I'm revisiting SPF/30 the Uncut compilation celebrating 30 years of Sub Pop Records which I first visited last October
I don't recall knowingly having ever listened to Dinosaur Jr or J. Mascis and there is certainly none of their stuff on the shelves. However it would appear that there are two tracks from D Jr and one from J downloaded onto my hard drive.
I was quite taken though with See You at the Movies a J.Mascis song from his 2018 album Electric Days.
I'm a bit more familiar with Sleater-Kinney having a copy of their second album 1996's Call the Doctor featuring their great song I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone which has appeared here before.
Surface Envy is taken from their 2015 comeback album No Cities to Love their first since 2005 and if you are familiar with them at all you won't be surprised to hear that it is indeed a splendid racked.
I'm sure J will forgive me but the gals are somewhat more photogenic than him!
I will understand if, after Monday, that you approach this post with a degree of trepidation.
Rest easy - there is no cause for alarm or concern today.
Rather it is a return to form as we feature Ten Short Songs About Love from 1993 and the only solo album from former Danny Wilson front man Gary Clark.
The owner of the sweetest voice to come out of Dundee since the late great Billy Mackenzie.
Somewhat confusingly there are twelve songs of the CD version instead of ten albeit one ot two are very short.
Gary was then briefly involved with the bands King L and Transister before embarking on a lucrative career in Los Angeles as a song writer penning numbers for Natalie Imbruglia, Delta Godrem and McFly among others.
He is now back living and working in his native Dundee .
Week 22. In today’s state it is illegal for unmarried women to go fishing alone. The eastern half of Montana is prairie and badlands. This sounded very exciting, badlands, all sorts of connotations in my head. All wrong, it just describes a dry windswept rocky and sandy terrain.
“The valley is dusty, my pony is crusty”, sang Wylie on a particularly cheesy cowboy song. That was one of the better rhyming couplets. Being a cowboy state there are the expected terrible songs, at least ten of which have been inflicted on my partner. She was not best pleased. Not even with the Marie Osmond song.
I took a break from the songs and searched for famous people. And, for people of a certain age (ie late middle-aged men like me and CC) one of the most famous men on the planet in the 1970s was born in Butte, Montana, and that is Evel Knievel. (And the other most famous person on the planet in the 1970s was Muhammad Ali, of course).
And so to a song, by Terry Allen. Helena is the state capital (of Montana, keep up). It is also the where the scientology bloke came from. Anyway, here’s a raw, gothic country song;
To be followed by this: Patrick “Bobby Ewing” Duffy was born in Montana.
(all together now “doo do-do, do do do-do-do do, do do doo do do do doooo”)
Hank Williams Jr has written a few relevant songs for today’s article. None of them are good enough to feature. And for what would have been a first for these pages I could have given you a Frank Zappa track. But the second track is from a group I discovered on Bandcamp called Motel Motel. And their album Big Island has two relevant songs. Here’s one:
The other one is only 50 seconds long. Motel Motel are tagged as alternative and alt-country. Which to my ears makes sense.
Montana is home to a town called Libby, which has a very distressing history, concerning asbestos and what at best could be described as a callous disregard for life by a mining company.
And finally, actor Gary Cooper was born in Helena. CC writes. I thought yesterday's White Butte Country may have been able to feature today but it turns our that the Butte referred to is in Saskatchewan as opposed to Montana. But I did find a song about Butte, Montana. One for your next line dancing session. With apologies
Canadian second cousins Kacy Anderson and Clayton Linthicum have a new album Carrying On coming out on the New West label in July - details here All of which is an excuse to play a couple of songs from their current album The Siren's Song which was released in August 2017. Both albums are produced by a certain Mr Jeff Tweedy at The Loft Studio in Chicago Americana of the highest order and one which first came to my attention via a Mojo compilation namely The Mojo Machine Turns You On 2018 An album so good that it made number 2 in my top 10 albums of 2018 only being denied the top spot by the brilliant Gracious Losers. My birthday is in July so this may well be my present to myself Kacy & Clayton - White Butte Country Kacy & Clayton - The Siren's Song
The first of the two random choices from the Ballantrae Bonanza .
At first glance The Horizons Sampler 2005 - South of the Border looked promising. A nice front cover , 17 tracks and the blurb on the back promising: the best international artists,masters of rock,blues and soul which have received wide appraisals and rave reviews all over the world. If that doesn't look grammatically correct it is because I have merged two quotes.
The fact that the first song turned out to be a noodly instrumental jazz cover of When a Man Loves a Woman gave an indication that all was not what it seemed and that I had misjudged this one spectacularly.
Masters of rock and soul apparently means Led Zeppelin wannabees with less talent than you would see in your average pub band but who insist of attempting 5 minute epics. A lot of extremely poor covers.
For those brave enough here is the tracklist Most of these artists should be avoided at all costs. I had high hopes for Joe Columbo but these were quickly and sadly dashed.
At a push two acts just about pass muster- both soul orientated with female singers and both Italian as far as I can gather..
One day late again this month, but it's surely the bride's prerogative to be late.
Although it has to be said that Julie doesn't really have the air of a blushing June Bride (there's a band's name in that sentence somewhere).
Written by Hoagy Carmichael and Paul Francis Webster the album's blurb describes Memphis in June thus: A rural remembrance done with grace and style. Julie makes your heart leap with the thought of Boss Crump and sweet oleanders
Maybees aye and maybees naw.
Boss Crump was apparently a Democratic politician who from 1910 to 1954 was "the Boss "of Memphis. A precursor to Mr Springsteen then. An oleander is a drought tolerant,evergreen shrub ranging in colour from white to red.
Every day's a school day.
The hardest one yet but you have risen to the challenge
The tag team that is Ernie Goggins and Swiss Adam came up with two tremendous disco classics from Indian artist Usha Uthup.
I now definitely want to go disco dancing in Mumbai
Not to be outdone George came up with U_U with Separate Rooms thus becoming perhaps one of the 169 folk to have viewed their You Tube video. Not too sure of the music but I enjoyed the animation.
Ernie Goggins is not the Original Surfer of the Zeitgeist for nothing and he returns with another suggestion namely Santa Barbara band Uncle Uncle. I wonder whether our good friend, and Santa Barbara resident, Jonny the Friendly lawyer is familiar with them
Fortunately you are all too sensible to suggest U2 (U twice) or perhaps you just realised that you would get short shrift if you did.
An easier one next week but still quite tricky with VV. I've got one in mind but as always suggestions are welcomed.
