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.
Filed under: Uncategorized
Comrades -
PROD is making its first (official) trip to Wales – Derwenlas, to be precise – to take discocracy to the valleys of Powys.
Join us on February 28th for what promises to be a wonderful, and particularly drunken, evening. Not only will the usual PROD nonsense occur (there’s a significant underground cell of PROD comrades hiding out in the area to show the locals how it’s done), but it’s also just a couple of days after the 57th birthday of one of our most loyal and exalted allies, Comrade Fester.
Before the PROD proper begins, we’re doing it for the kids!!! Between 6-8pm, all kids are free with an accompanying adult and we can find out quite how popular all 48 sequels to High School Musical really are.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Madness, Magnificent 7's, mp3, mp3 club
Well comrades, as the collective is celebrating the 7th anniversary of our struggle on the 7th of March we thought it would be fitting to do so by playing only 7″ vinyl records. And that’s a lot of sevens. As discussed elsewhere we have downgraded these demands in order to be most inclusive of your choices. Nevertheless, we are still quite pleased with the whole idea and those of you who do show up with a couple of battered old singles from your younger days will feel not only the warm glow of nostalgia but the pale and sickly glow of comrade Snoddy’s smile.
As a rule not too many people bring down old vinyl singles to PROD on a regular basis and as a night we’ve had a great deal to to thank the CD-R for in terms of practicality and comrades not having to be too concerned about forgetting to pick up their tunes but I would contend, brothers and sisters, that the 7″ is at the heart of what we do. While our open door policy to all genres and tunes that you might bring creates a pleasingly random atmosphere and everything from lengthy dance 12’s to showtunes has gone over great at one time or another there’s hardly anything that’s as much of a guaranteed WIN! on the metaphorical fruit machine of the PROD dancefloor as a cracking 3 minute single. I believe you know what i’m talking about. I’ve attempted, but failed, to elucidate this essential 7″ – ness so here’s Pop professor Comrade Eno on the subject,
….the combination of the three-minute single and the radio station is in my opinion what gave birth to rock ‘n’ roll. The content was drawn from a whole lot of Afro-American, Appalachian, Irish music that filled that new technological space but what really drove the thing was that suddenly it was possible to make a three minute piece of music stand alone, and it could be heard globally in a very short space of time through radio stations and this created a new way of thinking about music.
You see? Anyway The Mp3 club returns with a series of ol’ tunes we bought on 7″ singles, back when they was easy to come by starting with Comrade Ouchmonkeys first ….
I’d love to say I got this from Woolworth’s and it cost me 50p but the truth is I can’t remember and more likely it came from the record shop in the local shopping precinct. Handily there’s seven of them too. On reflection this is just about the perfect first single for a kid isn’t it? It’s about school days and had a video set in a playground in which the sax player (that’s him in the middle in the titular trousers) flew around during his solo. Genius. It came early on in a great run of singles accompanied by equally fun (and much better made) videos.
available on Divine Madness and well worth your cash
here’s that video – it looks even cheaper than I remember and makes the early 80’s look like just after the war……………..
