LIST 175 - 09/12/2015 (a selection of places - part one)

Hello again,

Tonight and tomorrow's Lists follow a simple enough theme - every song shares its name with a genuine town, city, country, street, feature or in one case a planet. 

These have been fun to compile; there are a few choices I've been waiting to share for almost as long as I've been doing these, and opportunity has finally presented itself.

The Field Mice's evocative and filmic (is that a word?) Holland Street takes its name from a road in Glasgow.  Sauerland, as in the contribution here by Zoff, is an area of northern Germany.  Cuyahoga is many things in Ohio, though I understand the REM track refers specifically to the terminally polluted river of the same name.  Mablethorpe, beloved of Lost Pets, is an East Lincolnshire coastal resort.  You won't need me to tell you what the likes of Sweden are.

J xx



THE FIELD MICE – Holland Street (1990)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZHZCEF5wPw

STANLEY BRINKS AND THE WAVE PICTURES - Berlin (2015)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woPzCzQ-hUs

THE DIVINE COMEDY – Sweden (1998)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-qqFWpguoA

MASAKI HANAKATA – Panama (2013)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TySBdc-kwCM

THE LUCKSMITHS – Mars (1999)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uxf-2T-dXAQ

CATWALK – Damascus (1991)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkuuYQhfgaA

ROSE McDOWALL – Tibet (2004)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcig_CjRoJo

THE MAGNETIC FIELDS – Washington D.C. (1999)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nC56Plwfm38

BAXENDALE – Switzerland (1999)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nY4Q88H67bQ

ZOFF – Sauerland (1983)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6A5zhnw7CV8

SUGAR – Hoover Dam (1992)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBqZHPTCV58

REM – Cuyahoga (1986)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrehJovpKfo

NORTHERN PICTURE LIBRARY – Paris (1994)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrpqGxuZKGk

LOST PETS – Mablethorpe (2015)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_L204wDmEQ

SEELENLUFT ft “MIKE MASTER” MICHAEL SMITH – Manila (2002)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45brgbERMG0

M83 – America (2003)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJCq8wHDh0E

THE KLF – America (What Time Is Love?) (1992)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9L4OnoEh2us

LIST 174 - 08/12/2015

Hello again,

Football ought to be a bit of an off-limits subject for me this week, following my team Oldham Athletic's summary failure to defeat ten-man Sheffield United in the Cup and thus cost themselves a lifeline third round draw against Manchester United. 

Fortunately, though, help is at hand with Trust Fund's superb paean to the game, vintage BBC commentary and all. A lot of fun.

Great to have a fresh Field Music single seeing the light of day as a sighter ahead of next February's new album; great also to be able to include something new from stalwart Swedish house duo Lo-Fi-FNK. 

The Haiku Salut video is not for the faint of stomach, perhaps, but offers an inversion of a theme; whilst one of several delves into the archives features Public Enemy, as of a week or so ago the favourite carshare passengers of one Sheffield resident in the sort of story you just can't make up.  Oh, go and Google it...

J xx



TRUST FUND – Football (2015)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QlTkH93dEE

SACRI CUORI – La Marabina (2015)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MgmfRqU834

BILLY BRAGG – I Don’t Need This Pressure Ron (1985)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0crTJ5apq8

BODYHEAT - Upside Down (2015)
https://soundcloud.com/bodyheat-1/upside-down

LO-FI-FNK – Pirate Radio (2015)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TctVMi4Ln4U

A WITNESS – Lucky in London (1985)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M_jKjX3SQQ

LITTLE GREEN CARS – Harper Lee (2013)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHwMDr6dMHI

CAVERN OF ANTI-MATTER - Irridated Dream Mouth (2013)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isj8WAPhYKY

MOGWAI – Tracy (1997)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3uIwEY27DQ


THEN AND NOW: Mavis Staples
MAVIS STAPLES – Fight (2015)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnzQmLFQrfY
MAVIS STAPLES – I Have Learned To Do Without You (1970)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaeNfB-tb7g


FIELD MUSIC – The Noisy Days Are Over (2015)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FGPDau_QwA

MYLO – Muscle Car (2004)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7geCioVvQU

LOW – Just Make It Stop (2013)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rAdzJ1U0RU

THE ORCHIDS – God of Special Things (2010)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnB1oqQB6lE

HAIKU SALUT - Hearts Not Parts (2015)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWDB417Mtas

PUBLIC ENEMY – Hazy Shade of Criminal (1992)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvOd48zlNkA

THE GASMAN – It Is Always Now (2015)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEaGSYFbP1w

LIST 173 - 07/12/2015

Hello again,

The start of a fresh week of Lists (whilst stocks still last), and a couple of contributions from acts that I've been gutted to have missed playing in Sheffield these past couple of weeks - excellent, upwardly mobile Glasgow two-piece Tuff Love and dramatic French songstress Marianne Dissard.  Gig-going FAIL, as ver kids might say.

