Redskin Rock

Furthermore, here's The Redskins, funked up leftwing punks, who wanted to 'walk like The Clash, talk like The Supremes' with their single Unionize. This was released on their own label CNT, which as everyone surely knows is the name of the anarcho syndicalist union who helped prop up The Popular Front government in Spain in the 1930s (despite being anarcho syndicalists, and therefore being against government and believing that the workers should rule themselves for their own benefit) and who armed the workers in the defence of Spanish cities against Franco's military fascist coup.

Sorry to be a history bore. The music's worth it.

Unionize

One Out, All Out

Today, I shall mostly be on strike. And attending a cochlear implant appointment.

There Is Power In A Union

Row, Fisherman, Row

...which is here- Fisherman, lead track from Heart Of The Congos by The Congos. Utterly sublime vocal reggae from the golden tonsils of Cedric Myton and Roy 'Ashanti' Johnson. This is from a 1996 Blood And Fire re-issue which included a second disc including a 12" mix of Congoman which I may get round to at some point. Looking at the tracklist it's difficult to know where to begin with so many standouts- The Wrong Thing, Ark Of The Covenant, La La Bam Bam, Congoman. If you haven't got this album, go get it and fill a hole in your life/record collection.

Fisherman

If A Fish Would Keep His Mouth Shut He'd Never Get Caught

Heart Of The Congos by The Congos, from the year two sevens clashed, is one of the great vocal reggae albums, with predictably great Lee Perry production. I can't believe I've never posted anything from it. This is Fisherman Style, where The Congos are aided by U Roy, who chats all over Fisherman, showing some sympathy with the fish. This was done for a re-versioning project for Blood And Fire in 2006 where a variety of past and present reggae artists had a go at doing something new to the source track. Frankly, I'm not sure why anyone thinks they could improve on the original but this is pretty good. But this will probably send me in only one direction...

Fisherman Style

Funky Kingston

It was roasting hot at 10.15 on Sunday night. I sat in the darkening garden with Toots and The Maytals' Funky Kingston drifting through the kitchen window. It was one of those fleeting but near perfect moments. Now, a day later (at the time of typing) it's clouded over and looks like rain. Thirty six hour summer. Sing it Toots.

Funky Kingston

You Can Look But You Better Not Touch

A top Mod doo wop floor filler from 1959, Poison Ivy by The Coasters. Written by Lieber and Stoller it's been covered by numerous others including The Rolling Stones, Manfred Mann, The Dave Clark Five, The Hollies and The Lambrettas. And you get a picture of Uma Thurman as well.

Poison Ivy

Friday Night Is... Gospel Night

No rockabilly this week- I've drawn a blank in quiffed up inspiration. Instead I present a beautiful blues gospel song from 1968 from Shirley Ann Lee. Pared down, recorded in a shed production, muted guitar, some rudimentary percussion and a wonderful vocal. Recommended. While sitting on your porch sipping spirits and a mixer.

By the time this is posted I'll be in Northampton, where The MPS Society are having a family conference. We spend the weekend seeing children who look like, walk like, talk like our own I.T., talking to families who have similar issues to us, moan about disability services and cuts, listen to consultants and professionals tell us the latest, and and then get drunk and cut some rug after the Saturday night dinner.

There's A Light

Friday Garage

It's Friday morning- how about some garage rock to shake you through the last day of the week? The Human Beinz, from Youngstown Ohio, were one of a multitude of garage rock bands in the mid 60s. Their best known song is Nobody But Me, featured here before, a song also remixed by Pilooski. This song, Every Time Woman, is from their 1968 album Evolutions and has given up some of the souped up r 'n' b, tailfeather shakingness for a sound that suggests they might have spent some time listening to Mick 'n' Keef.

You can't beat a fish eye lens can you?

