Summer of Subway: The Groove Farm

I'm an idiot. As much as I loved the Subway Organization, I didn't really get into the Groove Farm back in the day. I think it was because I hated their name. I associated it with hippies when I was all about the jangle. I did realize my mistaken assumption and came around, however, and I know what did it. For those uninitiated, just give their 1987 single "Surfin' Into Your Heart" (SUBWAY 15T) a listen. It'll change your life. Well, maybe not, but after that two-minute indie-pop anthem you will want everything the Bristol band ever made. I have all of their Subway stuff now, but I still need a couple of things from their own Raving Pop Blast! label. I'll get there. Turns out their moniker was apropos because once they get that groove going you'll have goosebumps. Try the instrumental "Expanding Rendeer" and you'll hear what I mean.

From everything I have ever read, I got the impression the lads weren't all that happy with how things went while on Subway. It seems it had to do with differences in recording styles and all of the little details Martin Whitehead would sweat over when the band was all about recording quickly, cheaply and completely DIY. Perhaps the Groove Farm were more laid back. In other words, they were made for self releases, and the band went back to their Raving Pop Blast! label after one long player and a few singles/EPs. They called it quits in 1990, but they reunited for an album earlier this year that has been very well received. Give it a listen.



Like so many of my favorite bands from this time period, the Groove Farm was obsessed with '60s music, particularly garage, surf and psychedelia but coupled with poppy-punk influences such as Buzzcocks. These days, my favorite Subway release by them is the four-song "Driving In Your New Car" 10" (SUBWAY 22N, 1988). The original version of "Driving In Your New Car" can be found on the 'Alvin Is King' album. This sounds like something straight from the Pebbles series. It's the organ that really grabs me. That last song is a cover penned by Donovan.

Driving In Your New Car (Mini Mix)
Expanding Reindeer
I Can't Dance With You
Epistle To Dippy

So far in the Summer of Subway series:
Pop Will Eat Itself
Cowboy and Spin Girl
Choo Choo Train
Fastbacks
Sex Clark Five
The Charlottes
Bubblegum Splash
Shop Assistants
The Soup Dragons
Rodney Allen
The Rosehips
Korova Milk Bar
The Clouds

Weddoes Return to Well and Pull It Off... Again

When I heard about the 30th anniversary re-recording of 'George Best,' I was suspicious of the entire endeavor. What I did find intriguing was that it had been produced by Steve Albini around the 20th anniversary of the album. Of course, there turned out to be nothing to worry about. In fact, I might be with our pal Drew when he admitted to me, "I think that I may (whispers) prefer the 30th anniversary version of George Best over the original."

You would think I had learned my lesson, but I was worried once more when I heard about the 30th anniversary re-recording of 'Tommy,' just out on Scopitone in the UK and coming to HHBTM Records for U.S. fans this fall. There would be no Albini this time around, and the songs were tackled quite recently, after the 'Tommy' 30th anniversary concert tour, not way back in 2008 like the 'George Best' Albini sessions. After giving the entire endeavor a listen tonight, I have to give the folks in the PR department credit for describing the redo perfectly:

"The band felt, during a Tommy 30th anniversary concert tour, that the songs had grown and evolved. Enter a more confident vocalist... an altogether growlier guitar. A bigger sound. The urgency of a 25-year-old Gedge is replaced with a charming vocalist with years of experience. Everything's warmer and, maybe, gentler... but in a satisfying way." The production sounds contemporary and with a certain crispness and cleanliness not found on the 1988 edition. As the press release intimated, however, it's Gedge's vocals where you'll find the biggest contrast. He's right up front now. Give "Go Out And Get ’Em, Boy!" a listen, and you'll hear what I mean.



Americans may preorder 'Tommy 30' in a variety of options, including a deluxe version on translucent blue vinyl that includes square album art badge, screen-printed tote and screen-printed mini-poster. This boy can't wait. The rest of you should be able to pick it up at your local mom-and-pop shop right now.

In Other News...

Oh, that Ian at Optic Nerve Recordings is such a tease! For those of us on his mailing list, he has been unveiling titles to whet our appetites for the next installment of Optic Sevens, set to kick off this November. In case you have no idea what I'm talking about, Optic Sevens is a six-month subscription series that features 12 singles of the 7" variety gleaned from the golden age of indie pop. Here's a quick description of what went on the last time Optic Nerve hosted on of these things. We know five of the 12 titles so far for the next go around, and the series is shaping up to be every bit as good as last time...

