Rage Against the Machine - The People of the Sun

I remember seeing this 10" a bunch of times in the shop I bought it from before eventually deciding to get it. Over the years I'd been going in there sometimes they'd have a copy and other times they wouldn't. On all the times it was there before May 2003 they also had a bunch of other records I wanted to buy instead, so it never made it into my purchases. But as the years went by, the amount of money I was spending on records increased, so it was no surprise that I did finally pick it up. I also bought Siamese Dream and Pretty Hate Machine on vinyl that day, so it was a strong day for a very particular part of my record collection.

The record itself is a strange one - I never quite got the bottom of why it was released on Revelation Records, a label I wouldn't have thought would have normally had much to do with band like Rage. They'd been on a major label from the start and Epic released the cd and 7" versions of single. At the time I thought it was odd that it was on a record label that I wasn't that familiar with (of course, I eventually got to know Revelation Records well), and that a single would be so readily available so many years after it was released. I think in a lot of ways I stopped caring about the answers to these questions - they don't keep me awake at night.

It's a nice little record for a number of reasons - you've got some live songs, a collaboration/cover with Chuck D from Public Enemy and some non-album songs. The three album tracks are all from Evil Empire, which in 2019 has become the Rage album I play the most often - I think its underdog status back in the day helps, partly because I didn't over do it back in the early 2000's; I know the self-titled album like the back of my hand, and whilst The Battle of Los Angeles had some huge songs, they weren't the lasting classics I thought they'd be. People of the Sun and Bulls on Parade are the studio versions and both great singles. Without a Face is a huge late-album gem and the outro never fails to put a smile on my face. The live recording is a great reminder of how incredible they were to watch.

The other songs are fascinating - with Chuck D they cover Public Enemy's Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos and segue pretty much seemlessly into Zapata's Blood, a great song that often appears live, but never in the studio (at least, in my limited research). Hadda Be Playing on the Jukebox is a funny one - an Allen Ginsburg poem set to music, recorded live in Detroit in 1993. At 8-minutes, the duration is actually one of the most interesting things about it - when forced to stretch themselves over more than 5-minutes (due to the length of the poem) the band almost lean into post-rock. The relationship between Zach's vocals and the three instruments is perfect - when Zach gets louder, the music is there rising up and teasing him on; and when he does get loud, he shouts in a way you never hear elsewhere. But he's not necessarily leading everything - Tom's guitars show hints of the peaks to come from early on, as do Brad's drums. Like I said, almost post-rock in the way it holds back but gives hints of whats to come throughout. I like it. Makes you wonder what could have happened if they'd played more music like this - I don't imagine it would have been anywhere near as popular, but it would have made for very interesting listening. Worth the entry fee for that song alone.

Format: 10", insert
Tracks: 5
Cost: £9 new
Bought: FM Music, Southampton
When: 03/05/03
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: none

Jack Johnson - On and On

For a thankfully-short while, Jack Johnson was very cool. I came back from university for the summer after the first year and all my friends had started listening to him - I don't know how they came across him, but I strongly suspect he had some songs on a surf video that a friend had. That summer, we listened to him a lot - I mean pretty much every car journey, and every time we sat around at someone's house. It was strong summer music.

At the end of the summer, I found this copy of his second album in a shop in Southampton and snapped it up. Of the two we'd been listening to, I preferred On and On - both had some great songs, but there were a few less-poppy ones on this album, and I felt that gave it an edge over the other. I eventually got a copy of his other album at the time, Brushfire Fairytales and picked up his newest, In Between Dreams, not long after it came out, at the end of the second year of university (using an HMV voucher I'd got for taking part in a survey, strangely). Essentially, there was a year when Jack Johnson was a big deal, but my next year in Australia taught me more about this sort of laid back indie-pop and the moment passed.

In the years since then, I've rarely listened to Jack Johnson; like all good summer memories, it was best left as a memory. Occasionally, my wife has suggested playing his albums, and they're pleasant reminders, but not what I'd consider "good" music. All three albums have some good songs, but I can't help but imagine I would find Jack incredibly annoying if I met him in person. I've met people who I imagine would get along with him brilliantly, and they all pissed me off.

