Iggy & Ziggy - Sister Midnight Live At The Agora [12", 2LP, Unofficial]

Today it's been exactly two months since DAVID BOWIE passed away.

This particular double live LP SISTER MIDNIGHT LIVE AT THE AGORA captures an IGGY POP show from 1977. March 21st, Agora Ballroom in Cleveland, Ohio to be exact. Bowie fans will know this, but other people might not: Bowie was part of Iggy's band for the Idiot Tour, a one-and-half month tour in the UK, USA and Canada during March and April 1977. He didn't do any solo stuff, but just wanted to be a band member, playing keyboards and doing some occasional backing vocals. The other band members were Tony and Hunt Sales, who helped record The Idiot album (and who'd both be with Bowie in Tin Machine just over a decade later - a band in which Bowie also wanted to be just one of the guys), and Ricky Gardiner. Ricky had worked with Bowie on the Low album, as well as The Idiot. 

The recording of this bootleg is pretty good. There are quite a few other versions released of this show over the years. Wild Animal on the French Revenge label is probably the most wellknown. Also on the official RCA album from 1978 TV Eye Live 1977 there are a few songs from this show. Although the tour was to promote The Idiot, there are mostly songs from The Stooges present here. Turn Blue, Sister Midnight and Funtime are therefore almost the only ones on which you clearly hear Bowie's backing vocals. Besides that, he does some fine repetitive keyboards on I Wanna Be Your Dog. I would've loved to see one of the shows on this tour. Quite a package, Iggy and Ziggy on the same stage.

Label: The Vinyl Countdown / Store For Music

Cat.nr.: SFMVC1206

Year of release: 2012

SIDE A:

01. Raw Power

02. 1969

03. Turn Blue

SIDE B:

01. Sister Midnight

02. I Need Somebody

03. Search And Destroy

SIDE C:

01. TV Eye

02. Dirt

03. Funtime

SIDE D:

01. Gimme Danger

02. No Fun

03. I Wanna Be Your Dog

Toy - BBC Sessions [12"]

No idea if these six songs were recorded over various BBC SESSIONS, as the title suggests, or only one - however the band was in pretty good shape. It features songs from the first few singles (+ B-sides) and the debut album by TOY. Supposedly only 300 copies were made of this, and i was lucky enough to come across a copy at the Utrecht record fair recently. Their last album Join The Dots is already two years old now, so hopefully they'll release something new this year.

Label: Heavenly
Cat.nr.: HVN248
Year of release: 2012

SIDE A:
01. Left Myself Behind
02. Clock Chime
03. Bright White Shimmering Sun

SIDE B:
01. Motoring
02. Colours Running Out
03. When I Went Back

The December Sound - Silver Album [12", 2LP]

By coincidence i stumbled upon the vinyl edition of SILVER ALBUM by THE DECEMBER SOUND recently. I had this album digitally already for quite some years (it came out in 2007) and i've been playing it regularly ever since. But apparently in the meantime it has been released on vinyl by French indie label Cranes Records, back in 2012 already. Why didn't i know that earlier?? If i'd known i would have instantly bought it. I consider myself lucky because it's only been pressed in a small quantity of 500 copies, and Cranes' webstore still had it available.
The album is a great mix of shoegaze, noise and psychedelic music. Definitely recommended if you like not only the obvious My Bloody Valentine and The Jesus And Mary Chain, but also The Brian Jonestown Massacre and A Place To Bury Strangers. It's hard to say which tracks i like best, because they differ so much from eachother, but Never, Drone Refusenik, Painkiller and especially Truth Hurts are definitely among my favourites of this album. And compared to the CD, the vinyl edition has an untitled bonus track as well. Really happy that i have this great album on vinyl now!

