Chumbawamba – extracts from “Never Mind The Ballots”
(Agit-Prop Records, LP, 1987)

On Election Day, I posted the Kuti track from his Black President album. But I had alternate plans for that day’s Screamer of the Day had McCain won the election. Given the current tenor and low-level political chaos that is ensuing on just about every level of government, I thought I’d post this alternate track today.

It’s Chumbawamba. Everyone knows Chumba, right? I get knocked down, but I get up again yadda yadda. Yeah, them. But what most people don’t know is that Tubthumper was from the band’s *eigth* studio album. Prior to that, they were much more politically motivated and presented a porn-load more integrity in their messages. Recently, I had the pleasure to check out their Readymades album. Honestly, I was skeptical, but I wound up loving the album. Alice and Danbert are certainly in their full presence, but the album reads more like Tracey and Ben in bed with Neil and Christopher and the whole affair sounds like it should have been named Anything But The Pet Shop Boys. It’s great – seriously – but Chumbawamba?

No.

Rewind to 1987. The Wall is still up, Thatcher is Still In, Reagan doesn’t remember, and punk’s not dead. Yet. Nevermind The Ballots hits the streets and has entire legions of glued-up mohawks bobbing and Doing the Revolution and the whole thing is the perfect soundtrack to Republicans-Gone-Wild. (Wait. Do I really want to envision *that*? Sorry if I ruined your tea.)

The Chums were already well known in many small circles for their first effort, Pictures of Starving Children Sell Records, and Danbert’s solo single showing off his large unaltered maleness on the cover earned the band enough of a reputation to make the records fly off the shelves. Suddenly, we had a fucking *movement* on our hands.

The sharp sarcasm in these extracts from Nevermiond the Ballots (tax cuts and platform shoes/for every small business man!) still manages to apply today. Some find that comforting. Ultimately, it’s very sad. But the election’s over. Prop 8 has become a national issue, so let’s see exactly what our leader is willing to deliver…

Can I hear a hallelujah??

Various Artists – A Houseguest’s Wish: translations of Wire’s Outdoor Miner
(Words on Words CD, 2004)

As it sounds, this is a compilation of 19 bands each putting in their own cover version of Wire’s seminal hit song, Outdoor Miner. It was released to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the release of the Outdoor Miner single. One would guess from such a presumptuous title that the producer’s knew their audience. But this compilations loses credibility almost immediately on hitting the play button. I am a huge fan of both Wire and of compilations; what many reviewers find to be faults with compilations are especially the features I appreciate most. They tend to collect music from a fairly wide variety of sources, and therefore can often be expected to vary unevenly. It is a true art to be able to program a compilation with a given set of diverging tracks and result in something seamless and intentional. That art is not evident here. That’s not to say there are no moments of brilliance here, because there are. But this compilation overall? Not so much.

So, it’s hard enough to pull together a compilation to begin with. But the concept of having 19 versions of the same song seems like a recipe for disaster. The diversity is not going to come from a variety of songs in this case, so there’d better be a high enough quality of diversity of style to keep your attention piqued. Compound that with the high level of expectation arising from covering such a revered song. Yes, this was a brave project indeed.

The first track features Adam Franklin, of Swervedriver, giving a singer/songwriter approach where he flubs the first line. The lyric is supposed to be ” ‘No blind spot in a leopard’s eye can only help to jeopardize the lives of lambs,’ the shepard cries…” but he sings “No blind spot in a leopard’s eye could ever hope to jeopardize…” Considering that the remaining lyrics were all as written, this is no poetic license, it’s a mistake that had me slapping my hip in frustration. He should have known better, and so should have the producer. What saves this first attempt is the amazing two part harmony he puts in later in the track. Still: FAIL… I’m not quite getting the whole singer/songwriter sensibility on Outdoor Miner, either, as it appears in several incarnations here. But then, I never got the whole Current 93 folk music thing either, so I guess I’m not the right person to ask about this. These versions sort of stick out like paisley on stripes.

The next issue I had with this was the fact that several tracks are available elsewhere. FAIL. A successful compilation presents material that is 100 percent exclusive at the time of release, and, if the producer has any savvy, he will manage to commit it to exclusivity indefinitely. It’s annoying to discover that (what I believe to be) the best tracks are available elsewhere and are still in print. This kind of mistake ensures the fate of the release to end up on the one-cent-CD pile at eBay – where I got mine!

