An Alternative History of "Pop" Music: Part 3, 2004 -

[Brundle-Fly]

I should really get involved in these threads. Here's my first ever submission!

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Over and Over Again (Lost and Found)





Clap Your Hands Say Yeah (often abbreviated CYHSY) is the musical project of American indie rock musician Alec Ounsworth. It was founded in 2004 and is based in Philadelphia and Brooklyn.

Quirky lyrics, an off kilter voice that sounds a fair bit like David Byrne, and a warm, clean and soothing indie groove that wouldn't sound amiss if it were performed by The Cure. The whole album's really really bloody good, so check it out if you like this song.

FINALLY! Welcome aboard! Good start.

[jamiefairlie]

The Clientele - (I Can't Seem To) Make You Mine



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMly2WrXx5Y

No strangers to this fine thread, The Clientele are a dreamy baroque pop group from London. This is taken from their third album Strange Geometry.

Beat me to it this time, aren't they great?

Here's my favourite from the album:

The Clientele - My Own Face Inside the Trees

https://youtu.be/aiUXvEnJ2dc

[Smeraldina Rima]

Judee Sill - Sunny Side Up Luck



Don't know if Judee Sill appeared in earlier threads. This is from Dreams Come True, a posthumous double album of unfinished songs. Jim O'Rourke mixed the eight songs intended for her third album for the finished sounding first disc. This recording from the second disc is an earlier version of the song called "Things are Lookin' Up" played on Farsifa organ. It was recorded at Tommy Peltier's home studio in 1973. If the timestamp doesn't work it starts at 2 minutes and 28 seconds.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Beat me to it this time, aren't they great?

I love 'em. A sorely underrated band.

Here's my favourite from the album:

The Clientele - My Own Face Inside the Trees

https://youtu.be/aiUXvEnJ2dc

Laaahvley.

[daf]

Don't know if Judee Sill appeared in earlier threads.

Once or twice! :

The Turtles - Lady-O
- - - -
Judee Sill- Jesus was a Crossmaker 
- - - -
Judee Sill - Crayon Angels
- - - -
Judee Sill - The Lamb Ran Away with the Crown

Sill has usurped Jackie DeShannon as this thread's favourite songwriter. ;-)

- - - -
Judee Sill- The Donor

Ha - that was going to be my pick! Plenty of crackers to choose from though, so we'll be hearing from her again before the year turns.

- - - -
Judee Sill - The Kiss

[Smeraldina Rima]

Cheers, daf.

[daf]

Kitty Daisy & Lewis ‎– Honolulu Rock-a Roll-a



Released in June 2005 - did not chart

Kitty, Daisy & Lewis are a British five-piece band fronted by the siblings of the Durham family. Their music is influenced heavily by R&B, blues, soul, punk, rock and roll, and West Indian music. They are all multi-instrumentalists playing guitar, piano, bass, drums, harmonica, banjo, lapsteel guitar, ukulele, xylophone, accordion, and more between them. Kitty Durham is the youngest of the group and primarily sings and plays drums, guitar, harmonica, ukulele, and banjo.

Kitty : "Our dad is Anglo-Indian, his family is from Bombay, While our mum is part-Norwegian and part-Romanian. When I was younger, I was a bit of a tomboy, but as I got older I become fascinated by certain looks. My mum is a keen dressmaker and she had lots of patterns in the attic inspired by '40s and '50s looks, that she made for us."



Both parents were musicians, with mum being a member of The Raincoats. Their first gig was when Kitty was just 10 years old.

Kitty : "It was a regular Sunday night gig called Come Down And Meet The Folks at a pub in Camden. We would go there as a family as it featured live music. I loved it as it was so exciting to go and see bands and singers. The first gig came about one week when the guy who ran the place found out that Lewis played banjo and invited him up on the stage to play. There was a drum kit on stage so I joined in, and my sister Daisy had learnt three chords on an accordion so she got up as well."

Daisy Durham, the eldest, primarily sings and plays drums, piano, accordion and xylophone. Lewis Durham sings and plays guitar, piano, banjo, lapsteel, and drums. The band built their own recording studio, which consists of mostly vintage analogue equipment and custom in-house built equipment.

Lewis : "We grew up with different instruments around so we would just play different things at different times. When it came to the stage, for certain songs we just naturally went to an instrument which felt right for it. I think it's great to be able to switch around between songs because everyone has their own way of playing each instrument so it can give a song a whole different feel depending on who's playing what."

