Episode 20 - Dream pop

Without really thinking about it, I seem to have been a big fan of Dream Pop since it was invented. And before that, with my copies of early Durutti Column albums which I played to death through lazy sunny mornings in the 1980s and beyond. Why would I ever have fought shy of the genre?

Firstly, because it's got the word 'pop' in it, and for slightly tedious and altogether snobbish reasons, I don't really like thinking of myself as someone who likes 'pop' music. And yet, after all, why not? Am I too good for things that other people like? It doesn't pay to be elitist. (There are good reasons for not liking 'pop music' as an idea, in fact. But they're more to do with commercial manipulation. I'm happy to say that none of the artists featured in this episode can be classified under that banner).

Secondly, because I lived in England most of my life, dream pop, although coined by Alex Ayuli of the thoroughly English and criminally overlooked band A R Kane, is not a term in highly frequent currency in that country. Shoegazing became the rather comic term, although in practice the two have become somewhat interchangeable over the years. And I do feel a little ambivalent about the shoegazing term as it seems too heavily invested in the process and production rather than the consumption and enjoyment. Ahem.

It's helpful to define terms. That's what academics like doing, and I still have some affinity with academia, although too much of a dilettante to make a career out of it. (And too interested in income). Wikipedia to our aid. "The Guide to Electronica defines dream pop as "an atmospheric subgenre of alternative rock that relies on sonic textures as much as melody". Common characteristics are breathy vocals and use of guitar effects, often producing a "wall of noise". Dream pop tends to focus on textures and moods rather than propulsive rock riffs. Lyrics are often introspective or existential in nature. In the view of music critic Simon Reynolds, dream pop "celebrates rapturous and transcendent experiences, often using druggy and mystical imagery". According to Rachel Felder, dream pop artists often resist representations of social reality in favor of ambiguous or hallucinogenic experiences.

This episode's tracks don't always correspond to these definitions, though many do. This then is Sombrero Fallout's version of a Dream Pop world, and you don't need drugs to appreciate it (though the choice is yours). Here's the

Tracklist:-

Iceblink luck, Cocteau Twins

Strange, Galaxie 500

Walk in the park, Beach House

Lose my breath, My Bloody Valentine

Snow joke, A R Kane

Tonite it shows, Mercury Rev

Fade into you, Mazzy Star

Jewel, Cranes

Sketch for dawn, The Durutti Column

Staralfur, Sigur Ros

Sunset, The xx

Episode 19 - Male songs, female covers

The art of the great cover version lies in making the song your own. That could mean a fairly straight or faithful rendition, which might work if your vibe is close in spirit to the original artist's. But it's usually more intriguing to hear radical reinterpretations of familiar songs. Or alternatively, for obscure original material to receive some populist treatment. This episode has a look specifically at female takes on traditionally male songs.

S Etienne's 'Only love can break your heart' and The Slits' version of the Motown standard 'I heard it through the grapevine' are both triumphs of migrating a strong original into a different genre. Broadly that's a dub universe on both occasions, but one is from the dub dance days of the early '90s and the other from the jerky post-punk era of the late '70s. Both stand up exceptionally well, with the added slant while The Slits' radical feminism renders them more relevant to these diverse times. For another great early Slits' song, Episode 1 features their classic 'Typical Girls'. 'Sylvie' by St Etienne appears on the Sisters and Brothers episode.

A couple of artists noted for over-indexing on testosterone and taking a strong masculine line are The Stones and Black Sabbath. But in the hands of The Sundays ('Wild Horses') and Sweden's Cardigans ('Ironman') what once was cock rock becomes anything but: floaty, ethereal, dream-pop renditions of the old male standards, and all the better for it. Frente ('Bizarre Love Triangle') and Yo La Tengo ('Needle of Death') also bring the gentler hand of a feminine sensibility to bear, but over a less gendered blueprint.

It's harder to find beefed-up versions of male originals, of course - although to hear a rather cartoony scream of a song have a listen to Babes in Toyland 'All by Myself', not featured here. On the other hand The Dum Dum Girls produce a wonderfully powerful rendition of The Smiths' classic 'There is a light that never goes out' without losing sight of the empathy in the original.

