'We may be through with the past, but the past ain't through with us.'
I watched 'Magnolia' again last night, I mention that as an aside, it's surprising to realise the film is 12 years old, I must have seen it more than a dozen times, thirty six hours of my life at least as Hayley pointed out, one viewing for every year that's ticked by at least... it may not be everybody's cup of tea, admittedly, but it appeals to me... and it gets richer, possibly more profound the older I get. That's not to imply that I am too, that it's some symbiotic thing... that I'm wiser so I can appreciate the wisdom in the film as I get older... I seem, in life and in general, to understand less and less, I seem to achieve less, do less, manage less, cope less...
'I used to be smart. But now I'm just stupid.'
I was born at the tail end of the 1960's, I was late for the moon landing (starting a lifetime of never quite being there for the bumper book of history's most significant moments), I was a child in the seventies, a teenager in the eighties, a young adult in the nineties and I crashed spectacularly into the 21st century and find myself here, forty fucking one years old, burdened by debt, regret and thinking if I'm graced another 20 years what can I achieve in that time and what can I be allowed to achieve in that time given all the debt and the regret and circumstance and Government and what I'm like and the ever decreasing circles (not the sitcom, or, yes, perhaps the sitcom) that I find myself mired in... yeh, I know which end of the stick I'm holding... it's the one marked self-pitying no hoper and it's covered in shit
You came here from an indiepop review, I'm guessing, you want mention of anoraks and wowwypops and all that?
Well, I'm getting to all that...
'Our future's terminal and anything good will do' (Comet Gain 'The Ballad Of A Mix Tape')
We find our consolations where we can...
This week: Music (specifically POP!)
So, consolations... sometimes that involves going forward by going backwards... this can take the form of gleeful nostalgia, wallowing in long forgotten feelings/sensations/vibrations and remembering yer former thinner spottier self who had a full head of hair and seemed like they might achieve sunnink, anyfink, didn't know what, didn't have a clue, just did- SKILLFUL! (*two thumbs aloft*)
Or else it's going back and discovering something you either a) never knew existed or b) had an inkling of but never really listened to properly before and that music or whatever meets you, ideally, fresh and new, perhaps even brilliant and vivid and shiny- yeh, you can identify it to a particular place and time but it's meeting your ears for the first time and when it clicks, when you 'get it', it's the start of something, a beginning
And it's a beautiful thing, maaan, if it's any good
The moment
What is indiepop?
It doesn't really matter (although, by crikey, it does!), you may have an idea, you might not, the very word may make you sigh inwardly and roll your eyes, it may make you feel terribly emboldened and like you're part of something (something terribly important), you may just flick your fringe in your eyes and do a big dopey grin with your head slightly to one side as a chorus of 'ba ba ba's' go off in your head... you might feel punky, you might feel dreamy, you might go all shy, you might get all shouty, you might go off and start a fanzine and flexi revolution (again) in your head...
The Groove Farm existed between 1986 and 1990. They were from Bristol (well, in the sense that that's where the band got together and were based) and, I'll be honest, they were a band I didn't properly get into back then ... which in hindsight is annoying, because like the moon landing, I missed out, but this time I didn't have the excuse of not being born yet... in my defence, there were a lot of records to buy, I got what records I could with the money I had and I got what I could in provincial Essex and Hertfordshire where I lived... that I managed to get very much of anything at all was something of a victory... thank you, Parrot Records in Harlow and Tracks in Ware & Hertford (don't look for them they're not there anymore)
But in 1990 I did pick up the 'Present' EP, I was working in Harlow Our Price by this point, the lovely Russell, the SRD rep recommended it to me and I got a copy off the back of his van... by this point the Groove Farm were nearly at an end... I was late to the party again... so I had the party on my own, because sometimes you have to, the world wouldn't listen (the world being the small patch of Hertfordshire/Essex I lived in at the time) but, then again, if the world doesn't understand, then the world has got to learn!
It's therefore a delight to find Big Pink Cake have released a Groove Farm compilation and a thing of beauty it is too... I've been gifted a copy and it's fucking ACE (swearing for emphasis)!
21 years after the Groove Farm locked its gate, I'm pleased to say the world has been invited back in (warning! 'amusing' farming references/mutilated metaphors follow) so hop on a tractor and let the boys plough your field... the field in your heart... your field of POP!, um, corn... or something... sorry
We'll never be that young again
Any band that began with a love for The June Brides and The Milkshakes is clearly doing things properly... the amusing/heartbreaking story of The Groove Farm is here in the 'Absolute Beginners' sleevenotes... it's a very English tale of intent and expectation being blighted by often grim reality (or the late eighties), sometimes- they admit, refreshingly, they didn't always get it right ('Shockingly bad record!' is how the first LP is described) but the Groove Farm kept at it, having a go, often at odds with the prevailing tastes and fashions... 'not for the first time, we felt like outsiders, we didn't seem to fit in anywhere', writes Groove Farmer, Andrew Arthur Jarrett, in the sleeves before adding, 'time to get back in the garage...'
The Groove Farm were a garage indiepop band, the played with gusto, damn you bet.
'No Friend Of Mine', track 18 on the compilation is a sort of cover of The Sparkles song of the same name that appears on the Nuggets box ('we couldn't make out the words, so we just made up our own version'), the songs that most appeal to me (in that I fucking love 'em and could and will and have played them over and over) are the most frenzied and animated ones, of which there are many...
'Nancy Sinatra' is a stormer, an instant pop classic, all fizz, spark and fire, the two songs from the 'Present' EP ('Stop!' and 'Just A Silly Phase I'm Going Through') equally so... they have that thing where the music and the words pound, crash, chime, spin you giddy and pull at your heartstrings/knicker elastic... dragging up all those pit of the stomach feelings that could be glee but might just spell disaster... those sort of feelings you think you grow out of but never do... all that lovey dovey yearning lusting heartsies stuff but played like it feels, which is exhausting, blissfully so... it's why people skateboard, isn't it? so they can fall off, scrape their knees but get back on again (love, I'm referring to... and listening to pop music)
'Captain Fantastic' manages to sound, to these ears at least, like The Fall's 'Industrial Estate' wrestling The Claim in a skip... which is a recommendation
The rest of the compilation is splendid, there's one or two tracks that don't quite register as vividly as others but that's how these things work, isn't it? 'I Know It's Only Indiepop...'really does deserve to be heard and to be played loud, it's a shot in the arm this collection, a pick me up, a kick up the arse and a pat on the back
Most importantly the compilation, for me, manages to pluck The Groove Farm from the misconceived 'also ran' bin and makes me wonder what else needs investigating in there... as compilations of that era (let's call it 'eighties indie') and that ilk go we've been blessed with very many in the last few years, the Dolly Mixture none more complete one, the excellent Sub Pop Vaselines collection, the June Brides anthology, Cherry Red, LTM and Damaged Goods have some first class (plus plus) collections too, plus many more... it's gratifying to see Big Pink Cake doing equally fine work
This isn't all flies in amber stuff though, it's not butterfly collecting, sticking specimens under glass... well, I hope it's not... I'm looking for something, something to keep my head sparking and my feet moving and hips wiggling, I can find it in the here and now and I can find it rooting back through mine and other people's record collections and with compilations like this one... forward in all directions and all that
'The music will save you again and again' (Comet Gain 'Thee Ecstatic Library')
The Groove Farm, they were rather more than 'The Wedding Present with toy instruments' (which I'd like to hear and I make no apologies for that)
I know it's only indiepop but I like it
'And... no, it is not dangerous to confuse children with angels!'
http://www.bigpinkcake.co.uk/news/the-groove-farm-bpc004/
http://groovefarm.webs.com/
P.S. The quotes in italics are from the film 'Magnolia'... pretentious, moi?
0 comments:
Post a Comment