McCarthy and Ballboy pretty much own this list I could have filled it up with either of them…
And Tomorrow the Stock Exchange Will Be the Human Race – (54 characters) – McCarthy
I Don’t Have Time to Stand Here With You Fighting About the Size of My Dick – (75 characters) – Ballboy
Stars of Aviation are singing about the summer, but is it going to be sunny, Carol? (mp3) – (83 characters) – Stars of Aviation
Some Months Later, at a Club in New York City, Marcel Sees Albertine Dancing With Another Girl (With Whom He Suspects She Is Having an Affair) And Leaves, Jealous and Upset (mp3) – (172 characters) – Saturnine
Come Sing Me a Happy Song to Prove We All Can Get Along the Lumpy, Bumpy, Long and Dusty Road – (92 characters) – Bert Jansch
It’s the End of the World as We Know It (and I Feel Fine) – (57 characters) – REM
Here are my submissions to Cover Me, Volume 17 of Splotchy’s Green Monkey Music Project (visit the link to download the two 36 track compilations the first one has the selected cover versions, while the second has the original versions of the same songs).
Your selections should all be songs which are not the original versions, but are rather another artist’s interpretation of the original. I want the cover of the song to be meaningful, or important, or special to you in some way that distinguishes it from the original, and I’m going to want you to explain the significance when you discuss your selections after the mix has been published.
Obviously I could have had six Galaxie 500 songs…or Luna ones, but resisted the temptation to be quite that unimaginitive.
Ceremony – Galaxie 500 (originally by Joy Division) – Ceremony is, unquestionably, the greatest cover version anyone’s done of anything ever. In 1990 I saw Galaxie 500 at the Subterania and they finished the set with Ceremony, joined on stage by Kramer. If I had to throw away all but eight minutes of my gig going memories – those would be the eight minutes I’d hang on to.
Blue Christmas – Low (originally by Elvis) – I first heard this on the car radio in a supermarket car park (I think it must have been Peel sitting in on an earlier show as he did occasionally – or I was out shopping late!). Mimi’s voice just left me breathless – I had to sit in silence for a minute or two before heading off to do the shopping.
Flaming Telepaths – Espers (originally by Blue Oyster Cult) – I’d never heard the original before hearing this. Greg and Meg’s voices work so well together and this one really opened up a prog seam that I wasn’t sure I had or at least had long covered up. The original is only fair – the cover is immense.
Leaving Here – Motorhead (origially by The Birds) – In 1979 Motorhead was my escape into musical individuality – one of the key moments in that escape was on 1st May 1980 when Motorhead mimed to “Leaving Here” on Top of the Pops. Music changed pretty profoundly at that point. The live version of the Golden Years EP (which the TOTP performance was promoting) was head and shoulders above the weak studio version on On Parole.
Cast a Shadow – Yo La Tengo (originally by Beat Happening) – Two of my favourite bands. Stuart had this on a 7″ – was it on the back of Speeding Motorcycle? – I was jealous and have been careful to buy pretty much anything Yo La Tengo have released since.
Indian Summer – Luna (originally by Beat Happening) – I was really sad when Galaxie 500 broke up but in Feb 1992 Dean came through London with the first Luna incarnation (Stan, Justin and Grasshopper) and played a show at the Underworld that reassured me that maybe a positive spin could be put on the split. They played Indian Summer that night. It was also the last song the played at their last London show in 2005.
This is tricky, mostly tricky because of all I’ve had to leave out (two Galaxie 500 albums for starters).
On Fire – Galaxie 500 (1989) Best album ever. Nothing more to say (except that its appearance in this list also represents the band’s entire output and that of Luna, Damon & Naomi and Dean & Britta
Ys – Joanna Newsom (2006) Stunningly ambitious and beautifully realised and one day you all will realise just how perfect a piece of art this is.
Secret Name – Low (1999) I normally pick “I Could Live in Hope” as my fave Low album, but Secret Name is beautiful and is (according to last.fm) the Low album I listen to more than any other.
