My in car commute CD today was More Specials, the second album by The Specials.
A good album but not one that really compares to yesterdays. I thought at times, ah a more darker album, and then there were really really light moments to it. When I also think ah, they are moving away from their roots, they put together something like Stereotypes Pt 2.
It was an alright CD though, just alright, not bad, pretty good, but not excellent, and as it was only The Specials second CD, it should have been excellent? No?
What it did bring though was a few childhood memories, notably being in class at Donnington Wood Junior School, quietly singing to myself the words to Pearls Café, notably “it’s all a load of bollocks” and being sent swiftly to Mr Weaver for the slipper. Ouch. And the second memory was first year of secondary school and our class were doing the assembly, some girls in the class needed the rich baritone of a Neville Staples, unfortunately they got the tenor of a castrated Aled Jones, this was all for a rendition of Do Nothing with words altered to fit in with the life of a child at The John Hunt School. The song was dreadful, and I suspect the only reason that I did it was to be around some girl or other that I hoped had a liking for spotty greasy boys that had a voice like a castrated Aled Jones. Inevitably they didn’t.
Highlights from this disc are the aforementioned Stereotypes and Pearls café, but also the International Jet Set and Hey Little Rich Girl. Unsure about the guilty pleasure that is Enjoy Yourself, at times it verges on comedic, maybe that’s its intention? Who knows? But as the week finishes, 7 out of 10. You get a bonus disc tomorrow as Villa re at home to Bolton.
Pearls Café by The Specials
Friday, 6 November 2009
Thursday, 5 November 2009
The Genius of...Darren Hayman plus Interview
The last two entries under the title The Genius of... have highlighted a particular song, however for this one, two songs sprang to mind.
Many many years a go a friend of mine introduced me to a London based band called Hefner. I was aware of a song on a compilation of theirs and I had seen them supporting Billy Bragg at Wolverhampton Civic, all of which I thought was OK, but that was it. Then the friend put a CD behind the counter for me at the Virgin Megastore where we worked and that was the start of a love affair that lasted quite some time with a bands music.
Flash forward some 10 years or more, I still listen occasionally to their music, but tend to keep a keen eye on the output of the former members of that band.
Hefner, were a London based band that released a number of albums on Too Pure. Albums that contained songs that build and grow and swoop in all the right places. Darren Hayman almost exclusively put images and stories into people heads, some were based on real people, some not so. Ably assisted by John Morrison, Antony Harding and Jack Hayter. Over the space of four studio albums they built up a name for themselves not just with listeners to John Peels radio show but in the live venues of Britain.
Releasing two straight forward, but altogether different, albums, that are regarded as modern classics even now in Breaking Gods Heart and The Fidelity Wars, they followed this up with the driving, brass soaked, We Love The City. They always were a London band, but with this, affirmed their love for it.
Their final album, Dead Media was an electronic album that although it was NOT what people were expecting, Hefner never really did what they expected. It still contained the song writing that separated them from their contemporaries and the not so contemporary. That’s what they did and they did it well.
Since then the former members went their own separate way, some into London never to be heard of again, some into Fatherhood, pausing irregularly to release the occasional single out of far flung European indie labels. Some dipped their toe in to folk and poetry and some carried on doing what they always did, crafting and releasing songs on their own terms.
Darren Hayman, through his solo efforts and with Hefner is responsible for two of the greatest songs ever written. I suspect Hayman to say, “Only two?” Two songs of beauty that have the power to upset in their own way, certainly the power to disturb the surface. From two very different periods, the first song appeared as a B-side during Hefner’s Dexy’s inspired period, and the second appeared as a track on an EP during the initial phases of Hayman’s solo career.
Everything’s Falling Apart, appeared as a B-side to The Greedy Ugly People. Potentially Hefner’s best selling single and certainly one of their most well known, it was multi formatted to within an inch of its life and on one of those formats, nestling next to a cover of David Soul’s Don’t Give Up On Us Baby was the melancholic, Everything’s Falling Apart.
A piano driven track that takes you somewhere towards the back end of a relationship, that views its partner through withering glances in a rear view mirror. Will she remember this in the morning? I sure as hell will! But maybe not that forceful, maybe with out that anger. Maybe this is a song of disappointment at the failure of a relationship.
The second track is Little Democracies, a song that appeared initially on Cortinaland, and is a song that chronicles the increasing disillusionment of a Labour government, the promise, the joy, the happiness that a time under the Tories was over. Don’t worry, this isn’t Billy Bragg, this is Darren Hayman doing it in the way that he knows, be it a reference to THAT D-Ream song or be it putting a rather sad tribute to adult star Crissy Moran on the same EP. Nothing is ever straight forward and none less straightforward than Darren Hayman. Another song that perhaps tells of a disappointment at the failure of a relationship.
Two songs that capture his very best, Two songs that are easy to over look. Two songs that aren’t the easiest to find, but do reward the finder.
Darren kindly agreed to answer a few questions that I had about the songs, and also provided us with exclusive downloads of Demos of the two tracks below.
PD:I think no two songs from your catalogue demonstrate better your ability to craft interesting, lyrically imaginative tales, than that of Everything’s Falling Apart and Little Democracies. Two songs that aren’t particularly joyous, that aren’t life affirming, but once they do permeate your mind, don’t really leave.
PD: Can I speak initially about Everything’s Falling Apart.
A bleak song, a very bleak song. but a beautifully bleak song. You conjure up this image of silent car rides home, incidents swept under the carpet and a relationship on its final legs. This is all backed with a beautiful melody, some distance from what you were putting out as A-sides during that period. What came first the tune, the lyrics or the premise?
DH: Firstly it has to be said that prior to this interview I had to find this song and play it to myself to remind myself of the words and the tune. If you had a held a gun to my head I wouldn't have been able to recite it previously.
The title came first. I distinctly remember writing a song called 'Everything's Falling Apart' between Breaking God's Heart and Fidelity Wars. I also remember, (though haven't thought of this in years), that 'Everything's Falling Apart' was a prospective title for 'Fidelity Wars'. This song however is very different to the song you speak of. I did demo it on my own and I have found it! And you can put it on your blog. I should state clearly though that this song was never deemed worthy of a b-side or an out take on 'Catfight'.
PD: Is the released version as you first heard it, or did it evolve, over time.
DH: To my ears the title is the only thing I took forward to the subsequent version was the title, which stuck with me and is also echoed in another song later on, 'Everything is Wrong All the Time'. It's a funny title but is also a truism that we all feel but don't often hear stated that bluntly. I would have been aware of the Dylan song 'Everything is Broken' as well.
Knowing me the song probably went through several re-writes between 'Fidelity Wars' and 'We Love the City'. It has the car theme in it which also crops up in 'Greater London Radio' and 'Jubilee' so I would say it was definitely intended for the 'We Love the City' pile at one point.
PD: You dealt with relationships quite well in the earlier part of your career, be it lust, sex or the throes of romance, so this was a bit of a departure, documenting an end, as opposed to the happier times. John Peel said it was always about sex with Hefner, was it a subconscious, or indeed conscious thought to try a little tenderness?
DH: Crikey. Well every creative decision I make is both subconscious and conscious. Themes tend to reveal themselves through an automatic style of writing and those themes are revised through re-writes and then start to be themes that an album can be based around. These days I guess I more consciously choose directions and album themes but then it would have been more about what spilled out.
Although I disagree that this song displays a new degree of tenderness. There's 'Fat Kelly's Teeth', 'Grandmother Dies' and 'Tactile' that are earlier and similar. This would be a song that documents the end of the relationship that fractures in 'Fidelity Wars'. Despite being re-written for 'We Love the City' it's sentiment belongs with the earlier album which is why it was probably placed on a b-side.
PD: You recently re-released the expanded version of the album, We Love The City, Everything’s Falling Apart was the B-side to The Greedy Ugly People from that album but doesn’t appear on the expanded version. Why was this?
DH: The recording was made at the BBC for the Peel show. Too expensive to license for the re-issues though I do intend to do a BBC or Peel sessions album to tidy all of this up at some point.
PD: I always felt that the song was always out of place with the rest of the music released during the We Love The City period, a period that was resolutely up beat, but also a period that celebrated London and the city. Not in a Blur way but in a way that said “London?? Nah its not that bad” Everything’s Falling Apart didn’t fit in with that, it wasn’t about the city, not that I could tell and it certainly wasn’t upbeat. Was it a case of you just needing to get the song heard?
DH: Well yes, I guess. It sounds to me like we got it right, not to take anything away from what you think of the song. It sounds like it wouldn't fit on the album and perhaps not quite good enough for Fidelity Wars.
