Griff says; 'Here Comes the Summer!'

I received some happy news from 'The Woodlands' today which I though I'd share with you:

"To celebrate the eminent burst of summer onto the scene (for those of you in the northern hemisphere anyway), we are giving away a free download of 'Summerland' from our self-titled debut album to any and all."

Those of you as yet unfamiliar with 'The Woodlands' should know that they are Hannah & Samuel (pictured), a husband and wife indie folk-pop duo from Portland, Oregon, US. 'Summerland' is typical of their beautifully crafted, melodic songs and features the sort of intimate, breathy vocals and chaming glockenspiel accompaniment much loved by and lauded by me on this site so far.

If you enjoyed that, 'click here' for the link to the free download.

Griff
xx

~Kitten Wine~ #5: The Darling Buds

Celebrating The Best Indiepop #5: "The Darling Buds; A Tale Of Two Concerts"



I never liked The Primitives!!
I don't know why. I just found them to be a bit too polished, too corporate, too....knowing, like they had been created in some Pop-lab from loose cuttings of (spit!)Transvision Vamp. A lot of my friends liked them but I think they really just liked Tracey.
So, it was with some surprise that I found myself falling in love with The Darling Buds, a band once described as Primitives-lite, to the point that, in the wake of the recently demised Smiths, they became, for a period, My Favourite Band.

It all began with 'Shame On You'. A friend of mine called Sharon gave me a loan of her copy of the single, telling me that I'd really like it. On first play I wasn't exactly impressed. It sounded like every other girl-fronted Indie band I'd heard in recent times; The Flatmates, The Shop Assistants, The Popguns.....BUT, on repeated playings something broke through my veneer of Indie snobbery. Pretty soon I was collecting up all of their back-catalogue and even began collecting live bootleg cassettes at the Barras, record fairs and from their devoted fanbase somewhat ironically(I guess) named The Skullfuck Crew.
I was truly smitten to say the least. I listened to them constantly, compiling tapes of everything I had and perpetually playing them on my Walkman. Then one night in late 1988 I got a call from Sharon to say that The Darling Buds were doing a tour to promote their forthcoming debut album and that they would be at the Glasgow Rooftops on the 12th of January 1989. We immediately sent off for tickets....this was going to be IT!!!


The first edition of the NME in 1989 had on the cover Guy Chadwick(from The House Of Love), Andrea(from The Darling Buds) and The Wonder Stuff's Miles Hunt. What the NME seemed to be saying was; here are the three pop stars who will show the way in 1989, these are the three to put your trust in and who will lead us to the Indie Promised Land.
On the 12th of January 1989, the night of the concert, The Darling Buds appeared on Top Of The Pops performing 'Hit The Ground'. We were a little worried that they wouldn't make it up to Scotland for the gig as this was the depths of a particularly hard Winter.
Five of us piled into the car....me, Sharon, her boyfriend Douglas, her sister Gillian(who at the time was, as far as I was concerned 'The Most Beautiful Girl In The World'™) and Gillian's friend Louise for whom I would soon develop a crush so severe it almost bent me double. It was a FREEZING night and we hoped the weather hadn't stopped The DBs getting up here. When we arrived at the venue we were told that a second support band had been added to the bill which didn't bode well. Douglas, Sharon and Louise went up into the gantry but I wanted to get right down the front and Gillian came with me. One of the bouncers told us not to worry as the band's instruments had already been soundchecked. The atmosphere in the place was really starting to crackle(you have to remember they really were tipped to be something BIG!!!)....then the lights went down....



