An Alternative History of "Pop" Music: Part 2, 1982 -

[daf]

Minty ‎– That's Nice!



Released in 1996 - did not chart

Although Leigh Bowery was known to be and always described himself as gay, he married his long-time female companion Nicola Bateman on 13 May 1994 in Tower Hamlets, London, in "a personal art performance". Although he had been HIV positive for six years, very few of those who knew him guessed that; he typically explained his public absence by saying he had gone to Papua New Guinea. His wife did not know that Bowery had the virus until he was admitted to hospital.

He died seven months after his marriage, on New Year's Eve 1994, from an AIDS-related illness at the Middlesex Hospital, Westminster, London, five weeks after his admission. Lucian Freud paid for Bowery's body to be repatriated to Australia.



The remaining members of Minty chose to continue the group following Leigh's death and released three further singles, including singles "Plastic Bag" in 1995, "That's Nice" in 1996, "Nothing" in 1997, and an album 'Open Wide' released the same year, which contained material recorded with Leigh.



Following his death in 1994, Minty formed a collective in tribute to Leigh, known as The Offset. Members included Kinky Roland, Aiden Shaw (pornographic film star), Donald Urquart (poet), Sexton Ming (transvestite recording artist) and Add N To X.

[Brundle-Fly]

Fucker - Eels   Released on DreamWorks in 1996.  B side to Novacaine For The Soul.





Beautiful Freak was such a strong album. Brings back good memories of the summer of '96.

Eels are a US alternative rock band formed in 1995 by singer & songwriter Mark Oliver Everett aka E. Other members rotate frequently, both in-studio and on stage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLQIZbVpExY&t

[daf]

Frente ‎– Horrible



Released in July 1996 on horrible brown vinyl - did not chart

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Bond Street - Les 5-4-3-2-1. Released on Bungalow in 1996.

One of the best mash-ups EVUR!  Stereolab in a beach buggy collision with Burt Bacharach,

Ballard and daf might have to have a lie down after this. Margaritas are on me. X

You're not wrong! That is FAB.

[daf]

Cardiacs ‎– Manhoo



Released as a single in June 1996 - did not chart (as only 1000 copies of the CD were produced)

"Manhoo" was the eighth single from Cardiacs and the first taken from the 1996 album 'Sing to God'. The album sessions presented a change in Cardiacs' working methods. Whereas most previous material had been written and arranged by band leader Tim Smith, 'Sing to God' features significant contributions to the album's lyrics from drummer Bob Leith, with extensive contributions from Jon Poole, who played a strong role in orchestrating Smith's basic material with detailed riffs and keyboard parts and contributed several songs entirely written by himself.

Jon Poole : "Tim would have drums and rough keyboard chords on tape and would ask me to come up with guitar and bass riffs. I was literally allowed to do pretty much anything I wanted. Tim would then do the production bit and get the best out of me... I remember Tim had programmed the weird bit in the middle of "Odd Even" and left me to find a guitar line amongst the chords so I was sat on my own dropping myself in. When he came back it was done and he was very happy... particularly with my choice of last note! We would both make suggestions then Tim would edit the ideas into something that worked. Tim would chip in with ideas for my songs too like the string arrangement on "Manhoo" which was lovely."

Tim Smith : "I really like the stuff he's written, we all do. We're really dead lucky to have someone like him. He's written some great stuff for the new album."



The album was an instant hit with fans, though not with the cloth-eared twats writing for the British music press, one of the only original reviews was an infamous review in Vox, who rated the album a score of 0/10.

Tim Smith : "You can't rock the boat in this country! It's really not allowed to play anything that might go against the grain of the current fashion. I think it's because we've been around for a long time and we refuse to go away. We really, genuinely do love what we do and there's a bunch of people over here who like it enough to make us carry on. But you know, British media... I mean, every other country in the world know about the British media and how thick they are. We're just a prime target for their dartboard. The fact that we're not good looking, the fact that we're probably getting on a bit now, that kind of thing. Luckily we've got this DJ, Mark Radcliffe, who's on our side, which is nice. I reckon he must be the only person in the media that sticks his neck out for us."

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Dinosaur Jr - Take a Run at the Sun



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJQjRGN8cZM

Taken from the soundtrack of Allison Anders' sorely underrated quasi-Carole King biopic Grace of My Heart, this is a sweet, sugary '60s sunshine pop pastiche. Which isn't something you'd usually associate with human sloth J. Mascis, but he wrote it to accompany scenes featuring Matt Dillon's Brian Wilson-esque character. Dig that crazy theramin.

