What Did You Buy on Record Store Day 2013?

Music Trader (A.K.A. Indie-Rock Central)
Purchases: Titus' Andronicus' Local Business (new, $17.99), The Motors' Greatest Hits (used, $8.99)
Store quality: Hipsterific!
Buyers' Remorse: Low on the Titus, a highlight of 2012 but medium on The Motors which is an imperfect distillation of an imperfect band.
Clerks irritated: One (out of two).





The Folk Festival Music Store (A.K.A. Your source for classic rock, folk music and zithers)
Purchases: Undertones Positive Touch/The Sin of Pride ($18.99) The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem ($21.99).
Store quality: Folktastic,
Buyers' remorse: Very low for Positive Touch, which I love more every year but higher for Sin of Pride which is a pretty tepid affair and non-existent for The Clancy Brothers since it includes their first four, and probably best albums on two CDs.
Clerks irritated: one (of one)





Entertainment Exchange (A.K.A. Where the 90s go to die)
Purchases: The Methadones - Ill at Ease [$3.99]
Store quality: Entertaining with a high quantity of the Blues.
Buyers' Remorse: Low, I mean it's my least favorite album by Dan Vapid (ex-Screeching Weasel) and The Methadones but for less than four bucks – steal!
Clerks irritated: Less than one but there really wasn't sufficient time...





White Star Diner
Food Purchased: Pulled Pork Sandwich with Bacon, Tomato and Cheese.
Store Quality: Clean, well-lit and tasty.
Buyers' remorse: Two steps closer to death...
Clerks irritated: Too hungry to tell...

(P.S. Yeah I also bought the new double-CD re-issues of the first two albums by The Boys last week from the Folk Store and neglected to mention that!)

Needless to say the albums kick-ass and are in a far better format than the old both-albums-on-one CD I used to have.





So readers, tell us what you bought on (or near) Record Store Day in the COMMENTS section!

The Undertones: Here Comes The Summer BBC4 Documentary (2012)

While this doc's view of seventies Irish pop-punk masters The Undertones are both more grandiose ("They became one of Britain's most iconic bands") and more conventional ("the musical landscape was changing") than the 2002 doc made by John Peel, it still adds a tonne of fascinating information and lots of new interviews to the  the story. Flaws acknowledged, I still loved every minute of it..






Let us know what you think about this new(er) Undertones doc  in the COMMENTS!


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V.A. Here Comes the Summer: The Undertones Tribute

A 1996 North American punk/garage/indie/power-pop tribute to Ireland's best-ever pop band. The compilation was out together by now-defunct [?] label, Square Target Records. This album perfectly captures the best side of the CD bubble of the mid-nineties, when the cost of CD production fell to such dangerously low levels (there's an economics lesson here somewhere...) that almost any half-assed idea executed by a set of bands, great, good and mediocre, could turn a tidy profit.



As is so often the case with such things, the highlights are entirely in the ear of the listener. For this blogger's money (or lack thereof), the beauties here would be Cub, The Vacant Lot, The Queers and The Figgs. My disappointment would lie in the lack of the band's later material getting roughed-up (though The Shambles do a nice run-through of "It's Going To Happen") but just the fact that this set lays plain the Undertones influence on this underrated era is a damn fine thing.



Let us know when you think of the followers of the Undertones in the COMMENTS!

Speaking of the COMMENTS section, that's where you'll find the link for Live in Belfast, 1979.


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The Undertones: BBC Concert,1983

Y'know The Undertones' (more here) song-writing never slipped but by their final album, 1983's The Sin of Pride, internal divisions, overly-fussy production and a tepid musical climate had taken their toll. On this BBC live concert you get a chance to hear some of the original band's last materiel stripped of that eighties sonic goo.



It's certainly not Teenage Kicks but that doesn't mean you can't hold it tight.




Let us know what you think about the late period Undertones in the COMMENTS!

Speaking of the COMMENTS section, that's where you'll find the link for BBC Concert,1983

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The Undertones: Live in Holland, 1981

My first Undertones (more here) album was actually Cher ' O Bowlies , a mid-eighties collection that really played up the Fergal angle!


Even in those dogmatic days, I still bopped along to the later songs on that comp. However, it's still taken me a long time to warm up to the band's later albums in their entirety. Right now the brighter, prettier Positive Touch has definitely begun sounding sweeter to these bitter ears.



