Episode 130 - The Legacy of Young Marble Giants

Young Marble Giants. Everything about them was cool.

1.   Welsh, like John Cale and Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci. Outside the mainstream and going their own way. Uninfluenced by other bands hanging out in Camden Town, say.

2.   Only recorded one album, like Josef K, The Monks, Life Without Buildings, Madvillain and The Postal Service.

3.   Everyone talks about Debbie Harry, Viv Albertine and Siouxsie Sioux but no one mentions Alison Statton. Possibly because she’s now a chiropractor.

4.   Kurt Cobain’s favourite band (alongside The Vaselines).

5.   Colossal Youth and Young Marble Giants refer to the massive kouroi statues of ancient Greece, most likely sculpted according to an original Egyptian design. Something to do with Apollo.

6.   The lyrics are quite odd. What is noddemix?

7.   They supported Cabaret Voltaire in Berlin, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Vancouver and New York, then split up.

8.   Stuart Moxham was a fan of Vini Reilly’s early work.

9.   He was also very interested in dub reggae.

10. Your friend with the Unknown Pleasures t-shirt has never heard of them.

Playlist:

Brand new life, Young Marble Giants

So long, Fall of Saigon

My name is trouble, Keren Ann

The rip, Portishead

Credit in the straight world, Young Marble Giants

A nod on hold, Ms John Soda

Tears in the typing pool, Broadcast

Smoke and mirrors, The Magnetic Fields

Choci loni, Young Marble Giants

Ne m’oublie pas, Watoo Watoo

Three women, Stereolab

Season of the shark, Yo La Tengo

Constantly changing, Young Marble Giants

Fool, Frankie Cosmos

Red hot cheetos, Clairo

True killer, Sneaks

Final day, Young Marble Giants

Episode 129 - Liverpool and Merseyside

It’s not too hard to see how ports like LA, New York, Glasgow, London and Bristol became musical hotbeds; their geography makes them a cultural melting pot and natural breeding ground. In the early ‘60s, new rock’n’roll discs from the States first landed off the boat in Liverpool.

Now weirdly, I’m not sure I’ve ever been to Liverpool. My son Scott has and spent an enjoyable day pottering round the city. But 43 years of living in the country and I never did get round to a visit, which I regret. Nevertheless, in many ways, growing up in the ‘70s and ‘80s, the whole country navigated under a Merseyside lighthouse.

First off, we were living in a post-Beatles world. They had largely created the landscape in which music in the UK was attempting to organise itself as the ‘70s wore on. Not very successfully. Any band that tried to sound like The Beatles suffered by comparison - perhaps only ELO came close to evolving their sound successfully. But technology had changed (powerful amplification for live performances, not least) and the culture was changing too. New forms emerged and The Moptops, even had they stayed intact, would have struggled to retain their hegemony in an era of heavy metal, prog, disco, reggae and eventually punk.

Then there was the stranglehold Liverpool FC imposed on the footballing landscape. At one point they finished first or second in the league for 14 out of 15 seasons.

And something else as well – the post-industrial wasteland that the south of the country wanted to forget about and detach itself from. Riots in Toxteth. Condescension from London. In the end, leading to a culture of neglect and callous indifference which facilitated the Hillsborough disaster of 1989.

Is there a Liverpool sound which can tell the story? I struggle to pick out a consistent narrative. There’s always been a debt to America, as befitting a city facing west (via Ireland, of course, another significant influence). In the ‘60s there was Merseybeat, of course. In the early ‘80s a neo-psychedelia with the Teardrop Explodes and the Bunnymen. Since then there’s been a sort of shimmering, twangy sound of bands like The Wild Swans and the LAs that’s not quite my cup of tea. But you may disagree.   

So here’s a Merseyside melange. See what you think.

Tracklist:

The Story of the Blues, Part One, Pete Wylie and the Mighty Wah!

