Loveplaydarkminemammothonics

As an ignorant youth, I used to think that summer was a generally quiet period for singles, leaving space for the Ibiza (or Marbella) classics that holidaymakers brought home with them, along with a suitcase full of duty free and third degree sunburn.

Not so, especially in July 2025. The past 48 hours alone have seen a relentless surge of mail to Casa K, extolling the virtues of new music, here there and everywhere.

I've picked half a dozen which particularly grabbed my attention, mostly 'safe bets' I admit, but none the less enjoyable for all that. 

Wanna Play by Georgia is perhaps the closest of all to a banger, and I love it. The Charlatans and Jeff Tweedy have got me interested in their upcoming albums. 

Kim Deal doesn't have a new record out (at least I don't think she does), but this recent performance of Are You Mine is enough. I've never heard of Lydia Luce before now, though I will seek out more on the strength of Mammoth. 

And The Orb team up with rapper Rrome Alone, who has spent most of his adult life in prison and is currently on Death Row. Not one to celebrate, in that case, but I like the song.

1) We Are Love: The Charlatans

2) Wanna Play: Georgia

3) Out In The Dark: Jeff Tweedy

4) Are You Mine (Live @ Electric Lady Studios, Greenwich Village, New York, 5th March 2025): Kim Deal

5) Mammoth: Lydia Luce

6) Arabebonics: The Orb ft. Rrome Alone

 

 

 

 

Kim & Kim & Kim & Kim & Kim & Kim

I stumbled across a clip of Kim Gordon and Kim Deal performing Little Trouble Girl live on TV for the first time ever last Wednesday, and it's a treat.

I only sporadically subscribe to Netflix (e.g. when there's a 30-day free trial or the like), so I was completely ignorant of the talk show Everybody’s Live with John Mulaney, which debuted on 12th March. I also have no idea who John Mulaney is either, if you're asking.

However, a major benefit of living in 2025 is that it doesn't matter where you live, or whether or not you shell out money every month to any number of subscription channels. If you have access to t'internet, then you have access to music clips from around the world, past and present. 

I mean, what are the chances that Kim and Kim would do this again on, say, The Graham Norton Show, Later...With Jools Holland or Sunday Brunch?

Kim and Kim's version of Little Trouble Girl is all the more affecting for it's pure, raw performance: there's no vocal gymnastics, no glam costumes or hair, no dancers or choreography; just Kim singing and Kim speaking, supported by the band. The song speaks for itself.

As if that weren't enough, it was preceded by Kim Deal with the title track of her album Nobody Loves You More. 

And, earlier in the show, by Kim Gordon with BYE BYE, from her album The Collective.

To complete the complement of Kims, here's the original video for Little Trouble Girl, released as a single from Sonic Youth's 1995 album, Washing Machine. 

The chorus on the studio version is completed by Lorette Velvette and Melissa Dunn, though only the two Kims appear in the promo.

You're All Freaks To Me

Kim Deal. Big Ben Beat. A Very Big Deal.

I had planned to post something completely different, but long story short, I've had problems accessing my music files and software, so I've had to park it for now (with apologies to Mike, it's nearly there!)

The happy consequence of this however is that Kim Deal has just released a video for Big Ben Beat and it's really rather wonderful.

Directed by and starring Richard Ayoade, it also features his wife Lydia Fox, their two daughters Ida and Esmé, as well as Savages drummer Fay Milton, who provides drum programming, strings and synths on this song. Oh, and Kim of course.

It's a heady mix of imagery, intercutting jumps in time, character swapping, portrait pieces and repetitive sequences, all against a backdrop of derelict buildings and grim motorway traffic. 

Sounds like a tough wait, but it's not. Ayoade's lightness of touch and dare I say it moments of humour are realised thanks to an adept crew, including director(s) of photography Erik Wilson and Chris Ross, and editor Chris Dickens.

And Big Ben Beat is a reminder that I haven't yet bought Kim's album Nobody Loves You More. What am I waiting for?

Wanted Too Much To Say No, No, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah

One of the greatest pair of songs ever committed to 7" vinyl? Chris Bell's single, I Am The Cosmos b/w You And Your Sister, was released in 1978 and proved to be the only post-Big Star recordings issued in his lifetime. Tragically, by the end of the year, Chris lost his life in a car accident. A posthumous album called I Am The Cosmos, compiling these and other unreleased songs, came out in 1992. 

 

As a teenager in the 1980s, I didn't have a clue about any of this. My brother one day brought home a cassette called It'll End In Tears by This Mortal Coil. I was struck by the cover image and even more so by the music within, which in turn was my introduction to the music of Tim Buckley, Roy Harper and Big Star. 

 

I bought This Mortal Coil's second album, Filigree & Shadow, and pretty much thought that was it for 4AD founder Ivo-Watts Russell's collective. In 1991, I was walking past a record shop in Perth, Western Australia and was surprised to see This Mortal Coil's logo atop a striking image of cover star Pallas Citroen's face, eyes following me as I walked past. Of course, I had to go in and have a look.

 

I didn't buy the album until I was back home in England later that year but it included covers of both sides of Chris' single. I Am The Cosmos is recreated as a duet between Deirdre Rutkowski and Dominic Appleton.