I do understand it has a certain uniqueness to it that might make it a favourite for some. The language is very simple and direct and I like that.
PD: You play live quite regularly, and I know you fill your live set with a broad cross section of new material, older solo material and Hefner material. To my knowledge, Everything’s Falling Apart is not a song that you play live, and it wasn’t a song that you played live during the period it was released. Why is that? Do you think it doesn’t have broad appeal?
DH: Once again, I wouldn't want this interview to detract from what you think of the song and you are of course entitled to think it's the best thing I've done, but I guess I don't. All the parts just don't seem to quite fit together (which is apt) to me it doesn't flow as a song. I wouldn't rule it out though. I feel I have the rest of my life to play all of my catalogue and I'm also aware that I will probably always have to play Hefner songs, so I rotate them regularly.
We might have played this live once or twice. We often did with songs before taking them into a Peel session.
PD: Little Democracies, a track that appeared on your second solo EP, tucked away on Cortinaland, not the most easy of songs, certainly one of the most sparse of your career, but one that I know fans love. Did it surprise you the response to something like this, something that isn’t as in your face as something like Bad Policewoman?
DH: I have got it wrong a few times with putting better songs on b-sides then were found on albums, but I like this when I find it with other artists, it doesn't pain me. Bad Policewoman is perhaps one of the few instances when I've tried to write something that people would like, trying to write something 'Hello Kitten' - ish. 'Trouble Kid' would be another occasion of this. It's disgraceful behaviour and I'm proud that the punters don't fall for it.
I must say having just listened to this song again for the first time in a few years that it is extra-ordinary, I like it very much. I screwed up, this should have been on Table for One.
PD: The song chronicles a disillusionment with the labour party whilst holding onto socialism, seeing initial joy turn into a realisation that we have been sold down the river. Was there a catalyst for this song?
DH: Yes, have I told this story before? It's long, sit back.
The 1st of May 1997 is one of those rare days where I can remember almost everything that happened hour for hour. I got up, voted in the general election. I went for my first meeting with Too Pure where they said they wanted me to sign with them. I went to see Vertigo at the cinema and then went to a private view with my friend Brian. I then went to Helen's house (now my wife, not then my girlfriend) where a group of us watched the election through the night. As dawn broke there was a feeling of euphoria and elation and everyone decided to go down to the South Bank centre where the Labour Party was celebrating. A feeling of let's be part of history or something.
I wasn't having it. I was glad to see the end of the Tories but I couldn't see this as a Nelson Mandela moment or what ever. I was cautious about New Labour and said I didn't want to go down with them. People were saying 'You're missing out.' but I feel quite vindicated by what happened after and I enjoyed the 'told you so' element that I can say to my, now, wife.
Me and Helen ended up voting differently in subsequent elections but we always held the same belief in socialism. I just extended the motif in the song. A relationship being torn apart in tandem with old school labour.
To finish the story of the day I then, on the morning of the 3rd, had to pick my parents up and drive them to Heathrow. On my return I feel asleep at the wheel on the motorway, and only just regained control of the car.
PD: It’s a rather sad song, and at odds with your another of your out and out political songs, The Day That Thatcher Dies, for Blair and New Labour, they don’t get venom and bile, more really a case of “I’m not
angry, I am just disappointed”. Was it a case of “we trusted you” that made this song get written?
DH: Yep, hard to add to the answer that lies in your question. With Blair and New Labour it was always despondency not anger, although the Iraq war eventually galvanized me into action. I felt betrayed but do feel I was suspicious of Blair earlier than some.
Helen says my politics are too pure and I expect too much from people. I think she's right. I'm not very good at discussing a working, practical politics.
The funny thing is I can no longer remember the exact policy decision that made me stop voting Labour. It's so overshadowed by what happened subsequently.
PD: Talking of the instrumentation now, I know that as soon as you put you in a compartment, you do something utterly different and unexpected, be it analogue synths, a blue grass album, or away from music, your blog. How did you come up with the instrumentation for Little Democracies? Do you regret that sound now as I suspect it would be a bugger to play live? My personal take is that any other way of doing it, well it would sound wrong.
DH: The Secondary Modern did have a very brief look at it earlier this year. Sometimes songs are attached to their sonic properties but I don't write too many of these. Most of my songs, especially the French ones, stand up to re-interpretation. I don't know about this one though. It is very wrapped up in it's sound.
There's something very loose about the time signature. I think what might be happening here is that I'm making an electronic track with no drum tracking or midi clock template. Most of my songs, including the backing have a definite rhythmic scaffold so I believe that's what makes this unusual and hard to reproduce.
A lot of the sounds are produced by a modular synthesizer (including what, to my ears sounds like a convincing saxophone) made by Analogue Systems and also a Casio SK-1 a bizarre sampling toy keyboard that appears a lot through the Table for One songs.
PD: You put Cowgirl as a separate download from Hefnet.com as you said it didn’t fit in with the sound of the rest of Cortinaland, I personally think that Cortinaland is by far your most diverse piece of work, nothing sounds like the song that comes before it. It doesn’t appear to have a theme, if anything Little Democracies is the tracks that didn’t fit in with the rest of the EP. Do you labour over what goes in, and what doesn’t go in to a release?
DH: No not really, which is why I sometimes get it wrong. Recently with 'Pram Town' and 'Essex Arms', the albums have been written as albums so I always knew what was going on. Before I'd pick the best of say 25 songs, and sometimes make mistakes.
However in music, getting it wrong is sometimes getting it right. If Cortinaland is odd and doesn't quite fit together then it draws in people like yourself, er, no offence intended.
I was shocked recently to discover how painstakingly long the Wave Pictures took over song selection and order. I just haven't got it in me.
PD: You have always been adept at writing stories, and tales and making them real. Its something that has been put to you since your earliest interviews. Do you think its only a matter of time before you put out a novel?
DH: I had an idea, for a story this year, I told a couple of people. It's surprisingly plotty. I can't imagine writing it though.
I get very confused, I'm incredibly forgetful, I lose songs and ideas all the time. It takes a lot for me to focus on finishing a song sometimes and organizing an album is also difficult. I'm just not sure I have the mental discipline to bring a novel together.
PD: Moving away from Everything’s Falling Apart and Little Democracies, you are prolific, to say the least, currently you have out your latest album and the most critically acclaimed of your solo career, Pram Town. Also your efforts to reissue expanded versions of Hefner albums continues apace with We Love The City now available. All of this plus recording with Antony Harding and contributing to a Bruce Springsteen tribute album. I suspect this isn’t all that you are up to at the moment. What release plans do you have in 2010?
DH: It gets me down to be honest. I've been reading the recent Paddy Macaloon interviews and recognizing something. I have piles of songs here, absolutely piles. I'm not being boastful, it gets increasingly hard to organize and know what's what. However, we seem to be settling on a song order and selection for Essex Arms and we have a label for it, so maybe June or something? Dead Media I guess. Next thing is another one off single. I also have a piano led album called 'The Ship's Piano' half completed and an album about the English Civil War and the Essex Witch Trials.
Thank you Darren
A radically different version of Everything’s Falling Apart is available below along with the final version that was released. Lyrically it is only the tone that matches, I reccommend listening to the released version as well.
Everything's Falling Apart Released Version
Everything's Falling Apart Demo
Here is the released version of Little Democracies but also a song called Little Democracies that Darren recorded as The French, the band that Darren formed with former Hefner bassist John Morrison. Like Everything's Falling Apart this is a radically different version, both are more the genesis of what they became. Enough to say along with the released versions they do make for great listening.
Little Democracies The French Version
Little Democracies Released Version
Darren Hayman has a website over at Hefnet.com, its extremely informative and an excellent read. You can also find links there to his entire online life, particularly his blog, keeping with the civil war theme, The Grand Remonstrance, as well as be able to buy his music. He is about to embark on a short tour with his band, The Secondary Modern, dates online at Hefnet.com.
Many many years a go a friend of mine introduced me to a London based band called Hefner. I was aware of a song on a compilation of theirs and I had seen them supporting Billy Bragg at Wolverhampton Civic, all of which I thought was OK, but that was it. Then the friend put a CD behind the counter for me at the Virgin Megastore where we worked and that was the start of a love affair that lasted quite some time with a bands music.
Flash forward some 10 years or more, I still listen occasionally to their music, but tend to keep a keen eye on the output of the former members of that band.
Hefner, were a London based band that released a number of albums on Too Pure. Albums that contained songs that build and grow and swoop in all the right places. Darren Hayman almost exclusively put images and stories into people heads, some were based on real people, some not so. Ably assisted by John Morrison, Antony Harding and Jack Hayter. Over the space of four studio albums they built up a name for themselves not just with listeners to John Peels radio show but in the live venues of Britain.
