Unthanks - Here's The Tender Coming fake EP" (2009)

The last (and first since before the band was called Rachel Unthank and the Winterset) LP by the Unthanks is without a doubt a high point for those who love great music, even if not fond of folk. I could not imagine such a magnificent album was possible today. I pessimistically thought that such a delicate approach of music belonged to the past, to the golden years of English folk (the sixties and the seventies, from Sandy Denny to Mandy Morton). But heaven not, this is still possible and Rachel and her sister show us that it is. The lyrics are quite sinister and the general atmosphere quite oppressing, all that we like. The Here's The Tender Coming LP should be bought by anyone of you but in case you are not convinced, here a fake EP I imagined. In fact, the eponymous title is not my fave but the band played it on the Jools Holland show (see it here, it is magic) so if a single should be released from the album, there are chances it will be this one. However, on the B-side, I would like to see almost 2 of the 3 of my favorites songs from the album. There is the moving "Sad February" that you can listen on my D(k)oom compilation here, and the 2 following ones: "Lucky Gilchrist" (wrongly spelled on the verso cover of my DIM sleeve but it's too long to take it back), one of the rare self-penned song of the LP and which has a CSNY flavor and a final that is purely genius, and "At First She Starts", a wonderfull cover of the wonderfull Lal Waterson's original (that you can listen here) but very different. The original one was not far from Melanie and this one from Robert Wyatt or Nico. Both break our heart. For the sleeve, I chose a Thomas Withcombe painting since the tender has nothing to do with the tenderness as I thought first but with the boat who came to take the young men to dispatch them next in various ships going to fight the French during the perpetual wars our 2 countries did at these times. Enjoy it here and don't forget to get the album. Just a thing more: the 2 tracks in streaming below are the ones I chose for the B-side, not Here's The Tender Coming". Unfortunately, I did not find the words for "Lucky Gilchrist".

Here's the tender coming. Here's the tender coming, pressing all the men; Oh dear hinny, what shall we do then? Here's the tender coming, off at Shield's Bar, Here's the tender coming, full of men of war. Hide thee, canny Geordie, hide thyself away; Hide thee till the tender makes for Druid's Bay. If they take thee, Geordie, who's to win our bread? Me and little Jackie better off be dead. Here's the tender coming, stealing off my dear; Oh dear hinny, they'l ship you out of here. They will ship you foreign, that is what it means; Here's the tender coming, full of red marines. Hey, bonny lassie. let's go to the Lawe, See the tender lying, off at Shield's Bar, With her colours flying, anchor at her bow. They took my bonny laddie, best of all the crew

At First She Starts. First she starts and then she's startled. I see that light in her eyes Didn't you realise you were a bird, At dawn when you woke with air in your throat. So far doe-ray-me Sing to me loudly, Serenade me,Mess with the melody. Light and shadeAll my eyes can see.Oh but you are the phrase at the end of the bar, a long and high refrain. Hanging around for the choir to strike sound, So's you can holler your joy and your pain.

Skafish - Disgracing The Family Name 7" (1979)

Among the large amount of singles from the punk era (I'll say 1977-79), the first one by this american man-band was one of the best and most fascinating. Honestly, I was sure that Skafish would become a star, at least that he would do a real and long career. Musically and visually, he had all that was needed to take a place in the music history. Something like a missing link between Zappa/Rundgren/Alice Cooper/Alex Harvey and Marilyn Manson/The Cars/The Liars. But that turned wrong. It is true that he failed to fullfill our hopes with his first album (and it must be specified that the 2 album versions of the songs from this first 7" are quite different and not as good). Over was the salvage and transgressive approach of music, the LP was weak and some songs rather embarassing. But here, in 1979 (in fact it is the formation of 1978 who recorded it), we have an undying classic that has never been obsolete since it was released and that I can always listen with the same excitement and thrill that when I bought it. It's not the case for all the singles from this period, lots of them being dear for me for personal reasons (because I was young most often). The B-side is also excellent and provides an insight in the more Zappaesque (but still punk) aspect of the band. It seems that Skafish came back in the music world and here is his blog and here the Skafish site. Enjoy this first great single here (rather honest rip from my own vinyl single).

You can find a clip from the song here (this is made of archives of the band from various eras but a nice illustration actually)

Black Heart Procession - Rats / Witching Stone 7" (2009)

Don't ask me what is the forgotten song of this post, there's none, except maybe that "Witching Stone" is for me an absolute classic that should be the biggest hit of the year and I doubt it will be. It's rare I'm so sure that a song is such a standard but here I am. Few are the albums I've listened so often in so little time than Six, and I did not know this band before so nothing to do with a fan attitude. Moreover, this Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits and Nick Cave filiation is not my usual glassubeer but honestly, I'm sure that none of these great ancestors would have been able to compose such a wonderfull and varied collection of songs, with this morbid flavor and this dereliction that the BHP exhales over the whole LP. Buy it. For now, no other song that Witching Stone seems to be more appropriate for this blog so here it is. And don't forget to look at the video illustrating the song. It's a great one. You can see it here.

