Pop Will Eat Itself - Get The Girl! Kill The Baddies! Live 92 (CDS)

It took me years to realise that I really like PWEI. Not all of it, for sure. Some of it's shit. BUT, a lot isn't. This song is a cracker, which I used to have on 12" and have somehow managed to lose, which seems to have been an error. This live version also includes the shout "LET 'EM HAVE IT!", followed by a piano solo. Nice.

'Can U Dig It?' is also a great song. Also a single in its own right, I think? Namechecks everything that was great about 1992, just about. 'Urban Futuristic' I don't know, maybe an album track I haven't found/remembered. Good samples on this one, plus xylophone solo. 'Wise Up! Sucker!' was possibly also a single, in its studio form. Really good song, this. Great stuff - what a CD!

1. Get The Girl! Kill The Baddies!
2. Can U Dig It?
3. Urban Futuristic
4. Wise Up! Sucker!

Hear me now.

The Pastels - Thru' Your Heart / Firebell Ringing CDS

Well. Nearly missed October entirely. Never fear - there are still a few hours of Halloween left, so here's a completely unconnected post.

Boo!

What's the point in singing in tune if you don't care? Now singing out of tune when you do care... I have a lot of time for that. Step forward Wayne Coyne, Some Velvet Sidewalk, and many others. And Stephen Pastel.

Paperhouse Records, home of the first Teenage Fanclub album, and a great double a-side. Especially 'Firebell Ringing', which was probably the first Pastels song I ever heard, and I never looked back. 'Thru' Your Heart' includes the line "You'd never let me, but I'd die for you." Sold enough yet?

The guitar solo at the end of track 3 is awesome. Track 4 is a triumph of freeform singing. Track 5 should never really have made it out of the home, but I love that it's on here.

It should be said, I think, that my wife really hates this band.

1. Thru' Your Heart
2. Firebell Ringing
3. My Heart's My Badge
4. Sign Across Me
5. Thru' Your Heard (home recording)


Here!

The Jesus And Mary Chain - I Love Rock 'N' Roll CDS

I seem to remember this was a bit of a comeback for these guys, after their early 90's classics. This was 1998, as Creation Records was on the way out (I think, excuse me if I'm remembering it wrong). Anyway, it's a really good single - one of my favourites of theirs, to be honest. And it's got brass on it, which is a bit of a departure. I like to think it's through some kind of pedal though.

The first couple of b-sides are really good, and seeing as it was the 90's there are the correct number for a CD single (3). The first is quieter than the single, with a nice guitar solo over a lot of it. '40,000K' is probably the best of the three, with an ace distorted bass (I think) sound. 'Nineteen 666' sounds like a pissed-up mess, to be honest, with an even more pissed-up sampler.

You remember those cards which you used to post to Leamington Spa somewhere to get on the band's mailing list? This still has it in there. Might send it off.

1. I Love Rock 'N' Roll
2. Easy Life, Easy Love
3. 40,000K
4. Nineteen 666

H-YA!

Teenage Fanclub - Radio (CDS)

My favourite Teenage Fanclub song. Let me tell you a story. No - come back! It's a short one.

I went to see TFC at Koko a few years ago, when they were touring 'Shadows' (I think). I was lucky enough to have met a lovely lady called Vanessa who does radio for them, and asked her if she'd ask the band to play 'Radio', which they very rarely do. I'd been with a couple of friends to see them in Hamburg with The Posies, and they didn't play it then, even though I asked.

Anyway, they played their set, and it was bloody great, of course. Then they did an encore, and didn't play 'Radio'. Then they went off, came back, and played another encore... Still no. Lights came up. People started leaving. Ah well.

Then they came back on again and played it! I'm sure you can imagine that it was one of, if not, the greatest moments of my life. Don't tell my family.

B-sides are awesome, all of them. You knew that. Enjoy. Great swearing.

1. Radio
2. Weird Horses
3. Don's Gone Columbia
4. Chords Of Fame


Here we go again.

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.