Keane - Tyderian (2008)

'Under The Iron Sea' had a worldwide release in June 2006 and was at number 1 in the UK Albums Chart for the first two weeks of its release. Before the album appeared, Keane had started their second world tour, but as a result of the extensive touring, Chaplin announced he had admitted himself to a clinic for drinking and drug problems, resulting in the cancellation of three gigs, and postponement of their September leg of the tour. Chaplin left the Priory Clinic on 6 October, but continued to receive treatment, and the tour was restarted, for the first time travelling to Argentina, Chile and Brazil. A couple of years after it was released, 'Under The Iron Sea' was voted the 8th best British album of all time by a poll conducted by Q Magazine and HMV, and because Keane had become such a massive band in a relatively short time, and also because of their penchant for adding rare songs to their singles, bootlegs started to appear online, one of the very best of which was 'The Theft Of Octo', which not only gathered up some rare songs, but also managed to find two that had not previously appeared anywhere else, and housed it all in a sleeve which complemented some of their early singles. The title track was actually just a backwards version of 'Iron Sea' from the album, but 'Maps' really was an unheard rarity. In 2007 the band released another stand-alone single 'The Night Sky' in aid of the War Child charity, with this song not appearing on any of their albums. The band's third album 'Perfect Symmetry' was released in 2008, and with Jesse Quin now a  permanent studio and live member, playing bass, percussion, guitar, synths and backing vocals, the more 'organic' approach that Chaplin and Hughes had spoken about could be heard in their music, with guitars more prominent that on any of their previous records. Once again it was voted Best Album Of The Year by the readers of Q Magazine, and they commenced a world tour to promote it in November 2008. On 10 May 2010, they released the 'Night Train' EP, which became their fourth number 1 in the UK, made up of songs recorded during the 'Perfect Symmetry' world tour, and at first it was called it a mini-album, then it changed to an EP, but in an interview, Tim Rice-Oxley said that 'Night Train' is "pretty much an album". Because of this I haven't included anything from 'Night Train' itself, but we do have those two exclusive tracks from 'The Theft Of Octo', both sides of 'The Night Sky' charity record, and some b-sides of singles from 'Under The Iron Sea' and 'Perfect Symmetry'. 

Track listing

01 He Used To Be A Lovely Boy (b-side of 'Is It Any Wonder?' 2006)

02 Let It Slide (b-side of 'Is It Any Wonder?' 2006)

03 Maybe I Can Change (b-side of 'Crystal Ball' 2006)

04 Thin Air (b-side of 'Nothing In My Way' 2006)

05 The Theft Of Octo (backwards version of 'Iron Sea' 2006) 

06 Tyderian (b-side of 'Nothing In My Way' 2006)

07 She Sells Sanctaury (b-side of 'A Bad Dream' 2007)

08 The Night Sky (single 2007)

09 Under Pressure (b-side of 'The Night Sky')

10 Time To Go (b-side of 'The Lovers Are Losing' 2008)

11 Staring At The Ceiling (b-side of 'Perfect Symmetry' 2008)

12 Maps (hidden track from 'The Theft Of Octo' compilation 2007)

Various Artists - Beck's Song Reader (2013)

In 2012 Beck Hansen released one of the most unusual modern albums - an illustrated collection of sheet music entitled 'Song Reader'. He'd been working on the idea since 2004, and when the artifact was released none of the twenty songs could be heard by anyone unless they could read music and play an instrument. Complete with full-colour art for each song and a lavishly produced hardcover carrying case, 'Song Reader' was an experiment in what an album could be at the end of 2012. The idea behind the release was that Beck hoped that enterprising musicians would record their own versions, and scores of them have done just that, uploading them to Youtube and Soundcloud, as well as to Beck's Song Reader website. In July 2014 the 'Warby Parker Presents Beck Song Reader' album was released, which featured studio recordings of the twenty tunes as interpreted by Jack White, Jack Black, Jeff Tweedy, Fun., Norah Jones, David Johansen and many more, as well as one song being performed by Beck himself. This followed a live concert the previous year at the Barbican Centre in London, which involved a huge cast of more than forty players, including Jarvis Cocker, Franz Ferdinand and Beth Orton, and the handsomely realised performances were regarded as a great success. Beck has performed a few of the songs himself over the years, and these have been collected together, alongside a few other live performances, by Paul over at albumsthatshouldexist in an attempt to construct a 'Song Reader' album by Beck that you could actually listen to, although he could only locate ten of the songs for his project. I've gone down a different route for this post, which is in line with Beck's original vision for the release, and I've trawled Youtube and Soundcloud to find what I think are the best rock versions of the songs. There are a few bands who have taken the project very seriously, with The Song Preservation Society, Jason Crosby and The Jehnny Dopps covering at least five or six of the songs, and The Portland Cello Project have recorded a whole album, while other Youtubers have picked just one song and made an outstanding job of it. I've tried to pick bands and artists that have performed the songs in a similar style, so that the album flows as if it's done by one band, and I'm sure that fans of Beck will appreciate the loving care that these artists have taken with his songs. I've also included a folder of the full-colour art which accompanied each piece of sheet music.  

