The The - Gun Sluts (1997)

The 1990's saw the return of Matt Johnson's band The The, following some years as a solo artist under his own name, helped in no small way with the recruitment of ex-Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr to the group, alongside ex-Nick Lowe bassist James Eller and ex-ABC drummer David Palmer, as fully-fledged members. This line-up, plus guest singer Sinéad O'Connor, recorded the album 'Mind Bomb', which debuted at No. 4 in the UK Albums Chart and featured the band's highest charting single to date, with 'The Beat(en) Generation' peaking at No. 18 in the UK singles chart. Keyboardist D.C. Collard was added to the official line-up in 1989, after Steve Hogarth, who'd played on 'Infected', opted to become the new lead vocalist of Marillion, and this line-up embarked on a lengthy world tour in 1989/90 called the The Versus The World, which was filmed by Tim Pope during the three nights the band performed at London's Royal Albert Hall. The studio EP 'Shades Of Blue' was released in 1990, including cover versions of Fred Neil's 'Dolphins' and Duke Ellington's 'Solitude', as well as a new original song 'Jealous Of Youth' and a live version of 'Burning Blue Soul's 'Another Boy Drowning', and in 1993 the band released the 'Dusk' album, which debuted at No. 2 in the UK album chart, and which spawned three Top 40 singles in the UK. This was followed by another world tour, the Lonely Planet tour, after which Marr and Eller left, and were replaced by Atlanta-based guitarist Keith Joyner and New York bassist Jared Michael Nickerson, with the group having already lost Palmer partway through the tour, being replaced by ex-Stabbing Westward drummer Andy Kubiszewski. Now permanently relocated to New York, The The's next project was 1995's 'Hanky Panky', an album that consisted entirely of Hank Williams covers, and which was recorded by a new line-up consisting of Johnson, Collard, Fitting, ex Iggy Pop guitarist Eric Schermerhorn, ex David Bowie bass guitarist Gail Ann Dorsey, plus drummer Brian MacLeod. in 1997 the band recorded an experimental album called 'Gun Sluts', but it was so unlike their other records that their record label refused to release it, saying that it was too uncommercial, and so it was consigned to the vaults. Only the title track ever officially appeared, as an extremely rare promotional single sold on the NakedSelf tour, and the rest became a legendary addition to the bands discography, as well as causing the band to sever their eighteen-year relationship with Sony Records, and to sign to Interscope, on Trent Reznor's Nothing Records imprint. Johnson played one track from the sessions on his Radio Cineola internet podcast in 2010, and then in 2020 he released rough mixes of six recordings from the 'Gun Sluts' sessions as an official bootleg, in order to try to stem the sale of unauthorised pressings on the internet. By collecting together all the extant recordings from the 'Gun Sluts' sessions that have surfaced, we can approximate what the album might have sounded like, and although it might not be to the taste of some fans of the band, this all instrumental cacophony is just the sort of thing that I love, so I'm pleased to be able to post it here. 

Track listing

01 Gunsluts
02 Boiling Point
03 Love Lamp
04 Fuck Wit
05 Kid Killers
06 Echo Plasm
97 60 BPM
08 Psychic Sauna
09 Gunsluts (A Funkorelic Extension)

Johnny Marr - ...and on guitar (2010)

John Martin Maher (aka Johnny Marr) was born on 31 October 1963, and originally had aspirations to become a professional footballer, being approached by Nottingham Forest, and securing trials with Manchester City. At the age of 13, Marr's family moved him to a new neighbourhood in Manchester where he met up with a bunch of guitar players which changed his life, including The Cult guitarist Billy Duffy, who Marr would listen to rehearsing across the street from his new house. He formed his first band at 13 with Andy Rourke and Kevin Williams, and The Paris Valentinos performed at a Jubilee party in Benchill in June 1977, playing Rolling Stones and Thin Lizzy covers. In 1979 he re-united with Rourke in White Dice, who won a demo-tape competition organised by the NME, for which the prize was an audition with F-Beat Records, although it didn't result in a record deal. In October 1980, Marr enrolled at Wythenshawe College, and after White Dice dissolved in 1981, he and Rourke formed a funk band, Freak Party, with Simon Wolstencroft on drums. By early 1982 Freak Party had fizzled out, being unable to find a vocalist, so Marr approached Rob Allman, singer in White Dice, who suggested Steven Morrissey, a singer with the short-lived punk band the Nosebleeds. Marr approached a mutual friend asking to be introduced and they visited Morrissey at his house in Kings Road, Stretford in May 1981. With the line-up of The Smiths completed with he addition of Mike Joyce on drums, the band signed to Rough Trade Records and released their first single 'Hand In Glove' in 1983. 