One track you must hear: Marcy Mays of the band Scrawl was bought in by Greg Dulli to sing 'My Curse' for his group The Afghan Whigs. It was a brave decision, but she produces a jaw-dropping performance of a difficult but visceral song.

Tracklist:-

Only love can break your heart, St Etienne (orig: Neil Young)

Black steel, Tricky (orig: Public Enemy)

I heard it through the grapevine, The Slits (orig: Marvin Gaye)

My curse, Afghan Whigs

Ironman, The Cardigans (orig: Black Sabbath)

There is a light that never goes out, Dum Dum Girls (orig: The Smiths)

Mr Blue Sky, The Delgados (orig: ELO)

Bizarre love triangle, Frente (orig: New Order)

Needle of death, Yo La Tengo (orig: Bert Jansch)

Hanging on the telephone, Blondie (orig: The Nerves)

Dear Prudence, Siouxsie and the Banshees (orig: The Beatles)

Wild horses, The Sundays (orig: The Rolling Stones)

Episode 18 - The legacy of The Fall

Many bands have taken The Fall as their sonic template.

Some started out with a slavish adherence. Compare Pavement's Our Singer with Hip Priest, or Conduit for Sale with New Face in Hell, and you'll get the idea. The problem that Mark E Smith had with this is that they were making money out of his idea: an intellectual property infringement. Understandable for a proud northern man who understood the value of money.

There's a good story (as ever) attached to this. A young support band were happy just to be on the same bill as The Fall, broaden their audience, pick up experience. They didn't expect to make any money out of it. Mark E Smith asked them how much they were earning, and they told him. "That's no good, lads," he said pulling out a bundle of notes from his pocket and handing over 300 quid. "Always get paid."

Bands are still doing it. I've just been pointed to a review of new band , Shame. The first line reads: "Shame once received a hate letter that read, “Dear Shame… You can’t even compare yourself to a crusty piece of shite hanging from Mark E Smith’s slender arse. Some would suggest that it’s time to call it a day. Give over.” " My son Scott's just been to see them at The Laneways Festival and said they were very good. If there's no Fall any more, it's fine for their sound to live on.

Other bands took certain aspects of what Mark E Smith had in mind. The impish humour (Half Man, Half Biscuit). The Twilight Zone paranoia vibe (Sonic Youth, at times). The delivery effect (LCD Soundsystem). Even the extra syllable (Protomartyr - "Here's the thing-uh"). Talking down your best lines and allowing others to discover your lyrical genius (Guided by Voices).

But the legacy is more than the music, it's - to be annoying and academic, for one moment - a gestalt. Mark E Smith saw The Fall as a project (but would have never used the word). It took in collaborations, plays, ballet, even a soap operatic sideshow involving drama, walkouts, wives, girlfriends, no-shows, audience alienation and so on. He was a relentless PR machine while disdaining the concept with naked hostility. Firing a sound engineer for eating a salad, abandoning the drummer at the motorway service station was all part of the idea of The Fall.

And yet the music, especially The Golden Period during the '80s will, I believe, grow in stature as the years roll by. His delivery which ended up, let's be frank, garbled, almost self-parodic, obscured the intense lyrical poetry as often as it'd enhanced it in earlier times. The States have Dylan; England has Smith. I think both are happy enough with that arrangement.

Tied up to posts; blindfold, so can't feel maintenance

Kickback: art thou that thick? Death of the dimwits

Businessman hits train

His veiled sex seeps through his management sloth

The journey takes one hour

And its a hexen hour

Hexen school

Hexen cursed

Hexen bowl boils

Hexen rule

Explain the mood harm

The DDR scene

Alpine pullovers

Alpine give over

You can clutch at my toes, you will drive me insane

You know nothing about it, it's not your domain

Don't confuse yourself with someone who has something to say

'Cause its a hexen rain

Hexen fodder

Hexen cursed

Hexen bowl boils

Hexen rule explain the mood harm

While Greenpeace looked like saffron on the realm

Brown, shrivelled

A Kellogg's peace

The opposition was down

Red church on a hill

Styrofoam insides, aluminium tiers

Louis Armstrong tapes waft down the aisles

And its a hexen hour

Hexen file

Hexen rule

Hexen bowl boils

Hexen rule in the hour of The Fall

It takes grace to play the second fiddle well

His cap emblazoned a crusty knife

... (indecipherable)

