A recent article on Popdose has prompted today's song. It was a concert review of Squeeze's recent appearance in New Jersey (they're currently roaming around the United States of Americans). The set list for that night was provided at the end of the post, and I noticed that among all the "I'd love to hear that Squeeze song played live" songs on that list, the following wasn't one of them:
I recently heard an obscure song from 1968 called "Fogbound" by a band called The Smoke over at the very enjoyable A Bit Like You And Me blog. (The specific post is here.) The song is typical of 1968 in that it's influenced by The Beatles (what wasn't in 1968?) – so much so that the song even quotes "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" as it fades out.
We'll get to that bit of Beatles-pilfering later, but first the coincidence:
I was debating with myself whether or not to play you today's song. When I first listened to it I thought "Hmm, this is a pretty ordinary song", but then the vocal harmonies in the chorus hit me and I thought "Wow, they're gorgeous".
So, courtesy of gorgeous vocal harmonies* here's New Zealand band Mother Goose:
I'm afraid that this is going to be convoluted. I must admit that I'm slightly reluctant to call what you're going to hear "coincidences", because for me the music in this post is more about influences than coincidences – but I can't really think of anywhere else I can put these on the blog.
OK, first things first (where first things usually are): This post was prompted by my coincidence-detective friend Michael (Hi, Michael!).
I asked Michael if he didn't mind me pinching a bit of his email text for this post, and he didn't. I'm extremely glad, because it'll make the post much more comprehendible. I also hope Michael doesn't mind me editing his text a little.
Here's Michael's (slightly modified) text, with my responses:
Michael: "I was reading your post on Run Run Run by Jo Jo Gunne [here], and the reference to Run Run Run by the Flying Circus on Stonefish's Music Blog [here]. It then occurred to me there's another Run, Run, Run released in the late 60s by a bunch of studio musos called The Third Rail. It was a type of protest song and it included Joey Levine who went on to sing with The Ohio Express. It performed moderately in the US. I then played it and noticed around the 15 sec mark that it sounded a hell of a lot like part of Life Is A Rock But The Radio Rolled Me (from the 10 sec mark) by Reunion from 1974 - also a bunch of studio muso’s, and the lead vocal? Yep, Joey Levine!"
Me: As Ned Flanders says: "Well, if that don't put the 'dink' in 'coinkidink'!"
Michael: "Wikipedia states that the latter part of this song is based on the tune Soothe Me by Sam & Dave."
Me: I've just listened to "Soothe Me" and I must admit I can't pick it. I don't know what they're on about.
Michael: "Then I discovered that part of the tune from Life Is A Rock (the 10 seconds onwards bit) was used for a promotion by McDonalds in the late 80s. Talk about milking it for all its worth!
Me: Yes sirree. And that McDonalds jingle is about as deliberate a rip-off as you'll ever hear. (Michael told me later that McDonalds had full permission to ransack the tune.)
Michael: "The McDonalds file attached is very scratchy."
Me: It sure is. But I've pestered it and it's now less scratchy than it was.
I haven't heard that song in years (decades even), and I hadn't even been thinking of Alice Cooper lately at all. The last time I actually heard some Alice Cooper was when I listened to the remastered edition of Welcome To My Nightmare about eight months ago. So why the "Ubangi Stomp"? It's not on Welcome To My Nightmare, it's on Lace And Whisky. Huh?
The more I think about it, the more I think the human brain is an incredible thing. Baffling, but incredible.
By the way, now that I've heard the song again after not hearing it for a couple of decades I must admit that I don't think it's a very good effort from Monsieur Coupiere.
My coincidence-spotting friend Michael (Hi, Michael!) is on a roll – he found another one. This time it involves Buddy Holly and a band I'd never heard of before (and neither had Michael until he stumbled upon them on Facebook the other day):
My coincidence-finding friend Michael (Hi, Michael!) supplied today's coincidence. I've known both those songs for years and years – why didn't I ever notice the similarity?*
Today's song comes from an album I like eeeeeenormously, Jason Falkner's All Quiet On The Noise Floor. (If I ever got around to making a Top 10 Power Pop Albums of the 2000s list, this album would probably be on it.)
Jason Falkner - "My Home Is Not A House" (2009) Link
Incidentally, I had a bit of trouble deciding which song from the album I wanted to play you. (Of the 11 songs on the album, I'd say about nine would have been eminently suitable.)
I ended up going with "My Home Is Not A House" mainly because of a line that Jason sings from 1:45 to 1:51 ("I've got a secret"). The way Jason sings that line reminds me of this:
Doris Day - "Secret Love" (1953) (excerpt)
Link
I didn't think the connection between the songs was strong enough to be considered a Musical coincidence (for me it's more an association), so I didn't make it one. I just wanted to mention it. Besides, there are plenty* of proper coincidences to go around.
Here's the full version of the wonderful "Secret Love":
Doris Day - "Secret Love" (1953)
Link(*An exchange that occurred between the eldest daughter and me last year when I was adding a Musical coincidence to the blog: Celeste: "Do you think you'll ever run out of coincidences?" Dad: "It's pop music. No.")
I'm extremely keen on playing you today's song ('cos I love it), but mentioning the band will be a bit tricky. Unfortunately, the band (or its record company) is probably the most alert and litigious of all the bands I've ever posted on this blog. (I've seen it happen on other blogs, too. Any hint of this band's music on a blog will receive a swift and sinister message from Blogger.)
But I'm still a huge fan of this particular band, despite their lawyer-happy proclivities – and I do want to play you this song.
I can't keep calling them "this particular band", so from now on I'll call them what one dictionary describes as "move with urgent haste".
That's the name of the band taken care of.
As for the song, it's just one word, and I can use the American term for it: "Trailer".
You might think that all of this palaver, skullduggery, and general underhanded-osity is silly and pointless – but I think this track is magnificent and I really really want you to hear it. (Really.)
A couple of weeks ago I enthused about a song by Scott Goes For, a fabulous new band from Japan. I had only heard two songs (courtesy of YouTube), but they both make me go "Yeah!" whenever I hear them. Both songs are on the band's self-titled debut album.
There is now a third video for another one of the songs on the album:
I was listening a "rock'n'roll" radio program the other day (i.e., "We play all the hits from the 50's, the 50's, and the 50's!") when a song called "Pistol Packin' Mama" came on. I'd never heard it before, but as soon as it started...
Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page has said that this song came to be written as a spontaneous jam session, whilst the band were trying (and failing) to finish the track "Four Sticks". Drummer John Bonham played the introduction to Little Richard's "Keep a Knockin'" and Page added a guitar riff. The tapes were rolling and fifteen minutes later the basis of the song was down.
Even knowing what I know now (I didn't know any of that stuff before), I reckon the start of "Rock And Roll" still sounds more like "Pistol Packin' Mama" than "Keep A-Knockin'".
Update: Commenter Frank (Hi, Frank!) said this:
You can add one more to the list - Eddie Cochran's "Somethin' Else"
After the last few days involving a flurry of tracks requested by others, I've now officially run out of "Hey, can you play our song?" songs. It's time to choose a song for today.
Hmm. I'll have a look in the music collection and see what might be suitable. Hang on...
OK. Found something.
Here are the Kings of Seventies Australian Glam, Sherbet, with a possibly pointless – but vocally impressive (because it's live) – version of "Nowhere Man":
And another coincidence submitted by my estimable friend, Gary (Hi, Gary!).
This coincidence involves Three Dog Night's "Never Been To Spain" and Diesel's "One More Time". Gary reckons that "you can almost sing 'Never Been To Spain' over 'One More Time'".
After hearing both tracks, I'm inclined to agree.
Although Diesel doesn't actually pinch any specific tunes from "Never Been To Spain" for "One More Time", his song certainly has a very strong "Never Been To Spain" vibe courtesy of his chord choices.