Label: Cranes Records
Cat.nr.: 04
Year of release:2012 (album originally released in 2007)

SIDE A:
01. Never
02. No Heaven Like Hell
03. Drone Refusenik
04. Do You In

SIDE B:
01.Painkiller
02. Reminder
03. 月 の 音 12

SIDE C:
01. Maker
02. Il Forte
03. Kill Me (Before I Kill You)

SIDE D:
01. Truth Hurts
02. Tape Tape
03. Not If It's On Your Time
04. untitled bonus track

Lovesliescrushing - Shiny Tiny Stars [12", LP]

LOVESLIESCRUSHING is a project by Scott Cortez and Melissa Arpin-Duimstra. Scott's other band is Astrobrite. I'm not too familiar with this band, but as far as i could see on Discogs, this SHINY TINY STARS album is their only vinyl release, except for a 7" single released in 1994; the rest they ever released is all CD or digital. The recordings for this album were done way back, between 1991 and 1997. No idea why they waited another 15 years before releasing this album, but i'm happy they did because it's an amazing piece of work. The album contains 7 tracks of pure ethereal ambient dreampop bliss. Soft layered guitars, loops and patterns with distant vocals, sounding like unrecognisable lullabies. If it needs to be compared to a better known band, i'd say it comes closest to the more ambient sounding songs by Slowdive like Erik's Song, Losing Today and Albatross. Great stuff.

Label: Handmade Birds
Cat.nr.: HB-DIS028
Year of release: 2012

SIDE A:
01. Shiny Tiny Stars
02. Blurbrightblued
03. Gloxina
04. Luminareal

SIDE B:
01. Snowfell Husher
02. A Color Gone
03. Overdose

Dead Horse One - Heavenly Choir Of Jet Engines [12"]

DEAD HORSE ONE is a band that has been around for a while, but which i only discovered last year when i picked up their copy of Without Love We Perish. That album even ended up in my Top 10 of 2014. And i can tell you that if i would have known about this HEAVENLY CHOIR OF JET ENGINES EP in 2012 already when it came out, i surely would have bought it back then. Amazing stuff, in the same vein as their follow-up release. All four songs are great, but if i'd have to pick a favourite i'd say He Goes Down. The EP is limited to 200 copies and comes with a CD version included.

Label: Cranes Records
Cat.nr.: 05
Year of release: 2012

SIDE A:
01. Alone
02. He Goes Down

SIDE B:
01. To Pretend
02. Cruel Winter

Medicine - Shot Forth Self Living [12", 2LP]

This reissue of SHOT FORTH SELF LIVING by MEDICINE came out in 2012, 20 years after its original release. It's been completely remastered by Brad Laner and has 6 bonus tracks which were originally released on the Aruca and 5ive EP's. The new total of 15 tracks resulted in a double LP, while the original one on Creation Records was a single LP. Glad that Captured Tracks reissued it, because the original had become really hard to find. Really good stuff and i'm spinning this record again quite a lot lately.

Label: Captured Tracks
Cat.nr.: CT-148
Year of release: 2012 (originally released in 1992)

SIDE A:
01. One More
02. Aruca
03. Defective

SIDE B:
01. A Short Happy Life
02. 5ive
03. Sweet Explosion
04. Queen Of Tension

SIDE C:
01. Miss Drugstore
02. Christmas Song
03. World Hello

SIDE D:
01. Time Baby 2
02. Onion Flower
03. The Powder
04. Lime Sicks
05. Wrought

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

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

Nothing - Downward Years To Come EP [12"]

A couple of days ago i wrote about the Dreampunx album by Anne. It was released on the same label as this DOWNWARD YEARS TO COME EP by the band NOTHING: the hardcore/metal label A389 Recordings. As far as i understood from their bio on the website of Relapse Records, to which they recently signed, Nothing's main man used to be in a hardcore band called Horror Show. That could explain the fact that this release is on a typical hardcore label, because otherwise (just like Anne) Nothing's music has nothing to do with hardcore nor metal. It's pure shoegaze. Signing to (extreme metal label) Relapse for their upcoming full length is for that matter also a very interesting fact. This particular EP was released in 3 versions (a black, white, and clear vinyl edition) for Black Friday in 2012. As you can see, i have the clear version. It contains 5 tracks, of which the title track is the best one i think. As far as i'm concerned, Nothing's sound can best be described as some kind of mix between Starflyer 59 and A Place To Bury Strangers, with the obvious bit of My Bloody Valentine added as well. Excellent stuff, and i look forward to hear their full length when it comes out early 2014.