The overall selection of tracks and the sequencing left something to be desired, but here are some highlights from the compilation:

Titania, featuring carlos Forster of For Stars, give the most convincing faithful version:
[audio:http://www.jukeboxheart.com/screamers/houseguest/titaniar.mp3]

Kick on the Floods give a kraftwerk meets Electric Light Orchestra interpretation that’s amusing and well crafted:
[audio:http://www.jukeboxheart.com/screamers/houseguest/kickr.mp3]

Our great post-rock love Timonium also give a spectacular version:
[audio:http://www.jukeboxheart.com/screamers/houseguest/timonium.mp3]

Should, also known as shiFt, longtime shoegazers on the Baltimore scene, do a fantastic instrumental version of Outdoor Miner, thereby taking the biggest risk of the bunch:
[audio:http://www.jukeboxheart.com/screamers/houseguest/should.mp3]

Flying Saucer Attack put in the best of the bunch here, whereby the give an accurate interpretation without any compromise of the band’s style. It becomes a Flying Saucer Attack song when they do it.
[audio:http://www.jukeboxheart.com/screamers/houseguest/fsa.mp3]
As previously released:

It would have also been a nice touch to include the original track. Which is just below…
[audio:http://www.paulcollegio.net/juke/juke0412/pivotal.mp3]

Compilations are really my favorite kind of recordings. Admittedly, I’ve sat through far worse than this. But the project itself sets the bar extremely high. And while there were moments of greatness on A Houseguest’s Wish: translations of Wire’s Outdoor Miner, I was hoping for a few more foreign languages.

Fela Anikulapo Kuti – Colonial Mentality
(Black President – Arista Records LP, 1981)

Real Name: Olufela Olusegun Oludotun Ransome-Kuti
Born: 15 October 1938, in Abeokuta, Nigeria.
Died: 2 August 1997, of AIDS and heart failure in Lagos, Nigeria.

This selection, from the album “Black President” just feels right…

A little history: Fela formed his first group Koola Lobitos in 1963. The large jazz, funk, and afrobeat collective underwent many changes in the following decades, but the style remained the same thanks to Fela’s vision and other key members such as drummer, Tony Allen.

In 1969, after visiting America, Fela returned to Nigeria, opened club Afro Spot in Lagos, and changed the group’s name to Nigeria 70. A few years later the name was changed to Afrika 70, which was probably the most famous incarnation as they recorded 17 albums between 1975-77 alone. In 1981, Fela changed the name for the last time to Egypt 80.

Regarding his name change. He was known as Fela Ransome-Kuti until about 1978, when he renamed himself Fela Anikulapo Kuti, the middle name meaning ‘he who carries death in his pouch’. He was a human-rights revolutionary who started his own political party, Movement Of The People, to protest the kleptocracy in Nigeria. He had his own compound called the Kalakuta Republic, in Lagos, which he declared independent from Nigeria, where he and his uncountable number of wives lived, and were constantly terrorized by the government. His influence on funk and African music is unsurpassed with approximately 77 albums.

Chicks On Speed – The Re-Releases Of The Un-Releases
“Give Me Back My Man” (Yes…a cover of the B-52s!)

