Jimmy Smack – "Death Is Certain" - (Knekelhuis – KH040) 1982-83 / 2022

Hmmmm, Nice Arse.

Electric bagpipe drone weirdness from LA deathrock outsider Jimmy Smack. 'Death is Certain',aww and there's me thinking I was gonna live forever, is assembled from two self-released 7"s and a similarly self-released twelve incher from 1982/3.

Looking at him I sense he prefers a good 12 incher to a nice seven incher any day, but then again don't we all?
There aren't many records that can boast an electric Bagpipe, but this one does,so its already automatically good,never mind the Suicidal tendencies, as in that Rev and Vega kind of minimalism.

Always keep at least one hand on yer bagpipe kiddies.

Slapping on the corpse paint well before all those Scandinavian Death Metal drongos,Jim reminds one rather of a scotch Alien Sex Fiend,or Fad Gadget.

Is he trying to frighten us or something?....I really think he is!?

Although he was unhealthily obsessed with Death, he soon decided to quit after receiving an opportunity to find out what Death was really like when he received several Death Threats.Apparently he wasn't too popular with the LA Deathrock audience,regularly booed off and and a hate target.Worried for he and his families safety,....Yup, he had a wife and Kids!?.."he bailed right after the death threat thing. Stopped,and sold his pipes(how much did he get for them?)." Went back to his day job permanently,that's right he was a Ballet Dancer,and even more incredibly....NOT GAY!?

Smack, not his real name i'm guessing, was a multi-disciplined artist,so when he wasn't donning death mask war paint,he was preaching the gospel of Cold War nihilism; or channeling paranoia with great urgency through the howling banshee screams of electrified Celtic bagpipes.Or,doing The Nutcracker on Broadway?

At least we can now reassure ourselves with the knowledge that Smack never struggled for work,and I quote:"I was in the theatre all the time, my whole life. I had the Hollywood Free Theatre and then the Star Theatre. I was just always on stage doing something. Worked with all these clowns, we were all clowns so I became a clown — I was Jimbo the clown.”.....interestingly Not Smacko the Clown?

If only Johnny Rotten became Jimbo The Clown after Wobble left PiL, then the world would have been a marginally better place......if slightly creepier.

Tracklist: A1 Anguish 9:51 A2 Hating Life 3:12 A3 Depression 2:09 B1 Souls 1:26 B2 Cybernetic 1:38 B3 Death Is Certain 1:56 B4 The Scarlet Beast 1:38 B5 Batty 2:31 B6 Anguish (Instrumental) 8:51 DOWNLOAD smacko the clown HERE!

Various Artists – "Tickled Pink" (Peeved Records – PV021) 1986

One of a few Cambridge compilations from Peeved Records, unfathomably based in Southampton?

It kicks off with some mannered Indie Pop by, according to Discogs, one of the 96 other bands called "Spike". If that was out of a hundred it would correlate with the fact that 96% of all bands in the UK sounded exactly like this in 1985 to '86. Marking the era when everyone had a Portastudio, nice equipment,and knew how to use it. As a result everyone sounded the same.

It was all 'well played' ,enhanced with cheaply available effects unit,and they all thought they were gonna 'make it'. The result is really rather dreadful, as they themselves would have found the DIY stuff from earlier in the decade, which these self-tutored pop stars in their own lunchtimes would have scoffed at, and binned off in favor of sounding like Aztec Camera....WRONG!

Its rather like a teenagers painting, when they try their upmost to be a sophisticate;leaving the real genius of their earlier years gathering dust in the garbage bin. Only a few get to make art decent enough to break through to win the poverty that awaits them.

Although missing the point entirely, the end result is actually rather quaint? Awwww, bless 'em.

The High Tech Pagodas win the silliest name prize,and also the best track award....what on earth were they doing?

Tracklist:

A1 Spike – I Feel You
A2 Spike – Any Choice
A3 The Force – Sweet Little Girl
A4 The Force – Crazy Affair
A5 Vanishing Point– From The Heart
A6 Vanishing Point– Face To Face
A7 The High Tech Pagodas– Free
B1 The Lovely– Aniel I Said
B2 The Lovely– Catherine
B3 Strange Brew – Don't Wanna Be Lonely
B4 Strange Brew – Normandy Sunset
B5 Worlds End Band– The Party
B6 Worlds End Band– The Party Of Light
B7 The Lonely – Nervous Hand
B8 The Lonely – Something Happened Today

DOWNLOAD and have your pink bits tickled HERE!

Various Artists - "Real Time 2 : October 82" (Unlikely records) 1982

Are you having a good time? I'm having a real good time 2.

Was it really this good in October 1982. I seem to remember 'OCT 82' appearing on the swastika bedecked sleeve of that Bad Seed EP by the Birthday Party....everything went downhill from there unfortunately, especially for crooning Goth Gargoyle Nicholas Cave.Whatever happened to him?....Don't ask!

Second in the "Real Time" series of Unlikely records Compilations gives us proof that 1982 was better than you think, as the Post Punk snowball rolled on down that hill into the oncoming neo-pop lava flow of synth duo's and silly clothes.

It opens with both sides of the solitary single of the classy New Wave pop of Swimming in the Sea.Might have been a hit a year or so earlier.

What follows is a jolly entertaining plethora of quality DIY, Punk Rock,lo-fi synth Pop, and other forms of what passed for intelligent pop music in late '82.

Of course, none of these people were ever heard of again, and Nick Cave went on to conquer every coffee table in Christendom.

