The aim of this blog is primary to make available songs released in vinyl and never issued on CD, or only as bonus tracks on reissues, or on CDs expensive and rare, or in cheap compilations among other "hits", or with awful cover sleeves, or without some tracks featuring on the vinyl version.
I'll take some of them out of obscurity and into the blogscurity.
Additionally, I'll post new music from sludge, doom, noise, post-rock or black metal bands that need to be listened to and supported.
It's been a long time that I didn't fall for a math-post-rock band. I tend to keep stuck on Foxhole these days. But here, maybe my state of mind, in search of some intelligent and peaceful music, I found what I was looking for with these American musicians (from Atlanta), grouped under the name of Capillaries. It's intrumental, less sludgy than Pelican, less complex than Don Caballero, less etheral than Slint, less all this but finally more pleasant to listen to. I'm sure this will do your winter evenings too. Enjoy it here and then buy the stuff on their bandcamp (here) to help them to go on and record something more.
This concert was recorded by the BBC in January 1973 during a set at the Paris Theatre. It was the beginning of the Mk VII line-up of the band, with Tony Ashton on keyboards. Any usual Family fan can be surprised when listening to this concert. When they are electric, they sound like Procol Harum (when they are electric too) due to the organ of Tony Ashton, and when they are accoustic, they sound like the Faces (Ronnie Lane's ones). Of course, with Roger Chapman, they still sound like Family. The group is tight and compact and is no more this experimental semi-prog outfit. The concert was done some days after their sublime "My Friend The Sun" single (unfortunately not a hit). If there's a problem in this concert recording, it's this stupid idea to add fake audience shouting and clapping, always the same between all songs, and this is really unpleasant. However, enjoy it here.
Before the release of the Woke Up Sticky EP and LP in 1996, Peter Perrett and his One had done several concerts since 1994 and this is one of them. Very strange for an Only Ones fan as I am to listen to such a different way to back Peter Perrett. Actually, it's not totally different but it's clear that the band does not have this rocking decontraction and efficiency, either in the rockiest or the most dramatic sides, that was (and still is) the mark of the famous secular trio. In particular John Perry is really difficult to replace (but the drumming of Mike Kellie is too). Here the band is however quite good (maybe they play too much notes for me) and in no way it's one of these pathetic concerts that too often rock 'n' roll junkies have done for their comebacks. Peter Perrett has not lost his voice and his ability to make us shivers even if here it seems he's less "in it" than with the Only Ones, surely a little bit of stress and less confidence in his backing band. Some sound options (notably on keyboards) and playing options (on bass) are doubtful and don't fit with Perrett's universe but not often enough to be a problem. Interestingly, some songs here have never been released in studio versions ("Hearts on fire", "You gave birth", "Skin like armour", "Daughter"). This concert has been released twice (in 1999 by Dwarch/Vengeance and in 2000 by Burning Airlines), both under ugly cover sleeves. So I decided to do one more relevant (at least to my view) with the climax of the Peter Perrett's song. Enjoy it here.
Another band I had missed when their stuff was released. They are from Baltimore and they play this kind of dirty and atmospheric sludge I love so much (with a touch of stoner). It's poweful, raises a notion of strange grandeur even if the smell of mud and rotten corpses is the main sound perfume. It's heavy, electric and wild as few others are and they stand proudly next to the chiefs of the genre. They seem to be in the process of release new stuff this month. I'll keep you informed. Between 2 mad and freaky oldies, don't forget to listen to the today's madness and freakishness (is it English?). Enjoy this great second opus here (but take care, it's not for everyone ear, and bleeding eardrums are to fear). Their bandcamp there.
Sad to end this Family singles story with one of their weakest, "Sweet Desirée" (released as the single extracted from the It's Only A Movie LP released the same month, Septembre 1973) being really a second-hand song (à la Dr John) according to the band's standards, but it seems that it was no more their ambition to be an exploratory reference with this new line-up. So, this single (the 11th) is only interesting because he has a B-side, but since it's a weak song too, this does not add much interest. But it's the last so here it is. And after all, "Sweet Desirée" can be hummed on mornings under the shower and helps to make the day less bleak to face. Later, I'll post some live shows and the complete BBC sessions.
Here's a really unexpected surprise for me: falling for a brit psychedelic record. A side-solo project from the guitarist of The Cult of Dom Keller, this lo-fi EP could be one of the rare non-doom and non-70's and non-Peter Perrett-derived thing to heat my old soul during this sinister winter. If you're in the most lo-fi Robyn Hitchcock, TV Personalities, Primal Scream and even Grahma Coxon solo stuff, you will dig this sonor-UFO coming from some other mind's madness. Actually this had to go out of his head to fill ours. The bandcamp here. Go and support the man buying his stuff. Try it here. PS. I love the cover sleeve.
