Shoes and Socks Off - Miles of Mad Water

I want to like this record more than I actually do. That probably comes across as a much more negative sentence than I was aiming for, but it does sum the album up quite neatly. The songs are pretty nice, but they fail to grab me the way I was hoping they would after seeing him live. Sometimes I find one of the songs in my head a few days after listening to it, which always strikes me as odd because I can't remember it being so memorable at the time.

I saw Shoes and Sock Off on one of his last-ever shows, which Banquet ended up merging with a Front Bottoms show they were putting on. I'd heard the name before and figured I might pop along, but in the end was definitely there for The Front Bottoms. The back end of the crowd were chatting pretty loud during Shoes and Socks Off, which is a shame because the front half really wanted to hear him. Knowing it would be my only chance, I was in the front half but slightly disgruntled by the back half (although I think this is a trend when the musician is sat down - it's harder to see what's going on, and the music doesn't project over the crowd so well). His songs were nice and the acoustic guitar seemed nicely raw in places. Afterwards he was selling off his albums for whatever people wanted to play, so I gave him all the change in my pocket (£6.60 in this case, a reasonable but not astounding amount).

The album however, is a very different affair to the live show. The songs sound so much like Radiohead it's almost impossible to not make the comparison. The whole way through, I'm just reminded of slow Radiohead songs from Kid A onwards (Tork Sport sounds like it's straight off Hail to the Thief). The only times I'm not reminded of Radiohead, I'm reminded of Martin Grech, who some of you may remember. But these aren't necessarily bad things, however I really wanted those edgy acoustic songs I heard live instead. The acoustic guitar is there, but it's under a sea of electronic instruments.

This comes across as a really negative write-up, but I do quite like the album and he was really incredible to watch. In fact I really hope that it's just that I've not given it enough time yet, and maybe in five or ten years I'll find that I actually love this record (this has happened in the past, so it might happen again). However, as of today, it's just a record I quite like but wish I liked more.

Format: 12", picture sleeve
Tracks: 10
Cost: £6.60 new
Bought: gig
When: 18/09/12
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Adem - Takes

The first time I heard of Adem was when I found my (very lovely) copy of Explosions in the Sky's All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone on my first ever trip to Spillers in Cardiff - he was one of the artists who remixed a song for the bonus disk. However, for the year and a half that followed, he remained just that because I never got round to checking out his own material. In 2008 I was living in Cardiff and was buying an LP every Tuesday from Spillers. One of those Tuesdays I stumbled across this record of Adem covering 12 songs from 90's. It seemed like a nice idea and I figured his music must be at least half decent to have ended up remixing EITS. On top of that, one of the covers was Starla by The Smashing Pumpkins and I decided that would be nice to hear, regardless of what sort of music he played.

So it turns out that Adam plays a very relaxed, soft indie-folk style, which works nicely. Despite not knowing most of the originals, the albums works well (or maybe that's because I don't know most of the originals) and they all work as acoustic-y folk songs. Even Aphex Twin, which you'd have thought would be a stretch, is pretty lovely. So much so, I'm pretty sure it ended up being used on a advert for nappies. The highlight of the album for me is the cover of dEUS's Hotellounge. The first few times I heard it I thought it was nice enough, but a few months later I'd listened to it just before going out, and the whole afternoon I had it in my head. I kept thinking what a great song it was and put it on as soon as I got back home. I eventually checked out the original, which I don't prefer (I even bought a dEUS album which turned out to be quite shit indeed). Also worthy of noting are Lisa Germano's Slide, the Pumpkins' Starla and The Breeders' Invisible Man. Incidentally, I've since picked up albums by Pinback and become a big fan of Low, although not directly through hearing them here.

I ended up buying both of Adem's other album and they're also pretty nice, but a little more rambling in places than any of the songs here. I also accidentally ended up seeing him play live just before I left Cardiff, which was a very pleasant surprise. Early on a Sunday morning I had a call from a friend saying he had a spare guest-list place for this all-day folk festival in Porthcawl. I think it had sold poorly, so they were pretty much giving tickets away to make the place a bit fuller. He had a friend driving down and the ticket was mine if I could get to his within the hour. I had nothing else planned, so figured it would be good. We ended up watching Adem, Aidan Moffat and Magnolia Electric Co., amongst others, and generally had a nice day by the sea. The venue was impressive and seeing Adem and Magnolia Electric Co. were really great treats (more on Magnolia Electric Co. another time, but I'm so pleased I got to see them before Jason Molina passed away). To add to my day of unexpected treats, Adem played Hotellounge which put a smile on my face.

