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Archive 19
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451 - 475
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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...
Frankie
Say Download! Frankie Goes To Hollywood
had emerged from the late 1970s Liverpool punk scene and under went several
stages of evolution (which at one point included a female vocalist). Lead
singer Holly Johnson (ex-Big
In Japan who had already released two solo singles) and vocalist
Paul Rutherford (ex-The
Spitfire Boys) were eventually joined by local musicians
Peter Gill (drums),
Mark O'Toole (guitar),
Jed O'Toole (bass) and later
Mark/Jed's
cousin, Brian Nash (AKA
Nasher, guitar). They called themselves
Frankie Goes To Hollywood, taking the
name from a page in the 'New Yorker' magazine, featuring the
headline "Frankie Goes To Hollywood", alongside a picture of
Frank Sinatra. The band toured locally
and managed to fund early demos and promotional videos, although they were
turned down by both Arista and Phonogram Records. In October
1982, the group recorded a Peel session
and in February the following year, they were invited to record a video for
'Relax' by the Channel 4 show, 'The Tube'
(
As previously mentioned,
ZTT sort've lost their way in the '90s and with the exception of
Seal, they
had very little success to speak of. Just before the '90s were over, ZTT’s
last ditch attempt to launch a new pop act into the charts was
Leilani. You
can kind've see where they were coming from with this one,
Leilani seemed to
combine the best bits of previous '90s pop successes
Lolly, Betty Boo and
even Daphne & Celeste. She started off her music career in January 1999 with
a so-so dance offering, 'Madness Thing', which barely scraped into the top
40 singles chart. Upping the ante slightly, 'Do You Want Me?' (
The Flood were briefly a
trance-pop duo comprised of vocalist Kevin Dodwell and musician
Steve Helstrip. They were signed to ZTT
and issued just one single, 'Right Here,
Right Now', without success in October 1995. They were promoted as new pop
signings for the label, alongside All Saints 1.9.7.5,
Sexus and Seal,
on a
sampler titled 'Zang Tuum Pop!', as the label struggled to
develop a
new and successful roster into the '90s. They did also appear on 'The
Gift Of Christmas', the charity single by
The Childliners in December 1995,
along with Boyzone,
The Backstreet Boys,
Michelle Gayle, East 17,
Deuce,
Dannii Minogue,
Sean Maguire, Peter Andre,
911, China Black,
Let Loose,
Ultimate Kaos, MN8,
CJ Lewis, Gemini and
ASAP. Thankfully,
Steve had been
studying classical music and composition at the same time (always have a
plan B!) and once The Flood dried up, he started making trance music on his
own while working for a computer games developer. Under the name
The Thrillseekers, his track 'Synaesthesia'
became the first release on Neo
Records at the height of the 1998 trance boom and it went on to sell
over 12,000 copies in the UK. Soon after, production work started coming
in and Steve found himself very busy putting together remixes for the likes
of Chicane, Timo Maas,
Blank & Jones,
Seb Fontaine and Sonique. Still as
The Thrillseekers, he released a single featuring flop popstrel
Alexis Strum on
vocals, called 'Dreaming Of You', in 2002.
Steve has also recorded under
various different guises, including En Motion,
Insigma and Rapid Eye, with
releases on trailblazing labels including Neo, Incentive, VC and
Data. And
Kevin dropped off the face of the earth...
'Right Here, Right Now' sounds quite a lot like
Capella, doesn't it?.
Mysterious '80s pop
chanteuse Anne Pigalle was born in Grenoble in the French Alps (famous for
its skiing and walnuts) and takes her name from Pigalle, the infamous
red-light district of Paris. The young Pigalle arrived in 1980's London
bored by her country's anglophile pop and record companies who took little
interest in the creative process. Looking to reinvent her cultural heritage
in a more inspired environment, she performed intimate live shows at Ronnie
Scott’s legendary jazz club and Vic Godard’s now defunct
Club Left, where
she was introduced to musician Nick Plytas. Hitting it off, the pair formed
Via Vagabond, a partnership of sorts that supported one another's solo
projects and allowed them to work together, releasing a single on Stiff
Records, 'Who Likes Jazz?', in 1982.