The Velvet Underground – The Velvet Underground (1969) The third VU album is awesome and the contrast between this and White Light/White Heat just makes it better (that doesn’t mean that I don’t love White Light/White Heat).
Hounds of Love – Kate Bush (1985) Hounds of Love was my by-myself album of choice for a long time. Listening now it’s remarkable as well in that it manages to not suffer from the time it was made. Previously on Everything’s Swirling.
Horses – Patti Smith (1975) Whenever I listen to this album I’m stunned I don’t listen to it more.
All the places on this list with the exception of the first two are vulnerable from attack from Motorhead, Brian, Nina Nastasia, Throwing Muses, Stereolab, Yo La Tengo or any one of hundreds of others.
THE RULES:
1. Post your list of the seven best albums, the seven bloggers you will tag, a copy of these rules, and a link back to this page. 2. Each person tagged will put a URL to their Blogger Album Project post along with a list of the seven best albums in the comment section HERE at Hill’s Country. Enough already! 3. Feel free to post the “I Contributed to the Blogger Album Project” Award Graphic on your sidebar, along with a link back to this page. 4. Post a link back to the blogger who tagged you.
As before…if you read this consider yourself tagged.
As the proprietor of a fan site I’ve always had an interest in what fans are doing on the web, a year or so ago I posted ruminating on the fan site and whether it had a place in the brave new 2.0 world…
Whatever the reason it seems the days of the fan site is over and all that’s left are the few excellent sites run by the few dedicated individuals that will remind the world what things were like in the days before MySpace and Wikipedia and blogs…
Anyway…I was talking fan sites to a couple of people over a lemonade yesterday (more of which maybe at a later date) and I was asked about what my favourite fan sites were. It was a question I found a bit overwhelming in a noisy pub but a lot easier when I was sitting in front of my computer later on. It seemed an ideal opportunity for the long since neglected My Top Six… category to be prodded back to life.
My fondness is for a lot of information so these are mostly concentrated on content occasionally at the expense of aesthetics. Looking over the list they all seem very “traditional” – very web 1.0 which possibly only reinforces David’s counter that…
the next phase of fan site development will see the development of more collaborative projects, whereby fluid groups of fans work together complementing each others’ skills and filling in when someone drops out.
So here is “My Top 6…music fan sites”…
Stereolab
In the early days of A Head Full of Wishes the best fan site on the web (IMO) and one it aspired to be like was Robin’s Stereolab site. It was packed with every sort of anything and encouraged users to vote and contribute. Sadly Robin closed down (and passed on his site) so it can only be seen in most of it’s glory on the Internet Archive…
Go-Betweens.net
Jonathan’s site is an awesome resource and one that has managed to get an online community going successfully which I never managed to do with A Head Full of Wishes…maybe it’s time to try again…or maybe the time has passed.
Low
Another site that you have to head over to the Internet Archive to see it as it should be. I adored the Low website before it became official (and actually for quite a while after) but sadly a lot of the content has gone astray and it looks less like a fan site and more like what I guess it is now – a promotional resource.
Electricity Comes From Other Planets
Olivier Landemaine’s Velvet Underground site is utterly breathtaking in it’s detail – it makes me feel like such an amateur.
Milky Moon
The Joanna Newsom fan site Milky Moon is a site I like a lot, for a relatively new artist the site has a gorgeously old-fashioned way about it.
Not really a “Top” 6 but just some gigs that are popping into my head as I write…I’ll try and avoid the obvious Galaxie 500 (and related) gigs here and pick out ones that were memorable not necessarily for the obvious reason of being utterly brilliant…
Terry Bickers uploaded by BuriedBones
Levitation @ The Tufnell Park Dome – 14th May 1993
For a while during 1993 I lived in a bed-sit in Northfields. The place was a tip and I spent as much of my time as possible not being there. The only good thing was that the guy who lived in the room next to mine had overheard the music I was listening to and befriended me – he and I went to quite a few gigs together over the months until I moved in with Hazel. One night he banged on the door and said he was going to a gig and would I like to come and because being “out” was infinitely preferable to being “in” I said “yes” without even knowing what it was. We arrived and got in through some shenanigans that seemed to involve us being on the guestlist (even though I’m pretty certain we weren’t). Levitation, or more specifically Terry Bickers, were music inkies darlings and so Bickers on-stage quitting of the band was exciting – the quotes on Wikipedia are probably true (I’d guess they come from a recorded source) but my memory (which is not to be relied on) has him calling the rest of the band, or maybe the audience “wankers” before he left the stage.
