See? I’m a man of my word, back again, with another spankingly good mix for you to get yer lug ‘oles round.
There are sleeve notes this week, but unless I can think of something hilarious, brilliant, pertinent or informative for every tune featured (which I really haven’t managed this time out), take it as read that there won’t be any more. Although I may resurrect them every now and again (hey, it is Easter after all).
And so my quest for the perfect record to kick off a Friday Night mix continues…this would be perfect, were it not about going out and being cool, which, if you’re actually listening to this on a Friday night, you’re not, just like me.
2. Everything Everything – Distant Past
My buddy Tim is often banging on about this lot on Twitter (seriously, does anyone actually call it X? Thought not), so this is for him.
3. Erasure – Victim Of Love
The first single by this lot that I bought. Yes, primarily bought to stick on a mixtape to entertain the 6th Form common room, but unlike others bought for the same reason (I’m looking at you, Bruce Willis and your cover of Under the Boardwalk), bought loving it.
4. Elvis Costello – (What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love & Understanding
Speaking of loving it, if this isn’t my favourite Costello single, then it’s right up there, despite it not having beem written by the great man himself. Take a bow, Mr Nick Lowe.
So why do I love it so much? I reckon you can blame Bill Murray for doing it at karaoke in Lost in Translation.
5. Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger & The Trinity – Save Me (Parts 1 & 2)
Not had any Northern Soul for a while, so this more than makes up for it, I think
6. Definition Of Sound – Wear Your Love Like Heaven
Oh, c’mon, you knew I’d drop this next, right?
7. The Velvelettes – These Things Will Keep Me Loving You
And back to a Northern Soul belter.
8. Gabriella Cilmi – Sweet About Me
I mentioned earworms at the weekend, songs which you suddenly find yourself humming or singing apparently unprompted. This is another of my recent ones.
Back in 2008, on the back of this single, for a brief nano-second, everyone thought Aussie Gabrielle was going to be a huge star. She seemed sassy, cool, sexy, and had a video which highlighted these characteristics, even if it did take the “the world’s a better place when it’s upside down, boy” lyric a little too literally:
If memory serves, even that *coughs* style guru Liam Gallagher was a fan.
And then we heard her album, realised she only had this one catchy tune, and promptly ignored her forever.
9. Courtney Barnett – Elevator Operator
Craving an alternative cool and contempory antipodean female artist? Courtney’s what you’re looking for.
10. Sheryl Crow – All I Wanna Do
This is just…such a great record…Not only catchy country-tinged rock, but those lyrics really paint a picture like nothing else she has done since (although there are many other great tunes in her back catalogue).
11. Simon & Garfunkel – The Boxer
Back in my 6th form days, and throughout my college years (and for a year after I graduated) I earned myself some pennies working in a Happy Eater roadside restaurant. For the first few years this was at Sawtry (South), and I would usually get a lift to and from work with the manager, Jane.
Jane was a couple of years older than me, in fact she’d been in the same school year as my brother. He won’t remember this, he steadfastly refuses to remember anyone who wasn’t in a dodgy non-band with him, or a goth or a punk, like what he was. Jane and I found that we shared similar musical tastes, enjoyed singing along to a tune or two as she drove us to-and-from work, and if we had done the late shift, we would often end up at hers, where the three of us – me, her and her fiance, Andrew – would have a few wind-down beers, play a few records, and have a bit of a sing-song. Thinking about it, it’s probably when the seed of what you’re reading now was planted.
On occasions, we’d go to her friend Kathy’s house, where much the same would happen. We’d plunder her parents’ record collection (predominantly Simon & Garfunkel, The Carpenters, that kind of thing) and we’d take it in turns to pick one to play, and then we’d drunkenly sing-a-long. This was a favourite end-of-nighter.
All together now: “LI-LA-LI! LI-LA-LI-LI-LI-LA-LI!”
Happy times.
12. R.E.M. – Radio Free Europe (Original Hib-Tone Single)
This doesn’t need any explanation, does it? The birth of one of the greatest, most interesting (college) rock bands.
