Craig McAllister

My Bloody Frustrating Valentine

July 2, 2008 Craig McAllister

My Bloody Valentine are back on a brief tour and the reviews have been a wee bit mixed. Some people claim they can’t hear the vocals. Some people say the show they’ve attended is the best thing ever. Some people say the noisy bit in ‘You Made Me Realise’ isn’t noisy enough. Some people say the shows are too loud. Too loud! It’s My Bloody Valentine not James Blunt. Jeez. Lets hope they get some sort of new material together soon. It’s been too long. Anyway, until then…

In anticipation of their Barrowlands shows this Wednesday and Thursday I thought I’d post these obscurities and curios. First up, My Bloody Valentine do their version of Louis Armstrong’s ‘We Have All The Time In The World’. This is taken from a 1993 Island Records charity CD called ‘Peace Together’ which set out to get young people from both sides of the religious divide in Northern Ireland working together. There’s a fair amount of Irish artists on there (U2, Fatima Mansions, Therapy?, Sinead O’Connor etc etc, you know the rest) but the My Bloody Valentine track is easily the best thing on it. Hear for yourself.

In 1998, Kevin Shields produced a one-off, released-for-a-day-then-deleted Primal Scream single. ‘If They Move Kill ‘Em’ was taken from the ‘Vanishing Point’ album, but Shields buckled and bent and twisted and distorted it inside out. It sounds backwards in places, it sounds under water in other places, it sounds other-wordly in the rest of the places. It sounds as good as the cover (below) looks. It. Is. Fantastic. Even better, there are two mixes! The My Bloody Valentine Arkestra mix and the 12″ Disco MIx (my favourite – it has a bit in it that sounds an awful lot like Jimi Hendrix‘s ‘Crosstown Traffic’). The ep also featured 2 mixes of Primal Scream covering the Jesus & Mary Chain‘s ‘Darklands‘. What the hell – here’s Darklands and here’s Badlands. Happy listening.

‘If They Move Kill ‘Em’ sleeve

*Bonus Track. Andrew Weatherall‘s seminal, yes, seminal remix of MBV‘s ‘Soon‘. It’s My Bloody Valentine, but you can dance to it! It’s a belter! If you’re reading Mr Shields, many of us would like a new album or single or chord or anything.

Kevin Shields – bloody frustrating

Cover Versions, entire show, Hard-to-find

Hang On! Acoustic Fanclub!

June 22, 2008June 22, 2008 Craig McAllister

Last weekend was Teenage Fanclub weekend. A triple treat, a trio of tip-top turns, a heroes welcome for a hatrick of homecoming shows. And any other number of alliterative delights. Each show was different and each show was great for any number of reasons. I’ve mentioned the ‘Electric Chestnuts’ show below, so we’ll focus on the other 2 for now.

Sunday night’s setlist

Sunday night was the ‘Acoustic Chestnuts’ night and it was fantastic. Instruments were swapped, harmonies were finely honed (especially Francis- who knew drummers could sing?) and there were big smiles all round. In contrast to the sound problems of Saturday night, at some points the vocals were so good it was like listening to the Everly Brothers. Personal highlights were the songs from the Grand Prix era- ‘Don’t Look Back’, ‘Going Places’ and ‘Some People Try To Fuck With You’, which sounded like Astrud Gilberto on Buckfast.

