Guitar overdose!

Not Unloved's favourite guitar pop records of the moment:

"Ariana" by Mercury Girls (Slumberland 7")



Yet another classic single from Slumberland.  It's unimaginable that there will ever come a time when  a record such as "Ariana" won't be met with rejoicing in these quarters.  Now that the sun has plucked up the courage to come out in Glasgow it sounds even more lustrous.

"Your Boyfriend's Girlfriend" by Pale Spectres (self-released cdep)



Pale Spectres played one of my favourite Indietracks sets ever with each song seemingly more charming and boasting a more memorable guitar line than the last.  "Your Boyfriend's Girlfriend" makes good on the promise of that set.  It's just a shame that National Pop League is no more as it would have sounded glorious at volume in of the Woodside Social as the condensed sweat of a hundred dancers dripped down the walls.

"Buy This Record" by Nic Hessler & EZTV (Captured Tracks 7")



There seems to be an exponential decline in the goodwill of record shop regulars towards Record Store Day but I'll be happy for it to continue if at least a few of the future exclusive releases are as great as Nic and EZTV'S Milk'n'Cookies covers 7" or Burger Records' public service vinyl compendium of the slim but joyful output of early 80s group The MnMs.  It would appear that neither record made it to the UK in any significant numbers so there was a wee windfall for the Post Office when it became apparent that I needed both.

Bona Dish

Captured Tracks has struck pure Messthetics gold with their forthcoming Bona Dish anthology:

A friend - thanks, Jon! - introduced me to them last night and although I've not fully assimilated all the clips on YouTube, I'm totally sold on their brand of thin, rattly/rusty post-punk and can only wholeheartedly agree with Captured Tracks' assessment:

"Collected here is a rediscovered gem showcasing the zest and spontaneity that gripped the UK DiY scene of the time, standing up to their contemporaries like Television Personalities, The Homosexuals and Marine Girls."

I felt a little guilty that in 2012 such a high proportion of the records I bought were archival releases or compilations and not the new records by extant groups.  I resolved, therefore, to buy fewer reissues this year.  If labels keep unearthing wonders like Bona Dish (that name has to be polari, doesn't it?), however it's going to be a tricky resolution to keep! Hopefully, this record will go some way to quietening the dull accusations of 'hipsterism' that seem to be getting tossed in Captured Tracks' direction with increasing regularity.  I've never met Mike Sniper but from the outside it seems pretty obvious that he's just an enthusiast with a genuine love for certain styles of music and sounds who releases records for the right reasons.

Orange Disaster "Something's Got To Give"

When, in my omniscience, I drafted my Incontrovertible Rules of Pop as a mildly more agitated than normal young man (I don't think I was ever 'angry'), one of them was No Saxophones.  Over the years that was refined to No Solo Saxophones when I realised that the original wording would preclude great swathes of Northern Soul and...er...the odd record by The Pastels.  Of course, there was no way I could stick to even the amended rule.  For example, Ralph Carney's visceral blowing on Galaxie 500's "Blue Thunder" was amazing therefore had to be allowed so a permitted category of Soulful Saxophone was created.  I'd used that trick before to allow the odd guitar solo that violates my strict No Guitar Solos rule; Galaxie's Dean Wareham being the prime purveyor of the Soulful Solo.  Given this irrational hatred of the solo saxophone, it's quite odd that a significant chunk of the last few nights has been spent listening to Orange Disaster's "Something's Got To Give" with its prominent (though, certainly not honking) sax.  It's a wondrously moody number with a winning late night sway and two lovely voices by a group who, according to the information beneath the YouTube clip, were one of the precursors of The Perfect Disaster; a group whose records I've been seeing and ignoring - I assumed they were goths - in second hand shops for a couple of decades.  It might be time for a wander down that particular avenue, I reckon.  

A quick internet search reveals that Captured Tracks' Mike Sniper is also a fan of "Something's Got To Give".  In his blog posting on it Sniper explains that the group took its name from this family of Andy Warhol pieces: