Same shit, different year ...

Oh mighty God of New Year's Eve, may I kindly ask for a little bit more than the ten minutes I had on me fucking own within this year for 2013?! Please ..... !!!

The Blue Orchids - 'A Year With No Head' (Peel Session Version '82) (mp3)

As Joe Strummer said in his wisdom: "Arrrghhhgorra Buh Bhvh Do Arrrrgggghhhhnnnn!!!!...."
(which, I'm sure, translates as 'and in 20 minutes again the house will be filled with a bulk of people who talk a lot of nonsense and eat and drink way too much ...)

Oh boy ...

Dirk

Holiday Post

Hola friends,

we'll be off to the North German coast tomorrow morning for a week and earlier today I finished putting together a very nice CD which we can listen to on the four hour drive. You see, my wife's musical taste doesn't exactly cope with mine, to put it mildly. So in order not be forced to listen to boring crap on the radio and/or the entire fucking Tote Hosen back catalogue or ludicrous nonsense by slim white guys sounding as if they were currently being crucified, I now have my own little CD. Put together in a bit of a rush, I admit, but nevertheless I'll be enjoying it a great deal, I'm sure. The same will be true for Little Loser (still three, four in September), because - much to the dismay of Mrs Loser - it continues a tune he currently likes a lot and it always puts a smile on my face when he imitates the title, which is:

'Olga, I Cannot' (Toy Dolls, 1985) - mp3

Great stuff throughout and I listened to a fair bit of old Toy Dolls stuff recently. I mean, I already did so some 25 years ago, but what never occured to me until today is what a marvellous guitar player Olga is in fact. Apparently I'm not alone in this, as to be seen on Wikipedia: "Olga plays a yellow Fender Telecaster with a Seymour Duncan bridge pick up, he is recognized as a virtuoso guitar player and in 2007 was voted number 1 Punk Guitarist in the international Punk Polls^.
He was even quoted as being the best guitarist on the planet in The Guitar Magazine and the All Music Guide describes Olga as being a guitar hero "capable of jaw-droppingly fast guitar picking"."

Enjoy. The tune and your own holidays. Should you (still) have any.

Dirk

Vinyl Villain returns: The Man Is Back In Town!

Morning all,

astonishing news this morning: Jim is back, after a well-deserved break, so have a look at The Vinyl Villain quickly! He decided not to continue to blog on a daily basis, but only when he feels like he wants to: something I can fully understand and appreciate ... as you probably will be be able to tell from the constant lack of fresh posts here on Sexyloser recently.

As I am at work currently I don't have access to my music files at home, therefore I can only choose from a handful of songs, those I already had uploaded on BoxNet previously. Nevertheless I found one which describes my feelings about Jim's return pretty well: yes, I posted it before at least once, but as it is a neat tune indeed by The Crimea, I feel no shame when giving it to you again today .... I mean, c'mon: the site we all (well, most of us) look at first thing each and every morning is back and running again, so don't/shouldn't we all feel like:

Lottery Winners On Acid (mp3)

Jim: thanks, mate, for the many many bands you pointed me to in the last years: I do hope there'll be much more to come in the future!

Cheers,

Dirk

A second helping, anyone?

Good morning friends,

a quiet Sunday morning in the Sexyloser household is a rare thing indeed, but I'm having one more or less right now: Little Loser is playing in his room whilst Mrs Loser is downstairs. So I thought I'd check me mails and also see what the usual suspects have posted last night. Nothing much worth downloadable though.Then I thought, why not listen to a record in the background and I went for one I hadn't heard for ages: some Blancmange 'Best Of' - compilation. I mean, I have one or two regular albums of theirs plus a few singles as well, but this one was the one I picked and it is a good listen throughout, especially the quieter tunes. A perfect soundtrack to go along with a cup of coffee, a cigarette and sweet nothingness ...

Then I thought why not share those with all the three readers Sexyloser has? So, quickly ripped from the - rather worn - LP mentioned above, 'Second Helpings' on London Records, here's to you:

Blancmange - 'Waves' ('83) (mp3)

Blancmange - 'I've Seen The Word' ('82) (mp3)

The strange bangs you might ot might not hear throughtout the latter tune actually derive from Little Loser constantly crawling fron my desk onto the left speaker and jumping down on the bottom during the rip: the quiet Sunday is now over, all too soon I'm afraid. Oh boy ....

