#HappyMusicVolumeOne

#HappyMusic is one of two BlueSky music challenges I've been taking part in August, this one set by Griff, with a inclusive brief to post any music that:

-- makes you happy

-- includes the word "happy"

-- contains any variation of "happy" in the title, lyrics or band name

-- features a synonym of "happy"

-- reminds you of happiness

I started with a song by bdrmm and have been pretty much making it up as I go along ever since. I have tomorrow's final contribution picked and ready to go, so it seems as good as time as any to post my selections here over the next two days.

Goodness knows we could all do with a bit of happy right now!

Rather than create selections in the order I posted them, I've compiled two hour-long mixtapes, pulling my picks from here, there and everywhere to create what I think is a better "in one go" listening experience.

Volume One starts with the wonderful Groovy Feeling by Fluke (posted on 4th August) and ends with The Statue Got Me High by They Might Be Giants (posted on 15th August). Along the way, you get Olivia Newton-John & Electric Light Orchestra, Teenage Fanclub, Chic, Wreckless Eric, bdrmm, The Peanut Butter Conspiracy, Dream Warriors, Nelly Furtado, Julian Cope and many more.

Be here tomorrow for some Bank Holiday happiness!

1) Groovy Feeling (Make Mine A 99): Fluke (1993)

2) Xanadu (Single Version): Olivia Newton-John & Electric Light Orchestra (1980)

3) Do You Love Me Like You Say? (Album Version): Terence Trent D'Arby (1993)

4) Miss Modular (Single Version): Stereolab (1997)

5) Bon Bon Bon (Album Version): Vanessa Contenay-Quiñones (2008)

6) Belt: Teenage Fanclub (1993)

7) The Greatness And Perfection Of Love (Remixed Version): Julian Cope (1984)

8) Happy (International Teachers Of Pop De-Mix): bdrmm (2020)

9) Good Times (Edit By Khayem): Chic (1979)

10) Wash Your Face In My Sink (Original Mix): Dream Warriors (1990)

11) Whole Wide World (Album Version): Wreckless Eric (1977)

12) Steve: Billy Reeves (2024)

13) Vitamin D: Psychederek (2023)

14) It's A Happening Thing: The Peanut Butter Conspiracy (1967)

15) I'm Like A Bird (Album Version): Nelly Furtado (2000)

16) The Statue Got Me High (Album Version): They Might Be Giants (1992)

1967: The Peanut Butter Conspiracy Is Spreading: 14

1977: Wreckless Eric: 11

1979: Good Times EP: 9

1980: Xanadu EP: 2

1984: The Greatness And Perfection Of Love EP: 7

1990: Wash Your Face In My Sink EP: 10

1992: Apollo 18: 16

1993: Six Wheels On My Wagon: 1

1993: Terence Trent D'Arby's Symphony Or Damn: 3

1993: Volume Seven: 6

1997: Miss Modular EP: 4

2000: Whoa, Nelly!: 15

2010: Allez Pop!: 5

2020: Happy EP: 8

2023: Vitamin D / Oven Ready EP: 13

2024: Steve (A Weekend In Egham, 1996): 12

#HappyMusicVolumeOne (59:11) (GD) (M)

Three Years The World Has Been Waitin' Just For You, Three Bloody Years!

Side 2 of a mixtape featuring The Boo Radleys, compiled 22nd February 1997.

 

I posted Side 1 of this C90 compilation on Saturday 20th August 2022. Sometimes the follow up side will be swift, sometimes it will take over 1,100 days (and posts) to get there. I hope you think it was worth the wait...!

As before, this selection almost exclusively draws on EPs, remixes and tracks from music paper cassettes, last time NME this time Melody Maker. Whilst Giant Steps set their own bar so high that they couldn't hope to match it again (although they tried), the singles were always great value for money, packed with songs that often matched, sometimes surpassed their album siblings.

One happy consequence of the three year gap between posting the two sides of this collection is that I've since been able to obtain a decent MP3 rip of the Blues For George Michael demo, which I previously had to swap out for an edit of the single version. So, I've recreated and reposted Side 1, both sides now coming in at exactly 45:57. Spooky!

So, for the first time, you can now experience the entire C90 as I originally intended, and a reminder of how utterly brilliant The Boo Radleys were before BritPop and a hit single did them in.

