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Archive 07
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151 - 175
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Here
you will gain exclusive access to my own personal record collection! I
try to bring you mp3s of rare tracks, deleted material, long forgotten
artists, total flops and down right obscure shit. Often, my choices were
only available on vinyl or were just plain unreleased, the aim being to
indulge an old fan or inspire a new one. I try not to post up
forthcoming releases or anything that's too readily available. Honest,
Gov!
There's a tenuous thread running through the tracks but
your requests are always welcome and I'll try and squeeze them in amongst my
own fancies... eventually.
Do read all the blurb, as there's often links to extra tracks lurking in
there... ; )
Tracks are only available for a 'limited
time' folks (sometimes months!), so get them while you can!
Now for the science bit! To access the music, please click on 'Download' and
you'll be whisked off to those nice people over at Sharebee.
Tracks are ripped at 192 kbps and wherever possible taken from the
highest quality source available. All of the music offered here has been
purchased by myself and is part of my own collection. Tracks are for
evaluation purposes only and wherever possible, purchasing is always
encouraged. If you own any of the material posted here or anywhere else
on this site and are very cross with me, please
email me with threats and such like...
The brief Romo movement of the
mid-90's threw up Hollywood, a promising
female duo (I think) who first appeared on the 'Melody Maker' cassette
'Fiddling While Romo Burns'. This, their only official release, came
out in 1996 and seems to owe more to the Goth movement than the New Romantic
era. Their only other recording, the Dave Ball
(Soft Cell) produced, 'Lights,
Camera, Revolution', appeared on the aforementioned cassette. I have
this track also if anyone out there wants to hear that too, just
Roxanne Wilde's
indie-pop band Dimestars make their second
appearance on The International House Of Pussy
with a cover of Martha & The Muffins'
classic 'Echo Beach'. It took me a while to track this one down,
but it brings me great pleasure to make it available to you here today. It's a
very new wavey, spunky re-reading of the 80's hit and potentially could have
nudged the group up into the singles chart. It never got the chance to though,
as it got shelved. Originally due as a double AA-Side release in 2001 with
another seminal 80's new wave masterpiece cover version, 'Pretty In Pink',
Dimestars found their 15 minutes were up.
It, and the subsequent album, 'Living For The Weekend', never went
into production and what promos were pressed are pretty scare (not least of all
because rabid Kim Wilde fans snapped them
all up - Roxanne being
Kim's little sister). Anyway, these days,
Roxanne has found creative partnership with
Wall Of Sound artist The Visitor
(previously Jon Of The Pleased Wimmin) and
she feature's on the B-Side of his-soon-to-be-released single, 'European
Love'. The track is another cover version, this time it's
Eurythmics' 'The Walk'. (snippets
and further info
Models should be seen and not heard.
Just my usual opinion. I can't think of an an exception to this rule, can you?
Now, Naomi Campbell's foray into music was
infamously a resounding failure, as many of her ventures in the 1990s were. I,
however (and I know I'm not alone here), think her album 'Babywoman'
is not totally devoid of musical merit. Top names like
Tim Simenon, Youth,
PM Dawn and Gavin
Friday all contributed as writers and producers and cover versions
came courtesy of Marc Bolan's 'Ride
A White Swan' and this track by Luscious Jackson...
The lead single, 'Love & Tears', was a smouldering
new world re-birthing of a track which went top 10 in Japan but stalled here in
the UK. The album was released to lukewarm reception soon after, as was her
novel 'Swan', and follow up single, 'I Want To Live',
was withdrawn and the whole affair swept under the carpet. Playing the album
now, it isn't all bad, there are pleasant surprises, this track being one of
them. Worth a listen if you find it. Trivia! Saint
Etienne submitted a track for Naomi's
album, 'Everything I Touch Turns To Gold', which is an up-tempo
disco diva number but bizarrely it was rejected. It was, however, included on
Saint Etienne's 'I Love To Paint'
fan club CD from 1995.
She was in 90's group
Stereo MCs, right. "Gonna get myself,
gonna get myself, gonna get myself connected", etc. She has a fine set of
lungs on her so it was quite obligatory that someone somewhere thought a solo
album was the order of the day. 'Mind The Gap', as it was called,
never came out though. Not really. Just in Japan (Japan! Japan! It's
always Japan!). Cath did release a couple of
singles here, 'Tell Me' and 'Say What You Want', but
their relative failure scuppered any hope of Island Records releasing the album.
