Built To Spill - Car

[1994]

More slacker anthems. Catchy singalong indie rock for wasting your days away.

*Trigger warning: Music video contains wasted 90s slacker rockers havin' a fag!

Take A Run At The Sun - Dinosaur Jr

[1997]

A lot of bands were doing Beach Boys influenced stuff in the 90s. The Moles, The Fauves, Mercury Rev, Flaming Lips, Primal Scream, My Bloody Valentine, Boo Radleys etc. etc. etc. It was all pretty enjoyable. 

This one was totally unexpected and beautiful.

It's a forgotten song now but one of the best Brian Wilson tributes.

Dinosaur Jr. ~ Green Mind

Water [1991]

I've always been perplexed by Green Mind and some people's opinions of it since it came out. I mean surely we all thought it was pretty crap after the astonishingly exhilarating electrifying insanity of You're Living All Over Me and the masterfully crafted devastation of Bug's mess of noisy slacker grunge and the sweet slacker-daisical vision of The Wagon single. Weren't we all disappointed with the lack of fuzzed up loudness on Green Mind? Once they'd released this half baked effort I thought they were finished as a cool, credible and influential cult group. I mean if you weren't absolutely killing it or pushing the envelope musically it was time to move on to somewhere else. There was an abundance of excitement, innovation and peak musical creativity in this era. There was no point hanging around listening to sub standard artistical statements. 

I mean J Mascis can be found talking about Green Mind on the youtubes saying:  "Maybe it didn't work out as well as it could have"

Yet some people liked it and five years ago many more were getting misty eyed and nostalgic about the 30th anniversary of Green Mind. I didn't get it and thought they'd all lost their minds. Somewhere in the back of my mind though lurked some doubts that maybe I'd been wrong all along about this album. So finally I had a little re-listen and while I haven't had a full revelation or complete reversal of opinion, I've had a surprisingly significant change of heart. I'm pretty sure before I traded in my Green Mind cd in the early 90s I thought it all sucked except for the first and last tracks but now of those eight despised songs How'd You Pin That One On Me is the only one so irritatingly offensive that I have to skip it. 

I get why the album was all so startlingly weird and disappointing at the time. A lot of the grunge noise and dreamy haziness had been stripped away for acoustic guitars, stark loud drums and an unnecessary close up focus on J's vocals. On those previously mentioned records the beauty was when J's warm lethargic but melodious vocal hooks were couched in just the right amount of distorted guitar overload for their classic signature languid maelstrom sound.  

It's Water that has become my new favourite forgotten Dinosaur Jr. song. In a way it's a precursor to the Neil-isms and crushing melancholia aesthetic which was the blueprint that would be deployed on their 1993 classic Where You Been. Water's got that cool lazy slacker sound. Wait for that 2:28 moment when it accelerates into gorgeous melodic ecstasy. It's J's best trick and it's irresistible. 

 

Blowin It/Live For That Look [1991]

Dinosaur Jr. do the segue song thing once again and it's pretty glorious. I mean I still have my reservations about this record's production but these conjoined songs are undeniably top Mascis tuneage. 

*God what next? Am I gonna give Without A Sound another go next to see if maybe my disappointment about that cd was wrong too?  

Dinosaur Jr. - The Wagon (Sub-Pop Singles Club 7" Version)

[1990]

One of their finest pure pop moments. Still sounding remarkably fresh today.

This recording is an absolute anomaly for Dinosaur Jr. For one single only they were a five piece. Lou's gone but we've got Donna Dresch on bass, Don Fleming on guitars, J doing his thing and two drummers: Murph in one channel and Jay Spiegel in the other.

The Wagon was later remixed by J Mascis with some parts totally edited out for the cleaned up version that appeared on the Green Mind LP the following year..

Swervedriver - Rave Down

Son Of Mustang Ford [1990]

So I was still in high school when the first couple of Swervedriver EPs came out. These were Rage classics that we taped on VHS months before we could ever get our hands on the records. I mean we lived in the bush mate! This tune to me and my mates was just a grungier, more testosterone fuelled version of You Mad Me Realise. Which didn't make it any less great. I mean it rocked like a high octane drag racing mutha fucka didn't it. 

Rave Down [1990]

Then five or six months later came the Rave Down film clip and EP. 

Creation Records were on a fucking role with Loaded, Come Together, Glider, Ride, Play, Fall, Nowhere, Slowdive and these first two Swervedriver EPs. 

Rave Down's a glorious fuzzed up heavy psychedelic noise-rock tune of the highest order.  All sorts of swirling waves of sound, layers of textured noise, driving riff-a-rama, wild drumming and hooks galore.