1) Lazarus (12 Inch Version By Alan Moulder)

2) Atlantic (1996)

3) Ride The Tiger (Demo Version) (1996)

4) Cracked Lips, Homesick (1994)

5) Stuck On Amber (1995)

6) Donkey (1995)

7) Tortoiseshell (Re-Recorded Version) (1994)

8) Janus (1995)

9) The Only Word I Can Find (1995)

10) If You Want It, Take It (1993)

11) Vote You (1997)

12) Martin, Doom! It's Seven o' Clock (Stereolab Mix) (1995)

1992: Lazarus EP: 1

1993: Giant Steps: 10

1994: Barney (...And Me) EP: 4, 7

1995: Find The Answer Within EP: 9

1995: It's Lulu EP: 6, 12

1995: Wake Up!: 5

1995: Wake Up Boo! EP: 8

1996: The Basement Tapes Volume 1 (Melody Maker promo cassette): 3

1996: What's In The Box? EP: 2

1997: Ride The Tiger EP: 11

Side Two (45:57) (GD) (M)

Side One here

Decadance III: 1994

Side 1 of a nonsensical Nineties mixtape, today landing in 1994.

The year that 'The Bristol Sound' was gaining traction as a viable commercial prospect was also the year that I spent most of it living in another city. Yep, rather than chasing the zeitgeist, I seemed to spend most of my time racing away from it...!

Whilst Lloyd Cole had a lost weekend in a hotel in Amsterdam, I spent late 1993 to autumn 1994 in Derby. A large chunk of that was spent (over)staying with my incredibly understanding friend and his understandably increasingly pissed off girlfriend, before moving into a bedsit on the other side of town.

I'd lived in worse places, though not much. The winter was so cold that ice formed on the inside of the windows, faux-brickwork wallpaper covered the crumbly real stuff behind, and 50p in the meter would just about get enough water for a bath...as long as my neighbour didn't jump into the communal bathroom and nick it first!

Oh, and after several break-in attempts, I had to resort to removing my car battery every evening and keep it in my bedsit. It was quite literally the only thing worth nicking from car, but half-arsed attempts to do so had caused even more damage. 

I spent most of my time in Derby working for a paint company, 2.00-10.00pm shifts in their distribution warehouse, trying to input schedules on to spreadsheet with fingers that had turned blue and lost all feeling about 30 minutes into the shift. 

And it was where I gained a valuable lesson in the pronunciation of UK place names. My Scottish compadres may raise a wry smile when I mention the reaction I got from the person at the other end of the phone, when I wanted to update them on "a delivery to Hawick". They let me repeat several times before putting me out of my misery...

 

For all the anti-social aspects of the group, the people were fun, and I had a brief relationship with a woman in the upstairs office (I was one of the privileged few from downstairs allowed to go upstairs!), who lived out in the sticks and introduced me to some lovely walks in the Peak District. 

I also went clubbing a lot, given that I would finish work at 10.00pm and sleep was the last thing on my mind. I've forgotten most of the places I went to, but they included the Wherehouse for indie-type gigs and club nights. I also went to a few Renaissance nights at the relatively newly opened The Conservatory. I may have seen Sasha there but I have no recollection; I do remember that John Digweed and Ian Ossia were there pretty much every time, and seeing Justin Robertson, the latter peppered all over my record buying at the time.

Gigs were few and far between in that time. In fact, I've only recorded three that I can recall, and what a mixed bag: Freak Realistic playing to a handful of people; The Boo Radleys riding a wave of acclaim on the back of the magnificent Giant Steps, which proved to be impossible to capture live on stage. 

And then a brief trip over to Nottingham in March 1994, for a Megadog event featuring Transglobal Underground, Banco De Gaia and Loop Guru, which was superb. I was also supposed to be seeing Primal Scream at the legendary Rock City the same month but for some reason it never happened. Thirty years later and I've still never been there.

So how is it all of that reflected in today's selection of sounds from 1994? Not very well, if I honest!

Although the peaks for both genres were arguably still ahead, I've eschewed Britpop for Trip Hop, so there's no Blur, Pulp or Oasis (or, thankfully, Ocean Colour Scene) but Bristol's finest are represented with Massive Attack, Portishead and Tricky. Incredibly, only the first of these made the Top 30 though bigger hits were to come. 