 

It's good but, discovering the original I Am The Cosmos via a freebie CD with Uncut magazine the following year (to promote the posthumous album of the same name), Chris Bell's version is unbeatable.

I didn't hear Chris' version of You And Your Sister until a few years later. It's a beautifully simple yet nuanced performance, even more so with Alex Chilton's backing vocals. But...

 

Not just because I heard it first - and repeatedly over a relatively short period of time - but This Mortal Coil's version absolutely, unequivocally nails it. And it's all down to Kim Deal's heart-wrenching lead vocal, wonderfully supported by Tanya Donnelly's harmonies. It gets me every time. 

Others have tried - and failed - to capture the magic of You And Your Sister. Whale did a frankly awful version of the song in 1995, made even worse with a misplaced (and missed-the-point) rap from Leafnuts. Thankfully, this was relegated to a B-side. Not recommended but if you really must...

 

However, whilst it again doesn't match the sheer beauty of This Mortal Coil or Chris Bell's version, there is another cover that I like, which I'm sharing here in a live version from last December because... well, just because.

Monkey Shines Again

Side 2 of a mixtape, originally compiled 2nd September 1990. I posted Side 1 in August last year and I hadn't intended to leave it quite so long to follow up with Side 2. However, after a weekend of being shaken, rattled and rolled by Storm Eunice (Saturday and Sunday were far worse than Friday) and the prospect of Storm Frederick landing overnight, then it's time to fight back with Boston's finest...and no, of course I don't mean Boston the band.

Similar to yesterday's spotlight on The Sugarcubes, at the time this C90 was compiled, Pixies still had one more album to go, with 1991's Trompe Le Monde, before they split. Unlike The Sugarcubes, Pixies reconvened as a regular live concern and, twenty three years after that last album, released a new one, 2014's Indie Cindy. 

 

Unfortunately, by the time of the studio recordings, Kim Deal had left the band and, whilst good, 21st Century Pixies are a different proposition to the original version that emerged in the late 1980s. 

So here then is a second slab of sonic perfection, drawn from Come On Pilgrim (1987), Surfer Rosa (1988), Doolittle (1989) and Bossanova (1990), plus an excellent track from 1989's Monkey Gone To Heaven EP. All tracks are the album versions, unless stated. If I'd been more prescient all those years ago, I may have included Stormy Weather...

As Black Francis screams in Manta Ray, awwllllll-right!

 

1) I've Been Tired (1987)

2) Blown Away (1990)

3) Velouria (1990)

4) Wave Of Mutilation (1989)

5) Break My Body (1988)

6) Levitate Me (1987)

7) Manta Ray (Single Version) (1989)

8) Is She Weird (1990)

9) Monkey Gone To Heaven (1989)

10) Where Is My Mind? (1988)

11) Mr. Grieves (1989)

12) The Happening (1990)

13) Ana (1990)

14) I Bleed (1989)

15) Crackity Jones (1989)

16) Isla De Encanta (1987)

17) Broken Face (1988)

18) Dead (1989)

 

Side Two (46:12)

Side One here
 

Junk Garage

Side 2 of a mixtape recorded by my friend Stuart, circa August 1991.

There was an excellent post from JC (could it be anything else?) at The Vinyl Villain on Thursday, titled State Of The Blogging Nation, which provoked a great response from readers and fellow bloggers alike. Whether we read and comment, or write and post, it's the passion for music and the tangible sense of community that keeps bringing us back. I regularly read dozens of music blogs, some of which are updated daily, others weekly, others considerably less so. I try to comment as much as possible, but it's increasingly hard to keep up, especially since committing last year to posting on Dubhed every day for as long as I can keep being inspired.

A guaranteed daily visit is Charity Chic Music as I read with awe about Stevie's latest find for mere pennies in his never' ending search for charity shop gems. Friday's post featured Pere Ubu's 1990 album Worlds In Collision and one of the two songs he showcased was I Hear They Smoke The Barbecue. This was almost certainly the second Pere Ubu song I ever heard (after Waiting For Mary) and came courtesy of another trusty tape from my friend Stuart. We'd been apart for a year whilst I was working and travelling Australia, so this was a kind of "welcome home" mixtape, summing up what he had been listening to recently.

 

Renegade Soundwave are hugely underappreciated, in my opinion. Actually, I've just realised that this is their first appearance on this blog, so clearly by me too! Soundclash and RSW In Dub were incredible sonic slabs that demanded repeat listening and whilst it was a few years before their respective follow ups, they maintained a singular sound before their premature end. Murder Music is a great example and a perfect opener to Side 2.

 

Tracks 2 & 3 were lifted directly as the opening two songs on The Island Tape, a Select magazine freebie cassette, but Julian Cope's magnum opus Peggy Suicide was an immediate purchase on my return whilst - bizarrely, in retropect - it was a couple of years later with Bone Machine that I finally bought a Tom Waits album. I borrowed and taped Stuart's copy of Out Of Time but, of course, R.E.M. achieved global domination with this, so I was already familiar with most of the songs from constant radio and MTV rotation.

