Tuesday, 26 July 2022

Blue Orchids - Sun Connection


I always get a delightful surprise listening to Blue Orchids for some reason...it's probably something to do with the fact they are really forgotten and hardly even a cult band. Other neo-psych groups of the era with whom they have a spiritual affinity like Meat Puppets or even a band Blue Orchids influenced like The Chills have their place in the history of 80s rock with fanbases to match. The debut Blue Orchids LP The Greatest Hit (Money Mountain) from 1982 despite being a big independent hit has never been reissued on vinyl and only ever got released on cd once, back in 2003. It's hard to believe a group made up of ex members of The Fall who made an idiosyncratic masterstroke of acid fried anti-establishment Pagan post-punk neo-psych are not celebrated by the underground. Perhaps they are just too unique and will only appeal to those with a penchant for the esoteric.  

Sun Connection is the opening song off The Greatest Hit. Once again Martin Bramah is in druid mystic mode. A very LSD vibe where his drug addled mind is trying to square away paradoxical notions such as the purity of a spiritual utopia and the encroaching reality of the necessity of money to survive. These existential dilemmas are delivered via that vocal trick of all of a sudden metamorphosing tunelessness into melodic elation and back again. All the while a mesmeric web of guitars and keys organically shift from tense passages to pastoral flourishes which has an added alchemical frisson as Bramah and organist Una Baines were romantically involved. 

Saturday, 23 July 2022

Blue Orchids - A Year With No Head


Forgotten post-punk neo-psychedelic greatness from 1982. Hypnotic organ, a glistening fried guitar, a dark bass line and a rhythmic guitar all swirl in unison as mystic recalcitrant Martin Bramah philosophises blissfully over the the top, mesmerising.  

Friday, 22 July 2022

Fire Engines - Meat Whiplash


Were Fire Engines the best band of 1981? Anyway this is where fellow Scots Meat Whiplash got their name from: The b-side to Fire Engines 1981 single Candyskin which was released on the Pop Aural label. While it's a nervy post-punk gem it fits in with these recently posted tunes because there's a weird phazed psych guitar bit amongst the noisey frenetic post-punk shenanigans. 

Thursday, 21 July 2022

Meat Puppets - Two Rivers

While the entire 1985 LP Up On The Sun is a sun baked roadside cactus of serene funky psychedelic perfection, Two Rivers is where they go into the mystic with sublime results. Words are no justice for this splendour. 

Wednesday, 20 July 2022

Mercury Rev - Chasing a Bee


The greatest neo-psych jam ever. Perhaps the greatest OTT psych tune of all time too. I guess you can't really compare 60s psych to 90s neo-psych though because by the time of Mercury Rev there were so many more influences going into the music from prog, krautrock, space rock, punk, post-punk, goth, post-hardcore, noise-pop, shoegaze and whatever else I've forgotten. I was expecting this tune to have lost its lustre now it's over 30 years old but no it is still fucking astounding. Dave Baker era Rev is still the best. If you only know Mercury Rev due to 1998's Deserter's Songs chart success well let me tell ya...you're missing out. In 1991 the cult band released the outstanding sprawling kaleidoscopic masterpiece Yerself Is Steam and then followed it up in 1993 with the equally mind-bending hallucinogenic Boces. For these two LPs the mercurial presence of singer Dave Baker gave the band an unhinged quality that would disappear from the group after he left in 94.  

Sunday, 17 July 2022

The Moffs - Another Day In The Sun


If you know you know. 80s neo-psych classic from Sydney-siders The Moffs. I've heard this a million times and it still casts the same spell on me as it did the first time I heard it on Rage in the 80s. A tone like no other in a song like no other. As a teenager I assumed there would be or had already been more tunes like this but really this is a singular vision that was never repeated. 

True West - Steps To The Door


A primo slice of neo-psych from the Paisley Underground in 1983. Now if I recall correctly the singer and the guitarist from True West had both been in a band with Kendra Smith and Steve Wynn prior to the formation of Dream Syndicate. These guys coulda been contenders as they had some ace tuneage but it was the 80s and groups like this seemed to just fizzle out into inconsequence. 

Saturday, 16 July 2022

Radial Spangle - Raze


I've been listening to a lot of 80s/early 90s neo psych, noise pop and shoegaze that I have in my collection from back in the day, much of which has been pretty unspectacular. This tune however is surprisingly tops. I remember Radial Spangle were somehow connected to Mercury Rev...I think. Did maybe someone in the band also die? Anyway the energy, insistent beat, hyped up swirly guitar riff and multi-tracked vocals make this pretty infectious. 

Friday, 15 July 2022

Drop Nineteens - Winona


This is called Winona but I really couldn't say what it's actually about but it's an enjoyable slice of American shoegaze from back in the day. It was from the debut Drop Nineteens LP from 92 which I recall was half a top record. It's incredible to think that our Winona has been a pop culture icon five decades now. Sure I dunno what she did from 1994 to 2016 except for shoplifting...maybe she learned to act. Anyway there is no shortage of love out there for her, as I'd say she's the most sung about figure in pop culture ever....probably.

Sunday, 10 July 2022

Meat Whiplash - Don't Slip Up


One classic single on Creation in 1985 and they were done. A forgotten gem that was a hit on the British independent music charts in 1985. I didn't hear this until a few years later though, on a Creation compilation. Apparently Meat Whiplash were from the same new town as The Jesus & Mary Chain. What they used to call noise-pop and a glorious encapsulation of that it is. 

