If there were ever a band that woulda coulda shoulda been bigger, its Leeds’ The Wedding Present.  Initially part of Britain’s C-86 scene, the Weddoes (as the band was called by its disciples) featured hyper-jangly, breakneck-paced guitars and the lovelorn lyrics of frontman/guitarist/songwriter David Gedge.  Following the demise of The Smiths, the band was poised to leap into the Morrissey-shaped breach as the standard-bearer for disaffected, mopey youth, but for some reason things just never quite clicked.  This, despite a trifecta of brilliant albums to close out the 80’s and usher in the 90’s: George Best, Bizarro, and one of my all-time Top Five albums, the sublime and amazing Seamonsters.

The first clip is a recent live recording of two of my favorite songs from 1991’s Seamonsters, “Dalliance” (just wait for the jump to light speed at 2:36) and “Dare.”  The second is one of their earliest singles, “You Should Always Keep in Touch With Your Friends,” collected on 1988’s singles comp, Tommy.

And, what the hell, because you can never have too much of The Wedding Present, here’s a blistering live version of “Kennedy,” from 1989’s Bizarro.  You know that part in Almost Famous when William Miller sucks up to Stillwater’s Russell Hammond by telling him that his guitar-playing is incendiary?  Just check out David Gedge from the 3:30 mark until the end of the song.  The very definition of the word.

En esta ocasión os dejo una recopilación que preparé el pasado sábado buceando por todo lo que llevaba en el iPhone mientras disfruaba de un tarta y un café en El Azul. Decidí hacerla mientras escuchaba a Baxter Dury (espero que sea la próxima recopilación que ponga en el blog). A partir del tema Dirty Water, fui enlazando canciones y apuntándolas en un cuaderno para hacer después los ajustes necesarios. Espero que os guste.

Haz clic para descargar la recopilación

Los cantantes y grupos que he incluido son Baxter Dury, Girls, Yo La Tengo, Eels, Stephen Malkmus, Cornershop, Nick Lowe, The 6ths (Stephin Merritt), Silver Jews, The Wedding Present, The Posies, Steely Dan, Super Furry Animals, The Sea And Cake, Lloyd Cole, Canadian Invasion, The Martinis, The Frank And Walters, Music Go Music, Port O’Brien, Polaris (Mark Mulcahy) y Black Crowes.

Como siempre, haciendo clic en la portada os podéis bajar las canciones y la carátula en pdf, y AQUÍ tenéis el listado de canciones.

P.D.: La foto la hice hace ya unos cuantos años (era el mes de Diciembre) en la playa de Riazor, en La Coruña.

I’ve got nothing to say that this song doesnt say better…

Go MELVINS! This track is off of a 7″ I Can’t Shake It/Some Girls. It’s awesome, and you can hear it if you listen tonight from 8 to 10 pm on KRUI 89.7 fm or online here.

1. The Wake, Harmony + Singles, Give Up (1982)
2. Mission of Burma, The Horrible Truth About Burma, Trem Two (1985)
3. Sleater-Kinney, All Hands On the Bad One (2000), Leave you behind
4. The Flatmates, Potpourri: Hits Mixes, and Demos, I could be in Heaven (Single came out in 1986)
5. Love of Diagrams, EP, Pace or the Patience (2007)
6. The Wedding Present, Tommy (1985-1987 compilation), Felicity
7. Dinosaur Jr., Farm, Imagination Blind (2009)
8. Melvins, I can’t Shake it/Some Girls (Gearhead Records 1998), I Can’t Shake It
9. The Dirtbombs, Tanzen Gehn, Tanzen Gehn (2005)
10. Sebadoh, Bakesale, Dreams (1994)
11. Kinski, Sub Pop- Infecting the Galaxy One Planet at a Time, Semaphore

12. The Church, Priest = Aura, Ripple (1992)
13. Knapsack, Day Three of My New Live, Simple Favor (1997)
14. Elvis Costello & The Attractions, Get Happy!!, Riot Act (1980)

15. Stephen Malkmus, Matador at 15, Church on White
16. Bauhaus, Mask, Mask (1981)

17. The Tights, Cherry Red: The Punk Singles Collection, Cracked (1978)

18. Sonic Youth, the eternal, Antenna (2009)
19. Siouxsie & The Banshees, Kaleidoscope, Red Light (1980)
20. Cocteau Twins, Stars and Topsoil-A Collection (1982-1990), Blind Dumb Deaf
21. Catherine Wheel, Chrome, Fripp (1993)

22. My Bloody Valentine, Isn’t Anything, Feed me with your Kiss (1988)
23. Xymox (or Clan of Xymox???), Twist of Shadows, Blind Hearts (Polygram subsidiary label Wing Records 1989)
24. New Order, Movement, Hurt (12” Version) (originally came out in 1981)
25. Talking Heads, Remain in Light, Listening Wind
26. David Byrne and Brian Eno, Everything that Happens will Happen Today, Strange Overtones

Sometimes when i think a band has a really stupid name I ignore them. And when you do that you can miss great songs. Damn my judgemental self!