By February 1984, the band's fanbase was sufficiently large to launch the band's long-awaited eponymous debut album to number two in the UK chart. Early in 1985, the band released their second album 'Meat Is Murder', which was more strident and political than its predecessor, becoming the band's only album (barring compilations) to reach number one in the UK charts. In 1986 the band released 'The Queen Is Dead', an album which has consistently topped polls of the greatest albums ever made, but despite their continued success, personal differences within the band, including the increasingly strained relationship between Morrissey and Marr, saw them on the verge of splitting. In July 1987, Marr left the group, and auditions to find a replacement for him proved fruitless. By the time 'Strangeways, Here We Come' was released in September, the band had split. The breakdown in the relationship has been primarily attributed to Morrissey's becoming annoyed by Marr's work with other artists, and this collection shows that he did offer his services to a number of artists between 1984 and 2010, although seemingly not that many while he was still a member of The Smiths. In August 1987, he was very briefly an official member of the Pretenders, touring with the band and appearing on the single 'Windows Of The World', and after leaving The Pretenders he recorded and toured with The The from 1988 to 1994, recording two albums with the group. He simultaneously formed Electronic with New Order's Bernard Sumner, releasing three albums during the 90's, and in 1992 he recorded a cover version of Ennio Morricone's 'The Good, The Bad And The Ugly' with Billy Duffy for the NME compilation 'Ruby Trax'. He's also worked as a session musician and writing collaborator for artists including Pet Shop Boys, Billy Bragg, Tom Jones, Kirsty MacColl, Black Grape, Talking Heads, and Beck, and this double disc set shows the wide variety of artists who have felt that having Marr added to their music would make it just that little bit special.  

Track listing

Disc One
01 Hand In Glove (single by Sandie Shaw 1984)
02 Greetings To The New Brunette (single by Billy Bragg 1986)
03 Windows Of The World (single by The Pretenders 1988)
04 (Nothing But) Flowers (from 'Naked' by Talking Heads 1988)
05 Still Feel The Rain (single by Stex 1990)
06 This Must Be The Place I Waited Years To Leave (from 'Behaviour' by Pet Shop Boys 1990)
07 Walking Down Madison (from 'Electric Landlady' by Kirsty MacColl 1991)
08 This Is Your Life (from 'Ripe' by Banderas 1991)
09 The Good, The Bad And The Ugly (from the 'Ruby Trax' compilation 1992)
09 Dogs Of Lust (single by The The 1993)
10 Rays Of The Rising Sun (single by Denise Johnson 1994)

Disc Two
01 Fat Neck (single by Black Grape 1996)
02 Rhythm And Blues (from 'Fresco' by M People 1997)
03 Lust For Life (from 'Reload' by Tom Jones 1999)
04 Milk And Honey (from 'Midnite Vultures' by Beck 1999)
05 Fool's Mate (from 'Crimson Tide' by Bert Jansch 2000)  
06 (Probably) All In The Mind (from 'Heathen Chemistry' by Oasis 2002)
07 Even A Child (from 'Time On Earth' by Crowded House 2007)
08 Enough Of Me (from 'The Empyrean' by John Frusciante 2009) 
09 The Whale Song (from 'No One's First, And You're Next' by Modest Mouse 2009)
10 Ordinary Millionaire (from 'Propellor Time' by Robyn Hitchcock & The Venus 3 2010) 

Thanks to the Anonymous comment just before Christmas for suggesting this one.

The The - The Pornography Of Despair (1982)

'The Pornography Of Despair' was originally intended to be the debut album from Matt Johnson's band The The in 1982, but was scrapped in favour of the more commercially-friendly 'Soul Mining', which was issued the following year. As it turned out this might have been a good decision, as 'Soul Mining' was a commercial and critical success, putting Johnson on the indie map, and paving the way for many more successful releases over the next 30-plus years. Rather than scrap all the recordings, however, Johnson used them for b-sides and bonus tracks on the cassette issue of 'Soul Mining', and so using these and other songs which surfaced later, we are able to piece together an approximation of what the album could have sounded like. There's no record of the exact track listing for the original, but this is as close as we'll get until Johnson gets around to releasing it, which is unlikely. 'Absolute Liberation' did come out on the 1983 ‘This Is The Day’ EP, alongside 'Mental Healing Process' and 'Leap Into The Wind', and 'Three Orange Kisses From Kazan' and 'Waitin' For The Upturn' had already appeared on the 1982 'Uncertain Smile' single. 'That Sinking Feeling' did end up on 'Soul Mining', although this version is more lo-fi and much longer, and 'Cold Spell Ahead' is actually an early version of 'Uncertain Smile'. 'Soup Of Mixed Emotion' was on a limited edition 12" single with initial copies of 'Soul Mining', and 'Fruit Of The Heart' eventually surfaced on the b-side of the 'Heartland' 12", but unless you have the 'Early Rarities' bootleg, this is the first time that you'll have a chance to hear the rest of these songs, and be able to make up your own mind whether this album would have been as successful as 'Soul Mining' in launching Johnson's career.  

Track listing

01 The Nature Of Virtue
02 Leap Into The Wind
03 Dumb As Death’s Head
04 Mental Healing Process (For A Mixed Up Kid)
05 Absolute Liberation
06 Uncertain Smile
07 Perfect
08 Three Orange Kisses From Kazan
09 Waitin' For The Upturn
10 Fruit Of The Heart
11 Soup Of Mixed Emotion
12 Untitled
13 The Sinking Feeling

Suggested by 'The Greatest Albums You'll Never Hear' by Bruno MacDonald