Paul Morley, of ZTT Records, saw star
potential, signing Anne as a solo artist, and she set about recording
material for her debut album. Plytas co-wrote the songs and accompanied her on
organ or classical piano, fusing traditional and avant garde jazz, which
was a complement to Pigalle's atmospheric
Piaf/Dietrich-style vocal delivery. She
spent most of 1984 waiting for Trevor Horn to finish his latest
Frankie Goes
To Hollywood remix, so he could start production work on her album. The
first fruits came in January 1985, when 'Souvenir D’un Paris' was released
in France, followed by a UK single in March, 'Hé Stranger'. Press was
generally favourable, particularly as the ZTT roster was experiencing a lot
of success en masse in 1985 (Frankie Goes To Hollywood,
Propaganda, The Art
Of Noise), although she was merely likened to
Sade by some.... When her album,
entitled 'Everything Could Be So Perfect...', arrived, it was an all to brief
8 track collection of beautiful synthesised torch songs, sung half in French
and half in English. It was released in October 1985, followed by lead track
'Why Does It Have To Be This Way...', a single release in November. A CD copy
of her album is now a rather rare find. Pigalle continued to perform live in
support of her LP and beyond, with her band Ses Hommes,
in and around London
throughout 1986-87, culminating in a weekly residency at Madame JoJo’s in
November 1987. A new album was touted in the new year but it never
materialised. She left London for L.A. at the beginning of the '90s, where
she wrote a screenplay, appeared in an episode of 'The Red Shoe Diaries' and
entertained the downtown homeless. Currently back in London, she is working
on her autobiography and photography, painting and poetry projects, as well
as recording and performing new songs. You can buy limited edition CDs and
DVDs from her
Seal Henry Olusegun Olumide
Adeola Samuel (or more commonly Seal) first came to
prominence as the
vocalist on Adamski's number 1 hit single
'Killer', in 1990. Seal subsequently signed to
ZTT Records and quickly established himself as vital
new musical talent. Positively received by the public and critics alike, his
debut album, 'Seal', was produced by Trevor Horn
and released in 1991. 'Seal' appeared initially
with a different mix to that which is now available in the shops. Early
pressings of the album are now fairly sought after and feature different
versions of 'Crazy', 'Wild' and 'Violet'.
This is attributed to the demand at the time for the record and
Horn rushing the final album mix, which
he went back and changed after the fact. The album
featured the hit singles 'Crazy' (2 -
Similar-ish to
Yazz,
Lisa Stansfield's first hit single
was the UK top 20 hit 'People Hold On', released in March 1988 and credited
to Coldcut Featuring Lisa Stansfield. Previously,
Lisa had released several
unsuccessful solo singles between 1981-83 ('Alibis', 'The Only Way',
'Listen
To Your Heart', 'I Got A Feeling') and been the singer with
Blue Zone, who'd
caused a minor ripple with their soft-pop soul singles, most notably
synthy pop gem 'Jackie' (
Yasmin Evans, or
Yazz to
you and me, attended Holland Park School in London as a girl. After leaving
school, she had a brief spell as a catwalk model and she scored a number of
'club hits' (ie. they didn't trouble the real chart) after recording with the
group Biz, in 1983. Her first commercial success came in early 1988, when
she supplied the vocals on Coldcut's house classic,
'Doctorin' The House'
(where she is credited as Yaz - missing one 'z'!). She soon launched a
successful solo career on BMG off-shoot, Big Life Records, a label that was
set up by Jazz Summers, her future husband
(Yazz and Jazz?
...good grief). Her debut single proper, a cover
of a Northern Soul hit 'The Only Way Is Up', was credited to
Yazz & The
Plastic Population (who was really just Coldcut again) and was released in July
1988. It went on to spend five weeks at the top of the UK singles chart,
eventually becoming the biggest selling single of 1988. Now one of the
years biggest pop acts, Yazz followed this up with
'Stand Up For Your Love
Rights' (quite possibly her best single?), which hit number 2 and her debut
solo album, 'Wanted', which made number 3 on the album chart and was
nominated for a BPI Award (the prehistoric version of The Brits). Two
further singles were plucked from the album; remixed versions of 'Fine Time'
(9) and 'Where Has
All the Love Gone?' (16 -
Roisin
Murphy met Mark Brydon at a
party in Sheffield. Murphy apparently
approached Brydon using the chat-up
line, "Do you like my tight sweater? See how it fits my body!". This
line would of course later become the title of their debut album, recorded
while the pair were dating. Murphy was
born in Arklow and had no prior professional experience as a singer, whereas
Brydon already had a string of
production credits as a remixer in the dance music community to his name.
