Summer Burn 2005

I was one of a whole raft of people who signed up for The Summer Burn 2005. I'm still waiting for my badges to arrive before I can send my CDs out to people... but that's not so
bad, because I've not received my CDs from anybody yet either. I hope
they're waiting for badges too, and haven't forgotten about me!

Anyway, here's the tracklisting and the reasons why I chose these songs...

Rock Onic and Bob - White Riot
A superbly entertaining cover of the Clash classic on Banjolele, bass and drums. I decided it had to go at the beginning because of the count-in. The whole album's wonderful, and this is the opening track on that as well.

808 State - Pacific 707
One of my all-time favourite songs, from 1988. It makes me feel happy, simple as that. In 1997 I caught them live in Gloucester Guildhall, and they were great - because they really can play all this stuff as a live band, especially when they draft in Bernard Sumner from New Order to play guitars for them!

Mansun - Being A Girl
Because "Being A Boy/Is Like Sucking On Lemons". Two minutes of genius rock from their troubled second album.

DJ Pantshead - Don't Believe the Sensorair
To quote all the acts, it's DJ Pantshead vs Cabaret Voltaire vs Public Enemy vs Air vs Pharcyde. One of these brilliantly anarchic, copyright ignoring mash-up type things you stumble across on the net - but this one is the best put-together I've ever heard. Everything sounds like it's where it should be. Genius. The Air sample carries the summery feeling really well.

Heavenly - Tool
Three minutes of wonderful jingly indie pop. The woman on backing vocals is Cathy Rogers, who went on to create and present Scrapheap Challenge/Junkyard Wars and Full Metal Challenge. Our friend Sairah is deeply jealous, because not only was she in a perfect indie band, she also bought Henry Rollins' ass and got him to stand next to her =)

The Avalanches - Since I Left You
This song, from a copyright-clearing version of people like DJ Pantshead, exudes summery melodies and chilled poolside vibes.

Air - All I Need
Just gorgeous. The video's fantastic as well. Again, chilled summer vibes. Makes me think of a really nice summer evening with the one you love =)

Kevin Shields - City Girl
See the above! A key song from Lost in Translation, this is achingly beautiful.

Mo-ho-bish-o-pi - Hear the Air
Turning it up a notch or twelve, this is a fast, noisy and fun song from a band that could've been so much bigger than they were. Being Cardiff based, I saw them play about half-a-dozen times over a couple of years, before they disbanded due to poor record sales. This track was a single, and it rocks.

Lush - 500
Lovely summery indie-pop. The single cover had a load of Fiat 500s on it, and I love 'em! Around the time this single came out, Lush played a free gig in a pub in Cardiff, and the lead singer Miki wore the same black sequined dress as I wore for my 21st birthday party =)

The Pixies - Bam Thwok
An iTunes-only track that marked the reunion of one of the finest indie bands ever, and it's great. A deeply odd organ middle-8 played by Joey Santiago's granddad only adds to it - it rocks. I love it.

Radiohead - Talk Show Host
In complete contrast to the previous tracks, here's Radiohead =) This is from the Romeo and Julliet OST, and it's dark with fab lyrics, like "I'll be waiting/With a gun and a pack of sandwiches/I'm ready"

Piney Gir - Greetings, Salutations, Goodbye
I adore Piney Gir, and this is my favourite track of hers. The country-styling is wonderful and complements her voice and lyrics so well.

4 Hero - Les Fleur
Best known in the UK as being "That music off the Baileys advert", this is a huge, dramatic song. I love it.

Public Image Ltd. - Rise
The first song my mother and I disagreed on. I thought it was amazing, that John Lydon was amazing, and that the video was amazing, and the suit he was wearing in the video was amazing, and his hair (both colour and style) was amazing. My mum disagreed on all counts. Hey ho! 18 years on (or thereabouts) I stand by my assertions.

Donna Summer - I Feel Love
I love this song. I don't care how gay that makes me, this song is incredible. I remember hearing it when I was about 4 or 5 and thinking it was brilliant, and what's more brilliant is how it's barely dated.

McCarthy - We Are All Bourgeois Now
Hooray for ultra-left wing political pop songs! Another band I discovered through Napster. If you take the sound of The Smiths and mix in the lyrical content of Billy Bragg, you get somewhere close. This track was covered expertly by the Manic Street Preachers as a hidden track on the album Know Your Enemy.

Johnny Boy - You Are The Generation That Bought More Shoes And You Get What You Deserve
A band that seems to have disappeared without trace. This was their debut major-label single, which peaked at a woeful number 50 in the UK charts - probably due to the ridiculously long title. It's hard to believe that something so perfectly 1960s Phil Spector was recorded in 2004 and produced by James Dean Bradfield of the Manic Street Preachers!

The Dandy Warhols - Every Day Should Be A Holiday
The first song I heard by The Dandy Warhols, in 1997 I think. One of a number of American bands that sound incredibly British... anyway, this has lovely squelchy synths, some quality guitar noise, and a decent sentiment!

Manic Street Preachers - PCP
Just as the count-in with the first track marked its place on this album and the one it's taken from, so does the film quote at the end of this. This is the last track on the awesome 1994 album, The Holy Bible. Fast and vitiriolic and wonderful. I've lost track of the number of times I've seen this band play, it's got to be about eight times or so. They spawned my bizarrely successful website of 1999, Lego Street Preachers, which saw me exhibiting work in the Tate gallery in London - an excellent experience!