite feeling that their name didn’t really do them justice (we preferred Poison Ivy or Mystery Plane or…), we will definitely be checking them out again. In the meantime, you can hear a couple of their songs here:
big safari
While all this was going on I was chatting to the very amiable Kyle and it turns out he’s Kyle Sowash out of off of The Kyle Sowashes. Yes, I know! For those of you less aware than you should be of the Ohioan rock scene, The Kyle Sowashes put out a couple of albums on Anyway Records about 5 years ago cleverly called Somebody and Nobody. As GBV had also released records on this label, I had checked them out and liked what I’d heard, contacted the label and done a deal on postage to get a whole bunch of their stuff sent over to the UK. Anyway (ahem), both the label and the band are still going strong and Kyle was impressed enough that I knew his band to give me a copy of their latest release (Everybody). What a gent! You can check their stuff out for yourself here.
Up next were local legends Voo, whose alt-rock sound clearly nods in the direction of my Dayton, Ohio based heroes and their set was a tremendous mix of slower soulful numbers and quicker tempo rockers. They went down really well with the crowd, many of whom were obviously long-term fans. The harmonies on their records got a bit lost in the mix, but the guitar sounded particularly fine. I recognised one or two of the tracks from the records of theirs I own, but can’t recall exactly what was played. Have a listen to some of their stuff here (and then find out when they’re playing your town):
voo
So then it was time for the headliners, and DTCV squeezed their impressive array of effects pedals into the corner of the bar. A warm up of the bass line to that Grand Prix song [Fleetwood Mac’s The Chain – AOR Ed.] later and BAM!! Possibly the loudest gig me and Tex have witnessed since The Lucid Dream at the Liverpool Psychedelic Festival a couple of years ago. This band does rock. Mixing French and English lyrics Lola is an impressive frontwoman ably supported by Kyle on lowslung Peter Hook style bass, Jim on screeching guitar and the wild intense drummer (whose name I didn’t catch, sorry). They soared through tracks from their current Confusion Moderne album in a way that brilliantly combined 60s French insouciance and post-punk Magazine. Lola’s guitar had a Buzzcocks sticker on it and that seems apt. Highlights included Radio Drive (from previous LP Uptime!) and a song about a Vampire (I think). Truth be told it was all great and it was fantastic to have them play in my adopted hometown
A new venue in a new town for me tonight. Quite a few times I’ve seen gigs advertised in Preston and thought “naaah, that’s too far away!” But this week I learnt from Google Maps that it’s exactly 1 hour from my front door, about the same distance as Liverpool or Manchester in fact and I go to gigs in those cities all the time.
But what a great venue The Continental is. Extremely friendly staff and a brilliant selection of beers. A shame I was driving really, I could’ve easily have stayed all night. This was a local gig for my good friend The Lancashire Toreador so he was happy to attend despite his assertion that Scott and Charlene’s Wedding is really shit name for a band.
Before the gig, I had a prior engagement DJing at a children’s Halloween party where 200 creepily dressed kids insisted that all in attendance should watch them whip and subsequently nae nae. That meant I arrived too late to see Vukovar, a St Helens band which shares some bandmembers with wizards favourites The Bordellos and takes its name from the scene of some of the worst atrocities in the Yugoslavian wars of the 1990s. Vukovar’s latest EP is an intriguing listen and is available as a “name your price” download below.
We did catch the next band, Liverpool’s Ohmns and very good they were too. I read somewhere that they are following in the footsteps of other Liverpool psych bands such as Dr Phibes and The House of Wax Equations. I loved Dr Phibes and was lucky enough to see them live before their tragic demise but they didn’t sound the slightest bit like Ohmns.
Ohmns were a much heavier and hairier proposition altogether. The bass player is surely the progeny of either Tony Iommi, Derek Smalls or both. One of the songs was a Gories cover and many of Ohmns’ own songs are in similar dirty punk territory. Most of the best songs had little repetitive lead guitar lines (listen to the “Boil D. Rice” and the end of “Paul Is Sure” on the EP below). They started with a song that sped up and finished with one that slowed right down so bonus points for symmetry. The 2 guitarists and the bassist know their way around a pedal board and all 3 seem to have purchased one called The Make-The-Whole-Fucking-Room-Vibrate-o-matic which they used to tremendous effect in their last song.
