Playlist from the We Love Soft Power! gig

Last night's farewell to Soft Power Records was a largely blasting affair, high on intensity and gut churning intensity.  It was brilliant!  Here's what made it from my stuffed 7" box to the decks (ineptly, as usual - there was a wee issue with one of the turntables which lead to sticking records and dead air):

September Girls Gay Bar (Bachelor)

Bent Skeleton Man (Moontown)

The Wake Of The Matter (Factory)

The Mekons Where Were You? (Fast Product)

> Blood of the Bull live

CTMF Song For Kylie Minogue (Damaged Goods)

Shopping Straight Lines (Fat Cat)

Veronica Falls Teenage (Bella Union)

> Current Affairs live

Broadcast American Boy (Warp)

CC Dust New Ways (Night School)

Primetime Pervert (La Vida Es Un Mus)

Vital Idles My Sentiments (Not Unloved)

> Dora Maar (Andrew Hill solo) live

The Royal Sitars Eloise (Agitated)

Scars Horrorshow (Fast Product)

The Fall It's The New Thing (Superior Viaduct)

Tommy James and The Shondells Hanky Panky (Philips)

Billie Davis Billy Sunshine (Decca)

> Witching Waves live

Bikini Kill I Like Fucking (Kill Rock Stars)

A Certain Ratio Do The Du (Peel Session version) (Soul Jazz)

The Frowning Clouds All Night Long (Saturno)

Sugababes Overload (London)

Marnie The Hunter (Soft Power)

Sandra Plays Electronics Her Needs (Minimal Wave)

X Ray Spex Identity (EMI)

Babes In Toyland Handsome and Gretel (Insipid Vinyl)

> H. Grimace live

The Raincoats Fairytale In The Supermarket (Rough Trade)

Patience The Church (Night School)

Carol So Low (Weyrd Son)

David Bowie Rebel Rebel (RCA)

Maureen Tucker Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow? (Trash)

> Kaspar Hauser live

Alternative TV Action Time Vision (Deptford Fun City)

The Brats Be A Man (Hozac)
Gary Walker You Don't Love Me (Columbia)

The Diaboliks Hangover Head (Vinyl Japan)

The Sorrows Take A Heart (Pye)

Psychic Dancehall A Love That Kills (Art Fag)

CC Dust New Ways (Night School - played again for Seb from Current Affairs)

Hearing "Hangover Head" louder than I've ever heard it before was a real treat:

"New Ways" by CC Dust (7" coming soon on Night School) seemed to fit the mood of the evening perfectly:

We Love Soft Power! (27th August 2016, The Old Hairdressers)

It's always sad to see a favourite record label call it a day.  It's doubly sad when that label is run by friends.  When Bek and Graeme announced earlier this year that there were going to be no more Soft Power Records releases it gave me a bit of a jolt as I hadn't seen it coming.  After the inital surprise, the memories came rushing back. I remembered the sweet nights spent listening to amazing POP music at neighbourhood feud-starting volume at their house in Livingston.  I remembered, too,  all the great records I had bought from them and, for that matter, all the records they so kindly gave me for cheap or free from their ace and much-missed Soft Power Vinyl distro.  I remembered the heart-quickening thrill of hearing Marnie's "The Hunter" before it came out and I remembered just how chuffed I was when they told me that they had taken the plunge and were going to release a single by Glasgow's Aggi Doom, who at that stage were fizzing with ideas and vitality.  I have so many great memories connected to Soft Power Records.  It's so great, therefore, that another of the label's friends, David Barr (himself a passionate supporter of less heralded music - check out his Ski Pie Rage blog), has taken it upon himself to organise a celebration of all things Soft Power with a night at Glasgow's The Old Hairdressers.  It's this Saturday and is sure to be a blast with Witching Waves and H. Grimace making the trip north where they will be joined by Kaspar Hauser, Blood of the Bull, Current Affairs (the latest fab group featuring Joan and  Josh who graced the label as part of Seconds) and Dora Maar from Soft Power's Scottish contingent.  I'll be playing a few tunes between bands, too.  Bek and Graeme are two of the most enthusiastic, warm-hearted, generous and genuine people I've had the privilege to know so, if you can, please come along on Saturday to thank them for fighting the good fight for the past 6 years and to give their label the righteous send-off it deserves.

Remind yourself of just how much wonderful music Soft Power Records released by listening to the David Barr compiled We Love Soft Power Compilation which can be streamed HERE

Read more about the We Love Soft Power gig HERE

Buy a bunch of brilliant Soft Power Records records and tapes HERE

Buy tickets (only 7 quid!) for the We Love Soft Power gig HERE

Dance giddily around your bedroom to Marnie's perfect-in-every-way Soft Power Records single, "The Hunter":

The Debutantes "Adam's Apple"

"Adam's Apple" by pre-September Girls group The Debutantes turns eardrum vibrations into pure adrenalin.  If a more dizzying slice of fuzz scorch has been unleashed in 2014 I've not heard it. It's in the same class as Henry's Dress at their smoking best or the Emily's Sassy Lime of the unbeatable "Pineapple Boys Need Not Apply". Soft Power Records has built up a real head of steam in 2014 with a slew of great releases.  There aren't many copies of The Debutantes tape left so if you're craving a jag of unflinching POP! noise (those backing vocals are some of the most perfect POP! moments of the year) then you'd best get on it now!