Label: A389 Recordings
Cat.nr.: A389-112
Year of release: 2012

SIDE A:
01. The Dives
02. Downward Years To Come
03. Mine Is Clouds
04. If Only

SIDE B:
01. The Rites Of Love And Death

Lou Reed - Rock 'N' Roll Animal [12", LP]

Today is a sad day. News just broke that LOU REED died, at the age of 71.

Having become a massive David Bowie fan when i was a teenager, i first got to know Reed from the stuff that Bowie did for him (producing Transformer together with Mick Ronson, for example) and the songs that Bowie covered (most notably White Light/White Heat during his Ziggy Stardust period). So out of curiosity i started to listen to the man's work. First Transformer, then i discovered Berlin, and then the whole Velvet Underground catalogue. Amazing stuff! I still rank many Velvet Undergound songs as some of the best pop/rock songs ever written, and Lou Reed was the writer of nearly all of them. His solo work rarely reaches the same level as the Velvets did, to my opinion at least, but still i love albums like Berlin and New York. Also Transformer, The Blue Mask, Magic And Loss and the phenomenal Songs For Drella (with John Cale) are albums that mean a lot to me. So does this particular album, ROCK 'N' ROLL ANIMAL. It's a live album from 1974 and the songs are mostly from his Velvet Underground period. It only has five songs on it, but these are definitely the best live versions i've ever heard of every single one of them, and the total length of the album is still over 40 minutes. Especially the guitar work is excellent. Some live albums are true classics. This is one of those.
Funny detail: the musicians on this album would later join Alice Cooper when he had parted ways with his old band members and went on to release Welcome To My Nightmare. Producer Bob Ezrin introduced them.
As for myself, i've seen Lou Reed perform live twice. First during his Magic And Loss tour in 1992, and a year later with the Velvet Underground during their MCMXCIII reunion tour. And as of today, it's clear that there will definitely be no further chance. Truly sad.

I own two different editions of this great album. The picture above is from an original pressing from 1974. Below, it's a reissue from 2012, when Music On Vinyl released it as a special Record Store Day release, remastered and on 180 grams vinyl. Even sounds better than it ever did before.

 

Label: RCA / Music On Vinyl
Cat.nr.: APL1-0472 / MOVLP 529
Year of release: 1974 / 2012

SIDE A:
01. Intro/Sweet Jane
02. Heroin

SIDE B:
01. White Light/White Heat
02. Lady Day
03. Rock 'n' Roll

Brian Jonestown Massacre - Aufheben [12", 2LP]

 

Fantastic album by the BRIAN JONESTOWN MASSACRE that came out in 2012. I only bought it quite late in the year, but if i wouldn't have done that, it probably would have ended up in my Top 10 list of last year. Anyway, AUFHEBEN only has awesome songs on it and it's still a regular on my record player. I love the artwork as well, and the two different kinds of blue vinyl that are used. Top notch product.

Label: A Records
Year of release: 2012
Cat.nr.: AUK023LP

SIDE A:
01. Panic In Babylon
02. Viholliseni Maalla
03. Gaz Hilarant

SIDE B:
01. Illuminomi
02. I Want To Hold Your Other Hand
03. Face Down On The Moon

SIDE C:
01. The Clouds Are Lies
02. Stairway To The Best Party In The Universe
03. Seven Kinds Of Wonderful

SIDE D:
01. Waking Up To Hand Grenades
02. Blue Order/New Monday

Field Mouse - How Do You Know [7"]

Never heard of the band FIELD MOUSE before, and i actually bought this 7" just because of the B-side. Stumbled upon their cover of Julee Cruise's Falling on Youtube and then found out it came from this single, so i ordered it. It's a great dreampop version of the Twin Peaks tune. But the song HOW DO YOU KNOW on the A-side is pretty cool as well. The single's pressed on some kind of purple/black/grey swirl mix. Until now, they released only this 7" and one other 7", plus a few download-only tracks. Really a band to watch and let's hope they'll release a full album sometime.

