The Genius Of Nick Cave

#15: Loverman

Never has a love song sounded so dark and menacing - but isn't that what our Nick does best? The "L is for Love baby, O is for..." section is particularly unsettling and is what makes me think this song is not actually about a lover at all, but rather an obsessive loner stalking his victim. It's certainly not one I would have put on a mixtape for MrsRobster back in the day; it would have scared the bejeezus out of her! I love the video for this one. I'd love to know if Nick or any of the Bad Seeds really were hypnotised. Loverman was the second single released from 'Let Love In', and has since been covered by Metallica and Martin Gore (of Depeche Mode).



Footnote: The new Bad Seeds album 'Skeleton Tree' came out yesterday. I played it last night, and I have to say it is the most deeply emotional thing I have ever heard; it is absolutely heartbreaking. It actually made MrsRobster cry. No music has ever done that to her before, and I would never have believed Nick would be the one to do it. We all know he conveys emotion better than almost anyone, but this is a new level. I don't think I'll be playing 'Skeleton Tree' a great deal - it's not comfortable listening - but it's undoubtedly one of the most remarkable works of his entire career.

Memories of 2016 gigs #5

A slow start to the gig year (only four gigs in the first few months and nowt throughout the summer), but things really kick off now with a whopping 10 shows before the year is out. The first one took place on Wednesday night and provides us with a rather unique offering today - a joint album and gig review all in one!

#5: The Wedding Present
The Tramshed - 7 September 2016
Support: Such Small Hands

A six piece band, a stage festooned with fairy lights, films projected onto a backdrop, five-part male/female harmony vocals, keyboards, some Welsh-language narration, a 20-track concept album played through start to finish, a seated audience, a free printed tote bag for each punter...

"We're the Wedding Present, but a Wedding Present the likes of which you've probably never seen before." These were the first words from David Gedge's mouth, and by golly he wasn't wrong. We were already four songs in and all he'd sung to that point was a few "aaahhhhh"s! The new Wedding Present album is called 'Going, Going...' and it's fair to say it's somewhat different. So is the tour to promote it. No classics tonight, no hits - no My Favourite Dress; no Kennedy; no Interstate 5 - just 'Going, Going...' And it was fantastic!

This was billed as an audio-visual tour, something very different to anything the band had attempted before, so we knew what we weren’t going to get. As for what we would get? Well, the current four-piece line-up was augmented by two female keyboardists/singers, one of whom was the support act while the other also doubled as a second drummer at one point. If this makes it sound like Gedge was evoking the spirit of Cinerama, think again; Cinerama never made songs like this. The first four songs on ‘Going, Going...’ – and thus of the show – are post-rock instrumentals a la Godspeed You! Black Emperor or Mogwai.

The album itself is a kind of concept album - all the song titles are places in the States. Apparently, if you find them in order on a map, you get a road trip across America! Live, the running order of the tracks was altered slightly, but every one was present and correct. Each track has its own specially-filmed visual which was beamed onto a large screen at the back of the stage, and it was for that reason that Gedge took the decision to make the shows on the tour seated-only to allow the audience to immerse itself in the whole experience. For what it’s worth though, I’m not convinced they were of much benefit. I've seen similar things at other gigs before and it rarely achieves a lot. I go to gigs to see a band, not to watch a screen. I can do that at home. So as Gedge sang of another troubled relationship or the trials of everyday life, we saw images of rain, hills, bridges and trees. I live in Wales. There's lots of all of those things here - especially rain. I had hoped the films would help tell a story, but they were just a bit random and uninteresting.

That was, however, the only real downside for me. While Our Mate Colin reckoned that sitting down takes something away from the atmosphere of the audience, I and MrsRobster found that actually it allowed us to concentrate more on the band and not have to constantly crane our necks to see over the shoulders of the tall fucker who inevitably always stands in front of us wherever we are. We were also largely spared the annoyance of phones being held aloft to film segments of the show.

Musically, the band performed as well as I have ever seen them. The sound was the best I’ve heard at the Tramshed, and Gedge is certainly not mellowing in his old age. Many of the tracks are as noisy and crunchy as anything on ‘Seamonsters’, and in places surprisingly heavy too. The biggest cheers of the night went to Ten Sleep (a new moshpit-pleaser if ever there was one) and Rachel ("the best pop song you'll hear this year" according to Gedge). My personal faves were Broken Bow, Bear and Fifty-Six (which coincidentally - or not - is also David Gedge's age). Predictably, there was also a decent cheer at the announcement of the song Wales and for Gedge's Welsh-speaking mate who provides the 'vocals' (such as they are) both on the record and on stage.

In summary then, this really was the Wedding Present as we’d never seen them before. I've seen the Weddoes now about seven times. This was by far the most different show of theirs (and maybe anyone) I've seen, and in 'Going, Going...' Gedge may even have made one of his best albums to date. “It’s more like an art installation than a concert,” Gedge mused as he told us he hoped we weren’t disappointed with the show. He acknowledged it was a gamble, but I for one reckon it paid off.

MrsRobster’s verdict (of the visuals): "I kept thinking I could have filmed something better than that." She did, however, think the band were great. And she's right about the visuals - knowing her eye for a good shot and her skills with a camera, I reckon she probably could have made something more interesting.


Soundtrack:
No MP3s as the album is barely a week old. You should buy it. Instead, here’s a clip of Fifty-Six from the night itself (rather decent quality, too), some studio footage accompanying Bear, plus the official visuals for Rachel.

World Tour

l-r: Woodkid, Madretomasa, Mourn

There was a discussion recently over at CC's about topics he could adopt for a new series. Someone suggested countries of the world[1]. There are more than 190 countries in the world (the exact number is disputed), yet most of the music we ever hear comes from western Europe and North America. I thought it would be fun to travel the world (not literally) and discover some of the sounds out there that we might otherwise never hear. My research is not meticulous, neither is it even vaguely comprehensive. Here's how it works:

A 15 week tour (Wednesdays only) covering all the continents[2]. Each destination must be reachable by air, land or sea from the previous country. I'll feature at least one artist from each nation I visit. The only criteria I seek from the featured artist is that I like what I hear. I am not going to deeply immerse myself in that country's culture or music scene, I just find something then move on. Maybe I'll return at some point in the future and explore some more. In the meantime, I have the globe to cover and I must be home by Christmas! So... passport - check. MP3 player - check. Clean underpants - oops. No matter, I'll pick some up on the way. Off we go then...

Week 1: Westernmost Europe

I can get a direct flight from Cardiff airport to Paris. Now, at one point in my life I thought the only decent song to come out of France was Ça Plane Pour Moi by Plastic Bertrand. Then I bought Air's second album and realised I was wrong. Besides, Plastic Bertrand was Belgian. More recently, a few other French bands have come to my attention. Alcest is a very good shoegaze outfit who started out as a black metal band. The Plastiscines is an all-girl band whose first record was a wonderful mess of short, punchy, lo-fi garage punk tunes. They've become a rather hipster-sounding pop band now, sadly.

And then there's Woodkid. Yoann Lemoine is a French music video director, graphic designer and singer-songwriter. His music is of such a grand scale, I'm not sure the medium of the internet is big enough to contain it. As for his videos, well take a look at this clip for Iron, his first single, and see why it blew my mind.

• Iron - Woodkid (from 'The Golden Age')

Extraordinary. Nip over to YouTube and watch the follow-up clip for Run Boy Run if you enjoyed that. Right, now I've a train to catch. Next stop is the sixth smallest nation in the world - Andorra. Situated in the Pyrenees on the border of France and Spain, its capital Andorra la Vella is the highest in Europe. (Hard to believe now, but in the qualifying stages of Wales' Euro 2016 campaign, they struggled to beat Andorra, who haven't ranked higher than 198th out of 209 in the past seven years.) It also has a music scene. Madretomasa make Americana most American Americana artists would be proud of. A real surprise find this, can't recommend them enough.

• Old - Madretomasa (from 'Blackstone' EP)

A bus can take us from Andorra to the Catalonian capital of Barcelona. Now again, as far as Spain goes, Julio Iglesias was the extent of my knowledge of Spanish pop music for many years. Nowadays, we have the excellent Elefant Records to bring us some of the best indie music from the country (right Brian?). Not on Elefant, but brilliant nonetheless, are Mourn. This lot are ridiculously young - none of them have reached 20 years of age yet - but have just released their second album 'Ha, Ha, He'. If you like short bursts of fury in your pop music, then this is a band you'll love. Factoid: Their first song was called Boys Are Cunts...

• President Bullshit - Mourn (from 'Ha, Ha, He')

Right, off to Barcelona airport as we're crossing continents for next week's leg. See you in Africa!

---

[1] I want to point out for the record that I haven't stolen that idea, I'd already planned this series long before that. Honestly, guv.
[2] Except Antarctica, obviously...

"Here is a sunrise..."

If you don't like Teenage Fanclub, you have no soul. I do believe God once said that. Or David Bowie. Same thing. Even if he didn't, he should have. I remember buying TFC's debut album 'A Catholic Education' when it came out as, despite never hearing anything by them, I thought they were a band I should like. I was 19 - I did things like that. I was disappointed. It was a rubbish record and made little sense to me. Its one saving grace was the opener Everything Flows, but the rest was nonsense.