However, Mr. Diesel does get perilously close to outright thievery at the start of his guitar solo:
Here's another song-I-didn't-need-to-choose-because-someone-asked-me-to-promote-an-artist post. (I tell ya, these posts are starting to write themselves.)
The email I received for today's artist is one of the oddest ones I've received so far. I'll itemise the oddities.
The email's sender:Eddie (No other name given.)
The email's subject header:Teen Vogue's "favorite new singer/songwriter"
The email's contents:Hi Peter. Thought you might want to know about 16 year old singer/songwriter Jack Skuller.
Four things in that email struck me as distinctly bizarre:
First of all, I don't know of anyone called "Eddie". Unfortunately for me, "Eddie" didn't elaborate on who he or she is.
Secondly, the email was touting a musician who is "Teen Vogue's favorite new singer/songwriter." To me, that's a pretty bizarre thing to mention to an Australian power pop blogger. It also leads me to the next point.
Thirdly, "Teen Vogue". Teen Vogue? ... [pause for bafflement] ... Now, because I'm a curious fellow I just had to find out if something called "Teen Vogue" was what I thought it was (i.e., a Vogue magazine for teenagers). I discovered that it was exactly what I thought it was: a Vogue magazine for teenagers.
Fourth, the email mentioned that the artist in question, Jack Suller, is 16 years old. Considering Jack's age, for a moment I thought that the person who sent the email was asking if I'd be interested in adopting him.
For me, that all adds up to one weird email.
"Eddie" did, however, include this link:
I played it, and once I'd heard the snippets of the two songs in the background, I thought "That's not too bad. I don't mind putting that on the blog at all."
I found out that Jack has a Soundcloud page which has four of Jack's songs. Of the four, this was my favourite:
Oh, by the way: because I'm a complete Beatles nut I must tell you that one of the songs on Jack's Soundcloud page is a cover of "In Spite Of All The Danger". Yes indeedy:
And the requests continue. (Which is fine by me, because it saves me having to think of a song to play you.)
Today's song has moderately special significance for me because it's the first solicitation – as in, "Hey, Peter – could you play our song on yer blog?" – I've received via Twitter. (It's also the only time someone's asked me via Twitter to play something.)
Although I'm not especially keen on the song (didn't love it, didn't hate it – it didn't do much for me either way), it does have two things going for it:
I'm glad I played it to you, and not just because it's my favourite version of the song. I'm glad because a chap by the name of Brian (Hi, Brian!) left a comment saying that he's about to release an album of a 1969 Max Merritt & The Meteors concert that was taped by two teenagers (one of them was Brian) then lost, forgotten about, remembered, found, digitised, mastered, and made ready for release.
The album, Been Away Too Long, is being released on 30 April. (Or April 30 if you're from the United States of Americans. But regardless of where you live – and how you display dates – the album will be available everywhere from the 30th day in April.)
Thanks to Brian (and Bandcamp), you can hear it here:
I like how raucous it is.
By the way, the LosTraxx Records website will give you more than everything you'll ever need to know about the album and the grand adventure of how it eventually came to be.
Thanks, Brian!
Update: The Thing I Completely Forgot About
Brian just informed me that the album will be available from April 30.
Why didn't I mention that in the post? [Insert emoticon of man slapping forehead here.]
Update II: You Can Ignore The First Update
I've just discovered that I did mention the album's release date. (It's in the third paragraph.) And it goes to show how much attention I pay to my own posts.
The lovely Talia Miller (Hi, Talia!) from punk PR* company PRawr occasionally sends me emails about various punk bands the company promotes. I tend not to play them to you because the bands I've heard are resolutely punk, which means they're resolutely non-melodic.
However, one band Talia foisted upon me introduced me to is a three-piece from Seattle called Big Eyes (which I had unfortunately originally typed as "Bug Eyes" – sorry about that, band). They have an EP out called Back From The Moon. It's here that I would like to make an official complaint: The so-called "EP" contains two tracks. Two. Not four, or five, but two. As far as I'm concerned, two tracks do not make an EP.
Anyway, the EP's title track is the one I heard – and I liked it. Here 'tis:
