Ed Borrie - 15 Years Ed Borrie Tour Date 04/24/09 Soulcellar, Southampton Read More S*M*A*S*H http://weheartmus... I couldn't hold back my excitement when I got the new S*M*A*S*H album, Icon, in the mail the othe...

For a mere £4, this Friday, April 24^th, you can see these two legendary bands: S*M*A*S*H alongside The Orphans (members of These Animal Men) in Southampton at Soulcellar.

S*M*A*S*H - Icon S*M*A*S*H - Real Surreal (single version) These Animal Men - Too Sussed?

People who knows me, knows that I'm a huge fan of both of these guys, so I'm making this announcement prior to the show. And you know, I would totally be there if at all possible. Unfortunately there's this ocean between us.

Also, I received a 'bootleg' of S*M*A*S*H singer, Ed Borrie doing an acoustic solo appearance at the 100 Club (in London?). The audio is pretty good, it sounds like it's from the soundboard. The whole show is pretty low-key, as expected with an acoustic set. What makes this show kind of cool is the violins by Amber Ross, which you can clearly hear on "15 Years". And, gosh, it's so good to hear Borrie singing his word-plays "All I wanted was to be you, all I wanted was to be used."

Borrie did a few old S*M*A*S*H songs ("Lady Love Your C***", "Revisited #3" and "Drugs Again"), and right before "Drugs Again", he introduced it by saying "Ordinary, I'm in a punk band, so I'll just play a couple of those songs".

It looks the Orphans will make another appearance in October 24^th in Germany, of all places at KOZ, Goethe University in Hessen.

The Orphans have been enjoying a sold-out first pressing of their album (Muff? I have no idea since I haven't correspond with these guys before), so they're going back printing more.

In the meantime, you can pick up Icon from S*M*A*S*H at amazon.co.uk. What made this album so important is because their last/debut album, Self Abused, was released in 1994. That's thirteen years ago! So be sure to pick up Icon when you see them.

 04/19/2009 19:01:50 ♥ vu () ♥ myspace.com/llyc ♥ myspace.com/theorphansonline

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 08/24/2008 18:55:38  ♥ written by vu ()

NEVER GET OUT OF THIS Spin - Not In Love

WOW, another epic podcast, with co-hosts Derek & Soup. Although this episode is more topics-centric (RIAA, MP3s, and state of music), I think the next podcast will be half-topic and half casual.

Download this episode (41 min)

Some topics we touched on:

RIAA vs Muxtape, CDs are too expensive, music blogs, internet radio royalties going up twice as much as traditional radio, taping off the radio, whatever happened to recording hunting?, Taping Kills Music, concerts, what we're listening to...

Music used:

♥ David Yazbek - Introduction (davidyazbek.com)
♥ Weird Al - Don't Download This Song (weirdal.com)
♥ Hellsongs - Breaking the Law (hellsongs.com)
♥ Le Tigre - Get off the Internet (letigreworld.com)
♥ S*M*A*S*H - Take Your Breath Away ( myspace.com/llyc)
♥ Spin - Not In Love (spinrocks.com)
♥ Ladyscraper - Gangbanger (hellsongs.com)
♥ Ironlung - Liar (myspace.com/lifeironlungdeath)
♥ Jeff Hanson - I Don't Quite Remember (jeffhanson.net)
♥ P. Hux - Wear My Ring (parthenonhuxley.com)
♥ Elastica - Operate (live)
♥ AIDS Wolf - Down, Holy Ground (myspace.com/aidswolf)

If you want to join us on the podcast, send me an email - I will need your telephone number or Skype username.

Links: weheartmusic.com weheartmusic.mypodcast.com

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S*M*A*S*H - Icon S*M*A*S*H Link S*M*A*S*H Revisited http://s-m-a-s-h.net S♥M♥A♥S♥H Footnotes [1] From amazingforums.com [2] When the song is done live, I'm told that Ed changes the name to more modern targets. [3] S*M*A*S*H Website created 29 July 1998. [4] Guardian Friday January 28, 2005.