12. LCD Soundsystem – Daft Punk Is Playing At My House
If I was being super-predictable, I’d play some Daft Punk next. But I’m not, so I won’t. Instead, this bleak little bastard:
13. Joy Division – She’s Lost Control
Again, no explanation required, you all know how important and influential this lot were.
14. Hot Chip – Over and Over
Rounding things off this week with a much more upbeat tune, even if it is a snarling response to criticism of their previous releases having been “laid back”. Which would be fine, had they released anything quite as un-laid back since (*awaits Comments directing me to a particular Hot Chip tune which isn’t laid back, of which there are many*).
It’s Friday, and what’s more for many of us it’s the best kind of Friday – pay day Friday!
Is there a better feeling than having some money in your bank account on a Friday, knowing the world’s your oyster, you can do anything you like (within certain legal parameters) and – and this will come as no surprise – I’m going to suggest that the best thing you can do with your new-found wealth is get some booze, kick back and listen to the latest in our Fridat Night mixes.
So what have we got for you this week? Well we kick of with Bryan Ferry covering Dylan (and, I should hasten to add that I prepared this mix about three days before Jim over at The (new) Vinyl Villain posted this exact song. Call it synchronicity, call it serendipity, call me an out-and-out fibber and a copycat, I don’t care), followed by the holy union of Sparks and Franz Ferdinand aka FFS, Jake Bugg (remember him??), a bit of jingly-jangly late 80s twee indie, some downbeat (but still magnificent) Parklife-era Blur, a bit of Camera Obscura, then we get a bit loud with the likes of Wheatus, Vampire Weekend, Kenickie, The Wedding Present (surprising, eh?) and Faith No More, before we gear-change and go a bit dancey with Kosheen and Hot Cip covering Springsteen and LCD Soundsystem (with a song a very dear Springsteen fan and friend of mine described as “fucking shite” when I flagged it to him – he was wrong, of course) before we round things off, mellowing out a tad with Olympian-era Gene and High Land Hard Rain-period Aztec Camera.
Seriously, what’s not to like?
So let’s crack on, shall we?
Oh, but first, one of these – you can probably guess which tune it relates to:
Off we go then: 17 songs, 61 minutes and 25 seconds of fun for (almost) all the family!
Well, we’ve got to the end of the week, and we’ve also got to the end of another segment from the FNMC vault, where we bring our weekly revisit to Vol 4 to an end.
And, as with the previous instalments, I’ve tweaked it a bit from when it first made an appearance as the last hour of Vol 4, y’know, just to keep you (ok, me) interested.
So what delights do we have waiting for us this week, I hear you ask?
Well we kick off with some Hot Chip, before opening the “Where Are They Now?” vault to let the Lo Fidelity Allstars out to play for a while, then a roller-coaster ride through a few “feats.”: The Chemical Brothers with (uncredited) Noel Gallagher and (very much credited) The Flaming Lips, 808 State with MC Tunes, along with killers from Duran Duran (yeh, you read that right), The Stone Roses, The Beatles, Underworld, and then just when you think it’s all over, up pop Blondie and Barry White to bring the whole damn thing to a close.
And ok, I have broken the golden rule of featuring the same act twice in the same mix (actually, I’ve kinda done it twice), but I think you’ll forgive me when you listen to this one.
Here comes the admin (all together now): any skips or jumps are down to the mixing software; any mis-timed mixes are down to me; all record selections are, of course, mine.
Firstly, I wanted to do a mix unlike the Not Christmas one, which I thought strayed a bit too far into the territories of cheese or chart music. Whilst it served a purpose, it wasn’t really indicative of the sort of tunes which usually feature here.
This one, though is a corker, even if I do say so myself.
Regular readers may recall that way back in the late 1980s, I started DJ’ing at college because I was fed up with being able to guess what song the indie DJs would play next. So imagine my annoyance when my own brother told me that on a previous mix he’d been able to predict my next choice a couple of times. Grrr.