Looks like the ever dependable Norman Records still has some copies.

Pop Tapes: The Lemons / Chalk & Numbers

A former member of a famous indie group once sneered at me "You're so nice I bet you fart daisies" during an interview.  That sure showed me.  Yeah!  That put-down bubbled to the surface again while listening to Chicago's soda shop pop kids, The Lemons.  They're just so relentlessly upbeat and smiling and concerned with sweeties and kids' stuff.  Undoubtedly their music will be too saccharine for most but Not Unloved has never shied away from perky, wholesome pop music if it's made with the right spirit; we're not all leather clad rock'n'roll beasts after all.  Their brief songs - most of them make "Velocity Girl" look like a prog epic - have the same zest (ha!) for life as The Magic Kids or The Langley Schools Music Project.  Sometimes an escape from the grey drudgery of the adult world is much needed.  Their "Hello, We're The Lemons" tape (Gnar / Tripp) comes with a sticker and a download code*.


Much less sherbet-fuelled but no less catchy are Brooklyn's Chalk and Numbers.  Theirs is a sophisticated take on classic beehive-haired jukebox pop.  The songs on Soft Power Records' "Cassette Compilation" are wrought from the chrome fixtures and gingham tablecloths of a million American diners.  All six are foot-tappers.  "I Really Wanna Work This Out", however, is the real beauty here; think Denise James tackling a recently unearthed Beach Boys demo.


Chalk and Numbers aren't taking pop music anywhere new but that doesn't matter a jot when the songs are this good - see also Summer Twins.  Time to watch "Grace Of My Heart" again, I reckon.

Both tapes were released earlier in 2014 but seem to make more sense now that there's the odd shaft of springtime sunlight to bump up the optimism.

* Brits can save on the postage by purchasing from Very Gun Records.

The Wharves/The Rosy Crucifixion split LP (Soft Power)

A couple of weeks ago I heard a test pressing of the forthcoming split record by The Rosy Crucifixion and The Wharves (Soft Power Records).  I was played it at skull wrecking volume in a suburban living room and it sounded completely glorious.  As with Palms (see yesterday's posting), The Rosy Crucifixion are from Glasgow and contributed memorably to the Some Songs Side-By-Side box. Like Palms, witnessing their live show is a must.  Emily is a brilliant, brilliant guitarist who, despite her mastery, knows the value of a cleansing dose of feedback - check the intro to the deliciously snarly "Hot In Your Head":

Their The Gun Club/Thee Oh Sees informed garage rock has a pleasing bounce to it.  It's hard not to curl your top lip as you nod along to "Lose Yourself" (a live favourite) or strut around all sassy to "Sinners".  There's not a whisper of a weak track and their side ends with the skewed, leopard skin jacket stomp of "Night of the Wailers", a song that in a fair world would be hastening brothel-creepered feet to limbo lounge dance-floors up and down the land:

The Wharves are from London and I've only seen them once (the night Andy Murray won Wimbledon so I was in decidedly good cheer!) and they were exceptional.  I admired their ability to meld influences as mutually exclusive as, say, Pentangle, Black Sabbath and classic harmony-driven girl-group pop into a sort of pagan post-punk that, well, worked.  It felt brave and, much as I love straight-up, empty-headed garage rock or winsome, jangling pop, it was encouraging to hear a group forging a new sound.  If it alienates the hispters all well and good.  Who needs those duds anyway?  While they're sucking their cheeks in I'll have pupils the size of saucers from the sheer wired-ness of "Unhand Me" and the groovy, metallic sway of "Woodchip".  I can't think of any other group past or present who sound like The Wharves.  All credit to Soft Power for backing them.

Stream the whole record at the Soft Power Records bandcamp page then wait excitedly for it to be released on vinyl on 25th November!

Marnie "The Hunter"

Imagine if you started a record label and named it after a song or group or whatever that you loved more than anything.  Next, imagine how excited you would be to have the opportunity to release a record by the artist/group in question.  If it were me, I'd be dancing on the ceiling!  I suspect that the kids behind Soft Power Records are pogoing 24-7 in disbelief at releasing the debut solo 7" by Helen Marnie from Ladytron whose song "Soft Power" gave their label its name.  Of course, these things can go slightly awry.  I'm sure Alan McGee was infeasibly chuffed to release a single by The Creation ("Creation" had the catalogue number CRE200 but is nowhere to be seen on YouTube) but the record itself was an amiable plodder that didn't match their 60s recordings for pop art brilliance.  Luckily for Soft Power, the Marnie single is a belter.  Had it been released in another era, teenagers would have heard it on Saturday morning TV, dashed to Woolworth's to exchange their pocket money for it before sprinting home to obsess over its dreamy melody, singing along till they were hoarse.  It's "With Every Heartbeat" brilliant.  It's "Hunting High and Low" brilliant.  It could single-handedly rekindle my interest in heartfelt machine-age pop music.  There are only 500 copies of the 7" vinyl - 200 clear for pledgers/300 black for non-pledgers - so some urgency in buying is required!

