The Swedish Nurse

WHIRLING PIG DERVISH: Full Feather Lovesuit 7" - Gruff Wit, 1991

2008-07-07T22:52:00.001+01:00

... more auld Scottish carry on from this bunch on Dawson's GRUFF WIT label. No reminiscences of wacky live performances this post; all I know of them is that they released this fine EP and a split cassette with Hollands' splendid REVENGE OF THE CARROTS. It fits the "mould" of the Gruff Wit/ Dog Faced Hermans/The Ex sound of the time, rolling rhythms, fast and sharp guitars, vital and full of humour with angry and kinda dour polemical vocals. Worth a few minutes of yer precious time.

A Question of Sport
Fatter Richer and Stupider
Whip
Erectile Projectile (one flew over the cuckoos nest)

DAWSON/RUINS: Split 7" - HG Fact, 1992(?)

2008-06-17T21:24:00.003+01:00

... strange-yet-logical in hindsight pairing of "Band of UK" Glasgow's DAWSON and Tokyo's RUINS on this still-extant Japanese label. Cool stuff altogether, found this in Belfast's premier record shop of the day, DOCTOR ROBERTS and after double-checking that this was what it really was, out came the coins, courtesy of you, the UK taxpayer. In the spirit of repaying my debt to Society, here it is for your enjoyment.

'From Bearsden' is from Dawson's first LP, "HOW TO LEAD...", which you can find here in all it's glory. Dunno if 'Pope Joan' was published elsewhere but it's them at their singalong, anti-church feminist best. It's a true story. I assume the Ruins track can be found elsewhere?

DAWSON: Bearsden to Baghdad (via the Erskine Bridge)
DAWSON: Pope Joan
RUINS: Graviyaunosch

DAWSON played twice in Belfast with fellow 'Weegies LONG FIN KILLIE and both times ended in chaos. First time, in September '92, after some, er, venue problems, they ended up in a squatted punk house in Eblana Street in the Holy Lands (One of the Student/Bedsit districts of Belfast). A lot of people were tripping. After Dawson played I fled home round the corner, not wishing to be there when the Security Forces got there, inevitably. I was recently put right on this night; The boys in Bottle Green did indeed smash the bay window in, but that's because no-one could hear them knocking on the door to say Stop the Racket, but then someone might say different.

The next year they played in the back room of the Penny Farthing bar in Donegall Street (Now subsumed by the KREMLIN gay club). Gigs were cheap to put on there but more than once there was trouble there between the front bar crowd and the Punks. This particular instance it was the former that caused the aggro and yes I legged it PDQ as the atmosphere went sour. The legend is that Dawson's bass player, Ali (?) was so freaked out he walked to Larne (a very cold twenty miles away) and got the first ferry back to Scotland.

DAWSON, Eblana Street, Belfast, September 1992 (from the personal archive)

THE HAPPY HYPOCRITE

2008-06-02T22:40:00.009+01:00

... quick plug for a new bi-annual journal "for and about experimental art writing" going by the name of THE HAPPY HYPOCRITE, edited by my chum Maria. Each issue teams with a theme and this one's is LINGUISTIC HARDCORE.

Amongst other stuff (check the index) there's an interview with COSEY FANNI TUTTI, featuring some pictures from her modeling days if you know what I mean; some great riffage on the meaning of life and stuff called "Notes on Time" by DOUGLAS COUPLAND, some fantastic 'n' raw collage/found artwork too and the whole thing looks beautiful to boot, in a sexy non-standard size somewhere twixt A4 and A5. There's also a reproduction of an issue of a precursor publication called BANANAS from London in '75 with pieces by Burroughs and Ballard (not together) so you've got a play within a play too.

'Nuff gushin, it's published by Book Works, where you can buy one or subscribe.

In other publishing news, Idwal Fisher 'zine is now happening online, check the links over there. Long live the printed page and the blog.

DOG FACED HERMANS: Too Much for the Red Ticker/ Timebomb 7" - Demon Radge, 1990

2008-05-26T20:46:00.005+01:00

... the titles say it all. 'Ticker' is an addictive surf/ska post-punk boogie, 'Timebomb' is an amazing exercise in control and power. That bassline, whoa, it could dig a fuckin' tunnel.

Two of my favourite songs by the 'Hermans, released after their relocation to Amsterdam from Edinburgh. These stunners aren't on the 'Humans Fly/ Timebomb' CD reissue of their LPs of the era, so lap it up!

Back to the usual shoddy service of irregular postings, so enjoy this one!

Too Much for the Red Ticker
Timebomb

2008-03-24T21:58:00.004Z

No posts for a while - offline emergency. Keep checking, browse through the archives and hope to be back with you soon.

Love and Peace. Mx

STRETCHHEADS: BARBED ANAL EXCITER 10" - Blast First, 1991

2008-03-18T23:53:00.009Z

... as the title of this ten-incher implies, what excites one man can repulse another and proof comes rudely in the shape and sound of Glasgow/Paisley's STRETCHHEADS.

Like fellow 'weegies DAWSON and their GRUFF WIT label and Edinburghers DOG FACED HERMANS and ARCHBISHOP KEBAB, there was an active microscene of bands for a short time in Scotland who were excessively inspired by the manic and abrasive gtr/bass/ drum attack of Manchester's last great band, the legendary BIG FLAME - the reasons why may never be known.

Marion from DFH said in an interview with ABLAZE! magazine that when she first saw Big Flame, she "never thought you could play so fast"; the interviewer noted wryly that she hoped that they never saw NAPALM DEATH. Fair to say that Strechheads did and indeed do sound like a forceful shunt of The 'Flame and The 'Death, but not under controlled laboratory conditions; crucially they had the antagonist wildcard of singer and psychiatric nurse Phil AKA P6.

I saw 'em twice, at a Country 'n' Western dancehall with DANDELION ADVENTURE in Preston in 1990 and I guess the year after that at a remarkably bad WIRE (or WIR as they were then, as Robert Gotobed was busy farming in Wales) gig at the Clapham Grand in London. The latter was a so-bad-it-was-funny artwank yawnfest. After much ballix, 'Wir' were a boring mess, followed by the HAFLER TRIO, whose 'Appearance' was announced by their name being projected on the back wall of the stage. There was no-one on stage, in fact nothing on stage at all and all that could be heard was a hum. Not a drone or even a soundscape, mind - just a hum.