But this mix has proved to be such a pain to complete; when I came to do it today, it tells me that some of the tunes have been played 22 times, which gives you an idea of how many times I’ve tried to get this one right. Pretty much once a week, since Christmas.
What’s gone wrong all those times? Well, on more than one occasion professional pride kicked in: I’ve messed up a mix between tunes, so have elected to start again.
On more than one occasion, preoccupied with playing Solitaire or Candy Crush just to have something to do whilst recording the mix, there’s a sudden, irretrievable silence where the next record should be. Oops!
Once I forgot to stop recording until an hour later, and, triumphant at how the mixes had worked out, I couldn’t understand why the mix lasted over 5 hours, until I listened to it.
The other problem is booze. More than once, I’ve taken drink to such an extent that I’ve forgotten I was doing a mix until the silence after one record has finished hits home and startled me awake.
Last weekend, I got to the third record from the end, and suddenly woke up to silence and realised I’d messed up again. That’s not an indictment of the standard of the mix, by the way, more an example of how drunk I’d gotten.
Even last night, when I finally nailed it, it was my second attempt of the night, having got through most of the mix when I had a drink-spillage event, which I thought I’d sorted, until, four records from the end, suddenly the sound cut out whilst the tunes kept playing and I had no idea if it was still recording the sound or the sound of silence.
Anyway, we’ve got here, and this has been a real pain, so if you could take a listen, that would be great.
I will confess that I have broken the golden rule of not featuring the same act more than once in this mix; this wasn’t intentional, but as the various run-throughs progressed, I simply forgot said acts already appeared as “featuring” acts. One is deliberate. Sue me (Please don’t).
Time for the usual disclaimer: any glitches, skips or jumps are down to the software or the uploading/downloading process, and nothing to do with my limited mixing skills.
Oh, and the usual “effing and jeffing” warning applies; it seems I’m incapable of doing a mix which doesn’t include more than the occasional swear.
I’m not posting a link to download here, other than the one to Soundcloud, where you can either download or stream it.
I couldn’t be bothered with the last ones, but I’ve done it this time: you’ll see a list of all the acts featured in this mix at the bottom of the page, so you can check whether this one’s likely to be your cup of tea before going to the hassle of actually listening to it. If you’re particularly short of things to do, you can try to guess which song I’ve picked by which artist. There’s fun.
But by way of a description: pretty much all life is here, from indie rock to 60s California hippy-shtick, some Old Skool dance classics, some hip-hop and some soul classics via some Northern Soul belters via some TV show theme tunes (sort of); there’s some hoary old rock and some psychobilly, and a couple of tracks which should have featured in a New post by now, but the bands in question played the 6Music festival last weekend so you’ll probably know them intimately by now. And, of course, there’s The Fall.
Easy on the cheese this time, there’s even some poetry so we can all pretend we’re intellectual. You’ll have chance to dance, sit and recover for a few moments, before getting back on it again.
Available for a limited time (i.e. until I do the next one), you can download or stream this on Soundcloud here:
Ordinarily, I start every post on The Chain by recapping what we do here, what record we’re linking to this week, and then say I’d better crack on as we’ve got loads to get through.
Now whilst it is true that we have got an awful lot of tunes this week, there’s not as many as perhaps there could be, and that’s because one of our regular Chain Gang contributors is conspicuous by his absence for a second week running and is, I hear, rather unwell. I mean, I haven’t actually been presented with a sick note excusing him from participating, but that’s what I hear.
So, Badger: get well soon mate, and this week’s post is dedicated to you.
Last week’s record was “Radio, Radio” by Elvis Costello & The Attractions, a song which cropped up a couple of months ago on my Radio-themed “Friday Night Music Club” post, and so I was anticipating a few that I had chosen back then would resurface again here. Not a bit of it, which is either indicative of either the wide range of musical tastes you guys and girls cover, or of how many bad records I chose. Or both.
So to kick things off, one of my suggestions which didn’t quite make the cut when I was writing that “Friday Night…” post, mostly because it doesn’t have the word “Radio” in it’s title. But it seems an appropriate place for us to start:
Onwards, then, to some of your suggestions, and one final piece of housework. George: sorry about this, but there at least five records you’re not going to enjoy this week.
