Th' Faith Healers - Imaginary Friend

Iv left the song times up on this one.... yep you are reading it right , 7 songs and a 40 minute epic to finish with! il have a bit of that.. iv blogged about the excellent Tom Cullinan previously so il spare you the details etc... enjoy the tunes!

The fact that Th Faith Healers were originally picked up by the spacy English label Too Pure is certainly significant -- their music, while seemingly in line with indie-rock conventions, has so many elements of noise and drone in it that it appears to have crossed over to listeners of more spacy, organ-driven music. Imaginary Friend manages to satisfy all of these different interests, floating back and forth between soupy waves of distorted guitars and clean, ringing, indie-rock tones ("Kevin," "Heart Fog"). The real thrill of the band's songwriting lies in the way surprising pop moments can emerge from the mess of sound -- the chorus of "See-Saw" is an unexpected burst of melody that transcends all of the band's noisier tendencies. Imaginary Friend is arguably Th Faith Healers' defining album, and that makes it well worth a listen; somewhere in between sounding like a Too Pure band, a noise project, a precursor to Snowpony, and the badass cousins of Madder Rose, Th Faith Healers managed to find a unique and compelling style that no other band has truly approached

Sparklingly Chime - 4:52

Heart Fog - 6:53

See-Saw - 3:18

Kevin - 5:39

The People - 7:12

Curly Lips - 4:29

Everything, All At Once Forever - 40:08

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Indie Top 20 - Vol 12

Had a tweet about the last Indie Top 20 so thought is dig some new ones and old ones out etc etc.... Here's volume 12 and a bit of info about it from this excellent bandplanet website here

Opening strangely with "Happen to die' a charlatans b-side, albeit a classy one, but an odd opener. there's little fat here, the absence of the Wendys, The Dylans and Candyland wouldn't have been a travesty, but even they are merely dull and a little mediocre.

Some early Shoegazers make an appearance here (oddly neither Chapterhouse (who'd released at least 2 e.p.s, possibly 'pearl' too) nor Ride ('Nowhere' was out, as were the well thought of preceding singles), feature until later on), Curve's excellent debut single, the 1st Moose ep's lead track, one of The Catherine Wheels finest, the terminally ignored Spirea X (they only really had the 2 good singles but you can get the album from rich and the the excellent Teenage Shoegaze site here!!) it's all good stuff.

Other highs; a classic from Saint Etienne, another from Spacemen 3, a great early Manics single (coffee tables were just something they smashed in hotel rooms at this point), the KLF and the indie throwback feel of Bridewell Taxis covering 'Don't Fear the reaper'.

Its got The New Fads on too, probably one of the most under rated band of the last 20 years and also gets bonus points for the inclusion of a track by Terry 'mad as a hat' Bickers; Levitation, 'Nadine' was the nearest they got to a tune. Not that near, by the way.

Happen To Die - The Charlatans 

Pulling My Fingers Off - The Wendys 

Lemon Afternoon - The Dylans

Chlorine Dream - Spirea X

Spaceman 3 - Big City 

Nothing Can Stop Us - Saint Etienne 

Fountain Of Youth - Candyland 

Get Better - New Fast Automatic Daffodils 

Don't Fear The Reaper - The Bridewell Taxis 

Ten Little Girls - Curve 

Counting Backwards - Throwing Muses 

Fortune Teller - Buffalo Tom 

You Love Us - Manic Street Preachers 

She's My Friend - Catherine Wheel 

Jack - Moose 

Nadine - Levitation 

Last Train To Trancentral - The KLF

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Cabaret Voltaire - The Original Sound Of Sheffield

Im feeling in the mood today.. oh yes!

Formed in the early 70s and influenced by Burroughs, Dada, Dub and 'Ziggy Stardust', Cabaret Voltaire (Richard H. Kirk, Stephen Mallinder & Chris Watson) were electronic-pionners from Sheffield and deserve to be ranked alongside such forward-thinking pioneers as Suicide & Throbbing Gristle. This compilation takes in their early years as a three-piece and the records they released on Factory and Rough Trade; it can be seen as an update/replacement for previous compilation 'The Living Legends.' Some people prefer the early compilation.......... some don't ...such is life hey ??