So when does a pallid copy of the past cease to be a pallid copy of the past? It is simply when enough time has gone by, that everyone has forgotten how rush-of-blood energising this music can be?

Sure, this sounds like some marketing man’s or Bob Stanley’s dream of what C86 sounded like (but NEVER really did), or a Pitchfork critic’s vision of indiepop 2009, but does that make it any good? Really? Sure, there’s some C86 in there – if by C86, we’re talking the (spit) Close Lobsters, or a fifth generation copy of The Wedding Present. My wife was way more into cutie than I ever was and even she immediately had this down as “generic indie”.

Listen up. I’m genuinely intrigued. What the hell is the appeal of this band? Is it simply that their fans have never heard The Wedding Present, Heavenly, the bloody Smiths, The Field Mice, Vivian Girls, Brilliant Colors, Liechtenstein, etc etc etc?

Why don’t they just call themselves The American Smiths and be done with it?

P.S. In response to the blogger who reckoned that I have no past form when it comes to writing about cutie music. Um. That would be right. Yep. That would be about right. (Etc, etc, etc.)

In disbelief of the post our own Mariela wrote about the frightful discovery that the album might be dead as we know it; in honor of the continued efforts of music journalist Sasha Frere-Jones whose recent article sent her on said warpath; and to the band whom we can’t imagine never producing another (Radiohead), we present one of the most absurdly difficult “Top 5″ lists to date: Top 5 Favorite Albums. 

Autumn:

1. U2 “War”

Anthemic songs of revolution and love and an album cover that speaks in volume–what else is there?  A litmus test for all the young folks who thought the early 80s was anything but a time for political protest. From Larry Mullins Jr. first drum beats on ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday,’ to the perfectly syncopated dub of the ‘Airborne Rangers’ theme song used within ‘Seconds,’ to ‘Two Hearts Beat as One’ and ‘Red Light’ as lovely little love letters; we get a band at their height. I think The Edge’s guitar leads and his sound are the things of legendary declarations. 

2. The Beach Boys, “Pet Sounds”

You’ve heard it, right? The layering! The pop! The bicycle bells! The pure harmonies! The joy even while sad! “Sloop John B” is a staple on most of my mix CDs. It was the call and response years between The Beatles and The Beach Boys: “Rubber Soul” then “Pet Sounds” then “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.” Thank god for that friendly fire over the big pond because it reminds me of one very emotional Brooklyn summer. 

3. The Beatles “Let it Be”

My stepmother sat me down when I was 12 or 13 and we listened to her Beatles vinyl. All of it. So I have nothing to say here. How could you possibly expect me to say that this album, their penultimate, is any better than any other of their fucking amazing albums: “Revolver” or “Sgt. Pepper’s” or the “White Album” or “Abbey Road” or “Hard Day’s Night?” You’re sick for even making me try–I mean, how could you? It might be my favorite or their best, maybe it isn’t. Maybe tonight I’ll wake up with night sweats for my lack of foresight or longevity and shudder to think that I didn’t include songs like “Norwegian Wood,” “I’m Looking Through You,” “Eleanor Rigby,” “She’s Leaving Home,” “A Day in the Life,” or “Dear Prudence,” possibly one of my favorite Beatles songs ever. But HEY! It’s got “Two of Us,” “I Me Mine,” “The Long and Winding Road,” “Maggie Mae,” “Let it Be” and “Get Back,” so what are you even complaining about? Just get off my back about this. You don’t know how tough this process is. I challenge you to try it (preferably in our comments section, thanks!).

4. The Clash “London Calling”

‘London Calling’ alone could lead me to call this a classic and this feels like super cheating: a double album with hits like ‘Rudy Can’t Fail,’ ‘Lost in the Supermarket’ and ‘Spanish Bombs’ and that’s only the first album. This album has international appeal and I’ve never traveled to a place where it isn’t loved.  I’ve always said that my most major crush of all times would have been Joe Strummer circa 1977 and I’m sticking to it. 

