The Jam - Beat Surrender [7"]

Typically a single that i came across in a second-hand bin, and thought "why the heck not". Couldn't go wrong with a classic song like BEAT SURRENDER of course, and i liked the cover. It's actually the first vinyl by THE JAM that i own, and might as well be the last since i'm not such a big fan of mr. Weller's work. But who knows... This song is great, though.

Label: Polydor
Cat.nr.: POSP 540
Year of release: 1982

SIDE A:
01. Beat Surrender

SIDE B:
01. Shopping

Whirr / Monster Movie - Split [7"]

Just like the Eternal 10" that i wrote about earlier, this release is part of the Graveface Charity Series. The proceeds for this split 7" went to a venue called 924 Gilman in Berkeley, California. It features a beautiful dreampop tune by WHIRR and a pretty poppy one by MONSTER MOVIE. Great stuff.

Label: Graveface Records
Cat.nr.: Grave085
Year of release: 2012

SIDE A:
01. Whirr - Color Change

SIDE B:
01. Monster Movie - Flatlining

David Bowie - Waiting In The Wind [12", 2LP, Unofficial]

 

 I bought this bootleg some 27 years ago. I was in high school and had just witnessed my first DAVID BOWIE concert ever (and actually even first rock concert and first stadium concert at the same time), a few months earlier. Even though -looking back at it all- the Glass Spider Tour was certainly not Bowie's best period, i was still thrilled that i finally managed to see my musical hero of the previous four years of my life with my own eyes. The tour's kick-off was in Rotterdam where he played two nights in a row and i was at the very first one on May 30th, 1987. I still lived in the area of Apeldoorn at the time in the middle of Holland, and there was this great record store called Plato. The store has closed since a few years, unfortunately. A few months after the concert i finally dared asking the question that i always wanted to, but never got the courage to do so: did they by any chance have bootleg recordings of Bowie shows? Then they showed me this double LP called WAITING IN THE WIND from under the counter. It was on coloured vinyl, which i had never seen before in my life, and it was a recording of a show in Italy that had taken place only two weeks after that historical event in Rotterdam. Recorded at Stadio Flaminio in Rome, June 15th 1987, to be precise. Obviously, i just had to buy it.

The album is on a label called Cinthia Records of which i never heard before, nor after. The sound quality is actually pretty OK. Which was a relief, because it had cost me a fortune; I spent a few months of pocketmoney on it. It's a shame though that some songs of this show are not on the album. Apparently there was a 3x7" singles box called "Demanding Billy Dolls" released by the same label, which had the songs Fashion, All The Madmen, Big Brother, Heroes, Fame and (obviously) Time, from which lyrics the title for the box was taken. I asked the shop if they could get it, but unfortunately they couldn't, and so i never found one. I wondered for a while if it even existed, but i found some traces on eBay so it really does.
So this is my first ever Bowie bootleg (or even first ever bootleg in general) and my first ever coloured vinyl. Bowie had a lot of premieres in many different aspects of the musical side of my life, it seems ;)
I'm still very happy that i never sold this album. I did that with many of my Bowie vinyls back in the early 90's - to my deepest regret now, as you might understand.

Label: Cinthia Records
Cat.nr.: DRJ 490/491
Year of release: 1987

SIDE A:
01. Up The Hill Backwards
02. Glass Spider
03. Up The Hill Backwards (Reprise)
04. Day In, Day Out
05. Bang Bang
06. Absolute Beginners

SIDE B:
01. Loving The Alien
02. China Girl
03. Scary Monsters
04. Never Let Me Down
05. '87 And Cry

SIDE C:
01. Time Will Crawl
02. Beat Of Your Drum
03. Sons Of The Silent Age
04. Dancing With The Big Boys
05. Zeroes

SIDE D:
01. Let's Dance
02. Blue Jean
03. Modern Love

The Fauns - Fragile (Clint Mansell Remix) [12"]

This special 12" was released (in the UK only) for Record Store Day 2013. Been trying to get my hands on one, but without any success. Until recently when THE FAUNS launched a Kickstarter fundraiser for their tour with Alcest, which is currently taking place. They were selling a few of these 12" remix singles and also signed them, for this occasion. So i ordered one to help them out a bit and got this long-desired piece of vinyl in return. That's what i call a win-win situation ;)
The song FRAGILE is my favourite of their debut album, and this remix by film music composer (and former lead singer for Pop Will Eat Itself) Clint Mansell is a really good one. So is actually the re-worked version of The Sun Is Cruising by Invada label manager Redg Weeks.

