Strawberry Switchblade - Jolene

Strawberry Switchblade - Jolene

The lovely Strawberry Switchblade's swansong (well, in the UK at least). A Dolly Parton cover. It's not bad really, good drum machine action and it rolls along nice and briskly. They recorded another couple of singles for Japan before calling it a day. Rose McDowall ended up recording with Current 93, Death In June and Boyd Rice. She appeared on Boyd Rice's fantastic Music, Martinis and Misanthropy actually, including a fine duet between the two.

Momus - Tender Pervert Bonus 7" Single

Momus - Tender Pervert Bonus 7" Single

I can't quite remember if this had a sleeve or not, can't face the prospect of digging it out of my record collection to check either. Rather than have a naked post, I put a picture of Warren William holding some poison up instead. *ooh*.

Anyway, Tender Pervert was possibly Momus at his very best, and the original Vinyl release came with a bonus 7" single with two tracks. Right Hand Heart later found it's way onto the CD release but Poison Boyfriend (an outtake from 1982, title later used for the second Momus album but not the song) was lost to history. Which is a pity, as it's one of my favorite early Momus tracks, maybe it's just because it's one of the first songs of his I heard (think I first heard it via Napster while downloading random tracks) but it's got a nice underlying menace to it.

Right Hand Heart of course, is a complete bastard classic and deserves a place in anyone's collection.

One of the main things I love about Momus is that he's always changing, constantly evolving than stagnating into a back catalogue act. Do I like all of his stuff? Hell no. But I can at least listen to each piece of new material with a sense of the unknown rather than a sense of comfortable dread. More of this sort of thing.

Howard Hughes and the Western Approaches - Buffalo Bill (Part One)

Howard Hughes and the Western Approaches - Buffalo Bill (Part One)

Not the single alas, just the A-Side. Took me a long, long time to track even this mp3 down. Howard Hughes worked with Billy Mackenzie on post Sulk projects and had a few singles out himself under this name. Cracking song this, think it's the 12" version.

I will stop posting Associates related stuff soon. Ish.

Ronny - To Have And To Have Not

Ronny - To Have And To Have Not

French model in menswear, connections with the Blitz club and Steve Strange/Rusty Egan and virtual anonymity = bloody good synth pop. Excellent forgotten single from the depths of the early 80's, boys who dress as girls, girls who dress as boys, jumpers for goalposts. Eh? Eh?

On a completely unrelated note, there is a copy of the NME in my house as my girlfriend's band got reviewed, I am most amused by the Klaxons attempting to justify the fact they've bent over and took twelve inches from the record company who rejected their album. "It isn't the right thing for us, we know that" you could barely hear as the lube was plunged aloft.

Seriously. I need to stay the fuck away from popular culture.

39 Lyon Street - Kites

39 Lyon Street - Kites

39 Lyon Street is Christine Beveridge from Orbidoig on vocals with the Associates, released in 1981 during Mackenzie and Rankine's Situation 2 period, the b-side found it's way onto Fourth Drawer Down but the cover of Simon Dupree and the Big Sound's classic didn't resurface until the last singles collection I think. The Associates could basically do no wrong during the Mackenzie/Rankine era, they were just churning out single after single in 1981 and this came out slap bang in the middle of this period. According to a Smash Hits interview of the time, 18 Carat Love Affair was supposed to have been a further 39 Lyon Street release but Kites turned out to be the only thing released under this name in the end.

Stephen Emmer - Vogue Estate

Stephen Emmer - Vogue Estate

Featuring Billy Mackenzie, Martha Ladly and Michael Dempsey of Sulk era Associates, Stephen Emmer's largely instrumental album is nothing less than an unknown masterpiece. There are real shades of the Sulk sound in here, Wish On (featuring Billy on vox) could pretty much be an Associates song of that era. Plenty of other good stuff going on here as well.




Also, Martha Ladly solo:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0cUnrVRK_A

Peter Hook on bass apparently.

Strangelove - Hysteria Unknown

Strangelove - Hysteria Unknown

This was requested ages ago but I couldn't find one of the b-sides at the time, but now ladies and gentlemen....for your listening pleasure, the second Strangelove single/ep.

It's early days so Patrick is in full on I'm A Big Mental mode, I always preferred the early stuff myself. Includes the rather good 'Walls', which never found it's way onto the later singles b-sides unlike the other songs here.

More later.

Unless I forget.

The Beat - Jeanette

The Beat - Jeanette

On one of the first albums I ever owned (Chart Hits 82 rather than Special Beat Service, alas), Jeanette is the Beat at their most poppy. Fantastic single, and the b-side found it's way onto the Ferris Bueller's Day Off soundtrack a few years later.