Every Time Woman

My Magpie Eyes

The Queen Is Dead is twenty five years old this week, which makes this piece of UK indie twenty six years old. The Loft were signed to Creation in the days when Creation was all about shambolic guitar bands. Up The Hill And Down The Slope rattles along, chasing it's own tail for most of it's four minutes, while singer Pete Astor declares his ambitions ('My magpie eyes are hungry for the prize') and asks to be given a shot at the world ('please don't say no, once around the fair, so I know'). The Loft would implode in 1985, splitting up onstage, which seems like a pretty spectacular way to go out. Pete Astor would go on to form The Weather Prophets (also on Creation), and write several minor classics, Almost Prayed for one. Neither Up The Hill And Down The Slope nor Almost Prayed of these will be remembered like The Queen Is Dead but that doesn't mean they ain't no good.

Up The Hill And Down The Slope

Where Have You Been All My Life?

One of Bagging Area's favourite records from last year was Pilooski's ten minute re-edit of Nora Deans' Angie La La (or Ay Ay Ay as it's sometimes called). Here's the original, written by Duke Reid, a spooky, trippy, psychedelic reggae song with a ghostly but sultry vocal and tropical birds squawking and flapping about. It's very odd, very brilliant and sticks in your brain for days. The internet turns up almost nothing about Nora Dean. She was born in 1952, she recorded several solo songs and as part of vocal reggae groups, and was born again in the late 70s. None of this matters- just listen to this bizarre and bewitching record.

Angie La La

Le Weatherall Remix

June seems to be turning into a Bagging Area Weatherall fest, so I thought I'd chuck this one in. Released as a freebie a few months back through Rcrdlbl, (it doesn't seem to have had any proper physical release) this is Andrew Weatherall's remix of Cliche by The Shoes. The Shoes are a French outfit about whom I know rien. It also features Cock 'n' Bull Kid, who I have heard of. This is a scorcher, with a great big kettle drum stomp, deep backing vox and the dub basslines he's been sticking all over recent remixes. This one is more of a close cousin of the glam rock Trentmoller remix. Vive le Weatherall remix.

Cliche (Weatherall remix)

What Is It Holmes?

David Holmes's 1997 album Let's Get Killed was a mixed bag, as all his albums have been. The single, Don't Die Just Yet, was superb- trippy and moody with dramatic strings, and a Serge Gainsbourg sample. This is from the cd/12" single, Don't Chant Just Yet, where Holmes remixes his own track assisted by Tim Goldsworthy.

Don't Chant Just Yet

I'm On The Centreline, Right Between Two States Of Mind

The other half of Husker Du's songwriters was Bob Mould, who had the more successful solo career. Sugar hit the big time with Copper Blue (on Creation in the early 90s), Workbook and a string of solo abums sold well and were highly rated, he took time out to write WWF scripts for TV (wrestling not wildife), and he did some housey electronic stuff (which bamboozled some of his fans). Recent interviews suggest he's mellowed a bit from the slightly dour figure he was. I like Bob Mould even if some of his solo albums can be hard work.

This is Hoover Dam, from Copper Blue- full of crunching guitar, melodrama and some strangely cheesy 80s keyboards. Turn it up.

Hoover Dam

I'm Sending All Of My Regrets To You

Grant Hart, ex-drummer, co-singer and songwriter in 80s indie-punk heroes Husker Du, has had a fits-and-starts solo career. His debut solo album, Intolerance, was a cracker, a mix of 60s garage and 80s punk. His 90s band Nova Mob produced a couple of albums of serviceable indie rock, one being released on the day Rough Trade folded, pretty much scuppering the lp's chance of success. More recently he put out Hot Wax, which led with a blistering single- You're the Reflection Of The Moon On The Water- which I posted over a year ago. He's got a new one out, Oeuvrerevue, a collection of oddities and odds and sods, which I haven't heard yet. Grant lost all his possessions and equipment in a housefire in March, which must be grim.

This is My Regrets, the closing song from Hot Wax, an end of the night kind of song, with scuzzy guitars, organ, clattering drums and massed backing vocals. In the wrong hands this would become a huge chestbeating, stadium/festival anthem. In Grant's hands it's a fuzzy, outsider, underdog anthem. Very good indeed.

My Regrets

Weatherall Mix Roundup 2

More Weatherall mixes, both available to download. They're all over the place at the moment. I'll never have time to listen to them all.

Old school stuff with rapping and quite ravey vocals, Weatherall at KAOS in Leeds, 1991

http://soundcloud.com/r_co/andrew-weatherall-live-kaos-leeds-1991

And recently in Paris

http://soundcloud.com/mercredi-production/mercredi-podcast-andrew

The Great Sandinista Parlour Game

While driving to the campsite during half term I made my family listen to Sandinista. All six sides, one hundred and forty four minutes, over two cds. No-one really objected. Mrs Swiss hummed along to the songs she knew. I continued to find songs I didn't know. While settling down outside our tent I did think about instigating the Great Sandinista Parlour Game but thought it might be pushing it.

The Great Sandinista Parlour Game- in other words, can the six sides and thirty six songs of The Clash's fourth album be trimmed and condensed into one twelve track killer album? Joe Strummer thought not- in Westway To The World he said some people thought it would've made a better double album or single album or e.p. but he rated it as ''a magnificent achievement'' and loved it ''warts and all''. Topper reckons it could be a lot shorter, as does Paul. Mick thinks it's perfect for people living on oil rigs or who are away from home a lot. In typical Clash style they thought that by insisting on a triple album, following London Calling (a double), selling at 'no more than £5.99' they'd be sticking it to CBS. CBS agreed on the proviso that they waived all royalties on UK sales until it sold 300,000 copies. To date it still hasn't. They also became obsessed in the studio with it having six songs per side, thirty six in total, which probably explains the inclusion of some songs. Anyway, here we go...

The Magnificent Seven- Invents rockers do rap, with Mickey Gallagher & Norman Watt Roy. In.

Hitsville UK- Mick's lightweight, poppy tribute to UK indie scene, sung by Ellen Foley. Out.

Junco Partner- bluesy/reggae cover of New Orleans song. Good. Maybe.

Ivan Meets G.I. Joe- Cold War disco face off, sung by Topper. Out.

The Leader- rattling two minute rockabilly version of Profumo affair. Maybe.

Something About England- lost masterpiece, tale of the 20th Century, sung by Mick & Joe. In.

Rebel Waltz. A waltz. Out.

Look Here. Jazzy stomp. Fun but inessential. Out.

The Crooked Beat- Paul's tribute to reggae and south London. Great bassline. Maybe.

Somebody Got Murdered- sublime guitar rock with great Mick vocal. In.

One More Time- Heavy reggae ghetto rocker. In.

One More Dub- Dub version of above. Out but only because of duplication.

Lightning Strikes (Not Once But Twice)- funk rock, Blockheads again. Out I think.

Up In Heaven (Not Only Here)- Mick's attack on poverty. Post-punky. Out.

Corner Soul- militant reggae rock (again). Good but... Out.

Let's Go Crazy- Clash samba. Who else did this kind of thing? Still, out.

If Music Could Talk- Mad talking blues, with squawky saxophone. Joe's favourite, so...In.

The Sound Of Sinners- So they did a gospel song. Because they felt like it. Out.

Police On My Back- blistering cover of Equals song. Clash albums need great cover versions. In.

Midnight Log- cool dubby rockabilly. Maybe.

The Equaliser- dub but not about Edward Woodward. Maybe.

The Call Up- disliked by some, but a dead groovy anti-war song. In.

Washington Bullets- laid back history of Latin America. Name of album comes from this. In.

Broadway. 2am in a bar in New York song . Great Joe vocal. In.

Lose This Skin- Tymon Dogg's fiddle song due to chance meeting in NY. Diverting but...Out.

Charlie Don't Surf- Apocalypse Now inspired fluid funk-rock. Maybe.

Mensforth Hill- Something About England played backwards. Listening Squire & Brown? Out.

Junkie Slip- skiffle anti-drug song. Out.

Kingston Advice- sparkling Clash reggae. Yes.

The Street Parade- superb, dreamy, melancholic, steel band, ode to being lost in the crowd. In.

Version City- dub. Out.

Living In Fame- more dub, with Mikey Dread. Out. Probably.

Silicone On Sapphire- sci-fi, fx, dubish. Out.

Version Partner- dub version of Junco Partner. Out. It's not that I don't like the dubs but...

Career Opportunities- Mickey Gallagher's kids sing old Clash song. Fun but... Out.

Shepherd's Delight- weird, acoustic/found sound/tape manipulation track. Far out but Out.

Which gives us...

Side 1 The Magnificent Seven, Junco Partner or The Leader (New Orleans blues or rockabilly? I can't choose between them, help), Something About England, The Crooked Beat, Somebody Got Murdered, One More Time, If Music Could Talk.

That's seven songs on side 1, one must go- sorry Paul, it's The Crooked Beat I think.

Side 2

Police On My Back, The Call Up, Washington Bullets, Broadway, Kingston Advice, The Street Parade.

Which makes a damn good Clash album. With a dub version as a limited edition follow-up. But without the anything goes, try everything spirit which makes Sandinista so bewildering and unwieldy but so good and so interesting. It's been said before but if anyone tried this today they'd have critics and the Mercury prize falling over themselves to praise it. As it is, it was slammed at the time and still has a mixed reputation today. Maybe the Sandinista Parlour Game is futile, maybe Mick and Joe's opinion is the right one. And, as for this post, in the words of Joe halfway through the first track, 'fucking long this innit?'

The Street Parade

The Return Of Friday Night Is Rockabilly Night 19

Do you want some rockabilly? It is Friday night after all. Link Wray definitely has at least one foot in the rockabilly camp. His haircut too. Rock on.

Jack the Ripper

Meet Iggy Pop And David Bowie

A hat-trick of German related posts, and a train related one too. In 2004 Kraftwerk toured. We saw them at The Apollo and it was stunning, not least the films that played with each song, the light up ties and the robots. This song is one of their best, Trans Europe Express, from the Maximum-Minimum live album that came out the year after the tour. A Kraftwerk live album seems a bit like a contradiction in terms doesn't it? This song was recorded at the romantic sounding Budapest Sportarena.

Trans Europe Express (Live)

Anglo-Franco-Germanic Disco Face Off

I was rummaging through my downloads folder recently, which admittedly doesn't have the same tactile thrill as rummaging through a record collection, and found this- The Rhinohead by Von Sudenfed and Mark E. Smith remixed by Pilooski. I couldn't remember a) even having it b) whether I'd ever heard it or c) that it even existed. Which shows how disposable mp3s are. Click, download, forget about if you don't play straight away. So I played it, and it's ace. Von Sudenfed managed to record an entire album with MES back in 2007. Pilooski takes them to a disco, with lovely swooshy bits and tic-tic-tic snares and angelic backing vocals, and at around three minutes floors them with the beat and the noise. Good stuff, even by the standards of all involved. Mark E Smith is used sparingly, which will either disappoint you (the Drew camp) or delight you (the C-tel camp). Either way, everyone's a winner.

The Rhinohead (Pilooski Remix)

Das Ist Industrial Electopop, Ja

Die Krupps, from Germany (quelle surprise) with a 1982 song that marries metallic, industrial percussion with synths and electropop. Discogs has this song categorised as 'Electro. Minimal. Industrial.' It's not nearly as joyless as that sounds. What it's got to do with Goldfinger, I don't know, and a cursory internet search doesn't turn much up .

Goldfinger

Guest Post- Cafe Bars, Idiots And Pigeons

Yo. It's my Birthday. I am 8. I do not like this this song, well it's alright. My dad made me put it on, well he just said tough to me when I suggested lots of other songs.* My Dad's a music snob. But there are too many cafe bars, idiots and pigeons in this town.

By Eliza T.

When The Evening Sun Goes Down

* Swiss Adam writes- For the record I wasn't going to post Cheryl Cole, Black Eyed Peas, Alexandra Burke or Katy Perry. I would've posted Eliza Doolittle but I didn't have the song. Eliza T. used to love Half Man Half Biscuit before she became cool. Mrs Swiss says she still does, but won't admit it.

This song is a cracker, by the way, and includes the line about 'I'm off to see The Bootleg Beatles, as the bootleg Mark Chapman'.

Woo Life

So it turns out that there's this Manchester band called Wu Lyf who are causing a load of fuss (I'm too old to know about cutting edge bands on my own doorstep, I only found about them because they were in the Guardian. Now that is middle aged), and there may be four of them in the band but there's more of them connected to the band doing other stuff, and there's a photo from last year of about ten of them with bandannas on standing in a load of smoke with their fists in the air except in the photo here they just look like four young blokes from Bury, and they're releasing their own album now-ish on their own label and they don't want to be part of the music industry, and they have good looking, clever videos (with archive footage of zeppelins and people during The Cold War and tribes of people crawling around islands) and a bewildering website with lots of crosses, and they're pretty dismissive of past Manchester bands like The Roses and the Mondays (which is only right I suppose, new bands should be dismissive of bands from twenty years ago), and they take their shirts of when they play live, and the NME love them and so do loads of the bloggers, except some people say they're being hyped and 'all this fuss, what about the tunes?', and they're all image and playing with the media to get attention (which is what all good bands do isnt it?), and Wu Lyf stands for World Unite Lucifer Foundation and might be pronounced Woo Life and they make me feel really old but at the same time when I listen to their songs I think 'actually this is really good, it's got church organ and rasping vocals and busy drums and keyboards and really good guitars and sounds quite euphoric but nervy at the same time, and am I supposed to like this, isn't it for the kids?' Might get the album I reckon. See what you think.

L Y F

Barefoot In The Head

Let's stick with the Balearic thing. My namesake band, A Man Called Adam, and their best known moment in full twelve inch, eight and a half minute mode. Yes, the picture is a bit small.

Barefoot In The Head

Jesus On The Payroll

Here's the source of that piano sample from Bocca Juniors' debut single Raise which I posted yesterday- Thrashing Doves 1987 single Jesus On The Payroll. The band were active between 1986 and 1991 and were almost fatally wounded when Margaret Thatcher praised a song of theirs on Saturday Superstore. Death knell for their funky rock pretty much. They also had a revolving door for bass players, one of whom (James Eller) went on to play with Julian Cope and The The and another (Gail Ann Dorsey) who played with David Bowie (and I think Paul Weller but I may be wrong). Guitarist Ian Button ended up with Death In Vegas. The rest of the band got into writing for TV and film. Before all of that though there was this, and very good it is too.

Jesus On The Payroll (Street Groove)

The Best Things In Life Are Free

It's Saturday morning and we're having a soul stomper from Motown. It became a rock 'n' roll standard but that doesn't take anything away from Barrett Strong's biggest/only hit, and check that vocal performance.

(Money) That's What I Want

The Return Of Friday Night Is Rockabilly Night 18

Tonight's rockabilly has a hillbilly slant but it's still got that swinging rockabilly bass and rhythm- Tennessee Ernie Ford's 16 Tons, with a song that still rings true.

'You move 16 tons

And what do you get?

Another day older

And deeper in debt'

16 Tons

Raise Your Hands If You Think You Understand

While we're in the Weatherall area I thought I'd post this for Friday morning. It popped up on the mp3 player the other day driving to work with the sun shining and sounded really good. Bocca Juniors were the inhouse studio band of the Boys Own collective/magazine/cultural trendsetters/ex-football hooligans. In the studio this amounted to Andrew Weatherall, Terry Farley, Pete Heller, Hugo Nicholson and vocalist Anna Haigh, along with for this record a massive piano sample from Thrashing Doves' Jesus On The Payroll. So, it's got those pianos, well-balearic all-roundness, Anna Haigh's Alastair Crowley quoting lyrics, and a rap in the middle as many good songs had back then.

Raise (63 Steps To Heaven)

Weatherall Mix Roundup

I've found a variety of Andrew Weatherall mixes, three recent and one old, which may be of interest to some of you.

