yah dude!

The world is funny old place and as A Tribe Called Quest said, "things go in cycles".

I have been on at dear brother Ox for absolutely AGES to do a post about The Stupids - or lend me his vinyl of "Peruvian Vacation" so I could do one. I've finally got round to doing it. And what do I see in today's Guardian? A review of the same album's swanky new deluxe edition CD...

I have to say, I'm really chuffed that a band like Les Stupides is getting the reissue treatment. As the review says they were a strange band - perrenial Peel-faves who often popped up on the pages of Smash Hits.

And, as the kids would say, they certainly did shred... make no mistake.

The Stupids - Virgin Bombshell Fucker / It's Fun To You




This is the opening one-two punch that opens Peruvian Vacation and for me it will always be the sound of hay fever.

To explain: there is a really cold room in our parents' house where me and Ox would go to get some respite from streaming noses and sneezing during the summer holidays. Days were spent playing records and eating ice lollies, and Peruvian Vacation was one of our favourite albums to play, representing a level of energy and enthusiasm that we could never hope to acheive post-sneezing fit. Good times.

It also makes me think of my old skateboarding school friends, Batesy and Fletch - do people still wear Vision Streetwear?

Buy - Peruvian Vacation
Visit - The Stupids (myspace)
Visit - The Stupids (wiki)

knucklehead

With apologies for the extended period of radio silence - I hope this will make up for it. Just right for the second day of British summer time - looking out my window at some increasingly mouldy garden furniture.

But who needs to feel down when there are footstomping party-bangers like this?

Bar-Kays - Knucklehead



Taken from "Soul Finger" which my dear brother Ox gave me for my recent birthday. Vinyl is always appreciated, and this track fair took my face when I first played it.

Buy - Soul Finger
Visit - Bar-Kays (home page)
Visit - Bar-Kays (wiki)

gary shandling

I've been thinking about posting some Butthole Surfers stuff for a while but the announcement that the (kind-of *) classic line-up is reforming for some US and European dates seems like the perfect opportunity.

(* By the way, the "kind-of" is because Paul Leary's involvement seems pretty much minimal. Wonder if Ta-Da the Shit Lady will be coming along for the ride...)

Anyhoo, the Buttholes album I've listened to the most is piouhgd. Not - admittedly - the coolest choice but for a long time this was the only album of theirs that we actually owned (who else misses tapes?).

I recently got hold of the Latino Buggerveil reissue which also includes the Widowermaker EP. We had this track on tape off an old Peel show for years and it was great to hear it again.

Butthole Surfers - The Colored F.B.I. Guy



Funnily enough, I was convinced it had a somewhat less contentious song title back then (a series of numbers, something like "1408" - any ideas?). Whatever, it just goes to show that maybe Gibby really did want to be in REM after all (from Double Live).

piouhgd has apparently been disowned by Gibby and Leary but one of the reasons I really like it is the weird way in which it has been recorded. All of the drums sound exactly like the default settings on an Alesis HR-16 drum machine - and I do mean EXACTLY, even down to the stereo positioning and the fact that, unless you change the levels, the hi-hats and cymbals are way too loud.

Did they have a complicated technological set-up that enabled King Coffey to play the sounds live? or most likely, did they programme the whole album onto a drum machine in this configuration? Whatever, it's quite odd for a band who had previously had two drummers to drop live drum sounds.

Similarly, it's an odd decision for a band so closely aligned to the 1988 Melody Maker Arsequake scene that it sounds clearly like the guitars weren't recorded going into amplifiers but were stuck directly into the mixing console - that's why the distortion is so very fuzzy and hissy. The whole album is pretty tinny sounding - whatever, a band called the Butthole Surfers were never going to be Steely Dan, were they?

Yes, there are some crappy stoner humour tracks (and possibly a few too many versions of Lonesome Bulldog) but the opening double whammy of both "Revolution"'s is still one of my favourite Buttholes moments. I've stuck both the tracks together for your improved listening pleasure. Enjoy!

Butthole Surfers - Revolution Part 1 / Revolution Part 2






If you're wondering, Gary Shandling is "just one of those people who haunt me", according to Gibby.

By way of aural demonstration of the recording style, there's an old Johnny Domino song that we recorded with the exact same sounds. It's part of The Best of the Shithouse Masters download available here. Lead guitar and distorted bass straight into the 4-track and more-or-less default settings on the HR-16 that we used on all of our "proper" recordings. It's the Scorpions/Euro-rock pastiche called Reachin' For a Reason (and that's still the most righteous guitar bit I ever played, even if it was a joke).



piouhgd was released in 1991 and - along with albums by The Jackofficers and Leary's History of Dogs - was one of the reasons that Rough Trade filed for bankruptcy in the same year. Quite the legacy!

Buy - pioughd/Widowermaker
Download - pioughd/Widowermaker from iTunes
Visit - Butthole Surfers
Buy - Michael Azerrad's Our Band Could Be Your Life - the chapter about the Buttholes is worth the price alone

i feel sorry for the elephants

Being 10 years old at the time, The Young Ones TV show came about at completely the right time for me and my mates at school. So when they rose from the dead to record the first Comic Relief charity single, I couldn't have been happier.

