Friday Night Music Club Vol 30

Here we go again, with the 30th instalment of our Friday Night shenanigans (actually, if you take out all of the early long ones, and instead count all of the shorter mixes I split them down into, this is the 46th volume).

Minor technical details aside, had I thought of it at the time then this would have opened with Happy Mondays’ Kinky Afro for its gloriously grubby “Son, I’m 30/I only went with your mother ’cause she’s dirty” opening gambit. But I didn’t think of it in time, so it’s not in here at all. I have admonished myself with a wet slipper across the buttocks and employed a young person to stand outside my window at night holding a sign which reads “Must Try Harder”. They should be along any moment now…

Ah yes, here they are:

Anyhoo, on to tonight’s selection, which sounds not just a little, but a lot like this:

Friday Night Music Club Vol 30

(I see that WordPress have been fannying around with their formatting again, and it no longer gives me the option when posting that link to set it to open in a new window, as I usually do, so you’ll just have to manage that yourselves, I’m afraid.)

Here’s your track-listing, but no sleeve notes this week, I’ve simply not had time (and yet I did have time to write all that tosh in the intro, what of it?). All I would say is that I was going to subtitle this one “There Really Will Be Salad” and provide a link to great blog, but it seems to have disappeared from t’internet completely – anyone know what happened?

Also, assuming I’ve not omitted to tag them properly in previous posts, this one includes three acts that have never appeared on these pages before (and yes, I’ve just wasted even more time checking that). See if you can guess which three (who says I don’t know how to have fun?):

1. Gene – You’ll Never Walk Again
2. Fleetwood Mac – Dreams
3. The Cranberries – Dreams
4. Jamie T – Zombie
5. Boys Town Gang – Can’t Take My My Eyes Off You
6. Sly & The Family Stone – Dance To The Music
7. Mary J. Blige – Family Affair
8. Malcolm McClaren – Double Dutch
9. Neneh Cherry – Buffalo Stance
10. Toots & The Maytals – Monkey Man
11. Buffalo Tom – Tree House
12. Salad – Motorbike To Heaven
13. Manic Street Preachers vs Apollo 440 – Motorcycle Emptiness (Stealth Sonic Orchestra Remix)
14. Embrace – All You Good Good People (Orchestral Mix)

By the way, you’ll doubtless have noted a bit of an animal theme in there; entirely coincidentally, over at the ever wonderful No Badger Required blog, SWC is running a typically wonderful “Month of Beasts, Bugs, and Birds”, the latest installment of which you can find here.

Anyway, that’s yer lot for another week.

More soon.

Late Night Stargazing

A few weeks ago I mentioned in passing how much I like Embrace’s first album, The Good Will Out.

I’ve listened to it again since then, and would like to retract that.

And clarify.

Other than the singles from the album, and the title track (which remain ace in my humble opinion), it’s a fairly dull and pedestrian affair which, were I ever to be pressed to make such a list, would not make my Top 100 Favourite albums ever.

However, (as my History teacher used to dictate), I do still really love the singles and the title track from the album in question.

As evidence, this is what they sounded like before Chris Bloody Martin got his dull, dirty hands on them:

Embrace – The Good Will Out

See? Not so bad really (even if the end is ripped off from Hey Jude).

More soon.

Late Night Stargazing

A repeat posting, but it’s been a couple of years since this song appeared, so I’m sure you’ll forgive me for what I’m about to do.

As I began writing today, I was disturbed by the amount of fireworks I could hear going off in my locality. It hadn’t occured to me that this was the closest Saturday to November 5th, when bonfires and fireworks and explosives are considered perfectly acceptable.

Anyway, this is not a band I care much for, although as I mentioned when I last posted this song, I do have a soft spot for their debut album.

In my opinion it’s good to have an open mind, and to be able to concede that you like something buried in a band or artiste’s back catalogue, especially when the general consensus is that you should either hate or never admit in public to liking anything by them. There’s no such thing as a guilty pleasure (although I might be stretching that to a point tonight…).

Here’s….oh gosh, I’m really going to do this, aren’t I….here’s a really good – not great, but good – record by Embrace:

Embrace – Fireworks

More soon.

Late Night Stargazing

A confession.

I really like Embrace’s first album, “The Good Will Out”.

Actually, I quite like a couple of singles off the album after that too.

But there’s always been issues with Embrace.

Firstly, they featured two brothers. Not necessarily an issue, but “The Good Will Out” was released in 1998, when two other brothers, also in a band, were well on their way to stardom. It was on this basis that the music press drew comparisons, which were for the most part unfounded. Lazy journalism, if you ask me. Or perhaps catering for an idiot readership who needed similarities between acts to be spelled out to them. “Look, here’s Oasis, they’ve got Liam and Noel Gallagher! And now, look over here, here’s Embrace, they’ve got Danny and Richard McNamara [Yes, I did have to check]! And they’re all from The North! They must be the same!”

You may as well say that The Proclaimers are the same as The Jesus & Mary Chain, because they’re both from Scotland, have two brothers in the band, and they’re all called Reid. (As an aside: remember when two different acts used to record a double ‘A’ single, one act on each side, covering one of the other’s songs? Wouldn’t it be great to here those two covering each other? Just imagine The Mary Chain doing “Let’s Get Married”, or The Proclaimers strumming “You Trip Me Up”. I demand this happens. Now.)

Secondly, they got Chris Martin to write their comeback single, “Gravity” in 2004. If they hadn’t already lost me by that point, then that would have been the final nail in the coffin for me and Embrace.

And appropriately, thirdly, there’s their cover version of De La Soul’s “The Magic Number”, which I wrote about here (I’ve re-upped the links, cos I’m nice like that).

But for all that, they did have some really nice songs back in the beginning. Not great, not beautiful, just nice.

This is one of them, and since it’s now November 5th, I can justify posting it (Not that I need to justify anything to you people. Nobody forces you to come here):

Embrace – Fireworks

More soon. Maybe better, maybe not.

How Not To Do a Cover Version

Just for shits and giggles, a new (very) occasional thread allowing you to listen to a few covers which fall squarely into the “Fine as a sound check, but why would you do this, and then release it to the general public?” category.

No further explanation is needed.

Here’s the ground-breaking hip-hop original:

De La Soul – The Magic Number

And here’s…..Embrace’s version (yes THAT Embrace):

Embrace – 3 is a Magic Number

I’m cringing behind a cushion. Is it safe to come out yet?

They actually do the three times table in that, don’t they? Jesus fuck that’s awful. Were they pitching to get on Sesame Street, do you reckon?

Let me just make it clear: this was voluntarily released on their Greatest Hits album. That’s how good their actual hits were.

Coldplay have a lot to answer for.

No promises, but hopefully something less ball-squeezingly awful next time.

Reassuring catch-phrase time: More soon.