Monday night’s setlist

Monday night was the one I was looking most forward to – the b-sides and hardly-ever-played night. Teenage Fanclub did not disappoint. The show was heavy on ‘A Catholic Education’ -era Fanclub (‘Heavy Metal’! ”Every Picture I Paint’! Eternal Light’!) and the much-neglected ‘Thirteen’ album – ‘Escher‘! ‘Gene Clark’!, ‘Ret Live Dead’!, which meant lots of distortion pedals, fewer backing vocals and the odd cocked-up start (poke about on YouTube for Norman 3). It was like a Fannies gig from way back in the day and it was extra magic, the best of the three without a doubt. Brendan O’Hare got plucked Springsteen-style from the crowd to sing ‘The Ballad Of John & Yoko’ and no-one’s mentioned this yet, but Norman’s McCartney backing vocals were pretty immense. Raymond’s frazzled playing on ‘Born Under A Good Sign’ made it sound like Love, circa 1967. They even played ‘Broken’, before coming back on for the genuinely not-planned double-whammy of ‘Sparky’s Dream’ and ‘Alcoholiday’, although had they also played ‘God Knows It’s True’ and/or ‘Everybody’s Fool’ (and given the albums they were drawing from I think they could’ve) and maybe even ‘I Heard You Looking’, if that’s not being too greedy, this gig would have been gig of the decade. Still, Best Gig of 2008 is good enough for now.

Norman 3 (nights)

Anyway, lots of talk over at the Teenage Fanclub Message Boards about how the band should release an acoustic album, or a b-sides album, or a live album, or indeed, any kind of album at all. But an Acoustic Fanclub album would be an excellent idea. In the meantime, you could do worse than make do with these wee beauties. Firstly, recorded for ‘The White Sessions’ on French radio on the 11th April 1995….

Don’t Look Back
Say No
Star Sign
I’ll Make It Clear
Sparky’s Dream
Have You Ever Seen The Rain
Mellow Doubt

(click here to download as one complete session)

‘The White Sessions’ is a long running French radio show where bands go in and record acoustic sessions. Teenage Fanclub used their time to promote Grand Prix. The same radio station also do ‘The Black Sessions’ where the band play a longer, usually electric set in front of a small invited audience. Teenage Fanclub also did a Black Session in 1993 but I’ve never heard it. It may be that some of the tracks below are taken from it, I don’t know. An official-looking CD from the show was on sale up until yesterday on eBay and I was quite excited. But when the bidding started approaching £30 I got scared off. I couldn’t justify that sort of money for something which will probably turn up online soon. Fingers crossed. If you were the lucky bidder, how about sending me a copy?!

Also taken from my personal vaults (!) of badly-labelled Teenage Fanclub radio sessions, curios and oddities, here’s a random selection of acoustic-based Teenage Fanclub. I’m unclear as to where most of these came from. Radio sessions? I don’t know. But not b-sides. No siree. Rare Fanclub. Cos the Teenage Fanclub are a rare band, a rare band indeed. Download and enjoy!

a piano-led Hang On

Four Strong Winds

He’d Be A Diamond

Sparky’s Dream

Tears Are Cool

The Shadows (Mark Radcliffe session)

Cover Versions, Hard-to-find

A right couple of Fannies

June 15, 2008June 16, 2008 Craig McAllister

You might know this already, but I don’t follow a very successful football team, so whilst many of my friends have recently been shelling out literally thousands of pounds to follow either half of Glasgow’s Ugly Sisters on their European exploits, I justified my decision to buy tickets for 3 nights of Teenage Fanclub shows as my equivalent of the Champions League. Three nights at Oran Mor in the West End of Glasgow. ‘Electric Chestnuts’, ‘Acoustic Chestnuts’ and the one I’m looking forward to most, the ‘B-Sides and Rarities’ night.

Last night was the first of the 3 and we were treated to what was essentially a Teenage Fanclub Greatest Hits set. With Norman as Bill Gates on vocals. No kiddin’. He looks like Bill Gates these days! The sound was a bit muddy. I hope it’s sorted out for tonight, but anyway, it was of course a cracker of a show.

Where’s my axe?

You can find the setlist for last night’s ‘Electric Chestnuts’ below (muchos gracias, John S.) As they always do, the band finished with ‘Everything Flows’, their first single. No thanks to the couple of Fannys stood next to me who talked about going to ‘the Sellic gemmes’ with Brendan and Pat and Big Mick all the way through it. I bought ‘Everything Flows’ on 7″ the day after I saw Teenage Fanclub for the first time. They were supporting the Soup Dragons in the Garage. Anyway, I digress.

