I Smiled Yesterday #4

Just some records we've been listening to while in isolation.

1. Billy Gault - The Time Of This World Is At Hand
2. Cymande - Zion I
3. Emanative - Love In Outer Space (Celestial Love Mix)
4. The Tee Holman Sextet - The Rudie
5. Zorro Five - Good Books
6. Phantom Slasher - Nicoteen
7. Byron the Aquarius - Traveling Again
8. Glen Brown and King Tubby - Version 78 Style
9. Dr. Alimantado - Chant To Jah
10. The Umbrellas - Never Available
11. The Reds, Pinks & Purples - Keep Your Secrets Close
12. Failed Flowers - Faces
13. Jeanines - Too Late
14. This Poison! - You;--Think!!

Just a little mix of some groovy power-pop, girl group sounds and a bit of mod action. Dark days call for fun music.

1. The Plimsouls - Zero Hour
2. Bram Tchaikovsky - Girl Of My Dreams
3. The Records - Starry Eyes
4. Nick Lowe - So It Goes
5. The Only Ones - Another Girl, Another Planet
6. The Undertones - Teenage Kicks
7. Buzzcocks - I Don't Mind
8. The Rubinoos - I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend
9. The Spongetones - She Goes Out With Everybody
10. The Beatles - All My Loving
11. The Ronettes - Baby, I Love You
12. Earl-Jean - I'm Into Something Good
13. The Toys - Lover's Concerto
14. The Cinderellas - Baby Baby I Still Love You
15. The Pussywillows - The Boat That I Row
16. The Equals - I Get So Excited
17. The Kinks - Picture Book
18. The Jam - Boy About Town
19. Orange Juice - Holiday Hymn
20. Elvis Costello - (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love And Understanding?

No great plan for this one and not exactly bursting with rarities to prove what an awesome downloader I am. Just a mix of some stuff I've been listening to lately, old and new.

1. New Order - Ceremony
2. The Ropers - Transparent Day
3. Human Switchboard - (Say No To) Saturday's Girl
4. Able Tasmans - Wednesday (She's Coming Round)
5. Let's Active - Every Word Means No
6. Roommates - Kelly, I'm Not A Creep
7. The Boo Radleys - Lazy Day
8. Small Reactions - Nerve Pop
9. Merchandise - I Locked The Door
10. Big Troubles - Time Bomb
11. Permanent Collection - The Kids
12. Golden Grrrls - I Don't Want You Anyway
13. Sea Pinks - A Pattern Recognition
14. Zebra Hunt - Half Right

The Boy And The Cloud is back with another smashing selection of girl group, garage, sunshine pop and soft rock. His Heaven Is Above Your Head #14 podcast is full of amazing obscurities that are sure to send you scurrying to eBay in no time. It sure had that effect on me!

1. We Five - Love Me Not Tomorrow
2. The Girls - Here I Am In Love Again
3. The Plagues - I've Been Through It Before
4. The Terminals - In And Out Of My Mind
5. The Folklords - Child
6. The Deep Six - Winds of Morning
7. The British North-American Act - Only A Dream
8. The Coastliners - See Me
9. The Penthouse 5 - You're Always Around
10. Something Young - On, Don't Come Crying Back To Me
11. Tommy Boyce - Pretty Thing
12. The Higher State - Clear Motive
13. Sonny Villegas - Help Me, Help You
14. Janie Grant - And That Reminds Me
15. Ohio Express - Stop Take A Look Around
16. The Sheffields - Do You Still Love Me
17. Les Bof! - Vivre Avec Toi
18. The Gremlins - Oh My Word
19. Every Mother's Son - Rain Flowers
20. The Off Set - You're A Drag
21. Charlotte & Emily - Please Stay With Me

{'br': None, '#text': 'Over at None More Twee, we usually talk about the latest and greatest indie pop around but for this mix, I went back to the roots of twee for a big chunk of bubblegum, added some soul, some crazed glam rock, a few novelty tunes (can never get enough of those) and a track from my favorite punk band, then mixed it up for maximum dance party effectiveness.

