A bit of Erasure

Sometimes by Erasure, from the LP Circus.



Star by Erasure.



L'Amour.



Always



Stop by Erasure.



The Circus by Erasure. My favourite Erasure song probably.

Shampooing

The original girl power ambassadors (and I personally feel they did a lot better); Girl Power by Shampoo. "I don't wanna be a boy/I wanna be a girl/and I wanna do things/that'll make your hair curl" - genius lyric. "I wanna play with knives/I wanna play with guns/I wanna smash your place up/just for fun", "I don't want to college/don't wanna get a job/wanna sit round the house/and act like a slob". The lyric: "I want to drive the next door neighbours mad" I always thought was: "I wanna jump the next door neighbour's man", which would have better, a mon avis.



Trouble by Shampoo. This was like on a loop throughout my juvenile brain. I just remember the fate suffered by bubblegum bubbles all through England. "We couldn't get a cab cos we ain't got no money/we missed the last train but we thought/don't worry!/we'll get the night bus/but the night bus never came/we're eight miles from home/and it started to...[thunder & rain sound]" I love the rain interlude! It's great to put a pretentious soundbite in the most basic of pop songs! "We tried to drive a car but we soon realised/got on the road and none of us could drive/police car came along and they took us for a ride/and when we get home we're gonna get fried!"

Below is an article by a man called David Campbell, on the story of Shampo:

Forget Ginger Spice, Geri Halliwell's, idle twitterings about female empowerment. The reality of the effect of the Girl Power movement has not been to tell girls that they can be as good as boys. It's not been about equality, raising the standards for both genders with equal opportunity's coming to both sexes. It's sent the dubious message: girls can be as bad as boys can. All the worst traits associated with boys have been adopted by the fairer sex (who supposedly don't like rude words or getting drunk - something euphemistically termed "laddism" by trash mags). Acts of violence, crime and assault by girls are all on a sharp increase, but because the Police and the Courts still don't regard girls as being as inherently threatening as boys, they are less likely to be seriously punished. The average girl in a modern playground is more likely to be living in fear of a hard-as-nails girl gang, than a bunch of leering boys. Before the Spice Girls arrived with their tabloid-friendly version of Girl Power, there was a bubblegum rock and pop band that released a song and album entitled Girl Power. This is why the Spicies had to make do with adopting the slogan for their No 1 best-selling book, but never an album title as you might expect. The band adopted a far more aggressive stance, and in their lyrics and their style they reflected the less than charming reality of the Girl Power movement. Yet ironically the average girl never took the band to their heart. The Spice Girls, who never really challenged any gender stereotypes and became the Essex girls of Pop with their trashy, minimalist dress sense were Fleet Street's darlings for awhile and have maintained massive loyal support among pre-adolescent girls. They have made the record books and probably pop immortality also, but the band that showed the supposed Girl Power "movement" in its true light have already been all but forgotten. Their name was Shampoo, and their legacy is suitably entitled "Trouble".

Next time you see Ginger Spice talking on some cosy chat show say: "Well basically, its about Girl Power…" you might want to bear the following lyrics in mind:

"I don't wanna be a boy, I Wanna be a girl

But I wanna do things that'll make your hair curl

I wanna play with knives, I wanna play with guns

I wanna smash the place up just for fun…

'Cause we got,'cause she's got

Girl power, we glower

Coming home drunk in the midnight hour…"

While Shampoo went largely unnoticed in this country, Trouble not actually making it into the Top 10, they were a sensation in kitsch Japan. With fairly liberal parents anyway, maybe the rebellious girls from Plumstead just looked plain daft to British kids who thought that the lyrics of their records were patronising. They supposedly embodied the ideal of what twenty-something music journalists believed being young was all about, and it was easier to praise them, than credless and insipid singers like Mariah Carey. Live, Shampoo was essentially a punk band with an attitude problem, which reasoned that, as they had never been in love why sing about it?

