25th February 2024

Titus writes:

 

I’ve listened to nearly all genres of music over the last seven decades, and I always feel blessed to have enjoyed most of these. I don’t like placing things in “bags” or “genres” – I’d rather just decide whether it’s good ....or not so good. In the case of punk, or post-punk, I was always excited about such and still am. I’ll not mention by name AGAIN, the Radio 1 DJ whose show I first heard this next lot on, but it was fairly early in the career of the band, and comparatively late in the DJ’s life. I refer to The Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

 

The band was formed in my favourite city in the whole world, New York City in the year 2000, and was made up of vocalist & piano player Karen O. (I somehow don’t think this was the name endorsed upon her birth certificate – it was, I am told,  Karen Lee Orzolek); guitarist,, keyboard player Nick Zinner and percussionist Brian Chase. So far they have made 5 studio albums and unusual to announce in this blog, 4 of these have been nominated for Grammy Awards. The albums were entitled ‘Fever to tell’ (2003); ‘Show your Bones’ (2006) ; ‘It’s Blitz’ (2009); ‘Mosquito’ (2013); and finally ‘Cool it Down’ (2022). Early in their career, they supported The Strokes and The White Stripes, and Karen’s quest for them to become a “trashy, punky, grimy band” was gaining momentum. Some say that they can hear Blondie, The Pretenders & Siouxsie & the Banshees in their work, and I have to agree.

 

Sorry folks, but I have to use his name now – John Peel was mightily impressed with them and this resulted in their solitary BBC session in 2002. John played many of their records, and listeners were so impressed that the band reached the iconic Festive Fifty at Number 12 in 2002 with ‘Bang’ and Number 18 in 2003 with ‘Maps’. Against all odds, they gained rapturous reviews from the U.K. following their appearance at Glastonbury in 2009, at ‘All tomorrow’s Parties’ in 2006, and at the All Points Festival at Victoria Park, London in 2018. Much of their live work has been recorded and added to You Tube’s videos.

 

I am astonished that a garage/punk/raucous alternative band such as the Yeah Yeah Yeahs has received so many awards and nominations. I suppose it’s part down to the growth of the internet, social media and “spreading the word”. I’m just looking at the Antville Music Awards from 2013 and see that not only were the band nominated for ‘Best Performance Video’, but also WON it! Similarly ’Zero’ won the ‘Best Rock Video’ in 2009, and Karen herself won an NME award in 2011 entitled ‘Hottest Woman’.

 

They have a wide range of their music available online and indeed have their own website. I love the complete unpretentious, unpolished rawness of their sound, and in particular a track recorded live in 2004 at The Fillmore, San Francisco called ‘Date with the Night’, and this is the one I am requesting lex to play this week.

24th February 2024

Paul Mason writes about Northern Soul:

“It’s the first law of sociology,” said Paul Mason near the end of Northern Soul - Keep the Faith (BBC). “All youth subcultures eventually come back.” Mason was talking about the remarkable Wigan Young Souls, a gang of bright-eyed teens who, in 2013, are dressing sharp and dancing all night to soul records that were never hits.

What's miraculous is how Northern Soul happened in the first place, in the 1970s. Mason, until recently the economics editor of Newsnight, was there. So his documentary was authentic, personal, thorough and fun, the polar opposite of the rock-lifting, what's-all-this-nonsense attitude TV often has towards those funny little cultural blips that mean everything to the participants. If the Northern Soul faith is indeed kept and passed on this film will be there, lurking on YouTube, waiting to draw new converts in.

Northern Soul, a genre of American pop named after the English nightclubs that were the only places in the world to play it, was a secret club with thousands of members. It came out of Mods listening to Motown: among the early NS favourites are records made and discarded by the likes of Marvin Gaye, or recorded by artists who were on Berry Gordy’s roster but never made it big. Then it went deeper, into singers whose names mean nothing, who never had any commercial success, who never got played on the radio, but their rough, cheap recordings spoke to people in the north of England, like a crackly shortwave broadcast from a parallel world.

Northern was deliberately based on singles that had been overlooked, partly due to the common impulse to react against whatever is popular: “No one wants to be spoonfed shite from the charts, do they?” as Elaine Constantine, director of the upcoming feature film Northern Soul, put it to Mason. But it was more than stubborn contrarianism: it was the romance of underdogs in obscurity, making their art in the hope that someone, somewhere would one day have their life changed.

The scene had its own style. Devotees wore a sort of souped-up, souled-up Mod, with vests and ever wider trousers servicing the practical need to dance all night. And the dancing! Disciplined but expressive, macho but emotional, a mix of Bruce Lee kicks, aerobics and showboating on the balls of the feet. One contributor to Mason's program said Northern was essentially the same as rave culture: people ignoring the mainstream and gathering in thousands to take drugs and dance to music with a flat 4/4 rhythm. He was wrong, because that beat was less than half of Northern Soul. The songs have titles like Lonely for You Baby, I'm Stepping out of The Picture, The Girl across the Street, I Hurt on the Other Side, You Can't Have Your Cake, Long after Tonight Is All Over: universal tales of dreaming and yearning and bottomless, everyday heartbreak. At one of the all-nighters that still run across the country every week, we saw a lad in his 20s who wasn't just dancing to You Should’O Held On by Frankie Karl and the Chevrons; he was mouthing every word.

