Three of a kind #7: Popsicle / Sweet Chariots / Andreas Mattsson

Before I go on I'd better nail my colours to the mast here: Andreas Mattsson, about whom I'm going to write today, is possibly, and quite probably, my favourite singer-songwriter - so apologies in advance if I end up sounding like some kind of gushing fanboy here. (readers: if your own fanboy is gushing, I suggest you seek medical advice immediately.)

Andreas, as seasoned Swedish indiepop watchers will know, started out fronting legendary nineties combo Popsicle, who released five albums (or six, if you include their debut 6-track A West Side Fabrication release, Template, which I do.) between 1992 and 97. These albums are mostly out of print now, but Swedish mail order store Hotstuff (among others) do currently stock the 2005 double best of CD, The Good Side of Popsicle, which I would recommend as essential listening for anyone who fancies hearing one of the true pioneers of the Swedish indie scene at their absolute finest.

From The Good Side of... here's Popsicle's sublime 1994 single Make Up:

Popsicle - Make Up mp3 (left click to download)

Following the band's decision to split up at the end of the nineties, Mattsson teamed up with Atomic Swing mainman Niclas Frisk (who'd produced Popsicle's latter albums) to form the should-have-been-huge-but-somehow-weren't Sweet Chariots. The Chariots, as I think we'll call them, only released one album, the cumbersomely-titled Beat-Based / Song-Centred / Spirit-Led, in 2000, but it contained some songs as good as anything Popsicle ever recorded - which is extremely good indeed. Check out the uplifting and inspirational Cry No More Tears for proof of their sheer, unbridled genius!

Sweet Chariots - Cry No More Tears mp3

In 2003, Mattsson and Frisk teamed up once again to work on the A Camp album with Cardigans singer Nina Persson. Following this project, the lads hooked up with French chanteuse Vanessa Contenay-Quinones and James Iha (ex- Smashing Pumpkins) to form Vanessa And The O's. (more on them another day.)

Despite continuing to play with The O's, Andreas found the time in 2006 to record his first solo album, The Lawlessness of the Ruling Classes, for tip-top Swedish label Hybris. By far the most mellow release of his career to date, this album should appeal to anyone who enjoys grown-up, introspective pop music. (Richard Hawley would be a good comparison.) Have a listen to one of the standout tracks, the haunting Summer of Speed, and see what you think.

Andreas Mattsson - Summer of Speed mp3

Buy The Lawlessness of the Ruling Classes here.

(In other news, I've changed my Blogger display name to something a bit wacky, in lieu of an actual personality.)

"a heart like a socket I can plug into at will"

I'm not usually ambivalent about bands or artists, but in St. Vincent's case I'll make an exception.

St. Vincent is the band of multi-instrumentalist Polyphonic Spree member Annie Clark and I really can't think of a good way to describe what her music sounds like. 'Complicated' is probably the best I can do! Some of it I love, some of it is really not my sort of thing but it's certainly never dull. Some songs make my heart beat faster and feel afraid as if I've just watched someone pull a knife on me (Solex's Shoot Shoot sounded pant-wettingly scary to me in the same way), some songs make me want to spin around in an empty field until I fall over and some songs make me want to take her instruments away after four minutes, so she'll stop noodling on them!

St. Vincent's album Marry Me was released in the UK on 3rd September. You can buy it here, but first listen to the title track below, which is excellent and was the most instantly grabbing for me. (Left click)

St. Vincent - Marry Me mp3 (available for 7 days)

I also loved the fabulously named Jesus Saves, I Spend (which you can download below) but I could have happily chosen four or five other songs from the album to represent the good half of St. Vincent. I say 'the good half', but that's a little harsh. It's all sweeping, intricate, on a grand scale and performed beautifully. What I really mean is 'the half that I took to'.

St. Vincent - Jesus Saves, I Spend mp3 (available for 7 days)

You can also buy Marry Me on iTunes. Visit St. Vincent's myspace page to hear three more songs from the album - I'll regret it if you don't! I'm fairly sure that within a month I will have been completely won over by the unique sound of St. Vincent.

Three of a kind #6

Three songs about (or at least namechecking) stars of the silver screen today: Lee Remick from The Go-Betweens' 78 'til 79 - The Lost Album; Michael Caine from Divine Madness; and Theda Bara from The Hot Puppies' excellent Under The Crooked Moon.

Now, if you're a bit of a philistine like me, you may not know who Theda Bara is - or was, rather. In short, that's her sprawled across that rock in the picture on the right. She was a silent film star in the early part of the last century - an extremely famous one for a while, too. Basically, if I'd have written this blog entry 90 years ago, they'd have been landing here via Google in their droves!