Gary Glitter @ The Guildford Civic Hall – 198?
I was rather reluctant to mention this – not just because of Mr Glitter’s subsequent demise but mostly because it was not the sort of music I ever really liked and certainly didn’t care about in the 80s. I went because a bunch of mates were going and it was local and we had nothing better to do. The gig however was memorable for the punch up between two blokes that pretty much lasted the whole of the show. It started in the bar before Gary Glitter took the stage and they punched shit out of each other down the stairs into the stalls and through to the encore – occasionally they’d be pulled apart but within minutes the audience would part to reveal them blattering each other senseless again. Glitter tried to make it stop with pleas from the stage but I think they were just enjoying themselves too much. I don’t recall if the fight carried on afterwards…maybe they’re still punching each other in Guildford pubs of a Saturday night…
The Primitives uploaded by leica_al
The Primitives @ The Borderline – (probably) 1992
Ken loved The Primitives, I sometimes wondered if the “love” was based a bit more on an infatuation with Tracy Tracy, but they sometimes made some very sweet pop music. This was the last time we saw them (and may have been the last time anyone saw them) the gig was tired, beset by sound problems and ultimately saw the guitarist just leave the stage mid-song leaving the rest of the band to struggle through to the end of the show.
Motorhead @ The Hackney Speedway Stadium – July 1982
This was (as I recall) the first London gig that Motorhead did with Brian Robertson and as if the short hair and fancy guitar work wasn’t enough to alienate the hardcore fans he took to the stage in a pair of very short and very shiny shorts.
Miracle Legion @ The Powerhaus – 1989
Ken was a huge Miracle Legion fan but I’d never heard of them so when we turned up at the Powerhaus in 1989 and found it packed to the rafters I was a little taken aback – how can a band I’ve never heard of be quite so popular among the hip and trendy indie kids of London. When the support act came on stage things became clear. I wasn’t really paying attention when they started but looked up and did a comedy double-take – probably a double-double-take…that looked like Kim Deal…and Tanya Donnelly on the stage…and sounded like them. The Breeders had just finished their first record in Scotland and snuck in this secret gig on their way through London…it was clearly not that much of a secret…except to me. The crowd thinned considerably after The Breeders had finished…
Hypnotist uploaded by Elkay 724
Thousand Yard Stare @ The T&C2 – 1992 Brian played one of their very few gigs and were second on a bill that included a hypnotist. The Brian set was punctuated by some lad shouting and shoving and trying to get backstage to punch the hypnotist because his mates were laughing at him for his on-stage antics while under hypnosis. Brian sharing a bill with Thousand Yard Stare and a hypntotist probably counts as being memorable for the sheer inappropriateness of it…that the hypnotist almost got beaten up just for doing his job (if his job is making floppy haired indie-kids look silly) was just a bonus…
Low – If You Were Born Today
I remember sitting my car in a supermarket car park unable to move while this song was on the radio when it first came out on a 7″ single. It is just stunningly moving – even for an atheist! Low’s Christmas album is one of very few seasonal records that could get pulled out at any time fo year…it was a toss up between this and Blue Christmas as to what made it on the list.
The Waitresses – Christmas Wrapping
I still can’t quite figure out why I enjoy this one so much. Maybe the silly/sweet cranberry ending – but it always fills me with festive spirit.
The Fountains of Wayne – I Want and Alien for Christmas
Just because…well…who wouldn’t.