Sensational Alex Harvey Band - Mrs Blackhouse / Engine Room Boogie 7" (1977)

This single was released in the middle of summer 1977, not linked with any album (SAHB Stories had been released 1 year before and Rock Drill would be more than 6 months later). The A-side was Alex reaction to an old conservative cunt (I'm not sure of the signification but I think it's injurious) called Mary Whitehouse that Alex called here "Mrs Blackhouse". She was 67 at the time (and died in 2001) and was a specialist in anathemas against anything that her bigotery would find shocking, that means anything that a human can do with his body in fact except genuflexion in a church to pray (except if this provoked an erection). She had brought some months before a private prosecution for blasphemous libel against the mag Gay News because they published a poem called "The Live That Dares Speak its Name" by James Falconer Kirkup (who died last may). The mag was convicted and given a nine-month suspended prison sentence. The poem is reproduced here for helping to understand the apparently obscure Alex lyrics. The song was not so good and produced no effect in the charts. Actually, summer of 77 was not a good time for such an acoustic protest song. It was the peak of the punk movement and everybody, me included, had our ears elsewhere. The worst of it, and I'll come back on this later on this blog, is that this rather weak song would be substituted to the moving and splendid "No Complaint Department" on the second pressing of the Rock Drill vinyl LP. Unfortunately, the B-side does not improve the situation since it is a rather insipid boogie just like you do before going to bed at the end of a recording session. But it has never been issued (to my knowledge) on any LP, either in vinyl or in CD, so I thought interesting to post it here, so that you'll have one more unreleased B-side in your SAHB single compilation. Enjoy it here.

Below is a picture of Alex at the Reading festival in July 1977, a very hard time for him since he suffered a severe physical and psychic breakdown 9 months earlier and was only gathering himself. His apparition in Jesus (on "Framed") was not so well received and did not help to maintain the band in the spotlight. Too bad cause it was a great iconoclast idea that he surely did well.

Simon Finn - Zoo / Party Lines fake 7" (2009)

In a perfect world, Simon Finn would be a respected artist, one of the few able to turn the misery of our human condition in words and music. But the planet has much better to do, for example to wonder whether the n Neil Young is better than the n-1 one, or whether Bob Dylan will concede some of his precious time to record a decent album. So, to imagine that a single could be released from the new Simon Finn is surrealistic. I don't care, I've done it. I've made my subjective choice (a pleonasm actually) among the 14 songs and considered that "Zoo" could be an A-side of a French single since there is something of the tradition of what we call here "la chanson Française" in this song (if Simon Finn reads me, he'll understand since he talks a bit French). The B-side would be my fave song of the album (after all, this is me the boss in this virtual affair), "Party Lines". The sleeve may seem a little mysterious for you but here's the story. Actually, I had the privilege to show the house of Gustave Moreau, the symbolist painter, to Simon Finn some days ago, during the week he spent in Paris between his concert in Gennevilliers and his next in Lille. He seemed to appreciate what he saw, and since he showed me one painting he told me was his preferred one. I was quite surprised since it's not a typical Moreau's one but I thought it would be a nice hommage for this fine souvenir to take it as the cover of this fake single. It represents the sirens, not quite the same as a zoo, but after all, the zoo Simon is talking about is linked to the relationship with women, so it is much more appropriate that it would seem at first. Enjoy here but then please buy the Rats Laugh Mice Sing album, and also the masterpiece he released 2 years ago and called Accidental Life. Exceptionnally, I decided to put both songs on streaming below.

Zoo. All of these years that I was with you I felt like I lived in a zoo. Caged and contained and though it seems very strange, it was I that fed you. Oh days come and go, in this land of so-so, are our numbers now many or few? So in the pit of the night, in this place of unlight, if you should find yourself feeling blue, knit your toes into knots, think of millions of dots, and pretend you have friends in the zoo. Daytime, nightime, flay time, night crime, in my slight line. So if life seems somewhat sparse, here on the perimeter's arse, just remember, don't cause a to-do. For it's just vibrational forms, that trouble our dorms, over time you'll adapt to the zoo. Whatever you try, best pay no attention to cries, or wolves with sad eyes, or pacing cats with so little to lose. No, don't trouble yourself by life abusing itself, it's quite normal here in the zoo.

Peter Hammill - Paradox Drive 7" (1982)

Some of you might think that there is nothing unreleased here since the A-side is the first song of the Enter K album (that'll be issued in october, one month after this single), and the B-side can be found on Patience, released one year later. But, listening to the later more closely, you'll find that the Patience version is not the one that was on the single. And actually, I find the initial one more sapid than the one re-arranged for the LP. Honestly, the eighties were not a good period for Peter Hammill's creativity to my ears. The intimacy and the emotion were diluted in a New Wave-ish approach of music that was too mechanical to be appropriate to Hammill's singularity (a word he took recently for an album's title). Moreover, his lyrics were much less personal (but there were exceptions of course). I can't really understand why this single was released since it had no real chance to enter the charts (so it entered K). However, this is still interesting to hear today. Enjoy it here.

