Sugar - If I Can't Change Your Mind (CDS)

Second of the two Sugar singles, and the proper mix of this song. Brilliant. Can't fault it. You must surely know Sugar, but if you've not listened in a while I hope this makes you go back to them.

The first b-side on this is another one which I could imagine on the album, if not maybe on Beaster, and it's really good. It's instrumental, which I guess gave it b-side status. Not as pop as the a-side. The other b-sides are from a live show, the whole of which was recorded, and is on one of the CDs with the re-issues. 'Anyone' I know nothing about. Another cover? 'Hoover Dam' is just superb in any format, any performance. Enjoy.

Just realised that the live show has just passed its 20th anniversary. Feeling old yet?

1. If I Can't Change Your Mind
2. Clownmaster
3. Anyone (Live at Caberet Metro, Chicago, 22/07/1992)
4. Hoover Dam (Live at Caberet Metro, Chicago, 22/07/1992)

Go here.

Sugar - Helpless

Check me out - two posts in the same month! Albeit with 29 days between them. More from Warminster, and the first of a Sugar double-bill. I actually picked these up before the re-release of Copper Blue and the rest, which include all these tracks on their extra CDs and so on. Anyhow, if (like me) you haven't got around to getting the remastered ones you might not have heard these songs.

This, as always, is an absolute killer tune. Is it sacrilege to say I prefer Sugar to Husker Du? Particularly Copper Blue, but probably Beaster too. I know, but I'm an indie-pop kid at heart (I say kid...)

The b-sides of this one are all great. First one wouldn't have been out of place on the LP. It sounds like REM, actually, but more rock. Next up is the "solo mix" of 'If I Can't Change Your Mind', which is maybe the LP version with only acoustic guitar? 'Try Again' is another one I hadn't heard before, which maybe isn't as good as 'Needle Hits E', but worth an ear. Might be a cover? I don't know, but sounds a bit different.

1. Helpless
2. Needle Hits E
3. If I Can't Change Your Mind (Solo Mix)
4. Try Again

Hear.

Elliot Smith - Waltz #2 (XO)

This is another one from the Warminster secondhand shop, which I picked up because he's one of those singers I've liked for a long time, but never really owned very much. I have a friend who is really into him, and lent me some stuff a while back, and I recognise this single as being off one of those albums. It's really good, and you might either know it or recognise it. Strikes me as one that you'd know again if you'd only heard it once.

The b-sides are both listed as being unreleased, so I hope that if you like Elliot Smith already they'll be of interest. If you don't know a lot, like me, then you can enjoy them purely as good tracks, which they surely are. First is an instrumental, and a very good one (kind of has a vocal tune, if you know what I mean). Second is a rocky number, very good, if not as catchy as the a-side.

Hope you like it.

1. Waltz #2 (XO)
2. Our Thing
3. How To Take A Fall

Here it is.

Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds - Red Right Hand

Very, very long gaps between posts, again. Sorry again. I might just set up some kind of header that apologises at the start of every posting. But here I am again. Hope you're all well.

This is the 1994 single version of this song, which is shorter than the album one. Goes without saying how good it is, and not surprisingly it's one of the live constants at Bad Seeds shows. This was a charity shop find a little while back, as I only really got into Nick Cave at 'The Boatman's Call', a few years later. And then went back to everything else.

The b-sides are interesting on this one. Track 2 is very much a jazz one, all over the place, with some excellent lyrics. Track 3 I don't know anything about at all, but the music is surely too similar to 'Red Right Hand' to be a coincidence. Anyone?

1. Red Right Hand
2. That's What Jazz Is To Me
3. Where The Action Is

Here it is.

Super Furry Animals - Something 4 The Weekend CDS

Just such a good band. Such a good single. And another find in the Raves From The Grave archives. I was actually going to put the 7" of this single up, but having found this one with its extra b-sides I feel I'd be letting everyone down if I didn't share it.

The first b-side, 'Waiting To Happen', is bloody great. Again, they've come up with a b-side which could quite happily sit on the album. And is better than many bands of the time ever wrote at all. Great stuff. The second is a Welsh-language track, pretty laid back, and drenched in reverb. Lovely. I think the other version of the title track is a session version, so it's live, and of course is played faster than it should be, as is traditional.

1. Something 4 The Weekend
2. Waiting To Happen
3. Arnofio/Glo In The Dark
4. Something For The Weekend

Here they'm.

