A song for... September

After the celebrations of the past two or three months, it's back to normality as Autumn dawns. But a rollicking start to it with a track from Buffalo Tom's 2007 comeback album 'Three Easy Pieces'. September Shirt was one of many songs on the record that showed they hadn't lost their touch in the nine years since their previous effort. It hurtles along at breakneck speed but never loses that essential Buffalo Tom ingredient - a great melody.

Their latest album 'Quiet & Peace' (their ninth) came out at the start of this year. It's well worth a few listens if you haven't got round to it already. And hopefully we'll be making it along to their show in Bristol in December.

• September Shirt - Buffalo Tom (from 'Three Easy Pieces')

New Order Covered, part 2

'Power, Corruption And Lies' is widely accepted as being New Order's best album. You can debate that as much as you like, but it was the one that probably made the band's biggest statement. The gloom of Joy Division was still evident, but on PC&L New Order decided that electronic was the way to go. The drum machine used was cutting edge at the time and the experimentation that came with learning to use it resulted in Blue Monday being written.

You know of my love for Buffalo Tom, so little point in banging on about it. In 2011 they put out an acoustic EP which featured their take on PC&L's opener Age Of Consent. The original is one of my favourite New Order tracks. As much as I love BT and, in particular Bill Janovitz's voice, I'm not sure they really do it justice here. It is a live take, mind, so that probably accounts for its roughness.

Destroyer, from Canada, are one of those bands I feel I really should know more about, but don't. I call them a band, but they're actually more of a conduit for the musical talents of Dan Bejar. This version of Leave Me Alone, PC&L's closing track, was recorded for Mojo magazine's 'Power, Corruption & Lies Covered' CD from 2012.

And finally, well how could I miss this one out? The Jolly Boys have been one of Jamaica's top folk bands for more than six decades. Some of their members are well into their 70s and 80s. The style of music they play is called mento, a form of folk music that heavily influenced ska and reggae. In 2010, The Jolly Boys released 'Great Expectation', a collection of covers including Passenger (Iggy Pop), Rehab (Amy Winehouse), Ring Of Fire (Johnny Cash) and New Order's Blue Monday. It's even more utterly brilliant than it sounds!

(Think I've found a file host that allows streaming of the file as well as download. Not as malware-laden as Zippyshare, with any luck. Let me know how well it works for you.)


Soundtrack:

• Age Of Consent - Buffalo Tom (from 'Bones' EP)
• Leave Me Alone - Destroyer (from 'MOJO Presents: Power, Corruption & Lies Covered')
• Blue Monday - The Jolly Boys (from 'Great Expectation')

50 albums to take to my grave #40: Let Me Come Over

Decisions, decisions... you may remember as an addendum to my '50 Songs...' series that I replaced three songs. This was because I had three songs that appeared on albums I really wanted to include in this series. I'd made a rule - albums could not be featured if I had one of its songs on that list. I was torn - should I just leave it as it is and forget the albums? Of course not. These albums are just too good to leave behind. Replacing the songs was easy. But then I faced another dilemma...

There are some acts who I rate as great singles bands. While some of their albums are great too, generally a 'Best Of' compilation pretty much contains everything you really need. I therefore decided to conclude the series with a few 'Best Of' compilations. One of them was Buffalo Tom's 'Asides From', quite simply one of the most best CDs I own. But at the last minute, I had a change of heart.

Buffalo Tom's third album 'Let Me Come Over' was on my original list of albums right from the very start. I realised the mistake I made early on when I featured Velvet Roof as the very first of my '50 songs to take to my grave'. It is one of my all time fave tracks and has been since I bought the 12" way back in 1992. But when I bought the album, that became one of my all time fave albums very quickly. And doesn't it have one of the best front sleeves ever?

