Ah, good point, especially radio sessions. I imagine the legalities are an issue there, but looking at the "Keeping It Peel" site there's TONS of one-off band sessions that I'm sure have a killer cut contained within them.
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Saturday, 29 April 2017 03:58 (seven years ago) link
New book on C86 coming out on 18th August, preceded by a Guardian interview with the author.
Reel lives: how I tracked down the class of NME’s C86 album
― Portsmouth Bubblejet, Monday, 8 August 2022 11:29 (one year ago) link
The book's a fun read. Cool to read retrospective article of the sort that Mojo etc do for more major artists but obviously would never touch 90% of this lot. He interviews at least one person, usually more, from each band. It's a bit like the tape - some chapters are stand-outs, some are forgettable. The more successful artists tend to be a bit boring while the ones who never went anywhere have their own story to tell. The Stump chapter is very good, Bogshed and Miaow also. I enjoyed the McCarthy, Close Lobsters & Wolfhounds chapters too, since these are the records that stand up nowadays in my opinion, plus the interviewees are interesting. If you have any interest in these bands you have to read this.
The Pastels chapter is a favourite, not because of Stephen Pastel, who's life has the appearance of being completely uneventful and static for three decades. It's because of their former drummer Berniece Simpson effortlessly skewering Pastel (who we find out fired the original band via a lawyer's letter) by having a very successful and happy non-musical career and family, and very pointedly defining her decade as an indie musician as a young person's game.
― everything, Monday, 23 January 2023 21:11 (one year ago) link
pricing an Eton Crop record from 1987 (Yes, Please Bob) and in their Discogs bio they call them a "pre-C86" band and lump them in with the Membranes and The Three Johns and it all makes sense i guess but i don't think i'd ever heard of a group of bands being called that. not exactly arbitrary. all people with the Mekons in their veins.
― scott seward, Friday, 11 August 2023 21:04 (eight months ago) link
mekons very much relevant to all three - langford played on a couple of membranes ablums and i think did the sleeve to the eton crop record
― NickB, Friday, 11 August 2023 21:39 (eight months ago) link
i think i want to like those kind of bands more than i do. they are missing that langford je nais se quois despite his input. but maybe i just haven't found the right one for me. i never play membranes records when i get them in.
― scott seward, Friday, 11 August 2023 21:41 (eight months ago) link
yeah i've never been totally into their stuff tbh. veeing off at a tangent but that eton crop album always make me think of this album by the welsh band fflaps (both covers reference the same long-running uk tv quiz show, blockbusters):https://www.discogs.com/release/2060127-Fflaps-Malltod
more of a dog-faced hermans vibe though and it totally rules:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghiTVUTlDvA
― NickB, Friday, 11 August 2023 21:46 (eight months ago) link
wow love that! that name is totally ringing a bell. totally get the DFH vibe too. i love DFH beyond reason.
― scott seward, Friday, 11 August 2023 21:57 (eight months ago) link
not really connected, but THIS is an album i really fell for and played 5 times in a row and i'd never heard it until this week! from 1980. where's it been all my life?? they just didn't make it over here. i only remember the later "I'm In Love With A German Film Star" single.
https://i.discogs.com/wxWgUbhbHJ7Ir7sPRPq-unlMBMR4grvkCaTEHw81KO8/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTU3MzIy/MC0xMzUyOTIwODc0/LTg1NDAuanBlZw.jpeg
― scott seward, Friday, 11 August 2023 22:03 (eight months ago) link
fantastic band whose records you can still buy for buttons pretty much. the album with 'german film star' is also great
― NickB, Friday, 11 August 2023 22:15 (eight months ago) link
yeah, i need the other LPs.
― scott seward, Friday, 11 August 2023 22:30 (eight months ago) link
'Oh No, It's You' is the standout for me. I think I bought this album for about a pound in the early 90s. Isn't Robert Smith on it on somewhere on backing vocals?
― Flowersdie, Wednesday, 16 August 2023 01:51 (eight months ago) link
boom, just pulled this out to price. there is your "pre-c86" in a nutshell, no?
https://i.discogs.com/ZeyoMktHl2CY6kPBnE4jZEJykj0gKYPQ7SvQz-JLVyg/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTE3NDE3/MzItMTMwMzczNzM4/NS5qcGVn.jpeg
― scott seward, Thursday, 17 August 2023 14:51 (eight months ago) link
Love Fflaps!
Trying to get my head around this - so like post-punk or proto-indie/jangle pop? I love a ton of that stuff but sometimes the venn diagram circles are almost perfectly overlapping when trying to mentally categorize...
I've been deep diving a lot of 80s early indiepop kind of stuff, was jamming to The Dentists last night for instance.
― But his face would not turn into hot Kirby (Evan), Thursday, 17 August 2023 15:28 (eight months ago) link
xp underrated band on that comp - Rote Kapelle
― Colonel Poo, Thursday, 17 August 2023 20:16 (eight months ago) link
Did Fflaps have a female singer who was going out with Mark the singer from Dandelion Adventure. I think anyway since they were from Preston and Fflaps somewhere in Wales.Just remembering hitching tours in the late 80s and meeting them along the way.
― Stevo, Friday, 18 August 2023 01:44 (eight months ago) link
Was looking for clarification BTW
― But his face would not turn into hot Kirby (Evan), Friday, 18 August 2023 15:22 (eight months ago) link
They were part of the scene that included the Membranees and the bands John Robb writes about in Death To Trad Rock. The one track by them on Spotify is on the compilation cd that tied in with the book. Or at least one of the 2 instances of the same track is.So I think they were in the rockier side of indie and probably had direct roots to punk, though I think they may have been a bit late in the decade for the term post-punk which would possibly fit otherwise.Venn overlap between several different subgenres.
― Stevo, Saturday, 19 August 2023 08:26 (eight months ago) link