International Teachers of Pop - After Dark

A brand new-ish Friday banger courtesy of those International Teachers of Pop. Shades of Ladytron at their icy pop best.

The Shadracks - When I Can't Remember

Wonderfully raw garage pop from bright young things The Shadracks, rather brilliantly (un)produced by a certain Mr Billy Childish esq.

Morphine - Cure for Pain

I picked up two copies of Morphine's Cure for Pain album over the weekend...and promptly put them back on the shelf again as I'd only vaguely heard of the band and didn't want to waste 66p. Oh foolish Baron. It turns out that Morphine are/were something of a hidden jazzy, bluesy, alt rock gem. Returning to the charity shop in question both CDs were, of course, gone so I've just spunked almost £9 on a copy from eBay (clearly I'm not the only one who's a recent convert). Anyway, have a listen. It might not be your bag but if it is I suspect you'll get as addicted as me...

PS: Sadly Morphine is no more as lead singer Mark Sandman died of a heart attack in stage way back in 1999. He was just 46.

PPS: Here's another one. How good is this?!

Sheila E - Sex Cymbal

Picked up another big haul of cheapo CDs at the weekend including stuff from Sigur Ros, The Blue Nile, The Wonderstuff, Buddy Rich, The Pixies and one time Prince collaborator Sheila E...13 CDs in total for a mere £5. Good grief. I've wittered on about how cheap CDs are now and, sure, you can just stream most of the tracks for free but that's a faff and generally the quality's a bag a shite so, if you've got the room and a half decent stereo there's simply never been a better time to fill your boots. Plus, is it just me or are those little shiny discs starting to feel a little retro cool...? 

The Breeders - Divine Hammer

Oh boy we could do with 'one divine hammer' right now. I can think of quite a few politicians I'd like to see squished by it too...

M.C. Syn-Dee - Best To Be A Girl

Got given a bunch of records the other week and this is pretty much the only one I hadn't heard before, a lovely little slice of late 80s girl rap a la Neneh Cherry. No idea what happened to M.C. Syn-Dee but clearly John Peel was a bit of a fan. Who knew eh?

Hen Ogledd - Problem Child

Cop a load of this. Everything Everything meets Peter Gabriel in some remote Welsh village. Really rather excellent all round. Well done Hen Ogledd.

The Nice - America

For some reason this track's been going round and round in my head this morning. What would the news be without endless prattling politicians (from all sides) eh? Still, give it 20 years and the world will be probably be run by 'Google'. In the meantime let's enjoy some rather fine heavy proto prog from 1968! Groovy man. 

Ice Nine Kills - Thank God It's Friday

An album of horror themed metalcore tracks anyone? No? Just me then eh? In honour of both Halloween and the fact that it's ruddy Friday submit your eyes and ears to a little Ice Nine Kills and their throat ripping tribute to the Friday 13th franchise (new album Silver Scream features 13 such tracks...13...spooky eh...I guess 666 was a bit of a stretch for 'em). Play it loud and freak out the cat/dog/neighbours.

BED - White Coats

George Formby yesterday and BED (Baxter Dury, Etienne de Crecy and Delilah Holliday) today, who says variety's dead eh? This track's been gradually growing on me over the past few weeks and now resistance is futile. Two minutes of utter wonky pop perfection.

If this floats yer boat then I can heartily recommend Baxter Dury's 2017 album Prince Of Tears. His old man (Ian Dury of 'and the Blockheads' fame) would be dead proud...

George Formby - My Plus Fours

As regular readers will know I've got pretty broad tastes but even so this has to be the first time I've stuck up a George Formby track. There's a good reason though, after several years of searching I finally found a proper vintage pair of tweed Plus Fours on Friday for the absolute bargain price of £1. Yes. £1. Okay so there's the odd hole here and there but what the hell do you expect for £1. I reckon even George would be impressed.

PS: Ever wanted to hear a dance remix of When I'm Cleaning Windows? Your wish is my command.