Grace of My Heart is a 1996 film written and directed by Allison Anders and starring Illeana Douglas. The film is set in the pop music world, starting in New York City's Brill Building early 1960s era, weaving through the California Sound of the mid-'60s and culminating with the adult-contemporary scene of the early 1970s.

The plot follows the life and career trajectory of its protagonist, Denise Waverly. The soundtrack features songs by artists Burt Bacharach, Elvis Costello, J. Mascis, Joni Mitchell, Gerry Goffin and Jill Sobule, replicating the musical style that emerged from the Brill Building, New York City's music factory in the heyday of girl groups and "pre-fab" acts like The Monkees.

[daf]

Dictation ‎– DOG (The More I Think Of You, The More I Love My Dog)



Released as a single in 1996 - did not chart

Virtually nothing is known about Dictation - other than the singer was Rebecca Wernick who went on to be in the girl band SuperGirl.

Fraxinus! : "I think I first heard this on the radio at the time THEN saw them perform it on Blue Peter! Somehow, there was a repeat of that same Blue Peter episode so I caught it twice! And....the singer was wearing the exact same outfit she has on the CD single cover :-) Good times in the 1990s just before Pop music turned totally shit."

Rebecca Wernick : "That person on the cover is me. I'm the singer."



Kyle Thompson : "I love this, Danny Baker used to play it a lot, managed to find a promo single for 50p in Ben's Collectors' Records in Guildford in the late 90s, great shop! Took me 4 hours of searching, as you have to look in every box (I wasn't even looking for this, bought shed loads of things)"

Natascha Aguillard : "yes, it should have been a massive hit.... the legend goes that the band were all set to be the special guests on Chris Evans then Radio 1 breakfast show (the band were also to be playing live on his TGIF show the same week). And from which the single would be on the Radio One A playlist.   That morning the band were supposed to meet Mr Evans at the Savoy hotel at 5:30...... but as is known now... Chris never showed up... in fact he went awol, a second time, after an all night bender with Gazza and his mate two bellies. So the show never happened and the TGIF show was also cancelled that week..... bad luck.... apparently they also lost the Lottery Show guest music slot that week too. Not their fault, of course."

[famethrowa]

Taken from the soundtrack of Allison Anders' sorely underrated quasi-Carole King biopic Grace of My Heart,

Never heard of it! But very interested, will have to track it down. Funny how the wiki entry doesn't mention Carole King at all!

[Smeraldina Rima]

The Private Tapes of Manuel Göttsching - Ash Ra Tempel - Ashra pre-release single released on Manikin Records in 1996




Manuel Göttsching is a guitar player who made his name playing in Krautrock bands in the 1970s. During that period, he also made a solo album called Inventions for Electric Guitar. The Private Tapes single was the pre-release single for a six volume set of tapes from that golden period, all of which were released in 1996. The pre-release single features two of Klaus D. Müller's favourite tracks from the six volumes. Below are links to those tracks and Müller's descriptions of those tracks in the notes to volume 1 and 3.

Bois de soleil


Whoopee


Here is the other very joyful experiment from Vol. 3: Der Lauf der Giraffen

[jamiefairlie]

Puressence - Near Distance

https://youtu.be/Um192LTC5tM



Formed in May 1992 in Failsworth, Greater Manchester. This is the opening track from their eponymous debut album.

[Jockice]

Gracelands - Groop Dogdrill

From Doncaster. No wonder they're angry.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3syS8fGmf1o

[Brundle-Fly]

Open Up - Stock, Hausen & Walkman.  Released on Hot Air in 1996.





Cut 'n' paste larks afoot.

Stock, Hausen & Walkman (Matt Wand, Andrew Sharpley and Daniel Weaver) is known for making sample-heavy, subversively funny collages with a healthy disregard for copyright issues: "taking potshots at anything that moves, be it high art music, low pop or cheesy listening" (The Wire 163). Distinctive packaging has been prevalent in most SHW's releases.

Open up is the opening track (of the full album here should you so wish to continue the S, H&W listening experience)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjsCNmODhlw

[daf]

Bob Mould ‎– Egøverride



Released in April 1996 - did not chart

Following three albums with Sugar, in April 1996 Bob Mould returned to solo recording, releasing a self-titled album, often referred to as 'Hubcap' because of the cover photo. The album peaked at number 101 on the Billboard 200 chart.

Bob Mould : "A couple of things on the record I think are unique. `Hair Stew' is really different from anything I've done before. `Thumbtack' is about as sparse as it ever got. I can't remember a song I've ever done where it was just acoustic guitar and voice. There's some departures and some things that are sort of familiar-sounding, But, yeah, they're probably gonna stay real personal for awhile, the records."