Without making an obvious pun, the band really hit the ground running that night....It was absolute pandemonium when they took to the stage. The crowd were really up for it, confetti exploded from everywhere....this was a trait of the Skullfuck Crew, and they launched straight into 'Valentine'. I was going ballistic at the front, and Andrea was literally within touching distance. My favourite song of theirs was 'Big Head' and I hollered for it at every opportunity. When Andrea first took a breath and stooped down to the drum-riser for a drink of water I seized my chance; "ANDREA!!!.....BIG HEAD!!!.....PLEASE!!!!" and put my hands into a kind of prayer gesture. She looked right at me, smiled and nodded. Five songs later, "You gotta great big head...." I whooped with joy and bounced like a madman. Andrea even looked down at me to see if I was enjoying it....I was!!! It was a brilliant show....both audience and band really seemed to enjoy it. I thought it was SPECTACULAR....."Thanks, goodnight, we'll see you again", and Andrea was off leaving Harley riffing alone.
I was knackered!! But totally elated. I had virtually no voice left, I felt like I'd shattered a few vertebrae, and it looked like someone had poured an entire swimmingpool of water over me. As we stepped out into the severely freezing Glasgow night, so much steam was rising from me I looked like Johnny Storm. The journey back to Bannockburn consisted of us all jabbering away at how great it had been, they had played every song we knew plus songs from the forthcoming debut album. I couldn't sleep that night, running and re-running the show over and over in my head. It would go down in history as one of my favourite concerts of all time. A couple of days later I received a bootleg cassette of the gig and welded it into my Walkman. It became part of my DNA.

Two weeks later, the debut album 'Pop Said' was released....Strewth!!! What a disappointment! It just sounded totally flat. I don't mean out of tune, I mean lifeless, over-polished, too smooth. Where was all the excitement of the early singles and the bootleg tapes? I was dejected. I threw the CD across the room in disgust. After a few plays it started to grow on me, and eventually I came to really like it realising that if I hadn't had all those bootlegs or seen them live then I would probably have thought the album was brilliant. It ended up being my second favourite album of 1989 and practically soundtracked that year.

In the Summer of 1989 The Stone Roses released their eponymous debut album and overnight the rules of Indiepop were rewritten. The Darling Buds and The House Of Love suddenly started to sound very much like last year's thing. The Wonder Stuff would survive, but only by becoming a kind of comedy-indie band, a million miles away from 'Unbearable' and 'Give Give Give Me More More More'. By the time Christmas came around and the twin-headed Roses/Mondays Madchester juggernaut was in full throttle, a lot of Indie bands either perished or adopted dance-grooves to survive. For some(Primal Scream) it worked, for others(The Soup Dragons, The Farm) it was a tad embarrasing.
The Darling Buds second album 'Crawdaddy' released in 1990 saw them add dance beats and remixes, it kind of worked, sounding like a proto-Saint Etienne but it just didn't suit them at all really.

In September 1990 I got a call that The Darling Buds were playing King Tuts in Glasgow and so once again we decided to go. This time there was no exciting build up, only three of us(me, Douglas and Sharon) went, and even they only went because I said I'd pay them in.
The concert couldn't have been more different from the first. The audience just ambled about, there was no moshpit, the songs were greeted with muted applause, businessmen types in suits giggled like schoolboys when ever Andrea said anything suggestive....the whole gig was like some massive shrug of indifference. The only highlight was the fact that new song 'Fall' from the second album sounded AMAZING, a huge, trippy, dreamlike groove that received the warmest response from the crowd.....but you could sense it was all over. I never saw them again, and only bought their third album 'Erotica'('conveniently' released at the same time as Madonna's album 'Erotica'....hmmmm!!!) earlier this year.
The gig seemed to signal the end of an era.......no longer did we all pile into cars and rush enthusiastically to see bands we'd only read about in the NME. Concerts no longer became twice of thrice weekly events, but instead we just went to see bands we knew whenever they played in Scotland.
It felt like a part of my youthful gig-going experience died that night.

The night before I sat down to write this Blog I went up into the attic and found the live Bootleg cassette of the Rooftops gig. I realised I probably hadn't played it in close on 18 years. I felt a little nervous...it was like being asked to meet an old flame. As the tape played, the memories came flooding back...I just sat there grinning. You can actually hear me on the tape yelling for 'Big Head' several times, and you can hear me whooping when the song begins. From a historical perspective their songs sound SO good that I think I may just go and play their entire ouvre in chronological order!

So...Yeah, I never liked The Primitives.
But I LOVED The Darling Buds!!!