[jamiefairlie]

That Summer - Simon Nardis

https://youtu.be/mZiNYiJUEyQ



That Summer is a French alternative rock/post-rock/ambient project. It was founded by David Sanson in Paris in the early 1990's.
This was recorded for their third album "Clear" but missed the cut and was then released as part of their record company's sampler album 'Talitres Is 5"

[Brundle-Fly]

Is It Any Wonder? - The Shortwave Set.  Released on Indepediente in 2005.





Keeping the post modern retro tweezy listening torch burning into the millennium for the likes of Nineties heroes, Saint Etienne, The Cardigans, Dub Star, The Gentle People et al?

The Shortwave Set were a British alternative pop band whose debut album, The Debt Collection, was released in 2005 on Independiente Records. The band's music combines sample-based music with more traditional songwriting and instrumentation to create a sound the group have described as "Victorian Funk". The band's second album, Replica Sun Machine, was released on 12 May 2008 by Wall of Sound. The band consists of Andrew Pettitt (vocals, guitar), Ulrika Bjorsne (vocals, guitar) and David Farrell (samples, decks). They formed in 2003 in London, though Ulrika Bjorsne is originally from Alstermo in southern Sweden.

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

[daf]

Ah - you beat me to it! Great song!

Here's the single sleeve :

[DrGreggles]

The Vanity Project - So. Cal
[Page] {Flagship Recordings}
(from the album The Vanity Project)



The Vanity Project was a collaboration between Stephen 'Tin Tin' Duffy and Steven Page of Barenaked Ladies.
The pair had been writing songs together since the mid-1990s, the majority of which appeared on the BNL albums Maybe You Should Drive, Born on a Pirate Ship and Stunt.
However, after this, BNL took the decison to keep all their future songwriting in-house, so the songs that Duffy and Page were writing had no obvious outlet.
The Vanity Project was the result of these songs and had been recorded over the preceeding 5 years or so in the gaps between BNL touring and recording.
The songs are varied, but very much out-and-out pop music, and they picked up plenty of airplay in North America. Unfortunately the small Flagship Recordings label couldn't agree a distribution deal in time and the album lost any momentum it may have had.
Interest in the album was revived with online streaming and Page's burgeoning solo career, and a full reissue is looking likely - along with a Volume II.
So. Cal is Page's celebration of the Californian sound of the late 60s.

[Clatty McCutcheon]

Roots Manuva - Too Cold

https://youtu.be/l3XPYj6yWHA



Roots Manuva, known to his mum as Rodney, is a rapper and producer from Stockwell, London. 'Too Cold', with its slightly baroque-sonding backing track, is from his third studio album 'Awfully Deep' and reached no. 39 in the UK singles chart when released as a single in March 2005.

[Smeraldina Rima]

Les Rallizes Dénudés - Enter the Mirror



From the 2005 box set Double Heads. Double Heads was reissued this year (2021). Part of the description of it from Cafe Oto's shop is below:

Between August 1980 and March 1981, Les Rallizes Dénudés (or The Naked Larrys, as the long-lost acetate they are rumoured to have recorded for Virgin Records in the mid Seventies dubbed them) played seven concerts in and around Tokyo. Never officially released, illicit nth generation cassette copies circulated in Japanese fan circles for many years, attaining a whispered, Holy Grail status amongst initiates to the Rallizes cult.

High quality soundboard versions were finally released by the secretive Univive label in 2005. Three of the best of these concerts were collected on Double Heads (and now this 7xLP Set), all recorded at Yaneura, a small club in the teeming neon teen shopping mecca of Shibuya in Tokyo.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Neil Diamond - Hell Yeah



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

In 2005, Neil Diamond recorded a 'back to my roots' acoustic album with producer Rick Rubin. As was the post-Johnny Cash style at the time.

I love Neil Diamond. His bombastic sincerity is such a beautiful, silly, endearing thing to behold. This song is indelibly etched within the soundtrack of my life; I was listening to it on headphones as I arrived, via train, into Glasgow in May of 2014. It heralded a brand new chapter in my life, a cautiously fresh start following the heartbreaking end of a ten-year relationship. Diamond's gauche self-affirmation made me smile, it was just the most perfectly ludicrous and heroic piece of music I needed to hear at that particular moment in time.

Thank you, Neil.

[Gregory Torso]

No Bra - Munchausen (The Most Mix)

"I used to share a squat with Nina Hagen in Camden and she used to make pizza out of dead cats."



Here's a couple of Nathan Barley types trying to out-cunt each other on a Hoxton dancefloor over some harsh big beats.