That's pretty much the end of the Cath Coffey
story. The album features Tricky, and the
whole affair smacks of his archetypical brooding, throbbing, miserable
beat-infested trademark sound. Am I selling this well or what? Anyway one track
which totally demonstrates this, and is of particular interest, is this
claustrophobic cover version of 'Summer Nights' from 'Grease'.
It remains one of my favourite cover versions, simply due to it's hardly
recognisable transformation from fun musical fluff number to taut audio
psychosis.
Now, this will tickle you. It's a
stupidly obscure dance 12" I have never seen two copies of. It's a load of
dialogue samples from my favourite film ever, 'Whatever Happened To Baby
Jane?', starring Bette Davis and
Joan Crawford. Imagine a dance/house track, not
unlike The Shamen, then add the film clips.
Hilarious! There are 4 mixes on the record, this one being the best, with the 'Sweaty Betty Mix'
coming a close second. It must have been made by a
gay man. As I say, you wont find any info on this record anywhere, nor will you
ever locate a copy (should you even want to!). I bought it in the mid-90's out
of curiosity and just had to share it with you. A hideous gem, I hope you'll
agree. My favourite bit is, "she tried to murder her own sister!", listen
out for it... I would also like to appeal for further
This was the very last single from
the song writing team of Stock, Aitken & Waterman,
Pete Waterman hence forth having no
involvement. It's Roxy Music's 'Virgina
Plain', as covered by lame boy band Slamm.
I don't have a lot to say about this track other than it aint that bad really,
almost funny. It came out in 1993 and like all Slamm's
releases, it just didn't do the business over the counter. It was actually requested months and
months ago and I finally dug it out from the archive for whoever made the
request (sorry, totally forgotten). Requests are always welcome B.T.W... Enjoy...
So,
Girls
Aloud 'resurrected' Dee C Lee's
seminal orchestral soul epic 'See The Day' this month in an
attempt to score a Christmas number 1, but they just managed to scrape into the
top 10... but what of Dee C Lee? Well, she
started her career as Pepsi
off of Pepsi & Shirlie, the two girls originally 'in'
Wham! but she didn't stick around too long
and left around the time their 1983 'Fantastic' LP was released.
Lawrie DeMacque
became Pepsi 3.0 (for
Dee had already
replaced an earlier girl called Mandy Washbourne
prior to the band signing to Innervison/Epic in 1982), whilst
Dee married Paul
Weller (then of
The Style Council)
and released her debut solo single, 'Selina Wow Wow'. Not a hit as
such, despite it's pop sheen, it was followed in 1984 by another couple of
flops, 'Yippee Yi Yay!'
and 'Don't Do It Baby', and
it wasn't until 'See The Day' made the top 5 in 1985 that
Dee C Lee got her break. Unfortunately, it was
rather short-lived and further singles and the 1986 album 'Shrine'
(which ignored the earlier singles) failed to ignite the public's
imagination. It was to be almost 10 years before
Dee returned to the music scene, after starting a family and then divorcing
Weller, with her second album, 'Things
Will Be Sweeter', in 1995. Another unsuccessful set of songs, she once
again disappeared from our consciousness until Girls
Aloud dragged her from relative obscurity with their cover-by-numbers
of her only big hit. Here's her debut single, in 12" form, which is pretty scare
these days...
Gosh, it's been a while since we had a soap star on this page so here's a true stinker!
'Eastenders' Cindy Beale, if you please, decided to cover this bona fide pop gem and piss all over it. I recall her performing it 'live' on
'Blue Peter' at the time of it's release. It's so cheaply produced, from the sound to the shitty artwork. Why are we posting it up then, you cry?! Well, I dunno. I enjoy the crap stuff as much as the good stuff.
Michelle went on to release another single or two, didn't she? Some ITV theme tune nonsense? Ah well, who cares. Get ready... to cringe.
Several of you may squeal in fear but we really like this single by shock-rocker
Alice. It is probably his most accessible release to date and comes from his
'Flush The Fashion' album from 1980, clearly influenced by the burgeoning
new wave and post punk scene of the day, much to the disappointment of his
hardcore rock metal following. This is as disco as Mr Cooper
ever got, kids. The Smashing Pumpkins did a blistering cover of
this track as well, which can be found on their 'The Aeroplane Flies High'
box set from 1996. "I just wanna be myself, be myself, be
myself...". Indeed. Try it.
Camp as tits, uber Hi-NRG anthem and pop masterpiece,
'Never Felt As Good' is one of those flop singles that screams 'why wasn't I a hit
record?!' when it's played. It does seem a tad unfair. Belvedere Kane must have been a three piece band (well,
that's how many are in the photo on the sleeve) with just the one release to their name.
