Song of the day: Field Music - "A New Town"

I was all set to play you a swag of Australian songs this week (I already have posts ready to go that feature very Australian songs), but before that I'm going to sneak in a song by Field Music. It's because I've finally gotten around to listening to the band's latest album, Plumb.

Although I had pre-ordered Plumb, and the little beastie arrived a couple of weeks ago (thanks for the prompt delivery, Memphis Industries!), I hadn't heard it until now because I'd been in the grip of a huge Split Enz phase. I decided to exert some willpower and have a break from my Enzarama by listening to Plumb. (The CD was sitting on my desk for all that time, just looking at me, and not being played. What could I do?)

Now that I've heard it, I can give you a mini-review of Plumb:

It'll stretch your brain.

I'm going to designate today as Field Music Day*, because the band appears in both of today's posts – this Song of the day and the latest Musical coincidence (see below).

To celebrate Field Music Day, here's a song from Plumb:

Field Music - "A New Town" (2012)


"A New Town" is available on Field Music's website (and for free – woohoo!). Apparently, the song has been available there for quite a while (making this post pretty redundant). I didn't know about it because as soon as I pre-ordered Plumb I studiously avoided seeing or hearing anything associated with it until I had the album and could hear it in its entirety.

Incidentally, the Field Music chaps said in an interview that the album cover was inspired by artist Edward Ruscha's Standard Station, which looks a little like this:

(From The Museum of Modern Art)

It looks to me like it might have also inspired this album artwork by Australian band The Valery Trails:

Or maybe not.

Field Music official website
Field Music on Facebook
Field Music on Twitter
Memphis Industries

(*As opposed to Field Day, a splendid album by Marshall Crenshaw.)

Musical coincidences # 185

I was listening to "Is This The Picture?", one of the songs on Field Music's new album, Plumb (see Song of the day above), when a little guitar lick appeared towards the end of it that sounded a little familiar. When it was repeated it sounded a lot more familiar, but I couldn't quite figure out what it reminded me of. However, when that guitar lick appeared for the third time, my brain went "That's it!". This is why my brain exclaimed so heartily:

Field Music - "Is This The Picture?" (2012) (excerpt)

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10cc - "Don't Hang Up" (1976) (excerpt)

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Thanks, Field Music chaps, for reminding me of 10cc, one of my favourite bands of the 1970s.

Here are the full versions:

Field Music - "Is This The Picture?" (2012)

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10cc - "Don't Hang Up" (1976)

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Song of the day: ABC - "Hey Citizen!"

I'm not entirely sure why, but I feel the need to apologise for the haphazard nature of the recent posts on this blog. I frequently think that this blog should just focus on Australian power pop (it is its raison d'être after all), but I'm continually interrupting that thought with non-Australian, non-power-pop songs. Unfortunately for you, here comes another one...

I was reading a blog a few days ago (I've forgotten which blog) that said something about something (I've forgotten what exactly). Nevertheless, the post reminded me of ABC, the 80's band that had all those wonderful dreadful witty cheesy wry hits ("Poison Arrow", "The Look Of Love", "All Of My Heart" etc) from The Lexicon Of Love, an album I thoroughly enjoyed owning on vinyl.

As I was reminiscing about ABC, I remembered that I also had their second album (Beauty Stab) and I really liked it as well. (I also remember liking that second album because it was more guitar-centric and focused less on synthesizers.)

There was one particular song on it that I thought was the cat's whiskers. Here 'tis:

ABC - "Hey Citizen!" (1983)

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What originally drew me to that song was the guitar part. The overall production is ultra-slick, but I still love that guitar part, as well as its sound. (I wouldn't have minded it being more forward in the mix – maybe even drowning out the other instruments.)

I must admit that, after listening to The Lexicon Of Love and Beauty Stab again, I'm still diggin' ABC.

As a bonus (or punishment, depending on how you feel about ABC), here's another track from Beauty Stab:

ABC - "Bite The Hand" (1983)

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Tomorrow I'll try to get back to Australian power pop and keep playing Australian power pop – for a few days at least.