Paradox Drive. The thought crossed my mind -how curious, why should I want so much shut-eye? Fighting the darkness and furious, oh, but I once more fall into the song...just the normal unconsciousness;could that be wrong? All out into action then all down into sleep -check that attraction, it must be more than skin deep. I've checked the twenty-four hours, I've done the stay-up-all-night; in a certain way that's power, but it's not wired up right. Up for the pleasure, then it's dead to the world; our lives surely measured by the unconscious third.... Living on Paradox Drive, we must be living on Paradox Drive. The thought crossed my mind, how curious -why should I want so much shut-eye? Fighting the darkness and furious... oh, but I once more dropped off to the deep, the sweet comfort of a life on my own, asleep. Up for the pleasure or dead to the world, a life surely measured by the unconscious third... Living on Paradox Drive, we must be living on Paradox Drive. I've checked the twenty-four hours, I've done the stay-up-all-night;in a certain way that's power, but it's not wired up right, it still isn't right.

Now More than Ever. Between coma and consciousness, no hard and fast line, no chance to vote on the motioning eye. A mystical vision or a fall from grace, the chase in slow motion through alien space? I don't know what to make of the dream-time: it seems as though I'm me, but I'm now more than ever happening inside myself - I don't know whether I need anything else. Stored information or secretive clue, so much will fit the design.... one field of life where free will won't cut through: the dream and the unconscious eye, in real time. We surf between waking and the breakers of sleep the unconscious ocean, still waters run deep. We lay down all logic,all sense of control, suspend disbelief in the window of souls. I don't know what to make of the dream-time: it seems as though I'm me, but I'm now more than ever happening only in thought... I don't know whether any sense is caught. Stored information etc....... the dream disappears in the light. In the laboratory they're waking him up: the dreams on the lips but they smash the cup. A psycho-experiment, and there is no doubt --the dream's an experience I go crazy without.... I don't know what to make of the dream-time: it seems as though I'm me, but I'm now more than everhappening inside my head... is this a forever with the ego dead? Stored information etc.......the dream and the unconscious eye. In real time it's now more than ever.

Sparks - Wunderbar fake EP (2003)

My fave song on the great Lil' Beethoven album... is a bonus track on the Deluxe Edition. It's called "Wunderbar" and it is not sung by Russell Mael (and not sung at all actually) but taken from a certain Gunter Koch, a German radio football commentator. Apparently, this song could be only anecdotical, but, as often with Ron Mael, it becomes impressive and somewhat "inquiétante" (take a dictionary, I can't find a better word in English). Yes this piece of strangeness is addictive even in its ability to distillate a poisoning atmosphere due to the music, not so funny and giving to this song a kind of military flavor reminding the dark hours of German history. It would have magnificiently fitted in a Cabaret style film. Maybe one future day. The 2 other bonus tracks (on the virtual B-side) are fine too. One is a kind of explanation of the Lil' Beethoven concept by a talking and not singing Russell Mael. The last one is an instrumental version of "The Rhythm Thief" and it's a delight. I truly like Russell's voice, but the instrumentals Ron create can stand by their own. Honestly this man is a genius, even if in the past, he often lost the touch, Sparks being for example quite embarassing to hear in the nineteies. But these dark times are over now, and with Lil' Beethoven they became again the great band they had been long ago. For the sleeve, I chose a fantastic series of pictures of young asian girls in underwear playing football in the mud. It is, Sparks fans will admit, exactly in line with a Sparks imagery. Unfortunately, although these pictures are easy to find on the web, none credit the photograph and since I don't speak Korean (I'd say these girls are Koreans but nothing sure) I can't give the credits I would have liked to find. I post this one as Sparks are releasing their 22th album, based around Ingmar Bergman, and I hope this will add another gem to their long career. Enjoy here.

Alternative TV - The Force Is Blind 7" (1979)

This is the 6th single by Alternative TV and, after 5 ones belonging clearly to punk-reggae area, this is the one that marked the divorce of Mark Perry with this movement. Similarly to Johnny "Rotten" Lydon, Mark "P" Perry decided to leave rock to Clash and 999, new wave to Wire and XTC, pop to the Buzzcocks and to look for something else. On the back of the sleeve, one can read "atv memorial single", and actually, there'll be no 7" released by Mark Perry under this name until the first reformation in 1981 with Alex Fergusson. To separate all his new stuff from ATV, he'll change the name in Good Missionaries at the end of the year, and with Dennis Burns, he'll try a really extreme approach of music, most of us found too difficult to follow at the times, and still not palatable enough today to be appreciated. This is not the case with this single, because "The Force Is Blind" manages to conciliate real experimentation with pleasant hearing (not for everybody I'll concede). There are not so many of song achieving that, and this strange piece of music never ceased to fascinate me over its issue, 30 years ago. This sounds as fresh (or rotten) today as it was then. The text (written on the cover but that I've rewritten below) seems to describe a police intervention during a punk meeting, but I'm not sure. The B-side ("Lost In Room") belongs to the classic Alternative TV style, with a riff repeated ad libitum, and Mark Perry, in a sort of maniac Peter Hammill or Kevin Coyne way, claiming his feeling of despair and madness with his idiosyncrasic spelling and voice. Both were recorded live but it's not so evident when listening to it. Once again, to tell you to enjoy it is maybe not so much appropriate but however, it's here.

