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Towering over the indie scene of the mid 80s, the Jesus And Mary Chain are a band of legendary repute. Notoriety, riots, snarling attitude and awesome sound aside, the JAMC are best remembered by many as the band the caused bewildered parents to enquire if their children's record players were broken. The band's distinctive wall of noise had its roots in the Velvet Underground's sound, but for a whole generation who'd never even heard of them, the JAMC supplied an utterly new din unlike anything else around at the time.
From their first album Psychocandy, Never Understand sees the band at their both poppiest and noisiest. For those of you who aren't aware of the band's history, that's Bobbie Gillespie of Primal Scream fame doing the Mo Tucker impersonation in the background. This is just a great track, and its nice to see the video.
I've been seeing some great clips from American Bandstand recently, and carrying on mining that rich vein of videos, I'm happy to share this great little clip of Electric Prunes performing on the show.
Electric Prunes are a band I got into via the Easy Rider soundtrack. They're also well known for a couple of classic early garage pop classics such as the I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night and the track we have featured here today - Get Me To The World On Time. Good to see the band in the flash doing their stuff.
Sonic Youth's place in the history of modern alternative rock is unarguable, despite a few lean and unfocused albums during the later half of the 90s, the band still have the power to surprise and enthrall. I saw them at Reading back in 1990 and enjoyed the show, and to this day, Teenage Riot from Daydream Nation remains one of the anthems of my youth.
Here's a good clip of them live, doing Schizophrenia from their album Sister. It sounds great live, full of emotion and dissonance. Like the last 14 Iced Bears clip, this one's from a Shelter compilation video. Enjoy.
I've been a fan of Brighton's 14 Iced Bears since I heard their rendition of Summer Days on the Alvin Lives In Leeds anti-poll tax complitation in 1989. I've had the video of Mother Sleep on tape since that time as well, but this live video is new to me.
Other than a handful of their tracks, I've only heard a couple of their albums in recent years, and their mix of jangly guitar pop and experimental psychedelia is as infectious today as it was back then. I'll have to keep an eye out for that Mother Sleep video as that's another I'd love to share here. In the meantime though, this live rendition of the Balloon Song is more than fine.
The Damned's first album is regarded as one of the UK's first real punk LPs. It's a wonderful record, full of short, snappy and frenetic tunes that riff off a range of past musical sources from Phil Spector's wall of sound to the MC5.
Neat Neat Neat was the opener of Damned, Damned, Damned and just one of those great punk tracks that you can listen to again and again, if you're down in the dumps, throw it on, enjoy the rough edges and be cheered. Not sure where this clip comes from, but its a good little live shot of the band.
I first heard of the Edgar Broughton Band in the late 80s, when a local hippy muso compared my band at the time to them. I'd never heard of them, and the rest of the band looked none the wiser. I kept and eye out for some of their stuff, but it was always to pricey or I was too skint. I finally caught up with the band via a best of compilation and wasn't disappointed.
At times sounding incredibly dated and flip, at others grinding and apocalyptic. The growling vocals bring to mind Captain Beefheart, and as it turned out, I already knew a couple of their tracks without realising it via covers by the Gaye Bykers On Acid. This live video is from Beat Club circa 1970, and sees them doing a heavy guitar workout and gives a great insight into the band's sound and aesthetic.
Do you remember the days before MTV and 50 channels of whatever you like, 24 hours a day? It's the norm for many today, but for many of us, regular supplies of videos of (at the time) more obscure bands like the Cocteau Twins were simply unavailable or hard to come by. The only time I can remember seeing anything by the band on TV was on the late great The Tube. A few seconds of the Aikea Guinea video and a whole and often played Pink Orange Red (until my mum taped over it).
I've never seen this video until now. To be fair, there's nothing special about it. It has that typical mid 80s video feel and fairly low production values, but the song's none the less sublime and I welcome the opportunity to share this rich confection here at Real Cool Time.
McLusky have been one of my favourite bands of the last 5 years. It was sad news to hear they split up last year. I had seen them play live 5 or 6 times over the years as they started out locally. I first saw them supporting Gallon Drunk and after the performance annoyed the hell out of them telling 'em how good I thought they were. I'd often track Andy Falkous the singer down after their gigs and have a good old chin wag with him. I'm looking forward to hearing his new project when it materialises.
The band's reputation grew and grew. It went from being able to see the stage at their gigs to having to stand at the back behind the mass of bopping youngsters. Capturing that essential live McLusky feeling (lots of guitar tuning then screaming thrashing hardcore) we have a video from one of their US tours and a track off their third and final LP The Difference Between Me And You Is That I'm Not On Fire. Featuring one of my favourite lines from all the tracks on the LP, 'Born in Cardiff, raised by wolves.' Love that, love this.
Another of those bands I've only ever known by their music - and had never seen footage of until recently. MC5's place in rock history is assured, if a trifle under appreciated. The closest rock has to soldiers of freedom, MC5 pioneered heavy-riffing, space-rocking, politically-sneering, attitude-laced, proto-punk alongside The Stooges. Unlike The Stooges, their LP history never really did the band justice, despite a couple of studio albums, the band will best be remembered for the live Kick Out The Jams album.
