Bowie Week II: Friday

As a new decade dawned, so did a new Bowie. The 80s started pretty well for him, a number one single with Ashes To Ashes and a number one album with 'Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)'. Ashes To Ashes remains one of Bowie's finest moments. It's a phenomenal track, it really is. It's possibly also the first 'sequel' to top the charts, giving us an update of poor old Major Tom from Space Oddity. It's easy to suggest that Welsh trio The Joy Formidable jumped on the 'Death of Bowie' bandwagon when they included a cover of Ashes To Ashes on their 'Sleep Is Day EP' in October 2016, but they actually did a wonderfully atmospheric take on it.

• Ashes To Ashes - The Joy Formidable

Teenage Wildlife was one of many highlights on 'Scary Monsters...'. Bowie has said his vocal was an imitation of Ronnie Spector. I'm not sure about that, but musically it's not a million miles away from "Heroes". The lyrics are a thinly-veiled swipe at the arty post-punk brigade, in particular Gary Numan ("Same old thing in brand new drag..."). Ash had wild lives in their teens. They played Glastonbury when they should have been sitting their A Levels for chrissakes! Ash make Teenage Wildlife sound like an Ash song. It's louder, faster and altogether more youthful-sounding. Terrific stuff.

• Teenage Wildlife - Ash

As the decade wore on, Dave became less and less interested in being the innovator. He craved hits. The strange thing is, he had plenty while he was making great music. Once he started actually trying to write hits, his music went downhill fast. Everything got bogged down in that awful 80s production that has dated so badly. His mid-80s albums were dreadful affairs. Yet, even in the midst of this low period, a gem would rear its head and Bowie fans were reassured - albeit temporarily - that he still had it in him to make brilliant records. Absolute Beginners was one such track. One of my favourite Bowie songs, possibly even in my Top 3.

Saint Etienne recorded a version of Absolute Beginners for one of their fan club releases in the 90s. It's an interesting one. It sounds like The Go! Team, but they hadn't even formed when Saint Etienne did this. Now, I won't hear a bad thing about Sarah, Bob and Pete, but while I admire their audacity to do something new with the song, I really don't think I can listen to it without feeling so disappointed that it's not Bowie's version.

• Absolute Beginners - Saint Etienne

While writing this article, I realised the first three songs featured acts from Wales, Northern Ireland and England. Had I noticed this earlier, I would have tried to track down a Scottish act to round things off. As it is, I'd already prepared this one. Now, my daughters were introduced to Bowie by MrsRobster in the form of Labyrinth, a movie she claims to love. Personally, I reckon she liked his extremely tight trousers and everso-noticeable bulge as much as his acting, but she'd never admit it. Bowie wrote a number of songs for the soundtrack which, like most of his stuff from the period, is pretty much unlistenable. But As The World Falls Down is a beautiful ballad which, if it were recorded in any other decade could well have been one of his most memorable songs. On her 2011 covers EP 'Baggage', Dutch songstress Signe Tollefsen stripped that 80s sound away and just let the song do the work. Gorgeous.

• As The World Falls Down - Signe Tollefsen

I'm really torn between Signe and Ash as my favourite today. Hmmm... I call a tie.

Welsh Wednesday #54

#54: The Last Drop by The Joy Formidable

One of my fave bands of the last few years, The Joy Formidable make one heck of a noise for a three piece. Their songs are big and bold and anthemic and hummable as feck. MrsRobster and I have caught them live twice, most recently last summer at the tiny Globe in Cardiff just before they hit the festival circuit. Since then, they seem to have done little but tour, mainly in North America where they seem to be going down rather well.

If you ever get the chance to see them live, do so. They're quite an enigmatic bunch. The lovely Ritzy has a smile to brighten the darkest night and really gives it some welly on stage. Bassist Rhydian looks like he may have played a bit of rugby in his time. Definitely a fave of the band's female fans. Drummer Matt looks a bit like Russell Brand but isn't a knobhead as far as I know. He is good to watch though, and his kit is often set up to the side of the stage at the front alongside his bandmates.

