If you are reading this article on the defiantly indie website ‘Artrocker.com’ , you are probably like me, a die hard indie kid who always likes to be into bands that no-one else at school has heard of. If you meet someone else who does likes Bastard Kestrel you say “Oh… I used to like them. The first album was great but they’ve gone shit since”. How cool are you? Just like me.
This desire to own records that most people have never heard of has never left me, and makes me stupid when buying albums. I Used to Subscribe to Wire just so I could find out about stuff that no-one else did and read all the articles in Mojo about lost classic folk, jazz, psychedelic, garage bands etc.
I will never forget the deep depression after buying the total anticlimax that was my Fresh Maggots Album. I had been lead to believe that this psychedelic folk-rock band from Nuneaton were going to blow my mind. They had a cool name and the picture of the album cover I had seen in Mojo was so awesome that I knew this would be great. NO NO NO. What a fool I was again. The same feeling I had when I bought an album by Yellow Magic Orchestra, or when I waited three weeks to receive 2 ultra rare Jandek albums. EEEEUGH. How could I be so stupid? Why am I listening to the advice of all the cool kids that work for the photocopied fanzines?
I have had a few successes in my time. I remember when I first read that a lost classic by Vashti Bunyan had been re-released after 20 years. I was working in HMV in Oxford and must have played it pretty much non-stop for a couple of weeks. The same complete joy I had when discovering ‘An Electric Storm in Hell’ by White Noise or various Kevin Ayers albums.
I must remember to write a letter to Uncut magazine and tell them that ‘Time of Last Persecution’ by Bill Fay is not, “The missing link between Nick Drake, Ray Davies and Bob Dylan.” It is just shit.
The same friend of mine that first introduced me to lots of other great bands that I have since grown to love did recently recommend me an album. ‘666’ by Aphrodite’s child is currently my favourite album to bore people about. It is a biblical epic double album recorded in 1971 composed and produced by Vangelis Papathanassiou, the man who later composed the music for Chariots of Fire. It also features the vocal talents of Demis Roussos. It sounds to me like a really cool version of the musical ‘Hair’ but the theme is the apocalypse as described in the bible, John 13/18. I think everyone should get a copy of this now.
The point of this ramble is that all these supposed lost classics have only one thing in common and that is that not very many people have ever heard of them. What I need is someone to release a Best of Album. An album with a taster of all these supposed lost classics on it so that people like me can actually have a listen to them before buying and not feel completely stupid. Until then I will continue to be slave to my own vain need to impress people with how super fucking cool I am.
Best new band in Glasgow, by a mile!
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