Firstly, let me address the elephant in the room. Alright, Nellie? That done, I feel a need to publicly respond to the inevitable tsunami of complaint messages we received due to last week’s tardy posting of the audio/visual sudoku that is the Popcorn Double Feature. This oversight was due to a perfect storm of lethargy and incompetence that was beyond our control. I hope you will forgive us.
So, what do we have this week, then? Well, it’s an unlikely pairing of erstwhile Rotten Pistol and dairy product fan, John Lydon, and everyone’s favourite Scandiwegian, Bjork, here in one of her less madcap videos.
As always, let us know what connects the two and get your name on the honour board.
“Destroy everything! But hang on, not that 7 inch by The Chesterfields”
Imagine this scenario, the world has been taken over by some unspecified malevolent aliens who despise music in all its forms. They are hellbent on destroying all the music on the planet but they give you, dear reader, the chance to save some of it. The aliens say that you can pick a letter and all the music by artists starting with that letter will be spared.
What letter would you choose?
That’s the question that’s been causing much passionate debate between the wizards over the last few weeks.
For me it’s no contest. It’s the letter C and here in alphabetical order are 40 reasons why.
The Cardiacs
The Cardigans
The Carpenters
Johnny Cash
Catatonia
Ray Charles
The Chemical Brothers
Neneh Cherry
Chic
Billy Childish
The Chilites
Cinerama
Gene Clark
The Clash
Patsy Cline
Jimmy Cliff
The Close Lobsters
Eddie Cochran
Cocteau Twins
Leonard Cohen
Coldcut
Lloyd Cole
Edwyn Collins
Colour Me Wednesday
The Congos
Ry Cooder
Sam Cooke
John Cooper Clarke
Julian Cope
Cornershop (and their side-project Clinton)
Elvis Costello
The Cramps
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Crowded House
Culture
The Cure
Ivor Cutler
Cypress Hill
The Czars
and for the days when living under the despotic rule of those bastard music-hating aliens is getting you down Chas & Dave
Included there are the band who made my favourite album (The Clash) and the man I’ve listened to more than any other in my whole life (Elvis Costello). There’s also my favourite female country singer, my favourite male country singer, my favourite reggae singer, the band that made my favourite reggae album, my favourite disco band, both my favourite poets and my second favourite soul singer.
And there’s also The Carpenters. The fucking Carpenters, people! Surely no other letter can better this?
“C is for Cibo Matto, that’s good enough for me”
One track each from those list above makes a commendable clever cool cracking coruscating playlist for your comfort and consumption. Ciao!
The Cardiacs aren’t on Spotify so I’ve included a track by their ex-member William D Drake instead. Here’s a Cardiacs video though.
So what do you think? Has Chorizo chosen the right letter or is he talking c***?
Kicker of Elves is still luxuriating on foreign shores with Mrs O’Elves so it’s me, Rebel Rikkit, here with your weekly fix of musical mystery and brain teasing boogie.
This time we pair The Temptations, who have a lot more to them than just My Girl and a clean-cut Motown boys-next-door act that they are best remembered for, and a band who were never accused of being clean-cut, Joy Division.
On the face of it these 2 songs seem to have nothing in common, but as ever they are linked in a very important way.
If you think you know the answer, be dramatic and write a note, put it in a bottle and throw it in the sea. That should find its way onto Mr O’Elves beach in no time at all.
Hello listener, or should that be viewer? Oh sod it. Dear reader,
Kicker of Elves being in the grip of a romantic 2 week break with Mrs O’Elves in a Caribbean Paradise, it’s Rebel Rikkit here with the nation’s favourite weekly musical brain teaser that is Popcorn! Double! Feature!
Here are 2 disparate videos stretching 50 years of audio history. First Marvin Gaye’s spiritual partner and David Ruffin (of the Temptations)’s physical partner, the majestic first woman of Motown (ok, perhaps not strictly the case) Tammi Terrell, and following her, the Indie Rock raconteur and controversialist, the fearless Mark Kozelek.
So, what links the two? If you think you know, make Rebel Rikkit’s day and punch Kicker of Elves in the face on his return. Then, tell him.
The passing of a week and here we are again ‘cos you’re calling out for more. Possibly.
This time round we have dear old Mozza with a certifiable Smiths classic before we tune in to the rock star who is Robert Pollard with a track from GBV’s Propeller album. But what sad fact (probably not very) widely known could possibly link the two?
Well, as everybody’s clever nowadays, we expect Rebel Rikkit to be inundated with correct answers. Don’t disappoint him.
You may be aware that Kicker of Elves recently announced he had found his new favourite band in the form of Philadelphia based act Graham Repulski. So taken was he that he has spent the bulk of the year (and his salary) getting hold of the band’s full back catalogue on a combination of LP, 7″ single, 6 CDs and 6 tape cassettes.
He has also thought up a whole bunch of questions to ask GR himself and rather than sending these messages direct to delete (as most people do), Graham kindly decided to stay up all night to answer them. This is what he had to say…
Hi. Graham. How the hell are you?
Couldn’t be better. The new album is officially “out” this week, I’ve got four more ready to roll, and another half dozen or so projects in the works. That’s always a good feeling. Only 20 more albums and I’ll be done, for now.
Can you tell us who is in the band Graham Repulski and how you got together?
It’s me. When it started in 2009, a lot of the bands I had associated with over the years were crapping out and for the Graham Repulski project I had started out using some of the guys from those bands to fill in the gaps on bass and drums and whatnot. The intention was to eventually solidify a line-up and go from there, as a band.
But with the pace I was going at back then, on top of general logistics and scheduling issues, it was tough to get recording sessions together when I wanted to. For a while I did end up having a few guests playing on various songs, just whoever was around at our house. My wife is on there.
I’m also pretty difficult to work with. The guys I play with live are old, old friends and just about the only people who will put up with me.
How would you describe your band’s sound in three words?
“Pop in hell”. Another: “Dear audiophiles: Sorry!”
As a band, I have your stuff filed under G, which puts you next to Guided By Voices. Was this deliberate on your part?
It was. Another huge influence on me was The Grifters. I used to go to the CD rack at the record stores where I dropped Man Pop and Electric Worrier off just so I could see it right in there next to those guys.
Of course, there are great similarities with your sound and the great lo-fi period GBV. What are your favourite songs of theirs?
“Dusted”, “Dayton, Ohio 19-something-and 5”, “He’s The Uncle”, “Drinker’s Peace”, “Unleashed! The Large-Hearted Boy”, “Wondering Boy Poet”. “I’m Cold” off the first Suitcase. Those impress me because I’ll never touch them. Those are the ones I wish I’d written.
I love “Subtle Gear Shifting” and “Systems Crash” off the Plantations Of Pale Pink EP. That’s an underrated EP. One of their best. Oh – “Trashed Aircraft” – I just thought of that one.
Another is “Echos Myron”. It’s not my favorite but it could be the greatest ever accomplishment in songwriting. I don’t even like to listen to it, it’s so well done.
You use Todd Tobias (a close collaborator of Robert Pollard’s) as mastering engineer. How did that come about? What does Todd bring to your recordings?