The Ronettes – Sleigh Ride
“A Christmas Gift for You” is our traditional xmas morning soundtrack – I never get bored of it, and the Ronettes take on Sleigh Ride is the best track on an album full of absolute gems.
Slade – Merry Xmas Everybody
I guess most everyone else in the world is bored sick of this one – but xmas hasn’t really arrived until I’ve heard Noddy telling me that it has.
Brenda Lee – Rocking Around The Christmas Tree
The best Rock ‘n’ Roll xmas song
Galaxie 500 listers may be surprised at the lack of Simply Having a Wonderful Christmas Time given my annual vociferous defence of McCartney’s sugary xmas treat – I love it but would still have to say it’s a far cry from any of the above…
Between acts at the Albert Hall last week I started looking around the venue thinking of all the different places I’d sat and I suddenly realised that I’d been to quite a few shows so here’s a top 6 (but aside from the first one they’re not really in any order)…
Joanna Newsom – September 2007 – Seat: Arena floor
The view from the floor was surprisingly good although it helped to have an aisle seat. Spectacular show…but I’ve said all that already.
10,000 Maniacs – November 1989 – Seat: Box
We were in a box to the left of the stage, a friend of mine got the tickets through his work – we shared the box with this nutter who sang along at the top of his voice for most of the show (until I asked him not to and then he mimed for the rest). I think Indigo Girls may have supported.
Elvis Costello & The Attractions – January 1987 – Seat: Stalls
Elvis was doing a run of shows at the Albert Hall split between being backed by The Confederates and The Attractions…we chose, obviously, to see The Attractions. The seats and the view were excellent, the show wasn’t too bad.
Elvis Costello & The Attractions – (July 1994) – Seat: Box
In 1992 Elvis appeared on Desert Island Discs and chose a bunch of music pretty far removed from the music that he had made (up until that point) and while I was aware of his high-brow pretensions I was disappointed that he seemed to not love the music he made (or the music that influenced the music he made) it was this point that I stopped being a fan. I was surprised therefore that the Elvis wiki seemed to suggest that I saw him play at the RAH in July 1994. We sat in a box at the back of the hall so the stage was a bit distant. Difford and Tilbrook of Squeeze supported.
Cowboy Junkies – 1992 – Seat: Circle
My abiding memory of this gig was the "new" percussionist getting an onstage telling off for making a noise between songs which made me sneer at the precious-ness of the band. I’d loved The Trinity Sessions and quite enjoyed The Caution Horses but my Cowboy Junkies thing pretty much ended there – or maybe, more specifically ended at the point at which Margo turned and stared at the new boy and apologised for him.
Frank Sinatra – 199? – Seat: Cheapest – up in the gods…
We had great seats for this – they were (relatively) cheap and supposedly (I think) restricted, but we were looking right down onto the stage, admittedly from a long way away. We could see Frank’s autocue and so could easily sing along, even to the songs we didn’t know…not that there were any. This was really a case of going because we wouldn’t have another chance…and it was in the days when cheap tickets were within reach (rather than the £100 you’d have to pay for the cheapest Barbra Streisand tickets this year!
We just spent an exhausting week in Scotland visiting family so I loaded up my MuVo with as much as it could take and these were the six songs that I kept on coming back to over the course of the week…
Schrasj – Tower
I thought I’d blogged about this before but I guess not. This was released as a 7" single on Fantastic records and is one I never get tired of listening to. I think there’s a Rogue Wave connection that I never followed up on because I never got that excited by Rogue Wave. This website implies that there’s is still a little life in Schrasj.
The Divine Comedy – My Lovely Horse
I put this on to cheer Adam up but it mostly cheered me up…if there was a silly grin on my face it was almost certain that My Lovely Horse was in my ears. Father Ted was a work of genius and "A Song for Europe" may well have been it’s pinnacle (although it had so many highs I’m not willing to commit to that)…but we have to lose that sax solo!
