Isn’t that just a heartwarming picture? The Spirit of the season, don’t you know. Well. It’s been quiet in these parts comrades and for that we must apologise but, y’know, we’ve not been well. No doubt the new year will see us renew our efforts once more, although to what end remains as yet unclear. Anyway Christmas approaches us all apace and it’s becoming a bit of a tradition to have a PROD mix to listen to while you wrap gifts, trim trees, baste turkeys or have beer for breakfast. Whatever it is you do. After last year’s rather short and frantic mash up frenzy this year’s effort once again covers a wide range of festive goodness kicking off with some swinging exotica, taking in some raging garage, rock ‘ n’ roll, punk rock even jazz before winding up with a few of those christmas mash-ups too for good measure. Two sides, a full C90’s worth of thoughts on the season and something, as they say, for everyone. The last two year’s are going up on the freebies page if you want them. All in zip files with the tracklists and handsome artwork too. Merry Christmas comrades.
tracklist
Side 1 Side 2 Artwork & Tracklist
Hey people, how you been? It’s just past young Comrade Magenta Lapin’s birthday and that seems like as good a time as any for this particular magnificent 7″, she loves Bjork. This, The Sugarcubes debut single, seemed at first to arrive here from another planet. Maybe it was The Clangers backing up the girl with the beautiful wayward voice? The music was filled with odd rhythms and curious sounds, maybe it was just that we first heard it in Icelandic but didn’t know that yet. It came with an odd video too, really shoddy, grainy quality black & white of her singing in what looked like a classroom. Looking back 20 odd years it’s hard to explain just how other and unfamiliar it seemed. People compared it to the Cocteau Twins, which now seems hilariously wide of the mark. English lyrics (Icelandic version on the B-side) and realising it was a trumpet did little to dim it’s beauty and while The Sugarcubes where a good band (especially live) they gradually lost their teeth and this very first impression of them stands head and shoulders above anything else they ever did. Bjork herself on the other hand…..
they don’t, as best we can tell have an official site so here’s a couple of fan efforts – myspace – blogspot (has pics and stuff about the one off reunion last year)- Amazon - Birthday is from their debut album Life’s Tooo Good – easily their best and fun throughout
It’s the perfect place to sit in a hot car and while away a monday isn’t it? Isn’t it though? The collective were at Glastonbury festival again this year, albeit in depleted numbers and a slightly less visible presence but there all the same, shouting in the mud and drinking in the sun.
looks like we weren't the only ones who missed him
Randy & Earl’s Old Record Club and Comrade Badly both did their bit rockin’ the crowds with some tunes in lunchtime slots at the Pussy Parlure and a fine time was pretty much had by all. It rained some, but then the sun beat down so weatherwise it was a definite win. Why is it that the weather at Glastonbury has become a subject of national interest in recent years? Don’t you find that weird? T.V. coverage, pah.
breakfast of champions
The Specials were great, Neil Young was great and I didn’t bother with Bruce. Comrade Stark saw it through and claimed he had a good time, largely ‘cos he found himself amid a crowd of young, female, fanatical Springsteen fans. Who knew there was such a thing? They may have been a result of his unquenchable cider intake, we’ll never know. We do know it was before he lost his glasses, mind, whereafter Comrade Anoianoid acted heroically as his ’seeing-eye bitch’ for the sunday, a term which seemed more than a little uncharitable in the circumstance. Elsewhere we discovered the wonder of the kidz field, Shangri-La had seriously upped it’s game from last year’s so-so start, Trash City and Arcadia were both packed with incredible stuff and, in the sunshine, the theatre field thronged with people in unlikely outfits and pensioners you could adopt. Not Tony Benn. He was there to speak, first time I’ve actually caught him at Glastonbury amazingly, so that was good too.
