Episode 40 - Home recordings, Part Two

At Sombrero Fallout we’ve been working away diligently for 39 episodes since 2017. After a long break in the middle and, prompted by a couple of passing comments, we decided to start again.

No-one wants to feel they’re shouting down a well and nobody’s listening, whatever they may pretend. Since our Guardian nomination (see Episode 39 blog), listenership has multiplied many times over. We’ve had our first thousand listenership episode, with Songs Recorded At Home, Part One. Stats aren’t terribly important, and yet in another way, they are. It does my desiccated, cynical heart the world of good to know we’re being shared round the world.

This topic here is, once again, songs recorded at home. It is the middle episode of a three-part series, especially relevant to the era of spending rather more time domestically than is ideal.

We’ve got established artists such as Modest Mouse, The Fall, Tame Impala, Sufjan Stevens, The Microphones and Bon Iver. But we’ve also tried to cover more minor artists such as MyKey, Phox and Castlebeat. There’s even Fleetwood frikkin’ Mac, for one night only. I swear though, we’re not selling out.

No, no, no.

Tracklist:

Let it happen, Tame Impala

Oh Anna, The Microphones

I wake up in the city, The Fall

Was it something I said, MyKey

Slow motion, Phox

Creature fear, Bon Iver

Telephone, Castlebeat

Chicago, Sufjan Stevens

Edit the sad parts, Modest Mouse

Tusk, Fleetwood Mac

Episode 39 - Home recordings, Part One

It’s the new normal to talk about ‘crazy times’. But Australia’s just gone into lockdown. We’re all self-isolated now.

Yet it’s an ill wind. Shortly before this podcast was recorded, Sombrero Fallout experienced the single most exciting thing of its life. In the Readers Recommend section of The Guardian newpaper we were featured as the musical podcast to get you through Life In The Time Of the Coronavirus. I can’t say that wasn’t exciting news, off the back of all the absolutely rubbish news. It was!

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2020/mar/20/readers-recommend-podcasts-to-binge-on-while-youre-cooped-up-in-self-isolation

I have therefore hurried to give you another podcast straightaway. You deserve it – and thank you for all our old and new listeners for your support. What theme might be appropriate, you ask. I’ll answer: songs recorded at home. (This is Part One of two.)

Happily they aren’t all lovelorn ballads strummed on a slightly out-of-tune acoustic guitar (though that’s fine too). Suburban Homeboy by Sparks sounds like an entire orchestra got stuffed into the basement of their house. It also bears an uncanny resemblance to the 1970 England World Cup squad’s memorable number one, ‘Back Home’.

And this is the first episode in which someone I was once in a band with appears. It’s Rajan, the bass player from Maroon Town – on the first excellent track, City Riot. We were in The Gloom Brothers together. Listening to it and comparing it to the remainder of Sombrero Fallout, you can maybe see why we went our separate ways. That, and the fact he knew how to play the bass and I could barely sing.

Crazy times, but we’ve got the music and each other. Stay well, stay happy and stay away from everyone else until all this passes.

Tracklist:

City riot, Maroon Town

Pretty girl, Clairo

Echos myron, Guided by Voices

Day is done, Nick Drake

Happy, The Wrens

We fell in love in October, Girl In Red

Faded from the winter, Iron and Wine

Minnesota, The Mountain Goats

Birds, Neil Young

Spoiled, Infinity Crush

Apple blossom, The White Stripes

Ramshackle, Beck

With my face on the floor, Emitt Rhodes

Suburban homeboy, Sparks

Episode 38 - Glam rock

It’s worth remembering that the world has been through much stranger times than these. I was just listening to a podcast on the Thirty Years War of the early seventeenth century. A professor casually mentioned that one theatre of war in northern Italy was affected by an outbreak of plague.

Yes, that plague. This was only 300 years ago – in the heart of Europe. And coronavirus is about one tenth as virulent as ‘plague’ and, for most, about one hundredth as unpleasant.

Still. Everything’s weird right now. The ‘panem et circenses’ that keeps the populace happy in the good times all gone. No gigs, no sport. Actually plenty of ‘panem’ (bread) just no toilet paper for afterwards. Good times for bidet manufacturers.

The early ’seventies were not wildly dissimilar in the England in which I grew up. The miners were discontented and the consequences were profound. You’d go to the bus stop – no buses. Settle down to watch TV – the lights would go out. Football matches were played on weekday afternoons, because no floodlights (at least the matches went ahead).

