THE SHOVEL PLAYLIST - 19 / 03 / 14

What's on the Shovel playlist this week

Brassick - Broke & Reckless e.p.
Where have I been these last 6 months! 5 tracks of punk n ska excellence.

Spirit Bomb - Killer In Your Stereo e.p
Following on from their recent debut gig this e.p. sets the bar very high indeed

Daniel Johnson - Lost and Found Album
Daniel is an interesting and inspiring person, releasing many of his early albums on self recorded cassettes - love the chaotic feel to his recordings and wish I made homemade cassettes when I was young

Discharge - Hear Nothing, See Nothing, Say Nothing LP
It's been over a month since I saw the D-Beat wizards and this has not been far from the stereo since.  

Johnny Cash - Live at St Quentin
Playing to a captive audience Johnny had the crowd eating out of his hands from the get go.

 

 

The Hold Steady - Spinners

Not heard the album yet but the lead single from Teeth Dreams is pure anthemic Alt Country pop.

 



Against Me - Transgender Dysphoria Blues - LP
Laura Jane Grace's tales about the issues she has faced over the last few years - for me the album is truly full of soul and hope apart from being a great fucking punk record to boot.

Hook Line Riot - Sirens
Just got a copy of the debut album by Hook Line Riot and with songs as catchy and anthemic as Waiting Room Exit it's no wonder it's been on the stereo all week.  Album review to follow.

Courtney Barnett - The Double E.P. - A Sea of Split Peas
Compilation of the first two e.p.s by the Melbourne guitar playing singer song writer.  Got a great lo-fi feel to it and a tinge of humour too.

The Clash - Combat Rock
Probably my least favourite Clash album back in the day but the Sound System remaster of Combat Rock is the album that benefits the most and the album sounds fresh & exciting.












 

THE CLASH - THE CALL UP

First single from the triple album Sandinista, always reminds me a little of Christmas (was in the charts December 1980), always a bit underrated in my opinion. 

 

 

The Clash - The Call Up

 

DANNY RAY - REVOLUTION ROCK

This is the original version of the song that The Clash covered on their London Calling album.  Originally recorded by the Jamaican group Danny Ray and the Revolutioneers in 1976. Danny Ray sampled the Jackie Edwards song "Get Up" on the track, so Edwards and Ray are the credited songwriters of "Revolution Rock."

 

 

 

Danny Ray - Revolution Rock

 

SEPTEMBER GOOD STUFF

20 GOOD THINGS IN SEPTEMBER

 

 

New discoveries, gigs, songs / albums on heavy rotation and general rock n roll influenced greatness.
 

1.       Dog Party – Lost Control.  Great new discovery.

2.       New Model Army – Between Dog and Wolf.  A brilliant new album.

3.       Louise Distras – Dreams From The Factory Floor.  Long awaited debut album finally released.

4.       Brum Punx Picnic 2013 – Sunday 1^st September.  10 Bands for £5.  Brilliant DIY day out.

5.       John Cooper Clarke / Mike Garry / Luke Wright – 17^th September live at Artrix, Bromsgrove. A classic night of poetry and humour. 

6.       The Hold Steady – We Can Get Together (from Heaven Is Whenever album).  Song has been stuck in my head for weeks. 

7.       Punk Rock Chaos 2 - Wagon & Horses 28th September with Rotunda / Angry Itch / Complete Dysfunction / Mangled / The Knobbers / Waste Of Organs 

8.       Sam’s 18^th birthday & epic tattoo!

9.       GTA V – Some great radio stations featuring, Off!, Circle Jerks, Adolescents, Black Flag, Lee Scratch Perry and others.  Oh and the games not bad.

