Urusei Yatsura - Kewpies Like Watermelon

Hello again!

We got trafficshaped due to stupid Australian internet loserness and I couldn't update but now I'm back like the return of the mack, bringing you the freshest and most up-to-date and relevant music hits, fresh from 1996. Here for your delectation are the super hip Dubstep Nu-Metal Thamesbeat stylings of Urusei Yatsura, with Kewpies Like Watermelon, a track I liked very much yesterday when it came out. Two point oh. Featuring silent contributions from Florence's Machine, and Dizzy Raasclaat, it's grimey as anything, and Justin Bieber's rap about Twilight is frankly astonishing.

OK, I'm lying, it's clearly indie guitar rock from the ancient past but it's still ace and if you're here reading this then the chances are you will find it to your taste. Urusei Yatsura were a small band from Glasgow who made Dinosaur Jr influenced indiepop songs, and were part of the so called "Glitter Underground" which basically meant kids who liked to write fanzines were into them and lots of their fans wore fake fur, a fact alluded to on the cryptically titled track "Fake Fur" which is worth your time to hunt down if you're that way inclined. They had three albums, this track is from the first, the second is also great, the third one not so much.


Urusei Yatsura. In Glasgow. Yesterday.

Wikipedia here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urusei_Yatsura_%28band%29

Download the track:

Urusei Yatsura - Kewpies Like Watermelon.mp3

bette davis and the balconettes - shopping on the internet

Well, well, well, here we are again, it's almost like i'm taking this blogging thing seriously. Almost.

For your delectation today we have Shopping on the Internet by Bette Davis and the Balconettes, which was the B-side to their single Paul Power T-Shirt. I always preferred this to the A-side, it sounds slightly slower than I remember it "back in the day" but that's something I've noticed with a lot of things recently so I'll let it slip, it's still a banger. I always connect this song in my head with fanzines, cut and paste, and letters that were full of glitter when you opened them meaning people would complain of glitter in the carpet and such, and when you read the letters they would implore you to listen to the latest signings on Slampt, or ask you about whether you thought Disco Pistol were fake or real and other such pressing matters. Nowadays most of the letters I receive are from companies that are demanding I pay them money, and without exception, all of them are utterly devoid of glitter or kero kero keroppi stickers which is, to my mind, a bit of a shame. As an aside, I maintain that this is the reason I, also without exception, flatly refuse to pay these people. Anyway, back to the song/band/thing I am supposed to be writing about.
This is a song about Shopping on the Internet, the very same internet that you are reading this on, but you have to remember that in the late 90s when this came out, the internet was a casual construction of tincans and string, held together with dogeared nudey pics that had been clipped out of the daily sport, so the idea of doing your shopping on it was pretty radical, as opposed to now when I'm quite sure that pop starlets like Justin Bieber probably shop exclusively on the internet and writing a song about it would seem slightly pointless. Whether or not he would find "rude assistants or pubic lice in the panties he tried on" were he to try shopping in real life remains to be known, but it's a possibility, and when Usher is schooling you in the ways of the world you probably try and avoid such things, in much the same style that Bette Davis and her Balconettes describe in this song. I feel it's getting tangential again.


This is what the internet looked like in 1997. Not like it is now.

Bette Davis and the Balconettes were mancunians, they shout about blacknosed scousers stealing their mountain bikes, they were on slampt, they were fanzine darlings and seemingly not at all bothered with making the charts, true to the "punka, punku" ethics of slampt. they released five singles or something, you should really check out their song Shergar as well, I might upload it here at some point if I get bored, but they are heartily recommended for fans of shouty riot grrrl tinged stuff like Huggy Bear et al, I love them, you should too. Initialise download now...

bette davis - shopping_on_the_internet.mp3

abort/retry/fail?

j.

bennet - mum's gone to iceland

Hello reader(s?),

Here we have another new old delight for your ears, some jingle jangle jewellery indie pop from back in the day by everyones' favourite top 40 botherers, Bennet! This was another of the purchases I made in my halcyon summer holidays in Hove circa 1932, this one from the now defunct Virgin Megastore, and it's a cracker. The sleeve artwork was a bit shoddy, but clearly an attempt to move from playing Splatch in Guildford every month or two, and start playing the bigtime, a move which sadly failed apart from this tune, and what a tune it is, following the indie pop formula of the time to the letter:

JINGLE + JANGLE x CYNICISM (LYRICAL CONTENT) = WINN!


This is the last remaining picture of Bennet, taken during their illadvised advertising campaign ft. Kerry Katona. Neither the band, Kerry Katona, or Iceland came out of this looking good and the photos were subsequently destroyed.

I seem to remember that this hit something like 39 in the hit parade, which at the time was actually a parade, not like the internet digistream it has since become, and I also remember watching Bennet gleefully cheering as the parade marched through our village on Top of the Pops night. I stood and saluted them with pride.

Bennet were a three or fourpiece band from Reading who formed in 1874, they wore finely tailored double vented three button suits from Hawkes of Savile Row, and their favourite drink was Advocaat which they would drink either on the rocks, or with lemonade to create a cocktail known as the "Bennetball" which later came to be very on trend for a three week period over the summer of 1992.

Here is their song:

bennet - mum\'s gone to iceland.mp3