MBV OLDIES VOLUME 2

I am copying/pasting this initial blurb from the previous MBV Oldies post:

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My Bloody Valentine were one of those bands that managed to create a sound that became a genre. They seemingly changed the DNA of music with thier layered guitar playing and hushed, lilting vocals. I came to them with the release of the Tremelo EP in 1991. Back in the seemingly halcyon record shop days people who worked there would see a young kid and get to know what they were into and build a relationship with them. I'd walk in and they'd be like "oh, I've go some goodies for you!" and they'd walk around the shop picking out 4 or 5 records for you based on their interpretation of your tatse. This is how I was introduced to MBV and Tremelo. Anyway, they are mostly known for this period of their musical life. The You Made Me Realise EP => Feed Me With Your Kiss EP => Isn't Anything => Glider EP => Tremelo EP => Loveless run was kind of an unreal series of releases. Each release moved more in this pyschedelic direction until you had the absolutely perfect album: Loveless.
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This is the 2nd incarnation of My Bloody Valentine. They dropped their initial gothic post-punk sound for a much more indie pop sound. I used three (of four) songs from the EP The New Record By My Bloody Valentine and all four songs from the follow up EP Sunny Sundae Smile. Both releases had the lineup: David Conway – vocals; Kevin Shields – guitar; Debbie Googe – bass; Colm Ó Cíosóig – drums. I followed this up using two (of three) songs from their non album single Strawberry Wine which was the first release to feature Bilinda Butcher after the departure of original vocalist David Conway. I used six (of seven) songs from the mini-LP Ecstasy . Both release featured the lineup: Kevin Shields – vocals, guitar; Bilinda Butcher – vocals, guitar; Debbie Googe – bass; Colm Ó Cíosóig – drums. By the way I found this really interesting article that interviewed Conway about his time in the band and eventual departure. You can read it here!

Tracklisting:
We’re So Beautiful
On Another Rainy Saturday
Sunny Sundae Smile
Paint A Rainbow
She Loves You No Less
Never Say Goodbye
I Don’t Need You
Kiss The Eclipse
By The Danger In Your Eyes
Sylvie’s Head
Clair
(Please) Lose Yourself In Me
Strawberry Wine
(You’re) Safe In Your Sleep (From This Girl)
You’ve Got Nothing

All I want to see
Please lose yourself in me

St Patrick's Day Trilogy

A wee Pogues double trilogy for Saint Patrick's Day:



Red Roses For Me

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Rum Sodomy & The Lash

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Poguetry In Motion EP

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That's a perfect early pogues run. Messy and Irish and punk AF.




If I Should Fall From Grace With God

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Peace & Love

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Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah EP

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That's a run with the Pogues broadening their Irish songs to include the immigrant experience beyond London, to Australia, New York and elsewhere. This run also found them expanding their actual sound to include more traditional jazz, spanish influences and even psychedlia. Almost all of it is fanfuckingtastic. They made some great music after this but never another great album nevermind trilogy. Shane was halfway out the door and various members were out of control drunk or embracing newfound sobriety at this point. Joe Strummer even joined for a short while! Anyway, these four albums and two EP's document an incredible band on an incredible journey.

AUTOMATIC

Obviously this is my blog and everything on here is my opinion and, well, one of my opinions is that The Jesus & Mary Chain released two incredible albums and a great EP to make a wonderfully perfect little trilogy.

Psycocandy is 39 minutes of noisy, abrasive, feedback laden pop songs that harken back to the Shanri Las and the Beach Boys as well as Einstürzende Neubauten and the Velvet Underground. I recently broke out my old copy of Psychocandy and had a listen. One of my all time favourite JAMC songs is on there: "Never Understand". What a perfect pop song. As much as I love this album though, it definitely hits differently in my 50's than it did when it came out in my teens. Hell, it hit different two years later when Darklands arrived.

Before Darklands arrived though, the JAMC gave us a clue that they were heading in a new direction sound wise. Some Candy Talking had that same pop song sound but the feedback was sidelined for deep faraway reverb soaked acoustic/electric guitar mix. Depending on how you bought it Some Candy Talking was a four song EP that opened with a fuzzy but warm song called "Some Candy Talking" which would have fit perfectly on Darklands. It's followed up with a completely stripped down acoustic version of "A Taste Of Cindy". The third song "Psychocandy" also feels like it could be a song from Darklands with it's acoustic/electric fuzz and much less feedback. A fourth song called "Hit" sort of brings it all back to Psychocandy (the album) with feedback and noise. There was also a double EP that had 4 songs from Psychocandy that were stripped down and performed acoustically on the John Peel show.