10.   Get Dead - Bad News.  Another great new discovery.

11.   Beastie Boys – Ill Communication.  Dusted down and given a few spins thanks to Gregg’s top ten.

12.   The Fall – Rowche Rumble.  Man, everyone should love this song!

13.   Angry Itch – Scratch It Till it Bleeds.  Storming debut e.p.

14.   Marc Riley – 6 Music.  Well worth a listen

15.   The Clash – Sound System.  Not sure if it’s entirely a good thing but gives an opportunity for another listen.

16. Pixies - E.P.1

17. Joanna Gruesome - Weird Sister

18. Bad Sports - Bras

19. Chixdiggit - Double Diggits

20. XTC - Complicated Game

THE CLASH - HITS BACK / SOUND SYSTEM

 

This week the Clash have two separate and quite different pieces of merchandise out.  I haven't got either of them (yet) but here are a few observations.

Firstly there is the Clash - Hits Back, a two CD compilation featuring studio versions of the 23 song set list from the 1982 Brixton Fairdeal show, plus 8 additional 'iconic' tracks (and a reproduction of the original setlist, handwritten by Joe Strummer). 

The second release is The Clash Sound System, featuring the first five albums (it excludes The Clash Mark II's Cut The Crap) all remastered and various other odds and sods all packaged in a replica boom box designed by Paul Simonon. 

The question is do we really need either of these reissued products?

There have been plenty of Clash reissues and compilations over the years.  All the albums were remastered several years ago and the various compilations have all been fairly comprehensive, Singles, The Story of, The Essential, On Broadway, Hits, there's five right off the top of my head, not to mention the singles boxed set a few years back.

The Clash Hits Back intrigues me, it's not your typical greatest hits, so will it appeal to the casual fan? It's a nice concept (I do like the look of the packaging and the repro Joe set-list) but anybody who is more than a casual fan will already have all the tracks,  So maybe a live album of the gig may have been more appealing but we've already got Live at Shea Stadium and From Here To Eternity not to mention the 100s of live bootlegs readily available.

The Sound System is a bit meatier.  It's got the first five albums, remastered by the remaining members (London Calling is now spread over two disks, Sandinista three).  A further three discs featuring , non-album singles, B-sides, rarities, demos, and live tracks most of which has been previously available.  There is also a DVD with previously unseen footage by both Don Letts and Julien Temple, original promo videos and live footage.  It also includes a "Service Manual" (a hardback guide to the contents of the box set), Dog Tags, 5 Badges, 3 DIY Stickers, The Clash Paperback Book (blank!), The Clash Folder, Armagideon Times Special Edition (36 pages), Armagideon Times 1 (Reprint - 24 pages), Armagideon Times 2 (Reprint - 24 pages), 2 Bumper Stickers, The Clash Vintage Sticker Set and a 15" x 15" Poster. Most fans will have most of the CD content already.  Most non fans will be discouraged from topping up their collections by the hefty price tag - not much change from a hundred quid (but price wise it is still cheaper than box set reissues by The Pistols and other rock stars) .

So just who is this aimed at?  Well I guess it's aimed at people like me.  We all know there is very little unreleased material worth getting hold of (The Vanilla Tapes released with the 25th anniversary version of London Calling were intriguing but there was no long term appeal for me - I tend to skip over most of those tracks these days) I still play the Clash every week.  The remastered versions are supposed to offer something new which does sound appealing.  If I thought the revenue from these releases were going purely into the pockets of the remaining members then that would soften the blow somewhat but we all know that won't be the case. 

But there is still something alluring about all of this.  They were the greatest rock n roll band of all time and to this day they continue to have a massive impact on my life. The cynical part of me (maybe the more realistic part of me) knows I don't need either of these products.  I can't afford them and if I could I'd be wiser to blow the cash on new bands.  But I am a sucker for a box set and those badges and stuff make me feel about 15 again.

So do we need these reissues?  Probably no.

Do I want one?  Fuck yes!

And you've got to admit, it looks fucking great?

Dear Santa...

MY TOP TEN - IAN PARSONS

The latest in a weekly series of Top Tens and kind of wish I'd included these albums in mine.  Seriously if you don't own these albums there are serious holes in your record collection....

Check out the comments at the end.


