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.
5 comments:
Almost as good as Misty Dixon. I burnt my finger on the cooker. Waah.
no one in bette davis was from manchester, aside from kate. Shergar was originally begun by their half-american drummer Nor as a william tell overture inspired galloping horsey drumroll ode to early clint eastwood's "rawhide". sam the singer immediately changed it to Shergar (the wonder horse) and the song made it's debut 7 may 96 @the manchester roadhouse. a few days before the gig, the band hung fliers on wilbraham road bearing the infamous horse head profile as used by the ira amidst great laughter. a few weeks later, the ira bombed manchester city centre
God almighty!! Nor,I 'wrote' all guitar parts, Joe, Sean, Kate, Yourself and Caroline wrote drum parts, Tracy did all bass, Eugene wrote all the organ stuff Sam and me wrote all the lyrics (apart from our covers of Yummy Yummy and Feed the World) REMEMBER.... Tracy usually had 2 strings on the bass, we could barely pick instruments up let alone play them. NOR - YOU were auditioned on a fuckin suitcase for christsake!! If you want I will give you ALL royalties from Shergar as you seem to want so much recognition. In otherwords you are owed £0.00. Thats how much we earned and expected to earn. Bands are crap, plectrums in change, cocaine, ignorance is all you get from bands.Happy days, Bri
Shopping on the internet. Who fuckin needs it x
I had a right job finding this song due to the title, which is all I could remember despite having it earworm me for the past fortnight. If anyone can enlighten me as to whether I was more likely to have seen them a)top the bill at the Roadhouse b)support the likes of Bis or Kenickie at the Roadhouse c)probably just looked attractive in the racks at Piccadilly Records then please do assist.
Post a Comment