" Didn't this used to be a rock song ?" Out in the car yesterday and Miss Plain Or Pan had pricked up her ears, for once, at what was shuffling on the iPod. Normally she can't stand my music (see Rod Stewart post below). When she's out with me in the car, she usually asks for West FM or Clyde 1 or any of those terrible, repetitive chart-orientated stations playing the the usual conveyor belt of pop-dance fodder introduced by thick 20-somethings with mid-Atlantic twangs belying their West Coast roots. She is 10, after all. That's why her statement caught [...]
Like many people of a certain age (and that includes you , you ! and YOU! reading this, judging by the profiles of those of you who so far have ' liked ' us on Facebook - thanks!), I grew up with the sound of my Dad's record collection playing regularly in the background. With no insider knowledge of what was hip or otherwise, I'd happily hum along to any old rubbish if it had a good tune and a catchy melody. When I started making my own friend-influenced choices about music, my [...]
If you haven't done so already, could you take 20 seconds of your time to 'like' Plain Or Pan on Facebook? Shallower than the wee end at the Magnum, I know, but it would make me happy. Click the logo or see down at the bottom of the sidebar. Thank You If you only know Led Zeppelin for bombast and pomp, listen to this . (70s Rod Stewart could've done a great version of it if someone has pointed him in the [...]
I look on northern soul the same way I look at the output from all those brilliant Nuggetsy 60s garage bands. While your garage bands were using the hits of The Kinks and The Who and whoever as the blueprint and building blocks for their own skewed short, sharp 2 and a half minute attempts at chart stardom, the acts who would eventually constitute what became know as the northern soul scene were aping the more well-known records coming out on Motown, Stax, Atlantic et al. Not all, to be fair, there are hundreds and thousands of perfectly [...]
Those of us looking for any sort of Super Furry Fix have had slim pickings recently. Gruff Rhys ' Shark Ridden Waters was out nearly a year ago , and he's still essentially touring it, if you can call 1 gig in that there London a 'tour'. Amongst the hullabaloo of Record Store Day the other week, he quietly slipped out a split single with Cate Le Bon. So quiet I didn't even know about it at the time, but then, I wasn't looking. Gold Medal Winner is a terrific slice [...]
Jack White 's Blunderbuss hit the racks this week and while it's not much of a departure from the old routine, it's still a terrific bluesy, funky and at times shouty affair, with plenty o' whoopin' and a-hollerin' and those trademark scorching guitar breaks that we've come to expect. Giving him a run for his money in the retro stakes are Alabama Shakes , who, by the time you've read this are probably the number 1 selling artist in the country. Or is it still Adele? [...]
If Pete Frame were to do one of his Rock Family Trees on fuzzed-up druggy drone rock he'd inevitably land up ( * by way of Spiritualized, Spectrum and even (The) Verve)) at Spacemen 3 . Long before Bobby Gillespie had grown tired of his Byrds LPs, Spacemen 3 were the ultimate 'record collection' band. Spouting a seemingly never-ending list of achingly cool records by artists I had barely heard of, let alone heard in their music press interviews (Stooges!? Sun Ra!? Electric Prunes!? Silver Apples!?) they totally blew me away with their track [...]
Brother brother brother sang Marvin Gaye on What's Going On , to all like-minded fellow men and women everywhere. Gathering the clans, uniting everyone, making us (and Marvin) feel part of a bigger thing. Spiritual if not actual family. Family is a big thing in music. Whether it's monobrowed Mancs or hard-rockin' hairy Aussies with Scottish roots, there's plenty of instances where brothers, sisters, cousins, husbands and wives have managed to work harmoniously (or otherwise) in a band. Happy Mondays featured the Ryder brothers. Radiohead the Greenwoods. The Kinks the Davies. [...]
I expect a bit of a kicking here, or at the very least, a couple of sniggers from some of you lot at the back. But I make no apologies for featuring Over The Rainbow on Plain Or Pan. Why should I? For some it's perhaps considered sentimental, syrupy, sepia-tinted old tosh, forever associated with a film that seemed to be on eternally every Christmas. For the rest of us it's rightly been placed as the classic amongst classics. The Recording Industry Association of America have it at Number 1 on their Songs Of The [...]
Bryan Adams was nine years old in the Summer of '69. He wouldn't reach the ripe old age of 10 until November that year. While that makes him a decade older than me, unless he was some sort of child prodigy, it certainly doesn't make him old enough to have been playing in bands where J immy quit and Jody got married and they were young and restless, needin' to unwind . When I was 9 I was usually found halfway up a tree or on the gravelly garage site ground after grazing my knees in a failed [...]