 

In fact, this selection is much lighter on Top 40 hits - a mere 5 - compared to previous years, though I couldn't swap out any of these choices, even if it meant no room for Mazzy Star, Underworld, Gene, The Jesus & Mary Chain, Elastica, Kristin Hersh & Michael Stipe, Ride and Billie Ray Martin. And poor Pop Will Eat Itself never did get a look in this time around.

Beastie Boys make a long overdue appearance with Sabotage, which came with a typically brilliant video. Lazarus, possibly The Boo Radleys' greatest moment, wasn't a hit in 1992 and arguably still wasn't in 1994 compared to other singles though it was good to see it get a second crack at the Top, er, 55.

Jah Wobble's Invaders Of The Heart also returned with what I personally consider to be their best album, Take Me To God. I can't award it perfect album due to the guest spot of Dolores from The Cranberries, whose voice I can best and diplomatically describe as grating (sorry). However the single Becoming More Like God is monumental.

Pavement and Stereolab are largely thanks to John Peel playing them on the radio and a friend falling heavily for their music, which provided a sideways door to their songs. Veruca Salt too, although my collection remains largely limited to the Seether and Number One Blind EPs.

7 Seconds by Youssou N'Dour was slow burning single, taking a good couple of months to climb up the UK charts and reaching a peak of #3. No idea why, it's a fantastic song, made even better by appearance of Neneh Cherry and the inspired production of Booga Bear & Jonny Dollar aka Cameron McVey (aka Neneh's hubby) and Jonathan Sharp (who sadly passed in 2009). Neneh...sigh.

And I end with a start. If you've been following this series from the beginning, then you will know that there will always be more MAW. Today's Mandatory Andrew Weatherall is one of his own songs, for a change. Weatherall teamed up with Jagz Kooner and Gary Burns to form The Sabres Of Paradise. In 1994, second album Haunted Dancehall dropped, including a truncated version of preceding single Theme.

Theme, as the title may suggest, was a big, bold brassy cinematic epic, so it was no surprise that it literally ended up soundtracking a film. I don't remember all that much about Shopping the film, if I'm honest; I probably only saw it that one time in 1994. The soundtrack album however is phenomenal: Weatherall/Sabres appear twice, alongside Orbital, Smith & Mighty, The Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy, and more. 

The version of Theme on the Shopping OST comes in at just under five and a half minutes, longer than the album version, shorter than the single version, though carrying all of the heft of the original.

 

1) Theme ("Shopping" OST Version): The Sabres Of Paradise

2) Sly (Underdog Mix By Trevor Jackson): Massive Attack ft. Nicolette

3) Sabotage (Album Version): Beastie Boys

4) Numb (Revenge Of The Number): Portishead

5) Lazarus (7 Inch Version): The Boo Radleys

6) Cut Your Hair (Album Version): Pavement

7) Ping Pong (Album Version): Stereolab

8) Ponderosa (Dobie's Rub Part 1): TrIcky ft. Martina Topley-Bird

9) Becoming More Like God (Radio Edit By Mark 'Spike' Stent): Jah Wobble's Invaders Of The Heart ft. Anneli Drecker

10) I Want You (Single Mix): Inspiral Carpets ft. Mark E. Smith

11) Seether (Album Version): Veruca Salt

12) 7 Seconds (Album Version By Booga Bear & Jonny Dollar): Youssou N'Dour ft. Neneh Cherry

6th February 1994: Crooked Rain Crooked Rain (#52): 6

27th February 1994: I Want You EP (#18): 10

3rd April 1994: Haunted Dancehall / Shopping OST (#56): 1

24th April 1994: Becoming More Like God EP (#36): 9

1st May 1994: Ponderosa EP (#77): 8

5th June 1994: Lazarus EP (#54): 5

13th June 1994: Numb EP (# n/a): 4

26th June 1994: American Thighs (#61): 11

3rd July 1994: Ill Communication (#19): 3

24th July 1994: Mars Audiac Quintet (#45): 7

4th September 1994: The Guide (Wommat) (#3): 12

23rd October 1994: Sly EP (#24): 2

 

Side One (45:59) (GD) (M)

Life On Earth Is A Bloody Hazardous Affair

Still celebrating? Good! Here's some Stereolab to sweeten your weekend. 

Although I've posted a link to one their live shows previously, incredibly this is the first time in nearly 1,200 posts that I've featured a Dubhed selection dedicated to the band. 

