Give 'Em Enough doPE

"You’ve got the beats, I’ve got the rhymes, let’s make doPE." 

A short email from 2014, a long time to come to fruition, but John Densmore (The Doors) and Chuck D (Public Enemy) finally released an album, no country for old men, in time for Record Store Day 2026.

I have little interest in RSD but on the strength of doPE's lead single every tick tick tick, I'm intrigued! 

Unfortunately, with scalpers already flogging copies on eBay between £50 and £100+ quid, you'll have to count me out...

I'm obliged to say that other dope is available.

 

Bleeding In The Shark Tank

Bookending the week, with a companion to Monday's post, collecting another dozen picks from my May Day music haul, once again a mixture of new releases and new discoveries.

Broken Chanter starts off with a song from latest album This Could Be Us, You, Or Anybody Else, which is just fantastic from start to finish. Birding, the debut from deary, is one that I'd describe as a grower. It's hasn't had the immediacy and impact of Broken Chanter, but it's shoegaze-inspired soundscapes are gradually seeping in and taking over with each listen.

More selections from the PRAH label, by way of their 'Scratching The Surface...' samplers, this time highlighting uh, aka siblings Dominic & Fionnuala Kennedy, and Donna Thompson.

Another compilation (two, actually) that comes highly recommended is The Beautiful Flowers Wait For Peace, issued by Partick Sailing Club via Bandcamp. Each 10-track compilation costs a fiver, proceeds "donated to The Sameer Project, a mutual aid organisation run by Palestinians in Gaza, providing food, water, medical aid and essential supplies to those in need."

Monday's and today's selection features a pick from Volumes 1 and 2, 100 Poems and Cosmikuro respectively. If I add that other artists include Bedford Falls Players, Rude Audio, Airsine, Ben Hunt and Katakana's delightful remix of Cocteau Twins' Cherry Coloured Funk, and everyone donated their music for free, then surely it's a no-brainer. Buy now.

From the archives, a belated EP purchase from Billie Ray Martin's back catalogue, a remix of Steve Jansen featuring brother David Sylvian that languished in the archives for fourteen years, and an unreleased Julian Cope outtake from the Peggy Suicide sessions that has been dusted off for the latest release in the essential Cope's Notes book & CD series.

Happy Friday, everyone!

1) Atrocity/Adverts/Idiocy: Broken Chanter (2026)

2) After All (Original Version): Billie Ray Martin (2014)

3) nostos: uh (2025)

4) Frog Lick: Cosmikuro (2026)

5) Summon (East Coast Love Affair Mix): Joe Goddard ft. Hayden Thorpe (2024)

6) You Remind Me Of You: Julian Cope (1991)

7) Deadman's Cut ('Ballad Of A Deadman' Remix By Rhinoceros): Steve Jansen ft. David Sylvian (2008)

8) Baby's Breath: deary (2026)

9) Sneakanon Pt2 (6161 + Andrew Remix): 6161 (2026)

10) Rapture In Blue (Midnight Version): Daniel Avery ft. Cecile Believe (2025)

11) Matchstick: Donna Thompson (2022)

12) Return To Coney (Attrition Mix By Martin Bowes): Warriors Of The Dystotheque ft. Ella Joy (2016)

2014: After All EP: 2

2016: Return To Coney EP: 12

2022: Deadman's Cut EP: 7

2022: Something True EP: 11

2024: Summon Remixed: 5

2025: pleroma EP: 3

2026: Birding: 8

2026: Cope's Notes 8: Peggy Suicide: 6

2026: Partick Sailing Club PSC#002: The Beautiful Flowers Wait For Peace Vol. 2: 4

2026: 6161 (Remixes) EP: 9

2026: This Could Be Us, You, Or Anybody Else: 1

2026: Tremor (Midnight Versions): 10

Bleeding In The Shark Tank (1:04:26) (GD) (M)

In It's Own Good Time

I got a bit carried away with today's selection.

I was keen to create another long-form piece, three to four tracks, each around the twenty-minute mark. I ended up with a short list of eight, couldn't whittle them down any further, so I used them.

