Friday Night Music Club Vol 41

Well, here we are again. It’s Friday and I’m desperately trying to think of something original to write to introduce this week’s mix.

As it happens, it’s made slightly easier by the fact that I owe you guys an apology.

See, one of the underlying premises of doing these, the rules if you like, is that I don’t feature the same song twice (or, for that matter, more than twice) over all of them, and last week I let you down. Not that anyone complained, but I noticed, and so I’m hanging my head in shame.

Last week I featured the Parental Advisory Version of Girls Aloud’s No Good Advice, and, because I’d included the Non-Parental Advisory Version, I didn’t pick up the duplication. Sorry about that.

Still, at least it wasn’t the same Quo record, eh? Not that anyone would have noticed then either, cos they all sound the same, amIright?

So, moving swiftly on, what do we have for you this week? Well, this week’s mix has been knocking around for a while – I even played it to my brother on the driver to visit my Dad in hospital a month or so ago, he’s probably been wondering what’s happened to it.

Truth be told, there’s a song in it which I had grave reservations about keeping in. It sounded, to these ears, perfect for where it sits in the mix, but the tone and lyrical content bothered me. But, in the end I’ve kept it in, with this huge disclaimer and one of these slapped on it:

The tune after it isn’t particularly tasteful either, mind. Do I need to put that image in twice?

Nah, you’ll cope, I think.

Let’s do this, shall we?

Friday Night Music Club Vol 42

And here’s you track-listing and – yes, again – sleeve-notes:

1. T. Rex – 20th Century Boy

I figured I’d start this week with a crunching intro, and there’s none more crunching than this, is there? Not even Placebo’s cover of it. Although maybe the noise Bolan’s car made when it hit that tree comes close.

2. Muse – Supermassive Black Hole

Obviously I wish to avoid libel litigation about copyright, but there’s something about the start of this one which reminds me of the record which precedes it.

Muse will forever in my mind be the band that, when a friend wanted to go see them headline the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury on the Sunday night back in 2004, caused me to snap, my persona as the mild-mannered janitor father figure of our group (because I was the oldest, and carried a ruck-sack with paracetamol in it, amongst *coughs* other things) briefly exposed, when I told them to “Fuck off and watch Muse then, we’re staying here to watch Orbital” (who were excellent, by the way).

3. Nine Inch Nails – Head Like A Hole

A tune which will forever remind me of Metros, the oft-mentioned indie club in Cardiff that gave out free toast at 3am, because if there was one thing you could guarantee in there (apart from the toast) was that they would drop this at some point.

Also: Nine Inch Nails have only got two decent tunes, haven’t they? This, and Hurt, which most of us only know because of the (far-superior) version by Johnny Cash. (*Sits back and waits for the vitriolic comments telling me Trent Reznor is a genius*)

4. Radiohead – There There. (The Boney King of Nowhere.)

Glastonbury memory time again, and if I recall correctly, they opened their 2003 set with this, and I still get goosebumps whenever I hear it.

5. The Kills – Future Starts Slow

The Kills have more than one one decent tune – who knew? 2-2 with Nine Inch Nails.

6. My Morning Jacket – Holdin’ On to Black Metal

This was out at roughly the same time as The Kills’ tune, and I always thought they’d sound good next to each other, and now I know whether I was right or not (clue: I was).

7. The Soundtrack Of Our Lives – Sister Surround

Speaking of Black Metal, we’re off to Scandinavia, the home of such dark forces, for this one, for one by the vastly underknown and under-rated The Soundtrack Of Our Lives. If you like this, check out the album it’s from, Behind The Music.

8. Broken Social Scene – 7/4 (Shoreline)

A collective from Canada. Canada don’t do ‘bands’, do they? It’s all collectives. Oh, and Bieber, Celine and Bryan, but let’s ignore them.

This is the original source of my oft-used phrase “a great cacophony of glorious noise”, which is still my favourite description of a record ever (by me) (athough, I’d rather substitute ‘great’ for ‘magnificent’, because that’s what this is).

9. The Polyphonic Spree – Lithium

A couple of Nirvana covers for you now. This is just chuffing great. That’s all.

10. Richard Cheese – Rape Me

Ok, so this is the tune I had reservations about including. And here’s why: I think the original is woefully misguided. To be serious for a moment; rape, be it of women or men, is not an easy subject to be addressed in song. Also: you can’t ask to be raped, because that infers complicity, and that’s the polar opposite of what rape is.

That said, I do think Mr Cheese manages to prick the balloon of pomposity here, so it’s in. My apologies to anyone offended.

11. Mojo Nixon & Skip Roper – Debbie Gibson Is Pregnant With My Two Headed Love Child

Speaking of offensive, here’s a side-burned rockabilly type with a long and objectionably titled tune, which I have to admit I have a bit of a soft spot for.