Releasing two straight forward, but altogether different, albums, that are regarded as modern classics even now in Breaking Gods Heart and The Fidelity Wars, they followed this up with the driving, brass soaked, We Love The City. They always were a London band, but with this, affirmed their love for it.
Their final album, Dead Media was an electronic album that although it was NOT what people were expecting, Hefner never really did what they expected. It still contained the song writing that separated them from their contemporaries and the not so contemporary. That’s what they did and they did it well.
Since then the former members went their own separate way, some into London never to be heard of again, some into Fatherhood, pausing irregularly to release the occasional single out of far flung European indie labels. Some dipped their toe in to folk and poetry and some carried on doing what they always did, crafting and releasing songs on their own terms.
Darren Hayman, through his solo efforts and with Hefner is responsible for two of the greatest songs ever written. I suspect Hayman to say, “Only two?” Two songs of beauty that have the power to upset in their own way, certainly the power to disturb the surface. From two very different periods, the first song appeared as a B-side during Hefner’s Dexy’s inspired period, and the second appeared as a track on an EP during the initial phases of Hayman’s solo career.
Everything’s Falling Apart, appeared as a B-side to The Greedy Ugly People. Potentially Hefner’s best selling single and certainly one of their most well known, it was multi formatted to within an inch of its life and on one of those formats, nestling next to a cover of David Soul’s Don’t Give Up On Us Baby was the melancholic, Everything’s Falling Apart.
A piano driven track that takes you somewhere towards the back end of a relationship, that views its partner through withering glances in a rear view mirror. Will she remember this in the morning? I sure as hell will! But maybe not that forceful, maybe with out that anger. Maybe this is a song of disappointment at the failure of a relationship.
The second track is Little Democracies, a song that appeared initially on Cortinaland, and is a song that chronicles the increasing disillusionment of a Labour government, the promise, the joy, the happiness that a time under the Tories was over. Don’t worry, this isn’t Billy Bragg, this is Darren Hayman doing it in the way that he knows, be it a reference to THAT D-Ream song or be it putting a rather sad tribute to adult star Crissy Moran on the same EP. Nothing is ever straight forward and none less straightforward than Darren Hayman. Another song that perhaps tells of a disappointment at the failure of a relationship.
Two songs that capture his very best, Two songs that are easy to over look. Two songs that aren’t the easiest to find, but do reward the finder.
Darren kindly agreed to answer a few questions that I had about the songs, and also provided us with exclusive downloads of Demos of the two tracks below.
PD:I think no two songs from your catalogue demonstrate better your ability to craft interesting, lyrically imaginative tales, than that of Everything’s Falling Apart and Little Democracies. Two songs that aren’t particularly joyous, that aren’t life affirming, but once they do permeate your mind, don’t really leave.
PD: Can I speak initially about Everything’s Falling Apart.
A bleak song, a very bleak song. but a beautifully bleak song. You conjure up this image of silent car rides home, incidents swept under the carpet and a relationship on its final legs. This is all backed with a beautiful melody, some distance from what you were putting out as A-sides during that period. What came first the tune, the lyrics or the premise?
DH: Firstly it has to be said that prior to this interview I had to find this song and play it to myself to remind myself of the words and the tune. If you had a held a gun to my head I wouldn't have been able to recite it previously.
The title came first. I distinctly remember writing a song called 'Everything's Falling Apart' between Breaking God's Heart and Fidelity Wars. I also remember, (though haven't thought of this in years), that 'Everything's Falling Apart' was a prospective title for 'Fidelity Wars'. This song however is very different to the song you speak of. I did demo it on my own and I have found it! And you can put it on your blog. I should state clearly though that this song was never deemed worthy of a b-side or an out take on 'Catfight'.
PD: Is the released version as you first heard it, or did it evolve, over time.
DH: To my ears the title is the only thing I took forward to the subsequent version was the title, which stuck with me and is also echoed in another song later on, 'Everything is Wrong All the Time'. It's a funny title but is also a truism that we all feel but don't often hear stated that bluntly. I would have been aware of the Dylan song 'Everything is Broken' as well.
Knowing me the song probably went through several re-writes between 'Fidelity Wars' and 'We Love the City'. It has the car theme in it which also crops up in 'Greater London Radio' and 'Jubilee' so I would say it was definitely intended for the 'We Love the City' pile at one point.
PD: You dealt with relationships quite well in the earlier part of your career, be it lust, sex or the throes of romance, so this was a bit of a departure, documenting an end, as opposed to the happier times. John Peel said it was always about sex with Hefner, was it a subconscious, or indeed conscious thought to try a little tenderness?
DH: Crikey. Well every creative decision I make is both subconscious and conscious. Themes tend to reveal themselves through an automatic style of writing and those themes are revised through re-writes and then start to be themes that an album can be based around. These days I guess I more consciously choose directions and album themes but then it would have been more about what spilled out.
Although I disagree that this song displays a new degree of tenderness. There's 'Fat Kelly's Teeth', 'Grandmother Dies' and 'Tactile' that are earlier and similar. This would be a song that documents the end of the relationship that fractures in 'Fidelity Wars'. Despite being re-written for 'We Love the City' it's sentiment belongs with the earlier album which is why it was probably placed on a b-side.
PD: You recently re-released the expanded version of the album, We Love The City, Everything’s Falling Apart was the B-side to The Greedy Ugly People from that album but doesn’t appear on the expanded version. Why was this?
DH: The recording was made at the BBC for the Peel show. Too expensive to license for the re-issues though I do intend to do a BBC or Peel sessions album to tidy all of this up at some point.
PD: I always felt that the song was always out of place with the rest of the music released during the We Love The City period, a period that was resolutely up beat, but also a period that celebrated London and the city. Not in a Blur way but in a way that said “London?? Nah its not that bad” Everything’s Falling Apart didn’t fit in with that, it wasn’t about the city, not that I could tell and it certainly wasn’t upbeat. Was it a case of you just needing to get the song heard?
DH: Well yes, I guess. It sounds to me like we got it right, not to take anything away from what you think of the song. It sounds like it wouldn't fit on the album and perhaps not quite good enough for Fidelity Wars.
I do understand it has a certain uniqueness to it that might make it a favourite for some. The language is very simple and direct and I like that.
PD: You play live quite regularly, and I know you fill your live set with a broad cross section of new material, older solo material and Hefner material. To my knowledge, Everything’s Falling Apart is not a song that you play live, and it wasn’t a song that you played live during the period it was released. Why is that? Do you think it doesn’t have broad appeal?
DH: Once again, I wouldn't want this interview to detract from what you think of the song and you are of course entitled to think it's the best thing I've done, but I guess I don't. All the parts just don't seem to quite fit together (which is apt) to me it doesn't flow as a song. I wouldn't rule it out though. I feel I have the rest of my life to play all of my catalogue and I'm also aware that I will probably always have to play Hefner songs, so I rotate them regularly.
We might have played this live once or twice. We often did with songs before taking them into a Peel session.
PD: Little Democracies, a track that appeared on your second solo EP, tucked away on Cortinaland, not the most easy of songs, certainly one of the most sparse of your career, but one that I know fans love. Did it surprise you the response to something like this, something that isn’t as in your face as something like Bad Policewoman?
DH: I have got it wrong a few times with putting better songs on b-sides then were found on albums, but I like this when I find it with other artists, it doesn't pain me. Bad Policewoman is perhaps one of the few instances when I've tried to write something that people would like, trying to write something 'Hello Kitten' - ish. 'Trouble Kid' would be another occasion of this. It's disgraceful behaviour and I'm proud that the punters don't fall for it.
I must say having just listened to this song again for the first time in a few years that it is extra-ordinary, I like it very much. I screwed up, this should have been on Table for One.
PD: The song chronicles a disillusionment with the labour party whilst holding onto socialism, seeing initial joy turn into a realisation that we have been sold down the river. Was there a catalyst for this song?
DH: Yes, have I told this story before? It's long, sit back.
The 1st of May 1997 is one of those rare days where I can remember almost everything that happened hour for hour. I got up, voted in the general election. I went for my first meeting with Too Pure where they said they wanted me to sign with them. I went to see Vertigo at the cinema and then went to a private view with my friend Brian. I then went to Helen's house (now my wife, not then my girlfriend) where a group of us watched the election through the night. As dawn broke there was a feeling of euphoria and elation and everyone decided to go down to the South Bank centre where the Labour Party was celebrating. A feeling of let's be part of history or something.