The Force is Blind. Kiddies giggling playing with their toys. “Let’s play drummers make a lot of noise”. The thap’s running and they’re doing fine. The kids have energy and lots of time. Death defying moments of art against time. Kat’s had a vision just like mine. All this attention is strangling me. But the food’s hot and admission is free ! They came and stopped the fun. They stood us against the wall. They put handcuffs on the innocence. THE FORCE MUST BE BLIND ! THE FORCE MUST BE BLIND !

Fuchsia - Self titled (1971)

With Mandy Morton's Magic Lady, String Driven Thing's Machine That Cried, Comus' First Utterance, Jethro Tull's Stand Up, and some of the Strawbs albums (old or recent), Fuchsia (unfortunately, this is their only album) stands at the top of my favorite ones in the folk genre (I don't consider Melanie as folk, the reason why I don't include her here). This UK combo had a splendid approach of folk, with a virtuosity that, contrary to many folk bands of that time (and I think I know them almost all), does not turn in a boring demonstration (boring for me, I know many who get a kind of orgasm listening to virtuosity but "très peu pour moi", acoustic guitar can rapidly become a pain in the ass). Fuchsia had the great idea to have at least 3 string instruments in them, and this gives them an Electric Light Orchestra flavor (ELO with Roy Wood, not the Jeff Lynne vehicle) or I'd say a "Penny Lane"'s savor. But most of all, they had Tony Durant (interestingly, it's been said that he began his career with Henry Cow's Chris Cutler in a band called Louise), who composed great great songs. Honestly, he could rivalised with any Roy Wood or Ian Anderson (the folk side of Jethro Tull is often a comparison that comes to mind). Just drop an ear to "Shoes and Ships" to verify it. Medolies are gorgeous, constantly unexpected in their ability to change, anticipating Prefab Sprout by 15 years. There is moreover a darkness here that allows to say that they belong to this doomish seventies folk in which all the above cited bands belong. Their ability to mix styles of music reaches its peak in the instrumental part of "Nothing Song" where Shostakovitch seems to invade the place (this is the song I chosed to put below in streaming but I could have chosen any of them, they are all fantastics). When I say "folk", don't fear a soporific experience, drums are always there and it's punchy as evil. I don't know why this album is not considered as an uncontestable classic. All those who love this LP must keep the energy to write again and again how great it is. Enjoy here please. And buy it afterwards to benefit of the sound quality cos' it's been reissued on Night Wing records. This is a rip from ChrisGoesRock, now Drop Out Boogie (see in my fave blogs at the right of the screen). Hope he will forgive me.

Christophe - Coeur Défiguré 7" (1983)

Actually, this single had "Succès Fou" (crazy success, which means to be popular among women) as A-side and "Coeur Défiguré" (disfigured heart) as B-side. But honestly, "Succès Fou" is no more than the opportunistic slow that Christophe regularly composed to earn enough money to live and to pursue his musical inovations that one could listen to on B-sides and in albums. This one is one of my faves, even if the arrangements sound sometimes a little bit eighties, but more Colin Newman that Depeche Mode or Duran Duran. In 1983, Christophe began a long period of semi-silence that would end in 1996 with his Bevilacqua album (13 years with only some weak singles). After that, he would be considered as a great musical novator by some of those who despised him before, although he is one since the end of the sixties (remember "La Petite Fille du 3ème" or "Rock Monsieur"). The album that he'd released the year of the single was the very weak Clichés d'Amour. In fact, it seems that after a clear progressive evolution towards a dark and bloody atmosphere (with the highly recommended Pas Vu pas Pris, in which Alain Kan, the brother of Christophe's wife, wrote most of the lyrics) Christophe was wondering where to go. He will search his way for more than 12 years. Who could come back stronger than before after such a long break? He did it. I'm very glad to make this rare song, never released on CD before I think, available here, since it demonstrates to everybody how Christophe was, as Alain Bashung was in the same period, a creator of sounds more than a "vedette de la chanson". It is not the real cover sleeve I put above, but a one I did myself from an interesting unsourced picture (it seems an ad), based on the lyrics of the song. The real (ugly) one is below. The "verso" is in the rar. file.

