Decayed V: 2008

Side 1 of a mirage-cum-mixtape, the penultimate plunge into the bracing waters of the Noughties.

The things you learn when you're scraping together info for a blog post. Somehow, I managed to get through the whole of 2008 without realising that the United Nations had declared it the International Year of the Potato. What, you too? Who was doing promo for the poor spud?!

Harrison Ford returned as Indiana Jones, the fourth film in the series coming nearly two decades after the original trilogy concluded. I'm not sure it was worth the wait.

Grange Hill left our TV screens, having run every year from February 1978 to September 2008. School was never the same.

BRIT Award winners in 2008 included Adele, Arctic Monkeys, Foo Fighters, Kanye West, Kate Nash, Kylie Minogue, Mark Ronson, Mika, Take That and Paul McCartney, the latter apparently having made an outstanding contribution to music. I must check him out sometime. None of them appear in today's selection.

Black Kids kick things off with I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You, a bit of a mouthful, but a very digestible slice of pop rock that sounds very much like an outtake by The Cure, circa The Head On The Door. The song - and debut album - was co-produced by Bernard Butler, but I never got any further than this CD single.

Hot Chip were slow to grow on me and I'll admit that much as I like them now, I still find Alexis Taylor's singing either engaging or irritating. Ready For The Floor is always a winner, though I was surprised to find that it went Top 10...

...much as I was surprised to find That's Not My Name by The Ting Tings got to #1, yet My Delerium by Ladyhawke was 'only' #33 and A-Punk by Vampire Weekend a mere #55. 

Returning exactly ten years on from his last appearance in the Decadance entry for 1998 is David Holmes, with the title song of the superb album The Holy Pictures. The Verve also got back together in 2008, and split again after fourth album, the imaginatively titled Forth.

The Verve aren't the only ones to aim high and deliver epic music. MGMT were the spearhead of a new prog/psych rush, swapping acid for heroin and wearing what looked like dayglo swimwear. 

The Last Shadow Puppets aka Alex Turner and Miles Kane carried more of Sixties John Barry James Bond soundtrack vibe which meant I bought their debut album before I did the same with Alex's 'main' band, Arctic Monkeys. To date, I've yet to buy any albums by Miles, either with The Rascals or as a solo artist. Sorry, la'.

As if it wasn't bad enough that I missed the International Year of the Potato in 2008, I also missed Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip's song, Letter From God To Man. It's not just the incredible lyrics, the chopped up sample of Planet Telex by Radiohead, or Scroobius Pip's emotive delivery which increases in intensity, it's all of the above. 

Making a welcome comeback since they both appeared in the inaugural Decayed 2000 selection a month ago are Róisín Murphy and Alison Goldfrapp, 

By 2008, Róisín was promoting her 2nd post-Moloko solo album, the rather wonderful Overpowered, including the fab single You Know Me Better, co-written with Andy Cato from Groove Armada. 

Alison and compadre Will Gregory meanwhile released the fourth Goldfrapp album Seventh Tree, which marked a departure from the glitter and glam of predecessor Supernature into more reflective, almost folky territory. Whilst A&E got to #10, follow up single Happiness peaked at #25, which is a shame as it's a gorgeous pop song and a lovely way to wrap up this year's selection.

The end will come tomorrow...

1) I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You (Album Version): Black Kids
2) You Know Me Better (Radio Edit): Róisín Murphy
3) Ready For The Floor (Album Version): Hot Chip
4) A-Punk (Album Version): Vampire Weekend
5) My Delirium (Album Version): Ladyhawke
6) That's Not My Name (U.S. Radio Edit): The Ting Tings
7) Letter From God To Man (Album Version): Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip
8) Holy Pictures (Radio Edit): David Holmes
9) Time To Pretend (Album Version): MGMT
10) The Age Of The Understatement (Album Version): The Last Shadow Puppets
11) Rather Be (Album Version): The Verve
12) Happiness (Album Version): Goldfrapp

3rd February 2008: Made In The Dark (#6): 3

9th March 2008: Vampire Weekend (#55): 4

6th April 2008: Overpowered (#47): 2

13th April 2008: Partie Traumatic (#11): 1

20th April 2008: Oracular Spectacular (#35): 9

20th April 2008: The Age Of The Understatement (#9): 10

20th April 2008: Seventh Tree (#25): 12

18th May 2008: We Started Notrhing (#1): 6

3rd August 2008: Angles (# n/a): 7 *

14th September 2008: The Holy Pictures (#65): 8

23rd November 2008: Forth (#56): 11

14th December 2008: Ladyhawke (#33): 5

Side One (46:03) (GD) (M)

* Letter From God To Man by Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip may not have dented the Official Top 100, but it did get to #48 in the UK's Physical Singles Chart. The fact that such a chart even existed probably says more about the dominance of downloads at this point.

If you're hankering after years gone by, hunker down with my selections for 1988 and 1998.

