New Song On Sunday

 

Today's song appeared as a bonus track on the reissue of The Amateur View, the third album by To Rococo Rot, originally released at the end of the last century. To Rococo Rot were a post-rock trio from Berlin formed in 1995. Very quickly, they mixed analog effects with warm, electronic drones and mechanical percussion to create a sound that slowly creeps into the ear and doesn't want to disappear again.

I don't know if this song a real new one or just a song that didn't make it onto the record at the time. But it doesn't matter if you discover their music through this record.

John Peel invited them three times for his sessions and they showed that their sound works very well live. Prado is one of my favorite songs from her album mentioned above.

To Rococo Rot - Prado (John Peel Session)

Monday's Long Song

 

For no great reason I stumbled across Felt, a forgotten band from the Birmingham area, at the weekend. Felt were active in the mid-eighties and released several albums and singles that unfortunately never had much commercial success. 

Maybe it's because they couldn't write catchy songs and their jangly guitar sound didn't really fit into the era of post-punk and emerging electronic music. Their often long songs with sparkling guitar passages were clearly modelled on Tom Verlaine and Television, without adding their own touch to the sound. Or is it really because, as Lawrence, the band's leader, once said, John Peel didn't like the band? Be that as it may, they made their musical mark with their first two albums in those years.

Felt - The Optimist And The Poet

Monday's Long Song

 

Let's go back again today to the days of post-punk when almost every week new great bands appeared and sadly many of them vanished in the fog of oblivion. This happened also to In Camera, a band formed in London in 1978 and split after releasing one single and two EP's for 4AD-label. As far as I know they were a good live band and invited by John Peel for a session. I didn't heard anything from their members later except Andrew Gray who joined The Wolfgang Press. In Camera played exactly the sound I loved at these days and still.

In Camera - Fatal Day

Many Are Called But Few Get Up

 

When I got the news that Welsh rockers Man released a box-set of live recordings from almost 50 years ago I was going to pick them old records out of my collection and listening to them. Of course it is a retro sound, massive influenced by late 60's heavy blues and west-coast LA-sound but I have to admit that their abilities in improvisation is still a pleasure. I can't explain why they are great in Germany and less known in Great Britain, maybe because they were too individual and there were more bands like them playing the same at the time. But live they were far ahead of many other bands in this decade. For me it is always a pleasure to come back to them from time to time.

Man - Many Are Called, But Few Get Up (Peel Session 1975)

Monday's Long Song

 

Another forgotten band are The Heads, a band formed in Bristol in the early 90's and active until 2002. Far away from the sound Bristol stamped in the 90's they played a post-psychedelic sound inspired by heavy blues but with ingredients of The Stooges. They were know for long improvisations and a massive sound. It is no surprise that John Peel invited them several times for his session to show their abilities of taking us to a heavy trip into space. Music like this is made today mostly in Scandinavia. Their last album Under Sided was re-released a few days ago including their sessions for John Peel.

The Heads - Neu 75!

Another Almost Forgotten Post-Punk Band

 

Girls At Our Best! were a band from Leeds and active from 1979 until 1982 and they surfed very well on the same new wave that made others famous. I don't know why they split but for me they were a band from this genre that were able to write great songs that hit the nerve of the times. I have to admit that I seldom listened to them during the last years but the re-release of their fantastic debut album Pleasure brought them back to my memory. Their sound was a mixture of The Banshees and Buzzcocks guitar with a massive touch of melodies with chart potential. In 1981 they played a session for John Peel where China Blue and Sister Rosetta Stone's This Train are from.

Girls At Our Best! - Pleasure

Girls At Our Best! - Getting Nowhere Fast

Girls At Our Best! - This Train

Girls At Our Best! - China Blue

Monday's Long Song

 

The recent days I found a file in the downs of my hard-drive that I've almost forgotten. It is a song by The Prefects, a punk band formed in 1976 in Birmingham by singer Robert Lloyd and brothers Alan and Paul Apperley on guitar and drums. They didn't released a record but got several appearances by John Peel and supported  The Clash and The Buzzcocks and played with The Slits, The Fall and many others. I don't know where I got this file from but it shows very well the spirit and the energy of early punk. It is a tour de force of guitar and drums over nine minutes and shows that punk could be more than two minute songs full of energy. A few years later Lloyd formed The Nightingales where he had more success with.

The Prefects - The Bristol Road Leads To Dachau 

Sturm und Twang

During my isolation days I found a compilation released in 1995 by Rough Trade. Sturm und Twang (a wordplay with storm and compulsion) was a compilation of German post punk bands mostly from Hamburg that was a great overview about what German bands are able to do almost 30 years ago. Beside Blumfeld another song on this compilation stood the test of time for me. Freiwillige Selbstkontrolle (voluntary self contol, an institute giving a recommendation of age-rating for movies and games) or short F.S.K. are a band originally formed in Munich playing a kind of arty new wave with the intention bringing together country and post-punk. Like The Mekons they released many great songs in this genre and they played them with a big smile on their faces. 

