Happy Valentine's Day! Whether you subscribe to the notion of romantic love or not, I hope that you enjoy something that you love today. Perhaps it will even be this song!
Here's another little gem for you sent to us from our like-minded friend Alex over at Girlz on Vinyl. As with my last post, there is little to no info available on this release but the perfect pop vocals, rock leanings and big synth tick all the right boxes for me. I'm gonna put the B-side up first cause I love it just a bit more than the A-side. Gonna keep this short today as I have a lot to catch up on but I'll be back soon with more! (And hopefully more info!)
So, so, so much is changing in my life I can hardly keep up. I am super excited for summer. Loads of friends coming to visit, coming to stay, loaning me their cats temporarily, all topped off by a little trip home at the end of the month. And if everything goes to plan, a trip to London in August to scope out the city for THE BIG MOVE. That's right, you heard it here first, despite everyone's protestations, we are up and moving to the UK. Everyone keeps asking why and there are a million reasons, I can't even specify. But mostly, "Why not?" The land of my favorite bands and records of all time is calling. And, come on, those accents.
Anyway, here's a little song I have been playing a lot lately. The A-side for one of two singles released by Suzi Hendrix on Radio Records in 1979. Can't wait for my copy to come in the mail. I know it will probably not provide any more clues to this enigmatic record, but maybe, just maybe I can shake some info loose. In the meantime, you can listen here. I personally think it sounds as good as it looks and it looks pretty awesome.
Anyway, this will be short and sweet as I need all the sleep. As always, I hope to be back soon, and if not, later days!
I am completely lacking inspiration for anything interesting to say as a preface to this post. I got a new job and I am stressssssssed and feel like I am the only X-Files fan who thinks the new season is going to be terrible and would really like to take a week of to sew and transcribe old interviews. But, alas, squeezing in a little blog post is all I can muster. In fact, my eyes are closing now listening to this Generation Loss song that's I've been humming all day so let's get this over with.
Luckily for my mental state there's not a lot to say about this band that Lila Shaara hasn't written up on her site and which goes as follows:
"Many, many, many years ago, I was in the first all-female punk band in North Carolina. We were called the Mutettes. We made a single (as they called them in those days) on vinyl. The two songs were called “Leatherette Heart” (written and sung by Patricia Marterer) and “Shark on the Beach” (written and sung by me, Lila Shaara). It was recorded at Mitch’s Drive In, Mitch Easter’s studio in Winston Salem. REM had recorded there, which impressed us a lot. Mitch was very nice, and did a good job for not too much money.
The Mutettes were mostly Pat Marterer (guitar), me (guitar), Elaine Craddock (bass), and a number of different drummers. (Our first bass player was Shari Alexander, but Elaine was in the band much longer.) Pat and I did most of the singing. Our first drummer was Sue Sneddon, who is a professional artist now, and paints some of the most beautiful pictures I've ever seen. She is also a great percussionist, and plays with the Mobile City Band (mobilecityband.com) in Durham, NC. After Sue left the Mutettes to pursue her painting, Lesley Webster (pictured on the single cover above, far left, standing up) played drums with us for a while, and then Jan Hanks (a man!) played drums with us for the last year the band was together." - Lila Shaara
Here's a video I threw up on YouTube but I believe you can download both sides of the single over at Ear-responsibility HERE if you are so inclined, and those links still work.
Anyway, I am off to bed. Who knows when I'll be back. Maybe once I finally have this mental breakdown I've been nursing for about 6 months. Anything is possible! Enjoy.
So, I had intended on doing lots of bloggy posts during the holiday break but that didn't end up happening so much. Most of my time was spent on holiday cheer, house guests, hostessing and cleaning up from home renovations and said festivities. Oh, and I made half a mixtape.
Anyway, I did manage to get some research done on things I was going to post, although most of it was a dead end. Whilst I was looking into the group Terminal Fun, who you will thank me for posting later, I came across this gem and only because both singles were produced by the prolific and mysterious Joe Bull. Joe also produced records for (get ready for it): Gothic Girls, European Toys, The Mob, Sad Lovers and Giants along with a load of lesser known bands. I did not manage to shake anything else loose about these two groups, or Sindy & the Action Men which also appears on the list and who I'll also cover later. But, as always, my search continues. I feel like he is the keeper of the keys on this, or maybe not but it's the best lead I have at this point.
Anyway, here's the Corvettes, out of Brighton which happens to be one of my favorite hot beds of this era. Emma Sharpe, The Objeks, April and the Fools, Helen McCookerybook/The Chefs, The Mockingbirds, Bright Girls/Devil's Dykes, and on and on it goes, all from Brighton/the Vaultage Comps, and I know I'm forgetting some. There is a small article on the Brighton Punk website about the Corvettes HERE which also adequately conveys how incestuous this scene was. If you have a sec, this site also offers an extensive "jukebox" of MP3s which are worth a listen. ANYWAY, I always tend to ramble and have to cut myself off, especially when I haven't been able to post in a while. Without further ado, Corvettes:
Last thing, if anyone has any info on this group, knows or was a former member, as always I can be reached here, our FB page or at muzorewisdaughter@hotmail.com. I have a super intriguing theory about the singer of this band and would love to get some confirmation on it.
I don't have time to say much tonight, maybe for the best. I have so much to do before going out of town Friday but I really wanted to put this up. The other night during my set I played this Hilary song, Drop Your Pants. Long story short, everyone wanted to know what it was, so here it is. HILARY. I am shocked this record doesn't have a bigger cult following. I see Drop Your Pants up there with the best new-wavey, sarcastic 80's ladies anthems and it totally reminds me of the Kate Fagan and Anemic Boyfriends jams I have posted here before. And personally, I think the rest of the record is pretty catchy as well. Sadly, Hilary only ever wrote four songs released across two records. She passed away in 2007. There is a pretty comprehensive, although a bit outdated, fan site dedicated to her HERE where you can download all four songs. Here's her hit though, Drop Your Pants.
Man, what a fucking day. Got on my bike to go to work and the front wheel fell off, inexplicably, when I started riding. Rushed to take the metro, which was jam packed, of course, and some guy took the chance to grab my butt. Work was hell and there must be something in the air because everyone was grumpy all over today. But, for all the lows, there were some very nice highs. Amongst them, an acquisition of some records sorely missing in my collection. I am not going to brag but in among those is one of my favorite records from Quebec and here we are with this post about two bands from our fair province.
I will start with Térapi. Just one self titled 7" with four songs out in 1982. You can go like them on Facebook HERE and mostly keep up with the singer's current solo career. Here's such a Quebec jammy jam.
Now, onto Kaméléon. The singer of which still lives in Montreal and does some pretty rad shit. You can check out her current "electroacoustic" music HERE. This particular record is pretty disco-y but stupid catchy. But, judge for yourself.
Anyway, NDY is coming up so I will be back soon with some Toronto bands for you. Maybe even something before them?
Oh man. It's been a minute since I checked in here. I have been deathly ill for about a week and simultaneously slammed at work so, I've been going to bed at about 9 every night. Right now I am about 75% human, about 25% snot, but working on bringing that latter percentage down. Anyway, pretty much the only other thing I have been doing for the last week is listening to disco. I know what you're going to say but just hear me out. It's awesome. That's all the semi-convincing I have the energy to do. Anyway, if that's not enough, here's a song I have been jamming a lot lately. I think it's pretty fucking catchy and totally Canadian, eh? Meet Valerie Krystal. Man, there are so many things I like about this but mostly it's her little kid voice. I was only gonna post Jailbait, my favorite song of hers, but Tic Toc is like a new wave Sparks song so I'm putting it up for you too. I just can't stop, I love her so.
Anyway, the actual reason I'm posting this is to lead into this: next Thursday, May 8th, to be exact, I am going to be doing an ODIF inspired DJ set at Minimale Musique. I have a lot of tricks up my sleeve for this night and I hope you can all come out and drink, dance, both or neither. The event info is HERE. I hope to see some of y'all there. Bring your dancing shoes. TGIF!
Love,
Megon
It's definitely the kind of day to listen to over-dramatic electro-rock. Mondays are hard, and they are double-hard after such long weekends. I am still feeling exhausted, dehydrated and highly emotional after a weekend that essentially lasted two weeks. Just have to get through November and I can hibernate till spring.
Anyway, this is Great City. Not much info about them floating around out there. If you want to download the album, you can do so HERE, I would recommend it for no other reason than the track Tell Me I'm Yours which is pretty great. Here are a couple of the other best tracks, I Remember and Too Much Thunder. Ok, happy Monday to you all, if there is such a thing.