Label: Lefse Records
Cat.nr.: LEFSE044
Year of release: 2012

SIDE A:
01. How Do You Know

SIDE B:
01. Falling  (Twin Peaks Theme)

Elliott - False Cathedrals [12", LP]

What can i say. I totally fell in love with this album, the second by ELLIOTT, when it came out in 2000. They released another album after this (Song In The Air, from 2003) and i saw the band live for the first time shortly after that. It was pretty amazing. But later that same year they sadly called it quits. I had FALSE CATHEDRALS only on CD and it was in my player every now and then. But somewhere around 2008/2009 i probably lost interest, or anyway i can't recall that i've played it since then.
But then, only a few months ago, i discovered that it had been repressed by Revelation last year for the first time in 12 years, since its original release. Only 500 copies were made and i didn't hesitate a moment and ordered one. Luckily it wasn't sold out yet. And since then, spinning rounds on my record player, the magic has come back! Never particularly been into the whole emo thing at the time - but this album, people... this really is an absolute masterpiece.

Label: Revelation Records
Cat.nr.: Revelation:95
Year of release: 2012 (originally: 2000)

SIDE A:
01. Voices
02. Calm Americans
03. Blessed By Your Own Ghost
04. Drive On To Me
05. Calvary Song
06. Lipstick Stigmata

SIDE B:
01. Dying Midwestern
02. Shallow Like Your Breath
03. Superstitions In Travel
04. Carving Oswego
05. Lie Close
06. Speed Of Film

Tamaryn - Tender New Signs [12", LP]

The TENDER NEW SIGNS album by TAMARYN is something i -sadly- completely missed when it came out during autumn 2012, so i bought it only a few months ago after i had i stumbled upon some songs on Youtube. Absolutely delicious shoegaze/dreampop! The band Tamaryn is actually singer Tamaryn Brown (a girl from NY) and Rex John Shelverton on guitar. On bass and drums on this album there's Jeremey Bringetto and Matthew Bajda from Rex John's other band Bellavista. Together they've been in a couple of bands, like Vue (on Sub Pop) and Portraits Of Past, a screamo band from the mid '90s on Ebullition Records. Interesting background.
Really a shame that i missed this LP last year. I'll definitely be on look-out for new stuff they'll release from now on, that's for sure.

Label: Mexican Summer
Cat.nr.: MEX125
Year of release: 2012

SIDE A:
01. I'm Gone
02. While You're Sleeping, I'm Dreaming
03. Heavenly Bodies
04. No Exits
05. Prizma

SIDE B:
01. The Garden
02. Transcedent Blue
03. Afterlight
04. Violet's In A Pool

The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - Acid Reflex [12"]

Last year on Record Store Day i tried really hard to find this 12" at the participating stores, but for some reason none had it. So i kinda gave up and expected i'd never get my hands on a copy anymore, but a few weeks ago at Pet Sounds in Stockholm i saw one standing in the racks to my big surprise. On this ACID REFLEX EP there are 4 different songs, all from the Belong album, in a remixed version. One thing about remixes is that it either hits exactly the right spot, or it goes terribly wrong. It doesn't happen very often that i actually like all the remixes on a 12", but in this case i do. THE PAINS OF BEING PURE AT HEART definitely chose the right artists to remix their songs, and they're not the least names either: Twin Shadow, Saint Etienne, Violens and Washed Out. Pretty cool stuff!

