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Brogues



Last Updated: 1/23/2010

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Gender: Male
Age: 37
State: Scotland
Country: UK
Signup Date: 10/11/2005

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Wednesday, January 27, 2010 

Category: Music


Took a punt on a couple of 7"s on the Trouble In Mind label and they both turned out to be winners!  Charlie and The Moonhearts' "Real Hot Breakers" is a glorious wetsuit wearing, woody driving garage racket of a tune that's a bit like what Ty Segall or Thee Oh Sees could've cranked out if they'd made an academic study of the complete Pebbles series and come to the conclusion that Volume 4 was their absolute fave.  Wheels On Fire on the other hand are a decidedly more 70s sounding affair with "Bad Lie" welding some nifty Ramones elements to their power jangle.  Nice to hear a new garage label that doesn't just peddle neanderthalic thug sounds in nasty sleeves.  Both singles came with download codes so I guess the only minor gripe I have is that the beautiful peacock feather design generic sleeves are a little too thin to withstand the rigours of the postal system without getting a little tatty.  I got mine from sncl whose prices for UK customers are remarkably reasonable.  They also did a fine job of packaging the records so way to go sncl!
13:19 
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Wednesday, January 27, 2010 

Category: Music
Ya beezer!...there's a new Slumberland podcast!  I can't wait to download it and give it a whirl.  Tim Sendra has made some lovely records over the years - the sole Madison Electric single from the mid-90s, in particular, is viewed as some kinda shining amulet with special healing powers round these parts - and writes beautifully about pop music.



I've been made aware of loads of smashing songs through previous Slumberland podcasts my favourite of which is probably "Among The First To Know" by The Gentle Touch (London Records, 1967) which the ever hep The Boy and Cloud included on his fine, fine 'cast in December.  Although it's not quite as tear duct troubling as Ross Hannaman's teen melodrama "Down Through Summer" I love it in much the same way.  The production is completely wholesome and un-rock'n'roll which suggests that back in '67 it was probably aimed at mums and teenage girls which, I gotta say, is fine by me.  It's another of those songs that in my daydreams I like to imagine Strawberry Switchblade tackling and there's something about those strings that makes me want to hear Madonna's "Dear Jessie" again which is most definitely a good thing!



Thanks Kris!
00:32 
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Saturday, January 23, 2010 

Category: Music
Kendra Smith "Stars Are In Your Eyes"

Been close on a couple of occasions to buying "Kendra Smith presents The Guild of Temporal Adventurers" but it never quite happened so I'd never heard any of the songs from it till tonight.  Then I stumbled across this.  It's kinda serious. Kinda unsettling for some reason, too.  But, what a glorious melody!  And that little Velvets-y guitar line that materialises phantom-like at 1 minute 50 seconds will reverberate around in my heart for days.  Magical.

National Park "The Only Stars"

I've had this majestic little fella since it came out on Yield Recordings in 2006 and have always felt tenderly towards it but revisiting it today after finally hearing Kendra Smith's original has only increased my love for it.  Today the guitars have even more emotional clang.  Today John's voice is even softer.  Today "The Only Stars" is, somehow, even more moving than it was 3 years ago.  As somebody once wrote: what a glorious melody!  (It's the first song on their myspace)


I've got Dundee's D.I.Y. kings The Scrotum Poles to thank for reminding me to buy The Ski Instructors' (sole?) single on Dulc-i-tone/Yakamashi.   I fully intended to snap it up when it came out in 2007 but somehow it slipped my mind until just before Christmas when I picked up the Poles' "Auchmithie Forever" on the same label and a wee alarm sounded in my head.  Luckily, it was still available (just!) and the postie dropped it through my letterbox this week.  If some wag had told me that The Ski Instructors had shared bills upstairs in sticky-floored London pubs in 1979 with Television Personalities or O Level I woulda lapped it up and told the world.  I would, of course, have been completely duped as they were actually Mod-popping around Sacramento almost 2 decades later.  One of the best D.I.Y. pop singles of recent years!
22:08 
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Saturday, January 23, 2010 