But, like I said, On and On isn't a terrible album - the moments that aren't pop are good and make you think he could have had a different but interesting career had he avoided pop a little harder. Taylor and Cookie Jar have something a little dark about them. I like it. When I say "dark", I mean relatively - this is a surfer-dude singing songs on a beach, it's never going to get that dark. There are a few little, short, throwaway songs that I could do without - 16 songs is too many by a long stretch. Taylor, Holes to Heaven and Cocoon were always the highlights.

All that said, when I see this spine in my record collection I never feel the urge to play it, but it reminds me fondly of that summer in 2004, and I like it for that.

Format: 12", gatefold sleeve
Tracks: 16
Cost: £11 new
Bought: FM Music
When: 23/09/04
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no

System of a Down - Toxicity

A year and a half after the album came out, I found this 7" single of Toxicity at a record fair in Southampton for £3. It seemed rude not to buy it, and I was certainly drawn in by the promise of an "extremely rare" b-side.

Toxicity itself is a strong song, and clearly one of the best songs on the album other than Chop Suey!. Storaged is not as exciting as I'd hoped for, but I knew nothing of the context until just now - it appeared on a demo cassette for the first album, but had never seen the light of day otherwise. It's short, and I can see it working well live.

Again, the sleeve is pretty minimal - also featuring stills from the video on the reverse.

Format: 12", numbered #5604
Tracks: 2
Cost: £3 second hand
Bought: Record Fair, Southampton
When: 25/01/03
Colour: Red
Etching: none
mp3s: no

System of a Down - Chop Suey!

When System of a Down released Chop Suey! I, for some reason, bought all the versions of the single - the two and cds and, a day later, the 7". I don't know if I was planning on building up a complete SOAD collection or not, or maybe it was just because it was just after my birthday and I was feeling relatively flush. The cds had some live tracks as b-sides, along with the new song here, Johnny.

Chop Suey! was, without doubt, System's breakout hit. It took them to levels of fame so many steps above where they were, and where they would have been had the second album not featured it. It's still quite fun, despite having heard it played to death in rock clubs over the years. It did everything you wanted the band to do in one song, was sufficiently weird, and has a few "movements". In a lot of ways, it was their Bohemian Rhapsody. The b-side is nice enough, and has a strong chorus.

The cds were minimal in their artwork - featuring a clear case and the cd only printed as far as there was music, leaving a clear band of plastic for most of its 5"s. Fittingly, the 7" is on clear vinyl, and numbered. The reverse just shows images from the video for the song, which is an unusual route to take - a type of promotion I'd not seen before.

Format: 7", numbered #2161
Tracks: 2
Cost: £1.50 new
Bought: FM Music, Southampton
When: 24/10/01
Colour: Clear
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Incubus - Are You In?

This is one of the worst purchases I've ever made. The worst part of it was that I wasn't even planning to buy it, but I was too British not to. I was at a record fair and pulled it out of the box to have a look at - it was 2003, so I was still kinda into the band - and before I really had time to think about it, the guy manning the stall said "that'll be £5 please"; I panicked and handed over the money, buying a record that had I a few seconds to really think about, I would have known was going to be junk, and definitely not worth a whole £5. Such a stupid mistake.

There are three versions of the same song here - the song being Are You In? a fairly unexciting song from towards the end of their unexciting third album, Morning View (I had the album, so knew the single was far from good - makes the purchase even worse). The original and "new mix" sound identical, except that the mix is shorter. Not sure what got cut, never cared enough to work it out. The final version is a Paul Oakenfold remix - he was famous for remixing stuff around the time, if I remember correctly. As far as I can tell, he's just made the snare drum louder. I'm sure he got paid handsomely for essentially just leaning on one fader on the panel.

I've never been one for remixes of rock songs, which really makes this purchase even more frustrating. Nothing of interest here at all, but perhaps a lesson learnt?