Then came Darklands which saw them conpletely abandon the sound of their first album. People seemed mad about the change in reviews and interviews. For me it was a brilliant move. The pairing of the acousting and electric guitars drenched to drowned in reverb just made for a perfect second album. Sure it was fuzzy at points but it never got overbearing the way Psychocandy could (or seems to now). Once again it is an album just filled with brilliant pop songs. Some upbeat and some mellow. Hell, The Brian Jonestown Massacre mined the fuck out of this album for much of their early and middle discography. The b-sides on the singles released from Darklands contained some of the noisier, feedback laden songs if you were still looking for that but I think Darklands is now seen as their perfect album.

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They followed it up with an ok album called Automatic. Throw on any songs and it is pretty good to great. But listening to them all in a row just leaves you... kind of bored. They all sound and feel the same after a while. I remember feeling that way when it came out in 89/90. I tried it again (really listening to it over and over) sometime while I was living in Brooklyn in 2004 and the same thing happened. Just recently from my little Quebecois village I gave it another go and, yep, it just happened again. So I decided to take a deep dive and listen to all the other music they released with this album. The bonus CD only songs, the b-sides from the two singles they released from Automatic, some alternate takes and the Peel/BBC Sessions. I managed to make a much more repeatably listenable album by removing a few songs, adding a few songs and switching out one for a BBC Session.

Tracklisting:
Here Comes Alice
Coast To Coast [BBC Radio Session]
Blues From A Gun
Break Me Down
Her Way Of Praying
Between Planets
Head On
Halfway To Crazy
Take It [MF Edit]
Shimmer
Sunray
Subway
Drop


Makes you want to feel, makes you want to try
Makes you want to blow the stars from the sky
I can't stand up, I can't cool down
I can't get my head off the ground

13

13 by Blur was one of their weirder releases. I don't necessarily mean good weird either. It was the 6th Blur album. It was a post break up record. It was an in-the-midst-of-a-heroin addiction record. It was a band not getting along record. They had released 4 'britpop' records and this one continued on their stylistic shift away from that sound which the previous self-titled album began. It had a couple of perfect radio pop hits and was produced by William Orbit instead of long time producer Stephen Street. For me it has a couple of other non radio songs that are just absolute gems. Sadly though, there are a bunch of noisy dead end songs that just feel lifeless and pointless. They start the album with a beautiful gospel tinged love song which would have bled perfectly into "Coffee & TV" but for some reason they decided to pop a noisy rock & roll song called "Bugman" in between them. Just a godawful song that sounds like they were trying for another stadium sports song hit like "Song 2" and failed miserably. the 4th song has a promising hook that never takes off or even goes anywhere because the band seems lost in some sort of heroin sludge haze ("Swamp Song"). "B.L.U.R.E.M.I." and "Battle" are good songs but between them is more pointless noise and half songs including "Caramel" which is another heroin song where they beat you over the head with clues from the song title to the slow fading looped faraway in a dream sound. There's noisy songs for the sake of noise and pretty songs with random noise. The good songs are good but the bad songs are really. fucking. bad.

Anyway, I had long ago made a playlist with the good songs on there. Sometimes I'd give a crap one another chance and re-add it but they just never stuck. When the 2012 Special Edition was released it contained a continuation of "Mellow Song" called "Mellow Jam" which I was able to pop into Ableton and combine giving myself a beautiful long version of an already great song. I trimmed some noise from other songs and basically turned a bloated 13 song 67 minute long album into a short, sweet and mellow 7 song 35 minute long mini-LP.

"Things were starting to fall apart between the four of us," drummer Dave Rowntree later revealed. "It was quite a sad process making it. People were not turning up to the sessions, or turning up drunk, being abusive and storming off." In Orbit's words, "There was a battle between Damon's more experimental direction, and Graham's punk one, and Graham prevailed. If that tension had been growing on previous LPs, it came to a head here."

Tracklisting:
No Distance Left To Run
Tender
Coffee & TV
B.L.U.R.E.M.I.
Mellow Song/Mellow Jam
Battle
Optigan 1

Tender is the ghost
The ghost I love the most
Hiding from the sun
Waiting for the night to come

RETURN TO THE 36 CHAMBERS

Ol' Dirty Bastard wasn't the best rapper but he was super fun! He was more of a vibe than a wordsmith. If the Wu-Tang TV show is anything to go by most of his contemporaries felt this way too. Anyway, his debut album was half amazing half annoying so I did a fan edit for myself and here it is:

Tracklisting:
Shimmy Shimmy Ya [Extended]
Baby C'mon
Brooklyn Zoo
Hippa To Da Hoppa
Raw Hide
Damage
Don't U Know
The Stomp [MF Edit]
Proteck Ya Neck II: The Zoo
Brooklyn Zoo [Lord Digga Remix]
Give It To Ya Raw [SD50 Remix]


If you wanna step to my motherfucking rep
Chk-chk, blaow! Blaow! Blaow! Blown to death

