morrissey | it's not your birthday anymore

as a long-term smiths fan it behothes me to purchase pretty much anything morrissey does, and yet i didn't bother with his last album. let's be frank: the thrill had faded somewhat.

obviously it's not fair to expect your idols to remain frozen forever in the exact pose that got you so excited - they have to grow old as do you. and thus morrissey in 2009 is quite different from the skinny lad of 1983: he's filled out and come out. he still has that glint in his eye, but the mancunian chalkiness has been replaced by californian bronze and somehow the chap just looks too damn successful to be convince of us/me of his pain.

his outsider quality was one of his big attractions, and today he's an elder statesman, canonised and eulogised; he may be singing about the emotionally disenfranchised, but personally i no longer feel his pain.

and musically i miss the layered subtleties. i respect his desire to rock out, but do we have to be bludgeoned with it?

that's today's theory anyway.

in reality, when this song comes on the windows are rolled down and the volume turned all the way up. welcome back moz.

::: morrissey - it's not your birthday anymore

mixtape | indie bass player appreciation day

if you didn't know, today is indie bass player recognition day, a day that, as a sometime indie bass player myself, i cherish like a junkie cherishes his works.

there aren't many famous bass players, especially not famous indie bass players. while guitarists are gods, then bass players are either scorned (hello bill wyman, mark king), or overlooked altogether (erm most everyone else).

of course there are exceptions, but they're generally recognised for their technical ability rather than contribution to songwriting (hello jaco pastorius, billy sheehan). and indie isn't a genre that generally acknowledges musicianship.

so in a futile attempt to redress the balance, here are some indie songs that i appreciate as an indie bass player:

::: stump - chaos
very hard not to include this - the playing is simply astonishing; kev hopper even achieves the previously unthinkable feat of making fretless bass seem cool to people who aren't jazz wonks.

::: ganger - lid of the stars
some day i'll do a post about bands with two bass players, but for now here's a prime example of a band that is totally driven by the rhythm section and a demonstration of the melodic capcity of the bass guitar.

::: pinback - non-photo blue
there's something about pinback that makes them so hard to describe, let alone define, and i think that has a lot to do with zach smith's distinctive bass playing - it's both spiky and rounded, melodically inventive and thoroughly grounded.

::: trans am - the campaign
trans am are such a schizophrenic band that it's hard to pick a song that's truly representative, so i chose one that represents the ac/dc, bass-heavy rock side to them. this is band as super-charged unit, with bass very much at the rythmic and melodic core.

::: bark psychosis - big shot
huge, warm, dub-influenced bass that defies you to turn it down. this is bass as fat room filler, laid back but propelling the song forward, a bass line i can't listen to without imagining myself playing it.

::: dawson - chuckleberry
this is bass playing as a manic, furious post-punk attack, absorbing the likes of gang of four, minutemen and big*flame and then spitting them back out again.

::: death by milkfloat - your independence (depends on me)
similar to dawson, but with more of a funk sensibility. when the guitars are this thin and scratchy the bass can do nothing but come to the front of the stage. bassist jonny went on to join collapsed lung.

::: the smiths - barbarism begins at home
excellent example of an overlooked bass player, but i would say many of andy rourke's bass lines are every bit as inventive as johnny marr's guitar playing. i expect johnny marr would tell you that he actually wrote them all anyway.

::: the cure - disintegration
i think simon gallup is more frequently lauded for his heart throb status than his moodlily melodic bass lines, but this and many other songs wouldn't be the same without them.

::: mercury rev - black forest (lorelei)
not sure if this really counts as such since i'm assuming anthony molina is a session musician, but i find it hard not to concentrate on the bass throughout "the secret migration".

::: moonshake - city poison
just listen to that bass and tell me it doesn't get you throbbing right here.

::: curve - horror head
exemplifying an unsual combination of session-worthy musicianship and shoegazing - dean garcia did after all play bass for eurythmics for a while - the bass playing has a curiously velvety quality to it that roundly underpins the icy chill of toni's vocals.

::: tears for fears - head over heels
not an indie band by a long shot, but curt smith's bass playing is really great here.

grabthelot.

i could go on but i won't. in short, give your local indie bass player a cuddle today.

keeping my fingers crossed for the right result...

various | john peel's all time festive fifty

whenever i hear 'school' by nirvana, it always surprises me when it doesn't segue into 'jack' by moose - that's because john peel did precisely that, i taped it and then listened to it over and over. most people reading this blog probably have stories about how much the dj influenced their musical upbringing. even if you didn't listen to the man, you can bet half the bands you like did.

the debut single by my old band, sarandon, was featured in the last playlist he ever programmed. sadly he died before he good broadcast it, so we got rob da bank reading his notes instead. but still, john peel liked our record. and he had great taste.

in 2000 he broadcast the fifty best songs of all time as voted for by his listeners, and as a compilation it serves as an excellent crash course in the indie music canon. despite the absence of moose.

01 joy division - atmosphere
02 the undertones - teenage kicks
03 joy division - love will tear us apart
04 the sex pistols - anarchy in the uk
05 the clash - (white man) in hammersmith palais
06 new order - blue monday
07 the smiths - how soon is now?
08 nirvana - smells like teen spirit
09 the smiths - there is a light that never goes out
10 this mortal coil - song to the siren
11 robert wyatt - shipbuilding
12 pulp - common people
13 captain beefheart & his magic band - big eyed beans from venus
14 dead kennedys - holiday in cambodia
15 joy division - new dawn fades
16 my bloody valentine - soon
17 new order - ceremony
18 the only ones - another girl, another planet
19 new order - temptation
20 joy division - she's lost control
21 the wedding present - brassneck
22 the smiths - this charming man
23 the sugarcubes - birthday
24 the fall - how i wrote 'elastic man’
25 the wedding present - my favourite dress
26 the delgados - pull the wires from the wall
27 my bloody valentine - you made me realise
28 joy division - transmission
29 the sex pistols - pretty vacant
30 pixies - debaser
31 belle & sebastian - lazy line painter jane
32 new order - true faith
33 the clash - complete control
34 the fall - totally wired
35 jam - going underground
36 stereolab - french disko
37 the jimi hendrix experience - all along the watchtower
38 the fall - the classical
39 the damned - new rose
40 tim buckley - song to the siren
41 the beach boys - god only knows
42 velvet underground - heroin
43 nick drake - northern sky
44 bob dylan - visions of johanna
45 the beatles - i am the walrus
46 the beach boys - good vibrations
47 the sundays - can' t be sure
48 culture - lion rock
49 pj harvey - sheela-na-gig
50 pavement - here

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