Together, they formed Moloko, combining
retro chic with futurist beats. The took their name from the drink featured
in the Anthony Burgess novel, 'A
Clockwork Orange', which was a mix of milk and narcotics. Initially
received as a rather leftfield, odd-ball, trip-hop outfit, their first
singles ('Where Is The What If The What Is In Why?', 'Dominoid',
'Fun For Me') and debut album, 'Do You Like My Tight
Sweater?', were welcomed on the underground dance scene throughout
1995-6. 'Day For Night' is my favourite early
Moloko offering - it should have been a
single! They were personally invited by fellow Sheffield residents
Pulp to remix a track from their 'Different Class' album, 'F.E.E.L.I.N.G.C.A.L.L.E.D.L.O.V.E.',
in 1996 but otherwise, Moloko remained
quiet until 1998. 'I Am Not A Doctor', the group's second
album, was preceded by 'The Flipside' (
Melanie
Garside is the younger sister of Katie
Jane Garside. She is also an artist and musician, who started out
fronting glittery punk band Tabitha Zu,
who issued two EPs ('On Reality', 'The Apart')
in 1992. Their last EP (credited to just Zu)
was the very first release on Echo Records and when the band split
soon after it's release, Melanie was
retained as a solo artist. She re-emerged in 1995 with a new image (Toyah
meets Suzanne Vega?) and her debut
solo album, 'Fossil'. This track is taken from the album and
is a good taster of the album's overall sound. It's largely an acousti-pop,
angry female singer-songwriter effort, not unlike a polished
Kristin Hersh. Two singles were released from the album;
'Big White Room' and the chirpy 'She Knows',
although neither was particularly successful and she parted company with Echo.
Melanie re-appeared again,
this time fronting a three-piece band calling themselves
Our Lady Of Miracles. More of a quirky
rock band, after playing only a few gigs they changed their name to
The Vertigo Angels and released one
album, 'Eradicate Apathy', in 2003. Two singles were also
released; 'Burned' and 'Firefly'. Although the
album was met with critical acclaim, The Vertigo
Angels disbanded soon after. Around this time,
Melanie adopted the pseudonym
Maplebee and joined the all-female
ensemble, The Mediaeval Babes. She has
contributed to their most recent albums, as well as the soundtrack to the
2005 BBC television series, 'The Virgin Queen'. She
also released a solo album under the Maplebee
moniker, 'Chasing Eva', first in 2003 and then again in 2004,
with new artwork and a bonus CD. The album is almost entirely penned by
Melanie and she plays almost all the
instruments, as well as singing all the vocals. Between 2004 - 2005, she
played bass guitar in her sister, Katie Jane
Garside's band, Queenadreena,
and she appears on their last studio album, 'The Butcher And The
Butterfly'. She toured with them for a short time, before leaving to
focus on her other projects. One of these projects is the popular
electro-pop duo, Huski, with
writer/producer Pike Galloway. Check out
the 'Undatow' video
Queen
Adreena is a noisy rock band currently signed to One Little
Indian Records. Bewitching vocalist Katie Jane
Garside and guitarist Crispin Gray
were previously fifty percent of the equally noisy, much celebrated yet
short-lived band, Daisy Chainsaw. They
were augmented by drummer Billy Freedom and bassist
Orson Wajih, before signing
a deal with WEA subsidiary Blanco Y Negro (Catatonia,
Everything But The Girl,
Jesus & The Mary Chain). Their debut
single was 'Cold Fish' in 1999 and was issued on an unusual
format; A limited edition 5" vinyl picture disc packaged together with a CD
single. A second single, the brutal 'X-ing Off The Days', had
a single white feather tucked inside the sleeve. 'I Adore You/Weeds'
was the band's third single, a double A-side, appearing in 2000, and it's
quite possibly their best and most easily accessible work. The A-side is a
typical Queen Adreena thunderous goth-punk
beast, but the AA-side (right-click 
Daisy
Chainsaw were Katie Jane Garside
(vocals), Crispin Gray (guitars),
Richard Adams (bass) and
Vince Johnson (drums). The band formed in
1989 after Katie Jane answered an advert
placed by Crispin in 'Melody
Maker'. They quickly gained notoriety for their outrageous live
performances, which took place in amongst grapevines and rag dolls, which
were strewn across the stage. Katie Jane
typically appeared on stage barefoot in her 'handmade' dresses which
were torn and soiled, whilst her blonde hair was ratted into dreadlocks with
flowers threaded through it. She was also often seen drinking juice from a
baby bottle between songs... Her vocal technique was to scream and wail like
she was possessed, whilst she convulsed and attacked her fellow band mates,
who did their best to bash out their punk-pop regardless. Pretty arresting
stuff. Daisy Chainsaw contributed their
first recording, 'Upmanship Down', exclusively to issue one of
'Volume', the excellent CD and 192-page magazine, in 1991. It
was followed by their debut single, the 'Love Sick Pleasure'
EP, on Deva Records, featuring the frantic 'Love Your Money'
(
Here's
The Popinjays! Initially just
Wendy Robinson (vocals, harmonica) and
Polly Hancock (guitar, keyboards),
accompanied by a drum machine, The Popinjays
were from Huddersfield and began life with the 'Don't Go Back' EP,
a 3 track 12" single on Big Cat Records in August 1988. They got
themselves a Radio 1 Peel Session in September of the same year and a
bassist called Emma (surname unknown),
before signing to One Little Indian early the following year. They
recruited Dana Baldinger, who replaced
the mysterious Emma, and released a new
single, 'Please Let Me Go' and their debut album, 'Bang
Up To Date With The Popinjays' in 1990. Stand-out track,
'Perfect Dream Home', whilst widely believed to have been released
as a single itself, was in fact not. Although it probably should have been.