Mould played all of the instruments on the album himself, and programmed the drums instead of using a real drummer. The sleeve notes declare, "This one is for me". In the place of traditional band credits, the sleeve states, "Bob Mould is Bob Mould".

Bob Mould : "I think a lot of where I'm at right now is just sort of recovering, even two years later, from the whirlwind that was Sugar; just the amount of work and demands that were put on everybody in the band. Just trying to think, `Well, what would I like to do?' I obviously made this most recent record by myself because that's how I was hearing it."

[Norton Canes]

808 State - Azura

Released 5^th August 1996





808 State took a few years out after their disappointing 1992 album Gorgeous and came back in '96 with Don Solaris, one of the all-time great overlooked long players. The first single release Bond was perhaps a little too eccentric to find chart success but the follow up, Azura, featuring vocals from Lamb's Louise Rhodes, was a drum n' bass drenched beauty.

Alternative pop history: Highest chart position 1 (2 weeks) | Weeks on chart 17 | Top of the Pops studio performances 16^th August, 6^th September | Later soundtracked the heart-breaking final scene to Russell T. Davies' 1997 mainstream breakthrough drama 'Hand to Mouth'

[Clatty McCutcheon]

Sebadoh - Beauty of the Ride

At this time, Sebadoh (formed in 1986 by ex-Dinosaur Jr bassist Lou Barlow and Eric Gaffney) consisted of Barlow, Jason Loewenstein and Bob Fay. This track was released as a single in advance of their sixth album, Harmacy, and spent a week at no. 74 in the UK singles chart (although the link below is to the (slightly different) album version).

https://youtu.be/SCPP_j6EwTo

[Brundle-Fly]

Melodious Thunk - Andrea Parker   Released on MoWax in 1996.





I remember at the time hearing this blasting out the speakers in Vinyl Experience record shop off the Tottenham Court Rd. The bass made my sternum vibrate. I asked the assistant what the track was and he wouldn't tell me, unless I bought it, adding "How do I know you won't just walk over the road and buy it in Virgin Megastore because they can afford to be much cheaper than us?"  So, I spent £2 more for the CD ep in Vinyl Experience because I would've done exactly as he said. I felt I owed him. It shut down the following year.

Vinyl Experience
https://didnotchart.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-decline-of-second-hand-record-shops.html

Andrea Parker is a British dance music producer from Pembury, Kent. Founder and owner the Touchin' Bass label. She used to work in the Fat Cat record shop.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBDEWOFA-0E&t

[daf]

Denim ‎– It Fell Off the Back of a Lorry



Released in February 1996 - reached #79 in the UK chart in April 1996

Following the end of his former group, 1980s post-punk outfit Felt, Lawrence Hayward moved into different territory with Denim, a band whose brash teaming of glam rock with cutting and highly satirical lyrics was very much the opposite of his previous work.

Denim debuted in 1992 with the album 'Back in Denim', a record which was both a revival (particularly with its glam rock influences and its mix of synth and guitar) and critique (in its satirical lyrics) of the 1970s music scene.



Lawrence : "After Felt, I moved to New York – I'd been living in Brighton and it was so boring. But as soon as I got there, Primal Scream were on Top of the Pops and it was all happening in Britain. I started thinking about my childhood in the 70s and how awful the 80s were. Then I went to a pawn shop, bought a guitar, and wrote Back in Denim."

A single, "Middle of the Road", was released from the album in January 1993 on Boy's Own Records.



Their second album, 'Denim on Ice' was preceded by a single "It Fell Off the Back of a Lorry". The album featured even more cutting lyrics with comment on the current state of music in England ("The Great Pub Rock Revival", a stinging attack on Britpop) and the realities of England's social malaise ("Glue & Smack" and "Council Houses").



The album earned Denim a support slot with Pulp, who were fans of Lawrence and his work.

[Smeraldina Rima]

The Donnas - Let's Go Mano! presented by Palo Alto High in 1996 or was it?



"I wanna be your Joey Ramone" Sleater-Kinney, 1996.