(Had me a blast). It's been a good old week, all things considered. I'm still basking in the afterglow of my team beating one of the great unwashed in a national cup final at the national stadium, the frantic pace of work is slowing down in preparation for the Easter holidays, I've got a new bike that I plan to cycle for miles and miles and the sun has been shining as if March thinks it's July. I drove home today, window down to the sounds of Lee Perry and his dubby Jah-maica-ca-ca-ca riddims, convinced I was stopping tomorrow for [...]
It appears that my Mediafire account, where all the music on here is hosted, has been suspended. I logged on this morning to this welcoming message: This account has been locked. See our page about account suspensions for more information: http://www.mediafire.com/polic y_violation/account_suspension .php Looks like the internet police are up to their old tricks again. Pop in again in a day or so when I might have something more to tell you.
I've been a wee bit unkind to Damon Albarn on here. Shallow poster boy. Mock-cockney posh boy from middle class Colchester. Pretentious twonk with too many fingers in too many pies. The Africa trotting, Chinese opera-plotting indie Sting. All of this is true, of course, and he is so easy to dislike, but.... ...you can't argue the fact that he's one prodigious talent. It'd be hard to disagree that Blur are (?)/were (?) one of the great singles bands, right up there with Madness [...]
25 years ago today I experienced my first ever live concert. Glasgow Barrowlands. The Cult , with support from Gaye Bikers On Acid. The Electric/Love tour, I think it was billed as. I still remember it like it was yesterday. From the thrilling shock of hearing a band in-your-face loud for the first time (and that was only the support act) to the heart-stopping sight of the roadie bringing on Billy Duffy's massive white Gretsch Falcon (" Aw man!, It's gonnaehappenit'sgonnaehappenit 'sgonnaehappen!!! ") to the sputtery spark of said guitar being plugged in and amplified through the Spinal Tapesque coupla [...]
It's getting towards the time of year when false promises made by desperate men in expensive jackets look about as likely to come to fruition as The Smiths reforming and playing a gig in my living room. Yes, football managers up and down the country are maybe starting to regret the arrogant boasts of silverware and European adventures made in August when the disappointments of last season had barely been cast aside. New season, same old problems. I'm sure you can apply that phrase to your team. Leagues can be won and lost in an instant, with little room left for [...]
You win some, lose some (it's all the same to me)...............I don't share your greed, the only card I need is the Ace Of Spades the Jack Of Diamonds . Or depending where you are and who you're listening to, the Jack O' Diamonds . Jack O' Diamonds is a classic of its kind. A song about cards, gambling and losing. Which is one and the same I suppose. It was often sung as a lament on [...]
Or Under The Covers with Mick Jagger. Now there's a thought ladies. He'd be all hips, lips 'n finger slips. Gads! In the mid 70s, the Rolling Stones released Metamorphosis , a long-delayed compilation of demos, outtakes and Decca-era odds 'n sods. Although subsequent releases would include a few of the tracks, Metamorphosis didn't stay in print very long, becoming something of a Stones' collectable (until recently, that is, when it was made available on SACD). It's rumoured that some of the demo tracks (eg [...]
Vor 30 Jahren Kraftwerk schafften es auf Platz 1 mit 'Das Modell' , möglicherweise der unwahrscheinlichste Rekord, solche hohen Status zu erreichen, und eine, die immer dem Aufzeigen würden die vier Düsseldorfians fest in der 'One Hit Wonder " listen. Natürlich können Sie und ich wissen es besser. Elegant gekleidete junge Männer und Pioniere der elektronischen Musik in einer Zeit, die westliche Welt ging ga-ga für lange Haare, Leder und Les Pauls, sie waren für viele der Ying zu den Beatles Yang. Einige können sogar [...]
Not the most well-known Orange Juice track, although it is on the self-same Rip It Up album as The Hit. And was released as the follow-up to that self-same number 8 smash hit, peaking at a slightly less chart-troubling number 41. Fame fame fickle fame, to paraphrase one of our other pop treasures. And not the coolest Orange Juice track either. That would be Blue Boy if you were wondering. And certainly not the best Orange Juice track, although there's something about Flesh Of My Flesh that brings [...]
Here's a thing. In the post-Winehouse search for gin-u-wine authentic blue eyed soul, any pretty young thing with a gritty voice and a decent set of breasts found themselves in a dusty, analogue recording studio listening carefully to whatever it was that the svengali their record company had plucked from indieland's dole queue was telling them to do. Leader of the pack was Duffy; 602s-steeped, Dusty-voiced (kinda) and produced by former hip young gunslinger Bernard Butler. Mercy , with its snapping snare and northern soul Perry boys in the video was, I'm not ashamed to say , a real [...]
Plain Or Pan?
And We'll Run
Noteworthy (Stream): Kanye West – Black Skinhead (SNL Performance)
R.F.T.W.E. pt.1
Kanye West Performs “Black Skinhead” & “New Slaves” On ‘SNL’ Season Finale: Watch