Shampoo weren't just a band; they were a way of life. With barely two brain cells to rub together the girls Jacqui and Carrie were inseparable, perplexing any journalist given the difficult task of interviewing them with their sullen silences and almost telepathic way of sharing every thought. They lived to buy Barbie dolls and cheap novelties. This was not as innocent as it sounds though: Kinky Ken and Bondage Barbie are unlikely to be seen on the shelves of Hamley's anytime soon. The terrible twosome equipped their innocent toys with thigh length boots, nipple rings and whips, and then wrote a song about them. There was no transparent attempt to intellectualise their music or release wibbling songs about how much they love their Mama's. Shallow interviews were usually centred on a shopping trip where the 'Poos headed for the makeup stands in every shop and, unbelievably considering their aggressive poses for the cameras, invariably bought Take That badges. Considering the braindead superficiality of their PVC and inflatable furniture filled existence, its surprising to note that Shampoo wrote all of their own material and were failed music journalists before they became minor pop deities in Japan. Meeting at an ultra strait-laced girls' school in Plumstead, South London, they discovered a mutual interest in music and The Manic Street Preachers, so they began writing a fanzine which revolved around their heroes. This got them noticed by a weekly music paper. Jacqui picks up the story:

"We never really wanted to be journalists. We hated it. It was just like

school. It was hard work, you had to use your brain and everything. We

got the sack because we just gave everything nought out of ten. They kept

changing it to four and five out of ten. But it was horrible. It was just

like having teachers again. People commenting on your work."

School was another thing Shampoo hated. Lo and behold, they wrote a song about it called School Is Boring, and it was adopted for awhile as a personal anthem by my friends at our dismally dull school:

"Should have stayed in bed all day today,

Watch Neighbours and Home And Away,

Instead we have to go to school,

It ain't fair, it ain't cool…"

The other girls at their middle class, suburban school hated the way Jacqui and Carrie powdered their faces a ghostly white and had their own trashy street style. The more the others hated them for being different, the more they bonded together, like an incitement to rebel. Speculation about their sexuality just made them laugh and hold hands in public:

"They called us lesbians because we were different. They hated us.

We used to go into London and walk around Soho for hours

just overwhelmed by the glamour."

Their songs were invariably about partying and coming home late after clubbing in London. What they could possibly find "glamorous" about Soho (I strongly doubt that they are talking about the more respectable parts) we may never know, but their catchphrase "Uh-oh, we're in trouble!" won them their fifteen minutes of fame anyway. Their first album We Are Shampoo yielded three Top 40 hits: Trouble, Delicious and Viva La Megababes. Undoubtedly their fourth single would have been Shiny Black Taxi Cab, the lyrics of which immortalised a typical night out in London perfectly (and confirmed the disturbing mixture of childishness and sleaze which made up Shampoo) in some of the catchiest lyrics they ever wrote:

Midnight, traffic light,

Green's for go-go,

Backseat joyride,

We love Soho!

Their launch in America prevented its release however. Trouble had been leant by their US record label to the Power Rangers Movie Soundtrack, and was re-released in the UK with a Power Rangers cover. Shiny Black Taxi Cab made it onto the disc unnoticed as a b-side. With this mistimed release Shampoo's fortunes in this country hit the skids - the single made number 38 and fell out of the Top 40 the following week. The same mix of Trouble was now present not only on this re-release, but the original single, the We Are Shampoo album and the single Delicious. Their definitive single, Girl Power, failed to make much of an impression on the charts so the follow up album of the same name was conspicuous by its absence from the shelves of major record shops. With their final single, a synthetic pop track called I Know What Boy's Like and the only non-guitar based song on the album, Shampoo sunk without trace. Their public profile has been subsequently non-existent, with very few people aware of what a successful export for the music industry to the lucrative Japanese market they have been. It was fun while it lasted though.

All quotes attributed to Shampoo taken from an interview in Select Magazine, August 1994, as transcribed on internet Shampoo fansite Viva La Megapage.

Interpretations of Valerie

I loooove this video. Mark Ronson featuring Amy Winehouse, the video for Valerie. (Winehouse isn't actually in the video, but features have-a-go lookalikes plucked from the crowd). Just a wonderful upbeat video, looks like everyone's having a lot of fun. Released October 15th 2007.



