Raking through the tool box, we find a mixtape containing gems from the heyday of indie spanning 80s, 90s and 2000s, from lost American cult classics like The Honeydogs to second division Britpop hits from a resurgent Shed Seven. And something from Mogwai's 25 year career! Music by robots this isn’t, so artificial intelligence can get back in its (tool)box!
Toolbox Mixtape by Mick Clarke, words and curation by Keith
A year or so ago, I attended a music industry event at the world famous Abbey Road Studios (writing this in COVID times I might as well be talking about a lifetime ago, or a parallel universe, such is the strange way time has been behaving). At this event, the ex-lead singer of a noughties indie band (one of those that couldn’t stay the course) stood on the stage and declared that he was in despair of modern popular music - that it just wasn’t the same. He then went on to reveal his solution to this was AI music. Inevitably, he’d joined an AI start-up as Creative Director and was pitching the future of the music business.
I thought he was being an idiot, twice over. Not only had he managed to insult the entire peer group of musicians making music today (e.g. any of the thousands of artists we have featured on Riff Raff, Dark & Stormy, New Troubadours, Postmodernist Pop et. al. to name a few) but on the second count of idiocy, to believe that the solution to this non-existent problem is music made by robots well, you can make your own mind up, but I’m guessing you side with me on this one. I would check in on how the guy’s start-up is doing, but I honestly can’t remember what he called it: Lemon Curd or something like that probably.
I remember muttering out loud I thought there was a better solution to this guys problem, which is to “use your ears, mate”. Then again, perhaps he did have a point? Perhaps in the kind of genre in which his band made music - the late, halcyon days of British indie, there seemed an abundance that is no longer present. Whether or not you care enough to be concerned about this, one thing we can all do is return to those simpler, easier times when economies were booming (until they busted), we could all get lager thrown over us at festivals and behave like selfish goons. The age of laddism, false promises of a progressive politics of the left, Starbucks, the abundance of indie music and all things made of plastic. Mmm, maybe it wasn’t so great, but some of the music was.
Like our disgruntled ex-singer, do you ever wonder about new music? Find yourself hankering after a modern equivalent to a classic, if only you could find one. The Song Sommelier is not a subscriber to the “all modern life is rubbish” school, but when it comes to indie, well the best has come and gone, hasn’t it? The swagger of those big chart-busting singles, the epic indie albums of the late 80s, 90s and early noughties has been swept away by the tides of rap, hip-hop, pop, Latin and now even country too. Classic indie tracks sometimes feel like castles in the sand. Well, we’re beachcombing then.
Dogs Love Honey
Sometimes you discover bands who made classics decades ago and you just never knew. Minnesota-based The Honeydogs are one such case. The band has been making music for a quarter of a century, with nine albums including a genuine cult classic: a Sci-Fi dystopian concept album called “10,000 Years” released on Aimee Mann’s United Artist Label. In a review for Paste Magazine back in 2004, Bud Scoppa put it this way: “If you thought Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was pushing the envelope for one time alt.country bands, you ain’t heard nothin’ yet, cowboy”. Since ‘Yankee Hotel’ was something of a musical odyssey for me and millions of others, and since Aimee Mann’s indie creds are impeccable as well, it seems worthwhile for fans of classic American indie to revisit such a record. From a time when albums could be eclectic in style but hang together as a cohesive story, yet demanded repeated listens before everything clicked into place - the rewards as a listener are legion. And such things these days seem as rare as rocking horse shit. 2004 was a very good year in no small part due to records like this one. Discover The Honeydogs here.
The Rich Vintage of Britpop’s Second Division Hits
Is it me, or has there a quiet resurgence for Shed Seven? Never taken altogether seriously (apart from their hard core fans of course) the York band first formed in 1990 and were part of the heyday of the Britpop music scene, when record label executives trampled themselves to death at sweaty gigs up & down the UK in their attempt to sign the next half-decent outfit that might fill a few pages in Q Magazine and reach the minor number chart slots. Consider for a minute that at the height of their popularity between 1994 and 1999, Shed Seven had no less than 15 Top 40 singles and four Top 20 albums in the UK. And that’s despite Rick Witter’s sometimes rather plodding lyrics (“there’s a panel on my channel”, as the line goes in 1996 top 20 hit ‘On Standby’).
The 90s were filled with Britpop filler. Shed Seven, Cast, Dodgy, Kula Shaker, Space, Echobelly, Sleeper and Elastica (not to mention Gene and Menswear). Yet it’s easy to underestimate these bands, who made chart hits look easier than they might have been. As the 2000s followed, the indie scene continued to place also-runners who shifted large quantities of CDs and filled mid-tier venues, even as the age of Napster threatened to dismember the commercial music scene altogether. Bands like Hard Fi and Razorlight were signed on big deals to major labels, despite never having more than a couple of albums in them at most. Yet many of these bands reformed with modest success and are having late careers that many young, up & coming indie bands would be perfectly happy with. Picking out some of their better songs can be a lot of fun and I wouldn’t bet against a continued under-the radar resurgence on streaming platforms and on radio networks, as the post-pandemic nostalgia wave continues. Shed Seven put on a great show and will be returning to the road again soon we hope.
The Slow Exquisite Burn of Mogwai
Speaking of hit singles, Mogwai have never had a single one. The Scottish indie-prog-rock band formed in the eye of the needle of the Britpop gold rush in 1995. They might have made your acquaintance many times over and you’d never know it, with their highly ‘syncable’ atmospheric instrumental music, which has soundtracked many a TV show. For their most recent example, check out the soundtrack to ZeroZeroZero, the drug cartel drama currently airing on Sky/NowTV. The soundtrack is one of the best things about the show, and caught my attention, drawing me in to explore the immersive, expansive music of a band I have never quite had the patience with over the past quarter of a century.
Converging with this discovery, the band’s superb recent singles Dry Fantasy and Richi Sacremento have been receiving plenty of airplay on the UK BBC’s 6 Music station, and the band has just released a brand new LP ‘As The Love Continues’. This led me to scan (all too briefly) through their 10 album catalogue, where I discovered the gem that is How to Be a Werewolf, from their 2011 album ‘Hardcore Will Never Die, but You Will’. It seemed like a nice way to close out Lost Indie Classics Vol. 3. After all, Mogwai might not look like much, and they don’t sing much either, no wonder they’ve successfully swerved hits for 25 years. But the music they make is so good that well, AI music made by robots doesn’t stand a chance after all. Small mercies.
Find Mogwai’s new record and catalogue on the band’s bandcamp page.