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

JC is back ... with a jetlag!



Aruba Airport

Good morning dearest friends,

just a quickie this morning: I just read that finally our pal JC aka The Vinyl Villain has returned from his holiday in Aruba, suitcases were delayed at the airport, he can't really cope with the cold Glasgow temperatures in comparison and, in addition to this, he suffers from a jet lag. Poor guy, but fucking hell, these things won't happen when going to Weston-super-Mare instead, so it's all your own fault, darling!

In fact I am of course only [A] just a jealous guy and [B] use every opportunity, even as far-fetched as in this context, to herald a I, Ludicrous - revival, which I start with this from their 1987 debut album 'It's Like Everything Else':

I, Ludicrous

I, Ludicrous - 'My Baby's Got Jet Lag' (mp3)

A mighty tune, so enjoy!

Ta,

Dirk



Harold's Leap - 'Too Much Time'

Good morning my beauties,

suffering from a conjunctivitis is not nice, I can tell you. The only good thing is that you can't go to work, which, let's face facts here, is something I can cope with for a week or so ... after 25 years in business, because it means yiu find time to do things you normally don't have the time for that easily. And this post is but one of them:

quite a while ago I received a CD in the post, out of the blue, sent to me by my mate Tim. Now Tim is the mastermind behind the Contrast Podcast, a site which I highly recommend, especially currently, because the Festive Fifty will be on its way shortly. If you want to vote, by the way, you have another week to do so. Have a look here for further information/instructions.

But back to the CD. I knew actually that Tim was involved in music thingies in one way or another, what I didn't know though is that he is in a band, and in a proper one as well! The CD is by and large marvellous and it really is a good listen throughout! I am no good at all in reviewing music, drawing comparisons, highlighting the positive aspects of some tunes and figure out why it is that others are not as brilliant. I think people should always judge by themselves and therefore here's a tune from said CD for you to do the very same now:

Harold's Leap - 'Feeding The Dumb Glutton' (mp3)

A real corker, isn't it? And the other 13 tunes are just as neat, I would think, although this one is my favourite!

'Too Much Time' is out on Constitution Music and you can find additional information here and you can purchase the CD here.

Please do the necessary,

Dirk

Keepingitpeel Day 2011

Good morning dearest friends,

as usual it is an honour for me to participate in the annual Keepingitpeel Day, as installed by Webbie from Football and Music. Please find out more about the event on his site. Also my friend JC over at The Vinyl Villain posted some great articles about the event within the last week, so I suggest you have a look at his site as well: some neat songs were being featured there!

I think there are mainly two things we are missing, now that John Peel is no longer with us. The first, of course, is the music he brought to us. But secondly, at least this is true for me, I think we miss his voice a great deal. Therefore, and I hope it meets with your approval, this year I decided to focus a bit more on the voice than on the music, so I dug out a few of my old (from 1989 in this case) BFBS tapes and searched for some of those amusing little stories we all loved John for back then. The sound quality may not be absolutely perfect perhaps, but please don't let that put you off from listening closely!

So, without further ado, here we go:

The Four Brothers - 'Rumbidzai' (mp3) ..... before and after which

John gives us a lengthy report about his 50th birthday party!

Stack Waddy - 'I'm A Lover Not A Fighter' (mp3) .... before and after which we hear an amusing story about how Stack Waddy are connected with a most bizarre drinking ritual!

Bolt Thrower - 'Through The Eye Of Terror' (mp3) ... after which we learn that music can really connect different cultures, including the French people!

Well, I do hope indeed you enjoyed my choices and please remember to keep it Peel: not only today, but everyday!

Any comments would be, of course, highly appreciated.

Cheers,

Dirk

I want one of those for Christmas!!!

Dearest friends,

I know that most of you all sit around already, doing nothing else but contemplating about what you might possibly could get me for Christmas: there is no need to waste your time any longer, folks, because, yes, I felt your desperation and will herewith help you out of your misery!! Just spend a little bit of your money in visiting www.supersizeart.com and get me one of those, please:

Now, isn't that neat indeed? The best record in the history of the whole world ever, but measuring almost four times the original size of the single at 27"/68 cm square. And, even better, just like the original single you can select the sleeve to be in blue, pink, green or yellow. The lucky chap pictured above, by the way, is Don Letts, D.J., musician and film-maker ('Westway To The World')..

But, as you might already have gathered, there is a catch in this, as it so often is the case in life: those imbecile villains want 380,- (!!) quid for the item, can you believe that to be true?! That's 440,- Euros for the rest of Europe .... and the weak Pound doesn't help a great deal here!

Then again I know that you all love me to no degree and that you, contrary to me, are all loaded anyway, so just leave a comment when you bought me one of those for Christmas and I'll provide you with an adress where you can send it to .... and, before I forget, I'd like to have a yellow one, okay?