Velvet Roof is arguably the 90s' best-single-that-nobody-knows, a rollicking romp of skittish guitars and harmonica solos. Stymied is probably the most inappropriately-named track on the album; it comes bursting out of the traps and hurtles along at a frightening pace - nowt's stopping it. And as for Larry - well if any lead singer has ever written a better song about his cat than this one, I've yet to hear it.

The thing I love about Buffalo Tom more than other bands is their ability to make me adore their slower songs too. Taillights Fade set a standard that was almost matched on subsequent albums (I'm Allowed from 'Big Red Letter Day'; Wiser from 'Smitten'; You'll Never Catch Him from 'Three Easy Pieces'). Mineral and I'm Not There are also right up there with the best tracks in the band's catalogue, the latter seeing vocal duties taken by bassist Chris Colbourn. While his voice may well suit such songs, I've always been a big fan of Bill Janovitz. If I could sing, I'd love to have Bill's voice.

I love BT's sound, those crunching guitars and Tom Maginnis' solid snare breaking through on every beat. Only Sugar could match them when it came to the top power-trios of the 90s. (Uh-oh, I hear the Nirvana and Dinosaur Jr. fans lining up to vent their spleens at that statement. I stand by it.)

When weighing up whether I'd take 'Asides From' or 'Let Me Come Over', I wondered if I'd ever be able to choose between them. In the end, 'Let Me Come Over' won on the grounds that there really isn't a duff track on it. Every song is at least a 4 out of 5 (most are 4½ or over, and there's even a couple of 5s). You'd expect that from a 'Best Of', but not necessarily a standard album. Sure, I'd miss songs like I'm Allowed, Rachael, Tangerine and their excellent stripped-down version of Going Underground, but heck, I do have Velvet Roof, Taillights Fade, Mineral, Larry, Stymied, Darl, Porchlight, I'm Not There..... I think you get the point.





Even though it's been replaced in the final list, you can still read my original piece on Velvet Roof in the first '50 songs' post back here.

50 songs to take to my grave - #1: Velvet Roof

You can't control what happens when you die, but I sure as hell want one last pop at it. I shall be leaving a playlist for my funeral/wake and will insist of my loved ones that it is played. Loudly. Whether anyone sticks around to hear it or not!

My weekend posts for the foreseeable will feature one of those to make the list (as it stands at the moment).  Starting off is a track I've loved since I heard that scratchy guitar intro for the very first time some 22 years ago: Velvet Roof by Buffalo Tom.

Some records take a while to creep up on you. Some records immediately slap you in the face screaming "I'm so fucking great! You must love me!" I'm a sucker for a good, catchy single. The first time I heard 'Velvet Roof' by Buffalo Tom, I loved it. It was probably its sheer energy and unashamed "jumpaboutability" (a new word I've just invented! Use it lots!!!)

I knew about Buffalo Tom through a friend who was a good few years younger than me, but who had incredibly good taste. (He was into Nirvana long before 99.9% of people who have ever claimed to be Nirvana fans had even heard of them.) When 'Velvet Roof' came out I was still working for Our Price (RIP), but preferred to buy my singles from the local indie stores (even after staff discount, Our Price was still more expensive!). I picked up the 12" from Sound 'n' Vision in Barnstaple for a couple of quid.  Turned out to be one of the best buys I ever made.  It's staccato guitar intro was (is) fitful yet infuriatingly addictive, a repeated A-chord punctuated by a couple of suspended notes around it. By the time the rest of the band sparked up four bars in, I was already away on a runaway three-and-a-bit minute ride into indie heaven.  

A startlingly simple lyric ("Here she comes across the street/But I'm already there downstairs to meet with her") sends the song into irresistible singalong mode, and from that point in, I still can't stop myself. And then, just when you think it can't get any better, in strides the harmonica solo! Whenever I hear this song, I want to be in Buffalo Tom as they (we) play it live! It remains one of my favourite tracks of all-time and when it is played at my funeral, I expect you all to jump around on my grave to it.

Soundtrack:

•  Velvet Roof - Buffalo Tom (from 'Let Me Come Over')