Better late than never hopefully, this is a dozen songs of what I'd loosely describe as the 'poppier' end of the Stereolab spectrum, including a few of their better known 'hits' as well as some more obscure items. Oh, and a couple from my favourite album of theirs, Emperor Tomato Ketchup.

Possibly needless to say, I wasn't hip enough or lucky enough to buy these rarities on vinyl or CD single at the time but swiftly moved on the many compilations that have been available over the years and all highly recommended. 

 

In fact, if you're feeling flush, Stereolab released Switched On Volumes 1-5 via Bandcamp at the end of March. Thirty British notes will get you the digital; an extra twenty will get you the shiny disc box set. Eighty five tracks either way, you really can't go wrong, can you?

 

1) Fractal Dream Of A Thing (2008)

2) Cybele's Reverie (Album Version) (1996)

3) Munich Madness aka Blue Milk (1995) 

4) With Friends Like These (1999)

5) Pinball (1996)

6) Op Hop Detonation (1999)
7) Percolator (Album Version) (1996)

8) Wow And Flutter (1994)

9) Ticker-Tape Of The Unconscious (Thievery Corporation Remix By Eric Hilton & Rob Garza) (1999)

10) You Used To Call Me Sadness ('Demo' Version) (1996)

11) Jenny Ondioline (Single Version) (1993)

12) Captain Easychord (2001) 

 

1993: Jenny Ondioline EP: 11

1994: Wow And Flutter EP: 8

1996: Emperor Tomato Ketchup: 2, 7

1996: Fluorescences EP: 5 

1996: You Used To Call Me Sadness/Skyhigh EP (split 7" with Fuxa): 10

1998: The In Sound EP: 3

1999: Abductions And Reconstructions: 9

1999: Cobra And Phases Group Play Voltage In The Milky Night: 6

1999: The Free Design EP: 4

2001: Captain Easychord EP: 12

2008: Chemical Chords: 1

 

A Bloody Hazardous Affair (46:07) (KF) (Mega)

Get A Grip

Those of you of a certain vintage may recognise Norman "Gripper" Stebson, Grange Hill wrong 'un from 1980, expelled in 1983. 

Nothing wrong about this line-up, however. The Vinyl Villain's posting Lambchop's superb cover of This Corrosion by The Sisters Of Mercy on Tuesday got me thinking of today's opening song and from there a Dubhed selection was born. 

The similarly-titled song by A Certain Ratio gets a stunning synth rinse by Maps, whilst Thomas Leer dusts off his song of the same name, recorded in 2004 and languishing in the vaults until finally released in 2022.

Amateur Night In The Big Top was essentially a duo of Shaun Ryder and Shane Norton, with one self-titled (and hugely underrated) album and a few singles. Clowns was co-written and co-produced by Pete Carroll and Stephen Mallinder and gets a shoo in here courtesy of the remix artist Gripper.

The selection closes with a 12" remix of The Stranglers' classic, released in 1989 as far as I can recall to promote a greatest hits collection. The remix is an odd, welding the percussion track from The Sound Of The Crowd by The Human League to the undercarriage and generally making the song sound more lightweight. Not a patch on the original version, obviously, but an oddity that I think would have sounded as out of place in 1989 as it does now.

Come back here tomorrow for a tale of raffle tickets, home made marmalade and sweet, sweet music.

 

1) (Get A) Grip (On Yourself) (Cover of The Stranglers): Lambchop (2004)

2) Devil's Grip: The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown (1967)

3) Get A Grip (Maps Remix By James Chapman): A Certain Ratio ft. Maria Uzor (2021)

4) Kick It (Hippy Grip) (Remix By Randy Wilson): Nitzer Ebb (1995)

5) Get A Grip: Thomas Leer (2004)

6) Drums In A Grip (Wax Doctor Mix By Paul Saunders): Frank De Wulf (1996)

7) Clowns (Gripper Mix By Alan Gubby): Amateur Night In The Big Top (2003)

8) Grip Like A Vice (Black Affair Mix By Steve Mason): The Go! Team (2007)

9) Phantom Grip: Rival Consoles (2018)

10) Elektro (He Held The World In His Iron Grip) (Part Two): Stereolab (1992)

11) Grip '89 (Grippin' Stuff Mix By Barry Cooder & Taff B. Dylan): The Stranglers (1989)

Get A Grip (52:20) (KF) (Mega)

Thousand

No prizes for guessing what post number this is. 

