Stepping up to the plate is Fergal Corscadden, lead guitar grappler of The Gatefolds, a man with undoubted taste in music & questionable taste in football clubs. Fergal has been our psychedelic correspondent for some time now. He has turned us on & tuned us in to some fine music. I’m sure that Fergal will be spending a quiet holiday period with his family, saving his energy for the 3rd of January when the Gatefolds launch their new single “Smokin’ Pockets” with a gig at Sandinos in Derry. A guaranteed good resolution-breaking night. He has elected, in the tradition of the Miss World contest, to announce his results in reverse order. Crazy !
3. Thurston Moore – “The Best Day” (October).
OK, first up and 3rd, kicking Papir’s 4th album (“IIII”) into 4th, Thurston Moore needs no introduction. For his first song collection since the break up of his group & his marriage he has assembled a tidy bunch of musician friends including bassist Debbie Googe (My Bloody Valentine) & guitarist James Sedwards (Nought/Chrome Hoof). Drummer Steve Shelley abides from Sonic Youth & if you’re a fan of that band, which I am, you get the same sound and vibes (man). Track 1, “Speak To the Wild” will set you right. In 2013 Lee Ranaldo and the Dust’s “The Last Night On Earth” had some decent sounds on it too, retaining a SonicYouth(iness). The same cannot be said of the massively experimental ‘Coming Apart’, the debut album from Body/Head, aka Kim Gordon and Bill Nace, which is interesting but not as immediate as Moore nor Ronaldo. I look forward to a post-Sonic Youth jam playing all 3 artists at the same time, just for the craic. In fact I’ve just done that on the Y-Tube.
2. Fugazi – “First Demo” (November)
Fugazi make the number 2 slot. I’ve loved everything about this band and their music since the early 1990’s, and they haven’t released anything in 13 years (album-wise) so I was pleasantly surprised to say the least by the news of this one. Ah, band demos… the real stuff. A chance to listen to the similarities in sounds carried through and those they’ve enhanced over the years. There are a lot of differences here and the obvious similarities (mainly in song structure, minimal effects in this release as a difference), compared to the eventual, much tighter, studio recorded versions that we as fans have since and continue to enjoy. But the best thing about this is that it sounds decades better than a whole lot of 2014 material that is supposed to be ‘contemporary’ and in this genre, whatever that might be.
1. SWANS – “To Be Kind” (June).
Ok, next up is another 80’s band and I’m a latecomer to SWANS. Having never listened to any of their massive discography, until a couple of years ago I’m a huge fan. They’re not everybody’s Cuppa Charlie, but I get them/it and I like it a lot. It has taken me a good few spins but I got there with this, their 13th record, too. The band have had a lot of changes line-up wise mainly in the rhythm section but this hasn’t affected their sound…but who gives a fook…jeeze The Fall hi!…consistency however in terms of band members and sound, depth and breadth of sound since reforming in 2010, make this album ‘To Be Kind’ a much listened to 2014 release.
Other notable shouts out for Hookworms & Mogwai (Top 3 F, that’s 6 now, one a triple LP !). Lots of listening to do, Merry Christmas etc.
By the time Gladys Knight & the Pips signed for Tamla Motown in 1966 the family group were an established live attraction with 2 US Top 20 hits to their name. Gladys had 2 small children, her husband was the group’s MD. They were ready to take care of their own business & independence was not always a good fit with Berry Gordy’s Motown manifesto. A case can be made that they did not always get a fair shake at the Detroit label. The Pips were never at the front of the queue for the sure-fire hit songs from the Holland-Dozier-Holland production line, their records were released on the label’s Soul subsidiary. They knew what worked & worked what came their way. Their breakthrough hit, “I Heard It Through the Grapevine”, in 1967 was TM’s biggest selling 45 to date. Their last hit for the label in 1973, the Grammy award winning “Neither One of Us” made #2. In between they made some music which sits comfortably alongside the headline acts on any Motown anthology.
