Right then. Let’s get this show back on the road, shall we?
I’ll explain the reason for my long absence shortly, but for now, a new, slightly longer than usual, mix for you to enjoy/hate/completely ignore (delete as applicable).
There were nearly sleeve-notes for this one, but having decided to come out of hibernation, time still managed to catch up with me. What I will say is this: Purists, fear not about Paul Oakenfold getting his grubby hands on The Cure at Track 1; it’s magnificent.
Oh, and of course, a song each from two of our recently fallen heroes appear.
Back to the dancing GIFs, I got bored with the limited selection for numbers.
Here we go again, another Friday night, another mix that I’ve not had time to do sleeve notes for.
What can I say about this week’s effort? Well, to be honest, I’m not 100% happy with the running order, and if I had time I’d probably give it another go. Not that there’s anything wrong with it, mind, just…awww, you know me, such a perfectionist.
Shurrup, there’s loads of evidence to support this claim. How dare you!
So this week: some classic Grunge, grebo, alt-rock, punk and new wave, the return of The Wedding Present (well, it’s been a couple of weeks…), some banging early 90s dance tunes, and that Timo Maas remix of Muse I mentioned a while ago. I know you’ve all been on the edge of your seats for that.
Well, here we are again. It’s Friday and I’m desperately trying to think of something original to write to introduce this week’s mix.
As it happens, it’s made slightly easier by the fact that I owe you guys an apology.
See, one of the underlying premises of doing these, the rules if you like, is that I don’t feature the same song twice (or, for that matter, more than twice) over all of them, and last week I let you down. Not that anyone complained, but I noticed, and so I’m hanging my head in shame.
Last week I featured the Parental Advisory Version of Girls Aloud’s No Good Advice, and, because I’d included the Non-Parental Advisory Version, I didn’t pick up the duplication. Sorry about that.
Still, at least it wasn’t the same Quo record, eh? Not that anyone would have noticed then either, cos they all sound the same, amIright?
So, moving swiftly on, what do we have for you this week? Well, this week’s mix has been knocking around for a while – I even played it to my brother on the driver to visit my Dad in hospital a month or so ago, he’s probably been wondering what’s happened to it.
Truth be told, there’s a song in it which I had grave reservations about keeping in. It sounded, to these ears, perfect for where it sits in the mix, but the tone and lyrical content bothered me. But, in the end I’ve kept it in, with this huge disclaimer and one of these slapped on it:
The tune after it isn’t particularly tasteful either, mind. Do I need to put that image in twice?
And here’s you track-listing and – yes, again – sleeve-notes:
T. Rex – 20th Century Boy
I figured I’d start this week with a crunching intro, and there’s none more crunching than this, is there? Not even Placebo’s cover of it. Although maybe the noise Bolan’s car made when it hit that tree comes close.
2. Muse – Supermassive Black Hole
Obviously I wish to avoid libel litigation about copyright, but there’s something about the start of this one which reminds me of the record which precedes it.
Muse will forever in my mind be the band that, when a friend wanted to go see them headline the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury on the Sunday night back in 2004, caused me to snap, my persona as the mild-mannered janitor father figure of our group (because I was the oldest, and carried a ruck-sack with paracetamol in it, amongst *coughs* other things) briefly exposed, when I told them to “Fuck off and watch Muse then, we’re staying here to watch Orbital” (who were excellent, by the way).
3. Nine Inch Nails – Head Like A Hole
A tune which will forever remind me of Metros, the oft-mentioned indie club in Cardiff that gave out free toast at 3am, because if there was one thing you could guarantee in there (apart from the toast) was that they would drop this at some point.
Also: Nine Inch Nails have only got two decent tunes, haven’t they? This, and Hurt, which most of us only know because of the (far-superior) version by Johnny Cash. (*Sits back and waits for the vitriolic comments telling me Trent Reznor is a genius*)
4. Radiohead – There There. (The Boney King of Nowhere.)
Glastonbury memory time again, and if I recall correctly, they opened their 2003 set with this, and I still get goosebumps whenever I hear it.
5. The Kills – Future Starts Slow
The Kills have more than one one decent tune – who knew? 2-2 with Nine Inch Nails.
6. My Morning Jacket – Holdin’ On to Black Metal
This was out at roughly the same time as The Kills’ tune, and I always thought they’d sound good next to each other, and now I know whether I was right or not (clue: I was).
7. The Soundtrack Of Our Lives – Sister Surround
Speaking of Black Metal, we’re off to Scandinavia, the home of such dark forces, for this one, for one by the vastly underknown and under-rated The Soundtrack Of Our Lives. If you like this, check out the album it’s from, Behind The Music.
8. Broken Social Scene – 7/4 (Shoreline)
A collective from Canada. Canada don’t do ‘bands’, do they? It’s all collectives. Oh, and Bieber, Celine and Bryan, but let’s ignore them.
This is the original source of my oft-used phrase “a great cacophony of glorious noise”, which is still my favourite description of a record ever (by me) (athough, I’d rather substitute ‘great’ for ‘magnificent’, because that’s what this is).
