xPQwRtz

xPQwRtz Podcast Number Four - Fathers' Day Special

noreply@blogger.com (Crayola Sarandon) — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 08:10:00 +0000

Hello.
It's Fathers' Day here in the UK and to celebrate I have put together a bunch of saongs that all have father or somesuch in the title.
Apart from the first song, that is.

HAPPY FATHERS' DAY.

The tracklisting:

Father - Now I've Changed My Minder
Gorky's Zygotic Mynci - Sometimes The Father Is The Son
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 - Father
The Cannanes - Go & Tell Your Father
Keith John Adams - Dad
Can - Father Cannot Yell
The Bats - Daddy's Highway
Aphex Twin - Father
Thee Headcoats - The Day I Beat My Father Up
The Cravats - Daddy's Shoes
Keen - Daddy
Bogshed - Hand Me Down Father
The Yummy Fur - Father Ubu Says
Stump - Our Fathers

Get it here: http://www.mediafire.com/?mmyqywmjyjj

XPQWRTZ Podcast Number 3 - The Pefect Eight Track

noreply@blogger.com (Crayola Sarandon) — Fri, 21 May 2010 11:00:00 +0000

Hello again.
Here's the new podcast.
This time it's simply a bunch of songs that I love singing along to in the car.
There are a lot of songs that I like to sing along to in the car, but the fifteen in this selection are the ones that really make me smile and sing extra loudly to when they come on.
You see being a dad with a full time job these days, the only place I get to listen to music is in the car.

You might be pleased to know that other than saying hello at the beginning I don't talk during this podcast.
There didn't seem to be much point.

Track listing:

The Free French - Vowels
The Wolfhounds - Disgusted, E7
Age Of Chance - Be Fast Be Clean Be Cheap
bIG fLAME - Man Of Few Syllables
Stump - Alcohol
Marc Rile & The Creepers - Shadow Figure
The Knack - My Sharona
Julian Cope - Kolly Kibber's Birthday
The Verlaines - Doomsday
Robert Lloyd - The Part Of The Anchor
Dr. Feelgood - Roxette
The Shrubs - Edith
Swell Maps - Art
Adam & The Ants - Catholic Day

Get it here.

XPQWRTZ Podcast Number Two

noreply@blogger.com (Crayola Sarandon) — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 15:29:00 +0000

This time it's all about cassettes.

Apologies for the sound quality in places but some of the music in this edition are from nigh on 30 year old tapes I've found in boxes in my garage.

The tracklisting is thus:

McTells - Expecting Joe
Beat Happening - Don't Mix The Colours
The Cannanes - Skeleton Is Your Little Boy
Yximalloo - My Washing Machine
Plant Bach Ofnus - Pyrdredd
The Lungs - The Day James Cagney Died
Howl In The Typewriter - Kelp
Remember Fun - Apple Of My Eye
Kokoshkar - Alaquon
God Is My Co-Pilot - An Irish American Forces His Death
The Twins And Rig Veeda - Never Mention

Get it here

xPQwRtz Podcast Number One

noreply@blogger.com (Crayola Sarandon) — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 04:25:00 +0000

Ok, here we go.
This is the first podcast for this blog.
I began it with an idea of what I wanted to talk about but it's ended up as a barely linked wander through my decaying memory.

Tracklisting:

The Bachelor Pad - Albums of Jack
We The People - You Burn Me Up And Down
The Pastels - 25 Unfinished Plays
St. Christopher - Remember Me To Her
Pregnant Neck - Crispin Glover
Death by Milkfloat - TTYF
Membranes With Phillip Boa & The Voodoo Club - Spike Milligan's Tape Recorder
Palookas - All The Will
Midget - Heaven Is Crazy
Hulaboy - Mermaid Sister
The Keatons - Gene Pool
Nina Hagen - Zero Zero UFO

GET IT HERE

Enjoy.

XPQWRTZ Rides again!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Crayola Sarandon) — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 13:10:00 +0000

Hello there.
I've been thinking about this blog for a while and quite frankly I've missed doing it.
I've also been doing some podcasting for various other sites.
So I've made a decision.
This blog is going to turn into a Podcast thing.

The first installment of the XPQWRTZ podcast will be ready for download shortly.

Is this a good idea?

Time will tell.
See you soon.

Jacob's Mouse

noreply@blogger.com (Crayola Sarandon) — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 12:28:00 +0000

Hello.
I'm back for a brief time.
I've just read John Robb's marvelous "Death To Trad Rock" book (for which I designed the cover and within which I am interviewed. Me? Blowing my own trumpet? Of course!).

Anyhow, while reading it I was listening to a bunch of records that it related to.
And then I started pondering about where everything went.
I've mentioned the filthy noise of Silverfish somewhere else in this blog, but so far I don't think I've ever touched on Jacob's Mouse.

Do you remember Jacob's Mouse?
They were the pop end of the Wiiija (You do know what Wiiija is don't you? What it means? Think about it) early 90's noise fest that centered around The Camden, Silverfish, Terminal Cheesecake axis.