All being fine, King Hannah

Tennis, Courting

Treason, The Teardrop Explodes

Modern kosmology, Jane Weaver

Almost, OMD

One of those things, Beija Flo

Spit on a stranger, Kathryn Williams

Walking with thee, Clinic

Villiers Terrace, Echo and the Bunnymen

Upon 9th and Fairchild, The Boo Radleys

For what is Chatteris?, Half Man Half Biscuit

20, Hannah’s Little Sister

We will last, Shai-Li Paldi

Episode 128 - 30 Years On: 1993 Revisited

It was 30 years ago today - well, this year anyway …

Depeche Mode holds a Q&A on AOL. The event is marred by technical difficulties as many participants, including the band members themselves, have trouble logging on to the chat.

A 51-day stand-off at the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, ends with a fire that kills 76 people, including David Koresh.

The Dissolution of Czechoslovakia separates the Czech Republic (now Czechia!) and Slovakia.

Bill Clinton is sworn in as the 42nd President of the United States.

UK mathematician Andrew Wiles presents his proof of Fermat's Last Theorem, a problem that had been unsolved for more than three centuries.

A van bomb parked below the North Tower of the World Trade Center explodes, killing six people and injuring over one thousand.

In the Australian federal election Paul Keating's Labour Government is re-elected with an increased majority, defeating the Liberal/National Coalition led by John Hewson.

Prince changes his name to an unpronounceable symbol.

Elton John is forced to end a concert in Melbourne half an hour early when a swarm of grasshoppers invades the stage.

Unforgiven wins the Best Picture Oscar.

The top-ranked player in women's tennis Monica Seles is stabbed during a match in Hamburg.

Michael Jackson plays the halftime show of Super Bowl XXVII.

Meanwhile, in the world of alternative music …

Tracklist:

You don’t love me, Steely and Clevie, Dawn Penn

Dream all day, The Posies

Atta girl, Heavenly

Conchita Martinez, Saint Etienne

Wish I was skinny, The Boo Radleys

Jr, Codeine

Marbles, Tindersticks

American guitars, The Auteurs

Tilted, Sugar

Favorite T, The Lemonheads

Drivin’ on 9, The Breeders

Beautiful John, Madder Rose

Brown eyes, The Red House Painters

Into dust, Mazzy Star

Episode 127 - Friendship

A couple of weeks ago in the previous podcast I mentioned I was going tenpin bowling. It’s an activity I enjoy, partly because it features heavily in one of Richard Brautigan’s novels, ‘Willard and his Bowling Trophies’; Brautigan being the author of ‘Sombrero Fallout’, as you may recall. I can’t recommend either book more highly.

Bowling is not something I can recall doing for possibly 25 years, now I come to think of it. But a friend of ours in Book Club, Ollie, has friends who’ve opened up The Keys in Preston, north Melbourne (yes, the suburb analysed in Courtney Barnett’s ‘Depreston’; it’s actually fine). Every year – OK, this is the second year we’ve done it – we have a Partners Event. So, this is where we chose for this year.

I’d driven to the venue, quietly confident, as I secretly “have tickets on myself”, as Aussies like to say, about my bowling abilities. I did, as it turned out, bowl abysmally. By the end, my friends were making mildly encouraging noises if I managed a 7.

There were nine of us there and at the end we asked the guy in the next lane if he’d take a photo of us. Which he did, and, unusually for these occasions, it captures everyone well. We wandered outside. There was some chat about holiday arrangements, work contracts, the date for the next meeting to discuss this month’s book. One of us was thinking of a change of career. Someone else’s brother-in-law was moving house. My wife had a chat with Gab, the wife of our founder, about children’s literacy, a shared passion.

There was a lot of laughter, but not the brittle or stagey kind. Just old friends catching up.

Two days later my wife and I were driving when a call came from one of our members who suggested we brace ourselves. Gab had had a stroke in the bookshop where she worked and was in a coma in ICU. We didn’t say much over our cup of coffee after that. Just processing.

By the next weekend, Gab had left us.