Mason, who has recently, brilliantly documented how youth movements and social media drove protests across the world in the Arab Spring and beyond, explained exactly how records made in the poverty of Detroit and Chicago rang a bell in Wigan, Warrington and Stoke. But he was more interested in how the music had deeply affected individuals. He met Wigan Casino veteran Fran Franklin, who misted up when she recalled how Northern had been her ticket out of a tough upbringing in Edinburgh: “The minute the soul scene started, my mum was like: OK, that’s your outlet, off you go.” Mason danced with her, in a social club somewhere: square panels on the ceiling, chairs and tables pushed to the edge of the parquet, sunshine flaring through the window. Fran and other soulies were filmed in beautiful slow motion; Mason himself did a pretty decent triple spin.

A middle-aged man reconnecting with when he felt simply, vividly alive, Mason put his own soul into it - witness the joy in his eyes when Elaine Constantine described the collective rush of a packed floor all hitting a break in the music together. He ended on a montage of him performing his spin on a cobbled street, by the sea, under a railway bridge, in a deserted club. “On the dancefloor, it felt like freedom. It felt like finding a new family. A small part of me is still always there.”

23rd February 2024

Click HERE to listen again or to download (downloading & playing is more reliable).

Wasback, Coopex & Chris Burke (feat. Becky Smith) - Party Til We Die
Mahmut Orhan (feat. Sena Sener) - Feel
Mika - Relax, Take It Easy
The Silver Shine - Angels to Some
Paul Camilleri - In The Middle Of The Night
Counting Crows - Mr Jones
Spacey Jane - Hardlight
Dune Rats & Friends - Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again (Cover)
Troye Zillia - Cholovik Propyv Indyka
Sex Clark Five - Alai (See blog by Titus below)
Fader - The Temper Trap
Puddle Of Mudd - She Hates Me
Skegss - Stranger Days
Flight Of The Conchords - Carol Brown
Madi Diaz - Same Risk (Joint tune of the week)
Dust - Lean (Joint tune of the week)

18th February 2024

Titus writes: 

  

I hope you enjoyed my blog on The (mighty) Fall. Such a complex band spanning over 40 years, and as I inferred, I’d still be typing now if doing a full appraisal. All I would say is find out about them via the various media sources – you won’t look back!

 

This week I’m going to talk about a band that really struck me in the eighties, and are still performing today – The Sex Clark Five from Huntsville, Alabama. They called their music “strum and drum” and if that description is alien to you, like it was to me, it has a jangly , almost surf guitar sound, similar to several Southern bands of the day. They were notorious for the unpredictability of their live shows, e.g.  drummer Trick McKaha would sometimes wear a bag over his head – in a way pleasing that he was the drummer rather than say a guitarist!

 

Not surprisingly, the Sex Clark Five came to the attention of John Peel when he acquired a copy of their first EP “Neita grew up last night”. The band was so impressed by being liked by JP, that in 1986 having recorded an album in founder James Butler’s basement – amazingly entitled “Strum and Drum” – and Peel concurred with the views of the American music press who were extremely praiseworthy, lauding the album as a ‘pop milestone’. They also referred to the Sex Clark Five as “America’s most inexplicable band”.  Peely was impressed by the fact that there were 20 very short tracks on it, (some barely a minute long), and  having heard The Ramones and nearly all punk bands play he once pronounced that  “the three minute single is back” – he became weary of the seventies 20+ minute tracks, particularly with a drum solo incorporated.

 

The band had been set up by school friends and guitarists James Butler, Rick Storey, drummer Trick McKaha and vocalist Joy Johnson. McKaha & Johnson left the band in 1993 & 1995 respectively.

Butler continued to write the songs and the band had a small but devoted fan base.  The nineties found the band continuing to record, but they, like a lot of others, found only the small labels with very few resources willing to promote them. Their discography reveals that they have spent a great proportion of their recordings, for Records to Russia records

 

In the year 2000, Butler & Storey got together on ‘Crimson Panzer’ with McKaha temporarily re-joining the band for this – this appeared almost exclusively on Peely’s programme. You’ve heard the expression before, but I guess that in real terms they were “unsung heroes”. A bit of a case like Northern Ireland’s Would Be’s who I wrote about, a couple of months ago...... a talented band that never quite made it.

 

Devotees of the band would argue that they must have been doing something right, by the fact that in 2020, Captured Tracks Records remastered & released ‘Strum & Drum’ as a double album, (albeit with a slight alteration to the title – they called it ‘Strum & Thrum!) with a few tracks added to the original version. This week I am requesting lex to play Alai from the original ‘Strum & Drum’ album.

16th February 2024

Sadly Clumpton was poorly and couldn't make his 8pm Wrinkly Rock slot. As a result, this week's WTF_Is_This show is two hours long! These are the tracks played in the first hour. Get well soon Clumpton!

Click HERE to listen again (the full 2 hours) or to download (downloading & playing is more reliable).