I had recorded all of Man Pop over the course of a few months and wanted Todd to mix the tapes for me. At that point, I had been in touch with Todd for a while asking for help with some stuff I was working on in the early 2000s (the production on Universal Truths and Cycles really impressed me and, before I went super lo-fi, that mid-fi zone he captured on there was where I wanted to be at that time) and he was always very open and helpful with advice. Still is.
Anyway, I switched to 4-track eventually, and I did so many idiosyncratic and not-very-smart things while recording Man Pop that I could really only mix the tracks myself, and Todd ended up doing the mastering afterwards. He helps a lot with getting the edits down and the songs to flow together, which has been a big focus on the last few albums and EPs especially.
You released your Cop Art LP on Big School Records run by Matthew Marcinowski. Did his being a GBV fan influence that decision? Are you planning more vinyl releases?
He’s also got the cassette label Hope For The Tape Deck on which I did Portable Grindhouse, easily my LEAST GbV-sounding album. As for vinyl, cassette seems more conducive for my set up right now. I was doing cassette releases early on, before I knew that it would become a hip thing, partly because I was a 4-track cassette guy, but also because I was shoving two EPs on each cassette and saving money with the self-releases. After this EP/single thing I’m doing next year, the next three albums are going to be on cassette again.
The 7” was on Big School, too. Knowing that he was so into GbV put a lot of pressure on me actually. He proposed the 7” release in July and I had nothing for him. I wrote and recorded it all within a month. But it was perfect the way it came together. Cop Art took longer and I was able to experiment more. By the way, we covered “Big School” at the Cop Art release show.
I love putting stuff out on vinyl. I usually start out an album with the intent that it will be on vinyl, from the track sequence / sides to the planning of the artwork with my friend Shawnelle. Often the direction he goes with the art will dictate how I finish the album. I’ll have Side A and maybe the closers of Side B all ready to go and then he’ll design the covers based on what he’s heard. And in turn I’ll look at his art for inspiration on where to go with the rest of the album so that it works with his art.
Your own label is called Shorter Recordings and some of your songs are, indeed, very short – War And Peace (I see what you did there!), for instance runs to just 19 seconds. What makes a good short song? What makes it a song not a fragment?
Short songs can pack more of a punch than long ones. You can have a nice little arc in the story with the short songs and then a really quick, potent epilogue. You don’t have the refrain to rely on to carry the song, so you’re working in a different format than usual, though you can and should always throw some hooks in there.
I do have lots of fragments, too. Those are the bridges between “real” songs, to help the flow of the album. Sometimes they get grafted on to the end of “real” songs in the mastering process, like at the end of “Funeral Games”. The original version of that on the EP doesn’t have the ambient outro.
I’ve been trying to best “War And Peace” – there’s a track on the upcoming EP that’s 16 seconds long. It’s a full song though. It goes through a whole story.
Also, I feel bad that you pointed out my horrible joke.
I now have 158 more of your songs than I did when the year started. Should I just start listening at Man Pop (your debut) and catch up chronologically?
That’s a good idea.
I move so quickly from album to album that I never really listen to them. I can’t really wrap my head around the chronology. I feel like it’d be really strange to hear “Slopping About” (the first song on the debut) next to “Young” (the last song on the upcoming EP), or even “In Waves” (the last song on the new album)
There are 42 songs on the next three albums – should I send those so you’ll have an even 200 to go through? [You’ll make his day if you do! – TTW Ed]
As such a prolific writer, are you at it all the time or do you write at specific times of day?
The best melodies seem to come at dawn or earlier. It’s quiet and I am fresh. Some verses or even full songs (“Octopus Bribes”, “Crying Machine Shakes The Moon”, “In Waves”) were in my head when I woke up and they were basically done right then and there, save for a few key lyrics that I needed to touch up.
But I also pick so many ideas up throughout the day from conversations and things like that. A lot of ideas for Portable Grindhouse came while I was sitting at a café working on something else, just listening for things or picking out various phrases from what I was reading.
The songs on the upcoming EP High On Mt. Misery came fully formed (aside from the tape experiments) while looking out over a cliff last summer.
Do you start with a title, a lyric or the music?
My favorite thing to do is start with a strong vocal melody. If I come back to it later and it still sounds interesting then I figure out the guitar stuff and punch it up with some changes, figure out the lyrics last.
All methods work in their own way though. If I sit down with a guitar and start off a song with some music, I can hammer out 5 to 10 songs in one sitting. Not all are any good, but that’s pretty fun to be able to go through those later.
I love coming up with titles, writing down random phrases, jokes, lines. I used to keep them in a big spiral notebook but I recently transferred them onto a spreadsheet. There are 3,300. I also have quite a few poems that I’ll morph into songs, usually a shorter snippet deal.
Which is your favourite album of yours? Why?
I’m most proud of the songs on Success Racist. It’s not just because it’s new and I’m supposed to be promoting it. I like a few songs on each of the earlier albums, too. I don’t listen to the albums much after they’re mastered. I don’t like to listen to myself. But I think a few songs from early on still stand strong with the new stuff.
The only album I’ve listened to a lot, just for fun, is the High On Mt. Misery EP, which hasn’t been released yet. It’s a bit of a departure and maybe for that reason it’s easier to pretend that it’s not me I’m listening to.
What does ‘Success Racist” mean?
I came up with it early on when all I had were “Octopus Bribes” and “In Waves” and then some basic sketches of another 20, 30 songs, and along the way it somehow stuck.
There’s actually a personal meaning to it – it’s not just some inane, dismissive title – related to something that was going on in my life when I started the recording sessions. I’ll leave it open for interpretation. It’s not as arch as it seems.
I just hope people don’t hate it too much. Hopefully they hate it just the right amount.
What is your favourite track on the album to play live?
“James Run” is fun to play live. I actually only played that song in full the night I recorded it. It was written very late in the game, at 2 AM, recorded quickly, and shoehorned onto the album, after it had been mastered in fact. Todd had to do a new version. Playing it live is cool because I’d only played it once before. It evolves a lot.
I have put together a playlist of my favourite songs of yours featuring the likes of My Color Is Red, Over The Shit Rainbow and Rip Van Winkle, but what do you think an introductory mix should open and close with?
To open, I would have gone with either “My Color Is Red” or “Over The Shit Rainbow”, but since you already mentioned them, how about “D-Beat At Dawn”? It encapsulates what I’m all about quite well, for better or worse.
Close with “In Waves”. I like that one.
Do you have any 3 dollar shirts? If so, are they really very popular?
I just realized that my wife threw out the shirt in question. I’ll have to find something else for the Rock Hall exhibit.
It was from a thrift store. Not a vintage clothing store or anything like that. It was probably 30 years old when I got it but in great condition. I wore it once to the office because it was the only thing clean and got a lot of compliments. It was the only shirt that people ever mentioned.
You have a great song called Dad Talks About Alan Parsons – are you a fan of ‘the Project’? How do you feel about prog rock?
I love the idea of prog and have a lot of fun incorporating certain elements of it into my albums, but I’m not necessarily an expert on the genre in any way. I inherited some of my dad’s old albums and enjoy some more than others. I love In the Court Of The Crimson King and early Yes and stuff like that but also more crossover, poppy, psychedelic stuff like The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway or In Search of The Lost Chord.