I wasn't having it. I was glad to see the end of the Tories but I couldn't see this as a Nelson Mandela moment or what ever. I was cautious about New Labour and said I didn't want to go down with them. People were saying 'You're missing out.' but I feel quite vindicated by what happened after and I enjoyed the 'told you so' element that I can say to my, now, wife.
Me and Helen ended up voting differently in subsequent elections but we always held the same belief in socialism. I just extended the motif in the song. A relationship being torn apart in tandem with old school labour.
To finish the story of the day I then, on the morning of the 3rd, had to pick my parents up and drive them to Heathrow. On my return I feel asleep at the wheel on the motorway, and only just regained control of the car.
PD: It’s a rather sad song, and at odds with your another of your out and out political songs, The Day That Thatcher Dies, for Blair and New Labour, they don’t get venom and bile, more really a case of “I’m not
angry, I am just disappointed”. Was it a case of “we trusted you” that made this song get written?
DH: Yep, hard to add to the answer that lies in your question. With Blair and New Labour it was always despondency not anger, although the Iraq war eventually galvanized me into action. I felt betrayed but do feel I was suspicious of Blair earlier than some.
Helen says my politics are too pure and I expect too much from people. I think she's right. I'm not very good at discussing a working, practical politics.
The funny thing is I can no longer remember the exact policy decision that made me stop voting Labour. It's so overshadowed by what happened subsequently.
PD: Talking of the instrumentation now, I know that as soon as you put you in a compartment, you do something utterly different and unexpected, be it analogue synths, a blue grass album, or away from music, your blog. How did you come up with the instrumentation for Little Democracies? Do you regret that sound now as I suspect it would be a bugger to play live? My personal take is that any other way of doing it, well it would sound wrong.
DH: The Secondary Modern did have a very brief look at it earlier this year. Sometimes songs are attached to their sonic properties but I don't write too many of these. Most of my songs, especially the French ones, stand up to re-interpretation. I don't know about this one though. It is very wrapped up in it's sound.
There's something very loose about the time signature. I think what might be happening here is that I'm making an electronic track with no drum tracking or midi clock template. Most of my songs, including the backing have a definite rhythmic scaffold so I believe that's what makes this unusual and hard to reproduce.
A lot of the sounds are produced by a modular synthesizer (including what, to my ears sounds like a convincing saxophone) made by Analogue Systems and also a Casio SK-1 a bizarre sampling toy keyboard that appears a lot through the Table for One songs.
PD: You put Cowgirl as a separate download from Hefnet.com as you said it didn’t fit in with the sound of the rest of Cortinaland, I personally think that Cortinaland is by far your most diverse piece of work, nothing sounds like the song that comes before it. It doesn’t appear to have a theme, if anything Little Democracies is the tracks that didn’t fit in with the rest of the EP. Do you labour over what goes in, and what doesn’t go in to a release?
DH: No not really, which is why I sometimes get it wrong. Recently with 'Pram Town' and 'Essex Arms', the albums have been written as albums so I always knew what was going on. Before I'd pick the best of say 25 songs, and sometimes make mistakes.
However in music, getting it wrong is sometimes getting it right. If Cortinaland is odd and doesn't quite fit together then it draws in people like yourself, er, no offence intended.
I was shocked recently to discover how painstakingly long the Wave Pictures took over song selection and order. I just haven't got it in me.
PD: You have always been adept at writing stories, and tales and making them real. Its something that has been put to you since your earliest interviews. Do you think its only a matter of time before you put out a novel?
DH: I had an idea, for a story this year, I told a couple of people. It's surprisingly plotty. I can't imagine writing it though.
I get very confused, I'm incredibly forgetful, I lose songs and ideas all the time. It takes a lot for me to focus on finishing a song sometimes and organizing an album is also difficult. I'm just not sure I have the mental discipline to bring a novel together.
PD: Moving away from Everything’s Falling Apart and Little Democracies, you are prolific, to say the least, currently you have out your latest album and the most critically acclaimed of your solo career, Pram Town. Also your efforts to reissue expanded versions of Hefner albums continues apace with We Love The City now available. All of this plus recording with Antony Harding and contributing to a Bruce Springsteen tribute album. I suspect this isn’t all that you are up to at the moment. What release plans do you have in 2010?
DH: It gets me down to be honest. I've been reading the recent Paddy Macaloon interviews and recognizing something. I have piles of songs here, absolutely piles. I'm not being boastful, it gets increasingly hard to organize and know what's what. However, we seem to be settling on a song order and selection for Essex Arms and we have a label for it, so maybe June or something? Dead Media I guess. Next thing is another one off single. I also have a piano led album called 'The Ship's Piano' half completed and an album about the English Civil War and the Essex Witch Trials.
Thank you Darren
A radically different version of Everything’s Falling Apart is available below along with the final version that was released. Lyrically it is only the tone that matches, I reccommend listening to the released version as well.
Everything's Falling Apart Released Version
Everything's Falling Apart Demo
Here is the released version of Little Democracies but also a song called Little Democracies that Darren recorded as The French, the band that Darren formed with former Hefner bassist John Morrison. Like Everything's Falling Apart this is a radically different version, both are more the genesis of what they became. Enough to say along with the released versions they do make for great listening.
Little Democracies The French Version
Little Democracies Released Version
Darren Hayman has a website over at Hefnet.com, its extremely informative and an excellent read. You can also find links there to his entire online life, particularly his blog, keeping with the civil war theme, The Grand Remonstrance, as well as be able to buy his music. He is about to embark on a short tour with his band, The Secondary Modern, dates online at Hefnet.com.
The Specials
Today’s commute CD helped me get over the disappointment of yesterday in The Specials self titled debut. For the shit Dammers produced on In The Studio, he redeems himself in spades on this album.
I am a late starter with The Specials, although my older brother and sister were big fans, as were their friends, it only rubbed off on me slightly as a 9 or 10 year old. My music taste was entrenched in Abba and The specials and their ilk were purely for the big kids. Not to say I wasn’t aware of them at the time and more so as I grew up, it was difficult in the early eighties not to go to a youth club and not listen to Ghost Town or Too Much Too Young.
Fast forward to a year or two ago, and am out looking for a new book and Horace Panters book catches my eye, at the end of it, as is often the case when I read a music biography, I felt the need to investigate further. Amazon were selling their albums cheap and so I bought their 2 studio albums, The Specials and More Specials.
The debut is part Dammers songwriting, part reggae and ska covers. The Dammers element is exceptional, lyrically amazing, musically fantastic. The band capture the time perfectly, utterly perfectly. This was released in 1979, the year Thatcher came to the throne, a time that was so completely grim. The Specials sing on New Era, “This aint exactly heaven” little did they know what was to come.
You’re Wondering Now is so damn forlorn, you wonder how they can possibly have the energy in their live show for which they became famous, but it isn’t a forlorn that has its head low, its in its own place, evoking something, not joy, not sadness, just something inbetween that isn’t ennui.
They take on other classics, extremely well known ska, reggae and blue beat anthems, I am certain raised eyebrows at the time of its release, but time has made them songs their own, be it A Message to You Rudy or Monkey Man, its difficult to hear the latter and think of Toots, and the former, for me, is the only version. That all said, my view of West Indian music is extremely limited.
So the album, as you will kind of expect was marvellous, very very good and in the pissing rain, traffic jam ridden roads it made me feel that my journey wasn’t a long one and really I could go once more round the block.
10 out of 10. Easily.
You’re wondering Now by The Specials
I am a late starter with The Specials, although my older brother and sister were big fans, as were their friends, it only rubbed off on me slightly as a 9 or 10 year old. My music taste was entrenched in Abba and The specials and their ilk were purely for the big kids. Not to say I wasn’t aware of them at the time and more so as I grew up, it was difficult in the early eighties not to go to a youth club and not listen to Ghost Town or Too Much Too Young.
Fast forward to a year or two ago, and am out looking for a new book and Horace Panters book catches my eye, at the end of it, as is often the case when I read a music biography, I felt the need to investigate further. Amazon were selling their albums cheap and so I bought their 2 studio albums, The Specials and More Specials.
The debut is part Dammers songwriting, part reggae and ska covers. The Dammers element is exceptional, lyrically amazing, musically fantastic. The band capture the time perfectly, utterly perfectly. This was released in 1979, the year Thatcher came to the throne, a time that was so completely grim. The Specials sing on New Era, “This aint exactly heaven” little did they know what was to come.