Nick Cave and Blur closed out the sunday, The Bad Seeds in fierce form, and Nick having shaved off that troublesome moustache of his. Just the dodgy mullet to sort out then, comrade. Not entirely sure how well their reading of ‘Stagger Lee’ went down with the awaiting Blur massive but having not seen them for a couple of years they were fantastic. So Blur, then. Most people already seem to know where they stand on the subject of Blur. They love them, hate them or just kind of think they’re alright. I’ll be in the third group then. The other two both puzzle me a bit. A good band, but not that good, I wasn’t about to get all overcome ‘cos Graham was back in the band or anything. Still, they rose to the occasion and, as reported just about everywhere, they are on something of a roll since they got back together. They played a great set packed with their suprisingly numerous hits and closed out finally with The Universal which was absolutely awesome. I always though it was just me that thought it their best song but it turned out I was far from alone. It was a great end to the weekend and we’ll choose to keep that as the closing memory of this year and not the A303. Hopefully we’ll see you back there for next year and comrade Dubversion will be back and all bionic and that.
So, bearing in mind the aforementioned belief about Blur here’s a tune, one you won’t know most likely but an early one I always rather liked
Filed under: Magnificent 7's, mp3 club | Tags: Magnificent 7's, mp3, Undertones
It’s now officially summer and everything so here’s a stone cold classic 7″ celebrating the joys of the season. Fizzing with youthful energy, summer sunshine and pure pop joy all squeezed into just over a minute and a half by the greatest singles band ever to emerge from our comrade Snoddy’s homeland. In recent years the Undertones general wonderfulness has been a little obscured by the all-conquering genius of their debut single Teenage Kicks but they produced a run of singles which are each in their own way, perhaps some more than others, undeniably great. This is but one. As a little added bonus (‘cos we’ve been slack, ‘cos it’s great etc) we’re adding their second single Get Over You for your listening pleasure. If you’ve only ever heard Teenage Kicks dive on in ‘cos there’s a lot more to enjoy where it came from.
The Undertones – Here Comes The Summer
Both are on their brilliant self -titled debut which you can get for about £5, money well spent. They’ve also been reissuing the singles, with B-sides and bonus live versions digitally via i-tunes if that’s your sort of thing, and the albums too with plenty of bonus stuff added on. I’m sticking with my vinyl and nostalgia for my lost youth at the moment…………
buy undertones stuff at amazon undertones.com
dubversion's leg
some of the pins have been removed but no marbles came out of his feet. Which can only be a good thing. He’ll be along shortly, we hope, to tell us all off for mucking about and so on. In the wake of his fall we’ve been a little quiet on the subject of……………
PROD Cymru
so, just to set the record straight, it was, with rather obvious exceptions, quite a success. In the rather wonderful venue of Derwenlas village hall, where we were a little sceptical of running everything from the one plug socket, but we did. There was a good turn out of comrades who’d got the idea of what we were doing and joined our struggle bringing with them a better selection of records than we’ve seen for a while in that there London. With Comrade Ouchmonkey starting to fade alarmingly Comrade Badly stepped up to the wheels of steel to close out the night with a blistering final 20 mins of joy from his box of magic 7″s and a fine time was had all round. Our thanks to those who came and enjoyed themselves (particularly those who travelled long distances) and to our comrades in west Wales who made it all possible. Hopefully we’ll make our return at some point with our faster, stronger, bionic dub-bot at the helm and they’ll have got in a second 13amp plug to run the whole show off.
Well comrades, I know we’ve been a little slow in reporting back on recent PROD events but, in consideration of Comrade Dubversion’s condition we’ve had other things on our minds. The happy news is he is back in London and should hopefully soon have the work required to fix him up. He’s also got hold of his X-rays so maybe we’ll get one of them up so you can all suck in through yer teeth and go “ooooh, that does look nasty”. and resolve to buy him beer or Rum. or vodka – he’s not that fussy.