“Great start to link not one, but four different Clash tunes to, much to the dismay of George, I would suspect (I l.o.v.e. this!): ‘Capital Radio One’….”
“‘Radio Radio’ is taken from the LP ‘This Year’s Model’. If your car happens to be this year’s model (at least if it was registered in the UK between March & August), the age identifier portion of the number plate would be 16. In 1980 The Clash promoted the ‘London Calling’ LP with the 16 Tons Tour, every night of which would see the band walk on stage to ‘Sixteen Tons’ by Tennessee Ernie Ford.”
Actually, there’s a double link for that one, as it was the subject of a Facebook campaign to get it to Number 6 in the UK Singles charts in an effort to save the BBC’s radio station 6 Music. It actually managed to scale to the giddy heights of Number 56, but the station survived, thankfully.
Time to check back in with Dirk, whose next Clash/Radio song is, perhaps unsurprisingly:
Whenever someone mentions Capital Radio, I’m always reminded of one of their DJs, who also worked the decks on Radio 1 for a while: David ‘Kid’ Jensen. I am still allowed to mention him, aren’t I? He’s not one of the bad ones, right? Good. Then I can legitimately play this:
But enough of my suggestions (by which I mean, I’ll have some more later): time for Alex G, who this week writes his suggestion like this:
“The recent Edinburgh Fringe revival of 80s comedy show “Radio Active” has got me listening to the old shows again. One of the episodes is called “The Radio Radio Programme” and as usual it includes one of Phil Pope’s musical parodies, his target in that particular episode being “Sledgehammer” by Peter Gabriel. Not one of PP’s best efforts, but reason enough to suggest linking to the original “Sledgehammer” by the actual Peter Gabriel.”
I could, at this point, post that ground-breaking video, but we’ve all seen that, so instead I thought I’d take a step back and post a couple of Phil Pope’s better parodies. I think you’ll recognise his targets on both of these:
Alyson – and indeed her other half Jamie – will be back in a bit. When you see what one of them suggests, you’ll be wishing they had stopped at Quo.
In the meantime, here’s Charity Chic from Charity Chic Music, who you may recall was very close to suggesting the official next record in the chain last week, and therefore almost bagged himself some invaluable (by which I mean of no value whatsoever) bonus points:
“From ‘Radio Radio’ to the excellent ‘Mexican Radio’ by Wall of Voodoo…”
“Suspect I won’t be troubling the scorers this week…” he sadly concludes.
You’re right, CC, you won’t. But you haven’t nominated the worst record of the week. Has he, Alyson?
Nor has The Beard, although he gave me a bit of a fright with the direction of this week’s suggestion:
“The lyrics to ‘Radio Radio’ make reference to late night listening. Circa 1992 I heard Annie Lennox played back to back in the small hours on Radio One, something that haunts me to this day. One of the songs played was Why. Why by Carly Simon is infinitely better.”
Deep breaths, everyone. We’re okay. He didn’t go there. The Annie Alarm remains untroubled.
Ordinarily, I might only allow one song by the same artist to be nominated by the one person, but I’m going to let it slide here for two reasons. Firstly, “Nobody Does It Better” is my favourite Bond theme ever (most of the time; sometimes it’s “Live and Let Die”). Secondly…well…have you ever seen the episode in the second series of “I’m Alan Partridge” where our late night radio host describes the opening sequence of “The Spy Who Loved Me”, to which “Nobody…” is the theme, as the VHS copy he intended to watch in his static home has been inadvertently taped over with “America’s Strongest Man”? And have you ever wondered how accurate his commentary is? Wonder no longer:
Speaking of songs that I wouldn’t normally allow, here’s The Great Gog:
“‘Radio Radio’ features the same word repeated in its title as does another ECATA ditty, ‘Party Party’ from the film of the same name. There are obviously lots of other examples of this type of song-titling, but that one seemed the most appropriate.”
Under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t allow a song by the same artist as the record we are linking to (not that it’s ever happened before, mind). On this occasion, you just get away with it on the grounds of the repetition of words theme.