You’re Wondering Now is so damn forlorn, you wonder how they can possibly have the energy in their live show for which they became famous, but it isn’t a forlorn that has its head low, its in its own place, evoking something, not joy, not sadness, just something inbetween that isn’t ennui.
They take on other classics, extremely well known ska, reggae and blue beat anthems, I am certain raised eyebrows at the time of its release, but time has made them songs their own, be it A Message to You Rudy or Monkey Man, its difficult to hear the latter and think of Toots, and the former, for me, is the only version. That all said, my view of West Indian music is extremely limited.
So the album, as you will kind of expect was marvellous, very very good and in the pissing rain, traffic jam ridden roads it made me feel that my journey wasn’t a long one and really I could go once more round the block.
10 out of 10. Easily.
You’re wondering Now by The Specials
Wednesday, 4 November 2009
Banjo'd
I've been watching BBC4's Folk America series this afternoon. It's easy to get a bit picky with these kinds of things as you tend to see the same footage you've seen elsewhere. You have to remind yourself that there might not be any more footage. Unless someone turns up a big pile of Leadbelly film that's your lot folks.
Following on from another look at Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie and cohorts was a cobbled together clips affair from the Jools Holland Later show, where some work experience lad had been told 'Go through all this footage and find anything with a banjo in it'. The lad did well (before being sent out for latte's), turning up, among others, Chatham County Line and the Carolina Chocolate Drops.
Chatham County Line perfoming the Carolinian from their album IV.
The banjo is a product of Africa. So says blackbanjo.com It's interesting to read on the Carolina Chocolate Drops website that Among black ensembles, the banjo often set the pace and if a fiddle was present and it often was not, it served as accompaniment and not as the lead instrument as is more common in the Appalachian tradition. When I think of music containing the banjo I do tend to have a very white view of things in my head, which is historically very innacurate. Horace Weston, who died in 1890 (before having chance to upload himself on to Youtube) was a big star of minstrel shows of the day, and pieces of his music such as The Egyptian Fandango are still played today.
I fear this might be one of my 'educational' posts.
Following on from another look at Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie and cohorts was a cobbled together clips affair from the Jools Holland Later show, where some work experience lad had been told 'Go through all this footage and find anything with a banjo in it'. The lad did well (before being sent out for latte's), turning up, among others, Chatham County Line and the Carolina Chocolate Drops.
Chatham County Line perfoming the Carolinian from their album IV.
The banjo is a product of Africa. So says blackbanjo.com It's interesting to read on the Carolina Chocolate Drops website that Among black ensembles, the banjo often set the pace and if a fiddle was present and it often was not, it served as accompaniment and not as the lead instrument as is more common in the Appalachian tradition. When I think of music containing the banjo I do tend to have a very white view of things in my head, which is historically very innacurate. Horace Weston, who died in 1890 (before having chance to upload himself on to Youtube) was a big star of minstrel shows of the day, and pieces of his music such as The Egyptian Fandango are still played today.
I fear this might be one of my 'educational' posts.
No Looking Back
I'm at home with a cold, feeling a bit sorry for myself. Sitting on the sofa feeling sorry for myself was made a bit better by catching most of the movie No Looking Back (1998) on cable yesterday. I have to admit that I do like Edward Burns films, ever since seeing the Brothers McMullen in the mid 90's. There are parts of the No Looking Back without much dialogue but covered in music, and whether you like the music or not, the songs seem so appropriate in mood and tone, if not lyrically, that they really stand out.
There doesn't appear to be a soundtrack to the film, although Bruce Springsteen is easily spotted, as is his Mrs Patti Scialfa. Some helpful soul has posted a tracklisting on imdb here.
In The Studio
The loosely alphabeticised journey was incredibly loose today as I hit an S, in Special AKA’s In The Studio. The 1984 album put together by founding member of The Specials, Jerry Dammers.
Noted primarily for the single (Free) Nelson Mandela, but also containing Racist Friend and What I Like Most About You Is Your Girlfriend.
The personnel on this album, as well as Dammers, includes Specials drummer John Bradbury and the Specials horn section in Rico Rodriguez and Dick Cuthell. A steller line up only aided by Rhoda Dakar, Caron Wheeler and Claudia Fontaine. On paper, a great album.
But books are on paper, albums were on vinyl, CD and cassette, and the facts are that remove Nelson Mandela, this is an incredibly weak, pop jazz funk album that is only bolstered by the inclusion of (Free) Nelson Mandela.
The songwriting, lyrically is not pleasant, tedious rhymes, lazy clichés, appalling really. Also in Stan Cambell, whether unintentionally or at the request of Dammers, attempts to pull off Terry Halls styling on a number of songs and that makes for difficult listening.
On the whole it reminded me of mid eighties jazz funk artists like Matt Bianco, which is a dreadful comparison and one not to be took lightly.
I know why I bought this album, pesky Amazon recommendation and a low price tag, not a good reason at all to buy an album.
2 out of 10
(Free) Nelson Mandela by The Special AKA
Noted primarily for the single (Free) Nelson Mandela, but also containing Racist Friend and What I Like Most About You Is Your Girlfriend.
The personnel on this album, as well as Dammers, includes Specials drummer John Bradbury and the Specials horn section in Rico Rodriguez and Dick Cuthell. A steller line up only aided by Rhoda Dakar, Caron Wheeler and Claudia Fontaine. On paper, a great album.
But books are on paper, albums were on vinyl, CD and cassette, and the facts are that remove Nelson Mandela, this is an incredibly weak, pop jazz funk album that is only bolstered by the inclusion of (Free) Nelson Mandela.
The songwriting, lyrically is not pleasant, tedious rhymes, lazy clichés, appalling really. Also in Stan Cambell, whether unintentionally or at the request of Dammers, attempts to pull off Terry Halls styling on a number of songs and that makes for difficult listening.
On the whole it reminded me of mid eighties jazz funk artists like Matt Bianco, which is a dreadful comparison and one not to be took lightly.
I know why I bought this album, pesky Amazon recommendation and a low price tag, not a good reason at all to buy an album.
2 out of 10
(Free) Nelson Mandela by The Special AKA
Tuesday, 3 November 2009
Mountain Battles
Back to the journey through my loosely alphabeticised CD albums this morning, after the end of the B’s I was looking forward to a bit of diversity, prior to the start of the C’s I have a small pile of CD’s at the end of a shelf, and what do you know, the first album was another B, Mountain Battles by The Breeders.
Their most recent album, released in 2008, the fourth album by The Breeders and possibly their most diverse to date.
I think its closest relation is the Breeders debut album, Pod. Although its close in sound, I think possibly due to it being written and recorded in various locations, no two songs are alike in feel, sound or style. It wavers between the standard indie rock sound of The Breeders, before touching on folk, alt country, and also performing songs in German and Spanish. Diverse is definitely the order of the day.
Unfortunately it is on initial hearing the weakest of the Breeders albums, its not as immediate as any of its predecessors and it is the least played of the Breeders, Kim Deal, or Kelley Deals albums. This is a bit of a travesty as it isn’t bad, its good, its very good, but when lined up against a catalogue as strong as Kim and Kelleys, it seems feeble. Listening to it now though it is strong, and it is enjoyable.
Walk it off, first appeared on Pixies documentary, Loudquietloud and its finished version here is a highlight, as is Mountain Battles and We’re Gonna Rise. The tracks that make up the remainder are in themselves worthy of their place on this album, on another Breeders album? I’m not so sure. 7 out of 10.
Walk It Off by The Breeders
Their most recent album, released in 2008, the fourth album by The Breeders and possibly their most diverse to date.
I think its closest relation is the Breeders debut album, Pod. Although its close in sound, I think possibly due to it being written and recorded in various locations, no two songs are alike in feel, sound or style. It wavers between the standard indie rock sound of The Breeders, before touching on folk, alt country, and also performing songs in German and Spanish. Diverse is definitely the order of the day.
Unfortunately it is on initial hearing the weakest of the Breeders albums, its not as immediate as any of its predecessors and it is the least played of the Breeders, Kim Deal, or Kelley Deals albums. This is a bit of a travesty as it isn’t bad, its good, its very good, but when lined up against a catalogue as strong as Kim and Kelleys, it seems feeble. Listening to it now though it is strong, and it is enjoyable.
Walk it off, first appeared on Pixies documentary, Loudquietloud and its finished version here is a highlight, as is Mountain Battles and We’re Gonna Rise. The tracks that make up the remainder are in themselves worthy of their place on this album, on another Breeders album? I’m not so sure. 7 out of 10.