No Bra was born as an industrial/electronica band formed in East London, England, in 2003 by Susanne Oberbeck and Fanny Paul Clinton, combining electronic pop and industrial grooves with sinister Germanic folk. The band name was taken from a tabloid headline about Rachel Stevens.

[Bently Sheds]

Sacred Flowers - Miracle Fortress

From Miracle Fortress' self released (and virtually impossible to find) 5 song debut mini album Watery Grave



Miracle Fortress was the solo studio project of Montréal based multi instrumentalist Graham Van Pelt who released Watery Grave as "25 copy run of a CD-R." One of these disks found its way into the hands of the record label Secret City who funded the critically acclaimed and Polaris nominated follow up Five Roses.

Van Pelt was a member of Toronto-based post rock band Hidden in Buildings (that - as far as I can tell - released one album in 2004 Draw Your Sword And I Am Not Afraid which mixed samples of Gulf war audio, hip hop beats and post rock guitars) and was also a member of party rock band Think About Life.

Although both Miracle Fortress and Think About Life appear to be retired, Van Pelt continues to make music under his own name, albeit in a more electronic, dance-orientated style.

[Gregory Torso]

8Bit Betty - Blast Off!

Remember chiptune. Remember it. The crushed bits. The text-to-speech harmonies. The bounce. The glitches. It was never going to last but it was a lot of fun. 8Bit Betty remembers.



From the digital-only release 'Too Bleep To Blop'.

[daf]

Pure Reason Revolution ‎– Bright Ambassadors of Morning



Released in April 2005 - reached #68 on the UK charts.

The Sunset Sound were formed at the University of Westminster in 2003 by Jon Courtney (guitar, vocals, keyboards, bass), Jim Dobson (Keyboards, violin) and Greg Jong (guitar, vocals, keyboards). The band went through a number of name changes, including "The Wow" and "Pendulum Dawn", before settling on Pure Reason Revolution. Other members included Jon's bother Andrew Courtney (drums), and Chloë Alper (vocals, bass).

The band signed to Alan McGee's Poptones label for a one-off release of "Apprentice of the Universe", which peaked at #74 in May 2004 on the UK chart.



Signing to SonyBMG in autumn 2004, the following year saw the band released the 12-minute-long 'Bright Ambassadors of Morning' - the title was taken from a line in Pink Floyd's Echoes featured on their 1971 Meddle album.

[Brundle-Fly]

Your Love - Kid Carpet. Released on Tired & Lonesome in 2005





Bristol's early 21st Century's answer to Wreckless Eric? Check out the great lo-fi video even if you don't like the track.

Kid Carpet (born Ed Patrick) is a musician from Bristol, England. His music has been described as 'kiddy disco punk' and 'shit-hop', as it is recorded in his home studio using instruments such as samplers, Casio keyboards, and various children's toys including plastic Fisher-Price guitars and Tamagotchi innards.

Kid Carpet made his live debut at Bristol's Watershed Media Centre in May 2003. He was signed to the independent label Tired & Lonesome, who released his debut album, Ideas and Oh Dears in 2005. After the album release, he appeared on BBC Radio 1's Battle Of The One Man Bands. His second album, Casio Royale, was released on Rob da Bank's record label Sunday Best on 30 June 2008.His third album, which contains his sound track work from Alex Cox's film Repo Chick was released on dan le sac's Dumb Drum Records label in 2011.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNBCzN-2Vjw

[Astronaut Omens]

Here's a couple of Nathan Barley types trying to out-cunt each other on a Hoxton dancefloor over some harsh big beats.

Narcotic Syntax- Cowabunga!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SURlE04hPMw

There's more than a little of Nathan Barley to the Berlin hipster monologue about a nightclub on a beach during the first half of this tune," A boiling basement of sounds pulsating like the swell teases slinky bass licks". but the second (instrumental) half is a right banger, so stay with it. Narcotic Syntax are a group connected to the Berlin Berghaim/Panorama Bar scene lead by James Dean Brown aka Peter Weiss.

[Astronaut Omens]

Here's a couple of Nathan Barley types trying to out-cunt each other

Venetian Snares- Hajnal
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbJ63spk48s

On a related tip, I have so avoided posting some pretty good Venetian Snares music from 2002 onwards due to some shitty edgelord track titles and artwork, but on this great 2005 album (the title is Hungarian) he put aside all that and made something brilliant. So many people have tried classical/ dance music crossover tracks and ended up with something bloated and pretentious, but this tune really works (maybe because there's a lot of theft from (I think) Bartok, Stravinsky and Elgar rather than his own attempts at writing string music. (I think the press release at the time might have claimed he was playing some of the violins here, which I doubt very much).