I couldn't hold back my excitement when I got the new S*M*A*S*H album, Icon, in the mail the other day. The album will be available in stores October 8th, 2007. However if you attend their concert on September 28th at Viva La Punk in Cambridge, you can pick up the album weeks earlier.^[1]

Although I've mentioned S*M*A*S*H here a couple of times already, I think it's about time that they got a full featured article. You are in for a treat down memory lane!

Back in 1994, in my DJ days, my music director gave me Self Abused to listen to to pick out the "good" tracks so she can add it to our playlist. Usually I'll find one or two good songs, but I swear, this album was AMAZING! I loved ALL the songs, especially the hidden track, which was an acoustic version of "Lady Love Your C♥♥♥" (of course, I didn't know the title back then).

So after buying as many singles as I could find on S*M*A*S*H, I did discover that the song title was actually stolen from an essay written by Germaine Greer, published in 1971. The essay in its entirety was reprinted in the Spring 1994: Real Surreal single.

So, S*M*A*S*H is from Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire. The trio consists of Ed Borrie (vocals/guitar), Rob Hague (drums) and Salvatore Alessi (bass), who found each other through political ideals in 1984. By 1992, they were playing gigs and eventually releasing their records through their own label, Le Disques de Popcor Records. Their debut single, Real Surreal was picked by both NME and Melody Maker, as Single of the Week.

This was an explosive start for the band.

Their most controversial song is "I Want to Kill Somebody" which was released and deleted on the same day. The single didn't do too well in the charts, mostly due to the fact that the song was heavily censored and outright banned on radio stations. It is because the song named people that needs to die:

Margaret Thatcher, Jefferey Archer, Michael Heseltine, John Major, Virginia Bottomeley, Gill Shepherd^[2]

Although to be fair, the lyrics states: "it's not that I want them dead, it's just that the world will be a better place if they never existed."

After they released their final single, Rest of My Life (Dec 1995), the band split and was never heard again.

You have to remember that back then, the internet was in its infancy and there was nothing on S*M*A*S*H on the internet. I didn't know what happened to S*M*A*S*H, so I decided to put up a little website on them with nothing more than a discography and lyrics section.^[3]

Things were pretty silent on the S*M*A*S*H front until 2002 when I received an email from a L.Hague. He said he was the son of Rob Hague and he was searching online for bands that his dad was in. As it turned out, he didn't realize how big S*M*A*S*H were!

He asked his dad about the band and pretty soon, Rob tracked down Ed and they were talking to each other again! In some strange ways, I was kind of responsible for getting the band back together.

This quote from Ed, pretty much sums it up:

We were built up as the leaders of a scene dubbed the New Wave of New Wave. I didn't complain because it focused attention on the records. It went wrong for us fairly quickly, mostly as a result of my worsening drug addiction. Being in the spotlight didn't help. Rob and Salv were my two best friends since we started in a scout hut. They weren't prepared to watch me kill myself so they said goodbye. I ended up in despair, then rehab. Eighteen months ago I went round to Rob's house, had some tears and said a few apologies. We've started playing again but we have no aspirations to go through that shit again. We'll play a few gigs, make a little record and it'll be as innocent as it was in the beginning.^[4]

Once again, Icon, will be released October 8th, 2007 through a small independent label, MLP, which mostly specialized in live recordings. They are headlining Viva La Punk on September 28th, at the Cellar bar. Also on the bill: Out of Nowhere, Psycho Bombs, and The Cougars.

Here are some selective S*M*A*S*H songs and rarities for you to listen to:

S*M*A*S*H - Lady Love Your C♥♥♥ (acoustic)	S*M*A*S*H - Real Surreal (single version)	S*M*A*S*H - Petal Buzz	S*M*A*S*H - Bang Bang Bang	S*M*A*S*H - (I Want to) Kill Somebody (Topper Mix)
S*M*A*S*H - Turn on the Water	S*M*A*S*H - Drugs Again (demo)	S*M*A*S*H - Interview	S*M*A*S*H - All By Myself	S*M*A*S*H - Rest of My Life

 09/25/2007 22:34:15  vu my♥posts vu@weheartmusic.com www.s-m-a-s-h.net

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S*M*A*S*H - (I Want to) Kill Somebody (Topper Mix)

Here is a S*M*A*S*H concert review from a very recent concert.

