My Peel Tapes: Part 19

Hello dear friends,

so here I am, back again with #19 of 'My Peel Tapes'. Enjoy.


(158) Ride - 'Taste' (mp3). From the band's 'Fall' - EP, released in 1990 on Creation Records. As mentioned previously, I used to have all of the three EP's ('Ride', 'Play' and 'Fall'), but gave them away quite some time ago. But the 'Fall' - EP is also incorporated into the CD version of Ride's first LP, 'Nowhere', and this where I took this little gem from. "Shoegazing", you might think ... and perhaps you're right ...

[upon request:
Ride - 'Here And Now']

(159) Galaxie 500 - 'Melt Away' (mp3). One year before the band split up in the spring of 1991, they released their 3rd album, 'This Is Our Music' on Rough Trade Records. It's full of good tunes and I think it's absolutely comparable to the brilliance of the other two albums, 'Today' (1988) and 'On Fire' (1989). Get hold of all three, people: they're outstanding and shouldn't miss in your collection!

[upon request:
Bleach - 'Decadence'
Happy Mondays - 'Kinky Afro']

(160) The High - 'Take Your Time' (mp3). Well, for those, who own 'Somewhere Soon' somewhere hidden in their collection: it might grow on you, if you give it a second chance! I just listened to the album for the first time in a few years, because I must admit I couldn't remember whether 'Take Your Time' was good enough to post it here. It surely is, and so is the rest of the album. Released on London Records in 1990.

[upon request:
Ride - 'Vapour Trail']

(161) Buffalo Tom - 'Birdbrain' (mp3). A 7" and also the opening track for the band's second album from 1990. I took the track from one of those very useful 'Indie Top 20' double albums on Beechwood Music though, who, at the time, brought together the best of 'those sort of bands'. The good thing with these compilations was that the people who compiled them gave a toss about whether the featured bands were fashionable in one form or another. As far as I can tell, their choices didn't relate to the Indie Charts at all, they just picked the bands they liked quite a lot. But back to Buffalo Tom: I know quite a few of their tunes, all of which are simply wonderful. And I think I will start searching for their full back catalogue rather soon. Or catch them live, because, believe it or not, they're still alive apparently. Here's their homepage.

[upon request:
Ride - 'Seagull']

(162) L7 - 'Shove' (mp3). From the L.A. all-female outfit's second album, 'Smell The Magic' (on Sub Pop Records 1990). At the time there were quite a few all-female bands, but L7 surely were one of the better ones.

The band gained a certain amount of notoriety for their performance at the 1992 Reading Festival, when Donita Sparks removed her used tampon off-stage and threw it into the crowd yelling "Eat my used tampon, fuckers!" in protest against the mud being thrown by the crowd. In the UK, the band are most famous for an appearance on the popular late-night entertainment programme The Word, in which Sparks pulled her pants down to reveal her vagina. During a live show in London in 2000, the band offered a one night stand with drummer Dee Plakas as a raffle prize; the winner claimed his prize of sex with her on the tour bus.


(163) Billy Bragg - 'Seven And Seven Is' (mp3). Well, what is there to say about Billy Bragg? Where should I start? I mean, if you don't know who he is and what he did over the years, then I can't help you, I'm afraid. Have a look at his highly informative homepage and then go out and buy EVERYTHING he ever released. Really, even if I tried I couldn't recommend any specific album of the great man, they're all equally brilliant. The song above, originally done by Arthur Lee's Love in 1966, for example is taken from the bonus CD that was issued with the first pressings of the 'Must I Paint You A Picture: The Essential Billy Bragg' - double CD - compilation (on Cooking Vinyl, 2003). Perhaps this set is something for Billy-Bragg-beginners, if such creatures exist ....

(164) The Frantic Elevators - 'The Hunchback Of Notre Dame' (mp3). Now this is T.H.E. prime example of how a band declines in their career after rather a good start. This is a really nice and uplifting tune, you surely will agree. From a 1981 Peel Session and although I don't know any of the other 4 songs recorded for it, I'm pretty sure they're similarily good. Would you believe me if I told you that on vocals we find this red-haired ninny who later became the frontman of (the bloody awful) Simply Red?! I mean, The Clash's first records for example were just perfect, and if you listen to their final release, 'Cut The Crap', you just think to yourself "Oh my God, that's fucking useless!". But if you compare this Frantic Elevator's tune to what Simply Red do nowadays (correction: to all of what Simply Red ever did!), the difference is even worse. Or bigger, whichever might be grammatically correct.

This one, as well as the next two tracks, is taken from a very fine compilation of Peel Session - tracks, a double album on Strange Fruit Records from 1990 called 'Manchester, So Much To Answer For: The Peel Sessions'.

(165) The Inspiral Carpets - 'Directing Traffic' (mp3). From their second session for the programme from 1989, link to their homepage here ... and on it I just saw that the classic 'Cool As Fuck' - T-Shirt is still available. I'm contemplating to spend a few quid .... even if only to honour them for this awesome song alone!

[upon request:
Dub Sex - 'Swerve' (Session Version)]

(166) A Guy Called Gerald - 'Rockin' Ricki' (mp3). From his first (out of three) sessions for the John Peel Show, recorded at The Hippodrome, Golders Green, London, back in 1988. His homepage doesn't seem to be working, so here's the Wikipedia entry.

(167) The Moonflowers - 'Get Higher' (mp3). Released as a 12" on Pop Good Records in 1990, and although I have it somewhere in my collection, again I put one of the aforementioned Indie-Top 20 - compilations on the record player ... just to show you how useful they are! I think it's a killer track, but then again I'm by no means an expert in 'dance music' and those of you who are might judge this as being boring crap compared to the 300 BPM hardcore tunes you normally listen to. But it's 18 years old today, kids, older than most of you are! So bugger off, okay?! The Moonflowers' homepage: here.

[upon request:
Dinosaur Jr - 'The Wagon'
Ride - 'Kaleidoscope'
Ride - 'Eight Miles High']

(168) The Dylans - 'Godlike' (mp3). The Dylans came out in the late 1980's riding the wave, like so many groups in the 1960's, of acid fueled dance halls, with the idea that "love is all you need," and of course a communal understanding, melding of ideas and values ... and like the 60's, not only the music, but the ideals almost worked again. The Dylans must have had some credibility, because they were picked up by non other then the Beggars Banquet Label, which says something. 'Godlike' was their debut, a 12" from 1991 on BB's Situation Two Records.

[upon request:
Sonic Youth - 'Tuff Gnarl'
Hole - 'Blackburn']

(169) Midwich Cuckoos - 'Show Me' (mp3). A fantastic track, and it's a shame that I know nothing else by this band apart from that. The name of course derives from the science-fiction novel that was filmed as 'The Village Of The Damned' ... that's 'Midwich Cuckoos', not 'Show Me', of course. 'Show Me' was the band's 1990 debut 12" (on Big Noise Records) and despite selling out of the first pressing within 6 weeks, interest from a number of distributors and an on-air appeal by the late great John Peel, the band along with their record company decided to delete the single, to make it a true collectors’ item, as a thank you to their original fans. Original signed copies of “Show Me” are still being sold on various websites for forty quid .... and - typically - my copy is unsigned ...

(170) James - 'Billy's Shirts' (mp3). A track from the classic 'Stutter' album from 1986 on Sire Records. For those of you reading Sexyloser in Portugal, James will be playing there in early September and from September, 14th on they'll be touring the USA. Go and see them if you have the chance to do so, folks, otherwise you'll really miss a treat! One of the best live bands I ever had the pleasure to see, honestly!

(171) The Ramones - 'Suzy Is A Headbanger' (mp3). From their second album from 1977 on Sire. All dead, all gone ... what a freakin' shame. I think The Ramones were the band I saw live most often ... and every time they were just marvellous!

I'll never forget when we went to the Berlin Bizarre open air festival back in 1991 together with a German Ska band who played there early in the morning, before the sausage booths opened, in fact. But either way, we were equiped with nice little all-area backstage passes, so we wandered around there a bit and after a while we decided to leave and go to the city of Berlin in order to have a few more decent beers. Only one of us, the mighty Fatman, decided to stay at the venue, he wanted to lay back and enjoy the sun, so he said .... and so he did. Perhaps I should add the The Fatman listened to nothing else but Elvis and 50's Rock 'n' Roll, I think he didn't have the slightest idea of the festival's line-up. Anyway, eventually we returned from Berlin and found The Fatman not being in the best mood. Apparently he finally fell asleep in the sun in the backstage area, thinking beautiful thoughts whilst laying there in the grass, when all of a sudden some - and I quote him here - 'unbelievably tall, dangerous punk with hairs down to his ass' stumbled over him. 'Did he beat you?', we asked, but The Fatman said that this hadn't been the case, in fact that guy excused himself very politely and even wanted to start a conversation, but The Fatman, partly because he couldn't understand his accent, but even more because he was tired and wanted to continue his nap, told the person to bugger off. Which he did, in fact.

Either way, the evening came up, we watched Iggy Pop play (stinking drunk and most probably full of drugs: I saw him making his way from his caravan to the back of the stage, his asian girlfriend had to give him a helping hand, otherwise he would have fallen over, believe it or not. But when he entered the stage, he acted as if he had been struck by lightning. Such a energetic and powerful performance!). At the end of his gig we moved to some VIP - tribune in order not to miss the (headlining) Ramones. 'Durango 95' started, and all of the stage was covered in this fake-fog or smoke or whatever you call it and when it slowly started to disappear and you could begin to see clearly again, The Fatman suddenly yelled at the top of his voice: 'Look, there's this bastard again who woke me up!!' ..... pointing with his finger right at the allmighty Joey Ramone!

Enough of boring stories accompanied by even more boring music, people *smile* ..... see you next time, okay? Leave comments, requests, fan mail ... whatever you like, really!

Shalom,

Dirk