After a while, as the hum continued, the Stretchheads carried their equipment on stage and set up - drumkit, backline, everything - from scratch, not plugged into the Big Venue PA. P6, dressed as he was in a silver puffa jacket and troosers, delighted at being given a fancy cordless microphone, pulled out a condom he just happened to have and used the mike as an ersatz penis to give the diminishing audience a straightforward and sensible talk on safe sex and the correct way of condom placement. Then they lit rip and it was hilarious and awesome. They pricked the bubble!

BAE ain't their best - their masterpiece of stupidity, "FIVE FINGERS, FOUR THINGERS A THUMB A FACELIFT AND A NEW IDENTITY" album is the stunner, described most accurately by FORCED EXPOSURE as a "Vengeful attack on sensetive creativity". It has a great cover of an arm sticking out of a fireplace surrounded by the charred gloop of the rest of the body of the victim of Spontaneous Human Combustion. I'd been getting the urge to hear it again, hoping it would still sound as good today. And praise be, it does! Here it is at X-RAY BBQ blog, as tipped off by LEXICON DEVIL. Wahey!

crap pics of Stretchheads live in Preston, 09/90 from the personal archive:

Stool Freaks
Satan's Frog
New New Thing in Egypt
Anal Beard Wank System
Theme From The Movie - 'I Had an Extra Intestine'
What's the Hole For?

IDWAL FISHER Zine issues 7 & 8 plus MILOVAN SRDENOVIC, KYLIE MINOISE & OPAQUE

2008-03-11T22:41:00.007Z

... IDWAL FISHER is an actual printed zine, A4 size, that lives and breathes for NOISE musik, real underground shit of the most puerile and profound kind. You'll remember the name as Mr Fisher released the excellent "THE FEEDING OF THE 2,079,211" cassette. When not listening this stuff at home, our man travels to see gigs in gallery spaces and dirty pubs all over this small island (and beyond) and then writes about it all in nicely conversational, matter-of-fact manner.

There are plenty of LOL lines and it's the journals of misadventure that are the live reviews which are my favourite, you'd almost wish you were in some shithole in the North of England, sick and dirty from booze and travel, watching people in masks waving knives and smashing pig's heads onstage. It's all Grist t'Mill at Idwal Fisher. There are no interviews, but the issues here focus on SMEGMA, RUNZELSTIRN & GURGELSTOCK, HAIR POLICE, THROBBING GRISTLE, 23 SKIDOO, KYLIE MINOISE and the NO FUN festival in New York. I'd imagine not all of the sounds covered would be to my own personal preferences, but so what.

Issue 8 is the last edition you'll be able to read in the bath unfortunately, but there's hope that IF will reappear online - it will be most welcome. They're rare birds now of course, actual zines, but self published labours of love, spreading the word, were always by their very nature a marginal pursuit. Fanzines were over back in my day according to people whose Heyday was yesterday. There are always people who've been there, done that, 'surprised' that 'people are still doing that'.

So, mail idwalfisher@dsl.pipex.com or write to PO Box 147, Cleckheaton, West Yorkshire BD19 6WY, UK if you need help.

I also got a few CDs by a bunch of current upstarts favoured by Mr Fisher. He released the performance executed by MILOVAN SRDENOVIC at The Pack Horse in Leeds back in 2002. It's really bad I'm afraid to say, with Srdenovic shouting ('Best Known' for being one of the stage-wrecking SMELL AND QUIM) over some half-baked looped samples. The reviews of his shows in IF sound most entertaining, but this isn't, not even a tune entitled 'Pig Stealing Blues'.

I think that KYLIE MINOISE is a solo project by one Lea Cummins of Glasgow. To commemorate the 20th anniversary of the release of NAPALM DEATH'S iconic track 'You Suffer', Mr Cummins has treated and stretched the two-second original into an hourlong hellstorm of digital noise where nothing happens at all, packaged in a poor facsimile of the "SCUM" LP cover. I suffered - but why? Good joke. Not KM's best apparently and I would hope so.

OPAQUE are an Aktion Unit of what used to be called "Guitar Terrorists" featuring Mr Cummins amongst others and 'THE CULT OF SURVIVORS" is a 4-CD set (!) of mostly live outtakes (!!) recorded between 97-07 (!!!). Bloody Hell. I'll admit I was daunted at the prospect, but this noise I like a lot.

They've a hefty, aggressively grim sound, a really fucking loud, vast rhythmless attack. Bleak and beautiful. Just guitars and whatever effects that make them sound like that - only a few times could I discern them being treated in a recognisable way. Most of the time it's a hellish ROAR given grisly horror-film titles like 'Consumating Axe' or 'Screams. Stabs. Aorta. Death.' On a par with perverse rockophiles as varied as DEAD C, JAZZFINGER, SKULLFLOWER, RAMLEH, AUFGEHOBEN, honest guv; if you like that kind of dirt you'll like this. Really nicely packaged, stark and sinister graphics and the CDRs look pro. Don't buy Black Metal, buy this! Noise ain't Dead!

The KYLIE MINOISE and OPAQUE CDs are both available from their label KOVORAX SOUND, which has all the graphics, info and sound samples you'll need.

OPAQUE looking sinister and cool (Pic taken from KOVORAX SOUNDS site)

BOLIDES OVER BRIGHTON

2008-03-04T00:46:00.003Z

... quick Saturday night in and out to Brighton to see Neil Campbell AKA Astral Social Club (check previous posts elsewhere) play at the Westhill Community Centre just a skip from the station, where a bunch of crazy kids hire out the kind of place that usually hosts amateur drama and yoga classes for the elderly. Four quid in, a carry out from the Co-Op, arse on a hard School Chair. This is the sort of gig I like!

Was taken by surprise by how good the first bunch, BOLIDE AWKWARDSTRA were - they shook a really exciting free-jazz/rock kind of thing (more the former than the latter) with guitar and electronics, plenty drums and percussion, recorder and clarinet blowing. Checked out their MySpace since and I swear they're in a realm close to ALICE COLTRANE's 'Universal Consciousness', seriously - less stately and rougher round the edges than that I suppose, but genuinely 'out' and thrilling and dynamic. Striking while the mind was soft I've ordered some of their product so looking forward to hearing more of their vibes!