Thursday, 7 July 2022

Controlled Death - Music for the Death Cult Church


Very enjoyable racket from pioneering Japanese noise performance artist Maso Yamazaki aka Masonna: The rock star of noise. He's been doing Controlled Death now for 5 or so years. This is drone-y lo-fi psychedelic dark ambient goodness. It's got church-y organs and malignant synths that infect the already sinister tones for added infernal resonance. Music For The Death Cult Church was released exclusively on cassette in February in a limited edition of 99 with no digital download option. It's now sold out and copies go for 80 Aussie dollars on discogs so I'm very grateful to the youtube channel Rites Of Pestilence for uploading this. It's quite possibly the best work under Yamazki's Controlled Death moniker.

Wednesday, 29 June 2022

Wimple Winch - Rumble on Mersey Square South


One of the best tunes of the 60s. It's got the lot: Drama so much drama and that crackling electricity in each drum hit and the exhilarating quiet loud dynamics and the crunchy guitars and the strange whistle break and the exciting violence and the complex weird melodic vocal harmonies with some funny creepy lyrics. The words are so evocative, it's like a mod movie in just four and a half minutes. 

As it said on the compilation this is "choice psychotic freakbeat" How Rumble On Mersey Square South is not on everyone's best tunes of the 60s list is beyond me but then again I only discovered it 15 years ago with the re-issue of Bam-Caruso's 1984 compilation The Psychedelic Snarl. All I know is Liverpool's Wimple Winch released just three 7"s on Fontana and none of them were hits.

I just noticed House Of Love ripped off that opening guitar line for one of their tunes maybe Shine On?

Sunday, 26 June 2022

Miller - Baby I Got News For You


Not many tunes are about buying shoes for the one you love. This is fucking weird and a little creepy. Sonically so raw and in your face. Did they expect this to get on the radio back in the day? This single was released by Columbia in 1965. Miller had previously been in the British instrumental group Peter Jay & The Jaywalkers who'd had some top 10 action with Joe Meek productions. Anyway those brash guitars eventually take over this ditty after 2 and half minutes. A very noisey racket-ness. Did a bunch of future bands base their entire careers on the last 40 seconds of this song? 

Friday, 24 June 2022

The Selfkick - Gosh, I'm Your Woman Not Your Wife


Well this is as unhinged as any great freakbeat tune from the Britain. The Selfkick were Dutch and this was Nederbeat. A classic noise-y racket from 1966.

Thursday, 23 June 2022

Him And The Others - She's Got Eyes That Tell Lies



Is there anything cooler than a group who recorded just one single?....well yeah if their one and only 7" was released on Parlaphone in 1966 and was this actual song! Plus this classic is the B-side. This is Freakbeat gold. 

The Sorrows - Pink Purple Yellow and Red


The Sorrows - Pink Purple Yellow & Red (1967)
Never heard this tune until yesterday. I know next to nothing about The Sorrows except they were from Coventry. This tune is a ripper. That bassline! Those drums. A bit of menacing British beat if not quite unhinged freakbeat. In the original definition of the term freakbeat Phil Smee, who coined the term, said it had to be "touched by the hand of mayhem" so it's not quite chaotic enough but ya know whatever i suppose...it's still freakbeat innit. That term has come to encompass British Beat, RnB, Mod, Psych etc.


The Sorrows - Take A Heart (1965)
This is the one song by The Sorrows I previously knew because it was on a compilation from 21 years ago Nuggets II: Original Artyfacts From The British Empire & Beyond

Monday, 13 June 2022

Suburban Lawns - Unable

SU TISSUE UPDATE
Since I last wrote about Su some dude reckons he saw her on twitter. This claim appears to be absolute bullshit because I think the internet would have actually gone mental if any activity from Su had actually been detected.


Everybody's favourite enigmatic new wave pop singer Su Tissue wears top outfit and does stares almost as good as Johnny Rotten.


PIL - The Slab/Order Of Death

 


PIL - THE SLAB
The Slab is the original recorded version of the below tune The Order Of Death. Keith Levene stole these 1982/83 demos that Lydon was disappointed with and released the bootleg called Commercial Zone.  Many of these tracks would be re-recorded without Levene for PIL's 1984 LP This Is What You Want...This Is What You Get.


PIL - ORDER OF DEATH
Welcome to your dystopia where everything is now flipped. The authoritarianism is now emanating from the extreme but mainstream left.

"Stay in your houses. You must comply with what we say. We have decided you can no longer think for yourselves so we have revoked your privileges and liberties. You don't want autonomy anyway we have decided. We will not tolerate dissent, you will be in trouble from MIS, DIS & MAL. We have decided you cannot see your family until further notice. There will be no fraternising with others either. We will be monitoring your online conversations to make sure you are conforming to what we have decided is correct thinking. Not calling certain men women will result in hate crime charges. Your freedom depends upon how willing you are to acquiesce to our demands."


TIME ZONE - WORLD DESTRUCTION



PIL - THIS IS NOT A LOVE SONG
This is another Commercial Zone version. I assume that's Pete Jones on bass.


*** I've gotta say John Lydon aka Johnny Rotten seems like a diamond geezer. The fact that he adopted Ari Up's kids, still recognises his working class roots (unlike the British labour party), is not on board with the bullshit new Sex Pistols tv show, likes common sense and spends most of his time looking after his wife of 41 years who has Alzheimer's is all pretty endearing. 

Recently, lame middle class leftie elitists, stuck in their illiberal bubble, have tried to smear him as a deplorable but John gets what has transpired politically (over the last 40 years) and is still getting the goat of the people who deserve it. He will not blindly toe an orthodox party line.