Format: 12", die-cut sleeve, promo
Tracks: 3
Cost: £5 second hand
Bought: Record Fair, Southampton
When: 25/01/03
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Incubus - Drive

There was a while when Incubus were a Very Big Band. They were from what I'm calling the "second wave of nu-metal", but in their case the record label execs went full boy-band rather than over-the-top post-Slipknot nu-metal. If you heard Drive without hearing the rest of the album Make Yourself, you'd never know they were from the same scene as Deftones, etc. Drive was the real turning point away from S.C.I.E.N.C.E and the heavier songs on Make Yourself, and marked the beginning of the chilled Incubus who would go on to make increasingly unlistenable albums (or maybe the fact I found the subsequent two albums so hard to listen to was because I'd got older instead of/as well as them getting shittier).

The a-side here is a live "orchestral" version of Drive, the song that made them famous outside of the circles of people who read Kerrang! who thought A Certain Shade of Green was good (as an aside, I suspect A Certain Shade of Green might still be enjoyable now; it was a huge song). If anything, I think the song sounds worse for the additional strings, but maybe it's because I wanted them to be strange nu-metal band, not a boy band.

On the b-side we're treated to two live songs - Favourite Things from the first album and Pardon Me, one of the highlights from the second (at least, that's what it was in my memory - it's much smoother and more over-produced than I had thought, but the chorus is still huge, even if the guitars are far too quiet in this recording). At the time, I remember being excited to hear the live versions, but in reality they don't add much. Much like many of my old 7" records, I paid £3 for this at a record fair in Southampton.

Format: 7"

Tracks: 3

Cost: £3 second hand

Bought: Record Fair, Southampton

When: 27/10/01

Colour: Black

Etching: none

mp3s: no

Disturbed - The Sickness

Jesus Christ, there's really no excusing this one. Yes, I own an album by Disturbed. Yes, it is a hideous picture disc of their debut album. No, I've not played it in a very, very long time. There are some lows in my record collection, but this is truly the bottom.

When I bought it I thought to myself "do I really want to own this album?" and I was on the fence even back then. However, I fell for the usual tricks - numbered release and a picture disc. I've mostly learnt not to be suckered for such things, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't occasionally make bad calls based on similar features. I don't always do the smart thing.

As far as I was concerned, there was the first wave of nu-metal, featuring bands like Deftones and Korn; then, in the very late 1990's the second wave appeared and were very different to the first: Slipknot were a prime example - gimmick first, music second; Disturbed were one of the less enjoyable bands from that second wave. Basically, the record labels realised there was money in this genre, and the bands that came in the second wave were much more twisted in the hope of selling more records to foolish teenagers, and I think it worked. Who am I kidding? It definitely worked - I was a teenager and I bought in to the extent I thought it'd be good to have a copy of The Sickness on vinyl.

Disturbed had seen a lot of success on MTV with the song Down With the Sickness, which was basically the reason why anyone listened to them. Actually, hearing it now, I remember Stupify being on a free cd from either Metal Hammer or Rock Sound; this is taking me right back. I've not thought about that song in a very long time, but I remember enjoying it on that free cd. So maybe I'm mistaken, maybe it was the combination of the two songs that meant I knew who they were. It's hard to recall the exact order of things, partly because it was a long a time ago, but partly because it really isn't that important. Down With the Sickness is hilariously bad now - I forgot so much of this song - that weird noise the singer makes before the chorus and the fucking ridiculous rant he goes on in the break. Surely that was cut from the single edit? I barely remember it, but maybe I've just blanked it out.

Obviously, this record has not aged well. The singer's voice is really quite annoying (he had those stupid lip piercings - it's all coming back) - four songs in and I'm reaching my tolerance levels for it. Musically, they remind more of Spineshank (another second-wave nu-metal band) than they ever did - maybe my ear to discern differences between nu-metals has faded over time. That is not a loss. There is nothing memorable or enjoyable on the second side, which is quite an effort. There's even a Tears For Fears cover, inexplicably.

Luckily, I've never had mp3s of this album, as this picture disc was long before the notion of mp3s download codes. I didn't take it to university with me (imagine if someone saw it!?), so it basically stood no chance after I was 18. I very much doubt I would have played it much in the years between either way - I wasn't impressed by it when I got it home and played it, but did kinda like the fact I had it on a numbered picture disc; like I said, I can be pretty dumb. Being a picture disc, it sounds like shit. That is made worse by the fact the plastic sleeve is incredibly tight, so on the few occasions I played it, my fat fingers made a bit of a mess of the grooves on the b-side. The start of that side is incredibly muffled (that said, that can't all be me - maybe it’s just poorly pressed).