It's funny how some stars get largely written out of history, though. I'd never even heard Theda Bara's name until I first caught that Hot Puppies song; even then it was months before I made the connection about her being a former film star. There's actually an entire 1915 movie in which she starred, A Fool There Was, over on You Tube for anyone curious to see her in action (and with a spare 67 minutes and 25 seconds on their hands!).

The Go-Betweens - Lee Remick mp3

The Hot Puppies - Theda Bara mp3

Madness - Michael Caine mp3

(tracks available for seven days)

Buy The Go-Betweens, Hot Puppies and Madness stuff here

"She’ll leave her mark upon you without warning"

Lots of people seem to shamefully admit to being folk music fans. Not me. I'm never in any danger of being trendy and I have absolutely no qualms about proclaiming myself a fully paid-up member of the accordian-loving, woolly jumper-wearing, weirdy-beardy folk brigade!

One of my favourite folky types is Karine Polwart, a political Scot who has collaborated with the likes of Roddy Woomble, has been nominated three times (and won twice) for Best Original Song at the UK-wide BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards and previously taught philosophy to primary school children. She's certainly no lightweight and tackles a lot of important and sometimes distressing subjects in her music. Always thought-provoking and (more pleasingly) memorably melodic she's well worth a listen. John and I saw her live last year and came away from the gig much bigger fans than before we went. She's witty, engaging and pretty much mesmerising when she's singing.
I would have loved to put up a live version of Azalea Flower (click for lyrics), which is one of the best things I've ever heard live, but I'm not sure a recording exists currently. Suffice to say it would make you think entirely differently about folk music. It really made all the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

The first song I'm putting up is Skater of the Surface from Polwart's debut album, Faultlines, and is a soft-sounding but powerful condemnation of the type of person who never bothers to look more deeply into things. It delivers one of my favourite insult lines from any song: "And if it's true that ignorance is bliss, then you must be coming all the time." Ouch! Hear the aural slap in the face below - a left click link.

Karine Polwart - Skater of the Surface mp3 (available for 7 days)

You Can't Weld A Body is a (bloody good) demo song with more traditional style folk lyrics. It's a beautiful track about love and shipbuilding. (Another left clicker)

Karine Polwart - You Can't Weld A Body mp3 (available for 7 days)

If you liked those then please head over to Karine Polwart's website to listen to more songs and buy the CDs.

I only have one complaint about her - she rarely uses standard guitar tuning. So for clumsy chimps like me who can only just about get their guitars in tune in the standard way, it's almost impossible to attempt to play her songs! But then, maybe that's to the benefit of all mankind...

It's Immaterial

It's Immaterial were a Liverpool band active between 1980 and 1990, centred around permanent band members John Campbell and Jarvis Whitehead - along with, at differing times, various local musicians including Henry Priestman, later of The Christians.

The band recorded several sessions for John Peel, although this wasn't how I first discovered them: no, had it not been for their one pop 40 hit, the bewitchingly curious Driving Away From Home (a #18 smash in 1986, and officially unlike anything else in the charts at the time - or since!), the chances are the teenage, chart-obsessed me would never even have stumbled across this great combo.

Here's the band performing the song on what I assume must've been their one and only appearance on Top of the Pops.



Even better than the above, for me, was the follow-up single, Ed's Funky Diner (which inexplicably fizzled out at a disappointing #65 in the same year. Swizz!). A much more straightforward, conventional pop song than Driving Away..., Ed's was an upbeat number that had hit (I said hit) written all over it; or should've had, at any rate. But, in a UK singles landscape at the time dominated by such, umm, timeless classics as Chris De Bleurgh's The Lady In Red and Boris Gardiner's I Want To Wake Up With You (ironically one of the most snooze-inducing songs ever), what sort of chance did our brave boys have of competing for the nation's musical affections? None!

It's Immaterial - Ed's Funky Diner mp3 (up for seven days; left click to download)

It's Immaterial - Driving Away From Home (Jim's Tune) mp3 (up for seven days; left click to download)

Not merely satisfied with recording two of the greatest singles of the year, It's Immaterial also came up with one of the best album titles ever - Life's Hard and Then You Die. It contains both the aforementioned tracks - plus eleven others - and is still available to buy on CD (very reasonably priced too) from here

"I saw the boy I love kiss another girl"

The first thing you need to know about Free Loan Investments is that if you do a search for them on the internet, you will be bombarded with dodgy sites promising to help you get rich quick. The second thing you need to know about Free Loan Investments is that they are a now disbanded quartet. The third thing you need to know about Free Loan Investments is that they made tuneful jangly pop music in the Talulah Gosh mould.