Setlist, Oran Mor Saturday 14.6.08

Many other musicians love ‘Everything Flows’. I have a Velvet Crush version on 7″ that’s no’ bad, but I don’t have the means to convert it at present. Until then…

Redd Kross ‘Everything Flows’

(Rockin’! – from tribute album ‘What A Concept’)

Gallygows ‘Everything Flows’

(Mellow! – Duglas T Stewart likes this one)

Teenage Fanclub ‘Everything Flows’

(Live! – Malmo, 5th July 2005)

Cover Versions, Hard-to-find

Peter Painter Painted Pete In Pastels

June 9, 2008June 9, 2008 Craig McAllister

Acclaimed artist and Ayrshireman Peter Howson’s very stylised work sells for tens of thousands of pounds at a time. Many of his paintings are centered around what he has observed in life – hard working men down the mines of Ayrshire, hard drinking men in the rough-round-the-edges pubs we’ve all seen wherever we live. If you look closely enough you might also see a bit of religious imagery in there. At least, I think I can. He’s also painted The Queen, Henrik Larsson and Madonna in the nude (just Madonna, not the other two.) This weekend he has been in the headlines of most of the big papers. He’s just unveiled 6 new works which depict Pete Doherty as dead.

It would appear that the Last of the Great Romantic Poets has a bit of a death wish. Some of you may think this is a good thing. Certainly, many would argue that his best years as a writer are behind him. Howson is no stranger to this sort of criricism himself. After a battle with drink and drugs he found God, then found himself on the frontline in Bosnia as the Governent’s Official War Artist. He says his paintings are a warning to Doherty, that he’s lived the scuzzy lifestyle himself and he fears Doherty will end up dead.

“I’ve painted Pete dead before he ends up that way. This is my warning to him. I don’t want him to die but he surely will soon unless he changes. Pete can influence a whole generation by kicking this evil habit. He could become the right kind of hero. I know what it is like to live the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle. I would love to meet Pete and shake some sense into him.”

In one drawing, Doherty is wearing a Dante hat instead of his usual trilby. It’s a reference to Dante‘s poem Divine Comedy, about his trip to hell.

Pete’s people said: “I don’t believe Howson knows Peter so I don’t know where he got his inspiration from. We have not seen the drawings.”

The pictures went on show yesterday (Sunday) at ArtDeCaf, Glasgow.

Anyway, all this gives us a good excuse to get out the Libertines bootlegs and give you some stuff you may never have heard before. First up, Pete plays The La’s. This is a 28 minute studio outtake of him messing around playing ‘Son Of A Gun’, ‘Callin’ All’, ‘Timeless Melody’ and some Smiths stuff amongst a whole rake of familiar and unheard Doherty originals. Sponatneous? Certainly. Rough? Definitely. Essential? Of course! Next up, ‘Hooligans On E’, from another studio session (date unknown, sorry). I bloody love this half-baked, half-finished song. Some of the lyrics are great. Also, you can have this beauty. ‘Road To Ruin’ is different to the album version. It features a great spooky keyboard part. Mostly sung by Carl, it’s just about my favourite Libertines outtake. Finally, if you fancy a lazy Sunday hanging around art galleries looking at paintings of dead people who aren’t dead yet, this is for you. The Libertines do the Small Faces ‘Lazy Sunday’. Originally on the soundtrack to the film ‘Blackball‘, it sounds just as you’d expect. Which is half arsed and out of tune. Of course.

Gone but not forgotten, Hard-to-find

Funky Lee Hooker

June 8, 2008 Craig McAllister

I was looking for my gardening gloves (!) yesterday and way at the back of my garage I found a box of half a dozen or so compilation CDs I had made up a few years ago. They’ve been in the garage since I moved house 2 years ago and I had forgotten all about them. Needless to say I was delighted with my wee find and I spent yesterday afternoon rooting through my weeds and rooting through my CDs in search of ‘new’ music.