Numero Uno- Andrew Weatherall live at Disco Deviant, April 2011, 'two hours of pitched down Balearic psyche disco'. Slightly confusing, it was available to download but only the first 500 and that depended on people following it or something. Idon't think you can download it now but it's there to listen to.

http://soundcloud.com/the-unity-agency/andrew-weatherall-at-discodeviant

Deux- Weatherall live at the Electron festival in Geneva, 21st of April 2011. This one you can download.

http://soundcloud.com/r_co/andrew-weatherall-live

Drei- Lord Sabre live at The Hacienda back in 1993, also there to download in all it's glory. I believe I was there. Or at one very similar.

http://soundcloud.com/djmixes/andrew-weatherall-hacienda-july-1993

Four- the wonderful Exile On Moan Street blog, Mona's mix of politics and music, had this one to download back in May which I missed somehow. Audrey live in Lille at Wonky Tonk, 9th of April 2011.

Happy listening.

Demo Tapes And Submissions

I remember a documentary about John Peel where at one point he opened the boot of his car, stuffed full of demo tapes from hopefuls, many of whom maybe had no ambition other than to be played on the great man's radio show. He looked crestfallen when admitting he wanted to listen to them all but could never do it. Bagging Area obviously doesn't get anything like the same number of demo tapes (mp3s really) or submissions but I still feel guilty at not having the time to listen to them all, even though I didn't start this with the intention of doing this sort of thing. Here's a couple of recent ones that might be worth your time.

First up, some dance music from 2K Subs (Martin Whiteman and Max Quirk), who have a single out in July called Haunted. They've given me a short version of the nine minute B-side, a track called Out There. The label, Corsair Records, call it 'impressionistic electronic sounds'. House music I reckon and good it is too.

Out There (Short Version)

Second, 17 Pygmies from Los Angeles, a band who formed in 1982 and appear to have tried everything under the sun from surf-a-delic covers of the theme from Lawrence Of Arabia to Brazilian samba to electro-pop and techno, and have pursued the road to obscurity ever since. In 2007 they released a psychedelic rock tribute to art nouveau and bill themselves today as, deep breath, 'partly symphonic, partly sci-fi, partly indie rock, partly space rock, partly electro acoustic.. whatever it takes to get the job done.' I don't know how much, if any, of this is true, but you can find their music here. I haven't listened to it all but some of it sounds pretty good. Listen or download.

Thirdly, a Belgian folk-rock band- Ceili Moss. A bit like The Pogues but with a bloke singing in Flemish. Or Walloon. French most likely. There's a whole album of it here.

Apologies to other people and bands who've sent stuff in but at the moment this is as much as time and space allow.

Perpetual Dawn, Infinite Sunrise

I thought I'd posted this before, but apparently not- one of the Orb's best moments, Perpetual Dawn. Lovely ambient-techno-dub, all the way from 1991, with a great reggae vocal telling us 'The storm is raging'. It also features a great 'blurbrbbrrb' vocal part. This record is twenty years old and still sounds like tomorrow.

Perpetual Dawn (Solar Flare Extended Mix)

I Know You're Down In A River Of Trouble

I can't get enough of this sort of thing at the moment. A massive R'n'B hit for Sam and Dave from 1966. Horns parping, bass bumping, drums thwacking, and Sam and Dave announcing 'Hold on! I'm a comin'.

Hold On! I'm A Comin'

Groovy Times

Back to The Small Faces and PP Arnold with this song, (If You Think You're) Groovy, written by Steve Marriott and Ronnie Lane, played by the band and sung by the golden voice of PP Arnold in 1967. Nice. It's nice to be nice.

