Mix CD #34 - Battered And Bruised

Happy Valentine's Day! Here's the first non themed blog of 2018 and it's full of wildly inappropriate Valentine's songs about loneliness and divorce. There's no subtle hinting to my beautiful wife, just coincidence and very poor timing.

I wanted to get it out and finished a while ago but I've been having personal issues that have meant I've been off work and staring at a screen for large amounts of time isn't conducive to a good time.  I've been working on it for far too long and changed it around a ton but it's finally done, finished and ready for your massive enjoyment. So enjoy massively please ta!

Tracklisting
Kick Joneses - Battered And Bruised
Jackie On Acid - More Like Television
Enuff Z'Nuff - Wheels
Bloodywood - Tunak Tunak Tun
The Class Assassins - For The Kids
Jesper Binzer - The Bumpy Road
Starcrawler - Ants
Skyscraper - Man Made Hell
One Minute Silence - For Want Of A Better World
Bull - 12 Minute Album Ender
Flora Greysteel - Emily Tries
Tom Keifer - It's Not Enough
Shelter - Spirits Blinded
Dire Straits - Skateaway
The Dollyrots - City Of Angels
Drama Club Rejects - Too Much Too Often
Dunes - Everything Is OK
The NX - Swingers & Roundabouts
Sloan - Can't Face Up
Baleful Creed - Levy
Harry Nilsson - Don't Forget Me

You can download the mix HERE

Kick Joneses - Battered And Bruised
Taken from the 2016 album Unexpected Gift

The quirky German Punks have been around for a pretty long time now and Unexpected Gift, a double, is their fifth album. This song is one of the highlights from it and tells the tale of a broken down relationship where the woman has moved on but the man has, sadly, not. 
For me, it's just a perfect song that I love everything about, the driving, bouncy rhythm, the melody of the verses, the way the pre-chorus kicks in and the chorus itself. It also tells its story well and you feel the guy's pain. It's currently my most listened to song of the last 12 months or so and I'm nowhere near bored of it yet.

Jackie On Acid - More Like Television
Taken from the 1996 album Moink!

 

I've been meaning to include this band for a while now but never seemed to get around to it, until now. It's pretty hard to find much information about the band other than that they're American and only released this one album in the mid-90's. It's made doubly hard by the fact there seemed have been another female fronted band from the US called Jackie On Acid who occupy all the Google searches. I struggled to find a photo of the band and, in the end, had to take this off the back of the CD.
Anyway, THIS Jackie On Acid were a Grunge/Alt Rock band, vocalist Leslie had a great voice and there are some cool guitar riffs. While they sound very much of their time, Moink! is an enjoyable, solid album with plenty of good songs on it, like this one.

Enuff Z'Nuff - Wheels
Taken from the 1997 album Seven

Enuff Z'Nuff are a band I've always liked (since Fly High Michelle in the late '80's) though I only ever had their second album, Strength, on cassette and, later, their greatest hits. Recently though, utilising the awesome, naughty power of the internet, I've acquired their full discography and have been listening a lot over the last month or so. They were always seen as part of the Hard Rock/Glam Metal scene of the time and, of course, there is that, but they also had a cheery Power Poppiness along the lines of bands like Jellyfish too. Wheels is the opening track from one of their strongest albums and is a catchy example of that side of their music, with added fairground effects, whee!

Bloodywood - Tunak Tunak Tun featuring Bonde de Metaleiro
Taken from the 2018 single Tunak Tunak Metal

At the time of writing, this song (along with its cheerily shit video), has been all over Facebook and seems impossible to avoid. It's a parodical Metal cover of a classic Bhangra hit, one that I don't have the pleasure of being familiar with. I realise this song is supposed to be comedic but the fusing of the two styles works really well and it's actually a proper decent song in its own right. They've got a few other covers knocking about on the internet too, their version of Kendrick Lamar's Humble is particularly impressive.

The Class Assassins - For The Kids
Taken from the 2002 album State Of Emergency

I discovered this Canadian band years ago on some album sampler and bought the album on the strength of that track (the excellent Without Warning) I still listen to it fairly regularly, as well as a couple of others I've come across since. They're a reasonably muscular, sociopolitical Punk band, with lots of shouty, anthemic, gang-vocal choruses. As evidenced in this particular track. I dunno how difficult State Of Emergency is to find these days but it's definitely worth tracking down and giving a go if you're into this sort of thing.

Jesper Binzer - The Bumpy Road
Taken from the 2017 album Dying Is Easy

It's been over six years since the last D-A-D album and, having checked they hadn't split, I was wondering if and when a new album would be due. Then, at the tail end of last year, this solo album by their lead singer cropped up out of the blue. To be honest, it's not all that different to the usual output of his main band and could quite easily have been released under that name, line up notwithstanding. Dying Is Easy is mainly gritty Hard Rock with some eclectic, poppy flourishes and dabbles in a few other influences. 
This track is probably my favourite on the album and is more subdued, with an Americana vibe to it. Jesper has always had a lovely, poetic flair with words and is one of my favourite lyricists which, considering that Danish is his first language, is especially remarkable. 

