An A-Z of my iPod: Part21 - U

U.

Well I nearly went with one of my all time favourite albums by The Undertones then changed my mind and nearly chose The Ultras album Surf-Pop-Sludge but in the end went for Ultravox!

Yes, Ultravox with a !

Not the Midge Ure shite of the Vienna years but proper John Foxx fronted Ultravox! from 1977 with their debut eponymously titled album. Ultravox!

Still sounds good after all these years.

An A-Z of my iPod: Part20 - T

And so we get to T.

Not sure this technically counts as a T but my iPod thinks it is.

So here's Thee Fourgiven and the 20th Anniversary issue of their 1985 debut album 'It Ain't Pretty Down Here'

The bass player is Dog Town skateboard legend Ray Flores.

I nearly bought one of these decks when they came out in 2002. I reckon this must be the wildest design ever. Would be a shame to grip it I guess but I expect most of them never got ridden as they are BDS decks.

An A-Z of my iPod: Part19 - S

Too much choice for S.

Most bands seem to begin with S, especially Surf bands.

Surfin' Lungs, Surfer Blood, Surfaris, The Surf Mariachis, The Surf Raiders, The Surfdusters, The Surfin' Robots, Surfmen.

And of course The Surf Punks.

My Beach was officially their second album although it was just a rehash of their first small label release on a big label.

Check out that skateboard guitar, Turning Point deck.

An A-Z of my iPod: Part18 - R

R.

The finest instru-mental surf-punk rock 'n' roll band from Germany...

...The Razorblades.

The Dark Side Of The Beach

Cheers to Buz for turning me onto them...

An A-Z of my iPod: Part17 - Q

Not a lot of Q's on my iPod.

In fact only a newish discovery of mine Queens Of The Stone Age.

2005 album Lullabies To Paralyze

An A-Z of my iPod: Part16 - P

P...

I gotta lotta P's on my iPod.

The Passions, Paul Weller, Pere Ubu, Peter Bruntnell, Peter Frampton, Peter Tosh, Pigbag, Pink Floyd ;-) , The Piranhas, PJ Harvey, Placebo, Plasticland, Plastics, Pokey LaFarge, Poly Styrene, The Pop Group, Porcupine Tree, Portishead, Primal Scream, Prince, The Prisoners, Psychic TV, Public Image Ltd, Pulp, and todays choice...

The Psychedelic Furs and their eponymous (good word that) first album.

This was an absolute favourite album of mine in early 1980 when it was released, I played it over and over, it still makes the hairs on the back of neck stand up when I hear the 2 minute intro to India building to it's climax.
I don't think they ever bettered this album, great sax.

An A-Z of my iPod: Part15 - O

Not much O on there.

OMD, Orange Juice, The Orb...

Here's their 2010 collaboration with David Gilmour, yes that bloke from Pink Floyd, I don't really like Pink Floyd honest...

Metallic Spheres

An A-Z of my iPod: Part14 - N

Not so much choice with N.

New Order, Nikki Sudden, New York Dolls, Nick Cave, New Age Steppers etc.

But this N is one of my all time favourites...

Naz Nomad & The Nightmares and their one and only album from 1984 'Give Daddy The Knife Cindy'.

Naz Nomad & The Nightmares were in fact the Damned. The album only contains two original tracks but the rest are all excellent cover versions of 60's garage tracks. At the time of hearing this album for the first time when it came out I wasn't even aware of some of these tracks being covers but it led me into the 60's garage scene.
Luckily I saw Naz Nomad & The Nightmares play live a couple of times.

An A-Z of my iPod: Part13 - M

Halfway there now.

M.

Lotta M's on my iPod.

Magazine, The Members, The Marketts, MC5, Mark Stewart, Messur Chups, The Meteors, Misty In Roots, Mungo Jerry, Moloko...

Very nearly carried yesterdays theme of The Medway Sound on with The Milkshakes but then noticed Man and their 1969 album '2 Ozs Of Plastic With A Hole In The Middle'.
How could I resist an album that contains a track entitled Spunk Box.

I first stumbled across the Welsh Psychedelic Prog Rockers on the compilation 'Greasy Truckers Party'

An A-Z of my iPod: Part12 - L

And so we get to L.

Lee 'Scratch' Perry, Lemon Jelly, The Lemon Pipers, Les Sexareenos, Link Protrudi & The Jaymen, Little Axe, The Lively Ones, Luke Haines.
I very nearly chose The Lambrettas but in the end went for...

The Len Price 3 and their 1st album from 2004 Chinese Burn.

Garage/Pub Rock with a Mod influence the latest in a great tradition of what has become known as The Medway Sound.

An A-Z of my iPod: Part11 - K

Here's a treat for you seeing as it's the weekend.

2 bands/albums today. Basically I couldn't decide between them and there is a common theme too.

First up we have The KrontJong Devils with their 1998 album On Tour

Next up, The Killer Bananazz with their 2001 album Riptide, contains the obligatory Pipeline cover.