Tracklist:

A1 Swimming In The Sea– Hero For The Heroine/The Presents
A2 The Workforce– 10 Fingers Only
A3 Jonathan Rush– Only A Nightmare
A4 David Rush – Laser
A5 Gunslinger– Someone's Got You In The Gunsight
A6 Gunslinger– Step Into The Future
A7 The Blotchees– Funky Ho ! Down/This Isn't Your Day/Melon-Cauli
A8 Extension-Two– The Black Box/We Care/Summary/Scenes Of Today/Sandra/The Black Box
A9 Extension-Two– Extension-Two (Alone Again)
A10 Lurch – Real Time
A11 Robert Cox– A2 Is Missing
B1 Patrol– SS Officer
B2 Patrol– Innocence
B3 Tom Cramp & The Epilectic Ducks– Cramposaurus Chant
B4 Tom Cramp & The Epilectic Ducks– White Stalk SB
B5 The Puush– Morning Rolls And Hot Coffee
B6 Suburban Strom Troopers– Switchblade & Crucifix
B7 Suburban Strom Troopers– Mau Mau
B8 Switch-Cord Roulette– Theresa
B9 Switch-Cord Roulette– Goliath
B10 The Same – Instrumental 7/3/82
B11 The Same – Auntie Meat
B12 The Same – Sampled & Held
B13 The Same – Sync Or Swim

DOWNLOAD and have a real good time HERE!

The Associates - "Sulk (40th Anniversary Edition) 1982/2022

I'm in a sulk.....there are no associates left. 

Rankine died peacefully a few days previously, which is ironic as Sulk is one of the least peaceful Pop records ever made.Its full of several kitchen sink's worth of suffocating Pop genius. There's so much going on that one needs a crowbar to get the album out of its high viz glossy,but nameless,package.

None of yer average pop consumers knew what The Associates looked like, hence the need for the annoying sticker that fucked up the garishly botanical cover,and was impossible to remove.

There are few stranger records than "Party Fears Two" or "Club Country" that entered the top ten of the UK Charts.Right Up there with PiL's "Death Disco" and "Flowers Of Romance" as the weirdest singles to both chart and appear on Top Of The Pops.Subversive moments both.The associates also got on Top of The Pops with "18 Carat Love Affair", using chocolate guitars,which melted as Alan Rankine mimed playing them,and got eventually eaten by the audience,including the Spare one....Pop eating itself in action.

I'm supposed to write something else aren't I?..but i've been drinking some hard medicine,and i've become lost listening to this work of genius.Food?...who needs it?

One of my few claims to fame by proxy, is that I had an aggressively jealous Scottish girlfriend,who came from Dundee/Glasgow,and went for a night out with Billy mcKenzie!?...a predictably crazy and wild night was had by all accounts.Although if I went for a night out with Billy Mckenzie i'm sure she would have been less generous,and i would have received a few glancing blows from the flying crockery heaved in my general direction.But.....

Of course "Sulk" is one of the greatest ,most perverse Pop Lp's ever made.And Bill remains one of the greatest vocal acrobats ever.

Rest in noisy peace Bill and Alan. This album is your epitaph.

Sulk:

CD1-1 Arrogance Gave Him Up
CD1-2 No
CD1-3 Bap De La Bap
CD1-4 Gloomy Sunday
CD1-5 Nude Spoons
CD1-6 Skipping
CD1-7 It's Better This Way
CD1-8 Party Fears Two
CD1-9 Club Country
CD1-10 Nothinginsomethingparticular

Outtakes, Monitor Mixes & Rarities:

CD2-1 Ulcragyceptimol - Demo
CD2-2 I Never Will - Demo
CD2-3 Club Country - Demo
CD2-4 Me, Myself And The Tragic Story - John Leckie Recording
CD2-5 Australia - John Leckie Recording
CD2-6 Skipping - Monitor Mix Instrumental
CD2-7 It's Better This Way - Monitor Mix
CD2-8 And Then I Read A Book - Alternative Version
CD2-9 Ulcragyceptimol - Alternative Version
CD2-10 It's Better This Way - Alternative Version
CD2-11 The Associate
CD2-12 A Girl Named Property
CD2-13 Grecian 2000
CD2-14 Party Fears Two - 7"
CD2-15 Club Country - 7"
CD2-16 18 Carat Love Affair
CD2-17 Love Hangover - Extended Version

Associates Live - The Peel Sessions:

CD3-1 Me, Myself and the Tragic Story
CD3-2 Nude Spoons
CD3-3 A Matter Of Gender
CD3-4 It's Better This Way
CD3-5 Ulcragyceptimol
CD3-6 Waiting for the Love Boat
CD3-7 Australia
CD3-8 Love Hangover
CD3-9 A Severe Case of Career Insecurity
Associates Live - Gigant, Apeldoorn 10/01/81
CD3-10 Arrogance Gave Him Up
CD3-11 A Matter Of Gender
CD3-12 Nude Spoons
CD3-13 Paper House
CD3-14 No
CD3-15 And Then I Read A Book
CD3-16 Gloomy Sunday
CD3-17 It's Better This Way
CD3-18 Skipping
CD3-19 Australia

DOWNLOAD on this very gloomy sunday HERE!

Public Image Ltd – "Commercial Zone" (PiL Records Inc. – XYZ-007) 1984

Recently Deceased  alleged guitar genius Keith Levene (alleged by himself mainly) who was responsible for stealing the tapes for Public Image Ltd's dodgy follow-up to the classic 'Flowers Of Romance' LP.,and remixing the results to make himself look even more like the feckless junkie he really was. The accepted wisdom is that "Commercial Zone" is far superior to the awful dross that was the official PiL fourth studio album, clumsily entitled, "This is what you want...This is what you get".....which I can now reveal to be incorrect.....we wanted Metal Box 2 but got "This is what you want...This is what you get" and "The Commercial Zone",in other words, the same album twice. (get Metal Box deluxe Edition Here!)

As horrified as I was back in 1984,as to how unapologetically 'Bad' this record by one of the greatest groups to have ever stalked this Earth ,was. I now have changed my mind. They are both quite awful in 1984 terms,but in 2022, they both sound rather otherworldly,and have aged like a budget bottom shelf wine.They just don't make 'em like this anymore! 

What on earth is that singer doing? A horrible throaty hi-pitched whine that seems to be singing the same tune in every song.Wasn't he in Those Sex Pistols once upon a time? How did it get to be like this?

The music IS Disco,but a Disco that no-one wants to dance to....which is,in fact, the best kind of Disco.

Keith Levine stole and released "Commercial Zone" after he was sacked from PiL so as not to endanger the group's lucrative Japanese tour due to his severe drug addiction. Revealing an album with no hits,even though "This Is Not A Love Song" was a massive worldwide smash,it really shouldn't have seen the light of day when comparing it to little Johnny Rotten Band's previous work.

