Wednesday 29 June 2011

What they did on their holidays

Acid House Kings have released the second single from their excellent new album Music Sounds Better With You, as a free download. It's called Under Water and it's accompanied by this smashing home videos-based promo.



Download the mpfree

Buy the album

More water-based Swindie pop fun below!



Eggstone - Water mp3

Monday 27 June 2011

Three of a Kind #113

At the time of typing there are still a few hours of the UK's mini heatwave to go*, so if I hurry I might just get this Swedish summer-related Three of a Kind out there before winter sets in.

Popsicle - Summer (Weekend Remix) mp3

Hello Saferide - I Thought You Said Summer is Going to Take the Pain Away mp3

The Wilson Hospital - Midsummer's Ball mp3

*That's except for viewers in Scotland. And Northern Ireland.

In other news, goodness me but the BBC's TV coverage of Glastonbury was poor this year, wouldn't you say? A rare, albeit unintentional highlight for me was the following, extremely awkward exchange between presenters Lauren Laverne and Zane Lowe after Beyonce's set on the main stage last night. If you're a twitterer you'll doubtless have seen or heard all about this already, but it merits another mention here regardless as it is genuine car crash TV gold. Gets funnier the more you watch it, too.



Wouldn't have happened on John Peel's watch!

My one concern in all of this is, now that this pair have stuffed it up, Fearne and Reggie are probably next in line. Be afraid...

Sunday 26 June 2011

They don't make 'em like this anymore...

Enough respect and a sizeable mention to Spike for pointing me in the direction of this rather wonderful clip, taken from Mama Cass's television programme in 1969. Cass, Joni Mitchell and Mary Travers perform I Shall Be Released.



By the way, in case you're not sure who Mary Travers is, she was one of Mary, Mungo and Midge.

What?

Thursday 23 June 2011

Song of the Day

I've loved this song for a while now but had never seen the Love Boat-tastic video before. Pure fromage!



Juni Järvi - Looking at You is Like Looking at the Sun mp3 (right click)

Juni Järvi's blog

Tuesday 21 June 2011

New Order Love Covers

Two superior covers of New Order songs today. I don't mean superior in the sense that they're better than the originals - although they are both wonderful and give the songs new leases of life - but in the sense that they're a cut above yer typical cover version. (Note to self: don't say 'superior' next time - 'brilliant' would have served just as well and would've saved all this unnecessary blather.)

Anyway, where was I? Yes, two superior brilliant versions of New Order songs, Love Vigilantes by Laura Cantrell and Bizarre Love Triangle by Frente. I've blogged about Frente on a number of occasions in the past and am sure I must have put their atmospheric, acoustic take on BLT up here at least once before, but it's always worth another outing.

Meanwhile, listening to the gorgeous, heartfelt vocals of Laura Cantrell - who I don't think I've written about before, although I could be wrong - it's hard to believe she trained as an accountant or lawyer, or something equally square, in a past life. But that's probably just narrow-mindedness on my part. I could listen to her country stylings all day - and quite frequently do. John Peel's musical tastes may have been more than a tad eccentric at times, but with his championing of Laura C (and loads of other stuff in fairness), he was bang on.

Laura Cantrell - Love Vigilantes mp3

Frente! - Bizarre Love Triangle mp3

(Would be interested to hear which of these you prefer. Me, I'm torn!)

Monday 20 June 2011

Fairground attraction

See if you can spot the unifying theme in the following three classic pop promos. First correct answer wins a go on the dodgems, a Top of the Pops LP and three cracks at the coconut shy. And yes, that is Mackenzie Crook in the Slow Club vid!





Sunday 19 June 2011

Daryll-Ann - MTV's Most Wanted

A youthful Daryll-Ann play two songs - Ocean Girl and Doll - from their Come Around EP live on MTV's Most Wanted in 1994, introduced by the legendary Ray Cokes - who joins them on tambourine as they play out over the closing credits. Music TV gold! (Look out also for a young Steve McManaman on drums.)



Friday 17 June 2011

Let it all blow

The following are all genuine screengrabs taken from this evening's main edition of BBC South East Today. Someone in their graphics department was having a bit of a laugh with this I suspect - as were Spike and me as we sat there and watched it!











The Felt Tips - Lifeskills mp3

Thursday 16 June 2011

Shirley you can't be serious

Spearmint frontman Shirley Lee has unleashed a new solo album on the world. Recorded entirely on his own at home, Winter Spring Summer Autumn - a double album no less - represents, from what (admittedly little) I've heard so far, quite a departure from the Spearmint sound. For example, Maidenhead (mp3 included below) is sparse, introspective and full of existential angst - and about as far removed from the joyous sounds of Sweeping The Nation and Scottish Pop as you could possibly get. It's good in its own right - but just very, very different.

Shirley Lee - Maidenhead mp3


Few people can match Shirley when it comes to a tribute song. Or a list song for that matter. An Old Cricketer (For John Peel) is a first class example of both. The video features more classic album sleeves than you can shake a stick at too, so definitely one for the vinyl junkies among you (i.e. pretty much everyone reading this).



Winter Spring Summer Autumn is out now. Buy it here

Wednesday 15 June 2011

Two of a Kind

Two of my favourite songs of all time and they're both firefly-related. What are the chances?



Tuesday 14 June 2011

TV dinner

If you like 1980s pop and/or 1990s cult daytime cookery-based light-entertainment shows, these clips are for you! Gary Numan, August Darnell and Toyah Wilcox tuck in to lunch (and birthday cake) with Mel & Sue on Light Lunch, in 1997, on the occasion of Mel's 30th 29th birthday. (Fourteen years ago, Spike!)



A slightly bewildered Peter Purves joins them for afters.