It matters not that they are Swedish or that band member Roger Gunnarsson was also in Nixon or that Amanda Aldervall went on to form the Busy Band. Nor that they both count Amelia Fletcher among their heroes.

Have a listen to the lovely-sounding but viciously-titled Kick His Balls Out. When has anything so pretty had such bite to it?

Free Loan Investments - Kick His Balls Out mp3 (right click and 'save as')

More sadness disguised by an upbeat tune below.

Free Loan Investments - In The Park mp3 (left click available for 7 days)

You can read an entertaining interview with Roger and Amanda here and watch them playing live on the youtube clip below.



One day I'd love to discover a band I really get excited about and find out that they haven't stopped playing...

Tonight I'm gonna party like it's 1989

The Rainbirds were a female-fronted German band led by singer Katharina Franck, who released eight albums between 1987 and 1999. Now, I can't for the life of me remember how I first discovered them, but as it was in 1989 - and seeing as they never charted here in the UK - the chances are it was (good old) MTV Europe who gave me my first taste of this fine band.

The hypnotically wonderful single Sea of Time was the first Rainbirds record I ever bought, and it remains my favourite song of theirs even to this day; although, in fairness - as is often the way with me when it comes to keeping up with slightly obscure bands that I really like - I only ever got round to buying two of their eight albums, so for all I know the other six may contain songs even better than this one! I doubt it, though, as Sea of Time is the absolute bee's knees as far as I'm concerned. See what you think!

Rainbirds - Sea of Time mp3 (available for seven days)

Visit the Rainbirds online

Buy Rainbirds stuff here

Three of a kind #5

Evening, all. Hope you're having a good weekend. A trio of perfect pop songs from Brooklyn-based My Teenage Stride for you today - every one a winner! (all three are right click and "Save Target As" jobs.)

My Teenage Stride - Happy Mondays mp3

My Teenage Stride - To Live and Die in the Airport Lounge mp3

My Teenage Stride - Ears Like Golden Bats mp3

My Teenage Stride's official website

Buy the Ears Like Golden Bats album here

They think it's Pullover - it is now!

Ahh, the traditional British seaside holiday - you just can't beat it. Inexplicably unsuccessful mid-90s Fierce Panda signings Pullover would seem to concur - certainly if their fabulous 1996 single Holiday is anything to go by. The video's great fun, too. (ten bonus points to the first person who can successfully identify the English seaside town featured in the video!)



(can you believe that clip's been up on You Tube for over six months, yet has only been viewed forty-three times so far?)

A bit more info on Pullover, gleaned from their MySpace page: Carol Isherwood sings, Lee Damarell plays the bass guitar, Michael Malley plays the guitar and Joe Duddell plays the drums. They're from Manchester, have recorded two albums - the first of which never saw the light of day due to record company problems (how frustrating); there is better news about the second, however. They promise that All You Need Is Love will be released soon on their own Knitwear Records label. I just hope this pans out for them. A decade plus is a hell of a long time to be waiting for your first album release, after all.

In the meantime, here are a couple of Pullover MP3s to tide us over. The first, White Horses and Shooting Stars, is my favourite song of theirs, a gorgeous, life-affirming number encouraging the listener to believe in themselves, follow their dreams and never settle for second best. A trifle quixotic, maybe, but very well-meaning and uplifting sentiments, and a great song to boot.

The second track is the aforementioned You Tube favourite Holiday, which brings us right back to where we started from, to paraphrase Maxine Nightingale.*

(*I very nearly said Sinitta, there, but thought better of it in the end!)

Pullover - White Horses and Shooting Stars mp3 (available for seven days)

Pullover - Holiday mp3 (available for seven days)

Pullover's MySpace page

"I'm going to stay at home and write my autobiography"

There's something about indiepop with male/female vocals. I can't quite say why it hits the spot so delightfully but Pocketbooks are a great example of gender-blender tweeness.

They are currently Andy, Dan, Emma, Mark and Jonny, having recently undergone a small line-up change (losing early guitarist Ben and gaining drummer Jonny). Pocketbooks' lyrics are eloquent and generally about the everyday rather than the extraordinary, but each song is something special.
Having just talked about the joy of male and female vocals together, the track below is just Emma singing but is really lovely. Give it a listen and then try telling me that lo-fi indiepop isn't brilliant!

Pocketbooks - I'm Not Going Out mp3 (right click and 'save as')

Andy recorded a full album before the band had formed properly and you can download that by going to the Pocketbooks website. The downloadable song below is from that album, entitled Proofreading. (Another track from Proofreading was included on the superb How Does It Feel To Be Loved? compilation, The Kids At The Club.) This time it's just Andy singing, but it's also a joyous song. (Don't worry, we'll get to the mixed vocals soon...)