We'll gloss over the whole rebirth of the band's anarchistic persona as a trendy T-Shirt logo, and instead enjoy some true Rock theatre as the band grind out their classic track Kick Out The Jams on Beat Club. A superb clip and something I've wanted to see for a long time. One of history's truly great bands strutting their stuff.
Phew, it still makes me go weak at the knees after all these years. Quite possibly one of the finest moments of Icelandic indie pop ever, and one of the first Indie bands I got into. The Sugarcubes' Birthday is one of those magic tracks that just sticks with you. I've never really cared for Bjork since she went solo and mainstream, but for a year or two at the end of the 80s she was one of my bedroom wall poster queens.
There are a couple of videos for this track. A quirky band one shot in Iceland and this which I'm guessing is from an American release as the end credit has it for the Elektra label rather than the UK's One Little Indian label. It's quite dull, but shows the band live and is dreamy like the track. If you'd like to see the other version, it's here but the sounds not as good. /Me sighs wistfully...
After the last couple of tracks from decades past, its slap bang up to date, almost. Today's video is one of the outstanding tracks from one of my favourite albums of last year, Broken Social Scene's Broken Social Scene.
I spotted the video for Ibi (Dreams Of Pavement) the other day - it's a bit flashy and not particularly exciting, but I include it here for no other reasons than, a. I can, and b. I love the song lots. If you haven't tried the album, give it a roll as it's all of a similarly upbeat and lavish quality.
Another of those bands I'd never seen in the flesh until recently, The Seeds have that good time garage sound I love, tinged with psychedelia and punky spirit. Their eponymous first album from 1966 is well worth picking up if you see it, featuring short spiky tunes that still thrill to this day. They're probably best known for the anthemic Pushin' To Hard, from said same first album.
Today's video sees them miming merrily to Pushin' To Hard on some unknown (by me at least) American entertainment show. The look on the old fella's face as he watches the prancing band members is worth the time of a download alone! As the hip teen at the start says, we think it's gassy!
I can't get enough of the first Patti Smith album Horses. It's been a regular listen down the years and shows no sign of abating. The songs veer from the short and snappy proto-punk pieces like Gloria and Break It up to rolling, ambient, poetry epics like the starkly chilling Birdland or the three part title track. It really is timeless and still manages to exhilarate me.
Below is a live version of Horses/Land of 1,000 Dances/Le Mer - from the BBC's Old Grey Whistle Test. It's short and snappy and markedly basic compared to the multilayered, John Cale produced, album version, but still packs a punch. Go Rimbaud indeed.
It's fair to say that north west Wales has always been a bit of a musical wasteland when it comes to real cool music. I lived there for a few years myself, and other than a couple of culty record shops, Welsh language nano-groups and the odd famous Cool Cymru band member, I struggle to name good things the area has done for my music collection.
I'm happy to say that something good is happening in the area at the moment though. I've known the music of Mank (Ben Powell) a few years now, via my days of running the long dead New Welsh Music.com - and in the last year, Mank's group project Micrographia. I've been particularly found of the 1st Micrographia mini-LP/demo since hearing it last year. On revisiting their site, they now have another mini-LP/demo called Everything Will Turn To Heat, both of which are free to download at 192kbps MP3.
The two self-made demos at times bring artists like Boards Of Canada, Mono, DJ Shadow, Radiohead, Mogwai and Godspeed You New Emperor to mind, with the emphasis on the electronica. To be fair, there's the odd weaker moment where the production limitations show through, but the overall effect of both albums is positive and engrossing - dreamy electronic post-rock on a shoestring. Considering they're free - you'd be a fool to miss out.
If you've fired up the downloads, grab Mank's solo 2002 EP Death Studios also. It's a bleak, stark and very listenable EP and worth a few moments of your time as well. Knock yourself out, there's a whole page of Mank and Micrographia downloads here.
Earth are a band that passed me by until now. I'd been vaguely aware of them, I remember them being a Sub Pop band at one point, and seeing them briefly on some music programme described as a slowcore band or some such moniker. Just this week a friend sent me a link to this track of their's, knowing my liking for drones and noise. It instantly hit the spot.
Chugging along with its minimalist beat and thicker than aspic distortion, I instantly loved the song. According to Earth's site, Sub Pop are rereleasing the bands back catalogue very soon, so I will be eagerly after the album Pentastar: In The Style Of Demons, from which this track is taken in the hope that there's more of this sort of stuff. It reminds me classic 80s bands like Loop and JAMC as well as echoing some darker more gothic corners of the rock world. Have a listen. The track's called Tallahasse, the band are Earth, the outlook, heavy.