[jobotic]

That album made me go out and buy Beatrice Harrison's Elgar's Cello Concerto on Naxos. It's great and the old recording makes it sound moodier. I think it's the recording he sampled.

[Astronaut Omens]

Thanks, I'll give that a listen. The samples on track you mean (Szamar Madar) are treated with so much reverb that it might be impossible to say exactly which recording he used (is some of it also replayed on a synth as well?)

Back when we were doing 1965 I kind of wanted to put in a link to Jacqueline du Pre's version of the Cello Concerto both because I love it and because Jacqueline's crossover celebrity status at the time made it one of a handful of classical records we could reasonable include without taking too much of a liberty with the 'pop' remit we're working on here...

[jobotic]

Yeah I actually think it might be Jacqueline du Pre's version he samples, quite hard to tell. I think I must have read it somewhere.

I bought another CD which had Beatrice Harrison playing accompanying a nightingale singing, and also (although i didn't know of it) this famous recording of a nightingale singing as RAF bombers fly overhead in 1942

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/magazine-35874257

How's that for thread derailment? Soz!

[Astronaut Omens]

How's that for thread derailment? Soz!

We need a break from the remorseless march of history sometimes.

[Johnny Foreigner]

Velvet Condom － Kalter Lippenstift

Velvet Condom are a French duo, known individually as Alice Gift and Oberst Panizza, originally from Strasbourg. In 2005, they formed a band there and recorded their first song, 'Kalter Lippenstift', which soon proved popular across the German border. They released their first album, VC, that same year. Velvet Condom was compared with The Cure and Kraftwerk.

We like both bands yes, but we don't have to forget the guitar influences from My Bloody Valentine and the noise and shoegaze scene. And of course we do love the classics like Brian ENO, Bowie, Gary Numan, Cure,... I m a huge glam fan.. love the handclaps, the echo effects, and martial drums like Gary Glitter or Sweet.

As they mostly sing in German anyroad, they relocated to Berlin in 2008.

[jamiefairlie]

Sigur Rós - Glósóli

https://youtu.be/Xanlcx0X2ho



Back with their first entry since 2002, it's from their fourth album "Takk..." and it's a typically slow moving, crescendo building slice of awe.

[The Mollusk]

So many people have tried classical/ dance music crossover tracks and ended up with something bloated and pretentious

If you've not heard them before, I recommend checking out "Brame" by Ruby My Dear and "Hallelujah" by Igorrr, two highly accomplished albums which nail the crossover of breakcore/classical music but also incorporating a lot of other styles from polka to baroque to black metal. "Hallelujah" in particular is excellent.

[Gregory Torso]

XXL - Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw



A collaboration between the bands Xiu Xiu and Larsen, and coincidentally a song I have felt the need to listen to repeatedly over the last few days.

[Smeraldina Rima]

Evergreen Days - Hollywood Pictures



Evergreen Days is Emelie Berg and "Hollywood Pictures" is the first song from her second EP, Something We Once Had, released in 2005 on Martin Sernestrand's Swedish indiepop label, My Secret Garden Recordings. Swedish indiepop was very big at the time in Sweden. Berg doesn't have much presence online but here's part of an interview with Sernestrand talking about the beginning of the label and Evergreen Days.

I think the most regarded releases of yours are the ones by Evergreen Days. How beautiful are the songs. She was also your first release. How did Evergreen Days ended up in My Secret Garden Recordings?

I meet Emelie Berg (ie Evergreen days) through mutual friends and I had since before knew and listen to her other project called The Set Designers. After buying the seven inch single released with The Set Designers Emelie Berg sent me some new songs on cd-r. After hearing these songs I immediately asked if I could release these songs. And so My Secret Garden Recordings had started.

[..]

Something about the label is how personal it was, there are these sort of pre-raphaelite and art nouveau influences in it. That's something that caught my attention. How important and how planned was this aesthetic for your label?

Yes, you are very attentive. It was a style (and still are) that I liked a lot. And I think that a lot of the releases, especially the Evergreen days releases, was very well planned. I wanted the music and the lay out to go hand in hand so you can see and feel what it all was about. Me and Emelie Berg (ie Evergreen days) seemed to have the same thought about almost everything (regarding the artistic appearance) without actually talking too much about it.

https://www.cloudberryrecords.com/blog/?p=2418

Trivia: The second song on Something We Once Had - called "Tonight" - was covered on a 2009 album by which of the artists upthread?

Answer:

Spoiler alert

The Clientele

[close]

Eurosport - Your Brother Is My Only Hope



Swedish synth-pop from a band who then had to change their name to Le Sport.