I first saw them one evening in a funny little club in Derby city centre.
I can't remember what the club was called but I'm sure Karen Ablaze was there too - she (or someone pretending to be her) gave me a 7" split single:

Anyhow, I thought Jacob's Mouse were terrific. Deep and dark as the grave bass rumblings, high as possible trebled out guitars and a singing squealing drummer.

"Good" was and is my favourite JM song and one of my favourite 7" singles.

That first sighting of Jacob's Mouse in the flesh was probably around 1990/91.
The following year they played The English Bridge Centre in Shrewsbury (where I'd put on the 14 Iced Bears show a few years earlier where they were so loud they blew out the windows).
The weekend prior to Jacob's Mouse playing I'd decided to buy a dress.
Yes.
A dress.
It was an ankle length long sleeved black dress which I wore with black leggings and para boots.
I didn't wear it often - the idea of it was far better than the execution - but I did wear it to go and see Jacob's Mouse.
Tey were tremendous and, sitting in the back room chatting with them both before and after their set, they were a very nice bunch of chaps.
Were they posh?
I remember them to have 'proper' accents.
But then I was sitting there in a dress so who can say.

A year or so later I saw them again.
Once again it was in Derby.
I have no idea why.
They were doing their "Group Of 7" period stuff (the last record I really liked by them) and once again they were a truly terrific live act.
By this time I'd ditched the dress.
In fact I'd had my dreadlocks cut off and was sporting a Terrie Ex crop and a pyjama top.

So, Wiiija.
You know what it means don't you?
Come on.

W11 1JA

Just off Portobello Road there's a record shop out of which a whole musical movement sprang forth and Wiiija was is it's post code.

Hello? Where've you been?

noreply@blogger.com (Crayola Sarandon) — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 08:54:00 +0000

I wasn't intending on adding anything much to this blog.
Just got so bored of it.

BUT.

I just put together a podcast for the Anorak Forum after discussing "Awkward" music, so I thought it might be nice to share it here too.

Right then.

I couldn't decide on a downloadable compilation type thing or a podcast.
So I went with a podcast (easier than trying to arrange the comp and re-tag everything).
If you'd prefer a comp so's you can listen to individual songs let me know.
Also, if you know how to arrange podcasts so that individual songs can be played rather than one long mix please let me know! (I've had GarageBand for a long time but never really used it before, so this might all be a bit clunky as I'm learning as I go).

Also:

1. there are probably some glaring omissions.
2. I was very temped to stick some old Two Tone songs on it as there's a real link (to my ears) between that and the scratched guitars of Dog Faced Hermans for example.
3. Most of the songs will be a bit clicky and scratchy as, with the old xPQwRtz compilations, most of the songs are from my old records.
4. It's not strictly in chronological order, though it is more or less. Some of the songs sat better in the positions I've put them. Yes, I actually thought this through and everything (and even though I titled it 79-95, there's a song or two from 96. So shoot me).
5. Enjoy!

Download here: http://sarandon.net/Anorak1979-1995.zip

Track Listing:

Swell Maps - Another Song (Rough Trade, 1979)
The Slits - Instant Hit (Island, 1979)
The Diagram Brothers (New Hormones, 1981)
Yeah Yeah Noh - Trini Lopez (Cordelia, 1985)
Nightingales - Use Your Loaf (Cherry Red, 1981)
The Cravats - Daddy's Shoes (DCL, 1982)
Vee VV - Keepbeat (Vinyl Drip, 1986)
The Membranes - Big Nose And The Howlin' Wind (Criminal Damage, 1984)
The Higsons - I Don't Want To Live With monkeys (Romans In Britain, 1981)
Splat! - Yeah...The Dum Dum (Ron Johnson, 1983)
The Very Things - Wall Of Fur (DCL/Reflex, 1986)
bIG fLAME - Man Of Few Syllables (Ron johnson, 1985)
MacKenzies - New Breed (Ron Johnson, 1986)
Jackdaw With Crowbar (Ron Johnson, 1987)
The Noseflutes - Catcheel Maskhole (Ron Johnson, 1986)
World Domination Enterprises - Hotsy Girl (Product Inc, 1988)
A Witness - Camera (Ron Johnson, 1985)
Twang - Here's Lukewarm (Ron Johnson, 1987)
The Shrubs - Edith (Ron Johnson, 1987)
Stump - Ice The Levant (Ron Johnson, 1986)
Bogshed - The Fastest Legs (Shelfish, 1986)
Sperm Wails - Lady Chatterley's Lover (Sprat & Mackerel, 1988)
Dog Faced Hermans - Frock (Vinyl Drip, 1989)
Death by Milkfloat - The Man Whose Senses Failed (Ediesta, 1988)
Dandelion Adventure - Jinx's Truck (Action, 1990)
Stretchheads - Acid Sweeney (Blast First, 1991)
Dawson - Leaf Sweepers And Sandwich Men (Gruff Wit, 1992)
Gag - Full Seaside Antics (Voice Of Shade, 1993)
Badgewearer - Short Fast Control (Guided Missile, 1994)
Mecca - Civil Kong Smasher (1992)
Nostril - Bewdong Canoe Start (Gruff Wit, 1996)
Yummy Fur - Amelia Scoptophilia (Guided Missile, 1995)

GIVING UP

noreply@blogger.com (Crayola Sarandon) — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 06:25:00 +0000

I just don't have the time to keep this blog going.
Too much real life, babies, work, to think about.