The Cabs took an approach toward their music heavily influenced by culture: Ballard-Bunuel-Anger-Roxy-Ziggy-Perry-Coltrane-Cage-Sun Ra-James Brown-Burroughs-Gysin-Clinton-Neu!-The Beach Boys-Northern Soul-Miles Davis-Warhol-Velvets-Eno-Popol Vuh etc. They were electronic before many of their peers who now get the credit (notably Depeche Mode and New Order).
This compilation takes in their electronic-experimental sound, which sometimes slips into mutant-pop, & provides a companion to the 80s-volume of 'The Original Sound of Sheffield' (more pop than mutant) & the 'Conform to Deform' box-set.

The early songs here are sometimes not songs- 'Do the Mussolini (Headkick)'& 'The Set Up' stem from the 'Extended Play' release on Rough Trade and showcase a collision of cut-up techniques and dub. The Factory-release 'Baader Meinhof' samples German words on the notorious terrorist-collective (the sleevenotes have a picture of them)& sounds like the missing link between Silver Apples' 'Program' & Eno/Byrne's 'My Life in the Bush of Ghosts.' Robo-voices and electro-jazz-hail dirge along and it's clear that Throbbing Gristle were not alone...

Things become more tuneful with SF-surf classic 'Nag Nag Nag', which is like Jan & Dean meets Suicide and remains a hypnotic joy of its era and one to file next to 'Being Boiled', 'Warm Leatherette', 'Ghost Rider' & 'Hot on the Heels of Love.' 'Silent Command' (recently found on a free compilation with Mojo-magazine) continues the samples of foreign-voices, but displays an influence apparent from Lee Perry's 'Dub-Triptych', as well as a cleaner-techno sound & scraping-guitars (there's even a brief sample of the terrifying 'We Hate You (Little Girls)' by Throbbing Gristle!). Mallinder's vocals are messed with, Brion Gysin's 'Arkology' approach?...'No Escape' reminds me a lot of Joy Division- or should that be the other way around?- Mallinder's vocal delivery is very Ian Curtis here (could be a Northern-thing...).

1980's 'Voice of America' took the band to alien-climes, 'This is Entertainment' & 'Obssession' becoming more dub-orientated; meanwhile ethnic (what might be called 'world music') inflections were appearing in the music- the apex of this being the epic 'Yashar'-single from 1982, which makes sense alongside those Jah Wobble collaborations with Czuckay & Liebzeit, and 'My Life in the Bush of Ghosts', & 'Journey Through a Body' & 'Big Science' etc...

'The Original Sound of Sheffield 1978/1982' is a pretty much definitive primer in Cabaret Voltaire's early sound (after the 'Methodology' compilation of their very early work). I think it stands the test of time and easily ranks up there with the electronic-pionners of the 1970s: Kraftwerk, Neu!, Can, Moroder, TG, Suicide, Popol Vuh, Eno, Bowie, Cluster et al

Do The Mussolini (Head Kick)

The Set Up

Baader Meinhof

Nag, Nag, Nag

Silent Command

No Escape

This Is Entertainment

Obsession

Seconds Too Late

Split Second Feeling

Spread The Virus

Yashar

Wait And Shuffle

Loosen The Clamp

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Happy Mondays - Pills, Thrills and Bellyaches

Erm... this is being given away with this weeks Guardian newspaper... so il whack it on here too...

For those that don't know its something akin to the queen reading Nuts magazine..... id love to see the faces of those guardian readers when they whack this into the stereo and Shaun William Ryder's loose tongue and even looser morals pours out in full techno colour at them.... fucking mint !!