Label: Invada
Cat.nr.: INV 121 LP
Year of release: 2013

SIDE A:
01. Fragile (Clint Mansell Remix)

SIDE B:
01. The Sun Is Cruising (Redg Weeks Re-work)

The Fauns - Lights [12", 2LP]

They've been working on this album for quite some time. Around the time when i wrote about THE FAUNS' self-titled debut, the band already mentioned that they had started working on a new album. Nearly two years later LIGHTS is finally here, and it certainly has been worth the wait! It only came out last weekend over here, but it was actually released in the UK somewhere in December and should have been in my Finest Vinyl Of 2013 list for that matter. Ah well.
The single Seven Hours that preceded the release is to my opinion one of the best tracks of this album, but also Nothing Ever (MBV-esque drum fill, ♥) and especially With You have become personal favourites of mine. The uptempo In Flames could've been a Pains Of Being Pure At Heart song (which is meant as a compliment, because i really like that band and it is just a damn good indie rock tune). Ease Down and closing song Give Me Your Love still remind me the most of their debut album.
I really look forward to finally be able to see them perform live in one and half week when their tour with Alcest and Hexvessel hits Arnhem. And i don't mind driving to the other side of the country for that; been waiting for an opportunity to see them since their planned tour with Ringo Deathstarr at the end of 2012 was sadly cancelled. In the meantime i'll be giving this double white vinyl gem a few more spins.

Label: Invada
Cat.nr.: INV 129 LP
Year of release: 2013

SIDE A:
01. Point Zero
02. Seven Hours

SIDE B:
01. Ease Down
02. In Flames
03. Nothing Ever

SIDE C:
01. Lights
02. Rise
03. 4AM

SIDE D:
01. With You
02. Let's Go
03. Give Me Your Love

Mogwai - Rave Tapes [12", LP]

Yesterday when i wrote something about the new Warpaint album, i already mentioned that the new MOGWAI had also come out, and that it's really good as well. And so it is. Their soundtrack for Les Revenants was, well... much more cinematic than what they previously did. It's definitely their most quiet work to date. But RAVE TAPES on the other hand is going back to their old bombastic and majestic sound, and expanding it with heavier use of synths than ever before. Not that i mind though; it sounds fantastic - yet never innovative. It's been done before, but that doesn't mean that this isn't a great record. I particularly like the song Repelish, which contains spoken word samples of someone warning for backmasking in Led Zeppelin's Stairway To Heaven. All in all, their 8th studio album is a really good one and a worthy follow-up to Hardcore Will Never Die, and i'll still be buying any new Mogwai album that comes out if they keep this high standard.

Label: Rock Action
Cat.nr.: ROCKACT80LP
Year of release: 2014


SIDE A:
01. Heard About You Last Night
02. Simon Ferocious
03. Remurdered
04. Hexon Bogon
05. Repelish

SIDE B:
01. Master Card
02. Deesh
03. Blues Hour
04. No Medicine For Regret
05. The Lord Is Out Of Control

Monster Movie - Everyone Is A Ghost [12", LP]

Some months ago i wrote about Eternal, the band that Christian Savill was in before he joined Slowdive. Around the year 2000, Christian and Sean Hewson (who played in Eternal as well) formed the band MONSTER MOVIE. They released 5 albums since then, and this EVERYONE IS A GHOST from 2010 is their last one so far. It's pretty electronic, and contains 12 great indie pop songs. Some songs lean towards shoegaze, but it doesn't go much further than that. Can't be compared to Slowdive (nor Eternal), and of course it shouldn't be. The album comes in a high quality gatefold sleeve and is handnumbered to 500 copies; i've got #224. As you can see on the picture it's half grey/half red, splattered vinyl. Looks really cool!