It did however appear on One Little Indian's label compilation,
'Greatest Hits Volume Two', also in 1990, which may explain the
misunderstanding. A new track, 'Vote Elvis', appeared as a single the
same year but confusingly, doesn't appear on the debut album. It's also not
on the otherwise excellent 1992 follow-up album, 'Flying Down To Mono Valley', and
is therefore an orphaned single. However, it was released in the USA on a CD
single via Alpha International Records, unlike here in the UK, where
up until this point we had only been treated to 7" and 12" singles. It can also be
found on the 11 track USA CD edition of the album, 'Flying Down To
Mono Valley', on Sony/Epic Records... but I digress.
The Popinjays had a few line-up changes
back in late 1991 which saw Baldinger
replaced by ex-Airhead bassist,
Ben Kesteven, and a real drummer,
Seamus Feeney, finally replaced the drum
machine. The Popinjays released three
more delightfully poppy singles; 'Monster Mouth' (easily their
best slice of power pop); 'Too Jung' and a cover of 'I'm A Believer',
all in 1992. It comes as no surprise that production luminaries
Pascal Gabriel (Erasure,
New Order) and
Ian Broudie (Lightening Seeds)
were twiddling the knobs. They issued a third album, 'Tales From The Urban Prairie'
in 1994. This was to be their swansong and there were no singles lifted from
this album... Sadly, there is very little information available on the group
these days and no video footage or even a fansite to speak of. One Little Indian
has forgotten all about the band on their website, too! If you enjoy
this track by
The Popinjays, you might like
The
Heart Throbs were an indie band from the reading area, formed in
1987 around sisters Rose Carlotti (lead
vocals, guitar) and Rachel DeFreitas
(bass, backing vocals). Both were siblings of the late
Echo And The Bunnymen drummer, Pete
DeFreitas. The rest of the line-up consisted of
Mark Slide (drums),
Stephen Ward (guitar, keyboards) and
Alan Barclay (guitar, 1989-onwards). On
the surface, the female fronted five-piece produced typical upbeat,
bubblegum indie-pop of the time, but beneath the gloss and shine, the dark,
menacing subject matter of their lyrics lurked. They issued early singles
via independent labels In Tape ('The Toy'), Rough
Trade ('Bang', 'Too Many Shadows') and their
own Profumo label ('Here I Hide', 'Blood From A
Stone'), between 1987-89. The Heart Throbs'
later singles began to attract great critical acclaim and their growing
reputation as a live act ultimately led to the band signing with One
Little Indian Records. Here, the band issued several accomplished
singles ('I Wonder Why', 'Dreamtime' (
The
Shamen saga begins in 1980s Scotland, when they were known as a
Love-inspired band called
Alone Again Or. A name change to
The Shamen got them some airplay courtesy
of John Peel and a debut LP released in
1987, 'Drop', revealed '60s psychedelia as a heavy influence.
By mid-1987, frontman Colin Angus was
discovering early house music pioneers (S'Express,
M/A/R/R/S) and braining up on the latest
studio gadgetry. The Shamen began to
expand their own music as a result, mixing rock guitars, techno, hip-hop
rhythms and sampled voices to create a rock-dance hybrid sound (see also
Pop Will Eat Itself,
Jesus Jones,
EMF). Not everyone liked the new direction however and co-founder
and vocalist Derek McKenzie, departed.