Goes with you down, and pats your head

That's strife knot

Strife ker-not

Strife is life and don't forget it

Strife is life, you don't want to hear it

Could be thirteen or thirty one of this mob

Could be thirteen or thirty one of this mob

Strife knot

Strife ker-not

Life is strife but you don't want to hear it

Strife is life and that's it

And that's it, and that's it

And that's it. (Hexen Definitive Strife Knot)

Life is strife, and that's it. Thanks for everything, Mark.

Tracklist:-

I want you, The Inspiral Carpets

I bet that you look good on the dance floor, The Arctic Monkeys

Watch me jumpstart, Guided by Voices

Dust, Parquet Courts

How he wrote 'Elastica Man', Elastica

Eric's Trip, Sonic Youth

Trigger cut, Pavement

Tending the wrong grave for 23 years, Half Man Half Biscuit

Heads of dead surfers, Long Fin Killie

Here is the thing, Protomartyr

Men for miles, Ought

Movement, LCD Soundsystem

Container drivers, The Fall

Episode 17 - A tribute to Mark E Smith of The Fall (1957 - 2018)

This is the day we thought couldn't happen. Another year, another Fall album. That was the law of the known universe since as long as most of us can remember. 40 years, 32 studio albums. Now we'll never hear what came next. Mark once said he'd retire at 60 though, and in a way he has.

How to describe The Fall to someone who, for whatever reason, has operated in a Fall-free universe? Personally I had exactly this experience early in December. I was with a colleague late at night in a bar in Brisbane, and the conversation ended up at music. My wife knows what happens next; she's always gently admonished me for forcing innocent people to listen to The Fall when they'd rather be in bed.

I played an old clip of the group (never the 'band') performing 'Smile' on The Tube from 1983, (introduced by John Peel) on my phone. Commentary: "Do you listen to this music for pleasure, or conceptually?". "I can't believe I've got to this age and never heard this band." The following day via text: "The Fall is so fucking good."

I first heard Mark E Smith in the sixth form centre at school: track, "Fiery Jack". I'm 45. I live off pies. And I drink, drink, drink. To start with they were just one of many post-punk operatives, but then I heard "Cash'n'Carry Stop Mithering" on John Peel late at night, and something clicked.

The things that drain you off and drive you off the hinge.

Boils, dirty socks, the ceiling's collapse.

The Sunday morning loud lawn mower,

the upstairs Jewish girl damn hoovering every thirty minutes,

from valium cig withdrawal.

She wants communal, fluent flat household.

I want privacy.

Something 'other' with a cultural specificity, and a brutal disregard for convention (as lo-fi a recording as you could get, even then). Something proudly northern, both primitive and intensely intellectual, but with a disdain for academia. Funny too. And the work of a lyrical genius.

Some people measure the years by the calendar, others by their team's sporting seasons. For others among us, it was by Fall gigs and albums. Reading the review of This Nation's Saving Grace walking through the park on the way to the office for my first job. Meeting my wife of 26 years, and taking her to see the Extricate tour gig. Finally getting to see the band in Melbourne, and explaining to the neophytes I was with that Mark might walk off stage and not return. Perversely he was playful and engaged - and played several encores.

Never again. A sad day. But all men die. Not all men live. Mark E Smith lived, and by his own rules. Which of us can say that? And the results of his cussed independence - the true spirit of rock'n'roll - will always be with us. This tracklist features a smattering of personal favourites but naturally omits some more recognised 'classics'. You can have fun finding them for yourself.

