Eeek! ... is there an AAA?
Category: Art and Photography

Oh dear ... looks like I'd better call the Airfix Automobile Assocation!

07:56 - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Tears Run Rings
Category: Music

This soul cleansingly cute image is from a t-shirt that's hung in my wardrobe for 10 years now.  The wee grey patches are actually glitter so I've never worn it.  Not because I don't want to wear glitter - what fool wouldn't want to wear glitter?! - but because I'm not sure how well it'll wash and I couldn't be responsible for ruining something so lovely and so cherished.  I've been thinking about The Autocollants a lot over the last couple of days as I've been listening Ed and Laura's post-Autocollants band Tears Run Rings in spades. I've been shamefully slow off the mark with their output but the Disaster Club/Lavender Recordings release "A Question And An Answer" is tremendous.  "Tomorrow" is the kind of track that would've graced mixtape upon mixtape if it'd been released in 1997 and not 2007.  Squeals of feedback and layers of humming guitars envelope but never smother Laura's piccolo-like vocals.  It employs that ole loud-quiet-loud technique to sweep you along but the fact that some unconstrainable feedback leaks out a little too early before each swell is a master stroke that makes my heart jump every time.  All 5 tracks are splendid in their own right and I would consider myself to be a fool if I didn't track down their recently issued cd post haste!  

03:15 - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Roll on July, 31st!
Category: Music

Last week I only had one worn stylus which meant I couldn't listen to the latest batch of bonnie vinyl that's found its way into my clutches.  This week, however, thanks to the twin miracles of 1) getting a shiny new stylus from RubADub and 2) on the very same day J finding a brand new, unused Stanton stylus that had fallen from my bookshelf and got 'lost' months ago, I have 2!   It's been just great shovelling 7" after 7" onto the turntable.  I am totally smitten by A Sunny Day In Glasgow's take on The Pastels' "Sometimes I Think About You" from Volume 4 of Slumberland's terriffic "Searching For The Now" single series.  It really is an object lesson in how to approach reinterpreting someone else's song.  As with The Pastels' own majestic, but as yet unreleased version (it's currently on their myspace page) of The Jesus and Mary Chain's "About You" it's definitely more of a re-imagining than a straight cover and is all the better for it.  Underpinning the proceedings with a dunting minimal techno beat was certainly not an obvious manoeuvre but it turned out to be a genius move.  It fits perfectly with both the diaphanous vocals and sherberty guitars and keyboards.  As has been stated on this blog one too many times before The Pastels have been and continue to be the most significant band in my life but I'm not precious about their material so to hear ASDIG tackling one of their less heralded gems and making such a wonderful job of it only serves to make me love them all the more.  When ASDIG play Nice'n'Sleazy on July. 31st you can guarantee that I'll be there sporting the biggest smile ever!

15:01 - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Death Disco
Category: Music

Ever wondered what might be playing on the stereo when you finally meet your maker?  I've been pondering this cheery thought after a scary driving moment tonight when an unprecedented (even for Scotland!) downpour caused some flash flooding on the M8 just shy of the Baillieston Interchange on the east side of Glasgow.  Luckily I managed not to hit the bridge but it gave me a jolt.  Had that been my time to go I would've done so listening to Chuck Jackson's "These Chains Of Love (Are Breaking Me Down)".  Not a bad way to go, huh?  Maybe "Warm Leatherette" would've been more appropriate, though .

16:01 - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

No School on a school night
Category: Music

So, there was me putting on my fancy pants ready to head off to Edinburgh to swing an' a sway to Welsh girlpop classicists The School at The Bongo Club when I read this.  Band on at 12:15am?  What kinda crazy talk is that?!  I guess us working folks aren't the target audience for The Scottish Hobo Society but, still, they've talked themselves out of 2 excited audience members who were willing to drive from Glasgow for it.  Ach well, all's not lost because I can just stay home and drink tea and eat lemon drizzle cake and listen to Kid Frostbite's wonderful Summertime Soul mix including Rose Batiste's colossally wondrous "Hit and Run" which was the first Northern Soul reissue 7" (on Goldmine Soul Supply) I bought about 10 years ago.  Way to go Kid!

10:07 - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Time To Say Goodbye
Category: Music

So National Pop League's finishing up on the 25th.  How sad. I've had some wonderful, sweat drenched evenings (there's one photo on the NPL Yahoo Group where I'm wearing a red and white gingham shirt which is just saturated in a completely rank way!) dancing to 'Pristine Christine' or 'Nothing To Be Done'.  I remember going to the first one full of anticipation because the flyer that I'd picked up in Missing Records the day before actually included those magical words: The Field Mice.  I'd never seen their name on a poster of flyer before and the very idea that I could hear these sounds outside of my bedroom was such a novelty.  I had a great night despite being followed all round the Woodside by an ageing former steelworker and Buzzcocks fan who wanted a bit of smoochy, smoochy.  He just wouldn't take the hint even when I went to the bar and sat down against the furthest away wall on the other side of the dancefloor.  No siree, he just went to the bar, bought a Guinness and plonked himself down next to me!  I guess I musta had it back then you, know (aye, right!). It's really funny to look back on that night and then to think of what NPL became.  Mind you, I'm quite particular about my music and just couldn't stand it when John played Squeeze or Elvis Costello or pretty much anything from the '70s.  That always got me inordinately exercised and thumping the tables.  I'll still miss the old thing, though, when it's finally over.  I'm still undecided about whether to go on the 25th as that's the same night as Friday Street's 8th anniversary celebrations.  Another club night whose inaugural meeting I attended.  I guess it comes down to whether or not I want to blister my feet dancing to P!O!P! or Northern Soul, eh? 