Track listing

01 Don't Act Like Your Heart Isn't Hard (Song Preservation Society) 
02 I'm Down (Jerry Borge)
03 Saint Dude (Kurt Anderson & Studio 360)    
04 Do We? We Do (Benedikt Band) 
05 Eyes That Say I Love You (Milktooth)       
06 Now That Your Dollar Bills Have Sprouted Wings (Bigmedicinefilms) 
07 Please Leave A Light On When You Go (Song Preservation Society)
08 Sorry (Song Preservation Society)
09 Old Shanghai (Zoo Pilot)   
10 Rough On Rats (Jason Crosby And Friends)
11 Just Noise (Song Preservation Society)
12 We All Wear Cloaks (The Jehnny Dopps)   
13 Mutilation Rag (Jason Crosby)
14 Heaven's Ladder (Jason Crosby And Friends)  
15 Why Did You Make Me Care? (Jason Crosby And Friends)   
16 America, Here's My Boy (Paul Lambeek)
17 The Wolf Is On The Hill (Song Preservation Society) 
18 Title Of This Song (The Jehnny Dopps)  
19 The Last Polka (Discombobulator)
20 Last Night You Were A Dream (The School Of Rock)  

Bryan Ferry - Alphaville (1995)

 In 1995 Bryan Ferry went into the studio with Eurythmics Dave Stewart to record some songs for his next album. The sessions went well enough to tape twelve songs, but for whatever reason Ferry didn't feel happy enough with them to release them, and so the album was shelved. Instead, like the last time that sessions were abandoned, Ferry released his covers album 'As Time Goes By', although that didn't actually come out until 1999. It wasn't until 2002 that his next record of original material emerged, with 'Frantic' including re-arranged and re-recorded versions of 'Cruel', 'Nobody Loves Me', 'San Simeon' and 'Fool For Love'. Another long gap followed before 'Olympia' appeared in 2010, and once again the 'Alphaville' sessions were raided to provide alternate versions of 'You Can Dance' and the title track, and so as about half the songs have now appeared on his records it's unlikely that this album will ever see the light of day. As Ferry employed the services of Kate Moss for the covers of the 'Olympia' album and singles, I've kept that theme for the sleeve of this one. 

Track listing

01 Love War
02 Cruel
03 Alphaville
04 Nobody Loves Me
05 I Don't Want To
06 Sonnet #18
07 You Can Dance
08 One Way Love
09 Hiroshima
10 This Love
11 San Simeon
12 Fool For Love 

Aztec Camera - Aztec Gold (1990)

Aztec Camera was formed in 1980 by Roddy Frame, then just 16 years old and living in East Kilbride in Scotland, and the initial lineup of the band consisted of Frame on guitar and vocals, Campbell Owens on bass, and Dave Mulholland on drums. They made their recorded debut on 1980's 'Urban Development', a compilation cassette of local unsigned bands released by Pungent Records in association with Glasgow-based Fumes Magazine. In March 1981 the group released a single through the respected Scottish indie label Postcard Records, and 'Just Like Gold'/'We Could Send Letters' rose to number ten on the U.K. Independent charts, leading to British music journal New Musical Express giving Aztec Camera their seal of approval by licensing an alternate acoustic version of 'We Could Send Letters' for their 'C81' cassette compilation curated and released by the magazine. After releasing 'Mattress Of Wire'/'Lost Outside The Tunnel' on Postcard, they signed with Rough Trade Records in 1982, and released the single 'Pillar To Post'/'Queen's Tattoos', following which Dave Mulholland left the band, with John Hendry taking over as drummer. In 1983 the band released their debut album 'High Land, Hard Rain', which earned rave reviews (with many citing the fact Frame was just 18 when he wrote most of the songs) and respectable sales, especially in England. The band expanded their lineup by adding guitarist Craig Gannon and keyboardist Bernie Clark to the fold, and riding high on the success of their first long-player, they enlisted the services of Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits to produce their second. 