MBV OLDIES VOLUME 1

My Bloody Valentine were one of those bands that managed to create a sound that became a genre. They seemingly changed the DNA of music with thier layered guitar playing and hushed, lilting vocals. I came to them with the release of the Tremelo EP in 1991. Back in the seemingly halcyon record shop days people who worked there would see a young kid and get to know what they were into and build a relationship with them. I'd walk in and they'd be like "oh, I've go some goodies for you!" and they'd walk around the shop picking out 4 or 5 records for you based on their interpretation of your tatse. This is how I was introduced to MBV and Tremelo. Anyway, they are mostly known for this period of their musical life. The You Made Me Realise EP => Feed Me With Your Kiss EP => Isn't Anything => Glider EP => Tremelo EP => Loveless run was kind of an unreal series of releases. Each release moved more in this pyschedelic direction until you had the absolutely perfect album: Loveless.

Anyway, this is really the third incarnation of My Bloody Valentine. Sure, Kevin Shields and Colm Ó Cíosóig were there for each version of the band but there really is a diferent sound and vibe that comes from each incarnation. Today is Incarnation #1 or, as my compilation calls it, My Bloody Valentine: Oldies Volume 1. This version of MBV has a much more gothic post-punk sound. I used five (of seven) songs from the mini-album This Is Your Bloody Valentine which had the following members perform on it: David Conway – vocals; Kevin Shields – guitar, bass guitar, backing vocals; Tina Durkin – keyboards; Colm Ó Cíosóig – drums. I used their second release, the Geek EP, which was first release to feature bassist Debbie Googe. This line up was: David Conway – vocals; Kevin Shields – guitar; Debbie Googe – bass; Colm Ó Cíosóig – drums.

Tracklisting:
Forever & Again
No Place To Go
Tiger In My Tank
Moonlight
Homelovin' Guy
Love Machine
Inferno
The Sandman Never Sleeps
The Last Supper

You're coming down
'Cause you ain't got no place to go
You're coming down
You know I know you've got no place to go

R.I.P. DAVID LYNCH

David Lynch had such a massive influence on me and my life. Yes, of course like everyone else who loved his films, there was his playing around with darkness and light; joy and fear; the surreal and the mundane. But he also had such an impact on how I HEARD the world. His sound design in Eraserhead, Twin Peaks and the Grandmother left some sort of imprint on me. With each film he would take it to the next level. Even The Straight Story did things with sound that made my heart skip a beat. It's a goddamn shame that we won't be getting another Lynch film or show but he already gave us so much. I truly believe Twin Peaks The Return was his magnum opus sound design wise. Professors were teaching it in classes within a year of the Return airing. It's ours now. He left us so much to play with and explore.

Anyway, he's gone. Thank you Mr Lynch.

“You know about death. That it's just a change, not an end.”
-David Lynch

CHRISTMAS TRILOGY

For me it's not Christmas without watching these three films. There are plenty of others I watch too, obviously, but something about these three are just so perfect.


Hector



In Bruges



Remember The Night

HALLOWEEN TRILOGY

There are no links to these three films that, in my opinion, make an excellent trilogy of slightly scary yet slightly campy Halloween films. Halloween was originally planned to be an anthology of films but due to the popularity of the first film and pressure from producers, Michael Meyers was brought back for the second film before being killed off (and we all know eventually resurrected how many fucking times?) before being retconned and rebooted and who knows what else. Buy the bluray, stream or sail the high seas if you want to watch these. Also, you have to pretend that The Fog is actually called Halloween II: The Fog because it was released as it's own film even though it was intended to be the second in the anthology series.




Halloween.

Tagline: The Night He Came Home


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Halloween II: The Fog

Tagline: The Night They Came Home


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Halloween III: Season Of The Witch

Tagline: The Night No One Came Home

FISHERMAN'S BLUES: TOO CLOSE TO HEAVEN

This is the fourth (and final) part of the Fisherman's Blues compilations that I put together.

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The Waterboys released their 4th album, Fisherman's Blues, on October of 1998. The Fisherman's Blues recording sessions were an epic undertaking that spanned cities, countries and even continents. The recordings took place from 1996 to 1998 and produced an insane amount of music. The sessions began at Windmill Lane Studio in Dublin and lasted from January through March 1986. From there they moved to San Francisco and recorded for a few more months before moving back to Windmill Lane and finally ending the recording sessions at the Spiddal house in Galway. Mike Scott describes the process; "We started recording our fourth album in early '86 and completed it 100 songs and 2 years later. There was a lot of indecision. I got too involved in the album and I lost perspective. We had blues songs, gospel songs, country songs, rock songs and ballads. I didn't know where to take it. It could've been a gospel or country album. It could've sounded more like This Is The Sea or it could've been a traditional album. It could've been anything."