In fact, you could also have this one, which I pointed out to Kay I was surprised she hadn’t suggested, given that’s it’s by her favourite group, that it has a title with the same word repeated in it, and even has the word ‘repetition’…erm…repeated quite a lot in it:
“Seeing as there’s a lack of cheese so far… How about – playing on the Attractions – ‘Opposites Attract’ by Paula Abdul. Appalling, I know, but this isn’t about taste, is it?”
It certainly isn’t, but you, too, need not be concerned about the quality levels not having dipped enough just yet. Eh, Alyson?
Regardless, “I feel the need to right that wrong,” The Robster continues, “so my other offering is Kirsty MacColl’s ‘There’s A Guy Works Down The Chip Shop Swears He’s Elvis’.”
Right. Let me take a step back, survey the carnage, and see who I haven’t mentioned yet.
George. Of course, George.
“Older people than myself, such as Charity Chic and The Swede, might prefer to use the word wireless instead of radio. In the tv programme Not The Nine O’Clock News, they once did a song with the lyrics “On the road you must be brave and tireless, on the road you can listen to the wireless”. I think that song is called I Like Trucking.”
Close, George. My recollection is that on the show it was referred to as “I Like Trucking”, but when the cash-in accompanying album “Hedgehog Sandwich” was released, the title had been shortened to just “Trucking”:
“I have an entry first from the other half Jamie, who decided that if there are two radios the sound will be in stereo which led him to think of the Stereophonics who released a track called Vegas Two Times from their ‘Just Enough Education to Perform’ album. Bit of a double link with the “stereo” and the “two times” both relating to Radio Radio.”
What with me having lived in Wales for 20 years, at the time that the Stereophonics came to prominence, you could be forgiven for thinking I love them.
You’d be wrong though.
Did you ever have that thing happen to you, when you’re in the middle of a conversation and someone suddenly sticks their head round the corner, and says something which completely makes you lose your thread? Here’s Swiss Adam again, who’s located another unexpected item in his Bagging Area:
“I worked in the radio industry for 23 years of my life. Radio Radio is one of my all-time favourite songs because of the lines…
‘And the radio is in the hands Of such a lot of fools Trying to anaesthetize The way that you feel’
When I started working in radio, back in the late 80s, my ambition was to be a jock because then I’d get to pick my own music. A couple of years later, presenter choice was gone from local radio and my ambitions of being a DJ were over. I stayed in the industry for a further 20 years in other roles because it was an easy job and I got lots of freebies from the record library: basically, all the good stuff they wouldn’t ever play because it didn’t “test well” with the great unwashed.
All of which would usually lead me to suggest the same track I selected last week: Rex Bob Lowenstein by Mark Germino & The Sluggers. But as I already had that one, can I instead go with a very similar tale…”
“I have a chain that results in a Bruce Springsteen song…” he says, slightly curiously, given that on these very pages he has named Broooce as the other act, along with The Clash, that he dislikes.
Despite much encouragement, he declined to provide us with the link, declaring he would “rather stick pins in my eyes”, which seems a bit extreme. I’d recommend ear plugs as a far more effective way to avoid hearing something, George. You’re welcome.
Instead, he comes up with this:
“From Elvis Costello to Elvis Perkins (son of Anthony Perkins the actor) and from his album Ash Wednesday the song Ash Wednesday.”
A couple more folks returning from earlier now. Here’s The Robster:
“We got here by way of the name of Elvis Costello’s record label. There’a a reggae label called Easy Star Records that has a house band, The Easy Star All-Stars. Along with an astounding selection of guest vocalists, they’ve released a series of excellent tribute albums over the years, one of which was ‘Radiodread’, a reggae tribute to ‘OK Computer’ by Radiohead. I could suggest any number of songs from it (‘Lucky’ featuring the legendary Frankie Paul; ‘Let Down’ featuring the uber-legendary Toots & The Maytals), but I’m going to plump for ‘No Surprises’ featuring The Meditations.”
