Plundering the Vaults
Ok...I had actually uploaded all of the material about two weeks ago, but never got around to actually posting any of it. So, here I am to sort of do a belated, better late than never edition of plundering the vault.
I grabbed another handful of CD's from my record room. As per usual, the handful covers the gamut of British pop over the last decade or so. It's actually fun to do these sorts of posts as some of this stuff I haven't heard since I bought the CD's way back when.
Lauren Laverne
Ok, I'm not going to lie. I've had a "thing" for Lauren since way way back when Kenickie was around. Well, after Kenickie called it a day Lauren did a one off with Mint Royale for the song "Don't Falter," which is still one of the tweest and coolest summer songs EVER. (I'll post that next week) Soon after that little pop detour she started a brief solo career that sort of ended when her label erm faltered. Today, she's a multi-media darling who appears both on TV and radio and probably makes more money doing that then she ever did singing. Strangely enough, she's actually got her own show on BBC 6 which debuts this weekend (June 7th, 2008) at 4pm GMT. Anyway, here are two songs from her solo single, Take These Flowers Away.
Download: I Fell Out Of A Tree
Download: Some Kind of Other Presence
Magic Hour
American Band alert. Magic Hour was actually from Boston in the good ol' USA and featured the singer of Crystallized Movements teamed up with the masters of sadcore Damon and Naomi of Galaxy 500. The results were for the most part, erm magic. Their second album, Will They Turn You On or Turn On You was the band's masterpiece. It was kind of like a psychedelic Galaxy 500 lost in space and featured actual pop songs that you could tap along too. Of course there was a 20 minute epic at the end of the album but that's a whole other story. For a band that actually had two of the most important members of indie rock in it, Magic Hour hardly ever garnered any press and they ended up quietly fading into obscurity.
Download: Chance Was
Download: Something Else
Outcast
With the release of Portishead's new album a couple of weeks ago and the fact that I didn't really like it at all (it just sounds old) I felt like I should dig out some of my old trip hop records to reaffirm my belief in the genre. Back in the day when Portishead were essentially the flag carriers for the genre(sorry Massive Attack), there were more trip hop bands than people in Britain. A lot were horrible, a lot were ok, and a few were really quite good. Outcast happened to be one of the good ones. Signed to One Little Indian they released their debut album in 1996 and with it's ghostly images, haunting sounds, and seductive vocals it sounded spookier and sexier than most of the competition. I kind of lost track of them shortly after their debut album came out, but apparently the band continued to release material up until 2005.
Download: Nothings Changed
Download: Life and Breath
Soda
No post would be complete without one proper Britpop band from the mid-90's. Soda was a hotly tipped band in the NME way back when. They had all the looks; you know, Puma's and red jeans, denim jackets, etc. They had the sound; kind of like a less trendy Menswear with enough spiky riffs and melodies that were instantly addictive and so memorable that Alzheimer's patients could remember them. They just didn't have the longevity that many of the peers had. Shed Seven they were not and they were promptly dropped in the post-Britpop fallout of the late 90's. But for a short time the world was fizzy with the sounds of Soda.
Download: Inside
Download: Tracy Is A Killer
I grabbed another handful of CD's from my record room. As per usual, the handful covers the gamut of British pop over the last decade or so. It's actually fun to do these sorts of posts as some of this stuff I haven't heard since I bought the CD's way back when.
Lauren Laverne
Ok, I'm not going to lie. I've had a "thing" for Lauren since way way back when Kenickie was around. Well, after Kenickie called it a day Lauren did a one off with Mint Royale for the song "Don't Falter," which is still one of the tweest and coolest summer songs EVER. (I'll post that next week) Soon after that little pop detour she started a brief solo career that sort of ended when her label erm faltered. Today, she's a multi-media darling who appears both on TV and radio and probably makes more money doing that then she ever did singing. Strangely enough, she's actually got her own show on BBC 6 which debuts this weekend (June 7th, 2008) at 4pm GMT. Anyway, here are two songs from her solo single, Take These Flowers Away.
Download: I Fell Out Of A Tree
Download: Some Kind of Other Presence
Magic Hour
American Band alert. Magic Hour was actually from Boston in the good ol' USA and featured the singer of Crystallized Movements teamed up with the masters of sadcore Damon and Naomi of Galaxy 500. The results were for the most part, erm magic. Their second album, Will They Turn You On or Turn On You was the band's masterpiece. It was kind of like a psychedelic Galaxy 500 lost in space and featured actual pop songs that you could tap along too. Of course there was a 20 minute epic at the end of the album but that's a whole other story. For a band that actually had two of the most important members of indie rock in it, Magic Hour hardly ever garnered any press and they ended up quietly fading into obscurity.
Download: Chance Was
Download: Something Else
Outcast
With the release of Portishead's new album a couple of weeks ago and the fact that I didn't really like it at all (it just sounds old) I felt like I should dig out some of my old trip hop records to reaffirm my belief in the genre. Back in the day when Portishead were essentially the flag carriers for the genre(sorry Massive Attack), there were more trip hop bands than people in Britain. A lot were horrible, a lot were ok, and a few were really quite good. Outcast happened to be one of the good ones. Signed to One Little Indian they released their debut album in 1996 and with it's ghostly images, haunting sounds, and seductive vocals it sounded spookier and sexier than most of the competition. I kind of lost track of them shortly after their debut album came out, but apparently the band continued to release material up until 2005.
Download: Nothings Changed
Download: Life and Breath
Soda
No post would be complete without one proper Britpop band from the mid-90's. Soda was a hotly tipped band in the NME way back when. They had all the looks; you know, Puma's and red jeans, denim jackets, etc. They had the sound; kind of like a less trendy Menswear with enough spiky riffs and melodies that were instantly addictive and so memorable that Alzheimer's patients could remember them. They just didn't have the longevity that many of the peers had. Shed Seven they were not and they were promptly dropped in the post-Britpop fallout of the late 90's. But for a short time the world was fizzy with the sounds of Soda.
Download: Inside
Download: Tracy Is A Killer
posted by Paul POP! at 9:30 PM
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