But last words about Ohmns must go to the drummer. With a snare wound tight and sounding like a gunshot, he was a ball of energy and gave the kit a right good seeing to. If he were to ever get onstage with the drummer from fellow Liverpudlians Mind Mountain there’d be a city-wide epidemic of perforated eardrums. The lead vocals were shared around the band quite a lot and most of the best songs were sung by yer man on the drums. But no matter who was on vocals one thing remained the same: you couldn’t make out any of the words and IT DIDN’T MATTER AT ALL. Definitely worth catching live if they’re playing anywhere near your Ohmn-town.
Onto the headliners, the wonderful Scott and Charlene’s Wedding. Their album “Any Port In a Storm” was our Official Trust the Wizards Album of the Year™ in 2013 and we reviewed their Liverpool gig back in August of that year. They’re led by Craig Dermody who writes clever, reflective, honest, sometimes amusing, mostly autobiographical lyrics and sings with great passion in a voice reminiscent of Jonathan Richman or a male Courtney Barnett. They’ve released a great new LP “Mid Thirties Singles Scene” a couple of months ago and most of tonight’s set came from that.
The opening song of both the new album and tonight’s gig was “Maureen” an homage to a lady who lives in the country and communes with spiders. Here was the first of many great solos from lead guitarist Gill with her fantastic 70s Chrissie Hynde hair and bomber jacket.
Next up was “Don’t Bother Me”, probably the catchiest song on the new album in which Craig touches on the subject of depression, not for the last time this evening. “I’ve seen days turn my world black, black, black, black, black. Now these little things they don’t bother me.” Or “don’t sweat the small stuff” as my Kiwi mate Tom puts it. In this song Craig also reflects on his inability to dance and compares himself to a crab. As long-suffering fans of at best mediocre football teams, The Lancashire Toreador and I particularly enjoyed the verse that goes:
“When I’m at the football on Saturday I look at the scoreboard like it was world affairs. And there’s just one team that we never seem to be able to beat. But the beer still tastes the same at the end of the day to me.”
Amen to that. I long since stopped going to football matches with any genuine expectation of enjoying the actual match. Treat the match as an excuse to catch up and get pissed up with friends and if the team play well or win, well, that’s just an added bonus.
Soon after, one of my favourite tracks from the debut album is played, the magnificent “Gammy Leg” which starts with Craig working on a building site and ends with him moving to New York, all the while being hampered by a persistent “zombie” leg injury that won’t heal. This was followed by another older song “Footscray Station” a story of truck driving and redemption through music set in the band’s hometown. Fantastic stuff.
“Distracted” is another catchy tune from the current album. It’s uptempo and sounds very cheery but if you a listen a little closer it’s about fighting off depression. Great call and response vocals from Craig and Gill on the chorus here.
Another song from the new album “Hardest Years” was probably my favourite song of the night. It starts off with a verse about a loved one (his dad?) in a wheelchair who “laughs the biggest laugh that I ever have heard” and the chorus “I take my hat off to that”.
The next verse is worth quoting in full I think:
“Now when I was a teen we didn’t get on so much When I left I ran, we just lost touch All them years, running round the world, I never looked back When I returned all unannounced the door was open and all you said was “Mum’s cooking dinner, it might be bad but there’s beers in the fridge” And that is all we ever ever said about that and I’m grateful for that”
I could easily go on because the next verse is brilliant too. An exceptional song full of heart-on-the-sleeve writing, once again touching on the theme of depression and battling inner demons.