 F.S.K. - Unter dem Rhein

They were also a band John Peel liked much. He invited them several times for a session. And he wasn't wrong. So I think it will be right to feature some more songs by them once again.

F.S.K. - I Wish I could 'sprechen Sie Deutsch'

F.S.K. - (I've Got To Get Over) The Wall

Don't Let Our Youth Go To Waste

 

As I grubbed in the depth of my hard drive a few days ago I found some songs I didn't listen for a long time and it made me smile to listen to them once again. Once of them was by Galaxie 500 an American alternative band existing four years from 1989 on.  It was the time when American alternative music sounded fresh and new. I really like their sound guitar dominated sounds inspired by The Velvets and Spaceman 3. Sadly they didn't got the recognition they should have because their first two albums should be named as one of the best guitar albums of this decade. This song is from a Peel session in the late 80's.

Galaxie 500 - Don't Let Our Youth Go To Waste

Pictures On My Wall

A few days ago Echo & The Bunnymen released a compilation of songs they played during various John Peel sessions. Peel was one of those who supported them from the beginning and Will Sergeant told once 'Without John Peel sessions, Echo & The Bunnymen in my opinion, would not exist! It's that simple. The band got so much support from him and his producer John Walters. Recording a Peel session was essential to the development of our songwriting skills while at the same time giving us amazing exposure and self-belief'. And you can listen to many of their songs in rare and stripped versions. It is every time a pleasure to me listening to one of the best bands in the early 80's again.

Echo & The Bunnymen - Pictures On My Wall
Echo & The Bunnymen - Heaven Up Here
Echo & The Bunnymen - Turquoise Days

Searching For The Perfect Riff

Back in 1989 Spaceman 3 released their third record Playing With Fire an outstanding record in this time for this music. When all the other music drifted away mostly in singer-songwriting or club-sounds these guys took a walk back into psychedelic areas with heavy guitars and riffs galore. It is still a pleasure listen to the sound of a record that was released almost 30 years ago. I remember the first time Spacemen 3 got on my radar was when Alan Bangs, one of the only radio-DJ's played their songs on his late night show. He produced his show for a greater radio station in Germany and as well for BFBS. Some folks called him as an epigone for John Peel but for me he introduce me to the music of Lucinda Willams and Cowboy Junkies. He was always contrarian to mainstream and they stopped his show when he offered the music of Frederic Chopin in his two hour show. I remember when he made his last show playing all the music he agreed with and one of the songs was Revolution a highlight of the upcoming psychedelic sound. Another story I heard was that he had a record collection of 11.000 albums. At one time he announced that he will go for holiday for a couple of weeks and some guys caved into his home stolen more than 3.000 of his albums. What a loss for him, because I am sure they stolen just one of the records he loved much.

Get Home To Peel

The bygone days I rummaged in the Peel archives and got into a band that was always in my mind of their biggest success with Saturday Night Beneath The Plastic Palm Trees in the late 70's. It is a song I love still I heard it almost 40 years ago. For me they made the sound a lot of people could agree with. Trained on the stage in the late pub rock scene they were above the average of the very most other bands (and there were a lot) at these days. Listening to these songs again makes me wonder why they didn't made it grade. 

John Peel Day

It is 14 years ago that probably the best and most innovative DJ passed away and I don't have to leave many words about him and the influence of many different music styles to our taste during the last decades. Dirk once met him and he could be lucky enough for it. Remembering him I knew him about the press in the early 80's were internet wasn't available. His shows could only listened to in middle Germany via BFBS. I had some friends at this time in Recklinghausen and they taped me his shows on cassettes. Every four or six weeks they send me the tapes from his latest shows. Therefore I was privileged to listen to new music. Sadly I lost these tapes during some moves in the last years. But I still remember the days when I opened the mailbox and the tapes arrived. I was so excited to put them into the player and listen for a hours to listen to him. To his honour I will feature one of his all time favourite bands of all time. The Fall made one of their sessions on October 25th 1988. It shows the band at a good shape and Squid Lord and Kurious Oranj are still worth to listen to after all this years.

Later this afternoon me and a couple of friends will take a trip to a cup match to Kaiserlautern. Our team is close to relegation in Bundesliga but the other team is more close to relegation in  Second League. So I am sure that we will see a good game and come home satisfied and looking forward for the next turn.

Prince Of Peace

A few days ago The Swede posted on his marvellous series Red Gold & Green a song by Prince Far I and I have to admit that I didn't posted anything from him so far. Not that I don't like his music (he was always on my list) but somehow something else come to my mind and forgot to give him a chance to appear on this site. When I first got in contact with reggae and Rastafarian culture with the soundtrack of The Harder They Come it didn't take a long time when I explored Prince Far I. From the first time I listened to his gruff voice I was hooked by him. He was also a political person known for his critical assessment of the Jamaican government. Here are some songs from a Peel session back in 1978.

