young team revisited

Two fairly early soundscapes from Glasgow's Mogwai which run together almost seamlessly and build on the spidery experimental elegance of Tom Verlaine at his most concise, or Chicago collective, Tortoise.

It's a Sunday thing. Rebus on a bus pass; a restricted service.

The first cut - recorded by Andy Miller - was released in January 1997, coupled with "Helicon 1", on a vinyl 7" distributed through Wurlitzer Jukebox and features the line-up as listed. It was reissued months later on the retrospective CD, "Ten Rapid", on Rock Action.

"Tracy" can be found on their debut LP - recorded and mixed at MCM Studios, Hamilton, in the summer of the same year - with Teenage Fanclub's Brendan O'Hare attending drums in uncharacteristically restrained fashion. O' Hare also provided photography originally utilized on the cover, subsequently revised for its 2008 re-release, but vacated the chair before "Young Team" hit the shops. The line-up since then has oscillated to accommodate minor changes in direction.

Stuart Braithwaite: bass, guitar;
Martin Bulloch: drums (drumkit), guitar;
John Cummings: guitar, bass;
Dominic Aitchison: guitar, bass.

▼ MOGWAI: HELICON 2 from "New Paths To Helicon" 45 (Wurlitzer Jukebox) 1997 (UK)
▼ MOGWAI: TRACY from "Young Team" CD (Chemikal Underground) 1997 (UK)

deep space

LM-9802-7.

Mir |mɪə|
a Soviet space station, launched in 1986 and designed to be permanently manned.
  
Owing largely to its financial demands on an impoverished Russian government, the Mir program was terminated in March 2001, when the space station made its fiery reentry into the earth's atmosphere, splashing down in the South Pacific. 

During its 14 years in space, Mir (which means ‘world’ and ‘peace’ in Russian) housed a total of 104 astronauts from various nations.

The postman
 
rapped on the door with the officiousness of the secret police early this morning. That's alright. No foot jammed in the door, and no warrant. Not even a bill.

Instead, a large padded envelope marked "do not bend", all the way from Big B over at Art Decade, via Texas. What fortuity! 

And what an excellent way to begin the day.

This song is so good it deserves a second showing in less time than it takes a comet to orbit the earth. Or a Soviet space station. Big B first posted it less than a month ago with the very generous proposal to mail copies of this Loverly release to the first three individuals to send in their details in true late night FM radio tradition:

"Back in '98, a friend gave me a box of 45s from Memphis label Loverly Records. While the band has since vanished and the label sank somewhere in the Mississippi, I think the song still lives. For the first 3 who agree and would like to own this piece of blue vinyl for free email your pen name and address to Art Decade. Since I'm floating the postage do not expect them delivered between 5-10 working days."
 
One went out to Iowa; one to Belgium; and one here in Scotland. Not a bad geographical spread for such a star-crossed atmospheric re-entry.

There appears to be very little information out there on Jetty Webb, which is a real shame. Closer inspection of the original MP3 tag, however, reveals the a-side to be a McKay, Sikes and Easley composition.

Nice, Big B.

▼ JETTY WEBB: MIR from "Mir b/w Cornerwalk" 45 (Loverly) 1998 (US)
OUT OF PRINT

zabriskie counterpoint

"you can't
cool off in the mill pond... you can only die."

Unusually grim fare from American folk innovator, John Fahey; recorded in the wake of his rehabilitation from alcohol addiction and depression compounded by a debilitating infection.

After collaborating with Cul de Sac and overseeing the release of a double CD retrospective on Rhino in the mid nineties, Fahey - revitalized and uncowed by populist expectations which had dogged him through the better part of two decades - began work on a new album, while living out a motel room in Salem, Oregon. Alienated, especially, from those traditionalists who once formed the major part of his audience, "City of Refuge" was originally released on Portland's Tim/Kerr Records in 1997.

Recorded and produced by the same team behind that LP - Scott Colburn and Jeff Allman - "The Mill Pond" was released in April of the same year on Little Brother Records, another Portland sibling. Allman was responsible, too, for providing those disconcerting electronic sounds bubbling under Fahey's barbed vocals and guitar.

I like this 'newer' Fahey, immensely. Out of print for too long, a vinyl rip of the complete EP may still be available on WFMU, where regular, Lukas alerted me to it through an excellent post a couple of years back.

I make no apologies for resurrecting it here; a slack jawed witch bobbing back up on its ducking stool, spilling pond water and a curse.