Song of the day: Go Betsy - "Boy From Canada"

I know exactly two things about today's song, and I'll let you know what they are after you play it:

Go Betsy - "Boy From Canada" (2004)

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1. That song appears on a Popboomerang Records (Hi, Scotty!) compilation called Shake Yer Popboomerang 2.

2. There's another version of that song. It's by Jane Vs World and I played it here in June last year. If you don't want to read that earlier post (or you may be reluctant to click on that link for some reason), you can hear the song here:

Jane Vs World - "Boy From Canada" (2006)

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And that's it.

My guess is that Go Betsy morphed into Jane Vs World and someone decided to use "Boy From Canada" again. (Why waste a cute song?) I like a band that recycles.

Buy Shake Yer Popboomerang 2 at Popboomerang Records
Buy Shake Yer Popboomerang 2 at Bandcamp

Musical coincidences # 184

Today's coincidence involves no music – it's purely visual.

(Given the title of this series, I guess that makes this a false-pretences post. But I'll post it anyway.)

Plenty of observant people have noticed a similarity between the artwork for Van Halen's latest album and a 1975 album by the Commodores:

Song of the day: Split Enz - "How Can I Resist Her"

Look, I'm terribly sorry about this but I'm still* in an enormous Split Enz phase, listening and re-listening to their entire back catalogue, as well as all the associated solo Finn music and spin-off bands (Crowded House, The Swingers, Schnell Fenster et al).

I'll try very, very hard to make this the last Split Enz post for a long time. (Well that's what I'm hoping for anyway. After all, this is an Australian power pop blog, not a Split Enz blog.)

As I was listening to True Colours again after a decade or so of not hearing it, I was struck by how one song in particular could quite easily pass for a decent power pop song – especially if you didn't know it was from Split Enz:

Split Enz - "How Can I Resist Her" (1980)

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To me, that's a mighty good power pop song from 1980 – regardless of who recorded it.

(*And it's all because of this book.)

Musical coincidences # 183

Today's coincidence involves a song that I first heard – then completely forgot about until very recently – on the blog of my friend, Stonefish (hi, Stonionio!).

As hinted at in the previous paragraph, I'm a forgetful chap. (Correction: I have no problem with recalling music trivia, but I'm hopeless with important things like birthdays, anniversaries, people's names etc – you know, the stuff that matters.) To counter my dreadful memory I developed a habit some time ago (I don't remember when) of writing notes to myself and putting them in my pocket, Columbo-style. If I don't, I'm guaranteed to forget what it is I found noteworthy at the time. (For example, I'll have a brainwave about something while I'm at the shops, but by the time I get home I'll have forgotten about it.)

This note-taking has come in handy because I recently found an old one that said "Musical coincidence: Groove - You Are The One I Love (Stonefish's blog) / The Rolling Stones - Let's Spend The Night Together".

I revisited Stonefish's post featuring The Groove, had a listen to "You Are The One I Love", and thought "Ah, that's why I wrote that note."

The Rolling Stones - "Let's Spend The Night Together" (1967) (excerpt)

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The Groove - "You Are The One I Love" (1968) (excerpt)

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And the full versions:

The Rolling Stones - "Let's Spend The Night Together" (1967)

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The Groove - "You Are The One I Love" (1968)

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Thanks, Stonefish, for posting that Groove song in the first place.

Song of the day: Ral Donner - "You Don't Know What You've Got (Until You Lose It)"

I thought for today's song I'd play you something from the 1950's or 1960's, because I've been playing a lot of new-fangled music recently. Just for today I wanted to delve into the early days of rock'n'roll, back when there were elves in the charts (i.e., Elves Presley*).

In my auditory travels I came across an old song that isn't Australian, but one that I found eminently blog-worthy because of my response to the singer in question. The song is called "You Don't Know What You've Got (Until You Lose It)", and I hadn't heard it before. When it started I thought "Oh, an Elvis Presley song. I don't know many Elvis Presley songs. This is another one I didn't know about, but I know his voice when I hear it." When I saw the artist listed, I thought "Ral Donner? I don't know who Ral Donner is, but that's not Ral Donner – it's Elvis Presley. Someone made a mistake when they tagged the MP3." I looked through Elvis Presley's discography for confirmation of my magnificent astuteness, but came up blank. I then looked up Ral Donner's discography, and there it was. It's a Ral Donner song.