Here's an eclectic 90 minutes of songs, remixes or acts featuring either '1000' or 'thousand' in the name. What was a little surprising was just how many examples are bouncing around in my collection. Even my shortlist contained roughly twice as many songs as made the final selection. 

Something for everyone, although not necessarily all together or in the right order. Ride, Hoodoo Gurus, Dengue Fever, The Sugarcubes, Gram Parsons, Gonzales, Stereolab, the selection also hops around the world a fair bit. Speaking of which...

 

Those of you who follow the excellent 27 Leggies and in particular Ernie's African Odyssey will have been hugely disappointed by the difficult decision to exclude the mighty King Ayisoba from this week's stop off in Ghana, such was the embarrassment of musical riches emanating from the country. Rest assured, his majesty makes an appearance here, with one of the songs that Ernie originally posted and part of my introduction to the Ghanaian great.

The selection closes with a two-hander from XTC and The Coral and I don't think I could have picked two better songs to wrap up. 

Viel spaß mit meiner tausendsten beitragsauswahl, meine Freunde!

1) 1000 Miles: Ride (1994)

2) Rilly Groovy (S1000 Mix By Spencer Williams & Mike Koglin): Beautiful People ft. Jimi Hendrix (1992)

3) Furious Angels (Rollo's Thousand Volts Mix): Rob Dougan (1998)

4) 1000 Miles Away: Hoodoo Gurus ft. Vicki Peterson (1991)

5) One Thousand Miles An Hour: Stereolab (1995)

6) 1000 Faces: Gonzales (2002)

7) Through It Poured The Next Day, I Never Noticed The Rain (Single Version): One Thousand Violins (1986)

8) One Thousand Tears Of A Tarantula (Album Version): Dengue Fever (2005)

9) One Thousand Years: TUU (1993)

10) Swords Of A Thousand Men: Tenpole Tudor (1981)

11) 1000 Dollar Car: The Bottle Rockets (1994)

12) Son Of A Thousand Fathers: Prince Fatty & Mutant Hi-Fi (2011)

13) 1000 Miles: Dirty Three (1996)

14) Blue-Eyed Pop (S1000 Mix By Spencer Williams & Mike Koglin): The Sugarcubes (1992)

15) 1000 Can Die: King Ayisoba ft. M3nsa & Lee 'Scratch' Perry (2017)

16) $1000 Wedding: Gram Parsons ft. Emmylou Harris (1974)

17) A Girl Like You (1000 Times) (Remix By Howard Gray): The Wolfgang Press ft. Claudia Fontaine (1992)

18) 1000 Umbrellas: XTC (1986)

19) 1000 Years: The Coral (2010)

 

1974: $1000 Wedding: 16

1981: Eddie, Old Bob, Dick And Gary: 10

1986: Please Don't Sandblast My House EP: 7 

1986: Skylarking (2016 Steven Wilson Mix): 18

1991: Kinky: 4 

1992: A Girl Like You EP: 17

1992: It's-It: 14

1992: Rilly Groovy EP: 2 

1993: One Thousand Years: 9

1994: Carnival Of Light: 1 

1994: The Brooklyn Side: 11

1995: The In Sound EP: 5 

1996: Horse Stories: 13

1998: Furious Angels EP: 3

2002: Presidential Suite: 6

2005: Escape From Dragon House: 8

2010: Butterfly House: 19

2011: Return Of Gringo!: 12

2017: 1000 Can Die: 15

Thousand (1:29:08) (KF) (Mega)

And if that's not enough for you, there are thousands of others that could have made the cut. 

Contributing today's cover photo, I bought the 12" of I Feel It/Thousand by Moby in the 1990s. I remember reading in Mixmag or DJ magazine at the time that the song achieved a Guinness World Record for having the fastest BPM tempo of any released single, peaking at approximately 1,015 beats per minute. 

 

None of which means the song is any good, of course. Rather than subject you to the full version, here's two minutes of Moby "performing" Thousand at the Electric Daisy Carneval in (I think) 2015. Health warning: strobe lights, plus a bald, pasty-skinned man topless and puffing his chest out to the largely indifferent masses. The fireworks are lovely, though.

 

Someone else who's still rocking the hairspray and lippy like it's 1985 is Robert Smith of The Cure. Here's A Thousand Hours (and bonus At Night) performed last October in Los Angeles. The venue is the Smoothie King Center, presumably named after a US company/sponsor but was there ever a more appropriately named venue for ol' Bob?