This is another title that seems to evoke a lot of different feelings for people. The song and title are fairly literal here but I guess you can derive any meaning from it that you want. Todd thought my dad was mocking my production style for not being more like The Dark Side Of The Moon.
I really like the song At The Pain Olympics, which features the line ‘pound it out and nobody comes’ – does this deliberately echo the line in Pollard’s My Impression Now “jump off ’cause nobody cares”?
Yes.
Apart from GBV, who else has influenced you musically?
Bruce Springsteen, Greg Sage, The Minutemen, Bob Mould, Pet Shop Boys, J Mascis, Polvo, Archers of Loaf, Silkworm
Recently, the only albums I listened to for nearly two years were Lysol by The Melvins and Torch Of The Mystics by Sun City Girls, and I think that’s had some influence as well.
What are the more obscure instruments you have used on any of your songs?
Creaky door, stuffed toy frog, breast pump
Which other current bands should we be listening to but probably aren’t?
I like this lo-fi experimental band Shivering Window – they’re on Rok Lok Records, the label that just put Success Racist out on cassette. They do a lot of interesting things, and have good tunes.
There’s this complete psychopath Filthy Turd that was putting out some great stuff last year. Hope he’s still at it. [Googling this artist was not a pleasant experience. – TTW Ed.]
Last week I couldn’t stop listening to a song called “No Cabana” by The Big City Nights Band. They’re in Canada and are unrelated to The Scorpions.
If you could have been in any band in history, which band would you have wanted to be in and why?
Butthole Surfers seemed like a lot of fun.
As an American you may not be overly familiar with the sport of cricket, but I still have to ask you – is it any good or a load of old bollocks?
What I’ve seen looks at least as exciting as baseball. I’m more into the stats. Is there a big sabremetrics community in cricket? I haven’t watched a baseball game since maybe 2008, but I still check all the stats on fangraphs.com a few times a week.
I tried to look up cricket stats just now and there are definitely sabremetrics. I don’t know what any of it means but I like to see all of the advanced stats. Are most cricket fans into stats? American fans tend to be skeptical of anything that feels like it involves math or intelligence.
it’s all go…
On safer ground perhaps – what the fuck has happened to the Cincinnati Reds this season? Do you care?
The injuries up the middle have cost them at least a few wins – it’s hard to replace your shortstop, catcher, and centerfielder with fill-ins and actually get something out of it.
Another traditional question, that I have to ask you is this: you’re in a caff (diner) ordering breakfast. You can have toast and your choice of tea or coffee and then you’re allowed 4 more items. What are they?
Four more coffees. Who can sleep?
What are you repulsed by?
Recording studios, George Zimmerman, apples
Talking of which, you told me you had listened to our podcast before I got in touch with you. How did you hear about us?
It might have been some sort of combination of Bruce, Pollard, and John Peel that drew me into the site in the first place. XTC and the Fall are big influences as well. Wedding Present. Beefheart. All huge presences both on your site and in my music. And I recall feeling very at home when I saw two of my other top 10 bands – REM and Cheap Trick – in your personal top 5. It was definitely interesting to see the distinct mix of stuff that you all wrote about and played. [Interestingly enough, if Kicker filed Graham Repulski under ‘R’, they’d be next to REM. Cool, eh? – TTW Ed]
I also enjoyed the post on Pollard’s solo stuff. I lost track of all that when I started doing Graham Repulski and really enjoyed your top 50 list a couple years ago. Got me back on board.
When can our listeners expect to see you playing in the UK?
When the next tape goes platinum.
You very kindly sent me tracks from a future release – High On Mt Misery EP – can you tell us when that will be released and about about any future projects you’re involved in?
That will be out next spring. It’s short and sort of louder than usual. Then there’s a trilogy of cassettes coming out the following winter – Re-Arranged At Hotel Strange, Contaminated Man, and Boy Lung. There are two or three concept albums I’m in the process of mapping out, based on some poems of mine that I discovered and also based on Shawnelle’s art.
I’m also doing at least three but possibly five additional secret projects that will not bear the Graham Repulski name in any shape or form. One of those is almost done.
Thanks so much for talking to us. What are you going to do right now?
I’m going to not sleep.
Many thanks to Graham for taking time out to share an insight into his craft and for tolerating Chorizo Garbanzo’s breakfast question.
You can fulfil all your Graham Repulski based needs by visiting this bandcamp page – go and buy a tape or two and make at least one go platinum.
No doubt this Monthly Mix will be doing battle with the familiar sounds of new pencil cases being filled with freshly sharpened, er, pencils and the cries of ‘where the fuck are my footy boots?’. Apparently, the kids are going back to school too.
We kick things off with a track from the band Evans The Death, who were undoubtedly one of my highlights of this year’s Indietracks festival. They seemingly only played this low key final track from their self-titled debut album as a way of boosting their set and if I had had any sort of heart at all, I would have been in tears. You will be. Next, it’s another tremendous single from Swedish wunderkinds Les Big Byrd. One of them is definitely called Leslie, right? More Stockholm based psych pop after them from Anti Pony, another band on the highly recommended, if difficult to say, PNKSLM Recordings – this is a single that came out right at the end of last year. I imagine it would be difficult to get shoes onto any sort of pony, and so it was with Dagenham darling, Sandie Shaw. I had her Nothing Comes Easy set in the car the other week and it reminded me how great her early singles were – here’s her 1964 debut.
…………………………dödstjärna………………………..
What I want to hear now is a song about a US Figure Skating Silver Medalist. Lucky then, that New York duo, Frog, have a song about Nancy Kerrigan on their self-titled mini album from 2012. Having got that out of my system, it’s back to PNKSLM for some Brummie based garage rock and soul from The Catillians with a track from their Show Your Teeth LP. They’ve got a new album on the way, and I, for one, can’t wait. A change of pace next with a track from a record I picked up from Truck Records in Oxford on a recent trip – Billie Holiday’s Lady Sings The Blues, and indeed she does. A more recent sound to find its way into my ears in the last month is that generated by the band New Jersey Nets, who I presume are named after Bergerac’s favourite sports shop. I came across them on the previosuly recommended Espace B website as part of this year’s Janvier mix. The song’s not on Spotify, but it is on the video below.
The first final Guided By Voices album, Half Smiles Of The Decomposed, tends to get overlooked in favour of the mid 90s heyday, but for me, it is one of their hidden gems. There are loads of great tracks here, but I am contractually obliged to only choose one. McLusky are another band who have a raft of brilliant songs in their back catalogue, but if pushed, and that is not an invitation, I would have to plump for the song chosen here from their McLusky Do Dallas collection as my favourite. Fuck This Band. Words almost certainly said by the mercurial Lee Mavers to his fellow Las more than once. It’s always worth dropping in on their album and, in particular, the song Timeless Melody, which confirms, once and for all, the power of nominative determinism. I was moved to get Lee and the boys back on the turntable after seeing the effervescent punk pop of Liverpool band, The Swapsies at the launch of their current Pooh And Piglet single because as great as the A-side is, and it is great, the B-side is just a monster mix of clever lyrics and memorable tune. You can hear it below and buy it on the link in the tracklisting. Do both.
