Welcome to the feature George likes to call "Bands With The Same Name". I hope he can cope with it appearing on a Wednesday this week rather than a Tuesday.
Bono once said that the Streets have no name. Well, here's just one more reason why you're a birk, Bono. The Streets do have a name. It's The Streets. D'oh. And all the artists below have got together to prove you wrong. Let's rise up against Bono and reclaim The Streets!
STREETS #1
Calling out around the world! And we start dancing in the streets with a Belgium punk band with a bit of a reggae vibe in 1978.
Val Doonican had a #39 chart smash in 1967 with the song Two Streets. Perhaps he was singing about our Number Two Streets - this American country pop trio active in the very early 80s. They
changed their name to Nightstreets after this, which I’m presuming was their
debut.
Next street over, we find a Finnish rock band from Turku in 1980. Their biggest / only
hit (this one) featured in Mika Kaurismäki's 1982 film Arvottomat.
Our Positively Fourth Street today is this band formed in Atlanta, Georgia in 1982, featuring some
bloke from Kansas and some other bloke from City Boy. Singer Steve Walsh later
went back to Kansas.
When Mike Skinner arrived on the scene in 2002 with his
acclaimed debut album, Original Pirate Material, he looked like he’d walked
straight out of Grange Hill. Nowadays he wouldn’t look out of place in Albert
Square. He is clearly a man of The Streets, and a rare crossover act who
appealed to both fans of the UK garage scene and the indie kids. As a teenager, he built a recording studio in a cupboard in his bedroom – and I guess he never looked back.
And now we're going down to alphabet street - where every letter counts. These loud Vancouver punks crashed onto the scene a year after
Mike Skinner’s first offerings.
And finally, an “experimental” band from Ithaca in 2013. Not the Greek
Island, but the New York Ithaca where Cornell University is located. I doubt you’ll
waste any time sleeping while listening to this…
Time has gotten away from me again this week, so here's another ten short songs as a follow up to My Top Ten < 30 Second Songs... this time, all of them lasting somewhere between 30 and 40 seconds in duration.
Not the first time Creation oddity The Legend! has featured here, but this seems like a pretty good definition of boredom... Dave Lee Travis is involved!
A complete indie anthem in 40 seconds. Take that Noel!
1. Half Man Half Biscuit - Vatican Broadside
Suggested by Jim in Dubai last time we did this, and the only reason I didn't include it last time is that according to my music player, it clocks in at 31 seconds.
Ever wondered what happened when the singer out of Slipknot went to Rome to meet the Pope? The answer lies within...
Your suggestions of songs between 30 and 40 seconds in length will be gratefully received. Usual rules apply.
The Aliens were the brainchild of Lone Pigeon: former Beta Band member and brother of King Creosote Gordon Anderson. This is from their 2007 debut album, Astronomy For Dogs, and it sounds, as far as I can tell, like ELO if Jeff Lynne hadn't spent ALL his childhood listening to the Beatles.
Obscure American indie - no idea where I came across this one, but it's a cool little infidelity song.
Teeth mark bruise on your arm
That's what he gave you
No chocolates in a heart Just the same old screw
When you take off your clothes
And realize you have no more secrets I hope it's a surprise
That this is as intimate as it gets
Two weeks running for Johnny Cougar , and rarely does his live up to his reputation as a Midwest-Dickens than in this 1987 album track... it could almost be his theme song.
Sounding, as he does, very much like a Guy Ritchie creation, Mike Skinner really ought to get on my nerves. But I love his Arfur-Daley-meets-Eminem routine and I wish he hadn't packed it in.
Classic from the Welcome Home, Loser album of 2005
If you work in a whorehouse you're gonna get fucked
If you sleep in a river you're gonna get ducked
If you count all your chickens you'll die like a dog
And if you lie to me again I'll take you closer to God
While I'd given up on hearing anything new from this excellent band after they split in 2009, I was overjoyed to discover that lead singer / songwriter Steven James Adams has released two solo albums - his latest came out just last week and is now on my ever-expanding wishlist.
Every time I post a Billy Joel song, I find myself wondering why he quit. (That's become something of a recurring theme in this post, hasn't it?) As a teenager, he was one of my absolute favourite pop stars - look, if you came here muso-cred, move along now. But it's been 23 years since he released any new material (though he continues to tour) and I've never heard an explanation as to why - particularly when many of his contemporaries (Bruce, Jackson Browne, James Taylor) press ever onwards. I keep hoping for an honest revelation from the man himself - but he even turned down an offer for his autobiography and gave the publishers back their $3m advance.
Honesty is such a lonely word. Everyone is so untrue. Honesty is hardly ever heard. And mostly what I need from you.
Apparently Beyonce covered this. But I'm not hip so I wouldn't know.
There's something going on with youtube at the moment where a lot of the tracks I try to link to aren't working, so I'm having to link to sub-standard live versions instead. Which is a crying shame in the case of Be Honest, because the false start on the Bizarro version is classic.
So I was talking to my good friend and fellow muso Steve (not that one) Miller the other day and I happened to mention two artists I'd been digging lately were The Front Bottoms and Dawes. I went on to point out that my only problem with Dawes was their name - I even said something like "it has to be the stupidest name for a band ever (unless they were actually a Doors tribute band, in which case it'd be quite cool)". I went on to hammer my point home by saying that it was as bad as calling yourself Hoo or Smiffs or... I dunno, Ryan Adams.
Steve pointed out one slight flaw in my argument: "It's still a better name than The Front Bottoms".
Anyway, Dawes. Despite the name, I'm digging their latest album, All Your Favourite Bands, a lot. Kind of like The Eagles if they'd got Mark Knopfler in to play guitar. Which, I know, you're probably thinking sounds like a terrible idea. But it works for me.
Sadly, there's only a live version of To Be Completely Honest available on youtube, and it doesn't really do the song justice. Plus, it's nowhere near the best track on the album. But. Y'know. Still #2.
1. Sam Cooke - You Send Me
Honest you do, Honest you do, Honest you do.
I thought about not giving this the Number One because it doesn't have the h-word in the title, but honestly? It's as close to perfection as you can get and not be dreaming.
