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

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

EDIT: Actually, no. I'm not going to nominate a track by Sean Tillmann, as I've just read a bit more about the allegations against him. Fuck that guy. He has no place in our groovy thread.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

On a brighter note...

The Shins - Fighting in a Sack

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FheM_qDwg6M



A song from one of my favourite albums of 2003. It holds a special place in my heart. We've heard from The Shins before, so there's no need for a potted biog. Needless to say, they're ace.

[Brundle-Fly]

Pantohorse - The Pearlfishers.  Released on Marina in 2003.





Another one of Glasgow's secret musical gems. One for the Prefab Sprout fans?

The Pearlfishers are a Scottish, Glasgow-based rock band, fronted by the singer and songwriter David Scott, who have been described by acclaim.ca as "one of Scotland's best-kept musical secrets". Other contributors include drummer Jim Gash, Dee Bahl, Brian McAlpine, Mil Stricevic and Duglas T. Stewart, also of the BMX Bandits.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAfaBA_flNQ&list=OLAK5uy_nH43xAqnMtM5ONA6TRrqkmeYIDxjH1n84&index=6

[Smeraldina Rima]

Broadcast - Colour Me In (Peel Session)



A performance of the first song from Haha Sound.

[jamiefairlie]

The Hollow - What You Give Is What You Get

https://youtu.be/5Vxfs2x1OmA



Seems to be their only release, they comprised Peter Duggal, Zaheer Kazmi & Gerard McGillian.

Very New Order sounding, if you like that kind of thing.

[DrGreggles]

Macka B & The Royale Roots Band - Lingua
{Salamta}
(taken from the By Royale Command album)



Opening track on Macka B's 16th (S-I-X-T-E-E-N) album, By Royale Command, his first recorded in collaboration with another act (The Royale Roots Band).

[DrGreggles]

The Darkness - Get Your Hands Off My Woman
[Hawkins/Hawkins/Poullain/Graham] {Atlantic}
(UK Single, reached #43)



Ludicrously OTT debut single by the glam rock revivalists.
Narrowly missing out on the Top 40 (probably due to the lyrics not aligning themselves too well with radio playlists), this was still the song that put them on the map.
Once Permission to Land was released a few months later they spent the rest of the year as one of the most successful bands in the country, with the album shifting 1.5 million copies in the UK alone.
Everything went off the rails for them shortly afterwards, but they're now a part of Christmas, whether you like it or not.
The Darkness get a lot of shit, some of it deserved, but their gig in Nottingham in 2002(?) remains one of my favourites.
Ben Folds' cover version is obviously terrific too.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

The Kills - Cat Claw



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKMRRVyc2h0

The Kills are a louche, minimalist Anglo-American garage rock duo formed by American singer Alison Mosshart and English guitarist Jamie Hince. This is track two from their debut album Keep on Your Mean Side, which was recorded in London's proudly analogue Toe Rag Studios.

[daf]

4 Poofs & A Piano – Camp Up Your Christmas



Released in 2003 - did not chart

4 Poofs and a Piano were the house band on the BBC One chat show Friday Night with Jonathan Ross throughout the show's run from 2001 to 2010. Ross introduced the band each Friday night with an innuendo-laden joke directed at homosexuality, or the supposed sex lives of gay men. As each guest moved from the green room to the studio, the band played a cover version of a song related to the guest or their field of work. Their camp performance was often highly exaggerated in its stereotypical cabaret manner.



Each week a guest was singled out for special attention by the band who wore specially printed T-shirts featuring the guest's face. This was usually a privilege bestowed upon the guest most deemed a cult figure or gay icon.

[Brundle-Fly]

70's 80's - Nightmares On Wax   Released on Warp In 2003.



We've already dealt with Nightmares On Wax way back on the 1991 phase of this thread.  This nostalgic number evokes those 'Eighventies' halycon days. Dedicated to all the the disgusting centrist Gen X-ers here. X

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

[jamiefairlie]

Andrew Kenny - Secrets of the Heart

https://youtu.be/bcfrU3uytsE



Former frontman of the The American Analog Set. This is a one-off EP he released with Death Cab for Cutie's Benjamin Gibbard.