Category: Music
Spectrals were a total tonic last night at The Captain's Rest!  I was suffering from a severe dose of work/commuting/S.A.D. blues which, happily, their set banished (at least for a wee while).  There was something slightly comical about them which was just what I needed.  At times lead Spectral Louis bobbed like a cheery baby on a door bouncer as his heavily reverbed guitar cast Hank Marvin shaped shadows.  Most songs started with a 'Roadrunner' style count in courtesy of the dummer who had eschewed sticks in favour of a tambourine and one beater.  (That always sounds great doesn't it?)  It was slightly incongruous to hear fairly wholesome early 60s prom dance music being played not by chaps in matching crisp suits but a quartet of young folks clad in Sonic Youth tees, plaid shirts and woolly hats.  It wasn't all velvet curtain pop, mind you.  From time to time they garaged things up a little and even served up a rather fine Milkshakes cover.  They're playing their home town of Leeds next week with Real Estate and a more suitable pairing I can't imagine. Had this been 1990 I'd be dementedly dubbing cassettes for chums with Spectrals sandwiched between Real Estate and Crystal Stilts.  Can't wait for their split single with Fair Ohs now!
18:51 
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Saturday, January 16, 2010 

Category: Music

Since hearing it for the first time on an eBay listing at the tail end of 2009, "Mr. Sweet Stuff" has become one of those tunes that my brain uses as a sort of audio screen saver.  When I'm riding a bus or ambling about town with nothing in particular to think about I'll find myself hearing its brisk, creeping keyboard melody over and over and I'll achieve a sort of inactive brained contentment.  Since thinking's hard work I just love being in that state.  On the evidence of this single The Fe-fi-Four Plus 2 must've been a right good dance band and if I close my eyes I can picture the squadrons of pristine winklepickers and knee high go go boots bouncing perkily on a sprung dancefloor to "Mr. Sweet Stuff". Love it!

22:21 
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Tuesday, January 12, 2010 

Category: Music


Who loves the sun?  One good read reason to love the sun is Tricia Yates Fanclub's debut lp; 12 rollicking tracks (24 if ya count the snippets of dialogue from Grange Hill) of basement battery liberally dosed with grating, scratching, squeaking feeback and all of it committed to tape (or is it hard-disk these days?) in a solar powered studio. Listing The Cramps, Billy Childish, Roy Wood and The Jam as influences on their myspace was pretty brave but they've produced an lp that, for my money, means they can hold their heads up high in such illustrious company.  With its broken kazoo fuzz guitar "Bunk Up" is maybe the most overtly Billy Childish indedbted track on offer but even then it doesn't ape any of the Medway maestro's moves but merely suggests a knowledge of what makes Childish so compelling.  "Bruised Underdog" is probably the single most apt song title Stewart's (Anderson of Boyracer) come up with in the last decade.  It's a terriffic punk/Northern Soul stomp along with some decidedly bitter lyrics.  Fabulous!  On the subject of titles "Love's Still In Fashion" sounds like a direct riposte to Biff Bang Pow!'s "Love's Going Out Of Fashion" doesn't it?  It's an insistent little number with a mad yappy dog guitar that works best at parent baiting volume.  In fact the whole record compels you to keep going ever louder.  I started listening at a sensible volume but then Neanderthalic more volume=more fun reasoning took over and before I knew it I was so fired up I wanted to punch a hippie.  Best DIY record in years.   If this record struggles to sell out of its meagre pressing* of 100 then a little part of my heart will die.

* - I got the kangaroo edition where you get an lp with a wee cd-r packaged inside from here
22:26 
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Friday, January 08, 2010 

Category: Music


Spent a wee chunk of today daydreaming about those 60s precursors to the current wave of reverb poppers The Index so had a rummage on YouTube and turned up this (the same kind person has uploaded the other 8 tracks from the the lp). Then I figured it would be fun to own the record and after a rummage on eBay turned up this.  Looks like I've got 9 days to find 2,049 US dollars.  I wonder how much I've got squirreled away in that ace wee 'Monorail Money' piggy bank J got me for Christmas in 2008...
18:18 
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Friday, January 01, 2010 

Category: Music

...another smashing Hogmanay at The 78!  It was tops to see so many smilin' faces and to hear so many ace tunes.   I'm glad I was workin' the wheels before Golden Grrrls played as I don't really have too many genuine dancers in my wee record boxes. Below is my playlist. After my final song Stephen Pastel slammed down The Flirtations' "Nothing But A Heartache" which sounded as colossal and as vital as it did the first time I heard it. Great choice!  