Nonetheless, I was still interested in them when album number two rolled around. 'The King' was also rubbish, hastily thrown together to use up studio time. To be fair, it wasn't intended to be a proper album as such, and it sounds like it. It had covers of Pink Floyd's Interstellar Overdrive, and Madonna's Like A Virgin plus a load of ramshackle instrumentals.

Just three months later the second album 'proper' came out. 'Bandwagonesque' was an altogether different animal. It had tunes. Really, really good ones. It opened with The Concept, one of the best tracks of 1991 and the one that hooked me. Shame the video hacks off the last three minutes though...



Album number three, 'Thirteen', should have been a huge success given the plaudits its predecessor received. Unfortunately, it didn't do so well. It was what I suppose you'd call a tansitional album. The loud, squally, distorted guitars were on their way out to be replaced by a cleaner, brighter sound. While 'Thirteen' isn't as good a record as 'Bandwagonesque', it did have a few cracking tunes on it. For some bizarre reason, the label decided Norman 3 should be a single. I mean, come on. Not only is it not a particularly good song, but no record named after a band member has ever been a hit, has it, especially one called Norman! In the US, they got Hang On, by far the best track on the whole record.



Possibly because of the poor choice of singles, I'd strayed from TFC by the time 'Grand Prix' hit the shelves in 1995. A guy at work raved and raved about it and eventually persuded me to listen to it. I kicked myself hard for not buying it the day it came out. 'Grand Prix' remains an absolute triumph. Many claim it's the band's best work. The new melodic 60s sound was complete - all shimmering Rickenbackers and three-part harmony vocals; like the Byrds and Big Star all rolled into one. Mellow Doubt is still a song I like to play on my battered old acoustic guitar every so often, while Don't Look Back elicits much happiness and joy when I give it an airing. And in Sparky's Dream, we have one of the finest songs of the Britpop era.



But for me, 'Songs From Northern Britain' eclipsed the lot. When Ain't That Enough was put out as a single in the summer of 1997, I nearly wept at its perfection. To this day, it makes me feel all gooey as I succumb to its beauty.



(I wrote about 'Songs From Northern Britain' back here so I won't repeat myself.)

Since then, it's been a downward slide. Subsequent albums have sounded rather weak and nondescript to me. The songs don't sparkle like they used to and the sound has just lost much of the verve that I loved about the Fannies in the mid-90s. That said, the first single from the band's latest album 'Here' is the best thing they've done for a very long time. Sadly the rest of the album doesn't live up to the same standard.



One interesting point to make about this though: over the years, Norman Blake's hair has been long, then short, he's grown beards and shaved them off again, he's had glasses, then not had glasses, then had glasses again. Raymond McGinlay's hair has slowly ebbed away while drummers have come and gone and, in the case of Francis MacDonald, come back again. But Gerard Love HAS NOT CHANGED. Not one bit. Look at him - even his curly locks are intact. Miraculous. Thankfully, Norman has stopped clowning around in the videos...


Soundtrack:

• The Concept - Teenage Fanclub (from 'Bandagonesque')
• Hang On [edit] - Teenage Fanclub (original version from 'Thirteen')
• Sparky's Dream [alternative version] - Teenage Fanclub (original version from 'Grand Prix')

The Genius Of Nick Cave

#14: Jesus Alone

On Thursday, this appeared on You Tube. It's the first track from the new Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds album 'Skeleton Tree', released next week. The video is footage of the accompanying movie, recorded during the making of the album following the death of Nick's teenage son Arthur. It's an intense, emotional, and rather unsettling song. It's the sound of Nick facing his demons. It's one of the most intriguing things he's ever released.

"Are you afraid of me?"

One of my fave bands of the early 90s was Silverfish who totally shredded my ears on the two occasions I caught them live (both of which I've written about) - once as a support act, the other as headliner. They were wonderfully nasty, committing an aural assault so vicious I left each show with bruises.

I'm still a huge fan of their debut album 'Fat Axl' and am wondering why it's not in my final '50 albums to take to my grave' list. Their first two EPs weren't too shabby either - T.F.A. has become a track that I could scream to more than 50% of people I know (a number of them being managers in the NHS...)



Then came Big Bad Baby Pig Squeal, the Riot Grrrl anthem that led the 'Fuckin' Drivin' Or What?' EP, even though Silverfish were never actually part of the Riot Grrrl scene. I once nearly bought a Hips Tits Lips Power t-shirt. In hindsight, I'm glad I didn't. Nevertheless - WHAT. A. TUNE. THIS. IS!!! (Tip: skip the first 32 seconds of the clip below to get to the actual video...)



While the next album 'Organ Fan' had its share of decent tracks, it didn't sit with me as well as 'Fat Axl'. The final two EPs disappointed me, although Vitriola from 'Silverfish With Scrambled Eggs' was a corker.



