Friday 28 November 2014

No. 4 Alice Donut - Get A Life/Get A Job

The second and final selection from Alice Donut is a 1990 single on Vital Music. This is the first taste of coloured vinyl in our alphabetical run and also the first that requires the 45 rpm adapter; there was always something vaguely exotic about these singles with the big hole in the middle, largely as is was usually U.S. import singles that required them. Get a Life is typical thrashy, trashy Donut fare, but the slower Get A Job is my favourite, with its slide guitar, trombone and bleak assessment of McJob culture.



So, will it be Alien Sex Fiend next? Only time will tell.

Thursday 27 November 2014

No. 3 Alice Donut - My Boyfriend's Back

Alice Donut's version of My Boyfriend's Back, released on the consistently fabulous Alternative Tentacles, was a rather unlikely micro-hit amongst the indie crowd at Leeds University in the early 90s as I recall. It's typically scabrous Donut fare, though no more sinister than the original version as popularised by The Angels, frankly, with its gleeful anticipation of a beating for the unwanted suitor upon said boyfriend's return. This single appears to have been a stop-gap prior to the release of Mule, for my money, their finest album. The other b-side (it is self-deprecatingly a double b-side), is a pretty decent tune too; a reworking of Demonologist, a track of the previous album, Bucketfuls of Sickness and Horror in an Otherwise Meaningless Life. I fondly remember seeing them at the Duchess of York in Leeds (RIP) at around this time, but I have no idea of the precise date; any suggestions would be warmly received though.



Saturday 22 November 2014

No. 2 The Adult Net - Edie

The second single from The Adult Net, Edie must surely rank as their finest moment. It starts out all Spector-esque before mutating into a thick slice of wah-wah driven psych-pop. Rather lovely.  The b-side, I Get Around, sounds, unsurprisingly, an awful lot like The Fall circa 1985, thanks to the presence of Karl Burns and Simon Rogers. The provenance of this single is lost to me; probably a Plymouth second-hand shop in the mid-80s. I love the Edie Sedgewick inspired sleeve photo and the Beggars Banquet paper centre.




Thursday 20 November 2014

No. 1 Adamski - Killer

Q
So here's the chain of events; a friend recently shared some images of a pile of old 7" singles he'd recently re-discovered. They were beautiful; great music (even when it was terrible), great artwork (even when it was terrible) and great memories.

A few days later I found myself revisiting my own stash of 7" singles and wondering how to make something interesting of them.

That's how I end up here; a blog to celebrate these lovely little pieces of music, art, memory, whatever. I'll start at A, and see how far I get. The aim is a photo or two, a listen to both sides and a quick post. 




The first pick is pretty anomalous. In 1990 I was largely hostile to most things electronic; rave culture was, if not the enemy, then certainly something to be regarded with suspicion. This slipped through the net though. I remember hearing it on the way back from a second year history conference in Otterburn and being taken with it - it seemed pretty haunting at the time.

It has always sat at the front of the 7" record boxes over the years; thus the weathered condition. The sleeve has faded badly and is pretty creased, but it retains a certain charm I think. The b-side is horrid though.

I think this was the last number 1 single I bought on 7" - make of that what you will.