The next song is about a shit-stirring monkey, a bad tempered lion and a cool as fuck elephant. And there is nothing wrong with that. If you want more of this sort of thing, you could do worse than check out the 60 Songs From The Cramps Crazy Collection. Then we have old favourites, Violent Femmes with a track from their RSD15 release Happy New Year. It is reassuring that they still sound exactly the same as they always did, and that I was able to buy the record without queuing, for its normal, if inflated, price some three weeks after the ‘event’. Fazerdaze, for it is they, are another New Zealand band that have come my way via the Flying Nun Records newsletter and its habit of offering free downloads. You can subscribe here and get more of this sort of stuff. This track actually comes from the band’s self-titled debut. Can’t these bands think of album titles anymore?! The next band certainly have thought about useful monikers and have seemingly opted for the ‘bollocks to pithy’ school of thought. A school of thought that probably doesn’t exist. Nevertheless, say hello to The Prayer & Tears Of Arthur Digby Sellers and their really rather wonderful song Lisa.
From time to time, we wizards bring sounds to each others attention that are likely to be divisive. I am fairly certain that the sound of King Of Cats’ Max Levy will not be to everyone’s tastes, but for me, the vulnerability and heartache in his voice is not only remarkably distinctive but also surprisingly powerful. Give it a go. This track is from last year’s Working Out LP and you can expect to hear more of this sort of thing from this year’s Microwave Oven release in future mixes. So there. OK, so time for a classic XTC number next and what better place to look than the Drums And Wires album, where the chemistry is most definitely right. Then we have one of the stand out tracks from The Decemberists’ heartfelt What A Terrible World, What A Beautiful World album, which we reviewed earlier this year on the pod. This is a song that tackles the story of the Newtown school shooting and President Obama’s speech that followed. Powerful stuff that makes you think about the world we live in. As, in haunting style, does the final track this month. This is from the tremendous Releasing Birds album from Fiona and Gorwel Owen. You might recognise Gorwel’s name from his work as producer with the likes of Super Furry Animals and Datblygu, but here he teams up with his partner, and poet, Fiona to produce an intensely beautiful mix of electronic and acoustic sounds that underpin her understated yet moving vocals. Yet another triumph from the Valleys that, truth be told, it took me a while to get to hear as Mrs O’Elves stole my copy after one play, telling me that it was the best music I had brought to the house in years. See you next month.
Ain’t no SNAFU, no fol-de-rol, no it’s just a couple of music videos with some vague less-than-obvious link.
This week we have the pairing of the incomparable Captain Beefheart and the final Magic Band and Robin Guthrie and Elizabeth Fraser teamed up as This Mortal Coil with a song to kickstart one of those cover-versions-better-than-the-original debates.
Anyway, we just want to know what connects the two. If you know, men let your wallets flop out, and women open your purses, ’cause a man or a woman who can’t tell Rebel Rikkit the right answer is suffering with the worstest of curses.
Another Trust the Wizards podcast hits the airwaves just in time to celebrate the height of summer.
In this show, fans of Chorizo Garbanzo’s Kevin Rowland impression (hello to both of you) will be beside themselves, as will fans of strange vocalisation generally. We also cater for those of you who favour quality pop punk and, er, fat arsed funk and we also try again to play that Magnetic Fields track. Hold on to your hats!
Here we are again kicking off another week with a popular music puzzler, this time featuring Robert Wyatt’s Matching Mole (Soft Machine in French, kids, kind of) and the original Men In Black, The Stranglers.
So, what links the two? If you think you know, make Rebel Rikkit’s ears burn with the answer. Not an ice pick.
Yes, it’s me Rebel Rikkit here, taking time out from reading your weirdly delivered correspondence to bring you two more songs with a link. This week it’s Bristolian legends, Blue Aeroplanes and Lahdahn’s own Symposium doing their stuff. But what connects the two?
If you think you know, don’t bother telling me, but feel free to leave Kicker of Elves a sarcastic voice message. he likes that sort of thing.
For the second year running Kicker and Tex took on the 9 hour round trip from Liverpool to Cardigan, the spiritual home of Fruits de Mer Records, and joined the revellers at The 13th Dream of Dr Sardonicus Festival – a 3 day celebration of all things psychedelic and vinyl.
now that’s what i call a goodie-bag
Have a listen here as Kicker tells fellow wizard, Chorizo Garbanzo all about it and plays some tracks from the likes of Soft Hearted Scientists, Bevis Frond and The Luck of Eden Hall, to name exactly three.
Some photos of a few of the things we saw…
… on the Friday:
soft hearted scientists
festival beer
… on the Saturday:
a healthy start
sendelica
the bevis frond
… on the Sunday:
sundelica
the luck of eden hall
paradise 9
And since you asked, this is the rest of my magnificent haul:
Don’t know if you saw that programme on BBC Four the other week “What Ever Happened to Rock’n’Roll?” It’s still on iPlayer but don’t bother, really don’t.
Dave Grohl, who as we’re endlessly informed is a really nice bloke as if we should somehow feel grateful to him for that, informed us that rock’n’roll doesn’t always have to mean guitar, bass, drums and somebody shouting up front and how, hey, even The Prodigy are a rock’n’roll band, man. Thanks for pointing that out Dave.
But the real low point came with the inevitable appearance of professional gobshite Noel Gallagher, the man arguably more responsible than anyone for the massive dumbing down of mainstream “indie” / “alternative” music of the last 20 years.
He claimed that the last great wave of bands came in 2004 and he reeled off the names Kasabian and Razorlight, bands who wouldn’t know a decent lyric if it kicked ‘em up their skinny expensively-trousered arses. And it’s Gallagher who is partly to blame for the mainstream success of these mediocre bands and many more since. He made it acceptable to not really bother writing a proper lyric. From a recent interview: “I don’t go that deep into writing lyrics… Quite frankly, I don’t give a shit what they’re about… who cares about the words?”
Further proof there, as if any was needed, that the man is a 24 carat bellend.
Fortunately, there are loads of artists out there making great inspiring records with lyrics that fire the imagination and send sparks along your neural pathways. You just have to be prepared to scratch beneath the surface of the repetitive unimaginative dirge in the XFM playlist that is Britpop’s true legacy. 6Music are giving these other artists a little bit of airplay and so are Dandelion Radio. Much of this music is being released on small independent labels run by enthusiasts with garages full of unsold CDs, large collections of obscure band t-shirts, a passion for great music and a bloody big overdraft. Same as it ever was.
Which brings us, eventually, to the 2 albums I’m supposed to be reviewing which are “Magnificent Second Occupation” by Pit Ponies (Trashmouth Records) and “It Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time” by Simon Love (Fortuna Pop!)
So far I’ve waffled on a bit so if you’re getting bored I’ll get to the main point now. You should buy both these albums because they’re both fucking brilliant.