Elsewhere, it's a long-overdue pleasure to include Endless Art by A-House this time around.  It's been kicking around on my to-include list for a couple of years now, in the ultimately unrealised hope of including it in a List entirely consisting of "list" songs.

One idea that should very much still come to fruition before very long, however, is a List containing only songs that share their names with towns, cities or countries. 

So why is Wakefield by Stanley Brinks and the Wave Pictures included here instead of there?  Simple - the venerable Mr Brinks has released more than just the one such song as a single this year alone...

J xx



THE SPOOK SCHOOL – Burn Masculinity (2015)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGGj5_7dx0o

TUFF LOVE - Duke (2015)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMad2QxfeMg

BLUE AEROPLANES – Ashtrays from Mt. Etna (1985)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6Ker25Rl8s

KILLING JOKE - I Am The Virus (2015)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4wdbibV3IM

THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS – War on the East Coast (2014)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMcumbSMY_8

TEENAGE FANCLUB – Don’t Need a Drum (1990)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpEqRbNkuOo

STANLEY BRINKS AND THE WAVE PICTURES - Wakefield (2015)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8unrOg4HquU

CABARET VOLTAIRE – Kino (1985)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4IAnSdtbNY


THEN AND NOW: Jill Sobule
JILL SOBULE - O Canada (2014)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfEWlRicTjs
JILL SOBULE - Rainy Day Parade (2000)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9fY7BrwfOY


MARIANNE DISSARD – Je ne le savais pas (2014)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgDi72nyajE

OWL & MOUSE - Octopi (2015)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyLshzMyhM8

PULP – Stacks (1993)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbwj_J750kE

SHANNON AND THE CLAMS – Point of Being Right (2015)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJPw789HSwY

MONKEY SWALLOWS THE UNIVERSE – Bloodline (2007)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImUuSN_2tE8

DJEMBA DJEMBA - Macking in the Car (I Don't Drive) (2014)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNvsl3ucqhM

A HOUSE – Endless Art (1991)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDo6Lgylsjg

FLOWERS – Forget the Fall (2014)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qk7s5ONezMU

SLIM – It’s in the Mix (1982)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTtFktnQR7E

LIST 172 - 04/12/2015

Hello again,

One last collection for this week, and another "how did I miss that?!?" candidate in the shape of the superb title track from last year's The New Pornographers album - all the more inexplicable a miss given I bought the thing at the time.

The Then and Now selection this time around concerns Birmingham veterans The Nightingales, "the misfits' misfits" in the words of John Robb and as much of a one-man axis around which all spins (here: Robert Lloyd) as The Fall does around Mark E Smith.

J xx



THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS – Brill Bruisers (2014)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhhtSXk1c70

T.RAUMSCHMIERE - Zwischenstop (2015)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2dpYvrCnnk

VIC REEVES – Empty Kennel (1991)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fnaJU3JeXQ

BLOOD RED SHOES – An Animal (2014)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUWfid5nIcY

FIELD MOUSE – Everyone But You (2014)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRts51vPUv8

THOMAS DOLBY – Radio Silence (1982)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uaz98xOciUs

NEON INDIAN – Annie (2015)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxkj-my2VPg

FOSSIL AEROSOL MINING PROJECT - Too Far from Istanbul (2014)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKB8wcdD5qY

BABES IN TOYLAND – Handsome and Gretel (1992)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWP_gNy7sRI


THEN AND NOW: The Nightingales
THE NIGHTINGALES – The Only Son (2015)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXJrm9X7yVQ
THE NIGHTINGALES – Use Your Loaf (1982)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVtPR-O3fws


THE PAYROLL UNION – Peggy’s Tavern (2013)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bappGzZxhQ

BENJAMIN SHAW - You & Me (2014)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nw6DmbcTjlI

ELECTRONIC – Tighten Up (1991)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlrQjRNlCMo

LOW – No Comprende (2015)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZfjysllZyg

DR ALIMANTADO – I Killed the Barber (1978)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laO8GOe87uw

PRINZHORN DANCE SCHOOL - Reign (2015)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8luJ3OV_PN8

LAETITIA SADIER – Release from the Centre of Your Heart (2014)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkwDyvRFmGY

RADIOHEAD – Prove Yourself (1993)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tP8DL2WShqY

THE LEAF LIBRARY – Tilting (2015)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXahqYX234w

LEMON JELLY – Experiment No. 6 (2002)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rnijc0YfD9k

LIST 171 - 03/12/2015

Hello again,

For the first time this season we have a List which necessarily includes a track in loving memory, following the passing today of Delta 5 drummer Kelvin Knight. 

