LaRM day 10 (Allman Brothers-American Music Club)

Evening all. Well, it's been a whole morning of "the blues" today, with Gregg & Duane and the rest of the Allman Brothers Band showing how them southern boys play the blues. First up is the eponymous first album from 1969. It's pretty bland stuff, with some unremarkable blues workouts, but it does end with the massive 'Whipping Post' which became a staple of their huge live show. Second up is Idlewild South (1970) which is a vast improvement, really showcasing Duane's phenomenal guitar work and adding some different tones ('Midnight Rider') to the straightforward twelve bar stuff. The we skip the monumental Live at Fillmore East and move on to 1972's Eat a Peach which is a double album of immense proportions, including as it does the 33 minute live version of 'Mountain Jam'. Now I don't know about you but the very thought of a 33 minute blues jam makes me go cold to my core. But in this case it's great, because it's the Allmans, see? The studio stuff on Eat a Peach is nice and light, and hearteningly brief, but the majority of it is live workouts, some of which work brilliantly and some of which are dreadful. But it's the 1970's and it's a double album so what can you expect? Finally we have 1973's Brothers and Sisters. The cover of this album reminds me of being a kid, going for walks on the Pilgrim's Way in my new Clothkits dungarees. Anyway, it's alright, but after Duane Allman died the grubbier bluesiness of the whole band went with him and it's all a bit smoother, a bit more about showing off the technical skill. And it's got Jessica on it which we all know from the snooker.

Here's some more cute pop music with the Australia/Kent mash-up of Allo Darlin'. The eponymous first album (2010) is a charmer. It's twee, indier-than-you stuff but it somehow miraculously avoids being nauseating, and instead is, a bit like Dressy Bessy, completely winning. Usually (even though I love this sort of stuff) I can see why the super-twee can drive people round the bend, but Allo Darlin' really manage to stay on the right side, even when they're quoting other schmindie bands. It's lovely, honestly.

Now, speaking of twee pop music, we take a short step back in time and confront Altered Images' last album, Bite (1983). This record is a strange affair and one which destroyed their already faltering career, leading the lovely Clare Grogan to return to acting jobs (a delightful turn in Blott on the Landscape, a completely weird spell in Eastenders). After the bubblegum max-out of 1982's Pinky Blue, the band tried their hand at contemporary mature pop-soul on Bite. At the time it was a disaster and I can imagine hearing it would have been similar to the crushing disappointment of hearing Dexy's Don't Stand Me Down. But like that album, Bite has benefitted hugely from the passage of time and taken in its own right now, it's got some great songs on it. The production is still decidely dicey (thanks Mike Chapman) and the cover shot tells a story (CG dressed all stylish, like. And where are the rest of the band?), but on the whole Bite is fine record, a bit like a cross between the pop of late Blondie and the string laden sex-disco of late 70's Curtis Mayfield.

Keeping the spirits up it's Welcome to Mali (2008) by Amadou and Mariam. This is some fantastically uplifting Malinese pop music, albeit with, one suspects, quite a dark side lyrically. All of the stereotypical elements of what a European audience might suspect of an African record are all present and correct, but given such a remarkable spin that it sounds nothing more or less than a seamless fusion of African, European and American pop and rock music of the last thirty years. Now, of course, that's going to sound like (and maybe is perhaps) the patronising view of the Womad type, but honestly, this is a truly exceptional record.

Penultimately we have the only album by American Football. It's a terrible band name but strangely appropriate for a floundering emo act. In many ways, the eponymous album (1999) along with the Van Pelt album, set the template for the kind of post-rock version of emo that had quite a day in the early 2000's. It's a downbeat but heartfelt little record with some interesting little time changes and unexpected phrases and it's a gentle listen which does serve to remind me that when it was done well, and before it was completely bastardized by our corporate record company chums (they're good at ruining things aren't they?), emo had some really great proponents.