The charismatic Will Sinnott joined the
group on bass in late 1987, freeing up Colin Angus
to handle vocal and guitar duties. A couple of low key singles in 1988 broke
him in ('Knature Of A Girl', 'Jesus Loves Amerika')
and by this stage, Angus and
Sinnott had become hooked on the acid house
movement taking place in London, it's music and clubs a massive influence on
the pair. Keith McKenzie and
Peter Stephenson were less impressed by
these developments and left the group following the release of the 'In
Gorbachev We Trust' album in 1989. Angus
and Sinnott relocated to London,
plunging headfirst into the emerging rave scene. They set out on their
legendary Synergy Tour, a nightclub experience combining live music
from The Shamen and friends, and DJ-ing
from the likes of Mixmaster Morris. The
tour lasted almost two years and they issued the 'Phorward'
mini album, a genre-defining release in the history of the acid house
movement, along the way. Their third album, 'En-Tact', was
released in 1990 and it spawned the hit singles 'Pro>gen',
'Hyperreal' and 'Make It Mine'. Also notable at
this stage was the addition of rapper and DJ, Mr. C
(real name Richard West). The
transformation into a successful rave act was now complete. In May 1991,
The Shamen headed to Tenerife to film a
video for a re-release of 'Pro>gen' (now 'Move Any
Mountain - Progen '91' which appears here in it's excellent
Paul Oakenfold remix form). On May 23,
Sinnott drowned in a tragic accident off
the coast of La Gomera but The Shamen
vowed to continue as a tribute to their friend. With
Mr. C now a full member and Jhelisa
Anderson providing guest vocals, the group moved into it's most
successful phase, releasing chart hits 'L.S.I. (Love, Sex,
Intelligence)' (
It's
a second appearance here for Skunk Anansie,
the snarling '90s rock antidote to Brit Pop. The band included
Skin (Deborah
Dyer), Cass (Richard
Lewis), Ace (Martin
Kent) and Mark Richardson.
They were named after the West African folk tales of Anansi the
'spider-man', with Skunk added to
“make the name nastier" and they formed in 1994, disbanding in 2001.
They had 10 top 40 singles during this time including 'Charity',
'Weak', 'All I Want', 'Hedonism (Just Because It
Feels Good)' and 'Brazen (Weep)'. 'Glorious Pop
Song' is exactly what it says it is and appears on their second
album, 'Stoosh'. Fearing that the track would become a massive
hit and that they might be accused of 'selling out', the band decided
to litter the chorus with swearing ("you're still a fucker to me"),
sabotaging any hopes of airplay and subsequently any temptation from their
label to release the track as a single. 'Stoosh' also contains a number
of hidden tracks. Short jams and brief dialogues lasting between 30 seconds
- 2 minutes occur after every three songs. They cannot be accessed directly
but they exist between the space at the end of one track and the beginning
of another. Since the band broke up, Skin
has gone on to a solo career, releasing two albums ('Fleshwounds'
in 2003 and 'Fake Chemical State' in 2006).
Ace has also attempted a solo career,
releasing 'Still Hungry', an album of collaborations with
various vocalists, in 2003. Cass is
concentrating on photography and Mark Richardson
is now drumming for Feeder.
Björk
on collaborations; "I don’t feed so much off competition. Union is
definitely more interesting to me. No two people are ever going to be the
same but I am curious about which aspects of two characters overlap… where
the merge occurs. Sometimes physical, sometimes musical, sometimes
ideological, sometimes spiritual, sometimes a mix of all of the above. Every
collaboration I’ve taken part in has felt quite different. Also, there’s
very different work ethics at hand. I enjoy playing a different role each
time; sometimes the organized one, sometimes the innocent one, sometimes the
impulsive one, sometimes the anarchic one, sometimes the nurturing one.
Whatever the merge craves...". This track was released in April
1995 on the second of
the two 'Army Of Me' CD singles. Not exactly a remix, not
exactly a cover, this ferocious re-reading with label mates
Skunk Anansie is quite a departure from the original techno-pop
monster and was performed on 'Top Of The Pops' (
Sugarcubes
were a beguiling Icelandic indie band formed in 1986. The line-up consisted
of Björk Guðmundsdóttir (vocals,
keyboards), Einar Örn Benediktsson
('vocals', trumpet), Sigtryggur Baldursson
(drums), Þór Eldon (guitar),
Bragi Ólafsson (bass),
Einar Melax (keyboards 1987-89) and
Margrét (aka
Magga) Örnólfsdóttir
(keyboards 1989-92). The band's sound was characterized by psychedelic
melodies; whimsical, dream-like lyrics; the imploring, passionate,
child-like voice of vocalist Björk, who
of course later went on to great success as a solo artist; and the
intermittent ranting of Einar (something
I personally would like to erase from their recordings!). They received
critical and commercial acclaim internationally, which was unheard of for an
Icelandic band at the time. They first came to notice in the UK thanks to
Radio One DJ John Peel, who played
'Birthday' on his show and as a result it was later voted by
his listeners as a 'single of the year' in 1987. Signed to One Little
Indian Records, Sugarcubes
released two further singles, 'Coldsweat' and 'Deus',
and their debut album, 'Life's Too Short', in 1988. Both
'NME' and 'Melody Maker' featured them heavily over
the next few years as they toured the UK, supporting both
New Order and
Public Image in 1989. They also released a second album in 1990,
'Here Today, Tomorrow, Next Week!' and continued to score hits in
the UK indie singles chart ('Regina', 'Planet').
