50 Twelve Inches – #38

Debaser – Pixies (1997, 4AD Records)

The STOP command has today been croaked from the sofa by a poorly eleven year old who has been allowed to stay off school because of the nasty cough and sore throat that she has developed.  It hasn’t stopped her playing Nintendo Switch or eating pineapple chunks in her weakened state though, which is probably a good thing.

When the command does come the finger of fate is resting upon the spine of one the greatest twelve inches in my entire collection, my twelve inch promo of ‘Debaser’ by Pixies, which is as you all should be aware is an absolute monster of a track and one that houses possibly the greatest bassline in the history of alternative music alongside one of the greatest riffs and shouty choruses too. 

Now I know what you are all thinking.  You are thinking that ‘Debaser’ was released in 1989, you big idiot, it’s on the ‘Doolittle’ album, you are seven years out, and I thumb my nose at your ineptitude.  You would of course be quite right, and I would be impressed with your use of the word ineptitude and the frankly Shakespearean insult as well, but, back in 1996, when the Pixies were having something of a purple patch in the UK, a compilation album entitled ‘Death to the Pixies’ was cobbled together and stuck out for release. 

That saw 4AD Records stick out ‘Debaser’ as a promotional single for that album and a 12 inch record was sent to a bunch of charmless liggers around the UK, me being one of them – and that is why I have ‘Debaser’ on twelve inch.  I’m not sure if it was released earlier as a single, doesn’t matter really because the version on the twelve inch is a straight lift from ‘Doolittle’ which makes it just as ace and just as fantastic as it always has been.

I really don’t know what else to say about it.  It’s ‘Debaser’.  It’s brilliant and no matter what you listen to today and no matter how good you think the songs that you are listening today are, ‘Debaser’ will be better (probably).

Oh I suppose I could tell you about the other tracks, the twelve inch promo contained two other tracks, ‘U-Mass’ from ‘Trompe Le Monde’ and ‘Gigantic’ from ‘Surfer Rosa’ again, both are excellent, especially the last one both of them featured on the ‘Death to the Pixies’ album, which as compilation albums go, isn’t that bad.

U-Mass – Pixies (1997, 4AD Records)

Gigantic – Pixies (1997, 4AD Records)

The physical release of ‘Debaser’ was different it came in three different audio formats, demo, live and studio (although the ‘Studio’ version was the album version of ‘Debaser’ backed with live tracks.  So effectively it was Demo, Live and Mostly Live.

Here is the demo version

Debaser (demo) – Pixies (1997, 4AD Records)

And here are a couple of the live tracks that were on the B Sides

Holiday Song (live in Chicago 1989) -Pixies (1997, 4AD Records)

Bone Machine (Live in Netherlands 1990) – Pixies (1997, 4AD Records)

Here is the whispered, no more than five words review

“Pass the pineapple chunks, please” – which we will take as a compliment because ten minutes the only thing the eleven was saying was “headache”.

Interesting a new playlist has appeared in the music streaming app overnight.  So, after shuffling that, here is the first track that comes up on that – which just might be the second greatest song you’ll hear all day.

Paparazzi – Lady Gaga (2009, Interscope Records, Taken from ‘The Fame Monster’)

And here is my now, frankly rubbish recommendation – when compared to that, at least.

Greatest Dancer – Nadine Shah (2024, Universal Records)

Nearly Perfect Albums #104

Original Pirate Material – The Streets (2002, Locked On Records)

‘Original Pirate Material’ illustrates in Mike Skinner’s own words “a day in the life of a geezer”. In it a variety of characters, daydreamers, drug takers, and (an awful lot of) drinkers amongst them take us on a journey where the mundane struggles of everyday life are relayed to us with charm, unabashed cockiness and in someway a naïve romanticism that music hadn’t seen in an awful long time.

For most of us the first we heard of Skinner and the Streets was on ‘Has It Come to This?, a wonky garage track that despite being recorded in Skinner’s bedroom, sounded ready for the dancefloor, with its breakbeats crackling over what sounds like a synth made on an old Casio keyboard and Mike Skinner sort of rapping, sort of well, talking, over the beat in a diluted West Midlands accent.   I’ve made that sound awful, but in reality it was excellent, and when Skinner told us all that he was all about “Sex, Drugs and on the Dole” everyone, sat up and took noticed and propelled him in to the Top Twenty, annoying garage aficionados and winning over indie kids in the process.

Has It Come to This? – The Streets (2002, Locked On Records)

The success of ‘Has It Come to This?’ meant that ultimately Skinner could finish recording this album.  When that was released, Skinner had already had a second top 20 hit with ‘Let’s Push Things Forward’ in which he told us what to expect – “this ain’t your archetypal street sound” – and he wasn’t wrong.  ‘Original Pirate Material’ is described by various people (including me when it first came out) as a garage album, largely due to the two step production and the twisty breakbeats, but in reality, this album owes more to the all night garage than it does the musical kind.

Let’s Push Things Forward – The Streets (2002, Locked On Records)

What essentially we got was an album full of tracks that almost perfectly blends tracks that are tragic, funny and at times tug on your heart strings until they just about snap.  The tracks are more stories, figments of everyday life about being skint, being in love, being drunk, being stoned and picking chicken off a vegetarian pizza and its great.  All of it.  Most of it.  I can take or leave ‘The Irony of It All’.