Into this benighted world stomped glam rock. Bright and loud, garish and glittery, unashamed. The seeds of gender fluidity sewn into the sequins. Periodically over the years groups have reincorporated its sound into their music and that music is also featured here.

But though the lights came back on, the bad times never seemed to really go away. As the ‘seventies lurched on, the joke was so unfunny that the ‘virus’ of glam mutated into something altogether darker whose effects were felt even further afield. Punk rock is the subject for other episodes, but listening to ‘Holidays in the Sun’ by the Sex Pistols sure sounds like the bastard 1977 son of its 1974 parent.

Tracklist:-_

At home, at work, at play, Sparks

Your gang, our gang, The Auteurs

Roll away the stone, Mott the Hoople

Glamorous glue, Morrissey

Virginia Plain, Roxy Music

I believe in a thing called love, The Darkness

Do you wanna touch me there (oh yeah), Joan Jett and the Blackhearts

Clap your hands and stamp your feet, Bonnie St Claire

Some weird sin, Iggy Pop

Glam-racket, The Fall

Dog eat dog, Adam and the Ants

Metal guru, T Rex

White car in Germany, The Associates

See my baby jive, Wizzard

Episode 37 - A tribute to Andy Gill (The Gang of Four)

It’s 25th January 1981.

Four leading figures from Britain’s Labour Party launch the Social Democratic Party. They are known collectively as the “Gang Of Four”, a political reference to the cabal who had come to power in China during the Cultural Revolution.

On the very same day Leeds band The Gang Of Four are playing the Locarno, Coventry, supported by the Delta 5 and Pere Ubu. A seminal band and a seminal gig for me. Afterwards, nothing would ever be quite the same again. It’s the Lesser Free Trade Hall Sex Pistols experience in my own little universe. I understood for the first time the power of live performance and in my personal grading system this went to number one gig It’s stayed there ever since.

Part of what made it a revelation was the performance of Andy Gill. He didn’t seem to play his instrument like normal guitarists. It was more a piece of industrial equipment, sparking off the innovative funk-punk scaffolding of the drum and bass, interweaving round the Marxist critique of singer Jon King. It was disciplined yet incendiary, innovative but the epitome of ‘rock n roll’.

Afterwards I asked the friend I went with if he’d been similarly blown away. He replied that they were good, sure. But he was seeing Bowie soon and that would be the real deal. He had a car and I didn’t but on the drive home I must admit I had a teenage sulk about his comment.

Now Andy Gill’s gone.

I saw Andy perform Entertainment!, the first seminal album, in its entirety just before last Christmas. He had lost nothing. It would be nice to think that right now he’s forming a group in heaven, fronted by Mark E Smith. In some other part of the multiverse this is, of course, actually happening.

So a small part of my brain is for ever freeze-framed on a wet and blustery evening in a shonky Midlands town in January 1981. Thanks, Andy, you changed my life, and on this episode there are a few other bands who, I know, would happily admit to the same epiphany.

Tracklist:

At home he’s a tourist, The Gang of Four

Set-up, The Au Pairs

Guns before butter, The Gang of Four

House of jealous lovers, The Rapture

What we all want, The Gang of Four

Dance to the underground, Radio 4

Ether, The Gang of Four

Conversation, Dry Cleaning

Paralysed, The Gang of Four

Mr Your On Fire Mr, Liars

Anthrax, The Gang of Four

Damaged Goods, The Gang of Four

Episode 35 - Women to watch in the 2020s

When I put together the Best Of Decade episodes (33 and 34) I noted with some discomfort at the time that there weren’t quite enough women in there. So here’s a whole shoalworth of female mp3s for your listening delight.

For me the best bands have a bigger concept in which they operate. For me, anyway. This is not a view shared, for example, by my wife and eldest son. For them, the music is the music, they can’t even remember who it’s by half the time. But that’s OK. Chacun a son gout.

But, take Let’s Eat Grandma as an exemplar.

To start with, they’re from Norwich, which gives them a head start. I like Norfolk. And Alan Partridge, it goes without saying.

Then there’s the fact the two women in the band met at primary school when they were four. If you’re listening, Adrian Troughton, it’s not too late for us to form a group. In fact, we’ve probably both got a bit of time on our hands now, so if not now, when?