Next THE POLLY SHANG KUAN BAND made a fierce and subtle noise with shitloads of pedals and electronic gizmos and microphones, not quite my cuppa but non-generic and unpredictable - highly rated by Mr Campbell just so you know.

This wasn't an Astral Social Club set, it was a trio set conspired via the interweb along with local noisist DYLAN NYOUKIS and SPIDER STACEY (from THE POGUES!!!) using voices, reeds and tin whistles processed and accompanied by further gizmology - took a while to get going but really opened up into unhindered greasy sound once they hit their stride.

A totally bargain night of way-out, sophisticated music disguised by it's unpretentious delivery in a parochial setting (Note the hi-tech stage lighting in each pic) - You could pay ten times as much to see something ten times less interesting marketed as Culture at an Establishment venue in London, and they'd take your cider off ye. Swipes against The Man aside, it was a top night.

Fashion tip for the boys playing though, if yer bending over tables of equipment and picking up instruments off the floor you might not want to wear trousers that are already halfway down yer bum - there was more arsecrack onstage that night than a building site.

FFLAPS: Malltod LP - Probe Plus, 1990

2008-03-02T02:40:00.004Z

... from the other Bangor, in Gwynedd in North Wales, not Bangor, County Down in Norn Iron (see the DFA posts here and here) came FFLAPS. How people laughed when they heard that name. I walked into a gig at the old Giro's centre in Belfast one night and there they were, making this great racket.

They came over twice, playing to a bunch of drunken punk weans in Giro's both times, and on one of those trips they played in Derry supporting SILVERFISH at St Eugene's Church Hall in the Bogside. Weird gig. I remember it mostly for the expertly-thrown (full) can of beer that hit my head as I was the only one dancing to 'em at first. Easy target. As the only responsible adult, Julia drove, with me, Rick, Dougie and Ronan as passengers. When we got back to Belfast in the small hours we were stopped five or six times at police checkpoints as people were dropped off around town, it was a real drag.

Looking at the interview with them (this is one of those posts), they helpfully described themselves as "...a rumbling, jumbling, humorous and tuneful racket... Polyrhythmic post-tonal abstract pop". With a basic rock trio line-up not playing rock exactly, they were tight and loose - Jonny's drumming was offbeat, fluid and funky and yes, danceable. Alan's basslines were of the solidly melodic kind that walk down the street without a care in the world, like Motown songs, African pop or closer to home and most recognisably, The Fall. Ann's "curious colloquial squak" (in Welsh) was melodic and slightly off-key and her thrashing strummed guitar style blurred 'rhythm' and 'lead' playing nicely, a punchy 'n' piquant sound of ace tuneage. Shame about the terrible cover! Looking for more online info, found out that sadly Jonny passed away in 2001, really young, how awful.

'Malltod' (meaning 'Decay') was originally released by the Liverpool shop/label PROBE PLUS (home of HALF MAN HALF BISCUIT amongst others), like their previous and not as good (if memory serves) 'Amhersian' LP. This isn't the full digital reissue - 'Cenedl Malwan', the last song on side one, sounded so terrible, even after checking for needle fluff buildup and rerecording, that it's been omitted. 'Cornwyd Pellaf', the slowest and most melancholic song on the album, still stuns every time I hear it.

It's still available (on last copies of vinyl only, so I guess there was never a CD version) here on ANKST RECORDS, so BUY NOW!!! along with their first single and what turned out to be the final, self-titled LP. I'm going to be getting these and releases by other Cymraeg outfits of the time PDQ, notably some early stuff by the fabulous GORKY'S ZYGOTIC MYNCI.

Here's a scan of the helpful insert for English speakers. Picture of the LP cover is taken from the Ankst website as I couldn't be arsed doing it myself this time.

Malltod
Hel Cnau
Gaeaf Yn Kragero
Pen Crwban
(Cenedl Malwan)
Corrach Cogfran
Cornwyd Pellaf
Pen Yn Y Nen
Nawfed

Bromley Library

2008-02-24T21:46:00.004Z

... was visiting my parents today and on the way home went past the Central Library in Bromley (pictured, from the delightful Churchill Gardens). For those fortunate enough not to have visited there, Bromley is a none-more middle class suburb cum town centre in South-East London where I lived as a teen. I'd previously lived in a small country town so on moving there I was amazed by how stupid people sounded and in fact, for the most part, were. It has not changed. Nascent snob and yet-to-be-kissed gay ugly duckling indie boy that I was, I hated the place with teenage intensity.

The Library was the best thing about Bromley, save the branch of OUR PRICE RECORDS, a long-gone national chain which was actually pretty good until most things 'Alternative' were moved out for CDs. It shares it's civic building with the Churchill Theatre, a bastion of middlebrow pap best summed up by my English Teacher when we were being taught about the play LOOK BACK IN ANGER, when he said (to paraphrase) "This was a really revolutionary play in the 1950's. Before this, most English theatre was like what's shown at the Churchill now".

But the music section of the Central Library was great and supplemented my listening to Peel and reading the Melody Maker. Some heroic librarian was very clued up and amongst the Simple Minds, Mel and Kim, Phil Collins and other 80's horrors, I borrowed and taped classics such as:

'The Ideal Copy' by WIRE, not their best album but it led me to their classics, ditto for PERE UBU's 'The Tenement Year; SONIC YOUTH's 'Confusion is Sex' AND 'Sister' (Whoa!); EINSTUERZENDE NEUBATEN's 'Five off the open-ended Richter Scale' (Can't remember the German title offhand), which scared the hell out of me when I listened to it in the dark; 'Born Sandy Devotional' by THE TRIFFIDS, still one of my all time favourite albums; DIAMOND HEAD's 'Am I Evil' (ditto); NICK CAVE AND THE BAD SEEDS' 'From Her to Eternity' and 'Your Funeral my Trial'. The record I remember best from those shelves is SWANS' 'Holy Money'. It had a massive effect on me, I can still recall the shock and the sick thrill that horrible, gloomy noise had first time I listened to it. What an impact. For a nominal fee I also got stuff like THROWING MUSES, HUSKER DU, COCTEAU TWINS, they even had CHUMBWUMBA, CONFLICT and DEAD KENNEDYS (in a Public Library! Outrage in the News Shopper!).