The Irony of It All – The Streets (2002, Locked On Records)

It does of course have its knockers.  Those that say that Skinner is a chancer who has recorded a spoken word album to a few tinny toy keyboard beats, I suspect those people have never listened to it all the way through, because ‘Original Pirate Material’ says what it is saying better because Skinner can’t sing, and pretty much makes no attempt to do so.  Take ‘It’s Too Late’, a proper album highpoint, a proper tearful heartbreaking track that sounds real and genuinely distressed and remorseful against the backdrop of sampled strings that play out a relationship breakdown.  It also contains the line “We met through a shared view, she loved me and I did too”, which is as close to songwriting genius as you will ever need to be where Mike Skinner is concerned (although he will top that when he writes ‘Dry Your Eyes’ a couple of years later).

It’s Too Late – The Streets (2002, Locked On Records)

I’m going to talk about the end of ‘Original Pirate Material’ largely because its outstanding, every second from the opening of that piano loop on ‘Weak Become Heroes’ which escalates into an ecstatic reverie, whilst at the same time allowing us to meet Skinner’s more sentimental side, you could argue that ‘Weak Become Heroes’ is the exact point when house music collides with the rave party era – and as it embraces, it abruptly gets shut down by the Man (or in this case The Criminal Justice Bill).

Weak Become Heroes – The Streets (2002, Locked On Records)

‘Who Dares Wins’ is a short almost beer soaked track that morphs sinisterly into another lonely sounding piano and then we are met with ‘Stay Positive’ which sees Skinner almost preaching from the pulpit of the church of meism (I ain’t helping you climb the ladder, I’m busy climbing mine…”about how life can feel bad, and that marvellously makes us see and believe the complete opposite because it could get worse, it’s a proper stand alone fist in the air cry of solidarity for the disenchanted, the angry, the drunk, the unlucky in love and every time I listen to it, goosebumps appear.

Stay Positive – The Streets (2002, Locked On Records)

Rocks greatest W – #1 – The Wedding Present

Dalliance – The Wedding Present (1991, RCA Records)

Points 231

Highest Position First Six Times

“Essentially, I’m expecting a long countdown and then a Gedge win because The Wedding present are one of the greatest bands ever not just a W – if they were the Bedding Present they’d be rocks greatest B etc.  There’s too many brilliant songs to list and like some of my other votes they continue to produce great music.  You can’t argue with john Peel – “The boy Gedge has written some of the best love songs of the Rock n Roll era.  You may dispute this, but I’m right and you’re wrong”.   Even if all the songs sound the same (they don’t) then does it matter when it’s such a great song in the first place”

In the end, Another Jim who wrote that splendid paragraph up top, was spot on – and he wasn’t the only one, in fact so many of the Musical Jury had something to say about the Wedding Present, that it means for once I have to do very little actual typing.  So what I’ll do is stick up the comments and then bung a song or two underneath them.  I’ll come back at the end.  Let’s have the Original Jim, or JC to you and me next, who by the way is meticulously working his way through every Wedding Present single in order, on a Sunday morning over at his ever-excellent blog The New Vinyl Villain.

“I’ve given maximum points to the Wedding Present, and I’ll be surprised if I’m alone in doing so.  You will come across those who do not worship at the Church of Gedge spouting lines such as “all the songs sound the same”.  These people are heretics.  I’ve 455 TWP songs on the hard drive – more than 200 original tunes with the rest made up of radio sessions, live tracks and cover versions that range from the brilliant to the bizarre (or the wonderful to the wacky if you prefer).  Its fair comment that, despite an ever changing line up of band members, it has rarely deviated from sounds of a four piece with two guitarists alongside a drummer and a bassist, but there are many of us out there who are happy enough with such simplicity.  Great Live act too.” 

Everyone Thinks He Looks Daft – The Wedding Present (1987, Reception Records, Taken from ‘George Best’)

Kennedy – The Wedding Present (1987, RCA Records, Taken from ‘Bizarro’)

Next Up MJM#19 whose only comments in this entire process were thus,

“No one.  Not New Order, Blur, Elbow or of those other songwriting geniuses that we get told about, can write a song about the pain of love, be it about a break up or just the sheer difficulty of actually loving someone, than David Gedge and he gets nowhere near enough credit for that”.

But he is spot on of course,

Lovenest – The Wedding Present (1991, RCA Records, Taken from ‘Seamonsters’)

My Favourite Dress – The Wedding Present (1987, Reception Records, Taken from ‘George Best’)

Khayem also wanted to talk about love, well sort of,

“Sometimes, relationships feel better forgotten when they end.  However, I will always be grateful to my indie/jangly music loving ex who (re) educated me in the brilliance that is David gedge and his merry band  A Superb live experience with a deep and rich back catalogue to match, where the single and Eps are every bit as essential as the albums”.

