A few bands/musicians that float my boat.
RUDIMENTARY PENI. Originally lumped in with Crass and other bands of a similar stance and sound, Peni always had a darker gothic edge to them, not so much in the music but more in the lyrics and art work of singer Nick Blinko. I'm a total Blinko obsessive owning books and art work by the man along with the bands recordings. Stand out lp, "Cacophony" a punk prog concept lp based on the works and life of H.P.Lovecraft.
HANOI ROCKS. I confess to being a teenage glam rocker, it was such a breath of fresh air after constantly worrying about nuclear war and state control during the early 80s punk scene. You have no idea how radical I felt not wearing black all the time when I got into them. One of the best party bands ever. Favourite lp "Oriental Beat".
BIG BLACK/RAPEMAN/SHELLAC. Steve Albini as musician, is a God in our house. Difficult for me to pick one thing by the man but if push comes to shove then it's the Rapeman lp "Two Nuns and a Pack Mule".
LOVE. If you don't own "Forever Changes" shame on you. Go and buy it now, you'll be a better person for it.
HAWKWIND. Perhaps England's finest band, well up to 1975 anyway.
ELVIS. Forget the fat biffer in a white suit, even though some of his later stuff is great, check out his early stuff on Sun Records. The man was on fire, there is something so primal about these records along with a lot of other early rockabilly it's a shame that more people don't listen to the genre. Charlie Feathers is also well worth looking into.
DEXYS MIDNIGHT RUNNERS. Though they are today remembered mainly for wedding dance floor filler "Come On Ellen", Dexys first two lps are blinding bits of white UK soul music. One of the main things that make them so attractive to me is the passion and belief of Kevin Rowlands in his music and the transcendental nature of music in general. Few people are that honest. Of course he was mocked for it in the press. Oh and he was a bit of a twat at the time, so fair does. I like to think of Rowlands as one of England's great music eccentrics who lucked out and had chart hits with what on reflection is an odd idea:soul music with added banjo and irish fiddle.
COMPULSIVE GAMBLERS/OBLIVIANS/REIGNING SOUND. The three main bands of Greg Cartwright, 90s garage punk legend. A God in our house along with Albini. CG have a country waltz edge to some of their early stuff, Oblivians are out and out dumbass punk and RS alternate between howling guitars and some of the finest love songs ever written. As the great man Greg himself says on the live Oblivians lp, "Suffer motherfu*ker, suffer".
SHIRLEY COLLINS. England's greatest female folk singer. She's appeared with loads of different bands over the years including Current 93, but the couple of lps she did with her sister Dolly are amazingly bleak and mournful and thus highly recommended.
THE OWL SERVICE. A modern folk band who draw heavily on late 60s early 70s English folk bands. Some of the most beautiful music ever made. They also do a rather fine drone when not singing about wasselling and poachers. The main man is a Sunn O ))) fan.
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