By '89, before I left Bromley, it had declined somewhat as vinyl was replaced by CDs, which was no good to me at the time. I did manage to buy that precious copy of 'Holy Money' in a clearout sale though, and on my return in the late 90's got 'Forever Changes', SUN RA's 'The Singles' and the SILVER APPLES on those new-fangled CDs too, so there was still a progressive streak in the stock.

So thanks to the good public servants who helped in my musical education. As Mark E Smith once said, Pay yer Rates! Pay the Borough!

Get that Monster off the Stage

2008-02-18T23:59:00.000Z

(Photo of Five Go Down to the Sea taken from the broadcast's website)

... is the title of a documentary about arguably the best Irish band of the 80's, FIVE GO DOWN TO THE SEA, formerly NUN ATTAX, finally BEETHOVEN. Originally broadcast on Cork Campus Radio in 2001 and again earlier this week to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Nun Attax'sseses first gig, it's now been archived online to listen to here.

It's a fine listen, another account of another time, another place; like the archived radio show on Louisville punk I heard recently (find the link in this previous post), the sublime accents recall a magical/shitty time when a bunch of people found Something New and went with it.

Singer Finbarr Donnelly was the focus of the band, a larger-than-life character who drowned swimming in the Serpentine lake in Hyde Park in London in 1989. He's the 'Monster' referred to in the title I guess, and it's a good title/quote from somewhere but that makes him sound nasty; 'Nutter', 'Eejit' or 'Gobshite' would be closer to the truth, if truth is even relevant to such an enigma. He was originally from Belfast, and though he "became more Cork than Cork people", you can hear that in his vocals, especially in lines that end in round, down or ground.

The cast includes fellow band members as well as Cork's most well-known musicians from the era, Sean O' Hagan and Cathal Coughlan from MICRODISNEY/ FATIMA MANSIONS/ THE HIGH LLAMAS, Mick Lynch from STUMP and even that well-known pundit John Robb of MEMBRANES/ GOLD BLADE fame. The band's story is also Cork's story, with it's heavy Class divide, bizarre humour, it's relation to Dublin (the classic superiority/inferiority complex of a 'Second City') and the fact that there was fuck-all there in the early 80s, like so many places, so The Five went over to London... to live in squats, hand-to-mouth.

So until the fucking sumptuous retrospective CD comes out, to hear their rubbery ryhthms and Donnelly's untutored croon, stay online and go to:

The excellent PHOENIX HAIRPINS blog posted the three 5GDTTS EPs here as well as the compilation GOOD MORNING MISTER PRESLEY, which features a live track amongst such lost 80's shamble as MICRODISNEY, MARC RILEY AND THE CREEPERS and a bunch more unknowns (to me at least). BEETHOVEN's sole EP can be found here. More to the point, as for the NUN ATTAX songs on the elusive-therefore-legendary 'KAUGHT AT THE KAMPUS' compilation LP of Cork bands from 1980, if you've a copy please get in touch - Swedish Nurse wants it yesterday!

Thanks to Davey for this one.

i-and-e festival 2008

2008-02-17T14:32:00.004Z

... quick plug for this year's i-and-e festival of improvised music in Dublin on the last weekend of March. Check the festival website for more details.

COLON: 164 12" - Comedy Pope, 1990

2008-02-08T17:43:00.001Z

... one of my favourite sketches from the wonderful 90's British programme THE FAST SHOW, a one-off in the always-amusing 'Jazz Club' series changed to a spot-on parody of The Latest Indie hopefuls. I always hoped it would cause the staff at the NME to throw themselves out of the window on their office tower, knowing that their number was finally up; alas this was not to be.

The point of this being, there really was a band called COLON from, of all places, the Isle of Man (weirdly, another FAST SHOW line). They released this EP and that's all I know about them. If this Colon had followed the preamble in the Fast Show sketch, it would have seemed to be for real! Impossible not to get past the fact that in every way this sounds really, really like BIG BLACK - it does have the air of a one-man band, but I dunno. Back in the day there were a lot of bands who paid tribute to the singular style of Sant, Steve and Dave but none so blatant as this.

The title song's kinda turgid but ends in wildly noisy abandon and 'Smizzle' is an excellent piece of jugular-grabbing pummel that distills the BB influence into a concentration of it's own. Always a good one to fill the ends of compilation tapes. The other songs are still fierce but not as good I reckon - that's it for this geographic/stylistic curio!

164
Smizzle
C.E. Slab
Corno

ASTRAL SOCIAL CLUB and VARIOUS: THE FEEDING OF THE 2,079,211 Cassette - Idwal Fisher, 2007

2008-02-04T21:11:00.000Z

... the latest volume (No. 15) of ASTRAL SOCIAL CLUB's works on CDR was sent my way recently, and it's 11 more tracks of unbridled and hyper electronic malarkey of stratospheric roar, alien gurgle and mutant beats. Listen LOUD for full pshycoactive effect. Try Track 4 before you buy, and mail astralsocialclub@hotmail.co.uk for info. There's a new LP out too, "MODEL TOWN IN A FIELD OF MUD", just released on Textile Records.

Mr Campbell also sent this comp of super-underground sounds from the West Riding of Yorkshire, featuring 'The Club' and our friends ASHTRAY NAVIGATIONS - both of whose tracks throb really nicely here. To be honest I was a little frit at the prospect of a compilation of 'sperimental/noise (on cassette!), dreading an 80's-sounding, 'post industrial'/'power electronics' shower of shite. Thankfully my prejudice was overturned by the varied and entertaining damage on here. MUTANT APE are the noisiest bunch here, with a barrage of electronic spew; OCELOCELOT sounds like what the neighbours heard when I was sanding the walls in the flat recently; Longstanding jokers SMELL AND QUIM are pretty subdued, but good, in 'Dream Fucker', a murky attack of guitar(?) and shouting.

Cotton Crown goes to the self-confessed "Macho and Pathetic" FILTHY TURD, whose two long pieces are the bread that package this sandwich. 'Steel' is just treated and twisted voice and it's demented, like some old Dadaist sound poetry from the 1920's (Probably the wrong thing to say, but it's as anti-musical, weird and primitive). 'Silver' must be a recording of a live performance; after a lot of noise two (?) madmen's voices start gibbering what sounds like "COCK OF STEEL!"; there's the unmistakable (and repeated) sound of hand against buttock and incredulous laughter before it gets noisy again. It's very, very funny and genuinely wild.