With its leary psychedelic eye and reverb drenched, garage pop sensibilities, 1966's The Psychedelic Sounds Of The 13th Floor Elevators ranks as one of the first masterpieces of the psychedelic age. Back when the drugs were fierce and flower power wasn't yet the nice and trippy drippy hippy fest of the Woodstock generation, the Elevators played with a real edge of intent and ingenuity that developed and softened over their following releases.
I'd never seen any footage of the band from the 60s, until the last couple of days when this little gem of a clip was passed to me in IRC. In the following clip we see the band doing their anthemic opener from Psychedelic Sounds - You're Gonna Miss Me. The quality is not great, I believe the show is American Bandstand and I can't quite figure out if they're miming or playing live. Either way, they look exceedingly hip for their age, and you can get an insight of their sound which still reverberates through and influences music to this day. Snarling and angry, 13th Floor Elevators!
I've have to admit I've never been a massive This Mortal Coil fan. Given the range of talents the 4AD super group included, for me it never truly lived up to the possibilities. That's not to say there weren't notable successes within the non-band's body of work, far from it. Their early (1984) 12" EP, Sixteen Days remains a short but exciting piece of vinyl, rich and invigorating.
The title track is carried along by the unmistakable vocals of the Cocteau Twin's Elizabeth Fraser and Cindytalk's Gordon Sharp, whilst the B-Side features a short and minimalist cover of Tim Buckley's Song To The Siren. I've only ever known Song To The Siren on vinyl, other than featuring in David Lynch's Lost Highway.
I stumbled across the following live performance of Song To The Siren and had to share. The crackly compressed sound only adds to the beauty of it. Elizabeth's vocal is sublime, and Robin Guthrie's guitar as dreamy as ever. Enjoy.
Note: The videos is no more, instead here's the video proper.
Meanwhile, in an alternative universe, we take this enjoyable trip back to the late 60s and the Lawrence Welk Show. Showcasing a rivetting performance of Sister Ray by The Velvet Underground, live on TV. This performance is generally reguarded as the performance that shoved the once obscure art rockers into the mainstream and made them the house hold names and rock super stars they are today.
I love this clip, everytime I see it I smile. It's the perfect mix of absurdity, synchronicity and good time organ driven wig out.
To be honest, I own few pieces of rock memorabilia. One of the few I own is a Television Personalities gig poster, signed by the band's main man Dan Treacy. It's got pride of place on my bedroom wall, and is the first thing I see when I wake up in the morning.
I got into the band in the mid 90s, and they've been regulars on my headphones ever since - they're simply inspirational and thoroughly entertaining.
Last time I checked, Dan was still missing in action, presumed dead. But now I'm all a quiver, I've just spotted that Dan Treacy is alive and well and has resurfaced after the best part of a decade - and has a blog. Looking about, its seems this is old news to many, but I've been oblivious to it till now and completely missed it.
What's more, there's a new single and an album - Dark Places which came out in February. Man my heads been down for a while. But even better still, they're doing a festival near me in August, The Green Man Festival - and I'm now working hard on talking the wife into going.
So, here's a video of the newish single. I'm not decided yet, its great to hear some fresh material and learn one of the great pioneers of Indie rock is alive and well and still creating uniquely personal music.
One of the truly great punk bands of the 70s and one of the few bands where the word seminal actually means something, If been a fan of Alan Vega and Martin Rev's work since hearing Loop do a cover of Rocket USA back in the late 80s.
From their I got their first LP and never looked back. If you're not familiar with Suicide, imagine an Elvis impersonater singing about life over a broken drum machine and demented wurlitzer keyboards. That pretty much sums up their sound, but the band provide so much more. Kinetic energy, raw nerve shredding vocals and primal screams abound in their unmistakable and much aped repertoire.
I don't know where this clip is from and what date, maybe early 80s? Its the first time I've ever seen Suicide perform live, and Alan Vega seems well into it (and out of it at the same time.) It's a good live version of one of the rawest tracks from the debut album, lots of improvisation and distortion. Smart.
If there was one band that defined the late 80s for me, then its Rugby's Spacemen 3. Noisy, droney and at times utterly sublime, the band peppered the second half of the 80s with some classy and unforgettable albums, which I still listen to regularly to this day.
This track was one of the singles off the amazing 1987 album The Perfect Prescription. I'd never seen this video until this weekend. Its not very revealing, the heavy video psychedelia is a dense and grungy as the audio. But if you've never tried the band, have a listen.
When the band split in after their Recurring LP, Jason Pierce was already in the early throes of Spiritualized. Sonic Boom went on to produce a couple even more droney and trippy albums before disappearing into abstract analogue noise and ancient synth technology.
Ok, let's get this musical extravaganza on the road. This clip not only inspired me to make this site in a funny way, but it's also one of those legendary pieces of video that I never got to see until recently.
It's features one of rock's most iconic images, Iggy Pop at the height of his powers, surfing the crowd and standing on their shoulders. The real shame is the audience seems barely amused by the great music pounding down on them. Simply a great clip, Iggy is the one enjoying himself the most. The bemused and clueless announcers look like they'd be more comfortable commentating on a Republican convention!