A single, eight-song selection would have clocked in at nearly three hours, so instead I've sequenced the tracks into two separate 'phases', each coming in at 83-84 minutes.

The music  spans the last five decades, though mostly comes from the 21st century. There are two 'oldies'. Tangerine Dream were properly introduced to me through listening to The Orb in the 1990s. Green Desert was recorded in 1973 but not finished and released until 1986, as part of the vinyl box set In The Beginning...

I read about Les Rallizes Dénudés first, in Julian Cope's absorbing and essential Japrocksampler, and were one of many such bands that I actively tracked down after finishing the book. There are relatively few official Les Rallizes Dénudés releases, and tons of unofficial ones. Enter The Mirror usually clocks in at around ten minutes, but the version here comes in at double that.

The Arch Drude himself follows suit, having put out what seems like dozens of albums , particularly the Rite series, featuring extended jams and/or streams of consciousness. Last year, Julian returned with I Dream The Cosmos Atavistic.

Likewise, Moby has been putting out music like this ever since he put out a 33-minute ambient version of 1994 single Hymn. His Long Ambients/LA series is exactly as the title describes. It may send you to sleep, but then that was Moby's intention all along.

A surprise addition in 2003 was Paddy McAloon's album I Trawl The Megahertz, not least the 22-minute opening song. If you've not heard it, I won't spoil things with a description. Suffice to say it's a radical - and beautiful - departure from his work as Prefab Sprout. When the album was reissued in 2019, it was rebranded as Prefab Sprout, but this is a one-of-a-kind record from a one-of-a-kind artist.

Dungen were recommended to me by my friend John, Swedish prog/psych rock for the modern age. Today's featured song is Midsommarbongen, which you can translate without too much trouble as 'The Midsummer Bong' which probably tells you all you need to know about what the music sounds like.

The first track on Phase 1 and the last track on Phase 2 are courtesy of Richard Norris, who has released 20-minute ambient pieces on a monthly basis for years now, transforming it into an art form.

Spring - Alban Eilir is from Richard's 2023 edition of his Music For Healing series. It not only felt like a timely inclusion, but also features some beautiful trumpet floating throughout. Land by Deep Earth Network is so fresh that it came out in March. An "earth inspired sonic journey" created by Danny Hammond, mastered by Richard and featuring shack- and field-recordings and spoken word, including those inspiring today's post title.

Phase 1

1) Spring - Alban Eilir: Richard Norris (2023)

2) Green Desert: Tangerine Dream (1973)

3) LA3: Moby (2016)

4) I Trawl The Megahertz: Paddy McAloon (2003)

Phase 2

1) Enter The Mirror (Mars Studio Version 2): Les Rallizes Dénudés (1980)

2) Psalm Zero: Julian Cope (2025)

3) Midsommarbongen: Dungen (2001)

4) Land 1: Deep Earth Network (2026)

1986: Green Desert: A2

2003: I Trawl The Megahertz: A4

2005: Dungen 1999-2001: B3

2012: Mars Studio 1980: B1

2016: Long Ambients 1: Calm. Sleep.: A3

2023: Music For Healing: Equinox 3: A1

2025: I Dream The Cosmos Atavistic: B2

2026: Land: B4

In It's Own Good Time (Phase 1) (1:24:01) (GD) (M)

In It's Own Good Time (Phase 2) (1:23:37) (GD) (M)

If that's not enough and you want to fill your boots/mind/day with more of the same, take your pick!

Chic Thug Stuttered Through A Stereo Dream (August 2021)

Conchoidal Fracture (January 2022)

Monoliths (May 2023)

Sendimentary Sedentary (October 2023)

Urban Head Musics (July 2021) / More Urban Head Musics (February 2022)

Sure Would For Rest

Julian Cope's last two conventional song-based albums (and I use the phrase lightly) were Robin Hood (2023) and Friar Tuck (2024).

Touted as a "Sherwood Forest Trilogy", we've yet to see the third and final album (Maid Marian? Little John?) and as it's been a couple of years, I thought I'd revisit the pair that have emerged via the popular format (in Casa K at least) of the Dubhed selection.