By the way, in what I consider to be The Understatement Of The Decade, Wikipedia states that Ral Donner "had a voice similar to Elvis Presley's".

I know that in the wake of Elvis the P's phenomenal popularity there were a lot of singers who did their best to sound like him, but this Ral Donner fellow is... is... well, I think he possibly out-Elvises Elvis.

Here's the song that apparently is definitely not by Elvis Presley:

Ral Donner - "You Don't Know What You've Got (Until You Lose It)" (1961)

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(*I really hope that's the worst pun you see all year.)

Musical coincidences # 182

And one more coincidence from the ultra-helpful Mr. Fabulous before I pester you tomorrow with one he didn't find (but given time I reckon he would have).

Before I go on, I'd just like to point out that Mr. Fabulous prefers to be called Dr. Keats. I prefer to call him Mr. Fabulous.

The Big F has discovered a marvellous three-for-the-price-of-one deal with this coincidence. Behold a trio of songs using remarkably similar chord progressions:

Hoodoo Gurus - "Bittersweet" (1985) (excerpt)

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Tom Petty - "I Won't Back Down" (1989) (excerpt)

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Texas - "Black Eyed Boy" (1997) (excerpt)

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Here are the full versions:

Hoodoo Gurus - "Bittersweet" (1985)

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Tom Petty - "I Won't Back Down" (1989)

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Texas - "Black Eyed Boy" (1997)

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Song of the day: Regurgitator - "No Show"

Here's Regurgitator with a song that fellow blogger Bill Kopp (Hi, Bill!) says "channels their inner Fountains of Wayne – it's a powerpop gem of the first order":

Regurgitator - "No Show" (2011)



Official website
Bandcamp
MySpace
Facebook
YouTube
Twitter

Musical coincidences # 181

As with all the coincidences this week, today's comes to you courtesy of Mr. Fabulous.

Here are two pieces of music that share a bit more than just the same key signature:

Australian Crawl - "The Boys Light Up" (1980) (excerpt)

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Queen - "I Want It All" (1989) (excerpt)

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I wonder if that is coincidental, or if Brian May (composer of "I Want It All") had heard and decided to rework it a tad (or maybe even a smidgeon).

Here are the full versions:

Australian Crawl - "The Boys Light Up" (1980)

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Queen - "I Want It All" (1989)

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Song of the day: Skeleton Staff - "I Told You I Was Poor"

I'm a big, big, big, big fan of Australian neo-psychedelic-baroque-pop-power-pop-music-hall-vaudeville band* Skeleton Staff, and I've only just realised that it's been way too long (37 days to be precise) since I last played you one of their songs. (Note to self: tsk, tsk.)

Here's a song by Skeleton Staff:

Skeleton Staff - I Told You I Was Poor" (2011)

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"I Told You I Was Poor" is the first track on the band's latest album, Psychomorphism. Feel free to buy this splendid album. ("The Skeleton Staff Telethon – Helping To Brighten The Day Of Skeleton Staff Musicians Everywhere.")

Official website
Twitter
Facebook
MySpace
Bandcamp
Last.fm
Rock And Roll Tribe
SoundClick
PRWeb

(*Skeleton Staff may actually be the only neo-psychedelic-baroque-pop-power-pop-music-hall-vaudeville band in Australia. I could be wrong, though.)

Musical coincidences # 180

And another coincidence from the redoubtable Mr. Fabulous. I was going to say that excerpts are unnecessary with these two songs – all you have to do is wait until the introductions of both songs are out of the way and then it's plain sailing on the Sea of Coincidences – but I might as well carve up both songs for you:

John[ny] Cougar [Mellencamp] (alias Mr. Multiple-Name-Changer) - "Hurts So Good" (1982) (excerpt)

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Henry Lee Summer - "I Wish I Had A Girl" (1986) (excerpt)

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And here are the full versions:

John[ny] Cougar [Mellencamp] (alias The Man Of A Few Names) - "Hurts So Good" (1982)

Link

Henry Lee Summer - "I Wish I Had A Girl" (1986)