1. Rick Springfield - We\'re Gonna Have A Good Time - This early 7T\'z rocker comes from an album you need to track down called Mission Magic. I think I\'ve started every mix of the past five years or so with this song.
2. Andy Kim - You Got Style - AK may have been a total Neil Diamond wanna-be, but sometimes he equalled his idol. Like here, for example.
3. Tommy Roe - Cinnamon - Nothing but love for T-Roe. He\'s the patron saint of NMT. One listen to this track and you\'ll know why.
4. Geno Washington And The Ram Jam Band - Feeling So Good (Skooby Doo) - Super groovy cover of the Archies\' classic by a guy who made some great bubblesoul jams but is also a trained hypnotist and Peter Noone\'s brother in-law.
5. Sylvie Vartan - Garde Moi Dans Ta Poche - She totally destroys the Four Tops\' "I Can\'t Help Myself" with a piledriver beat and some surprisingly tough vocalizing. Check the recent collection on Rev-Ola for more awesome Vartan sounds.
6. Little Eva - Get Ready/Uptight - More than a one-hit wonder, Little Eva made some killer records and this is the best of them. Makes me wish someone had signed her to Motown or Stax.
7. The Osmonds - Down By The Lazy River - Yeah, the Osmonds! Don\'t laugh until you hear this jam. It\'s cheesy but the good kind of cheese, the kind they give out as samples in grocery stores that you can\'t stop eating even though the staff keeps giving you dirty looks.
8. Jacques Dutronc - Le Responsable - Dutronc is a heavy dude and when he gets down to rocking, he\'s gonna rock you for reals.
9. The Messengers - That\'s The Way A Woman Is - Amazing bubblegum rocker on Motown of all places.
10. The Equals - My Life Ain\'t Easy - Eddy Grant? Eddy Grant! The Equals have few equals when it comes to hard rocking bubblesoul. Few equals...geez.
11. Lulu - Love Loves To Love Love - Lulu doesn\'t get much credit for tearing shit up but she really could. This track features some great Jimmy Page studio weirdness.
12. Honeybus - The Breaking Up Scene - My heroes Comet Gain borrowed some of this song for "Villain" way back on Casino Classics. The Honeybus version has some hot guitar action and a footstomping beat. Which is weird because the rest of their output consisted of heartbreakingly beautiful orchestrated pop that\'s almost on par with the Left Banke.
13. Mud - Tiger Feet - You haven\'t really lived until you\'ve seen the Top of the Pops clip of Mud performing this song. It\'s like a four minute lecture on why rock & roll is so glorious, only it\'s way more fun than that. Even without the visuals this song should bring your party to a fever pitch.
14. The Saints - Do the Robot - Sometimes people forget that punk rock could be a hell of a lot of fun. Most of the Saints tracks are as serious as death, but this song is a good time jam.
15. Bobby Freeman - C\'mon And Swim - It\'s the middle of winter here in Michigan but I reflexively reached for my swimsuit when this track came on. Bobby\'s just so persuasive!
16. The Revillos - Scuba ScubaIf these guys had ever played on a bill with the B52\'s, it would have been one of the greatest nights in pop history. The only pairing I can think of that would be better is the Archies and the Banana Splits.'}

Heaven Is Above Your Head was a weekly radio show and podcast while I was living in New Zealand. For the second hour of every show my friends and I would all play exactly what we wanted and maybe have a dance. They have kept the slot and you can now listen to Simply Thrilled (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=118285020973) every Saturday on non-commercial station Fleet FM (http://fleetfm.co.nz/), at 9pm local time or 9am GMT. If you happen to miss it they usually post a link on the Anorak forum afterwards. The previous episodes of HIAYH can all be found on my blog (http://heavenisabove.blogspot.com/). So the theme for this is 60s music, but avoiding the collectors scenes of garage and northern soul. What I ended up with was this great set of soft pop, haunted by the spirit of the Pye and Immediate labels. I was going to make it like an ordinary radio show at first, with spoken links, cause I felt I had a lot to say about the songs at the time. That was a couple of months ago though, so now I just mixed them together as they are. I hope you will appreciate the blending of some proper hits with more obscure would-be hits. Like the British group Thursday's Children who only released one single in 1965. And "Among the First to Know" which is one of my all-time faves, and has been covered by The Happy Balloon. The Mascots was a Swedish Hollies-styled group, here showing off their freakbeat side with a track from their great and only lp *EELPEE*. The American Breed had a couple of hits, but this string-laden ballad can't keep me from thinking of Belle & Sebastian. The Chants are notable for being a black vocal group from Liverpool, whose live debut took place in 1962 with The Beatles backing them. Read their story here: http://www.triumphpc.com/mersey-beat/a-z/chants.shtml! The group The Missing Links here is not the Australian one, but an American with one single to their name. Harmony Grass was a late 60s mutation of the Beach Boys-influenced Tony Rivers & the Castaways. And The Raindrops was of course the pseudonym used by the late great Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry for their own recordings. Enough talk.