In 1974 they recorded a soundtrack LP for the film “Claudine” with the great Curtis Mayfield. The film starred Darth Vader & Diahann Carroll (oh my !). Carroll hooked a Best Actress Oscar nomination for her role as a welfare mother of 6 children. It was not a typical blaxploitation movie. No superfly, black private dick risking his life for fellow man across 110th St. For the soundtrack Gladys & the Pips’ smooth assurance meets Curtis’ Chicago funk & lyrical social commentary to create, in my opinion, the best LP of a long career. Over on “Soul Train” they know that they have got it going on with “On & On”, the Pips getting down with their bad selves & no-one to edit beautiful Gladys now. Even the normally self-absorbed dancers know that they are in the land of the good groove. Fantastic.
In 2012 Joe Brown became the first guest contributor to loosehandlebars when he kindly replied to my request for his favourite records of that year. Joe sends me new music which is always worth listening to & sometimes it is music he & his mates in The Gatefolds have made themselves. A couple of months ago I was delighted to receive an advance copy of the new single by Derry’s favourite garage band. Now the snap, crackle & post-punk pop of “Smokin’ Pockets” can be on your playlist as it available as a free download 
Goat – Commune. Goat’s fantastic new LP opens with the drone-rock of “Talk To God”, as if Tinariwen had been spiked. This Swedish band’s take on non-Western forms of music is experimental with the emphasis on mental ! The video for the groovy “Hide From The Sun” is an example of their Scandi voodoo craziness. If an eccentric blend of wild percussion, psych & Black Sabbath’s 1st LP does not sound like your kind of thing then you will be surprised. I am not the only on who has stumbled upon Goat & found them to be to be fresh & invigorating. This music should be heard more.
During the days I pointed them in the right directions for the Acropolis, the National Archaeological Museum, tourist sites maybe but world-class sights & memories. I went off to revisit favourite cafes, that place in Monastiraki with the stacks of old film stills, ill-lit, dusty basements where you could probably buy a Gremlin. In the evenings we joined the cosmopolitan Athenian street-life, hit bars where the simple trick of being able to say in Greek “Hi, good evening. I’m good & how are you ? Good, I would like 5 beers please” got you off the tourist tariff & paying local prices. At the end of the week my new friends asked if I would join them on their trip to Santorini. I was here for the summer, the plan was that there was no plan & these good people were insistent so, why not ? Let go into the mystery.
It was a good week but… I had not come to these beautiful islands to party. I had seen Mykonos & Ios, true party islands back then. Santorini’s Eurotrash seemed provincial, even a little desperate. The hedonism in London was more to my taste. It was time to leave, find a smaller island, a little bit of Greek peace. I said goodbye to the young Aussies & Americans & thanked them for their company. I exchanged addresses with the Milanese, a football game at the San Siro as part of a weekend away could be a good time. My final day on Santorini was spent checking beautiful frescoes & late-Cycladic ceramics preserved by the volcanic dust then a meal at a cliff-top taverna with the greatest sea view. You should go.
“Henry the Human Fly” (1972) contains many of the elements & themes which abide throughout Richard Thompson’s career. This debut solo LP, 12 self-written, often mournful songs of tinkers, painted ladies & ditching boys, challenges the folk-rock orthodoxy. The arrangements feature traditional instruments as he refused to play up to his reputation as the genre’s guitar hero. Lyrically he attempts a modern, class conscious, contribution to the canon . “Don’t expect the words to fall too sweetly on your ear.” he sings in “Roll Over Vaughan Williams”. Williams, the classical composer, had been an eminent curator of English folk songs. The folk audience were becoming more conservative & “Henry…” broke too many Fairport conventions. While Steeleye Span & other easier on the ear singer-songwriters sold well the record was not well received at the time. Listening back from now to then it’s a little beauty.
“I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight” (1974) is a classic British LP, folk, rock, whatever. At Sound Techniques studio in Chelsea producers Joe Boyd & John Wood were overseeing some enduring, beautiful music. Nick Drake, John Martyn & the Thompsons were hardly ripping up the charts but their records were built to last. The release of “Bright Lights” was delayed for a year either as a consequence of a vinyl shortage (Ah, those 1970s, the 3-day week, you won’t get me I’m part of the union…good times ) or because Island Records were not too sure just who would buy such a distinctive, individual LP.