~Gordon~


The Bootleg cassette complete with incorrect date....it was 1989, not 1988.

The videos below are not from that night but are from that tour and hopefully give some idea of what it was like that night:







While there is a Darling Buds Myspace, it is a fan site and has been dormant for about 3 years now.

Griff says; 'It's time to make your Eardrums Pop!'

Today I'd like to introduce you to the wonder that is EardrumsPop. Basically, it's my favoutite net-label and is closely related to the music blog Eardrums. Their mission statement reads;

“We love warm and melodic music of all kinds, we believe in beautiful things you can see and hear, and we believe in working together, helping each other and getting good music and good art out to the public. We do not believe in money, so all our releases are given away for free. We HOPE that instead of paying for these releases directly, you can visit the websites of the bands you like, buy their albums, go to their concerts or most importantly, just spread the word about these wonderful bands and artists. All our releases are made in close collaboration with the artists and illustrators. A donation to a charity of your choice is also a good way to pay for our compilations. Do something good!”

By now, I hope you’ll have realised that these are the same principals, or at least broadly similar, that drives our own little project here at ‘The Streetlamp’.

The newest Eardrums project is the excellent 'Between two Waves’. I’m a little late in telling you about this as it was officially released on April 19th but I’m sure you’ll forgive me the lapse when you hear what’s on offer. 'Between two Waves’ is the fourth compilation-project from EardrumsPop. Knut, the founder and living heartbeat of Eardrums, started this latest project based on an idea that it would be interesting to start a creative process between bands, specifically he wanted to see what the result would be when two bands created something new together. To further extend the collaborative aspect of the project, two of the artworks are made as collaborations between illustrators
The project consists of 3 volumes each with a slight difference in style.

Volume A contains 14 songs and is definitely a POP volume.

COVER ART for ‘Between Two Waves – Volume A ’ BY Seniorita Polyester and Roller Monkey (collaboration)

Volume B contains 12 songs and is quite acoustic, relaxed and folky. (this is Griff’s favourite)

COVER ART for ‘Between Two Waves – Volume B’ BY Julia Pax and Ronald Scharf (collaboration)

Volume C contains 14 songs and is a bit dreamy and jangly.

COVER ART for ‘Between Two Waves – Volume C’ BY DANIEL NOVAKOVIC

Most of the bands have chosen new names for their projects, so you may not recognize the band names at first, but look at the free tracklist in the beautiful booklet which comes with Volume A and you will see who is behind the projects. Lots of interesting artists!
You can download the free 3 volume album 'here' (40 songs, 40 collaborations, 80 bands)

If you’d like to listen before you do your free download, you can stream the songs below. Never mind the buy-link in the music-player, – the album is only available for free, and clicking it will take you to the eardrumspop.com website.

Between Two Waves - Volume AbyEardrumsPop

Between Two Waves - Volume BbyEardrumsPop

Between Two Waves - Volume CbyEardrumsPop

Top quality free music! You may be thinking; What’s the catch?. Quite simply there isn’t one. I’ll let Knut explain in his own words;

“I am often asked ‘Why do you do everything for free?’. The answer is that we reach a lot more people that way, and one of our main goals is to spread the word about good bands we think deserve more listeners. With a paid model, we might reach 1000 people, maybe, but now we reach a lot more. Our most downloaded compilation has been downloaded over 17000 times! It’s also a lot easier not having to take care of economy, and to be honest, money is not one of life’s prettiest things. We have expenses for servers and stuff, but not more than we can handle. As it is now, we’re very satisfied doing things for free.”

Amen, to that!

~Kitten Wine~ #4: Razorcuts

Celebrating The Best Indiepop Records #4: "37°2 Le Matin; An Appraisal Of Razorcuts".



From a distance of 22 years now, I can't fully recall whether it was 'First Day' or 'I Heard You The First Time' that was my introduction to Razorcuts. It was one side of that single, I remember John Peel playing it and I thought it was just beautiful. The next day I bought it and it became a permanent fixture upon my turntable.....it must have been 'First Day' as that's the track that's on my favourite mix-tape from that period.

