Thorn In Her Pride

Have a listen to the intro to King Khan and The Shrines' brilliant "Thorn In Her Pride" (from the belting recent "Idle No More" lp on Merge) and see if you, too, feel the compulsion to scoff a Cadbury's Flake:

The King and his lovingly assembled troupe of reprobates are easily one of the most unforgettable live acts I've had the joy to witness.  Scenes from their 2009 show at Glasgow's Stereo (accurately reviewed here) are branded on my retina to this day.  It was a gloriously kitsch, hootin' an' a hollerin' celebration of old time rock'n'roll kicks. Never in one place, least of all the stage, for long, the King roamed through the crowd taking various band-mates with him.  At one point the keyboard player hauled his vintage Vox or whatever it was onto the roof of the lift adjacent to the stage and played it from there (I hope he had done his online Working In Confined Spaces training beforehand - health and safety is important, after all).  What spectacle! What mayhem! What joy!  King Khan and The Shrines return to Glasgow in April.  I'd feel like a total dud if I missed it.

Redd Kross

On Saturday, after a frankly ridiculous 20 years, thanks to the good Strange Vice folks' presentation at The Old Hairdressers, I finally saw the film with one of the best theme songs ever: Desperate Teenage Lovedolls.  As it turned out, Redd Kross's "Ballad of a Lovedoll" was by some distance the most accomplished and memorable thing about the film.  In exactly 2 minutes it manages to fit in some deliciously trashy dialogue ("Thanks for killing my mom. Hey, no problem"), blazing guitars, a super-infectious "luuuuvedolls" refrain, "Be My Baby" drums and an exuberant key change whereas the film's 59 minutes are filled with nothing but arch, deliberately poor acting and sub Valley of the Dolls moves.

Fizzier than a Wham Bar/Space Dust smoothie!  That was the Redd Kross of 1984 but if "Dracula's Daughters"* from their new lp for Merge, "Researching The Blues, is any guide, the Redd Kross of 2012 is still capable of crafting big, heart-swelling, melodic guitar pop.  If you're looking for me in the next half hour, I'll be sampling the rest of the lp to see if there's anything equally brilliant.

* - Hear it and rest of "Researching..." for the next wee while here.

Amor de Dias "Dream (Dead Hands)"

As of today the debut album from Amor de Dias is streaming on the Merge Records site.  I tend not to listen to records ahead of their release date as it diminishes the thrill of walking home from the record shop wishing and hoping but I couldn't wait to hear "Street of the Love of Days" so an exception was made.  So far I've made it to the seventh song and, well, haven't been able to move to the eighth yet.  "Dream (Dead Hands)" is without doubt the prettiest 3 minutes and 47 seconds of new music I've heard since 2010 gave way to 2011.  It's as intimate and as beautifully clear-voiced as Chuck and Mary Perrin at their "Violets of Dawn" best.  It's as delicate and moving as Blueboy at their "If Wishes Were Horses"/"Unisex" best.  I'm sure I've written of this phenomenon before (ain't nothing new under the sun, sonny!), but I know when I truly love a song because when it plays I can't really decipher the words, can't focus on them.  My guess is that so much of my head is taken up trying to appreciate the sheer beauty of the music and the voices and the arrangement that higher brain functions like language just have to take a back seat for a while until it's all processed and understood and its place in the pantheon of my favourite music established.  This inability to fully grasp the song, however, means I'm compelled to play it over and over again to the point where I get a bit over-emotional and all fizzing with the need to evangelise about it.  It happened when I first heard The Field Mice, it happened when I first heard Alasdair from Amor de Dias's other group The Clientele and it's happening now with "Dream (Dead Hands)".  Just the other day I was lamenting the fact that I hadn't heard too many genuinely brilliant albums so far this year.  If the remaining 8 tracks are as majestic as the first 7, "Street of the Love of Days" will be one of the few.  Excitingly, it's only 7 days - 17th May - until the vinyl and cd hit the record shops.