Plain Or Pan

There she goes. There she goes again. And again…and again…and again…and again…and again…and again…and again…and again…and

April 3, 2008January 17, 2009 Craig McAllister

‘There She Goes’ by The La’s is the best song ever written. Just over 2 and a half minutes of perfect pop – the instantly recognisable guitar intro, the frantically scrubbed repeating drum-n-guitar clatter after every ‘I just can’t contaaaaiiaaaayyyn….‘ line, the middle 8 before going back to the chorus, the ‘she goes again and/or calls my name, calls my name’ refrain you hear on some versions, the wee 3-part harmony on the very last word……it’s all there. The best song ever written. Not that it looks like he ever will, but the royalities he receives from this song alone ensure that Lee Mavers never has to work again.

I have as many versions of ‘There She Goes’ as I could ever need. I’ve just bought the newly issued limited edition ‘Sound‘ 7″ ep that has the unreleased John Leckie version on one side and the original single version on the other. I’ve got the original red cover 12″. I’ve also got it on the blue cover 7″ with ‘Way Out’ on the other side. I’ve got the album version (on vinyl and CD, and coming soon, Deluxe Edition CD), the reissued 1988 version, the BBC Sessions version, the ‘Fever Pitch’ ep……..and they’re just the ones you could or still can buy! I also have the promo versions – the one with the alternative intro, the instrumental version, the unplugged version, the, ahem, cough, ‘live‘ in New York version that’s basically an unlabelled studio demo with added crowd effects (but very trippy and very, very good). I also have umpteen demo versions from a variety of sessions and they’re absolutely magic. La’s heaven. Trainspotter gold. Call them what you want, but if you’re a fan of a particular band and a sucker for studio outtakes this, to me, is about as good as it gets until Lee Mavers turns up at my house armed with a battered acoustic, a 4 track portastudio and instructions to “keep tapin’, la“.

I’ve recently put all these versions in the one place (a CD) and have been playing them in the car on my daily journey to work. By the time I’m out the car, depending on what day it is, I’m either the happiest man alive or I feel like stabbing someone’s eye out. 21 tracks! Every one of them ‘There She Goes’! Can you handle it? It may drive you batty or it may be The Best La’s Album In The World….Ever! Either way, they’re all here, on this handy-to-download .rar file. Play it all and you’ll begin to hear every faded intro, every subtle variation on the bass line, every backing vocal, every ammended harmony. It’s all there. It’s all magic. And it’s all been sprinkled with a generous layer of 60s dust. No artwork yet. I’ll be working on that over the school holidays in the next couple of weeks.

Lee Mavers genuinely loves this song. He often played it live twice in the one show (and certainly not cos he was told to by the record company), and if I have 21 22 versions, of which only 4 5 are commercially available, how many versions does Mr Mavers have lurking about his archives? Slevver, slevver, drool, drool, drool.

“How many versions!?!”

Tracklisting:

1. John Leckie version

2. Original single version

3. Album/reissued/Fever Pitch etc single version

4. Alternative intro (Go! Discs promo CDP547PRS)

5. Unplugged version (Go! Discs promo CDP547PRS)

6. Instrumental version (Go! Discs promo CDP 547PRS)

7. ‘Live’ version (Go! Discs promo CDP 564PRS)

8. Liz Kershaw BBC Session version 31.5.88

9. Demo #1

10. Demo #2

11. Demo #3

12. Demo #4

13. Demo #5

14. Pete de Freitas Echo demo #1 1987

15. Pete de Freitas Echo demo #2 1987

16. Pete de Freitas Echo demo #3 1987

17. Eden Session #1

18. Eden Session #2

19. Eden Session #3

20. Eden Session #4

21. Ride Yer Camel session – recorded on a ghetto blaster, Barry Sutton’s flat (date?)

*Notes on the tracklisting. I have a played-to-death compilation demo tape that a pal got me from the Go! Discs archives around 1989. The versions of ‘There She Goes’ from that tape are included here. I have no more recording info other than they are labelled ‘Demo 1 – Demo 5’. Some, all or none of them could be the legendary Hedges versions, but we’ve not long now till we find out anyway. Any ammendments to my recording info gratefully received. Come on, all you lot on Las.org – get correcting!