Tracklist:-

How I wrote 'Elastic Man'

Cruiser's Creek

Dr Buck's Letter

Big New Prinz

Bill is Dead

Paintwork

English Scheme

Leave the Capitol

Living Too Late

Janet, Johnny and James

Hexen Definitive Strife Knot

Episode 16 - 2017 Festive 20, Tracks 10 - 1

And here it is. The inaugural Festive Top 10. For an introduction, please go to Blog/Tracklist for Episode 15. Plenty to argue about here.

Tracklist:-

10. Star roving, Slowdive

9. Thirty, The Weather Station

8. Ballad of a dying man, Father John Misty

7. Two thousand and seventeen, Four Set

6. Old Poisons, Mogwai

5. Never again, The Magnetic Fields

4. Call the police, LCD Soundsystem

3. Soldier, Richard Dawson

2. Ravens, Mount Eerie

1. A private understanding, Protomartyr

Episode 15 - 2017 Festive 20, Tracks 20 - 11

From 1978 to 2004 there was one end-of-year ritual I anticipated with more fervour than any other: John Peel's Festive Fifty. We now know that list-loving males are to be pitied, if not condemned, but for me it offered a musical heuristic. Others might use the pop charts as a useful short cut, for me The Festive Fifty served the same purpose.

For those unfamiliar, each year, using nothing other than a handwritten ledger, and for some reason collating the task single-handedly, the iconic English DJ would ask listeners for their top three tracks of the year. Then, at the end of December, over 5 nights, he would play a 'Festive 50' in descending order.

Peel developed a love-hate relationship with his Frankenstein over the years. His main objection was that listeners ignored the highways and byways he'd introduced into his show over the year, the happy hip-hop, the deep dub, and time and again voted for "white boys with guitars". There was certainly some truth in the accusation. But it was at least the best type of white boy with guitar music. And over the years, certainly, more variety crept in.

There are some differences with this Festive 20. First, it's curated by Sombrero Fallout, not the product of a democratic vote. It's how Trump would run things. Secondly, we have attempted to spread the musical genres around, and also balanced genders and, to a limited extent, countries as well. Thirdly, we have day jobs and haven't listened to remotely enough music this year. Inevitably the Senior Sombrerite (me) and Junior Sombrerite (Scott) have relied on curation themselves, and there will be all manner of tracks that should be included but aren't, simply because we've never heard them.

But if nothing else, here's a helpful rejoinder to those who believe nobody writes them like they used to, and tracks 20-11. Tracks 10-1 follow in the next podcast.

Tracklist:-

20. Halfway home, Broken Social Scene

19. I dare you, The xx -

18. Well done, Idles

17. Take it all in, St Etienne

16. Andrew Eldritch is moving back to Leeds, The Mountain Goats

15. Guilty Party, The National

14. Rattlesnake, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard

13. Paraguaya, Juana Molina

12. Everyone You Meet, The Clientele

11. New York, St Vincent

Episode 14 - LA / Hollywood

There's something about Christmas that can make even the most hardened of garage bands relent. The Sex Pistols always reckoned the best gig they ever did was Christmas Day in the afternoon when they played a children's party. Freed from the requirements of acting cool, they just enjoyed themselves. They just were themselves.

Perhaps that's the thing. For happy, well-adjusted types the thought of returning to the bosom of your family where it all began is an enticing prospect. You sense that Julian Casablancas, the archetype of New York cool, actually means it when he sings I Wish it Was Christmas Today. That cynical old rock chick Chrissie Hynde wants her partner to be with her at Christmas of all times with the Pretenders' 2000 miles. Less surprisingly, Christian alt-rockers Low sound horrified when they sing "it wasn't like Christmas at all", on Just Like Christmas.

But for others the Yuletide season is all about the fear and loathing. The titles say it all really. Thank God it's not Christmas (Sparks). That was the worst Christmas ever (Sufjan Stevens). Merry Christmas (I don't want to fight tonight) (The Ramones). Christmas will break your heart (LCD Soundsystem). Ominously, So much wine (The Handsome Family) and Under the stairs (De Rosa). Brutally, Christmas is cancelled (The Long Blondes).