She was a remarkable woman. An award-winning novelist and a mother to three wonderful children. I’d been interviewed by one of them about this podcast quite recently for a project he’s doing. Andrew and she were the most loving 25-year-married couple that any of us knew. Karate, the crossword or walks with the dog, they really did everything together.

The funeral was overwhelming, emotionally. How could it not be? The church was standing room only. But five of us from our Music Club, of which Andrew is also a member, caught up last night and it was good to have the space to reflect with him and eat pizza. Drink wine and start to tentatively laugh a little.

Well, coincidentally, I was going to do a podcast about friendship for this edition anyway. But sometimes art and life collide. None of us get out of here alive, but it’s OK to feel sad and pay our tributes to those moving on, as we all will one day. When someone blithely recommends living each day as if it were your last, and talk turns to the content of that day, don’t forget a quiet afternoon catching up with friends is as good an answer as any.

This podcast is for Gab.

Setlist:

Sunspots, Julian Cope

Happy new year, Let’s Eat Grandma

History lesson Part 2, The Minutemen

Can’t stand me now, The Libertines

Twin layers of lightning, The Go-Betweens

Rebel girl, Bikini Kill

Smith & Jones forever, The Silver Jews

Friends of mine, The Zombies

These are your friends, Adem

Eleven weeks, Vansire

My drug buddy, The Lemonheads

Friends, The Wannadies

You should always keep in touch with your friends, The Wedding Present

All the bands my mates can’t stand, Pete Drake

History lesson Part 2, Horsegirl

Episode 126 - Folktronica

The turn of the century was a funny old time. The climate thing was surely far enough away, and anyway Al Gore looked on course to be elected president in the States. He’d sort everything out.The OJ Simpson Trial seemed to have delivered the wrong verdict, but it wasn’t directly affecting too many people’s lives. Anyone with investments or a pension pot was quite happy with how their portfolio had performed during the ‘90s. The UK had elected a dynamic young prime minister. Tech companies were sprouting up all over the place, solving everything forever. Was life just going to get better and better for everyone?

Of course, it wasn’t. It’s been going backwards ever since.

But one album did pop up in May 2001, that was, in its own way, a Space Odyssey. I like to think of it in retrospect as a Janus-like album, in the best possible sense. Harking back to old verities but open to the possibilities of the twenty-first century. Machine-based but essentially human. The chatter of the office and the languor of the park. As one “jasonh” put it in a user review:-

“A one-man mission to bring folk music kicking and screaming into the 21st century...slips effortlessly between genres, adding hip-hop and R'n'B to an already potent mix of influence... has the ability to create exquisite soundscapes that are also moving expressions of human emotion.”

So, this is where I first came across the word “folktronica” though I’m not certain where. Possibly in the NME. And here’s an episode about how the genre unfolded (though, as with punk, it turns out it kinda existed already – the episode starts with the pastoral-electronic amalgam of Ultramarine’s 1991 album “Every Man And Woman Is.A Star”).

It won’t be for everyone, but I hope it works for you.

Tracklist:

Discovery, Ultramarine

Turquoise Hexagon Sun, Boards of Canada

Everything is alright, Four Tet

Now there’s that fear again, Mum

Hendrix with KO, Caribou

Space walk, Lemon Jelly

Tiger, my friend, Psapp

What’s a girl to do, Bat for Lashes

No.1 Lent et Douloureux, Isan

Mountaintops in caves, Talkdemonic

Haikuesque (when she laughs), Bibio

Yay, Zammuto

Worth it, Moses Sumney

Widow’s peak, Odetta Hartman

Episode 125 - Those we lost in 2022

Personal memories of those we lost in 2022.

 Chris Bailey of The Saints. Only really when I got to Australia did I grasp how much this band meant to music lovers here.

Terry Hall of The Specials. Son of a Coventry car worker, like me. More successful singer in a band than me.