Starcrawler - Ants
Taken from the 2017 single Ants

This band kept popping up on the sponsored ads on Facebook and seemed like the sort of thing I'd like so I had a nosey and I do. They're a young (17/18) band from L.A. and signed to Rough Trade, Ryan Adams produced their eponymous debut album, they have an engaging image and an ear-catching, retro Garage Rock sound so they're on course for some promising things. That debut album IS enjoyable and has some decent songs but I worry there's a whiff of style over substance to them that I hope, either passes as they mature, or I'm just plain wrong about. This track isn't actually on the album for some reason. It's a great, snotty, Glam Rock stomp that's all over and done in less than two minutes.

Skyscraper - Man Made Hell
Taken from the 1994 album Superstate

 This is the first of a couple of old-school 90's British bands that I've been listening to a lot lately, Skyscraper were an Industrial influenced, Grungy Rock band that featured former members of bands like Swervedriver, Pitchfork, and Silverfish. They released two albums, Superstate and Shooters, before splitting in 1997. I loved this album in particular at the time and Man Made Hell was one of my favourite tracks. It's a bleak slice of melody that conjures up images of a post-nuclear, ruined dystopia and I think it holds up pretty well.

One Minute Silence - For Want Of A Better World
Taken from the 1998 album Available In All Colours

One Minute Silence were a multinational Rap Metal band based in London who released a couple of albums (three apparently, according to Wikipedia. I completely missed One Lie Fits All. I also missed the fact that they've reformed and had new material out last year). The majority of their songs were angry, politically charged diatribes such as this one. Obviously, a lot of Rap Metal is derided these days and, truth be told, hasn't aged well. Available In All Colours is most definitely of its time but the quality of the songwriting and Yap's rapping shines through and I've been thoroughly enjoying listening to it again. 

Bull - 12 Minute Album Ender
Taken from the 2014 album She Looks Like Kim

Towards the tail end of last year, I made an effort to try and catch up on new music from my hometown of York and one of the bands I found was the Alternative Rock band, Bull. They're very reminiscent of American Indie Rock bands of the 90's, like Pavement, Sebadoh etc though there are flashes of Britpop in there too. She Looks Like Kim is a great album with a bit of variety; there are a few faster-paced songs balanced out by slower songs such as 12 Minute Album Ender which, I might add, is neither 12 minutes long nor at the end of the album. Madness. 

Flora Greysteel - Emily Tries
Taken from the 2016 EP Flora Greysteel

Another York band. Though pretty different to Bull, their influences are also pretty clear and I'll eat my shoes if vocalist Emily Rowan doesn't own a single Amanda Palmer album! So yeah, piano-led Dark Cabaret is what's on offer and this debut EP from a couple of years ago features a handful of quality tunes of which Emily Tries is the highlight. It tells the tale of a doll on a shelf watching the other toys play and either being unsure as to how to join in or maybe just not wanting to. I think it's more a metaphor for vocalist Emily rather than doll Emily's attempts to manoeuvre through life whilst feeling awkward and anachronistic.

Maybe not my shoes.

Tom Keifer - It's Not Enough
Taken from the 2013 album The Way Life Goes

Tom Keifer is probably best known, to old people at least, as the vocalist for the Hair Metal band Cinderella. The Way Life Goes was his debut solo album following some bad times in his life such as divorce, the loss of his mother to Cancer and having to learn to sing again after operations to repair his paralyzed vocal chords. Whilst the subject matter of The Way Life Goes deals with some of those bad times it's actually quite an uplifting and positive sounding album. Also, while Cinderella's debut album, Night Songs, was straight up Hair Metal, later albums were more experimental and had strong Blues and Country influences. This album takes that further and features a wide range of styles, though still sounds cohesive and natural. It's Not Enough is a fairly straight forward Rock song compared to some of the others but it's one of my favourites.

Shelter - Spirits Blinded
Taken from the 2000 Album When 20 Summers Pass

The kings of Krishnacore. Over a period of 15 years or so, Shelter released a handful of Melodic Hardcore albums with strong Hare Krishna messages and themes throughout. Thankfully they never seemed to get too preachy and their albums were quite positive and life-affirming. Vocalist Ray Cappo is a Punk veteran and also sang in seminal Hardcore bands Youth Of Today and Better Than A Thousand. Their album Beyond Planet Earth was their most successful and was quite important to me in the late 90's so, naturally, I've picked a song from a later, lesser known, album instead. Spirits Blinded is about how we're all preoccupied with materialistic things, gadgets and how we should take some time to address our inner spiritualities and whatnot. 