Here's the tune:

mp3: The Clash - '(White Man) In Hammersmith Palais' (S CBS 6383, June 16th 1978)

... and, because I know it will meet with your approval, a version you probably don't hear all that often:

mp3: The Clash - '(White Man) In Hammersmith Palais' (live at The Orpheum in Boston, USA, 07.09.82)

Cheers .... and thanks beforehand,

Dirk

"I Love My Label ..." (Pt. 3: Beggars Banquet)

Good morning my beauties,

another one in the 'I Love My Label' - series, this time we'll have a closer look at the Beggars Banquet back catalogue. A label I was very fond of in the eighties as they had quite an immense volume of great artists under contract. Here's some historical background for you, friends:

Beggars Banquet is a legendary UK indie label launched by Martin Mills in 1977 with two 7" singles by punk band The Lurkers. Over the years, Beggars has released music in nearly every genre imaginable - punk, goth, synth-pop, folk-rock, indie and more. They have launched several spin-off labels (4AD, Situation Two, City Beat, XL Recordings...) and bought out/invested in many others (Too Pure, Mo Wax, Matador...), creating Beggars Group, one of the largest networks of indie record labels in the world.

In April 2008 the Beggars Group, chaired by Martin Mills, opted to retire the Beggars Banquet imprint, moving key artists to the Beggars Group owned 4AD label.

So here come my choices: songs by bands, as I said above, I always admired:

Bauhaus - 'Ziggy Stardust' ["The Singles 1981 - 1983" - EP, BEG 100 E, '83]

The Bolshoi - 'Fly' ["Giants" - EP, SITUM 15, '85]

Buffalo Tom - 'Birdbrain' ["Birdbrain" - LP, SITU 31, '90]

The Charlatans - 'The Only One I Know' [12", SIT 70 T, '90]

The Cult - 'Nirvana' ["Love"  - LP, BEG A 65, '85]

Dream City Film Club - 'Fuck It Up'
["In The Cold Light Of Morning" - LP, BBQ LP 207, '99]

The Fall - 'Oh! Brother' [12", BEG 110 T, '84]

The Go-Betweens - 'Streets Of Your Town' [7", BEG 218, '88]

The Hank Wangford Band - 'Never Wear Mascara (When You Love A Married Man)'

   ["Rodeo Radio" - LP, SITU 16, '85]

Love And Rockets - 'Haunted When The Minutes Drag'

["7th Dream Of Teenage Heaven" - LP, BEG A 66, '85]

The Lurkers - 'Ain't Got A Clue' [7", BEG 6, '78]

The Mighty Wah! - 'Come Back' [7", BEG 111, '84]

The Ramones - 'I Wanna Live' [12", BEG 201 T, '87]

Well, not THAT much of information included in today's post, I admit. But then again you have a bulk of killer tunes to download and everyone of them's a winner if you ask me! So have fun, enjoy .... and leave comments, please!

All the best,

Dirk

French Connection

Bonsoir mes amis,

did you notice that everybody's seems to be doing it the French way these days? Literally ALL of my favourite blogs recently had at least one post connected with, in one way or another, music out of France:

Drew @ Across The Kitchen Table did some really nice Jacqueline Taieb, then you have Webbie from Football And Music with a podcast named 'French France', Phil Spector @ Plain or Pan featured Sly Et La Famille Pierre here, Adam from Pretending Life Is Like A Song did this one ('En Francais'), Adam @ Bagging Area did 'Les Fleur' and Davy H. contributed this article over at The Ghost Of Electricity. And all of them write little essays about the merits of eating moules (or, some of them (ignorants!!), the merits of NOT eating moules) in the comment sections. Now, eating moules in vast amounts is something I can indeed cope with, and in fact I did so two weeks ago whilst being on holiday on the Dutch seaside .... and very good they were too, my moules (Spanish style, should you be wondering), highly recommendable! I only wish I would get them over here in Germany more often .... that fresh and at reasonable prices!

Now, as I don't want to be the kid noone plays with, I dug out a very useful compilation called 'The Atomic Café - French Cuts', a double LP I used to play heavily when it came out back in 1999. The vinyl, alas, occasionally proves that I really must have played it to death back then. But then again there's loads of great stuff on it, so much so that I don't have any problems in not being able to play to you those tracks that are by now by and large unplayable .... to my geat dismay: nevertheless, 'cos, as you might imagine, the ones that are REALLY good are the ones that are mostly destroyed. But the rest is just fine as well, so here you go!

Compiled by djs of a Munich club, this sampler concentrates on the more garage-like, obscure, unknown and otherwise unusual and fun tracks .... which makes it all even more worthwile to listen to. So, here are a few tracks from 'The Atomic Café', perhaps not really the most unknown of the whole lot, I should admit:

Brigitte Bardot - 'Harley Davidson' ('67)

Gillian Hills - 'Tut Tut Tut Tut' ('69)

 Stella - 'Beatnicks D'Occaison' ('67)

Jacques Dutronc - 'Le Responsable' ('69)

Charlotte Leslie - 'Les Filles C'est Fait ..' ('66)

