But here, lazing in our hammocks on th' Isle O' Foam© at the End Of Times, we can listen with fresh ears - after we've plucked the hairs and siphoned the wax - and it sounds pretty swell. Michael Head and his playmates cared enough to deliver something actually produced and arranged, with real singing and playing. Nice tunes. You'll like it.
Their second album was a little less adventurous, but still worth a listen. The problem is that the bitrate I have is a little low, even for me. Imagine that! So if any of you bums gots it, feel free to add in the comments. Also other Michael Head albums.
The cover you see here isn't the original, in spite of its awesomeness. I painted it to replace the P.O.S. they used, which in no way reflects the care that went into the music.
Want this?
ReplyDeleteI don't not want it so bring it on -- when have you ever steered us wrong?
ReplyDeleteActually just because I can't think of any particular example there is a nagging feeling that something I may have freeloaded willy-nilly without actually listening to (who has the time!) may not get me up on my feet nor down on the ground if and when it eventually presents itself in my endless shuffle play (don't shoot me!). So that's when! Or maybe never, one can never be certain of these things. Nonetheless, bring it on, honky!
I think I've got some "Head Music"...
ReplyDeleteAnd in minty-fresh lossless form, two. Or is it three? Or four..? (Discuses...)
Wait. I's thinkin' with, er, or ABOUT some OTHER "HEAD"...
I know, I know, "STOP YER MONKEE-IN' AROUND!!!"
(You KNOW he did that on Porpoise... Puttin' "HEAD" up there in the HEADing, so as to throw us '6Ts cinema schlock freaks who are still in Hopper mode in to a state of confusion...)(Just say "No!"???)
We already got Head (so to speak).
DeleteColor me disappoint this has excited so little interest. Maybe it can't be any good because it comes from '83?
ReplyDeleteAbout a minute into the first track the backward guitar (and the trumpet) will help change your mind. Play it once, you'll play it again. Isn't that enough?
I'll up it later, after I pare me bunions.
Yep, that’s plenty!
Delete"Color me disappoint this has excited so little interest . . . ."
DeleteNo surprise, maybe? Michael Head had / has a scattergun approach to his career which hasn't done him any favours regards fame and just rewards. See also: Lee Mavers ("A Secret Liverpool" by MW Macefield is a good read), the mighty Gavin Clark of Sunhouse & Clayhill (he shoulda been huge I tell ya), and others I can't think of at the moment 'cos red wine.
I've looked on the shelf and have a picture disc single ("Thank You" b/w "Meadow of Love") by the Founts and a couple of CDs ("...here's tom with the weather" by Shack and "The Magical World of the Strands". Pretty sure I've got "H.M.S. Fable" as well but can't find it.)
Anyway, not listened to any of them for a loooong time, but will do so tomorrow. Thanks for the reminder.
Cheers, Peanuts Molloy.
Sorry - in another 2020 just sucks so bad moment, I just had an mri on my knee because a fucking 150 lb dog decided he wanted to run full blast into it. And, yeah, I'm having surgery sometime soon. JFC.
ReplyDeleteShit sandwich, right? Although we've gotten off pretty lightly in Siam (The Land That Covid Forgot), it's like waiting on the edge of the world for the end of the world. I'm suffering all the usual fun stuff of growing old (including a trick knee that prevents walking any distance and swimming, teeth falling out my head like dice, a dick that should be ashamed of itself, and the usual catalog of ailments that seem to find my body a profitable testing ground) - add to all this incipient poverty - my state pension reflects my past willingness to support The System - still sticking it to The Man at '67 - one of my dogs dying on its feet (when it can get to them) and other fraying threads in life's rich tapestry - and you get to Th' Isle 'O Foam©, established as haven for the Four Or Five Guys© who find their way here in spite of the internet.
DeleteYeah, life can suck. But, it beats the alternative. And, I now have pain drugs. Woohhh Hooo!
DeleteI am probably not the only one of the 4-or-5 who wants to hear (er, or read) MORE about this ...