Label: Play It Again Sam/Slumberland Records
Cat.nr.: PIASR532T
Year of release: 2012

SIDE A:
01. Heart In Your Heartbreak (Twin Shadow remix)
02. Too Tough (Saint Etienne remix)

SIDE B:
01. The Body (Violens remix)
02. My Terrible Friend (Washed Out remix)

Fidlar - Fidlar [12", LP]

The self-titled debut full length by FIDLAR is an in-your-face snotty skate-punk outburst of songs about drugs, booze and surfing. Sounds a bit like Wavves (same attitude) but the songs are meaner and sharper. Think of a mix of Wavves, Blink 182, Motörhead and Zeke. The opening song (and hit single) Cheap Beer perfectly captures the spirit: I. Drink. Cheap. Beer. So. What. Fuck. You.
This one was not in my best-albums-of-the-year list last year, but it probably was 2012's best party album.

Label: Mom+Pop Music, Wichita
Cat.nr.: WEBB 355LP
Year of release: 2012

SIDE A:
01. Cheap Beer
02. Stoked And broke
03. White On White
04. No Waves
05. Whore
06. Max Can't Surf
07. Blackout Stout

SIDE B:
01. Wake Bake Skate
02. Gimmie Something
03. 5 To 9
04. LDA
05. Paycheck
06. Wait For The Man
07. Cocaine

DIIV - Geist [7"]

GEIST was the third single by DIIV (then still written as Dive) before they released their awesome debut full length Oshin. The Sometime and Human singles were basically just demos put to vinyl, but this song isn't. Sounds great and could've been featured on Oshin without any problem. B-side Bambi Slaughter is a cover from an old Nirvana demo track. Not surprisingly, because the band named themselves Dive - after a Nirvana song as well.

Label: Captured Tracks
Cat.nr.: CT-154
Year of release: 2012

SIDE A:
01. Geist

SIDE B:
01. Bambi Slaughter

Night Beats - H-Bomb [7"]

On this 7", the fantastic tune H-BOMB and 3 other cool songs can be found . NIGHT BEATS is a psychedelic/garage band band from Seattle and this single is their first release, originally from 2010 (on Trouble In Mind). My copy however is a reissue on the Spanish Ayo Silver label, from 2012. There's some great stuff on this piece of vinyl. It sounds a bit like a mixture of Iggy And The Stooges and The Black Angels. And the band is a mighty fine live act as well. I've seen them a couple of months ago at the Le Guess Who festival (pics here) and i was really impressed with their energetic show.

Label: Ayo Silver
Cat.nr.: AS EP-01
Year of release: 2012

SIDE A:
01. H-Bomb
02. Shadows In The Night

SIDE B:
01. They Came In Through The Window
02. Stampede

Mmoss - Only Children [12", LP]

This album by MMOSS would've ended up in my Finest of 2012 if i would've bought it earlier than last week. ONLY CHILDREN is such a great LP. A true psychedelic masterpiece with songs that sound like they could've been on a long lost krautrock, Syd Barrett or Byrds album.

Label: Trouble In Mind
Cat.nr.: TIM043
Year of release: 2012

SIDE A:
01. Spoiled Sun
02. Okay
03. War Sux
04. Hands

SIDE B:
01. Marty Hills
02. Another Day
03. Another Dream
04. Wander
05. Spoiled Son

Toy - Make It Mine [12"]

This new MAKE IT MINE 12" by TOY has a really good cover version of Velvet Underground's What Goes On on it (a BBC6 Music Session recording). It was the reason why i bought this maxi.
The remix by Richard Fearless (of Death In Vegas fame) of the instrumental track Drifting Deeper is pretty cool as well, however the "song" Live Electronics is plain rubbish. Silly fooling around with electronic effects might be funny in the practice room but it's really not necessary to release this. Ah well, that cover alone is well worth the purchase.

Label: Heavenly
Cat.nr.: HVN252
Year of release: 2012

SIDE A:
01. Make It Mine (Radio Mix)
02. Drifting Deeper (Richard Fearless Remix)

SIDE B:
01. Live Electronics
02. What Goes On (BBC6 Radio Session)