Bearsuit – Stephen Fucking Spielberg
Bearsuit keep making the sort of indiepop music that just sticks – I’m a fairly recent convert although I downloaded this from eMusic a few months ago (although like too much recently this has now gone AWOL from eMusic (UK) recently) my interest was reinvigorated because of gordonballboy mentioning them periodically in his lovely podcasts.
Espers – Flaming Telepaths
Karen & Robert has a Best of Blue Öyster Cult CD in their car so I finally got the opportunity to hear the original which I’m not sure was quite as bad as moley75 thought, but did sound terribly dated whereas the Espers version sounds timeless.
Nina Nastasia – This Is What It Is
I love the strings and accordion that open and underpin this song – it seemed to work perfectly with the rhythm of the train.
The arse print incident…
Hazel and I went to NYC in February 2001 for a weekend that just happened to coincide with a couple of Luna shows at the Knitting Factory (what luck!). An attempt to get a signed copy of the vinyl Luna Live album, turned into an invite to Dean’s home the next day. Hazel and I arrived wrapped up warm from the bitter weather and walked into the sweltering apartment. The room contained Dean, his (then) wife, his son, a large dog and a friend who had probably been asked over just in case the nutty Internet stalkers went homicidal. We sat on the vinyl sofa…and I started to sweat – a combination of the heat and the stress and the fact that I sweat at the drop of a hat turned me into a sodden mess. After a nice cup of tea and some awkward stilted conversation Hazel and I left – I didn’t dare turn round to see but I suspect the sweaty arse-print on the sofa was a sight to behold.
28 seconds from Brussels
In October 1997 after a show at the LA2 I finally got up the nerve to talk to Dean – he was really cool – signed the back of my ticket, was complimentary about my website and took my phone number so that he could let me know the other tour dates coming up. A week or so later I got home from work to find a message from Dean on the answerphone – he had phoned in from Brussels while I was out. Of course being out was so much better than being in. Being in would have been an uncomfortable series of umms and errrs that would be nothing but a fading memory in my head – instead I had (and still have!) a 28 second recording of Dean Wareham leaving me a message!
Chocolate and coke
September 1999 was the first time I was on the guestlist for a Luna show – I went to the gig on my own (something I do too often) and I remember the guy on the door calling me "Billy no mates". I was surprised at the backstage pass that I was handed and therefore felt obliged to go backstage afterwards. Backstage at The Embassy Rooms was little more than a narrow corridor. Dean was chatty, handing out chocolate bars, that seemed to be an important part of the rider, and showing me a photo of his recently arrived son Jack. I got lost trying to find my way out and interrupted some smooth besuited individual setting himself up a line of coke.
Dear Paulina
After the mailing list and web page had been kicking along for a couple of years I decided it’d be great to release a fan club single – my ideal was to have Dean/Luna on one side and Damon & Naomi on the other but a very sweet rejection letter from Naomi put paid to that. So the proposal turned into a Luna single – Dean was very good – he suggested that he might be able to send a demo but when the DAT arrived I was stunned and delighted to have the lovely (and unavailable anywhere else) track dear paulina to release (and a cool instrumental for the flip). I took the opportunity to put a picture of Hazel on the sleeve and mention Adam on the insert – how sweet!
Squash court
Luna’s last show in London was at ULU and "backstage" at ULU is actually downstairs in a squash court. Matthew Buzzell was filming the excellent Tell Me Do You Miss Me on this tour and asked me to do an interview – which was an embarrassing babble that thankfully never made the final cut (sadly nothing from the London show made it into the film). Sonic Boom handed us a beer when we walked onto the court and I posed awkwardly for my only (so far) fan photo with Dean (and one with Britta).
Unofficial photographer
After last months Britta Phillips & Dean Wareham show at the Metro Dean beckoned me into a quieter corner of the bar near the door for our now traditional awkward silences – being by the door meant being interrupted by folk wanting their picture taken with Dean and being the nobody standing next to Dean (and later next to Britta) made me the person they asked to take those photos. Most bizarre moment was someone asking Dean if he knew who Andy Aldridge was!
OK the last one’s a bit of a stretch but it seemed I only had five stories of any interest!