He'd go on to form The Wooden Birds, but they're not very good.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Alfie - My Blood Smells Like Thunderstorms



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjGQFrp7nuc

Do you dig the sound of the Beach Boys when they went all druggy and weird? These chaps from Manchester certainly do.

Everything else I've ever heard by Alfie, who split up in 2005, has been completely unremarkable, but I'm glad they had this one (?) moment of psychedelic experimentation. It's quite the epic song suite.

[DrGreggles]

Weird Al Yankovic - Angry White Boy Polka
[Yankovic/Various] {Volcano}
(Taken from the album Poodle Hat)



Angry White Boy Polka is a medley of popular early 2000s hit songs set to a polka beat.
Yankovic: "The medley is a reflection on what songs I think would sound most ridiculous done as a polka and it reflected a genre of music that I thought probably would benefit from getting a polka treatment."
The songs included are: Last Resort by Papa Roach, Chop Suey! by System of a Down, Get Free by The Vines, Hate To Say I Told You So by The Hives, Fell In Love With A Girl by The White Stripes, Last Nite by The Strokes, Down With The Sickness by Disturbed, Renegades Of Funk by Rage Against the Machine, My Way by Limp Bizkit, Outside by Staind, Bawitdaba by Kid Rock, Youth Of The Nation by P.O.D. and The Real Slim Shady by Eminem.

[Brundle-Fly]

Bluebell Morning - Ooberman. Released on Rotodisc in 2003.





Twee for thee.

Ooberman are an English band with strong indie, folk and progressive influences first formed in 1997. They split up in 2003, shortly after the release of their second album Hey Petrunko, but announced their reformation in April 2006 and began releasing music again soon thereafter. Ooberman founders Dan Popplewell and Andy Flett met over a piano at their school in Bradford, 1988. The first band they set up was The Forestry Commission, with Flett's younger brother, Steve on bass guitar. The band's life soon ended when Popplewell moved to Liverpool, but the three friends kept in touch.
Steve Flett moved to Liverpool in 1992, and Andy Flett later joined him in 1996/7, after commuting back and forth from Birmingham where he was studying. Ooberman was then born, complete with Alan Kelly (Drums) and last member Sophia Churney (keyboards and vocals). The first Ooberman gig was in June 1997, and their eccentric live shows and quirky demos won them the 1997 BT Merseyside Arts Award for Best Newcomers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ix7SdXpcyxA

[Brundle-Fly]

.

[jamiefairlie]

.

Minimalistic, I like it.

[daf]

Ranking Full Stop by The Period Pains?

[Brundle-Fly]

Minimalistic, I like it.

We Have Been Here Before - The Caretaker. Released on V/vm Test in 2003.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJqcPJ1WKvI&t=83s

[Brundle-Fly]

4 Poofs & A Piano – Camp Up Your Christmas



Released in 2003 - did not chart

Christ, they were dire. I'd watch that show and couldn't decide whose face was the most annoying. Nothing homophobic here, their faces were collectively just really fucking smug and annoying. I'm sure they're lovely chaps.

[Clatty McCutcheon]

Fountains of Wayne - Hackensack

I think we've had some FoW on this thread before, so I'm going to duck out of doing a biog (apart from noting that the band took their name from a 'lawn ornament store' in Wayne, New Jersey) and just post 'Hackensack', from the 2003 album 'Welcome Interstate Managers'.

https://youtu.be/TVoFq7zc5po

[Gregory Torso]

Maher Shalal Hash Baz - Open Field



I thought about nominating the song 'Post Office' but I worked in a post office for most of last year, and the year before that, and it was horrible, ugly, miserable and this is the exact opposite of that. Tori Kudo and band, with a couple of the Pastels on this track, from the album 'Blues Du Jour'.

[Gregory Torso]

Cotton Casino - You're My Boy



First song from the first solo album from Cotton Casino, aka Kajino Tomoko, known for her work with the great Japanese psych bands Acid Mothers Temple and Mady Gula Blue Heaven.

[jamiefairlie]

British Sea Power - Blackout

https://youtu.be/JFQxadmrnJI



I think we've had BSP (or just SP nowadays apparently) already so just to say this is my own personal favourite off their debut album "The Decline of British Sea Power"

[daf]

The Sleepy Jackson ‎– Good Dancers



Reached #71 on the UK chart in October 2003

The Sleepy Jackson were formed in Perth, Western Australia in 1998 by Luke Steele (vocals and guitars), Jesse Steele (drums), and Matthew O'Connor (bass). Dan Bull joined the lineup in 1999 as the band's first live keyboard player.

They released the four-track EP 'Miniskirt' in 2000, followed by the six-track 'The Sleepy Jackson' EP also in 2000, and 'Caffeine In The Morning Sun', another six-track EP, in 2001.



In between live appearances, the band worked on recordings that were to become their debut album 'Lovers', which was released in June 2003. The album included the single "Good Dancers" as the opening track.

Come in #9 Dream, your time is up!

[Brundle-Fly]

Shake Your Dix - Peaches. Released on XL in 2003.





My goodness, she was ahead of her time. This still sounds like something that could be released today. The Fatherfucker album artwork is one for the 'Worst Album Sleeves' CaB thread though. They could've at least Photoshopped out the fake beard gauze.

Peaches AKA Merrill Nisker is a Canadian born musician, producer, filmmaker, actress, and performance artist.

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

[famethrowa]

The Sleepy Jackson ‎– Good Dancers

Fair dos to Luke Steele, they had a good sound and were ahead of everyone else, especially in their home country, when everyone else was clanking around in the garage trying to be the Strokes. But god damn he has an annoying face, annoying persona and keeps coming back again and again in the last 20 years, getting lauded by the press for yet another costly half-conceived release.

[Smeraldina Rima]

Come in #9 Dream, your time is up!

Never noticed this similarity before although I did think that a few of the songs sounded nicely George Harrisony. The beginning of "Vampire Racecourse" reminded me of The Beach Boys' "Wild Honey" too. I liked the last song, Mourning Rain, best. This was during a period when I was discovering my older brother's albums while personally still buying...

[Smeraldina Rima]

Lagwagon - I Must be Hateful



One of the songs from Lagwagon's Blaze. Joey Cape - who sings with Me First and the Gimme Gimmes - has a wonderful voice for this sort of melodic punk and I learned to play the song's guitar riff. This song is a bit similar to the Tony Hawk Skater hit "May 16" from Let's Talk About Feelings, which was about having fallen out with a friend and then seeing that he was getting married (they later became refriends and never talked about the song). This one sounds like a break-up song with some feelings left to resolve. It mentions the band Jawbreaker and their 1995 album Dear You as it looks melancholily at music and memories from the past. What a loser.



Dear You the vinyl it was blue

[jamiefairlie]

Club 8 - The Next Step You'll Take

https://youtu.be/4nnhqsbyeYE


   
60s retro soft listening, echoes of St Etienne and even Weekend. Taken from fifth album "Strangely Beautiful"

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Cat Power - I Don't Blame You



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4j-h7KDl9E

Chan Marshall, better known by her stage name Cat Power, is an American singer-songwriter, musician, occasional actress and model. Cat Power was originally the name of Marshall's first band, but has become her stage name as a solo artist. A bit like Alice Cooper.

I Don't Blame You is the first song on her sixth album, You Are Free, but it was the last to be written. "I remember when I was at the piano and we were mixing and I kept playing it over and over and over while no one was there," Marshall revealed in a 2003 Pitchfork interview. "They were playing ping-pong and stuff. So I just asked, 'Can I record this song real quick?'"

The song tells the story of a rock star who is destroyed by fame. For years, Marshall refused to comment on the commonly held theory that it was written about Kurt Cobain. When asked who the song was about in an interview with Helter Skelter, she replied, "You'll have to take a guess." When asked specifically if it was about Cobain, she replied, "It could be anybody!" In a 2012 interview with The Guardian, however, Marshall confirmed that the song was about Cobain. "I've never told anybody this, but that is about Kurt Cobain. It's about him blowing his head off."

Years before confirming it was about Cobain, Marshall offered a less specific explanation of the song's meaning. "I'll never tell you what that song is about," she told Salon in 2006. "That feeling of not being understood, but supposedly being understood by everyone ... being inside of a spectacle, it's like being a prisoner of war. I don't know if that makes sense. It would be like being in an insane asylum, where you are who you are, and the only person you've ever been is yourself, but then they want you to be someone else."