Here's what should have been a Peter Perrett (and the One) single. Why? Because it's clear when listening to "Falling", that the song was conceived and played on the model of "Another Girl Another Planet" and I doubt this was not in the perspective to release it in single. Why was it shelved for the less commercial "Woke Up Sticky" I don't know but I'm sure that "Falling" would have made much more impact at the times. It's a tonic one, not reaching the genius level of its ancestor, but without hesitation a song that would have surfaced as the best of 1996. To venge it, I therefore created this fake single, putting the hidden song of WokeUp Sticky (the album) on the B-side. It's a wonderful ballad as few others than Peter Perrett has ever been able to compose, play and sing. A perfect single that the net allows me to make almost real 15 years later. Enjoy it here.
Some girl promising me She said "you can have all that you see" That's something, I'll keep it in mind Know that feeling from a previous life I'm falling in love I'm falling in love Right now I don't know who to trust To be alive I know that I must I feel like an innocent abroad At the mercy of the ravaging hoards I'm falling in love I'm falling in love It's no way for me to carry on I feel like I'm in love with everyone, everyone I feel sick in the stomach with nervous excitement But is it love? I feel my temperature rises I've been fired up on you But is it love that's coming to me? Or is it sorry and confused like it used to be? I feel like an innocent abroad At the mercy of the ravishing hoards I'm falling in love I'm falling in love I'm falling for her charm Surely it won't do no harm A brief exchange of view Something shiny, something new
My sweet angel She fell down from heaven She got sweet dreams I must go and get some I want our time again We'll be right as rain the next time round As we kiss the skies fall in on me I can't resist her sweet voice calling me And my sweet angel Can't complete a sentence She got sweet dreams And a sidereal presence Time again It seems like we're through I remember when I had plans For me and you I've been lying here all night long Waiting for her
In April 1973, the band had Tony Ashton on keyboards and Jim Gregan on bass and released their first single in this formation, the great and underrated "Boom Bang", a song in line with Alice Cooper's "Hello Hooray", T. Rex's "Metal Guru" or Roy Wood Wizzard's "This is the story of my Love". Saturated with horns and screams, it's a Spector's influenced song such as there were several between 1972 and 1974 (and not so much since then). This is with this song I went back to the band after leaving them after Anyway. Sad it was not a Hit and not even entered the Charts. The B-side was not on the future album and can be found only rarely on CD. A "Ronnie Lane goed country" style that shows the evolution the band was taken with Ashton now in. Not one of their best but interesting anyway. Enjoy it here.
Sick and tired, all hay-wired, fever that's for sure Moon, lune girl erection for a cure Boom bang, shotgun man I said I feel as if I'm dead Cos I got those TV nudes Running through my head Scratch scratch, old Tom cat Screaming every night He's going round smelling every one-eyed she-cat in sight Full grown, big yellow moon Excite me awful bad But it make all the girls come running Cause they like it mad Sick and tired, all hay-wired, fever that's for sure Moon, lune girl erection for a cure Wang dang, pocket man Couldn't even raise a thought So while passing he would flash till he got caught Horned toad, rooster crow But it all add up to just one thing When the men specie get hot Then they sure do sing Boom bang, shotgun man I said I feel as if I'm dead Cos I got those TV nudes Running through my head
I don't want to be too often apologetic since you finally won't believe me anymore but The Body is really what I'm desperately and enthousiastically in search of when I'm travelling on the web, in quest of something exciting to listen to. You'll say that I'm quite late this time since the 3xLP vinyl was released in July 2010 and I agree I'm not the most vigilant and trusty blogger for experimental music, but after all, the worst would have been not to discover them. They are 2, they are from Rhode Island, and they do one of the most inovative music since Khanate or Gnaw Their Tongues. As said one blog (here) "you could write a master's thesis on how awesome this album is". I definitively agree and it would much less boring shit than most of the theses. Consisting in 7 tracks that make us travel through incredibly various and unusual sonor universes, this would have been without hesitation in my Top 10 of 2010 if I had discovered it before. It's a rather tuff experience to endure, but it deserves to be tried. We have only one life after all. And as Bataille said, "without extreme life doesn't worth it". If, like me, you had missed it, enjoy it here. And please, don't keep stuck to the old 70's stuff, really, this kind of masterpiece is the great music of our times. If you like music, how comes you can't appreciate the one of our times. Do you imagine Bach's fans not appreciating Shostakovitch? (wrong example since I think there are many). Their myspace here.