As they started the encore, Craig explained that today was the 10th anniversary of the band’s first ever gig. Apparently the other bandmembers weren’t in the band back then but they were at the gig. In fact I don’t think Craig was the only bandmember there tonight who played in Liverpool 3 years ago. The band apologised for being jet-lagged and explained that they would play one more song which was “an Australian classic”. What would it be we wondered? The Go-Betweens? Nick Cave? AC/DC? Scott and Charlene’s duet “Especially For You”? It turned out to be a cover of “Live It Up” by Mental as Anything, a 80s hit on the back of the film “Crocodile Dundee”
I didn’t particularly like that song 30 years ago and despite Gill’s stirring guitar solo, their cover didn’t do a lot to make me change my mind. It seems a shame to play a cover when they’ve got so many great songs of their own. Earlier this year the band released a 4 track EP “Delivered” which features 3 truly brilliant tracks.* It would’ve been great to hear one of these songs or something else from the first 2 albums to close the gig.
The Preston gig was the first one of the tour, check out their other tour dates here. They’re off to Holland, Germany and Spain next before coming back to UK next month.
* The 4th track is a cover of Elton John’s “Benny and The Jets”, a song that stands out as being particularly irritating and shit even amidst the huge pile of irritating and shit songs that comprise the Elton John back catalogue.
Bonus Mental as Anything fact: Lead singer Greedy Smith’s real name was Andy. He earnt the nickname Greedy because in 1979 he ate 15 pieces of KFC “chicken” before a gig. Sounds like the banter-ometer must have been off the scale in that band.
The wizards have had some work done, but are not all necessarily pleased with the results.
Fortunately, there is much to raise their spirits in the show, which features a timely tribute to the late Prince Buster and reviews of the new albums from Ben Reed and Ay Carmela.
There’s also the return of the gap-fill quiz, this time focusing on a former early member of the Mott The Hoople fanclub, as well as loads of great music.
Check it all out right underneath these words or directly on this word.
Hello again, dear reader, and welcome to what will be the last Quarterly of 2016. I appreciate this does not mean it is December and the year still has 92 more fun-filled days left.
plenty more of this to come
But for now, buckle up and settle down for a whole bunch of music that has been on my radar these last few months. First up an instrumental from the Dundee band that isn’t Spare Snare. Yes, The Associates with a track from Sulk that showcases Alan Rankine for a change. More Scots after that with a track from the delightful surprise that is a new Urusei Yatsura album. Well, a new collection of songs in any case – the album You Are My Urusei Yatsura: BBC Radio Sessions, which brings together some tremendous versions of old favourites on pink vinyl. Then we have the band Miss Mary, who, as far as I can work out, is pretty much the work of one Mary Stopas, and a track of garage-pop candy from the rather wonderful Ready 2 Pop album that was out on Waxfruit in 2005. Next on the mix, but only available in video form here [Go and buy it! – TTW Ed.], it’s the SFA that’s not Super Furry Animals – our pals Schizo Fun Addict – who had a split cassette (with a K) out on Small Bear Records with label mates and sonic tyros The Bordellos last year that I should have banged on about much more. Have a gander and check out those ace backing vox.