But I'm also reminded of a journalist who returned home to his house in Essex for the season. Every Christmas Day his family and the one from down the street he'd grown up with shared a sherry together in the morning. That family was the Albans and there was Damon Albarn, lead singer of Blur, just about the biggest group in Britain at the time, making small talk with various aunts and uncles. He exchanged strained smiles with the icon of Britpop, dressed in a colourful jumper featuring reindeer, from the opposite side of the suburban drawing room.

That's the spirit. Best summed up by Half Man Half Biscuit: It's cliched to be cynical at Christmas.

Tracklist:-

I was born on Christmas Day, St Etienne

Just like Christmas, Low

Frosty the Snowman, Cocteau Twins

That was the worst Christmas ever, Sufjan Stevens

Merry Christmas, Mark Kozelek

Santa Claus, The Sonics

Merry Christmas (I don't want to fight tonight), The Ramones

Thank God it's not Christmas, Sparks

It's cliched to be cynical at Christmas, Half Man Half Biscuit

So much wine, The Handsome Family

Under the stairs, De Rosa

I wish it was Christmas today, Julian Casablancas

Christmas will break your heart, LCD Soundsystem

Christmas is cancelled, The Long Blondes

2000 miles, The Pretenders

Episode 13 - LA / Hollywood

There isn't really a definitive song about L.A. Plenty exist. But no definitive statement. No New York, New York, no 'Chicago'. No By the time I get to Phoenix even.

However there are more songs about the city than perhaps any other. It's that mix of sun / sex / shore / skyline contrasted with motel / murder / money / madness. And the overall vibe that this is a pitiless city. That behind the American mask of Can Do, everyone is simply in it for themselves. "This town is crazy. Nobody cares." as Beck sang on Lost Cause.

But, typical of the schizophrenic attitude artists have to the city, the most relentlessly upbeat on this episode is Beck's Que onda, guero? - an Hispanic tribute to the hometown LA suburb of his childhood, the vegetable man and the mariachi bands. Even Warren G's braggadocio G-Funk tribute to being mugged has the sunny SoCal vibe you can hum along to even if you're stuck in traffic on a rainy Wednesday morning.

There's LA and there's Hollywood. The gap between those who make it and all those who arrive wide-eyed and innocent off the bus from the midwest is the stuff of LA mythology. Father John Misty does a great modern take with Fun Times in Babylon, but for me the classic celluloid tribute is a song from my own childhood - 10cc's Somewhere in Hollywood.

I've always been intimidated by the cynical hollowness behind the relentless sunshine in LA. Driving down the west coast We headed off into the desert, the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas. I sort of regret that now. One day I'll make it back and have a look round the town.

Tracklist:-

Los Angeles, Frank Black

Regulate, Warren G

Que onda guero, Beck

Let me back in, Rilo Kiley

LA Woman, The Doors

Pacific Coast Highway, Sonic Youth

LA, The Fall

Celluloid heroes, The Kinks

Somewhere in Hollywood, 10cc

Funtimes in Babylon, Father John Misty

Electrolite, REM

Episode 12 - The alternative Ashes

First thing to say - if you don't like cricket, there are plenty of brilliant tracks to listen to in this episode. But if you do, there's an extra something in this just for you.

A larger intersection exists between the world of cricket watching and alternative music than might at first meet the eye. No doubt, much of that has to do with the demographic of both constituencies. Male, a tendency to collate (All Time Best Elevens, All Time Best Tracks), somewhat pessimistic by nature. Not exclusively, of course. Women are participating in the game more and more each year, which is brilliant news, and they're bound to bring in some alt-listeners in their wake. I've got a cheerful extrovert friend who only ever gets concerned if his club side falls behind the run rate - and he loves Kraftwerk. But you get my drift.

So this episode is for you, Mr Stayed Inside And Kept My Own Test Scorebook When I Was Young On Warm Days In The Summer. Then lost interest in cricket briefly when you reached seventeen and first heard The Velvet Underground / Joy Division / Pixies / Radiohead. And then managed to amalgamate both these obsessions, to the disdain of girlfriends and wives, and other members of the family as you tried to keep track of the third day's play from Trent Bridge during your sister's wedding reception.