Bastards - Shuddup/Parade 7" (1989)

And now two very rare songs by the great Bastards. They were both released on two 7"EP compilations edited by the Treehouse label under the common name of Scumbait. To my knowledge, none of them feature on any CD, but maybe I'm wrong (don't hesitate to tell me). "Parade" is the oldest song recorded by the band and it's clear that the final Bastards style is not totally mature (what a strange word for such a band). There's a Husker Dü flavor that would disappear later on. More an historical document than a true lost gem (and the sound is really crappy). Not the same story for "Shuddup (You Like 'Dat)", one that was forgotten from the Monticello sessions and it's quite difficult to understand why. This a fantastic piece of Bastards meatsound. The sleeve is a DIM one. Don't know why this picture makes me think to the Bastards approach of music, but so it is. Some among you would have preferred me to put the whole EPs online for dl. I've hesitated but my aim is to treat bands individually and I stick to this initial idea. Since I'm an Unsane and Drunks with Guns amateur, be sure that these songs will be on this blog one day or another. Meanwhile, enjoy these rarities here.

Asbesdosdeath - Dejection 7" (1990)

Another doom founding members, the quartet Asbestosdeath will become the trio Sleep after this second single (the first being Unclean). With Fu-Manchu and EyeHateGod, Asbestosdeath will edict the rules of the sludge approach of doom. Rising from the Black Sabbath muddy riff side (more the 1st LP than the further ones), they created a true musical equivalent to the disgust that overflows us when looking at this unholy mess that they call the world. Dejection is a good title. This is both vomiting and shiting our inside out. Contrary to the historical legend that uses to localize the sludge birthplace in Louisiana, this comes from San Francisco. Actually, the band was from San Jose in California, but it's a funny symbol of what the world has turned in, to see that the flower power craddle was 30 years later such a dirty coffin. What's great in this single, it's that both "Nail" and "Scourge" did not become historical document without much musical relevance, but are still as seminal now that they were almost 20 years ago (oops, so long?). I would like that more bands take this angle of attack of doom today. But don't be nostalgic. After some uncompromising achievement, Sleep disbanded and gave birth to 2 very different bands: High on Fire with Matt Pike (a kind of doomster Motorhead) and Om with Al Cisneros and Chris Hakius (Black Sabbath goes mystics without Tony Iommi). None of these 2 bands really touch as much as Asbestosdeath and Sleep did, but this is not the place to talk about it. This single has been DCfied on an EP with the Unclean 7", but as usual, I like to have it the way I bought at the time. Dear "saprophages", enjoy the dejection here.

Paul McCartney - Another Day / Oh Woman Oh Why 7" (1971)

And, as used to say the great Monty Python, now something completely different. Actually, it may seem the most extreme contrast in the world to put an old McCartney single after a modern doom album. Yes but who cares would say the Bastards. This was the first single I had and the B-side had a sustained effect on me. It is called "Oh Woman Oh Why" and the screaming and frenzy voice of Paul McCartney gave me such a thrill that I then began my quest for unconventional singing. These songs were recorded in november 1970 for the sessions that what would become one of my fave albums of all the times: Ram. But they would not be included in the album and would only feature on this single. If the gentle "Another Day" would be included in many compilations due to its success in the charts of several countries, it would not be the case of the raw "Oh Woman Oh why", although it is now a bonus track of the last reedited version Ram CD edition. The Paul and Linda couple did not give birth only to lyrics on the joy of conjugal love, and these 2 songs have actually a very dark content. "Another Day" is more or less similar to "Lady Madonna" and talks about the difficulty of a working woman to assume her everyday life (sometimes I feel like this woman I must say, so sad) whilst "Oh Woman Oh Why" anticipates by 40 years the hard separation Paul would live with Heather Mills, except that Heather did not take a gun to kill him as the lady does in the song. Nothing vapid here. And the rude arrangements are a relief after all this sometimes overindulgent sophistication that Georges Martin felt the need to provide to the songs. The sleeve above is the French one i.e., the one I had. The name written on it (Nathalie Coste) is the name of the sister of the pal who gave me this single. In fact, he lended it me and if she reads this post, I am ready to give it back to her, but I doubt it will occur. My pal's forename was Jérôme, and he died in a motorbike accident before his eighteenth. I had been more or less in love with him some years before (my sexuality took some times to decide between girls and boys). It's one of these wounds that never completely cicatrise. The music's here for helping.

Another Day. Every day she takes a morning bath she wets her hair, Wraps a towel around her As shes heading for the bedroom chair, Its just another day. Slipping into stockings, Stepping into shoes, Dipping in the pocket of her raincoat. Ah, its just another day. At the office where the papers grow she takes a break, Drinks another coffee And she finds it hard to stay awake, Its just another day. du du du du du Its just another day. du du du du du Its just another day. AySo sad, so sad, Sometimes she feels so sad. Alone in her apartment shed dwell, Till the man of her dreams comes to break the spell. Ah, stay, dont stand around And he comes and he stays But he leaves the next day, So sad. Sometimes she feels so sad. As she posts another letter to the sound of five, People gather round her And she finds it hard to stay alive, Its just another day. du du du du du Its just another day. du du du du duIts just another day. Ay So sad, so sad, Sometimes she feels so sad. Alone in her apartment shed dwell, Till the man of her dreams comes to break the spell. Ah, stay, dont stand around And he comes and he staysBut he leaves the next day,So sad. Sometimes she feels so sad. Every day she takes a morning bath she wets her hair, Wraps a towel around her As shes heading for the bedroom chair,Its just another day. Slipping into stockings, Stepping into shoes, Dipping in the pockets of her raincoat. Ah, its just another day. du du du du du Its just another day. du du du du duIts just another day.

