There hasn't been a group from New Zealand that I like more than The Garbage and the Flowers so it's exciting that this exists and has been made freely available:
Confessions of and accusations of lying have been flying around these parts today. It's like the House of Commons! A recent trip to the wonderful, if over-stuffed (there are piles of records heaped on top of the racks and boxes and boxes of lps at your feet while you browse) Wah Wah Records yielded a copy of Groovie Records' 2011 compilation of the output of Swedish mid-80s garage revivalists The Crimson Shadows. "Even I Tell Lies" is the finest example of frenetic, organ-led garage I've heard since The Chesterfield Kings' "She Told Me Lies" knocked me clean off my feet a couple of years ago. Alternating the two at volume is a sure-fire way to whip yourself up into a frenzy of hand-claps and high-kicks!
The first appearance of the tambourine and harmonies is one of those indescribably brilliant pop moments. Sure it's been done time and time again but, when it's done that well, it's a genuine thrill. I've always preferred my cavemen to have a refined side, too.
Years ago I proclaimed to a friend that only The Seeds could do keyboard-riddled pop/garage well. I'm happy to report that I was completely wrong. Only an ignorant fool would make such a pompous, needlessly definitive statement!
Few mid-60s garage tracks are as rhythmically odd or as weirdly atmospheric as the clumsily named Lawson & 4 More's hovering "If You Want Me You Can Find Me". It positively drips with aloof cool. Anton Newcombe and The Brian Jonestown Massacre would kill to release something so unconventional yet still rooted in prime Stones pop. Big Beat have made it available again on the b-side of the more conventionally scalding "Smart Bird". At 10 quid it's not cheap but an original would no doubt have me living on baked beans and tap water for a month or two so it's a price I'm willing to pay. Thanks once again to Record Turnover for the recent public service announcement.
Just a few weeks ago I was looking at the picture of the young Lenny Helsing in Sam Knee's "A Scene In Between"(Cicada) envying his ace garage band 'do and then he goes and releases the ALIVE, in-the-moment blast of The Thanes' "She's Coming Back To Me" (State Records) and now I'm envying him all over again. Just listen to that burst of scrambled, post-McGuinn jazziness at around 1 minute and 27 seconds and tell me that it doesn't make you want to punch the air with sheer delight; so unexpected, so wild, so vital. The Thanes have cut hit after hit in their two and a bit decades and "She's Coming Back To Me" ranks alongside the best of them. For some reason the riff reminds me of the start of the Crossroads theme which is no bad thing - it just adds period colour. I hope The Thanes play somewhere in the Central Belt (of Scotland) real soon so that I can go a little bit loopy - inside, of course - nobody really wants to see a middle-aged man pogoing about like a loon! - when they play it.
Me (aged 16): Dad, do you hear a woman on this? Dad: No, why? Me: I heard there was a Lou Reed on it.
I was listening to the 7" of "This Is Your Land"by Simple Minds - then at their most hideously pompous - I'd just bought in the local John Menzies after having heard it on the radio. Not the coolest route into the sometimes astonishing work of Lou Reed but it was my route. Coincidentally, I was just talking about that 7" earlier today - just hours before I heard that he had passed away - when I confessed that it currently resides in my lowest-of-the-low 7" box: a cut-down Rice Crispies packet alongside the 25p Ned's Atomic Dustbin single etc.. It's the only record I have to feature Lou Reed to have met such an ignominous fate; all The Velvet Underground records I own are totally treasured, especially the Sundazed Records singles boxset which is, of course, nigh on untouchable. I choose to overlook the headless guitars and the Simple Minds collaborations and think of him as the young man who sang this:
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/TheeOh 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!
Whenever Moscow Olympics emerge with a new record, it's invariably worth making a point of seeking it out and their new single "Reprise" (Beko), is no exception. It's the best example of that hazy, sun-bleached mix of prime Sarah Records/Factory Records I've heard since Korallreven's heart-stopping "The Truest Faith":
Groups like Beach Fossils,who mine similar sources, may have a slightly higher profile but Moscow Olympics do it best. There's a certain wrongness - possibly the over-eagerness of the beats? - to "Reprise" that stops it from being too precious and makes it all the more enjoyable. I'll never tire of records like this; never be the one to cry "derivative!" - they're too pretty for that.