Hope you enjoy yours though!

Cheerio,

Dirk

"Things I very much liked indeed ... back in 2003!!" ... Pt. 3

Greetings bothers and sisters,

I do hope you are enjoying your few days off. Nothing much new to tell you today, I am enjoying myself as much as possible, spending time with Little Loser and feel pretty good altogether.

I hope you're still with me in this 2003 - thingy, if you are: today we have all-female stuff ... and why not?

First a band which impresses me mightily with every single song they put out and believe me that your life is incomplete if you have not listened to their entire back catalogue: The Detroit Cobras. Normally being more dedicated to 60's soul/Rock n' Roll, I found a cover of theirs which is a bit different to what they usually do:

The Detroit Cobras - 'Last Nite' ('03) (mp3)

Secondly a belter of a 12" from Belgium, if memory serves this topped Peel's Festive 50 in 2003. Again perhaps not the kind of stuff you would usually expect to find here on Sexyloser, but there you are: simply great and I won't get tired to listen to this until I retire:

Viva La Fête - 'Noir Desir' ('03) (mp3)

Now, top entertainment for you today, isn't it?

Enjoy the rest of your Easter break, there's more to come soon!

Dirk

Summer's here, kids: so get yourself a shirt!

Hello there,

quite a while ago I was asked by a chap called Craig to mention his t-shirt mailorder on Sexyloser, he, in his turn, promised to send me a free shirt in return. I thought, well, why not, although Craig seems to overestimate the influence this blog has on people and, also, even more importantly perhaps, the number of readers it has. But I obliged, being a polite kind of bloke, and indeed not very much later Craig sent me a very nice Sonic Youth shirt for free: I still wear it with pride, Craig!

But now Craig came back to me and - believe it or not - this is what he had to say:

">> Well I've started my own blog, mostly inspired by your own, where I ramble
>> incoherently about music and stuff to no one at all. I think the most
>> visits in a day was seven, and they seemed to be searching for Coldplay
>> bracelets. :)"

Who would ever have thought that Sexyloser is even some sort of inspiration for anyone?! Not me, that's for sure! So Craig, I'm really lost for words and I do hope you manage to do better than me with your blog!

Have a look at it, people: www.turntableeyes.co.uk

Craig's t-shirt mailorder can be found here (lots of good stuff there!): www.mrcloud.com

Cheerio,

Dirk

"Things I very much liked indeed ... back in 2003!!" ... Pt. 2

Hello to you all,

as promised here comes the second part of my little review of what was oustandingly good back in 2003 ... at least in my humble opinion ("I don't give two fucks about your review ...", I hear you shout, but come on, all in all the songs are not that bad, are they?).

Ain't got much time today to write as much silly nonsense as usual as I'm at work currently and my colleague has headed off to Thailand today for nearly one month, which means I gotta do all her freaking work by and large! Even worse, the other colleague will have all of next week off as well, means I'll be really fucked up!

So, without any further ado, another two tunes, and really good ones as well, I would think:

Joe Strummer and Johnny Cash - 'Redemption Song' ('03) (mp3)

I know this is rather ashaming, but I only heard Marley's original version of this after I heard the above. Mainly this is because I was never that much into reggae ... Ska, Rocksteady: yes, of course. Reggae: nah, rather not. But it is of course a mighty tune, well worth listening to.

Next up an original from Sweden, and don't you think this bloke sounds very much like Joe Strummer at times? Astonishing indeed, so much so that upon first hearing this I really thought this must be something out of Joe's back catalogue which previously hadn't been released:

Moneybrother - 'Reconsider Me' ('03) (mp3)

A summer hit in Sweden in 2003 as it turned out after rather a lot of airplay: and rightly so!

Hope you enjoyed today's little bit, folks: would be nice if you could leave a comment!

See ya soon,

Dirk

"Things I very much liked indeed ... back in 2003!!" ... Pt. 1

Morning Ladies,

I must confess I'm rather running out of bright ideas, as you might be able to tell. Therefore I decided to continue the series, albeit with a different year, one before 2004: 2003 in fact. I found tons of great stuff in my 2003 - folder, that's why you'll get not one but two tunes with each post around the Easter Bankholidays. Take it as my present for Easter for you, if you like ... you'll get nothing else apart from that!