Finally for today we have the lead-in to tomorrow's American Music Club marathon. We'll get the low point over with this afternoon, clearing the way for a whole day of exceptional miserable brilliance tomorrow, by listening to essentially disowned first album The Restless Stranger (1985). "Bad new wave" is how head AMCer Mark Eitzel described this album and although it's hard to argue that it's lacking most of what made the band so great later on, it still has a couple of fabulous tunes (and indeed Eitzel continued to play 'Room Above the Club' live for many years) and it has the requisite despairing tone that got more and more, er, despairing as the band grew. It's a gruelling ride but it feels a little bit as if Eitzel is straining to come up with stories and songs that are sufficiently grubby and depressing. It all came quite naturally to him later on, as we'll find out tomorrow...

A domani, mein kleine ducklings.

LaRM day 9 (All About Eve-Dot Allison)

Before we begin, just a little correction to make to a previous post. It has been kindly brought to my attention (cheers, Marcus & Alex!) that the B-side of 'Endless Art' by A House, was in fact not an instrumental version at all, but the same song with different lyrics in which the artists listed are all women (the original version of the song having come under fire for only featuring men). Blame the early onset alzheimers or CJD. I forgot my own name the other day. Oh, and also apologies for spelling repetitive incorrectly.

Anyway, first up today we have the 7" of 'Wild Hearted Woman' (1988) by all About Eve. Am I right in thinking that Wayne who I used to know in Bristol was Julianne Regan's cousin? Or is that another sign of brain holes? I used to like a little bit of the goth back in the day, but sadly I got rid of most of it, including the All About Eve album which I sold to my great friend Sophie (sold! Can you believe it? I was an avaricious little shit back then. And might be still for all I know. Nobody tell me if I am). All About Eve are probably now best remembered for the TOTP fiasco when their monitors weren't turned on, so when they were supposed to be miming they were just standing around looking confused. It's quality - youtube it, surely it's on youtube? Wild Hearted Woman is pretty daft overblown goth pop, all paisley and patchouli, and the B-side, Appletree Man (it's called Appletree Man! Good God), is simply dreadful. But I can't really slag it off, because my mum found this for me in one of the Oxfam shops she was managing at the time, and that was very nice of her and I appreciated it a lot.

So, now we've got a double dose of the extremely divisive Lily Allen. From what I can gather roughly 98% of the population of the entire world absolutely loathes Lily Allen, both in terms of her records and particularly her personality. I'll put it out there with no shame whatsoever, I adore both elements. I think she's absolutely charming (especially in light of how unutterably gruesome her father and brother are) and in a world full of loudmouths I am absolutely at a loss as to work out why one of the only ones who actually says anything true or faintly amusing gets seen by the world as some hideous skank. It mystifies me. I think the tunes are fine and her lyrics genuinely uncommonly astute. In many ways I prefer It's Not Me, It's You (which is a great album title for a start) from 2009, to the debut Alright, Still (2006) because although it doesn't have the show-off swagger and don't care attitude, it has some really fabulous songwriting ('The Fear' is a real lesson) and lyrically I think it's a sister to the second Arctic Monkeys album in discussing the pitfalls of fame and success without coming across like the work of an egotistical jumped-up scumbag.

Ahhh, how sweet, it's the All Girl Summer Fun Band, who lived up to their name admirably over the course of three albums and a few singles. After the break-up of the wonderful Softies, Jen Sbragia must have felt like something a bit more upbeat was in order and this is what she came up with. While not coming close to the Softies records, they're still great, knockabout cute indie-pop records which bounce and hop around while relating their tales of indie romance. There's not a lot of point in distinguishing between the eponymous first album (2001), the Summer of '98 EP (2003) and second album 2 (2003) because they're basically exactly the same, but they're all top fun.

And finally for today we have three albums by Dot Allison. I always felt that One Dove's Morning Dove White album was a terribly underrated piece of comedown music (not that I ever had occasion to listen to it that way of course), so I was pleased to see that Dot Allison had been able to make a solo album. Afterglow (1999) is something of a mixed bag, but on the whole it's a sublime piece of emotionally distant pop, with some great tunes presented in a pleasingly aloof fashion ('Message Personnel' is so disinterested it's quite unnerving, but it's a really lovely tune nonetheless). If Afterglow is cool though, then 2002's We Are Science is positively glacial. There is a much stronger dance and club music influence, but if anything that makes the album seem even more as if you're listening to it uninvited. It sort of feels like you've gone to a party dressed in completely the wrong clothes. This does make for stretches of the album being utterly unengaging, but there is still time for some undeniable tunes ('Strung Out' is ace). After a long absence the third album, Exaltation of Larks (2008) appeared and there's a very different feel to this one. Although still strangely offish, she's introduced some lovely string arrangements and although still a bit too cool for school, it is a much more accommodating record, and the stripped back acoustics, and the obvious influence of folk over dance allow the listener a little bit of space to take part in what's going on. It's a great record, really delicate and if you can accept that you're at the party through sufferance, it's a very rewarding one.