It's a nice looking package too - IDWAL FISHER is also the name of a magazine devoted to similarly hardcore and crazy shit, so contact the HQ of this cottage industry for info at idwalfisher@dsl.pipex.com or write to PO Box 147, Cleckheaton, West Yorkshire BD19 6WY, UK.

BAND OF HOLY JOY

2008-01-31T22:29:00.000Z

Pic below, which is from the back of the "MORE TALES OF THE CITY" LP, taken from the Transpontine post which led to my rediscovery of the joy of The Holy Joy...

BOHJ were generally described as 'folky' and therefore always compared to THE POGUES, but they really did a kind of end-of-the-pier cabaret, as imagined by squatters living in South London in the 80's. In '89 they actually did a tour of seaside resorts, playing in places like Whitley Bay, Margate and Cleethorpes (Citation needed there, but you get the idea). Their song 'Leaves that fall in Spring' which gave their Best Of an appropriate name, actually fantasises about the glamour of cold British seaside afternoons.

Looking back at the interview I did with Johnny Brown in '89, he said they had roots in experimental and industrial music - their first gig (as 'Not even a proper band') was supporting EINSTUERZENDE NEUBATEN somewhere in London in '84. Based in New Cross, SE London, they practiced at TEST DEPARTMENT's place.

I've not heard their first cassettes, but you can hear the clunky rhythms, sound collages, screaming vocals and industrial repetitive beats that was the style of the time on their song on this compilation (featuring Coil, Nurse With Wound, Test Dept and the like) and the songs like 'Disgust' and 'Nylon Rose', from their first vinyl release, "had a mother who was proud: and look at me now" (12" EP, Flim Flam records, 1985). This stuff sounds horribly dated now, but the other song on the EP, 'Consumption' sounds more like themselves, though it's grim tale of everyday Heroin use set to a maudlin tune, a tawdry urban melodrama worthy of MARC ALMOND. 'One Child' from the "Who Snatched the Baby?" 12'' (Flim Flam, '86) is even bleaker, a list of reasons how and why children die set to a sombre accordion tune which swells up into brass and kettle-drum bombast.

They nailed their signature sound on their first full LP, 'MORE TALES OF THE CITY' (Flim Flam, 1987); Preset backing tracks on cheap keyboards (rhumba, bossa nova, waltz), rich fairground-music hall-sea shanty melodies played by an acoustic big band that framed Johnny Brown's charismatic Newcastle croon (a naturally musical accent). Instantly familiar, nostalgic, romantic, a realised world of old popular tunes for the working classes set in the world of child abduction, mental breakdown, drug abuse, doomed love and domestic violence. In other words, the Good Old Days and the Worst of Times in the Here and Now.

The Tales Johnny Brown tells are about tragic figures and relationships, opening with the jaunty challenge of 'Who Snatched the Baby?'; the first song of Act Two is a singalong knees-up called 'Don't Stick Knives in Babbies' Heads'. The lyrics drop references to Soap Operas and Tabloids, and they work on the same emotional level as the music switches from slow swoons of torch singing, strings and piano to fast, cheap and cheerful preset hoedowns with the words delivered breathlessly at a hysterical, Hip-Hop density (sometimes all this in one song, specifically 'Leaves that Fall in Spring').

"More Tales..." gets way schmaltzy and heavy-handed in parts (and at times) but it's a great show, stark and beautiful. Standout at the moment would be the wired bounce of 'Mad Dot', with it's cheesy faux-arabasque hook, what makes them sound like an English Kitchen Sink SUICIDE (Good title for another compilation CD!).

Skipping over their next album, the Live and kinda superfluous "When Stars Came Out to Play" (Flim Flam, '88), "MANIC MAGIC MAJESTIC" (Rough Trade, '89) actually lives up to it's title - 'More Tales' is great and bold but it's Bleach to the Nevermind of MMM in my humble. It's one of those records where everything comes together for a band, conceptually, musically, lyrically. The slicker production adds extra sparkle, more strings and brass embiggen the sound - MMM is still as dark and angry, but has London at it's feet and a big thirst on for Life and Love. It's faster paced too, sounding more urgent, confident and still not short of a tale to tell, from the opening charge of 'Route to Love' to the closing soul stomper of 'Blessed Boy', Johnny Brown's big-up to himself. He sings like an Angel!

'Route to Love' and the title track are classic London songs, the idea of the city and it's potential as their muse, rushing round the lit streets of crowds and shops. Even I can imagine London as a place of wonder and excitement listening to this, as opposed to the dull reality of working life. I see the skyline on the cover of "When Stars Came Out to Play" every working day, but I don't see any Angels! Having said that, in the 'Britnoir' (Their words) 'Killy Car Thieves' the story returns to Johnny's native North-East of England, like their early tragic portrait 'Rosemary Smith'. The best known songs on here, 'Tactless' (see the video in the previous post) and 'What the Moon Saw' are tragic love songs though, the latter being the bitterest of all Breakup songs, blackened with humour and a melody like an overdose.

Their next album after MMM was "POSITIVELY SPOOKED", also on Rough Trade the next year, which I never heard until my recent revisionism. If anything it's a more commercial, brighter take on MMM (without the attending sales, needless to say) and it ain't bad at all. "TRACKSUIT VENDETTA" came out in '92 on Ecuador Records and it's pretty bad. Ten years later Rough Trade put out a new album, "LOVE NEVER FAILS", which is a lot better but I've yet to get to know it properly. MMM and the later albums are still relatively easy to get hold of on vinyl and CD, the earlier records less so. I've posted a few songs from the early records as a supplement to your copy of "Leaves that Fall in Spring" (which has most of their best material), that you bought when you heard it was out and how good it was.

From the "had a mother who was proud: and look at me now" 12':
Disgust
Nylon Rose

From the "Who Snatched the Baby?" 12"
One Child
Yo!

From "More Tales of the City"
Cities
Don't Stick Knives in Babbies' Heads
Fishwives
Mad Dot
When the Stars come out to Play

Cool - Transpontine has done a video playlist thing of SE London music which starts with 'What the Moon Saw', which I remember is from the short-lived but vital BBC music show SNUB TV. Watch and weep! Bye bye!

