Friday Night Music Club

It’s Friday night (at least it is here in the UK), and not just any old Friday night. Nosireebob. This Friday night is the best type of Friday night: the type that kicks off a Bank Holiday weekend. Hoorah! No! Work! Til! Tuesday!

So here’s your weekly 60 minutes or so of tunes curated and mixed by yours truly into some semblance of a coherent playlist. As is often the case, it’s a slow burner at the start, before we get into some tunes that should make you want to dance and/or sing, before we have a little break so you can have a nice sit down for a bit before we’re up and at ’em again for the last few choices.

So, with the usual apologies for a couple of skips and jumps which happened either during the recording or uploading process, let’s get your weekend started:

Friday Night Music Club Vol 17

Look out, here comes your tracklisting (complete with sleeve notes):

I’ve been on a bit of a Paul Fab-Macca-Wacky-Thumbs-Aloft McCartney trip since his headlining slot at Glastonbury this year, so I thought this, from “the band The Beatles could have been”, would be quite a nice way to kick things off this week:

1. Wings – Let ‘Em In

This is one I’ve been meaning to have as an opening track on one of these for a while, simply because the title fits the mood of things. And also because of Simon’s unintentionally hilarious, trying to sound hip, description of him popping “outside to smoke myself a J”. Oh, you are outrageous, Paul!

2. Paul Simon – Late in the Evening

There’s no Bowie this week, so I figured a bit of T. Rex would be the next best thing. I try to avoid posting the obvious, famous ones when I’m doing these playlists, but sometimes it the obvious, famous ones which are just screaming out to be included. I couldn’t resist:

3. T. Rex – Get It On

There’s no Bowie this week, so I figured a bit of Suede would be the next best thing.

4. Suede – The Drowners

There’s no Bowie this week, so…oh wait, that doesn’t work with this one. Bring on the lovely Ms Wener and her Sleeperblokes!

5. Sleeper – Nice Guy Eddie

I wanted to pick the tempo up a bit more here, and the Kaisers doing their standard “Woah! Woooah! Woooooaaaaaaah! Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooah!” routine seemed as good a way as any:

6. Kaiser Chiefs – I Predict a Riot

Contrary to popular belief, Kula Shaker didn’t just release ropey singles. When they weren’t referencing Hinduism or dropping covers of Deep Purple singles, they managed to release at least one decent one:

7. Kula Shaker – Hey Dude

There’s no effin’ & jeffin’ warning on this week’s playlist, but let’s be honest, genius that he was, can we ever be sure exactly what Mark E. Smith was singing all the time? Sacrilege, I know, I know. Chances are we’re on safe ground here, though, with this blistering cover of an old Tommy Blake number:

8. The Fall – F-‘oldin’ Money

If I ever had to name a band that had single-handedly introduced me to the most other bands, then it would be The Wedding Present, via their dazzling array of cover versions. This one cropped up on as an extra track on their 1994 single Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah, and it’s easy to see – and hear – what drew Mr Gedge to it:

9. Paul Revere & The Raiders – Him Or Me – What’s It Gonna Be?

This next one is included purely because the intro to it reminded me of the Paul Revere tune, although now I listen to them both, I’m really not sure why:

10. The Monkees – Last Train to Clarksville

I had the pleasure of catching this next lot at Glastonbury back in 2010, playing in the Acoustic Tent (I think); there was only about 15 people there to see what was a blistering set, which was fine for us as there was more room to wig out in; it was probably a little disheartening for the band to have to play to such depleted numbers though.

In the context of this mix, this is a bridging song, by which I mean one which links nicely with what follows, as I slow things down for a bit. The fact that it has the word “Train” in the title is entirely coincidental, a theme is not about to emerge:

11. The Woodentops – Love Train

There’s no effin’ & jeffin’ warning on this week’s playlist, but you should ensure any minors’ eyes are averted from the saucy old name of this band. Time to put your feet up and have a breather for a bit:

12. Starfucker – Rawnald Gregory Erickson the Second

I’m genuinely surprised when I hear that this R.E.M. track isn’t universally loved. Sure, it’s from the first post-Bill Berry album Up, which is patchy at best, but I think this is a rare moment of beauty from the band’s late period of ever decreasing circles and diminishing rewards:

13. R.E.M. – Suspicion

Ok, I’ll admit it. There’s another reason I picked that R.E.M. tune: for some reason which I can’t quite fathom, it pleased me greatly to have that song title next to this one. Maybe it’s because it then echoes Supernatural Superserious, the lead single from their Accelerate album. I dunno. Maybe. Does it matter?

Anyway, should you ever you get chance, check out some of the footage of Stevie playing this one when it was released back in 1972; he looks as cool as cool can be:

14. Stevie Wonder – Superstition

We’re on to the home straight now, and Stevie acts as the first part of a pair of Seventies classics used to book-end a couple of belters from the Eighties. No further notes required, I think:

15. New Order – True Faith

16. Pet Shop Boys – Heart

17. The Jackson 5 – I Want You Back

That’s yer lot til next Friday, although all of the previous mixes should be available to download should you need a long varied soundtrack for your Bank Holiday weekend BBQs. Fill your boots.

