That Music List: May 2015

Friday 29 May 2015

LIST 158 - 29/05/15 (The Many Guises Of... Amelia Fletcher)

Hello there,

Following on from the first "The many guises of..." List two weeks ago, this time around it is a pleasure to introduce a selection representing the long and magical career of the first lady of indiepop - singer, songwriter, guest vocalist par excellence and economist Amelia Fletcher.

Hopefully the whole gamut has been run here - something from each of the bands Amelia's fronted over the last 30 years (from cutie figureheads Talulah Gosh to current duo The Catenary Wires); special appearances on more singles than you can shake a stick at; and some affectionate covers from the likes of Los Campesinos! and Built To Spill.

My only regret is that I wasn't able to find anything from the first (1991) EP by Bugbear, on which she again featured as guest vocalist. That's partly because it's a terrifically boisterous affair, and partly due to it being the pet project of her very greatly missed kid brother Mathew - still very much in the thoughts of so many nearly two decades on from his tragically young passing.

J xx

WORLD OF FOX with AMELIA FLETCHER – Be Kind to My Love (2015)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlWJcDuuPSI

AMELIA FLETCHER & EITHNE FARRY – Beatnik Boy (live at Indietracks) (2009)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YC5UtZkaXUU

HARVEY WILLIAMS ft AMELIA FLETCHER – Cindy’s Been and Gone (1999)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpKdJWxxRsY

MARINE RESEARCH – Queen B (1998)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcNHAS8R5HE

THE POOH STICKS ft AMELIA FLETCHER – Who Loves You (1991)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxT6StorjRs

HEFNER ft AMELIA FLETCHER – The Greedy Ugly People (Live at Maida Vale) (2000)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICCQxAtDgM8

BUILT TO SPILL – By The Way (1998)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MW3RhU5AsuI

HEAVENLY – Space Manatee (1996)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFEOSY39MuQ

THE WEDDING PRESENT with AMELIA FLETCHER – Getting Better (1986)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUMSNTmdcbo

SPORTIQUE – Don’t Believe A Word I Say (2000)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwiXvbDrAoM

TENDER TRAP – Girls with Guns (2010)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_GnEXrEXoY

LOS CAMPESINOS! – C is the Heavenly Option (2007)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfjlzapOr1c

THE CATENARY WIRES – Intravenous (2015)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzmbBB9JQUk

THE POPGUNS ft AMELIA FLETCHER – Bye Bye Baby (live) (1990)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9BBgGLD6V8

DJ DOWNFALL ft AMELIA FLETCHER – If I Should Fall Behind (2009)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBEp-aSDbPg

TALULAH GOSH – The Girl with the Strawberry Hair (1987)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-n-xfkehJ80

THE CAROUSEL – Strawberry Fayre (1988)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWq768QYIgI

THE BRILLIANT CORNERS ft AMELIA FLETCHER – Why Do You Have to Go Out with Him (1988)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4FaAipULzg

THE 6THS ft AMELIA FLETCHER – Looking for Love (in the Hall of Mirrors) (1995)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jY9BvrcGsGw

THE GARLANDS & AMELIA FLETCHER – Nous de sommes pas des anges (live at Limoges Popfest) (2012)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sHMAACF3as

AMELIA FLETCHER – Can You Keep a Secret? (12" version) (1991)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wA7DMp9dibQ

Friday 22 May 2015

LIST 157 - 22/05/15 (Eurovision Song Contest special)

Hello again,

Non-lovers of Eurovision might want to give this week's List a miss...

Here we have 25 songs that represent a personal selection of favourites - not necessarily all the "best" songs, whatever that means, and certainly not all the most successful - from everyone's favourite annual brew of high camp, fallable phone links and questionable voting. Please enjoy.

Actually, it behoves me to point out that only 23 of the songs are from the Contest itself - two more got to their respective nation's equivalents of A Song For Europe, but no further. For a bit of fun, see if you can identify which.

There's very little from pre-1990 Contests in this particular List, but I'm sure I can put that right twelve months from now. Probably my favourite Eurovision song of the lot is one of the oldest here, however - this is indeed the same Belgian deadpan synth-prodders Telex that had had a UK chart hit with a deliberately funereal cover of Rock Around The Clock a year or two previously.

J xx

GUILDO HORN – Guildo hat euch lieb (1998)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPZX7EZIFD0

AFRO-DITE – Never Let It Go (2002)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbWBSpf-7Eo

VANILLA NINJA – Cool Vibes (2005)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDkqtAx31H4

BRAINSTORM – My Star (2000)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1y9xhmMSDk

PERTTI KURIKAN NIMIPÄIVÄT- Aina mun pitää (2015)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OR6BixXmo08

PAS DE DEUX – Rendez-vous (1983)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRfve3wHYUY

YULIA SAVICHEVA – Believe Me (2004)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfUShaG1MrI

SANDIE SHAW – Puppet on a String (1967)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhLlXvkm65Y

LONDONBEAT – I’m Just Your Puppet on a String! (1995)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMa7Zr1wQ98

LT UNITED – We are the Winners (2006)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvDF2Q4WiGk

INES – Once in a Lifetime (2000)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVVMuvsPSYI

ELINA BORN & STIG RÄSTA – Goodbye to Yesterday (2015)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSWbx3CvVUk

TELEX – Eurovision (1980)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6USa0zUMmqI

ALF POIER – Weil der Mensch zählt (2003)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZJt6Gv4XPk

ROSA – Europe’s Living a Celebation (2002)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xX3dNwHl50

FINN KALVIK - Aldri i livet (1981)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dxudrQ8jfw

LINDA WAGENMAKERS – No Goodbyes (2000)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuDf5GBnGpA

TEXAS LIGHTNING – No No Never (2006)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvTuDL8dwiI

ANNA MARIA JOPEK – Ale jestem (1997)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piD3PP1QDBQ

WINNY PUHH - Meiecundimees üks Korsakov läks eile Lätti (2013)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dllo85ZSUk

AIVARAS – Happy You (2002)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5V40qxtQEmg

MÅNS ZELMERLÖW – Heroes (2015)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-msutN_OkU4

CHARMED – My Heart Goes Boom (2000)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNP7VPSBICc

STEFAN RAAB – Wadde hadded dude da? (2000)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hITG8fMzxUo

EMMA – Give a Little Love Back to the World (1990)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRDdlNwoQkg

Friday 15 May 2015

LIST 156 - 15/05/15 (The Many Guises Of... Tim Smith)

Hello there,

Seems like a long eight days since the That Music List Election Night Special (q.v.), doesn't it... The less said about the Election result the better, I think, other than to note that only the fact it's already been included on at least one previous List prevented the uploading of Jarvis Cocker's "Running the World" the following morning.

Still, where there's life, there's hope, so let's play some music for comfort and succour.

This week's List is the first of several I've put together which feature performances associated in some way with one artist or artiste, hence the "The many guises of..." strapline. This first choice is a poignant one, too, given that Tim Smith's near-fatal, and irrefutably life-changing, heart attack and stroke in 2008 have effectively terminated the playing and producing career of one of modern music's most fertile imaginations. A terrible, terrible shame.

Here's something celebratory by which to remember the big man at his best, then - 20 songs all either starring Tim (Cardiacs, Tim Smith, Sea Nymphs, Panixphere), originally by him (former Cardiac William D Drake's sublime cover), or else featuring him on production and/or instrumental duties (everything else). I couldn't not finish with the short film "Jim's Shame", featuring an archetypal Tim tantrum and eventual storming off - to return to the recording studio who knows when, if ever.

J xx

CARDIACS – Jibber and Twitch (rehearsal) (2003)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxhuQWKwbqY

TIM SMITH – Rat Mice Lice Time (1990/1995)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVivNCn2T8k

SIDI BOU SAID – Wormee (1995)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gcj4AJlKy0g

THE SHRUBBIES – Carefree Clothes (1997)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3iGiiuUIzg

PANIXPHERE – To Go Off and Things (1992)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZxHyGwu7kg

ADRIAN BORLAND – I’m Your Freedom (1997)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkyJoH-Ho_c

NORTH SEA RADIO ORCHESTRA – End of Chimes (2006)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tR6axzyFX-k

THE MONSOON BASSOON – The King of Evil (1999)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1i3BMnrCOxg

PINHEAD NATION – Where’s Herne Bay? (1993)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lk9KdV7C5cc

SPRATLEYS JAPS – Secret (1999)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BS0hDllluBI

GERTRUDE – Comes Around (1997)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4CC2a7Gf9I

WILLIAM D DRAKE – Savour (2010)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nzC9O35CyU

EAT – Double Bubble (1993)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJ2WpYd3LnU

THE TRUDY – Lost Summer of Love (2007)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhtr9Mspl7w

LEVITATION – Cloud Shine (1992)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7ngBJuQSWo

THE SCARAMANGA SIX – The Poison Pen (2004)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBRVWNJHSRg

FLINCH – Spoonz (1995)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFskEDaITb4

STARS IN BATTLEDRESS – Secrets and Signals (2003)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0gzQjoTy4Q

THE SEA NYMPHS – Shaping the River (1992)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbxzUhk7R5c

THE SOUND – Counting the Days (1986)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1j-mJOt5wb0

CARDIACS – Jim’s Shame (2003)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AC8Z9uGe0A

Thursday 7 May 2015

LIST 155 - 07/05/15 (Election Night special)

Hello again,

Thanks for waiting a few weeks whilst other pursuits were, um, pursued. At long last, and having ducked out of doing one in 2010, here we have the first ever That Music List set to coincide with a British General Election!

I find the whole thing gruesomely compelling and expect I'll be up all night sitting amid an ever-increasing litter of emptied ale bottles, but the slightly more sane among you may instead like to commit 75 minutes or so to the following - every track either about (or at the very least namechecking) politics, politicians or elections...

Back again with something else nice a week on Friday. See thee 'til then.

J xx

ALICE COOPER – Elected (1972)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1i4EnjRKVQw

CASSETTEBOY – Emperor’s New Clothes (2015)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbLGG5UGEKw

KILLING JOKE – Democracy (1996)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXZSF13pM-I

HAL – Election Day (1994)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fV-AYzaiRPM

NOTSENSIBLES – I’m In Love with Margaret Thatcher (1979)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zq9j4QbSTC8

THE WAKE – Major John (1991)