We can’t pretend we didn’t miss him and Marmosette but we’d like to thank everyone who helped in making The Magnificent Seventh go off so well and PROD’s return to it’s birthplace The Windmill so fun – Comrade Kanda who wholeheartedly embraced the role of deck prole proving himself truly up to the task by playing the wrong side of Comrade Snoddy’s single and then turning it over only to play it at the wrong speed. That, you have to admit, is the stuff. Not to mention the curious and deplorable, but nonetheless amusing rickrolling incident. Comrade Shelley’s help in the cloakroom and Cribbage’s elsewhere which somehow avoided further injury, Comrade Bee’s marvellous, fund raisingly delicious cakes and incomparable sharps bucket shaking from Comrade Tanky – Between us all we’ve raised a decent amount toward helping out our stricken comrade and our stricken comrades’ van. Most of all perhaps we should thank the wonderful Morton Valence, who played a great set, for free bless ‘em. Look out for the album later in the year – here’s the great video for their new single, Falling Down The Stairs. Which, we all agreed, was at least not called falling off a ladder.
more news on Comrades Dubversion’s recovery, the word on PROD Cymru and more Magnificent 7’s coming soon.
As many of you may have already heard through underground channels of communication, Comrade Dubversion lies stricken and immobile on a hillside in north Wales following last weekend’s PROD uprising in Derwenlas. Where he was cruelly laid low by a combination of gravity and misfortune. He has a broken knee but is in good care and I’m sure you would all join with us in wishing for his speedy recovery and return, updates on his condition as we receive them.
This tragedy aside the first Welsh PROD was a great success, more of which later………….
Also, this weekend’s PROD at The Windmill is still going ahead with help from other loyal comrades, hopefully we will be able to raise some money to assist he and comrade Marmosette in their time of need.
Well comrades, this is something that’s been threatened for quite a while so long indeed that you have to ask “How hard can it be?” – harder than you’d think it would seem. Despite all the time wastin’ and laziness the final irony is it’s been sitting around ready to go for a few weeks but, you know, there’s a lot going on what with going to Wales (did we mention we’re off to Wales?) and our 7th birthday and all that. This mix tends to lean quite hard on stuff from the last year or two with a few older tunes for good measure and we’re already at work on the next installment which will focus more on the later, drunker, stupider section of the evening. Why, we’re even considering a gentle one to ease your aching head on the sunday – I wouldn’t hold your collective breath for it though.
PROD – mix your drinks mix (91mb) (Artwork)
As it’s generally part of the fun of PROD not to have any idea what is coming next we’re not putting up the tracklist for this (it’s on the freebies page now) – but we can reveal it’s got Girl’s Aloud and The Fall and The Bug and The Specials as well as all kinds of other stuff – so something for everyone as ever. Now as a zip file with artwork and tracklist included – ooooh!
Filed under: Magnificent 7's, mp3 club | Tags: Magnificent 7's, mp3, mp3 club, Stereolab
Here’s a band who loved the format of the 7″ single – coloured vinyl, handpainted sleeves, limited edition runs they gave it all a go. I always wondered if this title was supposed to be a manifesto or a joke at their own expense. Avant garde, throwaway pop. It’s not a bad description. For the second installment of Magnificent 7’s Comrade Snoddy hymns the joy of Stereolab when they were at their very bestest….
I thought it was going to be difficult to pick just one 7″, but it wasn’t. John Cage Bubblegum is perfect. I thought so the first time I heard it, bleary-eyed at five in the morning just back from the French record fair where I’d bought it (£4 only u skinny rats) and it still gives me goosebumps 15 years later. Short, taut and everything thrown in for the climax, a once-great band at their apotheosis, sometimes I take this to bed and cuddle it (pictured below).
Stereolab – John Cage Bubblegum
it’s available on singles and odds and sods collection refried ectoplasm – stereolab - John Cage
as a little bonus here’s a clip of John Cage talking about, er, noise or something. with french subtitles. you’ll see the appeal it has to the ‘lab. panic. panic.
