His Name Is Alive - Can't Go Wrong Without You

As a record label, 4AD is home to some of my all time favourite music. One of my favourite bands from their roster are His Name Is Alive, the much ignored and under-appreciated Michigan band with a magical repertoire. There first few albums are just sublime, equal parts space-rock goth, avant-garde cut and paste and indie pop, I can't get enough of them. Their first LP Livonia with all its pretence and veneer often finds its way onto my headphones come the end of a long day, and 1993's Mouth By Mouth is often plundered for a couple of choice tracks.

One of those tracks is the one featured today, Can't Go Wrong Without You. It features one of the most sculpted main guitar parts I know, the ominous sound just creates a landscape that feels like a 20s surrealist film. So, up until tonight it had only ever existed in my mind as an imagined landscape. Having a root around YouTube, I spotted the band and this strange video that sort of makes perfect sense and is kind of like what I'd always imagined any video for the song would look like.

Posted by Dio Bach at 2:19 AM 0 comments links to this post   

Slowdive - Souvlaki Space Station Live

Slowdive have featured around these parts before with the video to Alison - the storming opening track off their 1994 album Souvlaki Space Station. The album made my 1995 top ten for it's swirling blend of dreamy shoegaze and pop. One of my other favourite tracks of the album was Souvlaki Space Station, a bubbling and dubby space-rocking mantra with uncertain lyrics and lots of mood. I spotted a live version looking for something else the other day, so here for your entertainment is the video.

Now, the sound is a tad rough, the picture not great, but it all adds to the charm of the track, and the live version is just a big old wall of noise, but it sounds flaming great to me. I missed them when they were about unfortunately, I only got into them the last few years - they look and sound like they would have been a great live act.

Posted by Dio Bach at 3:16 PM 0 comments links to this post   

The Telescopes - 7th # Disaster Video

For me, The Telescopes were one of my favourite bands around the end of the 80s. A series of superb 12" EPs and an awesome début LP stand as testament to one of the noisiest and catchiest shoegazer bands you'll ever hear. Fusing everything from Jesus and Mary Chain like wall of feedback to ambient experimentalism, the band's sound was unique and a real inspiration to me. I really liked the singer's voice and words as well, it all blended perfectly.

Then around 1990 they signed with Creation and literally dropped all the things that made them great and become a real bland 60s style psychedelia outfit, a pre-cursor to the times that bought us such shit as Oasis and the Boo Radleys. Funnily enough, like The Telescopes, The Boo Radleys were another band with an interesting shoegazer début that changed styles completely as time went on.

Anyway, I'm rambling a bit there, sorry, bitter thoughts. So, today's video is of one of The Telescopes earliest (2nd?) releases. The 4 track EP is superb, and the main single was this one, 7th # Disaster. The noise is grating, and the video must rank as one of the most irritating ever set to VHS. If flickering upsets you, listen to the music with your eyes closed, otherwise, enjoy The Telescopes back when they kicked it good and proper. The band have made bit of a comeback in recent years, but I have to admit, I haven't heard anything of their latest work.

Posted by Dio Bach at 2:11 PM 0 comments links to this post