I might come back to it some time in the future - god knows I've got a lot more to gripe about.

Thanks for the support I've had.
Apologies that you can no longer get the compilation downloads - But you were getting them for free so please stop complaining at me.

See you soon.

KILL TWEE POP!

how pop made my thighs ache

noreply@blogger.com (Crayola Sarandon) — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 06:49:00 +0000

was it the siddeleys who had a single out with a photo of some 50's kids riding bicycles on the front?
i don't own any siddeleys records anymore so i can't check.
but i'm sure it was them.

there was a whole spate of record covers with this kind of warm-hearted-england-is-innocent-swallows-and-amazons cover art.
having said that i'll probably not be able to find any.
oh, hang on, here we go:

(all right - before you say anything - i KNOW this single predates the others by at least 5 years, but then in terms of indie pop the TVP's were way ahead of their time).

it was a hot and sunny summer as i remember.
i had newly started work as a screen printer.
my job was a 20 minute bus-ride from home.

one afternoon i spotted a bicycle in a second hand shop.
not just any old bicycle either.
it was one of these:

(thanks to the stones & bikes of wales for the image)

i thought it was beautiful.
and it fitted in with my indie lifestyle and image.
old jumpers that were my grandfather's, shirts from oxfam, desert boots and a satchel.
my stephen pastel haircut.

i handed the shopkeeper £50 and took the bike home.
the following monday i rode the bike to work.

it took for-f*cking-ever.
i finally arrived at work late, sweaty and aching.
of course i had to ride the damned thing home again too.

the following saturday, with every inch of my body in spasm, i took the bike back to the shop and sold it for £20.

the warm-hearted-england-is-innocent-swallows-and-amazons-1950's./early 60's myth is a painful untruth.

old, bored, hard of hearing

noreply@blogger.com (Crayola Sarandon) — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 07:26:00 +0000

i was thinking the other day, "i haven't posted anything on xPQwRtz for a while".
so i headed towards my laptop, turned it on and found my attention taken up by completely different things.
you see, right now i can't be bothered and this is mainly due to, 1. being busy and, 2. what i've been listening to recently.

i'm still not listening to anything new - there's nothing new worth listening to is there?
but i've been getting bored of the same old sounds and so i spent a month or so digging through my record collection looking for stuff i'd not listened to for, literally, years.

and i came across these gems:

genesis' "nursery cryme" has become my favourite album of recent weeks, closely followed by rush and hall & oates.
a few of these records got ripped to MP3 and as a consequence were logged on my lastFM playlist.

and this is where the point of this post finally arrives.

someone took a look at my playlist one day and left a remark, "hall & oates! how did THAT happen??!!"
i replied, "because i like them. in the same way i like marillion and rush and...."
their response was, "well i have a fondness for marillion but i'd never TELL anyone about it."

and that immedieately struck me as ridiculous for reasons that i'll reveal shortly.

a few weeks ago i was driving up the M1 motorway with a friend of mine who happens to have been in a band that many of you regard as semi-legendary C86/post punk heroes.
his band of the 80's featured scratchy thousand mile an hour guitars, thumping bass and falling over drums.
i'd got my iPod on the car stereo and what should pop up but the 10+ minute wonder that is "the musical box" by genesis.
my friend sang along to EVERY note - vocals, guitars, keyboards, everything - halfway through he said, "do you have the version of this from the live album? that's my favourite."

so, why did the comment left on lastFM strike me as ridiculous?
well, look at my example above.
it's simple really.

it's SO MUCH COOLER to just be honest about EVERYTHING that you like rather than try and hide the things you think might not fit the "image" other people have of you.
why only let your stupid lastFM log jingley jangley sub-byrdsian guitars when on a friday night before going out you like nothing more than a short sharp hit of slayer?

get it?
good.

the end of the 80's. the worst record of the 80's.

noreply@blogger.com (Crayola Sarandon) — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 10:39:00 +0000

"plug" by the groove farm is a FUCKING AWFUL RECORD.
it has no redeeming features whatsoever.
just to be absolutely sure i'm listening to it again as i type.
and, yup, i was right first time.

it came out in 1989 and is simply half-arsed, lazy, awful.
i didn't buy it when it came out because i couldn't bear to be seen taking it out of a record store.
and why would anyone want to when at the same time you could buy:

FLOUR "L.U.V.7.1.3." - terrific and really quite funny mock rock nonsense.

FOETUS INC. "" - compilation of some of the best bits from jim thirlwell's back catalogue.

we all have choices in this life.
i made mine.
:)

compilations are back

noreply@blogger.com (Crayola Sarandon) — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 12:58:00 +0000

a shiny new host (thanks - you know who you are) means all the compilations are now downloadable again.
apologies for the problems.

one or two of the links in the original posts for each compilation may still not work.
i'll get round to them but, to be frank, i've got better things to do.

but all the links in the menu on your left should work just fine.

more rubbish soon.

thanks.