Walk It Off by The Breeders
Monday, 2 November 2009
Diamond
Peter's Shape I'm In Fleetwood Mac covers have awakened the covers beast in me again, with my latest favourite being Christy Moore's take on Pink Floyd's Shine on You Crazy Diamond. Now, you couldn't find a more bloated, overplayed, over esteemed song (with the possible exception of that song by Queen) so it takes someone of the stature of Christy Moore to breathe new life and meaning into it. It appears on his new album Listen. It sounds like the compassionate song it was meant to be.
Thursday, 29 October 2009
I Can't Help About The Shape I'm In, I Can't Sing, I Ain't Pretty, And My Legs Are Thin
My wife recently, with dismay, insisted that I listen to something new. The house has been filled with the likes of Paramore, Muse and The Temper Trap and therefore on those Friday nights when I have her chained to the cooker, cooking my tea, for me, I get to have almost free reign of the CD player/Napster account. It is almost exclusively old stuff.
So we had a look on the NME’s website to see what those trend spotters were spotting and it seems that The Flaming Lips new album was where it was at.
” You should listen to that on your morning commute”
she suggested,
“you like Flaming Lips, THAT’S the one!”
So upstairs it was to put it onto disc, except it didn’t make it on to disc, I was distracted, by Fleetwood Mac, by Fleetwood Macs greatest hits, Fleetwood Mac foiled my wifes plan. Curse you Fleetwood Mac.
What did make it on to disc was the 2002ish version of their greatest hits, not the 1971ish version of their greatest hits, which some people (me) consider to be one of the greatest albums ever made. The 1971ish version is Peter Green at his best, and the only time he lets anyone else get a look in is via Elmore James, Little Willie John and Danny Kirwan. That’s the 1971ish version of there great hits, 2002ish documents the hits between Peter Green and his Man of the World and Tango In The Night.
An era I don’t really know about, sure I know the Peter Green years, I love Man of the World, I love Black Magic Woman, I love Oh Well, both parts thank you very much. I know of all of the tracks that made it on to Tango In The Night, and then there is Albatross. I flaming love Albatross.
Man of the World by Fleetwood Mac
That’s it then, that’s my knowledge of Fleetwood Mac. That’s is the sum total of the songs that I know. My seventies were filled with Grocer Jack, Grocer Jack etc, not Genesis, not Yes, not Emerson Lake or Powell and certainly not Fleetwood Mac.
So this greatest hits was almost revelatory, as even if you removed Albatross, Man of the world and Black Magic Woman, it was full of songs that I kind of know, that seemed kind of familiar, that rang a bell and were welcome.
If I didn’t know the songs, I certainly knew of them, Tusk and Sara. Then as the disc went on, I realised that I knew a lot of Fleetwood Mac songs and I realised that I loved them. Take that frown off your face, stop it.
Landslide, is an obsolute joy to listen to and its one that I was aware of when it was done by The Dixie Chicks.
Landslide by The Dixie Chicks
One by one the songs became more and more apparent to me, be them the presidential Don’t Stop, the NOFX covered Go Your Own Way, The Corrstastic Dreams, and more and more it clicked, I knew these songs through cover versions, through, good, bad and ugly cover versions.
Go Your Own Way by NOFX
Be it Cyndi Lauper recording You Make Loving Fun, or Shawn Colvin doing The Chain Take Peter Green out of the equation and I have had a lifetime of people trying to turn me on to the ways of Fleetwood Mac, subliminally, via cover versions.
You Make Loving Fun by Cyndi Lauper
And it worked, a glance at the titles and they meant nothing to me, but as soon as they started playing it was, hold on, that’s a Waylon Jennings song, it wasn’t a Waylon Jennings song though, it was Stevie Nicks.
Gold Dust Woman by Waylon Jennings
So as I came to the end, I realised I loved this version of their great hits, because I loved in the main the covers of these hits. I have played the disc about ten times since. But not when my wife is in the car, it isn’t The Flaming Lips.
So we had a look on the NME’s website to see what those trend spotters were spotting and it seems that The Flaming Lips new album was where it was at.
” You should listen to that on your morning commute”
she suggested,
“you like Flaming Lips, THAT’S the one!”
So upstairs it was to put it onto disc, except it didn’t make it on to disc, I was distracted, by Fleetwood Mac, by Fleetwood Macs greatest hits, Fleetwood Mac foiled my wifes plan. Curse you Fleetwood Mac.
What did make it on to disc was the 2002ish version of their greatest hits, not the 1971ish version of their greatest hits, which some people (me) consider to be one of the greatest albums ever made. The 1971ish version is Peter Green at his best, and the only time he lets anyone else get a look in is via Elmore James, Little Willie John and Danny Kirwan. That’s the 1971ish version of there great hits, 2002ish documents the hits between Peter Green and his Man of the World and Tango In The Night.
An era I don’t really know about, sure I know the Peter Green years, I love Man of the World, I love Black Magic Woman, I love Oh Well, both parts thank you very much. I know of all of the tracks that made it on to Tango In The Night, and then there is Albatross. I flaming love Albatross.
Man of the World by Fleetwood Mac
That’s it then, that’s my knowledge of Fleetwood Mac. That’s is the sum total of the songs that I know. My seventies were filled with Grocer Jack, Grocer Jack etc, not Genesis, not Yes, not Emerson Lake or Powell and certainly not Fleetwood Mac.
So this greatest hits was almost revelatory, as even if you removed Albatross, Man of the world and Black Magic Woman, it was full of songs that I kind of know, that seemed kind of familiar, that rang a bell and were welcome.
If I didn’t know the songs, I certainly knew of them, Tusk and Sara. Then as the disc went on, I realised that I knew a lot of Fleetwood Mac songs and I realised that I loved them. Take that frown off your face, stop it.
Landslide, is an obsolute joy to listen to and its one that I was aware of when it was done by The Dixie Chicks.
Landslide by The Dixie Chicks
One by one the songs became more and more apparent to me, be them the presidential Don’t Stop, the NOFX covered Go Your Own Way, The Corrstastic Dreams, and more and more it clicked, I knew these songs through cover versions, through, good, bad and ugly cover versions.
Go Your Own Way by NOFX
Be it Cyndi Lauper recording You Make Loving Fun, or Shawn Colvin doing The Chain Take Peter Green out of the equation and I have had a lifetime of people trying to turn me on to the ways of Fleetwood Mac, subliminally, via cover versions.
You Make Loving Fun by Cyndi Lauper
And it worked, a glance at the titles and they meant nothing to me, but as soon as they started playing it was, hold on, that’s a Waylon Jennings song, it wasn’t a Waylon Jennings song though, it was Stevie Nicks.
Gold Dust Woman by Waylon Jennings
So as I came to the end, I realised I loved this version of their great hits, because I loved in the main the covers of these hits. I have played the disc about ten times since. But not when my wife is in the car, it isn’t The Flaming Lips.
Wednesday, 28 October 2009
Now we are 1
It has been a year of us teaching ourselves how to grow old. A year of me writing a lot about Indie Music, a genre in the broader sense that no longer does anything for me. A year of Kev being rather educational as yes, I do get something out of what he writes, and ordinarily I will view the videos he posts or follow the links. Not always, after all, I don’t really need to subject myself to the lengthy Weekender by Flowered Up.
So as the next year of growing old approaches, I will carry on ploughing through my CD albums, becoming more and more disenchanted with music that is released now, and I suspect Kev will continue to educate.
I Taught Myself How To Grow Old by Ryan Adams
So as the next year of growing old approaches, I will carry on ploughing through my CD albums, becoming more and more disenchanted with music that is released now, and I suspect Kev will continue to educate.
I Taught Myself How To Grow Old by Ryan Adams
45 Flames
I tend not to be into new music. It doesn’t really excite me. Don’t get me wrong I am not all into nostalgia, reliving the music from my youth. If anything the music that I am listening to now although new to me, was made around the time and prior to the year that I was born.
Exceptions to this are few and far between (and that is likely to remain that way whilst Ian Brown and Kasabian have a career), but there is a new band from the UK called 45 Flames, and by band I mean a one man operation that seems off the strength of his 2 albums so far, Break Up In A Beat Motel and the recently released Goddess, to be releasing diverse rock music with the accent on good tunes and clever lyrics.
45 Flames debut, Break Up In A Beat Motel appeared to take its influence from Big Star, Bolan and Richard Hawley. Smooth love songs for people that don’t like love songs. I suspect that whiskey may have been imbibed. Whiskey breath and stubble permeate its zeroes and ones, love songs for the lonely, the bemused and bewildered, with a hint of menthol cigarettes. Jilly Gouldon would have a field day.