So….here’s 2 tracks by the mighty John Lee Hooker. Both called ‘Homework’, both different in their own way. They may even be 2 versions of the same song, but I’m not sure! The first comes on like Sly & The Family Stone, with a great swampy bassline and a lyric possibly about cheatin’ on his woman, the second sounds more like James Brown, with a clipped Jimmy Nolen-esque guitar riff and a lyric this time about coming home and finding someone else teaching his old lady a thing or two about the finer things in life. The first version comes with added vinyl crackles and pops from 1971’s ‘Free Beer And Chicken’ album. The second I have from a 1992 Point Blank promo CD, although I think it was released around this time as a b-side to a re-released version of ‘Boom Boom’.

Cool

And that’s really all I know about these tracks except to say that they make me dance on my tiptoes. Up until now, Stevie Wonder‘s ‘Superstition’ and ‘Upside Down’ by Diana Ross have been the only 2 records capable of making me do this. John Lee Hooker has an incredible back catalogue, but it’s a bit of a mine field. What’s good? What’s bad? What’s essential? Many compilations feature re-recorded versions of older tracks – by 1960 he had released over 100 singles! It’s not surprising that many of these tracks were re-cut as movers ‘n shakers like John Hammond, Bob Dylan, Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, etc etc blah blah blah worshipped at his impeccably dressed feet. If you’d like to get deeper into him, you could do worse than visit this site. It has everything you need and probably a whole lot more.

Hard-to-find

I Love Baroque ‘n Roll

June 1, 2008March 7, 2009 Craig McAllister

Put another dime in the jukebox, baby! Fleet Foxes are possibly the most talked about band of the moment. If you’re looking in the right places, they’re everywhere. Having made a big splash at this year’s SXSW, 6 Music has them on constant rotation, Mojo‘s just given them Album Of The Month and June sees them tour Europe. If you’re not looking in the right places, Fleet Foxes will no doubt find you anyway.

The band think of themselves as ‘not much of a rock band’. They describe their music as ‘baroque harmonic pop jams‘ and that’s as good a description as you’ll get. With a dash of Left Banke choral harmonies, a splash of Brian Wilson’s uplifting melancholia and a mash of retro-modernism a la Midlake, they manage to sound both like everything you’ve ever heard before and nothing you’ve ever heard before. While waiting for Sub Pop to release their debut album in America, they recorded the 5 track ‘Sun Giant’ ep to sell at gigs. You can track track this down to buy, if you look in all the right places. You can also get the album in 2 weeks time in the UK (£7.99 from Play). I’ve got my order in, but while waiting for it I thought I’d put my mp3 copies of these 2 releases onto CD. When I realised that I still had 20+ minutes to fill on my disc, I went poking about the internet to see if I could find anything else by my new favourite band…..

….and I found this 2006 self-titled 6 track ep.

So Long To The Headstrong

Icicle Tusk

There’s very little information to be found anywhere about it. I don’t know if the current 5 piece line up plays on it. I don’t know if it was released anywhere. I don’t know if anyone bought it. I do know it’s fantastic. The influences mentioned above are very much to the fore. It sounds lovely. And added to the album and ‘Sun Giant’ ep it makes a nice wee Fleet Foxes CD (if you delete your least favourite track!) I won’t put the other 2 official releases up for grabs, but in the traditions of Plain Or Pan‘s hard-to-find only policy, these are all yours.

And don’t feel guilty about downloading the tracks either. Main Fox Skye’s world changed forever after downloading the Smile sessions bootleg. Maybe Fleet Foxes will change your world – that’s what he’s hoping for. See you down the front at the ABC on the 18th June. You coming Quinny?

***!!!***!!!UPDATE MARCH ’09. More Fleet Foxes stuff here!***!!!***

entire show, Hard-to-find, Peel Sessions

Hey! Hey! Come Out Tonight! Popscene! Alright!