1. The Outsiders - Gimme Some Lovin'
2. Marc Eric - Just Passing By
3. The Ivy League - A Girl Like You
4. The Missing Links - You Hypnotize Me
5. The Two of Each - Trust
6. The Happenings - Crazy Rhythm
7. The Exciters - Tell Him
8. The Scots of St. James - Tic Toc
9. The Macots - Close Your Eyes
10. The Searchers - Have You Ever Loved Someone
11. Dino, Desi & Billy - Not The Lovin' Kind12. The Gentle Touch - Among The First To Know
13. Lee Hazlewood - She Comes Running
14. The Critters - Come Back On A Rainy Day
15. Chris Montez - What A Difference A Day Made
16. The American Breed - Sometime In The Morning
17. Thursday's Children - Just You
18. The Poets - I'll Come Home
19. The Raindrops - That Boy Is Messing Up My Mind
20. Harmony Grass - My Little Girl
21. The Chants - She's Mine
22. The Miracles - The Tracks of My Tears

Running a Temperature Revival is not a podcast, a mix, set, session, cassette, or cd-r. It is a correspondence from one person to several, however many, or few. Not to be numbered or finite, but dated for it's place in time and unclear how strong and for how long this communique can endure. 10 songs (no more, no less) appropriated from their original composers and pieced together into an interpretive narrative as told from the rooftops of Brooklyn to any number of unique and diverse geographic locales, and the climates they inhabit. Back to basics.

1. The Birthday Party- 'The Friend Catcher' (Live 1981-'82. 4AD)
2. EDMX- 'You Can't Hide Your Love (Hidden Love Mix)' (26 Mixes For Cash (Aphex Twin), Warp)
3. Bo Diddley- 'Pollution' (Another Dimension, Chess)
4. Les Rallizes Dénudés- 'Black Sad Straw Raincoat' (High or Die, bootleg)
5. Sugarbelly- 'Shake Up Adinah' (Sugar Merengue, Port-O-Jam)
6. The Liverbirds- 'Leave All Your Old Loves' (Star Club Show Vol. 4, Star Club)
7. Bogshed- 'Can't Be Beat' (Step On It, Shelfish)
8. The Honeymoon Killers- 'Fonce a Mort' (Les Tueurs De La Lune De Miel, Crammed)
9. Tracy Thorne- 'Seascape' (A Distant Shore, Cherry Red)
10. Art Ensemble of Chicago- 'Bye Bye Baby' (Certain Blacks, America)

Stew is back with another smashing selection of punk/DIY/pop classics and rarities. Unfuckwithable!

1. THE BACHELOR PAD country pancake (live. - from the "Frying Tonight" 7inch EP, Egg Records, 1989
2. SPARKLE MOORE skull and crossbones - Fraternity Records 7inch, 1956
3. THE BUFF MEDWAYS archive from 1959 - from the 3 X LP "Archived From 1959", Damaged Goods, 2009
4. SOFT PAWS desperate idealism - from the self titled, self released debut LP, 2009 available from myspace.com/softpawsband
5. THE MAGGOTS lets get, lets get Tammy Wyynette - from the 7inch EP reiusse on Discourage Records, 2007
6. AMY AND THE ANGELS i hate being in love - from the compilation LP "Making Waves", Girlfriend Records 1980.
7. BEATNIK FILMSTARS crushed - from the 7inch on Satisfaction Records, 2009
8. JOSEF K heart of song - from the LP "Young And Stupid/Endless Soul", Supreme International Editions, year unknown
9. CRABSTICK treacle - from the LP "Discoverooster", 555 recs 2001.
10. THE MONKS pretty suzanne - from the "Black Monk Time" double LP reiusse on Light In The Attic Recs, 2009.
11. KIRSTY AND THE HUSBANDS sitting in a disco - from "8 from 80" 7inch EP, Matchbox Classics 1980.
12. THE HOMOSEXUALS slow guns - from the 10inch EP "Love Guns?" on Serious Business Records, 2008.
13. LUSTY GHOSTS doing the undoing - from the Cassette "Lusty Ghosts Two" on Refill Records, 1981.
14. ELVIS COSTELLO change partners - from the double LP "Secret Profane and Sugarcane" on Speciality Records, 2009.

After 7 days locked in his office and full of swine flu, Crayola's cabin fever was becoming intense. He'd listened to nothing but old Fall albums for 144 hours and was ready to cut off his ears. Then he had a plan to escape this self imposed aural purgatory - POP MUSIC!
But how?
Ah yes, a podcast.
For who?
Ah yes, Slumberland.
Did it work?
YES IT BLOODY DID!