Blistering, bouncy and blissed out... the best!

Peak 90s rock.

Zedhead [1990]

Another stellar rocket fuelled noise rock work out.

Sandblasted [1991]

Just over six months later came the third ep. Epic noisey psychedelia with dream-gaze passages and gorgeous hooks. They really packed it all in here! 

*I still kinda don't get why they weren't the premier noisey shoegaze band after My Bloody Valentine because at this stage they were very fucking killing it and had the highest strike rate of all the gazers of shoe. I saw both Ride and MBV live in Melbourne in '91 but Swervedriver didn't even tour down here until much later in like 94 or 95 when I finally got to see them at the Corner Hotel in Richmond.

Cars Converge Over Paris · Swervedriver

Never Lose That Feeling [1992]

Back to the good ole days when I was twenty. Me and my mate Tony would stay up late, drink and smoke, when the girls had gone to bed, listening to all the new and groovy sounds on the cd player. I'd totally forgotten the epic grunge-gaze and kaleidoscopic sax-haze of Never Lose That Feeling/Never Learn. Alan Moulder sprinkles some magic at the mixing desk.

What a jam. 

Glorious.

Cars Converge On Paris [1993]

Unbelievably this tune, one of their greatest, was exclusively tucked away on the import only US version of The Last Train To Satansville cd EP.

Cars Converge On Paris might be Swervedriver's most psychedelic moment. Like a hazy mirage the desert highway with a mesmerizing intergalactic bass that swirls to infinity and vocals, drums & guitars falling upwards backwards in a disorientating dreamy daydream. 

Glorious.

Last Train To Satansville [1993]

Speaking of which here it is one their most famous video moments. An edited down version of Last Train To Satansville. A classic 90s guitar pop tune from these eternally underrated grungy shoegazers. A get home from the pub late and watch Rage classic.

Duel [1993]

Ok ok I can't stop now. There's just no way you can go past this remarkable historic tune. 

It's another one of their singles but this isn't the video because the original six and half minutes shouldn't ever be cut down. I mean it starts out pretty blissed up right from the get go but the sprawling euphoria keeps growing then it just keeps on expanding into wide screen ecstatic peaks so that by 1:35 the elation is reaching unbearable levels. The dreamy psychedelic exhilaration gets overwhelming then later in the comedown lulls it becomes a bit melancholy that is until it starts its upward trajectory again. Then the take it down now fade-out gradually winds down to a a splendid sonic seaside scenario.  

One of the the most sublime guitar tunes of the 90s.

Rewind!

Not Enough Girls In The World - Milk 'N' Cookies

[1975]

Cult glammy power pop tune from forgotten or perhaps never remembered 70s Long Island group. The twerps from Milk'n'Cookies recorded some of the most astonishingly poxy vocals ever committed to vinyl. These scuzzy wimps of late-bubblegum had a way with a hook though and their themes of adolescent lust are universal, timeless and a whole lotta fun. 

You gotta love that they got funded to make a entire LP of this shtick which was one of Island Records most unsuccessful records ever. This record still winds people up to this very day which just adds to their aura. 

Gilbert O'Sullivan - Get Down

[1973]

In the 70s there was Gilbert O.

Another toppermost poppermost cheerful singalong tune from Britain in the 70s. Duelling pianos in a sorta faux funky glam mode that's surprisingly excellent. It's gonna get stuck in your head for days, sorry.

Gotta love Gilbert O wearing a jumper with his initial on. G for Gilbert O.

Gilbert O even attempts in the video to bring a girl from the audience into the limelight like what The Boss and Bono would do ten years later with much more success ie. dancing and pashing. Gilbert O could only manage to to put his arm around her for a second and move her a few steps towards his piano before she shyly retreated, oh well Gilbert O.

Tom MacDonald Exposed - Stephen's Tune

[1981]

Wide open skies trippy Californian folk and soft rock stylings heading into breezy jazz zones somewhere between Joni, The Croz, John Martyn and god knows what. 

Not much info about our one album wonder Tom MacDonald from Nevada City anywhere but check out his vibe on the cover. Our breezy jazz-folk man of mystery is not havin' any of this sex rejection bullshit. Come on ladies! You need to check out his naked body. He's feelin so damn good about himself you need to offer up your body for some sweet sweet love-making. His mullet shall not be denied.

Four Albums Only

I'm starting to buy into the concept put forth by one of The Word guys either Dave Hepworth or Mark Allen a few years ago that all you really need or indeed actually want is only four albums from your favourite bands and singers who have recorded a truckload of albums. I mean am I ever really going to listen to every single one of my James Ferraro, Ariel Pink, Lou Reed, Swans or Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds albums ever again? I would say that's a hard no. 