1984's 'Knife' was slicker and more ambitious, and I felt that it didn't have the rugged charm of their debut, and Frame was also becoming disenchanted with his band-mates, so by the time he went on tour in support of the 'Knife' album, Campbell Owens was the only other original member of the group, although it would in fact prove to be his last tour with Aztec Camera. After a stopgap EP of live tracks and B-sides was issued in the United States in 1985, their third album, the R&B-influenced 'Love', appeared in 1987. Though it was issued under the group's name, Frame recorded the material with a handful of session musicians, and from that point on, Aztec Camera would not have a consistent lineup on-stage or in the studio, with Frame assembling a different set of players for each project. 'Love' proved to be a commercial success in the U.K., rising to number 10 on the album charts, but it barely made the Top 200 in the United States, and the next two Aztec Camera albums, 1990's eclectic 'Stray', which included a collaboration with the Clash's Mick Jones on the song 'Good Morning Britain', and 1993's electronic experiment 'Dreamland', didn't even chart in America. After 1995's 'Frestonia', a low-key and primarily acoustic effort, failed to excite fans or critics, Frame retired the name Aztec Camera, and for his next project he released 'North Star' in 1998 under the name Roddy Frame. In their early days Frame was quite prolific, and so b-sides were often non-album, and the best are collected here, along with original versions of their singles where they differed from the album version, and their contribution to a 1990 split single with Kirsty McColl & The Pogues, taken from a Cole Porter tribute album. 

Track listing

01 Abbatoir (from the 'Urban Development' cassette 1980)

02 Stand Still (from the 'Urban Development' cassette 1980)

03 Real Tears (from the 'Urban Development' cassette 1980)

04 Token Friend (demo 1980)
05 Mattress Of Wire (single 1981)
06 Just Like Gold (single 1981)

07 We Could Send Letters ('C81' version 1981)
08 Pillar To Post (original single 1982)
09 Queen's Tattoos (b-side of 'Pillar To Post' 1982)
10 Walk Out To Winter (original single version 1983)
11 Set The Killing Free (b-side of 'Walk Out To Winter' 1983)
12 Orchid Girl (b-side of 'Oblivious' 1983)
13 Haywire (b-side of 'Oblivious' 1983)
14 Jump (b-side of 'All I Need Is Everything' 1984)
15 Bad Education (b-side of 'Deep & Wide & Tall' 1987)
16 The Red Flag (b-side of 'How Men Are' 1988)
17 Do I Love You? (split single 1990) 
18 Consolation Prize (b-side of 'Good Morning Britain' 1990)
19 True Colours (b-side of 'The Crying Scene' 1990)
20 Salvation (b-side of 'The Crying Scene' 1990)

The Pooh Sticks - Think Bubble (2014)

The Pooh Sticks were rock's most inside joke, a monumental yet affectionate prank on the very mythology of pop music itself. Cloaked behind ridiculously overblown marketing schemes, made-up histories, and cartoon-character images, the Welsh group punctured the industry's myriad excesses, freely pilfering from the entirety of pop's past by shoplifting titles, lyrics, and melodies at will. The Pooh Sticks were ostensibly led by frontman Hue Pooh (born Hue Williams), who in October 1987 teamed with Swansea-area schoolmates Paul, (guitar), Alison (bass), Trudi Tangerine (keyboards), and Stephanie (drums), but in fact these last three members didn't actually exist. Their 1988 debut single 'On Tape' was a witty jab at indie rock fan boy mentality released on manager/svengali Steve Gregory's Fierce label, and of course I bought it straight away, and it's still a prized possession. The real mastermind behind the Pooh Sticks was Gregory, writing, arranging, and producing their records, designing their cover artwork, and even choreographing their live performances.Their next release was an ironically lavish box set comprised entirely of one-sided singles. including the infamous 'I Know Someone Who Knows Someone Who Knows Alan McGee Quite Well', a nod to the Creation Records chief. Their first album was a live recording called 'Orgasm', and was "recorded live...in Trudi Tangerine's basement". The 1989 mock-bootleg 'Trademark Of Quality' was next, compiling live material from a pair of recent club dates, including a cover of the Vaselines' 'Dying for It', as well as an early rendition of the group's semi-original 'Young People'. In 1990 they finally recorded a proper studio album, 'Formula One Generation', and the following year the band added Talulah Gosh and Heavenly vocalist Amelia Fletcher to their ranks, and recorded their second studio album 'The Great White Wonder'. For this release they changed direction, eschewing their 'twee' British indie pop for a more American-styled power pop sound, akin to bands like Jellyfish and Redd Kross. The next record 'Million Seller', released on 11 January 1993, is considered by some power pop fans to be the band's best work, and 1995's 'Optimistic Fool', followed the same path, but was to be their final release for some time. In 1995 they claimed to have cut no less than 30 demos for a follow up to 'Optimistic Fool', but this never happened, and so in 2014 they hosted a website where they gave out free downloads of 10 of those demos under the follow up album's working title 'Think Bubble'. Despite being demos, they are all great indie-pop songs, and an album of polished versions of these tracks would have been most welcome. 