*Shite! Knew this would happen! You go and compile it all and what happens? You remember about that album you bought a few years ago that you don’t play much. ‘Lost La’s’. There’s a version on that. It’s not the best, but it does have an alternative middle 8, and purely for historical value it should be included too. Here’s the first ever live performance of ‘There She Goes’ from the Picket in Liverpool, May 1987.

*STOP PRESS The first 10 people to download the .rar file can email me their address and I’ll send them a free sample of 60s dust from the top of Lee’s old Vox AC30.

STOP STOP PRESS More La’s stuff here and here. Cheers.

Cover Versions, Hard-to-find

‘Just Dropped In…’ quadruple-whammy

March 25, 2008March 25, 2008 Craig McAllister

‘I Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)‘ was Kenny Rogers‘ second single with his group The First Edition. It made the US Billboard Top 10 in 1968 and rode the crest of the psychedelic wave that was sweeping the music world at the time – “I tripped over a cloud and fell 8 miles high, tore my mind on the jagged sky.” Like, wow, man. The intro has backwards guitars, the solo is played by Glen Campbell (is there anything he didn’t play on in the 60s?) and the drums were played by Mickey Jones, well known to Dylan afficianados as the drummer who couldnae hack it on Dylan’s 1966 world tour with the Hawks.

Nice trousers.

So. Great pedigree. And a great song. About as far removed from ‘Islands In The Stream’, ‘The Gambler’ or ‘Coward Of The County’ as you could possibly hope for. Indeed, Jimi Hendrix called ‘Just Dropped In…‘ his favourite song ever. I wish Jimi had done a version. You just know it it would’ve sounded brilliant. I bet Jerry lee Lewis‘ version sounds the business as well. Too bad he canned it as soon as he recorded it. Or did he? No amount of poking about cyberspace has unearthed it for me, but maybe you’ve got a version knocking about somewhere. Over to you…

No funny comment here.

In the meantime, here’s 3 covers. All different, all fantastic. Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings recorded their version as a tribute to the sounds of late 60s Stax and Motown. It sounds like Lynn Collins or one of those James Brown Funky People women singers he often produced. You can see the video for it (don’t think it’s official but it’s great) over on YouTube where the grainy, fuzzy footage is supposed to look like an old VHS taped copy of Soul Train. I thought Sharon Jones had come up with a really great idea for an original cover until I found out that Bettye Lavette had covered the self same track in 1968. I bet Bettye’s sounds just like it (I’m off to seek it out) but I do like Sharon Jones’ attempt. This version has only been released on dead-hard-to-get 7″ (try eBay), but I’ve got one. And now you do too.

They were young, they ran free, they grew old gracefulleee…

Supergrass put their version on the b-side of the double a sided ‘Alright/Time’ single. So lots of people will own this, but many people may not even have played it, given that anyone who bought ‘Alright’ played it on repeat for the whole summer of 1995 and then never wanted to hear it again. Which is a shame, cos ‘Time‘ is a cracker’, and ‘Condition‘ (as their version is called) sounds just like a Supergrass track from the ‘I Should Coco’ era. Which it is, funnily enough. Here it is.

Scuffed, battered and full of character. Just like his face.

I’ve left possibly the best version till last. Like Kenny Rogers, Willie Nelson is considered a country singer, but his version of ‘…Condition…‘ is not really country per-se. It’s laid back, soulful and has an intro that is absolutely ripe for sampling. If Sharon Jones’ cover is the Saturday night version then Willie Nelson’s is the Sunday morning hangover cure. You can find it on his ‘Rainbow Connection’ album from 2001. Or get it here.

Hard-to-find, Studio master tapes

Sgt Pepper’s Lovely Hot Cross Bun

March 20, 2008January 14, 2009 Craig McAllister

New Links Updated January 2009!!!

Happy Easter, one and all. This post is something of a milestone, seen as it’s my 100th post. Cue trumpets, fanfares and perhaps a gold watch from my employers. Since late last year I was anticipating this post and had decided on something incredible that I would make available for download. But that’ll have to wait for another day. It was all ready to go as well, until some like-minded geeks over on the Teenage Fanclub message boards pointed me in the direction of THE BEST THING EVER IN THE HISTORY OF THE INTERNET.