Blue Eyes – The Wedding Present (1992, RCA Records, Taken from ‘The Hit Parade 1’)

The consistent thing which stands out about the Wedding Present is their live shows, here’s The Robster who tells us that The Wedding Present were the first band he saw live,

“First place goes to the Wedding Present.  My first gig and one of the most significant acts of my adult life.  Still going strong and not just worthy of my time, but my hard-earned cash too, in the form of gig tickets and records”

Model, Actress, Whatever… – The Wedding Present (2008, Vibrant Records, Taken from ‘El Rey’)

‘El Rey’ was the first album that the band released after they reformed in 2004 (after a six year hiatus, when Gedge released records as Cinerama). The reformed Wedding Present lead Jez to break what along with eating the brown Pot Noodles, is one of only two golden rules he has,

“No surprises here.  Generally I don’t like bands that reform, their output is never as good as first time around.  But Mr Gedge is the exception that proves the rule (although nothing about Weddoes 2.0 is as good as they were first time around, it’s still bloody marvellous)”

 Deer Caught in the Headlights – The Wedding Present (2012, Scopitones Records, Taken from ‘Valentina’)

And that is that folks, The Wedding Present are officially Rocks Greatest W and if anyone knows Mr Gedge personally, you can tell him that he can place that title on the bands official website if he wants to, but only because they are bloody marvellous.

Once again, as proved by this piece, I am indebted to the Musical Jury.  Thank you to you all, your are welcome around to No Badger Towers anytime you like for tea and cakes, even if I have no tea or cakes available.  The next Jury inspired month will be June and Musical Jury Members should start warming up for that.  I’m going to leave you with a little teaser as to what that might be all about, but as Little Alex Horne says, “All the information is on the card”.

Nobody Cares – Yung (2015, Tough Love Records, taken from ‘Alter’ EP)

If you want to be a Jury Member you can email Nobadgerrequired@googlemail.com and I’ll do the rest.

Rocks greatest W – #2 – The White Stripes

Fell In Love with A Girl – The White Stripes (2001, XL Records, Taken from ‘White Blood Cells’)

Points 191

Highest Position First Twice

Pretty much from the start, the Greatest W in Rock Countdown came down to two bands, The White Stripes and the band that finished first.  At first the Stripes looked like they were going to walk it.  At the half way stage, Jack and Meg were 18 points clear at the top, and were regularly appearing in the Top Three of nearly set of votes that came in.    There was one simple reason for this, The White Stripes were incredible and when the first emerged at the turn of the century that were doing things and making sounds that no bands were making or even daring to make.  Or as Middle Aged Man puts it,

“The White Stripes for a short period were the best on the planet, not only was the music amazing but their fashion sense was stunning.  Although being ginger I could never wear red”.

The Same Boy You’ve Always Known – The White Stripes (2001, XL Records, taken from ‘White Blood Cells’)

It was perhaps ‘White Blood Cells’, the bands third album that saw them breakthrough amidst massive critical acclaim, the Daily Mirror for instance called them ‘The Greatest Band since the Sex Pistols’, which whilst sort of right, also suggests that the stereo in the Daily Mirrors office hadn’t been updated since the late seventies because the “greatest bands since the Sex Pistols” are in order, Modern Romance, JoBoxers, De La Soul, James, Oasis, Northern Uproar,  Terris, the Strokes and then The White Stripes.  Regardless, it was ‘White Blood Cells’ and the tracks on it, that won them an army of fans.

Here’s Another Jim to explain it from his perspective,

“I probably heard them first around the same time as most other people – ‘Hotel Yorba’ which blew me away and I loved them from them on – although to me they never got better than ‘White Blood Cells’ – I saw them around then and they were the closest I’d seen to the Pixies – Jack White is an incredible guitarist and front man – Meg’s drumming gets a lot of flak but sometimes it’s not about being a great drummer (which she is) but its about being the RIGHT drummer and unquestionably her drumming is right for The White Stripes (you only have to look at everything Jack’s done since and there’s nothing as consistently good as The White Stripes)”. 

Hotel Yorba – The White Stripes (2001, XL Records)

If ‘White Blood Cells’ won them fans, the three albums that followed it, kept them at the top of rocks premier league.  ‘Elephant’ came first and that for me is the pinnacle of the bands career.  ‘Elephant’ is an astonishing record, full of great songs, incredible guitar solos (like the one on ‘Seven Nation Army’ for instance) and it contains some of Meg’s finest drumming.

Seven Nation Army – The White Stripes (2003, XL Records)

After ‘Elephant’, the band returned with a more striped back affair called ‘Get Behind Me Satan’, which despite seemingly abandoning their punky blues style for a more fresh approach, it gained them yet more critical acclaim.

The Denial Twist – The White Stripes (2005, V2 Records)

The last White Stripes album was ‘Icky Thump’ and that heralded a return to the punky garage rock that they had become synonymous for, and it gave the band a Number 2 hit in the UK, with the title track,

Icky Thump – The White Stripes (2007, Warner Brothers Records)

I’ll let The Robster have the final word on The White Stripes because I think he summed up what a lot of people were thinking at the time, especially chaps in their 30s, who were sighing and reaching for the cardigans.

“Second place goes to the White Stripes, a band who thrilled me as I turned 30, thus ensuring I didn’t slump into typical 30 something blandness where Coldplay were considered the most cutting edge band in my life”. 

And so we reach the end, here is the final lyrical test.

“He’s got you back and that’s all he wants.  A lot more than I’m left with”

Rocks greatest W – #3 – Stevie Wonder

I Just Called To Say I Love You – Stevie Wonder (1984, Motown Records)

Points 167

Highest Position First

I’m going to start with something that on reflection is probably unacceptable  behaviour – but I’ll preface it with the fact that it happened in 1984 and I was 8 and my brother (the protagonist) was 10.  We knew no better, and I can only apologise.

