Snubhole Voltaire

A return to Snub TV today, one from 1989 and one from 1990. In 1989 Texan experimental psychedelic punks Butthole Surfers arrived on Snub. The band pursued extremes to their outer limits- hardcore punk, noise, chaos, drugs, tape edits. They were not a mainstream band and were not looking for mainstream approval. Their appearance on early evening BBC 2 must rank as one of Snub's finest achievements. 

Snub caught the Buttholes at their home studio and asked them some questions which were answered in absurdist style. Note the size of some band members irises during the interview section- substances may have been consumed. The band then play live, filmed at a gig where they take sludgy 80s slowcore punk to new levels.

In 1987 Butthole Surfers released an album, Locust Abortion Technician, a record that captures them somewhere in the midst of art rock, noise and weird metal. Sweat Loaf samples/ covers Black Sabbath and opens with some lovely chords and then goes seriously leftfield with an exchange between a father and a son...

'Daddy?
Yes, son.
What does regret mean?
Well son, the funny thing about regret is that it's better to regret
Something you have done than
To Regret something that you haven't done
And by the way, If you see your mom this weekend, will you be sure and
Tell her...
SATAN SATAN SATAN!!!'

Sweat Loaf

I'm not sure they still make bands like Butthole Surfers.

A year later, March 1990, electronic/ industrial pioneers Cabaret Voltaire were on Snub. 

Cabaret Voltaire were punk before punk, making their own instruments, sampling, looping tapes, using video and film, hitching a ride with punk but not really playing in the same park. 1981's Yashar and their adoption of synths and sequencers saw them move into new territories- Sensoria, Don't Argue, Hypnotised are all shown in this ten minute clip and all sound like they were leading while others followed. The interviews and footage in the Snub clip shows how ahead of their time they were, and in some ways, still were in 1990. Richard H Kirk played a key role in the development of techno with Sweet Exorcists' Testone. 

Sensoria

Forty Five Minutes Of Cover Versions

I held back from doing this for ages, a mix just containing cover versions, because it felt a bit lazy, a bit uninspired but the recent covers of Nick Drake by Joao Leao and The Velvet Underground by Thurston Moore twisted my arm into it. There are potentially more cover versions mixes to come. All these are relatively recent, although now I think about it Rowland S. Howard's Pop Crimes album came out in 2009 which is sixteen years ago and Calexico's in 2003 which is twenty two years ago- but the rest are all fairly recent. This mix leans towards the garage/ psyche/ guitar side of things. 

Forty Five Minutes Of Cover Versions

• Andy Bell: Smokebelch
• Joao Leao: One Of These Things First
• Calexico: Alone Again Or
• Rowland S. Howard: Life's What You Make It
• Moon Duo: Planet Caravan
• Moon Duo: No Fun
• The Liminanas: Angles And Devils
• Thurston Moore: Temptation Inside Your Heart

Andy Bell's cover of The Sabres Of Paradise's Smokebelch was begun on the day of Andrew Weatherall's death, 17th February 2020, and finished in late summer/ early autumn 2023 when I emailed Andy to ask him if he had a track for our then unreleased pipe dream album Sounds From The Flightpath Estate Volume 1. Andy's reply contained the completed cover and as soon as we listened to it, we knew it would close the album. Smokebelch itself began life as a cover version of L.B. Bad's New Age Of Faith.

Joao Leao's bossa nova flecked cover of Nick Drake's One Of These Things First, a song from Nick's 1971 album Bryter Later, came out as a 7" single on Toronto's Local Dish label and was posted here two weeks ago. 

Calexico's cover of Love's 1967 classic Alone Again Or doesn't stray too far from the original- Calexico were surely destined to cover it through with their combination of desert indie and mariachi horns. I thought I had a dub version of Alone Again Or- it sounded superb, dub groove, those horns and a snatch of vocal but I must have dreamt it. 

Rowland S. Howard's Pop Crimes was the former Birthday Party guitarist's second solo album. He was undergoing treatment for liver cancer at the time and died two months after it was released. Under those circumstances Talk Talk's Life's What You Make (second line, 'can't escape it') takes on a different meaning. Rowland's guitar playing- in fact just the way he held and approached the guitar- is pretty unique. His roiling guitar lines and feedback, the metallic clang and grim vocal delivery take the song into new places- which is what a cover version should do really. 

Moon Duo are represented twice here. First their cover of Black Sabbath's Planet Caravan was a summer 2020 release, their version of the 1970 original a chilled and weightless cosmic take. Their version of The Stooges' No Fun is from a 2018 12" single with Alan Vega's Jukebox Babe on the other side. Sonic Boom produced it. Again, a blank eyed, calmed down take on Iggy's 1969 proto- punk classic. 

The Liminanas released a compilation of singles and other rarities in 2015, I've Got Trouble In Mind Vol. 2 which included this cover version of Angels And Devils, an Echo And The Bunnymen B-side. The Liminanas, French psyche/ garage band par excellence, take The Bunnymen's Mo Tucker stomp and turn it Gallic. 

Thurston Moore's cover of The Velvet Underground's Temptation Inside Your Heart came out in September, a song he's been playing live for some time, MBV bassist Debbie Goodge plays the bass (as she does when Thurston plays live). Lou Reed's song first saw the light of dark on the 1985 outtakes album VU and has been a favorite of mine since the late 80s. Thurston more than does it justice.

Planet Caravan

Brand new from Moon Duo is this ten minute odyssey, a very chilled psychedelic cover of Black Sabbath's Planet Caravan. It appears on a tribute album called What Is This That Stands Before Me?, a compilation of covers of Sabbath songs by bands on Sacred Bones Records. If you like Moon Duo (I know some of you do, and if you don't, you should) you'll love this. Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. Duo Blissed Out Duo. This is so good and so beautiful it practically works as medicine.