Wey Wey Hep Uh Hole, Robyn Hitchcock: Soft Boys Reissued. Again. With Less Songs.

Yip-a dang. The Soft Boys recently had underground (underwater?) classics Underwater Moonlight and Can of Bees reissued by Yep Roc. The Soft Boys getting back together for the Nextdoorland album and tour was absolutely the best reunion of my life, including Kiss coming back with the make-up and costumes. I never thought it would happen, because Soft Boy Robyn Hitchcock said it wouldn't, but I made the trek to Minneapolis, and it was one of the best shows ever. It was electrifying, quite different from Hitchcock's solo shows, which so far have been the only Hitchcock sightings in my town.

Robyn Hitchcock's personal revisitation of The Soft Boys' short musical life is uniquely humourous and imaginative, just like everything he does, and you can read that at The Quietus. You can listen to Underwater Moonlight and many of the bonus tracks that have accompanied reissues over the years here, or you can stream it The Line of Best Fit. The shiny bits of plastic or glossy vinyl only contain the tracks found on the original albums, but buyers receive bonus tracks digitally - purchasing Underwater Moonlight will net you a whopping 30 bonus tracks. So the "less tracks" part of the headline above only concerns the physical album.



This is the best song of all time. I Wanna Destroy You from Underwater Moonlight:

The Soft Boys - I Wanna Destroy You by charmfactory

Underwater Moonlight from, yes, Underwater Moonlight:

The Soft Boys - Underwater Moonlight by alexnycman



Human Music, from Can of Bees:

The Soft Boys - Human Music by theEndofRadio

The Pigworker, from Can of Bees:

Soft Boys - The Pigworker by thehopelessone

If you want more info on the reissues, The Flowering Toilet has some news for audiophiles and otherwise. Of course, the 2 albums do not include The Soft Boys splendiferous single I Want To Be An) Anglepoise Lamp, but you can find it online somewhere - maybe here? Other rare Soft Boys tracks can be found at Know Your Conjurer.



Buy The Soft Boys and Robyn Hitchcock from Yep Roc. You can buy both cds for $19.99, which is a pretty fine deal.

Guitar Heroes of the Non-Video Game Kind Pt .1

photo by stev.ie

Pop Dose recently threw up their list of the top 50 guitar players of all time. I was surprised by some of the omissions and decided to create a post or two to respond, then I noticed that Pop Dose's list was actually created in response to the LA Times magazine's top 50. Okay, so a number of the players missing on one list can be found somewhere on the other. One list skips the Edge, Robert Fripp, Angus Young and Randy Rhoads, but then we see Eddie Hazel, John Mayer, Charlie Hunter, Neal Schon and John Frusciante. Huh? Of course, there are always complaints about lists like these, who got snubbed, who is wrongly placed at the top or bottom, and so on. Sometimes I think the choices are coloured by how much a guitarist sticks out, especially to other musicians or guitar god wannabes (Yngwie Malmsteen, anyone?)So, since I'm a non-guitarist (no musical ability whatsoever, actually) I've compiled a short list of stringbenders I like without any thought to how technically proficient they are, how difficult their music may be to play, or how wizardly they wield their axes. They might not be flashy, might just be rhythm players, but they've made some noises I like and they're not always included on favourite guitar player lists.

Wherever possible, I've tried to include live videos so you can see guitar grandeur without studio trickery.

Jamie West-Oram has made his career with The Fixx, a band some might mistakenly characterize as a synth band because they were lumped in with new wave bands of the 80's. But I always loved his quirky contributions, and he never overplayed or tried to be a rock god, just propelled or served the song.

Saved by Zero



Tom Verlaine has never reached mainstream acceptance and never really attempted to do so. He's been acclaimed by indie rock guitar geeks and critics, mostly for his work with Television. But the TV-love, to me, is part and parcel of his guitar tandem work with Richard Lloyd, with guitar lines intertwining, separating, snaking together again, clashing, and endlessly building ascending and spiralling soundscapes. Verlaine's solo work is not always so dense, but it does contain a similar unique glory.

A Town Called Walker



Elliot Easton's work with The Cars always included tasty licks and and sturdy rhythm to complement Ric Ocasek's more straightforward lines.

Candy-O



Robyn Hitchcock could make my list on his own, and if you've seen him play a solo show, you know what I mean. However, when Hitchcock plays with a foil, such as he does nowadays with Peter Buck in the Venus 3, he seems to be spurred on to different levels. Kimberly Rew in The Soft Boys is another fellow who lifts Hitchcock up to such great heights.

Queen of Eyes



Bob Mould, especially with Husker Du and Sugar, created blisteringly beautiful walls of sound, waves of melodic distortion, and curtains of metallic noisy pop.

Makes No Sense At all/ Love is All Around (Mary Tyler Moore Theme)