James Dean Driving Experience - "Sean Connery"
The Vaselines - "Son of a Gun"
The Primitives - "Thru the Flowers"
The House of Love - "Shine On"
BOB - "Convenience"

Just like last time, each colored-vinyl single comes with a poster and postcard. Start saving your shekels because that pre-order button could be popping up any day now. If you're scratching your head and wondering why someone would get so excited about a reissue, chew on this. The five "Sean Connery" singles available on Discogs are currently going for between $48 and $105. I'll try to give you another update on this one when we know a few more titles.



In Other News...

Since discovering her "Downhearted" single in 2016, I never miss a chance to tout the talents of Molly Burch. Her magical voice is a little bit Patsy and a little bit Dusty but all her own at the same time. I can't get enough. Thankfully, she has kept my between-album hunger sated with a couple of new songs on a 7" Burch is calling "Ballads." I picked it up last week, and these slow burners are absolutely beautiful and essential. Give 'em a listen.



Back with more headlines in a bit.

'Lost' LP From Jazzateers to Go Vinyl

It's been rumored for what feels like forever. The Creeping Bent Organisation even went so far as to assign it a number (Bent 078) in the middle of the last decade. Then chatter really picked up again last summer. Finally, Douglas MacIntyre of Creeping Bent confirms 'Blood Is Sweeter Than Honey,' the Jazzateers album shelved more than three decades ago and released only as part of CD comp 'I Shot the President' on Marina Records in 1997, "will finally see light later this year... as a deluxe LP package." To the best of my knowledge, "Pressing On" was the only song from that "lost" album that ever saw the light of day on vinyl when it was released as a 12" single in 1986. Well, that is until Marina released "Here Comes That Feeling" as a 7" taster to 'I Shot the President' more than a decade later. I'll pass on details of the release date and what deluxe means in this case as soon as I hear. Exciting isn't the word. I'm absolutely busting.

Summer of Subway: Pop Will Eat Itself

Pop Will Eat Itself never released even so much as a single on the Subway Organization, but they did appear on the label's first release, the legendary compilation 'Take The Subway To Your Suburb' (SUBORG 1, 1986). It's easy to assume that at least for a heartbeat the band considered a relationship with Martin Whitehead's venture. That same year, PWEI's self-released debut single "Poppies Say Grrr!" was single of the week in the NME and received regular play from Janice Long. The band was off and running. Soon after, they picked up with the excellent Chapter 22, known to indie-pop fans for releases around this time by Mighty Mighty and the Pastels and a little bit later by Ned's Atomic Dustbin. Craig Jennings of Chapter 22 still manages PWEI to this day.

You may recall Richard March of PWEI came up earlier in this series because he produced Birmingham band Surf Drums. That's an earlier incarnation of Subway vets Korova Milk Bar. Annie Taylor from Korova Milk Bar would go on to marry March, and that band would also make the move from Subway to Chapter 22.

Back to PWEI's apperance on 'Take The Subway To Your Suburb.' These two songs were covers from opposite sides of the track. "Orgone Accumulator" first appeared on the Hawkwind album 'Space Ritual' in 1973. "Like an Angel" was a No. 4 indie hit by the Mighty Lemon Drops in January of the same year 'Take The Subway To Your Suburb' hit the shelves. Now that takes balls. Both of these songs would show up again in 1987 on the band's Chapter 22 release 'Love Missile F1-11.'

You know the rest of the story, but suffice it to say PWEI added hip-hop and more samples and electronics to the noise and by 1989 became Top 40 hitmakers for RCA.

Orgone Accumulator
Like an Angel

So far in the Summer of Subway series:
Cowboy and Spin Girl
Choo Choo Train
Fastbacks
Sex Clark Five
The Charlottes
Bubblegum Splash
Shop Assistants
The Soup Dragons
Rodney Allen
The Rosehips
Korova Milk Bar
The Clouds

Summer of Subway: Cowboy and Spin Girl

The last of the Americans on Subway this week. Cowboy and Spin Girl were the boy-girl duo of Donna Esposito and Frank Bednash. A few of you out there may remember Esposito from her days with New York power-pop outfit the Cyclones, whose 1981 song "You're So Cool" was an underground hit along the Northeast Corridor.

Although an obvious fan of the label, I bought Cowboy and Spin Girl's self-titled eight-song long player (SUBORG 10) a few years back more because Mitch Easter produced all the songs on the B-side at his legendary Drive-In Studio in Winston-Salem, North Carolina than the fact that it was on Subway. Easter's relationship with Esposito went back at least to the days of the Cyclones when he filled in on bass for a while. Cowboy and Spin Girl's connection to the indie label in Bristol, however, is completely unknown to me, and they didn't stick around long. This 1988 album is the only release they had on Subway.