I've been embarrassed to own this record for the vast majority of the time I've owned. At least with other embarrassing albums they mostly had a time when I was a fan to reflect nostalgically on, but that isn't the case here. Luckily, it's a picture disc, so nobody browsing the spines of my record boxes would ever know it was there, which is comforting to know; out of sight, out of mind.

Format: 12", picture disc, numbered

Tracks: 12

Cost: £10 new

Bought: Record Fair, Southampton

When: 26/01/02

Colour: Picture disc

Etching: none

mp3s: no

Soulfly - Primitive

This was amongst the first ten or so records I bought - my record collection was a strange mix back then. It eventually made a solid turn into "more good music than early-2000's nu-metal", but it did take a little while to get there. It was a strange time really, not very much was getting pressed onto vinyl, so it was hard to find anything, let alone things that were genuinely good. I remember the Tower Records in Southampton stocking Deftones' White Pony (which I bought), Rival Schools' United By Fate and A Perfect Circle's Mer De Noms on vinyl over the time that shop was open - I didn't get the latter two because they'd both taken some nasty damage somehow, although I regret not buying both nonetheless. They also had this Soulfly picture disc, which I bought knowing it wasn't going to be great, but it was 2001 and I was excited to hear it.

Soulfly were known for being the band that Max Cavalera formed after he left Sepultura. Their debut album quickly became one that everyone wanted to hear, because it featured so many singers from other bands we were all into - Deftones, Fear Factory and, most strangely, Benji from Dub War and Skindred. On top of that, Deftones had the song MX on Around the Fur where Max screams "Soulfly" over and over again - it felt like a solid endorsement. I bought a copy of their debut with a bunch of bonus tracks (which introduced me to crust punks Discharge) and a few months later bought this picture disc of their second album.

My main memories of this album are both within the first four songs - Pain with Grady from Will Haven and Chino, and Jumpdafuckup with Corey Taylor from Slipknot. I was never a huge fan of Will Haven, mainly because of Grady's singing style (although I wonder if I should give them another try now I'm older), but his vocals are a welcome addition to Pain. Jumpdafuckup was, of course, huge news back in 2001 - Slipknot and Soulfly together on one song? That was a nu-metal dream. We saw Soulfly at Ozzfest in 2001 and I bought a t-shirt with the chorus of Jumpdafuckup on the back. Yes, that meant I walked around with the words "Motherfucker you don't understand all my hate / Motherfucker you don't understand all my rage / Motherfucker you don't understand all my pain / Motherfucker you don't understand" in large font on the back; I can't emphasise this enough - it was 2001 and I was 16, it was acceptable at the time (even if it makes me cringe a little to think about now). Seeing them play that song at Ozzfest was quite exciting, I recall.

I also remember Son Song and thinking it was shit back then - it features John Lennon's son on vocals and really has little going for it. Terrorist with Tom Araya from Slayer was one I'd forgotten about. I remember another t-shirt they had back then said "Terror rise" on it, which I’m glad I didn't buy - just a few months later was 9/11 and the notion of terror was not something to take lightly. I was never a huge Slayer fan, but Tom's vocals are excellent here. Between Grady and Tom, I wonder if I was just keen to hear any voice that wasn't Max's (unless it was Sean Lennon's, it seems - in that case Max was a fucking relief).

I guess it shouldn't be a surprise, given the first album, but it's interesting that almost all the most notable songs are the ones featuring guest singers. The opening track Back to the Primitive is the only song without guests that remotely stands out. I don't know whether that's because they relied on the other musicians heavily, or because they wanted them on the best songs they could write. I don't care enough either way to think about it much more than that. It wasn't an observation I made back in 2001, but I was just excited to hear the output.