5. R.E.M.”Murmur”

I think I only know one song title on this album: “Radio Free Europe,” but oh man, is it so good. This album, their first LP release, is one where I know every guitar and melody change but I only know maybe 10% of the lyrics which is so bizarre, considering that that my other top 4 records hinge a whole bunch on lyrical meaning and import. It’s just like The Sundays, all mood and pace and space–sometimes I don’t need to be so literal. R.E.M. is something my husband and I share; it’s as if we co-own the band. 

Mariola:

1. Pulp, “Different Class”
Because I love Jarvis’ keenly detailed writing that takes me places I have never been and yet experience as profoundly familiar. Because the album defined, reflected, and formed a time of my life.

2. New Order, “Low-Life”

Because with Low-Life, New Order found its own voice, distinct from Joy Division: still brutal but poppier. 

3. Fleetwood Mac, “Rumours”

Because it contains one of my favorite songs of all time. Because Fleetwood Mac with its chorus of voices allows for sweeping mood changes in one album. 

4. Brian Eno, “Here Come the Warm Jets”

Because it is just a masterpiece. Beautifully composed, wonderous and magical, even in its silences, and then in its nicely-put vulgarities.

5. Lauryn Hill, “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill”

Because a debut album never sounded so good, so full of itself, so powerful and so fragile. Because music needs more albums like this one, and more women talking to women like this album. Lauryn Hill…Lauryn Hill…

Mariela:

1. Radiohead, “OK Computer”

Start to finish, this album is spectacular. It sets a mood and sticks with it. It rocks when it must (“Electioneering”) and quiets down (“Exit Music for a Film”) to make a point, and its “Fitter, Happier” interlude could be annoying in any other context but instead is fitting — necessary, even — and cranks up the paranoia factor to the nth degree. It’s a perfect melding of past and future Radiohead.

2. Built to Spill, “Keep it Like a Secret”

I agonized over this one the most because it could have been any one of three BTS albums for me.  In the end, I went with Secret because it contains my favorite track of all, “You Were Right.”  This album is a big, beating, broken heart of indie rock goodness.

 3. U2, “The Joshua Tree”

 I’ve written before about how The Joshua Tree was the album that made me love music.  It is atmospheric, catchy and important, while still exuding a pop mentality.  This is the sort of album you fall in love to.

4. Pixies, “Doolittle”

 Here, the Pixies screech (“Debaser”) and flirt (“La La Love”) their way to the top.  I love that Doolittle has rhythm and humor.   When Frank Black’s voice lowers to the depths of range in “I Bleed” (“nobody knows”), you can picture him doing it with a smirk and on a challenge.  “I’ll show you how low I can go,” he’d think.  And the fact they end the album with one of my favorites, “Gouge Away,” shows just how superior it is.

 5. Beastie Boys, “Paul’s Boutique”

 I went through a period of absolute obsession with this album, memorizing every single lyric.  And there are A LOT of lyrics!  I love that Paul’s Boutique casts the Boys as protagonists on the run — throwing eggs, macking on the ladies, bonding with homeless dudes. It is dense, quick and incredibly infectious.  I dare anyone to listen to this album without a smile on their face.

Lisa:

1. Jay-Z “Unplugged, Jay-Z (with The Roots and Mary J. Blige)”

Combines the best of all the albums that came before (Reasonable Doubt, both Blueprints) and proves he doesn’t need any fancy sound wizardry to rock a solid rap album. While it’s not freestyle by any means, he brings in The Roots and Mary J… and banters with the live studio audience in a way that melts my heart a little. 

2. Oasis,  ”(What’s the Story) Morning Glory

This album came out just when I was at the age of locking myself in my room and listening to a single song on repeat. This album at least allowed me to listen to the whole thing on repeat–good from start to finish.

3. Red Hot Chili Peppers, “Californication”

Maybe not as integral in Red Hot Chili Peppers history as Blood Sugar Sex Magik, but this album came out at a much more timely period in my life. Also saw them live for the first time touring this album.

4. Guns ‘n’ Roses, “Appetite For Destruction”

Debut studio album for the group. And it still rocks today. 

5. Coldplay “A Rush of Cold to the Head”

I didnt know Coldplay at all when “Parachutes” came out. The first time I heard them was live, touring this album a few weeks before it came out. Didn’t know a single song before the concert. By the end, they were all my favorite and I didn’t stop listening to it for months. It’s one of the albums that is a soundtrack to a period of my life. 