This show from Holland is one of the best Undertones bootlegs I've ever heard. Even though it's moving towards the softer Touch, it still cooks along nicely and the sound, as befits a good FM broadcast, is fantastic. Enjoy Undertones fans!


Let us know when you think the Positive Touch-era Undertones peaked in the COMMENTS!

Speaking of the COMMENTS section, that's where you'll find the link for Live in Holland, 1980.


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The Undertones: Amsterdam, 1980

So I've argued previously that "My Perfect Cousin" is the grandest Undertones (even more here) song - no disrespect intended towards T.K. - and would even go so far as to say that I prefer the second album to the first by a gnat's nostril hair.



To buttress my less-then-airtight argument, here's an excellent-sounding FM broadcast of a killer 1980 show.



So how do you rank The Undertones of 1980? Please leave us a COMMENT!

Speaking of comments, that's the section where you'll find the link for Amsterdam, 1980.


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The Undertones: Live in Belfast, 1979

1979? The Undertones (more here) best year?



Let us know when you think the Undertones peaked in the COMMENTS!

Speaking of the COMMENTS section, that's where you'll find the link for Live in Belfast, 1979.


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The Undertones: Live at the Casbah, 1977

This bootleg came from a Frictional source, whose Goal was to remain anonymous. As well, said source did acknowledge that he probably got it from the no-longer-available-but-widely-missed blog, King Rocker Rock On. No matter the blessed source, this is a fascinating bootleg of The Undertones (more here) in their formative days, still covering, Johnny Thunders, Roky Erickson, The Ramones and The Stooges.


(Okay this video is from '78 but it still gets the band at it's brashest stage.)

And since we've been on a historical videos kick, here's a mini-doc on Terri Hooley, founder of Good Vibrations Records, who first signed the band.




Let us know what you think about these savage young Undertones in the COMMENTS!

Speaking of the COMMENTS section, that's where you'll find the link for Live at the Casbah.


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The Undertones: Radio Sessions (1978-1982)

Y'know of the millions of things I'm glad John Peel did before his untimely passing, helping make this absolutely compelling documentary about The Undertones (more here) was one of the top ones. By laying out an affecting story about kids, guitars and adversity, the film makes the case for the power of rock n' roll better than almost any other rock doc. Do not miss it!



Parts 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8


What we have here is the Undertons "complete" BBC sessions, which includes a lot of things that you'd expect alongside rare versions of Gary Glitter's glam-pop hit "Rock n' Roll" and Michael and the Messengers garage-rock Nugget "Just Like Romeo and Juliet".

Session 1: John Peel
1 Get Over You 2:54
Written-By - J.J. O'Neill*
2 Top 20 1:59
Written-By - J.J. O'Neill*
3 She Can Only Say No 0:36
Written-By - J.J. O'Neill*
4 Male Model 1:52
Written-By - D. O'Neill* , J.J. O'Neill* , M. Bradley*
Session 2: John Peel
5 Listening In 2:15
Written-By - D. O'Neill* , J.J. O'Neill* , M. Bradley*
6 Family Entertainment 2:35
Written-By - D. O'Neill*
7 Billy's Third 1:51
Written-By - WEM. Doherty*
8 Here Comes The Summer 2:01
Written-By - J.J. O'Neill*
Session 3: John Peel
9 Nine Times Out Of Ten 2:34
Written-By - D. O'Neill*
10 The Way Girls Talk 2:42
Written-By - J.J. O'Neill*
11 Whiz Kids 2:28
Written-By - D. O'Neill*
12 Top Twenty 2:02
Written-By - J.J. O'Neill*
Session 4: John Peel
13 Girls That Don't Talk 2:22
Written-By - J.J. O'Neill*
14 Tear Proof 2:17
Written-By - J.J. O'Neill* , M. Bradley*
15 What's With Terry 3:17
Written-By - D. O'Neill*
16 Rock N Roll 3:07
Written-By - Glitter* , Leander*
Session 5: John Peel
17 The Positive Touch 1:55
Written-By - J.J. O'Neill*
18 You're Welcome 2:11
Written-By - J.J. O'Neill*
19 When Saturday Comes 2:47
Written-By - J.J. O'Neill*
Session 6: Richard Skinner
20 Like That (Song No. One) 2:57
Written-By - D. O'Neill* , M. Bradley*
21 Bye Bye Baby Blue 3:23
Written-By - J.J. O'Neill* , M. Bradley*
22 Beautiful Friend 3:05
Written-By - D. O'Neill* , J.J. O'Neill* , M. Bradley*
23 (Just Like) Romeo And Juliet 2:08
Written-By - F. Gorman* , B. Hamilton*
Session 7: John Peel
24 Untouchable 3:16
Written-By - D. O'Neill*
25 The Love Parade 4:11
Written-By - D. O'Neill* , M. Bradley*
26 Luxury 2:25
Written-By - J.J. O'Neill*
27 The Sin Of Pride 3:45

Let us know what you think about all this Undertones-ness in the COMMENTS!