A high (literally and metaphorically) point of the baggy scene this was the Happy Mondays finest hour in popularity stakes, the people aren't always right of course and 24 Hour Part People and Bummed are greater beasts in my own opinion but Pills Thrills and Bellyaches brought the band to the masses and the classes.... full of lyrical genius from SWR and funky, skunky guitar courtesy of much under rated guitarist Mark Day this was one of those albums that was never off the stereo.... lets see if the guardian readers think the same !!

Kinky Afro

God's Cop
Donovan

Grandbag's Funeral

Loose Fit

Dennis And Lois

Bob's Yer Uncle

Step On

Holiday

Harmony

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Veruca Salt - American Thighs

I often find that i love particular song by a particular band and so buy the album only to be kinda disappointed , welcome to Veruca Salt !!

This isn't all that bad in fact its a decent slab of grunge rock americana and ticks all the boxes for fans of The Breeders, Pixies and the like......released in 1994 to decent reviews and sales it was probably played ot death on Us college radio.....  however what it doesn't do is have anything as good as lead single "Seether" 

See Seether really is the bomb and one of my all time favourite singles.... there's a theme developing this month on Eat Junk i know !!

Get Back

All Hail Me

Seether

Spiderman '79

Forsythia

Wolf

Celebrate You

Fly

Number One Blind

Victrola

Twinstar

25

Sleeping Where I Want

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Kenickie - At The Club

I Fear i may have told you an untruth!! i once blogged that the Kenickie debut 7" was all you ever needed.... i feel that's wrong as this album is fantastic... 

Full of pop punk attitude At The Club was the bands first album released in 1997, it spawned 4 singles and has one of my all time favourite songs on....

People We Want was never released outside of the album and should have been No. 1 in 100 different countries... or something like that.

In Your Car

People We Want

Spies

How I Was Made

Brother John

Millionaire Sweeper

Robot Song

Classy

Punka

Nightlife

PVC

Come Out 2 Nite

I Never Complain

Acetone

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The June Brides - There Are Eight Million Stories

I must admit i know very little about The June Brides, i like this album and it has a certain quirkiness to it, a certain website is quite good for all the information you may need so you know, its Sunday, im tired , im watching football so il let them take it from here...... 

The June Brides were an English indie pop group, formed in London in 1983, by Phil Wilson and Simon Beesley of International Rescue. Influenced by Postcard-label bands such as Josef K and punk-era bands such as Buzzcocks, The Desperate Bicycles and The Television Personalities, their mix of guitar pop with viola and trumpet formed a blueprint for many of the indie pop bands that would follow.

After forming in June 1983, they first played live as a band in August that year, soon attracting the attention of future Creation Records boss Alan McGee who gave them several gigs at the now famous 'Living Room', but reputedly decided not to sign The June Brides to his new label as it would have been "too obvious". Two 

Joe Foster-produced 1984 singles on The Pink Label, "In The Rain" and "Every Conversation" saw The June Brides receive much attention and these two songs appeared frequently on compilation albums from that era. A year later, the mini-album There Are Eight Million Stories... appeared (produced by John O'Neill of That Petrol Emotion) and went straight to number one in the UK Indie Chart, staying there for a month. The album remained in the indie chart for 38 weeks. 

Disillusioned with Pink, the band moved to Marc Riley's In-Tape label for two further singles - "No Place Like Home" and "This Town" and in 1986 opened for The Smiths on their Irish tour dates. The June Brides were asked to contribute to the NME's C86 compilation but declined for fear of being pigeonholed. 

After losing confidence in In-Tape, they approached Go! Discs, who had offered them a deal the previous year, but with the band falling out of favour with critics and some of their early fans, Go! Discs were no longer interested. The band split in 1986, with singer Wilson embarking on a solo career on Creation Records.

The Instrumental

I Fall

Sunday To Saturday

Sick, Tired And Drunk

Every Conversation

Comfort

Heard You Whisper

Enemies

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Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine / Jim Bob - Stuff The Jubilee

Excuse my rudery........

xx