Jeremiah Green of Modest Mouse. Recall listening to The Moon and Antarctica for the first time on a bike ride. A long journey for people with drumming to think about, so to speak.

Martin Duffy of Felt. On the podcast I announce the demise of Lawrence, the lead singer in Felt. Not my finest moment. My apologies to him if he’s listening or reading.

Daryl Hunt of The Pogues. Sitting outside a pub in the summer in the late ‘80s. A car pulled up and A Pair of Brown Eyes was playing on the car stereo. Big smiles on the face of the driver and passenger.

D H Peligro of The Dead Kennedys. Went to see them once but accidentally left before they came on stage.

Jet Black of The Stranglers. An old friend from university was quite simply obsessed by The Stranglers when he arrived. By the time he left he never listened to them. We all do a lot of growing up during those years, but The Stranglers have their place.

Cathal Coughlan of Microdisney and The Fatima Mansions. Hugely underrated Cork stalwart of the alternative scene.

Julee Cruise and Angelo Badalamenti. From a time when the arrival of Twin Peaks on TV was a major water cooler conversation event. The irritating types in the office went round for a few weeks saying ‘Damn fine cup of coffee’.

Mark Lanegan of The Screaming Trees and other bands. A man whose voice was matched by his features, in the best possible way.

Ricky Gardiner from Iggy Pop’s band. Going round to see my friend Stuart when I was 16 and him playing me Turn Blue. Didn’t realise it was about heroin withdrawal.

R Dean Taylor. One of the first artists I recall hearing on the radio in the late ‘60s.

Mike Bryson of Bogshed. Derek Pringle, English test cricketer, was a fan of the band which immediately endeared him to me. His bowling was never that good though. Derek’s not Mike’s.

Wilko Johnson of Dr Feelgood. Remember seeing them on a kids’ TV show in the mid ‘70s and being impressed by his starey eyes. Magpie the show, maybe?

Nicky Tesco of The Members. One-hit wonders, but that’s one more hit than 99% of bands.

Andy Fletcher of Depeche Mode. There was always a darker undertow to the surface sweetness of DM I quite liked.

And not forgetting Ronnie Spector. Dennis Wilson listened to Be My Baby thousands of times.

Tracklist:

This perfect day, The Saints

Stereotype, The Specials

Dramamine, Modest Mouse

Primitive Painters, Felt

Thousands are sailing, The Pogues

Holiday in Cambodia, The Dead Kennedys

Hanging around, The Stranglers

Only losers take the bus, Fatima Mansions

Falling, Julee Cruise

Deus ibi est, Isobel Campbell, Mark Lanegan

Neighborhood threat, Iggy Pop

There’s a ghost in my house, R Dean Taylor

Tried and tested public speaker, Bog-shed

Milk and alcohol, Dr Feelgood

The sound of the suburbs, The Members

See you, Depeche Mode

Episode 124 - Festive Forthy 2022 Pt 3, #14-#1

Some deep lyrics in our final episode of the year:

Sudan Archives uses her hair anxiety to hint at deeper self-doubt:

Okay, one time if I grow it long
Am I good enough, am I good enough?
About time I embrace myself and soul
Time I feed my selfish soul

Jenny Hval is concerned that getting married wasn’t just “signing the papers” but that she might have betrayed her principles.

"It's just for contractual reasons, " I explained
Signing the papers
As if I truly believed that a contract was further
From the institution than the industrial happiness complex”

It’s not entirely obvious what Florence Shaw from Dry Cleaning wants to tell us, but it sounds like it could be important.

I don't want to empty your bank account
And give you nightmares
But we're in the middle of what they call 'three financial eclipses'
Is it still okay to call you 'my disco pickle'?

Emily Sprague of Florist has created a beautiful tribute to her father, now that her mother is no longer there.