Anyway, my grandad used to own a Ford Escort and every weekend after football practice, he would drive my nan, my brother, my sister and I to the beach or the park or the woods for an afternoon out if we were lucky we would get fish and chips and a can of lemonade.  It was a much simpler time and you made your own entertainment then.  My grandad for instance, refused to have the radio on in the car (unless it was the racing results, in which case, he’d pull into a carpark and tell us all to “Keep Quiet for ten minutes, with such a tone to his voice that you’d be mad to even sneeze). 

In those days, children didn’t need car seats or even seat belts in the back of the car for that matter and my brother and I used to turn around and wave at the cars behind or pretend we were driving the car backwards, like I said, simpler times.  On the parcel shelf sat a multi coloured blanket, hand knitted by my nan and to be used to wrap my sister (aged 4) up in should she get cold or need swaddling like other babies.

Anyway, my brother used to pop said blanket over his head, place his glasses over the top of that and shake his head to and from and pretend to be Stevie Wonder in the video to ‘I Just Called to Say I Love You’ because he had braids with multi coloured beads and was you know, blind.  It made me laugh so much once that my grandad had to pull over on the hard shoulder of the Herne Bay to Whistable road so that I could take an emergency wee.   Like I said I was 8.

That genuinely is what I think of when I hear ‘I Just Called to Say I Love You’, but my memory of that record has been tarnished by the absolute slating it has been given by some members of the Musical Jury, they have to quote Enid Blyton in the unpublished ‘Five go to Kuwait’, “battered the crap out of it with shoes”.  We’ll start with MJM#5 who at least tries to justify calling it “Bontempi Shit” (which it probably is, if we really want to debate it)

“Top Five musical crimes perpetuated by Stevie Wonder in the 80s and 90s.  Go.  Sub-question: is it in fact unfair to criticize a formerly great artist for his latter days crimes , is it better to burn out or fade away?

Fading away is absolutely fine when you’ve already got two decades of absolute class in the bank.  After that, you can cobble together as much Bontempi shit like, I Just Called To Say I Love You as you like.  You’ve earned the right”

That two decades of absolute class, probably started around 1968 with his ‘For Once In My Life’ album but answers to the first bit in the comments below please, but I’ll start with the entire ‘Jungle Fever’ soundtrack and leave it there.

For Once In My Life – Stevie Wonder (1968, Motown Records)

Stevie Wonder was most impressive perhaps in the seventies, as Khayem mentions,

“You can forgive ‘I just called to Say I love you’ when you consider his albums recorded and releases throughout the 1970s up to ‘Hotter Than July (1980 but who’s counting)”

There are, in my opinion at least, three albums in that period that particularly stand out and that should be in every record collection in the land, ‘Talking Book’, ‘Innervisions’ (on the Nearly Perfect Shortlist) and ‘Songs In the Key of Life’.    Here is a track from each,

Superstition – Stevie Wonder (1972, Tamla Motown Records, Taken from ‘Talking Book’)

Higher Ground – Stevie Wonder (1973, Tamla Motown Records, Taken from ‘Innervisions’)

Sir Duke – Stevie Wonder (1976, Tamla Motown Records, Taken from ‘Songs in the Key of Life’)

The Robster was minded to agree, with Khayem, but narrows the masterpieces to eight years,

“Stevie gets in on the basis of his records released between 1972 and 1980.  There is some absolute genius in that period that can’t be overlooked, in spite of the dross that followed it”

Here’s a track from 1980’s ‘Hotter Than July’, which it appears now is universally accepted as being the last decent record that Stevie Wonder made.

Master Blaster (Jammin) – Stevie Wonder (1980, Tamla Motown)

The album that followed ‘Hotter Than July’ was the soundtrack to the ‘Women In Red’ which of course features ‘I Just Called To Say I Love You’, something that Jez, is keen to point out,

“Stevie Wonder would be #1 were it not for ‘I Just to called to Say I Love You’ (and everything that came after that)”.

Which kind of settles things nicely.

Here is tomorrow lyrical clue, the penultimate one,

“She’s in love with the world.  But sometimes these feelings can be so misleading”

Rocks greatest W – #4 – Andrew Weatherall

Only Love Can Break Your Heart (A Mix of Two Halves) – Saint Etienne (1990, Heavenly Records)

Points 156

Highest Position First Twice

Oh where do you start.  I mean if only there was someone, a friend of the blog, who could tell me something, anything, even the smallest detail about this chap Weatherall, who seems to have somehow got lucky and found himself in the Top Five Greatest W’s.  If only we had someone like that, but we don’t.  There are a bunch of comments from a few of the Jury though – let’s start at the back, here’s Jez from A History of Dubious Taste, who awarded Weatherall 19 points and backed it up with this line of evidence

“You know as well as I do that I’m not the best placed to provide comment here” – which isn’t that helpful so let’s have some music, whilst we wait for some others to offer an opinion shall we.

Come Home (Weatherall Skunk Weed Skank Mix) – James (1990, Fontana Records) – When I was a lad, my mate Chris found a bunch of records in a box in a skip on the driveway of a house in Rochester and after asking the bloke who was doing the chucking out if he could have them he took them home and all of them were rubbish, apart from one, which was a white label containing this mix.  That genuinely happened, the most exciting thing I have ever found in a skip is a sawn-off shotgun, which on reflection is probably quite exciting.  Oh, JC has his hand up.   I hope this is about Andy Weatherall and isn’t about illicit firearms found in odd places, JC?