Spectrals - Leave Me Be (Captured Tracks)
The Cave Weddings - Bring Your Love (Hozac)
Lesley Gore - Wonder Boy (Mercury)
Chris Montez - The More I See You (Pye)
Magic Kids - Hey Boy (Goner)
The Magnetic Fields - 100,000 Fireflies (Harriet)
Sea Lions - Let's Groove (Yay! Label)
Mary Wells - My Guy (Tamla)
The School - And Suddenly (Slumberland)
Ola and The Janglers - Eeny Meeny Miney Moe (Decca)
Davila 666 - Sabes Que Quiero (Hozac)
Jonathan Richman and The Modern Lovers - Roadrunner (Berserkley)
Rose Batiste - Hit And Run (Goldmine)
The Blanche Hudson Weekend - Crying Shame (Squirrel)
The Bristols - Questions I Can't Answer (Damaged Goods)
The Royal We - All The Rage (Geographic)
Mudhoney - Touch Me I'm Sick (Sub Pop)

{Golden Grrrls live set}

Felice Taylor - I Feel Love Coming Down (Atco)
Timebox - Beggin' (Deram - facsimilie reissue)

I woke up this morning with Jackson Sisters' "I Believe In Miracles" - Gerry Love played a remixed version - groovin' around in my brain. I guess I musta had some funky dreams. I love 2010 already!
13:20 
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Thursday, December 31, 2009 

Category: Music

Frequently I do silly things. One of the silliest is not keeping up with the "Dave Godin's Deep Soul Treasures" series on Kent. I bought the first one when it came out and totally flipped for it, especially Kenny Carter's heart shattering "Showdown" which is still probably the single greatest soul vocal I've heard.  That, though, was the last volume I bought.  I think at the time I just figured that I needed soul music's inherent sadness to be leavened by sprightly tempos and perky melodies and hence went down the Northern Soul route.  Then I heard Jaibi's "It Was Like A Nightmare" a couple of weeks back and realised that these days I need to feel as much as I need to dance.  Jaibi's tear soaked vocal is utterly captivating and like all the best singers her voice has that little extra something that conveys more than just the meaning of the words. Aretha and Carolyn Franklin had it as, most certainly, did Bettye Swann and Candi Station.  Jaibi plays the role of the conflicted woman spilling out her feelings to her lover after having just jilted her intended at the altar to perfection.   Musically, "It was Like A Nightmare" couldn't be more expressive of the scenario with the tension repeatedly building and then releasing.  Everything about the recording feels like some sort of high point.  I really can't wait to hear what other treasures Dave Godin collected on volumes 2 to 4!
00:11 
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Wednesday, December 23, 2009 

Category: Music

This little stormer from Glasgow's Starla Records sneaked out some time in the summer when my back was turned and if the ever astute Mark Lamarr hadn't included it in his best of 2009 show a couple of weeks ago I'm sure I would've missed it completely.  From the almost absurdly strident drumming to the huge, ultra-bright production it's a total pop smash.  Of course, being a soul pop number it's the melody and vocals that really count.  "Takes" has no worries in either department as the melody is a dream and both Marco and Emeli sing out with confidence and feeling and without a hint of over embellishment.  What with this, The Champage Socialists' "The Young Runaways", Fergus and Geronimo's "Powerful Lovin'" and Frankie Rose's "Hollow Life" it's been a great year for flipsides!  "The Baden Persuader" on the A side is a spooky little mover of a tune that's not unlike a Mod jazz combo playing something from Sabres of Paradise's wondrous "Haunted Dancehall" set. The only shop I could find it in was Mixed Up on Otago Lane but I've since spotted it on juno.co.uk.  One of my fave singles of the year, it's sure to get an airing at The 78 on Hogmanay!

"Takes" and "The Baden Persuader" are both on The DT6's myspace.
11:45 
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