Have wonderful weekends won't you everybody. Pip pip!

LaRM day 8 (Aislers Set-Alizee)

Meetings all morning so there's not going to be much going on today, but we start with the super-cute Aisler's Set and their second album The Last Match (2000). What a lovely record this is, jaunty and fun, with just the teeniest hint of darkness around the edges. Charming little two minute pop vignettes of indie romance that veer so close to nauseating you can almost see the toilet bowl in your peripheral vision, but always manages to steer clear through charm alone.

Next up is Love is Simple (2007) by Akron/Family. I find Akron/Family a little hard to take because it's just too eclectic for me. I think they wish they were around in 1967 because every song sounds like a mash-up of the Incredible String Band and the United States of America. Now I've got a lot of time for both those bands, but they WERE around in 1967 which is why they sound the way they do. For a bunch of Williamsburg hip kids to be doing it seems a bit of a waste of time to me, but nonetheless Love is Simple does have some lovely touches and some of the tunes are really great in a kind of post-modern way.

Now we have Alarm Will Sound's a/rhythmia (2009) which is a sort of neo-classical number, containing as it does a modern classical take on a number of compositions of the past 600 years which each demonstrate a kind of experimental anti-rhythm in their structure. As a chamber ensemble Alarm Will Sound are fabulous and they clearly adore the music they play but there is a rather determined modishness about this whole concept and while some of the pieces are absolutely breathtaking, and some really lovely, it all feels a little bit cool and overly smart-arsy (as evidenced by the fact that in amongst the classical reinvention is a piece by Autechre).

Then we have the Aliens second album Luna (2008). The Aliens were formed out of the remains of the Beta Band and although I can appreciate that the Beta Band were interesting I could never get properly excited about them the way we were apparently supposed to, and I have the same problem with this record. It's got some good noises and some nice ideas but overall it's just yet another record that spends its time trying to be various different 60's rock acts without relly bringing much to the sound and that doesn't interest me very much.

And we finish off with some unashamedly (and unashamedly awful) Gallic pop music with the beautiful Alizee's first album, Gourmandises (2002). It's slimy, slippery pop music (most of it written by the grande dame of the genre, Mylene Farmer) and performed by a stereotypically fabulously French looking girl (lead single and opening tune 'Moi...Lolita' says it all...). By all accounts, this should have been the beginning and the end of Alizee's career, but as is often the way with slightly more interesting people in the pop world, she has worked with increasingly unexpected people over the years and has shifted into a more considered type of pop music. This one, however, is simply dripping with cheese.

Yet more tomorrow.

LaRM day 7 (Afterhours-Airbourne)

After the Afghan Whigs trawl yesterday we are now on to the fifth album by Italian alternative rock outift Afterhours which is called Ballads for Little Hyenas (2005). But hold on, what's this? Produced by Greg Dulli? Guitars and percussion by Greg Dulli. Yes, we have failed to leave the Afghan Whigs behind after all, as there has been a close association between Afterhours and Dulli's current band The Twilight Singers for some years, and Afterhours' frontman has been a co-songwriter and band member with Dulli since 2004. Which explains why Ballads for Little Hyenas sounds so much like a European version of the Afghan Whigs. Unfortunately, the singer's falsetto, which works well as a counterpoint in the Twilight Singers, sounds faintly ridiculous as the lead and there is something determinedly Europeanly slightly naff about the whole exercise, which is a shame because musically its really pretty good, dark and slippery and atmospheric.

