I Can't Express The Happiness I'm Feeling

As soon as that bass and those motorik rhythms kick in, you know it's Fujiya & Miyagi, and therefore you're in good hands.

Back with album number 10 (Ten? Has it really been that long?!), the third preview song/video from New Shiny Object arrived this week. Like Point 33 Recurring and Lowest Common  Denominator before it, No Green Light is both pleasingly familiar yet as fresh and sprightly as their debut.

New Shiny Object is out on 30th October, which is one Hallowe'en treat that won't give me the chills.

 

And yes, those of you listening to the lyrics will spot that I adapted the line "I can't express the emptiness I'm feeling" for today's post title. It's Friday, after all!

It's Like I'm Chasing The Sun

Since launching this blog almost six years ago, Django Django has been the only artist that I've received a takedown notice for. 

In fairness, it wasn't them, it was their bots, and it was the blog post specifically, it was the file sharing site that hosted the Dubhed selection that I'd created.

Even so, on a subconscious level, it may have meant that I've written about Django Django less that I could or should have.

I'm going to take a punt on this one, though, as it wormed it's way through my ears and into my brain and cheered me up considerably on an otherwise miserable day.

The single Feel Alright is a collaboration between Django Django and Max Pope and is three and a half minutes of joyful chug-a-long pop rock, with a video that mines that familiar theme of "Country singer performing in gritty British social club" (Walthamstow Trades Hall, if you're asking), which is harmless fun and doesn't detract from the song

I've never heard of Max before now, but he's packed a lot into his 31 years on this mudball: ping ponged between various homes and schools as a kid; picked up a guitar aged 10; as a young adult, signed with managers who wanted to force his music and career in a different direction; quit the industry and spent a year working as a gardener; started writing music again and returned on his own terms.

Plenty to Feel Alright about then, based on Max's road to here.

It's also the closing song on Django Django's new album Doveland. According to the promo blurb, Doveland was written "in the Scottish Highlands and Mexico [and] recorded in the German countryside [and London]", initially with the idea that there would be an accompanying film. 

The latter hasn't materialised (yet) but the album is out on 6th November. I'll be checking it out. Just don't expect a new Dubhed selection to celebrate it's release.

[Post Script]

The post published successfully, but when I re-visited the blog to get a link for my BlueSky post, I got this instead:

Have the Django Django legal bots struck again?!

Hopefully, normal service will resume shortly and you will have been able to actually read this post....

Another Minute And It Could Be A Different Ending

A resplendent version of Trouble Understanding by The Charlatans, performed at The Church in London in 2015 to promote then-new album Modern Nature.

The rolling bass, emotive keyboards, chiming guitar and chugging percussion all come together beautiful, Tim Burgess (with newly bleached roots) in fine voice and the duo of backing vocalists Melanie Marshall and Sandra Marvin elevating the song.

The studio version soars to similar heights but I prefer this version, the vocals more to the fore, but each element standing on its own and bursting with life.

Norman Cook did a couple of remixes of Trouble Understanding, the main version paring the song down, creating a Balearic soundscape without losing the grandeur of the song.

Norman was clearly equally entranced by Tim, Melanie and Sandra's performance as he stripped things back even further with an a capella remix.

Beautiful, isn't it?

None of these were the first version of Trouble Understanding that I heard. That was the "Rudeboy Edit", which essentially takes Norman Cook's remix and underpins it with the rhythm track of Teardrop by Massive Attack, to great effect.

This version was originally posted as a YT link via Fatboy Slim's website, which was how I came across it. Sadly, it's no longer available online, but I will try to include it in a future Dubhed selection.

Break A Lyrical Hymn Of The Stem Like Boom

Proceed appeared on The Roots' second album Do You Want More?!!!??! in 1995, and was lifted as a single, retitled Proceed II and featuring Roy Ayers, the same year.

My knowledge of hip hop and rap is woefully gappy, and that equally applies to The Roots, with one album (not the above, but the compilation Phrenology) and a handful of random tracks in my collection.

Proceed popped up on a random shuffle, which inspired me to track down the video. A great vibe, a great song, and a jab in the ribs to start digging a little deeper into The Roots.

I shall proceed (proceed)

And continue to rock the mic (to rock the mic)

I shall proceed (what's going on?)

And continue to rock the mic

I shall (I shall) proceed (proceed)

And continue (and continue) to rock the mic (to rock the mic)

I shall (I shall) proceed (proceed)

And continue (and continue) to rock the mic (to rock the mic)

Just think, what if you could just, just blink yourself away?

Just think, what if you could just, just blink yourself away?

Jeff X can rock the mic with tooth decay

I be the five-foot seven, residing at the Mecca rest address in South section

Used to cut class in the infinite pursuit of ass back in '86 (back in '86)

Easy with the chicks, I was a chocolate boy (I was a chocolate boy)

Raised in the cellar with the rhythm like Ella (rhythm like Ella)

Walk the mega-trife streets to the subway where I lay (subway where I lay)

'Til the train stop, then a nigga hopped (hopped)

Used to do the pop dance to the Planet Rock

At the block party, everybody jocked (who me?)

It's the MC sucka niggas envy

I got my contract in 1993 and I shall proceed

I shall proceed (oh yeah)

And continue (yeah) to rock the mic (to rock the mic)

I shall proceed (it's goin' down, baby)

And continue (and continue) to rock the mic (to rock the mic)

I shall (I shall) proceed (proceed)

And continue (and continue) to rock the mic (to rock the mic)

I shall (I shall) proceed (proceed)

And continue (and continue) to rock the mic (to rock the mic)

I wake up early in the morning, I mean early afternoon (early afternoon)

Break a lyrical hymn of the stem like boom (stem like boom)

I'm flyer when I'm higher, put my shit up on my tomb (shit up on my tomb)

That nigga represented on the 28th of June (on the 28th of June)

I'm representing Philly on the 28th of June (on the 28th of June)

I can make you feel that I'm a surreal cartoon

With my pistol in the face of hip hop, stick in your face

Because I'm on a paper chase (say what?), I'm on a paper chase

My Timberlands are fully laced, I be the Mr. Boogeyman

With records from 125th to Japan

I laid them play like Johnny Hathaway and shake a hand, shake a hand

Your lady tried to kick it, but I couldn't play my man

My niggas is my niggas, ya see she didn't understand

I shake your hand and shit'll hit the fan, just think

Just think, what? What if you could, just blink, what?

Blink yourself away?

I shall proceed (proceed)

And continue (and continue) to rock the mic (to rock the mic)

I shall proceed

And continue to rock the mic (to rock the mic)

I shall (I shall) proceed (proceed)

And continue (and continue) to rock the mic (to rock the mic)

I shall (I shall) proceed (proceed)

And continue (and continue) to rock the mic (to rock the mic)

Malik B, get on the mic, a-yo, it's too much on my mind (say what?)

Malik, get on the mic, there's too much on my mind (oh yeah)

Johnny on the spot, got the rhythm and the rhyme

Fuckin' with The Roots, you know them niggas is the dime

I can make a 100-yard line start to dash (start to dash)

I can make a whole lake of fish start to splash

I can make Conan and the Titans clash

I can Metallica and Guns n' Roses thrash

Used to smash, crash parties like I was disturbed

Used to make plots against the herringbone herb

But now, all I do disperse the verb

And like a nerd, I can make you say, "He's superb" (he's superb)

Word is perfect, never ever shall you misinterpret

I move styles like bowels, so now you know I'm worth it

Direct from Philly, the lands where niggas scheme

So you know I got the sheen in my gleam

I shall proceed (proceed)

And continue (and continue) to rock the mic (to rock the mic)

I shall proceed

And continue to rock the mic (to rock the mic)

I shall (I shall) proceed (proceed) (you know how we always do)

And continue (and continue) to rock the mic (to rock the mic)

I shall (I shall) proceed (proceed)

And continue (and continue) to rock the mic (to rock the mic)

I shall proceed (proceed)

And continue (and continue) to rock the mic (to rock the mic)

I shall proceed (proceed)

And continue (and continue) to rock the mic (to rock the mic)

I shall proceed (proceed)

And continue to rock the mic (to rock the mic)

I shall proceed (proceed)

And continue to rock the mic (to rock the mic)

I shall proceed (proceed)

And continue to rock the mic (to rock the mic)

I shall proceed (proceed)

And continue to rock the mic (to rock the mic)

I shall proceed (proceed)

And continue to rock the mic (to rock the mic)

I shall proceed (proceed)

And continue to rock the mic (to rock the mic)

Kill Or Be Killed

We may be facing an existential threat from A.i.* but on an individual level, I think I'm not alone in sharing that there are many times I've wanted to lob the Clan K computer out of the window when it's picked another opportune moment to "go slow", refuse to comply with a request to open or close apps, or just generally be a pain in the arse. 

Yes, I know all of those things are often exposing the limitations and incompetency of the human operator, thereby underlining the point of our inevitable redundancy, but give me a break. 

I've no idea where Computer Kill aka Noah Schippers stands on this hot topic, but the recently released video for an old song (2024) grabbed my attention (yes, I know it was an algorithim, not free will) and it's actually pretty good.

Even better, it's available as a Name Your Price download.

* The orange glob would rather we rebrand A.I. as S.I. aka Super Intelligence. I think he's missed a trick there and should have gone for T.T.I. aka Top Trump Intelligence. Maybe someone should have a word...

Catching Sparks

Remembering that time I saw The Jesus & Mary Chain at The Studio in Bristol. 

It was 14th November 1989, a Tuesday night, and at that point I was a college drop out, working for a bank in a suburban high street. These were the days when the manager would smoke in his office; there was probably a bottle of the good stuff under lock and key, for the special customers.

Me, I spent days either in the back office, or on the counter, which was considered a 'step up', or clearing out the sodden, stinking confidential waste from the leaky metal shed in the back yard, the squatting rats and I trying to give each other a wide berth. Clearly, I was working there for the money, not the glamour.

A mid-week gig in the city centre therefore was a relatively rare thing, with an 8.30am start the following day and all hellfire unleashed if you were a minute late for work (although, perversely, a more liberal attitude to the traditional 'lunchtime drink').

Anyway, I must have raced from work to get there, picking up my friend Stuart on the way, as we were parked, up the external flights of stairs past the cinema to get to the Studio and get a decent spot in time for the start of the support act.

I knew nothing about The Perfect Disaster at the time and they were good as I (vaguely) recall, though my abiding recollection is that the lead singer was trying a little too hard to be Mick Jagger. It was the bass player, Josephine Wiggs, that lingers the most in the memory though, for joining The Breeders the following year.

As for the headline act, I was a fan, but not a massive fan, of The Jesus & Mary Chain. I had a clutch of singles and not a single one of their albums. However, Stuart had bought the current album, Automatic, and B-sides compilation, Barbed Wire Kisses, which I thought were great. 

My reservation was that I'd read in the music papers that J&MC gigs were at best chaotic, and that even headline shows clocked in at barely half an hour. What the hell would tonight be like?

It was all of the above and a lot more, to be honest. Jim and William and the rest of the band came on stage and launched into a couple of Darklands B-sides. Rider was noisy, scuzzy and scrappy, though nothing compared to Everything's Alright When You're Down. I had this on the 10" vinyl of Happy When It Rains and were it not for the F-bomb, could have been a single in it's own right.

It was four songs in before Automatic got an airing, and then four in a row, including exuberant single Head On. I knew these songs better than their predecessors from Psychocandy and Darklands, though any of the studio gloss that had been applied was stripped away, boiling the raw songs in a sea of noise.

I don't remember any between song banter or even a Ramones-style 1-2-3-4, one song seemed to go into the next in a relentless sonic assault. I recognised Nine Million Rainy Days from the live version on my double pack 7" single of April Skies, and when the title track was played, there was a near riot.

How do you top that? With Some Candy Talking and 1988's sizzling standalone Sidewalking, one more Automatic track (Gimme Hell) and one more April Skies B-side, the bloody brilliant Kill Surf City.

Then it was all over, the brothers Reid pissed off and didn't come back. I looked at my watch and they'd more or less played for an hour. What an hour, though!

Ears still ringing the following day, as I ran a seemingly endless success of cheques through the encoder, hoping to god that everything balanced so that we could get of work on time, I dreamt of greater things.

Three and a half decades later, I've a much greater appreciation of what an amazing pair of albums Psychocandy and Darklands were. Barbed Wire Kisses remains one of the greatest compilations by any artist ever and whilst Automatic is generally one of the less loved entries in The Jesus & Mary Chain catalogue, it holds a special place for me, as a record of those times, Stuart's mixtapes and especially that night in 1989 at the Studio.

I get to live it all again early next year, as The Jesus & Mary Chain are co-headlining with The Psychedelic Furs, including a date at the Beacon in Bristol. I've enjoyed their newer material too, so I'm really looking forward to see them (both) again.

In the meantime, here's the customary Dubhed recreation of that night. Setlist doesn't have details of the Bristol gig but as previous nights have an identical 17-song set, I'm pretty confident that it was the same. 

Catching Sparks is lifted from the lyrics to Head On and is a pretty succinct summation of this 55-minute mixtape. 

1) Rider (Single Version) (1987)

2) Everything's Alright When You're Down (Single Version) (1987)

3) The Hardest Walk (Album Version) (1985)

4) Coast To Coast (Alternate Take / William Vocal) (1989)

5) Halfway To Crazy (Album Version) (1989)

6) Head On (Album Version) (1989)

7) Her Way Of Praying (Album Version) (1989)

8) Taste The Floor (Album Version) (1985)

9) Nine Million Rainy Days (Album Version) (1987)

10) The Living End (John Peel Session) (1985)

11) Who Do You Love (Cover of Bo Diddley) (1987)

12) Take It (John Peel Session) (1988)

13) April Skies (Single Version) (1987)

14) Some Candy Talking (NME version) (1986)

15) Sidewalking (Single Version) (1988)

16) Gimme Hell (Album Version) (1989)

17) Kill Surf City (Single Version) (1987)

1985: Psychocandy: 3, 8

1986: NME's Big Four EP (NME promo 7"): 14

1987: April Skies EP: 11, 13, 17

1987: Darklands: 9

1987: Darklands EP: 1

1987: Happy When It Rains EP: 2

1988: Sidewalking EP: 15

1989: Automatic: 5, 6, 7, 16

2000: The Complete John Peel Sessions: 10, 12

2011: Automatic (Expanded Edition): 4

Catching Sparks (55:14) (GD) (M)

Pigeon Has Landed

I had half an hour to kill, waiting for Mrs. K, and I scrolled through BBC iPlayer until I found a 'best of' this year's Green Man Festival, which in turn introduced me to Pigeon.

A 5-piece straight outta Margate, the show featured just one song, Miami, but that was enough to get me online and add their debut album Outtanational to my Bandcamp Friday shopping bag.

If you haven't been tempted by the image of a man dressed as a sunflower to click on the above video, then here's Pigeon's performance of Miami on Later...With Jools Holland back in June, which I missed.

The Green Man version of Miami doesn't seem to be online, but instead here's Black James Dean.

And, if that hasn't persuaded you yet, then what about the lads donning - what else? - pigeon masks for their single/video Mirror Test?

You may think it's a (bird)shit name, but there's nothing shit about Pigeon's music, vibrant, lively and lots and lots of fun. Outtanational is a late contender for my tip top list of 2026 albums.

And, naturally, I immediately thought of this when I saw the band name:

Wondered If You Were Dreaming And, If You Were, What Were You Dreaming?

Last Saturday's 80s Weekender feast offered up Flesh For Lulu, who I had - and retain - a deep love for.

My brother had their 1984 self-titled debut album on cassette and, crucially, the 12" of 1986 single Idol, which I thought was fantastic.

I went on to buy as many of their 12" singles as I could find and although as the 80s progressed, Flesh For Lulu seemed to be transcending their Goth associations and charting a similiar Stateside/MTV/pop rock trajectory as The Psychedelic Furs, I had absolutely no problem with that.

Take Postcards From Paradise, their single from 1987. Listening to it again, I would have sworn that it featured in a contemporary movie soundtrack. Right band, wrong song, as it happens: that year, I Go Crazy featured in the John Hughes-scripted Some Kind Of Wonderful.

Postcards From Paradise is unashamedly pop and I love it.