Track listing

01 Stereo Love
02 My Amp
03 You Said A Bad Word
04 Jimmy Webb's Horse
05 The Hardest Working Man In Showbiz
06 Call Me Carnival
07 International Language
08 Five O'Clock Shadow
09 Stars Fall Like Dominoes
10 Out Here In The Night

Keane - Let It Slide (2005)

In 2005 Keane were nominated in a number of categories at the BRIT Awards, taking away Best British album and the British breakthrough act award as voted for by listeners of BBC Radio 1. The band are also patrons of the charity War Child, and in 2005 they recorded a cover of the Walker Brothers' 'The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore' and gave it to the War Child foundation website for download, as well as pressing up one thousand vinyl copies and giving them as a gift to some of their fans. Later that year they recorded a cover version of Elton John's 'Goodbye Yellow Brick Road' for the charity album 'Help: A Day In The Life', and they also gave a cover of 'What A Wonderful World' to Comic Relief. In April 2005, in the middle of the 'Hopes And Fears' tour, the band began recording their next record, titled 'Under The Iron Sea', at Helioscentric Studios, with some additional recording done at The Magic Shop Studios in New York. They were also regulars on British radio, recording a session for Jo Whiley, and playing 'White Christmas' on the Steve Lamacq show. With their second album on the horizon, we gather up the b-sides from the last couple of singles from 'Hopes And Fears', alongside all their charity recordings and radio sessions from 2004 and 2005. 

Track listing

01 She Opens Her Eyes (b-side of 'This Is The Last Time' 2004)

02 A Heart To Hold You (Jo Whiley session 2004

03 To The End Of The Earth (b-side of re-recorded 'Everybody's Changing' 2004)

04 White Christmas (Steve Lamacq show 2004)

05 Fly To Me (b-side of re-recorded 'Everybody's Changing' 2004)

06 With Or Without You (Jo Whiley session 2004)

07 Something In Me Was Dying (b-side of 'Bedshaped' 2004)

08 Untitled 2 (b-side of 'Bedshaped' 2004)

09 The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore (recorded for War Child 2005)

10 What A Wonderful World (recorded for Comic Relief 2005)

11 Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (from the 'Help! A Day In The Life' charity album 2005)

Jackson Browne - The Birds Of St. Marks (1970)

In late 1969 Jackson Browne signed a contact with Hollywood music pubishers Criteriom Music, and was employed to write songs to be hawked around the circuit in the hope of being picked up by record companies for their artists. On 6th April 1970 he recorded nearly two dozen solo demos of songs that he'd written, some of which were later reworked for his first album on Asylum Records. It was in fact the demo of 'Jamaica Say You Will' which secured his record deal after he sent a copy of it to label owner David Geffen, who was so taken with the song that he signed Browne to his label in late 1970, and his debut album was released in 1971. The original bootleg of this album included demo versions of many songs that would later appear on the 1971 record, but to make it a more manageable 40-minute album I've just picked the songs which didn't make it, with the addition of demos of just a couple of his most famous songs from the album, with 'Jamaica Say You Will' as it was the track that first attracted Geffen, and 'Doctor My Eyes', because The Jackson Five did pick up on it and had a UK top 10 hit with it, but as that was in 1972 it's more likely that they heard the song from Browne's album rather than the demo. These recordings are superb quality for their age, and Browne sounds relaxed and confident in his delivery, making this is a real treat for all his fans.