Do I ever listen to any Rolling Stones LPs outside of Beggars Bangquet, Sticky Fingers, Let It Bleed & Exile On Main Street no...

...or Cocteau Twins outside of Head Over Heels, Treasure, Blue Bell Knoll & Heaven Or Las Vegas nope...

...or Sonic Youth outside of Bad Moon Rising, Evol, Sister & Daydream Nation not really...

Royal Trux: Cats & Dogs, Sweet Sixteen, Thank You and yes I do sometimes listen to Twin Infinitives. Recently though I've finally succumbed to the insane charms of Accelerator which I thought was crap when I first heard it in the 90s.

...or Scott Walker with Scott 3, Scott 4, Tilt & Bisch Bosch. I mean maybe some Walker Brothers tunes and The Drift and Scott 2 and Climate Of The Hunter and Scott... 

Kraftwerk outside of Autobahn, Trans Europe Express, The Man-Machine & Computer World is unnecessary now or hang on maybe I'd swap out Computer World and put Radio-Activity in instead. I guess it's really just the first three listed then innit.

Mark Kozelek with Down Colourful Hill, Rollercoaster, Ocean Beach and Benji.

Steely Dan Can't Buy A Thrill, Countdown To Ecstasy, Pretzel Logic & Aja but then again I've been listening to Nightfly recently so now I'm wondering if I need to get a copy of Gaucho or The Royal Scam both of which I hated upon initial listen.

It's gonna be a bit tricky reducing Miles Davis's classics down to just four though. I'll give it a crack: Bitches Brew, Big Fun, Agharta, Dark Magus, Get Up With It, Live/Evil. In Concert, Black Beauty, Pangea... oh well that's ten and only from his electric period which is only one of his eras. Maybe this four album only concept is stupid.

Autechre seems easier Tri Repetae, Chiastic Slide, LP5 & Cornfield. No worries.

...and Boards Of Canada only have three great albums so...

...and Radiohead have none.

Dinosaur Jr. it's You're Living All Over Me, Bug, Where You Been and well thats it really. I recall enjoying Hand It Over, the first J Mascis & The Fog cd and those first two reformation albums in the late 00s when the original three piece got back together.

For The Beach Boys It's Pet Sounds, Sunflower, Surf's Up and the fourth one is a hard choice. Is it gonna be Holland or Beach Boys Love You or Wild Honey or Friends... geez I dunno I'll have to get back to you on that one.

I mean I've got a stack of Can cds but I rarely listen to anything outside of Tago Mago, Ege Bamyasi, Future Days & Soon Over Babaluma.

Bowie seems like it might be tricky but lets see - Hunky Dory, Ziggy Stardust, Station To Station and Low are the four at the moment but I am fond of at least five or seven of his other albums.

With The Flaming Lips I never listen to anything but Hit To Death In The Future Head, Transmissions From The Satellite Heart, Clouds Taste Metallic & The Soft Bulletin and really in the last 20 years it's just those last two 90s classics.

Siouxsie & The Banshees' top four The Scream, Kaleidoscope, Juju & A Kiss Inside The Dream House are the only ones I ever really liked so... 

Bardo Pond is also easy: Bufo Alvarius, Amanita, Lapsed and Dilate. They however remain one of the world's most underrated rock groups don't they.

Depeche Mode is a bit trickier but the four would be Some Great Reward, Black Celebration, Music For The Masses & Violator. Haven't listened to Ultra since the 90s and really when it comes down to it I only ever watch the live One Night In Paris dvd. I mean I've been obsessed with that video since the 00s, probably watched it over 50 times. That's kinda funny to me because Dave and Martin are often cringe-y dorks during the concert but I can't help but love it, In fact I think I love it more because they are cringe-y dorks. 

Cutting down Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds to just four albums seems absolutely sacrilegious. In the last ten years it has really only been Ghosteen that I've been listened to but my favourites from high school in the 80s remain Your Funeral My Trial and Tender Prey and for the 90s you can't beat the now surprisingly underrated Henry's Dream and the brilliant Let Love In. I gotta say though of the 18 records they've done 14 are absolute classics in my book. 

I did solo Lou at the top so I should be able to give Swans a crack. Lets see: Children Of God, The Great Annihilator, White Light From The Mouth Of Infinity and The Seer. But that's a problem innit as it's missing the debut Filth and their original swansong (er, sorry) Soundtracks For The Blind. Maybe because I played Children Of God to death during my youth I'd put Soundtracks in instead. I'm much more likely to listen to Soundtracks, The Glowing Man or To Be Kind than Children Of God these days. 