What else do I have for you? Some classics from yesteryear, not as old as the above and styled completely differently, but I thought I'd give you a listen anyway .... I still like 'em a lot and I hope you do too. I have a feeling though that (at least) the latter two are not French bands at all, but then again they fitted oh-so-nicely into this 'Les ....' - context and, even more importantly, both are killer tunes, so I thought I'd better be not too pedantic and pack 'em in as well:

Les Coronados: 'C'est Le Soir' ('84)

Les Rita Mitsouko: 'C'est Comme Ca' ('86)

Les Calamités: 'Le Garcon De New York' ('84)

Les Negresses Vertes: 'Zobi La Mouche' ('89)

Les Thugs: 'Never Get Older' ('86)

Les Trois Frommages - 'La Tartiflette' ('06)

Les Breastfeeders - 'Ostrogoth A Go-Go' ('04)

Well, that's it, enough for today, friends. Have fun and enjoy your evening with a good bottle of French red wine: I'll rush down to the garden and will do the very same in a second!

Salut et au revoir,

Dirk

Little Loser's Lottery .... Pt. 3

Hello friends and followers everywhere,

I hope this little something finds you well and in good shape, I, personally, can't complain, although, as usual, time on me own is rare these days for reasons well known to you all by now, I would think.

Nevertheless yesterday afternoon I used the time I spent together with Little Loser (two an a half years by now) very well, so much so in fact, that I forced him to choose six records out of the collection. Normally I would have expected him to tell me to bugger off, but no: we had one of these very rare occasions in which he promptly did what I asked him to do, believe it or not, so there you are!

Although this is part three of the series, means I did it before (obviously), I was inspired to do it again yesterday by London Lee, who does the same thing with his son in his wonderful blog, 'Crying All The Way To The Chip Shop'. He calls it 'Junior Choice' and Junior seems to have a splendid taste, that's for sure.

Now, in order to create more space for Mrs Loser's unbelievable amount of silly nonsense, I recently was forced to rearrange the shelves on which my records were and I had to store them in a different place, a much smaller one. This meant less room altogether, the conclusion was that I had to give up seperating full length albums from 12" singles and compilations: everything is now filed in alphabetical order, regardless of the format. Apart of the 7" singles, obviously, those are in two different boxes on their own.

Little Loser, in his own strange wisdom, managed to trace 12" singles only (plus one compilation, I admit), but no albums at all. And, most curiously, the bulk of them are from 1987. He is a strange kid sometimes, let me tell you.

Okay, enough of that, here's what he found:

The Bollock Brothers - 'Harley David' (mp3)

(12", 1987, Play It Again Sam Records)

The Ramones - 'Merry Christmas (I Don't Want To Fight Tonight)' (mp3)

(B-Side of 'I Wanna Live', 12", 1987, Beggars Banquet Records)

Underworld - 'Born Slippy (NUXX)' (mp3)

(from the 'Trainspotting' - compilation, 1996, EMI Records)

Helen Love - 'Shifty Disco Girl' (mp3)

(7", 2000, Ché Trading)

Ted Chippington - 'The Wanderer' (mp3)

(12", 1987, Vindaloo Records)

Lene Lovich - 'Lucky Number' (mp3)

(12", 1979, Stiff Records)

All in all not too bad, I would think .... I do hope you agree .... and, yes, of course, enjoy!

Have fun, see you soon!

Dirk

Lottery Winners On Acid

Hello my beauties,

I bet most of you would have severe difficulties to name your 10 favourite songs of all time (a definitive + unchangable list, preferably having to be done in front of a loaded machine gun if you know what I mean). I certainly couldn't do it .... and I'm trying very hard to do it in my head for some 20 years now. There are three or four songs that would make it on said list, and this is but one of them.

I don't know awfully much about The Crimea, I have a full length CD flying around somewhere and it might even be worth listening to in its entirety, the problem though is that I always keep coming back to this tune, 'Lottery Winners On Acid'. In my humble estimation it certainly is one of the best songs ever written and here it is to you in two versions, first from the original CD, which came out on Shiny Beast Recordings in 2002, and also the re-release, a 2006 7" on Warner Reords.

Hard to tell which one is to be prefered, I think both of them are simply awesome and, dear Crimea: thanks ever so much for this piece of music. With it alone you certainly have achieved much more than I would ever be able to achieve in all of my life!

The Crimea - 'Lottery Winners On Acid' ('02) (mp3)

The Crimea - 'Lottery Winners On Acid' ('06) (mp3)

Also I feel like a lottery winner meself, at least a little bit, because a few days ago I received an email from Craig who runs a t-shirt mailorder shop in the UK, "Mr Cloud" ... and some very nice stuff he offers there, too. Well, in his email he offered me a shirt for free (I chose a Sonic Youth shirt, should you want to know) if I mention his shop on Sexyloser ... and it is my pleasure to do the very same here. Also he offered me to provide me with a recording of the last Christmas show John Peel did: I already have that one, Craig, but thanks for the idea!

The link is www.mrcloud.com so I strongly suggest you have a look and choose something nice for you and/or your beloved ones!

Enough for today, as usual any comments are highly appreciated!

Take good care,

Dirk