That's all we know! But wait! It would seem the producers of this single went on
to form production/remix team Jewels & Stone
(Sophie
Ellis Bextor, S Club, etc.) and
more interesting still, there are some unreleased tracks in the 'vaults'!
Pop!Justice 'reported' last year "...a 4 track CD including
'Let
Sleeping Dogs Lie' (which sounded like Boy
George's 'The Crying Game' but with an even better
chorus), the Dead Or Alive-esque 'Getting
Away With Murder', a 2wo Third3y
romp called 'I Want You I Want You' and a Sparks-flavoured
banger whose chorus began with the line "Isabella Roselini said, 'Even
when I hate you I love you'". We'd really like to hear those. But probably
never will. What a pisser.
Busted by any other name... No, not
McFly, but
Catch! Brit
Pop was just dying down back in 1997 and someone thought up
Catch, a very mild indie boy trio bridging that difficult gap between pop and indie, for kids who were
'in-between'. The lead singer (Toby Slater) has an annoying public school boy voice and they all look quite pale and skinny
(Wayne Murray
and Ben Etchells
were the other two). 'Bingo' might be about the popular game played by the blue rise brigade or it might just be about shouting something in the throes of realisation, I've not studied the lyrics enough to be certain. It's fun, it's a bit silly,
but it didn't catch on (S.W.I.D.T.?). There was a follow up single, 'Dive
In', but that faired worse sadly. Into the dumper they went... A
self-titled album was rush-released in Indonesia due to the bands popularity
over there in 1998 but the UK release, provisionally titled 'Victim
Support', was shelved. Turns out
Wayne
went on to form boy-girl duo
The Honeymoon -
appearing here soon!
Jesus Christ. One man's muck and all that. Have you seen how much this 1990
PWL-related CD single goes for on
eBay? One went for £86 in July!! I was shocked. Still, I can always flog mine to keep the wolves from the door I suppose.
Romi & Jazz can be filed along side the likes of
Wee Papa Girl Rappers,
Cookie Crew
and The She Rappers (featuring a young
Betty
Boo) for their 'wicked' rap stance, their 'awesome' clothes and accessories and their 'whack' attitude. Sounds a bit dated nowadays
and not unlike that 'Don't Miss The Party Line' single by
Biznizz
(remember that?!) but it holds a naive charm for me and due to it's scarcity, we wanted to share it with you. It's dope!!
Here's a rare treat! The posh lass who sang with
The Flying Lizards on their hit
'Money' released a solo single! Just the one, unfortunately, but it's rather entertaining all the same. Yes, it's the
Aretha Franklin song. Yes, she 'sings' it like
that. Yes, it was a big flop. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why we love it.
Deborah Evans
(Strickland) turned up on two tracks on
Richard X's debut album a few years back, go and check the credits. She's cool as fuck.
Simon Fuller
plucked these four lasses out of teenage obscurity
back in 1999 and tried to make a girl band to take over the world! Or, if you like,
21st Century Girls were his new
Spice Girls,
after they sacked him, but it all went a bit tits up. Big in Japan? Of course! What the hell isn't? Hence the Japanese got an album release while here in the girls' homeland, their
self-titled debut single popped into the charts at 16 and quietly dropped back out the following week. That's where the story ends really. In
today's modern pop climate, 21st Century Girls may be considered ahead of their time what with
The Faders and Love Bites doing their best impression of
The Runaways (another one for Mam and Dad) but really,
The Donnas have been doing that for years
now and to great effect may we add. But getting back to that Japanese album, it features a couple of
Cathy Dennis-penned numbers (her first? Nowt to write home about) but we like
'Scream & Shout', which isn't one of hers, which is why we bring it to you today! God bless Japan!
I don't know anything about
Saint Mark. This seems to be his second single of two (first one is called
'New Year') and he was signed to IT Records (indie band
Birdie were on that label as well). 'My Brothers A DJ'
came out in 2000 and was a flop. I like it though, it nicks a bit of
David Bowie's 'Sound And Vision'. Anyway, more info is welcome if you know owt about him (hey, maybe you
are him?). The web yielded zilch. Enjoy!
Most 'established' acts seem to have the obligatory dodgy past but I don't mind admitting that sometimes, the dodgy past aint that bad! Point in case is
Alanis Morissette. Before she offered us
'Jagged Little
Pill' and prompted Jennifer Saunders'
belly laugh piss-take of the ladygarden-tastic 'Thank U' video,
Alanis Morissette was simply
Alanis. A dash of
Debbie Gibson and a spoonful of
Tiffany, teenage
Alanis was fluffy, goofy and as disposable as a
Pampers nappy. Her debut 1991 album, 'Alanis', is brimful of pop shame and we wanted to share this track
from it with you. 'Plastic' is so bad it's good. There was a follow up album of more of the same
in 1992 and then she disappeared 'til it was 1995 and the rest is history. A timely reminder of her past, then, as she gears up for her greatest hits set,
'The Collection', and her new cover version of
Seal's
'Crazy'...