Army Of Lovers - Crucified

Caught the video for this on one of the squillions of music channels the other night and simply couldn't resist popping it up on the Aid once again. If you've never heard/seen it before pour yourself a cup of something alcoholic, shut the curtains, dim the lights and revel in three and a half minutes of pure musical gold.

Bowie at Glastonbury

We did 10 Glastonbury's back in the day, thankfully most of them before the whole thing became more corporate and 'trendy'. Yes, it really was possible to wander in to HMV in Brum a few weeks before the event and buy tickets over the counter. Now? Now you have to have 600 computers all set up to try to secure a ticket when they go on sale at 3am on a Sunday morning in October. OCTOBER! That's almost a ruddy year before the event. And don't get me started on the price. But still, we had some fine moments at Glasto and they don't get much finer than watching Bowie live back in 2000 in arguably one of his greatest performances. Apparently only a few tracks were shown on telly at the time but the whole shebang was recorded and it's being shown on BBC 4 this Friday night. I don't remember much of the gig so it'll be nice to see / hear it again but I do recall getting a little emotional over Heroes. Maybe it was the cider, the lack of sleep, the 'erb or just the feeling of being surrounded by lord knows how many thousands of people sharing an experience that you just knew would go down in musical history but watching this clip takes me right back to that moment 18 (18!!!!) years ago.

Win - You've Got The Power

Back to the 80s for this week's Friday banger and Win with You've Got The Power which, if you're as ancient as me you may remember from an ad for 'orrible lager.

PS: In the highly unlikely event that you're in Dawlish (South Devon) this weekend Lady Baron and I will be flogging some vintage loveliness at this:

Misty's Big Compilation

News reaches the Aid that a Misty's Big Adventure greatest hits (well they would have been hits in a better world) compilation is in the offing, hopefully it's at least 10 albums long...at the very least. Misty's were/are one of my absolute favourite bands of all time and the fact that the rest of the world doesn't feel the same way saddens me more than the sight of Theresa May at a disco dancing competition. Anyway, above this nonsense is a little heard Misty's gem from their Grumpier Fun album. Enjoy.

PS: And as a bonus here's a lovely vid for I Can't Bring The Time Back too.

"What, you been down Bearwood...?"

Somewhat unbelievably it's three years to the day that Lady Baron and I left Poplar Road in Bearwood, where we'd lived for a mere 21 years, and decamped to Devon. So that's a perfect excuse for another airing of possibly the only song in history to mention Bearwood, Dexy's seminal What's She Like. While we're at it here's a cracking track from ex Dexy's man and current Bearwood (or close by at least) resident Pete Williams. Ar bab, it was good in the 'wood.

The Good Water - Tell Me What To Do

It's been the week (well alright then two days...I've had man flu...) of the trippy vids here on The Aid, first off we had John Grant and now cop a load of this mind melting 60s psych a go go beauty from The Good Water. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrroooooooooooooovy baby.

John Grant - He's Got His Mother's Hips

And the award for trippiest video of 2018 goes to...pause for dramatic effect...John Grant for his video for He's Got His Mother's Hips. It appears as though more than a dozen animators animated their asses off then everything got mashed up into this piece of twisted genius. I'm also guessing that a lorry load of LSD was involved too, either that or some folk need a bowl full of therapy.

Ram Jam - Black Betty

Okay so if you have ears you'll know this track. It's a stone cold classic Friday banger. But have you ever seen the vid? Nope, me neither. Man, they're some hairy assed dudes.

Of course they weren't responsible for the song, it's true origins are lost in the mists of time, but Leadbelly recorded one of the earliest versions without guitar, drums, bass...er anything apart from a hand and a knee by the sounds of it.

Crass - So What

It's heartening to see/hear a little of the punk spirit coming back into music these days (see Idles, Honeyblood, Savages, Sleaford Mods etc) but will there ever be a more 'punk' outfit than Crass eh? I'm sure there's a load of footage, docs, interviews etc on You Tube but for a potted history of a band that really should be better known the ever reliable (well, unless someone's hacked into the thing and rewritten history) Wikipedia's not a bad place to start.