Underwater Moonlight

 

A few days ago, the Soft Boys' second album was re-released to mark its release 45 years ago. Reason enough to bring this gem to mind once again. Robyn Hitchcock and Kimberly Rew founded the band at the end of the seventies in Cambridge in the wake of the punk wave and created their very own sound.

Like many others, their music was based on a few chords, but they knew how to write melodic songs spiced up with jangly guitars and a psychedelic touch like few others. Still a record I come back from time to time.

The Soft Boys - I Wanna Destroy You

The Soft Boys - Kingdom Of Love

The Soft Boys - Insanly Jealous

The Soft Boys - Positive Vibrations

You Remind Me Of You

 

Summer is gone and we have the meteorological autumn right now. I planed to feature some song with the name September in it's title but found nothing worth to be featured as September by Earth Wind And Fire. So I thought what kind of music could be right for the upcoming season and I remembered an artist that accompanied me during the last decades and one I come usually back to in the second half of the year. For those who didn't know him, Robin Hitchcock was the leading figure of the Soft Boys, a proto punk band of the late 70s who released with Underwater Moonlight the link between psychedelic folk and the upcoming new era of punk. During the decades since then he moved into a singer/songwriter genre and released a couple of great records. Many of them are worth to be listened but Luxor, released 20 years ago shows him at the peak of his career. An album filled with great songs and instrumentals that could warm you when it is cold and rainy outside. 

The Eyes In The Vase

From time to time something very unexpected was released. I never thought that an instrumental album by Robyn Hitchcock will ever be released. But in fact he released Life After Infinity few days ago. Since the days he formed the Soft Boys in the late 70's I followed his career because he was one of those artists who is able to write and perform songs. To be frank, I don't know every album he released during the last decades but the ones I owned were gems I can enjoy after all the years. With the release of this instrumental album he leaves the beaten paths of singer-songwriter and creates a wonderful world of playing semi-electric guitar music. It is a music to let your mind flow and take you to somewhere else. Probably the late-work of an fantastic musician and worth to be listened on a Sunday morning.

  

Monday's Long Song

 

Yo La Tengo formed in 1984 as another band from Hoboken, New Jersey, playing their own sound based on feedback and whispered vocals influenced by Love, The Soft Boys and Mission Of Burma. During the last decades they released a lot of albums (and sometimes with their own interpretation of other artists songs). In 2015 they returned surprisingly with Fade and brought us back their true sound with a superb album. I saw them live in 1991 supporting Eleventh Dream Day in a small club in Stuttgart and was fascinated how good they are on stage. A few weeks ago they released a special edition of Fade and their version of Stupid Things is what you can expect live.

Yo La Tengo - Stupid Things (Instrumental)

Kingdom Of Love

A few days ago I grabbed out an old record that I didn't play for long time. It was the last record by The Soft Boys before they split. It's wonderful to hear it again. For me The Soft Boys are the missing link between post-punk and neo-psychedelia. Great songs with a big touch of old style psychedelic sounds added with superb harmonies and a forward driving guitar in the back of their songs. 'Underwater Moonlight' was a milestone in the late 70s and you can listen to it still with joy.

The Soft Boys - Kingdom Of Love
The Soft Boys - Underwater Moonlight

Happy Birthday Mr. Hitchcock

Today Robyn Hitchcock gets 60 years old. He was, together with Kimberley Rew, the head of the Soft Boys, a group that brought neo-psychedelia and folk into punk and New Wave. After their superb record 'Underwater Moonlight' the Soft Boys broke. Since then Robyn Hitchcock is still on the road, made a lot of records and look more and more as a double of Nick Lowe.

Influenced by Bob Dylan, John Lennon and especially Syd Barret he introduced me to the psychedelic sounds of the late 60s. I saw him in the late 80s in a small club in southern Germany and was still impressed, what spectrum he's able to play. It's good to see him well on stage.

I don't have their songs in digital versions - so today only the versions I found on you tube:

The Soft Boys - Kingdom of love

The Soft Boys - Underwater Moonlight

The Soft Boys - I Got The Hot For You

Robyn Hitchcock - Goodnight Oslo (live at Glasgow ABC)

Robyn Hitchcock & Venus 3 - Trains