It’s only four of The Beatles‘ studio master tapes! I’ll say that again. It’s. Only. Four. Of. The. Beatles’. Studio. Master. Tapes. The individual 4 or so tracks that make up ‘Sgt Peppers…’, ‘She’s Leaving Home’, ‘A Day In The Life’ and ‘With A Little Help From My Friends’. Yer actual masters! In digital form! Crystal clear! It’s like Paul McCartney is singing right in front of you! Jeeez, the ‘Sgt Peppers’ backing tracks are amaaaaaazing! Here’s a quick burst of George’s stinging guitar and some Salvation Army horns. Like it? Now download the lot! (*see below) Get yourself audacity, load the tracks into it individually and get ready to do a ‘2 Many DJs’-style mash-up and impress your friends. Or, you could set up your computer, load up the tracks and pretend you’re George Martin on one of those Classic Album documentaries, pontificating over the use of the string section in ‘She’s Leaving Home’. “This is a wonderful part (slide the faders) – Paul had the idea for a string quartet – just listen out for the harp…(plink plink)…rather lovely, don’t you agree?” It’s The Beatles! Just the way you like them!

Martin and Lennon ponder how they’ll sound after you’ve had a go at the controls

How are these available? Surely the record companies could be making some money by releasing these in some sort of commercial form? That’s what I was thinking/fearing. This post may be removed quicker than Paul’s moustache, so you better act fast. The story goes that since studio tape is a wee bit fragile after time, some record companies are digitizing many of their master tapes to preserve them as best as possible. But some enterprising body has sneaked a few mixes out and leaked them onto the internet. If you look hard enough there are loads more – Stevie Wonder’s ‘Superstition’ (a certain future post), some Eagles stuff, Nirvana, Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ (yes, really!) Seek and ye shall find. It’s a wonderful world out there, it really is. This is musical porn, man. Musical porn.

‘Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ Studio Master Tapes
‘A Day In The Life’ Studio Master Tapes
‘She’s Leaving Home’ Studio Master Tapes
‘With A Little Help From My Friends’ Studio Master Tapes

Happy remixing!

Any links to other stuff of a similar nature gratefully accepted. Of course.
Oh, and if you’re a latecomer to these fine pages, nice to see you. More Beatles elsewhere on Plain Or Pan – take time to poke about!

Dylanish, entire show, Hard-to-find

Are these French ones? No, they’re healthy cigarettes!

March 14, 2008March 14, 2008 Craig McAllister

In 1962, a 20 year old Bob Dylan recorded an hour long show for Cynthia Gooding‘s ‘Folksinger’s Choice’ radio programme. History seems to be a bit fuzzy regarding the actual date of recording, or even if the show was actually broadcast at all. My bootleg says 11th March 1962, so that’s what I’m sticking with. You may know differently. What is absolutely astonishing about this show is that it exists at all, and in such brilliant quality. I don’t know what methods were used to extract the show from the radio to someones tape recorder. Maybe the recording is taken straight from the radio station’s own tapes (which is more than likely), but if you’re in any way shape or form a fan of Bob Dylan, you need this bootleg in your collection, it’s simple as that.

What you get is young pre-Columbia Bob playing a mixture of original and traditional material. In it’s own right, that’d be good enough. What makes this recording even better is the between-song chat between Cynthia and Dylan. They’d met each other in 1959, when Dylan sang to Gooding at a party after one of her concerts. She recognised his talent and was impressed enough to go and see him perform his own shows at places like Folk City in New York. Throughout the radio show, she is clearly in awe of him. In fact, I’d say she fancies the pants off him, and Dylan knows it. His tall stories regarding where and how he grew up are in full flow – “I’d just come from South Dakota……I’d come there from Sioux Falls“, “I was a clean-up boy, I used to be on the main line, on the ferris wheel, do just fun rides. I used to do all kinds of stuff like that…..I skipped a bunch of things, and I didn’t go to school a bunch of years and I skipped this and I skipped that.” Dylan talks about his influences, how he writes songs, and when cornered has to admit that, maybe, some of these songs, well, he only wrote the first couple of verses himself and the rest of the song is, I don’t know, something I heard before.

Bob, with healthy cigarette

Fantastic stuff, every wee bit of it. The full tracklisting on the back of the disc is below, but really, download and burn as gapless for that full radio show experience. The link for the whole show (plus artwork) in one complete .rar file is here. As a tempter, here’s one of the between-song chats and a version of ‘Smokestack Lightning’.