However, having not listened to these two different versions of the same record after a good thirty years abstinence,I now find myself enjoying this confusingly disconnected art school drop-out funk ...with a singer who seems to be taking the piss out himself and the record buying public in general.

Previously, my opinion of John Lydon, and his post-1981 work followed, somewhat, the general direction of this rather malicious review of "This is what you want...This is what you get", by the NME's Biba Kopf, who got his/her claws out ruthlessly back in good ol' 1984:

"Dear John, the big kiss off:

This is what you want? Carry On Picking The Carrion Part Umpteen? Starring Johnny Rotten as Little Miss Understood, the world’s most self-righteous schoolmarm, whose once shrivelling, presently shrivelled, wit has tightened to a contstipated bowel that slowly and painfully emits squeaky sarcasms only capable of raising tears in 11 year olds? Or the frightening faithful class creep Martin Applecheeks back in line?
This is what you’re left with when you make a career of going against nature (only to be defeated by your own): a fixed scowl, a very limited public image indeed, intuition dried up, refinement beyond grasp, reduced by sloth to hiring studio morticians to cosmetise the corpse of a long dead idea, because you no longer care or have energy enough to be invigoratingly careless.
Now bored with testing the world against your whims you blame it, anyone else but yourself-it can never be your fault, can it? - for your loss of interest, loss of words, loss of vision; for your very deafness… But surely even you can feel the cheapness of the horrortronics permeating this record with the stink of the stale and the secondhand. Sudden sax squalls and thunderous drum breaks are hardly the things to blow it away.
For one whose chief pride has always been remaining true to yourself, I’m surprised your conscience so readily accepts your feeble reasoning. Just because you write a love song, there must be something wrong with the form? Obviously. And because your dwindling legion still stand by to watch the waning moon of your rotten talent, believing it will rise again, they must be thoroughly abused, thereby disabused of that sentimental notion? Naturally.
With you on the last point, Johnboy, and will reluctantly admit you a piddling victory. Your idiot finger wagging rhythm ’n’ entropy, exemplified by the bicker banter of the title ‘This Is What You Want This Is What You Get’, is crass and mediocre enough to complete your self-willed, pointless martyrdom. Congratulations. You’ve earned our contempt. Here it comes:
Wot a bloody stupid cackleshit asshole coyote lied-to done-in-good ’n’ rotten put-upon no-hope lumpenlard jackal knucklehead trickletalent pile of jokepuke you turned out to be. There ain’t enough copographers in the world to swallow your PiL in quantity enough to justify the cost any longer.

Piss off.

Biba Kopf, NME, 4th August 1984"

OUCH!?

Of course this kinda of intelligent funky stuff was ten a penny back in the eighties,and it got swallowed up in the swell of the tsunami,then dragged out to sea.But,all said, the Bad Life/Mad Max video is,and always was,and always will be, one of the best video's ever made,in my humble opinion.

And as much as I agreed with Bibs in 1984, I now have,predictably, the opposite view nowadays. It's a lump of 'lumpenlard jackal knucklehead' cypto-genius is what it is......it went really downhill from here however.

This blurb was supposed to be a tribute to the recently expired Keith Levene,to whom the much over-used word 'Genius' was often applied largely by...er...Mr Lydon a lot, and not by very many others save himself.

As his reputation is intrinsically linked to PiL's first two albums, it is partially true; but he was conspicuous by his smack induced absence on Flowers of Romance,and largely invisible on The "Commercial Zone" bootleg too.However, one must point to his highly unique contributions to "Theme" and "Public Image" (the single),which will echo deep into infinity and beyond with their shimmering perfection, and the inescapable irony of John's lyrics to "Theme"...."I wish I could Diiiiieeee".

Not sure Keef would appreciate the reality of such words wherever he may be in the eternal now,what was, and what should have been.

Rest In Peace Keef.....and hopefully there are no Drugs in paradise to fuck up the after-life too!

Tracklist:

Commercial Zone:

1 Mad Max 4:11
2 Love Song 4:27
3 Young Brits 3:40
4 Bad Night 3:29
5 The Slab 3:36
6 Lou Reed Part I 3:58
7 Lou Reed Part II 2:50
8 Blue Water 3:30
9 Miller High Life 2:38

"This Is What You Want...."

1 Bad Life
2 This Is Not A Love Song
3 Solitaire
4 Tie Me To The Length Of That
5 The Pardon
6 Where Are You?
7 1981
8 The Order Of Death

DOWNLOAD to get what you want HERE!

Boots For Dancing – "The Undisco Kidds (Sessions,Singles,and Demo's 1980-82) " (A Die or DIY? expanded edition) 2022

Bonnie Scotland were not just responsible for such reasons not to exist as Deacon Blue, The Proclaimers,,and Big Country, they virtually invented Indie-pop the night after witnessing Subway Sect on the Clash's White Riot tour....Josef K, Orange Juice,Fire Engines, Boots For Dancing,and......hold on big man,what was that last one?

Yeah, Boots For Dancing, the celtic cousins of Gang Of Four and A Certain Ratio, so accurately described by Rezillo and Dare-era Human Leaguer Jo Callis as "Schrodinger's crazy cats writhing about in a Faraday cage,all charged up"....couldn't have put it better myself. So  scratchy and funky were they that John Peel once threatened to dance upon aural detection. They did release two singles on Bob Last's legendary "Pop:Aural" label after all...all included here.

It's the kind of off kilter post-punk-funk that gets the white man's foot-a-tappin' for sure.A style that would crop up on Top Of The Pops in the form of cute but funky plagiarists Haircut 100 and floppy fringed cringe-meisters Modern Romance,with a polished up version of ACR and Boots For Dancing for the great unwashed and the even the less great unintelligentia who form 90% of the 'Public'. 

Undoubtedly, these groups were also a major influence on Ron Johnson acts such as Twang! and mid-80's post-punk Scot-funksters The MacKenzies,until the Kids found different ways to dance post-chemical enhancement after 1988....i'll leave it to you to imagine what that could have been?

