THE DISTRACTIONS

“Time Goes By So Slow”

(Manchester, UK 1979)

THE DISTRACTIONS

“Nothing”

You’re Not Going Out Dressed Like That

(Manchester 1978)

The popular history of Factory Records makes Tony Wilson sound like an austere visionary whose minimalist aesthetic gave us Joy Division.

That image doesn’t exactly match up with the actual Manchester 70s guy who fronted the Granada Television show “So It Goes.”

The Distractions look like real live 70s people and not the art-schoolers who invented punk rock. Check the cover of the You’re Not Going Out Dressed Like That EP: the drummer is wearing a Hawaiian shirt and one of the guitarists sports a “Distractions Fail Sex Test” t-shirt, the kind with the iron-on fuzzy letters you could use to spell out whatever message you wanted.

Tony signed them after that EP came out and “Time Goes By So Slow” was released in September 1979, three months after Factory put out Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures.

Even though the 45 sleeve doesn’t stand out in a pile of Factory releases, the Distractions’ actual music is everything the art-schoolers hated: earnest and accessible, enthusiastic and well-rehearsed.

It’s the standard ‘77 rock fix: crank up the guitars on your trad rock songs and maybe you’d pass for punk. Even with the stylish Factory logo, no one was buying the Distractions as avatars of the new style.

That’s too bad. “Time Goes By So Slow” holds up as one of the absolute best Factory titles. If Island’s distribution had managed to deliver this record so that the Distractions outsold Joy Divison in 1979, the Factory story might have been far less austere.

Failed Sellout Alert: The Distractions recut “Nothing’ for their 1980 Island Records album Nobody’s Perfect. Unfortunately, polishing the rough edges sucked all the life out of the song. The rest of the album isn’t much better. Nice Peter Saville cover design, though.

• Download “Time Goes By So Slow”
• Download “Nothing”

(”Time Goes By So Slow” - Factory Records FAC 12)

(You’re Not Going Out Dressed Like That - TJM Records TJM2)

MILBURN

“What Will You Do (When the Money Goes)?”

These Are the Facts

(Sheffield 2007)

These are the facts:

1. UK bands that really put the work into touring the USA gather crucial momentum that helps them survive the inevitable backlash from the UK media. Many go on to long and storied careers: Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones & U2 can start the list.
2. Back in the day, pretty much any UK rock band with a profile in the NME or Melody Maker was assured a US album release, just so long as they’d commit to six weeks of touring. The 80s were a particularly good time for this. Not everyone worked as hard as U2, but we got The Smiths, The Cure & The Jam over here because they agreed to show up.
3. That system started to break down in the late 90s. Few UK bands got that automatic release in the US, partly because American companies no longer thought a band that sold “only” 300,000 copies on the first album was worth the trouble.

Nowadays, there aren’t many commercial alternative radio stations in middle America and the kids won’t touch the kind of major label alt-rock that dominated the college radio charts back in the 80s. More and more rock bands on the UK charts never see a US release.

Which brings us to Milburn.

Milburn’s first two Mercury UK singles charted last year, but their album didn’t get a US release. No album release, no American tour.

Maybe Universal’s US companies heard Milburn’s Yorkshire accents and compared them to the Arctic Monkeys, whose first album hardly reached Maroon 5 heights over here.

Now Milburn has a new album and “What Will You Do?” is the first single.

I went to Sheffield in 2005 and produced their first Mercury single (watch the “Send in the Boys” video here), so I know the guys (Joe, Louis, Tom & Greeny) and how amazingly well they play.

“What Will You Do?” is deceptive; the melody sounds very English, like something John Barry would write for a James Bond theme, but Milburn hammers the track with a purposeful brutality few UK bands could pull off.

I don’t know which American radio format works for them; there’s a lyrical intelligence here that seems to rule out near-term rock or pop radio play. But put them on the road here and let them tour regularly for a couple of years and Milburn will deliver.

They’ve got the talent, they’ve already shown their commitment by touring endlessly since the day they signed to Mercury and they’re entertaining as hell when you meet them in person. This album will connect in Europe. If Universal’s paying attention, you’ll get a chance to hear it in America.

I received this package in today’s mail. Except it’s not really a package; it’s a glow stick shoved into a 1st Class Royal Mail prepaid letter envelope and mailed (awkwardly) from Manchester to Los Angeles. It’s a miracle that it arrived in one piece.

The glow stick is supposed to promote Tony Wilson’s In the City conference, coming up again this October.

What an outrageous and probably futile gesture, poorly executed (where are the padded mailers?) with absolutely no concern for what things actually cost. Yet it’s totally awesome and extremely punk rock.

That could be the epitaph for both Factory Records and the Haçienda night club. When word came that Tony Wilson had died this evening in Manchester, I thought today’s package could serve as an epitaph for him as well.

Tony wanted everyone to believe that Peter Saville’s original die-cut sleeve design for New Order’s “Blue Monday” 12″ was so expensive to produce that Factory actually lost money on each copy sold.

Whether it was true was irrelevant, the story made a point: art trumps commerce and business is just another venue for situationist spectacle. We should be so lucky that it were.

