Blog: Compilation Action

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It's a Friday evening and I'm sat at work waiting a) for some data to get processed b) to go to the pub later with Mr S.Wilkinson, formerly of Voon. Who says people in the public sector can't MULTI-TASK?

As if that wasn't enough i am also SIMULTANEOUSLY listening to that "The Kids At The Club" compilation from How Does It Feel To Be Loved? that I got through the post a couple of weeks ago. It's taken me a while to get round to listening to it because, as one who has listened to MANY compilations over the years, i tend to be a bit nervous about them. Usually with these sort of things there's one or two good tracks surrounded by LOADS of dreary stuff that's there because of one of more of the following: [i] band is mates with compilation deviser [ii] band has one spectacularly persistent member (usually bass player) who has badgered compilation deviser every time he sees him until said deviser has given in, just to get rid of him [iii] band has one or more really nice people in it who everyone wishes had come together to be a much BETTER band (this happens surprisingly often with Nice People In Bands - they are very easy to spot at All-Dayers, for instance) or [iv] some aspect of the band reminds deviser of ANOTHER band who he really really likes, even if it's just the band name or something.

So yes, there's a lot of ways in which Bands Who Aren't That GRATE get on to compilations, not forgetting the MAJOR BLIGHT of compilations [v] you can get 70 minutes of STUFF on a CD, so people tend to try and fill it up. HOWEVER, in this case, things are slightly different in that so far it's been REALLY BLOODY GOOD - and I haven't even got to The Language Of Flowers yet! It's all very confident and BOPPY and full of HANDCLAPS and "doo-wopping" and Actual Real Live TUNES. There's a lot of trumpets too, which is always RIGHT ON with me.

I actually bought it for THREE reasons - that "We're From Barcelona" song which is UTTERLY ACE, the aforementioned unreleased track by The Language Of Flowers, and the FACT that it's the first release by The Gresham Flyers (an honourable exception to the Nice People In BAnds rule) that I can actually PLAY, but it's a rather nice surprise to find that there's at least ONE band on it I'd never heard before that's made me go "HECK! When are THEY next playing?" and it's Lucky Soul, whose song is just SMASHING. I have a nagging feeling I may have been AT a gig where they played recently and not hung around. I hate it when that happens - have I mentioned the time I missed the pre-fame Franz Ferdinand, preferring instead to LOLL at THE BAR? That GRATES, and not in the GOOD way.

Funnily enough i have been thinking of ANOTHER compilation this week, the GRAND DON of them all C86. I woke up yesterday morning with an IDEA for my next Sandman Article vaguely related to it. We're nearing the end of the 20th Anniversary of it's release without anything much being said (although my contact in the world of INDIE LEGENDS informs me there's a DO going on at the ICA at the end of the month) except for the occasional derogatory remark about it's legacy, so I've been having a bit of a THINK about the way people have either MISUNDERSTOOD it by being annoyingly TWEE and CHILDISH, or derided it as such for their own reasons. When I listen to proper OLD SKOOL INDIE i hear excitement, enthusiasm and a burning desire to play something new, irrespective of whether the bands involve have the technical ability to do so, and it's a TRAVESTY OF ROCK JUSTICE that most people see Indie as EITHER uber-posh dullards on Pianos, plodding OR people in their late 30s pretending to be 12.

Proper Indie, it is NEITHER of these things - and, rather fantastically, "The Kids At The Club" proves how GRATE it really CAN be!

(HA! I've said it before and I'll say it again - reviewing records! PIECE OF PISS!)

posted 6/10/2006 by MJ Hibbett

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