Rocks In The Attic #64: Bis - ‘New Transistor Heroes’ (1997)

I can understand why people don’t like Bis. I wouldn’t even argue about it. Manda Rin’s vocals are grating at best, but their saving grace is that they can write a decent pop song. However, I’m not a fan of this album.

I first caught them supporting Garbage in Manchester in 1995. I wasn’t too impressed - musically they sound okay, and they get a decent sound out of two guitars and a keyboard, but Manda’s vocals are just on the wrong side of the squealometer.

I remember being aware of Bis when I saw them support Garbage - most musos knew about them as a lot had been made of them being the first unsigned band to play Top Of The Pops (which is untrue). I definitely remember them playing Kandy Pop, which was the only song I knew them for, but they didn’t make me rush out and buy their records.

A couple of years later when I was at University, my good friends Robbie and Natalie introduced me to their second album, Social Dancing, which I still regard as an overlooked gem. I ended up meeting the band when they were touring that album, but I guess that story is best saved for another time.

Hit: Sweet Shop Avengerz

Hidden Gem: Tell It To The Kids

Rocks In The Attic #63: The Doobie Brothers - ‘Toulouse Street’ (1972)

I love this album. I think there are better Doobie Brothers songs scattered on other albums, but for a full album that gels well from start to finish, this is the one. The sleeve also has titties, in the photo on the inner gatefold, and that’s always a bonus.

Not too long ago, I saw The Doobie Brothers play in Auckland - the Tom Johnston Doobie Brothers this is; thankfully Michael McDonald was nowhere in sight (or sound). I was so excited that they were touring - I remember being at work when the pre-sale email popped into my inbox. I didn’t even know they still existed, let alone were touring the world, so I snapped up tickets as quick as I could, and we found ourselves in the third row in the Civic Theatre.

Unfortunately, local TV evangelist Brian Tamaki was sat in the row in front of us, so you can’t have everything; but it was quite amusing when they played Jesus Is Just Alright from this album, and everybody started to point at him behind his back. Snigger.

Hit: Listen To The Music

Hidden Gem: Mamaloi

Rocks In The Attic #62: Tina Turner - ‘Foreign Affair’ (1989)

Another record in my collection that seems to have always been there, but I can’t remember ever receiving it as a gift from anyone.  And I definitely wouldn’t have bought it. I might hang on to it though, just in case I ever get asked to DJ at somebody’s wedding - The Best would go down as well at the drunken end of a wedding reception as it would have in 1989.

Tina Turner is one of those people who doesn’t look anything like their younger self. When you see video or photos of her singing with Ike Turner, she looks nothing like the solo version of Tina Turner. It’s probably the hair, which she rocks out in every photo on this album sleeve. Al Pacino is another one - I just don’t see the connection between the young Michael Corleone and the man who won an Oscar playing a blind man.

This album was made in 1989 but it sounds very dated, like it was made in the middle of that decade. It has the production feel of an Eric Clapton album of that period, but with the type of half-hearted instrumentation that showcases a vocalist and not a musician.

Hit: The Best

Hidden Gem: Steamy Windows

Rocks In The Attic #61: Jeff Beck - ‘Truth’ (1968)

It took me a long time to track this down on vinyl. If Led Zeppelin albums are numbered, this could almost be titled Led Zeppelin 0.

Released a couple of months before Led Zeppelin (I) was recorded, this also features heavy blues arrangements by an ex-Yardbird (Jeff Beck), and a soulful white singer (Rod Stewart) providing vocals. It also features a reworking of the Willie Dixon song You Shook Me, which would also grace the first Zeppelin album.

Apparently Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page fell out over that one - with Beck claiming that Page stole his idea to do a heavy blues version of You Shook Me. You can understand this - even if Jimmy Page did come up with that idea first, Beck beat him to the punch and Page simply shouldn’t have put it on the first Zeppelin album.

Rounding out Beck’s  band are Ronnie Wood on bass, and noted blues explosion drummer Mick Waller.

You can’t help but compare the two albums - they’re very similar - but for me the first Zeppelin album is slightly more cohesive, but only just. Page even features on the Truth album, credited as the writer of Beck’s Bolero - an instrumental with Beck and Page on guitar, John Paul Jones on bass, Keith Moon on drums and Nicky Hopkins on piano.

At the end of the day, I’m not a huge fan of either album. There’s something very dirge-like about both albums, as though both architects are trying to outdo each other with a (very) heavy blues album, and without the adequate quantity of light (to balance out the shade), they can both be very hard to listen to.

Hit: Shapes Of Things

Hidden Gem: Beck’s Bolero

Rocks In The Attic #60: Super Furry Animals - ‘Mwng’ (2000)

I was so happy when I bought this album - on white vinyl - that I played songs from it when I was DJing that evening. Local boy done good and ex-Inspiral Carpet Clint Boon was doing a homecoming show at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in Oldham, and I was asked to DJ. Hardly anybody turned up but I do remember that I played a few songs off this album. I was even approached by one of members of the support bands playing that night (somebody fairly minor, but a known act all the same), when I was playing Ysbeidiau Heulog, and asked who this was.

Apparently this is the best-selling Welsh-language album of all time. I couldn’t care less that it’s sung in a different language. In fact, I think it gives it charm. I hardly listen to lyrics anyway, so it doesn’t mean a thing to me. The music and the melody is where I’m at.

Hit: Ysbeidiau Heulog

Hidden Gem: Ymaelodi Â'r Ymylon

Rocks In The Attic #59: Jr. Walker & The All Stars - ‘Greatest Hits’ (1969)

Another one of my Dad’s (I think). This one’s a Tamla Motown record, and features the singles of Jr. Walker & The All Stars - a very overlooked artist in the Motown canon - released between 1965 and 1969.

