Rod Stewart - Every Picture Tells A Story
Rod the Mod finds his solo footing, headed for stardom, with the Faces in his wake.
6:00 AM GMT 22/06/2011
Features Disc of the day
The Beta Band
The 3 E.P.s
(Regal, 1998)
Scots oddballs' first recordings compiled: three eccentric EPs from 1997-98.
In 1998 The Beta Band were largely the preserve of the kind of boys who worked in record shops, excitedly packing these hard-to-find-on-vinyl four-trackers into their one-armed rucksacks for an evening trading blows of indie one-up-manship at places like London's ICA. None more underground - and just how the fans liked it. But obscurity was not The Beta Band's objective, and when they finally called it a day after seven years the group cited the disappointing commercial return for their efforts. Listening to their first three EPs (subsequently compiled onto one CD) still lends support to that ambition. Their debut EP, Champion Versions, was mixed by the Verve's Nick McCabe and while the sound is endearingly naïve on all three records, the group's unselfconscious mix of styles - blues (Dog's Got A Bone), turntable clicks and hip-hop cut-ups (The House Song), folk (Dry The Rain) and Steve Mason's haunting, choral vocal (a deadpan Fleet Fox) - was peerless then and is still timeless now. Noel G was a fan (before he and Weller would endorse anyone with similar hair...), the music press loved them (though it was largely unreciprocated) but the wider world weren't ready for this shock of the new. As the mantric Dry The Rain put it on opening that first EP: "This is the definition of my life / Lying in bed in the sunlight / Choking on the vitamin tablet / The doctor gave in the hope of saving me." It's easy to imagine commercial success saving them these days (when if you can't claim at least three oxymoronic influences and a lifelong love of Afrobeat you're no-one) but a decade ago The Beta Band were just too far out to be reached.
Jenny Bulley
Posted by Ross_Bennett at 6:00 AM GMT 18/03/2009
Further Listening
The Beta Band – Heroes To Zeros (Regal, 2004)
Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion (Domino, 2009)
TV On The Radio – Dear Science (4AD, 2008)
Previous Disc of the day
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Earl Brutus - Larky
Last salvo of Ginsters Pasty-Warholism from Britpop ramraiders.
12:04 PM GMT 08/06/2011
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Loudon Wainwright - T-Shirt
An overlooked small wonder from an unpredictable career.
6:00 AM GMT 03/06/2011
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Landscape - From The Tea-rooms Of Mars… To The Hell-holes Of Uranus
Dry computer club Futurists, upon hitting implausible chart paydirt.
6:00 AM GMT 17/05/2011
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Causa Sui - Summer Sessions Vol 1-3
Epic Danish jams, for when the neighbours get you down.
6:00 AM GMT 12/05/2011
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Watch out for the new King Biscuit Time album its Steves best songs to date
Posted by chris at 6:04 PM GMT 18/03/2009 Report Abuse
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