Chicks on Speed is Melissa Logan (from New York), Kiki Moorse (from Munich) and Alex Murray-Leslie (from Bowral, Australia). They use the “Chicks On Speed” name for their music productions, clothing label, design work and their record label (Chicks On Speed Records). Their clothing line is as fabulous and outrageous as their music. Check some of it out here. Along with crafting deconstructed, feminist-leaning no-wave drenched synth pop, the group also runs Go Records, Stop Records, and Chicks on Speed Records; designs video and print graphics and art installations; and makes and sells avant-garde paper and leather clothing. Appropriate to their arty, Eurotrash vibe, Moorse, Logan, and Murray-Leslie met in 1997 at a bar near Munich’s Art Academy. Soon after, they were releasing limited-edition, critically-acclaimed singles such as Smash Metal, which pitted the group against Patrick Pulsinger, DMX Krew, and DJ Hell (whose album Munich Machine they also appeared on), as well as the ironic, pseudo-house anthem Glamour Girl. Their live shows ranged from appearances at 2000’s Love Parade festival to touring with Console and Super Collider to gigs at renovated mental hospitals. Mid-2000 saw the release of their debut album Chicks On Speed Will Save Us All! What’s most noteworthy about Chicks on Speed is, well, their *speed*. They hit the ground at Warp 9 and, without a second’s warning, took both the art and music worlds by storm, designing fashion shows, performing, and recording two records in under two years. And in that short time after their art-school formation, they were taken under the wings of Austrian electro-glitch producers Gerhard Potuznik and Ramon Bauer, only to become instant stars on the intelligent club circuit. Their first US record, The Re-releases of the Un-releases, shown here, is a brilliant collection of their early work as remixed by Bauer and Potuznik. The Re-releases is raw and unpolished but somehow charming and a bit more personal than their import-onlydebut. As well, The Re-releases preserves the studio chatter between the Chicks and their producers and includes strikingly innovative and screamer-worthy covers of the B-52’s “Gimme Back My Man,” the Normals’ “Warm Leatherette” (with DJ Hell), and the Delta 5’s “Mind Your Own Business.” Although Chicks on Speed was originally conceived as an art installation project, they’ve obviously found a niche within synthetic pop music and they exhibit an impressive amount of songwriting skill and social commentary. But, really, they’re just some pretty funny, fast and furious chicks.

My computers have all been down for the past couple of weeks, so my ability to keep the Jukebox Heart motor spinning has been limited. But I’ve been busy coming up with ideas and arranging some special reports for upcoming updates.

I’ve also been combing through the used bins at my favorite stores, because they’ve all been dramatically clearing out their inventories. Such bargains! Couple this with a challenge I’ve been given in another forum (one of sveral where this blog gets cross-posted) to write about a CD (among other items) that I believe no one else who reads my entries on that forum owns. Considering that I believe a rather significant portion of my personal collection falls into this category, it was hard to pick just one.

Until I sat through a listen of this recent find in a cut-out bin at Newbury Comics.

Lady and Bird “Lady and Bird”
(Yellow Tangerine Records CD, 2006)

This side project is from the duo of internationally famous singer/songwriter Keren Ann Zeidel and Bardi Johannson (lead singer of Iceland’s Bang Gang). This incredibly charming CD was first released in France in 2003, but was not picked up in the US until 2006 when the tiny US indie Yellow Tangerine released it. The US version contains an exclusive live acoustic track of “Do What I Do”. Keren Ann is Israeli born, currently living in France by way of Holland and Belgium. Bardi Johanssen is “a tall Icelandic Man” releasing music under thename Bang Gang as well as his own name, since 1996. This CD is a stylistic departure for both artists. Lady & Bird’s liner notes confirm what everyone always wants to know about their favorite rock stars, “Yes! We always have sex all the time!”. And honestly, given the beauty and tenderness of the music on this CD, there should never have been any doubt.

There are so many breathtaking moments on this CD that it is hard to know where to begin. The influences are many and certainly diverse. In the avant pop realm, if one were to draw a square with His Name Is Alive, Stereolab, The Magnetic Fields and Goldfrapp posted prominently at each corner, Lady and Bird occupy the space bound by those with a determined sensibility that might land them with a future release on Audio Dregs, Tomlab, Fat Cat or some such similarly minded imprint. The instrumentation, arrangements and especially the magical vocals and harmonies here will cast this as one of the greatest unknown independents ever.

This is not to say that this virgin effort is without its flaws. Two of the tracks, Shepard’s Song and La Ballade of Lady & Bird employ some questionable vocal stylizations and effects. Ballade is a spoken radioplay of sorts whose musical background is as impeccable as the rest of the tracks here, but their voices have been electronically raised to make them sound like they are speaking behind lungs full of helium. In Shepard’s Song, an artificially deep-voiced beast is enough to make me squint and scratch my head – and almost caused me to drop the CD back into the cut-out bin, which would have been my own tragic loss.

The band, however, more than adequately overcomes these flaws, not in the least with their selections of included cover songs, both included here. The Velvet Underground’s “Stephanie Says” is just *owned* by Lady and Bird, and their lyrically complete version of “Suicide is Painless”, aka The Theme from M*A*S*H, is simply devastating.

Here are some tracks from the album. The individual tracks are all wonderful, but their sequencing on the CD is of equal importance as well. I’ve listed them here in order of appearance on the album.