1. Dr. Strangely Strange "Strangely Strange But Oddly Normal" (Excerpt)
2. The Creepers "Curl Up And Dye"
3. World Sanguine Report "Third One Rises"
4. Tattie Toes "Amapola"
4. Rancid Hell Spawn "Gas Mask Love"
5. The Jazz Butcher "Next Step Sideways"
6. VPN "Bent Metal"
7. The Scaramanga Six "You Should Have Killed Me When You Had The Chance"
8. The Beloved "This Means War"
9. Dr. Feelgood "Roxette"
10. The Golden Strings "Walked Out Of The Door"
11. Dog Faced Hermans "In A Row"
12. The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band "I Won't Hurt You"
13. DeSalvo "Oedipus Rising"

Hej, my name is Martin and I played drums for the Faintest Ideas/ javelins when we were around. These ögnhalsmottagningen that me and Stew Boyracer formed over the phone in late 2007. Apart from that I make hip hop/ dance music under the name Acid Lindgren, play guitar in a new band that might be called Anti-social Darwinists, Pretentious Assholes, Compulsive Record Collectors (or something completely different) as well as DJ under the monkier ADHDJ (thanks for the name Marisa). I live in Gothenburg, Sweden and one of my dreams is to one day have enough money to release a vinyl box of everything The Capstan Shafts will ever record. I am allergic to lactose, and think Chuck Reutter and Mike Spiegs should move to Sweden and start a band with me. Some of this stuff is actually true.

