No. 33 Big Black - Heartbeat

More Big Black loveliness. Heartbeat is a Wire cover, the original is itself a cracking tune, as this live version from 1979 demonstrates. Albini is a long-time fan of Wire; they played at the ATP he curated some years ago, though the sleeve notes suggest that he may not have been too impressed by Colin Newman at this point. The Big Black version does a pretty decent version of capturing the angsty quiet-loud dynamics of the original song though.

On the reverse are two tracks. The first is Things To Do Today is based on a piece of evidence from the 'Billionaire Boys Club' murders, whilst the short instrumental I Can't Believe rounds off the single. This originally had lyrics but guitarist, Santiago Durango hated them, so it became an instrumental.

This was packaged as part of the 1987 Headache e.p. along with a fine four-track 12" single. Not one but two cover versions on the next seven inch post.

No. 32 Big Black - Il Duce

Big Black were without doubt, one of the most important bands in forming my musical tastes. Their slim discography (two studio albums, a handful of singles and EPs as well as two live albums and a pair of compilations) helped shift the focus on my listening from the UK goth scene to the US noise-rock scene in the late 1980s.

My first encounter with them was via a compilation tape (how else, this was the late 1980s) that a friend of a friend made. In amongst all of the usual goth stuff that we traded in those days (I think I'd been particularly keen to get hold of some early Sisters of Mercy singles) was a handful of tracks from Atomizer, the debut album by a a band I'd never heard of, Big Black. These included Kerosene and Jordan, Minnesota. My mind was blown. Within a year, the main focus of my musical purchasing would be U.S. noise rockers like Butthole Surfers, Hüsker Dü and Sonic Youth, along with British bands influenced by their sound, such as A.C. Temple and Head of David - basically anything on Blast First.

I think this 7" was acquired some while later. It slightly pre-dates the aforementioned Atomizer and the a-side, Il Duce, claims to be a 'tribute' to Benito Mussolini, "whose life has been an inspiration to us all", according to the sleeve notes. On the b-side is a version of Big Money, that sounds pretty much the same as the version that would appear on Atomizer the following year. This was the last Big Black release to feature Jeff Pezzati, before he left to concentrate on Naked Raygun. It was also the record that split Big Black from Homestead; apparently Albini caught the label selling copies of the radio only 12" version of this single, after he'd expressly forbidden it, and subsequently moved the band to Touch & Go.

No. 31 Bettie Serveert - Brain-Tag

A second entry for Dutch post-grungers, Bettie Serveert, this was originally given away as a freebie with initial copies of their 1992 album, Palomine, when it was released on short-lived 4AD spin-off label Guernica. The A-side, Brain-Tag, is a bit of a slow burner. and has album out-take written all over it. On the reverse you get two tracks; Smile has already featured on this blog, as it was the b-side of Tom Boy. The other track, Get The Bird was also a b-side of the single version of Palomine. 

I was always rather fond of the bonus single given away with albums - it certainly seemed to be a better way of rewarding the loyal fan that the modern phenomenon of reissuing the album six months after its initial release with a slew of extra tracks (often of questionable worth, as the b-side seems to be a bit of a dying art) and forcing the same loyal fan to re-buy an album they already own at an inflated price. 

Next up, an all-time favourite.

                               

No. 30 Bettie Serveert - Tom Boy

OK, so this whole blog project is (partly) an exercise in nostalgia, despite my fairly frequently expressed distaste for the whole 'heritage' music scene. It's fair to say though, that if I were to look all wistful about a particular year, 1992 would be a strong contender. It has always seemed to me that this was a good time for music, with lots of good bands releasing their best work. However, on reflection I'm not convinced this is actually the case - my suspicion is that I have particular fondness for 1992, because it was a time of plentiful gigs, frequent festivals and a degree of underemployment that left me with enough money to buy music and enough time to peruse shops, both new and secondhand, and actually acquire the stuff.

So this was part of the rush of great music that, for me at least, made 1992 a vintage year.

Bettie Serveert were/are the most well known Dutch post-grunge rockers from this period. They toured with the likes of Buffalo Tom and Dinosaur Jr, produced a cracking debut album, Palomine, which came out in the UK, on Guernica, the short-lived 4AD off-shoot, then switched to (the also ill-fated) Beggars Banquet and are, it would seem, still active. Tom Boy was their first single, backed by a decent b-side, Smile. Well worth a listen if you don't know their stuff, well worth wallowing in the nostalgia for 4 minutes and 21 seconds if you do.

No. 29 Beachbuggy - Ya Just A Little Punk

Beachbuggy were, for a period in the mid-1990s a fairly significant feature in my life. Hailing from Doncaster, and reflecting the creative vision of their singer/guitarist Jack Straker, they had a small but vociferous following around Leeds, though this never entirely translated into wider popularity or success. This single is fairly typical of their sound - fairly basic production, garage rock with a hint of '60s surfer rock and themes that revolve around classic cars, drag racing and 1950s Americana. I first remember being aware of them when they performed one of their trailer gigs (they'd play a short set from the back of a trailer at the end of a another band's gig) and then saw them in a wide range of pubs and small venues in Leeds and Sheffield over the next few years. This was the last single released during their first burst of creativity; shortly afterwards Straker joined the Wedding Present as bassist/guitarist, though there was a second spell which generated wider interest once they signed to Alan McGee's Poptones label and got themselves produced by Steve Albini. However it all amounted to very little and the band hung up their matching overalls in the mid-'00s.

My recollections of the specifics of which gigs I attended  are pretty sketchy and I'd welcome any details that others reading this may recall. I think they're the only band I ever saw in Leeds' Cardigan Arms and also the only band I saw play the downstairs bar at Sheffield's legendary and long closed Boardwalk.

The B-side is called The Chauffeur, but sadly, it's not a cover of this.

No. 28 Bauhaus - Spirit

I've been away too long! Halloween and Bonfire Night have been and gone, Autumn is finally feeling a little more autumnal, so it's high time I cracked on a bit. Here at last, is my final Bauhaus single. Released in 1982, Spirit was another attempt to crack the all important Top 40 - it failed (again - see post no. 27), only reaching number 42 and was subsequently re-recorded before appearing on their third album, The Sky's Gone Out. It was also accompanied by a fairly high-budget video - be warned, it hasn't dated well. The b-side (or black side as its called) is a rough and ready live take of the Baader-Meinhof inspired Terror Couple Kills Colonel. The sleeve art is a lovely thing, only slightly marred by the inclusion of the band name and song title in a rather ugly font.

The next post will be almost 100% less goth.

No. 27 Bauhaus - Searching For Satori E.P.

Yet more goth, in fact, pretty much the same goth. For those in the know or who've been paying attention will note that this is the 1982 reissue of 1981's Kick In The Eye. I assume the reissue was a strategy to gain Bauhaus the top 40 hit that had, to this point, eluded them. It didn't work; this peaked at number 45. The band would have to wait until later in the year to finally make an impact on the (in those days) all important UK top 40, when their cover of Bowie's Ziggy Stardust reached number 15. 

You do get two new b-sides for your money with the reissue. Harry is a good example of Bauhaus' dabbling in reggae, whilst Earwax heads off in an altogether more dubby direction. Reggae and dub was an obvious influence on the punk and new wave scene in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but as far as I know Bauhaus were the only goth band who demonstrated their interest so overtly - as both these tracks demonstrate, they clearly had an ear for the genre. Earwax in particular, manages to be both goth and dub simultaneously. Both are well worth a listen.