Anyway...All the singles,three John Peel Sessions,and some demo's for a future Lp that never materialized,are on here......groovy baby.

"I Like Dancing but I don't Like Disco's" is the manifesto from the debut single back in 1980.....as for me, I don't Like Dancing and I don't like Disco's.....but if i'm drunk i firmly believe I could to this?.....hmmmm, maybe not?

Tracklist:

1. Boots For Dancing (Pop Aural Single 1980)

2. Parachutes (Pop Aural Single 1980)

3. Guitars & Girl Trouble (Pop Aural Single 1980)

4. (Let's All) Hesitate (Peel Session 17.11.1980)

5. The  Pleasure Chant (Peel Session 17.11.1980)

6. Timeless Tonight (Peel Session (17.11.1980)

7. South Pacific (Peel Session 17.11.1980)

8. Stand (Peel Session 13.07.1981)

9. Shadows Of Stone (Peel Session 13.07.1981) 

10.Wild Jazz Summers (Peel Session 13.07.1981)

11.Get Up (Peel Session 14.04.1982)

12.Salt in the Ocean (Peel Session 14.04.1982)

13.Style in Full Swing (Peel Session 14.04.1982)

14.Bend an Elbow, Lend an Ear (Peel Session 14.04.1982)

15.Just the Ticket  (Barclay Towers Studio October 1981)

16.Money (Is Thin On The Ground) (Barclay Towers Studio October 1981)

17.Wild Jazz Summers (Barclay Towers Studio October 1981)

18.Shadows on Stone (Barclay Towers Studio October 1981)

19.Oh' Bop Sh Bam (Barclay Towers Studio October 1981)

20.Hesitate (The Rain Song 7'' Pop Aural 1980).

21.The Rain Song (The Rain Song 7'' Pop Aural 1980)

DOWNLOAD yer dancin' boots HERE!

Dog Faced Hermans – "Everyday Timebomb" ( Vinyl Drip International – SUK 007) 1989

Sorry to mention John Robb again, but here's another Ron Johnson band wot got away,yet ended up with a release on Vinyl Drip late in the day;but at least Rob Johnson can put another of his products in one of his books,and make sure The Membranes are mentioned as the Trad Rock Traditionalist they wanted to be.

Being guilty of crimes against post-punk fashion,as in his 40 year long erect collars digression,it was a match made in Indie-rock Hell that Johnny,to his credit, could see past the frankly horrible Anarcho-Punk chic of the Dog Faced Hermans.They were, Scottish, after all.

Musically, The Hermans slotted in reasonably well with the pre-madchester Indie scene epitomised by Ron Johnson Records,which was fine ,as long as you did't see 'em. The liberal use of brass instruments give's one unpleasant images of previous and future scotch proto and post-indie evil,such as Pale Fountains and,OUCH!, Belle and Sebastian,that suggests music lessons as a child.....another Anarcho-Punk symptom displayed by the discerning Trustafarian in his angry years.

There's also an egregious,and downright unpleasant suggestion of an inclination towards some ginger dreadlocked Anarcho-Folk,weaponized in the 90's by the Levellers......thumb harps, junkyard percussion, didgeridoos, horrible,horrible,horrible.

Apart from all that...it's not bad.

Tracklist:

A1 New Shoots
A2 Scottish Block
A3 Binding System
A4 John Henry
B1 Beautiful
B2 Frock
B3 Live Action

DOWNLOAD why you should never give your child trumpet lessons HERE!

Death By Milkfloat – "Uninformation" (Vinyl Drip International – SUK006) 1989

 

I'm knackered today, so i'm gonna have to stoop to that much over-used,and low, tactic of mild personal abuse because I just want to be liked really. Like John Robb of Ron Johnson wanna be's,or even Rob Johnson's, The Membranes,and the erect collared individual behind Vinyl Drip Records. Now, John likes, everything basically.You name it, he'll put a positive spin on it,very much like how everyone, including John, now love ABBA and ,of course, they are...Genius's(not). I made the mistake of clicking the 'like' button on Facebook,for his sycophantic music e-publication, 'Louder Than War' I think its called,or was that a Smiths odds and sods compilation for the Morrissey completist . Regularly i would receive articles about how fucking fantastic U2 are really, and how respect is due to a legion of geniuses who we all used to know were the enemy. Yeah, everything's great.....er...no it isn't. He did defend himself once by protesting to me that he was a 'Music Fan'...we all have our guilty secrets I suppose? ...yeah I like Flock Of Seagulls and Thin Lizzy, and one bets John Does too,itching to hit us with the 'Genius' bomb.The difference is that I know that Flock Of Seagulls are certainly NOT genius's...or was that obvious.

Then there are the endless brown-nosed celebrity interviews on YouTube that block up the pop u-bend,The John Robb interview,and the endless appearances on the Lorraine Show on morning TV when ever a pop star dies.....yeah,Ok....i'm jealous.....I've always wanted to meet Lorraine Kelly.

Gone are the days when the crowd at The Vortex club cheered when Danny Baker announced the Death of Elvis.

Normally I would suggest that one should not trust any male who wears his shirt collars upright,like Eric Cantona,although Eric did Kung-Fu kick a Crystal Palace supporter once,maybe aided in flight by those turned up Collars?...but generally it's not a good look,especially for a 60 year old.

The Membranes were/are pretty rubbish,never quite achieving cult status,despite busting a bloodvessel to be like their non-Trad Rock peers,such as Bogshed.....who also appears on Vinyl Drip,when they should have been on Ron Johnson,like Milkfloat should have been too.

One last gripe before i down my my Red Bull has to be thee most ill-advised pattern of Record Label  behavior,or even career self-destruction on record has to be Changing your band name mid race.Whosoever suggested that Death By Milkfloat should contract their moniker to just the incomprehensible two syllables of Milkfloat should be forced to read everything that John Robb has ever written about pop'n'roll,.... without remission.
Tracklist:

A1 Take Advice
A2 50 Second Sculpture
A3 Vagrancy
B1 Breakbone
B2 Too Much Feel

DOWNLOAD to be uniformed HERE!