Sunday 12 June 2011

Three of a Kind #112


Good evening. Here is the news.

Wills & Kate, Royal Wedding, Queen's official birthday, Queen's unofficial birthday, Bank Holiday Friday, Street parties, Bunting, Patriotism, Royal Honeymoon, New Year's Honours List, Old Year's Honours List, The Duke of Edinburgh at ninety, Deference, Trooping the colour, Princess Beatrice's hat, Kate Middleton's dress, Pippa Middleton's arse, Royal Ascot, The King's Speech, The Queen's Horse, The Queen's Nose, The Prince's Trust, Charles, Camilla, Harry, Kate Middleton's phone, Diamond Jubilee, Bank Holiday Monday, Westminster Abbey, The Mall, ordinary members of the public, that dress, that hat, that arse, know your place, goodnight!

Adam Buxton - Adam's Royal Wedding Song mp3 (very funny, in case you've not heard it)

Marine Research - Queen B mp3

Swissair - One Nation Under A Gloom mp3

Saturday 11 June 2011

586th post spectacular


Now I'm not normally one for marking the passing of time, but today marks the fourth anniversary of this blog coming into existence. Which, in music blog years, is about four. And what a different place the world - or at least the United Kingdom - was when we first started.

The Prime Minister was an unctuous, slippery sod with the gift of the gab and a huge personal fortune; the country was embroiled in an unwinnable war in a faraway land; England had an unsuccessful football team full of lethargic, charmless multi-millionaires; Manchester United had just regained the Premier League title from Chelsea; large sections of the public were so easily pleased that they happily survived on a diet of reality TV and vacuous celebrity tittle-tattle; and Simon Cowell bestrode the music and entertainment industries like some kind of successful and revered yet conspicuously untalented colossus. So yes, barely recognisable from the world we live in today.

I don't think it's hyperbolic in any way to suggest that the impact Too Much Apple Pie had on the wider world was as earth-shattering as it was immediate. Within three weeks of our very first post, Tony Blair had resigned as Prime Minister, obviously only too aware that the world had moved on, the winds of change were blowing and that he'd all too clearly lived his life like a candle in the wind...

It has to be said he made a wise choice, mind you. How on earth Blair could realistically have been expected to survive as PM in the face of a silly music blog written by two people and read by about three, would be hard to envisage for even his staunchest of supporters.

Now I'm not saying his resignation was all down to us - indeed, a cynic might argue that he'd announced his intention to step down months before this blog had even appeared. But doesn't that strike you as a little bit too convenient? No, it was quite obvious that Blair was running scared and our arrival just confirmed that his position was now completely untenable. In your fizzog, Blair!

If I can be serious for a moment (doubtful, but I'll give it a go), I'd like to sincerely thank everyone who's found and stuck with us over the course of the past 1461 days - intermittent posts, umm, mittent bad jokes and all. Whether you signed the guestbook or simply dropped by to nab the mp3s, the fact that you bothered at all was duly noted and gave our already monstrous egos a further boost. Gawd knows if we'll manage another four years but it's been fun while it's lasted. Cheers!

Daryll-Ann - Surely Justice* mp3

*The song that got the Too Much Apple Pie ball rolling, on June 11th 2007.

Friday 10 June 2011

Song of the Day

I don't know an awful lot about Fra Lippo Lippi, other than they were Norwegian, took their name from a Robert Browning poem about Italian renaissance painter Fra Filippo Lippi ('Fra' meaning Father) and released the following stonkingly good single in 1986. Shouldn't Have to be Like That gained a reasonable amount of airplay in the UK (it must have done for the schoolboy me to have been aware of it) yet failed to make any impression on the top 75. Which is a shame, as it's something of a neglected classic.



Fra Lippo Lippi - Shouldn't Have to be Like That mp3

Thursday 9 June 2011

Who knows Wah the time goes?

It's sinful, it's tragic. But enough about Pete Wylie's dancing! The song still sounds great!



Mildly Interesting Pop Fact(s): Sinful originally charted exactly twenty-five years ago, where it peaked at number 13 in this very week (well, the corresponding week in 1986). There's an alternative video for Sinful, sans embarrassing dancing and which feels strangely lacklustre in comparison to the one above. I suspect it may have been for the benefit of the American market or MTV, or both. Anyway, it's not great.

With backing from Liverpool compatriots The Farm, Pete Wylie re-recorded and re-released Sinful five years later, in 1991, where it scraped into the top 30. Never felt quite the same somehow, though.

Wednesday 8 June 2011

Business time

Can't believe I'd never heard of post-punk types the Delta 5 until a couple of weeks ago, when I heard Mind Your Own Business on (I think) Gideon Coe's 6 Music programme. But from the second I heard that mesmerising I Heard It Through The Grapevine-esque bassline, I was hooked - and I've barely stopped playing it since.



Delta 5 - Mind Your Own Business mp3

Buy Delta 5 Singles & Sessions 1979 - 1981

Tuesday 7 June 2011

Park life

Andreas Mattsson and band perform ace recent single Parklands live on Swedish TV. Magic.



Parklands is from the album Kick Death's Ass. Buy the download here or the CD here.

Monday 6 June 2011

Song of the Day

Brighton duo Paisley & Charlie have a new single out called Stone Lions, and guess what? It's dead good! The video's another addition to the canon of pop promos shot in and around central London (cf West End Girls, Say I'm Your Number One, Feels Like I'm In Love, Good Life, What Do You Wanna Make Those Eyes At Me For). But yes, London-shot vids are invariably great fun, and this is no exception. Also, look out for a pioneering game of 'popscotch' from singer Paisley towards the end!



Stone Lions is available now on 7" from Pebble Records

Friday 3 June 2011