And there's a third strand that is hardly alien to many of these types, among which number I grudgingly admit membership. A love of wordplay. A deep appreciation for accomplished dad jokes many years before you became a parent. An aspiration to compete in the annual Times Crossword Challenge (something that one member of 'Friends of Sombrero Fallout' has not only achieved, but also won, I can reveal).

So here is that tracklist. I'm only sorry I wasn't able to include Between The Wars by Billy Bragg - a tribute to Shane Warne standing at second slip between the Waugh twins. A pun too far, I'm afraid, and my conscience wouldn't allow it.

Tracklist:-

Australians In Europe, The Fall (a brief history of The Ashes Up Over)

The call up, The Clash ('It's up to you not to heed the call up': for Geoff Boycott in the 1970s)

Midnight in a perfect world, DJ Shadow (for cricket lovers tuning in back in England during a Southern Hemisphere Ashes)

Heart cooks brain, Modest Mouse (a bumper sticker tribute to Alastair Cook's captaincy)

Monty got a raw deal, REM (for Monty Panesar)

At home he's a tourist, The Gang of Four (for Kevin Pietersen)

Why won't they talk to me, Tame Impala (also for Kevin Pietersen)

The first cut is the deepest, PP Arnold (till the opposition placed a third man there for the shot)

Hard drive, Evan Dando (in honour of Michael Vaughan's on-drive)

I just get caught out, The Go Betweens (for batsmen with a bad habit of playing too early)

I'm stranded, The Saints (for all top order batsmen left not out in the 90s)

I know it's over, The Smiths (grumpy remark addressed by bowler to umpire, taking his sweater after bowling six balls, having had a plumb lbw appeal turned down)

Ashes to Ashes, David Bowie (until the next time)

Episode 11 - Long songs, Volume One

It's funny how we've arrived at an understanding that the three minute pop song lasts, well, three minutes. That films last two hours, and that novels are 300 pages. Actually that last example is interesting, as we're arguably entering a new era of the long-form literary novel with Jonathan Franzen, Donna Tartt, Hanya Yanagihara and Eleanor Cotton winning awards for blockbusters of up to a thousand pages in length. So, why not long songs?

The radio, primarily. If you want to get your song played, three minutes is the way to go. Actually going back to the 60s, two minutes was the norm for radio play, and there are few early Beatles recordings that push up to the three mark. In fact Revolution 9 was pretty much the only example of the group attempting a long song, and that was so far outside the framework of how they operated to be discounted as an outlier.

The early 'seventies might be regarded as the heyday of the long form. Prog rock took itself pretty damn seriously, so a verse-chorus-verse-chorus-middle eight-verse-chorus structure was never going to be an adequate vessel for Tales of Topographic Oceans. This particular album by Yes starts with the twenty minute The Revealing Science of God (Dance of the Dawn) and climaxes with Ritual (Nous Sommes Du Soleil), clocking in at 21:37. No wonder keyboard player Rick Wakeman used to order a takeaway curry to arrive halfway through concerts in those days.

This episode showcases long form songs that neither outstay their welcome or concern themselves with mediaeval kings and the mythos of the Silmarillion. Marquee Moon by Television shows that prog and punk could be blended to brilliant effect and indeed the most staggering thing about Marquee Moon is that it always feels terse and economical. Tracks by Fiery Furnaces, DJ Shadow, the Microphones, Sonic Youth and Car Seat Headrest also demonstrate that experimentation tends to require a broader canvas on which to operate. Of course, this might require the listener to show a little more patience than usual. But the rewards are worthwhile.

Tracklist:-

Teenage Riot, Sonic Youth

Tropical ice land / Rub alcohol blues / We got back the plague, Fiery Furnaces

Changeling, DJ Shadow

The glow, The Microphones

Marquee moon, Television

The ballad of Costa Concordia, Car Seat Headrest