Now, we don't like to repeat artists here at
The
International House Of Pussy
(and in fact, up
until now, we never have) but sometimes we make an exceptional exception. In
this case, we once again bring you something lovely from
Sarah
Cracknell. This would be her debut release from
1987 on Three Bears Records. The single 'Love Is All You Need' (written
by Felt
bassist
Mick Bund
for
the band
Prime Time
-
who?!) is not the best single ever recorded but it's like
gold dust amongst Saint
Etienne fans and is quite impossible to locate
these days. I have decided to post up the B-side which
Sarah
fans will instantly recognize as she re-recorded it for her second attempt at
solo superstardom, and put it on her 1997 album 'Lipslide'. This
early version of 'Coastal Town' offers an interesting glimpse into
Sarah's
pathway to pop and, along with the A-side, reveals a very different vocal
'style' to the one we know and love (ie. it's a bit naff). Another track
Sarah
worked on around this time,
'Mexican Moon',
would later be cast off to
Donna
Air's floptastic pop duo
Crush
for their doomed album (which only got a release in the USA, after some serious
remixing), along with another
Sarah
track, 'Penthouse Girl, Basement Boy'. The later was also issued
by Sarah
herself on the Japanese EP 'Kelly's Locker'. So, anyway,
here's Sarah
before she bumped into Pete
and Bob
and had that fluffy, feather boa surgically attached to her pretty little neck.
So
Kenickie
split up, pretty much down the middle,
Lauren and her funny little brother,
Johnny
X (A.K.A.
J
Xaverre), set to work on
Lauren's
solo material ('Take These Flowers Away' EP for Deceptive in 1999)
and Marie
and Emmy Kate
formed Rosita.
Now, we're not taking sides here, you understand, but
Rosita's
debut 7" 'Live It Down' is a bloody corker! We love it loads!
It was terribly limited at the time and as the band kinda just disappeared after
one more single ('Santa Poca's Dream'), the chances of it turning
up on a nice little album are virtually less than zero. With that in mind, we've
dusted down our copy and ripped it for you all to enjoy. The B-side, 'If
You've Heard' is also absolutely gorgeous and if anyone wants an mp3 of
that too,
Orlando
were dragged, kicking and screaming, into the shortest-lived musical 'movement'
in history, the (now-defunct)
'Melody
Maker'
instigated Romo period of the late 90s.
Something to do with skinny ties, boys in make-up and sounding a bit like
Duran
Duran, like New
Romantics Part 2, except a bit silly all round. Anyway, they weren't really Romo and with a bit of hindsight,
had a lot more talent than the rest of the 'scene'. What a shame, then, that their delightful album
'Passive Soul', was to be hideously
overlooked, as from start to finish, it drips with melody, wit, beauty, grace
and pop sensibilities that only the
Pet
Shop Boys can usually muster. It's short
release on Blanco Y Negro Records was very low key and it wasn't very long
before it was deleted and forgotten about. These days it's hard to come by but I
urge you to pick it up if you can. The band's history is much better told
Just before
the trip-hop fallout, three piece Baby Fox
brought us an intoxicating collection of songs called 'A Normal
Family'.
Sounding both alien and organic, the 1996 album has managed to remain incredibly
fresh with it's fierce mix of dance, jazz, dub, acid house, drum'n'bass and
trip-hop. I don't know much about the band at all. Their names are
Christine
Ann Leach, Alex
Gray and Dwight
Clarke and their small output in the 1990's
really is a sound to behold. The singles 'Ladybird', the creepy
'Johnny
Lipshake', 'Curlylocks' (a cover of the
Lee
Scratch Perry track) and this, 'Rain'
(a haunting rock-a-by), reveal a collective deep in the throws of highly furtive
creative production. More evocative than Portishead,
more fun than Tricky,
Baby Fox
should've had a lot more attention back in the day. For their second album,
1998's 'Dum Dum Baby', they moved to Roadrunner Records but
this release wasn't quite as powerful or colourful as their debut, instead
giving way to experimental and indulgent epics and developing a darker, more
sinister sound. It also spawned no singles. It's here the
Baby
Fox story seems to close. Where are they now?