A new favourite next with the all-caps CHUCK, whose latest release (the factually correct, My Band Is A Computer) on Audio Anihero is a must listen. However, here I have gone for the track of his that appeared on the sadly ill-fated Bern Yr Idols fundraiser. Time for a cover version after that and just pipping the choice of Kristin Hersh doing Like A Hurricane, comes Cristina Quesada doing The Jesus & Mary Chain, which I picked up on an Elefant Records sampler. Neat, huh? Eric Caboor and David Kauffman are perhaps best known, if at all, for their Songs From Suicide Bridge collection (it was the only record of theirs I owned until recently, certainly), but they also performed together as The Drovers on an LP called Tightrope Town (actually their second LP), which is well worth seeking out. Our next not-on-Spotify song is from the band Dumb, who came to my attention on the flip of a split single with JD Meatyard’s old band Calvin Party back in the day (OK, 1995). Calvin Party went like this, and Dumb go like that:
It seems appropriate that this mix’s Guided By Voices selection features Doug Gillard on guitar seeing as how he is now part of the newly reformed GBV currently touring the USA. This track comes from the Universal Truths An Cycles album, a fact I am happy to remind you of. Another fact is that the band Passenger Peru combines the talents of Justin Stivers (ex- The Antlers) and Justin Gonzales. This year they made the leap from cassette to vinyl by putting out a kind of self-titled ‘best of’ on Gallic taste-maker label, Big Tomato Records, which has had repeated plays in Kicker Towers. A bit of an oldie next as we venture into Television’s 70s album that isn’t Marquee Moon, or Adventure as it is otherwise known. An underrated gem, this one. They are followed by another band that I discovered because they shared a split single with a band I already loved – And His Voice Became. This song was the other side of Riding (Bracken Mix) by Spare Snare (yes, them again) and it goes like this:
That Canterbury Sound, eh? No, not yer Caravans, Soft Machines or Gongs, I mean Canterbury, New Zealand and the sound of Transistors, whose neat Cuppa Jarra Brossa EP comes highly recommended (with or without cream and sugar) especially the opening track, Confidence Man. And that links us nicely to Yesterday’s Man (calm down, you Suggs fans, it’s just the one) in the form of a blistering track off of the Velcro Hooks Gymnophoria album that came out a few years ago – described by Artrocher as “a band you SHOULD DEFINITELY HAVE IN YOUR LIFE. And we don’t write in caps lock very often, so we really mean that”. So there. All I can add is that the album title refers to the sensation that someone is mentally undressing you, something us wizards just have to get used to. Another fantastically named album that came out last year was Remember Me John Lydon Forever by Doubting Thomas Cruise Control from Brooklyn, New York. The album is top notch and full of intriguing lyrics. But as much as I appreciate the band’s name, I think they might have missed out an some fine portmanteau possibilities like Doubting Thomas Cook (unreliable package deals) or Doubting Thomas Brolin (a suspension of belief regarding the size of certain ex-Leeds United ‘stars’). Anyway, after that we are invited to go all the way by The Squires, who pop up on that brilliant Nuggets collection put together by Lenny Kaye that always rewards dipping into. Dip right in to the video below to see what I mean.
Another neat compilation that finds itself in my hands is the 6 x CD CMJ 500 collection, bought solely on the grounds that it featured a GBV song, but nevertheless a source of some great stuff, like the next track from Beat Happening, whose contribution represents the sound of 1988. Probably. No real reason for including a Captain Beefheart track next except for the fact that it is from The Spotlight Kid album and is therefore inherently brilliant. Back to the 80s after that for one of those bands who may well have recorded loads of ace albums, but that I only know from one single – but what a single! I refer, of course, to The Kamikaze Pilots and their wonderful Sharon Signs To Cherry Red tale that I have on the rather less well known Lowther International label and is dedicated to “everyone who has ever sent a demo tape to a record company” (or musical podcast show). I recently watched that documentary film ‘Lawrence of Belgravia’ about him out of off of Felt, Denim and Go Kart Mozart, and was struck by the lot of the creative artist seemingly ill-equipped to cope with not only the murky world of the record business, but life itself. Lawrence seemed to me to quite heroic in his own way and the film made me immediately put on records of his that I hadn’t listened to for far too long. And so it is that we finish this mix with Felt and a favourite taken from Ignite The Seven Cannons And Set Sail For The Sun, which sounds like a plan.
Before I leave you though, I also wanted to share the fact that I have just finished reading Robert Forster’s new autobiography, Grant & I, that has been an absolute pleasure (thanks, Rebecca!!), filling in all sorts of gaps in my knowledge of The Go-Betweens, not least the fact that at the initial demise of the band, Grant and Robert intended not only to continue as a duo, but had songs lined up for a new album, Freakchild, that included the likes of this…
Two wizards were in Salford to witness a stellar live performance from The Wedding Present of their new album Going Going…
An unusually an all-seated audience thrilled to the new sounds of the concept(?) album and accompanying visuals (no capes) and our intrepid reporters tell you all about it on the links here and there…
Some, frankly, pitiful attempts at photography from Row B:
So, Rebel Rikkit has taken his time to consider the selections before now delivering his verdict some 13 days after the end of the year.