I've picked ha;f a dozen from the former, eight from the latter, jumbled them up a bit and created two sides, seven songs apiece. If you're familiar with the albums, a fresh way to enjoy some selected highlights. If you've never heard them, then hopefully this is strong evidence that Julian didn't stop writing good songs in the 1990s / 1980s (delete as applicable).

I still hold out hope that Julian will tour again as it would be great to hear these songs performed live. However, the now slower but still steady stream of releases from Head Heritage of new music, archive releases and the excellent Cope's Notes series is enough to feed the soul.

Side One

1) Four Jehovahs In A Volvo Estate (2024)

2) The Devil's Curse (2023)

3) You Gotta Keep Your Halfwits About You (2024)

4) An Oral History Of Blow-Jobs (Medley) (2023)

5) A Shipwrecked Song (2024)

6) I Was A Punk Before You Was A Hippie (2023)

7) Sol Invicto (2024)

Side Two

1) Four Mohammeds And A Funeral (2023)

2) Done Myself A Mischief (2024)

3) Wrong Side Of The Bed (2023)

4) In Spungent Mansions (2024)

5) Charles The Turd (2023)

6) Too Freud To Rock 'n' Roll Too Jung To Die (2024)

7) R. In The Hood (2024)

2023: Robin Hood: A2, A4, A6, B1, B2. B5

2024: Friar Tuck: A1, A3, A5, A7, B2. B4, B6, B7

Sure Would For Rest (Side One) (22:32) (GD) (M)

Sure Would For Rest (Side Two) (23:19) (GD) (M)

Start Anew

Welcome to 2026!

A new year brings a new selection of 26 songs for '26, all featuring a new something or other.

99 minutes of top tunes, starting with Beady Eye, Liam's better-than-Oasis band.

There are a handful of '70s and '80s artists, including The Undertones, The Adverts, Breathless, Beastie Boys and Asleep At The Wheel covering Huey Lewis & The News.

A fistful of '90s fun (well, depending on your definition of fun) comes courtesy of Arab Strap, Epic Soundtracks, The Magnetic Fields and Martin Stephenson & The Daintees.

It's mostly 21st century music though, some old, some new, something for everyone from The Isley Brothers ft. De La Soul to Tokyo Police Club, BANKS to Beverly Kills.

A couple of 2025 highlights from Xan Tyler & Dusty Stray and Bedford Falls Players and, to wrap things up, Billy sings Billy, that is, Billy Nomates sings Billy Bragg.

Fingers crossed, this year's going to be a good one.

1) Start Anew (Remix Of 'Dreaming Of Some Space' By JC Of RKID003): Beady Eye (2014)

2) New Moon: Bedford Falls Players (2025)

3) Happy New Year Next Year: Violent Femmes (2015)

4) New Church: The Adverts (1978)

5) A New Chapter: Breathless (1984)

6) New Birds: Arab Strap (1998)

7) Window Shopping For New Clothes: The Undertones (1983)

8) Something New Under The Sun: Epic Soundtracks (1994)

9) New New Song: Tokyo Police Club (2008)

10) Your New Normal: Nine Inch Nails (2020)

11) I Think I Need A New Heart: The Magnetic Fields (1999)

12) I Want A New Drug (Cover of Huey Lewis & The News): Asleep At The Wheel (1987)

13) Big Sky New Light: Martin Stephenson & The Daintees (1992)

14) New Berlin: Beverly Kills (2022)

15) It's The New Style (Vocal) (Remix By Rick Rubin): Beastie Boys (1986)

16) The End Of A New Beginning: Xan Tyler & Dusty Stray (2025)

17) I've Found A New Way To Love Her: Julian Cope (2005)

18) Kinda New (Album Version): Spektrum (2004)

19) New Brat In Town (Unreleased Version By Steve Albini): The Auteurs (1996)

20) New Years (Cover of Asobi Seksu): Boris (2012)

21) Someone New (Album Version): BANKS (2014)

22) New Love Cassette (Album Version): Angel Olsen (2019)