(If You Think You're) Groovy

Manchester's Most Forgotten Band

Remember these? Yargo are possibly Manchester's most forgotten band, formed in the mid 80s, they released the fantastic Bodybeat album on their own label in 1987. Mixing reggae, soul, pop, and blues and fronted by the rich vocals of Basil Clarke they really should've been bigger. A 1989 album on a major label, Communicate, flopped by major label standards although they received widespread coverage in the northwest by soundtracking the titles to Anthony H Wilson's The Other Side Of Midnight telly show (which had The Stone Roses playing Waterfall live amongst others). They also featured trumpet from Andy Diagram who later went on to James. Criminally Manchester's acid house/indie band heaven/'idiot-joy showland' (cheers MES) moved on without them.

Lately

People Fly By In The Traffic's Boom

Another first rate Paul Weller remix from the Wild Wood album, this time the acoustic title track is re-worked by Portishead, who surely need no introduction. As with most stuff by Portishead, there are those drums and general spookiness.

The picture shows the last time Mrs Weller let Paul cut his own fringe.

Wild Wood (Portishead Remix)

To The Kosmos Men Dare

Back in 1993 when Paul Weller got his mojo and his audience back with Wildwood, it wasn't all Traffic, bucolic jams and the view from the countryside. His producer Brendan Lynch knew that what Weller really needed was a dubbed out remix of Kosmos with tons of delay, loud screeching noises and spacey beep-beep-beeps by the dozen. Experimental and out-there, this is a million miles from The Eton Rifles, The Paris Match and Stanley Road.

Green Fred Perry polo shirt from model's own signature collection, as ANCB cleared up last time I used this picture.

Kosmos (Lynch Mob Bonus beats)

Somewhere, Over The Rainbow

Some new music. I'm really enjoying the Cults album but the DMCA go for postings with the fangs out so I'll steer well clear I think. This is pretty good though- Rainbow Arabia. Rainbow Arabia are from L.A. and released an album called Boys And Diamonds earlier this year, which is enjoyable, fresh (ish), electronic and dancey. According to their wiki page they 'perform a brand of dance music that contains elements of Arabic, North African and Asian fused with American avant-garde dance pop', which admittedly sounds awful, but give 'em a chance eh? And I do like his hat and cardigan combination.

Boys And Diamonds

Floor Length Hair

Kid Congo Powers played guitar in both The Cramps and The Gun Club (and Nick Cave's Bad Seeds) and his album from two years ago, Dracula Boots, got played regularly round here. I've just discovered Kid Congo and his band The Pink Monkey Birds have got a new album out, Gorilla Rose. So that's on the shopping list. This is from a split single from last year (the other side was by Hunx & His Punx. Anyone?), a thrilling piece of garage rock called Floor Length Hair, that makes the hairs on the back of the neck stand up a little.

Floor Length Hair

Mama Told Me That Girls Are Hollow

I had an email today from one of my brothers asking about The Cramps and The Gun Club, where to start, which to buy, and so on. I reckon you could do a lot worse than start with 1986's A Date With Elvis which opens with this song, What's Inside A Girl?, a cracking garage rock/rockabilly stomper.

You don't necessarily listen to The Cramps for the lyrics but verse two of this song is perfect-

'Well you can send it by satellite but baby that's cheating

The President called an emergency meeting

The King of Siam sent a telegram

It said 'a wop bop ba loo bop a wop bam bam'

Which kind of says it all.

What's Inside a Girl?

Your Eyes Are Deeper Than Time

There's something about weather like this which makes The Small Faces the perfect soundtrack. Plus, while away camping I read a longish article about them in a heritage rock magazine. It was a toss up between this song and Song Of A Baker (and there aren't too many songs about bakers), but I've gone for Tin Soldier, a brilliant soulful rocker with backing vocals from the lovely PP Arnold. This song should be in your download folder and then played loud through open windows.

Tin Soldier

The Return Of Friday Night Is Rockabilly Night 17

A smoking tune from 1958, Jody Reynolds' slow, spooky, bass riff led Fire Of Love. A seriously good song. So good, Jeffrey Lee Pierce took it's title for the first, definitive, Gun Club album and then recorded a cover for The Gun Club's Miami (which I posted ages ago). He looked pretty sharp too.

'The fire of love

Is burning deep

The fire of love

Won't let me sleep'

Fire Of Love