AC/DC rule: Dirty Deeds, Powerage, Let There Be Rock and Highway To Hell. Sorry I'm Bon Scott era all the way baby.

Tangerine Dream is a bit perplexing. Zeit, Phaedra, Stratosphere and... I guess it would have to be Rubycon but I love and have listened to Force Majeure, Tangram, Ricochet, Sorcerer, Thief and Miracle Mile all very recently so...

Hang on what about The Fall. Geez I dunno. What about Grotesque (After The Gramme), Hex Induction Hour, The Wonderful and Frightening World Of The Fall and This Nation's Saving Grace but what about Dragnet, Bend Sinister and Extricate? I loved those too. I haven't listened to The Fall in so long I haven't a clue. So I guess they've been reduced to a zero album limit in the last 15 years. Slates was also a good one.

...and I could go on and on... maybe there will be a part two to get to grips with Ed Kuepper, The Church, Ariel Pink, James Ferraro, Cleaners From Venus, XTC, Manuel Göttsching, Roedelius, Heldon, Roxy Music, Black Sabbath, Harold Budd et. etc. etc. etc. etc.

*Most rock and or roll is pretty cringeworthy and down right embarrassing when you get down to it. I mean it's silly innit but we love it. 

**My favourite thing at the moment is watching this daily karaoke live stream on youtube from a tiny pub in Liverpool. It is just the greatest, most fascinating entertainment I've found in the last coupla years. I just love how fearless, unselfconscious and joyous these Scousers are.

Lynsey De Paul ~ Sugar Me

[1972]

Get mesmerized by the sultry soundz of Lynsey De Paul. 

Jaunty piano led hazy erotic grooves with spank me drum machine intrusions, steamy organ and some gypsy violin.

There's just something about this... 

...a mood... 

...a vibe... 

...an atmosphere...

What is she even saying and who really cares...

...stirring...

The Rain The Park And Other Things · The Cowsills

[1967]

One of those vaguely familiar tunes you know you've heard before but can't quite place who or what it is, maybe its on a cd compilation of sunny psychedelic 60s stuff you've got in a dusty old box somewhere that you haven't played since the 90s. Who knows. Then suddenly you're deliberately listening to it and you realise it's an absolute sunshine pop banger: A baroque bubblegum classic. Right up there with I dunno The Free Design and way better than anything The Left Banke ever did. A toppermost poppermost tune from a family band back in the 60s. 

A magical mirage of a track that's alwayys coming and going, ebbing and flowing, conjuring up then dissipating just like the girl in the song. Did it even happen or was it all just a beautiful cheeze-y dream?

Jon Byron - Simple

[1976]

An AM treasure indeed.

The soft rock lounge soundz of Jon Byron's Simple is just what you need right now. Warm middle of the road countrypolitan vocals with a sprinkling of Fender Rhodes and some smooth sax-a-muh-phone. 

Nice. 

*Shout out to Lolvalstein the only guy on the internet who reviewed Byron's New Horizons LP. 

Alan Parsons Project - Sirius + Eye In The Sky

SEGUE SONGS PART 7 or 8 or something....

[1982]

Ok we're back to segue songs and here's one, well two, that I wasn't aware of as being integral to each other. I mean I know Eye In The Sky from the radio when I was 10. I didn't have the album though so I only realised it had an interlinked tune attached to it recently. Of course you have to get the album to experience the Sirius/Eye Of The Sky conjoined twins experience and once you've heard it like that it's wrong to hear one without the other ever again. 

This now goes into the Space Debris Segue Songs Hall of Fame along with other great tunes joined at the hip as previously mentioned like I'm Your Boogie Man/Keep It Comin' Love from KC & The Sunshine Band, Donna Summer's I Need You/Working The Midnight Shift, INXS' Face The Change/Burn For You, Palace Of Brine/Letter From Memphis by The Pixies and The Pale Saints' Sight Of You/Time Thief. I'm sure there's a million more. 

I was thinking you never hear this anywhere anymore in Australia but apparently in America the future synthwave sound of Sirius is well known because it is used a lot at professional and college sporting events and has subsequently been used in many ads and movies.

The Eye In The Sky single did not chart in Britain but guess what despite only making it to number 22 here down under it was unsurprisingly a number 1 smash in Canadia. Those Canucks had very specific taste and knew where it was at.

Boards of Canada - You Retreat in Time and Space

[2026]

Wait for the 2:46 moment when the cosmic new age ambience gives way to pure Boards Of Canadia nostalgic loveliness... those unmistakeable off kilter synth melodies that we will forever treasure these legends for. I mean this could be a lost BOC tune from the year 2000. 