I've seen photos of the living room, we didn't have a lot
And the house needed some work done, so you did it all yourself
For a feeling of family, a place we could call home now

So comes another year now, did you ever even think
We'd both be back here looking out at this beautiful place?
Seeing nothing, but the glow of memory
And a void in our vision where she would be

Earlier in our rundown The Beths introduced a brilliant metaphor from academia to describe the end of the affair, when just one of the two protagonists curates the relationship in their minds: an expert in a dying field. In Superstar, Victoria from Beach House uses the imagery of quite literally a super star.

When you were mine, we fell across the sky
It may be out of sight, but never out of mind

Out there on the run, you're not the only one
Shadow from the sun, backlit up against the wall

Superstar / Shining far

And finally B J Lenderman critiques a pursuit of materialism not with barbed vitriol, but with a world-weary acknowledgement that things can stave off an existential crisis, for a short while at least. Then, of course, we’ll be back where we were.

It's plain to me to see
You have bought yourself a boat
Since the last time you and me spoke
Your laundry looks so pretty
Soft threads hanging and relaxing in the wind
You'll feel so much better when you wear these clothes again

That’s it for another year. I hope I passed the audition.

Tracklist:

14. Selfish soul, Sudan Archives

13. Year of love, Jenny Hval

12. Comparing saviors and friends, Catcher

11. Dried roses, Big Thief

10. Hot penny day, Dry Cleaning

9. Autumn song, Laura Veirs

8. Night vision, Kiwi Jr

7.Red bird Pt2 (Morning), Florist

6. Eight fivers, Gilla Band

5. Childish things, Honeyglaze

4. Anti-glory, Horsegirl

3. Fear of heights, Been Stellar

2. Superstar, Beach House

1. You have bought yourself a boat, M J Lenderman

Episode 123 - Festive Forthy 2022 Pt2, #27-15

USA, Australia, England, Belgium, Canada, Scotland, Singapore. It’s a microcosm of Sombrero Fallout’s geographical spread this middle episode of our annual round up. And a mix of the new, the emerging and the established.

Amongst the established, most are harbouring some private demons: the distinctive Geordie insights of Richard Dawson revealing the everyday sadnesses of life in the health service; Camera Obscura making a highly welcome comeback after the death of a band member; and Phoebe Bridgers proving that selling millions does not provide immunity from feelings of depression (or producing excellent music either, for that matter). As far as I know, Alvvays aren’t battling any particular issues – but that’s the mistake we frequently make in life. A cheery exterior can so often mask a interior in turmoil.

Emerging artists who’ve appeared on the show before include Sydney’s Lazy Eyes; last year’s #1 artist, English Teacher; the hugely impressive Jockstrap here with intriguing echoes of both Eleanor Friedberger and Joni Mitchell against a folktronica backdrop; and the mesmeric Nilufer Yanya.

New artists too with some classic postpunk (if that’s not too overworked a catch-all) from Silverbacks, Bodega and Cola. Then we travel further afield for what might be described as cyber-glitch-acoustics, probably inaccurately, from Yeule, and some scathing social commentary wrapped in dance rhythms from Charlotte Adigery and Bolis Pupul.

So much to love about 2022.

Tracklist:

27. Wear my medals, Silverbacks

26. Where’s my brain???, The Lazy Eyes

25. Thrown, Bodega

24. A55, English Teacher

23. Blenda, Charlotte Adigery, Bolis Pupul

22. Pharmacist, Alvvays

21. Sidelines, Phoebe Bridgers

20. Midnight sun, Nilufer Yanya

19. Glasgow, Jockstrap

18. So excited, Cola

17. Money matters, Camera Obscura

16. Thicker than water, Richard Dawson

15. Don’t be so hard on your own beauty, Yeule

Episode 122 - Festive Forthy 2022 Pt 1, #40-28

When we reflect on the past, our mind tends to dwell on the highlights. The mountain peaks peeping through the clouds. I do it, we all do it, it’s human nature.

So, 1979 was a great year for music, for example, in my opinion, a view probably shared by a fair number of people who listen to this podcast. So was 1978 and 1980. But 1979 also had Lena Martell’s ‘One day at a time’ as a Number One in the UK, as was ‘When you’re in love with a beautiful woman’ by Dr Hook. The year finished with ‘YMCA’ in top position.