In the '90s, the band moved on to legendary Midwest label Parasol for a couple of catchy singles and an album. The pair weren't done, but the moniker Cowboy and Spin Girl was retired. They stuck with Parasol, moved to Seattle and became Toothpaste 2000 for a while. In more recent years, they changed names again. To the best of my knowledge, they live in the Portland area now and go by the name Mas Rapido.

Back to the Subway album. For the most part, this is power pop in the vein of the Bomp! label. Album opener "White Lies" is the song that sounds closest to quintessential Subway. It's lo-fi and a little fuzzy but not as much as, say, Shop Assistants or the Rosehips. As they went on to do their entire careers, Esposito and Bednash split the songs 50/50 and, to be frank, I have always preferred Esposito's work to Bednash's. Furthermore, I have always gone for Easter's B-side much more than the A-side produced by the band in New York. Perhaps that's just me, but I'll let you be the judge. Here's a taster...

From Side A: Produced by Cowboy and Spin Girl
White Lies
Tomorrow's Hits Today
From Side B: Produced by Mitch Easter
Turn Me On
Set the World on Fire

So far in the Summer of Subway series:
Choo Choo Train
Fastbacks
Sex Clark Five
The Charlottes
Bubblegum Splash
Shop Assistants
The Soup Dragons
Rodney Allen
The Rosehips
Korova Milk Bar
The Clouds

Curtain Call: The Wake

These are the liner notes culled from the 1992 Fierce Recordings release of 'EEC Punk Rock Mountain: A Sarah Bootleg.'

Though the EEC Punk Rock Mountain closed its doors in 1987, it still lives on in our hearts. To celebrate its wonderfulness, on June 1st 1991 Start-Rite kids the world over were treated to gigs by their most favourite guitar groups in venues renamed one night only after the legendary Bristol indiepop club. All six concerts (Orchids in Hamburg; St. Christopher in Paris; Gentle Despite in Leeds; The Wake in Athens; Field Mice in Seattle; Heavenly in Tokyo) began and ended simultaneously, each book-ended by a tape tear-filled speech of remembrance by either Clare or Matt from the flag-flying Sarah Records, and were bootlegged in degrees of sound quality proportional to the common-sense level of the Fierce operative concerned.

This is an album we'll revisit again, but I wanted to end this brief three-part series on the Wake's Sarah years with something from the stage. As mentioned in the previous two posts, "Major John" was an A-side out that very year, and "Carbrain" was the flip of the 1989 single "Crush the Flowers." Expect a very different sound than their synth extravaganzas of the early to mid-80s. And, as the folks at Fierce mentioned, these are bootleg recordings. Have mercy.

Major John (Live)
Carbrain (Live)

I nicked this flyer from the Sarah Records site to give you a taste of these rather special Wednesday night shows in Bristol known as EEC Punk Rock Mountain. This one is circa 1986. Another in a long line of time-machine moments for many of us, I should think. Click on it for a better look.

Another Sarah 7" From the Wake

For this second of back-to-back posts on the Wake, I was all set to do a compare and contrast between the Factory and Sarah eras. After a look back on these pages, it seems I have already had numerous listens from the Glasgow band's days on the Manchester label. Instead, since we did the debut single on Sarah last time, let's focus on the followup and final 7" from their days on the Bristol label.

Between the 'Make It Loud' (Sarah 602, 1990) and 'Tidal Wave Of Hype' (Sarah 618, 1994) albums came the "Major John" 7" (SARAH 48, 1991). By now, it seems the Wake's time on their new label had rubbed off on them. This sounds like a Sarah single. It would also be the last appearance of drummer Steven Allen. He had been with the band since it formed in 1981. Most of the band's time on Sarah had really been a hybrid of the Wake and the Orchids, with fellow Glaswegians James Moody and Matthew Drummond often filling in as guest musicians. Caesar would return the favor a while later when Moody eventually left the Orchids and he filled in on stage. Caesar and Carolyn would continue and keep the ship afloat a while longer.

Bottom line: Both of the Wake's Sarah singles should have gone places. Unfortunately, when Sarah shuttered, so did the Wake.

Major John
Lousy Pop Group

One more from the Wake in this era coming up. I promise that will be it... for a while, anyway.