23) A New Chance (Tanlines Remix): The Tough Alliance (2007)

24) Feels Like A New Morning: The Blow Monkeys (2013)

25) It's A New Thing (It's Your Thing) (D-Nat & Onda Reconstruction): The Isley Brothers ft. De La Soul (2004)

26) New Ingland (Demo) (Cover of Billy Bragg): Billy Nomates (2024)

1978: Crossing The Red Sea With The Adverts: 4

1983: Chain Of Love EP: 7

1984: Ageless EP: 5

1986: It's The New Style EP: 15

1987: 10: 12

1992: The Boy's Heart: 13

1994: Sleeping Star: 8

1998: Philophobia: 6

1999: 69 Love Songs: 11

2004: Enter The...Spektrum: 18

2004: ...Taken To The Next Phase: 25

2005: Dark Orgasm: 17

2005: Luke Haines Is Dead: 19

2007: A New Chance EP: 23

2008: Elephant Shell / Extras (ltd 2x CD): 9

2012: Asobi Seksu x Boris Split EP: 20

2013: Feels Like A New Morning: 24

2014: Flick Of The Finger RKID003 EP: 1

2014: Goddess: 21

2015: Happy New Year EP: 3

2019: All Mirrors: 22

2020: Ghosts VI: Locusts: 10

2022: Kaleido: 14

2024: New Ingland EP: 26

2025: Home: 16

2025: New Moon EP: 2

Start Anew (1:39:26) (GD) (M)

If you're feeling nostalgic, check out my previous New Year's Day posts from 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025.

Picky Suicide

You have Mike to thank for today's Julian Cope selection.

A long time ago, in fact so long ago that I can no longer track the reference, Mike asked in response to a post whether I'd considered sequencing Peggy Suicide, The Arch Drude's 1991 magnum opus, as a 45-minute single album.

"No" was essentially my response.

But the seed had been planted. 

It resurfaced again and instead of pushing it back again, as I have typically done, I let it bubble away. A lot has changed since Mike originally made the suggestion, not least the common use of AI. 

I've used AI infrequently, and it's probably evident from the cobbled together nature of this blog, it's not a staple here. Yet, on this occasion, I thought it would be a useful tool as a launchpad for today's selection.

I can't remember the exact wording I offered up, but I asked for a single album, ten tracks, roughly 45 minutes, drawing on the 19-track double. I also included B-sides from the related singles and any tracks from the Floored Genius compilations thst dated from 1989 to 1991.

The results were mixed: it completely ignored the latter request and suggested two alleged B-sides from Beautiful Love, which were anything but: Umpteenth Unnatural Blues (from the World Shut Your Mouth EP, 1986) and The Tower (from 1992's follow up album, Jehovahkill).

However, there was enough there to work with, and I started dismantling the AI recommended tracklist, moving tracks from side 2 to side 1 and vice versa, cutting some, adding others, until I arrived at the final version, presented here.

AI suggested Pristeen as the opening song and I didn't argue - could it be anything else? I also decided that the closing song also had to match the original, so Las Vegas Basement was added to the mix. And there could no other way of wrapping up the first side than the epic Safesurfer, complete with the brief reprise that was cut for space reasons from the CD.

Uptight was also cut from the CD, but it's one of my favourites so that snuck into side 2, at the expense of Hanging Out & Hung Up On The Line. Leperskin was an AI recommendation and wouldn't have been an immediate choice for me, but I like it's placement between Drive, She Said and Uptight.

Putting two of the three singles next to each other was an AI choice which I stuck with. In this imaginary universe, it's Drive, She Said and not Head that was released as the third single, albeit with a similar lack of chart success in the UK.

Although I often had to cut down and reorder albums to fit them onto one side of a cassette, back in 1991 I went the other way with Peggy Suicide, expanding it with B-sides to fill both sides of a C90.

Peggy Suicide absolutely had to be a double album and I will always choose that over anything else, but nevertheless I hope that you enjoy today's "what if?" selection.

Thanks, Mike!

