SINGLES
MARISA ANDERSON - Waking (Thrill Jockey)
by LamontPaul
Spare and unsentimental, Marisa Anderson as they say at some point in her life, got a guitar and learned how to make it talk. Makes me want to learn guitar. And also never learn guitar. Marisa Anderson is a guitar artist and I don't mean like the guys at the Guitar Center who shred. I swear I can hear the wood and the wires wheezing and reaching with her. For perfection. This is just enough and no more else. This is just the greatest.
HIGH VIS - Fever Dream (Dais Records)
by Tim London
And I am back in a pub in London and it’s 1990. And this band are on stage and the singer’s eyes are like saucers and the rest of the band are having much more fun on stage than bands were in pubs two years before. There might be an A&R person in the audience who hasn’t, yet, signed a ‘baggy’ band and he’s here to see if the singer’s good looking enough. If the band are lucky, later that night he will share his cocaine with them before ruining their lives forever by promising to sign them and then refusing to take their calls the following week and forever more.
Three Showaddywaddy points for you.
FELA KUTI - Senshema (Partisan)
by Toon Traveller
Senshema from the soon to be resissued by Partisan Records, Roforofo Fight, is not one of Fela Kuti's best tunes, kinda feels like a throwaway song, something at the end of the show, something done to fulfill a contract like Miles Davis did at Prestige Records or Lou Reed did with Metal Machine Music. Is there charm, yes, a hint of classic fela yeah. If you're new to Fela there's so much better than this around, on YouTube and other music sites, check some of those before you write Fela and his jazz Funk, power pop, afro beat sounds off. The master, a genius of music, and much missed. This is okay, but he is SO MUCH better than this.
SURFBORT - Cheap Glue (Fat Possum)
by Tim London
Both a band from Brooklyn and a sexual position. Weird to see the singer take a selfie in the video, which has been shot on lofi early 90s video and features the members who all look like they are from different eras of NYC party hangover styles, from times when they were either not born or very young. What does this mean? Not much, so many things are Blue Rondo A La Turk nowadays it seems silly to criticise. But, at least, I can’t, unlike our other two Showaddywaddy contenders in the singles reviews this week, put my finger on exactly WHICH artists they’re ripping off. Only know that what started with John Cale and Lou Reed has spread like viral hatred from the mouth of an American shock-jock and will never be eradicated.
One Showaddywaddy point because they do remind me of Bongwater.
DAVID BOWIE - Starman (Top Of The Pops Version - 2022 Mix) (Jones/Tintoretto Entertainment Co)
by Jay Lewis
There are moments that inexplicably remind you that you are alive. The ones that remind you that it's not just mundane day in day out stuff. The things you never anticipate, the inexplicable laughter, the moment that you swoon, the breathtaking sunset. Often twee, but as Lloyd Cole once noted '...the reason it's a cliche is because it's true'.
I never expected to be so taken another reminder of the greatest moment of pop music on TV in the seventies, being tarted up for Ziggy's 50th birthday. I didn't think that after a few thousand times of watching and hearing "Starman" it would grab me unawares. But it did. Don't trust anyone who tells you that this is anything less than totally fucking amazing.
Play Loud.
ECE ERA - Chero (2MR)
by Tim London
Love the woozy synths in the opening half. Not so sure about the contribution from the Turkish branch of the Militant Pixie Tendency.
PREOCCUPATIONS - Ricochet (Flemish Eye Records)
by Tim London
And I am back in a pub somewhere in the Home Counties and it’s 1982 and this band are on stage. The singer is wearing tucka boots and doing the kick dance, the guitarist is dressed in a puff sleeved shirt from Camden Market and his girlfriend has done a job on his eyes and cheeks with blusher, shade and lipstick and she is dancing by herself in front of the stage, looking very similar to him. the only other people in the audience are the next band on who sport mohicans and Crass logos on their leather jackets. They look on with contempt.
Three Showaddywaddy points for you.
JIM PERKINS AND BEN CROSSLAND - Beneath The Willow (1631 Recordings)
by LamontPaul
Mellow and mellifluous. Jim Perkins and Ben Crossland's Beneath the Willow - a rush released paean to the performance of the England test team against New Zealand this week? Love it when I can hear the wheezing piano innards over all else. But I can't necessarily hear enough work for two people here. Job sharing maybe? How cool is that. Record of the week, for all of those reasons.
MURDER BY DEATH - Everything Must Rest (MBD)
by Lee Paul
Perfectly acceptably constructed and accomplished pop/rock from Murder By Death. The sounds and how they are placed are where you would expect them to be. Everything then is in its right place. "It's just your average baroque-western-goth-new wave-indie-pop summer gem." Like a less histrionic Hootie...
WATERBOYS - Glastonbury Fayre (Cooking Vinyl)
by Lee Paul
Ill-judged myth making. They are so much better than this. Difficult to listen without grimacing. Nice guitar pedals, drumming and organ. But not even the organ in the end.
RINA SAWAYAMA - This Hell (Dirty Hit) ZERO s
by Tim London
Name checking both Whitney and Britney (and I don’t think she means Whitney MacMillan, the American billionaire or Brittney Smith, the basketball player) Rina soundtracks the Saturday shopping experience for the world’s malls and manages to make a sound that is no more defined than skip lorries taking away a supporting wall. Although her voice is a little lower than the sad chipmunk's and lacks the Olga Corbetts of the even sadder diva she still gets four Showaddywaddy points for total lack of originality and confusing her ‘team’ of dancers with genuine friends.
EPs
LANA DEL RAY AND FATHER JOHN MISTY - Buddy's Rendezvous (Bella Union)
by Ancient Champion
Faux Torch song. Torched. Really. Marginally less dreary and predictable than the Misty version. Lana Del Ray drifts into Julee Cruise territory as she has done for an entire career. Chris Isaak is playing at the Greek Theatre, chances are she'll pop up over there. One of those blue ribbon projects you never listen to again. Beautifully played. Well done to everyone.
LPs
BOB MARLEY & THE WAILERS - Live at the Rainbow: 3rd June 1977 (Tuff Gong)
by Alarcon
Alarcon discussed the etymology of the LP Exodus and this live concert, here
SPYGENIUS - Jobbernowl (Big Stir)
by John Robinson
John Robinson hears the new LP, Jobbernowl his full review is here
ALANIS MORISSETTE - The Storm Before the Calm (MCA) ZERO s
by Spanish Pantalones
Alanis threatens us with her first “meditation album” which means there’s more coming, unless we all do our part and refuse to listen to it. But I’ve piqued your interest, haven’t I. You’re curious to know what an Alanis Morissette meditation album sounds like. No need to waste your time, I’ll tell you what it sounds like – hippie nonsense. The Storm Before the Calm is lazy piano, the sound of crashing waves, and synthetic whale howls. If you thought Jagged Little Pill was insufferable, brother, you don’t know what insufferable is.
Other Materials
ROXY MUSIC - Roxy Music (Island)
by Jay Lewis
Jay Lewis says Roxy Music have been great for 50 years. See the review of 'Roxy Music' here
Essential Info
Main Image Marisa Anderson from her Spot page