Cara Dillon - Man In The Rain
Redwood - The Darkest Star (Tune of the week)
Krokus - Screaming in the Night
Eluveitie - The Call Of The Mountains
The Fall - Theme From Sparta F.C. #2 (Single Version) (See blog by Titus below)
Eagle-Eye Cherry - Save Tonight
CAN - Vitamin C
Mark Knopfler - Beryl
Maël - Short Break
Jill's Well Sängerin Jackie mit Tiziana Gulino - Ryf
Tina Arena - Chains
Eve Kay - I Dream In Colour
Jaël - Shuffle the Cards
Romana Danina - White Trees
Mia Aegerter - Bye Bye Mein Altes Ich
Ladina - Haunt Me
The Common Linnets - Calm After The Storm
Mark Knopfler - What It Is

12th February 2024

Titus writes:

I make no apologies when I say that The Fall were, and still are my favourite ever band. I could write reams on them as their career spanned over 40 years, but shall try and keep this down to my normal blog length. Again, I won’t bore you with their various line ups, as only the leader, Mark E. Smith remained constant throughout.   Mark formed the band in 1976 in Prestwich, Manchester. Their music has always been indefinable and I go along with everyone who labelled Mark a genius. Their songs covered most subjects and were generally driven by a repetitive guitar sound, with tense drum & bass rhythms. He had a menacing voice, and often sang out of tune, having had no formal musical training. The Fall never really covered any widespread commercial success, but always maintained an immensely strong cult following. They were called “the most prolific band of the British post-punk movement”. They released 31 studio albums, and more than three times more other albums such as compilations. They also recorded 24 sessions for the Peel Show. Mark and John had a strange relationship in that despite Peel championing their cause at every opportunity, they rarely exchanged anything more than friendly ‘grunts’. Smith wasn’t known for being ‘a great bloke’, and in fact his prickly nature always dictated that he would be outspoken in most things.   In 1977 The Fall recorded heir first EP ‘Bingo Master’s Break-out’ and their first LP was released in 1979 entitled ‘Live at the Witch Trials.’ (still sounds good today) A sixteen year old Marc Riley (remember him?) was the band’s roadie, but was recruited to play bass.   In the early eighties, Mark had an American girlfriend, Brix Smith, whom he married, and she joined the band, and her quest was to find a wider audience for The Fall. She liked to dress elegantly which Mark felt belied the group’s working class image, but they achieved modest success with cover versions of R. Dean Taylor’s ‘There’s a ghost in my house’ and the Kinks ‘Victoria’. Several LP’s followed , but one stood out – ‘I am Kurious Oranj’ which was a collaboration between Smith and dancer Michael Clark. Brix left the band in 1989, and her marriage to Smith ended in divorce, but in the early nineties, The Fall had modest success with the singles ‘Telephone Thing’, ‘White Lightning’ ‘Free Range’ and ‘Why are people grudgeful’.  In 1997 following ‘Levitate’s release, the NME’s Steven Wells wrote “If you’ve never heard The Fall, ‘Levitate’ will be the best and worst record you’ve ever heard”.   When a short U.S. Tour ended one evening with Smith fighting on stage with other members of the band, the following day he was arrested on charges of assault. In September 2002, Smith’s third wife Elaena Poulou took over keyboard playing, and this brought about some much needed stability to the Band, especially with the release of ‘The Real New Fall LP’, and it is from this album, that I am requesting lex to play my all time favourite ‘Theme from Sparta FC’. There are many other tunes of theirs that I love, like ‘Rebellious Jukebox’, ‘Mr Pharmacist’ & ‘The day I wrote Elastic Man’, but for me ‘Sparta FC’ shades it.   Incidentally there is an amazing BBC4 tv programme ‘The Fall : The wonderful and frightening World of Mark E Smith’, which is good viewing and downloadable on YouTube. Smith thought it hilarious that John Peel’s producer John Walters had said to him “You lot are even worse than Siouxsie & the Banshees.....would you like to do a session for us?”   Mark E Smith, musician, & artist died on 24 January 2018 having been diagnosed with terminal lung & kidney cancer.   As I said earlier, I could go on writing about The Fall, but I hope this blog will suffice.

9th February 2024

Click HERE to listen again or to download (downloading & playing is more reliable).

Old Mervs - Leave That
DMA'S - Lay Down
Royel Otis - Fried Rice 
Redwood - So Silent
Trembling Blue Stars - Idyllwild (Tune of the week)
Notch - Nuttin Nuh Go So (Remix Mike VT)
Marlène Nerini - Ma Main Sur Ta Peau
Stefanie Heinzmann - Där Sohn vom Pfarrär
Floy - Soulful Man
Suzie Candell - Merry Go Round
Jetstream Pony - Seven Days
The Exbats - Best Kiss
Marked Men - A Little Time
Sir Thomas Wyatt (Read by Andrew Scott) - They flee from me (Poem)
Katy Perry - Part Of Me
Colour Of Rice - Peanuts
Loudon Wainwright III - A Father And A Son
Neutrals - Personal Computing
Patrick Bishop - Steps