SERVER PROBLEMS

noreply@blogger.com (Crayola Sarandon) — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 16:08:00 +0000

hullo.
having slight server problems so the compilations will be unobtainable for a short while.
apologies for the inconvenience.
i'll let you know as soon as they're back.
thanks.
cx

xPQwRtz mULTIPLIED

noreply@blogger.com (Crayola Sarandon) — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 10:12:00 +0000

i forgot to tell you something.
xPQwRtz has a sister blog.
it's called xPQwRtz mULTIPLIED and all it contains is a bunch of entire records for download.
it doesn't get updated as regularly as i would like but i do try to keep it reasonably fresh.

go and take a look.

compilation 8 | lurching into the 90's

noreply@blogger.com (Crayola Sarandon) — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 09:48:00 +0000

right then.
here's another compilation for you.
a long time coming but, well, i've been busy - i do have a life you know ;)

so this latest compilation collects together a few things mentioned in the blog so far and a bunch of stuff that'll be mentioned later on.
all the songs span the late 80's and into the mid 90's.
there's nothing connecting them other than it's all stuff that i like a lot.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD (77MB FILE) - INCLUDES COVER ART AS PDF & JPEG

tracklisting

the yummy fur - british sounds
crabstick - the ballad of lee faust & di young
dawson - booger hall
gag - full seaside antics
the keatons - lightwood
nostril - bewdong canoe start
kenny process team - cats & dogs
wingtip sloat - web of ramps
caroliner rainbow susans & bruisin’s - hannah’s medicinal tick collection
blairmailer - fax
emperor julian - wonderful boyfriend
pregnant neck - crispin glover
father - now i’ve changed my minder
w.h.i.n.e. - snorkel
thinking fellers union local 282 - four o’clocker 2
ye ascoynes d’ascoynes - just the biggest thing
god is my co-pilot - bicycle girls
dandelion adventure - jinxs truck
thee headcoats - every little thing
kenickie - come in
sexton ming - the ranger
julian cope - hanging out & hung up on the line
astronauts - cold climate

PLEASE NOTE: AS USUAL 99% OF THESE SONGS ARE RIPPED FROM MY VINYL & THEREFORE CAN BE A BIT CLICKY & SCRATCHY IN PLACES.

incoming

noreply@blogger.com (Crayola Sarandon) — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 13:42:00 +0000

i suppose it's about time to do another compilation for you isn't it?

no escape from noise

noreply@blogger.com (Crayola Sarandon) — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 13:04:00 +0000

i think i may have mentioned before that i used to make frequent trips to stay with my friends up in blackpool.
if i haven't then, um, i used to make frequent...you get the idea.

going up there was always eventful.
i used to stay in the home of ex membrane turned ceramic hob, stan batcow.
and he'd get me into adventures.
stuff i'd not think cool enough to do, but once in the middle of it thoroughly enjoyed.
like flying kites in the park.
learning to ride a unicycle.
teaching a drum class to local kids even though neither of us could play drums.

stuff like that.

all this fun was always peppered with music.
sometimes making it ourselves (with varying degrees of success - my violin playing is really pretty rotten), but more often than not listening to it.

one weekend stan played me negativland's "escape from noise".
i'd never heard anything like it.
it was electronic.
it used all sorts of bits and pieces from radio, records, tv shows and spliced them altogether into an early pop form of, i suppose, what latterly got called plunderphonics.

it was the funniest, most astonishing record i had heard for a long time.

i hunted down a copy - it was second hand but it still had the huge booket inside and i played it endlessly.

then i found a copy of "helter stupid".
it wasn't so immediate and i put it to one side.
a concept album, it commented on the music censorship debate by suggesting that one of negativland's records had prompted a young guy to kill his family.
this was at the height of the PMRC.

over the years i've kept returning to negativland.
in the early 90's i unearthed a copy of their first album in it's handmade box in a record store in manchester.
shortly afterwards i got hold of a copy of what has become my favourite negativland record, "points".
it's more relaxed than other negativland releases and sounds a lot like the krautrock of faust and early kraftwerk - after all they did name themselves after a neu! song.

i ought to say a bit about negativland's run-in with U2 but instead you can follow these links:

"some facts on the negativland/U2 lawsuit"
"intellectual property issues"
negativland on wikipedia

and once you've read all this, have a think about how negativland used to run a radio show that took live feeds from other radio stations and cut & pasted them together on air - it sheds a whole new light on U2's "zoo tv" thing.

cud...good?

noreply@blogger.com (Crayola Sarandon) — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 12:26:00 +0000

both the first and the last times that i saw cud was at coventry university.
i had a friend studying there and used to go and stay.
i hadn't really been interested much in cud - their early singles didn't get me all excited like they did my friends.