Hard to believe that after Silverfish split, the gravelly-voiced Lesley Rankine would go on to do this:




Soundtrack:

• T.F.A. - Silverfish (from 'Cockeye')
• Vitriola - Silverfish (from 'Silverfish With Scrambled Eggs' EP)
• Paraffin - Ruby (from 'Salt Peter')

The Genius Of Nick Cave

#13: Straight To You

Widely regarded as one of the Bad Seeds' finest moments, Straight To You not only featured in many best songs of 1992 lists, it also subsequently appeared in the NME's '500 Greatest Songs Of All Time' published in 2014. It appeared on my fave Cave album 'Henry's Dream' and also has one of my fave Cave videos. As a single, it reached a criminally low #68 in the UK charts, which is all you need to ever know about the tastes of the British record-buying public. This was the same year that Bryan Adams spent 16 weeks at number one. Bryan-fucking-Adams - a guy not even fit to lick the shit from Nick's shoes. The more I think about it, MrsRobster and I should have had this played at our wedding. When I think what we went through in our early years together only to still be here some 20 years later, it seems to tell our story. I could never say that about Bryan-fucking-Adams, that's for sure!

I want it now!

Pardon the post title - I couldn't resist it.

You can tell Veruca Salt were considered a success when they were allowed to make videos like this for their second album. Volcano Girls is a terrific song and even rivals Seether to these ears. Shutterbug mentions Bristol, and Louise sings "telly" to mean TV. When did any American last do that?






I'm going to be in all sorts of trouble from a certain young lady for writing this, but surely I can't be the only one who found Louise Post to be exceedingly cute? All the same, they were never quite the same after Nina Gordon quit the band. Thank goodness the original lineup is back together. So here's one from last year's brilliant reunion album 'Ghost Notes'.




Soundtrack:

• Volcano Girls - Veruca Salt (from 'Eight Arms To Hold You')
• Shutterbug - Veruca Salt (from 'Eight Arms To Hold You')
• Laughing In The Sugar Bowl - Veruca Salt (from 'Ghost Notes')

The Genius Of Nick Cave

#12: These Boots Were Made For Walking by The Boys Next Door

After last week's post, I'm winding it back 35 years - THIRTY-FIVE YEARS! - to Nick Cave's very first record. Things started even earlier than that. Cave and a bunch of his mates - who included Mick Harvey and Phill Calvert - formed a band at their school in Melbourne in 1973, playing songs by Bowie, Roxy Music, Lou Reed and the like. They continued after school with Cave, Harvey and Calvert being joined by bassist Tracy Pew. They turned their attention to the British and American punk scenes and started writing their own songs. The final piece of the jigsaw fitted into place in 1978 with the arrival of second guitarist Roland S. Howard. The shift in sound he brought the band helped fuel pretty much everything they did thereafter. Their first release was this cover of a song made famous by Nancy Sinatra. The song and the video were made before Howard joined, hence why it sounds like nothing that appeared on their debut album the following year. Sure, it'll never be remembered as one of Cave's defining moments, but it's notable for it being the first recorded output by a group of musicians who would later become The Birthday Party, one of the most controversial - and influential - bands of the 80s. And don't you think Nick looks more like Gary Numan here than Gary Numan did in 1978?

Welsh Wednesday 100

Look Horizon by John Cale

So this is it. The century has been reached, and (for the time being at least) so has the end of Welsh Wednesdays. I think it's run its course but it's been a lot of fun and I may well revive it at some point as I still have quite a few tunes I want to feature, as well as what will inevitably be lots of new stuff. 

It's interesting when you do a long-running series such as this. I've found that some things I think will go down really well garner very little interest at all, while some other unlikely posts end up being quite popular. I just cannot predict you lot!

Anyway, to round things off in fitting style (for now), we return to one of Wales' most legendary and innovative artists. Someone (Dirk, maybe) recommended John Cale's 2003 album 'Hobo Sapien' some time back. It was his first album in seven years and was a major critical success. It's not an easy record to listen to in places, but then that's exactly what you expect from Cale. It has a heavily electronic sound, contrasting dark, ominous moments with bright, poppy twists.

There's a hidden track in the pregap, a re-recorded version of Set Me Free which originally featured on Cale's previous record 'Walking On Locusts'. It's a wonderful track, and I was tempted to post that one, but instead I went for Look Horizon. Very Bowie-esque, I think, though I'm hesitant to compare Cale with anyone as he's more likely to have influenced than to have been influenced. Let's not forget, Bowie made no secret of his love of the Velvet Underground. Even so, I can't help thinking Look Horizon might have fit on a number of Bowie's albums, including the last two. In case you're wondering, the female voice on this is Cale's 18-year-old daughter Eden.


Soundtrack:

• Look Horizon - John Cale (from 'Hobo Sapien')

A new Wednesday series starts in September, taking us beyond Welsh borders. Until we return, diolch am wrando.