A remix of a cover. Brilliant remix. Baby J remixed Mark Ronson's version of Valerie as covered by Amy Winehouse. Phew! It works really well with a ska, reggae, dancehall tinge to it. I love the way a proper video has been produced for this relatively low key remix. I think it was b side on the actual release.



Great little video of Amy sitting off on a couch and performing Valerie live, with an accompanying acoustic guitar, for an AOL session. Makes it look effortless, truly.



Another live performance of the track by Amy Winehouse. Nice relaxed but jazzed up performance.



A really good cover of Valerie by Panic at the Disco, performed on Jo Wiley's Live Lounge.



James Morrison lends some huskiness to Valerie. I think this too must have debutéd on Jo Wiley's show.



Woot! Finally, the instrumental of Mark Ronson's Valerie. However I'm pretty sure it's fake and this is just someone knocking it up on GarageBand, good effort though. (Not sure about the A Christmas Carol bells in the middle though!).

The Zutons

My friend, Emma, bought me the Zutons' debut album as a birthday present in 2005 (released October 18th 2004), Who Killed The Zutons?, which was a brilliant LP, I loved it and had it stuck in my CD player for a whole summer. It reached #9 on the album chart and was nominated for the 2004 Mercury Music Prize. The vinyl came with free 3D glasses! The follow up, Tired of Hanging Around was released on April 17th 2006. Their cover art is brilliant also. The cover art for WKtZ? was brilliant comic book aesthetics and all the singles followed the same style. Some Zutons:



Remember Me from the debut album, Who Killed the Zutons? I love the opening riff to this song, and sax rash. Great song about a girlfriend coming between a childhood into adulthood man-bond. Brilliant, poignant, sweet. "Well we used to be the best of friends/and we used to hang around/now I always see you with your new girlfriend/on the sunny side of town", "But I've made a deal with the clouds/gonna turn that sun into rain/so you forget about your love/and come and see me again", "Oh remember me? I'm your best friend/and we don't talk no more/so if you're in the neighbourhood don't forget to knock on my door". Released June 21st 2004.



It's the Little Things We Do, from the album Tired of Hanging Around. Hangover single for sure. Released 17th April 2006. A stomping entry at #47. "As your hangover unfolds/then the questions will arrive".



You Will You Won't. Released 5th April 2004. This has a stalling beat to it, like tripping along the bars of the song. I was ambivalent about it at first, and still am a little. It makes me feel a bit disoreintated but not in a rampant confusing head-whirring way, sort of like when you wake up and you're not sure what time of day it is, or indeed, what day it is. "You will you won't/you say you will/...but you know you won't".



The video for Why Won't You Give Me Your Love? One of my favourite tracks of theirs. It's edgy and paranoid and a bit angry. An amazing video too, wonderful choreography, acting and great fun. One of the best off the second album. It's freaky and creep, sociopathic and psychotic, it has too much Josef Fritzl about it. But it has both stalker and stalkee viewpoints which is what gives it the edge. Released April 3rd 2006. "What can I do?/what can I say?/to make you want me more?", she replies "I hear the same thing all the time/and you know that I don't care/well I don't like the way you're hanging around/and I sure don't like your hair". "I'll chain you up/I'll make you mine/I'll keep you locked downstairs/with all the bugs/and all the rats/I'll feed you rodent hair/I'll keep you in my cellar safe/oh I'll keep you there till dawn/I'll wait until the sun comes up/then I'll poke and prod you more". Yikes!



Always Right Behind You, Status Quoesque 2008 single. Jazzy, boppy, swing style. Released for download on 19th May 2008. It's a fun, summer grower, blooming about August is my bet. Very 1970s this.



Video for Pressure Point, 19th January 2004. I love the lyrics: "well all of my bones/they toss and they turn". #19 in the charts.