The past is rarely what it was cracked up to be.

And so, to the present. I could easily have run a Top 100 for the year, so much good music is being pumped out. But before I started doing this podcast and before Spotify made navigating new music much easier (for all of its drawbacks, some real, some imaginary), I would not have put in the hard yards to find it. There are, after all, only so many hours in the day.

So, I sympathise with people around my age who hanker after the past. We all do that. But if you know someone who is in danger of becoming an “In my day” merchant, why not send them a link to this podcast and the two coming up.

A special mention to Katie Bejsiuk at #38 and let us not forget the continuing war in Ukraine and in other parts of the world where citizens suffer the tragedies of conflict.

 Tracklist:

 40. Speeding 72, Momma

 39. Born 100 times, Empath

 38. Mother’s records, Katie Bejsiuk

 37. That I won’t do, fanclubwallet

 36. The right reasons, Carla Geneve

 35. Reset my password, Public Body

 34. Welcome to hell, Black Midi

 33. The Bay of Fundy, The Unthanks

 32. Ploys, Working Men’s Club

 31. Meal deal, Panic Shack

 30. Expert in a dying field, The Beths

 29. Just stay in bed, Nina Nastassia

 28. Rogation Sunday’s here again, Half Man Half Biscuit

Episode 121 - Before They Found Their Sound

For anyone who’s ever seen the mockumentary (more or less everyone), there’s a glorious montage early on as Spinal Tap cycle through the ‘sixties. The moptop phase, the psychedelia, the proto-heavy metal. And not that far from the truth either. The Rutles also did it well. But it is hard for bands to be sure what their sound actually is. And the minute they do have it nailed, they’re already playing catch up as the world endlessly mutates.

Most bands start off being inspired by their heroes. Every band who saw the Velvet Underground or the Pistols thought – we could have a go at that. Then bit by bit some of them start incorporating new sounds, start listening to other genres, fiddle with their guitar tunings, get a new member in who’s been listening to something else, and before you know it, a band starts creating a whole new sound of their own.

There are some lovely quasi-Tapesque moments on this episode. Status Quo discovering what an effects pedal does and having a go at psychedelia; The Flaming Lips convinced their thing will be noise wig outs; Blondie cosplaying a punk band playing disco; The Cure reading out cake mix instructions; Adam and the Ants without the tribal drums. It seems obvious in retrospect what their thing is, but that’s Captain Hindsight talking. Tyrannosaurus Rex coughed up 5 albums celebrating elves and mushrooms before they found lasting fame with glam rock stompers.

You might wish Robert Pollard had stayed in his Dayton, Ohio basement or Primal Scream had remained indie purists or New Order had never gone to Ibiza. But at least we have these fragmentary glimpses of the roads not taken. And, after all, there’s art and there’s money. Do you want to be schlepping round Wyoming in a transit van in your mid-30s?  

There is another category of group that, not to put too fine a point on it, sell their souls to the devil. No one wants to listen to Red, Red Wine by UB40. I don’t even know what late-period Simple Minds sounds like, but I’m virtually certain it’s not good. But long before that those bands sounded interesting and innovative. Honestly, To Cut A Long Story Short and New Year’s Day aren’t that bad. Spandau Ballet and U2 could have gone in more than one direction from there.

One Direction? Didn’t they start off as industrial goth?

Tracklist:

Talk about the passion, REM

Deborarobed, T Rex

Once I had a love, Blondie

Run into flowers, M83

14 cheerleader coldfront, Guided by Voices

Velocity girl, Primal Scream

With you, The Flaming Lips

See Emily play, Pink Floyd

Pictures of matchstick men, Status Quo

So what, The Cure

Zerox, Adam and the Ants

ICB, New Order

King, UB40

Seeing out the angel, Simple Minds