Death By Milkfloat – "Sense And Nonsense" (Di Di Music – DI DI 120) 1987

Another group who should have been but never was,as in wasn't,on Ron Johnson Records, would be Death By Milkfloat. An amphetamine fueled Mackenzies type mental indie funk rush that couldn't be criticised for its low energy levels.

They also field another candidate for the fastest guitarist in the west,competing with the guitar wielders from the Wedding Present and The Nightingales;at a time when we all thought it had to be that bloke from Napalm Death,or other daft Grindcore nonsense from some silly sausage in Solihull.....drop the 'Soli' part and you'd be close,as Death By Milkfloat came from the lost city of Kingston Upon Hull.It rises from the sea smog of the Humber Estuary like a Brigadoon of functional architecture appearings like a grey ghost as one approaches across the Humber Bridge. 

It is said that once you go to Hull you can never leave,that's it, It's all over;due to the confusion spread by the Ministry of Defense Listening and early warning station.....Fun Fact: Hull is the nearest point in the UK to Russia.

Right now there are dozens of grey men and women hacking Russian soldier's phones for evidence of Genocide, and infiltrating slavic computer systems with false information...and they're doing it in Hull.

This would explain the manic high speed choppy style of probably, Hull's bestest group....not counting Fat Boy Slim of course,and certainly not counting Coum Transmissions aka ...Throbbing Gristle;especially now every trendy worth his spots think TG are the Dopest group to namedrop to his bearded chums in the nominate your own price coffee bar in the bohemian quarter.

Tracklist:

A1 What
A2 (What's Your Name) Roger Murray
B1 Man With A Dog
B2 Never The Same
B3 Fishlake

DOWNLOAD by milkfloat HERE!

The Great Leap Forward – "Controlling The Edges Of Tone" (Ron Johnson Records – ZRON 20) 1987

It all started to go WRONG with Ron Johnson Records, previously Thee perfect record Label, when bIG fLAME broke up,leaving us with Singer and Bassist Alan Brown's (a pop star's name if ever there wasn't one?) new poppier vehicle "The Great Leap Forward".

Firstly the band name rang alarm bells warning of trendy left wing alignment, to keep open ambitions to join the second coming of any potential "Red Wedge" tour with such like-minded righteous soap boxers as ex-tory Paul Weller's Style-less council, and the brain cell crushing awfulness that was,and sadly still is...Billy Bragg.....who incidentally had a song which went by the same name as Alan's new pinko pop chartbound flops.

As far as i was concerned,having eagerly purchased the debut EP "Controlling The Edges Of Sound", this was more the Great Leap Backwards from the cubist pop perfection of bIG fLAME. 

Right-on lefty lyrics aside,the music is a kind of B-movie version of Haircut 100's bastard child with Josef K.....which sounds quite promising,does it not?.....but it didn't even achieve that.Quite disappointed I was.

Listening to it again,removed from such idealistic times....its not bad....it really does sound like Haircut 100 grafted on to everyone's favourite Kafka cloned Edinburgher's.

Amusingly dated references to the E.E.C.(if only it stayed like that instead of the unwieldy soopah state of today's EU?) and the Common agricultural policy (C.A.P.),which gave us Wine lakes,Butter mountains, and Grain surplus's bigger than the Sahara desert.What would we all give to have that kind of resource at hand today with this idiotic war going on?

Yep...let's Jive While We're Still Alive.....i'm currently tapping my foot to this,so there's still hope.

Tracklist:

Side Head:
A1 Hope's Not Enough, Son - Ask Your Parents 3:17
A2 If The C.A.P's Flat, Than Waive It 3:58

Side Arrow:
B1 Let's Jive While We're Still Alive 2:42
B2 My Grandfather's Cluck 4:31

DOWNLOAD while you're still alive HERE!

We've Got a Fuzzbox and We're Gonna Use It – "The BBC Sessions 1986/1987" (Cherry Red – CDMRED 213) 2002

Without fail,the best moments in any bands history are the first things they do.

As a subscriber to the "First Thought Best Thought school of hard knocks",this quaint attempt at Folk-Art philosophy  should be carved on the stone tablets which emerged when the rock'n'roll Moses rose from the swamps with the Eleven Commandments of Rock clasped under his sweaty armpits.

Another rule scratched clumsily on these holy tablets is don't sign contracts with any entertainment industry conglomerate.

Sadly, "Fuzzbox"...as they came to be known after they signed a contract with an entertainment industry conglomerate..., didn't follow these simple rules,and rapidly became rubbish. Sadly not the first time this was to happen, mainly due to the vulgar pursuit of the mighty Dollah!.

Happily these girls were avid exponents of the "First Thought Best Thought"(or even better No thought No Thought!) process that pervades all great art,and were captured in their natural state,once again, by the BBC.As were The Slits a decade earlier. Nascent Fuzzbox were saved for posterity by the public service corporation of Great Britain,while Fuzzbox were still a new born phenomenon, and still called "We've Got a Fuzzbox and We're Gonna Use It".

I did type previously that all 21st century girl groups are shit in comparison.One was just paraphrasing/plagiarising a fellow blogger,honest guvn'r (Creepscanner)....strictly for shock effect mind.

The rather wonderful Wet Leg seem to be reviving the lost tradition of Girl groups who just wanna have a jolly good larf,and what are you gonna do about it? Hopefully they will curb the tide of dull post-hiphop nonsense that make up the majority of nominees for the joyless Mercury Music Prize 2022.You know what I mean,the Rap Singers.You've seen 'em on the Top Of The Pops..they used to go on there,you've seen 'em.The Rap singers.Y'know,The Rappers,Rap singers.Round the back of the multistory,...The Rap Singers.......

The tracks in these BBC sessions are frozen moments in time when these 2 minute symphonies were in their raw primal state,like Lionesses prowling the monochrome Savannah lands of Birmingham(UK).....dyed Pink of course.