Lonesome Whistle Blues
Fixin’ To Die
Smokestack Lightning
Hard Travelin’
Death Of Emmett Till
Standing On The Highway
Roll On John
Stealin’
Long Time Man Feel Bad
Baby Please Don’t Go
Hard Times In New York

“D’ya like that?…………..I sure do!”

Hard-to-find

Dead 60s dead.

March 13, 2008May 25, 2012 Craig McAllister

I read a couple of days ago that the Dead 60s had decided to call it a day. No massive falling out over royalties, musical differences, girlfriends in the studio, any of that stuff. As their website says, “We just felt like the band had run its course, time for us all to branch out & try other things.” No big deal. The world hasn’t stopped. No one’s life is over, but the Dead 60s brand of Liverpudlian indie ska is no more.

Most folks preferred The Ordinary Boys anyway (!) But I had a bit of a soft spot for the Dead 60s. I thought they were a Scouse Specials. In hindsight they’re not really, but so what? A few years ago my pal Quinny & I hosted a radio show for student radio. It was called ‘Under The Influence’ and it was fantastically brilliant. You may have heard it now and again?

In reality, just as very few people heard the Dead 60s, very few people heard our show. But if you had, you’d have heard us play ‘Riot Radio’ the band’s first single. I went on a download frenzy after hearing this track and discovered the Dead 60s dubtastic version of The White Stripes ‘7 Nation Army’. I think it may have been recorded for an XFM session, I’m not too sure. It’s spacey, echoey and features great spaghetti western guitars. It’s nothing like the garage rock of the original. Lee Perry Mavers! I like it. You will too! Here it is.

Another couple of Seven Nation Army covers for you:

1. The Dynamics (Lovers rock/dub version, nice melodica solo. Fans of the Dead 60s?)

2. The Flaming Lips (Surely you’ve heard this by now? Fuzz bass, car sirens, vocals through a food blender, it’s the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine. Yes, the Flaming Lips can do no wrong.)

3. Bonus track. Here’s one of those mash-ups that I keep saying I don’t like. Public Enemy Vs The White Stripes, ‘Bring The 7 Nation Army’. Bass! How low can you go?

Hard-to-find

Freshly Squeezed Orange Juice With No Wee Bits You Don’t Like Floating In It

March 3, 2008March 6, 2008 Craig McAllister

The Vinyl Villain is an excellent blog. Over the past year or so I have compiled a couple of CDs worth of hard-to-get music that has been made available on the site and I am a regular visitor throughout the week. Possibly in the wake of BBC4’s ‘Caledonia Dreaming’ rockumentary and it’s attendant Edwyn Collins documentary (or possibly not), The Vinyl Villain has come up with a very laudable scheme. He will make you a personal, 60 minute compilation of almost ANY Orange Juice material that has ever been available. All the rare b-sides, flexi disc stuff, Peel sessions, etc etc that you could shake a Roger McGuinn fringe at. Or the ‘You Can’t Hide Your Love Forever’ album if you still don’t have it. It’s your choice.

The bulk of your money (£6 – surely a bargain) goes to Quarriers, a very worthwhile cause. See the blog for full details and the complete list of available tracks. Make your own Orange Juice LP! What could be more fun and more worthwhile? Go! Now! Keep The Vinyl Villain’s CD burner working overtime. I’m off to peruse the list and see what gems he has waiting for me.

Orange Juice – L.O.V.E. Love

Al Green – L.O.V.E. Love

It doesn’t get much better than that

Dylanish

The Blues Is Still The Blues

March 3, 2008March 6, 2008 Craig McAllister

The new (April) issue of Mojo is giving away one of the best free CDs I think I’ve ever got from a magazine. Usually I tend to play these things once at best (sometimes they remain in their shrinkwrap forever) but ‘The New Dictionary Of Blues And Soul’ is a belter. It’s so good it made me want to write about it. It’s been on constant rotation this weekend and has made the job of cleaning the wooden floor in preparation for a visit from my mother-in-law all the more bearable. The compilation features only new artists playing blues and soul, just as authentically as any of the old masters you already know and love. When I hear the term ‘New Blues and Soul’ I think of keech like James Morrison or Adele, but these artists have the chops, the soul and the clout to show they mean it, maaaaaan.