DeleteFeel free to use this as your kick-off for a whirlwind tour of your current whereabouts:
"I am a resident of SE Asia. Yes, Siam."
The Whys, Why-nots, Hows, etc.
No need to get to in-depth. Or too personal. Maybe just a quick "Chamber of Commerce" angle, mini-purple-ish prose piece.
Perhaps with a few appropriate, colorful, scenic penny-picture-postcard illustrations. Of Foamville, or RFD Foam Isle. And it's gloriously golden-tanned, toned and/or toasting (SPF 50 & PPE or not) inhabitants.
And by that, I mean beach photos, of course. Bikinis optional.
Serious. Yeah, guess Siam.
And in today's exercise in how NOT to get to the point. "To" and "Too" are not flagged by spiel chuck. When improperly used, that is. Nor is grammar. Ain't that right, Gramma? Beach weather again here. Crazy.
DeleteCheer your bad self up!
ReplyDeletehttps://workupload.com/file/8SXh4gtHGjt
The Paleys? And I thought th'Isle o' Foam was off the coast of Lancashire. They're known in Liverpool as 'the Tains'. I thought everyone knew. I bought the fabulous single '(There's always) Something On My Mind' in '83 but then moved to a mountain village in Italy and lost touch. But now re-united! Thanks Farq. These blokes are great. And that trumpet...
ReplyDeleteHaven't made my mind up yet on how much I like this album, but I love your alternative cover and am just baffled by the original. WTF? What where they thinking, they were selling? Punk rock? Looks like a home-made collage for a self-recorded tape sold while busking in the street. Have rarely seen such a disconnect between the cover art and what the music sounds like...yeesh.
ReplyDeleteThere are many opportunities along the way to an album hitting the racks for somebody to say - STOP! THI LOOKS LIKE SHIT! - and it is beyond my understanding why nobody stepped up, or if they did, was ignored.
DeleteAs to how much I like it - enough for a spin every so often, which isn't that often, but it's enough. I always have a little problem with UK voices (very few Brits can actually sing) and if this had West Coast harmonies over exactly the same music, it would be feeling a whole lot better, and so would I. A+ for effort, then.
oh your sleeve remain me LES BAINS DOUCHES famous Paris club of the late 70s.
ReplyDeleteI have never been a complete List of PALE FOUTAINS at the time of their existence as on the other hand with TEARDROP EXPLODES. No, not until the seller of Rough Trade PARIS, because the release of STARFISH by THE CHURCH was postponed for a week, Zilch of SHACK suggests to me instead. And let's be honest, it was only in 1995 with the release of the same WATERPISTOL shack With the great titles "NEIGHBOURS" and "Stranger" where I researched everything Michael HEAD had done.
ReplyDeleteI listened to the 12 inchs of the paleys that I bought when they were released (Something on my mind, Thank you pic disc too, or from across double single) but listened to distractedly at the time.
And it is true that there are some good times that it would be a shame to avoid.
In the 60s I didn't like KINKS or Franck Zappa but since then I listened to their albums with undisguised pleasure (especially since I had exchanged two EPs of the DAVIES group for BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD AGAIN in February 1968, which allowed me to know Neil YOUNG since.
Don't know the group or its leader; I think I was busy the week it came out. From their name, I guessed they might have been a 4AD band, but not so, I see. Another fine album cover improvement, Farq. I'll be pleased to give it a listen. "Bossa nova inflected"? Well, let's see about that.
ReplyDeleteThe second elpee, From Across The Kitchen Table, was one of the soundtracks of my not wholly unmemorable summer of '85, especially the single, Jean's Not Happening. Michael Head has managed to overcome personal difficulties to create a stellar body of work over (yikes) nearly 40 years. Shack has been mentioned above, but perhaps not with as much enthusiasm as I'd have liked. Most recently 2017's Adios Senor Pussycat as Michael Head and the Red Elastic Band showed he hasn't lost a step. Thanks for the upload; I've had this on elpee for mmphfty-six years, but never got around to making it all twenty-first century and stuff!
ReplyDelete