Little did we know that this would eventually lead to The Stonk by Hale & Pace.

As Vyv says, "Completely ready when you are, Shaky!"

Cliff Richard and The Young Ones - Living Doll



The Young Ones - (All The Little Flowers Are) Happy



This is the B-side to the single, the kind of fly-on-the-wall-in-the-studio scrapping that Messrs Mayall, Planer and Edmondson would perfect with Bad News. But that, my friends will have to wait until a later time...

Visit - Comic Relief
Visit - The Young Ones
Visit - The Young Ones at the BBC
Visit - Cliff Richard

memory lane

A quickie featuring some recently requested re-posts. If there's owt you want to hear again, drop us a line and we'll try to oblige. Thanks to Bokura no Poppopo~!, Katman and our old friend Anonymous for stopping by!

The Muppets - Halfway Down The Stairs
read the Original Post

Van Dyke Parks - The Eagle And Me
read the Original Post

The Ink Spots - I Don't Want To Set The World On Fire
read the Original Post

Rabbinical School Dropouts - Cosmic Tree
read the Original Post

On a similar tip, I've put together a quick MuxTape of some of my favourite DominoRally moments - have a listen!

old tige

I've recently been trawling for humorous songs from the darkest corners of my collection. Obviously, if you're going to do anything at all about comedy in music, you have to feature Half Man Half Biscuit. They're kind of the blueprint for how you can do this kind of thing well and for a long time - you just need to have a bit of intelligence.

I remember an article in an old copy of Smash Hits that looked at the finances of contemporary (mid 80s) musicians and the only act to make any kind of profit was HMHB. Wish I could remember who else was featured, but I do know they all had massive major label advances up the wazoo.

Half Man Half Biscuit - Old Tige

This was from their first Peel Session and was always one of my favourite recordings of theirs. Musically it's a pretty faithful talky-song until 1.29 when Nigel obviously gets bored and drops the cheesy American accent. At the end it all dissolves into some quite chilling Muttley-esque laughs.

Jim Reeves - Old Tige



The other week I was going through some of my late Grandad's old records when I found this, the original version of Old Tige. I still like the Half Man Half Biscuit version, but I really like the Jim Reeves version now as it shamelessly tugs at my heart strings.

The Biscuits didn't change any of the words in their version but even though I've heard them mercilessly ripping this song to shreds for years, I'm not ashamed to say that this is one of the saddest things I've ever heard - especially when the ghostly chorus cranks up in the dying seconds of the track.

If this doesn't get you, you either have a heart of stone or have never owned a dog.

Or you never had a Grandad who had a dog and who loved soppy country music.


Visit - Half Man Half Biscuit
Visit - Jim Reeves
Buy - Gentleman Jim - Definitive Collection (*doesn't have "Old Tige" but I can't find it anywhere. any ideas?)

fab fm

As far as novelty records go, acts like the previously covered Barron Knights were your hardcore committed act. I mean, they weren't playing at this stuff, this was their job and what they did.

But amongst the many regular dabblers in novelty, none strikes the fear of God into right-thinking listeners more than the Radio DJ. Endlessly enamoured of the sound of their own voice, the many hours DJs have to empty their brain-pan into a microphone just aren't enough for them. So they decide to release a novelty single and the world cries itself to sleep.

Kenny Everett - Snot Rap



Kenny Everett was always my favourite comedian when I was a kid - he was just so stupid and inventive and definitely ahead of the game in the modern short-attention-span stakes. But this is pretty bad stuff.

In his defence, five years later some people were still making the mistake that rappers were tone-deaf morons who just talked over backing tracks. I'm thinking in particular of Prince's Dead On It from 1988's Black Album.

What follows is one of the darkest corners in my record collection. For Christmas 1982, my Grandmother bought me 3 singles: Our House by Madness, Musical Youth's Youth Of Today and this.

Young Steve & The Afternoon Boys - I'm Alright



Steve Wright was the mainstay of Radio 1's afternoon programming. Pop Hits, a host of wacky characters and lots of catchphrase comedy. The kind of thing to get you through an afternoon at work and lead you up to your journey home. I don't know if he came up with the masterstroke that was "Alright?" before Michael Barrymore, but as far as catchphrases go, it ain't much is it?

Steve is still on the radio, having shifted over to Radio 2 to play inappropriate tracks on Sunday Love Songs. Typical phone-in request:

"This weekend my beautiful daughter is marrying her wonderful partner and all of the family are so proud of her. Can you tell her that I love her very much and play Back To Black by Amy Winehouse? Thanks Steve, love the show."

It's also worth catching to here some truly terrifying letters from people wanting to make contact with lost loves from many years ago. I'm sure I've heard listeners aged 50 and over trying to get in touch with people they haven't seen since they were eleven. Steve Wright: the stalker's friend.

Damien & The Social Workers - Damien

Damien the Social Worker was one of Steve's characters. Basically he was a bit of a hippy, a bit wishy-washy and he was (to 1982 eyes) unnecessarily concerned about the environment and the crap that people put into their bodies. It's almost as though Steve was inventing Gillian McKeith.

Visit - Kenny Everett
Visit - Steve Wright fan page (with audio clips)
Buy - something good, for Christ's sake