I have no idea what Adem has been up to of late (he's also half of Fridge with Four Tet, but I've not heard much about them for a while either). I like knowing that I probably would have discovered Adem at that folk festival even if I hadn't ended up buying Takes that Tuesday in Cardiff, but you never know how these things will turn out. I'm very glad I chanced my £10 on an album just because it included a Pumpkins' cover.

Format: 12", gatefold sleeve
Tracks: 12
Cost: £10 new
Bought: Spillers Records, Cardiff
When: 17/09/08
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Manic Street Preachers - Generation Terrorists - 20th Anniversary Boxset

Just over a year ago, I received an email from the Manics' webstore wishing me a happy birthday (I assume I filled out a form some time ago with my date of birth, and there's not some deeper level of web stalking going on). Anyway, that email entitled to 10% off anything in the store. I hadn't had a look in a while so figured I'd see if there was anything I fancied and, to my surprise, there was a 20th anniversary reissue of Generation Terrorists coming out in various formats. I had no idea about this beforehand, so it was all very well-timed. Best of all, the limited edition boxset hadn't sold out yet (it would shortly after I bought it) and the £4.50 off made it a perfectly reasonable £40.50.

As boxset/reissues go, this one is pretty lovely. Most pleasingly, there's a 10" of Radio One sessions included (meaning I get to write about it on here). Reissue boxsets tend to totally neglect vinyl with the cd version being the one with all the extra music, so I was very excited with this. On top of that, there's a cd featuring demos of all the album songs (something the Manics have been favouring on the deluxe versions of their recent albums) although no demo of Damn Dog was to be found, and Condemned to Rock 'n' Roll is missing. Even more interesting is cd3 collecting the b-sides and a bunch of early songs that I'm pretty sure have never heard the light of day before (more on them to come). There's also a dvd of old footage and new interviews, a 28 page book, a photograph and replica tour pass (which I didn't really need, but some people might enjoy that). Someone dropped the ball on the measurements because the inside of the box is marginally too small causing the photo and book to a bit curled up, but no damage and no harm. I'm still very happy with it all.

I've written about Generation Terrorists before (see here), so not much needs be said about cd1. For some reason they tacked on Theme from M.A.S.H. (Suicide is Painless) to the end of the album, when Motown Junk would have been the more obvious choice (I also have a copy of the Japanese cd which has A Vision of Dead Desire as track 19). I guess it was also a single from the era, so why not. The demos on disc 2 are much more exciting; the extra lyrics "We love you" at the start of Love's Sweet Exile follow on brilliantly from the end of the Heavenly Records version of You Love Us and it's fascinating hearing early versions of Little Baby Nothing (nearly acoustic) and Methadone Pretty. Also included are demos of the three early singles Suicide Alley, New Art Riot (more on both of those another time) and Motown Junk.

I barely even know where to start with disc 3, because there are so many treats crammed in. It starts with a demo of Motorcycle Emptiness that sounds so far from the original that you'd barely recognise it - the riff is there, and towards the end it turns into the song we all know and love but in the meantime we are treated to a strange chorus of "Go buzz baby" (or something to that extent). The title-track Generation Terrorists is what Stay Beautiful was originally called (along with the unedited chorus) and Faceless Sense of Void later became Love's Sweet Exile. More interestingly, the song UK Channel Boredom became A Vision of Dead Desire, one of the b-sides from that era. I think there are two holy grails for any Manics collector and they're those two early 7"s: Suicide Alley and UK Channel Boredom. I've heard about these records for countless years, but had no idea that the latter was a song I already knew. The main difference comes in the chorus (although both mainly consist of the title of the song). Colt 45 went on to become Spectators of Suicide but starts off further removed than some of the other songs here.

There are three songs that appear nowhere else in any form on disc 3: Poleaxed, Spent All Summer and Behave Yourself Baby. They're great to hear and pretty good songs too. I once read something that claimed Australia was the Manics' first love song, but Spent All Summer takes that place now surely. Behave Yourself Baby even contains some lyrics that would find their way into Motorcycle Emptiness. The way that all these songs contain elements of each other and show how the songs became what they ended up being is truly fascinating, especially when they're songs I've been listening to for nearly half my life. The b-sides aren't comprehensive, but I have the majority of them in some format somewhere (more on these another time too). I always thought I had a copy of all the early b-sides on at least one format, but it turns out that Starlover had passed me by - it was one of the b-sides on the 12" Heavenly version of You Love Us and I hadn't noticed that I was missing it. Made for a very pleasant surprise when working through the b-sides. Bored Out of My Mind always deserves a special mention, for reasons you can read about (at length) here. I watched the dvd once last Christmas, which also made for interesting viewing.

