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Boston's Galaxie 500 shot from nowhere - they first appeared on our radar around 89 - my band's bass player kept raving about them and went out and grabbed their first couple of albums. Before long we all had a copy, and the band's sound was an important influence on the whole band. Their music was at odds with a lot of the stuff we were OD'ing on - quiet, simple and shiver inducing - their records remain regular favourites on my playlist.
They worked fast - their first two albums were recorded in short blasts, a few days each if memory serves - produced by the genius producer and muso Kramer. I remember reading at the time that he strong armed the singer Dean Wareham (who went on to form Luna) into singing higher than his normal range - it works a treat. I could fill a blog waxing lyrical about my love of their first (and subsequent albums), there would be lots of wistful sighing and happy memories. Instead I'll let you listen and enjoy Tugboat - their first single.
Ok, this one's a bit on the surreal side. There's a good chance I saw this when it aired, and I wonder what I made of it at the time - I would have been barely into my teen hood, and like most of my age group, Top Of The Pops was about the only thing we all watched religiously. Bookended by smug, old school prim and proper Radio 1 Smashy and Nicey types, Bauhaus do Lagartija Nick on said same pop show.
Pete Murphy obviously isn't paying much attention to the miming, and its probably a rare experience to have an audience not trying to flob on him. As an aside, I once had a manager who would often tell us about the time he successfully landed one in the singer's eye - I never saw the attraction of doing such things to be honest. But I digress, I've been itching to get some Bauhaus on here, so this seemed like a great place to start - enjoy the show. Oh! Just spotted looking at their site they're on tour again - hope that managers not still following them!
I've already featured MC5 around these parts, and don't apologise for featuring them once more. This clip is even earlier than the previous post of them on Beat Club doing Kick Out The Jams. The band all look a lot younger than in the other clip, but unfortunately, in this one they're miming along rather than playing truly live.
Despite that, getting two rare sightings of one of my favourite proto-punk groups, both in just a few short weeks of each other is something to rejoice about. Apparently this clips from an American show called the Lively Spot, it's a bit shaky, but damn am I happy to see it.
Another of the great Punk bands that I only really got into in the last few years, following an introduction via the long missed and lamented Mark and Lard late night show on Radio 1. Their one studio LP, Germfree Adolescents is full of great tracks and lines, the sound of a band not only rocking hard, but enjoying it as well...
I spotted this track earlier on the eclectic Visual Guidance Ltd blog, it's a corking little run-through of probably their best known single - their debut - Oh Bondage, Up Yours! It's not quite the classy single that the later Identity is, but it's still better than a massive bulk of their contempories work, IMO.
I'll gloss over Sonic Youth in this for now, as they got a mention not so long ago here, and instead concentrate on Lydia Lunch. This track takes me right back to 1988. I was stacking shelves in the local Lo-Cost for pennies to earn enough to go out and drink snakebite and black at Cardiff's infamous Square Club on a Saturday night. I have several memories from that store - first time hearing Spacemen 3, first trip to a punk discotheque and being given a Lydia Lunch compiliation by probably the straightest looking assistant manager, who's name evades me. I can't remember why he gave it to me, but I'm eternally grateful that he did.
The tape, Hysterie, featured sections from various parts of Lydia Lunch's career, an artist I'd never heard of at the time. Most notably, the tape completely turned me on to her first band, Teenage Jesus And The Jerks, which showcases 18 mintues of the finest primal rock rage ever (talk about a short recording career.) The tape also as featured this great track, which by the way, was also my first ever exposure to Sonic Youth. The video's also notable for being partially made by cult underground shock film maker Richard Kern, and I've seen it about before, but it's great to see again and to be able to feature it here.
Loop were one of those key bands in my musical development. I got into them at an early age and embraced both their instrumental sound and the vocal stylings. In a nutshell, simple riffs played very heavily, with the vocals so down on the mix you struggle to hear them. Drench the whole lot in thick, spaced-out effects and you have a wonderous noise. As well as loving the combined effect of their musical techniques, I soon learnt that both are great techniques to hide the fact you a. Can't play and b. Can't sing. To this day I still can't do either, which is why the odd sad sorry attempt I make to create some music, a lot of their sound is still in there.
Whilst it covered up my failings as a musician, Loop never needed to use the techniques to cover their tracks, as despite the outwardly simple sounding nature of their music, they were creative and skilled musicians. This track is from their final LP, A Gilded Eternity, and is a specially made video for the classic Snub TV from BBC2. I could write a page on the joys of Snub TV, but that's another post. Instead of me boring you with that, here's Loop and From Center To Wave.
I actually had a Pussy Galore album way back in the 80s. Only trouble was I didn't appreciate Right Now! at the time and pushed it to the back of the vinyl stack where it languished between an Alien Sex Fiend LP and some dodgy stadium rock EPs. I loved their single Dick Johnson, which I knew via the video alone and often played. At the time the one full LP I owned was a bit too trashy for my tastes.
However, subsequent exposure over the past two decades to Jon Spencer's aesthetic and sound, via Boss Hog and The Blues Explosion changed my opinions. I'm loving Pussy Galore at the moment, so I was pleased to see this clip appear the last couple of days. I'm not sure what the song is, like most of theirs, but it's good old fashion rock 'n' roll miming fun. It's from the Uncle Floyd Show. If I get the chance, I'll have to post that Dick Johnson video, as I still have it at home. In the meantime, If you've never tried Pussy Galore, enjoy some guitar mashing, messed-up tuning, trash rocking fun.
As promised yesterday, the second part of the 1972 partial Velvet Underground reunion in Le Bataclan, Paris.
Is it me, or do the players look really chilled out in this video? There must have been some good-stuff floating around at the time. Either way, it's great to see Nico strutting her stuff, and her voice is particularly powerful. The audience love it, and so does we.
The Velvet Underground remain one of my favourite bands of all time. I missed the reunion tour as I was skint at the time, and other than some silent and jam along Warhol reels, nothing of real worth of the band playing live exists in the video archive that I've seen before now.
However, in 1972, John Cale, Lou Reed and Nico had a one night get-together and strummed out a few Velvet's classics for an appreciative French audience at Le Bataclan in Paris. I've seen audio bootlegs of the set, and I've seen the Femme Fatale video from there as well. I've not seen this though - its the two main men doing a rendition of Heroin. It looks great, it sounds great, and it's as close as I'm likely to get to seeing them live from that era, albeit a few years after their prime. I'll follow this up with the Nico track, as that's stunning also.
I missed Hüsker Dü by a good few years, after early exposure thanks to the ever reliable John Peel. The band's unique blend of breakneck hardcore, tuneful songwriting and audio experimentation made them permanent favourites of mine, after being introduced to them via 1984's Zen Arcade double LP. It remains a favourite with it's mix of experimental wall of noise and range of songs.
Later on I got their earlier effort, 1982's Everything Falls Apart - it was a markedly more full-on LP, full of short and screeching mini-epics, stripped down and raw. Today we feature the title track from it - and as I never got to see the band live, its of extra interest to me. What's more, this video doesn't just feature one track, but two - so get stuck in.
Spotted this music blog rbally today, via the ever reliable BoingBoing - bascially there's lots of downloadable live MP3s of some great bands, and it's updated nice and regular.
I'm just listening to the Broken Social Scene live set from KCRW Radio. There's some nice understated versions from their classy last self-named LP. But don't stop there, there's lots to check out, I've already bookmarked the Yeah Yeah Yeahs live and Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks live for later listening pleasure. There's a lot more there too - take a lookie.
Keeping it 80s and shoegazery, My Bloody Valentine remain one of my favourite groups of the era. Their sound is amazing, layered up and blissed out, according to them without the use of feedback. How they made the sound is a mystery to me, but once you've fallen for it, then you're haunted for life.
The band bounced easily between blistering heavy riffs and dreaming pop ballads with equal success - here we see them at the heavier end of the spectrum, but still keeping it dreamy. Feed Me With Your Kiss comes off their peerless Isn't Anything LP of 1988. I've not seen this video before now, it's much in the same vein as the video for You Made Me Realise, but we see a lot more of the band, which is always a good thing. Top tune by an amazing band.