Teenage Fanclub - Dying Day

Here's a little something which I've had hanging around for a while, but haven't got round to doing anything about. I was listening to Steve Lamaq on 6Music last December, and he played this Teenage Fanclub track from an Evening Session recorded in 1995. I'd never heard it before, and since then haven't been able to find anything out about it (apart from that it's an Orange Juice cover). It doesn't seem to have been released on anything, and because we're going back 17 years there's not much information on the internet about the Evening Session generally.

If anyone knows anything about it, let me know, particularly if it was ever released. It's a bit of a rarity, for sure, so I hope you enjoy it. Sorry it's at 128kbps, but that's all I can get when I'm downloading off iPlayer.

1. Teenage Fanclub - Dying Day

Here.

Teenage Fanclub - Mellow Doubt (CD2)

As part of my job I drive around a fairly limited part of the west of England, mostly Somerset and Wiltshire. In Somerset there are two old towns called Frome (pronounced Froom) and Warminster (pronounced Warminster). Both of these have branches of a record shop called Raves From The Grave, and both are worth going to, right now. If you're planning a trip to the UK then they should be on your list. If you live in the UK and you're planning a trip to Somerset then they should be on your list. If you live in Somerset, get to it. Their website is www.ravesfromthegrave.com. They give you a good discount if you buy a load of secondhand stuff too.

Anyway, alongside masses of vinyl, they have a huge CD singles section, with a load of old '90s ones. So of course I bought a load of old '90s ones, which I'm going to start posting (partly because they're a lot less of a pain in the arse than 7"s). Among them was this TFC single, which is the version I didn't pick up when it came out. Obviously the single is great (and a subtly different one from the album, this is in B sharp, not D flat, kids), and the b-sides are all excellent too; one Creedence (a really good one), one Rutles (I had to look that up), and a McGinley track which I don't remember ever hearing before. Lovely. Enjoy.

1. Mellow Doubt (Alternative Version)
2. Have You Ever Seen The Rain?
3. Between Us
4. You're My Kind

Here, somehow, is more Teenage Fanclub.

Ned's Atomic Dustbin - Stuck (CDS)

Another long gap between posts... I'd make an excuse, but you must be used to this by now.

Don't know how to start this, really. Obviously Ned's were famous for maybe two songs and having two bass players, and listening back to their better known output now is pretty much only a nostalgic pleasure. A pleasure, sure, but they couldn't really play too well, and there's a lot of dross balancing out the Happy's...

However, they kept going long after people lost interest (well, not that long - this is from 1995 I think), and got better at playing, I'd say. This is really quite a good song, if you're into the whole '90s thing. And what are you doing here if you're not?

The acoustic b-sides are pretty good too, and the first one is very Ned's. Have to say you can hear why the fourth track ended up fourth, it's kinda Ned's by numbers, but hey, that's what track four used to be all about.

Am I selling this to you?

1. Stuck
2. ... To Be Right (Acoustic)
3. Stuck (Acoustic)
4. A Tempted Fate

He's fallen in the water.

Tanya Donelly - The Bright Light CDS

Tanya Donelly isn't someone I've ever really been that into. Not through not liking her, but just kind of missed everything at the time. Not that she's stopped releasing stuff, right? But anyway... Belly were great, I was well into them, and The Breeders of course, but I'm always a bit suspicious of songwriters who go solo. It never works as well as being in a band; no-one to tell you that the song's shite.

Go on. Name one solo artist who's better than the band they were in.

This single, though, is very good. You can hear the Belly in it, which is no bad thing, and yeah, a really good song. I really like the first b-side, too, which is a bit heavier on rock and a bit lighter on production values. The third one's a nice slow atmospheric number. Good single overall, basically, and I hope you enjoy it.

1. The Bright Light
2. Bury My Heart
3. How Can You Sleep

Here she is.

James - Destiny Calling CDS

I listen to a lot of BBC 6music, and I'd recommend you do the same. Particularly Marc Riley and Tom Ravenscroft. But anyway, the station springs to mind because they like to play James periodically, and every time they do I remember that I really like them. Pretty solid output, too, there's a lot to like about all their albums, I'd say.

This is a good single, if not maybe one of their very best, but the b-sides are a nice little reminder of the heyday of the Reading Festival, when you used to tape it off Radio 1 (didn't you?) When I go back to these (or find DVDs of stuff from the era) I find myself recognising the chatting between songs and not knowing why.

This is CD2 of a 3-CD set. I don't think I ever had 1 and 3, so I can't tell you what you're missing. What you've got is pretty good, mind.

1. Destiny Calling
2. Jam J (Live At Reading '97)
3. Honest Joe (Live At Reading '97)
4. Sound (Live At Reading '97)

Hear it.