Their biggest success came with, appropriately enough, 'Hit' (
Gus
Gus, a fusion of friends, DJs, film makers, singers, actors,
photographers and designers, were proof that Iceland had more than just
Björk to contribute to the global music
scene. An extravagant, unstable and ultimately unsustainable band project,
their state-of-the-art music enjoyed a brief but intense spell of popularity
and critical plaudits in the mid-'90s. Signed with 4AD Records,
Gus Gus were originally a nine
person-strong multi-media collective from Reykjavik, Iceland, founded by
aspiring film makers Stefán Árni and
Siggi Kjartansson. They had set out to make
a short experimental film and had cast musicians-come-actors
Daníel Ágúst,
Magnús Jónsson, Emilíana Torrini
and Hafdís Huld to star in the project.
However, with more than acting talents to their credit, it wasn't long
before the project grew into something much more carnival-like. The group's
debut album, 'Polydistortion', heralded by the quirky singles
'Polyesterday' and 'Believe', was a triumphant
mix of electronic grooves and a perverse pop sensibility. However, despite
high praise from the world's critics and a string of classy remixes from the
likes of Carl Craig and
LFO, the problems inherent in such an
ambitious project were beginning to take their toll. Creative struggles
ensued and the financial woes of touring, which inevitably involved flying a
dozen people and masses of equipment from Iceland to the rest of the world,
weighed heavy at the time. Nonetheless, Gus Gus
went back into the studio to craft a second album. The first single, 'Ladyshave',
was a fun, electro-pop tune, which sacrificed some of quirkiness that made
Gus Gus's debut so special, in an
attempt to appeal to radio. Released in 1999, parent album 'This Is
Normal' was a slick cocktail of sometimes danceable, sometimes
dream-like songs. It suffered from the same sense of contrivance as the
single and despite favourable press, further singles such as mantra-like
'Starlovers' (
Hailing
from County Derry, Northern Ireland, gothy indie-rockers
Scheer were
Audrey Gallagher (vocals), Neal
Calderwood (lead guitar), Paddy Leyden
(rhythm guitar), Peter Fleming
(bass) and Joe Bates (drums). They
formed in the early '90s, issuing their first two singles on Dublin indie
label Son Records, 'Wish You Were Dead' and
'Psychobabble' EP, before signing to 4AD and releasing a
limited 7" called 'Demons'. Audrey’s
girlie vocals worked rather well with her bandmates metallic racket,
wall-of-sound chaos, 'Select' magazine even described her as
"a cross between Shirley Manson, Björk and some evil spirits". Nice.
Further arresting singles arrived; 'Schism' EP (1995), 'Schea'
(1996 -
One
of the most influential American alternative rock bands of the late '80s,
Pixies built their songs around jagged,
roaring guitars, stop-start structures, melodic classic pop hooks, shifting
male-female harmonies and evocative, highly cryptic lyrics. Hardly
accomplished musicians, Black Francis
whined and bashed out chords while Joey Santiago's
lead guitar squealed out feedback and noise, the band were refreshingly
inventive. Bucking convention, they turned rock music inside out, mashing up
punk, indie rock, classic pop, surf rock and stadium-sized riffs.
Singer/guitarist Black Francis' bizarre,
impenetrable lyrics were seemingly about anything and everything from space,
religion, sex, mutilation and pop culture, screamed over busy, brief songs
that encapsulated the 90s alternative rock sound. Behind the scenes, there
were tensions between leader Black Francis
and bassist/vocalist Kim Deal (billed as
Mrs John Murphey on the group's first
two releases), who wanted to incorporate her own songs into the band's
repertoire. B-Side 'Into The White' is one such song. It was
this tension that prevented the band from reigning supreme when grunge
exploded onto the rock scene in 1992. With Pixies
effectively broken up by this time, it was Nirvana
took the acclaim instead, but their shadow loomed large.
Pixies had formed back in Boston, in
1986 by Charles Thompson (AKA
Black Francis) and his roommate,
Joey Santiago. Advertising in a music paper
for a bassist who liked, "Hüsker Dü and Peter, Paul & Mary", the duo
recruited Kim Deal and at her
suggestion, drummer David Lovering. By
the fall, they had a supporting slot for Throwing
Muses, access to Fort Apache studios, where they recorded
the demos that were to be dubbed 'The Purple Tape' and the
interest of Ivo Watts, the head of
4AD Records. Signed to 4AD, the band released the 'Come On
Pilgrim' EP in 1987 and convened to record their first full-length
album, 'Surfer Rosa', with producer
Steve Albini. Released in the spring of 1988, 'Surfer Rosa'
earned enthusiastic reviews and made inroads on the UK pop charts.
