Damn it! Whilst walking Lady this morning, I muse over my
choice of user name. What about DJ.Otis.Youth? (I really like that one.) Or, DJ.JohnLee.Otis.Youth?
(Mmm!) Or, DJ.Muddy.Otis.Youth (Err, ….OK)
Or, DJ.Muddy.Otis.Youth.andtheCrickets
(Now I’m being stupid!)
On to a day at work spent exclusively behind my computer.
(71) The Feelies –
Time For A Witness
The Feelies are one of my favourite bands to have emerged
from the American indie scene of the 80’s.
This was their fourth album before a lengthy hiatus. Like many bands of the era they clearly worshipped
on the altar of the Velvet Underground and at times this sounds almost like a
tribute album. But they are too clever
to fall into that trap and construct their songs into ever surprising ways. (And
just to confuse everyone, cover The Stooges’ Reel Cool Time.) Every track is a
beauty but Find A Way, Sooner Or Later and Waiting are magnificent.
(72) Mark Gillespie – Only Human
Mark Gillespie is an Australian singer-songwriter who made
only a handful of handful of albums in the 1980’s before dropping out of the
business altogether. I remember these
songs dominating the airwaves of EON-FM, Australia’s first commercial FM
station which started operating in Melbourne in 1980 at more or less the same
time this album was released. For a
debut album, the songs are remarkably self-assured and contain gems such as the
title track, the up tempo Small Mercies, Black Angels and Suicide Sister. Unbelievably
the album was not released on CD until a couple of years ago in a deluxe 2 disc
set by Aztec Music. The liner notes
state that Gillespie is still writing music whilst working in an orphanage in
Bangladesh. I suspect that had he
continued to record, Gillespie would today be as highly regarded as Paul
Kelly. Yes, this album is that good.
The remaining two albums brought an end to my explorations
of my weekend bargain purchases.
(73) The Fleshtones
featuring Lenny Kaye – Brooklyn Sound Solution
The cover of this album shows a rubbish skip in a dump underneath
a iron bridge presumably in Brooklyn. Naturally the first song is a surf type
instrumental. Actually almost every
track is an instrumental, with Lenny Kaye (Patti Smiths
musical director), contributing his measured guitar to the Fleshtones traditional frenzied
attack. Once I finished it, I simply had
to play it again. I also got a Feshtones
Documentary with the album that I’ll watch at a later time and there are some
additional tracks that I’ll be able to download.
(74) Ministry and Co-Conspirators
– Cover Up
Given the often hilarious covers, such as Do Ya Think I’m
Sexy, that Al Jourgensen has cooked up over the years on Revolting Cocks
albums, you could just about predict that Ministry would eventually do the same. This album contains 11, mostly well known, covers
over 13 tracks all rendered in Ministry’s classic industrial sound. Highlights include versions of the Stones' Under My Thumb,
Golden Earring’s Radar Love, Deep Purple’s Space Truckin’, The Doors’ Roadhouse
Blues, Dylan’s Lay Lady Lay and Louis Armstrong’s What A Wonderful World. The last track appears to splice together a
fast and slow version of the song and both complete versions appear as hidden
tracks, the last of which naturally appears at track (or should that be psalm?)
69. Not everything works; T-Rex’s Bang A
Gong is too faithful to the original and Leadbelly’s Black Belly is not too
dissimilar to the version produced by Australia’s own Spiderbait. Still it was such fun, I played it three times.
With this posting, I’m now up to date. Let’s see how long it takes to fall behind
again.
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