Peggy Suicide (Downwards At 45 Degrees Edition)

Phase One

1) Pristeen

2) East Easy Rider

3) Beautiful Love

4) You…

5) Safesurfer

Phase Two

1) Double Vegetation

2) Drive, She Said

3) Leperskin

4) Uptight

5) Las Vegas Basement

Phase One  (22:18) (GD) (M)

Phase Two  (22:04) (GD) (M)

I Got Can For My Birthday, Nietzsche For Christmas

Birthday wishes to Julian Cope, celebrating his 68th year today on this ball of mud, orbiting a mass of incandescent gas.

Typically, ICT issues (or possibly "The Man") have threatened my efforts to create and post today's doff of the cap - or should that be tug of the hood? - to the great man, so I've run out of time to write much.

 

However, I have created a new, 46 minute Dubhed selection, containing Cope compositions that haven't previously featured in one of the many, many compilations that I've posted here. At least, I'm 99.9% sure of it!

 

Here's to you, M'Lud!

 

1) Peggy Suicide Is A Jung'kie (1992)

2) Ain't No Gettin' Round Gettin' Round (1994)

3) The Great White Hoax (1988)

4) I Got With God (2007)

5) Zoroaster (2005)

6) I Want To Talk About Stone Circles (2023)

7) Mik Mak Mok (Single Version) (1984)

8) A Child Is Born In Cerrid-Y-Drudion (2007)

9) Too Freud To Rock 'n' Roll Too Jung To Die (2024)

10) Rachael Built A Steamboat: The Teardrop Explodes (1981)

11) Battle For The Trees (1996)

1981: Tiny Children EP: 10

1984: Sunspots EP: 7

1988: My Nation Underground: 3

1994: Autogeddon: 2

1996: Interpreter: 11 

2005: Dark Orgasm: 5 

2007: You Gotta Problem With Me: 8 

2009: Floored Genius 4: The Best Of Foreign Radio, Rare TV Appearances, Festival Songs & Miscellaneous Lost Classics 1983-2009: 4 

2023: Cope's Notes #5: The Modern Antiquarian: 6 

2024: Cope's Notes #6: Jehovahkill: 1

2024: Friar Tuck: 9 

I Got Can For My Birthday, Nietzsche For Christmas (46:26) (GD) (M)

 

 

I missed Julian's birthday in 2021 (sacrilege!), but here's a link to my previous annual tributes to the Arch Drude. 

 

Upwards @ 65 Degrees (2022) 

21 Revolutions Per Minute (2023) 

Need Some Identification? (2024) 

21st Century (Sub)Urban Head Music

Four transporting and transformative tracks from GLOK aka Andy Bell, Rico Conning, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard and Julian Cope.

All clocking in at 15 minutes long, all locating and locking into an individual groove, ideal whether you're laid back, or stuck in a bank holiday traffic jam, trying to reach your destination. You will get there.

Invocation is the closing song from Pattern Recognition, Andy Bell's debut album as GLOK, unbelievably five years ago now. Andy has described GLOK as "all about the push and pull between electronic and psych in my music". The pulsating electronica, brief vocal snippets and hypnotic rhythms carry the listener along with no sense of the passage of time, just total immersion in the moment.

I knew of Rico Conning's work as a producer, starting with the limited edition remix 12" single of Sometimes by Erasure in 1986, which featured his work. I found my way back to Rico in 2022, courtesy of his remix of This Is Something by Summerisle Six aka Sean Johnston with Jo Bartlett on vocals. 

I then tracked back to Rico's own releases on Bandcamp. Frogmore is a four-track album from 2017 and is a revelation. Rico describes the title song as "a kind of audio diary" of the time he had a cabin "in the misty mountains of Malibu" in the early 2000s. The song is broken down into three distinct phases, the first two mining individual (treated) guitar seams, the third a brief and unexpected vocal reprise. It's wonderful.

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard are a band that I came to relatively recently and with some trepidation, not least because of the, let's face it, pants name, but also the daunting prospect of a back catalogue comprising roughly one million albums, EPs and live recordings.