Mind Your Own Business, as covered by several acts over the past three decades (possibly most famously Chicks On Speed) would have been an obvious and worthy choice of track, but I've gone for something I like a little bit more. 

As active and important in the Rock Against Racism movement as late-1970s/early-1980s Leeds contemporaries Gang Of Four (and on occasion with the physical scars to prove it), Delta 5 were well worth the critical reappraisal afforded them by the 2006 reissue of some of their work on Kill Rock Stars.  Rest easy, Kelvin.

Elsewhere in this grab bag List, there's new(ish) stuff from Real Estate spin-off Ducktails; outstanding Krautrock/Tangerine Dream/Jean-Michel Jarre-influenced duo Melodien; the East Midlands' finest spoken/shouted word misanthropes Sleaford Mods; tracks from each end of Built To Spill's two-and-a-bit decades' worth (and counting) of output; and further proof from Ringo Deathstarr that you don't necessarily need Lush to reform to hear new Lush-like material.

The most astonishing new track on the List, though? Without a shadow of a doubt, In Heels by Tall Dark Friend - Jordan Gray's impassioned, incendiary, smart and highly articulate account of her own transgender realisation and experiences in deepest darkest Essex.  Scroobius Pip is a fan.  It's not at all hard to see why.

J xx



SLEAFORD MODS – No One’s Bothered (2015)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SM2f0YWhP9o

THE LUCKSMITHS – I Prefer the Twentieth Century (2000)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KV-WvlTwroM

MELODIEN - Narkotic (2015)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmkSjnknC8I

ARCHIE BRONSON OUTFIT - Two Doves on a Lake (2014)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBewUBLwV7w

THE FALL – A Past Gone Mad (1993)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8csC5UWwDg

DUCKTAILS – Headbanging in the Mirror (2015)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7vvvuo4R2o

J DILLA - Dillatronic #41 (2015)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_butsqOLVog

SHAKESPEAR’S SISTER – Catwoman (1992)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5coA8mPaQs

STAR TROPICS – Swept Away (2015)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTbU8wYagaU

SLUG - Greasy Mind (2015)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZIO9KPa6wQ

CHRIS T-T – The English Earth (2001)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQkLDIsqTeI


THEN AND NOW: Built to Spill
BUILT TO SPILL - Living Zoo (2015)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hgRgO5y0f4
BUILT TO SPILL – Car (1994)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6omZ5GsuGrI


TALL DARK FRIEND – In Heels (demo) (2015)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InIfgH79SKg

LOVEYDOVE - Gently As You Feel (2015)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dbz64VOlMUc

RINGO DEATHSTARR - Guilt (2015)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAVv5G1jkW4

WIRE – The Point of Collapse (1987)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5F3CzikRmU

LAURA VEIRS – America (2013)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hO8pHPf15zE

TWERPS – Back to You (2014)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7n-3z3vkLFg

BIG YOUTH – Four Sevens (1977)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRoW3DFqC1E

IN LOVING MEMORY: Kelvin Knight

DELTA 5 – Anticipation (1981)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjP4NQYB6xs

LIST 170 - 02/12/2015 (1995 special, part one)

Hello there,

It was 20 years ago today... just about :-)

Having plundered extensively from the archives to produce several 1985-themed Lists earlier in the year, attentions turn to a decade later this time around with what should be the first of several 1995 collections to feature over the next week or so.

I'll be honest - a lot of the recent reappraisals of this particular year in certain music media outlets (including those of ever fading significance - hello again, NME) have pulled my chain in no uncertain terms.  Were we all listening solely to Britpop as has frequently been inferred?  Were we all riding a Cool Britannia vibe?

Um, no. 

Musically ultra-conservative and in places depressingly jingoistic and laddish, the passing of two decades has done nothing to lessen my dislike for much of that scene's leading practitioners and what they stood for, much less has my guard dropped when letting them into my record collection then or since. 

Notably, the only band in this opening selection even halfway occasionally referred to (incorrectly) as a Britpop act, The Boo Radleys, had little truck with it as label.

In 1995 I wanted to listen to interesting indiepop/punk-pop acts from Glasgow and the East Midlands and South Wales.  To Peel-endorsed techno.  To Welsh whimsy.  To frightening Scottish man/tiny Leicester woman-fronted racket-mongers.  To unstoppable Marxist easy-listening/drone merchants.  To British Asian popsters and Anglo-Dutch speedfreaks.  To smoky-voiced Nottingham balladeers.  Some of the stuff on this list, basically.  And more besides.