It seems that in the time between Break Up In A Beat Motel and it’s follow up, 45 Flames drink of choice may have gone from a smooth Irish Whiskey to a Tennessee Bourbon. That’s the feeling that he is looking to put across on Goddess, its difficult not to picture on any number of occasions a barefoot girl running from her front porch and hopping into a pick up truck. Big Star are still present but Hawley’s influence is replaced by the dirty British indie blues of Primal Scream, Jailbird Primal Scream and not Loaded Primal Scream. 45 flames don't sing I'm yours, your mine, that barefoot girl running to the pick up is a goddess, she's a goddess. The other pea in the pod to Jailbird.
Influences schminfluences though. What is appealing about 45 Flames are the tunes, both albums although very different do have some great tunes flowing through them, taking care it seems not to put any chaff on either release, a great number of independent artists could take note of this. They could also take note of the word diversity as 45 Flames on the strength of his two releases isn't looking to let the grass grow under his feet, and not dwell on a single sound.
It seems that 45 Flames is trying to go the truly independent route, releasing his own material, self producing, playing all instruments bar a few exceptions and self promoting. but I am unsure in this day and age how far you can get without employing a company tasked with getting you 250,000 "friends" on Myspace, but if music alone earns you friends then 45 Flames should be well on their way.
I am unsure what is next for 45 Flames, I suspect it won't be like the two albums he has out now, I do believe though, along with The Evangenitals he is releasing truly imaginative, independent music that improves with ever release.
I spoke briefly to 45 Flames and asked him initially about an overview for his two albums.
PD: What can you tell me about the differences between the two albums, Break Up In A Beat Motel and Goddess?
45 Flames: Looking back, at the months following the writing and release of “Break Up In A Beat Motel”, it is now quite apparent to me, that the songs for “Goddess” took shape in rather a spontaneous almost organic fashion, with no real pre-conceived plan for me to assemble a group of songs, that had a related subject matter running throughout.
PD: As time went on did you formulate a plan?
45 Flames: The plan, if ever there was one, after completing BUIABM was to continue writing with view to providing material for other artists (which is still my primary goal), however, during this process, the songs on “Goddess” evolved. Perhaps as a result of a subconscious knee jerk reaction to the songs previously worked on for BUIABM, which primarily were 13 set pieces based on the twilight hours of any given relationship, set in 13 rooms of a fictitious motel, and by their very subject nature had to be intimate in style and approach (concept album I hear you cry! – maybe …..but not intentional)
PD: How did Goddess differ?
45 Flames: With Goddess I wanted to celebrate the first flushes of wicked love, tell tales of every siren that lurked behind a suburban front door, those I had known and those I had only dreamt about, real and imagined.
So again, the very nature of the subject matter has unassumingly dictated the path that the sound would need to follow, and determined the styling of both writing and recording, in a bid to convey the urgency of desire and lust, without the remorse and reflection that the dissolution of a relationship brings, that BUIABM tackled.
45 Flames can be heard at his Myspace www.myspace.com/45flames
Goddess is available to buy on MP3 from Amazon.co.uk
Goddess is available on CD from Amazon.com
Break Up In A Beat Motel is available from Amazon.co.uk
Exceptions to this are few and far between (and that is likely to remain that way whilst Ian Brown and Kasabian have a career), but there is a new band from the UK called 45 Flames, and by band I mean a one man operation that seems off the strength of his 2 albums so far, Break Up In A Beat Motel and the recently released Goddess, to be releasing diverse rock music with the accent on good tunes and clever lyrics.
45 Flames debut, Break Up In A Beat Motel appeared to take its influence from Big Star, Bolan and Richard Hawley. Smooth love songs for people that don’t like love songs. I suspect that whiskey may have been imbibed. Whiskey breath and stubble permeate its zeroes and ones, love songs for the lonely, the bemused and bewildered, with a hint of menthol cigarettes. Jilly Gouldon would have a field day.
It seems that in the time between Break Up In A Beat Motel and it’s follow up, 45 Flames drink of choice may have gone from a smooth Irish Whiskey to a Tennessee Bourbon. That’s the feeling that he is looking to put across on Goddess, its difficult not to picture on any number of occasions a barefoot girl running from her front porch and hopping into a pick up truck. Big Star are still present but Hawley’s influence is replaced by the dirty British indie blues of Primal Scream, Jailbird Primal Scream and not Loaded Primal Scream. 45 flames don't sing I'm yours, your mine, that barefoot girl running to the pick up is a goddess, she's a goddess. The other pea in the pod to Jailbird.
Influences schminfluences though. What is appealing about 45 Flames are the tunes, both albums although very different do have some great tunes flowing through them, taking care it seems not to put any chaff on either release, a great number of independent artists could take note of this. They could also take note of the word diversity as 45 Flames on the strength of his two releases isn't looking to let the grass grow under his feet, and not dwell on a single sound.
It seems that 45 Flames is trying to go the truly independent route, releasing his own material, self producing, playing all instruments bar a few exceptions and self promoting. but I am unsure in this day and age how far you can get without employing a company tasked with getting you 250,000 "friends" on Myspace, but if music alone earns you friends then 45 Flames should be well on their way.
I am unsure what is next for 45 Flames, I suspect it won't be like the two albums he has out now, I do believe though, along with The Evangenitals he is releasing truly imaginative, independent music that improves with ever release.
I spoke briefly to 45 Flames and asked him initially about an overview for his two albums.
PD: What can you tell me about the differences between the two albums, Break Up In A Beat Motel and Goddess?
45 Flames: Looking back, at the months following the writing and release of “Break Up In A Beat Motel”, it is now quite apparent to me, that the songs for “Goddess” took shape in rather a spontaneous almost organic fashion, with no real pre-conceived plan for me to assemble a group of songs, that had a related subject matter running throughout.
PD: As time went on did you formulate a plan?
45 Flames: The plan, if ever there was one, after completing BUIABM was to continue writing with view to providing material for other artists (which is still my primary goal), however, during this process, the songs on “Goddess” evolved. Perhaps as a result of a subconscious knee jerk reaction to the songs previously worked on for BUIABM, which primarily were 13 set pieces based on the twilight hours of any given relationship, set in 13 rooms of a fictitious motel, and by their very subject nature had to be intimate in style and approach (concept album I hear you cry! – maybe …..but not intentional)
PD: How did Goddess differ?
45 Flames: With Goddess I wanted to celebrate the first flushes of wicked love, tell tales of every siren that lurked behind a suburban front door, those I had known and those I had only dreamt about, real and imagined.
So again, the very nature of the subject matter has unassumingly dictated the path that the sound would need to follow, and determined the styling of both writing and recording, in a bid to convey the urgency of desire and lust, without the remorse and reflection that the dissolution of a relationship brings, that BUIABM tackled.
45 Flames can be heard at his Myspace www.myspace.com/45flames
Goddess is available to buy on MP3 from Amazon.co.uk
Goddess is available on CD from Amazon.com
Break Up In A Beat Motel is available from Amazon.co.uk
And the usual MP3 stockists, iTunes, Amie St, Napster and eMusic
Wednesday, 21 October 2009
Ten Steps from Flowered Up to Ian Brown
I read this morning that Liam Maher, the singer from Flowered Up, those 90's baggy merchants, had died. This set me on an odd ten step journey from the Heavenly Flowered Up to Ian Brown, via Republica, Saffron, The One and Only, The Tremeloes, Alisha's Attic, Karen Poole, Groove Armada, Tom Findlay, the actor Timothy Hutton, and finally to Ian Brown. There's a certain 'baggy' beginning and end. It's a bit like Ted Rodgers in ITV's 3-2-1 but here goes;
Tim Dorney went on from Flowered Up to form Republica, who had that singer called Saffron. She appeared in the video for Chesney Hawkes One and Only. Chesney's dad is no other than Len Hawkes of The Tremeloes. Also in The Tremeloes was a certain Brian Poole. He had two daughters who went on to become Alisha's Attic, one of them being Karen Poole. Post Alisha's Attic she wrote lots of songs for lots for different artists, one of them being Groove Armada. Groove Armada's Tom Findlay also makes music as Sugardaddy with actor Timothy Hutton, and, believe it or not, a Tim Hutton song, Time is My Everything, was recorded by Ian Brown and a hit in 2005.
Dusty Bin?
The Evangenitals
If you read this blog with any kind of regularity you will know that I am a big fan of California based band The Evangenitals.
I first came across them one late night in Los Angeles in The Knitting Factory, I was waiting for a Tenacious D side project and they were the support. They blew me away then and continue to do so regularly.
2 full albums under their belts, and a third album just released, it seems that they are here to stay.