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Song of the day: The Wellingtons - "I'm Feeling The Same Way"

I've only just noticed that I haven't played you a song by The Wellingtons recently. To redress this dreadful iniquity, here are The Wellingtons with a song from their latest elpee:

The Wellingtons - "I'm Feeling The Same Way" (2011)

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The Wellingtons are everywhere:
On their official website
On Wikipedia
On Facebook
On MySpace
On Twitter
In England
On Soundcloud
On Bandcamp
On Audioleaf
On YouTube
On Mixi.jp

Musical coincidences # 179

Here's another coincidence supplied by Mr. Fabulous. Thanks, old bean!

Exhibit A:

Squeeze - "Tempted" (1980) (excerpt)

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Exhibit B:

Diesel - "Tip Of My Tongue" (1992) (excerpt)

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Here are the full versions:

Squeeze - "Tempted" (1980)

Link


Diesel - "Tip Of My Tongue" (1992)

Link

Song of the day: The Valentines - "My Old Man's A Groovy Old Man"

Way back (well, two years) before Bon Scott was a hairy hippy in Fraternity (see yesterday's post), he was in a bubblegum band called The Valentines. Bon shared co-lead vocal duties with a chap called Vince Lovegrove (that's a great name for a bubblegum singer). Here's one of their ditties:

The Valentines - "My Old Man's A Groovy Old Man" (1968) (instrumental)

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Groovy.

The reason I chose this particular song over any of the others that The Valentines recorded (they're all very similar in their bubblegumminess) is that it was written by Australian songwriting stalwarts Vanda and Young, and that means it has some history to it – specifically, Easybeats history.

There are two versions of "My Old Man..." by The Easybeats, and they both have the same backing track, but one has vocals and the other one doesn't. I think they're both interesting, but for different reasons (1. I find it fascinating to hear 1960's tracks without the singing on them; and 2. when The Easybeats did get around to adding vocals to this song – three years later – they decided to add weird vocals):

The Easybeats - "My Old Man's A Groovy Old Man" (1966) (instrumental)

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The Easybeats - "My Old Man's A Groovy Old Man" (1969)

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Musical coincidences # 178

Today's coincidence appears courtesy of my friend Mr. Fabulous (aka Dr. Keating). Thanks, Mr. F!

The Hummingbirds - "Blush" (1989) (excerpt)

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Nushu - "Spill" (2007) (excerpt)

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Now that's what I call blatant.

Here are the full versions:

The Hummingbirds - "Blush" (1989)

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Nushu - "Spill" (2007) (excerpt)

Link


Incidentally, when Mr. Fabulous told me about that coincidence he also told me about a heap more. So for the next few days on this blog there's gonna be a storm* of coincidences, all from the wonderfully observant Mr. Fabulous. (Much obliged, O Provider Of Coincidences.)

(*Is there a name for a group of coincidences? Would it be an "irony"?)

Song of the day: Fraternity - "Seasons Of Change"

I've haven't* gotten around to reading (or even buying) the Bon Scott biography Highway to Hell: The Life & Death of Bon Scott yet, but I do want to play you a track from when Bon wasn't the hairy-chested rocker fronting AC/DC. Before that, Bon was even hairier. He was in a prog rock band called Fraternity. As well as being the band's singer, he also played a recorder. (Bon sure did have an interesting career.)

Here's the band's best-known song:

(I know the phrase "best-known" in this circumstance may be stretching it a bit, but if the band's known for anything it's this.)

Fraternity - "Seasons Of Change" (1971)

Link

Mimed


Live


I just discovered that I'd already posted this song, although it was by a different band. Oops.

Ah well. I've typed this post now, and I don't want to untype it.

Tomorrow I'll play you another track from Bon's varied past.

(*Please see this post if you have no idea what I'm talking about.)

Musical coincidences # 177

I was almost not going to post this coincidence for three reasons:

1. it's very small;
2. it involves a song that inflames an awful lot of passions in people (both love and hate); and
3. the song that inflames a lot of passions is sung by an individual who inflames even more passions in people (almost unfathomable amounts of love or hate considering the innocuousness of the individual)

But then I thought: "Why not? The coincidence involves 10cc. That's good enough for me."

