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November 09, 2007
Mismatched Quartet
O Level preceded the sadly still semi-unsung Television Personalities as teenaged Dan Treacy's songwriting vehicle of choice. The sharp-minded among you will recognize that name from TVP's immortal "Part Time Punks," as the name of the band whose single is purchased at the Rough Trade shop by the trend-hopping Londoners of the title's derision (a nice self deprecating touch, that). "We Love Malcolm" was a response of sorts to TVP's Rough Trade Records single, the truly truly awesome, "Where's Bill Grundy Now?" That classic was penned about the pompous actual television personality who was a casuality of the Sex Pistols juvenile on camera swearing. Similarly, "We Love Malcolm" comes to the defense of the vilified svengali, Malcolm McLaren. This isn't surprising, as the TVP's were perhaps the sharpest and most empathic lyricists of the post punk blast. They had a forked tongue for pretentious scenesters, but a real feel for crafting sympathetic protagonists. Despite the title, it's not a full defense so much as a fair hearing. "You're no hero, and you're no star/ Just a scapegoat is what you are," sings running mate Ed Ball at the song's start. Dan's off-kilter, "na na na na na"s are unmistakable in a support role. An immensely likable, if fairly slight, minute and forty eight seconds.
Juniper Moon - "El Resto De Mi Vida"
Perhaps the site's Mexican border correspondant can tell me what this song is actually about, but I've always assumed it was about puppies driving toy cars made of sunshine. This is the only single I'm aware of on my iPod that was recorded by Spaniards, and it proves that Scotland has not cornered the European twee market. Released in 2002, it is timelessly tuneful with hooks sharp enough to vault over any language barrier. There's also some surprisingly muscular guitar work smuggled inside the indie-pop confection. As long as I don't find out that it's an impassioned defense of slavery or something, it'll be a perennial grin inducer.
// Juniper Moon - El Resto De Mi Vida (buy for, ouch, 50 bucks)
Gerry & the Holograms - "Gerry & the Holograms"
I'm not sure why I'm posting this 1980 single, as it's really not very good. But I'm presupposing that regular readers of the site might be the sort who revel in really weird songs, just for the sake of hearing them once and a while. The compilers of the excellent 7" Up collection divulge in the liner notes that even they have no clue where this thing came from. It might actually have been recorded by a fame seeking hologram. It more resembles a cyborg with a head cold, who posited the theoretical existence of New Order years before they fully developed. Oh, how the scientists laughed.
"Did I say there were 16 of me? / I'm sorry, there's only 1 / The others are just fragments / Of Gerry and The Holograms..."
Where does a band go after recording this? Nowhere at all.
// 7" Up - buy
The only track in the foursome that could be called "new" by any stretch of definition. Italians Do it Better has quite a roster of starlets on its hands, and Texan lass Farah sounds the most mysterious. Her brand of disaffected vocals were basically run out of town on a rail when the whole electroclash thing evaporated, but there's something else to her dead-eyed spoken word that doesn't evoke bored decadence. It's more like she's possesed, or in a hypnotic state. It's not just her slips into creepy Latin, either. As Johnny Jewel's nearly peerless synth lines percolate behind her, she seems like she's struggling to become enthusiastic, occasionally even bringing a light skipping melody to her lines before the trance reasserts its dominance. But spooked soothsayer is the mode she's best suited to, so I'm especially fond of the segment when she's allowed to stay in that mode as a vocodered sexbot swoops in to provide harmonic assistance.
// Farah - MySpace
Posted by Jeff Klingman at November 9, 2007 04:00 PM
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Comments
gerry and the holograms I believe included
Martin Hannett (rabid records)
CP Lee (alberto y los trios paranoias)
(also that bassist who was in Sparks C. kimono My House, one of John Cooper Clarke's Invisible Girls, cant remember his name just now)
The other side of that single is 100 times better
Posted by: Old welsh guy at October 22, 2008 07:44 PM
Being a wise old welsh guy, I'm not sure what I could offer in trade, but I'd love to hear the flipside!
Posted by: Jeff K. at October 27, 2008 10:39 PM
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