There’s Nothing On But Repeats

Haven’t done this for a while. Here’s the top 2 songs from February and March on the site.

February’s most popular track was from Bob Mould:

Bob Mould – Stupid Now (from ‘District Line’) [Buy it] [Download it]

‘District Line’ isn’t Bob’s best but there’s enough on there to keep us going. Bob tours the UK in May (tickets) and, if the US reviews are anything to go by, he’s still more than capable of putting on a great show. Miss it at your peril. You can get a taste of the live show with the excellent DVD ‘Circle of Friends’. [Buy it]

March’s top tune was something completely different:

The Coward Brothers – The People’s Limousine (single) [Buy it]

The Coward Brothers won’t be touring any time soon but, by coincidence, the other month’s Uncut repeated a Coward Brothers interview from the days of yore.

Digging A Grave In The Moonlight

Here’s a record which is hardly current but has been doggedly battling for my listening attention ever since the turn of the year.

I’ve talked about Micah P Hinson before and have now caught up with his most recent offering ‘Micah P Hinson and the Opera Circuit’ from 2006.

As with his debut LP, in fact probably more so, ‘The Opera Circuit’ is a varied trawl through the styles of the great American songbook and beyond. In fact TOC is probably even less of a rock LP than TGOP even if it does include ‘You’re Only Lonely’ the first track which drew me to him and the only track which could obviously be labelled rock.

Amongst the dizzying array of styles, the one constant throughout is his voice, which honestly sounds like it should come from someone with at least three decades more life experience than young Mr Hinson. That comparison stretches to the songs themselves – these songs have been lived.

I said in my introduction that TOC has been battling for attention amongst my many listening choices and that’s because, like its predecessor, it’s a far from immediate record. But the fact that I keep returning to it despite competition from frankly easier to listen to records is a good indicator of its depth. One thing I like about this record is that it is something of a stretch for me.

Another indication of its quality is that, whilst it was quite an easy task to pick the outstanding track from TGOP, that’s not the case here. So let’s go for something that you perhaps wouldn’t expect to hear on MPT:

Micah P Hinson – Letter from Huntsville (from ‘Micah P Hinson and the Opera Circuit’) [Buy it] [Download it]

The Texan should release a follow-up LP later this year and that’s a release I’m certainly looking forward to with a degree of anticipation. And there are possible UK dates for June as well with his new “power trio”, which sounds intriguing.

The Long Light Dims and Fades

Let no-one ever accuse the Breeders of being prolific – ‘Mountain Battles’ is their first record since 2002. Whilst many bands would simply sink without trace after such a prolonged period out of the public eye, Kim Deal’s status guarantees that she will always manage to attract attention.

‘Mountain Battles’ almost seems to make a conscious effort though to downplay the fuss with a production that is so low key as to be virtually anti-production. Initially too some of the songs appear to be little more than rough sketches of bigger tunes too. Taken as a whole it seems to be a deliberate ploy to force the listener to work at the record and in this day and age of fast consumption it is perhaps a risky strategy.

Fortunately MB is somewhat easier on the ear than the charmless production of ‘Title TK’ as it is a far warmer sounding record. It still takes a few plays to hit home though (I’d probably have had a different take on the record even a week ago) but when it does, it hits hard.

There’s plenty of typical Breeders style pop such ‘Walk It Off’ and ‘It’s The Love’ but ‘Mountain Battles’ is also the most varied Breeders record to date touching on country (‘Here No More’), Spanish balladry (‘Regalame Esta Noche’) through to the sparse but spooky title track which closes the LP. ‘Underglazed’ initially appears to be one of these sketches I talked about – a simple arrangement with minimal lyrics certainly but after a few plays it reveals itself to be much more than that.

It’s a good example of what this record is about – when you get to know it, it’s the tunes that prevail – however they are presented. This could be one of the best LPs of the year.

Here’s the lovely countrified track:

The Breeders – ‘Here No More’ (from ‘Mountain Battles’) [Buy it] [Download it]

Murder He Cried

I admit to having had a fractured relationship with Black Francis/Frank Black since he split the Pixies. I probably own the majority of his solo albums (just about) but don’t buy every one by any means. It’s actually fairly unusual for me to dip in and out of an artist’s work in this way because it tends to be all or nothing.

It seems to me that BF’s profligacy is a large part of the problem. He seems to have to record every song he writes and preferably the quicker the better. Just keeping up with his releases is difficult enough. His predilection for bashing out the songs with the minimum of production (‘Frank Black & The Catholics’, I’m talking about you) is a little bit frustrating too. The end result is that I’ve found the records I own to be variable in quality despite FB adopting a number of musical styles over the years.