Liam who?

J xx



SAFE DEPOSIT – You Can’t
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHFGoYwYAgY

BIS – Plastik People
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbK7r34JeZk

GORKY’S ZYGOTIC MYNCI – If Fingers Were Xylophones
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5fkJ5Ppn-k

QUICKSPACE SUPERSPORT – Quickspace Happy Song #1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQv2Z3SEwhk

ST CHRISTOPHER – She Looks Like You
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBLKmNUQdLA

LEFTFIELD HALLIDAY – Original
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SILVQpqmH7U

DONKEY – Youth Spent Sniffing Ventolin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yR7QkTNHtlY

PROLAPSE – When Space Invaders Were Big
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-BYvdwXuQI

ASH – Kung Fu
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWqY8qrBBSI

TINDERSTICKS – No More Affairs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZnYR8gc6bU

CORNERSHOP – Wog
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgB_nWyJQXg

STEREOLAB – The Extension Trip
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBHskH8EYfI

TRICKY – Black Steel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZJTM03UByU

THE JAZZ BUTCHER – President Chang (Evil Karel von Daemmerung Remix)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pup24tHLakA

HALF MAN HALF BISCUIT – Sensitive Outsider
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_La90JHQSes

HELEN LOVE - Beat Him Up
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAqWlqyjxWY

THE BOO RADLEYS - Find the Answer Within
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfquAEzgpGM

DQE - Dear Bobby
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6rUB4js_EQ

CROWSDELL- Sugar Coated
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G23-11lnlT0

THE MELONS - From Hell to Helsinki
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MWLoOl7-OE

WHIPPING BOY – Twinkle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLDXeiMoZe4

LIST 169 - 01/12/2015

Hello again,

Ever wondered what Metal Box-era PIL might have sounded like had that band hailed from Kinshasa?  Listen to Mbongwana Star and wonder no more. 

Lithe, insistent and mysterious, the DCR combo's debut album contains my favourite track of any released so far in 2015, and it's a pleasure to include it here.

Under its previous title, Robberie's Seven Hills similarly vied for my top song of the year honours a couple of years back, and at long last a track previously available only in demo form (albeit on an EP and an Indietracks compilation) has been graced with a full release.

Lovely footage of their (and for the foreseeable future also my) home city in the video also.

Grand to be able to offer new stuff from Mercury Rev, Euros Childs, Rose Melberg (in her latest incarnation Knife Pleats) and synthpop doyens Blancmange. 

Grand as well to include material from Death And Vanilla (imagine a Swedish Broadcast fronted by a Julee Cruise soundalike), plus an act in Bodyheat I last saw playing a set to end a very special wedding party for two very special friends in Bristol.

J xx



MBONGWANA STAR – Shégué (2015)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtmsdFU30_k

MERCURY REV - Are You Ready? (2015)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86EwvXYG7vA

HALF MAN HALF BISCUIT – Reflections in a Flat (1985)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aHTbS-AuIE

ANNA VON HAUSSWOLFF – Evocation (2015)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TU07z8N1V40

BODYHEAT - Talk it Over (2015)
https://soundcloud.com/bodyheat-1/talk-it-over

LEMON JELLY – Nice Weather for Ducks (2002)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NC5jmZCFRQo

DEATH AND VANILLA – The Optic Nerve (2015)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRMj8xsRD2g

DEINE LAKAIEN – Farewell (2014)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-JXy2-wS9c

THE DIVINE COMEDY – Arthur C Clarke’s Mysterious World (2006)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClXxsV874oI

EUROS CHILDS – Fruit and Veg (2015)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiyQUOlHfcA

KNIFE PLEATS - Terrible (2015)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pk94AIYBJnE

THE HIDDEN CAMERAS – Ban Marriage (2003)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdX7YP-vU0U

LAETITIA SADIER – The Scene of the Lie (2014)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsPl4a2foZA

BLANCMANGE – Landsea (2015)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYJwrEW0g_0

BLANCMANGE – Blind Vision (1983)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YAvhMTgE8o

SCHOOL OF LANGUAGE – Between the Suburbs (2014)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYd8qQUKIaY

SARAH WILLIAMS WHITE – Winter Sun (2015)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cY58OroE8mQ

PUBLIC ENEMY – A Letter to the New York Post (1991)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DMo3uQpd40

HYDE & BEAST - Keep Moving (2014)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bs_RrMOtl_I

ROBBERIE – Seven Hills (2015)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HncvdqSXQVY