So, at the risk of inflaming passions, here comes a very small coincidence. But first...

Back story time: Yesterday, as I was walking into the lounge room past the TV, a program was on and in the background there was a youngster singing "Baby, baby, baby..." over and over again. I thought to myself, "Oh, it's that 'Baby' song by Justin Bieber. Just keep walking, Peter." By the time I got to the kitchen, that little bit of "baby, baby" had transformed itself into "baby, baby" being sung by 10cc in one of their early songs.

To me, this...

Justin Bieber (feat. Ludacris) - "Baby" (2010) (excerpt)

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...reminds me of this...

10cc - "The Sacro-Iliac" (1974) (excerpt)

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Incidentally, given the exceptionally strong feelings people have for the Justin Bieber song I was almost not going to post the full version. But being an equal opportunity blogger, I think it's only fair that I keep doing what I've always done here – i.e., present you with the full versions of whatever is involved in these coincidences.

Here are the full versions:

Justin Bieber (feat. Ludacris) - "Baby" (2010)

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10cc - "The Sacro-Iliac" (1974)

Link

Song of the day: A band - "Stand In Line" (live)

The following video is just one reason why this particular band is my all-time favourite live Australian band. (Ever!)

A band whose record company is keen to sue individuals who mention them on blogs - "Stand In Live" (live – recorded Sunday January 13, 1985)
(Suggestion: Please, please, please, please turn this up as loud as possible.)


That video comes from the band's Best Of Both Worlds, my all-time favourite live music DVD.

Trivial sidenote: the two notes of the guitar riff that starts "Stand In Line" always – and I mean always – reminds me of the singing part of the Batman TV theme tune (where they sing "Batman!")...

Song of the day: Paul Steel - "Your Loss"

As you're probably aware (I go on and on about it with alarming regularity), I'm a CD kind of guy. As far as material objects go, I like those little shiny discs. ('Cos they have music on them.)

The latest CD to arrive in the post was Paul Steel's Moon Rock, and it's now my second copy of the album. The first was an English promo (apparently Moon Rock has never actually had an official release in the UK). The English promo had this cover:

Moon Rock did finally get an official release, but only in Japan. The Japanese version has bonus tracks and a hefty booklet as well as a much more colourful cover. (See the top of this post.) So I bought the Japanese one, too. And now I have two Moon Rocks at home.

I've just realised that I didn't need to mention any of that. All I needed to do was play you today's song, and maybe mention that it's from Moon Rock, an album I like very, very much:

Paul Steel - "Your Loss" (2008)

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Oh, and one of the bonus tracks on that Japanese import is this groovy remix of "Your Loss":

Paul Steel - "Your Loss (Shawn Lee's My Mate Remix)" (2008)

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Incidentally, if you have a spare 48 minutes you can hear all of Moon Rock streamed at Bandcamp – or here if you don't want to click on that link:



Paul Steel official website
Moon Rock streaming on Bandcamp
Paul Steel's blog
Paul Steel on Facebook
Paul Steel on MySpace

Song of the day: Athletes in Paris - "Echoes Louder Than Voices"

The non-Parisian* band Athletes In Paris (and I'm not entirely sure they're athletes either) have released a new song, and spokesperson "Mooch" ever-so-gently asked me to mention it on the blog.

Mooch said this about the new song:

"It's called 'Echoes Louder Than Voices' and is a bit rockier than the previous release from us but also still mega catchy in our humble opinion. The track will be out in all online music shops from the 19/03 [that's March 19 for people who live in the land of Americans] and is currently streaming from SoundCloud, however we will make it free from AthletesInParis.BandCamp.com upon release because we're too kind ha!"

Thanks for the generosity, chaps.

Athletes In Paris - "Echoes Louder Than Voices" (2012)



Athletes In Paris on Facebook
Athletes In Paris on Twitter
Athletes In Paris on MySpace
Athletes In Paris on Bandcamp
Athletes In Paris on SoundCloud
Athletes In Paris on YouTube
Athletes In Paris on ReverbNation

(*They're from Newcastle in England.)