The Housemartins - Think For A Minute (Session Version)' (Go! Discs, 1986)

Strident, indie version.

Nice, guitar-bass-drum band version of The Housemartins in their prime.

Download The Housemartins 'Think For A Minute (Saturday Live Version)' (indie mp3) (Divshare)

Saint Etienne - Just Friends (Amy Winehouse Cover) (2012)

Amy Winehouse tune given 'Tiger Bay' reworking.

The original's spartan Stax-y treatment is replaced by a spartan folk-dub re-rub in the vein of Saint Etienne's classic 'Tiger Bay' album. Sarah Cracknell hasn't got Amy Winehouse's voice, obviously, but the clear, simple approach works well with acoustic guitar and vibes. Sweet.

Download Saint Etienne 'Just Friends' (Amy Winehouse cover, Back to Back to Black, mp3) (Divshare)

The Cribs - Back To Black (Amy Winehouse Cover) (Q Magazine, 2012)

Surprisingly good cover by The Cribs.

Opening with some 'Baby Love' xylophone augmented by angry-sounding guitar clang, The Cribs deliver a moody, desolate cover of Amy Winehouse's 'Back to Black' for music mag covermount.

Having never quite been taken in by The Cribs, this is a pleasant surprise. Phil Spector producing Babes In Toyland while Steve Albini abuses a guitar in the background.

Download The Cribs 'Back To Black' (Amy Winehouse cover mp3) (Divshare)

Blur - Into Another (Parlophone, 1993)

Gently psych, pre-Britpop b-side.

Some lovely guitar work from Graham Coxon, creating curly clouds whimsy as Damon does his best Syd Barrett impression in the verses before releasing the tension with a soaring, anthemic chorus. B-side of 'For Tomorrow'.

Download Blur 'Into Another' (indie, Britpop, mp3) (Divshare)

The High Llamas - Checking In, Checking Out (Target, 1994)

Gorgeous, harmony-drenched pop.

The High Llamas is effectively the work of former Microdisney songwriter Sean O'Hagan. Still ploughing a highly melodic furrow now, 'Checking In, Checking Out' was a single from the second High Llamas album 'Gideon Gaye'.

It's a densely arranged song that feels light as air. Sweeping melodies and counter-melodies create a delightful broth of a song that recalls The Beach Boys and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. A classic.

Download The High Llamas 'Checking In, Checking Out' (Beach Boys, mp3) (Divshare)

Kenickie - People We Want (EMIDISC, 1997)

Loud-quiet indie melancholynonchalance.

The Eat Junk Become Junk blog recently posted Kenickie's 'At The Club' album and reminded me what a great song 'People We Want' is.

'At The Club' is a genuinely good record with the bubblegumpunk of 'Punka' and lots more besides. 'People We Want' is a shimmering vignette of regret, faded glamour, lost love, tears and Cinzano. It fizzes along on a loud-quiet guitar attack, underpinned by some Pulp-y synths. Perfection.

Download Kenickie 'People We Want' (indie mp3) (Divshare)

 

Hood - The Lost You (Domino, 2004)

Glitch-y, Shoegaze-y, Post-Rock-y delights.

Definitely one of the most under-rated bands of recent times, Hood seemed to combine disparate influences - Post-Rock, Shoegaze, glitchy techno, ambience, leftfield sound collage and found recordings - into a thrilling soundscape.

Their best work runs along a similar line to Bark Psychosis and Disco Inferno where conventional instruments are merged with effects and entwined with samples and atmosphere. The likes of Trophy Wife are trading in a similar sound to the mighty, but now disbanded, Hood.

'The Lost You' kicks of with some glitched up beats, delivering a driving, staccato groove. A pale, translucent vocal comes in and the track builds up a clattering momentum before dubbing out into an extended break with delicious tones and piano, the treble whacked-out like on one of those Filter Disco tracks from the 90s. The vocal comes back and the tracks explodes in all directions, refracting sound like a post-rock mirrorball. 

