You Tube Gold, having something of a nostalgia-trip today but how cracking are some of these tunes?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9of3sefxY4[/youtube]

 

SCARCE – ALL SIDEWAYS

Love this song. The guitar is so bendy. I think I saw Scarce once but unfortunately my brain is shot through like Swiss Cheese and I can’t decide if I dreamt it or not. Phil Welding swears he saw Page & Plant play the Ballroom in Nottingham and there is NO WAY that happened. Mind you, I only know I saw the Jesus Lizard because I can pick me out in the footage from TV show The Beat.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnQ0mUoyKCg[/youtube]

 

SENSELESS THINGS – HOLD IT DOWN (Live)

If these guys had done less speed and cider and slowed it down they’d have sounded like Neil Young. Of course that means I wouldn’t have dug them in 1993.  More from The Word in a moment…

 [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbBSFarEgYg[/youtube]

 

MAN OR ASTROMAN? – LO BATT

One of the best shows I ever saw was this line-up of MOAM? at the thankfully deceased Garage in London. I recall Starcrunch duckwalking the monitors and the encore consisting of them wheeling the Tesla Coil onstage and shooting blue lightning across the ceiling and blowing the power in the venue. I then sat with Kai on a train back to Northampton that got stuck for 3 hours in the countryside somewhere. I have a bootleg of MOAM? where they introduce a song and then there is silence for maybe a minute as the band furiously mime before Coco says “Thank you very much. What? Your puny Earth ears couldn’t hear that? Too bad… your cats and dogs would’ve loved it”. 

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NF_9R2xCP2o[/youtube]

 

JALE – NOT HAPPY 

OK. It’s The Breeders-lite. And the rest of their stuff isn’t so hot. But there are loads of classic singles from this era, this one being one of the ones.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyDCl3Hzdy4[/youtube]

 

AFGHAN WHIGS – DEBONAIR

I remember going on an Art College trip to Amsterdam when I was maybe 18 (?) and seeing the Whigs were playing the Paradiso. Then I found out it was sold out. I vocally showed my dismay in a record store nearby and a chap came up to me, said he was the tour manager and took me and my friends’ names and got me in. It was dead good too. They did Purple Rain by Prince. There is the possibility that I dreamt that too.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXc_OvTpOLA[/youtube]

 

JON SPENCER BLUES EXPLOSION – AFRO (Live on The Word)

Aaaah, more from The Word. The album Orange sounded so fucking right when it came out. All around the world, dudes in bands put it on and rubbed their temple while they thought “why the hell didn’t I think of that?”. Damn. They played Nottingham once and the guy on the door stopped Spencer as he came in and asked for his ticket. He said very quietly “I’m Jon Spencer” and the guy began looking for his name on the guestlist. “No, I’m Jon Spencer”… “Erm… you’re not on the list Mr Spencer” …. (a little louder) “That’s because I’m Jon Spencer from the motherfucking BLUES EXPLOSION man“.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1H6jFmixVzo[/youtube]

 

FAITH NO MORE – WHAT A DAY (Live on The Word)

I still think it’s hysterical that in the 1st verse Mike Patton sings the line “Kill the body and the head will die” as “Kill the body and the head will daaaaaaaaaaaah”. Not sure why this video is all squashed. Where is The Word music DVD comp when you need it?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95EEoT8_mMs[/youtube]

 

NIRVANA – LITHIUM (live)

Nirvana with Dale Crover on the kit and Kurt playing a Mosrite opening for Sonic Youth. I guess they probably packed up and went home without playing after they witnessed this. This song is such a part of my brain I can’t imagine hearing it like this, from a support band at a gig, not knowing it at all. Killer effects on the video too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbtWThJ1RqI

(No embedding on this one…)

FIREHOSE – BLAZE

Anyone else have that ‘Greetings From Uncle Sam’ compilation album? This was the best song on it. I know it’s not the Minutemen but this is the best Dinosaur song that Mascis never wrote, though he does knock off the bass solo on it. Very nicely too.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bT-dl7ubPRY[/youtube]

 

BELLY – GEPETTO

The Chart Show Indie Chart! The joy of a Saturday morning. The songs without videos getting some weird Chart Show graphics (usually in the dance chart). And the pop-up computer factoids over the videos. Huggy Bear at number 7 and Silverfish at 6 too. A golden time. My first ever gig was The Cure in Finsbury Park and Belly played too. I saw Tanya Donnelly in the crowd and asked her for an autograph and she said she didn’t do autographs but instead she did hugs and kisses. Result. Always looked a bit awkward with a guitar though, as this video proves.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMmPn-6DUYM[/youtube]

 

MELVINS – NIGHT GOAT (Live)

The Melvins must have re-written this song 10 times over their back catalogue. This live version is what it would look and sound like if you could live inside the head of Dan Layton, guitar player for the band Souvaris and solo artist under the name Apalusa. The Melvins with David Yow. The only way it could get any better, or anymore 1993 for him is if Page Hamilton was involved somehow. The rest of us can be thankful he isn’t. Never dug Helmet.

