So, if you have been with me for a while, you will know how much I love Emma Sharpe & the Features who hailed out of Brighton starting around 1979. And if you've seen me and you've seen her you probably get part of the attraction. Lol. I have actually been trying to track down Emma for several years now and thanks to some very adept sleuthing on the part of my friend Jerrold, I finally found her! This has lead me to revisit her catalog in preparation for an interview. So, for your listening pleasure, I have put a bunch more of my favorite tracks up on my YouTube. You can listen below, or just go to my channel and listen to them all together and I urge you to do so because the world is grey and cold and often horrible and this will, if only momentarily, occupy your brain and maybe convince you there can be some good in the world.
I was listening to this first track, Carry Me Through The Fire, while reading more tragic news the fire in Oakland. So much shit going on that's devastating, it's hard to stay positive and focused sometimes. I can't say anything that hasn't been said before but just a simple plea to stay safe, stay together and stay strong.
I'm still alive! Quit my job and living the high life of unemployment. With all this free time I've gotten back to my old habits of digging up dirt on obscure records, tracking people down, asking them about shit they don't remember for my own, and hopefully soon your, edification. In my travels around the darkest corners of the internet, I unearthed this. You may remember me posting the Marie Marie version of this track recorded in Belgium a year earlier (cause I'm kind of obsessed with it), and here are the same two tracks recorded by a different artist in "Canada" altho I suspect everyone involved was more of the British persuasion. Anyway, you can listen to the tracks together or separately and judge for yourself. It's a shame no one managed to hit it big with this jam. It also really focuses my attention on the trend of producers recruiting young girl singers and dumping them into obscurity when the song isn't a hit. I run into this a lot when trying to track people down. Anyway, here are the two track, big sax:
In other news, the reissue of Household Shocks is out now on Dark Entries. I really just want to register my disappointment that such a well-established label would be so disrespectful and lazy as to blatantly plagiarize from the article on Household Shocks I wrote for the zine a couple years ago. They are not the first site to do this, but man, what a bummer. It just highlights who is in it for love and who is in it for money, in my opinion. You can compare for yourself HERE on their site and with my original article HERE.
Also, since I'm not really in the mood to give Dark Entries any of my money at the moment, the entire Defectors discography just went up on Amazon UK HERE. I know I would rather give my money directly to the artists who made the music I love so much than a label that steamrolls people for "cool points." Anyhoo, tracks include a remastered version of You Only Laughed which sounds better than the video I'm posting now, although you'll get the point!
Also, in other news, along with slowly but surely working on another zine, I have started a shop of stuff I make and collect. More stuff will be added as soon as I make it but until then you can bookmark the link. (LOL) Same shop as in the sidebar just now with more crap! But, it's very pretty crap. Buy it!
http://onlydeathisfatal.bigcartel.com/
Hugs and bisous!
So, so, so much is changing in my life I can hardly keep up. I am super excited for summer. Loads of friends coming to visit, coming to stay, loaning me their cats temporarily, all topped off by a little trip home at the end of the month. And if everything goes to plan, a trip to London in August to scope out the city for THE BIG MOVE. That's right, you heard it here first, despite everyone's protestations, we are up and moving to the UK. Everyone keeps asking why and there are a million reasons, I can't even specify. But mostly, "Why not?" The land of my favorite bands and records of all time is calling. And, come on, those accents.
Anyway, here's a little song I have been playing a lot lately. The A-side for one of two singles released by Suzi Hendrix on Radio Records in 1979. Can't wait for my copy to come in the mail. I know it will probably not provide any more clues to this enigmatic record, but maybe, just maybe I can shake some info loose. In the meantime, you can listen here. I personally think it sounds as good as it looks and it looks pretty awesome.
Anyway, this will be short and sweet as I need all the sleep. As always, I hope to be back soon, and if not, later days!
So, I kind of quit my job yesterday! Pretty exciting. My boss asked me to stay on for a while and if things got better, I wouldn't have to leave at all. Nice try, buddy. That'll never happen. I will say, I totally needed that weight off my shoulders since I'm still dealing with some pretty stressful house stuff and I'm feeling scattered and generally like a crazy person and my job makes all that 10,000% worse. With any luck I will be back home freelancing again with loads of time to make posts and zines for you lovely people again soon.
I have been listening to a lot music lately though, mostly Men Without Hats, let's be honest, but loads of other stuff too, including and not limited to this Witha song. Like a lot of the records I put on here, I haven't been able to gather much info on this release in the limited time I've had to look into it. I have a crazy theory based on pretty much nothing that Witha might have actually been the singer from The Days, but this is pretty unfounded. Either way, the B-side of this disc, Mir Geht Es Schlecht, is the real stand out here and perfectly fitting my general mood the last couple of weeks. Fun fact: the new banner for the blog/Facebook are taken from the cover of this record.
If you want to listen to The Days and try to judge if it's the same woman, here's a catchy jam by them from 1982, a year before Witha. Obviously, kind of a different vibe but who knows?
It makes me a little sad when my detective work doesn't yield results but I'll keep digging and maybe someone will just leave a comment below telling us everything we want to know about Witha!