I’ll start with Pit Ponies who first came to my attention on last year’s excellent Trashmouth compilation “Thinking of Moving to Hastings”. I bought that sampler, partly because it was cheap and so am I, but also because I wanted to explore what else was on offer from the label responsible for irresponsible mayhem-mongers Fat White Family. One of the Pit Ponies tracks on that comp “Furies” re-appears here and is just as mysteriously melancholic as when I first heard it. Like much of the album, this song has a deep yearning in it and although at times I’m not quite sure what singer Euan is yearning for, it’s powerful stuff. The theme of futility and pessimism runs through much of this album just as the most congested, most depressing stretch of the M25 runs through the band’s home turf just north of the Dartford tunnel. There’s a lyric on “Welcome to the Unhappy Bit” that says “50 going on 24” but these lads seem to be the other way around. They’re only in their 20s but they’re already giving off a strong scent of world-weariness in lyrics like these:“I’ve given up finding a saviour” “nothing ever seemed to go right” “I’m getting bored of my life” “I don’t know what else to do with myself or where else to go”
Hats off to the youngsters because that kind of cynicism only usually gets ingrained in you after a few more years of life kicking you in the bollocks. Maybe it’s caused by all that hanging around in Wetherspoons pubs that Euan’s former band Corporal Machine & The Bombers sung about so eloquently. (Some of their stuff available as a “Name your price” download here.)
But wait, come back, because despite what I’ve described, this is not a depressing listen at all. Far from it. There is hope here. Like Springsteen at his bleakest and best, there is a possibility of redemption here. There are tales of dancing to The Stone Roses at indie discos, falling in love “when I clapped eyes on to you”. The line “I’ve given up finding a saviour” is not about resigning yourself to a miserable fate, it is the realisation that no fairy godmother is going to appear out of nowhere to give you a helping hand. You’ve got to do it by yourself in this world.
The production’s all a bit Billy Childish, bit rough around the edges but it needs to be that way and it makes me long to see Pit Ponies play these songs live. There’s some great distorted guitar solos reminiscent of early Dinosaur Jr and if you’re wondering what happened to the Farfisa organ that Steve Nieve stopped playing around 1979, well I think the Pit Ponies half-inched it.
It seems wrong to pick out particular tracks from the album because this is definitely one of those albums that needs to be listened to in full so you can soak up the spirit of it. It’s all too easy these days to listen to one song by a new band and make your mind up from that. But I’m saying to you fuck checking them out on Youtube, fuck Spotify playlists and fuck shuffle mode. These lads have taken the effort to write and record a blinding album so treat it with the respect it deserves and listen to it in the right way, in one sitting and in the correct running order. If you can hear romance and beauty in the lyrics of any of these: Jackie Leven, Tom Waits, The Pogues, The Libertines, Arab Strap, Ian Dury, then you need to buy the Pit Ponies album.
Back when we first started doing this blog, we played the song “Motherfuckers” by Simon Love’s Cock and Balls on our second podcast. Back then we hadn’t realised that Simon Love was him out of sarcy should’ve-been-massive indiepoppers The Loves. We loved his foul-mouthed anthem back then and we still love it now. The song’s use of a clip from “Harold & Maude” may well be the best sample of film dialogue since the first B.A.D. album.
Now, finally, there is an album to go with it. Our hero has dropped his Cock and Balls and this is released as simply Simon Love. You may have heard “The New Adam and Eve” which has been streaming online for a few weeks. What a song that is! An instant classic. How can you not love a song that starts with the line “I’m gonna kill somebody today and make it look like suicide”?
The song’s narrator plans this and other intended homicides “leaving just you and I, everybody else can go fuck off and die.” Now THAT, Mr Gallagher, is how you write a chorus. A hilarious and simultaneously gloriously romantic idea, echoing Morrissey’s double decker bus crashing into us.
Later on there’s a bit about a jellyfish which I’m claiming as the greatest verse in any song this year but I’m not going to spoil it for you by transcribing the lyrics here. Instead here’s a photo of an indie jellyfish sporting the de rigeur polka dot.
“The New Adam & Eve” sounds like it should be the big hit of the summer, blasting out of every radio on every beach in the land. Sadly that won’t happen because of its insistence on repeating the word fuck every few lines. The breezy string-drenched “Sweetheart, You Should Probably Go To Sleep” also celebrates a loved-up relationship with Love calling in sick “to spend the day wrapped up in you”
Knowing how much Simon Fucking Love enjoys a good swear, the biggest surprise on the opening track “**** Is a Dirty Word” is that the 4-letter word in question is not the one you might’ve expected it to be. And it’s not that one either. Here, again, some bitter and twisted lyrics are matched with a very jaunty jolly gentle little tune before Simon gets his sweary head on again and the song becomes a much Wild-er Thing altogether.
Another song contemplates penectomy (please don’t Google that) with the jolly refrain “oh I’m thinking about cutting it off!” It’s a creepy waltz with evil laughs, hints of music-hall and slices of organ (snigger) that are very Nick-Cave-at-the-carny. It might not sound like it from that description but it’s also fucking hilarious and clearly the work of a genius. It’s called, unsurprisingly, “My Dick”
Being one of the few songs without swearing in, the song that I’ve heard on 6Music a couple of times is “Wowie Zowie”, a 60s garage-rock stomper with a “bow bow ba ba ba ba” refrain that sticks in your brain. “You Kiss Your Mother With That Mouth?”, another inspired songtitle, trundles along in a similar vein with a bit of Bolan boogie thrown into the mix.
Stewart Lee looking neither fat nor depressed
Britain’s 41st best stand-up Stewart Lee makes an appearance on “The Meaning of Love” which is not him singing a cover of the Depeche Mode classic but him reading out the text from the Wikipedia page of the word “love” over a funky Hammond-driven groove. Interesting for the first few listens but, like the McCartney cover “Dear Boy” not as essential as the rest of the album.
The album closes very strongly with 2 great songs. There’s one called “Elton John” that I had intially assumed was about some other person that had wronged Simon Love in some way (ex-bandmate? ex-lover? ex-business partner?). But I’ve since learnt that it is actually about the Pinner pianner-pummeler himself. It’s written from the point of view of that lady Renate he married in the 80s. “No fucking way! Am I fucking alone again?”sings Renate, understandably angry that, according to a book that Simon Love read, the night before the wedding Elton had a threesome with his then boyfriend and a male prostitute and then invited them to the wedding. (No point suing us for saying that Elton, we don’t have any money!)
Is Emperor Rosko the twin brother of Mick Channon?
Then there’s the title track that closes the album with more self-deprecating humour, with Love referring to himself as “this shadow of a man that barely stands before you.” This track also initially came out with “Motherfuckers” in 2012 as a free download from the Odd Box website but this new version has the addition of old-school DJ Emperor Rosko who reads out the album credits before signing off in style with the words “God speed you fancy bastards!” As with Pit Ponies, you feel that you’ve been listening to a proper fully-realised album that someone’s put a hell of a lot of thought into, rather than just a collection of songs that just happen to have been released at the same time.
“It Seemed Like a Good Idea at The Time” is an album brimming with humour, confidence, extremely catchy tunes, eccentricity, lyrical invention and a fucking shitload of swearing. I’ve listened to it about half a dozen times now and with each subsequent listen I’m becoming more convinced that it’s a masterpiece.
A little bit tardy this week, but fear not, here’s your regular musical mystery!
This time we have the Geordie Kings of Rock and Roll, Prefab Sprout, and pilgrim urgers, Pixies, with a couple of crackers.
As always, if you have an inkling what might link the two let us know. You might like to write your answer inside a French hat and plonk it on Rebel Rikkit’s tête déserté.
