Monthly Archives: August 2008

For the positively final time

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I received another email today saying that links weren’t working, which was fine…except like a lot of bloggers I remove links after two weeks because I don’t actually own the rights to the music I post here (I wish).

Anyway, the tracks in question were from the debut Bang Bang Machine 12″ single, The Geek EP so…here we go.

Bang Bang Machine -‘Geek Love.’ mp3

Bang Bang Machine -‘Flower Horse.’ mp3

Bang Bang Machine -‘The Fuck Machine.’ mp3

THESE WILL BE UP HERE FOR TWO WEEKS. IF THIS IS AFTER SEPTEMBER 3RD, TOO BAD, YOU MISSED IT.

It is now September 3rd and the links have therefore been removed.

Gig review: Future Of the Left/Fighting With Fire/Black Alley Screens

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Future Of the Left/Fighting With Fire/Black Alley Screens

Captain’s Rest, Glasgow, August 15

A night of three three pieces. First on the bill are Black Alley Screens who sound as loud as…and grab me pretty damn quickly. I’ve always thought three pieces seemed to have something, and these guys, who look almost young enough to be in my classroom, are fantastic. With songs like ‘Goodbye Youth Hello Proof’ I have decided by the third song that I’d sign them if I could. They are partly in the Arctic Monkeys/Libertines mould, but on their own terms.They exude the sort of cool that is effortless (either that, or they have been practising bloody hard to look that way). Considering I have never heard a note of their music before tonight I am utterly won over.

Which is more than I can say for the follow-up band, Fighting With Wire. Hailing from Derry, they have clearly been listening to At the Drive In, and trying to copy Dave Grohl’s vocal style. The previous night they played with Reverend and the Makers in Belfast, who they go to great lengths to criticise. They dedicate ‘Everyone Needs A Nemesis’ to them. As I write the review I find I can remember precious little about the music.

There’s a long wait for our headliners to come on. They will later claim that this is because drummer Jack William Egglestone was trimming his beard. This is quite believable. This Welsh three-piece, formed from the ashes of Jarcrew and McLusky released their debut album Curses last year. I can only admit to having heard it recently, but I’m glad I did. They manage the feat of cramming in loads of ideas, and yet making it fun and listenable, rather than worthy and unpalatable. It’s a hot and sweaty night (yes, we do occasionally have these in Scotland), and they know how to work a crowd. There’s a great sense of humour here too. When a heckler asks them to play ‘Wonderwall’, without missing a beat they ask for subtitles.

Whilst the slightly quirky nature of the songs means that you cannot even identify the lyrics from the booklet when you get back home, there’s no denying just how exciting and just sheer fun this is. Songs like ‘Fuck the Countryside Alliance’* and ‘The Lord Hates A Coward’ manage to be both angular and singalong. By the end of the gig, bassist Kelson has ended up in the crowd and prompted the best stage invasion I have seen since the fifteen minutes of The Others three and a hlaf years ago.

But these guys deserve to last and do so much better than Dominic masters’ almost forgotten crew. There’s something special brewing here. I’ve been playing the album loads since the gig. And even though I didn’t fall into bed until well after midnight, it was worth it.

Future Of The Left are currently on tour in the UK and will tour the US this autumn. Check their webpage and their MySpace for more details.

*Too right.

That aforementioned Shins track…and another great cover…

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Thanks to good ol’ Gav nudging me, I thought I’d post that cover of The Postal Service’s ‘We Will Become Silhouettes’ done by The Shins.

The Shins -‘We Will Become Silhouettes.’ mp3

It’s a bit busy here, what with so many reviews to get up here, the record company making progress, the day job starting again this week….but be patient, all will be rewarded.

…so why not Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy doing ‘Puff The Magic Dragon?’

Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy -‘Puff The Magic Dragon.’ mp3

Love Vigilantes Part 2 and Such Great heights

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This post is due thanks to one of my readers Adam, who had promised to send me some covers in response to the one I had put up of ‘Love Vigilantes’ being done by Laura Cantrell. So…

first up, Voxtrot and Hungry Lucy’s very different takes on ‘the aforementioned ‘Love Vigilantes’:

Voxtrot -‘Love Vigilantes.’ mp3

Hungry Lucy -‘Love Vigilantes.’ mp3

He also sent me Jenny Lewis doing a live version of the Postal Service’s ‘Such Great Heights’, so I will post that, and just in case no-one has heard it, Iron and Wine’s take on the same song:

Jenny Lewis -‘Such Great Heights.’ mp3

Iron and Wine -‘Such Great Heights.’ mp3

Hope everyone’s having a good weekend. Went to see Future Of the Left in Glasgow at the Captain’s Rest on Friday night, which was very good, so a review will be here shortly.