     

Track listing

01 Last Time I Was Home
02 Low Road
03 Door Into The Morning
04 Another Place
05 Doctor My Eyes
06 The Birds Of St. Marks
07 Mae Jean Goes To Hollywood
08 Gone To Sorrow
09 Hot Like Today
10 Jamaica Say You Will
11 The Top
12 The Times You've Come
13 There Came A Question

Peter Gabriel - Before The Flood (1979) UPDATE

If you're a regular visitor to Paul's albumsthatshouldexist blog, you'll know that he's just discovered an amazing new programme called Spleeter, that can isolate individual tracks from a recording, so that you can remove or manipulate the vocals, guitar, drums or bass from a song. I wanted to try it, but it turns out that it is incompatible with the CPU on my laptop, and there was one particular song from a recent post that I was going to try it out on, and that was 'You Get What You Want' from the Peter Gabriel post from a few weeks ago. About a third of the way in someone starts clapping along, and considering that we can be pretty sure that it's Phil Collins, as the other musicians would have their hands occupied, it is very unco-ordinated and distracting from someone who is supposed to be a drummer! I therefore asked Paul if he could run the song through Spleeter and see if he could remove it, and you'll amazed at the result. If there is a slight loss of quality in the rest of the track then that's a small price to pay for being able to listen to the song without the annoying clapping, so open the album folder in Soulseek and you'll find the edited track 03 which you can download separately, but I'll leave the original 'clapping' version in the folder so that you can hear exactly what this programme can do.      

The Mothers - Just Another Band From L.A. (1972)

When Frank Zappa started to put together the live tapes that the Mothers Of Invention had recorded in 1971 for their proposed live release, he originally envisioned it as a vinyl double album, and acetates were even pressed and given to the band members, with a track listing of:
Side One:
Call Any Vegetable 
Eddie, Are You Kidding? 
Magdalena
Dog Breath
Side Two:
Billy The Mountain (Part 1)
     - Introduction
     - Phase I (The Royalties Arrive)
     - Phase II And Newscast
     - The Legendary Low Budget Hero
     - The Flies
Side Three:
Billy The Mountain (Part 2) 
     - Studebacher Hoch
     - The Conclusion
The Subcutaneous Peril 
Side Four:
An Easy Substitute For Eternity Itself
     - Don's Solo
     - Ian's Solo
     - Aynsley's Solo
     - Frank's Solo

For unknown reasons, plans for the double set were abandoned and the album was released in the single record format that we know today. Originally 'Billy The Mountain' was much longer, and was on two sides of the record, but in order to fit it onto one side of the single album version Zappa removed an 8'51 min section from the second half of the track, reducing it down to a more manageable 24 minutes. For this reconstruction I've located the missing section and I've slotted it back into the original recording, restoring it to the full 33 minutes take. Two of the other tracks that were originally earmarked for the record were collages that Zappa cut and pasted from the 'A Pound For A Brown On The Bus' and 'King Kong' solos from a 1971 concert at Carnegie Hall, and Zappa aficionado br1tag has re-composed the original sequences, including Don Preston's full solo which was abbreviated to fit onto a single side of the vinyl album. So for fans who love the original record and want hear more, here is the reconstructed double album version for your enjoyment. 

Track listing 

01 Call Any Vegetable
02 Eddie, Are You Kidding?
03 Magdalena
04 Dog Breath
05 Billy The Mountain
06 The Subcutaneous Peril
07 An Easy Substitute For Eternity Itself

Josie And The Pussycats - Tabby Road (1970)

During the 1968-69 television season, the first Archie-based Saturday morning cartoon 'The Archie Show' was a huge success, not only in the ratings on CBS, but also on the Billboard charts. The fictitious band had a massive hit with 'Sugar Sugar', reaching No. 1 on the UK and US charts in September 1969, and Hanna-Barbera Productions wanted to duplicate the success their competitors Filmation were having with 'The Archie Show'. After a failed attempt at developing a teenage-music-band show of their own called 'Mysteries Five' (which eventually became 'Scooby-Doo, Where are You!'), they decided to go to the source and contacted Archie Comics about possibly adapting one of their remaining properties into a show similar to 'The Archie Show'. Archie and Hanna-Barbera collaborated to adapt Archie's Josie comic book into a music-based property about a teenage music band, adding new characters while dismissing others. The group was to consist of level-headed lead singer, songwriter and guitarist Josie, intelligent bassist Valerie, and air-headed blonde drummer Melody, while other characters included their cowardly manager Alexander Cabot III, his conniving sister Alexandra, her cat Sebastian, and muscular roadie Alan. In preparation for the upcoming cartoon series, Hanna-Barbera began working on putting together a real-life girl group, who would provide the singing voices of the girls in the cartoons, and also record an album of songs to be used both as radio singles and in the TV series. 