OK, now it's Back to Basics (2006) by Christina Aguilera. Wait, wait, I can explain, honestly. I was going through Taschen's '1001 Albums To Listen To Before You Die' and Back to Basics was in there so I had to pick it up to do the whole thing properly. There are a handful of really, really great pop songs on here and there is occasionally a nice little nod to old time big band styling (although it's all horribly compressed and very nastily digitally recorded), and it's sooo much better than it should be, but, of course, on the whole, it is really still pretty terrible. And it goes on for HOURS AND HOURS. So that's enough about that, let's just forget we ever mentioned it, shall we?

Oh God, now it's two bloody A-Ha albums. Now, I know I'm supposed to unironically think that A-Ha were really great because I'm in my late 30's, but I just don't get it. I really don't get it, it's just corny rubbish isn't it? What am I missing? Anyway, there are pop songs on both of these "classic" albums and some hits and blah blah blah. Really, I'm not that bothered.

Next up is the single 'Endless Art' (1992) by A House. A House were a not very interesting indie-rock band from Ireland but they made this one absolutely superb single - it's a brilliant repetative tune with lyrics that amount to not much more than a list of various great artists and their birth and death dates through the ages. On paper it should be awful, in fact it's absolutely ace (and has the most silly yet inspired use of a phrase from a classical work ever used in a pop song). The B-side is an instrumental version which I assume is some kind of post-modern gag.

We follow this up with some cutesy jazzy folky stuff (you know the sort of thing, it's absolutely sodding everywhere these days - Norah Jones even lighter). It's Priscilla Ahn's A Good Day (2008). There are indeed lots of versions of this record around, but this is a pretty decent one, relatively charming and inoffensive in an inoffensive kind of way (is there anything more offensive as a rule than inoffensive music?), it drifts by gently and quietly and what's vital about this kind of record is that it also doesn't outstay its welcome, keeping under the 35 minute mark.

Next would have been the blistering live album SLSQ-Very Live (1991) by The Aints. The Aints were formed by superb Australian songwriter and one time punk luminary Ed Kuepper, when he left The Saints in an acrimonious fug. SLSQ-Very Live is an absolutely corruscating live set from Melbourne in 1990 which screeches and roars through a selection of the Saints better songs, but sadly it's another vinyl only-no internet record, so we pass straight on to The Aints first studio album Ascension (1991). It's a fabulous record, showcasing Kuepper's epic rock grandstanding at its finest and in many ways I see at as a kind of sister album to Sugar's Copper Blue. Indeed Bob Mould and Ed Kuepper's careers have a number of stylistic parallels and for my money there is very little between them. The follow up, Autocannibalism (1992) lacks the skybusting verve of Ascension but still has some huge, blasting guitar rock/pop.

Now we have Air's soundtrack to The Virgin Suicides (2000). Coo-ee Air really, really, really wanted to be 1973 era Pink Floyd didn't they? They really, really, really did. However, that's lucky for me because when I'm in prog mode (which is, like, a disturbing amount of the time) 1973 era Floyd is where it's at. The Virgin Suicides is smooth and slick, and extremely pleasant but there's nothing particularly groundbreaking going on.

That's the only Air in the collection, so finally for today it's something mind-numbingly dumb, it's No Guts, No Glory (2010) by retro-rock act Airbourne. I've never heard Bon Scott era AC/DC done more convincingly and although a pastiche (a parody really I assume from the album cover) will inevitably get really boring really quickly, No Guts, No Glory just about lasts the distance. It's stupid and it's rubbish but it's just a bit of fun innit? And my promo copy came with a full size blow up guitar, so full marks there.

Shall we reconvene at the same time tomorrow? Yes, let's.

LaRM day 6 (Afghan Whigs)

So, it's Afghan Whigs day and we start with Up In It (1990), which is a brilliantly ragged dose of solid misanthropy. It's still a bit in thrall to the scrappier end of US college rock, and the real influence of Stax-style soul music is still yet to really show up (in the most peculiar and indie-rock way) in Greg Dulli's writing. All the parts that he would build on over the rest of his career are here in their basic constituency though, the brutal lyrical approach to relationships, the weirdly straining guitar lines, and the four minute rock song as epic musical and psychological drama. The first proper allusion to the soul influence on Dulli comes with the 'My World is Empty Without You' 12" (1992). In fact the various Stax and Motown covers that the Afghan Whigs made over the next couple of years are some of the most remarkable stuff they recorded.