Back to 1994 and The Fatima Mansions live on stage 1000%, again cutting away to some fairly blank faces. Phillistines! I saw Cathal Coughlan and crew at The Fleece in Bristol around the same time and it was one of the most blistering, incendiary gigs I've been to. A greatly missed creative genius. 

You get some strange stuff on You Tube, don't you? I love The Beloved and I really like the song 1000 Years From Today. One fan has taken this one step further and created their own video. Not the mental image I had when listening to the song previously.

 

I have one song by Lia Ices aka Leah Kessel, courtesy of a Mojo magazine cover mount CD. A bit of an insult really, given that she's released four albums since 2008. Luckily for Lia, the one song is called Thousand Eyes so it gets a mention here. Not a fan-made video, although it's cut-and-paste job shamelessly stealing from Bollywood.

And for those of you who on seeing the post title and theme have been shouting "Where's Slough's finest, Thousand Yard Stare, for feck's sake?!" at the screen ever since, I think it's about time you got your comeuppance. 

 

No, I mean the song's called Comeuppance... 

 

Wait, come back....

 

...oh, now I've gone and done it.

#45sUnder3

I wouldn't say I put 100% into maintaining a presence on Twitter (or X or whatever Ego Musk is calling it these days, but I have participated in a couple of themed series, inviting people to share music. 

The first was a month-long celebration of 12" mixes from the 1980s and it was a lot of fun, sharing some old favourites and criminally forgotten or underrated tunes. This month (July), the theme has been singles that come in at 3 minutes or less. I didn't have a particular plan and was pretty much selecting a song at random on a daily basis. This in turn frequently informed many of my posts this month, more often than not leading me to get carried away with my "research" and deviating significantly from the song that prompted it.

Again, it's been good fun to see what other people would come up with each day. Needless to say, some stone cold classics have been well represented through the month: Boys Don't Cry by The Cure, Destroy The Heart by The House Of Love, Outdoor Miner by Wire, Monkey Gone To Heaven by Pixies, Reward by The Teardrop Explodes, Town Called Malice by The Jam, pretty much everything by Buzzcocks. Most genres have also been served well: reggae, soul, pop, punk, dance; not much prog, but to be fair 3 mins would be barely enough for the intro.

So, the series ends today and I chopped and changed my mind about what to include, mindful that I'd not yet included anything by Pixies, Julian Cope and dozens of other favourites. In the end, the choice was obvious: a band that has informed my love of music ever since I was a toddler, was a highlight of this year's Glastonbury (on TV) experience and who have released yet another brilliant album, up there in my 2023 'best of'. Oh, and with a great video to boot. Yes, of course, it's Sparks.

Despite being a daunting 31 song selection, the #45sUnder3 theme means that the entire thing comes in at under an hour and a half. The opening track is a bit of a red herring, but then where else would you heard Nine Inch Nails followed by Sub Sub featuring Melanie Williams?! The remaining selection is eclectic, jumping decades and genres with gleeful abandon and yet... I quite it. I hope you do too.

1) March Of The Pigs (Album Version): Nine Inch Nails (1994)

2) Ain't No Love (Ain't No Use) (Original Edit): Sub Sub ft. Melanie Williams (1993)

3) Sign Of The Times (Album Version): The Belle Stars (1983)

4) Nothing To Worry About (Album Version): Peter, Björn & John (2009)

5) Bizarre Love Triangle (Cover of New Order): Devine & Statton (1989)

6) The Pictures On My Wall (Single Version): Echo & The Bunnymen (1979)

7) Hyper Lust (Album Version): MOTOR ft. Billie Ray Martin (2012)

8) You've Got My Number (Why Don't You Use It!): The Undertones (1979)

9) Dusk Till Dawn (Album Version): Ladyhawke (2008)

10) Souleater: Clouds (1991)

11) Simply Thrilled Honey (Single Version): Orange Juice (1980)

12) D-Days (Single Mix): Hazel O'Connor (1981)

13) The Ugly Bug Ball: Burl Ives (1963)

14) Heart It Races (Album Version): Architecture In Helsinki (2007)

15) Action Time Vision: Alternative TV (1978)

16) Blue Boot (Single Version): Eric Donaldson (1972)

17) Hot Fun In The Summertime (Single Version): Sly & The Family Stone (1969)

