the end

It's been fun. Thankyou.

Pop Levi

Pop by name, pop by nature, in a big wall of sound, Phil Spector goes psychedelic producing the Turtles and Head-era Monkees. Like far out.

Listen: Pop Levi - Blue Honey
Listen: Pop Levi - Twins

Myspace

Steve Irwin RIP

Elton John - Crocodile Rock
XTC - Crocodile
TV theme and the original
Tornados - stingray

Bernard Butler: Return of the axe

Bernard Butler in the Guardian talking about guitar shops and the people therein: "They are notoriously full of arseholes. You should never be intimidated by them. They hang their guitars on their walls. What's the point of having encylopaedic knowledge of guitars if you do that?"
Still £4k for a 355?

mojave 3 - big star baby demo

Really, really been enjoying the newer, lighter, pop-feeling Mojave 3 album Puzzles like you. It had some patchy reviews, but whilst I miss the almost crystalline production values and down tempo songs of previous albums, Puzzles like you reveals itself with repeated listens to contain more than the Byrds/West coast and Big Star homages a casual listener would pick up on and dismiss as a backwards step. If you want to relive the nineties slowdive sound (and I admit that I do sometimes) check out skiddy watson's like a daydream compilation, about which I'm thinking of posting about, but cannot seem to find the angle without coming off as a complete knob. No change there then.

The big star baby demo was posted online prior to the album.

Listen: Mojave 3 - Big Star Baby (demo)

and for some extra fun:
Listen: Big Star - Thirteen
Listen: Big Star - When My Baby's Beside Me

mojave 3 online
Buy: Puzzles like you

Chameleons

It's been too long since I posted any Chameleons, so I dug out my CD of the Peel sessions to remedy the fact. Unfortunately it has a dirty bronze edge and refuses to be read past track 7. The CD was one of the first I bought, but I'm a bit gutted I'm going to have to go and buy it again - not for the £35 on amazon though!
Listen: The Chameleons - Don't Fall
Listen: The Chameleons - Second skin

and from their finest hour:
Listen: The Chameleons - Tears (full arrangement, I have the double 7" vinyl, but this copy is from the 2nd CD with Strange times)

Peel sessions
Strange times

rough trade covers album post

I bought the first Mazzy Star album three times, tape twice and then a CD. It was the soundtrack to my brief spell in Cork, Ireland in 1992, one of about three tapes I had with me. One of the others was On Fire by Galaxie 500. Anyway on to 2003 and to celebrate their 25th Rough Trade release a nice and cheap compilation that I buy and then promptly forget ever owning. A brief beachwood sparks revival this morning led me on to the mystic chords of memory and then onto the tyde, where I get the urge to seek their cover of tell me by galaxie 500. One reminiscence of Cork later and I'm posting the delay's ride it on too.

Listen: the tyde - tell me
Listen: delays - ride it on

Reading that back makes it painfully obvious why I never went for that job in music journalism - just listen to the songs and make your own minds up.

Bummer in the Summer - love tribute post

Arthur Lee RIP. You were supposedly mad, but you proved one of the most long lasting fascinations, from sixth form angst to parent I regularly listen to your works. That first stone roses album was them ripping off Primal scream ripping off you wasn't it? Huge chunks of the charlatans feel? Still no candle to hold to forever changes though, I'll be thinking of you and how long it took for you to shuffle off the proverbial since your first intimations that you were about to die.

Here are the tracks I have at hand - I haven't got access to my vinyl debut album at the moment.
I'd post Signed DC if I could put my hands on it.
Alone Again Or (alternate mix)
You set the scene (alternate mix)
She comes in Colors from da capo
I'm with you (from the patchy Four Sail)

This is what you want if you don't have it

Guillemots - little bear

Apologies for the prolonged absence, but a new baby and interesting work has kept me from posting here recently. I have, however been listening to the new guillemots album pretty much continuously for the last couple of weeks (well that and Rachel's Music For Egon Schiele), it's easily the best pop album I've heard this year, altogether more ambitious than most, sounding at times like Scott Walker's early solo work, and other Van Morrison or the Waterboys/World Party apart from the acapella stuff and the Stax influenced brass. The singles are almost Dexy's like and the lyrics erudite without being mawkish. The album called through the window pane is out today, and here's the opening track, a lush introduction to the week:

Listen: Guillemots - little bear

Watch: made uplove song #43 (Youtube)
Buy it - ignore the amazon description, it's just wrong.