10.Slayer-Reign in Blood


9.Bad Brains-Bad Brains

8.X-Ray Spex-Germ Free Adolescents


7.My Bloody Valentine-Is'nt Anything


6.Dexys Midnight Runners-Searching For The Young Soul Rebels


5.Cockney Rejects-Greatest Hits Volume 1


4.The Jam-Setting Sons


Ramones-Ramones

The Fall-Hex Enduction Hour


The Clash-London Calling

Pretty predictable I think, the problem is some bands have such almost flawless bodies of work I find it impossible to single 1 album out eg-Dead Kennedys, Killing Joke, David Bowie, Iron Maiden, Dinosaur Jr, The Smiths, Wedding Present, Husker Du, Black Flag + countless others.

Some curveballs that came close, Whipping Boy- Heartworm, Das Damen- Mousetrap, Bjork-Post

MY TOP TEN by BLAKE DEVONPORT

As promised I'm going to start putting up some top tens by friends and family and maybe even the odd celebrity.  Going to make it a weekly event but couldn't wait a whole week to post this so here's the first guest top ten by Blakey (don't call me Snakey) Devonport. 

1. The Clash - Give 'Em Enough Rope.

With such songs as 'Safe European home' and 'Tommy Gun', it's hard not to put this as the greatest album ever made every single week.

2.Enter Shikari - A Flash Flood of Colour.

I was always into Enter Shikari songs, but to sit down and listen to an album was always a challenge for me. The problem being - not enough consistency. Until the band went to Thailand to make this epic set of tracks. Great album and the most energetic band I've seen live.

3.Alanis Morissette - Jagged Little Pill

Dating back to my childhood in 1995. This was the last album my family ever listened to in full before we was broken up. It's a moment album for me. It helps me go back to that time.

4.Metallica - Kill 'Em All

Hard to choose one album from Metallica. I went with Kill 'Em All, the birth of Metallica. 2 great songs on the album are Hit The Lights and Seek and Destroy.

5. Parkway Drive - Deep Blue

A very heavy album. I met Parkway Drive back at Sonisphere and they played most of this album, I've never looked back.

6. Nickelback - Silver Side Up

Another one from back in the day. Has always stuck with me no matter what genre I drifted to and from. There's not much before or after this album by Nickelback that I liked very much.

7.Linkin Park - Reanimation

With Linkin Park flying high and hitting the charts with Crawling which ended up winning a Grammy and 'In the End'. This song ranked at #121 in Blender magazine's The 500 Greatest Songs Since You Were Born. These songs were taken and remixed into a album known as reanimation.

8.Mumford and Sons - Babel

This has already found a spot on my all time favourite 10, which shows how good this album is. Fantastic atmosphere and vibe to the album. These boys are very close and it shows through their music.

9.Counting Crows - August and Everything

A lot of great songs on this album. Me and my brother helped each other with this album. I gave him the name counting crows, he gave me songs like 'holiday in Spain'. A great album to have in the car. 

10.Rammstein - Mutter

A album that you have no idea what is being sang but you feel it. You feel the intensity in every single unknown word. It makes you listen to every instrument.

TOP TEN ALBUMS

I love reading peoples Top 10s for two reasons. 

Firstly you can feel a bit of connection with someone if some of their picks overlap with your own, like you share the same musical heritages and influences. 

Secondly over the years I have been turned on to some really great bands / albums just by being intrigued over someone else’s choice especially where it’s an artist I’m not familiar with. 

It’s also great when someone throws in a bit of a curve ball and name checks someone you really were not expecting. 

It’s always difficult to narrow it down to an all-time top ten and whenever I’ve been asked to name mine it always tends to be a snapshot of that moment in time, a concoction of favourite all time albums mixed with current listening and for me that’s how it should be.  An amorphous melting pot that grows and expands with our own musical horizons and changes year by year, week by week, hour by hour!  I thought it would be interesting to hear what is shaping others audio landscapes and so I’m going to ask some friends and musicians to contribute their current top ten’s (albums / songs / whatever) with a brief note of what makes these picks so important or influential to them. 

So to kick things off here is mine.  No particular order, not cast in stone and definitely only valid for the next seven days. 

