S
Benjamin
Horrendous website index
SCORN
Ex Napalm Death members Mick Harris and
Nick Bullen's druggy ambient dub explorations.
Essential
"Colossus" l.p.
NEIL SEDAKA
"Come-a-come-a-dum
do-be-do-dum -dum..."
What great lyrics. Genius pop songwriter.
Essential
Any kind of "Best Of.." from the early 60's .
SEPULTURA
South American death metal thrashers. "Arise" was an awesome single.
http://www.resoft.inopera.it/musica/sepultura.shtml
SHAM69
Earnest sarf London punkers. "Hurry Up Harry" was a brilliant single,
and the album it came from (sorry, can't remember the title), was a wonderful
'day in the life' punk opera.
SKELETON CREW
Fred Frith , Tom Cora, and (sometimes)
Zeena Parkins. Eccentric, off the wall structured stuff, and a fair bit
of improv. Saw Fred and Tom at the I.C.A., London. They both had miniature
drums sets, Fred had his guitars, and Tom a cello. There was a table of
various objects e.g. radios, chains, cans, bottles etc.etc., which they
used and abused to musical effect. Somehow they had rigged Tom's high hat
up to a tape machine, so that when it was open it started playing "The
Washington Post" by John Philip Sousa, and when it was closed the tape
was off. This led to all sorts of fun and mayhem, as you can imagine, especially
when the high hat started creeping across the floor towards the edge of
the stage. So there's Tom, seated playing the cello, having to stretch
his leg further and further to reach the high hat pedal. Just as it got
to the edge of the stage, an audience member jumped up and saved it from
falling off . This may well have been all part of the act, of course.
Essential
"Learn To Talk" and "Country of the Blinds" l.p.s.
SLITS
Dreadful all girl punk band. Saw them several times, supporting various
punk bands. They were consistently awful, a tuneless screaming shambles.
Then they went into the studio with Dennis Bovell, and made the masterful
punk dub reggae jewel of an album, "Cut", and then a couple of excellent
funky singles, "In The Beginning There Was Rhythm" ,and "I Heard it Through
the Grapevine".
BESSIE SMITH
The Empress of the blues. Such a powerful, expressive voice. like Beefheart,
she damaged microphones with it.
Essential
Everything.
http://www.plgrm.com/history/women/S/Bessie_Smith.HTM
SOFT CELL
Marc Almond and Dave Ball's electro pop camp melodramas. Marc had a
great voice, who cares if it's slightly off key at times? Great lyrics
too:
"....Clean my teeth and comb my hair
And look for something new to wear
And start the nightlife over again
And kid myself I'm having fun."
From "Bedsitter"
"Atmospheres are tense tonight
Mother and father are rowing again
Silently seated around the table
You're the one who's getting the blame
Father looks at you like a snake
you play with the food upon your plate...."
From "Home is Where the Hurt Is"
Essential
All the singles.
SOFT MACHINE
The early stuff was groundbreaking rock improv experimental music.
Members included the very talented and innovative Kevin
Ayers, Robert Wyatt and Hugh
Hopper. From "Third" onwards they slowly devolved into a kind of sterile
jazz rock.
Essential
The first two albums.
Softs site
SOUP DRAGONS
Sounded great when they first started, almost like a reborn Buzzcocks,
then made a beautiful, perfect, heartrending single, "Soft as Your Face".
The album, "This is Our Art", had it's moments, but was pretty feeble really.
SUBURBAN STUDS
Identikit punk none hit wonders. " No Faith" perfectly epitomises the
punk spirit: three chords, two minutes, fast, loud guitars, angry lyrics.
Wonderful.
SUBWAY SECT
Led by tortured poetical genius Vic Goddard. Saw them several times,
supporting various punk bands. They were different, in that a lot of their
stuff was slow, and rather dour, and often with an imaginative musical
or lyrical twist.
STREETS
Oi...oi...that's it...right there. One man's
crusade to save 'the Kids' from pop pap...might just be the guy to do it.
Kinda Jilted John meets Public Image at the grass roots of hip hop...but
more sussed than that. Original Pirate Material was made in his bedroom
at his mums house on computer, and sounds like it.... but THAT'S WHY IT'S
SO GOOD. Lyrics mix everyday mundanity with cosmic profundity. When I was
younger it used to be almost a kinda game to nick each other's lighters
in the pub...Streets have written a song about it. Gotta love 'em for that
reason alone, but there's many more reasons to do so.
Saw them in Leeds, Dec 2002. GREAT
gig, definitely in my top 20 I've been to, and that's saying something.
One of those gigs where the audience are up for it, the band are up for
it, and magic happens...
The Streets, a genuine peoples' band. A lot of love in that room....wot
a great atmos... the guy next to me said, 'I've been to a lot of gigs here,
but never seen one go off like this before'.
Girls (and guys!) were throwing their undies onstage...
The band, (bass, drums, keyboards/electronics), were really talented
musicians, tight as fuck. Mike and his singing partner Kev were superstars,
really charismatic...
SO glad I caught them at this stage...next tour is bound to be bigger,
less intimate venues.
Essential
Original Pirate Material
More about the Leeds gig
Streets official site
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