Dire Straits - Skateaway
Taken from the 1980 album Making Movies

Dire Straits were probably the first band that really got me into music, Brothers In Arms was my first ever album when I was 12 and I've never really stopped listening to them. Skateaway, from their third album, is about a girl rollerblading through the streets, listening to her walkman. It's a somewhat cooler than Wired For Sound. It's a nice song but it's somewhat overshadowed by the two tracks preceding it; Tunnel Of Love and Romeo And Juliet, both big songs in Dire Straits career, the latter being one of the best Dad Rock songs ever written but you probably already know that.

The Dollyrots - City Of Angels
Taken from the 2017 album Whiplash Splash

Whiplash Splash was the seventh album by this cheery American Pop Punk band and is as entertaining and feel good as anything else they've done. They're based around the married couple of Kelly and Luis plus a revolving door of drummers, presumably all feeling a bit third wheely? This track is one of the highlights of the album and is all about living in LA and walking around the dodgy streets at night. Or that Nicholas Cage film where he's an angel who falls in love with Meg Ryan, one or the other.

Drama Club Rejects - Too Much Too Often
Taken from the 2018 EP Anywhere But Here

Whilst York is where I was born and grew up, I moved up north to County Durham about ten years ago and Newcastle, being the nearest big city, has kind of become my de facto/spiritual home of music these days. Therefore the following three bands are as local to me as Bull and Flora Greysteel are when I'm in York. Kind of.  
Anyway, the first Geordie band is Drama Club Rejects, who feature former members of The Wildhearts, The Almighty, Whatever and SuperCharger (more on them in a minute) They released their excellent debut album last year and have quickly followed it up with this new EP. It features five (ten on the ltd ed CD) tracks of beefy Punk Metal, full of riffs and melody. This is the final track and my personal favourite. Hopefully, they'll be following Anywhere But Here up with a full album sooner rather than later!

Dunes - Everything Is OK
Taken from the 2018 EP Dunes EP 2

When SuperCharger (see?) dissolved in 2013ish, Nick Parsons and Nash went on to form Drama Club Rejects and guitarist John Davies has now surfaced fronting Dunes, a Stoner/Desert Rock trio reminiscent of early Queens Of The Stone Age. They've so far released a couple of EP's that are both excellent, with this imaginatively titled second one very recently released, Everything Is OK is the opening song and an absolute belter. They've got a couple of gigs coming up, presumably in the North East and, by all reputes, are well worth catching.

The NX - Swingers & Roundabouts
Taken from the 2017 single Swingers & Roundabouts

The third of the North-East bands are The NX, from Sunderland. Recommended to me by my friend Eddie, who's been playing them on his radio show a lot lately. Like Dunes they're a Stoner band but with more of a Metalcore edge, as well as a great Party Rock feel. They've yet to release more than a handful of tracks, with Ladies Night being released on Feb 14th but everything I've heard so far has been really good. This is a storming track that bodes well for an album if/when one appears.

Sloan - Can't Face Up
Taken from the 1996 album One Chord To Another

It's been a strange old career for this Alternative Indie Rock band. They've been on the go for over 25 years, released a dozen albums and had over thirty singles but are still only really known in their home country of Canada. I first discovered them when I bought their debut album, Smeared, on a whim in 1992 and really liked it. Everything they've done since has been just as good, if not better. I lost all of their music a few years ago when I changed laptops sadly, I've finally got around to reburning the CD's I do have but the rest is proving tricky to find online. 
This track was always one of my favourites, it's a laid-back song about a couple stuck in an unhappy relationship. The chorus (when it finally crops up!) is insidious and has been stuck in my head since the first time I heard it over 20 years ago.

Baleful Creed - Levy
Taken from the 2017 album Seismic Shifter

This is a very recent addition to the mix as I only heard the album 2 days ago. I've seen their name being bandied about in a couple of groups and finally got around to giving them a listen. They're a Northern Irish band that deal in chunky Hard Rock with a bit of a Stoner influence in the groovy riffs. This song is an immediate stand out for me, it's a slower, head-nodding chugger with a big chorus and an impromptu harmonica solo. What's not to like?

Harry Nilsson - Don't Forget Me
Taken from the 1974 album Pussy Cats

Finishing off the mix this time is something a little different, though it ties in nicely with the opening track by Kick Joneses too. Harry Nilsson has been a massive musical influence on me, ever since my dad used to play Nilsson Schmilsson when I was a kid. Harry always just made the music he wanted to make with no regard to popular appeal, he never bothered playing live because he couldn't be arsed but still made some of the best music of the 60's and 70's. He died following a heart attack in 1994.  
At the time of recording this album, he'd been partying and drinking so hard (with John Lennon, who also features prominently all over Pussy Cats) that he knackered his vocal chords. His voice went from an angelic, multi-octave thing to a hoarse, ragged wail. 
Weirdly, it kind of ended up beneficial as it adds more emotion and sorrow to songs like Don't Forget Me. It's a mournful love letter from a man to his divorced wife, whom he still loves but has accepted it's not mutual. Whilst it's a heartbreaking song, there are still flashes of Harry's trademark wry humour in lines such as "I'll miss you when I'm lonely, I'll miss the alimony too"