Peel Session-Tracks 1 to 4: ℗ 1986 BBC. First transmitted 10/3/86
Janice Long Session-Tracks 5 to 9: ℗ 1986 BBC. First transmitted 10/4/86
Peel Session-Tracks 10 to 14: ℗ 1986 BBC. First transmitted 11/8/86
Janice Long Session-Tracks 15 to 18: ℗ 1987 BBC. First transmitted 12/1/87

Tracklist:

1 Aaarrrrggghhh!!! 2:23
2 Fever 2:25
3 Rules & Regulations 2:51
4 Justine 2:09
5 Aaarrrrggghhh!!! 2:25
6 Love Is The Slug 2:16
7 Hollow Girl 3:18
8 Console Me 1:33
9 Spirit In The Sky 3:03
10 You Got Me 3:43
11 Preconceptions 2:32
12 Jackie 2:35
13 She 4:02
14 Bohemian Rhapsody 5:18
15 Wait & See 2:11
16 Self 2:37
17 What's The Point 2:24
18 High Hopes 1:04

DOWNLOAD from the rich savannah lands of eighties pop HERE!

We've Got a Fuzzbox and We're Gonna Use it - "Bostin' Steve Austin" (Vindaloo Records – FBOX 1) 1986

Also on Robert Lloyd of The Nightingales fame's Vindaloo Records,and touring mates of Ted Chippington, were the snappily named 'We've Got a Fuzzbox and We're Gonna Use it' from the home of heavy metal, Birmingham England....... 

As the much missed Jerry Orbach once said....(Who?)...

"Maybe this isn't your cuppa, but I'll cop to my fetish for 80's ladies. Why did they just seem so much more fun? When did girls just become so dour? Just look at the photo and tell me when you see girls like this anymore. You don't. Then again, if you read this blog it's unlikely that you see any girls aside from your mom and porn. At the risk of sounding like a misogynist, there's tons of girl bands out there now that really wish they could be this good, but, unfortunately they are shit. To this day, I wonder what ever became of these ladies. It's my debilitating laziness that prevents me from typing the band into google and actually find out. Some things are better kept as memories."

Nowadays the only 80's ladies I come across (Phnaar Phanaar) are ladies IN their 80's rather than ladies FROM thee 80's....oh by the way, the guitary-one with the star-shaped shades died about a decade ago.....cancer.

Of course, it all went tits up when Closet Gaylord Geffen got wind of it....prized them from Vindaloo,and shortened their name to just..."Fuzzbox",and insisted on hit singles and the like.

Why are major record labels such eternally blocked toilets of pure shite? They observe something the public like then change it,and sell a crapper version of it back to them.

Tracklist:

A1 Love Is The Slug 3:06
A2 Wait And See 2:15
A3 Jackie 2:39
A4 Spirit In The Sky 3:05
A5 X X Sex 1:59
A6 Alive 2:17
B1 What's The Point 2:27
B2 You Got Me 3:35
B3 Hollow Girl 3:09
B4 Console Me 1:27
B5 Rules And Regulations 2:48
B6 Preconceptions 2:32

DOWNLOAD it HERE and stuff!

The Fear Merchants – "Mental (remastered)" (Emotional Response) – ER84 1983/2019

Fear NOT!....I'm not going to mention "The Special Military Operation" that is saving us all from Nuke wielding Neo-Nazi's. The only Fear Merchants I wanna listen to today are the almost God-Like Amos and Sara under another of their many guises.Featuring Jim Welton,late of the almost God-like Homosexuals, and Sara Vaughan of Sara Vaughan fame.

Originally this was a cassette on the almost God-like "It's War Boys" DIY label, or should I say "It's a Special Military Operation Boys" label.....the original cassette rip of which can be found HERE!...if you like that sort of thing...which of course you do?

This rip is from the much awaited vinyl re-releases from 2019,or thereabouts.This also means that we now know what all the tracks are called.If anyone likes a good Larry Olivier Nazi Doctor pastiche then this is the record for you.

If you wanna read my original review splurge blurb write up then click HERE!...'cus i can't be arsed to do it again.

Meanwhile a parting message for any poor lickle Russians (ahhh bless 'em!) that are still able to read this.....I'm just going to MacDonalds for a burger and a coca-cola,but first i'll have to withdraw some cash from my open banks ATM machine,then maybe do a bit of shopping before settling down to watch some of the myriad of TV channels available to me.May even browse Facebook too?......and just think, at least you've got a fine permanent leader like Vladimir Putin and we have to cope with rubbishy old Democracy. I envy you.......altogether now..."WAR!...what is it good for? Absolutely nothing".....whoops you've just been arrested as a precursor to a sound beating!?...."Huh! say it agaaaaain"......not likely Edwin,it's fifteen years banged up in a Russian Prison if certain nationalities say it twice.

Ain't life great?

Tracklisting:

1. Act One
2. Un Choix Du Mal Song
3.Meanwhile.....back in the Doctors Surgery
4. U - Boat Captain
5.Enter Giant Whales Mouth​.​. Leaving Through Its Anus Back into Surgery of Doc
6. The Uzbeck Connection 9
7. The Irate Psychiatrist is Shaking His Head in Disbelief at the Patient's 'Stories'
8. Industrialist's Dirge
9.Reflections in Psychiatrist's Spectacles Theme
10 Act Two
11. Fiasco
12.Visibly Brighter the Psychiatrist Thinks He's Getting Somewhere at Last
13. Ya Habibi
14.She Runs off Across the Sands and Vanishes in the Ripples of Hot Air Rising Upwards
15. Aristocratic Hunchback Out-cast Song
16. Absolute Misery Theme
17. When She Weighs Eighty-Six Stones
18. Mental Theme

DOWNLOAD without fear HERE!

Cardboards ‎– "Greatest Hits Volume Two" (Mom's Records ‎– MR253) 1981

The synth-punk thing wasn't just confined to California, for a start we had Suicide in New York for the previous decade up to 1981 and beyond,Crash Course In Science were in Philly. In Pittsburgh there was The Cardboards.

No guitars in this ignored group, among the cheap organs and synthesisers......real drums were the only real option in 1981.....they had a tone generator.....how Synth-Punk is that?

Naturally the American angle on Synth's was to make something rocky and exciting, unlike in the UK, who saw another opportunity to make classic 'Pop' and sell it back to the USA. For some reason, this angle didn't occur to American musicians or businessmen.Its the same story for many other American innovations, especially Musical ones.

