I'm on the point of giving up....

When I started this it was just meant to be a note of a couple of albums released on a Monday which may be worth listening to. I forgot to consider that the last two months of the year do not fit well with my plan, given the dearth of albums that are not either:

1. greatest hits
2. Christmas collections
3. Re-releases
4. reality show contestants' efforts
5. a bit shit
6. a combination of the above (Susan Boyle's Christmas album anyone?)

So what do I do now?

Well I went to see The Jesus & Mary Chain play the whole of Psychocandy the other day, what a sonic assault that was! Psychocandy came out in 1985, just about the same time as I moved to London. Them being a Scottish band, I was full of enthusiasm for their new sound*, but my new London type mates were not so sure - "it's just noise and awful feedback" they said. "Can't you hear the pop tune underneath?" I said. "Nope".  As it turned out, I was right and these London people wouldn't know a decent band if it hit them between the eyes, which was actually was quite probable at a JAMC gig. 

Anyway, 30 years on I finally managed to see them (when I first moved to London I didn't get to too many gigs, for various reasons) and what a gig! Middle-aged mosh-pit, all in black, dark glasses indoors and big hair (or no hair).  So music, very noise, much reminisce. Wow!

ps - if the noise on Psychocandy doesn't do it for you, try Darklands, which came out 2 years later.


*technically not new, just a mix of Velvet Underground & Phil Spector really. A bit like mixing Guinness and Champagne, nobody thought of doing it, and then somebody did.