Oh, and: More soon.

Friday Night Music Club

So, as I mentioned last week, I spent the majority of Sunday in an increasingly wet and muddy Victoria Park attending Field Day.

Consensus amongst my group was that we’d rather catch The Avalanches and Air in the relocated Return of the Rural tent than any of the other headliners – and, yes, that included PJ Harvey, sacrilege, I know – but in terms of staying dry and relatively mud-free it was a pretty smart move.

Oh and because of the music too, of course.

We arrived just at the tent just as The Temper Trap were finishing, which just happened to coincide with quite the downpour, so we happily ventured inside, where the resident DJs were whipping the crowd up into a pre-Avalanches frenzy by dropping this little beauty:

294. Naughty By Nature – O. P. P.

Now I’m not going to pretend that I was particularly fond of rap or hip hop when it first reached these shores – the Beastie Boys was about as far as my taste stretched – and O.P.P. was not a song that even crossed my radar until some 10 years or so after it was released in 1991. In fact, it’s probably one of the records that is responsible for me revisiting all of those classic tunes and realising I would totally have to re-evaluate my position.

And yes, to those who know me, that does mean having to admit I was wrong. It does happen.

Hearing it again last week was a joy, in particular watching lots of people of around about my age trying to bust the same moves they used to roll out when this first came out, with varying degrees of success, I think it’s fair to say.

Me? I have no moves.

Of course, O.P.P. features a sample of this early 70s classic:

295. Jackson 5 – ABC

Which got me thinking: song titles with abbreviations, acronyms or just letters (but not words) – there’s got to be a few of them, right?

Right! Yup, belt yourself in folks, it’s theme time again here on a Friday night, and I promise everyone of these is a belter. Which means no “YMCA”, obviously.

No list of abbreviation titles would be complete without this next one, though:

296. Ottawan – D.I.S.C.O.

I believe Dame Edna Everage got her specs back eventually.

Somewhere in the darkest, most ill-informed recesses of my brain, I had stored the information that they were called Ottawan because they were from Ottawa, Canada. Nope. French, apparently. Not even French-Canadian. Just French. With a bit of what Wikipedia rather vaguely refers to as “Caribbean” thrown into the mix. Ah well, you’re never too old to learn, eh?

Keeping things on a disco-y vibe, here’s some Philly soul:

297. MFSB featuring The Three Degrees – TSOP (The Sound Of Philadelphia)

Now that’s value for money: not just one set of abbreviations, but two. As you can see, TSOP stands for The Sound of Philadelphia, whilst the MFSB stands for…ermm…well, let’s just say the clean version is “Mother Father Sister Brother”, whilst the considerably less clean version has at least one of those changed for something altogether fruitier.

And yes, that really is The Three Degrees, they of “When Will I See You Again” fame, and one time favourite band of Prince Charles. Like that’s a recommendation.

Now it’s not often that I post two songs by the same artist in the same thread, and I’m not about to start now, but this does come awfully close.

In 1982, Michael Jackson released his “Thriller” album. You don’t need me to tell you what a massive album that was, I assume? Thought not. It was accompanied by what seemed to be a never-ending stream of singles from it. “Thriller” contained 9 tracks. 7 of them were released as singles. Unbelievably, “Thriller” itself was the last of them, presumably because the video took so long to do. The next track was the 6th:

298. Michael Jackson – PYT (Pretty Young Thing)

Thanks for clarifying what the “PYT” referred to for us there, Michael.

Although, given the allegations which dogged his adult life, I don’t think he really needed to, did he? I mean, the signs were there for us all to see when you think about it. He looks like he’s growling in that cover shot, leaning out the window of a Ford Cortina, Bubbles the monkey strapped in the passenger seat, a bag of tempting sweeties just out of shot.

On the subject of “Thriller”, the song, not the album, one of my favourite pub quiz facts: it was written by a chap called Rod Temperton from the exotic town of Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire, who used to be in Heatwave, a late 70s/early 80s disco band best known for their 1976 hit “Boogie Nights”, after which the brilliant movie by Paul Thomas Anderson, starring Mark Wahlberg as blessed in the “downstairs area” porn star Dirk Diggler, is named. If you haven’t seen it, go away and do so right now. We’ll wait for you, I promise.

Have they gone? Right, let’s carry on.

Something bordering on contemporary now: a record that’s only ten years old, which is about as recent as I get round these parts.

299. Rihanna – SOS

Heavily sampling Soft Cell’s version of “Tainted Love” (more about that over the weekend), the song was originally intended for Def Jam label-mate Christina Milian for her third solo album “So Amazin'”, but she turned it down and it was given to Rihanna instead. “SOS” went on to become Rihanna’s first US number one single, whilst Milian’s album absolutely tanked and she was dropped by the label. Them’s the breaks.