14 years after the release of Fisherman's Blues came Too Close To Heaven or Fisherman's Blues Part 2 (with an extended tracklisting) as it was known as in North America. "Quite how 'Too Close to Heaven' – a song that is easily worthy of either John Lennon or Van Morrison - languished in the vaults for 12 years is a matter for Scott's conscience (and his accountants)" said the Guardian.

25 years after the release of Fisherman's Blues the Waterboys released a 7-CD box set which contained 121 tracks from the album sessions (including all those on the original record and subsequent editions) plus a further 85 unreleased tracks!

After years of taking stabs at creating an all inclusive best of the Fisherman's Blues boxset for my own listening pleasure I finally did it. I pared down the epic 121 track boxset to a 64 song four part listening experience.

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Part 4 is called: Fisherman's Blues: Too Close to Heaven

Part 3 can be found here.
Part 2 can be found here.
Part 1 can be found here.

Tracklisting:
Fisherman's Blues [Piano Version]
A Golden Age
Tonight The Bottle Let Me Down
Too Close To Heaven
You Don't Have To Be In The Army To Fight In The War
I Miss The Road
Higherbound [Prototype]
Killing My Heart [2nd Version]
Good Man Gone
Pictish National Anthem (Comati)
One Step Closer
She Could Have Had Me Step By Step
The Good Ship Sirius [Set Of Jigs]
If I Can't Have You
As Soon As I Get Home [MF Edit]

I'm the song of the river
Speeding unceasing to the sea
I'm alive!
I'm in love!
Each and every time
There's some for me

'96/97 ALRIGHT THEN

This is the fourth part of my series of Beck compilations. It is made up of the singles, b-sides, compilation tracks and live on the radio shows that he did before and during the Odelay era.

I am copying and pasting this blurb from '93 Feelings to give some hindsight:
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Beck has so much goddamn music out there. He was insanely prolific from 1993 to 1998 which always made me crazy when people referred to him as a slacker. He released close to 100 songs as singles, b-sides, outtakes, compilation tracks, remixes, and live on air sessions. That is on top of releasing the following albums: Golden Feelings, A Western Harvest Field By Moonlight, Stereopathetic Soulmanure, Mellow Gold, One Foot In The Grave, Odelay and Mutations. Seven albums, fifteen singles, eight collaborations, twenty seven compilation tracks, remixes of and from various musicians and a bunch of videos. There's also a missing album he recorded with Jon Spencer's Blues Explosion; nthe unreleased follow K Records follow up to One Foot In The Grave and an album he made that would have been "a more rock-based follow-up to Mellow Gold, an album that sounds like a Pavement, Sebadoh kind of thing”. All of this in a span of 5 years. That's fucking insane.
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To make "96/97 Alright Then" I used the bonus songs, remixes, singles and b-sides from "Odelay"; The non-album single, Deadweight; An outtake from the unreleased K-Records follow up; Plus a live song from KCRW.

You can find 94/95 Gold Too here.
You can find 94/95 Gold here.
You can find 93 Feelings here.

Tracklisting:
Electric Music & The Summer People
Richard's Hairpiece [Aphex Twin Remix]
Clock
Somewhere Far Along
Erase The Sun
000.000
Lemonade
Feather In Your Cap
Deadweight
Buried Alive
Brother
The New Pollution [Mickey P Remix]
Burro
Lloyd Price Express [John King Remix]
Two Bit Cares
American Wasteland

Entering the solar sphere
Planets meld crystal clear
Thrashing in the astral glow
Flashing in their fleshly show

LIQUID SWORDS

Liquid Swords by GZA is a near perfect album. I love how Wu Tang would not only connect songs but they'd connect albums by the vaious members of the Clan with one another. Unfortunately this can sometimes not work out so well. To me, this proves to be the weak point on Liquid Swords and hinders it from perfection.

I took out the Raekwon and Ghostface fronted song "Hell's Wind Staff" because it not only didn't sound like it fit the album it sounded like something off of Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... and I opted for the instrumental version of "Killah Hills". Some versions of Liquid Swords had "B.I.B.L.E." as a bonus track but I decided to not use it because it wasn't even a GZA song in the end (it was a Killah Priest song that was later released on his album).

Tracklisting:
Liquid Swords
Dual Of The Iron Mic
Living In The World Today
Gold
Cold world
Labels
The 4th Chamber
Shadowboxin'
Killah Hills [Instrumental]
Investigative Reports [MF Edit]
Swordsman
Gotcha Back


I was always taught my do's and don'ts
For do's I did, and for don'ts, I said I won't

CANCER IS A MOTHERFUCKER

I haven't been posting too much lately. Dealing with a dickhead cancer diagnosis. For a year and a half now....