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

New Song On Sunday

 

A few days ago I met a longtime friend of mine for a couple of pints and we talked a lot about everything possible. Among other things, I asked why there are no good soul groups these days. His answer was that they exist and you just have to find them. As an example, he mentioned two bands from California, Thee Sacred Souls and The Altons.

Last Friday The Altons released their first full length album Heartache In Room 14 and they describe their music as retro indie soul. That doesn't do her great songs justice. In addition to the great voice of Adriana Flores, they expand their sound with surf guitars and a flair of spaghetti western. It sounds strange at first, but it doesn't detract from the songs. It looks as if soul is still alive, only it has evolved.

Saturday Three

 A guest posting by The (New) Vinyl Villain

1. Come Saturday – The Pains Of The Being Pure At Heart

Come Saturday

The Pains of Being Pure At Heart are from NYC, forming in 2007, breaking up in 2019 and then

announcing late last year that they were getting back together again. I’m off to see them when they

hit Glasgow this coming November.

This single, from 2009, is a wonderfully catchy number and I defy anyone to listen and not want to

start dancing.

2. The Saturday Boy – Billy Bragg

The Saturday Boy

If anyone ever mentions that they don’t like Billy cos he is a one-trick pony only capable of singing

protest songs then this is my way of coming back at them. A stunning tale of love and rejection. And

a reminder of what exactly la la la la la la la la la la means when used in a song (most of the time

anyway).

3. Saturday’s Kids – The Jam

Saturday's Kids

It’s now a ridiculous 46 years since The Jam released ‘Setting Sons’. A song about growing up in a

working-class community that resonated with me so much back then….I may have moved onwards

and upwards (and I can hardly claim these days to be working-class!) but that part of the lyric about

hating the system still resonates.

Walter adds: Thank you JC for your excellent contribution to this little series

Singles Released This Week Years Ago

 

Another week and another foray through the releases of new songs from the last 60 years. There wasn't much of note, but enough to fill this post.

1977 - David Bowie released Low, probably his best album from this decade and Sound and Vision was one of the highlights from this album.

1958 - Doo Wop is not the thing I listen often but I like this song by The Monotones without any reason.

1980 - The Clash released Train In Vain from their epochal album London Calling. Still fascinating.

1966 - From his album Blonde On Blonde Bob Dylan released One Of Us Must Know one of the best songs from this album.

1967 - A classic pop song by The Turtles was released.

1972 - Dr. Hook appeared on the scene with a one of the best songs about lost love.

1966 - The Walker Brothers released their masterpiece. Scott Walker's voice is still thrilling.

1980 - Talking Heads released Fear Of Music and showed on this song why they were one of the best bands from this time.

Monday's Long Song

 

It's simply not possible to know all the bands and records and so it takes a coincidence if you discover a band that you've never had on your radar. That's what happened to me recently when I was looking for Scandinavian guitar bands on the internet.

One of the results was a band that simply calls itself Studio. It is a band that was founded almost twenty years ago by two art students, Dan Lissvik and Rasmus Hägg, in Gothenburg, Sweden. They have only recorded one album, West Coast, which has been unjustly overlooked.

The two Swedes seem to love herbaceous trance states, which they play themselves into in extremely long sessions. On the one hand, the songs, carried by guitar licks, are strongly orientated towards krautrock, but leave enough room for meandering rhythms, borrowings from new wave and meditative scenes. In better times, their songs would have been remixed and much better known.

Studio - Life's A Beach

New Song On Sunday

 

Last week Orion Belte, a three piece band from Bergen, Norway, released their last album Mint. It's an album that seems disturbing at first, because you're tempted to believe that old wine is once again being served in new bottles.

Orion Belte play familiar music that was played several decades ago, only that they play a retro sound that can be considered contemporary due to their fresh style. It doesn't matter whether they play a flawless blues with reverberated guitars like on Joe Frazier or take a much more dynamic trip into the atmosphere with a driving beat and swirling riffs in Atlantik Surfing. All in all, one of the better new releases this year.

Saturday's Three

 

Another round with songs that have Saturday in the title. We start with the Leyton Buzzards, a former pub rock band that adapted new wave in 1979, Sadly they were a one-hit wonder but their second single Saturday Night (Beneath The Plastic Palm Trees) a paean to the first wave of skin and ska culture in late 60's Britain made them unforgetable.

The next song is from the debut album by Ultravox, a band from the past glam days that turned into new wave in 1977 to become a leading band by the new romantics. This is one of those tracks that shows that they had more energy in their early days than later.

Never thought that Grateful Dead will make an appearance on this blog but this footage from 1972 shows why so many people follow them.