Wendy:

1.  Archers of Loaf, “Icky Mettle”

I’m sure I’m surprising all of you with this as my number one choice but when I heard what the topic for the “Top Five” was this week this album instantly popped in my head.  The first time I heard this album I was in high school and working at a record store.  One of my co-workers (the cool, older girl with tons of indie knowledge) put it on and compared its brutal lyrics with Liz Phair’s “Exile in Guyville.”  I just sat there watching her air guitar the entire album while I sat around trying to figure out what the lyrics to “Web in Front” even meant.

This album never fails me.  I put it on, and I am instantly filled with the need to dance, and possibly smash something.  It is put together perfectly, each song complementing the next.  This album also never fails in that it still holds up over time.  Released in 1993, Icky Mettle is still better than anything the indie crowd can put together these days.  Unfortunately, this album may be too perfect.  I’ve never been able to listen to other Archers of Loaf albums.  In the back of my head, I just don’t see how they could compete with this one.

2.  The Wedding Present, “Watusi”

So many memories and so many good times go with this album.  Each song is a pop infused gift to my ears.  David Gedge is a master lyric writer.  I wish my life was filled with even half of the love, heartbreak, three-ways, and other indiscretions he sings about.

3.  Built to Spill, “There’s Nothing Wrong With Love”

Almost every Built to Spill song makes me want to fall in love.  They are the soundtrack to my life.  I, too, wanna see movies of my dreams.  

4.  PJ Harvey, “Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea”

The album that brought PJ Harvey back into my life.  

5.   Pulp, “His n’ Hers”

The combination of ridiculous lyrics and Brit pop beats is an unstoppable force.

What are your Top 5?

That special intimate quote is from the Minutemen. They’re geniuses. Rock out with me tonight at KRUI 89.7 fm from 8 till 10 pm or online here.

1. Wire, 154 (released in ‘79), Two People in a Room (a great heads up from a comment on the show last week.)
2. Suicide’s Radiation
3. Killing Joke, Killing Joke (‘80), Wardance
4. The Germs, Communist Eyes
5. The Adverts, Anthology, Bored Teenagers
6. Richard Hell, Spurts, Chinese Rocks
7. Meat Puppets, Meat Puppets II, Split Myself in Two
8. Colin Newman, A-Z (released in ‘80), Alone
9. The Swell Maps, Jane from Occupied Europe (1980), Collision with a Frogman

10. This Heat, This is 1 (released in ‘78), Horizontal Hold
11. Oxford Collapse, Remember the Night Parties (2006, but so much fun), Please Visit your National Parts
12. This Mortal Coil, Filigree and Shadow (released in ‘86), Alone (cover of Colin Newman’s featured on #8)
13. Joy Division, Digital
14. The Breeders, Safari, Safari
15. Magazine, The correct use of Soap (1980), Because You’re Frightened
16. Minutemen, Double Nickels on the Dime (released in ‘84), #1 Hit Song
17. Ciccone Youth, The Whitey Album (1988), Into the Groove(y)
It’s a side project of Sonic youth that formed in ‘86, with the Minutemen’s Mike Watt.

19. XTC, White Music (released in ‘78), Because You’re Frightened
20. Pale Saints, The Comforts of Madness, Sight of You
21. Pixies, Complete “B” Sides, Velvety (Instrumental Version)
22. Modern English, After the Snow, Life in the Gladhouse
23. The Apartments, The Evening Visits (1985), Mr. Somewhere
24. Half Japanese, Half Japanese: Greatest Hits, 1,000,000 Kisses

25. Felt, Gold Mine Trash, Crystal Ball
26. The Field Mice, Where’d You Learn to Kiss that Way?, Emma’s House
27. The Wedding Present, George Best Plus, My Favourite Dress
28. The Jesus and Mary Chain, Psychocandy
29. Nirvana, With the Lights Out, White Lace and Strange
30. Scratch Acid, The Greatest Gift, Mary Had a Little Drug Problem

31. The Gun Club, Fire of Love, Sex Beat

OK. Thought I’d shove up some random archive stuff, especially as my hard drive backup seems to be eating my old files, never to return. First, an interview from 2005 conducted for… where? I have no recollection, but I feel that perhaps I used some of this later in a Plan B feature. There’s already plenty of stuff about some of these bands elsewhere on my blogs (particularly here) and there’s a great article from Alistair Fitchett about it here, but I really can’t be arsed to link to it all. Sorry.