May 24, 2008May 25, 2008 Craig McAllister

Mention Blur and most folks think of Brit Pop, very big houses in the country and all that terrible stuff, or gurning smart arse Damon Albarn, who with his side projects involving World Musicians, hip-hop and opera (hip-hopera?) is becoming the indie Sting. Me? I still like them a lot. I have all the Blur singles. From 1990’s ‘She’s So High’ on 12″ right up to 2003’s ‘Good Song’ and everything inbetween. And not everything inbetween was good. ‘Sunday Sunday’ is one cockernee oompah-pah knees up too many, and lots of their b-sides were decidedly average. But I still bought them. On 7″, 12″, CD1 and CD2. The 10th Anniversary Box Set (£10 in the Our Price sale!!!) Box Sets aside, EMI must’ve made a fortune out of me. I even bought the Japanese import stuff, which is where this post is leading.

‘Bustin & Dronin’ is a Japanese compilation that collects all the remixes, b-sides and stuff from the singles that were released off of the ‘Blur’ album from 1997. This was the album that lost the band many of their fans but it’s my favourite. It’s loud, wonky, experimental and has Graham Coxon all over it. Not that the other albums don’t have Graham Coxon all over them either, but this album is the sound of a pissed-off guitarist fed up with where the band were being pigeonholed. It spawned the catchy ‘Song 2’ (which I am led to believe is more popular these days than Sweet Child O’ Mine as the riff of choice for spotty wee boys in guitar shops) and made them massive in America. It’s said that ‘Song 2’ was influenced by the stage antics of Pavement‘s Bob Nastanovich. Anyway……

Spread over the various formats of the ‘On Your Own’ single you can find assorted Blur tracks recorded live for John Peel at Peel Acres (his house). Bustin & Dronin’ has the whole 6 song set in order and it sounds fantastic. Recorded on 8th May 1997 it’s a right royal racket of a set. It starts with a hundred mile an hour trumpet-free blast through ‘Popscene‘ and continues in wonderful fashion from there on in. It sounds nothing like the Blur that the tabloids focussed on. It sounds like nothing or no-one else to be honest. Imagine the sound of a shitty amp wired to fuzzbox being dropped down a flight of stairs along with a box of drums and a cheap keyboard. Yes, it’s that good. It’s the ideal snapshot of where Blur were at in 1997. If you saw them live around this tme you’ll know what I mean. And it’s all here below….

Tonight Matthew I’m going to be Michael Caine

Incidently, a wee Blur fact. David Bowie and Brian Eno were given a co-writing credit for ‘M.O.R.’ Acknowledging the song’s similar melody to ‘Boys Keep Swinging’, Blur gave them credit before getting the phone call and lawyer’s letter.

Special bonus track. The frankly weird Earl Zinger reggae version of ‘Song 2Wo’. It’s hardly essential, but have a listen.

Blur do Blondie

Nowadays, the guy on the left really does live in a very big house in the country. Bit of a fanny, wears tweed jackets, makes cheese. His book‘s really good. You should read it. I once saw Blur and Radiohead play the Barrowlands around the time of ‘Modern Life Is Rubbish’. Possibly 1993. Radiohead were just back from America where Creep was massive. Thom had that Birdland haircut he was fond of before he went bald. Radiohead were shite. No-one belives me when I say that, but they were. Rank rotten shite. Blur were fantastic. 40 minutes of in-your-face, no-nonsense punk pop. There were only about 150 people there. True story that.

Hard-to-find, Studio master tapes

16 Track Master Blaster

May 18, 2008May 22, 2008 Craig McAllister

In the early to mid 70’s Stevie Wonder was on a bit of a creative roll. In 1972 he released not 1, but 2 albums – the underrated ‘Music Of My Mind’ and it’s more well-known follow up ‘Talking Book’. In the next 2 years he released both ‘Innervisions‘ and ‘Fullfillingness First Finale’ . He also happened to play most of the instruments himself! Stick that in yer big hat Jamiroquai. Back in ’72 he was only 22 (22!) when he wrote and recorded ‘Superstition‘. Considered a throwaway, he gave it to Jeff Beck until his manager heard it, and seeing dollar signs between the grooves, he demanded Stevie keep it for himself. Jeff Beck was given another Wonder composition instead ‘Cause We’ve Ended As Lovers’, and the pair fell out a wee bit. Beck would eventually record and release ‘Superstition‘ a year later in 1973 on his ‘Beck Bogart & Appice’ album. I think the Eagles may have been taking notes when they were writing ‘Life In The Fast Lane’, but it’s the Stevie Wonder original on ‘Talking Book’ that does it for me every time.