I think that the late and great AW might win this thing as his appeal goes right across the board and covers just about every genre.  The word is all too often over overused, but he was a genius

Well, yes and no.  He was a genius, but no he won’t win this thing as he finished about 70 points behind the winner, oh just in case you’re reading Wendy James, its not you.  Let’s have another track remixed by Mr Weatherall shall we.

Smokebelch II (Beatless Mix) – Sabres of Paradise (1993, Warp Records) – and I know I have said it before, about six thousand times, but that is just beautiful isn’t it.   Here’s Khayem from the wonderful Dubhed blog who has been bouncing up and down for so long, that he either has something to say or needs the toilet or both.  Let’s have one more remix whilst he washes his hand.

Come Together (Two Lone Swordsmen Mix) – Spiritualized (1998, Dedicated Records) – all fifteen glorious minutes of it

“Swiss Adam will without question articulate far better than I why Andrew Weatherall is rocks greatest W.  An immense and rewarding body of work, as important to me as David Bowie.  No hesitation with where to score my twenty points”

Who is this Swiss Adam that you speak of Khayem…?  I mean I was going to offer up that Andrew Weatherall was a chap with a beard who remixed a bunch of tracks and made the tea for Primal Scream whilst they made ‘Screamadelica’, are you telling me that this Swiss Adam can do better than that….?  Well, here he is so let’s find out (and the short answer is, he unquestionably can….)

“The greatest remixer and producer British music produced in the acid house period and a man who then meandered in a zig zag line, avoiding the limelight and the big money, through techno, acid house, dub, post punk, rockabilly and garage rock, ever shifting, never giving people exactly what they thought they wanted, resurfacing for a late period purple patch in the 2010s through to his untimely death in 2020.  Being a world class DJ in one genre is beyond most people.  Weatherall could do it in multiple genres and styles.  His bands Sabres of Paradise and Two Lone Swordsmen redefined electronic music.  His eye for a quote, a phrase, a picture, a record, a sample was second to none.  An inspiration.”

Which is as good a paragraph about Weatherall as you are ever going to read.

I’m going to end with referencing The Guardian as they ran a piece on Weatherall after that untimely death and featured what they claim are to be his ten greatest tracks, here are three of them (and I’ve featured some of the others as well up above) in no order – although they like me should have just asked Swiss Adam.

Glide By Shooting – Two Lone Swordsman (1996, Cacophony Records) – which has this haunting beauty about it.

Explode – Basic Units (2002, Firewire Records) – The Guardian described this as a nicotine stained basement banger and I can’t top that.

And finally…because, well because Songwhip doesn’t have his remix of My Bloody Valentine’s ‘Soon’ for some unknown bloody reason.

Loaded – Primal Scream (1990, Creation Records)

Here is the saccharine coated lyrical test for tomorrow.

“No New Year’s Day to celebrate.  No chocolate covered candy hearts to give away”

Rocks greatest W – #5 – Wire

Mannequin – Wire – (1977, Harvest Records, Taken from ‘Pink Flag’)

Points 154

Highest Position Second Twice

I think I might have mentioned before that a copy of ‘Pink Flag’ sat at the bottom of my big box of CD’s, largely untouched and unloved for a number of years.  It was given to me years ago by a friend as a present.  I played it perhaps three times, decided that I liked Thousand Yard Stare and Curve better and then relegated to it the shelf where the ‘Barely Played’ CDs sat and then it was relegated to the box and then to the box in the loft.

Some thirty years later, I listened to ‘Pink Flag’ all over again and have finally come to recognise it for what it is, one of the finest albums of the first post punk phase and to that effect the ‘Pink Flag’ CD has found its way out of the box and the loft and now sits in the lounge in a box of CDs that I sometimes play in the car, which is as good as it gets for CDs these days and nearly all the music that I listen to is streamed or part of the ever growing music library that sits on the laptop.  Anyway, my point is that without streaming my knowledge of Wire would start and stop at ‘Pink Flag’, which wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing, because its ace, full of abstract and experimental minimalist post punk.

Ex Lion Tamer – Wire (1977, Harvest Records)

12 XU – Wire (1977, Harvest Records)

However, I would have missed out because as Another Jim points out rather brilliantly,

“Obviously their early stuff is great – Outdoor Miner, Kidney Bingoes being two favourites – but they are a band that keeps challenging and producing great music – their last album ‘Mind Hive’ is an incredible record (Album of the Year 2020 for me) – Off The Beach is a great song – poppy reminiscent of their early stuff and a brilliant song bout refugees on boats”

Here are the two early tracks that Another Jim refers to, the first one ‘Outdoor Miner’ is taken from the bands second album ‘Chairs Missing’, which spins the abstract minimalist post punk on its head a little bit by adding a bunch of synthesizers, and a distinctly psychedelic flavour to it.  It’s still pretty marvellous though

Outdoor Miner – Wire (1978, Harvest Records, Taken from ‘Chairs Missing’)

The second song that Another Jim mentions is ‘Kidney Bingos’ is taken from the band’s fifth album, ‘A Bell Is A Cup’ which again tries (and largely succeeds) to blend post punk art rock with electronic.