I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking that’s the worst record we’re featuring this week, right? No. No it isn’t. For Frank Sidebottom was a genius. You know he was, he really, really was.
I suppose we should let Dirk have a non Clash request, right?
“What I really would like to hear is The Members – ‘Phone-In Show’ from their debut album, simply because I haven’t heard it for ages and can’t be arsed to search for the LP.”
Well Dirk, I could be arsed to search for it, but couldn’t find the bloody thing. So instead, here’s their version of ‘Phone-In Show’ taken from one of their Peel Sessions instead:
You may have noticed that it’s not just Badger who is conspicuous by his absence this week. Where has his When You Can’t Remember Anything… partner in crime S-WC got to? Well, he’s in the middle of moving house, but he did take time out from packing up boxes to suggest this:
“I don’t really have a lot of time to explain but my suggestion is ‘Radio Ladio’ by Metronomy.”
Doesn’t really need much explanation, to be honest, that one SWC. Anyway, hope you have your broadband sorted in time to get a suggestion in for next week!
Rol’s back, with a suggestion to protect George’s eyes from becoming pin cushions:
“…my second choice would be State Trooper by Bruce…
Radio’s jammed up with talk show stations Just talk talk talk talk talk Till you lose your patience…”
I think maybe George has suffered enough this week.
Only joking. Course he hasn’t. Here’s the Trentemoller remix of it, which might make it a tad more palatable:
Okay, where next. Ah yes. Can’t really put this off any longer. Welcome back Alyson:
“I think I have probably come up with something that would win cheesiest song EVER in a poll of polls. Yes, from Elvis Costello to Abbott and Costello (the more mature chain-ganger will remember them) to Russ Abbot who had a mid ’80s hit with Atmosphere (as in he liked a party with one).”
Let’s be honest, it was only a matter of time before I got round to posting this. There’s so much to make you cringe here: the reference to being “at the dancing party” – was that ever a thing?; the desperate attempt to be hip by referencing Frankie Goes to Hollywood; the frankly rather seedy looking video where Russ saunters through a nightclub full of dressed-for-the-80s bright young things, looking like the sort of person your mother used to warn you about.
You’ve never seen the video, you say? Then get your laughing gear round this:
See what they did there? It’s so disappointing that it doesn’t quite work.
Maybe it does if you do it the other way round?
Better. Much better.
Okay, to round things off this week, one last suggestion from me.
In 2006, Basement Jaxx released their fourth album “Crazy Itch Radio”, from which I’ve chosen this little beauty:
Which just leaves us with the small matter of what the official song in the link was. And normally I’m a little bit disparaging about the tune they select, not so much for the song, but for the reason it was suggested/selected.
But credit where credit’s due, this week’s is a double-linker:
“Elvis Costello sings on the Joni Mitchell covers album [A Tribute to Joni Mitchell]…” ..and although he doesn’t sing this one, the choice of Joni tune doubles up here:
And that, as they say, whoever they may be, is that.
Your suggestions please, via the Comments section down below, for records that can be linked to “You Turn Me On, I’m a Radio” by Joni Mitchell, along with a brief description of your linking logic.
And whilst we’re at resurrecting threads I previously dropped, how about this one?
Anyone who has caught Hot Chip live in the last couple of years (an elite group amongst which I am unable to count myself, but I saw the Glastonbury footage when I got home…from Glastonbury. There was a clash, ok?? Super Furries or Hot Chip – you know which way I’m gonna swing) will have borne witness to the genius that is their version of Broooce’s “Dancing in the Dark”. And now, here it is:
I believe it is obligatory in blogland, having mentioned “Dancing in the Dark” to post the video, which features a pre-Friends Courtney Cox being dragged on stage to dance (badly) with Broooce (also dancing badly). What are the odds of that happening, huh? Here it is: obligation filled.
But wait! What’s that at the end of the Hot Chip version? Isn’t that the sound of one James Murphy and his LCD Soundsystem collective’s finest moments? Why yes, it is, and here’s all 7:37 of the glorious original:
A History of Dubious Taste 