It’s incredible how well known their debut single Shotgun is. It’s one of those soul songs you’ve heard a million times, in films and television especially, but you might not know who performs it. Many of the songs are driven by Walker’s saxophone, but there’s something very Steve Cropper about guitarist Willie Woods, and his licks are as funky as anything.

Hit: Shotgun

Hidden Gem: Cleo’s Mood

Rocks In The Attic #58: Spinal Tap - ‘Break Like The Wind’ (1992)

Shit sandwich.

Hit: The Majesty Of Rock

Hidden Gem: All The Way Home

Rocks In The Attic #57: Jane’s Addiction - ‘Ritual de lo Habitual’ (1990)

We were the first family I knew of to get Sky TV in the UK. It caught on very fast, but when we first got it installed there was nobody else we knew at the time who also had it. So when The Simpsons started, we would watch it religiously, and then I would go to school and for a short time there wouldn’t be anybody else who I could talk to about it. Part of the fun of being at school is shared experiences - “Did you watch Dr. Who last night?”, etc - but in this respect I couldn’t discuss The Simpsons with anybody else except my own family.

So when I first started listening to rock music - back in early 1993 - the house was already set up to receive MTV, and for a few years I became an addict. I consumed everything. Headbanger’s Ball. Beavis & Butthead. 120 Minutes. Unplugged. The MTV Music Awards, when you’d see great things like John Paul Jones playing bass on Lenny Kravitz’s Are You Gonna Go My Way, or The Beastie Boys playing Sabotage as a little garage-rock three-piece. I watched the breaking news, and the resulting tributes, when Kurt Cobain blew his head off with a shotgun. I even remember being at a friend’s house, steaming drunk, and being elated to see Joe Perry being interviewed live, on the red carpet before one of the awards shows.

The point I’m trying to make is that despite the evil that I now see MTV as - mainly because videos can take away your objectivity about music - it was a big part of my life, and for a few years it supported my burgeoning addiction to rock music.

During this time, there was a music video I would see all the time. My first impressions were of the visual elements of the video - a man, grossly made-up as a pregnant woman, shoplifting in an American grocery store, interspersed with Perry Farrell singing the song looking like a robber, with nylon tights stretched over his face. It was funny. I used to like catching the video whenever it was played, simply because it amused me. Then the music started to grow on me. It was a rock song, but with these weird crashing jazz chords played over the top.

Of course, since then I’ve learnt who Jane’s Addiction are, especially how Perry Farrell was the architect of Lollapalooza. I was also a big fan of One Hot Minute - the sole Red Hot Chili Peppers album which Jane’s Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro played on.

Listening back, I’m not a huge fan of Ritual de lo Habitual - I love Been Caught Stealing, but the rest of that first side has a very similar sound. That’s okay, it’s just their sound and just like the very early Chili Peppers albums, it’s that almost jokey version of punk. I’m much more interested in the second side - where the songs go a bit more progressive rock.

Hit: Been Caught Stealing

Hidden Gem: Three Days

Rocks In The Attic #56: AC/C - ‘If You Want Blood - You’ve Got It’ (1978)

56 blogs in, and I’ve not even covered an album by the mighty ‘DC. Shocking!

I remember when I first started listening to rock music - well, not even rock music, it was Aerosmith and nothing but Aerosmith at this point - my Dad brought home a stack of LPs that he’d borrowed from a friend for me to listen to. Amongst this pile was several AC/DC albums - all from their classic 1970s period.

This was the first time I had been subjected to AC/DC, and even before listening to them, I was in awe of the covers; and the one I remember being blown away the most by was this one - their first live album, recorded during the Powerage world tour. On the front cover, an out of focus shot of Angus Young impaling himself in the gut with his Gibson SG, with Bon Scott leering over his shoulder, holding onto his microphone. On the reverse, a similarly blurry shot of a now lifeless Young, lying face down with the headstock of his guitar poking through the back of his bloodied white school shirt. You can talk about classic album covers all day long, but this one is a real peach. In terms of a cover describing a band’s sound, this one really gets it down perfectly.

As well as introducing me to AC/DC, this album also gave me a love of the song Riff Raff. Underrated and underplayed by the band, this is a real gem and used perfectly here as their show-opener. You know that guitar sound that comes out of the speakers after the first line of vocals in the song? That’s Young bending an entire open-D cord. Beautiful. I’ve broken many guitar strings doing this very trick.

It’s odd that AC/DC have never really been able to capture their live sound in the studio. They sound as good as anybody in the studio - especially from Powerage onwards - but recorded live they sound like a completely different band. That’s probably the reason they’ve never released a greatest hits record - their live records are their greatest hits.

Hit: Let There Be Rock

Hidden Gem: Riff Raff

Rocks In The Attic #55: Elastica - ‘Elastica’ (1995)

This is an odd little record. Fifteen songs breeze by in less than forty minutes. There’s one song over four minutes, a couple at the three minute mark, and then all the rest chalk up between one and two minutes. How punk is that?

I probably bought this album purely for Connection, and from the sticker inside the sleeve I seem to have bought it from the Vinyl Exchange on Oldham Street in Manchester for £12. Not bad considering that, as the Vinyl Exchange sticker proudly states, it’s in mint condition and comes with a free 12-page booklet and a flexi-disc.

The flexi-disc - a cover of Adam Ant’s Cleopatra is pretty good. Well, at least it doesn’t sound as bad as the flexi-discs you would get free in Look-In magazine in the 80s. There’s no surface noise and it plays just like a standard 7”.

This is a pretty good album - with plenty of catchy songs. At the end of the day though, you can never have enough albums with a photo of the band standing in front of a brick wall on the cover. It should be mandatory, for debut albums at least.

Hit: Connection

Hidden Gem: Waking Up