In Part 2 of the interview, we go back to earlier parts of Terry’s career…..
CG: Instrumentwise you’re an all-rounder but you’re probably best known as a woodwind & brass player. What was the first instrument you learnt to play and why did you choose to learn it?
TE: I broke my leg when I was 5 and as I had my leg in plaster running around after a football was out of the question. Mum played the piano, so I took an interest in that while I was house-bound! The trumpet followed at 11 when I went to senior school, guitar at 13, sax at 18 and flute at 50…
CG: Did you have formal lessons as a youngster or did you teach yourself?
TE: Piano & trumpet were learnt ‘formally’ and I took exams in those instruments and music theory. By the time I took up the others I could already read music. As a consequence I’ve always found it easier to improvise on sax & guitar as I wasn’t tied to a music stand so much with them.
CG: The music you’ve released under your own name and with the Scapegoats contains elements of so many different types of music. Is there any genre of music you really don’t like?
TE: Try as I might I’ve never really taken to either country or western. Largely because the noise a pedal-steel guitar makes is akin to every fingernail in the world being dragged down a blackboard.
playing the saxophone, Terry, is very much like making love to a beautiful woman.
CG: When you were in The Higsons, were there any clues to Charlie Higson’s future career, was he a funny person to work with?
TE: More clues to him being a writer than a comedian – he was always very good at editing song structures/lyrics. After several shandies he would occasionally morph into a Bulgarian Tour Guide character which was hilarious. Especially if you’d had a couple too.
CG: Did he ever find out who stole his bongos?
TE: It’s never been proven, but monkeys are suspected.
CG: When you heard “Listening to the Higsons” the first time, what did you think of it?
TE: Couldn’t believe anyone had written a song about our band! Quite surreal, really. I’ve penned the ‘answer’ song, “I wanna hear The Soft Boys (on my radio)” . It may see the light of day some time.
CG: We’re big fans of both sides of the “You Won’t See Me” / “I Want You (She’s so Heavy)” single you did with Robyn Hitchcock? How did that come about?
TE: It’s one of a series of themed coloured vinyl records on Sartorial – Department S/Scapegoats on Romany Blood Red vinyl; Cure-ator/Scapegoats on Amber Gambler vinyl; The Dash/Darren Hayman on Vindaloo coloured vinyl (including a Nightingales cover – Vindaloo was their record label). Beatles covers had to be on Apple Green vinyl… Maybe I should get out more.
CG: Scouse music legend James Clarke once told me “there are no Beatles covers that are better than the original.” Is he right or wrong? Please show your working.
TE: He might be right. There are some equals, if not betters, though. Check out Nina Simone and some pretty interesting reggae/ska versions of Fabs tunes. I reckon Hendrix’s version of Sgt Pepper has the better of the original, but he doesn’t eclipse it in the way that his version of All Along The Watchtower eclipses Dylan’s original.
CG: You’ve recorded covers of The Jesus & Mary Chain, The Fall, The Clash and The Cure. Did you ever get any feedback from the original artists about these versions?
TE: The Mary Chain liked what I did with their tunes. Mark E Smith wasn’t keen on my take of Container Drivers but was okay with the rest, so I’m led to believe. No idea about the others, though.
CG: Are there any other bands whose songs you’d like to re-contextualise in that way?
TE: There’ll be some new covers played in Edinburgh, some straighter than others.
CG: You recently took part in the “Recording in Progress” sessions with PJ Harvey where the band were on display as a living art exhibit. How did it change things knowing that people were watching?
TE: The most important thing involved bodily functions – you could only get to the toilet by going through the crowd so we learnt to get that out of the way before the viewing sessions started. And it wasn’t a rule, but I noticed that there was far less swearing in the studio than usual!
CG: How much did you record in those sessions and do you know what will be released and when?
TE: I was there for 3 of the 5 weeks. There were 18 songs to be tackled, some done in several versions. It’s been whittled down to album length and will see the light of day next year so far as I know.
CG: A few questions about the Woody Woodmansey / Tony Visconti tour now. Were you a fan of those early 70s Bowie albums at the time?
TE: I was a bit too young for Man Who Sold The World when it came out, but got to know Ziggy etc from about 1974. I really got to know them better when I tried to play several tunes from Aladdin Sane & Ziggy over the next couple of years.
CG: Which are your favourite Bowie songs to play live?
TE: Width of a Circle, Suffragette City, Cracked Actor. Well, frankly, any Bowie song when I can turn round onstage and see that I’m playing it with Woody, Tony Visconti, Lisa Ronson et al. I mean, that’s nuts isn’t it? How many people can say they’ve done that?
CG: I saw the gig in Liverpool and it was a glorious performance. The band, and especially Marc & Glenn, seemed to be having a great time, just enjoying themselves playing this music that they love. Was it as much fun as it looked?
TE: It was a bloody hoot from start to finish. Great songs, great musicians, great fun.
CG: Have you ever met or worked with Bowie?
TE: I met Bowie at Mute Studios in the 90s. He was working with Reeves Gabrels in Studio One, I was doing some overdubs for Dopesmugglaz in Studio Two. We chatted quite a bit over coffee in the kitchen. I told him I’d covered Five Years for a John Peel session a few years before. I was invited to play Bowie covers at the Meltdown Festival he curated in 2002. I wonder if the two events are at all related?!
CG: Lots of bands seem to collaborate with you repeatedly (e.g. Gallon Drunk) so you must be doing something right! Apart from the obvious musical ability, what other attributes does a successful session musician need?
TE: I think you need to be available most of the time! Hard to tell what the winning formula is when there really isn’t one. I think the general rules of life apply – don’t be a dick, don’t fuck up. And when you do fuck up, do so with a good sense of humour!
CG: Even though you’ve worked with so many greats, there must be some others who you’ve always wanted to work with. Who would you most like to call you tomorrow to ask you to play on their new record?
TE: All bets are off if Iggy Pop phones up. Or the Stones. Or Tom Waits. Now, if all three wanted me to hook up with them in a supergroup…
“So that’s agreed then, I’ll call Terry right now.”
CG: You seem to be very prolific. When did you last go on holiday?
TE: Yeh, I don’t really do holidays. But I’m looking forward to going to Vadso in the Arctic Circle in November for a few days. I’ll be playing at a small music festival curated by artist Michele Noach, but when you’re playing with a few friends including John Paul Jones it’s kind of a holiday, isn’t it?
CG: What other projects have you got coming up?
TE: The NJE (Near Jazz Experience) album with Mark Bedford & Simon Charterton will be out in the autumn, finally and I’m trying to get a couple of things going before touring with PJ Harvey next year, dates t.b.c., but Edinburgh with Neil Fraser is taking up every waking hour at present.
The Near Jazz Experience. Thanks to Nick Hider on Flickr for the photograph.
CG: Finally the traditional Trust the Wizards questions that we ask everybody we interview. You’re in a caff ordering a breakfast. You can have toast and your choice of tea or coffee and then you’re allowed 4 more items. Go.
TE: Bacon, chips and canned tomatoes. Or ham, chips and fresh tomatoes. It all depends on if I’m feeling canned or fresh.