PRAM: Gash mini-LP - Howl records, 1991

2008-01-22T23:46:00.000Z

... stunning debut release by Birmingham's PRAM, still going with a new album out and on the cover of THE WIRE recently (I swear this post was prepped before that, he says defensively). This is an almost perfectly realised piece of horror that still gives me goosebumps. Listening to it now, I'd heartily recommend it to anyone who loves THIS HEAT, THE RAINCOATS and similar gristle, but it retains it's unique unease. True Musicheads, Pram loved their Free Jazz, Industrial music and Hip Hop ("Broken sounds") and saved their pennies to make a sound-world of clattering percussion, toy instruments, abrasive guitar, looming spaces.

The subject matter of the stories sung by Rosie's childlike, plain vocals add to the emotional oomph; 'Inmate's Clothes', is based on her Grandma's reaction to having to move to a Care Home, over a beat supplied by the Birmingham Heart Attack Survivors' Percussion workshop. In 'Pram', a lonely melodica refrain plays as a pregnant and nauseated Rosie stares at a "Big black hulk/ Chariot/ It stands in the hall". The groaning amp feedback in the background - or whatever the fuck it is - is genuinely queasy and gets you in the stomach.

The intimacy of the body-horror themes fits with their musical setup; 'Industrial' sounds in a domestic setting, which is way scarier than using images of, say, urban decay or the horrors of war. The vision came from the time and place; in the postal interview Rosie did for the 'zine, she describes the heavy vibe of their inner city locale back then, Moseley and Balsall Heath, "full of alcoholics, bag people, crusties, dealers. There are skinheads coming out of the dole office and Muslim vigilantes down the road".

On the making of the album, she said: "We work quite a lot on our sound. We structure our songs, but not rigidly. When we recorded 'Gash' we started off using a four track... We took all the instruments to a squatted house called Strensham Hill. It used to be a home for juvenile delinquents and it was big, rather bare and echoey. We spent ages getting the sound right, moving the drumkit around to get the best reverb, putting the bass amp on it's back at the bottom of the stairwell and hanging a mike at the top of the satirs to try and get a bass from hell sort of noise. The clattering sound at the start of 'Flesh' is us throwing bread tins and pots down the stairs"

Each song is different as well - whereas 'Inmate's Clothes' and 'Pram' are sparse and cold, 'Flesh' is a beautifully grotesque fast number with a jarring time signature, guitar lines worthy of SIOUXSIE AND THE BANSHEES at their most beautiful breaking into noisy thrash and back again. My favourite is 'I'm a War', an astonishing mutant-pop gem. A bitchy five-year old girl narrates, recoiling at the sight of a scruffy girl at a birthday party whilst the rhythm section gets seriously funky and a fucking exquisite slide guitar melody circles overhead.

Sad to say I never dug Pram's subsequent records. The shame I feel about that is directly proportional to how amazing I think this piece of work is. "Gash" was self-released before they joined the canny London label TOO PURE for their next few releases. It was rereleased on CD in '97 on the now-defunct American label æ together with their next mini-album/EP, "Iron Lung", but both formats are out of print, so here it is again for now.

Dead Piano
Flesh
Inmate's Clothes
I'm a War
Pram
Dirty Children

January ennui

2008-01-22T11:30:00.000Z

... in an attempt to lighten the misery of the season, here's a few updates on some of the artistes that you, The Readers, read that I voted as my favourites over the last year...

Those JENNIFER GENTLE boys are coming back here in February, playing in London, Manchester, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Newcastle, check the dates on their site and catch 'em if you can.

DAVID STUDDERT of TACTICS lives in London now and is playing solo shows around town, check for dates here. In February Tactics are touring Australia to promote the second volume of "THE SOUND OF THE SOUND", which after the first volume of their career retrospective, I'm wanting to hear.

GODZILLA BLACK played at Goldsmiths' SU in New Cross last week and their seriously goofy BOREDOMS/FANTOMAS/MELVINS surf sound went down a treat. Cameraphone img below from our man King Dice. Again I say, check out their site and go see.

The folks at the Noise Pollution label, who did the Louisville Punk comp BOLD BEGINNINGS, kindly sent a link to an archived radio programme on local station WFPK commemorating the era's whirl of creative activity. There's music from and interviews with the bands on the comp and it's a fun listen, not least for those lovely Southern American accents, recalling the fervour when Punk Rock came to their town.

Más de Las Malas Amistades!

2008-01-11T19:25:00.000Z

...here's an interview with our pals LAS MALAS AMISTADES at their practice pad in Bogatá, a nice window into their world...

... and one of their videos on YouTube.

The interview was broadcast by the Brooklyn, America online TV station VBS.TV, which features a programme called 'Soft Focus', an impressively Anglophile series of interviews with legends such as PENNY RIMBAUD, SHAUN RYDER(!?), BILLY CHILDISH, KEVIN SHIELDS and MARK E SMITH. Haven't seen 'em all but looks like legitimate use of online time!

2007 - The Nurse's advice

2007-12-31T17:30:00.000Z

Actual contemporary bands:
You may have worked out that I know next to nowt about what's going on in the contemporary world of Rock and Pop, but JENNIFER GENTLE and ASTRAL SOCIAL CLUB get the accolade of being my favourite acts of the year, for their life-affirming, colourful psychedelic visions of pop and noise and their shows in London this year.

Astral Social Club & Jennifer Gentle Live in London, 2007

Fresh and exciting nu soundz:
TEMPERATURES - 'Ymir' LP and live.
LAS MALAS AMISTADES - 'Patio Bonito' album.

Reissues:
THE BAND OF HOLY JOY - 'Leaves that Fall in Spring'
The BOLD BEGINNINGS compilation of Louisville Punk bands - an exemplary punk comp.

Best albums of 2007 that were released in 2006:
GETATCHEW MEKURIA & THE EX & GUESTS - 'Moa Anbessa'
TACTICS - 'Sound of the Sound Volume 1'. (reissue)

Gigs:
Worth Travelling for - THE EX at Crawdaddy in Dublin on Feb 10th and the BOREDOMS at the Barfly in Birmingham, Oct 27. In London: GODZILLA BLACK's debut at the Pleasure Unit, Bethnal Green on 15 July and subsequent assaults in Croydon and Brixton; DAVID LACEY, PAUL VOGEL & MARK WASTELL at the Fleapit in Shoreditch on July 20th; ASHTRAY NAVIGATIONS and the A-BAND at the Gramaphone, Shoreditch on 19 August; SLINT's 'Spiderland' nostalgia-fest at Koko on 22 July... and NOMEANSNO still got the power, Underworld 23 Sept.