I’m posting one track from the CD and another 2 that didn’t feature on it, but on another day would be equally at home on such a compilation with Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings (essentially Amy Winehouse’s band on the ‘Back To Black’ album), Eli ‘Paperboy’ Reed & the True Loves, Edgar ‘Jones’ Jones and Seasick Steve, amongst a dozen or so non-household names. Saying that, Seasick Steve is playing the Albert Hall. THE Albert Hall, not the shitty wee place in Stirling, so who I am to suggest who is and who isn’t a household name?

Pete Molinari is on the Mojo CD doing ‘I Don’t Like The Man I Am’. This is taken from his forthcoming ‘A Virtual Landslide’ album, which on the strength of this track, I will be buying. Molinari has all the right credentials. His album was produced at Toe Rag Studios by Liam Watson, he did his shift in New York’s Greenwich Village at the Cafe Wha? and The Gaslight and he has a soul voice that wannabees like Paulo Nuttini would swap their 1970s Rod Stewart collections for. ‘I Don’t Like The Man I Am’ sounds a bit ‘Time Out Of Mind’-era Dylan and would fit neatly beside tracks like ‘Tryin’ To Get To Heaven’.

T-Model Ford records for Fat Possum records, the home of raw and unpolished blues. He was born in Mississppi, of course. He thinks he’s 75 but isn’t sure. He’s been in the jail for murder amongst other offences. If his music wasn’t so powerful, he’d be a walkin, talkin’ cliche of the blues. ‘Nobody Gets Me Down’ is on his forthcoming ‘Pee-Wee Get My Gun’ album.

RL Burnside also records on Fat Possum. In 1997 he recorded his debut album for Fat Possum. He was 71 and sounds it. Like T-Model Ford, he’s lived a full-on life. He’s been a sharecropper, a migrant worker and seen his father, brother and uncle all murdered within a month of each other. He sings the blues with unquestionable authenticity. He played music for much of his life, but it wasn’t until the 1990s when Jon Spencer (of the Blues Explosion) started name dropping him (and later recorded with him) that he got any incling of recognition. This track, ‘Shake ‘Em On Down’ is from his 1997 album ‘A Ass Pocket Of Whiskey’. Robert Lee is currently rockin the good Lord up above. (ie, he’s deid.) Amen.

Hard-to-find

Brian was a French horn

February 29, 2008March 6, 2008 Craig McAllister

Some say ‘Pet Sounds’ is the greatest album ever made etc etc blah blah blah. It may well be, but for what it’s worth, ‘Abbey Road’, ‘Never Mind the Bollocks’, ‘Hunky Dory’, ‘Grand Prix’ by Teenage Fanclub and ‘Blonde On Blonde’ (or ‘Bringing It All Back Home’, Highway 61 Revisited, Nashville Skyline, yawn) have been or are currently my own personal ‘Best Album Ever’. Even ‘Life’s Too Good’ by The Sugarcubes is in my eyes/to my ears one of the best albums ever made. Honest. The fact is, there is no one ‘Best Album Ever’. But for many, ‘Pet Sounds’ is right up there. I saw the Brian Wilson ‘Pet Sounds’ tour a couple of times in 2002, and the show at the Edinburgh Playhouse was fantastic, way better than the Glasgow show earlier that year. My memories of Glasgow were of folk continually shouting out combinations of “Genius!” or requests for the next song, when everyone there knew what was coming next. Duh. It was the ‘Pet Sounds’ show. We all had the album. Edinburgh was better. We were 3 rows from the front, right in front of Brian. At one point I was convinced he was smiling at me. Then I realised he was screwing up his big fat hang dog face to read the auto-cue. True. The one major blip came at the end of the night, right after I had acquired a typed out set list from the stage. There at the top were the immortal words. ‘Brian Wilson. Pet Sounds. Edinburgh, England.’ Genius? Not at geography.