The Clash -London Calling. 

More than 33 years after it’s release it’s still an album I return to continually.  Causing many a furrowed brow upon release, including my own on about half the tracks, it’s one of those rare albums that for years I would hear something new on each listen.  I went from liking parts of it on first listen back in 1979 to it being ingrained within my very existence by the end of the 90’s, playing it virtually every day.  From the grand opening of the title track, through the grubby rock’n’roll cover of Brand New Cadilliac, via the laid back reggae grooves of Revolution Rock and Lover’s  Rock, pseudo jazz of Jiimmy Jazz and motown tinged Train In Vain it snaked it’s way across the musical landscape like a predator on the prowl.  And I haven’t even mentioned some of favourite tracks such as Rudie Can’t Fail and Death or Glory.  This record expanded the punk template like no band had done before and should be included on the school’s curriculum to ensure everyone gets an opportunity to listen and love like myself.  Possibly the greatest album of all time?  I think so. 

Hefner – The Fidelity Wars. 

My brother gave me a tape of this not long after it’s release,  (I wouldn’t like to guess how many great albums and bands he has turned me on to over the years).  I’d only heard one Hefner song previously and hadn’t been overly impressed but when I put this in my Walkman on the bus journey to work one morning I was hooked.  I’d never really heard anyone sing songs so brutally honest and beautifully crudely about love before.  It was songs about smoking and drinking and sex on the kitchen floor all told in a language that painted such vivid pictures it was like I was there, guiltily observing.  Even though these were not my experiences I felt I could associate with them all.  I went on to get as much stuff as I could by Hefner and still continue to buy Darren Hayman’s albums all of which are still as lyrically entertaining but the Fidelity Wars still has a special place in my heart. 

The Pixies – Surfer Rosa.

I can vividly remember hearing this for the first time.  It was winter 89.  Newly married.  Walking to catch the bus to work early one dark cold morning.  Coat, scarf and gloves to protect against the bitter weather.  Tape inserted (thanks again Ian) Walkman cranked up to max.  Bone Machine thundered out.  Oh my god.  Rewind.  Pressed play again, only this time listened to the whole album before I got to work.  This is what I had been waiting for.  The Pixies hadn’t quite broken in to the big time yet and grunge was still a year or so from being invented but for now I had the Pixies to myself.

Husker Du - Candy Apple Grey

Another recommendation from Ian, this was the first Husker Du album that I really took to heart.  They'd always had the melodies but this time the frenetic pace was often toned down which just seemed to give the tunes and lyrics more time to bloom.  There was heartache and angst aplenty which I must be a sucker for and this still remains my favourite Husker Du album.

Siouxsie & The Banshees – The Scream. 

This is a great example of picking an album from current listening.  Seen the Banshees many times over the year and with possibly one or two exceptions I have loved everything they have put out.  My favourite Banshees album changes frequently and so I have gone back to where it all began.   The Screams begins slowly, but not plodding, more like some large feline stalking, waiting, with Siouxsie wailing over an otherwise two minute instrumental intro.  Before there is time to draw breath the Banshees pounce, lurching forward delivering a stark, brutal but simultaneously beautiful sound and laying down a blue print for the post punk generation.   The Scream (aptly titled) is a glorious noise, unlike anything else I had heard at the time and the closing epic Switch sealed my lifelong love affair with the Banshees.

Leatherface - Stormy Petrol

I’ve chosen this over the potentially more obvious Mush as it was Stormy Petrol that reignited my love of this band and it is every bit as good.  We had a chat with Dickie Hammond a few years ago at the Rebellion Festival  and he excitedly told us that he was working on a new Leatherface album with Frankie Stubbs and the result was a brilliant collection of songs that sounded like Thin Lizzy.  And you can kind of see the comparison at times, it was a band who’s sound had no doubt grown but lost none of the earlier vitality.   With Dickie’s superb guitar work (a true, mainly unrecognised punk rock legend) and Frankie’s excellent lyrical dexterity the album ingrained itself it to our skulls like a night out with the Driller Killer.  I was lucky enough to catch them at the Vic Inn,  Derby a couple of times during 2011 for a couple of the best gigs I’d seen in a long time and with no news of any further activity at the moment they are a band sorely missed from the punk rock live scene so I’m off to play Stormy Petrol again!  