Take the step beyond though and the rewards are immense. Laminated Denim is a two-song album from 2022, Hypertension comprising the second (digital) side. The most vocal-heavy of the four songs selected today, it's also unexpectedly easy going. With the song title, I guess I was expecting a full-on sonic assault, but despite being 15 minutes long, it's one of their most accessible songs that I've discovered to date.

Julian Cope's never been too bothered about being accessible. Despite writing some of the most catchy, melodic pop songs and being able to get away with ba-ba-ba's where other artists can't, he's also partial to a long-form drone and a dirge. Frequently, Julian's psych excursions can come over like a bad trip (road or otherwise), but when he's on, he's ON.

John Balance Enters Valhalla is the title track of an unexpected five-track album released in 2019; then again, most Cope releases tend to drop without fanfare or warning these days.

A tribute to Geoffrey Nigel Laurence Rushton (né Burton) aka Coil co-founder and "Visionary Voice" John Balance, who died in 2004 at the age of 42. Julian various describes the album as 'mesmerizing', 'upbeat', 'emotional', 'rhythm-laden' with 'hefty grooves', tracking "the various stages of the artist’s journey into legendary Valhalla".

The music meanders, the main groove even popping off into the next room about two thirds of the way through, before giving way to some radio chat, before returning for the final approach, leaving the listener behind and it forges on into the distance. Stirring stuff.

If any/all of this music appeals, I've provided links below to purchase the full albums digitally, although if you're snappy, you can get the last remaining copy of the GLOK album on gatefold double orange vinyl.

1) Invocation (Album Version By Andy Bell): GLOK (2021)

2) Frogmore: Rico Conning (2017)

3) Hypertension: King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard (2022)

4) John Balance Enters Valhalla: Julian Cope (2019)

2017: Frogmore: 2

2019: John Balance Enters Valhalla: 4

2021: Pattern Recognition: 1

2022: Laminated Denim: 3

21st Century (Sub)Urban Head Music (1:01:02) (GD) (M)

Summer Fun, Big Fun, Funtime, Wang Chung, Well Hung

Why should fun wait until the weekend?!

Four videos that are bursting with fun, tight jeans, glow in the dark dresses, the spirit of Iggy, choppy 80s editing, one new/old classic Cope song and, if you stay to the end, a cool Breeze. Emily Breeze, that is. 

1) Summer Fun: Barracudas (1980)

2) Big Fun: Inner City (1988)

3) Funtime (Cover of Iggy Pop): Boy George (1995)

4) Everybody Have Fun Tonight: Wang Chung (1986)

5) Well Hung At Dawn: Julian Cope (recorded 2005, released 2025)

6) Fun: Emily Breeze (2025)

 

 

 

 

 

Tell Me Easter's On Sunday

It's Easter, it's Sunday, it's time for a themed Dubhed Selection that doesn't include Easter by Patti Smith Group.. 

Ten songs, three quarters of an hour. This one's dedicated to Jez over at the excellent A History Of Dubious Taste for championing Kris Kristofferson via his Sunday Morning Coming  Down series. Jez provided my proper introduction to Kris' music, without which I'd be missing the rather wonderful opening song for today's selection.

In one of those happy coincidences, the song's synth outro segues perfectly with the intro to Easter by Repeat, despite being separated by over twenty years and several genres. 

Repeat was a mid-90s collaboration between Dave 'Not the Slade guitar player' Hill, Mark Broom and Plaid aka Andy Turner and Ed Handley. They released a few 12" singles and an album. Easter was a one-off 12" in 2001 and judging credited solely to Dave Hill and Mark Broom.

An Easter compilation would be incomplete without Easter Song by A Man Called Adam, with some lovely flute by Eddie Parker, who gets a co-writing credit on the song.

Scotland is well represented, with four - count 'em, four - bands. The first pair are Simple Minds and The Blue Nile, both from the early 80s. Simple Minds were in that transitional phase between avant garde, angular pop and overblown anthemic rock. The Blue Nile had just released their debut album, and it would be another six years before the follow up. An eternity then, a blink in the eye these days.

