I had originally planned to post The June Brides yesterday on the 1st of June but a hectic weekend got the better of me
Not to worry though as Martin and Swiss Adam both pitched in with June related posts
The June Brides are a South East London indie pop group active from 1983 to 1986 and 2012 until present.. The band unusually, but similar to The Muldoons, include a brass section. This is their debut on these pages.
One of the many bands which passed me by at the time until they eventually crossed my radar courtesy of some of my more switched on Blogging colleagues. We are charged with bringing good music to the masses. It may be a forlorn challenge but nevertheless we continue to bang the drum, and indeed blow the trumpet, in our dark and distant corner of the wordwide web. We do it for the love not the money.
Welcome to IfItAin'tStiff chapter three which concentrates of the slightly more obscure tracks 10 to 13.
At number 10 we have The Untouchables an LA band who are credited with being the first American Ska band. They are probably best known for their 1985 single I Spy For the FBI which reached number 59 in the UK Singles Chart. I saw them play at the Strathclyde Union around then. Unbelievably Amazon are trying to sell a copy of the 12 inch for £146.91. Aye, good luck with that!
Rachel Sweet started out as a child prodigy in her native America. Her debut album Fool Around was released by Stiff in 1978. They received some criticism for pushing a Lolita-like image for her. Who Does Lisa Like? is a track from this album.
Larry Wallis stands out by having long hair! He was a member of the Pink Fairies and an early member of Motorhead which goes to show that Stiff were indeed a broad church He became the in-house producer at Stiff and released the single Police Car/On Parole which was produced by Nick Lowe.
Mick Farren was an English rock musician, singer, journalist, and author associated with counterculture and the UK underground, who had a significant influence on the development of British proto punk garage rock music. Another strange bedfellow for Stiff then. Along with his band The Deviants he gives us Outrageous Contagious
Tracks 14- 17 next week for the penultimate post in this short series.
Texas Troubadours from 2004 is a 14 track compilation from the Fab 14 label.
It is one of two Fab 14 compilations I have on burns and this is the first time that I can recall seeing the pretty basic cover
It is available from £4 to £12 on Discogs or £49 on Amazon if you are totally stupid and have money to burn. Amazon teases you with 9 of the tracks whereas Discogs gives you all 14.
The majority of the artists are no strangers to this Blog and indeed to this series
Encouragingly 6 of the 14 tracks are by female artists. 3 of the 6 namely Caroline Herring, Terri Hendrix and Angela Strehli have never graced these pages before so it is only fair that they are given an airing.
I shall return next Sunday with my other Fab 14 compilation
All three acts that feature today have graced the Shuffle before but with different songs.
We start with the Icelandic band Sugarcubes featuring a certain Björk Guðmundsdóttir OTF (Order of the Falcon) It's a Hit they proclaim and indeed it did reach number 1 on Billboards Modern Rock Tracks in the US and number 2 in the UK Indie Chart in early 1992
Jesus, Etc is a song taken from Yankee Hotel Foxtrot which many folk consider to be the best album by Wilco. They are wrong of course as that honour goes to Summerteeth
Last, but certainly not least we have the late, great American Soul Singer Wilson Pickett with In The Midnight Hour from 1965 which is possibly his finest song.
The Missing Records Blues Collection Haul continues with Drifting Blues by Charles Brown which is number 71 in the series.
Not to be confused with Snoopy's pal Tony Russell "Charles" Brown (September 13, 1922 – January 21, 1999) was an American singer and pianist whose soft-toned, slow-paced nightclub style influenced West Coast Blues in the 1940s and 1950s. Between 1949 and 1952, Brown had seven Top 10 hits in the U.S. Billboard R& B chart
The blurb on Drifting Blues reads Charles Brown has always remained consistent in his commitment to restrained classy Blues.His music has never fluctuated widely to suit fashion and has never failed to retain a basic dignity
This is borne out by these tracks which were recorded either side of his 70th birthday (1990-1994). Whether a fresh composition or an imaginative reworking of one of his old-time hits, he brings a degree of relish ti his work that few others could imagine after a lifetime in music.
I anticipated that Afghanistan would be tricky and so it proved. Kudos goes to the individual or individuals who managed to defy the Taliban and visit my humble blog.
It appears that in addition to having no time for human rights, women and education that the Taliban have no time for music. It just goes to prove that they are a dodgy lot.
To my surprise I was able to find a lot of Afghan music on You Tube. I was unable to convert the videos to MP3's which is my usual method for this series but fortunately I am able to share the videos.
Unfortunately, but perhaps understandably, I was unable to find any female singers
Farhad Darya is an Afghan singer, composer, music producer, and philanthropist. Active since the 1980s, Darya has been one of the most renowned and influential Afghan pop musicians of the modern era, contributing to establishing new wave in Afghanistan and blending urban and rural styles. Probably sensibly he left the country in 1990 and now lives in Hamburg, Germany.
Here he is with Hamesha Tanhaa
Ahmad Wali is an Afghan Ghazal singer. He began his career in the 1970s, becoming popular in his native country before he was forced to flee by political upheaval in Afghanistan. He continued his work after resettling in Germany, performing throughout Europe and North America.
Dr. Mohammad Sadiq Fitrat, born Sadiq Fitrat Habibi, known professionally as Nashenas, is one of the oldest surviving musicians from Afghanistan. His fame began in the late 1950s, and since then he has produced many albums consisting of Pashto, Persian, and Urdu songs. He is known as "the Afghan Saigal".
Jawad Ghaziyar is a popular Afghan singer. He is one of the 1980s era singers who took refuge in United States after the fall of Afghanistan government in 1992. Jawad was also a special judge in Season 8 of Afghan Star.
Again - apologies for the slightly different format and the lack of information and MP3s. I blame the Taliban.
We are off to the North Atlantic Ocean next time round.
