My new favourite band...

I was blissfully unaware of Unknown Mortal Orchestra until last week. Catching three songs from their new album, II, on 6 Music in as many days, I was sold. Happily, II is streaming online in advance of release:



The band have announced a UK tour for May (dates here) and are in session with Lauren Laverne on 6 Music this coming Monday.

1971 ♥ / 2

Fab Friday / 3

Credit

The O

"A mutant blend of Beatle-esque pop, hip-hop and punk that's fucked up in a pretty cool way"

For some inexplicable reason I thought of this song today. A perennial fixture on mixtapes/CDs I'd made for friends in the years since its release in 1998, it would invariably be greeted with the response: 'Wow, this is great... know anymore about them?'

No, I didn't. I tracked the CD single down after it was championed on GLR - probably by Gary Crowley, possibly someone else.

A recent bit of digging reveals the band - two guys from New Jersey and a Brit - were briefly signed to Polydor and dropped before they could release their first album, Nightmerica. Alas, the download links to the band's other material here are now out of date, but Nightmerica is now available via CD Baby.

Having listened to the samples, possibly I'm on safer ground where the hip-hop gives way to 'Beatles-on-weed-with-synths'. But Now, to these ears, was and remains a standalone, if unfairly obscure, classic.

Fab Friday / 2

    Henry Grossman via Shooting Film

Happy Memories. Very.

It was a love affair of diminishing returns: consummated with frequent expeditions to Oxford Street throughout the ‘80s and ‘90s, ending with cursory circuits around my rather sad looking local branch in recent years. The separation from HMV, and high street record shopping in general, though inevitable, is tinged with sadness, if only for the memories conjured up upon the announcement of its going into administration.

HMV Oxford Circus, along with Tower Records Piccadilly and Virgin at the other end of the street, were magical destinations, the locus around which all my teenage journeys to the capital were hinged. Hours, hours were spent flipping through the racks of vinyl, marvelling at obscure film soundtracks, perusing glossy fanzines (who knew you could actually buy magazines devoted to a single artist?), inspecting the spines of obscure biographies that would have taken weeks to arrive by order in the suburbs. The shops were buzzing with life and the smell of ‘new’. You didn’t quite know what you might happen upon next.

Later, with the internet encroaching, my product-hunting outings diminished, but there was still the odd in-store to enjoy (it might not be legible to anyone looking at it, and the man himself may or may not have been totally aware of his surroundings at the time, but yes, that really is Brian Wilson’s scribble on ‘Gettin' In Over My Head’…). The megastores in particular still had their pull.

If the shutters do come down on 150 Oxford Street, it’s perhaps fitting that my final fling involved a bunch of men in costume and a brief encounter with their producer, a long-time hero. (And very nice he was too.) A child of the ‘70s, but just that bit too young to remember it, gets to step into 1974, if only for a day...

Thesis, antithesis, synthesis, causes of causal causation

Okay, we are in Genesis Publications territory here (out of my price range, sadly), but this limited edition box of screen prints, plus book, entitled Yellow Subversion looks rather lovely.

More info via 50by70 here.

1971 ♥ / 1

Sticky Living

How evocative is music. Immediately the riff kicks in I'm instantly transported back 20-something years: a gaggle of girls, a nightclub get-together somewhere in Birmingham, a Christmas exchange of gifts. Sadly I've long lost touch with the pal who gave me the Decal re-issue of BB Blunder's 1970 album Workers' Playtime that night. Even with its cheap-looking Union Jack sleeve (reissues have come a long way), I was intrigued as I pored over what details were visible. 

I'm guessing it was a random pick up from one of Brum's local vinyl emporia, despite being an unusually musically curious lot barely out of our teens, with a shared love of all things '60s and early '70s. But it landed in the right hands and was listened to obsessively - particularly the opener (above) and the track it segued into You're So Young (below). The former's thrilling intro built into an irresistibly funky jazz-rock cacophany, the wailing backing vocals of Julie Driscoll featuring heavily, alongside some punchy horns. The latter lapped in on its heals, swelling to a truly memorable fade.

As far as I'm aware, we all remained musically opened-minded in the ensuing years. For myself, anyway, receiving that album, as strange and exotic as it seemed at the time (and still does), was particularly formative.

Fab Friday / 1

An occasional weekend rummage around the long boxed-up scrapbooks.

They'll never be able to copy this?  Ah, hindsight...

It will soon be your tomorrow...

So... 2012. From unpromising beginnings it turned out to be pretty spectacular, both musically and otherwise.

Musical highlights?

• Finally getting to see a bona fide genius and his band in the flesh. Despite the trench-like conditions, my gig of the year.
• Two trips to Shepherd’s Bush Empire: one eagerly-anticipated and memorable - a stage crammed with fans and former associates of Marc Bolan, anchored by the dependably ace T.Rextasy. The other, unexpected – a stage heavy with the weight of immense musicianship and a set that turned out to be mostly unfamiliar. Both shows experienced from the Gods, but no less enjoyable for it.
• My first trip to Dublin and a 70th birthday show to remember.
• Catching up with Pugwash, a decade after encountering them for the first time.
• Hearing this performed live. Goosebump-inducing.
• Seeing my favourite Monkee. Both a highlight and a lowlight – sadly the overbearing synths and click-tracks tainted what could have been a wonderful night. The show cried out for real instruments, a point driven home when a Red Rhodes sample was ‘flown in’ at the end. Ah, what could have been...
• A chance to hear the guys behind this book expound upon the history of Abbey Road, in Studio Two no less. Surrounded by banks of vintage recording gear and instruments used on so many Beatles’ recordings. Beatlefan heaven.
• Enjoying the Magical Mystery Tour Arena documentary (followed by the film itself) with friends at the National Film Theatre. Unexpectedly encountering a Beatle earlier the same day...

Non-musical highlights
In Olympic year, spending ‘Super Saturday’ soaking up the atmosphere in Hyde Park.

Lowlights
RIP Robin Gibb, Davy Jones, Dave Brubeck, Ravi Shankar...

2013...?
Continued new adventures. Perhaps another summer trip or two to the South Bank?