i can barely remember the first cud gig.
i have no idea why this event has disappeared so completely from my memory because the one thing that i do remember is that i bought a cud t-shirt.
and if the show had been so terrible as to have been forgetable surely i'd have not bothered to spend money on merchandise.
it was white and had a large flourescent orange U with udders on the front.
i wore it approximately once.
then i put it in the bin.

then one day "when in rome kill me" came out.
i decided i didn't like it.
EVERYONE was going on about how fantastic cud were and it bored me rigid.
my girlfriend had bought it too and i had to listen to it constantly.
grrr.

fast forward a year or two and i'm no longer with said girlfriend and i have started drinking and i have a new bosom buddy.
the thing is, this new buddy likes cud.
A LOT.
he also likes lots of other stuff that i like - julian cope, the fall, you know...
but he likes cud.

around this time the dreaded "indie-dance" thing was really kicking off and that, as i've mentioned before, DEFINITELY wasn't for me.
one evening this buddy of mine suggested we go see cud - they were playing birmingham.
we caught a train over and i watched them and suddenly i 'got it'.

i'm sure me 'getting' cud has more to do with my initial attitude to them and the fact they were making music you could dance to without sounding like the now f*cking atrocious soup dragons or primal cr*ppy scream (don't even get me started on my views on "screamadelica" because it might make you want to kill me).

anyway, where was i?
ah, yes.

cud, and how i became a fan.

from this first cud epiphany i and my buddy - why on earth am i using the word "buddy", i never say buddy in real life - i and my friend saw cud in various venues at least half a dozen times over the course of a few months.

when "elvis belt" came out in 1991 i bought it and realised what i'd been missing out on by not buying the early singles.
but then something horrible happened.

the same year as "elvis bet" cud made some new records.
and they fell heavily into the catagory of "indie-dance".
my heart sank.

i bought the next album, "leggy mambo" but i knew i'd hate it before i even got it onto the record deck.

that same year the wedding present did a tour that was going to have a witness supporting.
i was so excited.
the tour called at coventry university and i just had to go.
sadly, a few weeks prior to the tour, a witness' guitar supremo rick aitken died in a rock climbing accident.
and who replaced a witness on the bill?
yes.
cud.
they played 40 minutes of poor dancey fluff and i booed them loudly and vigourously.
not one mention was made of why they were there and that infuriated me.
it wouldn't have hurt them to mention what had happened.
looking back of course i now think well why should they have.

i got home and filed my cud records away.
soon after my close friend and i drifted apart - he followed cud down the dance path towards the shamen, ecstacy, house music and raves in disused warehouses and i went back to my dog faced hermans, stretchheads, dawson thing.

nowadays i can listen to "when in rome kill me" and enjoy it.
but it's still tinged with a certain sadness at lost heroes, lost friends and lost bands i once loved.

hello again

noreply@blogger.com (Crayola Sarandon) — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 07:14:00 +0000

been moving house, getting reconnected, etc.

i WILL have more to say very shortly.
:)

facebook has made me want to KILL

noreply@blogger.com (Crayola Sarandon) — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 15:51:00 +0000

i'm sorry.
i know this blog is supposed to be about my time as an indie kid etc etc BUT does NOBODY LISTEN ANYMORE?????

i just checked into my facebook to find that some friends have joined a group called "WE LOVE C-86".
that in itself is fine, i love the C86 compilation too.

BUT BUT BUT.

here's the description of the group:

"In 1986, the British music weekly NME issued a cassette dubbed C-86, which included a number of bands -- McCarthy, the Wedding Present, Primal Scream, the Pastels, and the Bodines among them -- influenced in equal measure by the jangly guitar pop of the Smiths, the three-chord naivete of the Ramones, and the nostalgic sweetness of the girl group era. Also dubbed "anorak pop" and "shambling" by the British press, the C-86 movement was itself short-lived, but it influenced hordes of upcoming bands on both sides of the Atlantic who absorbed the scene's key lessons of simplicity and honesty to stunning effect, resulting in music -- given the universal label of "twee pop" -- whose hallmarks included boy-girl harmonies, lovelorn lyrics, infectious melodies, and simple, unaffected performances.

All in all, we share the love of C-86 and the twee movement."

it's utter rubbish!!!!!
what about the other half of the album:

wolfhounds
stump
bogshed
a witness
age of chance
half man half biscuit
mackenzies
bIG fLAME
...fuzzbox...
shrubs

?

or is it just nice and convenient to continue ignoring the stuff that doesn't fit your comfortable little pigeon holes?

and by the way THERE WAS NO SUCH THING, HOWEVER SHORT-LIVED, AS A "C86 MOVEMENT". IT WAS JUST A COMPILATION CASSETTE OF NEW BANDS THAT THE NME EDITORS LIKED AT THE TIME.

fer f*cks sake

yummy fur | comic book heroes without capes

noreply@blogger.com (Crayola Sarandon) — Wed, 09 May 2007 11:36:00 +0000

i really can't remember where i first read about yummy fur.
i certainly hadn't heard them as, if they were being played by peel, that didn't help as i stopped listening to the peel show in the late 80's.

