Missiles in Flight

My love for John Maus is reeaaal.

From Love is Real

John Maus - Pure Rockets
John Maus - My Whole World is Coming Apart



His first album Songs is also great..

John Maus - Don't Be A Body
John Maus - Just Wait Till Next Year

+ Buy "Love is Real" and "Songs" from Upset the Rhythm
+ Videos at mausspace

I Hear A New World

Here's Joe Meek's pet-side-project thing from 1959, an outer space adventure made in his home studio using all sorts of unconventional and home made goodies and effects. Fascinated by the space program, he explained this project as an attempt "to create a picture in music of what could be up there in outer space." From the wikipedia entry:

This he (as producer) achieved by blending The Blue Men's skiffle/rock and roll style with a range of sound and effects, created by such kitchen-sink methods as blowing bubbles in water with a straw, draining water out of the sink, shorting an electrical circuit, and even banging partly-filled milk bottles with spoons; yet one must listen carefully to detect these prosaic origins in the finished product. Another important feature of the recordings is the very early use of stereophony.

This is 50's futurism at it's most creative and bestest. It was never fully released at the time it was made in '59/60, but two versions were released more recently. The version posted here is the warts-and-all (more authentic) version included in Barry Cleveland's book "Creative Music Production: Joe Meek's Bold Techniques."

The Blue Men with Rod Freeman - I Hear A New World (Alternate Mix)
The Blue Men with Rod Freeman - Love Dance of the Saroos

Full Album:

Joe Meek / Rod Freeman and the Blue Men - I Hear A New World

+ Buy Creative Music Production: Joe Meek's Bold Techniques
+ Buy Let's Go: Joe Meek's Girls

Hawaiian Pups

Here's the Hawaiian Pups' Split Second Precision EP from 1983. Mostly good stuff, espesh "Young Boys" and "Baby Judy" and their respective b-side reworks. The way she coos on "Young Boys" and the whole reverse predatory thing is pretty great. "Baby Judy" is totally nuts and lots of fun to dance to, gets playd at Part Time Punks regularly. Great cover art, too.

music removed at the request of the artist, who provided some additional info and alluded to a possible reissue in her email. I've included the email in the comments.

The Flying Lizards

Yay for my first entire album posting, The Flying Lizards' self-titled debut from 1979. These guys were pigeonholed as kind of kitschy because of some of their cover singles (Money! That's What I want etc), but this first album has some pretty innovative and interesting stuff on it, and they used all kinds of interesting found things as instruments on this album. A 1980 Melody Maker review of the album can be found here, and some other good reviews and interviews from the time here.

Two standouts are the tracks Vivien Goldman sings on, "Her Story" and "The Window." Vivien Goldman is probs best known for her music journalism and her solo single "Launderette," co-produced with John Lydon, which has a lot in common with the tracks she sings on here.

Here's "Her Story" for preview/download for those of you who don't like downloading stuff before you've been able to sample.

The Flying Lizards - Her Story

Download Full Album here.

Bonerus:

Vivien Goldman - Launderette

Sweets from a Stranger

Two overlooked Squeeze gems from 1982's Sweets from a Stranger. The album got bad reviews I guess but these tracks are hot, "strangers" is a kind of skittery funky thing (but with the obvious squeeze-isms) and the other a sort of gooey new pop confection.

Squeeze - Stranger than the Stranger on the Shore
Squeeze - The Very First Dance

Suicide Half Alive

Here are some early Suicide demos from the ROIR-released Half Alive (1981). There's also some live stuff on it, with some real prime examples of Alan Vega screaming like a crazy, but I like the demos cause they're prettier. And that's how i'm feeling. Most of these turned up on the first or second albums as similarly named but differently produced songs, and all except for "Dreams" were recorded at their home studio.

Suicide - Space Blue ('75)
Suicide - Speed Queen ('75)
Suicide - Dreams ('75)
Suicide - Chezazze ('79)
Suicide - Cool As Ice ('79)
Suicide - Love You ('79)

The Wicker Man and Paul Giovanni

I just saw The Wicker Man (1973) recently, and it was the best movie I've seen all year, maypoles and sexy rituals and masked pagans oh my. I read somewhere that Paul Giovanni wrote the entire score in a week, which is rad since it's pretty much a masterpiece.

It's a shame that an awful remake of this film was made last year with Nick Cage (boo). Some of the most popular videos on YouTube right now are mash-ups of the lamest scenes from the remake with everyone ragging on what a douche Nick Cage is in the comments. Ha. But everyone should see the original and forget about the remake. Here is some music from the movie - I wasn't able to download one or two of my favorites, so when I do I'll add them to the post.