The Donnas were a Ramones inspired high school punk rock band made up of the same members of a high school punk rock band called (the) Electrocutes, which had started out in middle school as Ragady Anne. In 1995 and 1996, when the band members were about 16 and 17, both bands recorded their songs, but the thrashier, erratic Electrocutes' album -  Steal Yer Lunch Money - wasn't released until The Donnas had released their first two more easily marketable albums. And then the Electrocutes came to an end or passed their spirit on to The Donnas. Whereas the Electrocutes styled themselves as school bullies and killers of men and had difficult to hear lyrics, The Donnas clearly expressed a desire to commit a high school massacre in the 'I wanna' Ramones format: 'I wanna be a unabomber/ History teacher you're a goner/ It's no fun to sit at home/ Watching 90210 oh oh/ (oh yeah) oh no/ (oh yeah) oh no/ I hate all the kids at school/ They all think that they're so cool/ They just like to sit and taunt me/ Turn those kids into salami'.

The cover states that Palo Alto High presents "Let's go Mano!" despite this clear threat to the school, to its students and to its history teacher on the B-side. On Discogs, Darin Raffaelli's California record labels, Super-Teem and Radio X, are credited with releasing the early Donnas singles. One picture of a back cover suggests that it was part of a summer edition from Super-Teem in 1995 and that only the "Da Doo Ron Ron" single was released in 1996. But Wikipedia and Discogs both list "Let's Go Mano!" as a 1996 release. So cool your shit, dad. The back cover includes some slang terms - 'It's glitch', 'He's so rab' - and shows The Donnas wearing t-shirts that spell MANO. I don't know what 'Mano' is. Do you? It seems to be a fun place to go and a source of local pride. Don't know what 'rab' means, either, whether as a verb or an adjective in a number of songs by The Donnas. The following comment - this could easily have been me and feels like a kindred spirit - was posted on the "Let's Rab" page of the Songmeanings website:

The main question is the meaning of the word "rab". The Donnas are the only people I know of who actually use the word, and they use it quite often. I'm assuming it's sexual, since in their song "Hey, I'm Gonna Be Your Girl" it's used as follows:

Come on, baby, rab with me
You're the best dressed in Pali
You can make me go, go, go
Let's go to my room and blow!

So yeah. On the other hand, in other songs of theirs (e.g. "Let's Go Mano") the word is used as an adjective ("They're so rab").

I'm guessing it's a bit of local slang, specific to California or even just to the Bay Area.

Without knowing what 'mano' or 'rab' mean, it's difficult to understand this song.

[Smeraldina Rima]

Sleater-Kinney - I wanna be your Joey Ramone released on Chainsaw in 1996



Probably would have been the single from call the doctor if there had been one.

[Norton Canes]

Andrea Parker is a British dance music producer from Pembury, Kent. Founder and owner the Touchin' Bass label. She used to work in the Fat Cat record shop

She did a great remix of Depeche Mode's It's No Good

[daf]

The Divine Comedy – Your Daddy's Car (Radcliffe Session)



Recorded Live in Session for Mark Radcliffe's Radio 1 Show on 29 April 1996.

Released as the B-side of 'Becoming More Like Alfie' - reached #27 in the UK charts in August 1996

Casanova, the fourth studio album by The Divine Comedy, was released in April 1996 by Setanta Records. It was the band's commercial breakthrough, aided by the release of the album's first single, "Something for the Weekend", which reached No. 13 on the charts. Two other singles released from the album, "Becoming More Like Alfie" and "The Frog Princess", charted at No. 27 and No. 15, respectively.



Casanova exemplifies the influence of American singer-songwriter Scott Walker : "Through a Long & Sleepless Night" shares the same title as a track from Walker's first solo album, while "The Dogs and the Horses" is reminiscent of the chamber pop musical style of Walker's first four solo albums. Two of Casanova's songs were originally composed by Hannon as potential theme tunes for the 1995 sitcom Father Ted: Hannon's first attempt was rejected, and he reworked it to become "A Woman of the World"; his second attempt was accepted and used as the theme for the series, but was later reworked as "Songs of Love", which saw him eschew [bless you!] the original version's guitar for harpsichord.



Casanova featured more musicians than on the band's previous two albums, Liberation and Promenade, but like those two albums, Hannon performed the majority of the instrumental parts himself, with co-producer/drummer Darren Allison directing proceedings.



The album's closing track, "The Dogs and the Horses", recorded at Abbey Road Studios, features a large orchestral ensemble which includes future members of the live band, namely Joby Talbot, Stuart 'Pinkie' Bates, Grant Gordon, and Bryan Mills.

[Brundle-Fly]

Black Hole Sun - The Moog Cookbook. Released on Restless in 1996.



This is great fun but I suppose also annoying in equal measure. Mark Radcliffe was a fan of this track. Quelle surprise. It does prove the Soundgarden classic has an indestructible and irresistible melody though.

