Glasgow’s The Pastels teamed up with Japans’ Tenniscoats on the new record Two Sunsets which was released by Domino last week. I’ve always liked The Pastels (except when they teamed up with Jad Fair, but that had nothing to do with them, more to do with my longstanding dislike of anything Jad Fair touches) so this latest pairing looks to be fantastic. Unfortunately, I’ve been too busy to give the full recording a listen, but if you can use this Jesus & Mary Chain (who also happen to come from Glasgow) cover as a litmus test of the rest of the record, it’s bound to be great.
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Download: The Pastels/Tenniscoats – About You (Jesus & Mary Chain Cover)
I was surprised when I went through our archives and noticed that being such fanatical JAMC fans, we have never posted a Freeheat song. I’m rectifying that right now! I just happened to be in NYC for work in 2000 when Jim Reid played the US for first time sans his brother and under his new moniker, Freeheat. They did a two night stint at the now defunct Brownies. It was a pair of great shows but I remember that a very forgettable band opened up. Years later, Avalanche informed me that the mediocre opening band was in fact Interpol. Reason #254 why I would make a horrible A&R man. This song comes from the second night of their Brownies appearance in 2000.
I may be in the minority, but I actually prefer Jim’s solo work and the stuff he did with Freeheat to the last JAMC record “Munki.” So I was thrilled when out of the blue, a friend from waaaaaaay back sent me a disc packed full of miscellaneous Jim solo recordings (along with the new JAMC demos that are up on MySpace) which arrived in the mail yesterday. This song was broadcast by BBC Radio a week or so before Jim released the “Song For A Secret” 7″ on Transistor.
Here’s something new for the JAMC fan who already has everything. This is an interesting live track from The Jesus And Mary Chain that was recorded at the Cambridge Theater in London when JAMC “opened” one show for The Sugarcubes in May of 1988. They played 4 songs without a band, but the last song they played seemed to be an improvised song. The lyrics are a hodge-podge from other songs over a simple guitar line.