This EP, is a snapshot of a band at a time, next week it may be a different band as The Evangenitals revolve around a core of Lisa Dee and Juli Crockett and an ever rotating line up. Rotating almost in a jug band at a bar way, not in a Guns n Roses way. Lisa and Juli surround themselves with the best musicians they can find, unfortunately sometimes those musicians are busy. They may well have settled on this line up, it is a line up that does excite.
This release though, where are the band now? On the back of a hayride on the trail back to their little house on the prairie if “Home” is anything to indicate. It puts you right up there with them. Like an alt country Merry Pranksters, all living in the same house ala The Monkees. They appear to be that tight as a band on Home that you would think that this band had been in this incarnation for as long as The Rolling Stones. Maybe that’s the relationship between Dee and Crockett, long term friends and outside of The Evangenitals, sole members of Evangina.
Evangina was the original home of “Home”, its back bone was the same but it is an altogether different beast when put through the full Evangenitals sound, bigger, badder, ballsier and beautiful.
Taking of beauty, “I’m Sad”, you find it hard to believe that Ms Crockett could ever be sad, a ridiculously enthusiastic woman that scares optimism with her ever pervading feeling of “hell yeah”! So I’m Sad as a song is notable for its tone, sure The Evangenitals have put out the sadness before, dressed it up in black clothes but delivered it with a wink. On “I’m Sad” though, no wink, well not at the start at the least, but you know, you can’t keep a good girl down, and you know, when she reels off that that she’s sad in different languages, you think Juli, sad? really?
Many things mean something to Julie Crockett and it seems her idea of love, love, being a vegan and being a good human being are pretty much up there with walking and talking. “So Sweet” gives us the low down on an un-named lover, but not at the expense of bees “I don’t want no honey baby cos they stole it from the bees” and animals “I don’t sexy leather, cos I got some skin of my own”. She doesn’t preach, and that wink is evident again on this track.
The Evangenitals produce the goods more on this release than on any other, if you like them, and I like them, it tops We Are The Evangenitals and Everlovin. It’s a band finding their place, it’s a songwriter growing and improving and threatening the world that maybe you could really like this band. You could really really like this band.
They make you feel special, and at times special, they wrap you up in warm and fuzzy and make you smile, they do that with a tickle and not a joke and don’t take them too seriously although they really are to be took seriously.
Home by The Evangenitals
All the info on the band and their music can be found at http://www.evangenitals.com/
I first came across them one late night in Los Angeles in The Knitting Factory, I was waiting for a Tenacious D side project and they were the support. They blew me away then and continue to do so regularly.
2 full albums under their belts, and a third album just released, it seems that they are here to stay.
This EP, is a snapshot of a band at a time, next week it may be a different band as The Evangenitals revolve around a core of Lisa Dee and Juli Crockett and an ever rotating line up. Rotating almost in a jug band at a bar way, not in a Guns n Roses way. Lisa and Juli surround themselves with the best musicians they can find, unfortunately sometimes those musicians are busy. They may well have settled on this line up, it is a line up that does excite.
This release though, where are the band now? On the back of a hayride on the trail back to their little house on the prairie if “Home” is anything to indicate. It puts you right up there with them. Like an alt country Merry Pranksters, all living in the same house ala The Monkees. They appear to be that tight as a band on Home that you would think that this band had been in this incarnation for as long as The Rolling Stones. Maybe that’s the relationship between Dee and Crockett, long term friends and outside of The Evangenitals, sole members of Evangina.
Evangina was the original home of “Home”, its back bone was the same but it is an altogether different beast when put through the full Evangenitals sound, bigger, badder, ballsier and beautiful.
Taking of beauty, “I’m Sad”, you find it hard to believe that Ms Crockett could ever be sad, a ridiculously enthusiastic woman that scares optimism with her ever pervading feeling of “hell yeah”! So I’m Sad as a song is notable for its tone, sure The Evangenitals have put out the sadness before, dressed it up in black clothes but delivered it with a wink. On “I’m Sad” though, no wink, well not at the start at the least, but you know, you can’t keep a good girl down, and you know, when she reels off that that she’s sad in different languages, you think Juli, sad? really?
Many things mean something to Julie Crockett and it seems her idea of love, love, being a vegan and being a good human being are pretty much up there with walking and talking. “So Sweet” gives us the low down on an un-named lover, but not at the expense of bees “I don’t want no honey baby cos they stole it from the bees” and animals “I don’t sexy leather, cos I got some skin of my own”. She doesn’t preach, and that wink is evident again on this track.
The Evangenitals produce the goods more on this release than on any other, if you like them, and I like them, it tops We Are The Evangenitals and Everlovin. It’s a band finding their place, it’s a songwriter growing and improving and threatening the world that maybe you could really like this band. You could really really like this band.
They make you feel special, and at times special, they wrap you up in warm and fuzzy and make you smile, they do that with a tickle and not a joke and don’t take them too seriously although they really are to be took seriously.
Home by The Evangenitals
All the info on the band and their music can be found at http://www.evangenitals.com/
Monday, 19 October 2009
Fort Apache
If you are of a certain age, and have a certain liking for American alt rock, then a few people and a place are synonymous with the genre, namely Gary Smith, Sean Slade, Paul Q. Kolderie and Fort Apache Studios.
Fort Apache Studios began in Boston in 1986 but relocated to Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1988 before coming to rest in Bellows Falls, Vermont in 2002. Originally started by Joe Harvard and a mixture of people including Sean Slade, Paul Q Kolderie and Jim Fitting. Harvard effectively was the de facto owner until his partnership with Gary Smith began when the studios moved to their second location. In the 90’s Jim Harvard severed all ties completely when he sold his part of the businesss to Gary Smith and Billy Bragg.
In 2001 Gary Smith became the sole owner and shortly after moved Fort Apache Studios to its current home.
Kolderie and Slade initially stayed on at its Cambridge location and have since started their own studio, Camp Street Studio.
Taillights Fade by Buffalo Tom
Paul Q Kolderie still produces at Camp Street, whilst Gary Smith diversified into management and concert promotion. 2007 and Gary’s management is down to a single client, the wonderful Tanya Donnelly, The concert promotion has ended and It seems that Fort Apache is no more.
Fort Apache from the early days of the Pixes to random US 12 inches always had a presence in my record collection, not just the studio, but the production team of Kolderie and Slade and the management of Gary Smith. Chances are that you would look for one name, and the rest would follow.
Caribou by Pixies
My life could be traced through their discography, and it was never intentional, it just so happened Fort Apache recorded the bands, the music, the songs that I liked, from Pixies, Buffalo Tom (Bill Janowitz it seems acted as realtor when selling off the original studio), Mighty Mighty Bosstones and the sublime Pinkerton by Weezer. And that is just a fraction of what they did. Pick any name connected to Fort Apache and their legacy is monumental.
The Good Life by Weezer
In 1995 they released an album, “This Is Fort Apache”, setting out their stall or a call to arms, either way it was very indicative of what was happening in underground American rock at that point, before Brit pop spoiled it all.
So it is with sadness that as I looked into the partnership and saw that it had eroded some time ago without a bang or a wimper, that it didn’t seem to be celebrated for it’s contribution, that the protagonists are no longer together and sadly, Fort Apache appears to have breathed it’s last. Quite sad really.
Mould
A friend of mine commented the other day on what a joy it had been to hear Husker Du in the car while being given a lift to work. This is the second time in a few days that I have been led to Bob Mould (Husker Du were Bob Mould, Grant Hart and Greg Norton) as this morning I ended up looking at the Anti record label store to find out how much the new Swell Season album was, and discovered that Bob Mould is on the same label.
Husker Du, formed in about 1979 in Minneapolis and managed to release 8 albums in about as many years, before splitting up fairly acrimoniously. The thing for me that set them apart from other similar bands was their songwriting (split fairly evenly between Mould and Hart) and a more melodic approach to post punk. It's no surprise that they are lauded for their influence on the so-called alternative rock scene.
Bob (I can't bring myself to call him just Mould, or Mr. Mould) went on to make several solo albums, that range from I-Want-My-Money-Back to the pure brilliance of 1989's Workbook. He went on to form the band Sugar, who provided the soundtrack (Copper Blue album) for most of the washing up (a lot of Linda McCartney pies I remember) I did in 1992 as it was one of the few tapes my ancient machine didn't want to chew.
So, Bob's back, in fact it was me that went away, not him. There's a new release called Life and Times, which isn't the Best Of that it sounds like. With such a long title it really should be an American Music Club song, but it isn't, so here's Bob with I'm Sorry Baby But You Can't Stand in my Light Anymore.
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