1. Huggy Bear "Her jazz" (7", Wiiija/Cat Call, UK, 1993) – Huggy Bear is, together with Black Flag, Minor Threat, Bikini Kill, Boyracer and Beat Happening the most important and influential bands ever in my book. Everything about the band was, and is still so exciting to me, and why I never went to Emmaboda to see them in 93 still puzzles me to this day.
2. The Carpettes "Small wonder" (7", Small Wonder, UK, 1978) – A totally perfect punk song (with a simple, but amazing drum beat in the chorus) that sums up everything that's so great about D.I.Y. in a few lines, so just sing along; "I don't need record companies that wanna rule me/ all of them think so obscene/ but I don't care about publicity/I just don't care for your generosity/ Small wonder/ they give you the bright idea to be a star/ you'll never make it, you'll never go far/ they say a good musician has gone to waste/ I tell you it's just a stupid taste/ Small wonder/ you talk about popularity/ d'ya think that it's a wise move?/ the useless generation knows nothing, so what does it prove?/ I can tell you straight to your face/ small wonder, the saviour of the human race yeah!/ Small wonder"
3. Lockjaw "Radio call sign" (7", Raw, UK, 1977) – I can't resist to include at least one release from Lee Wood's Raw label as he released way too many great bands. This is the band that introduced Simon Gallup of the Cure to the world, and the song got enough energy to light up a medium sized Swedish town. Great drum rolls and fantastic Spaceward production.
4. Svart "Otålighetens gräns" (7", Stranded, Sweden, 1980) - This song is taken Svart's debut EP, which is one of Sweden's finest post-punk releases. The band did an LP the year after this 7" was released, and even if the LP has some great songs it could never match the ones on their debut. I think this just might be the first Swedish indiepop record.
5. Roadrunners "Love me as I am" (7", Beluga, Sweden, 1999) – The Roadrunners were one of Sweden's finest neo-garage bands that had everything I want from a band it that genre. They looked great, had great production on their records, and most important, they knew how to write killer tunes. All of their 7inches and EP's are well worth searching for, even if this is their best song in my opinion.
6. Hormones in Abundance "Bad songs, bad people" (7", Heavenly Pop Hits, Sweden, 2004) – Bad people get the bad songs they deserve and in my opinion Patrik is one of the greatest song writers in Sweden. 41 seconds of indiepop perfection!
7. Unrelated Segments "Story of my life" (7", Hanna-Barbera, USA, 1966) – 13 years before Dead Kennedys released "California über alles" these Michigan kids released this amazing slab of proto punk thrash, and in my opinion it seems like Jello Biafra owes quite a lot to the Segments lead singer Ron Stults when it comes to vocal delivery. This was the bands first 7" out of 3, and they are all equally great and intense.
8. ABKK "Ronny" (7", EFMD, Sweden, 1981) – Fast, faster, fastest, weird, weirder and weirdest keyboard in the history of Swedish punkrock! This is released on the same label as Tuppjukk and Dom Vässade. EFMD stood for Enad front mot disco (United front against disco) and the label took lessons from Desperate Bicycles and printed the breakdown of the total printing costs on their record sleeves.
9. Lars Langs "Chartertönt" (7", Pels-Votten, Sweden, 1980) – This song is taken from Lars Lang's only EP, that's thanks to a typo is called "Greatest Hit" instead of "greatest hits" and it's one of my favorite Swedish 7inches. 5 songs and they are all as great as this one.
10. Mizz Nobody "Smittad" (7", DO 69, Sweden, 1978) – Mizz Nobody was Sweden's answer to The Petticoats or Poly Styrene and this is once again one of my favorite songs. Pay close attention to the amazing guitar sound she managed to come up with, and pay even closer attention to the killer guitar break in the middle of the song.
11. Push Kings "Florida" (7", Double Agent, USA, 1996) – Together with Pants Yell! and The Remains, The Push Kings are among the best pop bands ever from Boston, and this is probably my favorite song by these well-dressed pop stars. Anyone who knows what happened to them; feel free to let me know.
12. The Jumpers "My girl" (7", Dront, Sweden, 1982) – These young small town mods only released one EP, where this is the best song. It's not the best mop top song from Sweden by far, but it still got a guitar line and melody that I just can't resist.
13. Lee Kings "On my way" (Flexi, Bildjournalen, Sweden, 1966) The Lee Kings was pretty much your average 60's teen band, but on this flexi they sure gave the Who and The Sorrows a run for the money when it came to feedback driven breaks. I'm pretty sure Stew Boyracer will like this one.
14. Mecano Ltd. "Face cover face" (7", No Fun, Holland, 1978) – Here's some great and raw Dutch punk on the legendary No Fun label that also released one of the best punk records of all time; The Helmettes' "I don't care...". From what I can understand from their discography the band is still around in some form, but this 7" is basically all you need from them in my humble opinion.
15. Boyracer "Where to place yr trust?" (12", 555, USA, 2009) – Boyracer is one of my favorite bands and Stewart is a great friend of mine, and not to mention an amazing song writer, so not including them in this set would just be preposterous. This song is takes from the LP version of Happenstance that was first released as a CD by HHBTM, but as the LP's got a few bonus tracks I highly recommend you to pick up a copy of this release as well as everything else Stew's got in stock before it's too late. In the songs I wrote for javelins/ The Faintest ideas I borrowed (or stole) so much from Boyracer that I owe them royalties for the rest of my life I guess.
16. Von Gam "Hasse parasit" (7", Gam Produktion, Sweden, 1980) – Brilliant and quite noisy punk from these young kids from Hovmanstorp (situated next to nowhere) produced by Sticky Bomb from Kriminella Gitarrer and demon producer Pål Spectrum. This song is about a creepy bastard who only lives for profit.
17. The Misfits "She" (7", Blank, USA, 1977) – The first recording by the Misfits is their finest moment according to me. I love that Glen played a Farfisa organ through a fuzz pedal instead of bothering with finding a guitar player. Sloppy card board drums, the way too loud mixed bass and Glen's amazing voice together makes this the best version of this fantastic song.
18. Pizzoar "År 3000" (7", Massproduktion, Sweden, 1980) – The Faintest Ideas covered this song for the Yellow Mica compilation "Wearing our punk rock hearts on our sleeves", but our version could never hold a candle to the original version. No surprise there I guess, even if I really liked Christoffer's weird and one of a kind accent on our version.
19. Milky Wimpshake "Dialling tone" (7", Ferric Mordant, UK, 1999) – Daniel who played guitar for the Faintest Ideas introduced me to Milky Wimpshake and for that I'm forever thankful to him. This is such a great song and I wish I could write songs as good as this one.
20. Bugs "Bloody mess" (7", Bugs, Sweden, 1979) – A bunch of very young kids who had a drummer who never figured out how to use the kick drum, so they just ignored that part of the drum kit. The singer counts in the song by saying 1,2,3, shotgun! Brilliant!
21. Kriminella Gitarrer "Vårdad klädsel" (7", Kloaak, Sweden, 1978) – This 7" recorded in December 1977 has been labeled Sweden's first punk record sung in Swedish. Two of the most magic minutes in punk record history!
22. The Zeros "Radio fun" (7", Small Wonder, UK, 1977) – I listen to the radio a lot when I'm at home or at work, so what could be better than a song that celebrates the fun with radio? Most of the early releases on the Small Wonder label are equally great as this one, so do yourself a favor and keep an eye open for that label when you go through the records at your favorite 2nd hand shop.
23. Bad Town Boys "Borrowed time" (7", Dionysus, USA, 1990) – The first time I heard this song I was sure it was a recording from the early 80's, but it's actually written and recorded during the late hair metal period and released long before the entire retro punk wave became fashionable. This is one hell of a song!
24. Richard Berry and the Pharaohs "Louie Louie" (7", Flip, USA, 1957) – The BEST song ever written. Period!