Format: 12", picture disc
Tracks: 12
Cost: £13 new
Bought: Tower Records, Southampton
When: 07/09/01
Colour: Picture disc
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Amen - The Waiting 18

About six months after finding the Too Hard To Be Free 7" at a record fair, I picked up this picture disc at the same record fair. I'd bought a lot of records that day and was heading home, but browsed through one last stall on the way out. The guy had this 7" for £4 I think, but I had only £2.90 left on me, so I asked him if he'd take that much for it and he begrudgingly accepted. The cheapest one on Discogs is £3, so I reckon I'd got the price right.

The Waiting 18 was the first single from Amen's second album, and far better than Too Hard to Be Free (but not good, don't get me wrong). I remember really digging the chorus at the time - it is a pretty huge chorus - there's something very Alice Cooper about it. The b-side is a scrappy live recording of Justified, another song from their second album. It was recorded in Oxford, which is now where I live (I certainly never thought at 16 that one I'd be sat here listening to this record in Oxford at 32). The whole thing is on a shamelessly gratuitous picture disc of a naked woman within a crucifix, so comes in a black sleeve. The Sex Pistols-style font is more annoying than anything else.

Format: 7", picture disc
Tracks: 2
Cost: £2.90 second hand
Bought: Record Fair, Southampton
When: 29/07/01
Colour: Picture disc
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Amen - Too Hard to Be Free

Amen were another one of those bands that came at a very dangerous time. Any earlier and I'd have had no interest in their style of music, and any later and I'd have seen through it for the gimmicky stuff it was. But instead they struck at the exact right moment. Bastards.

I was still at school when their second album came out, but already I was keen to explore things outside of nu-metal. However, I wasn't in a position to move that far away it seems, as Amen were basically the punk equivalent of nu-metal. It didn't help that I got all of my musical knowledge from Kerrang! magazine, who were big fans of Amen.

It's not all bad, mind you; Kerrang! had the singer of Amen put together a compilation of songs that made it onto a free cd with the magazine. He squeezed a lot on - I think that cd had nearly 30 songs and was my introduction to Refused, Turbonegro, Poison the Well, The Birthday Party and The Distillers (I should dig that cd and listen to it again - I wonder what stuff went over my head then that I might actually enjoy now). I like to think I'd have got into all those bands eventually - they mostly would have been hard to avoid - but it remains my introduction, so I'm pleased of that, and I guess thankful.

So whilst Casey Chaos may have introduced me to some cool music, the years have not been kind to the music he was making. Too Hard to be Free (misspelt as "Too hard too be free" on the reverse of the sleeve - I mean, come on) lacks anything particularly interesting in 2017, 16 years after it was released. The chorus has a bit of something to it, but the rest is pretty flat. I remember thinking they had better songs than that one at the time.

The b-side is a live studio recording of Europe for BBC Radio 1 Rock Show session (which I think I recorded at the time and still have on a minidisc somewhere - such was the time). It's a Killing Joke cover (I now know), but you wouldn't know from looking at the sleeve. I remember thinking it was a highlight of that session. It's the better song of the two now for sure.

Format: 7"
Tracks: 2
Cost: £1.50 second hand
Bought: Record Fair, Southampton
When: 01/06/01
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Marilyn Manson - The Fight Song

This record, sadly, has the accolade of being the first 12" record I owned. I'd started my vinyl addiction with the very reputable Motorcycle Emptiness 7" single (a record which was truly a turning point in my life), but then I ruined it all by buying a Marilyn Manson 12" picture disc. It was 2001; what else can I say.

My sister got me into Marilyn Manson. She introduced me to three bands - Deftones, Silverchair and Marilyn Manson. On a holiday to the states when we were younger, she bought a bunch of cds by them and a short while later I ended up buying them from her. One of them was Antichrist Superstar, Manson's peak (or so I assume, it was certainly a local-peak, if not global); she also had The Last Tour of Earth (a live album from just after Mechanical Animals) and Portrait of an American Family (his simpler, industrial beginnings - I've long thought the actual songs on there might have aged better than the concept albums that followed - I've not listened to check).

