Big Black - Heartbeat

Happy Valentine's Day, bitches. What better way than a bisected heart on a hook to say "your love don't mean shit to me" to that special somebody?



'No Lovey-Dovey Shit!' is what we got here; a taut and visceral version of Wire's mantra-like 'Heartbeat'.



As I've previously stated, Big Black covers are right up my street; they invariably assault new wave/post-punk stuff, which usually sounds great when given the scathing guitar and brutal pounding treatment of Albini & co. 'Heartbeat' retains the groove, but comes off dark and cranky and pissy. The subtlety of the original goes out the window - for better or for worse - in place of a chugging and muscular in-your-face interpretation that culminates in screamed vocals and a thuggish repeated group chant.

The B-side features two Big Black non-album originals. 'Things to Do Today' is the typically noisy and angular sound that the band purveyed, but seems more memorable to me than a lot of Big Black's material. This era was pretty much the group's peak, so it should be no surprise that these B-sides are well worth a listen. This track in particular is especially unpleasant (always to be appreciated in Big Black's repertoire) with the lyrics seemingly concerning a home invasion or hit; "shoot him once; remember gloves; scan apartment" followed by the unecessary and cruel "kill the dog" moaned over and over as the chorus.

'I Can't Believe' is a speedy little instrumental, clocking in at just over one minute. It's mostly all tinny drum machine but with a memorable, almost jaunty guitar hook. Ladies and Gents, it's the danceable Big Black!

Anyway, you probably need to get going for that romantic dinner date. We hope your heart turns black and poisons your liver.

Eels - A Line In the Dirt

Cacking Hell! Another Eels album already? I'm not complaining, just wary of E wandering into Frank Black/Black Francis territory. Thankfully, new album End Times at least distinguishes itself thematically from 2009's Hombre Lobo. But that's another story for the Guardian and NME. I want to talk about the first single taken from the album.



The record is officially released in the UK on 1st March, but eager beavers can snap it up at the Eels' online store right now. Artwork comes from Adrian Tomine, who has wonderfully rendered Eels main man E to match the stylings of the End Times artwork. The whole package is a pretty nice deal since this thing actually has a spine like an LP, and an inner sleeve; a really pleasing if somewhat unnecessary touch.

'A Line in the Dirt' continues the bizarre Eels trend started on 'My Timing is Off' of producing a video and heavily promoting a song before doing a total u-turn and sticking it on the B-side and using some other album track as the A-side.

'Little Bird' has been around on the Eels' website for a few months now as a free download and even made AOL Music's list of the best 25 songs of 2009 (a truly wild and unfathomable list!) Here's the video:





The song is immediately recognisable as classic Eels; a quiet, pretty reflection on lost love, hinging on a husky "God damn" from the world-weary E. Although familiar, the song has enough sincerity to make it stand aside from other similarly beautiful-but-broken moments from Blinking Lights and Other Revelations and older favourites like 'It's a Motherfucker'.

Eels have also produced videos for End Times tracks 'In My Younger Days' and 'Unhinged', so it's not clear at all as to why 'A Line in the Dirt' has leap-frogged all these songs to end up as the first (and likely only) single from the album. Maybe simply because it's just that good?

The track opens with the same piano chords as 'Manchester Girl'; an early Eels song that I would place in my top five all-time favourite Eels tracks, and treads the same maudlin path, although going on to encompass a restrained, subtly uplifting brass section. The choruses are delicate - E adopting the high, slightly strained vocal approach he uses to such fractured effect (think 'Selective Memory' from Daisies of the Galaxy).

This is great single with two top-notch tracks, presented here as the cream of End Times in a thoughtfully-produced package. Not much to offer the listener who already owns the album, but still worth getting hold of in my opinion if you are a fan of this man's work. There is just something so much better about listening to these songs on an old beat-up record player than on a shiny new iPod. Still, if you must you can get 'Little Bird' as a free download here.

Fuck Buttons - Surf Solar

I went and watched Fuck Buttons last night performing an in-store set at Rought Trade East.

A couple of points;

1. Why do I always get the tallest, biggest-and-smelliest-haired, head-bopping freak in the room standing right in front of me? About one minute before Fuck Buttons were due on I thought I was sitting pretty, and then this lanky great loser pushes in front of me (remember, we're in a record store, and despite the gig status you just don't expect this kind of jostling. Would you stand for that kind of behaviour at the Pick 'N' Mix in Woolworths?) and starts bopping his head all over the shop, continuing threatening to stick his filthy mop in my face with every swing. Most disconcerting. It's not even as though he was so taken with the music that he couldn't control himself; he kept stopping every minute or so to take a look around and check who was watching him and look at his mobile phone. What a cunt. "Oh, I can't possibly enjoy myself watching live music if I'm further than 3 metres from the stage, which is why I have to barge my way in and ponce about like I'm in Ibiza on a pills-and-cock binge."

2. IT WAS JUST WAY TOO LOUD. I know I am grumpier and olde-before-my time than most, but I still want to be going to gigs and listening to music when I'm 50, and this sort of din can do some serious damage. Uncomfortable.

Other than that the show was fine. There has been a lot of rhetoric put out there, mostly by ATP, about Fuck Buttons, which to me just doesn't ring true. Highlight of the set, 'Bright Tomorrow' is a fantastic track, building up swathes of vintage electronic sound to its glorious, screaming finale, but almost all the rest of their material last night seemed like a pale imitation of this song. Fuck Buttons are just too formulaic to hold my interest over the course of half an hour.

Of course, I couldn't resist picking up their new 7" with all its picture-disc goodness, even if the £4.99 price tag for two tracks seems a little hefty.

The A side is a 7" edit of 'Surf Solar' and is the first track taken from upcoming album Tarot Sport produced by Andrew Weatherall, whose name for some reason, I always confuse with Andrew Ridgeley. I'm not sure what Ridgeley is up to these days, but is it so hard to imagine him as the fat-cat producer of cutting edge indie/electro acts whilst George does community service and spunks up walls?

So, 'Surf Solar' follows the familiar pattern of being kind of interesting with some exciting sounds and textures, but never quite soars as high as 'Bright Tomorrow', nor reaches any kind of satisfying conclusion. I am hoping that it is merely the time constraints of the 7" format that have neutered this track and that the 10min-plus album version will be a revelation.

What do I like most about a new 7" single? A lovely bit of non-album sounds on the B-side. Here we have 'New Crossbow' which has a kind of non-intrusive tribally beat behind it, with a whooping, swooping sound and lots of glimmering, sparkling bits, and kind of meanders on its way to nowhere in particular for a few minutes. Quite nice, and a bit more interesting that the A-side, but I wouldn't go out of my way to listen to it.

The brilliant artwork comes from Benjamin John Power who may or may not be responsible for mid-to-late 90s British shitstorm of arse-drippings, Cast.

Tarot Sport is out next Monday 12th October.