actually, now i think about it, i think i simply got a slampt! flyer amongst a bunch of other flyers and fanzines.
reading through it most of the descriptions didn't fill me with enthusiasm.
but the yummy fur one stuck out - something about tiny beefhearty big flamey songs.
so i ordered the 10 track 7" and when it arrived i immediately fell in love.

it's a terrific record. short. punchy. fun.
i guess that what made it stand out even more for me was that it came at a time when i was being inundated with noise - cassette releases by cock ESP, dogliveroil, pain jerk, all those "noise artists" on labels like betley, face like a smacked arse and the like.

they were great in their way, and i enjoyed the noise thing, but i was beginning to really miss tunes.
songs you could sing along to instead of white noise and screaming electronics.

it seemed like ages before the next yummy fur record came out.
was it about a year?
it may well have been.

the second single was more of the same but just as exciting.
another 10 tracker too!
i just adored it.
i'd not felt like this about a record for years and years and years.
i thought, and still think, "british sounds" was terrific.
a song i wish i'd written.
an excellent ron johnson plays pop hook and great lyrics,

"i'm not american,
don't call me thurston,
i like my accent."

all in that lovely glaswegian yelp.

the second single had been put out by my friend paul's guided missile label and, not long after the "night club" LP got a split release with slampt.
there are some really good songs on it, but it felt a little too long.
10 songs on a 7" was poerfect for the pop that yummy fur were making and to stretch that out to 17 songs over an album was just a little much.
that said there are some top tunes on it and you really should have it in your collection.

after that yummy fur got a bit patchy.

"policeman" was a top idea for a single, but "plastic cowboy" was a bit of a waste given that it was only three songs, two of which were just reworkings of songs on the "night club" LP.

the "supermarket" single on vesuvius suffered from dreadful production - all the records before, even though being recorded on 4 and 8 track machines all sounded bright and thumpy, this was just mushy.

the next couple of singles, "shoot the ridiculant" and "roxy girls" failed to excite - in hindsight the "roxy girls" record isn't bad.
but the "ridiculant" record is just pish - poorly thought out casio keyboard buffoonery - sorry paul, but you shouldn't have released it.

but then "male shadow at three o'clock" came out.
it was a vesuvius released six track 10" and it's still my favourite yummy fur record.
t has the lyrical wit of the early songs coupled to some quite astonishing music.
pure tongue in cheek pop fun.
"st john of the cross" is a stunning, "colonel blimp" is laugh out loud funny.

not long after ,"sexy world" was released and was another great record.
you could hear the progression of the band from 4 track indie punk to pop ballad writing indie stars in the making.
you could also hear that this was the end.
ideas that had been played aroudn with had started to be used again and again.
you know, there's only so many times you can mention nina hagen, smack and the german disco scene before the joke turns to mud.

i saw the band at the bull & gate in north london just as they were splitting up.
they were pretty good (though i much preffered gag, who'd played support).

the band broke, john became the 1990's and the other lot went off to form some band called franz ferdinand - i group that i find insufferably boring.
to me they are the yummy fur without the wit or song writing ability of mr. john keown.

funny that.

the new wave of new wave of broken heavy metal

noreply@blogger.com (Crayola Sarandon) — Wed, 02 May 2007 13:58:00 +0000

it's the late 80's.
something's going on in the world of indie and i don't quite understand it or like it.
there's all sorts of talk about dance music and i find it all a bit frightening.
i don't do dancing.
that's not entirely true - i tried to do dancing for a short while but i felt just like what i was, a skinny and pale indie kid trying a bit too hard to not feel too conspicuous.

i just didn't get it.

so instead i headed off through my past.
i rediscovered my metal roots through a subtle blend of bands from north london (and ipswich!) and the USA.

terminal cheesecake were ferocious.
a huge mouldering sonic attack of sheet metal guitars, grinding bass and shouty druggy vocals.
listening back to them they're not a million miles away from the other bands i loved at the time - dog faced hermans, membranes et al - terminal cheesecake were definitely a left field indie metal band. albeit it a badly tripped out psychedelic buttholes inspired version.
if you can them then my advice is buy them.

then there was silverfish's first 12".
dunno what to say about silverfish. you probably already know.
all i want to say is simply that their first 12" was an astonishing blast of filthy rock.
yum.

my favourite of all the UK metal type bands was the stupids.
they were skatecore i suppose, weren't they?
i loved loved loved them - their AC/DC at 200 mph riffs, their geeky singing drummer and their childish humour (just check out "killed by a cripple" or "jesus do what you have to" from their "retard picnic" LP).

that was the UK then.

from the USA i got really into killdozer.
grinding guitar, churning bass, thumpy drums and honest-to-god laugh out loud lyrics.
i never saw them live but was told by a friend who did that the funniest thing in the world was to see a short-arsed singing bass player standing on a box to reach the mic.
that's the kind of band for me.

i'd continued buying big black records right up to the end and so when rapeman was announced i was at the front of the queue for my copy of the 12", "budd".
that was a good record, but "two nuns and a pack mule" was simply astounding.
it continues to be my favourite albini record.
it pisses all over anything by shellac.