Their song featured here (Falling Into Me) could reasonably be described a jaunty postmodern epic, I suppose, but they self diagnose as ‘sludge pop’. The lyrics are terrific too. I pave the backstreet with the mist of my brain.

Most importantly their band name is a grammatical joke. A piece of paronomasia if you will, and since I’m in pompous mood, you will have to. Insert a comma and you’ll get the idea.

So here are some women who are going to be cracking the decade wide open! Well, some will and some won’t, but it barely matters. We’ve got these songs for now, who knows what the future will bring? Enjoy the 2020s.

Tracklist:-

Body, Julia Jacklin

Magic of Meghan, Dry Cleaning

PBNJ, Sneaks

The conservation of energy, Vanishing Twin

Cattails, Big Thief

Romance, Ex:Re

Falling into me, Let’s Eat Grandma

Heat wave, Snail Mail

Sea calls me home, Julia Holter

Moon begins, Florist

Stranger, Jess Ribeiro

Suddenly, Drugdealer and Weyes Blood

Episode 34 - Best of the 2010s, Tracks 10-1

Only think of the bands that didn’t make the Top 20. Inevitably, really. Ten years of music is a lot of songs and a lot of bands. But, still, many regrets that there was no place for…

LCD Soundsystem, Half Man Half Biscuit, Idles, Belle and Sebastian, Ought, Parquet Courts, Car Seat Headrest, Real Estate, Slowdive, Beck, Grimes, Modest Mouse, Mountain Goats, St Etienne, Sonic Youth, Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, The Purple Mountains, Bill Callahan, Big Thief, Bon Iver, Boards of Canada, Snail Mail, Eleanor Friedberger, Low, Yo La Tengo and on and on and on ...

John Peel once said he’d prefer to air the songs that came in at 51-100 in his own annual Festive 50. Maybe in the future there could be an episode where we get to hear some choice outtakes.

Meantime, however, here’s the Sombrero Fallout Top 10 for the 2010s.

Tracklist:-

10. Desire Lines, Deerhunter

9. Keep on lying, Tame Impala

8. New York, St Vincent

7. You let my tyres down, Tropical Fuck Storm

6. Seaweed, Mount Eerie

5. Two thousand and seventeen, Four Tet

4. Ben’s my friend, Sun Kil Moon

3. Bury Parts 1 & 3, The Fall

2. Walk in the park, Beach House

1. Party in the dark, Mogwai

Episode 33- Best of the 2010s, Tracks 20-11

After a gap of 18 months, Sombrero Fallout is alive and kicking.

As I mentioned in the podcast, I’m very grateful to a couple of people in particular who pushed me over the edge. Maybe that’s not quite the right expression - who inspired me to pick up my trusty Audio-Technica microphone and to return to the recording studio, aka our kitchen table, viz Michael Justin and Isabel Dupey. But others also.

The 2010s have not necessarily been Sombrero Fallout’s favourite musical decade. However each brings its own magic, myth, mirth and mystery. It’s hard to find a discernible pattern in the choices here, but perhaps that is the pattern from now on: the postmodern world, the mosaic of fragmentation.

Plenty of bangin’ songs though. One great thing about living in Melbourne is the opportunity to see all the Northern Hemisphere bands as they pass through, escaping their winter. I’ve seen most of these artists in the last decade. And an additional pleasure has been seeing my own children embark on their own alternative musical journeys over these ten years.

(I’m a bit rusty and forgot to name check the last artist on the podcast itself: it’s Richard Dawson from his album ‘2020’ and ‘Two Halves’).

Barry Davies, the football commentator, for whom every match was a moral confrontation, once exclaimed: “Look at his face! Just look at his face!”. That after a striker had reeled away in delight having belted the ball into the old onion bag. I imagine you’ll be running around the guest bedroom hollering, “Listen to this! Just listen to this!” in about an hour’s time.

