"Timid and shy and scared am I"

#The hills are aliiiiiiiive with the sound of...# Dalek Beach Party?!


Dalek Beach Party - The Sound Of Music mp3 (right click and save as)

This Duane-Eddy-esque version of a musical classic by one of my favourite-named bands comes from a fantastic anti-racist benefit album released on Bring On Bull Records in 1993. A whole host of indiepop bands - including BMX Bandits, The Haywains, Northern Picture Library and Blueboy - cover songs from the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The Sound Of Music. No two of my interests have come together so well since I combined my love of art with my hatred of Celine Dion and stabbed her in the larynx with a paintbrush! Just kidding! (It was actually a 4B pencil.)

There are so many things to love about this album, from BMX Bandits' delicate straight cover of Edelweiss (in their own words, "It's touched us!") to Cesspit Rebels' shambolic and vaguely atonal version of So Long, Farewell, but I have to skip straight to the song I love most in the musical. Here it's given a nice gender flip and some great bass by The Rileys:

The Rileys - Sixteen Going On Seventeen mp3 (right click and save as)

The final song I've picked out is recently reformed Strawberry Story's fun version of Maria, given their own special fuzzy guitar treatment.

Strawberry Story - Maria mp3 (right click and save as)

I also love Mrs Kipling's treatment of Lonely Goatherd, complete with handclaps. I could rave about the whole album, to be honest, but instead I'll direct you to where you can download the whole thing for free. Yes, FREE! It's over here at the Waaah/Bring On Bull website. There are many other wonders to check out at that website, too, so take your time!

You can find out more about Strawberry Story at their myspace page and Dalek Beach Party have their own website.

What are a few of your favourite things about this album?