Oh Woman, Oh Why. Oh Woman, Oh Why, why, why, why What have I done Oh woman, oh where, where, where, where, where Did you get that gun Oh what have I done What have I done Well I met her at the bottom of a well (of a well) Well I told here I was tryin' to break a spell (break a spell) But I can't get by, my hands are tied Don't why I ever got her to try myself Cause I can't get by, my hands are tied Oh Woman, Oh Why, why, why, why What have I done Oh woman, oh where, where, where, where, where Did you get that gun Oh what have you done Woman what have you done Well I am fed up with you lying cheating ways (cheating ways) But I get up every morning and every day (every day) But I can't get by , my hands are tied Don't why I want her to try myself Cause I can't get by, my hands are tied. Oh Woman, Oh Why, why, why, why What have I done Oh woman, oh where, where, where, where, where Did you get that gun Woman, what have I done What have you done What have I done

Sea of Bones - The Harvest (2007)

Not enough doom on this blog, that's what I was thinking this evening looking at it. Doom is the music I listen to most of the times. I must say that I began to listen to doom (and sludge) as soon as the "genre" was born (around 1989). This is not a reason to believe that I got better judgement about what is a good and a bad doom band, but I can sure tell what I consider to be a band I respect and a band I despise. And the US Sea of Bones belong to the former category. This LP, was released in 2007 but I only discovered it some weeks ago on a blog (sorry I forgot which one) and it was immediately one of my fave records. Some say that it sounds like the French Monarch but I don't find this is true. It's a perfect mix between the post-Neuro(I)isis school and the more sludgy approach that I find so tasteful in bands like the French Eibon and the German Omega Massif. Yob and Buried at Sea can be cited but in fact I find Sea of Bones more sapid that these bands. The "Chapter IV" that opens this 3 songs LP (and that I've included in my first d(k)oom compilation here) is in particular a kind of masterpiece, a war climax reigns on it with a sense of danger that is the great achievement of this style of music, next to which all the rest sounds often so bleak and weak (not everything but so much, in particular this pathetic old school post-Zeppelin style wrapped in Stoner suits or, worst, in the stinky Rock attitude). The fact is that this record is great, that's all, and that the 3 chapters are instant classics. Doom may have seemed to be a musical cul-de-sac at its birth since the codes could have made inovation quite difficult. It was, and it still is not the case. Each month a great doom record is released (recently the Manatees and Flood) and I surely must miss some other ones. Don't hesitate to go to the Sea of Bones myspace here. The album is free to download on their site, which is great, but I hope this band will publish CDs and sell them by millions soon (you may say I'm a dreamer....). Enjoy it here.

Bastards - Who Cares/Shit for Brains 7" (1988)

This is the first single Joachim Breuer released. At this time he was the leader of the Bastards. "Who Cares" is emblematic of his particular approach of guitar and more generally of rock. Something rude, raw, rough, anything with "r" at the beginning and something hard at the end. It's muddy, sludgy, it is not smelling good but strangely there's something elegant in all this mud. Later, I'll post several Drunks with Guns songs, and here, there's nothing elegant. The B-side (but there's no really A and B sides actually) is quite in the same vein, but the title will stick to the band and honestly, it's one of the best song title I know, one who summarizes the metaphor coming to thought at the end of some tiring day where everybody seemed to take your head for their toilet bowl. There will be 2 more singles before Joachim Breuer stop the Bastards for Janitor Joe. All quite difficult to find but gathered on a LEP (long EP) released by Glitterhouse with the Fall sounding title of You didn' give a damn about the exploding man because you killed him (sic). Later, some CD versions of Monticello had this complete LEP as bonus tracks. But, you know the philosophy here, it's better to listen to songs in the context of their initial release. This is it. Enjoy here.

Sensational Alex Harvey Band - Amos Moses 7" (1976)

Only 3 months after the success of the "Boston Tea Party" single, Mountain released this one (in august 1976), a cover of the bayouesque Jimmy Reed Hubbard classic (who died in september last year), a hit by the composer himself in 1970 (it must be remembered that Alex had covered "Goodnight Irene" in the Penthouse Tapes album, not composed by Hubbard but a hit by him in 1962). Since 2 years, Mountain was harassing the band for having hit singles and this was beginning to alter Alex's mood. All this tour labour, all these albums sold, and the only congratulation from the label being: could you give us a hit please. The funniest is that "Boston Tea Party" did not apparently possess the standards of a hit single but was one, whereas this apparent predicted hit was not. It's not surprising. Something does not completely works in this version. The live ones are much better as you can hear here. But of course, I do not post this single for "Amos Moses" that everybody can find on the SAHB stories album, but for the rare B-side, "Satchel and the Scalp Hunter". Don't expect a real song. On the model of the story read in Thick as a Brick from Jethro Tull (you know, the hare who lost his spectacles), Alex tells us the story of a little girl with a strange little creature in her satchel. I don't have the text written and can't always understand what is saying Alex due to his strong Scottish accent, but I identified the general synopsis. He's only accompanied by Hugh McKenna on piano, and this anticipates his unfortunately short-lived project of the Loch Ness fable. The value of this song is principally historical, showing that Alex was leaning to a less rock'n roll attitude. Destiny didn't allow him to satisfy his wishes. The cover is once again a DIM (do it myself) one. Because mine is only paper, and because the official ones of the first pressings were really ugly. Alex deserves better than that. Enjoy here.