I can't believe I haven't actually featured the Joy Formidable in this series before now. I've chosen an early track, from their first release, a mini album entitled 'A Balloon Called Moaning'. It features the original version of their monster song Whirring and was the first thing I heard by them. It hooked me immediately. It was reworked and, along with three other songs from the record, ended up on the proper debut album 'The Big Roar' a couple of years later. This track, however, wasn't one of those, which means it's a little obscure and rare. It is still representative of the band's sound and is a pretty darn good song, worthy of inclusion in the Welsh Wednesday collection.

New material has been scarce since 2013's 'Wolf's Law' album. A couple of Welsh-language singles were released in the second half of last year, but a third album is in the works apparently. I keenly await its arrival.

In light of the ongoing refugee crisis some of Wales' leading musicians have come together to unite under the banner of Welsh Rock For Refugees. The result is 'Reach Out' – a 30-track album from which all proceeds will be donated to Refugee Action – a UK based charity that helps refugees at home and abroad.

The Joy Formidable have recorded a brand new exclusive track for the album which is available on Bandcamp here. Among other contributors include Super Furry Animals, Gwenno, Stereophonics, Charlotte Church, Kizzy Crawford, Mike Peters, Cerys Matthews... 'tis a veritable who's who of Welsh music! Read the story of the album here.

From Inside The Pod Revisited #10

As much as I've always tried to seek out and promote new music, I still cannot accept most people not giving a shit. I'm better than I was, mind. I used to get in a right strop about it. I closed my old blog down when I realised my audience only seemed to enjoy the covers podcast I used to post over those that consisted mainly of original material. Nowadays, I'm more likely to satisfy myself that I'm far more advanced, educated and superior in my musical interest tht 99% of everyone else. Even if that's not true, I still like to think it is.

Only two more podcasts after this one were forthcoming before I crashed the pod. I still intend to post a few more here though before I finally bring the whole thing to a definitive halt. This was the last of the covers ones I released at the time. As usual, the following notes remain as they were at the time of the original posting.

Pod 28: re:Covering 4
(first published March 2012)

Covers yada-yada-yada.  You sure you're not getting tired of this concept yet?  You wouldn't rather hear some original material?  Well?  Oh go on then, here's another bunch for you.

1. Ian McCulloch Lover Lover Lover [1992, Mysterio]
(original by Leonard Cohen)
Len's back in vogue with his new album 'Old Ideas' topping the charts in 9 countries (making him, at 77, the oldest artist to score a number one in Finland.  How's that, fact fans?!) and reaching number 3 in the States, his highest ever chart position there.  The critics have raved about the record and everyone seems to want to cover his songs again.  Echo And The Bunnymen frontman Ian McCulloch has done a couple himself, this excellent take on 'Lover Lover Lover' being released as a single from his second solo album.

2. Zee Avi First Of The Gang To Die [2009, Zee Avi]
(original by Morrissey)
It's always an act of bravery to even attempt a cover of a Smiths/Morrissey song.  You leave yourself wide open to all sorts of (often unjustified) criticism from the diehards.  God forbid you should tamper with the gospel, eh?  Zee Avi, a 27-year-old singer-songwriter from Malaysia, makes a bold move with her fine version of the track Morrissey recently declared to be the one he is most proud of.  Stripping it down to just voice and acoustic guitar, she even deviates from the original melody line to make the song totally her own.  The cheek of it! Can you hear the purists seething?

3. The Raveonettes I Wanna Be Adored [2010, 50 Years Of Dr. Martens]
(original by the Stone Roses)
Talking of seething purists... I'm personally not overwhelmed by the Stone Roses reunion.  I mean, just listen to that pretty-much perfect debut album.  How can you recapture that 23 years after the event?  Mind, with that attitude, it might be easy to dismiss anyone else's interpretations of those great (and I really do mean GREAT) songs.  But I love the Raveonettes.  While the Roses very much defined an era, the dynamic Danish duo constantly sound like they're trying to discover some lost musical paradise hidden in a rift in space and time that falls somewhere between 1957 and the present day.  If this had come out in 1989 instead of the original, we could have been talking about Copenhagen instead of 'Madchester'.  Maybe.