Psychedelic pop has managed to sustain in each decade since the 1960s. Julian Cope makes an inevitable appearance with Easter Everywhere, named after the 13th Floor Elevators' second album. Later, XTC deliver another slice of end of the millennium gorgeousness from their Apple Venus Volume 1 album. 

Anderson (Matt to his friends and folks, Anderson (26) to Discogs) is new to me, but delivers a jolly slice of electronica that bounces along nicely. I must investigate further.

The final brace of Scottish legends are Eugenius and Associates. Eugenius were initially called Captain America, until Marvel Comics knocked on their door. A forced change of name had no impact whatsoever on the quality of their music.

Associates (sometime prefixed by 'The' sometimes not) faced a different set of challenges, internal and external, but the impact of the music that Alan Rankine and Billy MacKenzie produced in their brief time together has sustained.

After a glut of Easter today, something completely different on Monday. 

1) Easter Island: Kris Kristofferson (1978)

2) Easter: Repeat (2001)

3) Easter Song (Radio Edit): A Man Called Adam (1999)

4) East At Easter: Simple Minds (1984)

5) Easter Everywhere (Album Version): Julian Cope (1988)

6) Easter Eggs: Anderson (2020)

7) Easter Parade: The Blue Nile (1983)

8) Easter Theatre: XTC (1999)

9) Easter Bunny (Single Version w/ Reprise): Eugenius (1993)

10) Tell Me Easter's On Friday: Associates (1981)

1978: Easter Island: 1

1981: Tell Me Easter's On Friday EP: 10

1983: A Walk Across The Rooftops: 7

1984: Sparkle In The Rain: 4

1988: My Nation Underground: 5

1993: Easter Bunny EP: 9

1999: Apple Venus Volume 1: 8

1999: Easter Song EP: 3

2001: Easter EP: 2

2020: Easter Eggs EP: 6

Tell Me Easter's On Sunday (46:46) (KF) (Mega)

Cain'd, Fried & Alive, '95-'05, Volume 2: 2005

It's taken a while longer than I expected, but here - at last - is the promised second volume of recreated Julian Cope live sets.

Volume 1 revisited Julian at the Bierkeller in Bristol on 29th January 1995, thirty years after the fact. Today's post goes back twenty years to the Fleece & Firkin on Thursday 20th January 2005, when Mrs. K and I went to see "Julian Cope and his ear splitting rock band", as the tour promo proudly proclaimed.

The flyer went on to promise

"An evening of full-throttle, maximum darkness and 

mythological rock 'n' roll 

bringing psychedelia firmly into the 21st century."

And we were told to "Expect music from Cope's latest album Citizen Cain'd with old favourites.". All of which we got, and more.

Looking at the setlist, what immediately strikes me is how many "old favourites" that have since become gig staples were absent from this particular show. There's no sign of Soul Desert, The Greatness And Perfection Of Love, The Great Dominions or Treason (in fact, no Teardrop Explodes songs at all) and, unthinkable now, Sunspots.

Yet, this is a strength and fits with Julian's full-on commitment to "full-throttle [...] rock 'n' roll". 

Sprinting from the starting line is Hanging Out & Hung Up On The Line from 1991's magnum opus Peggy Suicide. Sporadically performed over the years, this is the one and only time that I've experienced the song live in concert. As an opening statement of intent though, it was hard to beat, the band pummelling their instruments as Julian swaggered through the crowd to take his place on stage. 

That's one persistent memory of the night: Julian was out there physically and well as mentally, frequently using the bar to the side as a personal catwalk, no doubt to the consternation of the drinkers and Fleece staff alike. But it was brilliant to behold.

The initial trio of tunes - if you can call them tunes - was rounded out with a couple of songs by Julian's "power trio", Brain Donor, fellow bandmates Tony 'Doggen' Foster (lead guitar) and Kevin 'Kevlar' Bales (drums) both present and correct on stage this evening.

Like A Motherfucker and My Pagan Ass more than deliver on the "maximum darkness and mythological" front, followed by the equally heavy Gimme Head, the first of four songs that night from the long-promised and finally delivered album, Citizen Cain'd.