Other stuff that's been yanking the ol' crank over the past year or so:

CAN, 'Ege Bamyasi'
FAIRPORT CONVENTION, 'Full House'
MATRICIANS, an Aberdeen duo whose album can be downloaded from WOVEN WHEAT WHISPERS
THE BAND OF HOLY JOY
Lots of Australian punk 'n' post-punk comps, which I'll be writing about soon and retrospective CDs by THE THOUGHT CRIMINALS & VOIGHT/465
Two compilations of crazy nonsense from the early '90s, 'Yllättäviä kohtaamisia' and 'Mykistäviä välikohtauksia' from the legendary Finnish label BAD VUGUM. Available in mp3 format from the Finnish music site LEVYVIRASTO
PAERE PUNK, a comp of early Danish Punk and the 'MINUTES TO GO' compilation by THE SODS
The FLYING NUN 25th Anniversary Boxset
THIS HEAT
ORCHESTRA BAOBAB
FAUST
THE EX
BOREDOMS
SUN CITY GIRLS; 'Torch of the Mystics' & '330,003 Cross Dressers from Beyond the Rig Veda'
STEELEYE SPAN, 'Please to See the King'
SIOUXSIE AND THE BANSHEES, 'JuJu'
THE GO-BETWEENS, 'Send me a Lullaby'
DOCTOR JOHN, 'Babylon'
THE FALL, 'Grotesque'
SALAH RAGAB AND THE CAIRO JAZZ BAND, 'The Egyptian Jazz'
MAN IS THE BASTARD
PLEASANT VALLEY CHILDREN
WRANGLER BRUTES
ASHTRAY NAVIGATIONS
JANDEK, 'Glasgow Monday'
'Hò! #1 - Roady Music from Vietnam' a wild compilation of Street music on the excellent German label TRIKONT - Check this out if you like the SUBLIME FREQUENCIES compilations!
THE CRAVATS, 'In the Land of the Giants' retrospective double CD - very patchy but has it's moments (ditto THE DESPERATE BICYCLES)
COMUS, 'First Utterance'
THE INCREDIBLE STRING BAND, 'The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter'
RADIOHEAD, 'In Rainbows'
Still just scratching the surface of African Music, particularly the Golden Age of post-independence recordings from Western Africa and the ETHIOPIQUES series of course, so many amazing collections to absorb!

I've really enjoyed writing again and as long as it feels good, I'll keep doing it. Have continued to read and enjoy the blogs that made me want to jump on the bandwagon - LEXICON DEVIL, KILLED BY DEATH, LAST DAYS OF MAN ON EARTH amongst many others and look forward to reading more on THE DOKTOR'S FRONTLINE SURGERY!

Peace, Power and Pride in 2008 my friends!

Martin

THE BAND OF HOLY JOY: Leaves That Fall in Spring - Cherry Red, 2007

2007-12-22T02:10:00.000Z

... came across an old post about the Holy Joy a few months back in the fine SE London blog TRANSPONTINE, which made me dig out their classic 'MANIC, MAGIC MAJESTIC' LP (Rough Trade, 1989) after, er, quite some time. Since then, I've fallen for them again and sought and bought whatever I could find. Wanting to share this with you, I've been preparing a nice wee post of praise and purple prose about their wonderful work, when The Real Thing Comes Along in the shape of this Best Of Compilation on Cherry Red - yep, them who released the DEAD KENNEDYS early records over here. They're treading the boards in London again, saw them in Whitechapel in October and they played twice again in Town this week but couldn't get along.

One of the first face-to-face interviews I did for the 'zine was with singer Johnny Brown at his flat in Bonnington Square in Vauxhall, after being blown away by an ecstatic performance one schoolnight (literally) back in '89, supporting SWANS at the long-gone Kilburn National ballroom. It was really exciting traveling from the suburbs to meet someone from a real band in a bohemian corner of London I didn't know existed; I still aspire living round there. He was hospitality personified and cheerfully answered my rubbish questions.

'Leaves...' picks out deeply loved, sorely missed songs from the full duration of their career (so far?) from '84 to '04, from the vinyl and even cassette releases from their pre-Rough Trade albums to their equally obscure 21st century output. It's a good spread of their tunes with excellent - typically poetic and honest - liner notes, nice pics and a full discography.

So there'll be more Holy Joy here at The Swedish Nurse, but for now, here's the promo video for one of their most sublime moments, the quintessential 'Tactless' from MMM. The video is like so Of-The-Time, but let it play and see if the tune slides under your skin - if not then I've lost you on this one. Also worth mentioning that there's an important celebrity cameo (for British/Irish viewers at least)!

(This elegy/accurate brag/manifesto is in the CD booklet, taken from this site which contains nothing else - maybe abandoned or under construction?)

Ah, maybe the voyage was doomed right from the start.

But hell, where else was there left to go?

All I knew was that we had to get a crew together, and sail for the edge of things.

We had to get out there, beyond space, beyond time.

I didn't quite know what we would be looking for.

Maybe I was scared as to what our crew would find.

But we no longer had a choice in the matter.

It had become our mission; to sail over the sea of fear, hoping to rediscover the land of light, of laughter, of lust.

And if we got lucky, plunder what good times we could along the way.

Pirates, sure we were.

Renegades, hell, yes!

But don't think for a moment we had any interest in your silver, your oil, your property, your gold.

Matter, energy, spirit and being, they were our prime concerns.

Words, noise, colour: all reason for living.

The pursuit of truth in beauty and the exploration of all things ugly; those were our obsessions, constant needy and unerring.

And now The City of Rack and Ruin is no more.

The town we loved no longer a haven to us artists and we have to move on.

We have to push out for one last adventure.

We are in exile, each and every one of us.

But hey, there is no time to waste, the globe the globe the globe; there are sails to be hauled here, tides to be trawled, and a brand new tale that just has to be told.