In 2000, he released Holywood, the third in his loosely-related trilogy (which played out in reverse order, so felt a bit like an after-thought). Being the year 2000, this was exciting news, so I rushed out to buy a copy the day it came out. I remember enjoying the album, but finding it far too long. I liked that it was heavier than Mechanical Animals, but it lacked the real highs that Antichrist Superstar had. It would be the last Marilyn Manson album I'd buy - by the summer of 2001, the charm had worn off and I remember being really disappointed by his performance at Reading Festival; a year earlier and I would have loved it, but as it was, I just remember too many outfit changes and a stage show that felt like it was compensating for the music. It was an odd crowd too, given the very nu-metal start to the day and the fact that Eninem was headlining. 2001 was a strange time. (He also released a cover Sweet Dreams, a song I hated with a passion. That didn't help.)

However, in early 2001 I was still into his music, and when I found this 12" picture disc in Tower Records in Southampton, it was hard to resist. I was young and the prospect of a "Slipknot remix" was far more appealing than the adult-me knows it to be. Plus, I hadn't seen many picture discs and was into the idea of them (years later I'd realise why they were always the shittiest sounding of my records). The a-side is surprisingly fun still. Stupid also, obviously, but he did know how to make a heavy pop song (much like his on-and-off friend, Trent). The Slipknot remix never did much for me, but then again rock remixes rarely do; it feels like a cluttered, less enjoyable version of the song. There's also a remix of The Love Song, which is much more twisted from the original (or how I remember the original being). It's certainly not a record that I consider highly in my collection, but I guess as a representation of a time and a place, it's nice to have.

Like many people, I went a great number of years without listening to Marilyn Manson – why would I? I didn't check out any of his albums post-Holywood and wasn't ever that aware of what he was up to. Then, in 2015, I was in San Francisco with work on the same week that the Smashing Pumpkins and Marilyn Manson tour was passing through town (or, at least, the bowl in Concord, a very suburban district about an hour out of SF). By even better coincidence, the night of the show was the only night when there weren't work social plans, so I had to go. I listened to a few MM songs on my iPod on the flight over (although, for reasons unknown, only a few songs had made it onto the device) and enjoyed them more than I expected. I suspect it was 100% nostalgia – they're not good songs, but I did listen to them a lot in my teens.

Anyway, the show was strange – almost entirely seated with pricing bands of seating meaning that there were empty seats at the back of each section (because it wasn't sold out). Additionally, Manson played in the light, which just doesn't work and a load of people who were there to see him left before the Pumpkins, meaning it was even emptier. Billy Corgan played a few bars of the American national anthem and some guy yelled at me for not standing up – the irony of the fact he'd sat through Marilyn Manson's set with an upside down US flag on the stage wasn't lost on me. Manson played some songs I knew, which was nice, and a lot I didn't. It was similar to that Reading show in some ways, particularly in that it felt like more stage-show than substance. Also, he looked old, which really makes it even harder to take him seriously. But I wonder if we were never supposed to?

Format: 12", picture dsic
Tracks: 3
Cost: £4 new
Bought: Tower Records, Southampton
When: 01/03/01
Colour: Picture disc
Etching: none
mp3s: no

One Minute Silence - We Bounce

We Bounce was the second single from OMS's third and final album, many months after the first. I bought it along with a Therapy? 7" and Funeral For a Friend double 7" one day in HMV in Southampton. I think, had I not been buying the Funeral record, I probably wouldn't have got either of the other two - they were fine additional purchases, but not exciting enough to open my wallet for.

At £2, this record was lucky to be bought, given that it contains the same song twice, where that song had already been released on the Revolution 10", and where the edit is just a censored version of the original (they change "fuck" for "frig" and make it a little quieter, which just sounds ridiculous). I always found the start of the song a little hard to get into, but it does bring it around towards the end. Needless to say, not a record that's had a great deal of play over the years. The image on the cover is almost comically terrible.

Format: 7"
Tracks: 2
Cost: £2 new
Bought: HMV Southampton
When: 03/05/03
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Manic Street Preachers - Let Robeson Sing

I paid £5.50 for this 12" back in 2001, which was a lot for a single. However, my Manics collection was in full swing, so I pretty much bought whatever I could find. The sleeve is numbered - in this case #3136 - but I'm guessing there was a fairly large run of this single.