Anyway. The music. Before I go on, a disclaimer. There are plenty, plenty of Beach Boys trainspotters out there. Some of you may even stumble across this site. If you do, please don’t take great delight in correcting any inaccuracies I may write with regards to ‘Pet Sounds’. For this reason I am keeping any such info at a minimum. In fact. I’m not going to write any. There are plenty, plenty of Beach Boys websites, blogsites and fansites scattered throughout hyperspace that do just that. There’s a very good one right here in fact. Me? I prefer to focus on the music. Or lack of, as today may be. What follows is the 11 songs from ‘Pet Sounds’ done in acappella style. No music, except for the odd leakage of backing tape that the assembled Beach Boys could hear in their headphones. Beach Boys stack-o-vocals, as Brian liked to call them. All the harmonies, coughs, whispered count-ins, duh-duh-duh-duh-duhs you could ever want to hear. In fact, it might all be too much for the one sitting, but it does make a great wee compilation. If it does appear all too much, I’d suggest going for the version of ‘Here Today’. But really, you need all of this, you really do.

In a rare fit of praise, Murry Wilson once said of his son, “Brian thinks in six-part harmony instead of two or three part. He’s not only a writer, he’s an arranger and he has a concept of harmonics which is uncanny.” These six-part harmonies blew the socks off of 1970s slush merchant Eric Carmen (‘All By Myself’ etc). In a famous quote he says, “Their vocal harmonies are unsurpassed…..I think Brian was a French Horn, Carl was a flute, Al Jardine a trumpet, Dennis a trombone and Mike Love (booooo!) a baritone sax, before their incarnation as The Beach Boys.” So here you go….the human orchestra that was the Beach Boys:

Wouldn’t It Be Nice

You Still Believe In Me

That’s Not Me

Don’t Talk (Put Your Head On My Shoulder)

I’m Waiting For The Day

Sloop John B

God Only Knows

I Know There’s An Answer

Here Today

I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times

Caroline, No

*special bonus track God Only Knows (alternative ending – very nice!)

All in all, not a bad day at the office for a 23 year old. Genius? Maybe. Talented bastard? Aye, definitely. Happy downloading!

Weirdy and Beardy

Most downloaded tracks

My fvrt nw bnd

February 24, 2008May 25, 2012 Craig McAllister

“Let’s make some music, make some money, find some models for wives.”

I’ve been getting myself all in a lather over MGMT (pronounced as it reads – as in ‘Booker T & the MGMTs’, not ‘Management’ – thanks to Wino.) Shitty name. A pain in the you know what to google, but what great music! Like a Californian Super Furry Animals or the long lost Siamese twin of the Flaming Lips, guitars are just on the right side of fuzzy, the keyboards are set to wonky, but not too wonky and everything’s wrapped up in a half decent melody. In short, weird tunes you can whistle. The album ‘Oracular Spectacular’ is released on 10th March and is only £6.99 from Play. The first track is called ‘Time To Pretend’ and I have played it about 43 times over the course of this weekend. Try before you buy here.

Hard-to-find

Dear Jim, Please could you fix it for me….

February 23, 2008February 23, 2008 Craig McAllister

…to be a great northern soul singer in the style of Dean Parrish? So thought a 15 year old Paul Weller when he recorded ‘Left, Right & Centre’ at one of his first recording sessions. Jim didn’t quite fix it for Weller at the time but 35+ years later, ‘Left, Right & Centre’ has seen the light of day, with northern soul legend Dean Parrish doing the vocals.

It’s out on Acid Jazz, under the nom de plume of Lord Large and it sounds just like the Weller demo from all those years ago. In fact, I imagine it sounds like something straight off of the turntable at the Wigan Casino in the 1970’s. Which is no bad thing. Weird thing is, on the demo Paul Weller sings like Dean Parrish. And on the new version, Dean Parrish sings like Paul Weller. Or maybe Paul Weller’s been singing like Dean Parrish all along and no-one’s noticed. I’ve only heard ‘I’m On My Way’, so I can’t claim to be the biggest Dean Parrish fan ever. So what do I know? I don’t even know if Paul Weller plays on the new track. Neither does Mr Google or Mr Wiki. Maybe you do?

Get yer brogues on, talc down your floor and have a northern soul night in front of your computer. Go on! You know you want to! And if you don’t like the track you can blame the bald mod himself, Steve Cradock. Apparently he found the demo in a box of old stuff when he was round at Weller’s one night and got it released. He even gets to play guitar on the Lord Large version too. The wee arse licker.