Alright, first the basic questions that I ask everyone:
Which were the most important earlier bands leading up to the C-86 wave?
Orange Juice, Josef K, Aztec Camera (the sound of Young Scotland): the ideology behind Creation Records but not the bands themselves (with the exception of the Mary Chain and The Pastels): anything on Rough Trade records post-1978 (except The Smiths who always were corporate sell-outs): The Fall (because they influences EVERY independent band from the UK post-1977): Buzzcocks, Subway Sect, Captain Beefheart (half the bands on that NME tape ripped the good Captain off), The Velvet Underground (and the other half ripped the Velvets off): Trixie’s Big Red Motorbike, Sophisticated Boom Boom and any of the girl-led pop groups that Peel used to play in the early Eighties: Captain Beefheart again: The Byrds and The Creation and The Kinks and all that white boy jangling guitar Sixties stuff: Television Personalities: plenty more, but that’ll do for now.

If I were to pick 10 bands from the C-86 era to write more about – which should I choose?
The Pastels
Talulah Gosh
Shop Assistants
The Wolfhounds
Jasmine Minks
The Membranes
Big Flame
The Wedding Present
June Brides
The Legend!

(This is a random list, drawn from the top of my head – and I’d be amazed if I haven’t forgotten a load of great bands.)

Are there are any bands that surfaced after the tape but are still considered to be C-86?
Not for me to say – but some people may consider what Matt and Claire put out on Sarah Records to fall firmly within the “C86 category”. Talulah Cosh were actually post-C86 if my memory serves me correctly. Comet Gain are totally C86 – as were many of the Riot Grrrl bands (especially the later ones that lost the politics but retained the cutie edge). Oh, and I guess BMX Bandits would’ve loved to have been.

What other musical events (gigs, record releases etc) except for the tape made the year 1986 stand out?
I remember standing at a Soup Dragons Hammersmith Clarendon (upstairs) concert with a basket full of new Legend! fanzines (Wolfhounds/Razorcuts flexi) and not moving all evening – people coming up to me in a constant stream, as I sold about 130 copies. Also, I’d travel up to Bedford Esquires (and other venues) a great deal for their fine triple bills starring folk like Talulah Gosh and Big Flame and Membranes – shows put on by Nigel Turner, who now runs Pickled Egg Records. I can’t recall events – was ’86 Live Aid? USA Against Warmongering By Capitalist Countries? C86 was actually a massive disappointment to me: for a compilation that so clearly had its roots in all the bands I would write about for NME at the time, it was incredible I hated so much of it (it’s cos the compilers were too arrogant to consult a “kid” like me). I still don’t like much of the tape – it’s unrepresentative of its times certainly (as opposed to the brilliant C81 comp, five years earlier) and even unrepresentative of the small narrow strata of music it thought it was representing. I recall a Troublefunk show that I danced my ass off at.

Were there any venues or clubs that were central to C-86?
Was McGee still putting on shows then? If so, then whatever he was behind would have been central. If not, then certainly Dan Treacy’s Room At The Top, upstairs at the Enterprise Chalk Farm, next to the excellent Marine Ices shop where everyone would hang out before bands, was vital. As were Leigh’s shows at Woolwich Polytechnic and Nigel’s shows in Bedford. They were the main three I’d go to.

Was C-86 in general political – lyrically or musically? Or was it just shaped by the politics of the time? And was it working-class or middle-class?
Depends which strata of C86 you’re talking about: the crap pop bands like The Bodines and Mighty Mighty or god-awful Close Lobsters certainly weren’t political. The more obviously Beefheart-influenced bands like Stump and The Shrubs and Big Flame and The MacKenzies seemed to be on the surface – although it’s arguable that was only because of the style of music (angular, awkward, challenging) they were aping. The Age of Chance seemed revolutionary, the way they matched guitar pop to dance rhythms, and were unfortunately (for them) 10 year ahead of their time. Half-Man Half-Morons (who should NEVER have been near the compilation) were an out-and-out joke band.

The temptation nowadays when faced with a crop of ‘indie’ bands is to automatically think of them as middle-class but looking down the list on C86 I’d have to say most of them are working-class (probably in some last echo of punk’s diverse roots that spread out to the working-class communities from its middle-class origins with Strummer and McClaren and that whole London thing). Most of those C86 would’ve played benefits for the miner’s strike and the like… again, I think this was probably part genuine outrage at the Thatcher years, and probably part follow-on from punk and post-punk’s obvious political leanings. Yes, of course the bands were shaped by their times, and among that section of society in the mid-Eighties, dissent was very much to the front.

Interesting that, out of 22 bands on the compilation, only three of them are female.