The Josie and the Pussycats recordings were produced by La La Productions, run by Danny Janssen and Bobby Young (a pseudonym for Bob Engemann of The Lettermen vocal group), and they held a talent search to find three girls who would match the three girls in the comic book in both looks and singing ability. After interviewing over 500 finalists, they settled on casting Kathleen Dougherty (Cathy Dougher) as Josie, Cherie Moor (later to find fame in 'Charlie's Angels' as Cheryl Ladd) as Melody, and Patrice Holloway (sister of Motown star Brenda Holloway) as Valerie. Janssen presented the newly formed band to Hanna-Barbera to finalize the production deal, but they wanted Janssen to recast Holloway, because they had decided to portray Josie And The Pussycats as an all-white trio and had altered Valerie, who had been conceived as black and was already appearing as such the revamped Josie and the Pussycats comic book, to make her white. Janssen refused and threatened to walk away from the project, and after a three-week-long stand-off between Janssen and Hanna-Barbera, Hanna-Barbera finally relented, allowed Janssen to keep Holloway, and changed Valerie back to being black, making her the first black female character on a regular Saturday morning cartoon series. Of the songs that were broadcast, lead vocals were split pretty much 50/50 between Holloway and Moor, as Dougherty felt she was stronger on harmony than lead, and ceded her spotlight to Moor, so although Josie was the group leader, it was Valerie and Melody who provided the trio with its singing voices. 

Each episode found the Pussycats and crew en route to perform a gig or record a song in some exotic location where, somehow, often due to something Alexandra did, they became mixed up in an adventure. The antagonist was always a diabolical mad scientist, spy, or criminal who wanted to take over the world using some high-tech device, and The Pussycats usually found themselves in possession of the plans for an invention, an item of interest to the villains, a secret spy message, etc., and the villains chased them to retrieve it. Eventually, the Pussycats would ruin the villain's plans, resulting in a final chase sequence set to a Pussycats song. With the villain captured, the Pussycats would return to their gig or recording session, and the final gag was always one of Alexandra's failed attempts to interfere with the Pussycats' performance or steal Alan away from Josie, and while early plans were to be for a live-action Pussycats segment at the end of each episode, this idea did not make it to the final cut. To cash in on the show Hanna-Barbera released an album of the songs featured in the series, plus a few choice covers, and extracted two singles from it in the form of 'Every Beat Of My Heart' and 'You've Come A Long Way Baby'. Sales were nowhere near as good as they'd hoped, and so further singles were licensed to Creative Products, to be exchanged for sending in box tops from Kelloggs cereals. These four promotional singles are now extremely rare, and so it was good to finally get to hear them on a recent Rhino records collection, although only 5,000 copies of the compilation were pressed and that's now as hard to find as the original singles. So for anyone with fond memories of watching Josie And The Pussycats on Saturday morning TV, here are all their singles, along with a couple of previously unreleased tracks, and that classic theme tune. And sorry about the title, but I just couldn't resist.    

Track listing

01 Every Beat Of My Heart (single version 1970)
02 It's All Right With Me (b-side of 'With Every Beat Of My Heart' 1970)
03 You've Come A Long Way Baby (single version 1970)
04 Stop, Look And Listen (b-side of 'You've Come A Long Way Baby')
05 Letter To Mama (single 1970)
06 Inside, Outside, Upside Down (b-side of 'Letter To Mama')
07 Josie (single 1970)
08 Voodoo (single 1970)
09 If That Isn't Love (b-side of 'Voodoo')
10 I Wanna Make You Happy (single 1970)
11 It's Gotta Be Him (b-side of 'I Wanna Make You Happy')
12 Together (previously unreleased)
13 Dreammaker (previously unreleased)
14 The Time To Love (previously unreleased)
15 Josie And The Pussycats Theme

If you're now hankering to relive your childhood then the whole first series is here to watch, as long as you're prepared to put up with some pesky ads. 