I listened to the whole new album tonight. I'm not having the cargo cult/quasi religious experience some of these others are having. In fact some of the tracks downright sucked. I'm happy to stick with my BOC era as 1995 to 2005. I was only 26 in 1998 when Music Has The Right To Children came out and that was such a fresh and cool cd. And as previously mentioned Geogaddi, released a few years later, is in my cranky old deranged mind the greatest cd of this millennium. You can't really replicate that era and feeling, however You Retreat In Time and Space is a pretty good lil' tune so there's that.

*This music opinion is subject to change in the future time immediately after this post is posted! I damn well reserve the right right to change my opinion as it's probably wrong at this juncture innit.

Manchester City FC - Funky City

[1972]

Now for some smoov laid back funk from Manchester City FC. No actual strikers or midfielders or goalies playing on the instruments here, its actually the fellas from 10CC doing one v funky Meters-esque jam. 

Quite prescient as Manchester did indeed become a very funky city.

*Funky City was the b-side to Boys In Blue (see below)

[1972]

I'm Australian and haven't followed English soccer since the 90s and don't know a hell of a lot about it. Is this Manchester City's club song like in AFL where Collingwood have Good Old Collingwood Forever and they sing it after a victorious game and have done for eternity or is this just a one off novelty that probably got sung on the terraces in the 70s. Who knows?...

You'll Always Find Me In The Kitchen At Parties - Jona Lewie

Terry Dactyl & The Dinosaurs - Sea Side Shuffle [1972]

A novelty accordion led zydeco-y tune cashing in on Mungo Jerry's In The Summertime vibe written and performed by eccentric Jona Lewie.

You'll Always Find Me In The Kitchen At Parties - Jona Lewie [1980]

Here is Jona Lewie eight years later performing under his own name with his perennially overlooked synth-pop pub-rock classic. 

A record that sounds like nothing else. A one off.

I haven't heard this since the 80s but I guess somewhere in the back of my mind I thought this was a UK Squeeze tune. Did Squeeze have a song about a kitchen? Anyway my 8 year old brain wasn't that far off the mark as this is aesthetically somewhere between Ian Dury and Human League. 

Dejection to delighted all in the space of three minutes. The downbeat brown talk singing and dark synthwaves are evocative of drear times times in Britain but there are also bright shiny synths, hilarious lyrics, lovely female backing vocals and an upbeat change up in the song's story that counteracts the sonic despondency making this peculiar paradoxical tune totally irresistible. I mean its all a bit of a laugh innit. Look out for jaunty synth break in the song after he scores a bird in the kitchen at a party thus becoming chirpy, its mental.

"She was into French cuisine but I ain't no Cordon Bleu"

Rewind! 

Ron Robert - The Price

[1983]

This unknown synth country jam is pretty surprising as I don't think I've  heard anything quite like it. Outlandish synth and wide screen twangery in a new wave country folk style with a classic rock lead break. The Price sounds like its influenced by Wall Of Voodoo. Makes me wonder why nobody in the Hypnagogic scene ended up going down this path. This could have been the national anthem for synthwave country. Maybe there's a micro-genre that I just don't know about. 

*Virtually no info about this guy on the interwebs. This is the only video of Ron Robert's on youtube. He's not listed on Discogs or Rate Your Music however NTS has one sentence on him which tells me he self released this in 1983. I'm guessing he had an album called Elaine or single of which this was the b-side. Who knows? Then there's the unknown lady singing, who is she? The whole thing could even be fake. It's kinda cool to be this mysterious in the oversaturated digital information age.

Petula Clark - Don't Sleep In The Subway

[1967]

Our Lady of light entertainment with her pretty insane yet lovely slice of baroque pop. It's symphonic, it's pop, it's disjointed, It's cinemascope epic, It's post-Pet Sounds pop perfection. 

The disorientating Don't Sleep On The Subway, penned by songwriting legends and married companions Tony Hatch & Jackie Trent, is a high point in a career of many highlights for Petula. 

Gotta be one of the weirder tunes to make it to number one here in Australia. 

Brian Bennett - Chain Reaction

Brian Bennett - Chain Reaction [1978]

A strange yet beautiful journey into disco. Some funky shit right here folks. I wonder if this ever got played out. Before mutant disco, disco was already mutant making that future genre obsolete before it was invented.

Brian Bennett - The Investigator [1975]

Here's some of the coolest crime funk ever from the guy who played the drums in The Shadows. This library music jam turned up a few years later in the British cop show The Sweeney.