By the end of the year, the buzz around Pixies
had become substantial and at the end of 1988, the group re-entered the
studio, this time with British producer Gil Norton.
Released in the spring of 1989, 'Doolittle' received excellent
reviews, which led to greater exposure in America. 'Monkey Gone To
Heaven' and 'Here Comes Your Man' became top 10 rock
hits, sending 'Doolittle' to number 8 in the UK chart.
Throughout their career, Pixies were
always more popular in Britain and Europe than America. By the completion of
promotional duties for 'Doolittle' at the end of 1989, the
group had begun to tire of each other and decided to take a hiatus at the
start of 1990. Pixies reconvened to
record their third album, once again with Gil
Norton, towards the end of the year, containing no songs by
Deal. 'Bossanova' was
greeted with mixed reviews, but the record became a hit, hitting number 3 on
the UK album chart and spawning the singles 'Velouria' and
'Dig For Fire'. Though the supporting tours for 'Bossanova'
were successful, tension continued to mount between
Deal and Francis and at
the conclusion of their English tour, Deal
announced from the stage of the Brixton Academy that the concert was
to be their last... It wasn't, however, as Pixies
re-grouped for a fourth set, 'Trompe Le Monde', and toured
internationally in support of it in 1992. During the spring of 1992,
Pixies opened for
U2 on the opening leg of the 'Zoo TV Tour' and
upon the conclusion of the tour, Pixies
went on hiatus. 4AD began issuing archival
Pixies releases, including 'Death To The Pixies 1987-1991',
'Pixies At The BBC' and 'Complete B-Sides' in
the late '90s and early 2000s, and after persistent rumours, the band
reformed officially in 2003... but that left a sour taste in the mouths of
some.
Former
lead guitarist for The Breeders,
Kelley Deal began work on her own rock
outfit, The Kelley Deal 6000, while in
drug rehab in Minnesota. Upon leaving rehab in 1995,
Deal drafted in Marty Nedich
on bass, Steve Salett on guitar and
Nick Hook on drums, with herself on vocals
and guitar. The songs she wrote in rehab became 'Go To The Sugar
Altar', the band's first album. The songs on it draw on
Kelley's rehab experience at the
Hazelton Clinic in Minnesota and the lead track and single release,
'Canyon', was inspired by a young, female crack addict she met
during her brief stay in jail. This track can be found on the B-side.
Deal had turned down several offers from
major labels to release the album, deciding instead to put the album out on
her own label, Nice Records, to the tune of $10,000. The band headed
out to tour the States and Europe in support of the album, going through a
number of guitarists along the way, ultimately ending up with
Todd Mund, the band's manager. After the
band finished touring, they began working on their sophomore release,
'Boom! Boom! Boom!'. In February of 1997, the band headed to the
studio to begin the recording but it's release was delayed a few months, due
to more line-up changes. This time Nick Hook
left the band and was replaced by Todd Johnson
on drums. Their second album was finally released in August 1997 and the
band toured the States throughout the summer of 97. In late 1997, the band
went on indefinite hiatus...
The
Amps were Kim Deal
(guitar/vocals), Nathan Farley (guitar),
Luis Lerma (bass) and
Jim Macpherson (drums). They were formed by
Kim Deal in 1995, after
The Breeders broke up for 'a year',
claiming that they'd had enough of touring. While
The Breeders were on hiatus, Kim
decided she needed an outlet to release some creative energy and so began
working on a solo album. As she worked on tracks, she realised she needed to
road test them with some gigs and therefore
Breeders skin-man Jim Macpherson
and other musician friends, Nathan
and Luis, were drafted in for
live dates. The group then started touring as Tammy
And The Amps, but soon after, the name was changed to simply
The Amps because Kim claimed
that, "Tammy was beginning to get on my tits". The band played a
number of small American venues as well as some European dates and while
touring, they periodically stopped by the studio to record songs for the
album release. 'Tipp City' was released as a single prior to
the album, this early version of 'Empty Glasses' can be found
on it's B-side, and 'Pacer' was finally released on October
31st, 1995. The band continued touring America and Europe off and on until
the summer of 1996 when Kim cancelled a
series of high profile European dates, including several festival
appearances, to concentrate on new material for The
Breeders.