18) Cybele's Reverie (Single Version): Stereolab (1996)

19) White Knuckle Ride (Single Version): Danielle Dax (1988)

20) I Helped Patrick McGoohan Escape (Album Version): The Times (1982)

21) (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman: Aretha Franklin (1967)

22) The Music (Single Version): Hifi Sean ft. Celeda (2018)

23) Mellow Doubt (Album Version): Teenage Fanclub (1995)

24) I Want Everything: The Godfathers (1986)

25) Thinking 'Bout You (Album Version): Dua Lipa (2017)

26) Lava (Album Version): Silver Sun (1996)

27) She’s A Fighter: Robert Forster (2023)

28) Triple Trouble (Album Version): Beastie Boys (2004)

29) Beak: HANN (2019)

30) Backwards Dog (Single Version): The Soup Dragons (1989)

31) The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte: Sparks (2023)

 

#45sUnder3 (1:23:12) (KF) (Mega)

Pitchfork Stereolab

I've only seen Stereolab live in concert once, in 1996 to promote Emperor Tomato Ketchup. Whilst I was aware of the band and liked their singles, it was this gig and album that kick started a love of their music that continues to this day. 

Stereolab went on a decade-long hiatus in 2009 and continued with individual pursuits, but have since resumed touring, although (as far as I can tell) there hasn't been a post-reformation album or EP. 

I've just revisited a performance at the Pitchfork Festival, Union Park in Chicago on 20th July 2019. I would have sworn that I've posted about this previously but a trawl of this blog has come up empty so here we are.

It's a relatively short set of seven songs, a little over 40 minutes, but it captures everything I love about Stereolab. In keeping with Stereolab's M.O., whilst most are short and snappy leftfield pop "hits" - Miss Modular, French Disko, John Cage Bubblegum - half of the set is given to just two songs. However, when the first song is Metronomic Underground, the pulsing, groovy opener to Emperor Tomato Ketchup, then it all makes sense. The second, Lo Boob Oscillator, was a US-only single in 1993 and greatly expanded its reach when included on the soundtrack to the film adaptation of High Fidelity in 2000. Both are an immersive delight and could easily go on and on and on.

 

Laetitia Sadier looks fantastic in a flowing, multi-coloured pleated dress and cheap plastic sunglasses. Tim Gane and the rest of the band have frankly made less of an effort but more than make up for it with their playing. It's a joy to watch from start to finish.

 

What is notably - and intentionally - absent from the line up here is a another female band member. I was lucky enough to see Stereolab when Mary Hansen was a member; she was tragically killed in 2002, hit by a truck when cycling in London and her loss in keenly felt. Not just a counterpoint to Sadier's vocals, Mary added another dimension to Stereolab for the brief decade that she was a member, contributing to some of their finest moments.

 

I'll come back to the 1996 Stereolab gig in a future post and possibly a selection (undoubtedly the first of several) before then.

 

Stereolab released expanded versions of their back catalogue albums a few years ago and you can buy digital (and in some cases physical) copies via Bandcamp. The Switched On series of rarities compilations (currently at volume 5) is also highly recommended.

Alien Attack!

Side 2 of a cassette compilation, featuring some indie - and not-so-indie - tunes, recorded 22nd July 1998.

 

Tenuous link(s) time: 

 

1) Today's photo is a TV screen grab of a scene from 1982 film The Soldier, which grabbed my attention in a late-hours/should-have-gone-to-bed moment solely because the credits mentioned the soundtrack music was by Tangerine Dream. I sat through the film (I may have had a couple of micro sleeps in between) and coming to a realisation at the end that at least it was an hour and a half of my life I wouldn't have to repeat. The film's tenuous link to today's mixtape title is that whilst there clearly is an attack (one of many), there are zero aliens from start to finish. Putting aliens in the film may have actually helped.

2) Previous Friday selections have often tried to get the party started, with some upbeat music, daring some times with some actual disco (never a particularly popular choice, it seems). Today's tenuous link to Friday music is that the selection includes a song by Gavin Friday. I'm not expecting any comments that this selection has generated an uncontrollable urge to conga into the streets, banging a saucepan with a wooden spoon, whooping with delight and urging your neighbours to join the line.

For all that, much to enjoy, I hope. A couple of big hitters with Radiohead and The Smashing Pumpkins, a couple of off-shoot projects with The Sea Nymphs (Cardiacs) and Black Box Recorder (Luke Haines/The Auteurs), a couple from the 1980s with My Bloody Valentine and It's Immaterial and one 1970s alternative classic from Big Star.