I know a lot of you think that Springsteen is mightier than God, I, personally, never gave a fuck about any of the stuff he did in all those years. The same is true for Tom Waits, by the way. But 2003 saw two awesome releases, both of which were cover versions of Spingsteen - tunes. I really don't say this too often, but in this case I am convinced that they are (far) better than the originals. But judge by yourself and let me know what you think, okay?

First we have this, from Ballboy out of sunny Scotland, from their third full-length release, 'The Sash My Father Wore And Other Stories' on SL Records: an album which is good throughout and I cannot recommend it enough:

Ballboy - 'Born In The USA' ('03) (mp3)

Next up come Electrelane, who, as far as I know, are still existant (since 1998, mind you!). I don't know all too much about them alas, but the songs I do know are very good indeed. This is but one of them, from the flipside of their 2003 'On Parade' - 7" on Too Pure:

Electrelane - 'I'm On Fire' ('03) (mp3)

Not too bad, this, ey? Come on, I mean, just compare the songs to the originals when being performed by this long-haired twerp with this ludicrous towel around his head, grinning foolishly and you simply have to agree, right?

More stuff from 2003 to come fairly soon, perhaps even already tomorrow if you are nice to mummy!

Cheers,

Dirk





"Things I very much liked indeed ... back in 2004!!" ... Pt. 3

Good afternoon to you,

today a bit of a novelty for me here on Sexyloser, and, consequently, for you too: Rap Garage. A sort of genre I normally wouldn't listen to, but I was blown away by this tune upon its release in 2004. I am pretty sure all of you are familiar with it, but then again it's good to hear it again every once in a while.

It is from the band's second album, 'A Grand Don't Come for Free' which is a concept album about a short period in the protagonist's life. The events depicted include losing a thousand pounds, the start of a new relationship, going on holiday, breaking up, and eventually finding the grand again.

Obviously the song tells us a tale from the "holiday - era" ... and here it is:

The Streets - 'Fit But You Know It' ('04) (mp3)

Great stuff, ey?

Cheers,

Dirk

"Things I very much liked indeed ... back in 2004" ... Pt. 2

Good morning friends,

sorry, it took me a few days to post this follow-up, but there was too much to do in real life lately, as well in the office as at home, so I didn't find the time to sit down and write a little something. Also I couldn't be arsed to do it late in the evening, that's why you had to wait until today.

As you might or might know by now, I am a bit of a sucker for cover versions, and what a fine example of that did I dig out for you today, that's for sure! I'm pretty convinced you all know the Dead Kennedys' original by heart and love it to no degree, so here's what Nouvelle Vague made out of it:

Nouvelle Vague - 'Too Drunk To Fuck' ('04) (mp3)

It would be interesting to receive comments from my female readers (if such creatures exist at all) and learn what they made out of this version! Camille's vocal talents will most surely meet with the male readers' approval, I'm willing to have a small bet here. Well, either that or the story she tells in the song. More likely the latter, I assume.

Enjoy ... and let me know what you think, yes?

Dirk

"Things I very much liked indeed ... back in 2004"

G'afternoon all,

dunno yet whether this is the start of another dull series of posts of me looking back in time or not. As per today it is just me passing on to you something I come back to listening to fairly frequently, just because it is a mighty tune indeed. I mean, below version is outstandingly brilliant, the same is true for the original by Pulp, of course. But what really is worth having a look at this link which leads you to a live performance on the Jay Leno show: just priceless! It really is hard to tell indeed whether Shatner (aged 73 (!!) at the time of this performance ... if I am even half that fit and/or angry then, I'll be a happy man!) is the living coolness or whether it is Joe Jackson: either way, both of them, as far as I'm concerned, are legends of our time .... albeit for completely different things. Obviously.

I do trust you enjoy this a great deal, friends. Any comments are of course highly appreciated.

William Shatner (with Joe Jackson and Ben Folds) - 'Common People' ('04) (mp3)

See ya,

Dirk

"1985 - That Golden Year!! - Pt. 6

Hi there,

the following was shamelessly pasted from Wikipedia, but do I care? No, I don't!! This says it all about today's tune, I would imagine:

Breaking Circus was a postpunk band from the 1980s, based in Chicago and later Minneapolis, led by guitarist and vocalist Steve Björklund.      

Björklund had earlier been a guitarist and vocalist for Strike Under; after a short stint in Terminal Beach, Breaking Circus was his next project, which initially also included bassist Bruce Lange. Breaking Circus signed to Homestead Records for their first release, The Very Long Fuse (1985), which used the Roland TR-606 drum machine. The EP included the song Marathon, which has been cited as "stuck in several thousand heads" and a "college-radio favorite."

Well, it certainly is a favorite of mine, ever was in fact, and I do sincerely hope it'll become a favorite of yours too, 'cos this is what this blog is intended to stand for!

Breaking Circus - '(Knife In A) Marathon' ('85) (mp3)

Enjoy (a great deal!!),

Dirk

 

"1985 - That Golden Year!!" - Pt. 5

Dearest friends,

one of the bands that highlighted 1985 for me were the utterly fantastic Brilliant Corners from Bristol. You may or may not know their 'Brian Rix' from 1987, rather frequently airplayed and featured on various compilations. But their debut album, 'Growing Up Absurd' on SS20 Records, is really fine and I think I listened to it like a hundred times back in 1985!

The singer and the bassist, by the way, formed The Experimental Pop Band in 1995 and I have a 2001 album of theirs at home which I haven't listened to since ... oh, 2001, I suppose. But I will change that tomorrow, I think.

But, here today, from 1985, from said debut album:

The Brilliant Corners - 'One Of These Days' ('85) (mp3)

Enjoy, enjoy!

Dirk

"1985 - That Golden Year!!" - Pt. 4

Hello friends and followers,

The Sacred Cowboys - again - come from Australia (mind you, there's tons of stuff from Australia here on Sexyloser recently, isn't it? More or less deliberately though ...) and were formed in 1982. The first song of theirs I heard was a version of Dylan's 'Highway '61' back in 1985 ... problem back then was that it was only available on a New Rose -label - compilation called 'La Vie En Rose', two pink LP's in a thick cardboard box ... a very nice item, but rather expensive, even back then.

 I remember very well that I spent all afternoon in the only reliable Indie record shop in town, contemplating whether I should buy the item or not. Buying it, of course, would have meant that I won't have the money for further purchases ... and quite a few cool things were for sale in 1985 and that's for sure!! Apparently I decided to go for it, something I don't feel bitter about some 27 years later, I must say.

But judge by yourself:

The Sacred Cowboys - 'Highway '61' ('85) (mp3)

All the best,

Dirk

"1985: That Golden Year!!" - Pt. 3

Good morning ladies,

I think I listened to quite a lot out of Hüsker Dü's back catalogue, but to be absolutely frank to you, I can't agree with everything they've done. No question that 'Candy Apple Grey' is a total classic, also 'Zen Arcade' has some glorious moments, but by and large the rest of their works, especially the early stuff, is something I can't really cope with. By the way: the early Grant Hart solo recordings, mind you, are really really good and worthwile checking out indeed!

This here has always been a favourite of mine and somehow I can't tired of listening to it: from - obviously - 1985's 'New Day Rising', here's for you to enjoy:

Hüsker Dü - 'Books About UFOs' ('85) (mp3)

Take good care,

Dirk

"1985: That Golden Year!!" - Pt. 2

Hola amigos,

a very quick one today as I am still at work and wanna go home very very soon. Another one from 1985, as this post's title suggests and a cover version of a 60's classic, The Outcasts' 'I'm In Pittsburgh (And It's Raining)' as done by The Vibes, about whom I couldn't tell you nothing at all, even if I had the time to do so!

The Vibes - 'I'm In Pittsburgh (And It's Raining)' (mp3) ('85)

Cheerio,

Dirk

"1985: That Golden Year!!"

Good morning friends,

first of all sorry for the fact that I didn't find the time to post something over the weekend, but I spent all my free time with Little Loser, which was fun fun fun ....

Great news in our house, 'cos Mrs Loser has now become an approved product tester, which basically meant to me beforehand that she'd get sent a lot of womanish nonsense to test and then to write silly reviews about. But to my great surprise I was wrong, because a few days ago a sound bar, as pictured above, arrived in the post. Now, believe it or not, this thing normally costs more than 800,- (!!) Euros, but it was given to her for free. The only thing she had to do is to write a lenghty review and to post that on the seller's site. What might happen though is that the supplier wants it back after six month, but apparently - so the other reviewers say - they never want their stuff back as those review gain them more attention than anything else.

For me, having grown up with cassettes and vinyl, this sound bar just looked pretty nice, but that was about it, to be frank. According to Mrs Loser by and large it can do everything you want it to, once you have connected it with the telly, apart perhaps from doing the ironing ... and indeed this turned out to be the case and therefore Mrs Loser spent a lot of time in front of it and was highly amused all way through. I, on the other hand, wandered around in the kitchen, mumbling to myself, because I had to endure her shitty music all day, which of course didn't put me in the best of moods, until she left the house together with Little Loser. So I stood in front of this masterpiece of craftsmanship all alone and thought to meself "okay, give it a try". I went upstairs and quickly loaded a few tunes on an USB stick, put this into the sound bar .... and I must confess the result really blew me away! The sound was unbelievably clear, much much better than everything I have ever experienced in all of my life, especially compared to what I get when listening to me records on my old amplifier.

To cut a long story short, the below was on the stick as well, hadn't heard it for a long time and it still sounds perfect to me.

The Chameleons - 'Looking Inwardly' ('85) (mp3)

Actually I seem to have put a handful of songs from 1985 on this stick and, thinking this over, it indeed was a good year for music .... so be prepared to probably hear more from 1985 this week.

If I remember I will let you know whether the manufacturer wants the sound bar to be sent back to him in half a year or not .... and indeed about the other stuff Mrs Loser will get sent for free in the future.

Have fun,

Dirk

"You left your notes on lesbian sex on the fishtank in the hall, it took me all afternoon to read them all ..."

Hello my lovelies,

today a little something from a band I always admired a great deal, Edinburgh's finest perhaps, Ballboy. There ain't pretty much to say about them apart from the stuff you can read on Wiki anyway, so the only thing I can do is to urge you to buy as many Ballboy music as you possibly can, because everything they released over the years is especially good!!

Years and years ago, singer Gordon used to put up a little podcast on the band's website, rather randomly, I should add. But either way, each time a new podcast was posted, it turned out to be really good, because in it he would include acoustic versions of a few Ballboy tunes, but also one or two new songs. Here are but two of those and if you have not listened to the podcasts back then, the tracks should be new to you ... or at least these versions thereof:

Ballboy - 'Disney's Ice Parade' (acoustic) ('07) (mp3)

Ballboy - 'Sunday League' (acoustic) ('06) (mp3)

Have a nice weekend, okay?

Dirk

Special Request Edition: Albert Whelan (for Swiss Adam)

Hello folks,

there are just a handful of (music) blogs I visit on a daily basis, one of them being 'Bagging Area' which is run by the mighty Swiss Adam. Tons of good stuff to listen to each and every day and always accompanied by a some more or less informational rant .... exactly the way it should be. Too much Weatherall though for my liking, but you can't have everything in life, can you?

 Now, SA recently requested a song which I mentioned in another post and naturally I am very happy to oblige, as your will is my command, dear visitors of Sexyloser!

There ain't pretty much I can tell you about this song, nor about the singer, Albert Whelan. Apparently Whelan was born in Australia in 1875 and moved to Britain at the turn of the century where he became relatively famous. So, from the flipside of "We All Go Oo, Ha, Ha! Together", a Shellac 10" which plays on 78 RPM, released on Imperial back in 1931 (and no, I don't owe a copy of that!), here's to you, SA:

Albert Whelan - 'Pass! Shoot!! Goal!!!' ('31) (mp3)

Enjoy,

Dirk

Sexyloser's Lottery .... Pt. 1

Hi there,

so here comes the third and final part of the Sexyloser household - lottery .... and what fun it was for everyone, to be sure! After wife and son made their picks, it was my turn ... and - not surprisingly - I ended up by picking the dullest of the three songs, one you all know by heart and can sing along to easily. Then again, it could have been worse .... I mean, who knows, perhaps even there is one lonely reader living in the outskirts of  nowhere who has never heard this in all of his young life: this person will of course be more then delighted about what I found. Then again he - or she - will perhaps be more delighted because the tune contains a rude word .... which is something that usually attracts attention:

Dinosaur Jr. - 'Freak Scene' ('88) (mp3)

Enjoy,

Dirk

Little Loser's Lottery ... Pt. 5

Hello friends,

further to yesterday's post (please scroll down a bit to see what this is all about, I'm too lazy to explain it all again), here's to you what Little Loser chose. I must admit that his eyes were not really closed, so you might say he was cheating a bit ... then again the boy is three years old and can't read anyway, so don't complain too heavily, okay?

Little Loser chose something really good and interesting, I think, something you don't hear all that often ... at least I hadn't heard it for ages:

Betty Davis - 'Anti Love Song' ('73) (mp3)

Enjoy,

Dirk

Lady Loser's Lottery ... Pt. 5

Good afternoon friends,

the first one today of three in a row: yesterday I forced meself and the rest of the Sexyloser household to sit right down in front of the computer, the aim was to pick one song each with more or less closed eyes.

 I should explain that the folders in my explorer are set up in chronological order, the first one is called "1930" (although this folder contains just one song from that year, Albert Wheelan's 'Pass Shoot Goal', should you be interested), followed up by folders for more or less each year up to "2011".  So the wife had to scroll down the folders, double-click to open, scroll down the specific tunes in the folder she chose, double-click again ... et voila .... song chosen. All of that with (more or less) closed eyes, as I said.

Here's what she picked:

Sisters Of Mercy - 'Alice' ('82)

I can't make my mind up whether this is a neat choice or not: she certainly approves of the song, much more than I do ....

Tomorrow we'll have a look at Little Loser's pick, so stay tuned!

Enjoy,

Dirk

" .... Mr DJ - Man!!"

Time for a little ska, my beauties, one of my all time favourite songs in this genre. I lost track these days about what is named "First/Second/Third Wave - Ska", also I don't care pretty much: as long as it makes me move, I like it.

Providing the original Jamaican stuff from the 50's/60's is "First Wave", then this should head under "Second Wave", I would think, as it is from 1980. One of Britain's finest combos, although not as widely known as others are/were, perhaps, with their second single:

Arthur Kay and The Originals - 'Play My Record' ('80) (mp3)

And, astonishingly enough, they still seem to be touring in 2012!

Now move!

Dirk

Little Loser's Lottery ... Pt. 4

Hello friends,

quite some time since Little Loser was good enough to sort something out of the collection for me and you, today he managed to find an item which is a nice follow-up to yesterday's post, because again we have something from "down under", as they say. That's if New Zealand, home of The Chills, counts as "down under" as well. Or is it just Australia? I'm not sure, I must admit ...

Either way, he picked out a very nice Go-Betweens - compilation, titled "1978 - 1990", full of good stuff, which makes it hard to choose something particular. But as usual I keep coming back to the early stuff, so here's to you, what most probably is, my favourite song by the band:

The Go-Betweens - 'People Say' ('79) (mp3)

Enjoy,

Dirk

"It's A Weight Around My Neck While The Owner's Free ..."

Dearest Mods (I assume that after the last two posts millions of Mods must be visiting this site every hour!),

before you ask: no, there are no plans to turn Sexyloser into a fashion - blog, but I'm afraid that again I have to come back to clothing here and now: instead of a parka I much rather wear the one and only leather jacket I ever bought, a wonderful purchase: a Marlon Brando - style motorcycle jacket made out of really thick 'n heavy leather and it feels like it weighs 1500 tons (sorry, Joe, couldn't resist) .... and it's the only item in my wardrobe that reliably manages to hold back that monstrous swell which became of the six-pack that I called my own when I was still younger and pretty as a picture .... in other words: around the time that this came out:

The Chills - 'I Love My Leather Jacket' ('86) (mp3)

Peace,

Dirk

"I Used To Be A Punk, But Now That Punk's Sunk ... I've Got Me Parka ..."

... and speaking of Parkas [yesterday]:

The Sussed weren't really mods in the purest sense but they certainly tried to cash in the British revival of the late-'70s with their novelty single, "I've Got Me Parka," a silly tribute to the mods' favorite fashion accessory. Originally formed as a pub rock band, The Sussed consisted of lead singer Oscar, Roger Boden (drums), Dave Bass (bass), and Kevin Law (guitar). After one single for Shoestring in 1979, they switched to the more trendy mod-revival and issued "I've Got Me Parka" the following year for Graduate.

Personally I only once wore a parka meself, and that was when I attended my basic military training back in another century. After said training was finished, I became one of God's laziest creatures: an airforce aidman (33 Fighter-bomber squadron, should you be interested) ... where I did virtually nothing for the rest of the year and wore all white all day. Looked pretty smart though with the blue airman first class - epaulettes ...

The Sussed - 'I've Got Me Parka' ('80) (mp3)

Enjoy,

Dirk

"I'm Just A Face In The Crowd, To You I Don't Exist ..."

Hi there,

out of the many mod-revival bands and, as far as the clothing is to be concerned, also out of the many 2 Tone-ska-revival-crossover (if such a word exists) bands, The Merton Parkas have not stood the test of time and are not being well remembered .... or are they? I mean, I have never heard of them much in the last decades, which doesn't mean of course that most, if not all of you might still well be able to perfectly sing along with each and every song on their one and only album 'Face In The Crowd', which was released in 1979. I can only do this with "Setting Sons" and "Specials", mind you!

Either way, the album is good throughout and a grievously underrated treasure, as far as I'm concerned. This might have something to do with the fact that the Merton Parkas' lineup was Danny Talbot (vocals and guitar), his brother, Mick Talbot (keyboards), Neil Hurrell (bass) and Simon Smith (drums). And yes, that's Mick Talbot [later to be] out of The Style Council.

The Merton Parkas - 'Face In The Crowd' ('79) (mp3)

Enjoy,

Dirk

'Le Côte Farouche De La Vic'

Recorded in the early 1950's, probably in Lake Charles, Louisiana, by George Khoury for his Khoury Label, we have this wonderful masterpiece, Shuk Richard's 'Le Côte Farouche De La Vic' .... and if this tune doesn't get you up your arse and make you dance at least a little bit in the privacy of the tiny corner where your wife allows you and your computer to be, then something is seriously wrong with you and that's for sure!!

Again I first heard that on Peel decades ago, but just recently found it on a useful compilation called "Cajun Honky Tonk - The Khoury Recordings". The sleevenotes read as thus: "Raw, rough, and inebriated with emotion, these cuts give you a taste of what local folks were playing for themselves, at dances, beer joints, and honky tonks, no doubt!"

No, no doubt indeed, so please enjoy:

Shuk Richard and His Louisiana Aces (with Marie Falcon on vocals) -'Le Côte Farouche De La Vic' (mp3)

See you tomorrow/all the best,

Dirk

"I'm Taking The Next Bus Outta Here ..."

G'evening all,

similarily to yesterday's post, here's to you the first ever Pavement - tune I heard, back in 1989, upon its release. I am not familiar with the entire Pavement back catalogue, I must admit, but from what I have heard so far, this one here surely is the best thing they ever did, at least in my humble opinion. (Yes, 'Summer Babe' was rather neat as well, but it didn't top today's choice).

From a 5-track-EP released in 1989, as I said, called 'Slay Tracks 1933 - 1969', here's the absolutely fantastic 'Box Elder' .... a place in Montana apparently, which I have never been to and have no plans to go to either.

Pavement - 'Box Elder' ('89) (mp3)

btw.: The Wedding Present once covered that one ... and rather nicely as well!

Enjoy,

Dirk

"Desire Inside Her Crying Soul, Lost But Not Destroyed ...."

Dearest friends,

just in order to show that Sexyloser is not dead, as some of you might have thought already ... and quite reasonably so, too, here's another goodie from yesteryear, inspired by a Go-Betweens - tune which SA posted on Bagging Area a few days ago.

By the way, I will from now on try to achieve what SA manages to achieve (I really will try!!), which is to post a little something I like, just one song, not more - accompanied by a little rant - on a daily basis ... I do hope I can keep up with that: I have no chance to upload the tunes to BoxNet at work, means I have to do it when I get home from there ... regardless what Little Loser thinks about me spending time in front of the computer in the late afternoon/early evening instead with him and his toys.

Either way, today we have the first song I ever heard from Sydney, Australia's Celibate Rifles, back in 1984 - not the first thing they did though, if memory serves they started a few years earlier than that, but rather early stuff of theirs anyway - a very nice 'hommage' to a Sydney suburb and good throughout, so I hope you enjoy:)

The Celibate Rifles - 'Darlinghurst Confidential' ('84) (mp3)

Have fun and - hopefully - I'll have another gem for you tomorrow!

Dirk