It all starts properly coming together with Congregation (1992). Soul and funk sit easily behind the more obvious Seattle rock sound of the band, giving the songs a remarkable depth and a totally unique take on what was turning into the "grunge" sound. The Afghan Whigs were so far ahead of their contemporaries that a comparison between Congregation and Nevermind clearly proves. The difference I suppose is that where Cobain saw being in a band as a way of showing off and shouting about himself, Dulli absolutely loves music, studies it, and understands it. Then we've got the 'Turn on the Water' 12", which has a couple of forgettable B-sides, followed by the astounding Uptown Avondale EP which has some of the greatest soul and R&B cover versions ever recorded (by a college rock act anyway...) and the intense, creepy version of 'Band of Gold' demonstrates just how successfully they managed to fuse the two disparate styles of music.

The Uptown Avondale EP hinted to the highlight of the Whigs career which came with 1993's Gentlemen. For my money this is easily the greatest record to come out of the Sub-Pop/grunge scene. Again, while Sonic Youth were still tinkering and Nirvana sitting about staring at their navels, the Afghan Whigs were working on making their sound bigger and fleshing out the R&B elements, such that Gentlemen is simultaneously the most lyrically disturbing examination of the masculine sexual ego and the grooviest record that Sub Pop ever released. It's a record of extraordinary depth and listening to it is like reading an incredibly intense novel, completely absorbing and utterly thrilling. It's great. It was bookended by the 'Gentlemen' single which has a couple of fine covers ('Dark End of the Street' and the Ass Ponys 'Mr Superlove' which is a great song in its own right), and the 'Debonair' and 'What Jail is Like' singles, which also have some decent cover versions (including one of Scrawl's 'Ready'. Scrawl will come up later, but it's worth mentioning that Scrawl's Marcy Mays sings lead on the most emotionally gruelling song from Gentlemen, 'My Curse').

A couple of years off gave Dulli the opportunity to spend some time in New Orleans and to loosen up both the sound of the band and his songwriting, such that there although the thematic darkness remains intact in 1996's Black Love, the sound is less dense and abrasive and a really melodic sense underpins the songs this time round (the influence of Fleetwood Mac's cocaine fuelled 'California trilogy' is pretty apparent). The album was preceded by the 'Honky's Ladder' single, which has a great cover of TLC's 'Creep'. There are some great songs but for me Black Love is a bit of a down note before the real uplift of the Whigs' final album 1965 (1998), in which Dulli seems to have completely cut loose the dense musical darkness and left the lyrics to do the dirty talking, while the tunes rise up in, dare I say it, a "funky groove". It's an eclectic album but it's like a party mix for the end of a career, covering most of the moods that the Whigs had gone through over the previous ten years, but on the whole keeping the mood right up. It was the end for the Afghan Whigs, but not for Dulli and there will be lots more to come from him when we get to T.

See you tomorrow for yet mooooorrrreeee A-musement. Hmm, hmm, see what I did there? Did you? Did you see?

LaRM day 5 (Admiral Fallow-Afghan Whigs)

Hello everybody. Did you all have a good weekend? Tell me about it. Being off the booze really makes a difference. Not that I got anything constructive done mind you, just sat about as usual, but sober for once. I got a bit of my Dickensathon done. Honestly, leave the Memoirs of Grimaldi well enough alone is my advice though.

Anyway, back at work so it's on with A. Have we really only got to Ad? This is going to take forever. So, no messing about, it's Boots Met My Face (2010) by Admiral Fallow. It's a terrible band name but a great album title. It's a fine record, folksy and brisk and very, very Scottish. But there are some ripe lyrics and to be brutally honest, the whole thing has a bit of an air of Brits School "folky-indie" project about it. However, if we accept that it's not as convincing as it could be, there's no denying its dirtied up Mumford-ish appeal and there are a handful of tunes that are really quite graceful. And they've got a song called 'Dead Leg'.