Stephanie Says
[audio:http://www.jukeboxheart.com/screamers/ladynbird/track3.mp3]

Walk Real Slow
[audio:http://www.jukeboxheart.com/screamers/ladynbird/track4.mp3]

Suicide Is Painless
[audio:http://www.jukeboxheart.com/screamers/ladynbird/track5.mp3]

Run in the Morning Sun
[audio:http://www.jukeboxheart.com/screamers/ladynbird/track7.mp3]

Blue Skies
[audio:http:////www.jukeboxheart.com/screamers/ladynbird/track9.mp3]

This week, I happened to borrow the “Phil Spector: Back To Mono” 4-CD box set from my local public library. It traces his career from his earliest works in the late fifties to the rise of his legendary imprint Philles Records. I have many of the original 45s featured on the set, but I thought it would be nice to have pristine digital copies of those songs, so I began to rip away track after fabulous track. Phil Spector is one of my heroes. And there were several songs I had never heard before getting hold of this set.

The project is fairly exhaustive, but I was surprised at some of the things that were omitted. The story of his legendary business tactic is well known, and it includes the commercially unavailable record by his signature group The Crystals called “(Let’s Dance) The Screw” which is currently known to exist only has a handful of DJ copies and one stock copy. This was pressed to get out of a contractual obligation to his partner, and is highly sought after by collectors. It’s been bootlegged a gazillion times and odds are if you run across a copy of it, it is counterfeit. I don’t have a copy, but an original looks like this:

At this writing, I don’t have an mp3 of that track to include, but I would be happy to link to one if any of you can point me to a copy on line.

Another oddly omitted track is the amazing B-Side of the Ronettes Walking In The Rain hit single, called How Does it Feel?

[audio:http://www.paulcollegio.net/juke/divas/bunny01.mp3]

While I love the Ronettes – and who wouldn’t what with those fabulous towering hairdos and sweater-piercing cone-bras – Ronnie Spector’s vibrato just reminds me of Kathryn Hepburn in the latter stages of Parkinson’s disease. Finally having said that, this is one of my favorite Ronettes songs evah and perhaps their most avant garde production, given that stressed out horn section and nightmarish background vocal arrangement. It’s the flip side of another of their big hits, (I said HITS) ‘Walking in the Rain’.

Phil Spector is pretty much unanimously given credit for the invention of the “Wall of Sound”, and his signature sound has had enormous impact on the direction of pop music over the last four decades. And credit is definitely due. But he was definitely influenced by certain sounds happening in the R&B world over the previous years, and these records definitely poured the foundation for the Wall of Sound. I think astute listeners will be very able to trace his influences back to a decade before his earliest releases, to a man named Terry Johnson.

Terry began his recording career with an obscure Baltimore based vocal group called The Whispers in the early 1950s. They only recorded two singles for Philadelphia’s Gotham Records label. One of them, “Are You Sorry” is just an amazing example of group sound, and only a handful of elite collectors really know about it. The harmonies and arrangements are innovative and breathtaking…all arranged by then 16-year old Terry Johnson. Click below to hear it.

The Whispers – Are You Sorry
[audio:http://www.paulcollegio.net/juke/juke0506/doowop.mp3]

After the Whispers fell apart, Terry managed to hook up with the Flamingos and by 1958 was one of the lead duet singers in “Lovers Never Say Goodbye”. Terry did the arrangement on virtually all of the singles the Flamingos recorded for George Goldner’s End label.

Perhaps the most recognizable song from The Flamingos is their 1959 version of the classic I Only Have Eyes For You. This is the focal point, the song that I believe inspired Phil Spector and pushed him toward developing and evolving The Wall of Sound. This was a process in The Flamingos music that was developing over the years, but it was Terry Johnson who made it gel with songs like Lovers Never Say Goodbye, Mio Amore and many others. But it is in I Only Have Eyes For You is where the concept is really spot-on.

[audio:http://www.jukeboxheart.com/screamers/spector/Flamingos_eyes.mp3]

Terry ultimately landed Motown Records as an artist and producing partners with Smokey Robinson. As an artist, he recorded several records on the Gordy Label. He wrote, arranged, and produced songs for Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, The Supremes, The Four Tops, The Temptations, Martha Reeves & The Vandellas, Edwin Starr, The Spinners, Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers, Jimmy Ruffin, Mickey Denton, Blinky and other Motown artists.