I've discovered a wonderful clip from Canadian TV show Fashion Notes, circa 1988, where presenter Erica Ehm bursts in on Nick Marsh and James Mitchell in their hotel room, looking for fashion tips and instead finding Nick's self-described "mingy" pants and Batman T-shirt and James' "serious psychedelia" shirt made from the "most horrible, vile material" he could find. Yes, YT is full of crap, but also wonderful gems like this.

Flesh For Lulu never enjoyed huge commercial success in the UK, despite some great singles. Even so, I was surprised that just one single made the Top 100, literally one week at #100, which was their debut Roman Candle in November 1983.

Official videos for early Flesh For Lulu singles are few and far between, so I won't be featuring Idol today. However, I have found a live performance from the Camden Palace in London on 21st March 1985 (I think the whole set is also available online).

Subterraneans opened side two of my brother's cassette and was just instantly mesmerising, that dirty bass, the growly vocals and squeaking, creepy guitar sound. This live performance echoes the intro of the Metro Mix on the 12", just Nick and a guitar strum to begin, before the rest of the song comes crashing in. Glorious.

I Don't Need To Sing Bullshit

Mogwai celebrate Happy Tears, a career retrospective, with Underground, a new song featuring the unmistakeable voice of Iggy Pop.

The moment Iggy opens his mouth, you know you're in for something special.

I am a robot

And I am unhappy

I have been designed to make money

But I want to make love

I want to make love

The lyrics addressing sucking cocks, The Rolling Stones, nepo kIds and a "universe [that] just moans", whilst Mogwai deliver a blistering, searing soundtrack to propel the song over five minutes. Stirring stuff.

Iggy is not only a legend in his own right, but a highly desirable collaborator on many a bucket list it seems, and little wonder. He can elevate a great song to excellent, regardless of genre or style.

In lieu of a Dubhed selection (but it's gotta come one day, after this), I've pulled half a dozen more Iggy Pop picks to get the blood flowing.

1) Aisha: Death in Vegas ft. Iggy Pop (1999)

2) Sahara: Songhoy Blues ft. Iggy Pop (2017)

3) Pain: Danger Mouse & Sparklehorse ft. Iggy Pop (2009)

4) Evil California (These Blues): Annie Ross & The Low Note Quintet ft. Iggy Pop (1993)

5) Kick It: Peaches ft. Iggy Pop (2004)

6) He's Frank (Slight Return) (Cover of The Monochrome Set): The Brighton Port Authority ft. Iggy Pop (2009)

  

 

 

 

 

Gopher, Wobble And An Irish Princess

Unlikely as it may seem, this is Visions Of You, performed by Jah Wobble's Invaders Of The Heart and Sinéad O'Connor on Saturday morning BBC1 kids' TV programme Going Live!

Skip the first 5 seconds if you want to avoid Gordon The Gopher and his sidekick, otherwise this is a pretty much uninterrupted version of the song, unlike the 120 seconds or so that would usually be afforded on Top Of The Pops.

I would never have considered Going Live, or it's predecessors Saturday Superstore and Swap Shop, to be particularly progressive or daring in respect of it's music bookings, but this is pretty out there by anyone's standards.

And if any parents were present, did their ears prick up in mild alarm at the opening verse?

I'm not numbed out anymore

Not longer feel the hate and pain

No longer drenched in shame

I'm not numbed out anymore

Now I am the key to the door

I mean, it's hardly Goodnight Girl by Wet Wet effing Wet, is it? That particular song was bothering the UK #1 spot when Visions Of You was released and was still there (for a fourth week) on 9th February 1992 when Jah Wobble, Sinéad and the Invaders peaked at #35. Thankfully, the refreshingly morbid Stay by Shakespear's Sister was at #2, poised to knock them off the top the following week...

I wasn't watching Going Live in 1992, but I was buying records and the 12" single of Visions Of You was a must buy, not just for the song and the guest star, but the superb remixes by Adrian Sherwood and (three, count 'em, three) by Andrew Weatherall. All of them have stood the test of time and are simply magnificent.

 

 

 

Finally, if you're looking to add something to your Bandcamp Friday shopping bag this week, how about 2017 album Usual Suspects, where Jah Wobble & The Invaders Of The Heart revisit and revise 23 back catalogue gems, including a sumptuous seven and a half minute version of Visions Of You?