Plain Or Pan

Tapes ‘n Tapes. What can I say? The best band I saw play live in 2006? The best album of 2006? The most anticipated follow-up of 2007? All of that and more more more. Give us a new album ‘n’ a new single ‘n’ a new song ‘n’ a new chord ‘n’ a new anything at all. I want it all and I want it NOW! I discovered Tapes ‘n Tapes through a combination of word of mouth, myspace and some dubious file sharing sites. I urge you to discover ‘The Loon’ for yourself. It’s easy to find. You might even want to buy it. Jeez, it was so good, I did. What we have here is not from the album, but the first track from a self-financed ep the band released in 2005. According to the band’s website (which is backed up by the scarcity of the ep anywhere online) it has been deleted. Hence, I’m posting the track ‘Beach Girls’ from it. I only heard it recently, but this track stuck out as I remembered them playing it when I saw them live. 2nd song. Nice ‘n Sleazy’s, Glasgow. End of May. Not quite the Sex Pistols at the Lesser Free Trade Hall, or the Beatles at the Cavern, but it was bloody brilliant all the same. Find ‘Beach Girls’ here .

The original Manic Street Preachers. 4 of them. White jeans. Sloganeering. Fur coats. Mascara. Johnny Thunders haircuts. I saw them in King Tuts around the time this single was released and they were fantastic and hilarious in equal parts. Part Clash. Part Spinal Tap. Anyway, the Heavenly version of You Love Us features the Iggy Pop ‘Lust For Life’ ending. It was  re-recorded for their debut album and they binned the Iggy ending in favour of an ‘Appetite For Destruction’ Guns ‘n Roses ending. Sounded glossier and more rawk, but I’ve always preferred the original version. Cos I’m a  snob. And I bought it first time round. CD single and 7″ from a bargain bin in a Glasgow record shop. The Manics couldn’t give their records away in those days, but within a few months this record was highly sought after and still goes for a tidy sum on eBay. Listen here.

For some reason, the CD database incorrectly labels this single as the ‘New Art Riot’ ep, so when you download it, it won’t say ‘You Love Us’ in the file name.

I find this hard to believe, but 2007 sees the 20th anniversary of the release of the Happy Mondays’ debut album. It originally came out to widespread indifference in April 1987 and was snappily titled  ‘Squirrel And G-Man Twenty Four Hour Party People Plastic Face Carnt Smile (White Out)’. I remember asking for it in Our Price, but they didn’t have it. I eventually got it about a year later in a second hand shop and was won over by the band’s scuzzy funk and stream-of-conscience nonsensical lyrics. Many of the songs borrowed heavily from other records and the track ‘Desmond’ was withdrawn quicker than Michael Jackson’s lawyers could say “beat it.” Michael Jackson owned the rights to the Beatles catalogue by this time, and he didn’t like the similarities between ‘Desmond’ and ‘Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da’. Plastic face carnt smile indeed. You can listen to it here. Like all good record trainspotters, I noticed that the album was produced by John Cale of the Velvet Underground. I read years later that despite being no stranger to chemical abuse himself, he was shocked by the band’s unruly behaviour and drug intake. Shaun Ryder slagged him off at the time for being high on nothing more than tangerines. After ‘Desmond’ was withdrawn from the album it was replaced by ’24 Hour Party People’ and that single took the band onto bigger and better things, but you probably know that.