Pozi - The Nightmare

Not been the best of weeks. Raging toothache over the weekend and a bit of a temperature which, in these times, set off the old alarm bells. Cue calls to the Doctor, a remote diagnosis of a possible abscess...nice eh, a Coronavirus test, and three days of self isolation until the all clear came through (fair play to the NHS...or whoever's doing this stuff, tests delivered on Tuesday, sent back and received by them on Wednesday and results by Thursday morning). Then all I had to do was find a dentist willing to see me, which thanks to the loveliest bloke in the world happened yesterday. Okay, so the whole thing was wrapped up in a week but I'm persistent, persuasive and other words beginning with 'p'...how do older people (and/or those without access to tech) cope these days? Gawd help us all if we end up with another lockdown in the winter too, that's almost too grim a thought to imagine. Oh well, at least we have a great tune courtesy of Pozi to soundtrack it all. Enjoy!   

Nice and CD does it...

Still buying CDs by the sackful when I dare venture out to this strange new world that we find ourselves trying to live in and last week picked up The Allman Brothers Live At Fillmore East 1971 for 25p. Yes. 25p. That wasn't the biggest bargain of the day though, that accolade's reserved for the box set of Madonna's first 11 studio albums that cost a whopping £1...that's less than 10p per CD. The 18 year old me would have flipped his lid if you'd told him that one day he'd be buying CDs for less than the cost of a carrier bag but I guess that's progress for you.

Tarred and Feathered by Cardiacs

RIP to Tim Smith of Cardiacs who died today at just 59 after spending 12 years 'locked' in his own body following a heart attack and stroke, poor bugger. I've really not investigated the band as much as I should've done but judging by this piece of beautiful insanity (surely an influence of Modern Life Is Rubbish/Park Life era Blur and quite possibly Mistys Big Adventure too) I really must.
  

Thank Q for the music

I could ramble on for weeks about the sad decline of the physical music press (and the physical world in general...don't get me started) but suffice to say that without the likes of Smash Hits, NME, Melody Maker, Record Mirror, Q, Vox, Select, Mojo and Record Collector my life and musical education would have been a lot less rounded. Most of those names bit the dust ages ago but Q battled bravely on for 34 years only to fall yesterday. I stopped buying it and migrated to Mojo (free CD with every issue) quite some time ago after Q went with more of a list based formula but I must’ve been a loyal buyer and reader for 20 years or so. Goodness knows how many great bands and albums it turned me onto and how many hours I spent happily trawling through every issue (and back in the 80s and 90s some of them were epics)...  

Joy Division Oven Gloves by Half Man Half Biscuit

Friday banger courtesy of HMHB. I bet you can actually buy Joy Division oven gloves these days too...yep...here you go. Quite possibly not authorised by Barney and co though I'm guessing.

Dark Necessities by Red Hot Chili Peppers

Gave the Chili Peppers' most recent album (2016's The Getaway) a spin last night over a cheeky pint of Venton's Apple Vice. The single from it's racked up a mere 271 million plays on You Tube so there's no chance you'll have heard it eh?

Gotta Get Up - Harry Nilsson

Dug this out the other week and it seemed appropriate this morning when I was trying to heave my aching old bones out of bed at 6.27am. Gotta love a little Nilsson on a Monday...

Cud - Through The Roof

Spent a very happy hour or so on Wednesday night lying on the floor listening to a bit of Cud. Did they ever make a duff record? Nope, I don't think they did. And yet they hardly get a mention or any airplay these days. Hang your heads in shame DJs.

Take Back The Radio - Katy J Pearson

I've been meaning to post this track up for weeks now but weeks mean nothing in this strange semi locked down limbo land do they eh? I mean what month is it? April? June? March? Buggered if I know. Anyway this track's as close to pop perfection as you're likely to get with its upbeat catchy chorus, ear wormingly insistent synth line and trumpets...oh yes...trumpets. Why aren't there more trumpets (and brass instruments in general) in music these days? Come on pop kids, get blowing. Hmmm...that sounded better in my head. 

PS: Want to hear a little more from Katy J? Try this...

Melt Yourself Down - It Is What It Is

I was supposed to be spending my 50th birthday back in May with these dudes but the gig was postponed for...well...you know. It was rescheduled for October but that date's just been scrapped too and the gig's now due to take place in March. It sucks for me but it must suck 100% more for the band whose album, 100% YES, comes out today. Still, it is what it is (see what I did there?)...let's hope 2021 is 100% better than 2020 eh? 