I also think some of my indifference is down to his ordinary Joe choice of solo name. For me using Frank Black, rather than his Pixies moniker, kind of sold the pass. So despite not having bought an LP of his for several years, I confess that my interest was pricked by his recent re-adoption of Black Francis.

Not quite quickly enough to get ‘Bluefinger’ but in time to download the recent ‘Svn Fngrs’, a mini-LP comprising just 7 songs which clocks in around the 20 minute mark. It manages to illustrate a couple of the above points quite well. Whilst it certainly carries plenty of energy it is let down by the lack of great tunes. After 3 plays there was only one song whose melody sprung readily to mind.

It’s also fair to say also that, despite the name change, there’s nothing here that the man hasn’t done before. The songs on here do provide a certain rock thrill but the LP suffers due to a lack of melodic variation.

By way of comparison I tried to decide if I would rather listen to this or Bob Mould’s below-par ‘District Line’. Energy wise, ‘Svn Fngrs’ has the edge and (as you may expect given its length) may be the more cohesive collection. But I still prefer the better songs on Bob’s LP and admire more his determination to move his sound into radically different areas.

I suspect therefore that ‘Svn Fngrs’ isn’t going to expand FB’s fanbase but it will appeal to long term fans. And it has to be said that, on the following evidence, he can still write the odd good tune:

Black Francis – When They Come to Murder Me (from ‘Svn Fngrs’) [Buy it] [Download it]

Even People In Love Get Hit By Bullets

The second Triffids’ posting of the week. The remixed, remastered debut LP ‘Treeless Plain’ finally arrived through the letter box yesterday and it is unbelievably, fantastic.

‘Treeless Plain’ was the first Triffids record I ever bought on the back of seeing them support Echo & The Bunnymen twice on the same day. The live show at the time was a fierce, gothic maelstrom so the more refined tones of the LP were something of a surprising discovery. Even the band admitted that they had never caught the essence of their live sound on the first 2 records.

So what’s remarkable about the remix is that it manages to pull off the not inconsiderable trick of retaining the feel of the original yet still bringing some of the power of the live shows to the table. Listening to the record it is no less than an improved version of an LP that I love. It’s also probably the LP which has benefited most from the reissue treatment, even more so than ‘In The Pines’.

Song wise, ‘Treeless Plain’ is very, very strong indeed, perhaps topped only by ‘Born Sandy Devotional’. To my mind there are only a couple of tracks (out of 12) which suffer any dip in quality at all and plenty of classics. And, it is of course supplemented by half a dozen live tracks.

So if, despite my previous recommendations, you still don’t own any Triffids’ material then there really is no better place to start than the (vinyl) beginning. Then buy the rest.

Here’s one of my all-time favourite Triffids songs:

The Triffids – Hell of a Summer (from ‘Treeless Plain’) [Buy it] [Download it]

As ever I have provided a link for those who wish to purchase the download version of the LP (and it’s heartening to see that people have followed the link from The Black Swan post) but, honestly, this is one record you really want to hear in its full glory on CD.

Book Matters

I haven’t written much about books recently so I thought I’d round-up a couple of SF novels I’ve completed in the last few weeks.

First up is Iain M Banks’ ‘Matter’. In common with much of Banks’ recent output ‘Matter’ is a joy to read. The author has tremendous fun with his characters throughout in a tale which starts as a domestic coup albeit one played out against a background of a hierarchy of more advanced races running the galaxy. The characters are tremendous and if the key relationship of the idiot prince and his worldly wise man servant are a literary stock in trade it’s still genuinely entertaining in Banks’ hands.

This is one of his more accessible SF novels and confirms the general exuberance of his recent writing. Well worth checking out. [Buy it]

Much less so is Peter F Hamilton’s ‘The Dreaming Void’. Hamilton is normally excellent at telling complicated stories within his superbly realised worlds but sometimes I feel his books feel a little too clinical and in truth I’m never convinced by his characters (particularly the female ones).

Surprisingly this time out it’s the story that lets him down. In his last 2 series of novels he has built up a civilisation only to tear it down by the end of the first book but in TDV nothing much happens at all and there is little interplay within the different narrative strands.

I’m sure this it will all come together in the end but I can’t say I’m really too bothered about how at this moment in time. [Buy it]

Not surprisingly neither novel carries any current contemporary musical references so I’m resorting to a track referred to in Banksy’s ‘Complicity’.

The Pixies – ‘Trompe Le Monde’ (from ‘Trompe Le Monde’) [Buy it] [Download it]