The Wicker Man Soundtrack (Paul Giovanni) - Gently Johnny
The Wicker Man Soundtrack (Paul Giovanni) - Willow's Song
The Wicker Man Soundtrack (Paul Giovanni) - Maypole Song
The Wicker Man Soundtrack (Paul GIovanni) - Corn Riggs
The Wicker Man Soundtrack (Paul Giovanni) - The Wicker Man (End Title)

Live in Heaven

Yessss.

Nancy Nova - The Force (12")

NancyNova.com

It Doesn't Count

Image by Mr. Nagel

I still haven't had time to work out my vinyl to MP3 technical issues, but I want to post something, so this is what I've been listening to today:

Section 25 - Girls Don't Count
Gina X Performance - No G.D.M
Ludus - Little Girls
Modern English - Swans On Glass
The Delmontes - Love In A Guillotine
New Order - Video 586 (Edit)

Meccanik Dancing

XTC's Go 2 (1978). Seems like most bands add crappy bridges or middle 8s as an afterthought to make the return to a final verse/chorus that much sweeter. But for XTC, the bridge is often the meat of the song. Actually, i Don't even know if these qualify as bridges or middle 8s because they are longer than those... whatever, suffice to say that songs like Red depart from the verse/chorus in interesting ways halfway through the song.

XTC - Meccanik Dancing (Oh We Go!)
XTC - Red



Listening to Go 2 reminded me a lot of the first Oingo Boingo album Only a Lad (1981). I'm obsessed with Danny Elfman and this album is one of my favorites. Oingo Boingo also change things up halfway through, bringing in sections that depart drastically from the previous verse/chorus..

Oingo Boingo - What You See
Oingo Boingo - Controller

Dirty Laundry Post - From Bromley with Love

Call me Ambular, I've been having some technical problems ripping new vinyl acquisitions to MP3 lately and so am resorting to going through Mutant Sounds dirtly laundry. Pretty shameful stuff for an MP3 blogger, but oh well, it's good music so just download it and be happy. These tracks are from the "From Bromely with Love" compilation (Alternative Records - ALT 007 - 1982) posted on MS back in January:

Story A - Only Dreaming
Easter and the Totem - Nothing There
Burlesque - Collision of Sex
20-20 Systems - Dresden

You can still get the whole thing from Mutant Sounds here.

I'm finishing up an audio project of my own, will be back with new music when it's done mid-May. xx, unclealex.

Video Classics - McLaren and Madness

I've gone pop, turn back now if you can't deal. Two great videos, two great songs. Pretty much a founding father of punk, this is what Malcolm McLaren was up to by 1984. Amazing what the passage of a little time will do. This jam is from his first album as a solo artist, the Trevor Horn-produced Duck Rock (1983). Malcolm McLaren, especially in this video, is bizarrely fascinating to me, creepy but endearing, an awkward armchair ethnomusicologist with northern soul.

Malcolm McLaren - Double Dutch

Dudes, I'm adding this one after the fact because I just cant resist - pure 80's pop goodness. From 1984's Fans, McLaren bastardizes Puccini's Madame Butterfly and a few other classics. "Take it away Cio Cio..." haha - Puccini is rolling in his grave. McLaren probably has a lot of people rolling in their graves come to think of it.

Malcolm McLaren - Madame Butterfly



And the Madness video for 1981's "It Must be Love" single. These guys were sharp.

Madness - It Must Be Love

Ludus

Ludus was based around Mancunian artist and singer Linder Sterling, who's swooning, shrill voice has been described as "an exquisite torture." That's pretty accurate I'd say. LTM reissued The Visit EP (1980) and The Seduction LP (1982) on one disc in 2002. Here are some tracks.

From The Visit:

Ludus - Sightseeing
Ludus - Unveil

From The Seduction:

Ludus - My Cherry is in Sherry
Ludus - Mirror Mirror

Full Ludus story here

Buy the album here

Strawberry Switchblade - hot hot hot

These bitches were HOT. For more photos go here. Fashion mavericks - they're like brunette british Olsens with talent. Have a bit of that psychedelic punk thing Rubella Ballet had going on, a little Robert Smith, etc. Rubella Ballet + Robert Smith + Olsens = something close to Strawberry Switchblade style.

A while back I posted a link to a bunch of SS demos and radio sessions. For those that didn't check that out, I've gathered a few of my favorites together. "Dance" is an early version of "Since Yesterday" from their self-titled debut album (1985). Listening to them side-by-side you can see the evolution they underwent from Postcard-esque indie pop to bubblegum dance pop. It wasn't a total evolution though, if the gothy beauteousness of "Nothing Changes," also from 1985, is any indication.

Strawberry Switchblade - Dance (BBC Jensen Session Oct 1982)
Strawberry Switchblade - Secrets (Peel Session Oct 1982)
Strawberry Switchblade - Trees and Flowers (Peel Session Oct 1982)

Strawberry Switchblade - Since Yesterday (1985)
Strawberry Switchblade - Life's Full of Wonders (Peel Session Feb 1985)
Strawberry Switchblade - Nothing Changes (Peel Session Feb 1985)

Mr. Pink

Oh Ariel.

Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - The List (My Favorite Song)

From Scared Famous, buy it Human Ear Music.

If-Then-Else

This is some rare and interesting post-Weirdos stuff from the Denney Brothers, Dix and John. It's a departure from the first-wave punk of The Weirdos, very industrial and electronic, but the political bent of a punk band is still apparent in the song titles. No singing though, which is kind of a bummer, I'd like it even more with some vocals.

They apparently used a washing machine to make the drum sounds. This is the A-side from the 1981 album "Warhead" - which I nabbed from Goodwill for a buck :)

If-Then-Else - Hey Big Oil
If-Then-Else - Sidewalker
If-Then-Else - The Wedge
If-Then-Else - Warhead

Bonerus:

The Weirdos - Cyclops Helicopter

Cowboys International®

Cowboys International® was a short lived, super tight, kaleidoscopically fantastic project from that liminal period in British music when punk, post-punk, new wave and new pop were all swirling around in some sort of fertile, hazily defined stew. Unconcerned with where one genre ended and another began, songwriter Ken Lockie, unsung genius if there ever was one, got together a group of players that included Keith Levene (PiL) and Terry Chimes (The Clash) to record 1979's The Original Sin. The album was named a Melody Maker top 20 album that year, but it didn't make the lasting, meteor-sized impact it should have, and after it's initial release was out of print for more than 20 years.

Thanks to some cosmic benevolence, a few years ago Lockie released an expanded reissue of album titled Revisited, ensuring that you can get your grubby hands on it today. Terry fucking Chimes man, he really seals the deal here - the drumming is amazing. And the production (even on CD) makes the ears warm like a whiff of poppers.

Cowboys International - Aftermath (Radio Mix)
Cowboys International - Future Noise
Cowboys International - Many Times (Revised)
Cowboys International - Wish
Cowboys International - Here Comes A Saturday

The rest of the album is as good if not better than the tracks above - you can and should buy it at CD Baby.

Bonerus:

Shortly after the release of this album the Cowboys dissolved and Lockie, after a brief and unproductive stint playing keyboard for PiL, moved to New York, where he apparently got swept up in the downtown dance scene as Dominatrix.

Dominatrix - The Dominatrix Sleeps Tonight (1984)

Only Men Fall in Love

Home Service was a short-lived project by David Motion and David Fraser that bore several releases on their own label Crystal Groove Records as well as a 7" single of "Only Men Fall in Love" on the Beggars Banquet subsidiary Situation 2.

Alhtough Home Service didn't last long, Motion became enamored with the recording process during the Home Service project, and went on to become a successful producer, recruited to produce a number of bands including Strawberry Switchblade. He talks a bit about Home Service and his beginnings as a producer in an interview on the Strawberry Switchblade site. More recently he's scored films and produced a number of ditties for commercials - full bio on his music career here. And, you can listen to some of his current work on his Myspace. It's super interesting to me that someone behind such a leftfield track as OMFIL would go on to make music for mainstream commercials. But I guess a lot of musicians have that trajectory.

This is actually ripped from a 12" of OMFIL that US label Cachalot released in 1981. It's played pitched way down, beecause playing it at it's intended full 45 was WAY TOO FAST! I Can't believe it's that fast, and now understand why Andrew over at Lovefingers posted it at 33 a while back.

Home Service - Only Men Fall in Love
Home Service - O.M.F.I.L.

Bonerus - A whole shitload of Strawberry Switchblade demos, Peel Sessions, outtakes etc. available for download on the Strawberry Switchblade Site. Good stuff!!

The Queen

Ms. Lunch is the mistress of off-key insouciance. She sings like she's coming down off the Anna Nicole Smith cocktail (too soon?), and it's sloppy and lazy and perfect. From her 1980 debut Queen of Siam:

Lydia Lunch - Atomic Bongos
Lydia Lunch - Spooky

Atomic bongos is my jam du jour, and Spooky is a rendition of an old Classics IV song from 1967. Here is the original for comparison and contrastison:

Classics IV - Spooky

Way of the West

I don't know much about this Boston band Way of the West, and Google didn't help, but it's pretty good shit. I tracked this down after hearing "White Boys" sandwiched in between The Hawaiian Pups and Cluster by one of the DJs at The Echo. I think it was at an Ariel Pink show.  If you know anything about these dudes, do tell.

Here's a folder with all their singles and a few extras:

Don't Say That's Just For White Boys (1980)
Drum (1981)
See You Shake (1981)
City for Lovers (1984)
Feel the Steel (1984)

+DOWNLOAD