STACK March 2016 Issue 71

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Various Artists
Still in a Dream; A Story of Shoegaze
1988 – 1995
This beautifully packaged, intelligently essayed
and annotated, handsomely illustrated and very
comprehensive box set (71 mostly UK bands
across four CDs, 16 mostly internationals on
another) should thrill fans of this genre, where
often introspective songs were painted on the
big screen in wide swathes of fuzzed-out guitar.
Most of the big names are here with a track apiece (Jesus and Mary
Chain, Curve, Galaxie 500, Ride, Lush [pictured above], Cranes etc; no
My Bloody Valentine but Bailter Space's Shine) and other familiar bands
not normally associated with the style. But it will be the less familiar
(and that's probably about 75 bands at a guess) which add the breadth,
texture and surprises.This wide-angled selection is the best looking box
set in years, and is a repeat-play treasure chest of dreamy and daring
British indie-rock... which ran headlong into American grunge. Essential,
if six-string psychedelic shoegaze ever meant anything to you.
Michael Jackson
Off the Wall
Thriller was bigger and better, but
Jackson's 1979 Off the Wall is
more important because it was
such a pop/R'n'B/disco-cum-funk
game-changer. He put his youth
behind him and stepped out
(with producer Quincy Jones) to
become the self-styled King of
Pop in original songs (Don't Stop
'Til You Get Enough) and material
by Britain's Rod Temperton
(Rock With You, the title track),
McCartney (Girlfriend) and Stevie
Wonder (I Can't Help It). An
extraordinary album of enjoyable
pop now given reissue treatment
with a DVD doco by Spike Lee
– using rare archival footage
– tracing Jackson's path from
Motown boy-band Jackson Five
to a singular solo artist. The rise
and coronation of a pop genius.
Slade
The Slade Box
When Slade released Whatever
Happened to Slade in 1977 it
was a fair question. Their glam-
rock and dirty pop was being
battered by punk, and their
clothes (top hats, braces), singer
Noddy Holder's mutton-chop
sideboards and dumb'n'dumber
song titles (Mama Weer All
Crazee Now, Look Wot You
Done) seemed yesteryear.
However they were punk-tough,
working class rock'n'rollers.
The evidence is on this well
essayed, four CD/84 songs
box set (some previously
unreleased). It goes too far into
their post-punk decline and brief
revival, but in the early '70s they
applied a blowtorch to songs
guaranteed to get your platform
soles stomping.
Violent Femmes (1983)
The impressive debut of a trio – singer/guitarist/
songwriter Gordon Gano, bassist/singer Brian Ritchie
and drummer Victor DeLorenz – which had started
life busking in Milwaukee. Their amped up songs
captured teenage and post-adolescent discomforts
and delivered them in short, snappy pop songs.
Includes Blister in the Sun, Add It Up, Prove My Love
and Gone Daddy Gone. A kind of greatest hits debut.
Hallowed Ground (1984)
The debut part two in many ways, because most of
the songs were written before the first album. But
now with clout (and guests like avant-saxist John
Zorn and Tony Trischka on banjo), the music stretched
more – Never Tell is over seven minutes – and into
more jazz and dark country. And Gano's Christian faith.
A fine album which hardly sold (other than in New
Zealand) and includes Gano's harrowing murder ballad
Country Death Song.
Two-thirds of the original band are touring – where to
start with these post-punk folk-busking rockers?
The Blind Leading The Naked (1986)
Produced by fan Jerry Harrison (Talking Heads) who
had an ear for what might appeal on radio, this third
album was their most successful in the States and
although the band were at the point of splitting up
(which they did shortly after, to re-form without
DeLorenzo later) this is a strong outing, notable for
their cover of T. Rex's Children of the Revolution.
Guests include guitarists Fred Frith and Leo Kottke as
well as Harrison and one-time Stooges saxophonist
Steve Mackay.
Viva Wisconsin (1999)
A band that delivered their best when frenetically
live, they captured that energy on this 70-plus minute
collection pulled from shows in their homestate in '98
(with drummer Guy Hoffman replacing DeLorenzo).
All the 'hits' and more, guest players on horns and
piano, and with their teen angst and the political
anger of the era all wrapped up.
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32 MARCH 2016
MUSIC
For more from Graham Reid visit
VIOLENT FEMMES
By Graham Reid