Detective work completed!

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A few weeks ago, I wrote about how I was trying to track down something that a) Peel had played in 1995 and b) Peel had read out my request on air to see if anyone could identify it.

It had the chorus ‘Wembley, Wembley, he’s the famous Michael Nyman and he’s going to Wembley.’

It transpires it was Cathal Coughlan of Microdisney and Fatima Mansions and comic Sean Hughes. Thanks to eyevocal and everyone else who helped me locate this.

The track was this:

Bubonique -‘The Pianna.’ mp3 from the long-deleted Trance Arse Volume 3.

There is a piece about their other album here and Cathal Coughlan’s official site is here

The Breeders’ one and only Peel session

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This is actually my 600th post, and I thought I would post this, the one and only Peel session by The Breeders.

The Breeders have been described as one of the most promising and frustrating bands to emerge in the last twenty years. They have prodcued some excellent stuff, but for what started as a ‘Supergroup’ (in the seventies sense of the word, where a band was formed out of a lot of people who were already in bands as a side project, see Crosby Stiils Nash & Young etc..) they soon started to become the main concern. However, in the time they have been around, they have produced four LPs.

When Kim Deal, then the bassist in the Pixies, got together with Tanya Donnelly, then in Throwing Muses, both must have been feeling that they were playing second fiddle in their own bands and that they also had a lot to offer the world.They did. The first album, Pod, was made in Edinburgh at Palladium Studios, and engineered by Steve Albini. This may be heresy in the blogger world (but I’ve already faced excommunication by some for not putting the Arcade Fire as my favourite band of all time, so what the hell), but Pod is actually my favourite of the four albums. This is the time that produced the only session they would record for John Peel, though the only song that made the Festive fifty, perhaps predictably, was ‘Cannonball.’

They recorded one Peel session for John Peel, in January 1990, which was broadcast the following month. All four tracks were written by Kim Deal

Breeders -‘Fortunately Gone (Peel session).’ mp3

Breeders -‘Hellbound (Peel session).’ mp3

Breeders -‘Iris (Peel session).’ mp3

Breeders -‘When I Was A Painter (Peel session).’ mp3

This lineup would change over time, Tanya Donnelly would leave both Throwing Muses and The Breeders, first two produce two albums as frontwoman of Belly, and then go solo; Kim Deal was joined by her sister Kelley later on, though they had other projects as well, including The Amps, The Kelley Deal 6000…a whole heap of other stories.

Maybe you should try here…
The Breeders’ website/The Breeders’ MySpace/An unofficial but utterly brilliant Breeders’ page

Album Review: Cave Singers

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The Cave Singers – ‘Invitation Songs’ (Matador)

OK, so it was released last year in the US, came out here earlier this year in Britain, but of the 100+ albums I have heard this year* the Cave Singers’ debut is an astounding record that is in the top ten this year.

The band is Pete Quirk on vocals, guitar, melodica and harmonica; Derek Fudesco on guitar and bass pedals and Marty Lund on drums and guitar. In previous musical lives, Quirk was in Seattle post-punk group Hint Hint, Lund was in Cobra High, and Fudesco was the bass player for Pretty Girls Make Graves and legendary Murder City Devils. All these previous bands would suggest a sortof ‘alt-rock/punk’ sort of record, so why is that folk seems to be the thing here?

That’s not a bad thing, in fact it’s their approach to this music that makes this album such a refreshing and exciting record and one that I keep playing. Even as a blogger, I now get sent a fair amount of music and there’s a lot that perhaps only gets played once** but this album has been played frequently and belongs permanently on my iPod. The reference points here might be American roots music, be it proper country or blues, and the folk that comes from that part of the world. At times the music is almost hypnotic and mantra-like, at other times the sort of ininhibited dance music that, like the early work of Michelle Shocked is roots music that makes you want to dance.

From the opener ‘Seeds Of Night’ and including single ‘Dancing On Our Graves’, right up to album closer ‘Called’ this album continues to surprise and delight. Once heard, I bet it will haunt your brain forever.

Even if you think you don’t listen to ‘this sort of music’ I have to issue this challenge: if you’ve glossed over certain types of music I’ve written about on here, give this a listen. You will be surprised, pleasantly taken aback, and hopefully you might even go and buy it. With this, Jaguar Love and Shearwater, Matador Records are setting the standard for 2008.

*****

Invitation Songs is out now on Matador

Cave Singers -‘Seeds Of Night.’ mp3

* I get sent a lot of these. Do you honestly think I could afford to buy that many new albums in one year?!

