Various Artists – "Ideal Guest House" (Shelter) 1986 & "The First After Epiphany" (Ron Johnson Records – ZRON 21) 1987

As I received a request for a Ron Johnson compilation,it reminded me of the official comedian attached to this shambling Ron Johnson style stuff, Ted "I was Walking Down the Road" Chippington. I'm not sure if he was into this kind of popular music,but he was enlisted to be the compare of this trendy compilation cassette to support homeless charity "Shelter"; which is rather apt as we are facing the largest homeless crisis in Europe since world war too. Its time to start world war Free (dom) innit? I am of course referring to the current Invasion of Ukraine by that nice Mr Putin man....just in case you are part of the uninformed majority,or living in Russia....in which case i have to inform you that your army has been committing War crimes against your Slavic brothers in the west.....basically you're fucked.

The drole monotone self-elected worst comedian in the world ever Ted,links together a bunch of shambling C86-era,Johnson related groups in his characteristic stoic manner...at times he's even funny!?

Its got Bog-Shed and bIG fLAME on it, what more could you want or need?......just ignore the Chumbawamba track,...oooooh, they didn't like Neil Kinnock.....edgy stuff not, nuff said.

Tracklist:

A1 Big Flame– Man Of Few Syllables
A2 The Wedding Present– You Should Always Keep In Touch With Your Friends (alt Version)
A3 The Soup Dragons– Fair's Fair
A4 The Creepers– Sharper And Wider
A5 The Shop Assistants – Home Again (Live)
A6 The June Brides– This Town (Accoustic)
A7 Rob Grant with Yeah Yeah Noh– Mr. Hammond Has Breakfast In Bed
B1 Stump– Kitchen Table
B2 The Legend!– Everythings Coming Up Roses
B3 Pigbros– Barren Land
B4 Stitched Back Foot Airman– The Deadly Spore
B5 BMX Bandits– Sad?
B6 Bog-shed – Jobless Youngsters
B7 Chumbawamba– Kinnochio

DOWNLOAD and give these tracks a home HERE!

Oh Yeah!...here's that Ron Johnson sampler LP "The First After Epiphany" that i mistakenly thought had no exclusive tracks on it, and you could get them from the other official releases on the blog if you search for Ron Johnson Records. I was wrong, There's at least a Twang! track that one can't get elsewhere,and maybe an errant Splat! number,or anything else with an exclamation mark in it's name:

"The First After Epiphany"
Ron Johnson Records – ZRON 21 (1987)

Tracklist:

A1 Splat!– Mistook
A2 Big Flame– XPQWRTZ
A3 A Witness– Dipping Bird
A4 Stump– Big End
A5 MacKenzies– Man With No Reason
B1 The Shrubs– Blackmailer
B2 The Ex– Knock
B3 Twang – Here's Lukewarm
B4 The Nose Flutes– Bodyhair Up In The Air
B5 The Great Leap Forward– Drowning Speechless
B6 Jackdaw With Crowbar– Crow

DOWNLOAD this epiphanal moment HERE!

Twang! ‎– "Sharp" (Ron Johnson Records ‎– ZRON14) 1986

Here's another version of 'Sharp' by the very sharp and funky post punk disco combo Twang! One of their very few official releases from a very short career......other groups should learn by their example and split up, especially any group, or relations of, from 1990 onwards(except a few very rare exceptions of course).

Tracklist:

A Sharp
B Eight At A Time

Bonus track:

"Whats the Rub?" -from some free flexi disc what came with a magazine or something in 1986.

DOWNLOAD sharpish HERE!

Twang! ‎– "Kick And Complain" (Ron Johnson Records ‎– ZRON22) 1987

Twang!'s razor sharp post punk funk gets the Ron Johnson treatment as it falls off the cliff into near total obscurity.
The choppy lead/rhythm guitars sit in the foreground of the mix, and slash through that absurdly massive gated snare drum nonsense that dominates the midfield, like a bacon slicer attacking a rabid  mousse aux chocolat!
The eighties fashion for creating drum sounds that suggest a Norwegian Icebreaker being dropped onto a Nazi submarine pen ruined a  lot of records dynamics; but this one manages to negate the claustrophobia by keeping the lead instruments sharp and free of those horrible early digital effects units.

Tracklist:

A1 Cut Candidate
A2 Cold Tongue Bulletin
B1 Sharp
B2 Every Home Should Have One

DOWNLOAD before someone complains for kicks HERE!

Twang! - "Peel Sessions 1986" (a Die or DIY? compilation)

Twang! were a mixture of Josef K, The Pop Group,and the kind of stuff that could get in the charts in the eighties, like Haircut 100 and Living In A Box.A kind of spiky post-punk speed funk, in the mould of Postcard Records,but with lashings of aggression.
Like The MacKenzies, they were rather under-represented on vinyl, releasing a single, an EP, and a twelve inch dance remix piece of desperate rubbish.
Again they were best represented by their two peel sessions from 1986.But with a spectacular lack of success they split up around the time of the Acid House phenomenon....like every other good band did.

Track Listing:

01 Eight at a Time(12-2-86)
02 Cold Tongue Bulletin(12-2-86)
03 Big Dry Out(12-2-86)
04 Law Suit Man(12-2-86)
05 What's The Rap_(29-12-86)
06 Every Home Should Have One(29-12-86)
07 This Is Intrusion(29-12-86)
08 Here's Lukewarm(29-12-86)

DOWNLOAD what every home should have HERE!