Pocketbooks - Every Next Day Is A New Adventure mp3 (available for 7 days)

Here for your viewing pleasure is a live Pocketbooks performance of 'Cross The Line', the single released on Atomic Beat Records (still available as far as I'm aware, although only 400 in total). There are those male/female vocals I was rambling on about at the beginning!



As a bonus, I'm including an mp3 by Pocketbooks' labelmate, Pete Green. Pete is a man after my own black heart - he likes MJ Hibbett and hates Myspace. In fact he's written a song about exactly why he hasn't got a Myspace page.

Pete Green - I Haven't Got A Myspace Because Myspace Fucking Sucks mp3 (right click and 'save as')

As you may guess, Pete Green doesn't have a Myspace (because, as he mentioned, Myspace flipping sucks!) but to hear more, you can visit his website, Spaklemotion.co.uk, or his Last.fm page. By the way, if you haven't signed up to Last.fm yet, you should really consider it. It's a great way to find new music and also to keep an eye on what you've been listening to most. (I'm on there as ozgoelz.)

"I don’t like it out there the people are hurtful"

Merseyside has given us the Beatles, Echo and the Bunnymen, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Half Man Half Biscuit, Kathryn Williams, Ladytron, Ooberman, Zombina and the Skeletones, The Boo Radleys, Cast..okay, we'll gloss over that last one, but what I'm saying is the city has given us a lot of quality music over the years. I have another name to add to that illustrious (veering towards cult) list. A little name. Well, in fact, it is Little Name. Little Name at one point was a band but on the current record (How To Swim And Live) is just Lee Barker.
Little Name combines poppy tunes (often with trumpets) with sensitive, longing lyrics and isn't that just the kind of music I love? Apparently, Lee has suffered from debilitating panic attacks which is something I've had experience of several times (my own panic attacks, not his, obviously...). I don't know how much of a direct influence that has had on his music, but I appreciate the way he approaches subjects.

You can buy the album from Sleepy Records or Apple Crumble Records. As they say, the proof of the pudding is in the eating so here's a track off the album.

Tracy and I - Little Name mp3 (up for 7 days)

And my personal favourite, You Tear My Love Apart.

You Tear My Love Apart - Little Name mp3 (up for 7 days)

To hear more, you can visit the Little Name myspace page or go to Little Name's website.

"Lost your love of life..."

Come on, you know it had to happen sooner or later!

The Wedding Present - Kennedy mp3 (available for seven days)

Buy Wedding Present stuff from their official website

Have Faith Brothers

The Faith Brothers were a mid-80s outfit from Fulham in west London who managed to pull off the rare trick of combining heartfelt socialist sentiments in their lyrics with yer actual, rousing indiepop melodies.

Now, I'd like to say I first stumbled across the Faith Brothers at some intimate fund-raising gig for the striking miners or something, but alas the truth is far more prosaic: I first heard them on a lazy weekday morning during my school holidays! In the summer of 1985, to be precise, when they were featured on the now long-since defunct breakfast television franchise TV-am as part of a feature on up-and-coming "bands to watch".

The featured song on TV-am was the brilliant A Stranger On Home Ground (they showed the video, if memory serves) and, despite the fact that this was a million miles removed from the sort of pop fodder I'd been used to thus far in my callow existence (Baltimora, Mai Tai and Denise LaSalle were very big that summer), I was immediately smitten. It still remains one of the best singles of the eighties for me even now. See what you think:

Faith Brothers - A Stranger On Home Ground mp3 (available for seven days)

Two albums were to follow over the next two years, Eventide and A Human Sound, but, as is so often the case, the Faith Brothers never achieved the commercial acclaim their music so richly deserved. But they left some truly wondrous music behind. The 1986 single Whistling In The Dark is every bit as fantastic as A Stranger... and contains one of the most damning lyrical indictments of the government and life in Thatcher's Britain ever committed to vinyl:

From all that you elect you cower
Hypocrisy governs every waking hour
Humankind is overlooked
By liars, cheats and crooks
selling souls for power

Pretty unequivocal, that! And there's plenty more elsewhere in the song:

The Faith Brothers - Whistling in the Dark (7" version) mp3 (available for seven days)

The band's leader, Billy Franks, is still gigging and releasing solo albums in 2007, and, incredibly generously, has made pretty much the entire Faith Brothers back catalogue - both the studio albums plus a whole host of rare b-sides and live tracks - available to download for free at his website. There's also the option - one I'd strongly recommend! - of making a voluntary donation to Billy via Paypal after you've downloaded his songs. (be rude not to really!)

