Done Lying Down - John Austin Rutlegde

New Wave Of New Wave... Or new wave of lets invent another pigeon hole to enable the NME to sell papers !

Done Lying Down were everything you needed for a decent night out mind, An american singer with a kind of laconic drawl and a rhythm section that was straight outta punk made for a cool noise indeed, they got them selves onto one of those best of indie compilations with a a tune called "chronic offender" which was ace but you'll have to go looking for that as it's not on this album... nearly everything they ever recorded before 1995 is though ! 

Choose

(Or Something)

If I Had Only Listened

Too Fast

(I Thought)

Pasadina

Just A Misdemeanor

Christmas Shoplifting

Penny Head

Student Ill

Music Habit

Before She Changed

Fun

Dissent

Heroes Let Themselves Be Killed

That Makes One Of Us

Trenchmouth

Purple Seeds

disk 2

Dissent

Nobody Loves Me

Fun

Septic

Quit Smacking The Baby

Preservatives

Bolus

Throughout

Punkture

Mom

Cheat On Me

Kenny's Toolshed

Fictional Woman

Do What You Sell

Factory

click here - disk 1

click here - disk 2

Dogs Die In Hot Cars - Please Describe Yourself

No the blog hasn't turned into a public service announcement !! although im sure dogs actually do die in hot cars they probably die in lots of other places too but no one makes a fuss about that do they....

This is tight, up tempo and a just a little bit quirky... not a bad thing on a sunny day i can tell you, i dont think it was ever going to change the world but if you like indie pop with a little bit of a twist then give this a go !

Godhopping

Lounger

I love You Cause I Have To

Celebrity Sanctum

Somewhat Off The Way

Apples And Oranges

Modern Woman

Paul Newman's Eyes

Pastimes And Lifestyles

Glimse At The Good Life

click here

Menswear - Nuisance

Time and probably history hasn't been kind to Menswear, They took the brunt of the britpop backlash and fairly or unfairly the band were doomed pretty much from the moment they burst from the Good Mixer and onto the front cover of Melody Maker

This has got a few good singles on it but in an attempt to stretch it out the songs into an album it fails to hit the high marks of say I'll Manage Somehow, The gigs they played at the time were however fantastic... shambolic might sum them up too, the band rattled through there set in about 25 minutes and fucked off.... at least they played every song they knew and not many bands can claim to have done that !!

125 West Third Street

Ill Manage Somehow

Sleeping In

Little Miss Pinpoint Eyes

Daydreamer

Hollywood Girl

Being Brave

Around You Again

The One

Stardust

Piece Of Me

Ghosttrack

click here

Hundred Reasons - Quick The Word, Sharp The Action

You spend the best part of two years writing, demoing and recording a new record.... then bang... it finally hits the shops... or the internet of course and you sit back relax and watch the record slip into the nations collective heart.... unless you are Hundred Reasons of course and the record label you released said album on gets bought 2 weeks after release date..... 

So no record in the shops, no record on the internet and no way for the fans to buy it at all in fact! and the best part.. the band don't own it and cant actually do anything about it... brilliant !!

That changed a few years later when the band finally managed to get it out there, and i'm glad they did, as you should be... Hundred Reasons burst onto the British rock scene, sold tons of there first album then spent the intervening years trying to live up to the hype, its a shame they seem to be on permanent hiatus now.

Quick The Word, Sharp The Action rocks like the proverbial mutts nuts, not as immediate or as catchy as some of there work it still  has an uncanny knack of lodging a chorus or a key change into your head,  much to like here! 

Break The Glass

No Way Back

Sick Little Masquerade

Boy

Slipping Away

Pernavas Iela

The Shredder

Il Never Know

She Is Poison

Opera

Lost For Words

Out Of Time

click here

British Theatre - EP 1

embedded from the bands bandcamp page... it only costs 50p... you know you want to..........

Bawl - Year Zero

I had the pleasure to see Bawl at my local venue the Wedgewood Rooms in Portsmouth, iv no idea who they were supporting but i'm reasonably sure it sometime around 1996... it may have been Gene? it may have actually been about 20 or so other bands .. i should write these things down !! 

Bawl had some rather lazy "new Smiths" hype thrown at them and although you can possibly hear something its pretty far fetched... still Year Zero is alright and worth a listen, the singer Mark Cullen has got a bit of a reputation in his native Ireland as a witty,acerbic and talented songwriter, he has released 3 albums under the moniker of Pony Club , you should check them out... 

Approaching Zero

Older And Older

My Spine Hurts

Beyond Safe Ways

Mistake 

Shallow

Sticky Rock

Fake It

Ex Boyfriend

Mechanic From Ryhl

Girls = Songs

Unfinished

Some People Need Others

He's All That Great About Pop

click here

Nilon Bombers - Bird

Mid 90's britpop ! 

A juxtaposition of mass cultural shift and fantastic music etc.... and the era of mass under achievement by so many...

 i will let you decide where Nilon Bombers fit into the equation.. If i tell you they supported Carter USM then i'm alright with them. Even if Carter were firmly on the way down by the time that happened.. such is life!

I'm Not Built For This

Headache

Superstar

Laughing Gas

Since You Found God

Looking Forward, Going Back

Let's Go

Hard Working Boy

Cracked

Swim

Another Day

Clouds

The Independent

click here