 

I was largely ignorant of Bob Dylan at this time (dismissive even, given his association with The Travelling Wilburys), so it was a bold move to an 11-minute epic on, but it paid off. Desolation Row remains one of my favourite Dylan songs. Despite being 3 decades older than most of the other songs, fits perfectly , sandwiched between one of This Mortal Coil's (& Kim Deal's) and R.E.M.'s finest moments.

 

We saw The Fat Lady Sings supporting The Psychedelic Furs in 1990 and in Stuart's opinion, they were the highlight of the night. He's followed them and subsequently singer/songwriter Nick Kelly's solo exploits ever since.

 

I've tweaked the playlist slightly, for practical reasons: I don't have the original album version of Aeroplane Blues, only the "LA Mix" from the Volume CD/magazine series. It sounds like a rougher, earlier mix to these untrained ears, but my box of Volume is buried in the attic somewhere so I can't check the detail.

 

I've also swapped the album version of Hang On St. Christopher from The Island Tape for the USA-only 12" version as (a) you may be less familiar with this one and (b) it bolsters the running time, which was running a bit short on the original tape.

Junk Garage (American pronunciation of the latter) is a phrase taken from R.E.M.'s Country Feedback. 

 

Junk Collage (do you see what I did there?) by me, ripped from various magazines and adverts. I can easily spot Buddy Holly and Christian Slater in there. I think the main picture was a toilet wall backdrop to a photo of a music artist, but I've forgotten who.

Some of the typeface has worn away, but you get a sneak preview of what will eventually pop up when I post Side 1. The reason I didn't go with that one today is that the tape opens with an expletive-ridden intro, but one which segues perfectly into a Neil Young & Crazy Horse track. I'm debating whether it stays, goes or is edited in some way before posting. Watch this space...it might be a while.

 

1) Murder Music (Album Version): Renegade Soundwave (1989)

2) Hang On St. Christopher (Extended Remixed Version By Tchad Blake): Tom Waits (1987)

3) Double Vegetation (Album Version): Julian Cope (1991)

4) You And Your Sister (Cover of Chris Bell): This Mortal Coil ft. Kim Deal & Tanya Donelly (1991)

5) Desolation Row: Bob Dylan (1965)

6) Country Feedback (Album Version): R.E.M. (1991)

7) Aeroplane Blues (LA Mix): The Blue Aeroplanes (1991)

8) Sexy Eiffel Towers: Bow Wow Wow (1980)

9) I Hear They Smoke The Barbecue: Pere Ubu (1990)

10) Twist (Album Version): The Fat Lady Sings (1991)

11) Safesurfer (Reprise): Julian Cope (1991)

 

1965: Highway 61 Revisited: 5 

1980: Your Cassette Pet: 8

1987: Hang On St. Christopher (USA 12"): 2

1989: Soundclash: 1

1990: Worlds In Collision: 9

1991: Blood: 4 

1991: Out Of Time: 6

1991: Peggy Suicide: 3, 11

1991: Twist: 10

1991: Volume Two: 7

 

Side Two (45:59) (Box) (Mega)

Monkey Shines

Side 1 of a mixtape, originally recorded 2nd September 1990. Enough downtempo sounds for this week, time for some noise. This was compiled as a batch of hastily recorded essential mixtapes to accompany me on a year in Australia, 19 years old, travelling solo for the first time. Bossanova had come out a few weeks earlier and I had all of Pixies' albums and 12" singles up to Here Comes Your Man at that point. I had wanted to include the single version of River Euphrates but I couldn't fit it into the cassette's running time. For this recreation, I've had to swap the live version of In Heaven from the Gigantic / River Euphrates 12" for the original demo version as I haven't yet ripped the former. This brings back lots of happy memories, though I did discover yesterday that it's not the best soundtrack for a commute to a work meeting. After three quarters of an hour of driving and 'singing' along with Black Francis' primal howl, I arrived at the meeting to find that I'd nearly lost my voice. "Your mouth's a mile away"? You ain't kidding.

 

1) Bone Machine (1988)

2) Tame (1989)

3) La La Love You (1989)

4) Cecilia Ann (1990)

5) Bailey's Walk (1989)

6) Caribou (1987)

7) Hang Wire (1990)

8) River Euphrates (Album Version) (1988)

9) Rock Music (1990)

10) Dancing The Manta Ray (1989)

11) Ed Is Dead (1987)

12) Cactus (1988)

13) Brick Is Red (1988)

14) Gigantic (Album Version) (1988)

15) Gouge Away (1989)

16) Allison (1990)

17) Something Against You (1988)

18) No. 13 Baby (1989)

19) In Heaven (Lady In The Radiator Song) ('The Purple Tape' Demo, 1987)

 

Side One (45:46)
 

The mixtape title was inspired by the 1989 single Monkey Gone To Heaven (it's on Side 2) and lifted directly from George A. Romero's 1988 movie adaptation of the 1983 psychological horror novel by MIchael Stewart. I haven't read the book and only saw the film once, which I think was possibly one time too many. The cassette cover is very loosely based on the Bossanova album sleeve, with a point knocked off for using 'the' in the band name on the sleeve's spine.