Here’s an interview from 1988:

PULP

“Common People”

(Sheffield 1995)

Class warfare can make for some awful records. Not this time. My favorite single of the 90s.

When you work in music, the wake-up call comes when you’re forced to give up your romantic notions about the nobility of the artistic process.

Art is a nasty business, just as nasty as highway construction, venture capital or any other pursuit that involves trading products or services for money.

I’m reminded of this by Alan McGee’s attack on My Bloody Valentine in a new Guardian article about the revival of shoegaze. Read it here.

Alan started Creation Records, the label that released MBV’s Loveless album. Here’s his quote from the article: “Bloody nonsense. My Bloody Valentine were my comedy band. Ride were different - they were a rock band, really, a fantastic rock band - but My Bloody Valentine were a joke, my way of seeing how far I could push hype.”

Alan has good reason to dislike MBV’s Kevin Shields. The band spent an enormous amount of time and money making Loveless, so much that they pushed Creation’s finances to the brink of label collapse. After the album failed to recoup its costs, Creation let the band move to Island Records. The press were appalled but, once Kevin had Chris Blackwell’s money, he returned to the studio and proceeded not to put out an album for the next fifteen years. If Axl was smarter, he’d point fingers at Kevin whenever anyone starts asking questions about when he’s going to release Chinese Democracy.

Maybe Alan’s just trying to amuse himself; his talents as a provocateur rival his abilities as one of the world’s great record men. But calling My Bloody Valentine a “joke” sounds like you’re calling Loveless a joke and questioning the judgment of anyone who fell for your scam in the first place.

My Bloody Valentine’s 1992 show at the Masquerade was one of the most epic I’ve ever seen, one that people in Atlanta talk about as much as the old folks go on about the Sex Pistols at the Great Southeast Music Hall or New Order’s first show at the 688. I’d even compare it to the first Jesus & Mary Chain show at the Channel in Boston; My Bloody Valentine may have been less confrontational during their set but the long-term impact was just as intense.

Loveless is a wonder. “Only Shallow” never fails to stop a room cold whenever it’s on a party tape. The album still acts like a secret signifier in your record collection; a copy of Loveless marks you as someone who knows where they keep the really good stuff.

And, make no mistake, Ride were an outstanding rock band. I saw for myself at the Cotton Club on the Going Blank Again tour. They showed up for work on time and cooperated with the local record company people. “Vapour Trail” and “Leave Them All Behind” are both classic songs that deserved a chance to be hits in America. But, at his best, Mark Gardener was a less charismatic version of The Charlatans’ Tim Burgess, plus everything had gone terribly wrong by the time Ride recorded their lifeless cover of The Creation’s “How Does It Feel to Feel” on their third album.

Here’s the problem: both Loveless and the 1992 My Bloody Valentine tour exist independently from the issue of what a jerk Kevin Shields might be. Once you put yourself behind the music, your own experiences can color how you hear the bands you’ve worked with.

I know this very well from my own experience. I’ve recently begun to make peace with one of my own nightmare projects from the early 90s. That record still has its flaws but so many people have testified to its virtues lately that I’ve started to separate the actual music from the experience of making it.

So, Alan: Ride was an outstanding band with two awesome albums that deserved a much better fate. But Loveless is lightning in a bottle. My Bloody Valentine changed lives, whether or not the individual band members deserved that privilege.

Sometimes I wish I knew a lot less about how the music gets made, but it’s the price you pay for working in the sausage factory. Attack Kevin all you want, but leave the music alone.

Here, watch some “Only Shallow.” It makes me forget all the bad parts:

SATAN’S RATS

“You Make Me Sick”

(Evesham, England 1978)

In England, punk rock ended up being more about media than music. Once the media bubble burst, even the Clash had to come to the USA to create a lasting legacy.

Suburban kids who just wanted to make records that rocked like the Damned were dismissed as pathetic copycats. Satan’s Rats never had a chance, apparently. The band tell their story here.

“You Make Me Sick” was produced by the incomparable Vic Maile, who also brought us The Godfathers’ “Birth, School, Work, Death,” Motorhead’s Ace of Spades, and Royal Court of China’s Geared and Primed.

DJM Records was the label division of Dick James Music, an old-line UK music publisher that controlled a lot of Beatles and Elton John song copyrights. They signed a slew of punk bands in a vain attempt to cash in on the Sex Pistols.

There wer no hits, but this is one of the best ‘77 era punk records.

• Download “You Make Me Sick”

(DJM Records DJS 10840)

The Creation

“Painter Man”

1966

Every band has its price.

Of course, Mick & Keith probably complained about the Rice Krispies to Andrew Loog Oldham right up until the day they fired him. Musicians are like that.

THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS

“The Pills Won’t Help You Now”

(UK 2007)

The Chemical Brothers’ We Are The Night CD comes out July 2nd in the UK. “The Pills Won’t Help You Now” appears in the Private Psychedelic Reel slot at the end of the album.

The vocal is by the singer from Midlake. The Trials of Van Occupanther was one of my favorite records of last year and it’s available on iTunes.

Audio Player : “The Pills Won’t Help You Now”