Ex-One Dove
vocalist and fiancé to Death In Vegas'
Richard Fearless,
Dot Allison has
most recently been seen working and gigging with that skinny scruff
Pete
Doherty. However, it's her debut album
that we want to talk about today. 'Afterglow' was released back in 1999 on
Heavenly Records to much critical
acclaim, Dot being proclaimed an angelic
come-down Queen, much like her then-label mate Beth
Orton. The original pressing of the album was actually
withdrawn at
the last minute, for reasons unknown. When it was finally issued a few months
later, the tracklisting was slightly different, one track had been
re-recorded/remixed and the artwork was changed. The artwork you see above is
from the original CD and we're posting up the track which they didn't want us to
hear! 'Close Your Eyes' is far from the best track on the album,
although this mix is better than that on the subsequent re-issue, but as
this mix is quite rare, we thought you'd appreciate it more. Highlights of the
album are 'I Wanna Feel The Chill' and 'Tomorrow Never
Comes', not to mention 'Mo Pop', a genuine pop
masterpiece. Help! There is a gig only 13 track CD from 2003 called 'Acoustic'
which I would really like to own/get a copy of if anyone has it? There
were only 200 copies pressed. There's a great
Dot
Allison website
Ok, well,
Girlthing
were 'the new Spice Girls'
or whatever (yawn) but turns out they were just more bargain bin overspill.
Debut
single 'Last One Standing' sounds absolutely awful in today's
modern pop ear but it's not all bad, kids. The follow up single, 'Girls On
Top' (sadly not the theme tune to the 80's TV sitcom) was only slightly
better but it is on their album that things perk up a bit. "Album?!"
I hear you cry? Yes, there was an album. It was never
released in the UK, but good ole Taiwan and Japan liked them enough to warrant a
full length release. 'Girlthing' borrows heavily from the
sounds of the late nineties, mostly Spice Girls
to be honest, more than one song sounds like 'Stop' for example
(including this one),
but as pop albums go, it's quite fun. Band member
Jodi,
of course, turned up in 'Hollyoaks' playing
saucy Debbie Dean after the band went pear-shaped. She left the show
earlier this year so we may not have heard the last of her, music-wise. I sniff
a second stab at a pop career... Anyway, here is a track off the album. It
sometimes turns up on Ebay if anyone wanted to buy it. Now, does anyone
out there have their 'So You Want To Have Sex' track? I think it
was going to be a single but it's not on this album and I'd like it please. Trivia! Hear'say's hit
'Pure And Simple'
was actually originally recorded by Girlthing
and it is on this album! Fansite
A bit like
Kate
Bush in a blender with
Goldfrapp, this. It's sensual, it's groovy,
it's F-f-f-fox! Cheesy 70's pop to you and me. The lead singer,
Noosha,
has a voice like treacle and was by all accounts a little minx in her day.
Yum. I have to confess I was a stranger to
Fox
and this track 'til
those sweeties at Guilty Pleasures
dug it up and slapped it on their
essential second volume of shameful tunes, 'Guilty Pleasures Rides
Again'. Just as well they did as this track isn't available on anything else, it
seems. If you're new to
Fox
and are curious for more, it may be wise to
note that they didn't get any better than 'S-s-s-single Bed', a
number 4 hit in 1976 and taken from their album 'Blue Hotel'.
There's a little info site
A British stab
at Blondie, I suppose, fronted by the lovely
Wendy Wu.
The
Photos
came from Birmingham and fired a few hot singles out at the start
of the 80's, then this fine debut platter 'The Photos' followed.
Somewhere between recording and releasing a follow up, however, they
ceased to be. The second album, 'Crystal Tips & Mighty Mice',
apparently exists and just last week (August 2005) someone was flogging a
bootleg of it on eBay. I forgot to bid! Anyone reading this have it?
Want to supply? In 1986
Wendy
teamed up with
Visage
front man
(and infamous shoplifter!)
Steve Strange
to form
Strange Cruise.
Well, are you,
Johnny? Who the fuck is
Josie Cotton
anyway? Sort've like the poor
man's Cristina, she released a couple of
new wave-ish pop albums in the
1980's, 'Convertible Music' (1982) and 'From The Hip'
(1984),
and she was the first person to say the word 'queer' in a pop song. This is
that song. Officially one of the coolest single sleeves ever as well, kids.
The vibe on Josie's material is not unlike
The Go-Go's
meets
Elvira
('Mistress
Of The Dark') and Josie
had a handful of tracks in the 1980's teen
flick 'Valley Girl', which stars a very young
Nicholas Cage.
All you need to know