Summer of Subway: Choo Choo Train

For the third week in a row, it's an American act in the Subway spotlight. Although there were but two brief releases from this Midwestern band, in my humble opinion, they were by far the best of the Bristol label's Yanks. Paul Chastain and Ric Menck as Choo Choo Train graced these pages two years ago with the 1988 single "High." That just leaves Subway 20T to cover, the six-song 12" "Briar Rose E.P.," also released in '88. Let's listen to this classic in its entirety.

Briar Rose
Big Blue Buzz
Nothing Else
Flower Field
Every Little Knight
Catch Another Breath

This was such a prolific era for the duo that they were the centerpieces of at least three bands at the time, including the Springfields (mostly on Sarah and Summershine) and Bag-O-Shells (on the legendary Iowa City indie label Bus Stop). You may think they needed some good ADD meds, but the truth is every Chastain-Menck incarnation was good... really good. Most agree their best work would be just around the corner when they moved to Rhode Island and became power-pop outfit Velvet Crush, but that's another story for another day.

Today's trivia has been covered here before, but it's worth another mention. Matthew Sweet goes way back with these fellas, and they have worked on each other's productions many times. A couple of pivotal examples include Menck sharing drumming duties on Sweet's 'Girlfriend' and Sweet producing the first Velvet Crush album. As for Choo Choo Train, Sweet wrote "My Best Friend," a song that appears on the flip side of the "High" 12" single. He also penned the first song from today's selection, "Briar Rose." Hmm, that young man could go places.

So far in the Summer of Subway series:
Fastbacks
Sex Clark Five
The Charlottes
Bubblegum Splash
Shop Assistants
The Soup Dragons
Rodney Allen
The Rosehips
Korova Milk Bar
The Clouds

An Awakening

To these ears, the Wake had many memorable moments during their years on Factory Records. The 1985 album 'Here Comes Everybody' should have been the Glasgow band's time to finally step out of New Order's shadow with a smash. Alas, they weren't able to shake the copycat label, and the album stalled at No. 20 on the indie chart.

A move to Sarah Records in 1989 didn't make them household names either, but nobody started up with the Bristol label with that goal in mind. What did happen, however, was a change in musical direction that would never get them confused with Bernard, Hooky and the gang ever again. From 1989, here's SARAH 21, the Wake's debut single for Matt and Clare. It doesn't get much poppier than this A-side, and many consider this the band's high-water mark. Personally, I think the flip is even better. More from the Wake next time.

Crush the Flowers
Carbrain

Hungry Beat Satiated

Let's make a racket. Here are Fire Engines performing at Valentinos in their hometown of Edinburgh on Aug. 9, 1981. This show was recorded by a fan and officially released in 2005 on the mostly odd but occasionally brilliant comp 'Codex Teenage Premonition.' Davy and the lads are in fine form. Sadly, it would be all over for these post-punk pioneers just a few months later, but their legacy was already being set in cement. Recordings like these, in all their lo-fi glory, continue to inspire youngsters to start bands. Here's a rousing rendition of the band's debut A-side. Turn it up. Feel the aggression.

Get Up and Use Me (Live)

Summer of Subway: Fastbacks

Here's another American band with a short-lived moment on the Subway Organization. Seattle's own Fastbacks signed with hometown label PopLlama in 1987. Here in the Pacific Northwest, Conrad Uno's label is legendary for launching the careers of local acts like the Young Fresh Fellows, the Posies, Girl Trouble and the Presidents of the United States of America, among many others. The first album to come from Fastbacks was '...And His Orchestra,' released in 1987. It has been described as poppy punk, and that would remain their sound to until they disbanded around the turn of the century.

'...And His Orchestra' was picked up by Martin Whitehead's label in '88 and released as suborg 8 for distribution in the UK. The album would spawn two Subway singles in 1989, "In The Winter" (subway 24) and "Wrong Wrong Wrong" (subway 26). There would be no such singles here in America. That would be it for Fastbacks on Subway. As the Fastbacks turned the calendar to the '90s, the band's timing would be impeccable as they would sign with a certain Seattle-based label that seemed to be gaining some traction. Yep, that one.

Here's a bit of trivia for you. Although the core of the band would remain Kurt, Lulu and Kim for decades, Fastbacks had a knack for going through drummers like socks. Many of them were famous musicians from around the Seattle music community. Even Duff McKagan, better known as the bassist for Guns N' Roses, kept the beat for a while. Here are those two A-sides from Subway. Enjoy.

In the Winter
Wrong, Wrong, Wrong