4. Sonic Youth Ça Plane Pour Moi [1992, Freedom of Choice: Yesterday's New Wave Hits As Performed By Today's Stars]
(original by Plastic Bertrand)
Right, without resorting to Google or Wikipedia, how many famous rock & roll Belgians can you name?  Give up?  You probably got Plastic Bertrand and then...?  And to be honest, 'Ça Plane Pour Moi' was his only big hit, but the fact it became one of the biggest selling French language songs worldwide ever makes him worthy of 'fame'.  Sadly, it all went wrong for Bertrand (real name Roger Jouret) when after a decade of living the rock 'n' roll lifestyle, he began to resemble Elvis circa 1977, before going on to flop in the Eurovision Song Contest representing Luxembourg!  The song lives on however, having been covered countless times - Richard Thompson, Vampire Weekend, the Presidents of the United States of America and Kim Wilde (!) have all had a pop - but Sonic Youth's noise-drenched romp-thru is up there with the better ones.  Oh, the guy who invented the saxophone was Belgian.  And so, apparently, was Audrey Hepburn...

5. A Camp Boys Keep Swinging [2009, Covers EP]
(original by David Bowie)
Strangely, Bowie fans are not as fiercly protective of their idol's work as Morrissey/Stone Roses nuts.  They tend to welcome covers of his songs rather than forbid them.  No wonder then that there have been many superb interpretations of Bowie classics (and one or two duff ones).  A Camp is a side-project of Swedish popmeisters The Cardigans, led by Nina Persson.  They update our Dave's cocksure, coke-fuelled original (from 1979's 'Lodger'), adding a touch of typically Scandinavian pop-pizazz to the proceedings.

6. Miranda Sex Garden Exit Music (For A Film) [2001, Anyone Can Play Radiohead - A Tribute to Radiohead]
(original by Radiohead)
Pretentious buggers, Radiohead.  Agreed?  Fitting therefore that they should be covered by London's finest (only?) neo-classical avant-garde goths Miranda Sex Garden.  This take on one of 'OK Computer's more downbeat moments (and there were more than a few of them) was actually the very last thing MSG released.

7. Hayseed Dixie Ace Of Spades [2004, Let There Be Rockgrass]
(original by Motörhead (on The Young Ones!))
Something to cheer us up a bit after that.  There can be no-one who doesn't know 'Ace of Spades'.  If there is, I don't want to know them.  Ever.  But if Lemmy's brand of heavy, fast punk-metal doesn't do it for you, how's about a bluegrass version?  Hayseed Dixie began life as an AC/DC tribute band (AC/DC = Hayseed Dixie... see what they did there?) but branched out, covering (in a redneck-stylee) other rock behemoths such as Kiss, Queen and Black Sabbath, before moving onto pop in the form of Franz Ferdinand and Scissor Sisters.  Nowadays, they write more of their own material, but remain hilarious and actually bloody amazing musicians.

8. Camille O'Sullivan Sna Bróga Seo (In These Shoes) [2009, Ceol 09]
(original by Kirsty MacColl)
I understand the Burlesque movement is making a bit of a comeback.  Not that I would know about such things of course.  Irish chanteuse Camille O'Sullivan is tapping into that, taking an interesting array of other people's songs to such audiences.  She seems to be a fan of Nick Cave, tackling three or four of his songs, and her latest album also includes two Radiohead numbers.  This stab at Kirsty MacColl's 'In These Shoes?' was recorded in the Irish Gaelic language for a compilation album.  The more I hear it, the less I actually care for it that much.  Perhaps it's because I'm a Kirsty purist (oh the irony!) but I think the lyrics really make this song and unless you speak Gaelic, it's kind of wasted.  And performance-wise it's a little... meh, something you could never have accused the lovely Kirsty of.

9. The Joy Formidable It's Over [2011, The Big More EP]
(original by Roy Orbison)
I talked of bravery when describing Zee Avi taking on a Morrissey track.  So how about a young Welsh trio with a female vocalist tackling one of the most famous songs by arguably the most remarkable, heartbreaking male voice of all-time?  A hardy challenge for sure, and make of it what you will, but I simply cannot rate this band highly enough.  I demand that you love them! Here's the video for this amazing version.

10. The Wedding Present Back For Good [2008, How The West Was Won (box set)]
(original by Take That)
Let's face it, if anyone can take a bonafide British boyband classic and turn it into a gloomy indie anthem complete with loud guitars, squealing feedback and a Northern accent, the boy Gedge can.  And how!  I hope he's still churning stuff out when he gets to Leonard Cohen's age.

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