From amazingforums.com

Hitchin 14/07/07
Russ posted 7/19/07 8:52 PM

I managed to make it up there. And very good it was too. Last year at the Rhythms of the World Festival the boys headlined Fringe venue Shortys Sports bar, this year they got promoted to the Corn Exchange and after a tentative start rocked the place to its foundations much to the bemusement of clubbers walking in expecting the latest cheesy Eurocrap. How I laughed..... Basically they played all the old favourites and some new ones into the mix. Starting with LLYC ["Lady Love Your Cunt"] and ending with "I Want to Kill Somebody" with the new line "Gordon Brown, Tony Blair, it just ain't fucking fair!" I will send Vu some pics if I remember tomorrow.

Here are some roundup of links:

Digg: Say "Cock Rock" Like You Mean It
Submitter: kg123

Fun post about pop music's evolution from "cock rock" to rock that's actually about cock! Rob Halford, Turbo Negro, and Pink Steel all get name-checked. From the always-enjoyable"We heart music" blog.

From www.drawerb.com

Riot Grrrls roundup at WeHeartMusic
July 15th, 2007

We *heart* Music has a nice little write up on the Riot Grrrls of yore. (though, as VU mentions “Let’s be clear about this, this is not a definitive guide to all things Riot Grrrl, but just some selections of music that I have and liked.”) Just a nice stroll down memory lane (with mp3s!) for those early ’90s college radio kids. enjoy.

 July 20, 2007 9:05 AM  vu my♥posts vu@weheartmusic.com s-m-a-s-h.net

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I got inspired by BAng BAng PArty !, so I'm adding a few in. I do have a lot more "Bang" songs, including that awesome "Bang a Gong" song by T.Rex, but that's already mentioned in that post.

So a short introduction to each Bang songs:

● Bangs (not "the Bangs") are from Olympia, Washington, so I often associate them with Sleater-Kinney. I love this song, "Scorpi-Oh".

● S*M*A*S*H are another personal favorite. They've only have one album before breaking up due to drugs and depression. They reformed a few years ago, and I have an official/fan website on them (s-m-a-s-h.net).

● Bertrand Betsch has a French version of "Bang Bang", it's pretty good.

● I also like Isobel Campbell's version of "Bang Bang" as well ... if you listen on headphones, it uses "stereo" so you'll hear some sounds in the left and right speakers.

● Art Brut has an album and title track called "Bang Bang Rock & Roll".

● I have all of Le Tigre's albums and EPs on CD as I am a pretty big riot grrrl fan. I actually haven't really liked the latest Le Tigre's stuff, but am more of a fan of old Bikini Kill.  However, the first Le Tigre album is amazing.  Maybe in my next post, I will talk about another favorite, Bratmobile :)

● Lastly, here's the Archies doing "Bang Shang a Lang", which I believe was a big hit for this cartoon band :) The real "band" are session musicians, assembled by Don Kirshner. Most of the hits were written and sung by Jeff Barry.

● SMAP is not my audio. It's in Japanese.

Super-easy, but bonus points for anyone who can guess where the title of this post came from.

Art Brut - Bang Bang Rock & Roll

The Archies - Bang Shang a Lang

Bertrand Betsch - Bang Bang

Bangs - Scorpi-oh

Isobel Campbell - Bang Bang

S*M*A*S*H - Bang Bang Bang

Le Tigre - Bang! Bang!

vu wikipedia.org/Bangs | s-m-a-s-h.net | bertrandbetsch.com | isobelcampbell.com | artbrut.org.uk | letigreworld.com

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