Kidney Bingos – Wire (1988, Mute Records, Taken from ‘A Bell Is A Cup’)

Before we discuss Wire’s new material, here’s MJM #17 again to tell us why he gave Wire a bunch of points.

“In 1991, I was listening to a lot of different music and used to make lots of different mixtapes and as I walked around the place, I would listen to a certain bassline over and over again or I would immerse myself in the way a hook sounded.  It wouldn’t be unknown for me to miss my stop of the train or the bus because I was rewinding a certain section of these mixtapes.  Anyway, the one track that always made me stop and rewind and relisten to it about six times was the 12” version of ‘Eardrum Buzz’ by Wire.”

Eardrum Buzz (12” Version) – Wire (1989, Taken from ‘IBTABA’) – and despite all that I’ve said above, Eardrum Buzz’ was the first Wire song I ever heard, having featured on appropriately enough a mixtape made for me by my mate Chris.

The last Wire album, ‘Mind Hive’ ( their seventeenth, released in 2020) was something of a triumph (it got universal press acclaim, as well as being Another Jim’s record of the year – although, it is accepted that having that award is way more important than being liked by the Times) and caused the Guardian to get a little excited about it, claiming that it some new band on the block had made it we would all be doing ‘our nuts in about it’.  Quite.  It is very good though, it also features a hurry gurdy on track seven and there simply aren’t enough bands using hurdy gurdys these days.

Off The Beach – Wire (2020,  Pinkflag Records)

Oklahoma – Wire (2020, Pinkflag Records)

Here is tomorrows lyrical clue

“The DJ Eased a Spliff from his lyrical lips and smilingly orders….Cease..”

50 Twelve Inches – #37

Star Sign – Teenage Fanclub (1991, Creation Records)

I was listening to this radio show this other day whilst in the car.  It was one of those phone in ones, where the cheery DJ gives the listener a topic and the listener then phones in and regales the audience with a tale.  Today’s topic was the rather open ended, “Strange but True”.  So you got Brenda from Cullompton phoning in telling people some strange fact that she has picked up about post codes , which is neither interesting nor that strange, and Todd from Porlock Bay (where fans of the slightly dubious Mr Tumble flock to because that is where it was filmed ) tells everyone a slightly fascinating story about the why Nipples Hill on Exmoor is so call – “and it’s not for the reason you might be expecting”, he says with a laugh.

It’s all very whimsical, until its Stuart from Bickleigh turn that is.  Bickleigh, for those who don’t know it, is a small village just outside Tiverton that holds its own strange but true slice of rock history – or so they say – it is debatable as to whether or not it actually true or not – but there is an ancient road crossing over the river Exe in Bickleigh, and one Sunday afternoon, after lots of rain, a certain Paul Simon sat in the pub opposite the bridge, eating a roast dinner, and came up with the idea of ‘Bridge Over Troubled Waters’.  Why Paul Simon would be in Mid Devon eating a Sunday Roast at the height of his fame, is anyone guess…Anyway, I’m digressing, Stuart from Bickleigh.

Stuart tells us that he has recently been having a clear out at his mothers house, as she has moved in with him and his wife, Louise.  The other day the found a load of old photograph albums and he, his mum and the lovely Louise spent a wistful afternoon flicking through them. One of these albums had pictures of Stuart on holiday in the sun kissed beach resort of Skegness when he was five, there he was sitting on the sea wall eating an ice cream with a goofy grin on his face, as he smiles at the camera.  He passes the photo of to Louise to look at, which is when she takes a closer look at the photo and says with the utmost certainty, “that’s me in the background”, because there in the background, staring at the photo, is a five year old Louise.

Now, that isn’t necessarily the strange thing about this story – the chances of two people, who didn’t know each other at the time, but now do, both being at a Butlins Resort in the eighties isn’t necessarily that rare, they were really popular in the eighties.  Nor is it strange that Stuart has opted to repeat a much told urban myth to the listeners of Radio Devon on a Tuesday morning.  I doubt that Stuart has a wife at all in fact – but what’s strange is that Stuart then said that Skegness was one of the best places to go on holiday in the world and that he and Louise still go there regularly. 

The twelve inch that the finger of fate stopped on today after the STOP command was hollered is ‘Star Sign’ by Teenage Fanclub, an all time indie rock classic from a band who were back in 1991 at a height of their creative brilliance, saying that they’ve never really slipped far from creative brilliance to be fair.

‘Star Sign’ was the lead off single from Teenage Fanclub’s third album ‘Bandwagonesque’, an album which took Teenage Fanclub from being highly rated indie gods in the making to even more highly rated indie gods in the making, largely because it failed to trouble the charts, something with the band grew very familiar with in the following months.  Not having success was something that they seemed quite comfortable with, they always cam across as the sort of band that didn’t really want to be superstars and yet despite having the perfect melodies and the wonderful harmonies, what they had the most of was perhaps humility.

The twelve inch in the cupboard was bought from Our Price, in Chatham, probably in the OPG era of my life, in fact almost certainly.  It came backed with three tracks, the first was a cover version that had surfaced a while earlier on their second album ‘The King’ which the band famously wrote, recorded, released and then deleted in the space of 48 hours. 

Like A Virgin – Teenage Fanclub (1991, Creation Records)

The flip side had two other songs, neither of which were ‘new’ songs, the first one ‘Heavy Metal 6’ was also on ‘The King’ and the other was a demo version of ‘Star Sign’, all ace though.

