Brakes – Heard About Your Band (2005)

Classic 21st century punk rock.

Got this track on a Rough Trade “Counter Culture” compilation of 2005; loved it immediately. All over in 82 seconds, just love the lyrics which I quote in full

I heard about your band
I couldn’t help it, you were screaming in my ear
Coked up arsehole
Waiting for Liars
You shared a cab with Karen O
Oh oh, oh oh oh
You’re talking hyper bollocks
You’re talking salaries
Oh yeah, you work in insurance
30k, O.T.E
You met Electrelane
Ay ay, ay ay ay
You know the girl from Sleater Kinney
You said you couldn’t understand
Why it was that she continued to play
When she was only earning 10 grand, P.A.
You know a lot of people in the industry
Woo hoo, woo hoo hoo
I heard about your band
WHATEVER DUDE!

Poetry.

Donovan – Wear Your Love Like Heaven (1967)

Holidays continue under the blazing, 20 degree, heat of a Cambridgeshire summer ….. pass the factor 50 and a Pina Colada please.

Today, I have been mostly listening to Donovan. Not sure I had every realised how consistently good he was. The clear influence on bands like Belle and Sebastian is clear but some of the music is also reminiscent of that which accompanied John Cooper Clarke’s seminal LPs of the late 1970s. No, really.

But, I couldn’t look further than this.

“Wear Your Love Like Heaven” is 2 and a half minutes of pop perfection from the “A Gift from a Flower to the Garden” LP of 1967.  Just wish it was twice as long.

The Donovan original than a wonderful solo, instrumental version from some guy on YouTube – fantastic!