'First Day' begins with the gentlest 12-string strumming before the sharp, tambourine heavy drums crack in and we're swept up in a giddy whirl of optimism, "Oh can you feel the morning sun// Oh will it shine till evening comes" ....naive idealism?? Well...maybe, but the joy is so infectious you want to run naked through cornfields, jump off waterfalls, bristling with electric adolescent vigour!! Youth is wasted on the young? No, that's just something bitter old bastards say. Youth wasn't wasted on me and listening to this song again, I feel that fire..."That's when you say that you're going to change my mind// That's when you show me the world I never can find".
Surprisingly, 'First Day' was only the B-side....Side A's 'I Heard You The First Time' is an equally splendid piece, with backing vocalist Yvonne's voice prominent on the main lines "Oh I heard you the first time// You act like you've got something worth saying// But I'm still waiting for that day".

Razorcuts were sometimes a full band but mostly the duo of Gregory Webster and Tim Vass; Gregory wrote the music, did the vocals, and played the amazingly lustrous guitars. Tim played bass and wrote the incisive yet poignant lyrics.
They released a handful of singles and two proper albums, and it's their first album 'Storyteller', released in 1988 that we are here to discuss, containing as it does two of the most important songs of my lifetime.




'The Last Picture Show' shares that same heartfelt melancholia of it's cinematic namesake. Peter Bogdanovich's movie captures the disintegration of smalltown friends and lovers against the backdrop of the closing of the local cinema. It's a heartbreaking film, especially if you dwell within the kind of smalltown it presents.
The song is the longest track on the album and is the closing piece; I wish I had a lyric sheet as some of Tim's words are hard to make out, leaving mere snapshots hanging in the air; "The last picture show starts at eight", "Running as the curtain starts to rise// We're looking for the time of our lives", "The picture freezes on the final scene// And as the credits roll across the screen// We pick our[indecipherable] towards our seats// And walk out silently into the streets// The crowded streets", "Then we could stay together till sunrise// And this could be the time of our lives// And if it doesn't work out right// We'll change it all in time"
The structure of the song is wonderful; full chiming guitars, insistent hi-hats punctuating the rhythmns, wild hammond organ wig-outs, then in comes a gentle coda; "Something tells me// I won't forget this night// For a long long time// If memories are made this easily// That's fine by me".
This is a truly wondrous song and it reminds me of all the friends I no longer see, and all the radge things we did in our little town....

But there's a Razorcuts song that's even better, and one that is forever engraved upon my heart, all because of one special night. And as the album is called 'Storyteller', settle down children for we're in for a bit of a session.....