** There is one of me. This is not a full-time job, I do it for love in my free time.

Isaac Hayes: A Tribute

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17 Seconds is deeply sorry to hear of the death of Isaac Hayes at 65. He was famous as a musician, actor and humanitarian. He laid much of the pioneering groundwork for music, and his influence can be felt on Soul, Funk, Disco, Hip-Hop and House.

Born on August 20, 1942 in Covington, Tennessee, he was raised by his grandparents after the early death of his parents. In the sixties he worked for Stax Records as a as a session player and songwriter. Amongst the songs he wrote included ‘Soul Man’ and ‘Hold On I’m Coming’ for Sam and Dave.

In the late 1960s he became a solo artist in his own right, and his second album Hot Buttered Soul is rightly considered a landmark soul album. Maybe it should just be considered a landmark album full stop. It’s only four tracks long, and yet over the course of forty five minutes sets the bar for music impossibly high. It contains two covers of well-known songs ‘Walk On By’ and ‘By The Time I Get To Phoenix’ transported from three minute pop songs into soul work outs. ‘Walk On By’ is over nine minutes long; ‘By The Time I Get To Phoenix’ just under nineteen and starts with a eight minute monologue. Much sampled and lauded, this album is up there with other soul land mark albums; think Stevie Wonder’s Music Of My Mind, Talking Book and Innevrvisions and Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On and Let’s Get It On.

In 1971, Hayes released his best known work, Shaft, the theme music to the Blaxploitation film of the same name. The title track was a US no.1 and a no.4 single in Britain. He won an Oscar for Best Original Song for the “Theme from Shaft,” and was he was also nominated for Best Original Dramatic Score for the film’s score.

It wasn’t all plain sailing; both Stax and Hayes would have financial problems in te mid-seventies, with hayes filing for bankruptacy in 1976. He was a survivor though, and continued to release music, as well as acting in both film and TV. Having appeared as a barman in the film of Shaft, he would appear in The A-Team and Miami Vice, and numerous films including Robin Hood: Men In Tights and Johnny Mnemonic.

In the last decade, he gained a new generation of fans by voicing Chef in the controversail but funny series South Park. Chef’s song ‘Chocolate Salty Balls (P.S. I Love You’) was a no.1 hit in the UK and Ireland. Chef was a love machine par excellence and one of the few level headed people on the show. His surname was McElroy, and according to the Wikipedia entry, his parents live in Edinburgh, Scotland, home of 17 Seconds. However, hayes quit the show, feeling that it had crossed the line from satire into bigotry in an episode entitled Trapped In the Closet which mocked scientology, his adopted religion.

In 2006, he suffered a stroke. Yesterday Police said that he had died at his home in Memphis, Tennessee. Police were called to his home after his wife found him unconscious. He was taken to hospital where he was pronounced dead at 1408 (1908 GMT). He leaves behind a wife and twelve children.

Isaac Hayes -‘Theme From Shaft.’ mp3

Isaac Hayes -‘Soulville.’ mp3

Links you may wish to investigate:

Isaac Hayes’ official website

Isaac Hayes’ entry at the Internet Movie Database

Isaac Hayes on Wikipedia (this has been updated in the last twenty-four hours)

BBC obituary

NME Obituary

More Alex Taylor (and related)

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Tonight’s post is courtesy of not one but two 17 Seconds readers. Bernd, thank you for supplying the picture above of Alex Taylor and the cover of motorcycle Boy doing the Velvet underground’s Run Run Run’ and the Shop Assistants doing ‘Respectable’ and yet again, Tom, for supplying the two tracks by One Note Jam. Unless anyone has any info to the contrary, this was the very final record she made, in early 1991, as One Note Jam, who Motorcycle Boy became, split after this, in 1992. I would love to knwo what she’s up to know. In fact, if Motorcycle Boy and/or The Shop Assistants were to reform, I would be one very happy person…

One Note Jam -‘Warp Eight In Electroglide (Only You).’ mp3

One Note Jam -‘Warp Nine In Electroglide (Only You).’ mp3

Motorcycle Boy -‘Run Run Run.’ mp3 (Velvet Underground cover).’ mp3

As a bonus, the very final Shop Assistants track, recorded long after Alex Taylor left, their cover from 1990 of the Rolling Stones’ ‘Respectable.’

Shop Assistants -‘Respectable.’ mp3

A crazy idea…and another thing

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Well, finally I have done a 17 Seconds MySpace.

If you want to be my friend on it, the link is right here.

And it also explains a crazy idea I’ve had today, and am developing with my friend Laurent.

Will it get anywhere? Another crazy idea -or something that’s the next natural step?

Only time will tell…

…But you won’t have a clue what I’m on about, unless you investigate, will you?

The Fall -‘Edinburgh Man.’ mp3