And so to the 300th song in this thread, and I can’t think of a better song to inhabit this position (well, I can, but it’d probably be a Quo one and you’d all moan) than this:

300. The Shamen – L.S.I. (Beat Edit)

You have to love Mr C’s rapping interlude’s, don’t you? Altogether now: “Love Sex Intelligence…coming on like a seventh sense!”

Wait a minute – seventh? No, no, no, no, no. Master Fry says there’s more:

Time for some proper Old School rave stuff now:

LFO – LFO

In case you’re interested, LFO stands for Low-Frequency Oscillator, a function on what used to be called synthesizers, but now are just called keyboards.

And now, as they say, for something completely different, and to a song which I have been thinking about posting in my “Same Title, Different Song” thread, along with one by Monty Python’s Flying Circus:

302. Shonen Knife – S*P*A*M

I own far too few Shonen Knife songs; I posted their fab “Space Christmas” song about six months ago here (just before Christmas, funnily enough), and own this, and their wonderful cover version of The Carpenters’ “Top of the World” (which I’ll get round to posting sooner or later), and that seems to be about it. I thought I had more than that. But every time I hear something by them, I have a smile on my face. Mental note to self: buy more Shonen Knife.

Ok, time to get loud. Here’s the Manic Street Preachers:

303. Manic Street Preachers – P.C.P.

Lifted from their seminal 1994 “The Holy Bible” album, and released as a Double A side along with “Faster”, the boys caused quite the stir when they appeared on Top of the Pops, dressed like this:

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the military regalia, and in particular lead singer James Dean Bradfield’s balaclava, were construed by many as a show of support for the IRA, and the BBC received 25,000 complaints, which seems a suspiciously round figure to me.

If any of you are disturbed by Bradfield’s attire, I can temper that somewhat: he came into Boots the Chemist in Cardiff when I worked there, and asked me to show him where the Athlete’s Foot powder was kept. Pop stars, see? They’re just like you and I. Except with icky fungal foot conditions.

Two to go for tonight. Penultimately, some Blur.

By 1997, the Britpop war between Blur and Oasis was over, and few could argue that from a commercial perspective, Oasis had won. Yes, Blur’s “Country House” had beaten Oasis’ “Roll With It” to the Number One slot in the singles, but “The Great Escape” album – though it had its moments – paled in comparison to its predecessor “Parklife” and racked up sales of 2.54 million worldwide. Oasis’ “(What’s The Story) Morning Glory”, on the other hand, managed 22.4 million. I love Blur, but that’s fairly comprehensive.

So the band went off, regrouped and rethought things. What they came back with, the eponymous “Blur” album, from memory, surprised, shocked, delighted and just plain pissed off fans in equal measure. Gone were the upbeat chirpy cockney numbers, in came a more lo-fi, stripped down sound (see: “Beetlebum“) tempered by the occasional blast of sonic noise terror and whooping (see: “Song 2“).

See also, this:

 304. Blur – M.O.R. (Alan Moulder Road Version)

And so finally, since we’ve mentioned Britpop, to a track from, to my mind, the greatest album from that brief period; to a title that takes abbreviations to a whole new level, and a song which displays classic Jarvis witticisms, slow burn atmospherics which would become more prevalent on their follow-up album “This Is Hardcore”, building to a crescendo which is just, well, Pulp:

305. Pulp – F.E.E.L.I.N.G.C.A.L.L.E.D.L.O.V.E.

More soon.

It’s Chriiiistmas!!!

Finally, the big day is here.

You know it is. It really is.

Frank Sidebottom – Christmas is Really Fantastic

So, as a special treat for all of you folks old enough to remember back as far as 1982:

Smash Hits Happy Xmas From The Stars 1982 FlexiDisc

Now last night, you should have had a visit from a jolly old sod dressed in red and white. I do hope you kept your head under the covers and didn’t peek. The lead singer on the next track was clearly emotionally scarred by what he witnessed one Christmas Eve; what other excuse can there be for some of the things he (allegedly, make sure you say allegedly – Legal Editor) allegedly got up to in later life?

The Jackson 5 – I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus

And if that vision wasn’t enough to screw the little fellow up, then having his brothers illustrate the indecent act by harmonising the words “Tickle! Tickle!” around him as he recounted what he witnessed certainly would.

Let’s move on, shall we?

One of my favourite Christmas Records featuring two of my favourite indie pop acts. A real Christmas bargain, a Buy One Get One Free deal if you will:

Saint Etienne feat. Tim Burgess – I Was Born On Christmas Day

Well, Sarah, Tim, I hate to break the news to you, but so was this chap:

Big Star – Jesus Christ

(See, I don’t just throw this shit together, you know)

And since I’ve just about managed to drag this back to the true meaning of Christmas, a song which isn’t particularly Christmassy, but the title is. There’s plenty of versions of this knocking about to choose from: Leonard Cohen, John Cale, Jeff Buckley, Alexandra Burke to name but a few. Me, I’ve plumped for this one:

Rufus Wainwright – Hallelujah

Enjoy your day, folks. You deserve it for sticking with me and my inane ramblings, if nothing else.

Cheers!

More soon.