By the time the rather more gentle intro of Highway To The Sun comes in, it's a brief respite although the song builds and grows in intensity before falling headfirst into it's crashing final passage. A song from 1995's 20 Mothers, it wasn't included in the Bierkeller gig that I saw the same year and again is the first and last time that I've seen Julian perform the song. A shame, as I think it would sit comfortably with his penchant/necessity for solo sets, were he to hit the road again.

Necropolis is another song that I'm not sure that Julian has played live outside of the 2005 tour. An instrumental from 1992's Peggy Suicide, it fits in well with the heavy rock of this show, but may have been slightly out of place in other sets, and frankly impossible to perform once Julian stopped touring with a full live band.

The next pair of songs - in their studio form, at least - are very long. I don't remember if either or both Feels Like A Crying Shame (from Citizen Cain'd) or s.t.a.r.c.a.r (from Autogeddon, 1994) replicated the 11+ minutes duration in a live setting, but they will at least have slowed the pace down considerably, allowing Julian and the band a breather and a long, groove compared to what had gone before.

From there a couple more kick-ass tunes from Citizen Cain'd, Hell Is Wicked and I Can't Hardly Stand It. The other thing to mention is that Mrs. K and I were also hearing these songs for the first time: I bought Citizen Cain'd, in it's slipcase housing a black shiny 2CD jewel case within, and Rite Now (2002) from the merch stall on the night. 

It's fair to say that the studio versions, and the album's production in general, didn't quite live up to the electrifying, energetic live performances, but I can get past that and enjoy the quality of the songs.

Of course, being the consummate performer that he is, the night ended with a trio of proper "old favourites", Double Vegetation, Spacehopper and Reynard The Fox, which unsurprisingly got the strongest reaction from the crowd. 

I guess that there will have been many that walking away that night, complaining that the show leaned heavily on new stuff and obscure crap at the expense of the greatest hits. Personally, I was thrilled, not least because Julian and the band were on red hot form, but also that this was the first Julian `Cope gig that I went to with Mrs. K, and she enjoyed it too. 

We got to do it all again the following year, when Julian was touring the Dark Orgasm album, then it was nearly a decade and half later before I saw Julian with my friend Stuart for (to the date) the last time in London, 2020.

If you enjoy today's selection, you may be interested to know that in an unusual step, Julian has celebrated 20 years since the release of the Citizen Cain'd album with not one, not two but three separate CDs.

First is a reissue of the album itself as a single CD without losing any of the songs or running time of the original, with brand new artwork and sleeve notes. I'm a Cope obsessive but not a completist, so I've given this one a miss.

Second is a companion album, On The Road To Citizen Cain'd, collected ten songs intended for the album but due to the protracted development, evolution and release, got released elsewhere and didn't make the final cut. Whilst the CD is advertised as all previously released material, albeit long out of print, in fact several of these are different versions or edits so I'm glad I took a punt.

Lastly, is the latest in the Cope's Notes series of CD and booklet, inevitably focussing on Citizen Cain'd. Every single one of the Cope's Notes releases (this is #7) has been an essential purchase and this doesn't disappoint. The booklet contains Julian's reflections on the labour and birth of the album, with photos from the archives, whilst the CD contains nine unreleased songs and two demos of tracks from Citizen Cain'd. 

Truly, the gift that keeps on giving, in respect of music, musings and memories.

 

1) Hanging Out & Hung Up On The Line (Album Version) (1991)

2) Like A Motherfucker (Live @ Lyric Hammersmith, London) (2003)

3) My Pagan Ass: Brain Donor (2003)

4) Gimme Head (2005)

5) Highway To The Sun (1995)

6) Necropolis (1992)

7) Feels Like A Crying Shame (2005)

8) s.t.a.r.c.a.r (Album Version) (1994)

9) Hell Is Wicked (2005)

10) I Can't Hardly Stand It (2005)

11) Double Vegetation (Richard Skinner Session) (1989)

12) Spacehopper (Album Version) (1987)

13) Reynard The Fox (Remixed By Hugo NIcholson) (1992)

Volume 2: 2005 (1:13:44) (KF) (Mega)

Volume 1: 1995 here