Being an Olympic standard scoffer I can't believe I didn't eat those sweeties (see right hand side of the photo, above).  Which reminds me ... why did John always refer to the wee giveaways as 'fanzine and candy packs'?  We're Scottish ...  surely it should've been 'swatties' (not that I've used that since 1986 myself!) or 'swedgers' instead of 'candy'!

14:00 - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Swann ache
Category: Music

As happens from time to time I've become utterly fixated on a single song to the exclusion of pretty much everything else.  The last time I went this crazy for a song was on hearing Al Wilson's lump in the throat inducing rendition of Jimmy Webb's stunning "Do What You Gotta Do".  Last night I spent over an hour listening to Bettye Swann's inquantifiably desolate "Time To Say Goodbye" from Kent's "Sanctified Soul" collection.  Until now I've purposefully steered clear of '70s soul after being left unmoved by all those airbrushed vocals coupled with hideoulsy over-egged productions.  You know, the kind of slick, emotionally bereft nonsense that gums up Steve Wright's Sunday Morning Love Songs show.  On first hearing, I was prepared to write off "Time To Say Goodbye" as my least favourite of Bettye's tracks as it has that 70s warmth and on first listen the male and female backing vocalists were almost as instrusive and irritating as those people who girn in the background as news reporters deliver a live piece to camera.  With each play, though, Bettye's voice just gets emotionally richer and bleaker but in a poised, under-stated way.  The production is delicate and nuanced and the brass is oddly distanced but it really works.  Yet another vintage Atlantic Records corker!

13:26 - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Weekender!
Category: Music

As ever, Glasgow's been awash with great sounds of all sorts this weekend.  Due to family commitments I couldn't sample this month's National Pop League or Friday's Glasgow Mod Weekender offerings but I did make it along on Saturday to hear Stephen Pastel and Gerry Love DJing at Cafe Rio just off Dumbarton Rd.  Hearing Gerry spin Bobby Reed's wonderful "The Time Is Right For Love" for the first time gave me chills up and down my spine!  Of course, being ignorant of these things, when I heard the sliding, metallic strings I thought it was Saint Etienne's infeasibly brilliant "Spring" from "Foxbase Alpha".    Just goes to show what a fine ear for a sample Wiggs and Stanley have, eh?  Afterwards it was a quick dash over to the The Flying Duck to catch Jane Egypt from Lung Leg's new band Peter Parker's first gig.  Descending the stairs to the zesty strains of Mika Miko's "Forensic Scientist" set the mood beautifully and Peter Parker's short set certainly whetted the appetite for future gigs and, hopefully, some brilliant vinyl.  Closer "Black and Blue" was a pure pop cherry bomb aimed at your feet and was greeted with well deserved whoops by a suitably charmed audience.

After a morning spent listening to My Bloody Valentine at infeasible volume to soften my ears before Wednesday's barrage (can you believe that The Pastels are playing with them at Glasgow's Barrowlands?!), this afternoon was spent jealously eyeing up the beautiful scooters on show at the Mod Weekender ride out which left from The Twisted Wheel on Queen Street at 2:30pm prompt.  Like a right dumpling I forgot to take my camera so I don't have any retina caressing shots of the lovingly buffed chrome and Pop Art trimmings that made the bulk of the 70 or so scooters that took part such a treat to behold.  I'm sure, though, that in the fullness of time there'll be plenty of pictures to pore over on Friday Street's myspace page, here.  Whilst enjoying the fine mid-paced Northern Soul on offer upstairs inside The Twisted Wheel, I picked up a copy of the first issue of new Mod fanzine Double Breasted which looks chic and promises to be well worth a pound of my increasingly meagre entertainment allowance.  Sigh ... why aren't all weekends as good as this?

16:05 - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Did you win?
Category: Music

Tonight after the football (what a match, poor Turkey!) J and I excitedly and with great care (I hate having to cut record packaging) got to work opening our Edwyn Collins "Home Again" (Heavenly) singles to see if we'd got one of these ace artworks.  Alas, neither of us has a swanky little Harry Hill or Norman Blake customised sleeve to adorn our walls.  Ach well, the single's lovely in its own right so we certainly don't feel let down in any way.  Cheers for the thrill of anticipation Edwyn/Heavenly!

16:27 - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Religious psychedelia!
Category: Music

If you'd like to hear some quality religious psyche pop from '67 then please point your ears in the direction of the rather fine Slumberland blog as I just jotted down a few words and posted a tune by the wonderful John Ylvisaker.  I've been meaning to write to Rev-ola for years to ask them nicely to reissue his "Cool Livin'" album on cd ...

15:41 - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment