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