In a fairly strange move, the first song here isn't Let Robeson Sing; it is in fact a b-side called Fear of Motion, a song which, I think, is only available on this 12" (it’s not even on the Know Our B-Sides Japanese release, collecting the b-sides from that era). It's a nice song and could have easily been on Know Your Enemy - kind of floaty, a bit like some of the TIMTTMY songs but has a pleasingly heavily strummed guitar and interesting vocal patterns from James. As it happens, it's the thing that makes this 12" very much worth having, as the other two songs are fairly dodgy remixes.

The first remix is by Ian Brown and the second by Felix Da Housecat (and no original version, which is even more unusual). I think it was around this time I saw the Manics in Manchester with Ian Brown supporting, which was really my only introduction to the man. As well as remixing the song, he raps a verse, which is just terrible. He's far too Mancunian to rap like that. It makes for a very strange minute in the song. Otherwise, the song is quite similar to the original, which itself is a fine song, but not one of their best. The Felix Da Housecat remix is crazy-different to the original and takes a few minutes before you recognise anything from the regular version. I'm not a fan.

Format: 12", numbered
Tracks: 3
Cost: £5.50 new
Bought: HMV Southampton
When: 24/10/01
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no

The Music - Getaway

Getaway was another single from The Music's debut album, and another 7" picture disc I bought a record fair for £3, just a few months after buying Take the Long Road and Walk It. As a single Getaway isn't as strong as the others, but it's fine.

The b-side here is Dragon Song, another non-album track. Unlike Alone it wouldn't have sounded out of place on the album, but possibly didn't make the cut because it just wasn't as good. It's also a fine song for the band, but doesn't really do anything they'd already done on a bunch of other songs on the album.

Format: 7", picture disc
Tracks: 2
Cost: £3 new
Bought: Record Fair, Southampton
When: 25/01/03
Colour: Picture disc
Etching: none
mp3s: no

The Music - Take the Long Road and Walk It

Take the Long Road and Walk It was one of the singles released from The Music's debut, self-titled album. The People had got a lot of play on MTV ahead of the album release and I'd bought a copy as soon as it came out. I found this 7" at a record fair in Southampton and was fairly happy to add it to my little collection of The Music records. At that age, picture discs were an appealing thing, rather than the pain I know them to as an adult.

It's still a fun song, and very representative of what they were doing at the time. I can't say I play this 7” very often (ever), but I can vividly remember the appeal of the band. The b-side is a slow, mostly acoustic song called Alone; it’s not remotely like anything else the band had released up to that point, but it kinda works. The singer's voice is stretched in different ways, but it's good to hear. I have a few more The Music 7"s, and I probably bought them partly because I enjoyed this b-side so much.

Format: 7", picture disc
Tracks: 2
Cost: £3 new
Bought: Record Fair, Southampton
When: 26/10/02
Colour: Picture disc
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Cyclefly - No Stress

I was a big fan of Cyclefly when I was 15. I can't remember how I first heard their music but a combination of events happened in a short period of time that made me a fan: I heard a song somehow (maybe on the Radio One Rock Show? Maybe on a Metal Hammer or Rock Sound free cd. It was almost certainly the song Crawl Down, one of the highlights from their first album), Kerrang! Magazine had written about them a couple of times, and it was announced that they'd be supporting Bush on their tour of their third album, The Science of Things, which a bunch of us had got tickets for. I enjoyed their set that night and eagerly awaited their debut album, Generation Sap, coming out. I rushed into town to get it on the first day it came out; I remember being particularly excited to buy a band's debut album on the day it was released (in the hope that one day they'd be huge and I could say "I got their first album the day it came out". 17 years later and I've never found myself boasting of that out loud…).

I picked up a bunch of their singles over the following months very cheaply at some record fairs and was very excited to read on their website that they were working on a second album, at the time called Tales From the Fish Bowl, or something like that. Then things went very quiet until 2002 when they announced the new album would be called Crave. They played some shows ahead of the release and I saw them in The Joiners with a band called Cortizone. I enjoyed the show a lot, and grabbed a setlist at the end, that has lived inside this 7" for most of the last 15 years.