Speaking of the COMMENTS section, that's where you'll find the link for Listening in


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The Undertones: It's Gonna Happen

I was going to say that I could talk about the Undertones for days but MRML readers already know my weakness for obsessing over shoulda-beens and kinda-weres ad nauseum. So before I return to discussing Grant Hart marginalia, I need to remind you of what likely is the last great Undertones single, "It's Going to Happen". The song is from the 1981 album Positive Touch and it's a heart-breaking indication that a great band could have been borne of Feargal's ambitions and the band's growing prowess, a band that could groove like ska and rock like power-pop. But the band instead elected to play an eighties brand of soul; it's a deep loss, one that may bear some obsessing.



Finding this high concept, Buster-Keaton-meets-Ed-Wood video, full of Feargal's high-camp made posting this song a necessity.


It's Going To Happen 7"


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Undertones: Live at Rockaplast

The Undertones never sucked. However, while their last two album contain some fine moments like, "It's Going to Happen" and"The Love Parade" you can forgive fans of those first two buzzsaw pop releases for saying their sudden embrace of a pop-rock-soul, " sucks".



This 1981 concert (sound quality is near-perfect) is a fascinating bridge between Hypnotized and Positive Touch. The early material is slower, and tricked out with touches of both sixties pop and R & B while some, if not all, the newer material is faster and more rocked out. True Undertones fans will find it fascinating.


Live at the Rockaplast CD

(This lovely image is for Crozier)

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The Undertones: My Perfect Cousin

Is "Teenage Kicks" really the Undertones' pinnacle? It is an incredible distillation of adolescent longing and lust, I mean listen to Feargal croon as if his heart's being ripped from his chest and shown to him before he dies, while the band kicks up a divine racket. The one knock against that song is how it unfairly overshadows the Undertones greatest unhits; "Get Over You", "Here Comes the Summer" "Hypnotized" and "My Perfect Cousin".



What if the Undertones only recorded one song before being blasted to blood and guts by an I.R.A. pipe bomb? Thank God it didn't happen, but if it had then maybe that one song should have been "My Perfect Cousin". Having explored Lust in "Teenage Kicks" the band continued to cover the Seven Deadly Sins (not a band really), with Envy being the focus here. The lyrics lay out the family rivalry in such exquisite detail that it's like an outline of a film; listen and you can see these perfect set pieces being run in the theater of your skull. Hell, the narrative arc here is more fully realized than the last ten Will Ferrell movies.

MY PERFECT COUSIN

I've got a cousin called Kevin
He's sure to go to heaven
Always spotless, clean and neat
As smooth as you’ll get ‘em

He's got a fur lined sheepskin jacket
My ma said they cost a packet
But she won't even let me explain
That me and Kevin we’re just not the same

Chorus
Oh, my perfect cousin
What I like to do he doesn't
He's his family's pride and joy

His mother’s little golden boy

He's got a degree in economics
Maths, physics and bionics
He thinks that I'm a cabbage
‘Cause I hate University Challenge
Even at the age of ten
Smart boy Kevin was a smart boy then
He always beat me at Subbuteo
‘Cause he ‘flicked to kick’
And I didn't know

Repeat chorus

His mother bought him a synthesiser
Got the Human League into advise her
Now he's making lots of noise
Playing along with the art school boys
Girls try to attract his attention
But what a shame, it's in vain, total rejection
He will never be left on the shelf
‘Cause Kevin, he's in love with himself

Repeat chorus

Written By: Michael Bradley / Damian O’Neill

While the Undertones obvious strength may be the quavery but powerful vocal stylings of choirboy Feargal Sharkey, it's the song-writing skills of the O'Neil brothers, John and Damien (both later of That Petrol Emotion) that underpins their greatness. Despite having written just one song on their 1979 debut, it's John who wrote or co-wrote half of 1980's Hypnotized, including their possible pinnacle, "My Perfect Cousin".


My Perfect Cousin 7"


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