In the meantime, there's some stuff coming up I'm pretty excited about worthy of note here if you are in the MTL area. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned Chandra here before and she will be playing April 3rd at Le Ritz, event info HERE.
Not sure how Bleached will be, but I'll probably end up at Le Ritz again for this April 16th. Event HERE.
And finally a show NOT at Le Ritz, Hante will be gracing the stage with the lovely and talented Xarah Dion at Casa April 30th. Event HERE.
And back to Le Ritz for Consumer Electronics on May 6th. Event HERE.
Chelsea Wolfe will also go up against La Luz on May 16th, but I have a little time to decide where I will end up that night.
There are lots of other things between here and there where I can probably be found. Hopefully life will settle down a bit. I am going to start my application for Canadian citizenship soon and then with any luck, leave the country soon after!
As I said in my Uniplux post, I have returned from vacation refocused, re-energized and with a LOT of new records and music. I actually fainted from exhaustion on the plane on the way home, my guess because I hauled 40 LPs and 25 7"s in my carry-on luggage through Heathrow for six hours. BUT, I got moved to first class and everyone was super nice to me, once I convinced them I hadn't taken any drugs. Anyhoo, since I have neglected the blog for soooooo long, I thought I would just dump some of my favorite things I picked up on my travels on here for your listening pleasure since I still don't have the time or energy to post about everything individually.
I must say, one of my fave records from my trip is this Phosphor album Youth & Immorality, a lovelygift from my friend Marco from over at White Circles. I love the ambiance of this album and have been playing it a lot since I got back. This and the Des Jeunes Gens Modernes Vol. 2, which is mind-blowing and you can listen to HERE.
Next up: The lovely Michael from Weyrd Son Records was nice enough to drag me around Brussels for three days and I was fortunate enough to be there when the Carol reissues showed up at Weyrd Son headquarters. I feel honored I got to play with them before they were shipped out to their new homes. If you need one, and let's face it, you probably do, you better act fast HERE.
Michael also introduced me to this super rad video by Brussels-based :codes which I am now in love with.
Since I'm not made of money, I grabbed the reissue of the Pas De Deux comp mostly for this Cheiron track which I have always loved.
Honestly, I know nothing about this band, but I play this song a lot when I DJ and I fucking love it. Ridiculous, danceable and catchy jam.
Evidently, I have never scrolled down to the bottom of the Mo-Dettes Discogs page I guess because I was totally caught off guard by the existence of this flexi featuring the Mo-Dettes doing a cover of Twist & Shout. Alright, it's not the GREATEST cover and flexis sound like shit but as a die hard
Mo-Dettes fan, I'm happy to have it.
Many of you probably know Paraf from their punky Prekinuti Koitus: 1978 - 1979 reissue that came out a couple years back, but for my money, I prefer their wave stuff like this song from their second album, Izleti, out in 1981. This Yugo stuff is very trendy right now so it's getting more expensive by the day but def recommended if you come across it.
Hm, what to even say about this Helena Hauff record? Happy to have found a copy in some random shop I passed in Berlin. I only went to two real records shops while I was there which still seemed weird to me. Well, and also the Aufnamhe + Weidergabe office where I dropped a mint, so I guess that accounts for it actually.
So, another thing I picked up in Brussels was the Nuit Blanche comp which features this off-putting Diseno Corbusier song which also appears on their 1986 album El Alma De La Estrella. There are a couple other gems on this comp that I will try to get uploaded for you soon because they are worth hearing. In the meantime, feel free to be made uncomfortable by this.
Okay, that's all I will dump on you for now. Hope you find something you like in these totally random picks from my totally random vacation. I'll try to be back soon with more stuff for you but it's me so who knows!
I'm not even going to make excuses for how long it's been since my last blog post, but here I am! I have actually just gotten back from Europe, loaded with new records and full of renewed energy for lots of things in my life, including this blog. Isn't that great? So, despite the fact I did not go to Italy on this trip, I did buy this Uniplux 7" in Berlin and thought I would share it. And since my brain can't think in a linear fashion, I thought I would also add in a little bit about another Italian group I love, S.I.B. Anyhoo, here's that non-linear bit in action, but I'll try to remain focused. UNIPLUX.
I actually didn't know this band before stumbling across the record at Static Shock but the cover (pictured above) was enough to tell me it was for me. I'll spare myself the legwork and send you over to Why Do Things Have To Change if you would like to read about this group a bit or download this 7", which you should, it's a rockin' ripper. But, you can judge for yourself by listening below:
The A side, Maledetto Rock, is super catchy but for my money, the B side, Sally, is the real hit on this record. Anyhoo...
S.I.B. There isn't too much more info on this band than appears on their adorably typo-riddled Discogs page HERE. They only put out one LP on LM Records and consistent with the era, it's pretty varied, but overall prolly worth the hefty price it's pulling down these days. Here are a couple examples, the last of which appears on the My Girlfriend Was A Punk! comp along with a bunch of other personal favorites. Without further ado:
I'm gonna try to scrape together a post about some of my recent favorites so keep your eyes and ears peeled. And, thanks for your continuing interest and support. I continue to receive your kind words and interest despite my long periods of absence and idleness.