Two Dutch surf bands both beginning with K.

An A-Z of my iPod: Part10 - J

Well I got to double figures. Yay!

Wow I gotta lotta J's on my iPod.

Jack Nitzsche, Jah Wobble, Jah Whoosh, James Brown, James Taylor Quartet, Japan, Japandroids, Jeff Beck, Jesus & Mary Chain, Jesus Jones, JFA, Joan Jett, JoBoxers, Joey Ramone, John Foxx, Johnny Moped, Jon & The Nightriders, Jonathan Richman, Joy Division, Julian Cope and of course The Jam.

Check out Where's Woking? a bootleg of 25 rare tracks from 1975 - 1980.

An A-Z of my iPod: Part9 - I

Not so much choice today for I.

So how about INXS and their 1987 album Kick, I think I probably bought this as I was swayed slightly by the Vision Psycho Stick skateboard on the cover.

An A-Z of my iPod: Part8 - H

And so we get to H.

I very nearly went with The Higsons, famous for their lead singer Charlie 'Fast Show' Higson but decided to plump for The Human League, not the chart topping Human League complete with dancing and singing girls but the all male line line up from '79 and their album Reproduction.

A classic insight to Sheffields post punk electronic music for those of you too young to have lived through these exciting futuristic times.

An A-Z of my iPod: Part7 - G

Well one week in, G.

Only one choice really.

Gabba.

According to Wikipedia "Gabba is a London-based British tribute band performing ABBA songs in the stripped down punk style of the Ramones, a style of pop punk they dubbed discopunk and claim to have invented"

 So here's their album Leave Stockholm, containing such classics as Super Shock Trooper and The Pinhead Takes It All.

An A-Z of my iPod: Part6 - F

Day 6 in the alphabetical journey through my iPod and we get to F.

A choice from Steve Caballeros band The Faction, Fad Gadget, The Fall, The Family Cat, The Fantastic Baggy's, The Farmers Boys, Fever Tree, Fifty Foot Hose, The Fleshtones, The Fuzztones and loads more.
A couple of close ones there in that list but in the end based on yesterdays blog I decided on...

The Flaming Lips, or to be more precise...

 "The Flaming Lips and Stardeath and White Dwarfs with Henry Rollins and Peaches Doing The Dark Side of the Moon". Now as previously stated I'm not, I repeat not a big fan of Pink Floyd.


So here's another cover of Dark Side Of The Moon. Enjoy!

An A-Z of my iPod: Part5 - E

Righto we've got to E.

Elastica, Eddie And The Hot Rods, Edgar Winter Group, Edwyn Collins, The Electric Prunes?

Nope, I decided to go with The Easy Star All Stars and their first album from 2003, Dub Side Of The Moon.

Now I've never really been a fan of Pink Floyd but this is great.

An A-Z of my iPod: Part4 - D

So we get to D.

Could have been Devo, Duran Duran, The Damned, The Dead Boys, Defunkt, The Delmonas, The Dictators, The Dickies or even Delta 5. In fact it very nearly was Delta 5 but at the last minute I decided to go with Dee Dee Ramone.

Not his utterly crap rap album but Greatest & Latest an album of his songs he wrote whilst with The Ramones and some cover versions including interestingly a version of Chris Spedding's 1975 UK hit Motorbikin'.

Co-incidently there is a track called Sidewalk Surfin' on here after yesterdays post.

 ;-)

An A-Z of my iPod: Part3 - C

Going well so far I think.

So C, Crispy Ambulance, The Clash, The Cure, The Creation, Count Five, Culture, nah.

The Challengers, 60's surf instrumental band.

Here's their 5th album, The Challengers Go Sidewalk Surfing!

Oh and the first track? Why Pipeline of course.



Checked today and I have 8 versions of Pipeline on my iPod.

An A-Z of my iPod: Part2 - B

So here we go with B.

So many to choose from...

B52's, Barmy Army, The Balham Alligators, Blondie, Bauhaus, I very nearly went for skatepunk band The Boneless Ones album Skate For The Devil complete with it's cover of Pipeline but in the end settled for...

1960's garage band The Barbarians and their 1966 album "Are You a Boy Or Are You a Girl"

The title track was covered by Wayne County in 74 and Jayne County in 79.

This track isn't on the album but still great.



They were famed for their one armed drummer Victor "Moulty" Moulton who had a prosthetic hand.

An A-Z of my iPod: Part1 - A

Well let's see how long I can keep this up and how infrequent it becomes due to my usual slackness.

Start at the beginning with A and work through.

So A, could have been so many from Adam & The Ants, Athletico Spizz 80, Alberto Y Lost Trios Paranoias, The Astroglides etc. but here we go with Californian surf-punk/skate-punk band Agent Orange.

I really like their 1st album Living in Darkness.



Even got the obligatory cover of Pipeline on it. What more could you want?