Finally, on to the vinyl! On the 10" record we're treated a 1992 Radio One session featuring You Love Us, Alice Cooper cover Under My Wheels, Slash 'n' Burn and Natwest-Barclays-Midlands-Lloyds. They make for good listening and sound excellent (especially after some of the dubious renditions on discs 2 and 3). I can't imagine the Manics covering Alice Cooper these days, but I'd love to see it!

All in all, I'm very pleased indeed with this boxset. Musically and historically there's so much in there and there's no denying that those first few years were some of the most fascinating the Manics have had. I still love them now, but those first three albums were so exciting and I have so much time for that era. I heard James pass comment about the possibility of a 20th anniversary boxset of The Holy Bible in the future (despite it already having a 10th anniversary version) which would be very cool, but does make me wonder if I'm the only person holding out for an equally impressive Gold Against the Soul reissue too?

Format: 10", 3cd, dvd, 28 page booklet, photograph, tour pass, boxset
Tracks: 66
Cost: £40.50 new
Bought: Website
When: 03/11/12
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Dirty Projectors - Swing Lo Magellan

I started listening to Dirty Projectors in a very round-about way. I was reading about something on Wikipedia and ended up drifting through endless pages, clicking on links I thought might be interesting. Somehow I ended up reading about the Dirty Projectors album Rise Above, in which Dave Longstreth recorded a bunch of covers of songs from Black Flag's Damaged. He claimed that Damaged was one of his favourite records as a teen and recorded the album entirely from memory despite not having listened to Damaged for 15 years (I doubt I've gone more than six months at a time without hearing someone cover Black Flag at some point, but maybe Dave moves in different circles to me!). Either way, I was quite intrigued by the project, and thought it would be worth checking out. A short while later, I was on holiday in America and bought the cd of Rise Above in Albums on the Hill in Boulder (along with a copy of Young Machetes by The Blood Brothers - the guy at the counter commented that the two albums made for an odd pairing).

Anyway, I enjoyed Rise Above and figured I should check Dirty Projectors out further. A year later my friend Aled and I saw the band play the upstairs room of Clwb Ifor Bach in Cardiff; it wasn't anywhere near sold out and they didn't even headline (I think they a long journey to the next venue so wanted to leave early) but they were excellent. I'd not heard any other songs of theirs but in that set there were some incredible tunes. They finished on a medley of Black Flag covers and I was pretty pleased with my accidental discovery. I bought another album (The Glad Fact, not my favourite) and then their new album at the time, Bitte Orca, when it came out a few months later. When I played the album, I was amazed; even though I'd only heard one proper album, it felt like this band had been on verge of getting everything right and on Bitte Orca it finally struck and they'd made an incredible record. All the best songs they'd played live were there and it was great to hear them again. I was pleased both for them as a band, but also for me as a listener. It seemed the internet agreed because their name started to appear everywhere.

I was so excited when the first song of Swing Lo Magellan appeared on the internet because I had that exact same feeling again. Gun Has No Trigger blew me away; it sounded like all of the bands best moments squeezed into a song that almost sounds like it belongs on the opening credits of a Bond movie. It was great to hear them write a song so brilliant. I picked up the album on cd after it came out and it's excellent too. Gun Has No Trigger is hands-down the highlight, but the opener, Offspring Are Blank, is another of their best. The whole album works well, but I'd be torn if you told be I had to choose a favourite between Bitte Orca and Swing Lo Magellan. It even made it to #7 in my top-ten albums of 2012.

This summer I went to the Independent Label Market in London and splashed out on a whole load of records (I'd just finally got a job after finishing my PhD and was keen to make up for lost record-buying time). I think the Domino records stall did the best out of me (although the Secretly Canadian stall also took a lot of my cash) as I picked up this copy of Swing Lo Magellan along with two Bonnie 'Prince' Billy LPs. I decided that it was enough of a classic to require a vinyl copy as well as the cd, and the fact that it was a limited run of 3000 copies probably also helped (mine is #2469). It's a pretty lovely package: the sleeve is embossed and included is lyric sheet with all the lyrics embossed (kinda like braille, but words). You can just about see it in the pictures below.

I've been thoroughly recommending Dirty Projectors to everyone since the last two records came out. When I saw them, I knew Aled would be into but had my doubts anyone else would. Even Hugh has a copy of Bitte Orca now, and they sold out The Roundhouse last time they played London. It's nice to see them doing well.

Format: 12", gatefold sleeve, 11"x22" lyric sheet, insert, numbered
Tracks: 12
Cost: £20 new
Bought: Independent Label Market, London
When: 13/07/13
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: Download card