9. The Polyphonic Spree – Lithium
A couple of Nirvana covers for you now. This is just chuffing great. That’s all.
10. Richard Cheese – Rape Me
Ok, so this is the tune I had reservations about including. And here’s why: I think the original is woefully misguided. To be serious for a moment; rape, be it of women or men, is not an easy subject to be addressed in song. Also: you can’t ask to be raped, because that infers complicity, and that’s the polar opposite of what rape is.
That said, I do think Mr Cheese manages to prick the balloon of pomposity here, so it’s in. My apologies to anyone offended.
11. Mojo Nixon & Skip Roper – Debbie Gibson Is Pregnant With My Two Headed Love Child
Speaking of offensive, here’s a side-burned rockabilly type with a long and objectionably titled tune, which I have to admit I have a bit of a soft spot for.
For younger viewers, Debbie Gibson was one of a clutch (along with Tiffany, also name-checked in the song) of teenage pop singers with a schmaltzy, sweeter than sweet, girl next door image. I also thought that, when the pop hits inevitably dried up, she appeared in some porn movies, but this turns out not to be correct, and trust me, I’ve spent many hours searching. Which reminds me, I most clear my browser history.
12. Billy Bragg – A13, Trunk Road To The Sea
I went to see Billy last night, and he was every bit as brilliant, charming, engaging, polemic and funny as he has been every time I’ve seen him. He didn’t play this, which is a bit disappointing, but then he can’t possibly play every song I love by him or we’d still be there now. Fortuitously, I have a lot of his records, so the past 24 hours (when I haven’t been writing this) have been spent mostly with him blaring away in the background
Anyway, this is a riotous romp and a piss-take of Route 66 and it’s bloody grear, but you already knew that, right?
13. Kirsty MacColl – There’s A Guy Works Down The Chip Shop Swears He’s Elvis
Of course, when Billy did A New England last night – final song, as always – we all sang the extra verse he wrote for her version, as a tribute to Kirsty. But that’s already featured in this series before, and I’ve learned my lesson, so this is one which is just as great, has one of the greatest titles in pop history, and which, crucially, she wrote herself.
14. The Beach Boys – Heroes and Villains
I dunno, it just sounded right next to Kirsty. Also: it’s November, we all need a little sun in our lives right now, right?
Also, it gives me the opportunity to post this (again):
I saw Adam live a few years back, preparing and refreshing material he intended to include on his Old Bits DVD; he did this, the clip went on for much longer, and I was laughing so hard I almost slid off my chair.
15. Sugababes – Push The Button
Shut it. I can throw a random 2000s girl group banger in if I like. S’my blog, I’ll do what I like.
16. The Jam – Man In The Corner Shop
Time for a serious, Red Wedgey ending. I first became aware of this record years after it was released, when I saw The Men They Couldn’t Hang do a (rather fine) cover of it live, introduced by the words: “Paul Weller’s asked us to stop doing this one. He’s not here tonight, is he? Good. Let’s do it.”
17. Redskins – Keep On Keepin’ On!
Right-oh, brothers, sisters and siblings, will do!
All that talk of meat earlier reminds of me of one of Llŷr’s other passions: laughing at, and often (in a piss-taking way) joining in with the meats doing The Meat Dance.
Okay, this is going to be really tricky to explain.
So: Meats, to us, were blokes who danced in clubs with their tops off, to expose what they perceived as being their ripped bodies, something Llŷr and I both knew we could never aspire to, even if we wanted to. “Them’s the Meats” was our clarion call.
And, regardless of whether they had fellow Meats with them or not, they always did the same Meat Dance: *Handclap…and to the left* dance, which Llŷr used to mimic so well.
Here’s how The Meats viewed themselves:
Our mates Jo & Ian visited us in Cardiff one weekend, back in 2006, to go to the horribly named Get Loaded in the Park and oh my there was some prime meat – Valleys boys with their tops off – on display that day.
Jo took loads of meat-worthy pictures on the day, but annoyingly she had her laptop nicked along with all her photos – except this one, which does rather neatly illustrate the disparity between the perceived and the reality, the difference between a ripped torso and a thumb in shades:
But I digress.
When I finally got into clubbing, Llŷr, wary of me being a big old fat fish out of water, made me a load of mix-tapes (which dates this somewhat) to help me crib up.
I still have a couple of them, and last year, since I had no means to listen to the sodding things, I bought a second hand stereo which had a tape deck on it, specifically so I could hear them again.
So here’s (almost) all of the tunes on one of them, which he entitled Losing It, a title inspired by my reaction on one night out when a tune by Faithless was dropped (I’d love to say it was Insomnia, but truth be told I think it was probably We Come 1).
Anyway, my explosion that night definitely influenced the tunes on this mix-tape, which is probably a bit more trance-trousers than he would care to be associated with.
But he even made a proper sleeve for the cassette, God bless him, so here it is:
Unless of course you choose to see this as part of my ongoing election ranting, haven’t registered to vote yet, and decide that you might on the strength of this.
In which case, be my guest, and go here before May 22nd to do what you have to do.
A History of Dubious Taste