Today I’m gonna masquerade as an MP3 blog, only without the MP3s, in order to tell you about some fairly random tunes you should listen to. I’m sure you can download them or whatever.

The Oblivians – Mary-Lou

Taken from the album ‘The Oblivians play 9 Songs with Mr. Quintron’, on Crypt records from 1997(?), which I bought 2nd hand last week, this has gotta be one of the mightiest slabs of garage mayhem it’s ever been my good fortune to hear. It’s an old song, written by... well I forget who it’s written by, but there are a whole bunch of versions, and without having heard them I’m betting they all get knocked on their ass by this one, which is a text book perfect example of the kind of overdriven rock n’ roll Shangri-la that’s guaranteed to get dignified and well-adjusted young men stomping out into the street like baboons in heat wherever in the world it gets played. Greg Cartwright tears into the vocals like a real Soul Beast and ‘Mr. Quintron’ really gives it some on the organ too, with brutalised valve amps explodin’ all over the shop and a ludicrously enjoyable one-note pound-fest that’ll set the caveman within you ablaze.

If Pete Diaper / Saveloy of Barbelith is reading – this is one for you. File alongside the Mummies, Dirtbombs, Standells, Billy Childish – you know the score.

Best line; “..SHE LEFT ME STRANDED IN KALAMAZOO!!” – where the hell is Kalamazoo anyway? I feel a quick google search coming on.


Comet Gain – Don’t Fall in Love if You Want to Die in Peace

The very definition of an underrated band, Comet Gain have pretty much provided the almost embarrassingly accurate soundtrack to my personal universe and belief system over the past year or so. They’ve got a new album out at the moment which I haven’t picked up yet, so for now I’ll stick to this song from their previous one, ‘Realistes’, which blew my mind and stomped my heart anew on my walk into work this morning. It’s a fairly atypical Comet Gain track, but still encompasses all the reasons I love this band. A clumsily picked out guitar melody, a girl singing with a guy on backing vox, some kinda really dodgy sounding synthesised strings, a song of bold, well-trodden sentiments that in the hands of other musicians would have us cringing and muttering about “emo”...... how oh my lord do these simple things combine into such spell-binding genius?

Comet Gain sing and play here with a mix of guts and beauty and grit and dirt and despair and hope that reminds me of my cherished bootleg of Nico and Lou Reed demoing ‘Chelsea Girls’ in a hotel room, the voices nervous and untrained and just on the verge of shouting, the music tender and brittle and staying just the right side of collapse. Slap me in NHS glasses and call me ‘emo-boy’ if you want, but when Rachel sings “.. look at your sky through Bob Dylan’s eyes..”, my soul just about spills out on the pavement and runs off to find a drink.

So let’s forget the simpering idiots who’ve made “indie” an insult – Comet Gain know what their perfect world sounds like, what’s important to them is what’s important to you and me, and they’re chasing it for all it’s worth. Unlike so many, they fucking mean what they say, and the result is some of the best and most underappreciated music you’ll hear this decade.