Two years ago I spent a memorable evening watching the Wilko Johnson Band do that thing that only they do. Wilko & I were friends from back then, the Dr Feelgood days. Seeing those 4 good guys move from pub gigs to Top of the Pops was a very pleasant experience. I went backstage to see Wilko for the first time in a long time. We were both happy to see each other, hugged, spoke of then & now (while my nephew waited to ask about “Game of Thrones”). Just weeks later Wilko was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He was told he had 9 or 10 months to live…so it goes. He refused chemotherapy & set off on a farewell tour. I was distressed by the news but pleased that there had been one more good memory of him. The appreciation for his music & the support for his bravery was unanimous. His adoption as a National Treasure ? Well, it should not have been a matter of his mortality, Wilko had been one for a long time.
“The Man Upstairs” – Robyn Hitchcock. Way, way back in 1991 Robyn Hitchcock made the best pop record of the year. “So You Think You’re In Love” was from a shiny LP “Perspex Island”, a bid for mainstream attention lacking some of the randomness & individuality which had attracted a devoted following. Since then Hitchcock has followed his own path, combining a dry wit with melodic psychedelia (If Syd Barrett had joined the Beatles…now there’s a thought). His LPs with the Venus 3 are good things.
Lola In Slacks. Built around the deep, gallic-tinged, Nico-flavoured vocals of Lou Reid (yep, that’s her real name) and the guitar soundscapes of Brian McFie, this Glasgow outfit unleashed a collection of well-honed songs on Facebook early in the year and played their first live gig at Glasgow’s Glad Café in February. I was among a crowd that loved them.
2. .“Way Out Weather – Steve Gunn. Steve Gunn is a man who knows his way around a guitar. That isn’t to say he is one of those flash git’s like Steve Vai. This man writes good tunes around complex guitar melodies. Most people cite Television and The Grateful Dead as his influences, they are in there, for sure but so too is Steve’s spin on it all. He came to play in my hometown last month & seeing him live he was a wonder to watch as his fingers effortlessly made there way around the neck of the guitar and never once did he look down at his fingers! The LP is a joy from start to finish and not one track is filler, not many LP’s you can say that about.
It’s probably impossible at this early stage not to mention the band’s earlier incarnation That Petrol Emotion, a band peerless in their day who left behind a body of work too monumental to be discounted , culminating in a live document , “Final Flame” which stands comparison with any guitar-oriented live album . The flame was not so final however and has flared again not from ashes but still-glowing embers. The Everlasting Yeah’s four members comprise 80% of TPE’S former line up but this is a new band. New rules , new songs. No heritage act this.
From the moment Ciaran McLaughlin’s drums shuffle in with Brendan Kelly’s picked bass notes of the set-opening (Whatever Happened to the) Hoodlum Angels , you’re bouncing on your heels . It’s not possible to stand still to funk this masterful. The lead vocal is sung at an upper register but Raymond Gorman delivers with ease .Sound man Dino Galasso’s good work is appreciable from the outset and throughout. What becomes apparent is how much of the album went down in the studio under live conditions. Onstage the band reproduce this but imbued with a life no studio can give – that said , “Anima Rising” on a decent system cranked to a good level gives the impression of the band in the room with you .
The song has, in the words of Holger Czukay and the late,great Miki Karoli , “ a Can attitude .” It has the insanely exciting pace of say, “Father Cannot Yell” by that band . As with so many tracks built on the kosmische tradition (refuse to say “krautrock”), this is economical , takes nothing from Anglo-American rock and is rhythm driven . Again Brendan and even more so Ciaran are high in the mix. The term applied to this ferocious, metronomic beat , “motorik” is vastly overused so perhaps Iggy’s description from his discussing Neu! /Klaus Dinger better applies when he spoke of a “pastoral psychedelicism”. In any case, the recorded track stuns and the live rendition is mesmeric.
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