I think this, Oh Stacey (Look What You've Done!) - released 18th September 2007, is probably my favourite Zutons song, if not Remember Me or Why Won't You Give Me Your Love? I know Valerie was the big success from the second album, but I prefer this! "Well she should have went to school/and she should have made it through/but she never/and she should have studied hard/and she should have played the part/but she never", "Well she should have kept her head/and got out of bed more in the mornings/and she should have had her day/should have done it her way/but she never", "She made her father worry till he was sick/found him on the couch one night cold and stiff/now she drinks away the will and she's not proud of it", "Well she should have more time/to get to know the world a little better/and she should have more friends/to glue her brain and stick it back together", "Oh mother, was it always gonna be this way/"It didn't have to daughter, but I knew that's what you'd say"/I will put flowers on and visit every week/"That won't wake your father from his everlasting sleep". Is this the Zutons' version of Eleanor Rigby? ie. depressing tale of a woman's inadequate existence?



No video I'm afraid for Valerie. This is the biggest song off the second album, thanks to Mark Ronson and Amy Winehouse's cover version for Ronson's Versions LP, and for Winehouse's solo Live Lounge performance pre-Version (bet Ronson was pissed off about that!). James Morrison, Sugababes and Panic at the Disco have also covered this track and Winehouse does it a lot on the road now. It reached #9 on the charts, released 19th June 2006. Great cover design too.

Dust by Royworld

I sort of feel embarrassed to like this song, but I can't help it. Dust by Royworld. (What a fucking awful name). I hate the band just for the name 'Royworld'.



The above is Dust sung live in Westminster Library, lovely backdrop, bathed in blue light and book spines. 10th April 2008.

Dizzee Rascal with that bit of a muffinhead Calvin Harris

New track from Dizzee Rascal with Calvin Harris. Not that much of a Harris fan, but love Dizzee. It's called Come and Dance With Me. To be honest this veers towards Harris more than Dizzee.

A bit of t'Futurheads

Just really like this song, Beginning of the Twist, and think it has some outstanding lyrics actually. For instance: "Today I don't feel so ill/if only I could find the time I want to kill".



The Futurehead's famous cover version of Kate Bush's Hounds of Love. Great cover, superb. Just having a lot of fun with the tune.



The Futureheads with Skip to the End.

Eddie Cochran preforms at the Town Hall, 1959

Eddie Cochran performing Summertime Blues at the Town Hall Party, 1959. Wonderful footage. "I'm gonna take two weeks/have a fine vacation/I'm gonna take my problem/to the United Nations/well I called my congressman and he said/quote/'I'd like to help you son, but you're too young to vote'". The song was written in 1950, originally as a b-side track, but ended up going go #8 on the Billboard Hot 100, on the 29th September 1958. Covered by a lot of people including The Who, Bow Wow, Van Halen, Debbie Harry, The Flying Lizards and many more.



C'mon Everybody by Eddie Cochran. Original rock'n'roll.

A bit of David Byrne

Like Humans Do by David Byrne, from the 2001 album Look into the Eyeball. This song was used as the sample track on Windows Media Player XP.

NY bands do Jools Holland

Vampire Weekend perform their lead single A-Punk from their debut single. I'm actually not a major fan of this song, I prefer Mansard Roofs and Oxford Comma, but it's all right for a three minute blast if not about average and annoying. It seems like something any indie band could do. But the other stuff is good. This was aired on the 29th February 2008.



MGMT perform their single Time to Pretend on Jools Holland from the album Oracular Spectacular (2007). This performance is from March 2008.

Duffy covers Hot Chip!!!!

Above is a live video of Duffy's performance of the Hot Chip song, Ready for the Floor for Radio 1 Jo Wiley's Live Lounge, February 2008. Acoustic and stripped back. She also performed her single Mercy, which is shown below.



And one more, Duffy performing Mercy live on the Culture Show:

Duffy borrows from the Temptations

I really like the above song, Warwick Avenue by Duffy, but there is no denying it has the same opening chords of the Temptations' My Girl. It's quite brazen really. And by quite I mean, you know, very. And by very brazen I mean, you know, plagiarism. But then Duffy is Welsh. Nice tune, and an even better video. Close up crying. Never fails.

Below I have posted the Temptations with My Girl to contrast and compare. Not just any video however. A live TV 1965 performance of the track in snazzy suits and black and white filters. Sweet.