For younger viewers, Debbie Gibson was one of a clutch (along with Tiffany, also name-checked in the song) of teenage pop singers with a schmaltzy, sweeter than sweet, girl next door image. I also thought that, when the pop hits inevitably dried up, she appeared in some porn movies, but this turns out not to be correct, and trust me, I’ve spent many hours searching. Which reminds me, I most clear my browser history.

12. Billy Bragg – A13, Trunk Road To The Sea

I went to see Billy last night, and he was every bit as brilliant, charming, engaging, polemic and funny as he has been every time I’ve seen him. He didn’t play this, which is a bit disappointing, but then he can’t possibly play every song I love by him or we’d still be there now. Fortuitously, I have a lot of his records, so the past 24 hours (when I haven’t been writing this) have been spent mostly with him blaring away in the background

Anyway, this is a riotous romp and a piss-take of Route 66 and it’s bloody grear, but you already knew that, right?

13. Kirsty MacColl – There’s A Guy Works Down The Chip Shop Swears He’s Elvis

Of course, when Billy did A New England last night – final song, as always – we all sang the extra verse he wrote for her version, as a tribute to Kirsty. But that’s already featured in this series before, and I’ve learned my lesson, so this is one which is just as great, has one of the greatest titles in pop history, and which, crucially, she wrote herself.

14. The Beach Boys – Heroes and Villains

I dunno, it just sounded right next to Kirsty. Also: it’s November, we all need a little sun in our lives right now, right?

Also, it gives me the opportunity to post this (again):

I saw Adam live a few years back, preparing and refreshing material he intended to include on his Old Bits DVD; he did this, the clip went on for much longer, and I was laughing so hard I almost slid off my chair.

15. Sugababes – Push The Button

Shut it. I can throw a random 2000s girl group banger in if I like. S’my blog, I’ll do what I like.

16. The Jam – Man In The Corner Shop

Time for a serious, Red Wedgey ending. I first became aware of this record years after it was released, when I saw The Men They Couldn’t Hang do a (rather fine) cover of it live, introduced by the words: “Paul Weller’s asked us to stop doing this one. He’s not here tonight, is he? Good. Let’s do it.”

17. Redskins – Keep On Keepin’ On!

Right-oh, brothers, sisters and siblings, will do!

And that’s it for another week. More soon!

Friday Night Music Club

It’s Friday yet again (crowd: Hooray!), which means it’s time for your weekly hastily tossed together carefully constructed playlist once again (crowd: shrugs of indifference), and this week we’re back to me splitting down a previous multi-hour playlist into several, easier to digest, hour-long composite parts.

Those of you who rejoiced when it became clear that Vol 2 would only be two playlists long, and those who danced with far more joy than when I post any playlist at the news that I wasn’t going to bother with Vol 3 because I hated it so much, prepared under the extremes of a lockdown Christmas as it was, will be disappointed to learn that this week we start on Vol 4, and this was 4h 41m long when it first saw light of day back in April 2021.

Here’s what I wrote about the full mix last time out:

“…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.”

NB: not all of these selling points feature in this week’s mix.

But fear not the two of you who listened to the full mix last time out: I’ve tinkered with the running order a little, and ditched a song or two which didn’t seem to fit, so it should be sufficiently different should you decided to give it another whirl.

Not before the usual disclaimer: any skips or jumps are down to the mixing software (touch wood, I didn’t notice any when I listened back to it); any mis-timed mixes are down to me (there’s not much actual ‘mixing’ to be done here, but even then I’m not 100% happy with one that I did), all record selections are, of course, mine. Who else do you think would do this and admit it?

Oh, and unlike the first time around, there’s an actual track-listing for you:

Friday Night Music Club Vol 4.1

1. BMX Bandits – Serious Drugs
2. The Kills – The Good Ones
3. Queens of the Stone Age – Feel Good Hit of the Summer
4. Super Furry Animals – Something For The Weekend
5. Primal Scream – Rocks
6. The Cramps – Bop Pills
7. The Fall – White Lightning
8. Bob Dylan – Subterranean Homesick Blues
9. The Mamas & The Papas – Creeque Alley
10. Marlena Shaw – California Soul
11. Shirley Ellis – Soul Time
12. The Go! Team – Bottle Rocket
13. The Phenomenal Handclap Band – 15 to 20 [Den Hann Remix]
14. Justice – D.A.N.C.E.
15. The Shamen – Move Any Mountain (Beat Edit)
16. iio – Rapture [John Creamer & Stephane K Remix]
17. Kosheen – Hide U [John Creamer & Stephane K Remix]

Enjoy!

More soon.

Friday Night Music Club

I was beginning to think this mix was jinxed.

I’ll explain, with some back story.

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:

Friday Night Music Club (Volume 4)

I hope you have as much fun listening to this as much as I had putting it together. And I found it utterly frustrating, so you’d better.

Oh, and it ain’t over ’til the fat bloke sings.

More soon.