Various Artists - Never Mind The Ballads (2010)

The current court case involving John Lydon and his former band-mates Steve Jones and Paul Cook, over whether the band's music can be used in a forthcoming biopic, reminded me just what a unique band The Sex Pistols were when they first appeared in 1976. This is borne out by the fact that I can't recall ever having heard a cover version of one of their songs - and although I know that there are loads out there, it's just that they aren't by any bands that I've ever been that interested in hearing. There are perhaps two exceptions, with Galaxie 500 covering 'Submission' for a John Peel session, and Bananarama attempting 'No Feelings' for the soundtrack to the 1982 film 'Party Party', but the rest have generally passed me by. I though that in the ensuing 40-odd years there must be some intriguing covers out there, so I attempted to put together an album along the lines of my earlier 'A Slow And Quiet Sabbath' post, with covers that almost verged on easy listening. It wasn't easy to find ballad versions of these most raucous punk songs, but mostly I managed it, and to my ears it sounds pretty good. The Bad Shepherds is the band led by former Young Ones star Adrian Edmundson, and adding pipes to 'Anarchy In The UK' was inspired. Hayseed Dixie can always be relied on to provide a yee-ha country twang to any song that they cover, while Nouvelle Vague and Sofia Allard & Carl-Michael Herlofsson really pull off the easy listening vibe. Hotrats were a band formed as a side project by former Supergrass members Danny Goffey and Gaz Coombes, and Twinkle Twinkle Little Rock Star make albums full of lullabye versions of punk classics, and in the end I found a subdued version of every track from the 'Never Mind The Bollocks' album, now retitled as 'Never Mind The Ballads' (and I know they're not all strictly speaking ballads, but the title was too good not to use).      

Track listing

01 Holidays In The Sun (Hayseed Dixie)
02 Bodies (Veruca Salt)
03 No Feelings (Bananarama)
04 Liar (Micro Grande)
05 God Save The Queen (Nouvelle Vague)
06 Problems (Twinkle Twinkle Little Rock Star)
07 Seventeen (Detune)
08 Anarchy In The UK (The Bad Shepherds)
09 Submission (Galaxie 500)
10 Pretty Vacant (Sofia Allard & Carl-Michael Herlofsson)
11 New York (Opium Jukebox)
12 E.M.I. (The Hotrats)

Keane - Wolf At The Door (2004)

Tom Chaplin and Tim Rice-Oxley became friends when they met at Vinehall School in Robertsbridge, East Sussex when they were young. The school was owned by Chaplin's family, and his father was the headmaster there, and when they left and moved on to Tonbridge School in Kent at the age of 13, they met Dominic Scott, and discovered their liking for music. Although Chaplin had learned to play the flute, he never considered music as a proper career at the time, but while Rice-Oxley was studying at University College London in 1995 he formed a rock band with Scott and invited another Tonbridge schoolfriend Richard Hughes to play drums. The band were named The Lotus Eaters, and started as a cover band, playing songs by U2, Oasis, and The Beatles, and rehearsing at home. After listening to Rice-Oxley's piano playing during a weekend in 1997, Chris Martin invited him to join his newly formed band Coldplay, but he declined because he didn't want to leave The Lotus Eaters, and because of Martin's offer, and although Hughes and Scott were originally opposed to it, Chaplin joined the band in 1997, taking Rice-Oxley's place as vocalist and adding himself as the acoustic guitarist. It was at this point that they band opted for a new name, choosing Cherry Keane after a friend of Chaplin's mother, whom Rice-Oxley and Chaplin knew when they were young, and which was later shortened to Keane. Chaplin departed for South Africa in Summer 1997 to work as a volunteer during his gap year, and when he returned in July 1998, he was picked up at the airport by the band, who announced that they had a gig booked in 10 days! Keane made their live debut at the Hope & Anchor pub on 13 July 1998, playing original material, and although Chaplin later went to Edinburgh University to study for a degree in art history, he quit his degree and moved to London to pursue a full-time musical career. In late 1999, and without a record deal, Keane recorded their first promotional single 'Call Me What You Like', which they released on their own Zoomorphic label, selling it at live gigs in early 2000. Only 500 copies were pressed, and so it was re-recorded in February 2001 and added as a b-side to their 'Wolf At The Door' single, but this was even rarer as only 50 CD-R copies were made. 