I’ve heard that there wasn’t a homogenous indiepop sub-culture before C-86. Is that true? And what were the identifying markers of anoraks, both on the surface and ideologically?
No, there wasn’t – not readily identifiable, at least. The most it amounted to was boys like Bobby Gillespie and Edwyn Collins who wore their hair like members of The Byrds: there was definitely a Mod and Sixties crossover with some of the more jangling elements of the independent sector (thanks a lot to the Creation Records aesthetic) but no… To be honest, I don’t think C86 was the main factor behind ‘indiepop’… that was more down to the law of diminishing returns and Sarah Records’ (in particular) sometimes inspirational but more often damn right annoying tunnel vision and insistence on sticking with ONE PARTICULAR SOUND, no messing (and certainly with no room for females, barring the ever-present Amelia Fletcher). Anoraks were NOT the norm in ’86 (Stephen Pastel wore one, but with leather trousers) not at all… it was the younger brothers of the C86 generation who decided that they were cool, not the people of the time.

Where did C-86 go? Did it merge with other genres or did it all turn into twee?
Let’s get this straight. C86 didn’t actually exist as a sound, or style. It was supposed to be a “state of the independents” compilation, similar to C81. The reason it wasn’t was down to the myopic vision of its compilers. The reason it wasn’t stronger was because major contributor behind the scenes, Neil Taylor – who only ever chose to write about bands I’d reviewed two weeks before – had no actual idea about music beyond reading other journalists. I loved soul and dance music at the time of C86. But the compilation didn’t reflect any of that. One half of C86 obviously turned twee – was already on the verge even as the tape was being put together. The other half continued existing merrily on its own terms thanks very much.

What’s your definition of C-86 today?
I don’t have one. See above. And I find it weird bordering on surreal that people are starting to use it again, specifically to sell seven-inch singles on eBay. No one used the term back then. They really didn’t.

And now the more important questions, especially tailored for you:
I assume you wrote the fanzine The Legend! – how would you describe it?
Impassioned, arrogant, self-obsessed, determined to strike its own path separate to the great morass of fanzines who all just seemed to be content with being third-rate copies of NME (I always knew I couldn’t do interviews, so I never ran a single one in any of the five issues of The Legend!)…naïve, futile, excitable, plenty of exclamation marks, instant, brutally honest, refused to take any ads whatsoever (and yes, I was offered some), very proud of what it did… almost entirely written by me, designed and published by me…

What other fanzines do you remember liking and what distinguished them?
Idiot Strength, Are You Scared To Get Happy?, Juniper Beri-Beri, Attack On Bzag, The Rox, that damn magazine Miki and Emma did years before they formed Lush (Alphabet Soup), Incendiary, Hungry Beat… for pretty much the same reasons as I’ve detailed in the description of The Legend! (None were as passionate or extreme as mine, of course.)

You were writing both for your own fanzine as well as for the NME – was that uncommon? And what did you think about the NME ca 1986?
There were several of us who wrote for both our own magazines and the music press – me, John Robb, James Brown, probably several more. It wasn’t that uncommon, there was a great tradition of writers coming to the music press from fanzines that started during the early punk days – and to the best of my knowledge has continued through even till today. I hated NME but of course I secretly loved it too. I didn’t exactly socialise with any of the other journalists there… I was routinely ridiculed and looked down upon by my fellow writers, especially the more august ones (and with some reason: I still couldn’t string a sentence together at that point). Danny Kelly supported me, and Steven Wells and David Quantick. Cheers mates.

Were you involved with compiling the C-86 tape? Why was it put out and what determined which bands were on it? (If possible, compare with C-81.)
I think I’ve already answered this question above: it was basically intended as a “state of the independents” round up – NME had a tradition of putting out tape compilations, like C81, but covering all forms of music (Rebellious Jukebox was my all-time favourite, introducing me as it did to the wonders of Southern Soul Music: there were several others also, covering jazz and hip hop). This was at least a decade before the idea of giving music away with a music magazine had become so thoroughly devalued that nowadays you don’t even bother buying Mojo or Uncut unless they have a free CD attached, and even the broadsheets get in on the act…

I wasn’t involved. I should have been, but I was a jumped-up fanzine kid (who just happened to be introducing most of these previously ignored bands to the music press and their readers). The standing joke at the time was that the tape comprised all the bands who’d slept on my floor when they played London – Shop Assistants, Wedding Present, Pastels, Bogshed, A Witness, Age of Chance, Soup Dragons….If I’d been involved there’s no way bands like Mighty Mighty or Half-Man Half-Biscuit (neither of whom had ANYTHING to do with anything) would have been allowed near the tape.