Amos Moses was a Cajun. And lived by himself in the swamp. Hunting alligator for a living. Knock 'em on the head with a stump. The Louisiana law's gonna get you, Amos. It ain't legal hunting alligator down in the swamp, boy. Now everybody blamed his old man for raising him mean as a snake. When Amos Moses was a boy, his Daddy would use him as alligator bait. Tie a rope around his waist, throw him in the swamp. Alligator bait on the Louisiana bayou.
Just about 45 minutes southeast of Thibodaux, Louisiana. There lived a man called Doc Milsap and his pretty wife Hannah. They raised up a son that could eat up his weight in groceries. Named him after a man of the cloth. They called him Amos Moses.
Now folks in South Louisiana said Amos was a helluva man. He could trap the biggest, meanest alligator. He only had to use one hand. That's all he got left 'cause the alligator bit him. Ha ha!Left arm gone clean up to the elbow. Here comes Amos. And you should have seen his pretty wife, Hannah. Well, the Sheriff got wind that Amos was in the swamp hunting alligator skin. So he hid in the swamp, "I'm gonna get you boy."He never did come out again. Well, I wonder where the Louisiana Sheriff went to?Sure can get lost in the Louisiana bayou

Bastards - Monticello (1989)

Don't ask me why I post this LP. I got no real explanation except that I really felt the need to listen to it today. As often with this record, it was a kind of intense necessity. Listening to "Monticello", the song, is like washing your brain from the shit that other humans defecated in it. I can't imagine an other piece of sound so efficient to do it and Joachim Breuer would be a hero for me, even if he had only composed this song. I talked about him in the Janitor Joe post so no need to write the same compliments here. Monticello is the only LP the Bastards recorded before disbanding, and it's a hell of an album for sure. With Unsane, the Bastards were for me the greatest band issued from the noise movement (Jesus Lizard and Today is the Day were my favorites, but they were no totally noisy in fact). I will post their singles later on. This album is not strictly belonging to the forgotten songs category. It's a cult album among all those who love real heavy rock (I don't mean this stupid post Zeppelin mixed with Deep Purple, Black Sabbath and the Faces that most of journalists try to sell us as true rock). But since "Monticello" is for me more important than "Kashmir" or "Free Bird", I consider it's a forgotten classic and that's why I put it as the streaming oral pain of the day. On the back of the cover, there was this hilarious wo-man dressed in latex and looking honestly as pathetic as is generally all this fetishit folklore. A perfect picture for the music that I encourage you (if you don't know it) to enjoy here. PS. I must confess that this is a rip from Velvety Sheath, Glistening Sword.

Kim Fowley - Bubblegum / Wildfire 7" (1969)

Do I need to present the great Kim Fowley? I don't think so. His first real album was in 1968 the outrageous Outrageous LP, a devil of a disk, mad as few can be, wild and still unmatched to this day. From this essential LP was drawn this single. I own a specimen but I don't remember how I got it (in 1968 I was too young to buy it so I must have found it much later but where, I don't know) but I must say I am really glad to have it with me. Moreover, the song of the A-side should have been a hit since it had all the qualities of a standard. But the times were not ready for it. All they could tolerate was provocation from poets like Jim Morrison, not from someone so "sulfurous" than Kim Fowley. In 1985, Sonic Youth covered this song and proposed a great version of it. It would have been a better idea to back Kim than Iggy Pop but it was not their choice. On the B-side, "Wildfire" represents the other style that one can find on Outrageous, the experimental one, a kind of "Antonin Artaud makes rock music" approach that is as vivid today that it was at this time. Because, this music is, like Beefheart's one, still contemporary and has aged more than well. There is actually not many able to propose something as exciting than this today (but there are exceptions of course, and I don't know everything). I'll post many more Kim Fowley records and forgotten songs on this blog because his vast discography has been shamely very badly released on CD and not always easy to find on existing blogs. My single is only wrapped in paper so I did one of my DIY cover. This is a picture from the Outrageous LP, a really provocative one. See by yourself. After Alex in Hitler, you might have understood where my heart is when we talk about rock imagery. Enjoy the sound of Kim here.