i suppose all of this is what made me start making stoogey rockish music with my band rather than the noisy out of tune indie i'd been making previously.
i don't know whether or not that matters.

i think what i'm trying to come to terms with is an inate rockism in my record collection.
does that matter?
is it because i'm from that hotbed of rock that is the midlands?
why am i telling you all this?
more importantly why are you reading it?
and is there any point?

well, i think that if there is a point it is simply this - you should never lie to yourself about what you like, what you love, what you hate.
don't be guided by what is or isn't something you should be into.

if you like that record at number one in the charts then buy it and play it.
if you like the latest eric clapton album, then go for it.

there you are.
sermon over.

billy be childish

noreply@blogger.com (Crayola Sarandon) — Tue, 01 May 2007 16:58:00 +0000

some time ago i mentioned a cassette that stuart mctell had sent me with all sorts of exciting things on it - from swell maps to happy flowers, cult figures to sexton ming.

as you'll know if you've been paying attention, i still have this cassette and occasionally i still listen to it - even though i have most fo the songs on record nowadays.

in 1990 i started a new band. it was called pimp. we needed a second guitar player and the drummer worked with a guy he thought would fit in.
the chap in question did indeed fit in.
he was a third generation mod - he got it off his dad.
he loved the milkshakes, prisoners, all those medway bands.

apart from buying a couple of LPs by the james taylor quartet in the mid eighties, the medway scene was something i'd never really delved into.
just never seemed to get round to it.

i knew thee mighty caesars from stuart mctells cassette, but little else.
after visiting my guitarist's place and listening to a bunch of records i decided i should investigate.

i ordered a headcoats LP from hangman records and when it arrived there was a list of other things i could buy.
included in the list was a bunch of LPs by sexton ming.

i'd loved the 3 or 4 songs by him that were on that compilation cassette and so i ordered a couple of records.
i guess sexton is probably an acquired taste. i know people that love him and i know people that loathe him.
for me he's just a really funny, surreal and very clever writer who happens to make the occasional record.
he came out of the medway poetry/punk scene along with billy childish.

i started to correspond with the girl who ran hangman records' mailorder.
her name was kyra.
at the time i had no idea that she was billy childish's girlfriend and a member of thee headcoatees.
she had some of my cassettes to listen to and a couple of the short stories i'd published.
she suggested hangman stuff i might be interested in.
i bought one of sexton's books, "the man who created himself", thought it was terrific and so ordered one or two more along with one by billy childish.

when they arrived the book by billy had been signed, "to crayola, love billy" along with the date.
i wrote to him directly and thanked him and he sent me an invitation to the opening night of an exhibition he was holding in north london. sorry, the date and location escape me, but thee headcoats played too.
he gave me the same feeling that john robb had given me a few years before - here was a man who was totally pro-active, energetic and enthusiastic about other people making art and music.

a year or two later i was putting together a cassette compilation called "disasterous zoological experiments" for release on my label and sexton gave me a handful of songs to use.
there was a note with it, "bill says that you are OK and i can trust you. here's some songs" - that's basically what it said.
the note's been lost in the mists of time so i can't quote it word for word.

i never bought a huge amount of records by billy or any of his bands.
when the press picked up on his stuckism movement they never really got to grips with the fact that he'd been doing the same thing for 20 odd years.
and that's why i didn't buy a great deal of his records.
you only need five.
any five will do.
my favourite childish band is actually the blackhands.
kinda deep south blues with a hint of, dare i say, lo-fi calypso.
something like that.
i think i like them best because they don't quite sound like all the other childish groups.

i also really dug and still LOVE chris broderick's the singing loins - i'd bought their collaboration LP with billy and liked it so much i bought their two LPs proper.
both records are terrific modern english folk poetry.

i've kept in touch with bill on and off over the years and he's always genuinely interested in what i was doing.
and then in 2001, when i left the UK for a year, he kindly played a live set at my leaving party.

most of the people there were strangers.
most of them were japanese girls.

which made me very happy.

creationism vs revisionism

noreply@blogger.com (Crayola Sarandon) — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 15:04:00 +0000

in the summer of 1987 indie pop went a bit wrong.
someone broke it.
i think i lay the blame at the feet of alan mcgee.
he'd been a heroic figure to me through the 80's up to that point.

all those early creation records were astonishing - even the bad ones.
and there were a fair few bad ones - sorry everett, but yours is definitely amongst them (i do love "some of us still burn" if that's any consolation).

biff bang pow!'s "pass the paintbrush honey" was simply an incendiary slab of psyche punk pop.
mcgee had proved, to me at least, that he could make the records he preached about.

but by the mid 80's - as is beautifully described in david cavanagh's creation story - creation records and the world they'd created bought the rock cliché lock stock and barrel.
money offered by major labels didn't help.
leather trousers and cocaine.
the result of this?

two terrible records in my collection and a whole heap of disappointment.

