If it Ain't Stiff ... 3

 

Welcome to If It Ain't Stiff 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.

The Untouchables - I Spy For The F.B.I.

Rachel Sweet - Who Doe Lisa Like?

Larry Wallis - Police Car

Mick Farren & the Deviants - Outrageous Contagious

Texas Troubadours

 

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

Caroline Herring -MGM Grand

Terri Hendrix - Hole In My Pocket

Angela Strehli - Can't Stop These Teardrops

Saturday Shuffle 146

 

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.

More fine songs next Saturday

Sugarcubes - Hit

Wilco - Jesus, Etc

Wilson Pickett - In The Midnight Hour

The Blues Collection - Charles Brown

 

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.

Number 77 in the Collection will be along shortly

Charles Brown -Bad,Bad Whisky

Charles Brown - Just a Lucky So & So

Blog Country 143 - Afghanistan

 

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.

Hot, Hot, Hot!

 

It may have escaped your attention but it's rather hot out there.And it's only May!

Us Scots find it hard to cope with this sort of weather. We start of blue, then go white before ending up red. It's definitely Tapps Aff weather.

It does make you worry a bit about Global Warning 

Anyway before the planet turns into a fire ball here are a few songs while we are still here.

Brian Setzer - Red Hot

The Specials - Too Hot

The Soul Lifters - Hot, Funky & Sweaty

The Fall - British People in Hot Weather

James Edwyn & the Borrowed Band

 

James Edwyn & the Borrowed Band were an act which first came to my attention with the release of  their album Highlights of Low Nights on Last Night From Glasgow in 2022. It wasn't on my allocated bunch of albums but it was one that I took a punt on.

It seems that this was their third album. I was suitably impressed enought to track down their secend album High Fences released by Dead Records Collective from 2017. This label also released their debut album The Tower back in 2014

Americana UK describe Highlights as a record that single handedly destroys the myth of the difficult third album;possibly forever and the blog Blabber'n' Smoke also waxes lyrical about this album.

Sadly I  can find nothing new about the band since 2022 so I suspect the they may have faded into the ether which is a shame.

I would be delighted if anyone could tell me differently.

James Edwyn & the Borrowed Band - Buy Me a Ticket

James Edwyn & the Borrowed Band - Because of You