Jellyfish's Roger Manning's spin-off Moog duo that specialised in novelty covers of alternative and classic U.S. rock

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvCWxzaa5sA

[daf]

Well, you got in there first this time, Brundles, you tinker! Grrr! ;)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
(I'd actually pencilled in a different track from the album for later tonight, but I'll belay my selection for the moment - to give the thread bit of a moog breather!)

[daf]

DJ Shadow ‎– Midnight In A Perfect World



Released in September 1996 - reached #54 on the UK chart

DJ Shadow was born Joshua Paul Davis in Davis, California. He began his music career as a disc jockey for the University of California, Davis campus radio station KDVS. His early singles, including "In/Flux" and "Lost and Found (S.F.L.)", were genre-bending, merging elements of funk, rock, hip hop, ambient, jazz, soul, and used-bin found records.



In 1993, Mo' Wax's James Lavelle contacted Shadow about releasing "In/Flux" on the fledgling imprint. The association with Mo' Wax was a productive one. On a 1995 visit to the Mo' Wax Studios in London, Shadow was recruited to perform scratches on a Lavelle and Tim Goldsworthy mix of the Massive Attack song "Karmacoma".



Shadow's first full-length work, 'Endtroducing.....', was released in late 1996 to critical acclaim, and would go on to make the Guinness World Records book for "First Completely Sampled Album" in 2001. The only pieces of equipment Shadow used to produce the album were the AKAI MPC60 12-bit sampling drum machine, a pair of turntables and a borrowed Pro Tools setup from an early adopter of the technology, Dan "The Automator" Nakamura.



"Midnight in a Perfect World" was based around mournful piano sampled from the 1969 song "The Human Abstract" by David Axelrod. Aside from the Axelrod sample, the track also samples "Sower of Seeds" by Baraka, "Sekoilu Seestyy" by Pekka Pohjola, "Releasing Hypnotical Gases" by Organized Konfusion, "Dolmen Music" by Meredith Monk, and "California Soul" by Marlena Shaw.

[famethrowa]

Black Hole Sun - The Moog Cookbook. Released on Restless in 1996.

Love it. One of my favourite albums ever, spoke directly to me

[jamiefairlie]

Trembling Blue Stars - A Single Kiss

https://youtu.be/TRpxFkZDSjo



Trembling Blue Stars became ex-Field Mice singer Bobby Wratten's main band when Northern Picture Library broke up in 1995.  This is the opening track to debut album, "Her handwriting", a near-obsessive dissection of the break-up of his romance with ex-bandmate Annemari Davies (a theme he'd return to often throughout his career).

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Bobby Conn - Never Get Ahead



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03vrEJcEuew

In which an eccentric artist from Chicago creates an anti-capitalist I Want You Back. Profane protest you can dance to.

[jamiefairlie]

DJ Shadow ‎– Midnight In A Perfect World



Released in September 1996 - reached #54 on the UK chart

I'll throw this in as a back-up

DJ Shadow - Stem/long Stem

https://youtu.be/Ihr0y7ayGV0



Played this to death and still love it to bits. It reached number 35 in the Festive Fifty.

[Astronaut Omens]

Ghostface Killah featuring Raekwon and Cappadonna-Daytona 500 (video mix)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZGi2lyQJQs

Ghostface Killah is probably the Wu-Tang Clan member who's made the most decent solo tracks, but while a lot of his rhymes relate Mafioso crime narratives there are also tracks given over to surreal, opaque wordplay, like this one. There's a disassociated feel to this tune, heightened by the video which is all lifted, sampled you could say, from a 60s Japanese anime series, Speed Racer. (The musical sample is taken from Bob James' Nautilus). in 1996 Ironman was not a cartoon hero who was that well know, but an another forgotten bit of pop culture that was been lifted). On the Ironman album sleeve, Ghostface, Raekwon and Cappadonna are surrounded by pairs of Clark's Wallabee's shoes, which I think Ghostface was custom-dying and selling at the time as small business sideline.

Pop music always dances between artists expressing themselves directly, and artists playing musical games with their influences and reference points, but it does feel like in this period of our story, with this, the DJ Shadow stuff, the Entroducing sleeve in particular, the Moog cookbook track, Stereolab as well, the energy was tipping towards the latter around '96.

[Brundle-Fly]

Polly Brown - The Sugarplastic. Released on DGC in 1996.



Another American powerpop act that doff their hats to a certain songwriter who calls himself the 'Mayor Of Simpleton'.

The Sugarplastic are an alternative rock band founded in Los Angeles, California in 1989.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntosiWSXrgY