JD On Coke
ireallylovemusic’s John Doran reports on his weekly quest to make his record collection slightly less shabby.
Week One: April 12th – April 19th 2004
The Sonics ‘Here Are The Sonics!!!’ (LP) Norton Records
Curtis Mayfield ‘Curtis’ (LP) Curtom Records
Minus ‘Romantic Exorcism’ (7”) Smekkleysa/Bad Taste
Gomez ‘Silence’ (7”) Hut
I can’t think of anywhere worse in the world than ASDA in Leytonstone. This, I sometimes think to myself melodramatically like Pink when traipsing up and down its cursed aisles, is my Vietnam. Or, if I’m being less hysterical, my Southend-On-Sea in November. The huge shelving unit that holds all the eggs is equipped with little buttons that make ear drum burstingly loud ‘cock-a-doodle-do!’ noises, when pressed by the grubby fingers of local tykes. The floor all around this delightful section is impossible to detach yourself from, always being covered in a shin deep, gelatinous mess of broken eggs. The large tubs of own brand coleslaw are designed to burst like cluster mines when they come anywhere near a black T-shirt. You would be better off asking the people on the deli counter for directions to the nearest paedophile ring than asking them for anything useful like Parmesan cheese. In fact I had no idea a word as inoffensive as Parmesan could be batted back to me with such malice and disdain. And this is coming from a deli counter that has Stilton with ginger and mango on special offer. Stilton with ginger and fucking mango. Well I was in there today for my week’s shopping (Two loaves of bread, tub of coleslaw, block of Cheddar, butter, three boxes of wine), and I was standing in line behind a harassed looking mum and her two kids. They were holding onto her cardigan and springing up and down about twice per second going: “Mum, mum, mum, mum, mum, mum, mum, mum, mum.” The woman looked like she was about to start crying. I looked into her shopping trolley and it was full to the brim with nothing but Lucozade and Red Bull.
She could have saved herself the trouble and just bought one copy of ‘Here Are The Sonics!!!’ One blast of this and her kids would be animated for weeks and, given its energising properties, is the only record I can think of that deserves such extravagant punctuation. I can’t count how many times I’ve thought on hearing ‘Psycho’ or ‘The Witch’, I must have a copy of this but always forget about it when that special sort of amnesia that only occurs in record shops comes over me. It might not even be their best record (Psycho Sonic, a compilation, has a better spread of tracks) but for the sheer garage rawness of ‘Have Love Will Travel’ – ‘Gay Bar’ as reinterpreted by The Kingsmen – it’s a killer.
At the other end of the scale we’ve got ‘Curtis’. Yeah, sure enough it doesn’t have all of the stuff that he’s famous for – most of these tracks are on ‘Superfly’ – but this album set the template for symphonic soul/funk in the early 1970s. ‘(Don’t Worry) If There’s A Hell Below, We’re All Going To Go’ showcases the sort of gritty socially conscious lyrics, delivered like an angel, that would become his trademark and no one needs telling how good ‘Move On Up’ is. That Marvin Gaye’s ‘What’s Going On’ regularly tops all time album polls and this never gets a look in is criminal.
When reviewing the new album by Gomez, NME slam the band for being a bit anonymous, middle class and studenty. Definitely what a psychologist would call a case of transference, methinks. This single is great, and worth two quid of anyone’s money but here’s hoping that they release the stupendous ‘We Don’t Know Where We Are Going’ as a single because it features Ben Ottway sounding like he gargles with hedgehogs.
I had to do an on the road piece with heavy rocking Icelandic marauders Minus recently for the mighty Metal Hammer and I learned a lesson about touring the hard way. Never, under any circumstances, wrestle the drunken bass player of a heavy metal band on a moving tour bus while he is holding a pair of scissors. You will get stabbed.
© john doran/ireallylovemusic