535

The link today is that this is my 535th post and all of the four featured tracks have (according to Discogs at least) a running time of 535 seconds or 8:55 in proper currency.

The selection's opening song is possibly the most demanding. It's a different, longer take of the closing song from The Velvet Underground and Nico's debut album, taken from sessions recorded at Scepter Studios in New York on 25th April 1966. A couple of acetates surfaced in the late 2000s, one of which found it's way onto bootleg vinyl, CD and MP3s. The sound quality wasn't great and the acetate was full of pops, skips and crackles. In 2011 James Eldred, creator of the mighty Lost Turntable blog, had a go at cleaning up and posting the Scepter Studios Sessions and I think he did a pretty good job. European Son is a testing listen in it's commercially released form and this version pushes the listener's tolerance further still. However, I can visualise Lou, John, Sterling and Mo going for it in the studio and it takes me past the inescapable shortcomings of the audio.

In my mind, the only way to follow that is with even more out there weirdness and cacophony. Step up, Cardiacs. The opening verse sets out it's stall immediately:

We cut all his eyes we did
Squeezed the lids and down the grog into hole
He skip with cow eyed smile to the blissful
Into craggy dress and we will we praise him
We will praise him off his pins
Clear him of all sins
Oh my! we sang with strength to carry on
Encouraged him to sing along
We sang of all the world and praised him hooray!

 

By comparison, She's A Superstar by Verve (in 1992 missing the definite article) is lyrically in the realm of 6th form poetry:

She got my woe
Got my hand
Took the dreams right outta my head
She bought the world
I paid the bills
I took those pills
It was wind in her sails

 

Nevertheless, Richard Ashcroft's vocals are softer and more complementary to the music, a swirling sea of sound, with drums, guitars and vocals coming in and out to great effect. I much prefer early Verve to the worthy, anthemic incarnation that came later.  

Julian Cope is no stranger to a witty way with words, often veering from the sublime to the ridiculous in the same song. Mighty Carl Jung is described on Head Heritage as a "pre-Autogeddon workout". This version was completed in 1997, placing it in the 'wilderness years' following his last record label album, Interpreter, in 1996. It's a decent enough song but didn't fit with the self-released and largely instrumental albums that immediately followed, Rite² (1997) and Woden (1998). Mighty Carl Jung eventually found a home thirteen years later on odds 'n' sods compilation Floored Genius 3 (also self-released) in 2000. The song is worth it for the lyrical pairing of Carl Jung and Donkey Kong alone.

 

1) European Son (Scepter Studios Sessions, 4-25-66: Mo Tucker Acetate Digitally Restored By The Lost Turntable, 2011): The Velvet Underground (1966)

2) Dirty Boy: Cardiacs (1996)

3) She's A Superstar (Full Length Version): The Verve (1992)

4) Mighty Carl Jung: Julian Cope (1997)

1992: She's A Superstar EP: 3

1996: Sing To God: 2

2000: Floored Genius 3: Julian Cope's Oddicon Of Lost Rarities & Versions 1978-98: 4

2011: Scepter Studios Sessions, 4-25-66: 1

535 (34:52)

Now That's What I Still Call Jangly

Side 2 of a compilation tape, originally recorded for me by my girlfriend, circa 1996.

 

When I posted the first side of this mixtape in November last year, I mentioned that I hadn't heard several of these songs in over a decade. It's been a bit less of a gap for most of the songs on this side but even so, I'd forgotten what a great compilation this is. More of The Wedding Present and The Field Mice and a couple by The Jam at their finest. 

 

I had thought about swapping out the Manchester racist for another song by a different artist, but I've decided to leave the sequence as originally intended. The song plays from approx. 19:44 to 23:27 if you want to skip it.

 

I realised as I was recreating this side that several of the artists have recently been featured over at The Vinyl Villain: Kirsty MacColl, The Field Mice and Fade Into You by Mazzy Star; completely coincidental, I'd only really plumped for posting this side today because it featured The Sundays. Yes, that's really as sophisticated as my planning gets sometimes...

 

1) A Small Slice Of Heaven: Lightning Seeds (1992)

2) Tread Lightly: Kirsty MacColl (1989)

3) The Great Depression (Single Version): The Jam (1982)

4) Divine Hammer (Album Version): The Breeders (1992)

5) Sorrow (Album Version) (Cover of The McCoys): David Bowie (1973)

6) Think Of These Things: The Field Mice (1991)

7) Spring-Heeled Jim (Album Version): Morrissey (1994)

8) My Favourite Dress (Single Version): The Wedding Present (1987)

9) But I'm Different Now (Album Version): The Jam (1980)

10) Slide Away (Album Version): The Verve (1993)

11) Fade Into You (Album Version): Mazzy Star (1993)

12) You're Not The Only One I Know (Album Version): The Sundays (1990)

13) Beyond Belief: Elvis Costello & The Attractions (1982)

Side Two (44:44) (GD) (M)

Side One here