"Have you got room for me?"

Sometimes you come across a band or artist and you wonder why the hell they aren't signed to a label. At this point it's easy to become depressed at the lack of music taste in the world, but if you are me, you blog about it and hope that more people will take an interest and like them too.

This brings me to Ida Maria. She's a 23 year old Norwegian (from a tiny place called Nesna) who is now living in Sweden - ah, those Scandinavians again! Ida Maria and her band, Johannes Lindberg, Olle Lundin and Stefan Törnby, make (mainly) punky pop music. Excellent punky pop music. There's something about her vocal style that sounds really familiar, but I wouldn't compare her directly to anyone due to the variety of her style, although there's more than a hint of Björk in there.

If you decide you like her style (and why wouldn't you?!), the good news is that she's coming to the UK next month and has gigs scheduled at The Roadhouse in Manchester on 12th September and Old Blue Last in London (Shoreditch) on 20th September.

Ida Maria duetted with Pelle Carlberg on the brilliantly titled 'I Love You, You Imbecile', as mentioned in passing by John in this blog. The video is below.


Here are two Ida Maria mp3s for you to download. The first, Louie, is a melodious track that moves along apace and almost cries out for handclaps! Oh My God features Timo Räisänen and is a much more raucous affair - ace! Both are right click and 'save as' jobbies.

Ida Maria - Louie mp3

Ida Maria - Oh My God mp3

These are great songs but I would strongly recommend that you go to Ida Maria's myspace page and listen to the songs there. They are possibly even better. My favourite is 'Better When You're Naked'.
Also head over to the NRK Urørt site where there are more songs to download. I have nowhere to send you to buy her music as of yet but you will know the moment that I do. (Come on, Ida Maria, hurry up and sell us stuff!)

Below you can watch her doing a jazzy song, Pleasure, and looking incredibly cool with a bass guitar.

This charmless man

Today's You Tube clip features Sky Sports' football (w)anchor Richard Keys being caught off-camera making disparaging remarks about a recent Euro 2008 qualifier between the Faroe Islands and Scotland. ("Daft little ground, silly game, fuck off.")



Richard Keys, there - Daft little man, freakishly hairy hands, fuck off.

In other footballing news, the English season starts tomorrow. Not before time, either. This summer feels like it's been going on forever. Here's to a (hopefully) stonking nine months' worth of football, anyway - culminating, I sincerely hope, in another Premier League title for the mighty Arsenal!

Woog Riots - Football Round The Clock mp3 (right click and 'Save Target As' to download)

Woog Riots' official website

Three of a kind #4

A pretty momentous day for me, today, music technology-wise. Thanks to a practical demonstration from my co-blogger, followed by her sending me home with an easy-to-follow, step-by-step, idiot-proof written guide (which came in very handy also; ta, Spikey!), I'm now able to convert my old vinyl records to MP3. Hooray. Who knew it was such a straightforward procedure?!

So, with this in mind, today's Three of a kind features three songs plucked from the one box of vinyl I currently have at my disposal (I have tons of records, but most of them are currently languishing in storage at my folks' house - a legacy of the years & years I spent living in a flat approximately the size of a box of Swan Vestas.)

First up, it's Nick Lowe with his 1978 #7 smash I Love The Sound of Breaking Glass. The venerable Mr Lowe is still going strong in 2007 and his new album At My Age is available from all good stores now, as they say.

Secondly it's a fantastic 1984 Peel session track from The Go-Betweens, Second-Hand Furniture. This song is made even better by the fact that Grant is actually ad-libbing the catalogue of objects. Respect very much due.

Completing today's eclectic line-up is Saturday Love, a mid-80s dancefloor/pop 40 smash by Cherrelle featuring Alexander O'Neal. It's ironic that Alex only merits a "featuring" on this one, given that he went on to become a pretty huge star (in more ways than one) off the back of it, while Saturday Love was pretty much as good as it got for Cherrelle, certainly in the UK. Fair play to her, though, it's a terrific number, sprinkled with a healthy dose of the old Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis production magic. Marvellous.

Here we go then, fresh from the vinyl archives - and with apologies to the marketing division of Kellogg's - some snatched crackling pop!

Nick Lowe - I Love The Sound of Breaking Glass mp3

The Go-Betweens - Second-Hand Furniture mp3

Cherrelle featuring Alexander O'Neal - Saturday Love (Extended Version) mp3

(above tracks all available for seven days)

Buy chart-bothering 70s & 80s classics here