The Hold Steady – Boys and Girls In America 

 

This album received a load of hype when released but it kind of passed me by and it wasn’t until around the release of it’s follow up that I got round to checking it out.  I’m a sucker for songs that paint a picture and tell little stories and this album has that in abundance.  Sometimes I’m not really sure what’s going on in the lyrics but for me that’s part of the appeal, that ambiguity.  The opening line of Chips Ahoy just drags me in and wanting more “She put $900 on the fifth horse in the sixth race, I think its name is "chips ahoy!", it came in six lengths ahead, we spent the whole next week getting high”  and then ” I got a girl and she don't have to work, she can tell which horse is gonna finish in first, some nights the painkillers make the pain even worse”.  I just want to meet these people.  If you get the chance check them out.

The Damned - Machine Gun Etiquette

Like the Banshees, my favourite Damned album very often varies but Machine Gun Etiquette is my go to album.  Bought with my Christmas money in December 1979 from a store in Wolverhampton it is bristling from start to finish with festive punk rock cheer.  Fantastic three minute tunes such as Love Song, Anti Pope, Melody Lee, pretty much the whole album every so slightly offset by the epic Plan 9 Channel 7 and grand finale of Smash It Up parts 1&2.  Influential to this day. 

Public Image Ltd - Metal Box

Where do you start?  Three 12" singles in a metal film style tin.  A bass sound that could literally kick start a heart in the absence of a defibrillator.  And Mr Lydon proving after the patchy First Issue album that there was a lot more to offer in the wake of the Pistols.  The opener Albatross with it's incessant dub bass refrain seems like it's going to go on for ever but as it's 10 minutes something stumbles to a finish I just want to hear it again.  Luckily the rest of the album keeps up the momentum with songs written about John's dying mum and another about a kidnap victim it's a sometimes stark listen but still sounds as fresh now as it did all those years ago.  Play fucking loud.

Ramones - Ramones

Was going to go for something a little less obvious but fuck it, 14 songs in under 30 minutes.  Great cover, great album.  Don't talk about it, just listen to it!
 

WHAT IF THE KING BLUES NEVER HAPPENED

It was with great sadness last week that I heard the breaking news of the demise of The King Blues. 

These are dark days for music my friends.   

I'd first seen them about four years ago at the Rebellion festival after Attila The Stockbroker had recommended them during his set.  The next day we duly poked our heads around the door in the Empress Ballroom mid-afternoon to catch an absolutely storming performance.  They played a ska -punk tinged set bringing bands like The Specials and The Ruts to mind but for me they seemed to be the embodiment of a Clash for this generation. 

The debut album Under the Fog was originally released in 2006 on Household Name records after being recorded in four days in a bedroom.  An updated version was re-released in 2008 and showcased a band perfectly at home with their brand of politically laced punky reggae ska. A second album, Get The Girl, Save The World was released later in 2008 and was critically well received and featured some killer songs and the epic What If Punk Never Happened.  2011 saw the release of the perfectly titled Punk and Poetry and the future was looking rosey as the band headed over to America at the start of 2012 to record their forthcoming album Long Live The Struggle. 

But it looks as if it's time to move on.  I loved this band from the moment I saw them, my son probably more so.  I've been lucky enough to catch them live a handful of times and have not seen a band move an audience in the way they do for a long time. 

The Clash released 5 albums before splintering and left a legacy that still resonates today and I think The King Blues (my new Clash) will leave a similar legacy that will only be fully realised with time.  As with the Clash, whose band members went on to release albums that I came to love, let's hope that both Itch and Jamie Jazz and the others all carry on with whatever they do next with the same passion and edge that made The King Blues so captivating. 

THE KING BLUES - WHAT IF PUNK NEVER HAPPENED

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcFZEsn2Lls&feature=related