One can only think of West Germany and maybe Belgium,where there was something synth-punky going on...but not really...the Rocky bit had been never really manifested itself on the Germanic musical chromosome,over-ridden by the dastardly Wagner gene.

Tracklist:

A1 On The R=>Z*
A2 Electrical Generator
A3 Copa Cobana
B1 Gravity's Still Working
B2 Bill's Rap

DOWNLOAD in recyclable digital cardboard HERE!

The Blue Daisies ‎– "Wilt" (Iridescence Records ‎– I-23) 1985

Oh Alright, let's call this 'Art Rock'.

Highly possibly done by unemployed actors as well by the sound of it. Brad Laner played some Drums on this, not the drums that sound like Bobby Gillespie's skinwork in The Jesus and Mary Chain...the more inventive stuff at the end.

I know less than nothing about this band,except that they come from L.A. although I understand that they liked to take their clothes off on stage regularly.......now, if they ain't actors I'll share a dressing room with Kevin Spacey the next time I tread the boards at the Old Vic.

Fairly original abstract,slightly rude, avant-rock is what this is.

Featured on the soundtrack to 1986 movie 'Circle of Violence'(yeah neither have I!) starring long dead child star River Phoenix, who hated both the Blue Daisies and their music apparently.If that isn't a recommendation I dunno what is?

Tracklist:

A1 Anthem/Pillars
A2 Slot
A3 Sack Me
A4 To Be, Continued
B1 100 Tears
B2 Dance Dance Dance
B3 Everything And Nothing At All
B4 Es Amor
B5 Beautiful Kid

DOWNLOAD whatever thou wilt HERE!

Red Asphalt ‎– "Red Asphalt" (Synthetic Shadows ‎– #18) 1981/2014

 I was gonna tie this in with Brad Laner's role as a Synth Punk Pioneer, but its more than that.

There's something 'Prog' about this,but they had a synth player in the line-up, and were active during the Punk epoch in San Francisco between 1978 and 1982, so Synth-Punk it is.

They sound like those groups who were really resting/unemployed Actors who play music as a way to get on a stage, Like MARS,Bongwater, Punishment Of Luxury, and  Shoes For Industry (surely The Tubes had to be frustrated actors too?) among others.

Like an agressive off-broadway musical,they reek of professionalism, in that conceptual album kind of way.

They had their moments,but like if a Saxophone appeared in a Punk group they were automatically called Jazz-Punk, if a synth made an appearence, it was Synth-Punk;orif you were too stagey, you were Prog-Punk, or Prunk as Cardiacs called themselves.

 

Tracklist:

A1 Red Asphalt
A2 Goodbye Sunshine
A3 S.T.A.B.
A4 Jive Puppet
A5 Survival, Evasion, Escape
A6 Peligro
A7 Human Capital
A8 Nuclear Judas
B1 Refugee
B2 Factory Dead
B3 Ghost Town
B4 White Meat, Dark Meat
B5 Phone Call From God
B6 Hurtling Moons Of Barsoom
B7 Gothic Night Summer Dream

DOWNLOAD some theatrical blood on the asphalt HERE!

The Philosophic Collage ‎– "Genius" (American Aesthetic Industries, Ltd.) 1981

 

Angry geeks want to show us jocks how much cleverer than us they really are,and 'look at me now' revenge has been taken...if only the jocks knew about it,which of course they don't...Jocks don't like music,only music for people who don't like music...like Bon Jovi, Nirvana,Techno, Ed Sheeran etc.

The EP title, "Genius", is by no means "Ironic"....in inverted comma's not quotation marks...they actually believe they are bona fide Geniuses,which is the collective noun for genius. I wager the geekier one on the cover thinks that he's the real genius of the group,and the others are just his post-punk servants.

The music is like a cross between Half-Japanese,the ultimate American Geek's Revenge band , and The Diagram Brothers,the ultimate English Geek's Revenge band, except that the singer,slash, Jad Fair impressionist, seems to be recorded from a radio in another room. In the main room they have modern recording equipment to capture the barely falling apart abstract rock in hi-fidelity to annoy both punx and parent alike.Punk is Jock music and parents either want their geeky son to either be good at Football,or a Doctor. Parents are people who never understood the truth that is revealed to humans during their teenage years, and if they did, they forget that 18 years olds really do know everything that needs to be known.

If an angry Geek ever gets into power again....the last one that got in in the west,without winning the popular vote, nearly destroyed the planet (A.Hitler)....they may use the most terrifying Geek tool of all to force us all into death camps,otherwise known as,Facebook.Luckily we have the Donald,who is genuinely too stupid to impose this grim future upon us all...as is Biden by the way,so we're safe for the next couple of years before Biden inevitably dies,and that dodgy vice-president nominee,Ms angry female just enough milk in her coffee geek, gets into office.Nothing will save us then.

Sorry for interferring in American politics, but Putin has video of me at a Bunga Bunga party!!

It was nice knowing y'all.

Tracklist:

A1 Genius
A2 Planned Obsolescence
B1 Toxic Poppies
B2 Headline Deadline

DOWNLOAD this genius HERE!

Pink Section - "Sectioned(1978-1980)" (a Die or DIY expanded edition) 2020

There's something about American culture that just effortlessly produces weirdo's.There's the Dave Grohl type of weirdo who's just so sickenly 'Normal'and Nice that he's ceased to exist;or, there's The Pink section who have ceased to exist because they had created one of the greatest handful of out-rock tunes ever written which are impossible to better...not even by Stevie Wonder!

While other Americans were taking the Devo post-punk route,with the musicianly ability to back it up,The Pink Section had nothing like that in their armoury.They just had something that had to be put before the public,then finish. "Shopping" has to be one of the greatest tunes ever written anywhere in the world?

Having just accidently watched a YouTube video of Dave Grohl listing his ten routes to 'suckess', with my mouth open wide in misunderstanding,telling us to to do 'Bad Ass Rock shows'(whatever that is?) as a certain route to entertainment superstardom;finishing off with him and his sickening group melting into a puddle of slime in a desperate need to be liked in front of a massive stadium crowd,who were lapping it up.Band to audience..."we Looove Yoooou!"