 [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d24jF-D5_M4[/youtube]

 

HALO BENDERS – DON’T TOUCH MY BIKINI

Awesome garage rock that almost justifies Calvin Johnson’s appearance in every American documentary piece of revisionism and his tendency to make every sentence go up at the end, like it’s a question, or like an Australian said it.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtBDlNEME48[/youtube]

 

YO LA TENGO – TOM COURTENAY

Somewhere, in darkest Cambridgeshire, Ian Scanlon stirs and looks up, thinking that someone said his name, before dismissing it as his imagination and returning to his business. I have only been to New York once and there I saw Yo La Tengo cover Slack Motherfucker by Superchunk with Jon Spencer on vocals and titty dancers onstage. True.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOyb-jlVp7c[/youtube]

 

PALACE BROTHERS – HORSES

Mekons song covered in the style of Richard Thompson with the most fucking utterly fantastic guitar solo ever recorded (presumably by David Pajo?) and a video where a BMW 02 series is the star. Perfect. I remember seeing the video for Come In on MTV and being utterly baffled by it.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWSJKm5uQzg[/youtube] 

 

BECK – FORCEFIELD

More Calvin Johnson-related K-ness. Back from when Beck was opening up every festival at midday and being awesome. I saw Beck the same day I bought my first real guitar and then on the way home I met the aforementioned Ian Scanlon for the first time on a train, by accident. You don’t get that on the internet. I’m welling up here.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0Bq1og2yzY[/youtube]

 

JONATHAN FIRE*EATER – WHEN PRINCE WAS A KID (Live)

I am willing to bet that somewhere in this NYC crowd is at least one of the Strokes. I just searched for my favourite JF*E song The Search For Cherry Red and discovered The Kills have covered it. Saw these chaps in Sheffield in the mid-nineties sometime supported by some awful funk-metal band and Six By Seven. A surprisingly good night nonetheless.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhU0uwAuhh0[/youtube]

 

CHAVEZ – UNREAL IS HERE

The quintessential mid-nineties indie rock video and song. Totally perfect. The part in the video where The James Lo receives an airbrushed T-shirt with his own face on it is tremendous. In the aforementioned trip to NYC as a youth, I saw Chavez play what was supposed to be their last show. On the way to the gig I saw Stuart from Mogwai and asked him if he was going and he said he was going to see The Sisters Of Mercy instead at the Roseland. True. Somewhere in Glasgow, Colin Kearney from the band Eska is now plotting a murder.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsU5b6LT0Wk[/youtube]

 

PROLAPSE – TCR

In the comments on You Tube for this video it says: “I once walked in on Mick (the bass player) having a wank”. What a band.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gA18xHStrQA[/youtube]

 

BRANIAC – VINCENT COME ON DOWN

Never got to see Brainiac live, more’s the pity. They seem to be going through a bit of a resurgence courtesy of the Mars Volta guys. They programmed a night of videos on Aussie TV when I was out there and played Huggy Bear. None more surreal.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1CQDim2aBE[/youtube]

 

NUB – BLACKTOP

Talking of surreal, how’s this? Nub miming on TV. There is some Bob Tilton on You Tube too but I’ll let you search that one out. No Elevate and no good early Cable stuff either. However, there is this:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vpis8WrS85k[/youtube]

 

LIGAMENT – HAWG JAWZ

Reformed version of the ‘Ment blasting it out at the Buffalo Bar with Ollie Simpson in Ligament shirt dancing like he’s at a Neds gig in the front row. Yes!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZPmrwRYNoY[/youtube]

 

THE VAN PELT –  THE YOUNG ALCHEMISTS (Live)

Sweeeeeeeet.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HY1ywAZ_wE[/youtube]

 

BARDO POND – TOMMY GUN ANGEL

Their best song by a mile. It has 4 chords and somehow they managed to get it arse-about-face in Nottingham last time and had to stop the song halfway. The first gig I ever helped to put on with Team Gringo was Bardo Pond in Colchester. The venue had a noise limiter that appeared to do nothing until night fell and we realised it cut the lights, so they played in the dark. It was pretty neat. I have a bootleg somewhere.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5B9ifXlU78w[/youtube]

 

MOGWAI – SUMMER

There is a version from their NME Brats show around the same time as this that is almost perfect. Mogwai live in small venues around that time was face melting. Seeing them on the tour they did with Aerial M was so good. That reminds me, I must scan in my photos from back then sometime.

That’ll do…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted: 09|30|08 at 4:48 pm. Filed under: all about us, film and video, interweb, tv and radio.
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