A selection of Death Cab

Love the piano intro and bass guitar riff at the beginning of this track. At 8 minutes long, and a vocal that only voices itself about 5 minutes into the track, this is great new 2008 material from Death Cab for Cutie, entitled I Will Possess Your Heart (slightly freaky despotic title, but meh). Great touristy video.



Title and Registration by Death Cab for Cutie. This was the very first song that got me into Death Cab. I just love it. It gets me every time, in a really bad sentimental way. There are just some beautiful, poetic fucking poignant lyrics. & a great plummy synth too. Or like someone walking the streets with dustbin lids stuck to his feet. And a pluck of guitar which sounds like a harp, or the palpy beating and tightening, releasing, contracting of a heart. "The glove compartment isn't accurately named/and everybody knows it/so I'm proposing a swift orderly change/because behind it's door there's nothing to keep my fingers warm/and all I find/are souvenirs from better times", "There's no blame/for how our love did slowly fade/and now it's gone/it's like it wasn't there at all/so here I rest/where disappointment and regret/collide/lying awake at night". Nice video too, reminds me of Michel Gondry actually, especially the dream idea animation from The Science of Sleep. Very Gondry indeed.



Another beautiful, beautiful song, this time from the 2006 album, Plans. What Sarah Said is a song about death, and who will be there for us when we're jumped by the worst hoodie of all: death. Really nice video again goes with this song. "And I rationed my breath/as I said to myself/that I'd already taken too much today/as each descending peak on the LCD/took you a little further away from me". It's just such a fucking great song, wonderful lyrics, amazing drums and piano. "Amongst the vending machines/and year old magazines/in a place where we only say goodbye". "And I looked around at all the eyes on the ground/as the TV entertained itself/cos there's no comfort in the waiting room/just nervous faces bracing for bad news/then the nurse comes round/and everyone lifts their heads/and I'm thinking what Sarah said: love is watching someone die".



The Sound of Settling. The song made famous by a soundtrack appearance on The OC. "Our youth is fleeting/old age is just around the bend/and I can't wait to go grey/and I'll sit and wonder/of every love that could have been/if I'd only thought of something charming to say".

Dolly Parton live

Beautiful live performance of Coat of Many Colours. This is such a beautiful and poignant song and a really great heartfelt performance by the Doll. The whole thing is about "dirt poor" Dolly's mum sewing her a coat with bits of scrap material and all the kids laughing at her in the playground. It amazes me she can pick guitar strings with nails like cigils! "Mama sewed the rags together/sewing every piece with love/she made my coat of many colours/that I was so proud of". Dolly Parton as Joseph in the school yard!



Dolly Parton performs Jolene live on American TV. This is simply one of the best songs ever. The intro is sublime, one of the best guitar intros ever, and the lyrics are perfect desperate woman fair. "Please don't take him/just because you can".

Klaxons vs. Grace

I love cover versions: the Klaxons' cover of the 90s dance band Grace's Not Over Yet. Who does it better? Klaxons, above, or the brilliant Grace below. I love the original but there's no doubting the Klaxons' version has some killerbee synth riffs in there. The original was released in 1995 and reached #6 on the charts. It was remixed and re-released by Paul Oakenfold in 1999 too, and there is apparently a February 2008 Goldfrapp cover kicking about too, courtesy of Jo Wiley's Live Lounge.




The Goldfrapp version, as performed in Jo Wiley's Live Lounge, on the 8th February 2008.

Santogold is pure gold

Album artwork for debut LP, 2008.

Shuv it by Santogold. Great beat and wonderful lyrics. Not heard anything bad by this girl yet. "Brooklyn we go hard/we on the look for the advantage/we work hard/and if we seem to rough it up a bit - we broke/but we rich at heart/pull ourselves up now we won't choke/it's our time/put the lights on us". "War tactics they make me sick/reel your heart in run away with it/smile in your face undermine your blood/got guns for the strength they lack/if you know another way/you can't look the other way/you know another way/tell them so right to their face", "We think you're a joke/shove your hope where it don't shine", "I pay for what's called eccentricity/and my will to evolve/I hear them all say/that I got heart/but not everything that it takes".