The most curious thing about the setlist is that they start and end with this single, No Stress. I've never known a band to do that before - play the same song twice in their set. It was a bold move, and I think worked - Hugh commented on how catchy and familiar "that song they played last" was, not realising it was familiar because they opened with it. Anyway, the big talking point about the new album was that they somehow got one of the singers from Linkin Park to do guest vocals on a song - it was 2002, so this was big news. But for whatever reason, that wasn't a single. In fact, I think No Stress was the only single they released from that album. They didn't seem to get as much out of that Linkin Park collaboration as everyone thought they would.

The notion of No Stress needing a "radio edit" now seems incredibly ambitious - I strongly suspect these guys never made it anywhere near mainstream radio, at least not in anyway that would require a radio edit. It's been a long time since I last played Crave, so I can't put my finger on in what ways the song is edited, but it's by-the-by really. It's still a catchy song - it builds up nicely throughout and does that thing where you think it's over, then it builds up some more. They always did that well. It's a little known fact about Cyclefly (because very few people would ever care) but they had almost uniformly terrible b-sides (and I should know - see above. There was one I quite liked called Kyle, but that was about it). Small Idols is no exception to that rule. What it was about that band that meant they thought it'd be a good idea to write slower, quieter songs, I'll never know. I don't think anyone who enjoyed that band at any point was in for songs like this. Hats off to whoever kept these from getting on the albums.

A few year later I was at university and wearing my Cyclefly t-shirt, browsing through some second-hand records in the square and some guy came up to me and admired my t-shirt. I think that incident, in 2004, was the last time I spoke to anyone about Cyclefly. They certainly never made a lasting mark on music, but there was a time when I was genuinely incredibly excited about that band, so that's something. I started this blog to write down my memories about all my records, and try to appreciate the ones I've neglected. It's also nice, it turns out, to remember the bands that history will probably forget. It's easy to forget a band like Cyclefly, but they did make a mark on me once upon a time.

Format: 7"

Tracks: 2

Cost: £1.50 new

Bought: Virgin Megastore, Southampton

When: 10/04/02

Colour: Black

Etching: none

mp3s: no

Red Hot Chili Peppers - The Red Hot Chili Peppers

If you grew up around the time I did, it was basically compulsory to own a RHCP album, often more than one. I own six, which - with the hindsight of age - is clearly far too many. I stopped after Californication, which I'm pretty sure was the point when most people agreed it was now definitely time to stop - my collection is then six of the seven they'd released up until 1999. Luckily, this is the only one I have on vinyl, so the only one you'll have to read my thoughts on.

A friend of mine who played the bass got into the Chili Peppers after reading a list of the 100 best albums, as rated by a bass guitar magazine; Blood Sugar Sex Magik was number one and he instantly became a huge fan. I picked up a few albums as and when I found them, including this copy of their debut for a mere £3.50 at a record fair (where I also got Blood Sugar Sex Magik on cd on the same day. Needless to say, that would get more play over the years that followed than this one did).

As of this moment, I can't say how many years have passed since the last time the needle hit the record on this album. I don't have mp3s of these songs, so I've not heard these songs in many, many years. Have the years helped it? No. True Men Don't Kill Coyotes was always a highlight and sounds pretty good, all considering. On first listen, all those years ago, I wondered if maybe early Chili Peppers was the era for me having not particularly gelled with the more recent era (despite my rampant album buying I wasn't a huge fan - I felt there was more to get from them that I wasn't seeing so kept buying more). However, Baby Appeal swiftly followed and quickly made me realise that wasn't the case. The real low of the album is Green Heaven, which is musically dull (a feat quite difficult for a funk band) beneath some of the most turgid lyrics surely ever committed to a major label debut. Mummy, Where's Daddy? is pretty dire too. Easily a contender for worst Side Two Track Two.

It's hard to predict when, if ever, I'll play this album again. I'm impressed by how well True Men Don't Kill Coyotes has aged, but that is more than cancelled out by how horrified I am by the rest of the album. I've clearly repressed a lot of memories of it.

Format: 12"
Tracks: 11
Cost: £3.50 second-hand
Bought: Record Fair, Southampton
When: 26/10/02
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no