Download Hood 'The Lost You' (post-rock, glitch, mp3) (Divshare)

The Auteurs - Chinese Bakery (Acoustic) (Hut, 1994)

Languid acoustic + cello take.

Delightful, lazy take on the 'Now I'm A Cowboy' single. An air of wistful resignation hangs over this version - like it's too hot to bother - where the studio version is caustic and sarcastic. A cello weaves gorgeously.

Download The Auteurs 'Chinese Bakery (Acoustic)' (indie, britpop, mp3) (Divshare)

Revolver - Crimson (Hut, 1991)

Swirly Shoegaze Indie Pop

Poor old Revolver seemed to bear the brunt of the Shoegaze backlash. Whilst the likes of 'Crimson' are yearning and a little fey, it's really just classy indie pop. It's a rush of hormones edged with a couple of effects pedals.

Download Revolver 'Crimson' (Hut, 1991) (Box.net)

Candie Payne - I Wish I Could Have Loved You More (Deltasonic, 2007)

Strident 60s-inspired clattering breakbeat pop

Candie Payne emerged on the back of a handful of killer 7"s that dealt in the breakbeat 60s pop stylings of early Saint Etienne. Moody, strident and full of atmosphere.

This third single was the title track of her debut album and crackles with a certain Portishead/Spy Theme vibe. It's devastatingly good.

Download Candie Payne 'I Wish I Could Have Loved You More' (Deltasonic, indie pop, mp3) (Divshare)

Shop Assistants - Train From Kansas City (Live at ULU, 1986)

Storming Shangri-Las cover.

Buzzing, stomp-a-long cover of the Shangri-Las' 'Train From Kansas City' by C86 heroes, The Shop Assistants. Great vocal, nice bass/drum stomp and a buzzing guitar. Ace.

Download The Shop Assistants 'Train From Kansas City (Live at ULU)' (C86, Indie, ULU) (Divshare)

Stereolab - French Disco (Duophonic, 1993)

Spectacular rush of frothing indie/Krautrock pop.

It's funny to think that this track was originally just track 4 on the 'Jenny Ondioline' EP. Yet it ended up on compilations including 'Classics From John Peel's All-Time Festive 50', 'Indie Top 20 Volume 19' and - yes - 'Generation X: The Definitive Sound of 90s Indie'. And onto Friday night TV on The Word.

'French Disco' is certainly a classic of Stereolab's own micro-genre. Splashy Farfisa, metronomic bass, jangling then crushing guitar and aloof vocals.

Sounds as fresh now as it did then

Download Stereolab 'French Disco' (Duophonic, mp3) (Divshare)

New Fast Automatic Daffodils - Get Better (Extended) (Playtime, 1991)

Corking, groovy indie funk juggernaut.

Long version of the opening track from New Fast Automatic Daffodils' debut album. It's a rhythm-heavy monster with a tight, bass-led groove. It's 'baggy' alright but more intense and taut and aggressive.

Download New Fast Automatic Daffodils 'Get Better (Extended)' (Playtime, Baggy, Indie Funk, mp3) (Divshare)

The Loft - Up The Hill And Down The Slope (Creation Records, 1985)

Archetypal indie from early Creation days.

Before Creation thought that The House Of Love would take over the world and long before Oasis actually did, The Loft were the great, pale hopes of the label.

'Up The Hill And Down The Slope' is a really nice record that embodies the left-of-the-mainstream approach to guitar pop in 1985.

The vocal is slightly off-key and strained, the guitars jangle and the drums are a skiffle shuffle meted out on cardboard boxes. However, The Loft manage to eke out a rockabilly-tinged slice of jangly pop.

And, of course, it gave the excellent Creation bio-book 'My Magpie Eyes Are Hungry For The Prize' its title.

Download The Loft 'Up The Hill And Down The Slope' (Creation, indie, CRE15T, mp3, vinyl rip) (Divshare)

Luscious Jackson - Let Yourself Get Down (Big Cat, 1992)

Lo-slung, shambling funky hip hop girlz.

This album was actually the first release on The Beastie Boys' Grand Royale label, appearing in the UK on Big Cat, the label that put out Pavement's first releases over here.

The Beastie Boys reference is kind of relevant as Luscious Jackson deal in a funky, indie hip-hop sound. Later records got smoothed-out a little but the sound on 'Let Yourself Get Down' is groovy but a little lo-fi. It has a relentless flow and some neat sub-bass action and should still be heard on the most discerning dancefloors.

Download Luscious Jackson 'Let Yourself Get Down' (indie, hip hop, funk, rap, mp3) (Mediafire)

Clinic 'The Second Line' (Domino, 2000)

More twisty psyche business from Clinic.

Irresistable, twisty lo-fi ear-worm from Clinic, riding on a bouncy groove. Vocals are quietly intoned over a ticky-ticky guitar scratch and some halucinogenic organ pulses the song to its conclusion.

It's what The Horrors think they sound like.

Download Clinic 'The Second Line' (Psyche, indie, mp3 download, 2000)

New Music - Dive - How Long Have You Known (Captured Tracks, 2012)

Swooning, wobbly, shoegazedreampop loveliness.

Partying like it's 1990, Dive are serving up slice after slice of keening, swooning, woozy dreampop-type shoegaze business. After last year's 'Corvalis' single, they've just unleashed another gem in the form of 'How Long Have You Known' which precedes their debut album 'Oshin' in June.

Delightfully driving but wobbly at the same time with layer upon layer of melodic guitar. Nice one for fans of The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, the wonderful Wild Nothing and Blouse.

Or Revolver, The Field Mice or Moose, of course...

Download Dive - How Long Have You Known (indie, shoegaze, dreampop, mp3)

Kevin Shields - City Girl (Emporer Norton, 2003)

All-too-rare appearance by MBV's Kevin Shields.

As a tribute to the scarcely credible news that, no-really-this-time-they'll-definitely-come-out, the My Bloody Valentine remasters might come out in May, here's one of the few new tracks Kevin Shields has released since 'Loveless' came out in 1991.

For two years, I used to get emails from Amazon that let me know that the latest (re)release date for the remastered version of 'Loveless' was actually fiction and, no really, the release date was now the twelth of never. Allegedly, a compilation of the Creation EPs is due out in May but, well, I'm not holding my breath and, aside from a few odds and sods, I've got these peerless tracks anyhoo.

But listening to this track from the 'Lost In Translation' and its nonchalent, laconic charm, it's hard not to hanker after something more - new or otherwise - from the guitar of Kevin Shields.

Download Kevin Shields - City Girl (Lost In Translation, My Bloody Valentine, mp3) (Divshare)

Cud - Only (A Prawn In Whitby) (Imaginary, 1989)

Hysterical indie-opera giddiness.

What an oddity Cud were. Starting out with a lumpy and awkward sound but striving for something more cerebral and uplifting.

'Only (A Prawn In Whitby)' was a single extracted from the side-long indie-opera that graced their 'When In Rome, Kill Me' album.

It's reputedly about chancing upon uber-Vegetarian Morrissey enjoying the seafood on the Yorkshire coast (though it turns out to "have been a lookalike" sadly).

The song lurches and jerks at a dizzying pace, Wedding Present-esque guitar jangle fighting with cello, breakneck drumming and Carl Puttnam's earnest croon.

Download Cud - Only (A Prawn In Whitby) (Imaginary, 1989) (Divshare)

Cud - You Sexy Thing (Peel Session) (1987)

Lumpy seduction.

The Cud Band were something of an enigma, dealing around this time in a dragging, lumpy indie funk. They were soon to blossom into a period of gently whimsical, progressive lightness on the 'When In Rome, Kill Me' album. Possibly as they learnt to play their instruments.

Sounding like Stump's trendy younger brothers, they blarted out this Peel Session Hot Chocolate cover with only a passing nod to notions of tuning and timekeeping, spiralling into the sort of faster-faster-faster coda beloved of garage indie bands everywhere. Nice with it, though.

Download Cud - You Sexy Thing (Peel Session) (1987) (Divshare)