Heavy Metal 6 – Teenage Fanclub (1991, Creation Records)

Star Sign (demo) – Teenage Fanclub (1991, Creation Records)

Here is the no more than five word review, which I take as a personal insult.

“Libras are better than Gemini’s”

For this weeks recommendation my daughter has gone big and offered us the new country and western tinged Beyonce track, ‘Texas Hold ‘Em’, something which as it happens, is a rather fine thing anyway.

Texas Hold ‘Em – Beyonce (2024, Columbia Records)

In comparison, here is something by London DIY indie act C Turtle, who might just be my new favourite band.

More Insects – C Turtle (2024, Blitzcat Records)

Nearly Perfect Albums #103

Goblin – Tyler the Creator (2011, XL Records)

I don’t know you wait 95 weeks for the No Badger Required Nearly Perfect Album Picker to randomly select some leftfield millennial hip hop and then three get picked in the space of five weeks.  Hot on the heels of Vince Staples and Chance the Rapper comes Tyler the Creator, who around fifteen years ago was part of the soon to be massively influential nihilistic, teenaged rap collective that was Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All.   Tyler was perhaps the breakout star from that collective, although I suspect Earl Sweatshirt might disagree with me (in fact check out ‘Earl’ – the debut mix tape from Earl Sweatshirt – he made that when he was sixteen.  16 – when I was sixteen I thought that the Inspiral Carpets were radical because they wore flared trousers.).

The thing about Odd Future, was that back in 2010 they were new, exciting, young and most importantly they were controversial with their brutal lyrics about sexual violence (which they claimed were ‘satirical, and a political swipe at the far right agenda of American politics’ – but more of that later) and gang life and whilst the divided opinion, they got your attention and right at the centre of all that was controversial was Tyler the Creator, whose feral persona and growling raps won him an army of fans.

Just whilst we are here, I struggled with whether or not to include ‘Goblin’ in this list  – for reasons that will become obvious later – and I very nearly substituted it for Tyler’s 2019 album ‘Igor’ but in the end, I went with ‘Goblin’.  You can make your own minds up as to whether I was right or not.

Anyway, in 2011, Tyler released ‘Goblin’ his second album (technically his first studio album – his first album ‘Bastard’ was a mixtape – which its great as well folks), a bleak and uncompromising record that doesn’t try to be anything other than difficult to listen to (It’s deliberately unpleasant and solemnly claustrophobic for instance) and its marvellous because of it.  For a start and in a way totally alien to most rap records, none of the tracks have choruses, none of it has its head tilted to the mainstream charts (although ironically it made Tyler a superstar because of it) and it is as much influenced by the music of Iggy Pop as it is, say NWA or Eminem if you want a more contemporary reference.

Sandwiches – Tyler the Creator (2011, XL Records)

That said it full extraordinary tracks, ‘Yonkers’ for instance, manages to be one of the greatest rap tracks of all time, despite threatening to stab Bruno Mars in the “goddam oesphagus…”.  ‘Yonkers’ has this eerie sounding synth whirring its way through the track and the lyrical delivery is something to behold.  In fact that eerie synth works it was through several of the tracks that you hear,

Yonkers – Tyler the Creator (2011, XL Records)

Radicals – Tyler the Creator (2011, XL Records)

Elsewhere, ‘Her’ hints that there is more to Tyler than just an Xbox obsessed kid who sticks his middle finger up when he asked to do something.  On ‘Her’ he tackles romantic rejection and comes to the conclusion that the reason the girl dumped him was because she simply didn’t like him.   It is a refreshing moment of clarity in an otherwise cloudy record.

Her – Tyler the Creator (2011, XL Records)

Equally refreshing is the appearance of Frank Ocean, whose crystal lined vocals crop up on the track ‘She’, the closest moment that ‘Goblin’ has to a pop song – but that is still some distance from being that, its just Frank Ocean could sing the instructions on how to construct an Ikea bookcase and it would sound excellent.

She – Tyler the Creator (and Frank Ocean) (2011, XL Records)

There are two things wrong with ‘Goblin’, well three, but the first two are linked so I’ve made it one thing.  it’s too long (73 minutes) and too exhausting (at times).  It’s not an album that you listen to before going out or even if you aren’t for that matter.  I’m not sure exactly, when, you would ever find yourself in a ‘Goblin’ sort of mood – but it is excellent when you do dive in.

The second thing, and this is my biggest problem with it, is (and what clearly stops it being Perfect), that is very easy to become slightly annoyed by the lyrical content, which includes (but not exclusively) causal homophobia and misogyny (the word “Bitch” for instance is, famously, used over 200 times in those 73 minutes). 

Now, I’m not here to preach about what rappers do and don’t say in their records, that’s up to them (and we can discuss sexism and well, racism, in indie music later if you want to), but whether it be deliberately controversial, biting satire or just plain dumb, it’s tiring.  I’m nowhere near the best person to talk about this, but I genuinely struggle to believe that Frank Ocean, an openly gay male would go anywhere near Tyler the Creator if he was a rampant homophobe (and I’ll point you in the direction of what Tyler’s own Wikipedia page says, which appears to suggest that Tyler is bisexual)

I also doubt that XL Records would have invested as much as they have in Tyler the Creator if he was a misogynist or a homophobe – then again they released ‘Smack my Bitch Up’ so I could be wrong.