Then it's Jim Beattie's post Primal Scream indie-pop outfit Adventures in Stereo. I think this was the stop gap between getting the boot from the Scream for being too popcentric and trying again with Spirea X. All his efforts came to nought though because the kind of jangly Sarah Records type of pop music he wanted to make had already become so yesterday it was something of an embarrassment. I really liked his records a lot and listening to this has reminded me just how much fun cutesy pop was. Why isn't there more of it (and I'm not talking about hyper-ironic Grouplove type stuff), people who want to make silly pop music? The 'Brand New Day' 7" (of which I could only find 2 of the 4 songs on "the internet") is a great case in point. The little songs start, don't go anywhere, and end in less than 2 minutes. Utterly charming.

Oh well, whatever, because here's super-talented rennaisance man Dave Pajo with one of his not-particularly successful post-rock outfits Aerial M. The eponymous album (1997) was instrumental (ho ho) in really getting the post-rock ball rolling and it has a kind of benchmark tune in 'Wedding Song No. 3', and an amazing opening double in 'Dazed and Awake' and 'Aass' but on the whole the record lacks a bit of something and feels like it drags a bit. For the man who was the central part of both Squirrelbait and Slint, it feels a bit like we're still waiting for the next groundbreaking thing from him (and it sure as hell wasn't Billy Corgan's unutterably rubbish Zwan), and it was a mis-step to release a remix album as the sophomore effort. Post-Global Music (1999) really doesn't add anything to the tunes, and, if anything, strips out the delicate little melodies that existed in the originals.

But enough of this art-rock nonsense, it's time, quite simply, to fucking rock. Yes my friends, put your hands together for the mighty Aerosmith, and their unbelievably stupid and unbelievably fantastic Toys in the Attic (1975), and Rocks (1976). Obviously these records are awesome, like, totally radically awesome dude. Toys in the Attic is the choice for me, simply for having lyrics to rival the DC in terms of pure filth (but Tyler is much smarter in how he phrases his filth than either Bon Scott or Brian Johnson) and for having 'Walk This Way' on it, which despite their own 80's attempt to ruin it with Run-DMC survives unscathed as a piece of superbly grotty rock. And the tunes have basslines to die for: this is the record that the Red Hot Chilli Peppers have been so pathetically failing to recreate for all these years. Rocks is more straightforward in terms of its rock ambitions but there are some truly blistering tunes here ('Back in the Saddle', 'Lick and a Promise', 'Rats in the Cellar') but it's a lot tighter and cleaner and doesn't have Toys in the Attic's unpredictability. Then it's the cheapo budget record label job Anthology (1988) most of which is culled from Toys and Rocks, but there are a few other tunes which are superb ('Critical Mass', easily my favourite Aerosmith tune, for instance), and then we've got the 'Love in an Elevator' 7", which obviously totally rules (but ooh, the compression, it's like your head is in a vacuum), and 'Young Lust' is a decent B-side.

And now, ladies and gentlemen, it's time for our next marathon. I'm really happy with this one though: it's the Afghan Whigs. Greg Dulli may be my favourite songwriter and I'm delighted to be able to just sit through (almost) the lot from start to finish. Only time today for the super-rare first album, Big Top Halloween (1988) and the 'Retarded' EP (1990). Big Top Halloween is interesting because it reveals just how much of an influence The Replacements were on Dulli, an influence which he rooted out of his own writing pretty rapidly. Now there's nothing wrong with wanting to rip off Westerburg, far from it, but it is a surprise as I'd always had Dulli looking in very different places for his inspiration. There are some fantastic tunes ('In My Town', 'Sammy') but the band obviously recognised the wheat from the chaff themselves as they pick the three really decent numbers to add to the reissue of the second album, Up In It (about which more tomorrow). The production is uninspired and it's all a bit messy, but it's far from a bad album and it points to the true brilliance to come without nearing it itself. The Retarded EP is a step forward, less fussy and in a hurry to get where it's going. The songs start to really show Dulli's brutal lyrical fascination with how and why people are basically really horrible to themselves and each other and it's quite a visceral bunch of tunes (the cover shows the band in towels, holding hands, each with their wrists slit). The really great stuff will come tomorrow though.

Till then, signing off.