A break from the usual retro stuff – this lot have cropped up on quite a few ‘tip for 2013’ lists, though the album this is from came out fairly late on last year. So this is ‘retro’ as well then – no change there!
The best Xmas record in the world,ever? Well, no, that accolade would to to yesterday’s effort from Arab Strap.
However, if you want what’s a polar opposite to Aidan and Malcolm, but without the festive schmaltz, then this will have you jigging around the nut roast.
This may be the first ‘repeat’ act in the series. Well, it is Christmas. And nothing captures the spirit of the season better than this, er, ‘downbeat’ version of the chirpier-than-thou Darlene Love tune – which, if you listen to the lyrics, is exactly how it should be performed.
(That’s Lauren Laverne on backing vocals, trivia fans)
Rather improbably, I’d not actually featured this lot before. Improbable as they the made the best album of 2012 (and in fact made the second best album of 2010 (Adopts Mrs Doyle voice: “SECOND BEST ALBUM???”)
Anyway, these are both from Afterlives. Yes, TWO videos as a special Xmas treat. Kind of shows off both sides of the band as well.
AKA Colin Macintyre of course, in fact he went back to his given name for a bit then realised that everyone knew him by the ‘band’ name, so he has returned to that, and guess what, his new stuff harks back to the quality of this early (earlier) tune.
He was on the radio just the other day, playing songs that influenced him, or something (Simon and Garfunkel, and Flaming Lips in there) and of course his mug has been quite prominent for me in the past few days, as I was decorating the Electric Circus with old magazine covers for our is this music? anniversary gig.
So…
Just preparing for the is this music? 10th anniversary show (which you may have heard about…) – anyway, ploughing through old issues and the like and found the cover CD that had this lot on it – bit of a ‘where are they now?’ moment, one of the more obscure bands in this wee series…
It might seem that they filmed this ‘vintage’ style so they’d get away with really bad taste in hats, but it’s still one of their finest moments.
One of those that fall into the ‘should have been bigger than the Beatles’ category – was chatting just yesterday to someone about the bands that I’ve expected great things of (Won Mississippi, Swimmer One, Odeon Beat Club, Josephine, St Jude’s…) and that minority of acts that actually surpassed expectations (Franz Ferdinand, Biffy, er…)
This lot come into the sizeable former category. (Warning: clip may contain Craig Hill)
This is one of those bands who only surface from time to time, its members doing other things… we (itm?, probably with Baby Tiger) had them on more than once I’m sure, and the video gives you some idea, but doesn’t completely capture, why they’re best experienced live.
I’ll let the music have a stab at doing the talking…
I could have just posted this without comment (and waited for everyone else to add theirs) but, yes – they’re not really Scottish, they’re not cool either, but there was a period (between first and third albums) when they were making rather decent music.