  

Soft Power's previous vinyl release was this entirely successful foray into cute, disco-ready pop:

In the year of Daft Punk's "Get Lucky" and the (welcome!) festival ubiquity of Nile Rodgers and his current incarnation of Chic, it should have been a smash.  The sound of young Dublin is liquid and effortlessly funky!  I'm glad Soft Power isn't afraid of pure, chart-friendly pop.

September Girls (again!)

Magic multiplies when it comes into contact with vinyl so I've been eagerly awaiting the arrival of some September Girls vinyl after enjoying them so much on tape and cd-r. Both are fine formats, of course, but somehow neither has vinyl's mysterious power to multiply.  "Green Eyed" b/w "Danny Wood" is nearly here - it's out on 22nd October - and it's as bold and dramatic as it is pretty.  With a melody of pure end of summer sadness swept along by a powerful fuzz undertow it's the kind of song you don't tell people about so much as evangelise about - really, I'm only 3 plays away from having a sandwich board made, booking a week off work and parading up and down Argyle Street to make the people of Glasgow sit up and take notice of September Girls.  It also just happens to be book-ended by just about the most resplendent guitar nugget I've heard in 2012; just too much.  The accompanying video is worth a spin, too:

Almost makes you nostalgic for pre-smoking ban gigs.  And those sections with the overlaid faces, Loop and Spacemen 3 woulda walked over hot coals for visuals that cool.

Aggi Doom single launch!

My admiration for the music of Aggi Doom is well documented so there was never any doubt as to where I was going to be on the evening of Sunday, May 27th - I was only ever going to be at Mono for this:

When I heard that Palms (another great Glasgow group who deserve to have their music pressed onto vinyl) and Northern American War (who, if I remember correctly, were just grand in support of the insufferable Ut and the mighty Divorce last year at Stereo) were also playing, I was even less likely to be staying in to watch Antiques Roadshow.  It's sure to be a memorable evening.  Come along, buy a 7" and salute Livingston's Soft Power Records for having the smarts to make an Aggi Doom 45 a reality.

Palms are sure to play this and it's guaranteed to slay:

Those screams: great on Soundcloud but thrilling live!

Non-Glaswegians can buy the 7" here

September Girls

Twitter can come in really handy.  Not too long ago @atomicbeatgirl linked to songs by a new group from Dublin called September Girls.  With Alex Chilton's voice in my head and a good feeling in my heart, I clicked on the link and was delighted with what I heard.  So, by the looks of things, were those smart kids behind Soft Power Records for tomorrow (Monday, 30th April) they're releasing a cassingle by September Girls.  "Wanting More", the A-side, is one of those rare songs that starts good but gets better and better before ending in a swirling confetti storm of gorgeous girl harmonies.  If it doesn't make you want to splash about with your best pals under the stars at the nearest beach then you've no sense of romance!

Get it here!      

Hollows "Hot Sand" / "Shapeshifter"

Surely, there can't have been many odder 7" sleeves this year than the one pictured above!  It seems like an age since Not Unloved did much crazylegs dancing round the living room to Hollows' Trouble In Mind single so it's nice to hear that they're still in the business of making records.  In "Hot Sand", those suave cats at Soft Power Records (the record releasing arm of cherished online popshop Soft Power Vinyl*) have got themselves another pop winner.  If the original lineup of The Pipettes had dug tattoos and surfer dudes more than polka dots and boys in school unifrorm maybe they would've sounded a bit like Hollows.  Check the handclaps on the frat-rockin' "Shapeshifter" if you're in need of convincin' .  Coming so soon after their fine, fine single by The Tamborines, it would appear that Soft Power Records has hit a bit of a hot streak.  Long may it continue! 

Hot Sand by Hollows SOFT003 by Soft Power

* - Full marks to Soft Power Vinyl for having the smarts to stock some recent Shelflife Records 7" - it's about time those White Wishes and Soda Shop 45s were available in the U.K.!

The Tamborines "Indian Hill"

Soft Power Records of Livingston, Scotland hits a home run with the snappy "Black and Blue" single by The Tamborines which features the properly pretty "Indian Hill" on the flip.  On one of my infrequent visits to Rough Trade I was recommended and bought one of  the group's previous singles and, y'know, it made all the right sounds and had learned all the right moves but somehow it didn't quite steal my heart.  "Indian Hill", however, has.  It double doses the prettiness with a tender, restrained vocal from Lulu Grave and the kind of one fingered piano line that Schroeder would've played to console Linus had he lost his blanket.  Makes you want to do something romantic and just a little reckless like buying 10 copies, loading up a Dansette and pressing go when you should be heading to work.  This summer, choose pretty!