Label: Graveface Records
Cat.nr.: GRAVE048
Year of release: 2010

SIDE A:
01. The World Collapsed
02. Down, Down, Down
03. How The Dead Live
04. Bored Beyond Oblivion
05. All The Hurt Inside
06. Everyone Is A Ghost

SIDE B:
01. In The Morning
02. Silver Knife
03. Look And see
04. Fall
05. Help Me Make It Right
06. A Place In The Mountains

Maribel - Reveries [12", LP]

MARIBEL is a band from Oslo that's often being labelled as dreampop, but i think that how they describe it themselves on their Facebook page fits best: "offbeat/detuned soul-noir". REVERIES has a dark vibe. It's dreamy, cinematic and sometimes even a bit hallucinatory. Musically pretty different from Karin Dreijer's Fever Ray, but it does have the same kind of atmosphere. The song "Perfumed" is nothing less than a well-disguised dark blues song. A great album and i hope that they'll release something new soon again, because this album was from early 2012. I bought it a few months ago when i was in Bergen, Norway.

Label: Splendour
Cat.nr.: SPL 1010
Year of release: 2012

SIDE A:
01. Falling Down The Stairs
02. Jezebel Jive
03. Meow!
04. You Bring The Sadness
05. Pretty Nights

SIDE B:
01. Perfumed
02. Slumber Street
03. Devil's Sigh
04. The Thief

Warpaint - Warpaint [12", 2LP]

This weekend there were two really good albums coming out: Rave Tapes by Mogwai and this self-titled second full length by WARPAINT. While writing this, i noticed that i never wrote anything about their first album The Fool nor about their debut EP, which i also have on vinyl. Might do that within the next few weeks. Anyway, this new album is the best thing i heard in 2014 so far. The year has only just started, but still. The song Love Is To Die was released in October to announce the album and is one of my favourite songs, but also Feeling Alright (with a bit of a the XX vibe), Drive and especially the groovy Disco//very are excellent. The one and only Flood produced this album, and it's noticeable that a top producer was involved. He really did a mighty fine job. The album is less dark, more ethereal (or as they said for themselves in some interview, more sexy) than The Fool. The artwork consists of pictures of the 4 band members, blended into one. The inside covers show the individual pictures. The version that i have is is the limited edition on red vinyl. There's also an etching on side D of the band's logo. Quality stuff, and if there are more albums like this being released during the rest of the year i'll be having a really hard time to choose my 10 favourite albums - just like last year. Not that i mind, though. Keep 'em coming!

Label: Rough Trade
Cat.nr.: RTRADLP680
Year of release: 2014

SIDE A:
01. Intro
02. Keep It Healthy
03. Love Is To Die
04. Hi

SIDE B:
01. Biggy
02. Teese
03. Disco//very
04. Go In

SIDE C:
01. Feeling Alright
02. CC
03. Drive
04. Son

SIDE D:
etching

Toy - Join The Dots [12", 2LP]

One of the last albums i bought in 2013 was the new album by TOY, called JOIN THE DOTS. I was quite excited about this release, because i liked their self-titled debut album a lot. It even became third in my yearlist of 2012. This one came in too late for my 2013 yearlist, but it wouldn't have ended up in the top 10 anyway: somewhere inbetween number 11-20, i recon. It is certainly not a bad album though. It's just that there were so many good albums coming out in 2013. It's once again an excellent mix of krautrock, psychedelic rock and a little bit of shoegaze.I guess that the title track is my favourite song of the album; a hypnotizing uptempo tune. Didn't manage to catch them live during last year, so that's on my to-do-list for 2014 then.

Label: Heavenly
Cat.nr.: HVNLP102
Year of release: 2013

SIDE A:
01. Conductor
02. You Won't Be The Same
03. As We Turn

SIDE B:
01. Join The Dots
02. To A Death Unknown
03. Endlessly

SIDE C:
01. It's Been So Long
02. Left To Wander
03. Too Far Gone To Know

SIDE D:
01. Frozen Atmosphere
02. Fall Out Of Love

Tripping Daisy - I Got A Girl [7"]

Nearly a month since my last posts on this blog. Batteries are re-loaded, and my writer's block seems to be over :)
One of the last things i wrote, was about the Piranha single by TRIPPING DAISY. Eight days later, it was announced that Benjamin Curtis whom i mentioned in that post, sadly had died of Lymphoma. He only became 35. Really, really sad.
This limited numbered 7" of I GOT A GIRL on clear vinyl i bought together with the beforementioned Piranha single, at the last record fair in Utrecht. This song is just like Piranha from the I Am An Elastic Firecracker album, and it was actually even their biggest hit. Personally, i like Piranha better though.

Label: Island Records
Cat.nr.: IS 636
Year of release: 1995

SIDE A:
01. I Got A Girl

SIDE B:
01. Margarita Tropendzando