Personally, I can sort of push all that to one side, knowing that what Tyler did next (particularly when you listen to 2019’s ‘Igor’ album) and that he left behind some of the more banal nature of ‘Goblin’.  When you do that ‘Goblin’ is a thrilling record that introduced us to a great talent.

Rocks greatest W – #6 – Wonderstuff

Sing The Absurd – The Wonderstuff – (1993, Polydor Records, Taken from ‘Construction for the Modern Idiot’)

Points 134

Highest Position Third Twice

Reading Festival 1992 was famous for several things.  Firstly the rain, which was so torrential that it made the Melody Maker Stage sink.  Secondly, for being the last UK performance of Nirvana, who played on the Sunday, despite a million rumours circulating around the site, right up to them walking on stage.  Rumours like Kurt had been taken ill, in a Slough restaurant and at the very last minute the only band willing to step in were Right Said Fred.  Thirdly, the bizarre scheduling that placed The Farm on after the Smashing Pumpkins and before the Manic Street Preachers. All of which made it a fun festival.  For me, though, the most memorable bit was the photo before The Wonderstuff came on stage on the Friday night.  Well actually, the memorable bit occurred about four months later on a tube on the way to Brixton Academy.

Circlesquare – The Wonderstuff (1990, Polydor Records)

We had been camping in an area and apart from Nirvana, the appearance of the Wonderstuff was one of the most anticipated shows of the weekend.  A lot of people in the camping area near us all bonded over The Wonderstuff.  About half an hour before the show (in the lull between the end of The Charlatans and the beginning of the Wonderstuff) we grabbed a random lad to take a massive photo of us all.

It was Adrian’s camera and there were about thirty people in that photo, all of us grinning out at the lad taking the photo.  He took the gig seriously, moving people around, standing back, getting us all to shout ‘Bollocks’ before he clicked the photo.   Adrian then promised to send copies of the photos to everyone, addresses were exchanged.  Which is what he did.  Sadly, the random guy, had taken a photo of everyone and the picture was all shaky, faces were blurred and it was out of focus.   Random man became known as ‘Mr Wobbly Head’ because that is what his photos looked like.

Fast forward four months later, The Wonderstuff have announced a small UK tour called ‘Sleigh the UK’ (because its Christmas you see) and some of us in that gang had all agreed to meet up in London to see the band at the Brixton Academy gig.  We arrange to met at a pub near the venue and have a nostalgic get together. 

It was on the tube between Victoria and Brixton when Jay saw him, he whispered it to Naomi, who whispered it to Kate who told me, I told Adrian, he told his brother who shouted “Mr Wobbly Head”.  For it was he.  Within minutes, we were all shouting Mr Wobbly Head, a lad who tried to do us a favour and we universally hated because he ruined a photograph that we’d asked him to take.

He looked a bit sheepish to be honest and a man next to him, just looked at him and said “Wow, mate, what’s it like to be known as Mr Wobbly Head”.

We never found out the answer.

For five or six years at the end of eighties and the start of nineties, The Wonderstuff were one of the greatest bands that there was, on record, live, everything.  In Miles Hunt, they had one of the biggest personalities in rock music and they could do very little wrong.  In that period they released four wonderful albums.  The best of these, is in my opinion the second one, ‘Hup’, a record that a 14 year old me bought on vinyl from a record shop in the Pentagon Centre in Chatham, with a ten a pound note given to me my by grandfather.  A record that pretty much sowed the seeds for my love of guitars and persuaded me that long hair, army jackets and DM boots were my thing.

Cartoon Boyfriend – The Wonderstuff (1989, Polydor Records)

Don’t Let Me Down (Gently) – The Wonderstuff (1989, Polydor Records)

Saying that the debut ‘The Eight Legged Groove Machine’ runs it pretty close.

A Wish Away – The Wonderstuff (1988, Polydor Records)

Unbearable – The Wonderstuff (1988, Polydor Records)

In 1991, the band reached the pinnacle of their popularity with the album ‘Never Loved Elvis’, which saw the have top ten hits and sell out stadiums.  It was a slight departure from their other records, with more emphasis on violins and an indie folk sound.  The bands original bass player, Rob Jones left the band after the release of ‘Hup’ and the change of sound perhaps reflected that.  Jones moved to New York, married the last girlfriend of Sid Vicious and the sadly died of a heart attack in 1993 just before the release of the bands fourth album, Construction for the Modern Idiot’.

‘Never Loved Elvis’ is probably their worst album, but still a marvellous indie pop album.

Size of A Cow – The Wonderstuff (1991, Polydor Records)

Welcome to the Cheap Seats – The Wonderstuff (1991, Polydor Records) – which remains the only single where I have appeared on the cover.  So far, at least.

In 1994, the band split up suddenly.  There was no reason announced, but the massive touring of their fourth album ‘Construction for the Modern Idiot’ was largely blamed.   That album saw the band more back to a more beefed up sound similar to the debut record and remains a very good record.

On The Ropes – The Wonderstuff (1993, Polydor Records)

Room 410 – The Wonderstuff (1993, Polydor Records)

Here is Mondays lyrical clue which brings about the start of the Top Five,

“Well, you’re a waste of space, No natural grace”