Genius at work

Perhaps it’s the drum beat. Perhaps it’s the clavinet. Perhaps it’s the horns. I don’t know what it is, but put them all together and it makes me dance like the rhythmically challenged West of Scotland male that I am. I love ‘Superstition’. These 16 track master tapes have been floating around the internet for a wee while now, and given the download mania that greeted the Beatles Masters, I know you’re going to love them. They’re ripe for sampling if you’re that way inclined. Me? I just like listening to the individual parts. You can hear the trumpet player taking deep breathes at one point. It’s deconstructed funkiness. Have fun – I even made a ringtone out of the wobbly clavinet part. I just called to say I love you indeed.

Funky beyond compare

Football, Gone but not forgotten, Hard-to-find

Burns’ Immortal Memory

May 15, 2008 Craig McAllister

Tommy Burns died today. He always seemed like a decent man to me. All the cliches are out – “football man“, “family man” etc etc, and for once they’re all true. I never met him, but I often cheered him on/cursed him from the sidelines when he was playing/managing for Kilmarnock. He was a majestic midfielder before taking the hot seat in the dugout, and he worked a miracle by dragging us from the despairs of the lower leagues to the dizzy heights of the Premier League. He also played over half a thousand times for some other provincial team, but we’ll gloss over that part.

Trash Can Sinatras ‘Worked A Miracle’ (1991 demo from Shabby Road, Kilmarnock)

Trash Can Sinatras ‘I’m Immortal’ (1991 demo from Shabby Road, Kilmarnock)

Hard-to-find

Neil Young Is A Cunt #2

May 9, 2008May 25, 2012 Craig McAllister

Yep. He’s still one of them. The release of his long-talked about ‘Archives’ series is just around the corner. Well. September. But if like me you’ve been waiting 10 or so years for this, September is but a hold-your-breath moment away. Should be great. Cannae wait etc etc blah blah blah.

And there the joy ends.

‘Archives’ will be released solely on Blu-Ray. That’s right. Blu-Ray! You can’t listen to the discs on your CD player. But you can play them through your telly. You would expect the box set to cost a fortune anyway, but Blu-Ray! Blu-Ray! That’ll make it super-expensive! How many people own the hardware? Does old whiny Neil have shares in the company that makes it? I think he must. Blu-Ray might sound better, but to yer average ex-hippy turned bank manager, will it be that much of a difference? Will the high notes ring that wee bit clearer? Will the harmonies soar that wee bit further? Will you notice the sound of plegm on harmonica that wee bit better? I don’t think so. I don’t believe Blu-Ray can be that fantastic. Especially listened to through your telly. Old Shakey knows the hardcore fans are going to buy the discs and the equipment to play it on but he really has gone about the release of ‘Archives’ in all the wrong way. Total contempt for his quickly reducing fanbase.

He should’ve released it as a vinyl box set. Maybe include an old Betamax tape of a classic Fillmore East show or something. Stick in a couple of packets of those cigarette papers he sold at his concerts a few years ago. Maybe even a plectrum. I’d be straight out to buy that box set. Just as well we live in the digital age. Some enterprising kind soul will no doubt work out how to .flac or mp3 the whole series and we’ll all have them by Christmas anyway. Fingers crossed. If you can’t wait that long here’s a couple of Elektra Demos recorded in New York, 1965 to tide you over. Just Neil and his acoustic guitar. On low-rate, low quality mp3. They don’t make ’em like that anymore. It’s all Blu-Ray round these parts nowadays mate. Have you tried googling ‘Archives Be Damned’? Prepare yourself for a download frenzy.

Sugar Mountain (1965 demo)

Nowadays Clancy Can’t Even Sing (1965 demo)

The Rent Is Always Due (1965 demo)

When It Falls, It Falls Over You (1965 demo)