Sensational Alex Harvey Band - Framed live (fake 7") (1976)

This is a fake single. But when the British Tour 1976 album was released, 5 years ago, everyone had to admit that it was a shame that the band did not publish this one instead of the weak official live the year before. I don't think they would because Hugh McKenna did not play at this show (and for most of the tour I believe) due to a sort of nervous breakdown, and was replaced by the talented Tommy Eyre (who had played in a great band called Riff Raff). So, sure that Alex would not have agreed to edit a SAHB album without his co-composer. Sad cause really the versions of the classics were played with a power and a madness that were lacking to most of the other live recording I know. And more than that, the 3 songs from the rather uneven SAHB Stories, released the same year ("Amos Moses", "Boston Tea Party" and "Dance To Your Daddy") are given a much more punchy treatment here than in their studio versions. But the nail (it's a French expression that does not have its equivalent in English I suppose but I don't care) of the show, was the "Framed" version Alex played in Adolf Hitler. Few are those in music that had the courage (or craziness) to do with Hitler what Chaplin and Mel Brooks had done in films, I mean derision revealing as much as drama the horror of someone we have to call a human. Alain Kan (in "Devine qui vient dîner ce soir" from his Whatever Happened to... LP), and Serge Gainsbourg (in his Rock Around The Bunker LP) did it in France. Alex does it here, and it was sometimes not well understood by the press and even the public. One year later, punks would do the same (specially the Vibrators, who were not exactly punks in fact) but even provocative as it was at this time, I don't think this could be possible today. And I'm not sure that this Hitler's version of "Framed" can be tolerated in the politically correct atmosphere of our occidental world. No matter, times will change again. Enjoy it here (or below, in the streaming window). This is the most abrasive blues ever played on this planet. On the (virtual) second side, I chose "Amos Moses", in a great version.

No lyrics here, but open your ears, it is worth.

Alternative TV - My Baby's Laughing 7" (1987)

This 7" is from the second reformation of ATV, a version of the band that lived from 1985 to 1987, the first one being after The Good Missionaries, in 1981 for The Ancient Rebels LP. After 2 strong EPs and an excellent LP (Peep Show, highly recommended), the band (Mark Perry, Allison Phillips and Steve Cannell), released this 7" with the great "My Baby's Laughing (Empty Summer Dream)") on A-side, a song featuring in the LP but with an atmosphere so different from the gloomy mood of the album, that honestly it would have been a better idea to put it out on a single only. I really don't understand why Mark Perry is not considered as a true genius (often ATV is conversely considered as a second rate punk band) and this song says it all. This happy refrain is one that few other than him may have conceived. The B-side featured 2 acoustic songs, not easy to find I think, since they are on none of the various compilations released about the band. They're both fine and, in complete opposition with the A-side, are filled with loneliness and sadness, the usual content of Mark Perry's lyrics, but nobody will throw a stone to him for that I suppose, everyone knows it can help crossing some river of life in our own existence sometimes. So, the only thing to say, whoever is now Mark (that I had the chance to interview some 10 years ago, during 3 long hours in a hotel bedroom where he was sick and had to cancel his show) is thanx. Enjoy here.

Sensational Alex Harvey Band - Big Louie 7" (1972)

This is the first single SAHB released, some days before the Framed album. Not a very judicious choice this A-side. In the end of this glam 1972 year, I wonder who could believe this would chart. It seems that the band was not aware of the real meaning of the lyrics. At least they tell it so in one SAHB biography. I can't say I am but Alex was for sure and maybe fluent English spoken listeners will. The fact that, in the same year that his cherished brother Leslie was electocuted on stage while playing with Stone the Crow, he sings about Big Louie being condamned to the electric chair, is moving. But of course, the interest is not "Big Louie", included in the LP, but the B-side, entitled "The Harp" (the song you can listen to on the streaming below), and only released to my knowledge on the Considering the Situation double CD compilation where it was even associated with the pre-SAHB version of this song. It is much better than "Big Louie" and should have been included on Framed I think. During the first SAHB year, what is clear is that Hugh McKenna chosed an electric piano sound in line with the proletarian look, quite cheap in fact, and it was a good move for Next to change it for a much richer sound. Alex helps me a lot to face dayworks these times. Even dead for more than 27 years, he's still living in me like an adored friend. This is one more tribute to him. Enjoy it here.

Below the "Big Louie" lyrics.

"Paper sir, Paper sir, Paper sir
The mobs in town and the guns are out, and Louie knows what it's all about, he's gunning down the cops with machinegun tops. Moving in a black sedan, a stickup worth a hundred grand, headline sensation: A payroll grab in the union station
(Chorus):
Now there's no lights on the christmas tree mother, they're burning Big Louie tonight. There's no electricity mother, they're burning Big Louie tonight
Across the state the bandits fly, victims scream, gangsters die, and sirens in the night and armoured cars and dynamite. Now Peter is on the mob, and the FBI is on the job, and now the headlines say: Louie Bannassas on trial today
(Chorus):
But they got him in the final chase, Louie was running in a losers race, and on the day his case begun. He was Public Enemy Number One, but the jury's back, they all agree, it's murder in the first degree. Tie him down and shave his hair, cause tonight Big Louie's gonna get the chair
(Chorus):
The baby's crying
They're burning Big Louie tonight
They're gonna fry him
They're burning Big Louie tonight