"sonic flower groove" is, quite simply, a lame record.
listening back to it now it hasn't bettered with age.
i remember the weeks leading up to "sonic flower groove" being released.
getting excited that finally there was going to be a primal scream album.
then "gentle tuesday" came out as the taster for the album and it was SO bland.
"OK", i thought, "it can't all be like that".
and i was right - it wasn't all like that. most of it was worse.

but in terms of disappointment "sonic flower groove" had nothing on "mayflower".
the loft were a great pop band. they had that harsh wasp-in-a-tin-can (©the june brides) guitar sound that spat and sparked all over some great song writing.
unfortunately trying to be a bit rock round at creation records HQ seems to have somehow ended with someone saying, "yeah. i know. lenny kaye. that's what the weather prophets need".
now i have HUGE love for lenny kaye. after all he put together the first nuggets compilation.
and i can only imagine he had a torrid time in the studio faced with a bunch of pasty skinned english kids who thought they might like to try and be just a little bit like television (though without the style, artistry or knowhow).
the result of this crime against indie pop?
a record that sadly can only be described using the most terrible thing i think anyone can say about music..."mayflower" is pedestrian.
it's your mum's record collection.
it's a restaurant's muzak tape.
what a shame.

even the biff bang pow! records reflected the scene - punky psychedelia gave way to painfully faked california influenced wannabe west coast pop art experimental band boredom.

i gave up on creation and started buying more of the real thing - the afformentioned west coast pop art experimental band and joe byrd's astonishing united states of america.

music is like clothing - if it's dirt cheap then it's probably a fake.

caroliner rainbow | a bit frightening

noreply@blogger.com (Crayola Sarandon) — Sat, 24 Mar 2007 15:21:00 +0000

as i've mentioned before, in the middle of the 90's i started a degree as a mature student.
everyone seemed so YOUNG.
i felt so OLD.

i made some good friends - as you do.
but there was one guy on my course who had a remarkably similar taste in records to me.
we'd spend afternoons listening to kenny process team, old ron johnson records, wingtip sloat.
stuff like that.

then one day i stumbled across a record in his collection by a band called caroliner rainbow open wound corale and i was fascinated.
the record came in a hand made cover - basically a brown envelope with bits of paper stuck to it.

inside the music was surreal campfire country rock played by deranged psychopathic aliens.
yes, that's a good description.

i had to get me some.

a few weeks a later my copy of "the cooking stove beast" by caroliner rainbow susans & bruisins dropped through the door.
the record was more of the same - wierd and otherworldly, it left me feeling slightly queasy but wanting more.

the cover this time was made from what can only be described as 2 metres of filthy and stained material.
it wasn't (and still isn't) nice to touch.
i still feel the need to wash my hands after playing it.

the same friend that introduced me to caroliner went on a shopping trip to london - we met in the pub when he got back:

him: you'll never believe what i saw in rough trade.
me: what?
him: a caroliner t-shirt!
me: no!?! did you buy it?
him: well....no.
me: why?
him: because it was an old potato sack with hole cut in it for the arms and head and the word 'caroliner' scribbled across it in felt tip pen. i'm not paying £10 for that.
me: .....oh.

i was in college one day using the computers and stumbled upon an interview with the band.
they were asked about their hand made covers.
the interview went something like this:

interviewer: so you hand make all your covers then?
caroliner: yes - we use junk we find in the streets on california.
interviewer: that will explain why the cover of my copy of [album title] smells of incense.
caroliner: your lucky man, some of them smell of shit.

a couple of years later i was in the rough trade shop in covent garden and happened across a copy of "sell heal holler" by caroliner rainbow customary relaxation of the shale.
(they keep changing the suffix of their name)
the record was even more out there. barely audible songs hidden under layers of grime.
this time the record was wrapped in disposable incontinence briefs packaging.
it's got some nasty stains on it again.
not pleasent.

i still knew very little about the band and so i did a bit more research.
they claim to make music channelled through the spirit of caroliner the singing bull - a side show act from the USA of the 1800's.
caroliner's act was to write and perform her own songs.
(you read right)
the story goes there family owned the bull and, on it's death they ate it which gave them the power of remembering the animal's songs.

at least that's how i think it goes.

eventually i got bored with the records - like you do with everything - and they were left filed away on my shelves.

fast forward to 2002 and i'd just gone to live in italy (a whole different story for a whole different blog!).
there was a record fair in a town only an hour's drive away.
wandering around the stalls there were the usual offerings - hundreds of nina hagen records (looking back i wish i'd bought them), endless aisles of dire straits records, you know.

but in one corner there was a stall selling old punk records - dead kennedys, pistols etc.
i started to have a casual flick through and suddenly, there in front of me was an object that at once terrified me and made my heart race.

it was a caroliner rainbow 6 LP box set.
yes!
6 LPs in a found box.
i opened it - it was basically the band's back catalogue to date gathered together, hand made sleeves and all, in one handy-scary-filthy-wonderful-sickening-bewildering package.

i handed the bemused stall holder my 40 euros and drove home.

it frightens me but i LOVE IT.

go here for more info on caroliner rainbow.