Bagging Area- World Exclusive

Yes, really.

I posted Time Goes By So Slow by long lost Manchester band The Distractions a few weeks ago, at the prompting of a reader called Dan, who also lives in Sale. It turns out Dan is part of the team at Occultation Recordings, a record label launched in 2009 to release records by The Granite Shore and The Wild Swans. Since then they've released some stuff by The Distractions, Jonathan Becket and are planning a Distractions compilation for later in the year. Recently Dan emailed to offer me a chance to hear and post tracks by Factory Star, currently unavailable anywhere else.

You can find Occultation Recordings here

http://www.occultation.co.uk/

Does this mean Bagging Area is a proper blog now?

And have I lost my independence and integrity?

And what if I don't like the album? Can I say so?

Factory Star are a band led by guitarist Martin Bramah, who led The Blue Orchids and survived two stints in The Fall (during two of their most revered periods.) He's a proper post-punk guitar player. Factory Star have been around since 2008, gigging and playing a session for (fellow Fall survivor) Marc Riley. They recorded their debut album during three days in Liverpool in January this year, playing live with hardly any overdubs and then mixed it the following weekend. Occultation are due to release it later this month. Factory Star take their lead from post-punk's twin influences- 70s punk (New York variety) and 60s garage, filtered through a very northern Englishness (big mills, railway arches, Manchester suburbs, the cemetery and pylons on the sleeve art). There's wheezy 96 Tears-esque organ all over this album along with clanging guitars and the half spoken, half sung vocals of Bramah. In places it's slightly reminiscent of a Mancunian Pavement (who were often accused of plagiarising The Fall, not least by MES himself). The song titles alone are interesting; Away Dull Care, Cheetham Bill, The Fall Of Great Britain, New Chemical Light, Black Comic Book, Stone Tumbling Stream, Arise Europa! amongst them, and the album title itself, Enter Castle Perilous. Luckily the songs live up to them. There's some good stuff here, for Fall fans and non-Fall fans alike. This is album opener Angel Steps, which gives you a good idea of what to expect.

1_Angel Steps.mp3

The Return Of Friday Night Is Rockabilly Night 10

Seeing as The Fall were here this morning I thought we should have some rockabilly that linked. This is George Jones' White Lightning, as covered by Mark E Smith and one of his line-ups, an ode to the benefits of strong homemade alcohol which has the following effect- 'my eyes bugged out and my face turned blue'. I'll have one of whatever you're having please.

White Lightning.mp3#1#1

Select Shun Four-Ah

Woah, this is good. Why didn't I get the album this song came off? This is Two Librans by The Fall from The Unutterable, given away with Select magazine on the Revolutions 04 cd. The band kick up an unholy riff while MES growls and snarls about two Librans, Oprah Winfrey, bees, blonde September and The Cambodian. Superb. Also given away free in January 2001, Lo-Fidelity Allstars, Primal Scream, The Big Kids, Kelis, Coldplay, Lambchop, Woodbine, Monster Magnet, Magnetic Fields, Outkast, Space raiders, Bloodhound Gang and Atari Teenage Riot. It folded not long after I think.

08 Two Librans.wma

Wasting Time In Numbers And Rhyme

Continuing with The Fall theme for no particular reason, this is Bingo Master's Breakout. Not by MES and co, but by punk trumpeter Terry Edwards, whose ep covering The Jesus And Mary Chain was a blast. I think this is from a Peel Session- it's certainly no less confrontational than The Fall.

02 Bingo Masters Breakout.wma

The Observer Magazine Just About Sums Him Up

The Fall are a bit of an acquired taste. I know people who can't stand them who have otherwise excellent taste. I know people who are obsessed with them to the point where I fear for their sanity. I don't often listen to a Fall album all the way through much anymore but they're a great compilation tape/cd band, cutting through the bands and songs placed before and after them. No nonsense garage art rock.

BBC4 showed a documentary from a few years back about The Fall on Friday night, which consisted of some great live clips and videos, Mark E Smith directing a Peel Session, various interviews with MES shot in a variety of pubs, and assorted interviews with former members of the band. These assorted guitarists, bassists, drummers and keyboardists looked like they'd served time in a disaster zone and couldn't quite believe they'd survived. I hope they've got a decent support group. Una Baines. Craig Scanlon. Brix Smith. Marc Riley. Karl Burns. Steve Hanley. Martin Bramah. Julia Nagle. Simon Wolstencroft. Marcia Schofield. Spencer Birtwistle. Ben Pritchard. And dozens of others, I salute you.


05 How I Wrote Elastic Man.wma

Friday Night Is Rockabilly Night 22

Bagging Area is featuring updated rockabilly sounds now at the Friday night rave-up, and we can't get more updated than this. This song is from this year's Fall album, Your Future Our Clutter. One online review I read recently praised MES for writing a song with verses and a chorus, that could be played on the radio. Not quite- it's a Wanda Jackson cover from 1961, one of the rockabilly greats, Funnel Of Love. The Fall's rockabilly covers are always fun (see also White Lightning amongst others). This is great Mancabilly action. Thumbs in belt loops, quiffs drenched by the rain.

08 Funnel Of Love.mp3

The Searchers 'Popcorn Double Feature'

I was looking through a box of cds that came free with music magazines earlier, and like many things they seemed to be better a while back than they are now. I glanced at one from Mojo in 2000 called, with typical understatement, 'Maximum '65- 20 Tracks From The Birth Of Rock', which I must have kept and not binned for some reason, probably mod-related. Scanning the tracklist there were The Small Faces, PP Arnold, Fleur De Lys, The Poets, Chris Farlowe, all good stuff. Then I spotted this- Popcorn Double Feature. Fairly uncool 60s Liverpool beat group The Searchers released it in 1967. By 1971 they had been hopelessly left behind, and become stalwarts of the chicken in a basket scene. In 1990 it was last track side 1 on Extricate by The Fall. Mark E. Smith's group's cover version is pretty faithful to the original, and like many covers by The Fall is great. But, as I rediscovered this morning, so is the original.

16 Popcorn Double Feature.wma