 

Other than that, it's mid-late 1990s all the way with Stereolab, Leila, the aforementioned Gavin Friday, The High Llamas and The Wolfgang Press.   

 

Now, excuse me whilst I go and find a saucepan and wooden spoon, I've got me some whooping and a-hollering and, er, conga-ing to do...

 

1) (Nice Dream) (Album Version): Radiohead (1995)

2) Monstre Sacre: Stereolab (1996)

3) No More Sorry: My Bloody Valentine (1988)

4) Eye: The Smashing Pumpkins (1996)

5) Misunderstood (Album Version): Leila ft. Donna Paul (1998)

6) Dolls: Gavin Friday (1995)

7) The Sweet Life: It's Immaterial (1986)

8) Christ Alive: The Sea Nymphs (1995)

9) Showstop Hip Hop (Edit): The High Llamas (1997)

10) Kanga Roo: Big Star (1975)

11) Ideal Home: Black Box Recorder (1998)

12) Chains (Album Version): The Wolfgang Press ft. Claudia Fontaine (1995)

 

1975: 3rd: 10

1986: Life's Hard And Then You Die: 7

1988: Isn't Anything: 3

1995: The Bends: 1

1995: Funky Little Demons: 12

1995: The Sea Nymphs: 8

1995: Shag Tobacco: 6

1996: Emperor Tomato Ketchup: 2 

1996: Lost Highway OST: 4

1998: England Made Me: 11

1998: In-Car Stereo (Melody Maker promo CD): 9

1998: Like Weather: 5

 

Side Two (46:43) (Box) (Mega)

50@50, Part Three: 1990-1999

Side One (30:09)

21) Loaded (Andrew Weatherall Mix): Primal Scream (1990)

22) 101 (Sonic Shuffle) (Remix By Andrew Weatherall & Hugo Nicholson): Finitribe (1991)

23) Fallen (Nancy & Lee Mix By Andrew Weatherall & One Dove): One Dove (1992)

24) What Godzilla Said To God When His Name Wasn't Found In The Book Of Life (Home Demo): American Music Club (1993)

25) Becoming More Like God (Radio Edit): Jah Wobble's Invaders Of The Heart ft. Anneli Drecker (1994)

Side Two (25:11)

26) Planet Telex (Album Version): Radiohead (1995)

27) Les Yper-Sound (Album Version): Stereolab (1996)

28) Dry The Rain (Single Version): The Beta Band (1997)

29) Feelings: Leila ft. Donna Paul (1998)

30) Les Nuits (Album Version): Nightmares On Wax (1999)

Side One (30:09)

Side Two (25:11)

This could have been a shorter Side One if I'd included the radio edits of Primal Scream and Finitribe, but it would have been a disservice to both tracks so in true K-Tel tradition, I went for the full half hour side of vinyl for this one, and be damned with the quality. I first heard Loaded on The Chart Show, but the full 12" version was like something transmitted from a parallel universe. And so began my lifelong love affair with the genius that is Andrew Weatherall. Finitribe had previously been an industrial dance act, but 101 took them to a whole new level and again Weatherall provided the extra push over the cliff, not quite chucking in the kitchen sink but slinging a clacking computer printer into the mix. As if that wasn't enough, he enabled Glasgow's One Dove to shine brightly although sadly all too briefly. American Music Club had some major label interest in the early-mid 1990s and I was lucky enough to see them live in concert around this time,  but one of my favourite songs (and song titles) is a scrappy home demo from their Mercury album. Jah Wobble is Jah Wobble. 'Nuff said. The Bends is my favourite Radiohead album and Emperor Tomato Ketchup is my favourite Stereolab album, who were also awesome live in concert. My friend Stu introduced me to The Beta Band via The Patty Patty Sound EP, but it was a defining moment to hear John Cusack drop this song in a pivotal moment in the film version of High Fidelity. Likewise, listening to Leila's Like Weather album in Stu's London bedsit in the wee hours after a night on the town was a defining moment. It was another friend, Dave (long departed, never forgotten), who educated me in all things Nightmares On Wax, including this pre-millenium gem. Our mutual love of electronica and dance music shimmied us into the 21st century, seeking newer and weirder beats. And we got them. And more. Much more.