At the onset on June 1996, this wonderful EP hits the stores and tears our hearts. At last Peter Perrett was officially with us again. When you listen to this 4-song collection, you take the measure of what a songwriter this guy actually is. If I doubt "Woke Up Sticky" was a good choice for an A-side (I'll post later a fake single with what I consider the song that could have been the "Another Girl Another Planet" of the The One), it's hard not to find that to have 3 non-LP songs of such quality than "Transfixed", "Wildlife" (nothing less that one of the greatest song ever written by Peter Perrett) and "Dead Love Syndrome" is exceptional. But it's true that the perspective to do a hit with a song in which the chorus says "Woke up sticky / Must have been dreamin' of you" was tempting. Unfortunately, the single (and the EP) was not a hit, and I think it was not a good news for the possibility of a long-term come-back of our hero. But now that more than 15 years are over, it's a cult one. And maybe, if this blog still floats in the virtual ocean in many years from here, even after I'm dead and gone, one will read this and still consider it's a history classic. Enjoy it here. You can learn more on this EP here. Below I also put "Wildlife" in streaming, just for this song to be heard by the most of visitors. Just click and tell me if you ever heard a more elegant vocal melody.
Noddin' Out, white light Shadowy figures approach with the night Strange hands carry me away I resist in a catatonic way You were sweet, no doubt I fell asleep, you melted in my mouth No point tryin' to hide the stain I woke up, went back to sleep again Woke up sticky Must have been dreamin' of you Woke up sticky Don't know where I've been or who I've been through They went and put the light on me They examined every part of me They put the light on me They examined every part of me More speed, less haste I repeat myself 'til I'm blue in the face I came down in a meteoric shower The speed of sound turns decades into hours Out of place, out of time I return interior re-designed They got me up against the wall Maybe it's best not to wake up at all Woke up sticky Must have been dreamin' of you Woke up sticky Don't know where I've been or who I've been through They went and put the light on me They examined every part of me They put the light on me They examined every part of me
The predatory approach to love Is something you must rise above Your trampled victim's had enough But given time they should recover from you You like to leave your mark In the wildlife park I never, I never would've known I never, I never would've known Please deliver it to me The priceless gift of harmony I can't explain to you Why I couldn't have gone without you Why delay the truth? It only causes me to doubt you, baby You like to leave your mark In the wildlife park I never, I never would've known I never, I never would've known Please deliver it to me The priceless gift of harmony
Yes I know, some of you were maybe rather satisfied not to see anymore true rough and raw doom posted on this blog. It was only a brief absence since here this you-think-it's-boring-I-think-it's-stunning genre is back again with a rather ancient demo from an Irish band I had in my stock for quite a long time and that I can't imagine not to post here for those who are in old-school doom, the one mixing Sleep and Autopsy (but some others too). Its the first of a series of releases from them I'll try to post here since they deserve it. I didn't find a better quality cover sleeve so I kept it small. But the music is great. Their fb page here. This great first shot there.
I won't hide that "My Friend The Sun" is surely my fave Family song, and one of the songs that yields shivers and tears the most easily in me. With its Ronnie Lane's Faces mood, its one of the greatest folk song ever written and Roger Chapman sings it with an unrreal "delicatesse". Strange release actually since in January 1973, the band was no more the same than during the recording of this song, Poli Palmer and John Wetton having quitted for other horizons and Jim Gregan and Tony Ashton being in. Sad it was not a hit but surely the era was not appropriate for such a delicate and melancholic song that reaches the standards of the best Ray Davies, Macca or Brian Wilson ones. When you think that "Glove" is also a masterpiece, you can bet this single is one of the greatest ever released. Enjoy it here. The cover sleeve's definition is not very good but I didn't find better one and I don't have the single.
Well, I know that you're lonely, come in from the cold Your shoes they need mending, your clothes they look old Won't you pick up your pieces, it's never too late Though it's never early to make a mistake As soon as you wake Although there's been rain and it's coming again Change has to be here obviously Though my friend the sun looks well on the run He's there in the distance if you care to see Well, I know that you're waiting, come out from your shell There'll come a time you'll remember it well When you take all the good times from chances you've had Chances you've made and what you've learnt from the bad It's never so sad Although there's been rain and it's coming again Change has to be here obviously Though my friend the sun looks well on the run He's there in the distance if you care to see - see If the season were reason, then there'd be no doubt A sequel of changes worth putting you out But on the question of whether you heard a lie Answer yourself looking straight in his eyes Don't you realize Although there's been rain and it's coming again Change has to be here obviously Though my friend the sun looks well on the run He's there in the distance if you care to see - see
Twelve years after The Only Ones died in a total mess, Peter Perrett was finally out from nowhere and back among the livings with a new band called The One. Not that a possible Perry-Perrett come-back had not been on the way, actually they had recorded several tracks together (where are they and who will one day release them por favor?) but it seemed Peter Perrett and the people around him preferred to start from nothing and try a palingenesis. Musically, it will be a complete success, but commercially unfortunately not. This first EP was not intended to be released and was only a demo. It will be the weakest release of the band (there will be 2 EPs and 1 LP) but it's still a collection of 4 great songs and it was clear that Peter Perrett was still one of the most gifted and touching songwriter of his generation (in this period, there was Dave Kusworth who was in a same mood). The sound is not polluted by any bad production habits of the times, but the bad era was over, killed by grunge. The band is competent even if not brilliant, playing often as the Who (on "Twilight World" for example). And the shivering machine always in the voice's modulation of our hero. So, enjoy it here.