Dusty
Trails is an American music duo consisting of
Vivian Trimble (Luscious
Jackson, Kostars) and
Josephine Wiggs (The
Breeders). Both ladies play all the instruments between them,
with Trimble providing lead vocals and
Wiggs singing back-up/harmony vocals, although 50% of their
output is instrumental. Their 2000 debut album, 'Dusty Trails',
can be described as 'mood music' and is heavy on keyboard, percussion and
bass. It's quite the overlooked treasure, layering soothing harmonies with
folk, modern trance and ambient instrumentals. Their sound has also been
compared to 1960s French and Brazilian pop. Euro-licious! The album also
includes guest vocals by alternative country folk queen,
Emmylou Harris on this track,
'Order Coffee'. Hardly prolific, Dusty
Trails seems to be dormant now, with their only other recordings
being three additional tracks, featuring John
Mattlock (Spiritualized) on
drums, from the 'Happy Accidents' film soundtrack, also from
2000. This should go down well with fans of Air,
Stereolab, Zero
7, Broadcast and
Groove Armada. Buy 'Dusty Trails'
Josephine
Wiggs is an indie/alternative rock musician, usually playing bass
guitar but also performing cello, drums and vocals. She is most noted for
appearing in the line-ups of Perfect Disaster,
The Breeders,
Ladies Who Lunch and Dusty Trails.
In 1988, Wiggs met
Kim Deal when
Perfect Disaster supported Pixies
in London. Deal,
Tanya Donelly and
Wiggs got together in December 1989 to form
The Breeders, recording their first
album, 'Pod', in 10 days with Steve
Albini producing. In 1992, Josephine
formed a brief partnership with drummer Jon Mattock
(of Spacemen 3 and
Spiritualized), although they would work
together on other projects in the future, under the name
Honey Tongue. With
Wiggs performing vocals, they released one
album, 'Nude Nudes', on Playtime Records. She also
remained a Breeder for their next
release, 'Safari' EP, in 1992, followed by the platinum album
'Last Splash' in 1993, which featured the hit song
'Cannonball'. The band didn't quite follow up on their commercial
success at this point and when The Breeders
later re-grouped, Wiggs was no longer a
member. Post-Breeders,
Wiggs formed
Ladies Who Lunch with Luscious Jackson
(and original Beastie Boys) drummer
Kate Schellenbach in 1995. They released
two 7" singles; 'Kim's We Love' (an homage to
Pixies' Kim Deal
and Sonic Youth's
Kim Gordon, played entirely on Casio keyboards) in 1995
and 'Everybody's Happy Nowadays' in 1996, both on
Beastie Boys' Grand Royal label.
Wiggs also recorded and co-produced the 1995 album, 'Klassics
With A K' for Kostars, AKA
Luscious Jackson's
Jill Cunniff and
Vivian Trimble. Wiggs once
again collaborated with Jon Mattock for
1996's 'Bon Bon Lifestyle' album, credited to
The Josephine Wiggs Experience on
Grand Royal. She then turned up playing bass and cello on a few tracks
on Luscious Jackson's final album,
'Electric Honey', in 1999. The same year,
Wiggs started a writing and production collaboration with
Luscious Jackson keyboardist
Vivian Trimble, under the name
Dusty Trails. Their 2000 album on
Atlantic Records included a track written for and sung by country
legend, Emmylou Harris. In November of
2005, Wiggs re-joined
The Breeders onstage in London, where
the band played two shows, for the 25th anniversary of
4AD Records. Wiggs is
currently recording new material, once again with
Jon Mattock.
Of
the several spin-off releases that Luscious Jackson
spawned, perhaps the most interesting is Kostars.
Vivian Trimble and
Jill Cunniff formed Kostars
after a few impromptu acoustic jam sessions between the two on a
Luscious Jackson tour in 1995. They
recorded and released the album 'Klassics With A K' in 1996,
preceded by a 7"-only release of 'Hey Cowboy'. The album,
which was produced by Josephine Wiggs,
contained three songs written by each Kostar
and four they wrote together. The other two members of
Luscious Jackson,
Kate Schellenbach and Gabby Glaser,
show up to help out on a few tracks, as do Ween,
but the Kostars definitely have their
own sound, more mellow and less chaotic. The album's liner notes explain
that the project was the result of a "sultry evening in Baton Rouge",
when Trimble and
Cunniff "made a beeline for the woods behind the club with
acoustic guitars in hand". This late night summer scene sets the mood of
the album well, with the warm, intoxicating beat of 'Jacqueline'
or the fireflies you can almost imagine dancing round the campfire on
'Never So Lonely'. A stand out track is the evocative, nostalgic
soundtrack to a rainy day, 'Red Umbrella'. The groovy,
up-tempo 'Hey Cowboy' is the song closest to the
Luscious Jackson sound but the record has an otherwise
consistently relaxed feel throughout. Nice...