RTSBBK#6: Dillard and Clark – Polly

A complete change of musical genre here. I was inspired to put this one on the blog as a tribute to the late Doug Dillard, who died very recently, and who, along with the song-writing genius that was ex-Byrd, Gene Clark, composed this beautiful, haunting song, from Dillard and Clark's second (and final) album, Through the Morning, Through the Night (1969). It's an example of the late 60s country rock scene's song-writing at its finest, and it is a crime that this relatively short-lived duo' s recording output is not much better known and appreciated than it is. In particular, it's a tragedy that Gene Clark did not achieve the degree of success or recognition that his song-writing deserved post-The Byrds, before his descent into alcoholism and untimely demise at the age of only 46.

RTSBBK#6: Dillard and Clark - Polly

RTSBBK#5: The 39 Clocks – Psycho Beat

Ok, this is the first, (relatively speaking), obscure band and record on this blog. The 39 Clocks were a hugely underrated duo of musicians from Hannover, Germany, whose first public appearance was back in 1976 at the Dada Nova in Hannover, a space occupied by the radical AAO Commune. They split in 1983. Gigs were characterised by Situationist violence and the wilful and chaotic unprofessionalism of the band, but their recorded output was superb. They built on the American garage punk and psychedelic noises of the 1960s, sanded it down with the sound of the Velvet Underground at their most dissonant, and varnished it with the hauntingly spare electronica of legendary pioneering synth-punks, Suicide, (who were clearly a massive influence on them, adopting the New York duo’s confrontational aesthetic).  They were often, unfairly, and much to the band’s annoyance, referred to simply as the “German Velvet Underground”, when it is pretty obvious that they took on a lot of influences and forged their own sound, as part of what was dubbed “new German psychedelia”. This song appeared on the band’s first album in 1981, Pain It Dark, and  undoubtedly provides the trancey, cascadingly repetitive, minimalist psychedelic template for a host of imitators, such as Spacemen 3, Loop and the Telescopes, to name but a few. Great track.

RTSBBK#5: The 39 Clocks - Psycho Beat

RTSBBK#4: Josef K – It’s Kinda Funny

Signed to the legendary and achingly stylish Postcard Records label of Glasgow, who proclaimed that it was the “Sound of Young Scotland” during its short existence between 1979 and 1981, this Edinburgh-based band, named after the protagonist of Frank Kafka’s The Trial, remain the quintessential embodiment of indie-art-school-cool to this day. (Just ask Franz Ferdinand, who have clearly embraced the Josef K aesthetic). Always in the long post-punk shadow cast by their more well-known and commercially accessible label-mates, Glaswegian band Orange Juice, Josef K were heavily influenced by the likes of art-punk bands, Televison and Pere Ubu, and the American No-wave movement. This song, released in 1980, was their third single, and appears on the only studio album released during their existence, The Only Fun in Town (1981), and combines a strong feeling of reflective melancholy with an air of impending menace. It’s a typical Josef K song – jangling guitars, thought-provoking and cryptically ambiguous lyrics, full of metaphor and imagery, and a strong melody, though a less up-tempo track than was usual. Great record.

RTSBBK#4: Josef K - It's Kinda Funny

RTSBBK#3: The Jesus and Mary Chain - I Hate Rock n Roll

Taken from the Mary Chain's final album, Munki (1998), this single is a wonderfully acerbic, spite-filled and withering attack on commercial and corporate aspects of the music business, and radiates the immediacy and rawness of a live recording. It has to be one of my favourite Jesus and Mary Chain tracks of all time. The album itself is largely ignored in discussions about the band's career and discography, the perceived wisdom, (and musical snobbery), being that the Mary Chain were on a gradual downward slide ever since the release of their stunning debut album, Psychocandy, and therefore Munki's not worth talking about too much. I couldn’t disagree more. Written at a time when the Reid brothers were barely talking to each other, the album mirrors this dichotomy and division by the inclusion of another track, I Love Rock n Roll, written by Jim Reid, as a counterpoint to William Reid's I Hate Rock n Roll. 

RTSBBK#3: The Jesus and Mary Chain - I Hate Rock n Roll

RTSBBK#2: Television Personalities - Part-time Punks

The TVPs – the indie band’s indie band. It’s incredible how such an influential group, whose first release was in 1978, and whose back catalogue is so extensive, are nonetheless, relatively, so obscure to this day. Name-checked by virtually everyone who had anything to do with the evolution of indie music in the UK as a post-punk genre in its own right, and worshipped by the likes of Stephen Pastel and Bobby Gillespie because of the integrity of their DIY ethic and superb song-craft, the band remain curiously and stubbornly inconspicuous, even within indie circles. It’s puzzling, but entirely appropriate, that a band who are the very essence of what it should mean to be a successful indie band remain, relatively, unsuccessful in commercial terms. But, that’s easy for me to say, of course…This song, on the band’s second release, the Where’s Bill Grundy Now? EP from 1978, is an indie anthem, a feel-good dance floor-filler, and was at the same time a seriously scathing attack on middle-class souls who viewed the punk phenomenon as a kind of opt-in/opt-out fashion choice, where image and the aesthetic, and not the music itself or the politics of it, were all-consumingly important. It’s a cracker.

RTSBBK#2: Televison Personalities - Part-time Punks

RTSBBK#1: The Fall - Two Librans 

Perhaps a funny choice on the face of it, given that with their dogged longevity and voluminous back catalogue, The Fall are pretty well-known, even outside of indie circles. However, this sheer volume of recorded material, (29 studio albums, and a seemingly endless supply of live material and session recordings), going back to 1976, paradoxically means that even stand-out tracks on stand-out albums can be lost or forgotten in this plethora of releases - a kind of "release-fatigue" of sorts. This track comes from the album The Unutterable, released in 2000, not an album from the Fall’s back catalogue which receives a huge amount of attention. That’s a mistake. The song itself is a belter, and although the lyrics are too cryptic for me to understand, (references to Oprah Winfrey and bee-keeping just add to the mystery of it), frankly, the band have never sounded better.

RTSBBK#1: The Fall - Two Librans

Welcome to my new blog. i hope it expands your musical universe.

Welcome to my new blog. i hope it expands your musical universe.