All the advice coming from the third richest drummer on the planet("I did my time stacking supermarket shelves" grins David)....who are the other two richer drummers anyway?.....should all be taken as the opposite route to creative success,retaining a barrel full of self-respect in the process.The Pink Section however did it perfectly,even with a drummer(carl Detweiler) who is likely the third poorest drummer of all time.

Rule number five-ish was 'Be Different'.....er...David????

TRACKLISTING:

1.Tour Of China
2.Shopping
3.Wine World
4.Midsummer New York
5.Flat Dog
6.Part Time
7.Francine's List

8.Safety Instruction

9.Francine's List (live at The Deaf Club 11-3-1979)

10.Jane Blank (live at The Deaf Club 11-3-1979)

11.Been in the Basement 30 Years (live at The Deaf Club 11-3-1979)

12.Lonely Fashionette (Live at Mabhuay Gardens 12-7-1979)
13.Cars Don't Wait For Love(Demo)
14.Jane Blank (Demo)
15.Jane Blank (Cable TV appearence)
16.Shopping (Cable TV appearence)

DOWNLOAD before you go shopping HERE!

Chemicals Made From Dirt ‎– "Ike (1978-83)" (Hyped To Death ‎– Homework #203) 2000

 More hopelessly obscure US Post-Punk quirkiness,or as it is described on the sleeve as "World Class Art-Wave"? A genre within a genre. Just trying to think of other Art-Wave acts who were never referred to as, but were Post-Punk......Talking Heads?...Wire?......things are getting far too complex nowadays! How does an Art-Waver know if he's an Art-Waver or Post Punk?
It used to be far simpler back in the day.....all this was 'punk'.....not even Art-Punk...it was Punk.Heavy Metal was Heavy Metal.There's slow Heavy Metal (Sludge,Funeral,Doom +another 600 varieties), Fast Heavy Metal, (Thrash,Speed,Punk Crossover), Classic Heavy Metal (Judas Priest, Black Sabbath,NWOBHM)...and that's it!

Chemicals Made From Dirt, was a .......they're at it again on these sleevenotes!....a PunkWave.....what the fuck is that?.....Punk?.....from Long Island. So at least they were near the action,rather than some cesspit in Iowa or one of those more medeval states that seemed shut off from the world since the witch trials.

Again we have a group with a name that suggested immediate commercial failure.

At the risk of starting another genre, i'll describe this as that quirky variety of post-Punk which became popular among geeks wanting to form bands in the USA between 1979 and and 1983, approximately between Devo's first album and "Oh No It's Devo".......or Oh No! It's another Quirky Post Punk Band.

Alas, whereas Devo had a compact and memorable name, Chemicals made from Dirt (CMFD....even the acronym is a tongue twister!) had a difficult to remember moniker,if not forgettable.

Me, being a Fan of Quirky Post Punk, or Art Wave, Or art rock in general,beginning with XTC,who were the British Devo/Talking Heads.A face that launched a few post punk novelty acts like The Vapors,but not a wave of the likeminded as in the states.

CMFD left us with 25 songs recorded for posterity back in the day, and put on a disintegrating CD-r by Chuck Warner of Hyped2Death at the turn of the century, and they're all good. Personal fave is "Beatniks Looking For Tourists",'cus I like anything with the word 'Beatnik' in the title.....I'm that deep, that 'arty'.

Let a band spokesman finish off this confused narrative with something sensible:

"We called it an avant absurd experiment...We liked the idea of breaking down meaning to the point of abstraction and then reinterpreting it based on personal associations and meaning rather than having any absolute meaning.".....yep...Artwave alright!

Tracklist:

1 Manikin 2:44
2 M 3:31
3 Hard 3:26
4 Beatniks Looking For Tourists 2:40
5 Protein Pants 2:52
6 Another Dinner 2:41
7 Chemicals Made From Dirt 2:27
8 Panic-No Fusion 2:40
9 Girls My Age 2:40
10 17th Century
11 Communist Calendar Girls 2:41
12 Air Raid Drill 3:04
13 Medicated Elvis 2:09
14 Uh-Oh 1:12
15 Homeless Men 3:25
16 Fast Ocean Puppet 3:05
17 Fly To Work 2:43
18 Multiple Station Wagon 2:15
19 Claus Von Bulow 4:38
20 Dr. Shockley 3:17
21 Lost In The Cave Of Flying Dogs 3:56
22 Barney 4:00
23 Hiding From Bozo 2:48
24 Show World 1:37
25 Rapula 3:39

DOWNLOAD some dirty chemotherapy HERE!

Algebra Mothers/A-Moms ‎– "A-Moms = Algebra Mothers (1977-84)" (Third Man Records ‎– TMR533) 2018

 From the Rock City of Detroit came a bunch of misfits called 'A-Moms',who released a quirky single(get it HERE!) and promptly disappeared....ahhh, but did they? Hence this post-humous compilation cobbled together, minus the single, for Third Man Records a few years ago.

They played all over the massive cosmos,or barren wasteland, that is Detroit, supporting every offshoot of the Stooges or MC5, and Pere Ubu.

Obviously talented musicians, they do have a tendancy to all play at the same time,which 'talented' muscians have an unstoppable drive to do.This is when we need producers to tell 'em what to do.

There is the odd bit of Hendrix-y fretboard wankery,but we can forgive that,for this charming delve into the Archives of another group whose abysmal name probably cost them a larger audience....which is either a good thing or a bad thing depending on how you look at it.Personally, I prefer the groups who do their thing then FUCK OFF. A-Moms certainly did their thing,then Fucked Off,so they're at least one up on U2,who didn't.

Tracklist:

1.Carsick
2.In and Out of Order
3.Seesaw
4.Little Mathematica
5.Goo Goo Eyes
6.Ironhead
7.Misfits
8.Nuns in Chains
9.As The World Turns
10.Dance Damage
11.Hollywood
12.Chemical Tastes
13.No For An Answer
14.Swan Song

DOWNLOAD the A-moms of invention HERE!