LAS MALAS AMISTADES: Patio Bonito - Honest Jons records, 2007

2007-12-15T20:10:00.000Z

... a charming, low-key yet exotic album recorded by 'The Bad Friends' at Humberto's house in Bogotá in May last year. They're a bunch of artists, filmmakers and the like who occasionally get together and make up songs on acoustic guitars and cheap keyboards, with xylophone, jew's harp and percussion used here and there.

I'd heard their previous album 'Jardin Interior' (seems to be a theme going on with the album titles) on Psych-o-Path records, and kinda liked it enough treat myself to this whilst Christmas shopping recently (Well, you have to, don't you?). The nineteen short songs are sketchy, delicate and tentative, barely together at first listen; the recording is live and bare, no frills but not 'lo-fi'. After a few spins though, it's homespun beauty won me over, this is odd and lovely music. My favourite songs are the ones where the woman sings (I guess that'd be Ximena), like 'Cha Cha Cha', 'Ahora' and 'Tierra Caliente Agua Fria', but kudos to the rich crooning on 'Museo de los Imperfectos' ("Everything is imperfect/Especially us").

The packaging on this is really nice too, a digipak CD with colourful photos of domestic views, patterned tiles and a fold-out poster of artwork and lyrics (in English). Info, sound samples and the option to purchase can be found at the Honest Jons website, which looks like a very cool shop and label.

THE EAT: It's not The Eat, it's the Humidity - Alternative Tentacles, 2007

2007-12-15T18:17:00.000Z

... more vintage sounds from the Punk Rock explosion, this time from a Miami, FLA band whose first two singles (released '79 & '80 on their own GIGGLING HITLER label) are legendary amongst 'Collector Scum' for their rarity and quality. Now, after having been bootlegged to fuck, these two great records and way more have now been packaged in a legit form by Alternative Tentacles.

'Communist Radio' opens this CD and it's simple and simply perfect, it's Buddy Holly, it's the Buzzcocks with a juggernaut melody, smart Cold War-era lyrics and a guitar solo to die for. It will cause a rush and involuntary pogoing like THE VICTIMS' 'Flipped Out over You' or THE DAMNED's 'New Rose', say. Or, er, 'Peggy Sue' or 'Boredom'. The flip, 'Catholic Love' is a hottie too.

'Communist Radio' and 'Dr TV' and 'Kneecappin'' from their great second EP, 'God Punishes The Eat' were featured on a couple of the KILLED BY DEATH bootleg compilations, which before the Blog Revolution were the ideal medium for forcibly exposing the gems and the dreck from the international Do-it-Yersel punk rock non-scene of the wilderness years circa 76-82. Though a lot of the material on the KBD or 'Bloodstains across...' comps is the kind of sped-up R'n'B (in the original sense), macho 'merican punk 'n' roll I couldn't give a shit about, faced now with a 2CD of one band's output, I can see the point of these comps - to give you the cherry-picked good shit!

This is a two-disc set too, there's an extra CD of live material which I doubt I'll ever listen to. The rest of their material on the first CD is fine and nifty, they certainly threw out plenty of catchy tunes with wry, cynical lyrics (Which remind me, attitude-wise, of Sydney's THE THOUGHT CRIMINALS, another quality DIY outfit of the era with a similar reputation - more on them another time). There are a lot of real nice, catchy growers on here, but by track number 30, it's as much 'Power Pop' as this man can take.

Tip for the clever Modern Consumer - download the first seven songs from iTunes or emusic or wherever and you'd have an ethtical and aesthetical win-win situation in your ears. If yer impressed enough, get this as 'Communist Radio' is worth the asking price alone.

Altogether now; "I WALKED OUT ON THE INDIAN OCEAN..."

PET LAMB: Paranoid from the Neck Down - Blunt records, 1993

2007-12-10T09:49:00.000Z

... more noise from Dublin, five songs on a one-sided 12" that was the first release on Dublin indie label BLUNT, which Andy Cairns from Therapy? had some involvement/ investment in. Picked this up in Derry one day and never saw it again, I don't recall that they played in Belfast, never saw 'em live anyhow.

Don't know a whole lot about Pet Lamb to be honest (or the following releases on Blunt), but this is a fine and noisy, dare I say grungy debut. The back cover states it plainly: 'Not produced at all, by anyone' and 'Play this fucker loud!' It's raw and song-based geetar rawk, but I like the way the song structures kind of wander about, like on the excellent 'Littlemeaner', - they just might thrash about for a bit where you'd expect them to go back to the chorus or verse.

Littlemeaner
Where did your plans go?
Asshole Agony Aunt
Never Rest Again/Drop it

'Tenderness' album cover
Uncannily like with Jubilee All Stars, I check Irish Music Central and make a few phone calls for the story Behind the Music to confirm that (a) I know next to nothing about Dublin bands of the day and (b) that they released a fair amount and had problems with major labels. What turned out to be their last release was the 1998 album 'Tenderness' on Blunt, featuring my pal David on drums at this point. To see how they'd developed, take a sniff of this track, 'You and Yours'. It's a good 'un, just so you know.

Singer/guitarist Dylan continues to make music with David and former Jubilee drummer Lee under the name of DINAH BRAND, check out their website and MySpace page, see what you think.

DINAH BRAND, eating some plums

IN DUST: Bewildermental 12", Wallcreeper records, 1992

2007-12-09T12:14:00.000Z

... here's IN DUST's debut EP - read the earlier gushing write up here. They sound quite different to the tackle-swinging Vikings-in-Tutus they became. This thing had been pressed flat between other records for years and I'm pleased to say it's still sounding good, really good in fact...in parts they sound kind of like a mix of CHROME and I dunno, DEPECHE MODE or FRONT 242?

Electronic pop with arrangements and rhythms whose sophistication vaults over any obvious Goth/ Electronic Body Music (if you know what that means, you're either my age and used to read the Melody Maker or a suburban American teenager preparing to shoot as many of your co-eds as possible during recess) influences, with flamboyant metal-influenced guitar action. Also important to point out there's a sense of fun here. It wouldn't be out of place posted on Mutant Sounds, the one-stop blog more all things unclassifiable and barely known.

My favourite song was always 'Focus' - the first time I heard that nagging riff, over and over, when they played the Art College, I knew I was hearing something special. But it's been a pleasure to hear the whole thing again, especially '(They Must be) Leopards'. Clever Boys!

Spoof!
Focus
Bewilderment
Leopards