It was the Summer of 1988...I know it was Summer as it was around my Birthday therefore it was late July. For my Birthday that year I had gotten my first ever CD player as a present. It was in truth a music center complete with turntable, tape-decks and radio. I hadn't actually asked for a CD player as I still loved my vinyl, and didn't buy into the Yuppie nonsense about it sounding like the band were in the room with you, and anyway all those click and pops on my old Adam & The Ants records added some kind of nostalgic aura to the music. With my Birthday money I bought not a CD, but Razorcuts 'Storyteller' on good old 12" vinyl. I must have played it a couple of times for one or two songs stuck in my head as I set off at night for what my friends and I had planned.
Four of my friends and I were going to the local Art-house cinema to see 'Betty Blue'. It had played in Glasgow earlier in the year but this was the first time it played in any cinema near us. Some older friends sneered at us saying it was just pornography (un)dressed as art, but we'd heard so many good things about it, we HAD to go. It was still baking hot in the early evening as we made our way to the cinema, and the theatre itself was like an oven. My ex-girlfriend was there with her new boyfriend. She had dumped me because she thought I was getting a little too serious....she married the guy she was with that night less than six months later!! Oh well. So...I was already a little shaken, and, as we had not asked for a block of tickets when we entered the cinema we were all sat in diffrent seats. At first we all tried to sit in one row but as more people came in, we all got separated. I spent the beginning of the movie in the wrong seat worried the actual person whose seat it was would come in, but as I became absorbed in the wonders that danced before my eyes....I forgot all worries.
As the movie played out, I was transfixed!! I think every young male fell in love with Beatrice Dalle that Summer. The movie didn't strike me as being about sex....but about love, passion, art, cool, life, aesthetics.....the dreamy soundtrack washed over me, the images touched me deep inide, the story left me drained and emotional(I should point out this was the original 2 hour version, not the terrible 3 hour Director's Cut).
When the movie was over, I remember staggering out into the still-bright evening sun....I was dizzy, dazed, puchdrunk and somehow....changed. We drove to Stirling town center and poured into the Barnton Bistro where they sold Antonius and Furstenberg on draught and we huddled round a table. We jabbered enthusiastically about the film, about Beatrice, about the amazing soundtrack. As the beer calmed us down, I could feel myself drift off and become a little philosphical. Caroline was chattering madly about how she wished we lived like the characters in the film; free-spirited, sensual, passionate, parading about in a state of undress. "What's stopping us?" I replied, "Why can't we be more like that? There's absolutely nothing to prevent us" Already inside I could feel myself changing....nothing would ever be the same again after tonight. Out would go the agit-prop clothes to be replaced by blousey, polka-dotted or Paisley-patterned shirts, the unkempt hair would become an immaculately sculpted quiff, in would come drainpipe thin black Levis and pointed shoes. Battered copies of Proust, Kafka and Rimbaud would hang from my back pocket like a badge. My whole aesthetic changed that night...I was going to be a different person. Gone would be the obnoxious, bratty, loud mouthed over-opinionated punk-kid. In would come a more considrate, well-spoken, arty-type(pretensious?? Moi??).
When I got back home the sky had bruised to open-wound red and I sat by my window just gazing at the night sky. I remembered a track from the Razorcuts album which I thought would suit the mood of the moment.....
The stylus crackled a little before the beautiful sweep of strings and strummings welcomed us into 'Brighter Now'....I could feel the air changing around me, "Since that day// I haven't felt the same// And I'm not even sure if I can say// When I last thought about my life".....GULP!! How perceptive!! "It could be why// The lamp that lights my room// And the colours of the pictures on my wall// Seem to shine much brighter now".....Are they in my room? Are they spying on me?? No...it's just that this is the most beautiful and important song in the world right now, and when Gregory's pure, innocent, choirboy voice takes the refrain up...."Brighter Now...Brighter Now....I've got to make this last somehow" the world tilts on it's axis. By now the scales have fallen from my eyes, I'm ready to step out into world anew, the moon is hanging like a burning pumpkin, my mind is racing, my heart is pounding...."I don't know why// I never realised how long it takes for half an hour to pass// When you're waiting for someone// all aglow".....Yeah, I would spend hours standing at the bus stop waiting for girls, especially HER. I once waited 90 minutes straight for HER, she couldn't believe it, no-one had ever shown that level of patience and devotion....I was well thanked for it.
"And the rays of golden light that gently brush the curtains of my window"....they ARE here with me..."Every day is brighter now.....and I'm never coming down"......and for a long, LONG time, I never did.
I played the song over and over and over that night. Basking, smiling, dreaming....being!!
This song is so incredible, just SO INCREDIBLE.....so much so that 22 years later as I re-listen to it in my room on a cold, grey May evening, I feel that liberating ire I felt that night....I feel like burning my place of work to the ground, like kissing everyone I love and punching everyone I hate, like phoning up old friends just to hear their voice, like starting the revolution right here, right now. Matt Haynes was right.....this kind of music isn't about twee whimsy....it's the catalyst for an angry change that Joe Strummer could only dream about.

Nights like that stay with you forever....that night is a memory so strong, so strident, it has become a tattoo upon my soul.
Music does that.
Everything is brighter now.......and I'm never coming down....

And, you know, part of me never did!!

~Gordon~

Unfortunately I've come up against a dearth of links to other Razorcuts songs, however you can hear clips from the other songs mentioned above here
Also, there appears to be no Razorcuts Myspace, however Gregory Webster does have here