Anguish Sandwich

You know how Flying Nun used to release their really out-there records – the ones you suspect they really didn’t know what to do with but had a hunch were great - in black and white sleeves? Remember when Scottish bands first responded to Pavement – I’m thinking of the Delgados especially – and came up with something all their own? That’s where Anguish Sandwich are at right now.

Bermuda Triangle is their debut ep and it rattles waywardly with the mad delight of stumbling home from the pub after a great night. The only thing you can be sure of is that the vocals weren’t auto-tuned. What was that Delgados song? Yeah, “Tempered; Not Tamed” just about sums up Anguish Sandwich.

Sun Sister

How the fuck did this happen? Sun Sister sound like they’re driving backwards into the sun. Remember when Ultra Vivid Scene let the pop urge run over the art rock? Like that. Or think what might happen if Best Coast got the fx pedals out and jammed with Woods.

They’ve got four songs and called the ep Rich American White Kidz. Maybe if Pretty In Pink got remade, this is the music that the cool kidz would be listening to. What else? They’re from Massachusetts. And? Sound the new favourite band alarm.

“Everyone everywhere thinks you're so cute but you're just another girl I know”

KEEL HER

The year is 2030. Bethany Best Coast and Nathan Wavves’ daughter has grown up with guitars and good music. She writes songs every day. Some of them are really good. At least as good as her parents made before over-exposure to designer drugs led them to live in a customised skateboard.

Back in 2012, KEEL HER – or Rose Keeler-Schäffeler as she’s known to her real parents – makes music that captures Best Coast’s stoned summer pop and Wavves’ fried feedback. Mostly, it’s coming from similar sussed pop territory as Mazes.

There are new songs every day. Some of them are as good as their fantastic titles:

you would be so grossed out if i did that

i suck (but you suck more)

Then there’s Gillespie, which sounds like Melody Dog if they’d covered Guided By Voices instead of Primal Scream

There are dozens more on bandcamp. Then there’s a song on a 4-track 7” next month on Art Is Hard. Exciting times, no?

Dexys live

Everything you've heard about the revitalised Dexys and the attendant stage show is true (if what you've heard is "dramatic", "soulful", "soaring", "searing", "astonishing", "the best gig in years").

While we wait for our next shot, here's a dose of Dexy's on The Tube stretching out There, There My Dear to nine minutes, a trick they used on The Bridge tour in 82/3, while maintaining the original's lean urgency.

"Let me tell you this, this well it used to go like that then one day something happened as it so often does and now it goes like this."

The Go-Betweens - Freakchild

The Go-Betweens had planned a follow-up to 16 Lovers Lane, to be called either Freakchild or Perfumed, Poisoned and Dangerous. In October 89, they demoed 21 songs - almost all acoustic - known by fans as the unreleased ‘last’ Go-Betweens album, Botany, as they were recorded in Grant's Botany Street home.

No tracklisting for Freakchild (the preferred title) is known. An ersatz Freakchild was created by their British record label in 2002, consisting of live recordings from their last ever gig in Sydney, 1989, and Botany demos.

I was there the day the label made the CDRs. I ventured the idea that the sound recording was poor, that it was a terrible cash-in, and it was unlikely that Robert and Grant would go for it.

I don’t know if the idea was ever presented to Robert and Grant. Nothing came of this proposed Freakchild. Here’s a Grant McLennan gem, Nowhere By Any Other Name, from Freakchild:

The Go-Betweens live in Paris, 1996: Bachelor Kisses

In 1996 the French music magazine Les Inrockuptibles voted 16 Lovers Lane the best album in their 10-year history. They put The Go-Betweens on the cover with the strapline "The Go-Betweens, the most underrated band in the rock history" and gave away the 16 Lovers Lane Acoustic Demos CD.

Grant McLennan and Robert Forster went to Paris to play as The Go-Betweens to celebrate their award in front of their French fans. I went, too. So what if my boss wouldn't give me the day off? I left the job instead. I never liked her or the job that much. I always loved The Go-Betweens.

There's a Grant McLennan tribute gig on May 6 at the Hangover Lounge in London, starring David Westlake, Pete Astor, Phil King and more besides. Before then, here's one of Grant's finest from that gig.

Girl Of My Best Friend

There were so many good indiepop bands in the the late 80s who came, who were seen by a few and then left. Girl Of My Best Friend were one of those bands. They had one single and (of course) a flexi disc, both of which came out at the start of 1990 (at least, that's when I bought them).

I first heard GOMBF on the excellent Something's Burning In Paradise compilation tape in 88. They appeared on a few other tapes, then came the records, then nothing. I don't know why. Anyway, back in 88 I wrote to them in their Wellingborough, Northants, mansion and the singer Jo sent very nicely sent me a tape of demos and a live recording.

I can't remember if cash was exchanged. Sometimes bands sent out tapes for free, sometimes in exchange for a blank tape, sometimes they sold them. I'm pretty sure this was a free one. Maybe they didn't have many people writing to them to say they how much they enjoyed their music. They should have.

Now? I still really enjoy their music. This first demo is from 1987 and is called Girl Of My Best Friend.



This second demo is from 1988 and is called My Best Friend. I guess their song-name generator was stuck. Ignore the opening riff, which is borrowed from Billy Bragg's Levi Stubbs' Tears; everything else is their own.