Purchased (Not Only) By The Cover

In the early 80's Scotland gave us a lot of new and fantastic bands and this keeps on since today. Around the early 80's a Scottish underground pop/post-punk band appeared on Postcard records. Jazzateers released their only album with a Walther P38 on the cover. This gun was the standard in the German Wehrmacht during WW2. Just the gun dyed in yellow and only the band's name remembered me at Velvet Undergrounds first album and I took it for a listen in my record shop. And what I heard was much better than I expected. Anyhow a band which never had so properly a chance. They plaid the right music at the wrong time. In 1983 one tried to gain control of punk and of New Wave - with results execrable now and again. By no means, however, one wanted to hear the respectable, old-fashioned guitar music which was produced, however, absolutely fashionably. Today the of course first-class sounds: „Nothing At All", „Sixteen Reasons' etc. - all timeless, crisp hit with ingenuity a little. And see there, in particular these tracks sound more topical even today because they were not stylish just, but were produced timeless simple (therefore nowadays in an old-fashioned way).

Jazzateers - Nothing At All
Jazzateers - Sixteen Reasons
Jazzateers - Looking For A Girl

Exploted View

Sometimes helps the chance: Some time ago the British musician, now living in Berlin, journalist Annika Henderson played a session with three famous local Mexican musicians and producers. The result was a new record played without overdubs in one take. Henderson made a few song produced by Portishead's Geoff Barrow. I missed these records but I think I will investigate for them. Base for Henderson sometimes mokant pondering, sometimes declaiming, sometimes wailing voice was up to now a rather electronic sound which referred anyhow to avantpop of Velvet Underground about Birthday Party to Sonic Youth. New, distraught and dark.

Songs The Lord Told Us # 10

Spacemen 3 was an English alternative rock band from Rugby, Warwickshire. It was founded in 1982 by Pete Kember and Jason Pierce. Their style was to be assigned to the space to rock and the shoegazing. In 1991 they resolved and Jason Pierce founded Spiritualized together with Jon Mattock. Besides, they developed from her motto "three chords good - two chords better - one chord best" an independent, uncompromising sound and fell under influence, among the rest, under tape like MC5, The Stooges, 13Th Floor Elevator and The velvet Underground. They released their masterpiece back in 1988 with 'Playing With Fire' an epic album by some weird ones. Differences of opinion between both dominant leaders were every now and then the reason that such an album could originate. It's a compact recording and the gift to their fans. Most of the song on this record were mellow, slower and soft like Spiritualized used to play a few years later. But there was one song on this album that drove me almost crazy when I first listened to it. 'Revolution' is this kind of song you listen for the first time and you'll never forget. A song only played with riffs, echoes and feedback with an steady going bass line (that comes angry to your ears) and lyrics that was written against the politic of Mrs. Thatcher (like most of the bands in this era did). I can remember when I listen to this song for the first time. It was at the end of 1988 and we had in Southern Germany the ability to listen to Alan Bangs (we called him the poor man's John Peel). When he made his last radio show before he was banned from the airplay because his kind of music wasn't compatible to the mainstream he made a two hours set with the music he was influenced and addicted to. Me and a couple of friends listened to this show and I was captured by this song. I thought by myself: This one must be much more an awesome song when you smoked something good.

Tune up loud and give yourself a pleasure while listening to it.
Have a good weekend people