▼ JOHN FAHEY: GHOSTS from "The Mill Pond" 2 x 7" 45 (Little Brother) 1997 (US)

OUT OF PRINT

old tongues

"the ladies' lament from the ballad of sir patrick spens".
elizabeth eleanor siddal, 1856.

"In the reign of Alexander III of Scotland, his daughter Margaret was escorted by a large party of nobles to Norway for her marriage to King Eric; on the return journey many of them were drowned. Twenty years later, after Alexander's death, his grand-daughter Margaret, the Maid of Norway, was heiress to the Scottish throne, and on the voyage to Scotland she died."

To reiterate. From Wiki:

"Born in 1950 into a Romany (Roma) family, Jackie Leven spent his childhood and teenage years clearly marked out as an outsider in the clannish, insular world that was Fife, Scotland at that time. Although Scottish himself, neither of his parents were from the area - his father was an Irish Cockney, his mother was from a large Northumberland (Geordie) family, and adapting to existing cultural norms was a hard, if not formidable task for such incomers."

A traditional Scots lament.

▼ JACKIE LEVEN: SIR PATRICK SPENS from "Fairytales For Hard Men" LP (Cooking Vinyl) 1997 (UK)

JACKIE LEVEN @ COOKING VINYL

sepultura: blood-rooted

team sepultura.



Formed in the affluent industrial capital of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, in 1984, this is the last Sepultura album to feature original singer, Max Cavalera, who left in December, 1996 (to be replaced by American boy, Derrick Green) after the rest of the band unanimously jettisoned Gloria Cavalera - his wife - from her fiendishly manipulative role as manager.

Yet another Latin American coup, but bloodless in spite of the hype.

Featuring Max Cavalera on vocals and rhythm guitar; Andreas Kisser, lead guitar; Paulo Jr. on bass; and Igor Cavalera on drums.

Ludicrously juvenile, and just as heavy on the macho posturing as on the pedal, this is nonetheless some kind of fun. The album is a mixed bag of previously unreleased studio takes, b-sides, remixes and some genuinely thrilling live recordings. Thrash Metal from the other side of the border.

Stick with the Sabbath cover and you will be rewarded with some uncharacteristically noodly guitar. It's really quite delightful. No kidding.

▼ SEPULTURA: ROOTS BLOODY ROOTS (DEMO VERSION) from "Blood-Rooted" CD (Roadrunner) 1997 (Brazil)

▼ SEPULTURA: SYMPTOM OF THE UNIVERSE from "Blood-Rooted" CD (Roadrunner) 1997 (Brazil)

PURCHASE BLOOD-ROOTED

red red meat

sulfur.



Tim Hurley; Bass, Synth, Lap Steel, Qwerty, Berimbau, Vocals, Guitar
Brian Deck; Synth, Drums, Percussion, Vocals
Ben Massarella; Batterie (Assorted)
Tim Rutili; Guitar, Violin, Piano, Mandolin, Vocals

From Sub Pop:

"Roughly incorporated in 1990, RRM were born and bred in a Chicago petri dish. A petri dish made in Chicago, of Chicago, and even germinated in the same late 80s, early 90s scene that put Chicago (back on) the map."

Like Tortoise before them, or Glasgow's own Ghosts, Red Red Meat have an ability to bore inside your skull and lodge - like unwelcome squatters - in your memory centre with their repetitive grooves. The only vaguely irritating thing about this album is its title; personally, what with Mazzy Star and a 'host' of other acts, I could do with a little less biblical imagery, New Testament or Old. I get enough of that on
the News At Ten. Or any other depressing distillation of current affairs.

It's a minor flaw, however.

▼ RED RED MEAT: SULFUR from "There's A Star Above The Manger Tonight" CD (Sub Pop) 1997 (US)

PURCHASE THERE'S A STAR ABOVE THE MANGER TONIGHT
RED RED MEAT / SUB POP OFFICIAL SITE

hunter inadvertently bags poet

self portrait by hunter s. thompson, on the road to tijuana.
year unknown, but hairline still intact.

Actually, if I dug around a bit I'm sure I could ferret out a date, but I cannot be f@cked. This blog is privately endorsed by Mr. Thompson.

The Ouija Board does not lie. I do not, either. I have so sense of tumor.

▼ HUNTER S. THOMPSON: LETTER TO WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS & ODE TO JACK from "Kerouac - Kicks Joy Darkness" CD (Rykodisc) 1997 (US)

KEROUAC: JOY KICKS DARKNESS