Find a Way by Santogold. I think this song is a warning sign rallying call railing against a serially abusive boyfriend and one pushing drugs on his girlfriend. Basically a bad news douche. "Go ahead/you know you want it/you'll have no other way you just wanna take us down/go ahead/I'll be the one hit/if I can take you boy it just might throw this town", "Oh oh oh/you want to get it/you make us bleed it'll prove there's life somewhere/and oh no I want to yell it/but do we speak or are we just nodding our heads?", "No way not me/what you got/it's not for me/(you'll find a way)/no way not me/what you got is not for me", "Go ahead/I'll be your junkie/I'll be deplete/you can heap all rubbish here/go ahead/now dump it on me/if I go quiet, will the itch go down with me?", "Don't reach too far/you will fall over/don't be surprised what you discover/don't fear/your call can't pull us under/you better watch out/run for cover".



The Creator by Santogold. Haha, the introduction to this sounds like something from the Sims 2! Brilliant. "Got no need for the fancy things/all the attention that it brings/tell me no/I say yes - I was chosen/and I will bring the explosion". "Me I'm a creator/thrill is to make it up/the rules I break got me a place up on the radar/me I'm a taker; know what the stakes are/can't roll it back it's understood got to play our cards".



Absolute superb pop tune by Santogold, L.E.S Artistes. Such a brilliant bass riff. Very cool video reminds me of Bat for Lashes' video for What's a Girl to Do. Santogold clearly wants to be wary of the nu-rave clingy indie crowd of bandwagon joy riders: "If you see me keep going be a passerby waver/build me up bring me down/just leave me out you name dropper/stop trying to catch my eye/I see you good you forced faker/just make it easy you're my enemy you fast talker", "I can say I hope/it will be worth what I give up/if I can stand up - me/for all the things that I believe", "What am I here for?/I left my home to disappear is all/I'm here for myself/not to know you/I don't need no one else".

Adele

The ice sculpture adorned video for Cold Shoulder, taken from the debut album 19. "You/grace me with your cold shoulder/whenever you look at me I wish I was her/you/shower me with words made of knives/whenever you look at me I wish I was her". Released April 21 2008.



The spot for the single Chasing Pavements. Not sure about the video, but I like her coat and Audrey Hepburn pants. Kanye West liked it though - he described the video as "dope".



Adele performs the track Daydreamer live on Jools Holland. Very Ella Fitzgerald inspired performance. "But I will find him/sitting on my doorstep".



A live roof top, stripped down piano-accompanied version of Hometown Glory, featured on the BBC2 show, Sound. 27th October 2007.



Adele guests on BBC Radio 1 Jo Wiley's Live Lounge, and covers the Strokes' Last Nite.

Kissin' in the Back of the Movies by The Drifters

The Drifters perform Kissin' at the Back of the Movies on the Shirley Bassey show in 1979, the song reached #2 on the UK charts. Check out the Bassey in this video! She looks beautiful! The Drifters ain't so bad themselves. Love The Drifters and how their music is always so teen-boppy romantic. "And every night I pick her up from school/cos you're my steady date", "we can't have too much fun/till all your homework's done".

The Ting Tings

Live and acoustic MTV session from the Ting Tings. Bad sound but good live performances. The second single (and catchy as an STI), single Not My Name, followed by Fruit Machine and Traffic Light. Below is are the music video spots and also a live performance of Not My Name on Jools Holland. The vocalist, Katie White, has the same Mancunian accent as model Agyness Deyn I think.



The lo-fi 80s pink and turquoise pop of the Ting Ting's first video for Great DJ. "You gotta love the BPM".



Music promo for That's Not My Name. Released on the 12th May 2008.



That's Not My Name performed on Jools Holland.

Christina Aguilera Performs A Man's World

This is a great performance of James Brown's This is a Man's World, at the 2007 Grammy awards, a tribue to the late singer. James Brown was the first live act I ever saw on stage! Something I'll probably be for ever grateful for. Ahem, he was supporting the Red Hot Chili Peppers however.