Back in 2001/2002, the brilliant Vic Godard collaborated with acclaimed author Irvine Welsh on an ill-fated musical production, titled “Blackpool.” Plagued with problems, the show unfortunately came and went very quickly (only 6 performances), but the songs have proven to be longer-lasting. And thus has Vic recorded and released the new Blackpool EP– 4 songs from the “burlesque and gaudy, vaudevillian, dirty” Blackpool production. Pick it up directly from Vic via his Myspace.
And keep an eye out for the new Vic Godard full-length, We Come As Aliens, later this year.
Destroyer – “Archer on the Beach” b/w “Grief Point” 12″ is due out 11/2 from Merge.
“Archer on the Beach” is a meditation on the need to grapple with the 20th century in one’s own special way and with style, this time through singing quietly, through repetition, and through leaving lots of space between words, as well as finally learning to love crowds and nature.
“Grief Point” is the first recording Bejar made after deciding never to record again. It is a one-time exploration of the self-explanatory world, recorded in an office and on the street. Inspired by the writings of Michael Herr and the production design of Dean Tavoularis, the words occasionally obsess over the need to make certain things that don’t need to be made, while the music—written, played, and produced in its entirety by Loscil, aka Scott Morgan—tackles wholly separate issues. “Grief Point” was, at one point, the working title of a song called “Bay of Pigs.”
Drag City continue their successful run of unearthing and resurrecting overlooked and forgotten gems from musical purgatory. Their latest rescue, in conjunction with Galactic Zoo, is the super-rare late ’60s/early ’70s Spur of the Moments LP, by Belleville, Illinois psych-pop outfit Spur (also known for a time as “The Unknowns”).
If “Mr. Creep” is indicative of just what sort of stuff this records holds, I’ma be grabbing it forthwith.