CG: Cricket. Is it any good or is it just a load of bollocks?
TE: Test cricket’s fucking brilliant. Sadly our test team isn’t fucking brilliant often enough.
Many thanks to Terry for taking the time to answer our questions. If you’re anywhere near Edinburgh over the next few weeks, go and see him with Neil Fraser. Ticket link shown below.
This week’s Popcorn Double Feature gives us the chance to hear the much missed John Peel introduce the all-but-forgotten grunge band New Bad Things as part of his Festive Fifty countdown from 1993 and also, one of Kicker’s favourites, Cheap Trick. But what connects the two?
If you think you know, don’t Surrender as I Want You To Want Me to know. Just tell Rebel Rikkit or he’s Gonna Raise Hell because, quite frankly, He’s A Whore.
It goes without saying that we love the new Sleaford Mods LP and appreciate its punk rock social realism. We also very much enjoy its profanity and are happy to confirm that it includes: 45 fucks, 12 cunts, 6 shits, 5 sods, 4 bastards, 3 craps, 3 twats, 3 pisses, 2 wankers, 2 arses, 2 bollocks (naturally), 1 tit and 1 titcake.
This calls for a graph.
Click on picture to see full size version
Please note that we weren’t fooled by the song below.
In addition, “that tool from Blur” gets mentioned but tool isn’t a proper swear word is it? That smug cheesemaking twat, or come to think of it any member of Blur, can be adequately described using any combination of the words shown in the graph above.
For example, “that bassist from Blur is a pisscunt” and “that singer from Blur is a fucktwat”
“It’s Venus.” Actually, it isn’t. It’s the August Monthly Mix coming straight to your ears from the wizards’ secret hideaway somewhere near Uranus [Stop it! – TTW Ed] and kicking things off with those most likeable of surf guitar aliens Man… Or Astroman? featuring the combined talents of Birdstuff, Captain Zeno and Coco The Electronic Monkey Wizard. This is appropriately followed by a song entitled A Question Isn’t Answered from neo-psych posterboys Temples. Some neat handclaps and suitably out of this world guitar fuzz are on this highlight from their Sun Structures album. And since I’ve started this ‘space’ theme, I guess I am contractually obliged to include a track from the wonderful Public Service Broadcasting’s The Race For Space set. The one I’ve chosen is more downbeat and tense than much of the album, but is perhaps the most powerful on the record as a result. Bringing us back to earth, it’s the title track from Johnny Cash’s Out Among The Stars because… well, you get it.
back from the dark side
OK, enough of that astral malarky, how about some Vertical Scratchers from erstwhile Brainiac guitarist John Schmersal? Now, if you know there’s a track on their Daughter Of Everything that features Robert Pollard, you will be mightily surprised that I have chosen a different track altogether. Yes, it’s that good (and sounds like the most Beatlesy bits of GBV for good measure). Then it’s a track from the new album Whatever, My Love from The Juliana Hatfield Three. It’s great to hear that heartbreaking voice again and with lyrics like “it sounds like a metaphor for love, but it’s not”, we’re onto a sure-fire winner here. Similarly, by looking no further than the opening track on the first album, the neatly entitled Album, by the short-lived, and difficult to Google, Sanfranband (as no-one called them) Girls, you can find more grist to the wavering mill of my FAATB* campaign with a joyful two and a half minutes of jingle jangle indie pop. Following them it’s apposite that I feature the wizards’ favourite Argentinian rock and roll troubadour, Billordo, as it has given me much joy this week to learn that the legendary Spare Snare are releasing a cover of one of his songs to coincide with their Autumn tour. You can buy said record here and catch the band in Liverpool on 9 September. You can also hear one of my favourite Billordo tracks by watching the video below.
Time for some Winston Hubert McIntosh now in the form of, the strikingly not Scottish, Peter Tosh with his classic Stepping Razor from the album Equal Rights (excellent, but not quite as good as his first Legalize It[Oh shut up! – TTW Ed]). A mid-mix instrumental after that with the B-side of a recent 7″ release on the uber-reliable Ghost Box label from The Pattern Forms (with a little bit of Jon Brooks) that will have you rapt for its full 6 minutes. This month’s Tex Pick sees our lone star chum (quick)draw on glumsters’ favourites Fun Boy Three and their ever relevant The More I See. Good work. Then, to cheer us all up, how about a quick visit to Finn’s Motel for a taste of the Concorn Village Optimist Club? This is a record I bought without knowing anything about the band or what their sound might be like, but, despite the danger that it might feature a number of unwanted New Zealanders, it was always bound to be ace because it’s on the Scat label (home of, amongst others, Bee fucking Thousand) and… it is.
anyone know any jokes?
A bunch of very much welcome Antipodeans next in the shape of The Phoenix Foundation, who hail from Wellington, on the North Island, with the lead-off track from their Tom’s Lunch EP (see what they did there?) that has a tremendous bass thump that ensures you really feel the love (of Yoko Ono?!). Last October, another of my favourite record labels (we’ve all got ’em, right?), Audio Antihero turned 5 years old and released a compilation to celebrate the fact called, er, Five Long Years, which amongst the likes of regular Kicker’s mixers Benjamin Shaw and Low Low Low La La La Love Love Love Love, also featured a collective new to me in The Superman Revenge Squad Band. Could they possibly live up to that superb band name? Damn right they could. This month’s GBV track comes from 1995’s Alien Lanes and is dedicated to Kicker Jr, who has designed the future logo for our soon-to-appear Trust The Wizards record label that will be bringing more Billordo to the UK before the end of the year. Watch this space. After that undoubted classic, we’ve then got Robyn Hitchcock with a song from the oft-overlooked A Star For Bram album that compiled outtakes from Jewels For Sophia and included a studio version of the legendary song 1974. You’ll have to buy that collection to hear it, but watch the video below for a stunning live version first.
Of course I have to follow the song 1974 with a song released in 197…1. I have a soft spot for Alice Cooper – the band – and would argue that both the albums Killer and Love It To Death are great records and it is from the latter that I present the case for the defence. Another band I have a growing soft spot (increasingly becoming bigger than a great lake) for are the band Evans The Death, who, fresh from wowing both me and Chorizo Garbanzo at Indietracks, appear here with one of the many stellar performances on this year’s highly recommended Expect Delays LP. Just listen to that voice and those lyrics. Genius. The new Built To Spill album Untethered Moon is also getting a lot of airplay in the O’Elves household at the moment and being a sucker for songs about songs (surely a theme for a future TTW Podcast) there was only going to be one choice for this mix. That, and the fact that it includes an enormous shimmery guitar sound, obviously. Finally, you might have noticed that Michael Head’s the Magical World Of The Strands has recently been repressed along with an accompanying album of different versions, demos and the like. While I wait for the latter to arrive, it seems appropriate to remind the listening world (hello to both of you) just how great that album is and how it continues to hit the spot…
Following the recent release of his “Beyond Harlem Nocturne” EP, recorded with Tindersticks guitarist Neil Fraser, we interviewed ex-Higson and all-round renaissance man Terry Edwards.
Part 1 of the interview focuses on the new EP, next month’s gigs at Edinburgh Fringe and his work with Tindersticks.
CG: What can people expect from the Edinburgh shows?