How come the two in retrospect perhaps most classic C-86 bands, Razorcuts and Talulah Gosh, were not on the tape?
I’m fairly sure Talulah Gosh were only just emerging right about the time the tape came out, so you can hardly blame the NME for not including them. (Why no June Brides, though? That was a bigger scandal.) And same held true of Razorcuts (although I absolutely LOVED that band by the time C86 appeared)… as I say, I had nothing to do with that tape despite being part of the inspiration for it. If I had then of course the ‘cuts would’ve been on it.

What were the connections between C-86 and other related terms such as anorak, shambling, jangle or twee? What did they mean and in what order did they emerge?
Anorak was something Simon Reynolds invented a couple of years later, in Melody Maker (he wrote a big article in ’88 on the whole fanzine ‘scene’, which by that time had moved along to the Canterbury Arms in Brixton, I think, that included massive pictures of John Robb and me – much to NME’s disgust). I think he may have invented ‘twee’ at the same time. Both are horrible condescending words. Ugh! Jangle was probably around since ’81 or so, with Orange Juice and the bands that loved Sixties groups like The Byrds. Shambling (and the thankfully underused grebo) has been credited to John Peel circa ’85 – but I never listened to him so I wouldn’t know. I think it was taken to mean bands like The Fall, and the Beefheart-influenced lot, who didn’t care so much whether everything was perfectly produced or polished, but had a more ‘shambolic’ approach to recording and playing live. I used to think it meant any band that took more than three attempts to start a song… in which case Teenage Fanclub early on were the ultimate shambling band. But to me, Bogshed always were.

Why did the NME turn on a scene of their own creation and start using the term ‘C-86’ in a scornful manner?
That was because most of the writers never liked it in the first place – and also cos the description quickly codified into a certain sound. And that always sucks when that happens.

Some people seem to think the invention of ‘C-86’ killed off indiepop. What were the negative as well as the positive effects?
I can’t comment here; neither term actually means much to me as descriptions of a genre of music (the two are synonymous as far as I’m concerned) so the question is meaningless. Cheers, Everett

Escucha aquí Click Click Click, de Bishop Allen

J.M. Campos / Iram Martínez / revistawego@gmail.com

Nocturama acogió el miércoles a Bishop Allen, una banda atípica liderada por dos neoyorquinos licenciados en Harvard. Su fórmula de folk-pop, sin muchas pretensiones y sin embargo dulce para los oídos, propició las sonrisas entre el público y una agradable sensación de bienestar. Que no es poco. Contigo sí, Bishop.

El jueves nos visitaron The Wedding Present, banda liderada por David Gedge y que con más de dos décadas de música a sus espaldas se dispusieron a dar una lección de pop-rock británico

Sigue leyendo las crónicas

Bishop Allen

Después de comenzar con ‘Another Wasted Night’, se prodigaron en su tercer y último disco, ‘Grrr…’, lanzado el pasado abril después de compilar en ‘The broken Spring’ los doce EP´s que editaron en 2006. Uno por cada mes del año. Así, ‘The Ancient Commonsense of Things’ o ‘Dimmer’ fueron transportando al personal hacia aguas en calma.

Aunque el foco principal se focalizaba sobre el cantante, Justin Rice, con su flequillo y sus enormes gafas de pasta, gran parte de las miradas se dirigían hacia la xilofonista, y no sólo por su belleza. Darbie Nowatka aporta a Bishop Allen un preciso toque de distinción.

Sus composiciones son directas, muy cortas. Pocas se extienden más allá de los tres minutos. De las que más gustaron, ‘Click click click’ y ‘Rain’. “This place is so amazing…”, comentaba Justin, mientras Christian Rudder se mostraba eufórico a la guitarra.

Los coros del resto del grupo complementaron su pop amable y animoso. Mantuvieron un ritmo uniforme durante toda su actuación, en pocos momentos parecieron salirse del guión, algo que algunos pudo no gustar del todo. La sensación general, no obstante, fue de notable.

Bishop Allen reúnen un repertorio de canciones perfectas para un día soleado… o una noche estrellada. No sólo de malotes vive el escenario: los empollones también saben hacer buena música.

The Wedding Present

Después del buen concierto del miércoles, llegaba el día que más gente esperaba. The Wedding Present, una banda con 24 años de experiencia a sus espaldas y por la que han pasado, doce músicos, sin contar a la formación actual.

El jefe de todo esto es David Gedge, quién se hizo acompañar por Terry de Castro al bajo, Charly Layton en las baterías y Graeme Ramsay en la otra guitarra. A la hora habitual The Wedding Present subía al escenario e iba a lo suyo: dar un concierto.