Tracklist:

20. Ready to start, Arcade Fire

19. Intro, The xx

18. R U mine?, The Arctic Monkeys

17. Troublemaker, Camera Obscura

16. Bloodbuzz Ohio, The National

15. Death with dignity, Sufjan Stevens

14. A private understanding, Protomartyr

13. Venice bitch, Lana del Rey

12. Mars, Caribou

11. Two halves, Richard Dawson

Episode 32 - 1979: Peak Post Punk, Part Two

A measure of how brilliant 1979 was for music is a setlist that didn't make it onto either of these podcasts. Which is:-

The Staircase, Siouxsie and the Banshees

Car Trouble, Adam and the Ants

Permafrost, Magazine

Going through the motions, The Prefects

Dream Baby Dream, Suicide

Suspect Device, Stiff Little Fingers

Human Fly, The Cramps

TV As Eyes, Chrome

Get Over You, The Undertones

Empire State Human, The Human League

Oliver's Army, Elvis Costello

Making plans for Nigel, XTC

Sweet Gene Vincent, Ian Dury

The Fabulous Sequel, Pere Ubu

Kingdom Come, Tom Verlaine

Are 'Friends' Electric, Tubeway Army

Cars, Gary Numan

Bibbly-o-tek, Scritti Politti

24 Track Loop, This Heat

From here to eternity, The Only Ones

Like spoons no more, The Mekons

Oliver's Army, Elvis Costello and the Attractions

On a personal note, that is all for this series of Sombrero Fallout. I've loved every minute of it. If only it paid a small salary, it would never end. I've loved reconnecting with so many old friends, and making some new ones too. Thank you for your warm support and encouragement in this trip into the unknown. I hope to be back before too long.

Tracklist:-

Map Ref 41 deg N, 93 deg W, Wire 

Cities, Talking Heads 

Nag nag nag, Cabaret Voltaire 

Typical Girls, The Slits 

Memories, PIL

My Mind Dub, Augustus Pablo 

Strange Town, The Jam 

People Say, The Go Betweens  

Rebellious Jukebox, The Fall 

Don’t throw ashtrays at me, Swell Maps

You, Kleenex 

Messages, OMD 

She is beyond good and evil, The Pop Group

Powderfinger, Neil Young

Boys Don’t Cry, The Cure 

Transmission, Joy Division

Episode 31 - 1979: Peak Post Punk, Part One

1979. What a year to be alive.

Actually it wasn't that great. Britain, where I grew up, seemed to have been going downhill as the '70s swerved crazily from side to side, with no obvious sign of anti-skid braking. Culminating in the Winter of Discontent, with bodies piling up unburied, as even the gravediggers went on strike (I don't really remember that, but it's entered the mythology). I do remember long cold mornings waiting for the Number 15 to take me to school, when sometimes it turned out the bus drivers had caught the strike bug as well.

A new broom Tory Party swept to victory in May with all that that entailed. More pressingly for me, I was worried my inadequacies in Plato and Greek Prose would expose me in my 'A' Level exams looming on the horizon. Just as alarmingly, there was no immediate queue of girls wanting to have their way with me. I can't say I blamed them.

Musically however, 1979 was as good as it got. For post-punk, anyway. The concept of progress, to which I unconsciously subscribed, suggested that music would just get better and better from hereon in. Punk had metamorphosed into a multi-tentacled, multi-genre "New Wave" thing called post-punk, all of which I found thoroughly intriguing. In fact this 'progress' came to a juddering halt sometime in the second half of 1980. The end of Joy Division spelled the beginning of the end for the post-punk project (whatever that means). Before long Spandau Ballet became an alternative. To what?

My access to new sounds was threefold. John Peel, 10-12, Mondays to Thursdays, Radio 1. The NME. And, equally importantly, the record lending department attached to Coventry Central Library. Innocent times, when a really long undanceable song with no chorus about robot prostitutes could get to number one. A year so brimful of good music that quite a few chart toppers even were wonderful. I didn't find room for Are Friends Electric? on either of these shows, so spoiled for choice were we. Heart of Glass got to number one too! Although the gospel ballad One Day At A Time by Lena Martell made it to the top in 1979, we must faithfully record; as did I Don't Like Mondays, a song I heartily despise.

So many musical styles on this show, you're bound to find something that pleases. If not, I suspect Sombrero Fallout maybe isn't your thing. Part Two to follow very shortly.

Tracklist:-

Rudie, A Message to You, The Specials

Revolution Rock, The Clash

Fairytale in the supermarket, The Raincoats

5.45, The Gang of Four

Unconquered people, Israel Vibration

Bouncing Babies, The Teardrop Explodes

Pictures on my wall, Echo and the Bunnymen

Into the valley, The Skids

Do the du, A Certain Ratio

Hot on the heels of love, Throbbing Gristle

Heart of glass, Blondie

Irie Nyah Keith, Burning Spear

Duchess, The Stranglers

California uber alles, Dead Kennedies