You saw that We Will Use Your Blood For Fertilizer was in my 2011 top (forgo)10 (here) although recorded in 2009 but released last year. So, if you credit me of some judgement in matter of music, maybe you listened to it, and if you loved it, here their previous recording (don't know how to call these 3-track MP3 formats with 30 min on). I don't like the name of demo. For me, it's a finished work and could stand proudly next to so-called officially released LP with 60 min of rubbish or previously-heard-1000-times music. If this first shot is not totally the masterpiece of Fertilizer, it's still one of the best thing in the Khanate-influenced doom domain mixed with black metal I ever heard. Hope they'll be out of their relative unotoriety and become famous (and remove one day my file calling me a thief like do most of those who meet success even if blogs have first help them to be heard). Meanwhile, enjoy it here, you won't regret your travel in terror, anguish and chaos, specially the incredibly menacing "Paramount Crematorium"
In August 1972, one month prior to the Bandstand LP release, the band issues this single with the A-side a band like the Faces would have dreamed to compose. Very Stonian, it's a hit, and should have reached an higher place in the charts than this modest n°13 (but it stayed 12 weeks in them). It is to note that if John Wetton plays on the song, he left the band in June to join Robert Fripp and Bill Bruford in a new avatar of King Crimson (and the best in my eyes). The B-side in a non-album track, so is interesting although not particularly worthwile. Enjoy it here. Since there was no cover sleeve, or, in some countries, an ugly one, I did one from the song title, trying to keep the general visual ambiance surrounding the band's imagery at the time. Note that the first video below is from the vinyl version when the one in the rar file is from the digitally mastered one.
As a fan of Shocking Blue and doom, it's no surprise I definitively dig The Devil's Blood (could call themselves The Shocking Red) who often sounds as Shocking Blue turning doom. Both are from Nederland, the real 3rd country for music. But more than that, the band succeeds in creating real fucking good songs, and, as for Uncle Acid & the deadbeats, this deserves to be saluted. If we lived on a planet where people had still functional ears, this LP would have been one of the biggest seller of the year. We're far from this reality unfortunately. Here, you got 10 songs that I wouldn't expect a contempory band to be able to compose. OK, it's close to nostalgia but I don't care. Moreover, the singer, Farida Lemouchi has a voice I really like, a mix between (of course) Mariska Veres (on "Fire Burning") and PP Arnold, imagine my jubilation. And if all the sexist comments of the metal reviewers about her body silhouette could stop, it would be a real relief. Personally I think she's gorgeous. I missed them recently in Paris and I'm very angry against me. I must be more vigilant on the concerts in this city of no-fun. So hereWAS their last offer SINCE THE FILE WAS REMOVED FOR VIOLATION OF MF TERMS OF SERVICE. I SUPPOSE IT WILL BE MORE AND MORE THE CASE IN THE NEAR FUTURE WITH THE INCREASED VIGILANCE OF THE SHARING HUNTERS AND AT TERMS, I THINK I WILL CLOSE THIS BLOG, I HAVE NO TIME TO WASTE IN THIS CAT AND MOUSE PLAY. Some of the below pictures were taken from here.
Captured in December 1971, 2 months after the release of their Fearless LP (and during the tour supporting the album, and supported by America, flyer below), the band here is strangely in an inbetween soundland. There's still traces of their Anyway period, but no more the raw and rude approach of songs, and there's not yet the tighter and more compact approach of their future Burlesque period. John Wetton is on the bass and it's a welcome addition. But too often the band weakens its music with the classic impro overindulgence of this era. Released under the name of Family Live on Mystic records in 2000 with a rather ugly cover sleeve (mine is not first class but quite better anyway), this concert recorded by the BBC is an interesting testimony of the band state of mind at this period. Enjoy it here. Below too, some videos of the band in the second part of 1971.
If you like the music, if the record can be purchased for a reasonable price, and if the artist gets what (s)he deserves, please buy it. Support bands the best you can. They really need it. If a link is dead or if you can't dl, or if RS of MF (the latter will be progressively preferred) are doing you any problem, please let a comment, I'll do the best to fix the problem. Don't hesitate to leave comments, we all usually appreciate. But if you only want to get the stuff and go, no problem, that's the aim of the blog. If a band want the dl to be removed, just tell me, I'll kill it.
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