Prince Far I - Front Line
Prince Far I - No More War

Sudden Appearance On The Player

On my way back home from work in a crowded train I checked the latest news of our gathering next week in Glasgow and it made me happy that everything was arranged by you all. And to make my happiness complete my mobile phone presented me a song that was recorded in 1981 in a Peel session. It shows the Fall at the height of their musical career. Hip Priest has all The Fall was famous of: strong bass-lines, great guitar licks and the voice of Mark E. Smith. Although the blues is not the first thing you would link to The Fall but this is a superb one. Like John Peel said about them 'they are always different; they are always the same'

The Fall - Hip Priest

Beautiful Monster

There were so many bands in the post-punk era that didn't made the success they should have. One of them were Folk Devils from Notting Hill, London. They released only a few singles and one full length album but were three times for sessions by John Peel. They gigged constantly often as openers for The Fall, Nick Cave and Spacemen 3. For me their sound was very unique. What made them great was their combination of blues inflected guitar figures on Rickenbacker guitar, metronomic drums  on a swampy sound. The more I listen to the more I looking back to these days.

Folk Devils - Beautiful Monster
Folk Devils - Evil Eye
Folk Devils -English Disease

Loop

John Peel invited Loop for several sessions between 1987 and 1991. Loop was a band formed in Croydon in the late 80's and made a guitar dominated space rock influenced independent sound. It is a band that was almost forgotten and it was the same to me until I found the record in my collection a few days ago. They sounded a bit like Spaceman 3 with their harsh fuzz-laden, pulsing guitar riffs, monotonous vocals and distinctive drum patterns to built their unique soundscape. They were also influenced by German Krautrock and Detroit rock. Once more a band I am glad to rediscovered again.

Loop - Straight To Your Heart
Loop - Rocket USA
Loop - Collision

Candle

Dirk posted this weekend some John Peel-tapes and it was a real pleasure to listen to the song and getting memories of times long gone by. There was one that reminds me to one of the best independent albums ever. Sonic Youth made with Daydream Nation the soundtrack of the late 1980s. Even before Nirvana and all the slackers showed up at the scene they made a monument of a record. It is still worth to  be played - even in times right now.

Telephone Calls # 2

Derry, North Ireland, a town to us till then only by her political riots has struck gave us a treasure: The Undertones. They started as an semi-acoustic band but turned into electric music when punk rock appeared. They played that real three-chord pop punk and got success with the support of our beloved DJ John Peel. Beside the guitar-heavy garage rock sound the volume lent before all singer Feargal Sharkey with his striking tenor her unique character. I can listen to them songs anywhere at any time. Songs like Teenage Kicks, My Perfect Cousin, Get Over You, Here Comes The Summer are unbeatable in it's way. I like this band not only because of her music, but they also had the gift to express all essentials in short words in her songs. Also in this song that could be reduced to one sentence: You've got my number - why don't you use it? Seldom heard about another teenage drama reduced to this few words.

The Undertones - You've Got My Number (Why Don't You Use It)

The Foreign Correspondent - Stories About German Rock Music # 15

Let us look back at 1973/74. To the times when most of the guys had long hairs and the girls wore ultra skirts they ended Millimeters under their bottoms. At this time the hipsters listened to glam rock or some kind of arty rock like Styx and others still stuck in the late 1960 listening to them heroes like Led Zeppelin or Frank Zappa. In this sphere Edgar Froese and Klaus Schulz have started to do handicraft in a new sound not knowing that this would be one basic of the so called Krautrock. They experimented to integrate unusual instruments like flute, bird's voices and organ into her very own sound. At this time you could buy the first generation of synthesizers. That was the beginning of a real new sound created by Tangerine Dream. Most of the people I knew at this time could start nothing with this kind of music. For most of them ears was the competitions to difficult to understand or the songs much too long. Friends that enjoyed this kind of music these days have smoked pot. And I saw a few years later the same ones smoking pot to the sound of Bob Marley. Most of them get rid of it but a few one died a couple of years later on that fucking heroine. In their early days Tangerine Dream was more successful in Great Britain than in Germany. Also under the influence of John Peel who named their album Atem (breath) as the best record of the year 1973. In fact of this Richard Branson signed them for his Virgin label and they released Phedra which reached the top 20 in the British charts. In the following years the made soundtracks for some movies, experimented with classic music and collaborated with Terry Riley. Their influence to the next generation of musicians and remix projects is immense. I can't give a better compliment to them as saying: Their Music is still not suitable for all ears.

Tangerine Dream - Atem

Tangerine Dream - Circulation Of Events

Tangerine Dream - Phaedra