Sunflower - Vampire Weekend

Heard this on 6Music this morning and was reminded how great the album (Father Of The Bride...bought for 50p from a charity shop about a month after it came out) is. Plus the weather's so relentlessly shitty, as per the usual British summer, and the crappy coronavirus is still with us that we could all do with a sunflower or two in our lives.

Best Times Ever - Lions Tigers and Bears

Lions Tigers and Bears · Maxi

In a change to posting tributes to the recently departed or tracks that were released on wax cylinders (ask your great, great grandparents) here’s a bostin’ brand new debut album from Lions Tigers and Bears, a bit of a Midlands super group (featuring as it does members of Supercaan, Flamingo Flame, Hey Pablo, The Bourgeois Four, Recall 34, Fillmore Gears, The Rebel Party Band...blimey). 

Entitled Best Times Ever, perhaps ironically given the unending clusterfuck that is the world right now, it’s 10 tracks of the very finest scuzzed up indie grunge with hints of Interpol and The Strokes at their early New York City Cops baiting best. Pick of the bunch Maxi adds a little math rock to the mix whilst rollocking along like a greased up rollercoaster on a highway to PiL, quite possibly one of the tracks of the year.

You can buy, stream, download the whole shebang from a dizzying array of platforms. channels or whatever else you're supposed to call these things...I'm still trying to get over the miracle of CDs...

Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/album/1od0cVjemOzfMXA1urlc08
Apple Music - https://music.apple.com/us/album/best-times-ever/1518115666
Soundcloud - https://soundcloud.com/lionstigersandbearsgrrr
Bandcamp - https://lionstigersbearsgrrr.bandcamp.com
Deezer - https://www.deezer.com/en/album/154191972
Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Times-Explicit-Lions…/…/ref=sr_1_2…

Dudley more from MPH

Another cracking guerrilla gig from MPH, this time in Dudley. Speaking of guerrillas here's MPH doing Great Ape Rock on a roundabout in my old stomping ground Bearwood too. With no Glastonbury this year it's great to see some live music on t'You Tube...who knows perhaps by 2021 the world will have caught up with Miles and he'll be u where he belongs on the Pyramid Stage.

Summer In The City (Disco Version) - Evolution

Wonders will never cease, we're actually getting a few days of nice weather...and when Glasto was due to start too...oh the irony. Time to dig out this classic disco version of Summer In The City which I'm pretty sure I have on yellow vinyl somewhere. Groooooovy baby.

Rupert Hine RIP

You might not know the name but if you were around in the 80s you'll know some of the songs he produced, in particular Howard Jones' run of classic albums including Human's Lib, The 12 inch Album and Dream Into Action. And let's face it, who doesn't feel like throwing off their 'mental chains' right now eh? Oooooh, oooooh, ooooh. 

Dame Vera Lynn RIP

That's not a bad innings eh? 103! And she never retired either. To be fair I'll never retire but that's down to the ever rising pension age rather than personal choice. Anyway, in tribute to Vera's passing here's a remix of her greatest hit that I like to think she'd approve of. 

In The Midnight Hour by Goodnight Lenin

Goodnight Lenin · In The Midnight Hour

Two years after going into hibernation (and despite at least one of the band now living on a different continent) Hearing Aid favourites Goodnight Lenin are back with a brand new track, In The Midnight Hour, the first from a forthcoming album intriguingly entitled 'Never Ending Album'. Building to a soul stirring wall of guitars that's practically guaranteed to send coronavirus packing it's the kind of tune you can imagine playing over the last scenes of a movie as the lead character walks into the sunset after being relentlessly kicked in the balls by life but overcoming all the odds and living to fight another day...and...cut...that's a wrap. Who says movie making's tricky eh?

XTC - The Mayor of Simpleton

As the world gets sillier and sillier by the second I've had The Mayor of Simpleton, from the criminally underrated XTC, going round and round in my head all day. Enjoy.

PS: If you want a little more of the lovely Andy Partridge here's a full 48 minutes of the man in full chatty flow.

Bah Bah Um Wah - Matt Philip Hale

And the songs keep coming from the one man tune fountain that is Matt Philip Hale. If you're in or around the Midlands keep your eyes and ears open and you might just catch a live performance somewhere in the bushes...up a tree...in the middle of a lake...Bah Bah Um Wah-ll worth looking out for. 

Icona Pop - I Love It

I was vaguely aware of this track before catching it on one of the many music channels I randomly trawl through and, coming from the 70s as well as being a bit of a 90s bitch, I was quite taken with it. Hell, it's Friday...you need a bit of dance pop perfection on a Friday.