TE: Neil & I are playing bits from our past (both individual & collective), covers which neither of us has aired before and stuff we’ve written as part of our nascent pairing as a dynamic duo! CG: Any plans for more live appearances with Neil?
TE: So far we’re really enthused by what we’re doing, so there’ll be a life after the Fringe Festival, I’m sure.
CG: Your version of Harlem Nocturne is amazing, very sinister & evocative of New York, you can almost see the smoke coming out of the grates on the floor and Robert de Niro in his yellow cab! Which of the many versions of this standard are your favourites?
TE: Ooh – a toughie. There are two different versions by Earl Bostic, both essential, an unlikely one by Go-Go artist Chuck Brown & the Soul Searchers and a wild one by the New York Ska-Jazz Orchestra. I guess it has to be Bostic above the others.
CG: You wrote a beautiful flute piece on the EP “Lullaby for Ian” dedicated to the late great Ian Dury. Tell us about playing with Ian on the Madness song “Drip Fed Fred”
TE: Thank you – an unlikely tune, but it’s been well received. I got some lovely feedback from The Blockheads when I sent it to them. As for “Drip Fed Fred” it was one of those situations where the vocal had already been recorded before the horns were put down, so we weren’t in the studio at the same time. I just had to get the horn arrangement to fit round what was there already. I was delighted to be asked. If you listen really carefully to the fade out I quote the guitar riff from Dury/Jankel’s ‘Razzle In My Pocket’. The devil’s in the detail!
CG: Did yours & Ian’s paths cross at any other times? Maybe at Madstock in Finsbury Park? You were on the bill with Gallon Drunk and I remember seeing Ian & the Blockheads play a blinding extended set (because Morrissey didn’t show for that gig)
TE: Well – firstly as a fan. I met him after a gig at Gant’s Hill Odeon and got his autograph. “Elm Park is Kool – Ian Dury x”. Had it stolen a few years later. Oh well… Yes, met him and the Blocks in Finsbury Park which, incidentally, was my first gig with Gallon Drunk. John Lydon did a guest vocal on Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll – do you remember that? [CG: to be honest I’d completely forgotten that happened until Terry reminded me!]
CG: I’m a huge fan of Neil Fraser because of his versatility and restraint. I’ve loved watching him at Tindersticks gigs over the years, it’s not just what he plays, it what he doesn’t play that is so effective! What is it about Neil that made you want to collaborate with him?
TE: I think I like what you like about him! All the right bits in all the right places. It’s always interesting to play with people who don’t think the same way that you do, yet have similar taste. That was what was so good about Jem Moore in The Scapegoats too.
CG: What was it about “Factory Girls” that made you choose that song from Tindersticks back catalogue for a re-recording?
TE: ‘Factory Girls’ is a truly beautiful song which I enjoy singing. Our version gives it the rope it needs at the end to let the frustration of the subject vent itself. I think we release the latent Bowie-ness of the song, too. Reminds me a bit of ‘Five Years’, which I covered on a Peel session in the early 90s. We have another Tindersticks idea up our sleeves for the Edinburgh set. Watch this space.
CG: Did you record or are you planning on recording any more stuff with Neil?
TE: Time’s been at a premium for rehearsal/recording as we don’t live in the same country – and I’ve had a busy few months, which doesn’t help. So we’ve only done those 4 tracks, but we have a Marc Riley 6Music session on August 24th, so we’ll try to record different stuff for that. We’ll probably record some shows too, but it’d be good to do a complete album in the fullness of time.
CG: You’ve worked with Tindersticks on most of their albums which must be one of your most longest and most prolific collaborations. Presumably you need to get on very well with people to collaborate with them for such a long time. What keeps you going back for more?
TE: Maybe less of their albums than you think. I was on the first two studio albums, early live recordings & a couple of BBC sessions, then didn’t work with them until “Waiting For The Moon”. I’ve definitely been on more Gallon Drunk records & tours. To be honest I don’t really know how I’ve wound up doing a lot of what I do. Bloodymindedness probably! And I’m pretty easy to get on with. And I try to get the notes right most of the time.
CG: The band’s detractors frequently dismiss them for being a bunch of miserable sods, but which member of Tindersticks tells the best jokes?
TE: No – they’re all miserable sods!! And the best joke teller is monitors guy Jamie Hickey 😉
CG: Tindersticks have announced some continental tour dates for early 2016. Does this mean new material is on its way? Will there be any UK dates?
TE: There’s a new album on it’s way around the time of the tour, so far as I know. I did a bit of recording with them late last year, but I don’t know if any of those tunes made the cut. The shows are slated for Feb-May, but the itinerary isn’t finalised.
In Part 2 of the interview, we ask Terry about other areas of his career including working with Charlie Higson, Robyn Hitchcock and PJ Harvey. And yes, we also ask him the all-important breakfast question.
Here’s Part 2 of our Indietracks podcast where the last and rainiest day of the festival is reviewed by our intrepid quiz-participating boxcar-boarding footwear-observing wizard Chorizo Garbanzo.
This weekend a couple of wizards ventured across the country to the Midland Railway Centre near Ripley in Derbyshire to join in this year’s Indietracks festivities.
and I’ll meet you at the station
Chorizo Garbanzo, being the hardy type, managed to witness all three days and seemingly met everybody who was either in a band, writes about bands, or runs a record label (which was basically everybody there). He was joined on the Saturday by Kicker of Elves, who mostly bought records.
You can hear what the pair of them remembered about the first two days of the festival here and, if that’s to your taste, come back soon for Chorizo’s musings on day three. Yum yum.
Time for more songs with an obscure tenuous link, you say? Alright, then.
We have a couple of post punk classics this week. First up, and fresh from being showcased on a recent podcast, it’s professor of punk and reggae, Vivien Goldman and she is joined by the coolest graduates Hornsey College of Art has ever offered, The Raincoats.
If you think you know what connects these two, let Rebel Rikkit know. You’ll find him in the booze aisle in Lidl reading Hansel and Gretel.
Coming to you from their secret location in one of the wilder parts of the North West, the wizards are back with another show full to the brim with some of the best music around.
Somehow they find time to play a selection of Scandiwegian snorters, Canadian crackers and Welsh wonders as well as discussing sure-fire hit screenplays. All that plus 2 (two!) album reviews and more misheard lyrics than is frankly acceptable. Get on it right now, right here.
Yes, here we have two more unlikely bedfellows in the form of Glaswegian new-wavers Strawberry Switchblade with a song that isn’t ‘Since Yesterday’ and those noisy New York blighters, Sonic Youth, with a song that isn’t, er, ‘Tom Violence’ (a song one of Kicker’s early bands (and we use the term inaccurately) were named after).
So, if you think you know what links these two why not cause a teenage riot and be the kool thing that tells Rebel Rikkit.
As time marches on, here we have a couple of real stompers for your entertainment.
First up there’s a very hazy video of AR Kane, but we can promise you it is the dreamy duo themselves, and then you can enjoy some 60s German pop from The Rattles. Bitte schön.
Anyway, can you be the first to tell us what links the two? If you don’t know, please don’t throw Herbert, Dicky, Eggert and Manne out of your perambulator. They don’t like it.
TRUST THE WIZARDS 