Because of the limited success Keane had at this time, Scott decided to leave the group a month after the single was released to continue his studies at the LSE, and the band decamped to James Sanger's recording studio at Les Essarts, France, where they taped a number of tracks in late 2001, including 'Bedshaped' and 'This Is the Last Time', and it was during these sessions that the idea of using a piano as lead instrument began to emerge. After they returned to the UK in November, they signed to BMG to publish their music, but still did not have a recording contract, and for most of 2002 all recording or live performances were stopped, with the band starting to agree with the departed Scott that they were going nowhere. In December 2002 they started playing live again, and one gig was attended by Simon Williams of Fierce Panda Records, who offered to release 'Everybody's Changing' as the first commercial single by the band. As a result of the attention garnered by the single, and because of the strong live reputation they had built up, a bidding war for the band ensued among major record labels, with Island Records eventually winning out, but they were allowed to issue 'This Is The Last Time' on Fierce Panda in October 2003 as the final release on that label. In January 2004 Keane was named the band most likely to achieve success in the coming year in the BBC's Sound of 2004 poll, and a month later their first single release on Island reached number three on the UK singles Chart. A re-release of 'Everybody's Changing' followed 'Somewhere Only We Know', featuring a new cover and b-sides, and that reached number four in the UK Singles Chart. Their debut album 'Hopes And Fears' was released on 10 May 2004 in the UK, and debuted at number one in the UK Albums Chart, becoming the second best-selling British album of the year. Despite their disjointed discography in the early days, the eight singles they released on Zoomorphic, Fierce Panda and Island included eleven new songs on the b-sides, and this was to continue for the rest of their career, with the band treating their fans to new songs or choice covers on nearly all of their subsequent singles. In what will be a multiple post from the band, we start with those first two singles, some early demos, and some exclusives b-sides, to hear how the band started out, from their formation in 1997 to their multi-million selling debut album some seven years later.  

Track listing

01 Emily (previously unreleased 1999)
02 More Matey (previously unreleased 1996)
03 New One (previously unreleased 2000)
04 Call Me What You Like (single 2000)
05 Rubbernecking (b-side of 'Call Me What You Like')
06 Closer Now (b-side of 'Call Me What You Like')
07 Wolf At The Door (single 2001)
08 The Way You Want It (b-side of 'Everybody's Changing' 2003)
09 Snowed Under (b-side of 'Somewhere Only We Know' 2004)
10 Allemande (b-side of 'This Is The Last Time' 2004)
11 Walnut Tree (b-side of 'Somewhere Only We Know' 2004)

The B-52's - Mesopotamia (1981)

When The B-52's burst onto the music scene in 1978 with 'Rock Lobster' they epitomized the retro dayglo orange fun of the late seventies. With that single and 'Planet Claire' they had mixed twangy guitar lines, kooky organs and beehive hairdos into a sweet and frothy confection, filling college dance floors and even making inroads onto mainstream radio. As the eighties dawned, they went looking for ways to expand their musical range, and assert their willingness to take artistic risks without abandoning their abiding commitment to the groove that moves. To help them make the transition from New Wave to Post Punk they enlisted the help of David Byrne, hoping he might do for them what Brian Eno had done for The Talking Heads, securing their place as critical darlings while paving the way for further commercial success. By the time that Byrne came to work with the band in 1982, he had fully absorbed Eno's interest in African polyrythms and analogue synthesizers, and was already beginning work on his first solo effort, a score for Twyla Tharp's dance company that he would call 'The Catherine Wheel'. He soon stripped the band's sound down to a dancey, primitive beat, with the kitschy guitar lines making way for sleek synthesized bass lines, brass arrangements, and inventive percussion effects of the kind that were beginning to emerge from the nascent hip hop scene in New York. The resulting sound was considerably darker and more atonal than the band's earlier efforts, full of angular, abstract grooves that stood in stark contrast to the increasingly earthy and distinctly southern sensuality of Kate Pierson's and Cindy Wilson's vocals. It was adventurous, challenging music, but perhaps more reflective of Byrne's private preoccupations of the time than the interests of the band or its record company. 

At some point, the band and the producer fell out with one another and the sessions were abandoned, and to recoup some of the costs, six of the most fully developed tracks were released as the 'Mesopotamia' EP in 1981. In general it has been regarded as a misstep by the band's fans, and when it came for a CD reissue it was completely remixed to remove any sign of Bryne's involvement, and it is this sanitized version which is today most readily available. However, back in 1982 initial copies of the EP were released on the Island Record label in the UK and parts of Europe that included Byrne's longer, dubbier, and altogether more interesting mixes of several tracks, offering a brief glimpse of what The B-52's' third album might well have sounded like had Bryne been allowed to complete the project. Some of the tracks are noticeably longer, with the title track adding an extra three and a half minutes, while 'Cake' gains nearly two minutes more music. By adding in the 'Queen Of Las Vegas' out-take from the sessions we have the full album that Byrne would have made with the B-52's, and whether you're an avid fan of the band or just a casual listener, this is definitely worth hearing to see how the band had initially tried to progress their career to a new level. 

Track listing

01 Loveland 
02 Deep Sleep 
03 Mesopotamia 
04 Cake
05 Throw That Beat In the Garbage Can
06 Nip it In the Bud
07 Queen Of Las Vegas

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