The Telescopes

Stephen Lawrie from the Telescopes has recently been playing shows consisting of What Goes On & Creation era material at various gigs around the UK, USA & Europe. Most gigs have been just him with an acoustic guitar, but recent shows have seen him backed by various different bands. Here's a few great YouTube clips to whet your appetite. I really must try to get to one of these shows. Look out for more Telescopes posts in the future.

Johnny Boy

I've more ideas for posts floating around my head than time to actually post them. This single by Johnny Boy was one of them. Tonight i've noticed that the great White Noise Revisited has beaten me to it. Its a great Spectoresque song which deserves much love so please d/l here. The song name itself is worthy of greatness.

Sarah Records

As an unashamed lover of indie pop it was only a matter of time before i would do a post about my love for Sarah records. Around the age of 16/17, way back in the late 80s, i was a lovetorn indie soul who would wander the streets looking depressed with a skateboard for company. Sarah records, along with shoegaze bands (i hate to use that term), were THE soundtrack to my maudling. I don't actually remember my first Sarah purchase but i'm fairly sure it was by the Field Mice (probably Sensitive). All i remember was the feeling the records gave me - a sense of belonging. I loved everything from the cheap folded covers in plastic sleeves, the poorly designed artwork, through to the postcards you got with each release which eventually formed a picture of some sullen dockyard in monochrome. And i still love it even though i sold all my Sarah stuff when i went rave at 18! Maybe i am getting old and nostalgic but i'm sure this is great pop music. Who cares this is my blog so over the next few weeks i'm going to post stuff by various Sarah artists. Below is a Wikipedia article that explains their history far better than i ever could.

Sarah Records was a UK independent record label active between 1987 and 1995,^[1] best known for its recordings of twee pop.

The label was formed in Bristol in 1987 by Clare Wadd and Matt Haynes, and grew out of the fanzine scene at the time, Haynes having previously edited Are You Scared To Get Happy?,^[2] and Wadd Kvatch. Both these fanzines had given away flexidiscs - indeed, AYSTGH had been part of the Sha-la-la organisation, a record label set up solely to produce flexidiscs. Several Sarah releases were fanzines and flexi-discs, as it was felt this summed up the aesthetic of the label better than 12" singles and albums.^[2]

Sarah Records was usually seen as being grounded in the C86 janglyindie-pop sensibility, though the late Seventies DIY scene and independent yet stylish and imaginative labels such as Postcard Records, Factory and Creation, plus the mid-Eighties fanzine culture, were bigger influences. It ceased operation with the release of There and Back Again Lane, the hundredth release in the main catalogue sequence - a booklet telling the story of the label, along with a CD of representative tracks. Half-page adverts entitled "A Day For Destroying Things" in both NME and Melody Maker marked the release. "We don't do encores", the advert announced, and the label has stuck by this sentiment, with no further releases. Bands on the label included Heavenly, East River Pipe, The Orchids,Even As We Speak, Boyracer, Brighter, Blueboy, The Field Mice, Another Sunny Day and St. Christopher.

Haynes subsequently established Shinkansen Recordings, where many Sarah artists went on to record; he now edits a zine, Smoke, dedicated to writing and art inspired by London.

Track 1, Side 1, Part 1 - Mogwai

Come On Die Young, track 1, side 1 = my favourite ever Mogwai track.  A speech from Iggy Pop over minor key guitars. Beautiful.

"I'll tell you about punk rock: punk rock is a word used by dillitante's and ah... and ah... heartless manipulators about music that takes up the energies and the bodies and the hearts and the souls and the time and the minds of young men who give what they have to it and give everything they have to it and it's a... it's a term that's based on contempt, it's a term that's based on fashion, style, elitism, satanism and everything that's rotten about rock'n'roll. I don't know Johnny Rotten but I'm sure... I'm sure he puts as much blood and sweat into what he does as Sigmund Freud did. You see, what sounds to you like a big load of trashy old noise is in fact the brilliant music of a genius, myself . And that music is so powerful that it's quite beyond my control and ah... when I'm in the grips of it I don't feel pleasure and I don't feel pain, either physically or emotionally. Do you understand what I'm talking about? Have you ever felt like that? When you just couldn't feel anything and you didn't want to either. You know? Like that? Do you understand what I'm saying sir?"

Punk Rock

Great YouTube clip here

Snowman

I went to see the Drones the other week (who were great), but it was the support band Snowman who really blew me away. From the off it was clear they were far from an ordinary band. The show was crazy, even verging on performance art, but still engaging. I will not even try to describe their sound as it incorporated more ideas than most bands manage throughout a career. I have since bought their album (The Horse, The Rat & The Swan) and found it completely addictive. Here's a few tracks from it. Enjoy (but don't listen with the lights off)

Our Mother (She Remembers)

We Are The Plague

Daniel Was A Timebomb

Lightning Strike!!

Finally!!!! I'm back online after a lightning strike blew up the whole Wilson joint. On the plus side i'm sat here on a lovely new Mac, a new tv & dvd player to my side, and Sky + coming Saturday. On the downside i've lost all my music & photo's so i ain't got much to post. Shit happens my friends.