Arrancaron con Santa Ana Winds, estreno de su último trabajo, y rápidamente la emparejaron con Sucker, de 1994 y Don´t Talk Just Kiss de 1990. Y es que es normal que con tantos años sobre el lomo de Gedge, la banda tenga material de donde tirar.

Tres canciones seguidas y un saludo, un par de frases, tres canciones más. Básicamente esta fue la estructura del concierto, muy concentrada en la música, dejando de lado los comentarios y las bromas. Pensé que tras varios años viviendo en EEUU, este Englishman in L.A. se manejaría con más soltura en al lengua de Cervantes.

No habló pero si lo dejó todo sobre el escenario, las letras de Gedge, siempre cargadas de historias de amor, tienen en su autor a su mejor actor. Histriónico, sin llegar a exagera, recordemos que es british, es fácil imaginar que David recuerda los momentos en los que escribió letras como la de Brassneck (temazo donde los haya) o The Queen of Outher Space, en la el líder de la banda descarga toda su furia rockera contra su guitarra, rompiendo incluso la quinta cuerda.

Fue un recital de casi 20 temas que nos trajo dando vueltas por toda su discografía, aunque destacando las canciones de su último álbum El Rey. Si hay que ponerles una pega, yo diría que sobre inicio de la parte final del concierto no hubo una buena conexión con el público, que no respondieron ante Soup o Corduroy. Fallo que supieron resolver muy bien con el final apoteósico con el combo de Brassneck y Bewitched. Sin bises, pese a que el público lo pedía insistentemente, The Wedding Present se despidió, agradeciendo el espacio y el calor, pero no el que había dejado Lorenzo, sino el que el respetable les brindó con sus aplausos.

Moi boas,

Logo dun amplo período de descanso (só que refire a este blogue) por fin volvemos actualizar, e facémolo para dar conta dunha das citas habituais no verán musical galego, o festival Cultura Quente de Caldas de Reis, que se celebrará na súa habitual carballeira os días 10 e 11 de xullo.

O cartaz deste ano sufriu a significativa baixa de última hora dos New York Dolls, pero aínda así ofrece unha programación compacta e variada.

Nel atopamos propostas tan variadas como a dúo belga Vive La Fête (que foran tamén baixa de ultimísima hora na pasada edición), o rock dunha das bandas míticas dos noventa como Lagartija Nick, o post-punk dos británicos The Wedding Present, o surf instrumental de Los Coronas ou a mestura de pop e hip-hop dos barceloneses Facto Delafé y Las Flores Azules.

Como sempre a entrada é de balde e haberá zona de acampada.

Vémonos en Caldas!

Sufro de encefalograma plano desde hace un par de días. No es que esté muy preocupada, porque hay gente que vive con ello todos los días y se maneja bastante bien, pero a mi no me gusta y no me hace sentir demasiado cómoda.

Quizás se deba al hecho de no haber asistido al Primavera Sound, pese a vivir en Barcelona. Ha supuesto un esfuerzo inmenso, pero más o menos he logrado abstraerme de la realidad que estaba teniendo lugar en el Forum y olvidar que no estaba viendo a The Vaselines, ni a Phoenix, ni a Sonic Youth, ni a todos esos grupos que a mi me encantan y a la mitad de la gente que estaba dentro del recinto se la traían al pairo, lo que pasa es que hay que molar (he de puntualizar que fue un fin de semana de cumpleaños estupendo y no hay festival que le haga sombra. Gracias). Igual es que me he abstraído demasiado.

Opiniones radicales y rabiadas a parte y repito, pese a no haber ido, estoy experimentando uno de los peores efectos secundarios de un festival de música: descubrir, una vez pasado el festival, que había grupos que no conocías y que te perdiste y que ahora te gustan mucho (o te encantan). Es el caso de The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, grupo de cuatro chavales de Nueva york que suenan a lo mismo de siempre, pero por lo menos tienen buen gusto a la hora de escoger a quién se parecen. Resumiendo: suenan a My Bloody Valentine, a The Wedding Present, a The Jesus & Mary Chain, a todo lo grande.

La verdad es que no les había dado demasiada importancia (los grupos con nombres muy largos suelen darme mucha pereza) pero por casualidad vi el vídeo de “Everything With You”, al parecer su ingle más destaclable, (lo que no es de extrañar porque como canción pop funciona a la perfección, como si de una colaboración entre Belle & Sebastian y Ride se tratase) y me gustó. Llevo dos días sin parar de escucharles, aunque no se si tiene algo que ver con mi encefalograma.