My Love Has Gone

Last week's trip to Monorail Music yielded the"My Love Has Gone" 7" (Norton) by Miriam (Linna of The A-Bones).  I'd read about Miriam's album on Lindsay Hutton's cranky but admirably passionate Next Big Thing blog so was on the lookout for her records.  "My Love Has Gone" is such a punchy evocation of the classic girl group sound.  TV theme catchy with hooks by the score, everything is played so emphatically (those drum skins took quite a beating!) that despite all the glockenspiel and romance-gone misery it could never be described as twee.  Hopefully, the lp will show up in Glasgow before too long.

Sleepy City

Unexpectedly, I feel the need to use Not Unloved to profess love for another version of a song by The Rolling Stones.  After being seduced by Jimmy C and The Chelsea Five's sober take on "Play With Fire", The Parting Gifts' rendition of "(Walkin' Thru The) Sleepy City"* has been quickening my pulse of late:

Having never heard the original - no surprise given that I'd never heard "Metamorphosis" or, from the track-listing, anything from it - I made the customary visit to YouTube:

Again, I prefer the cover.  It's not that I'm anti-Stones, it's just that this song suits being a chirpy girl group number more than a languid, slightly off, pop-psych number.  There's something of Petula Clark backed by The Move to The Parting Gifts version - a fine concept in my book!

* From their 2010 Norton Records split with The Great Gaylord and The Condo Fucks

The Gentlemen

"Gangnam Style"?  No thanks. I prefer Vandan style!

Sheets and sheets of prime fuzz!  "It's A Cry'n Shame" must've melted radios in the mid-Sixties.  The lyrics are pure teen frustration ("Why do I love you?  You don't feel the same") while the guitar solo could carve the name of the uninterested girl into a science class desk.  It's available on Norton's "Fort Worth Teen Scene Volume 3" (that's where Not Unloved first encountered it) and on 7" via Garage Greats.  Blistering!

Sadly, Norton Records' warehouse was badly affected by flooding as a result of Superstorm Sandy and they lost a heap of stock.  This coming Wednesday there's a fundraiser at Mono featuring The New Piccadillys and a bunch of other like minded groups.  Full details below.  Well done the organisers!