Glasgow Eyes

The new Jesus And Mary Chain album, Glasgow Eyes, is out today, the first since Damage And Joy in 2017. Jim and William Reid recorded it at Mogwai's studio in Glasgow, the aptly named Castle Of Doom, and it comes out forty years after their debut Psychocandy- it shares some of that albums DNA, an uncompromising nature and a general sense that the brothers recorded it while feeling pretty pissed off. 

The songs on Damage And Joy were to some extent a celebration, the classic Mary Chain guitars, verses and chorus sound, about as sunny side up as Jim and William can ever be. Glasgow Eyes is different, it feels a bit broken down, skittery and fragmented. The songs have drum machines that hiss and pound, on some songs hammering away and on others spluttering. William plays some filthy lead lines, squally guitar sounds. There are some chugging, descending basslines of the sort that have underpinned JAMC songs since the Darklands album in 1987. There are stuttering synths and static, lo fi electronics and FX, the ghost of Suicide hanging around. Sometimes the songs take shape and then fall apart. It sounds like an album, like a group of songs recorded at the same time, some written in the studio, experiments turned into tunes. Girl71 is an outlier, a song more typical of their April Skies and Damage And Joy sound, a melodic three chord trick with uncharacteristically optimistic vocals. 

For much of Glasgow Eyes Jim's words and vocals swing between his customary self- loathing and misanthropy, dark pain numbed by drink and drugs, blank eyes and sneery voice and an often expressed love- for 'her/ she', for 'you', for 'everyone', for rock 'n' roll, for discotheques, for The Stones, Bob Dylan and the Beach Boys, the Pistols and The Crystals and The Velvets. Last song Lou Reid is six minutes of stop- start dynamics, rising and falling tempos and William's feedback. On The Eagles And The Beatles, over some chords Joan Jett left lying around, Jim almost tips into self- parody- 'I've been rolling with The Stones/ Mick and Keith and Brian Jones/ Bill and Charlie have gone home/ Andrew Oldham's on the phone'. Somehow, through a combination of blank eyed cool and sheer conviction, he gets away with it and by the second or third listen you're singing along. On the first single JAMCOD he sings about the band, the brothers and their bust up in 1998 that finished them first time around, and on another he sings the name of his band. It's a close knit, insular, self referential world they inhabit. 

Opening song Venal Joy spits its way into the world, clattering in on a synth riff and drum machine that could have last seen the light of day on 1989's Automatic and Jim kicking off with, 'You got a kingdom come but you don't have a future/  I know you like to be cool but it just doesn't suit ya/ I was kicking the cane cos the cane wasn't able/ I'm addicted to love so we can fuck on the table...'. They sound not exactly energised (half the time they sound like the made some of this lying down) but they do sound plugged in, like they give a shit and made a record they wanted to. 

I'm going to see them do it live tonight and will report back forthwith. In fact through a turn of events I won't go into here I've got two spares- if anyone's in Manchester tonight with nothing to do and they fancy an evening with the Reid brothers, give me a shout. 

And finally, this may seem cryptic but it's a message to Geoff who will understand- for many reasons you're going to need a lot of love and strength to get through today. I will be thinking of you and will raise a pint to you tonight. 

Forty Minutes Of The Jesus And Mary Chain

The Reid brothers William and Jim announced their return to action last week with a new album, Glasgow Eyes (their first since the rather good Damage And Joy from 2017), a tour kicking off in Manchester in March and a new single jamcod. The video opens with a warning about strobe lights and then the hissy synth kicks in, reverb and distortion are everywhere, William plays a signature guitar riff and Jim sings and snarls, a vocal that could have been put down at almost any point between 1984 and three weeks ago.  

To coincide with this new song I thought a Bagging Area JAMC Sunday Mix was in order, one that throws in some rarities and some singles, an edit and some covers, ending at the beginning. 

Forty Minutes Of The Jesus And Mary Chain

• Nine Million Rainy Days (Los Lopez Club Edit)
• Snakedriver
• Coast To Coast (Alt Take with William vocal)
• Crackin' Up
• The Hardest Walk
• Head On
• All Things Pass
• Everything's Alright When You're Down
• If You Gotta Go
• You Can't Stop The Rock
• Upside Down

Nine Million Rainy Days was on Darklands, 1987's follow up to Psychocandy, an album that got them a proper hit (April Skies) and a bigger, slightly more polished sound.This edit by Los Lopez from 2012 has a juddering synth bassline not too far from the sound Jim and William have cooked up on jamcod. 

Snakedriver was a 1992 single, a shuddering, scabrous, noisy blast of self loathing that will give your eyes a good clean out and make you feel like you've bene dragged through William's FX pedals backwards. In a good way. 

Coast To Coast was one of the highlights of 1989's Automatic, Jim, William and a drum machine, with more reports from the frontline of the USA, Jesus and Coke. At the time Automatic felt a bit flat, a bit like they didn't know what to do or where to go. Now it sounds like a great Mary Chain album. This version with William singing instead of Jim came out on the Power Of Negative Thinking box set, a rarities and B-sides release from 2008.

Crackin' Up was the lead single from the album that broke them back in 1998, Munki. A William sung song with a riff that isn't a million miles from the one in jamcod. The band broke up on stage in Los Angeles. Alcohol and sibling rivalry played their part. When the brothers re- united for Damage And Joy and recent tours they had a new set of rules. Jim had given up drinking completely and William stopped drinking on stage. 

Punk trumpeter Terry Edwards with his The Scapegoats recorded an entire EP of Mary Chain covers in 1991. He then went on to play trumpet with the band. His cover of The Hardest Walk is a blast. 

Head On was a single in November 1989 and is one of my favourite Mary Chain songs. When they reformed and played Manchester Academy a few years ago, playing Psychocandy in full, they did an encore set first, seven songs, then a brief pause and then Psychocandy. They opened with Head On. Endearingly they messed up the beginning of You Trip Me Up twice, finally getting it right on the third go. Yes, I could have included Pixies cover of this song here instead.

All Things Pass was on their 2017 comeback album Damage And Joy, made with Youth on production and containing several songs the brothers had recorded separately in the period the band were broken up. All Things Must Pass dated from 2008, a different recording done for the TV superhero series Heroes. Two chords. Fuzz. Sneering vocals. It was like they'd never been away.

Everything's Alright When You're Down was the B-side to 1987s Happy When It Rains. Three minutes of Reidian perfection dissolving into feedback. 

If You Gotta Go was on a Jim Reid solo single, Dead End Kids, released in 2006, a cover of a Bob Dylan song. After the Mary Chain ended Jim formed Freeheat with Nick Sanderson and Ben Lurie and then reverted to using his name, recruiting Loz Colbert from Ride and Phil King from Lush for a tour that included a very low key gig at Night And Day in Manchester. 

You Can't Stop The Rock was on Little Pop Rock an album by Linda Reid, Jim and William's sister, who recorded as Sister Vanilla. Both brothers contributed songs and performances separately- they weren't taking at the time. You can't Stop The Rock then re- appeared on Damage And Joy. Little Pop Rock is a good album, a hidden gem in the Reid family back catalogue. 

Upside Down was The Jesus and Mary Chain's debut single in 1984. It gave the Reid's overdriven feedback to the world and gave Alan McGee and Creation Records a kickstart. Bobby Gillespie thumps the drums, standing up. It all started here, so it seems a good place to finish this mix. 

Dead End Kids

A new Jesus And Mary Chain single came out last week, the first in eighteen years it is claimed. This ignores All Things Must Pass which came out in 2010 and was on a Best Of... (which in the internet age almost counts as a single). It also ignored the fact that the new single, Amputation, is a re-recording with a new name of a Jim Reid solo single from 2006. Here it is...

Dead End Kids

I liked Dead End Kids, bought it on cd single and thought it was a decent song. A typical Jim Reid three chord riff and a typically Jim Reid lyric- 'It's wine today, it's piss tomorrow', 'fucked up girls like fucked up boys', 'I'm a rock 'n' roll amputation'. The new version has some squally feedback at the start and reverb covered vox, a dirty guitar part on the chorus. But this release should have been a genuinely new song instead of a shrug and a sense of disappointment (which is what I felt). It's not an All For One level disappointment. A milder disappointment. Ah well, hey ho. Still, tickets for the tour in March are on sale and they were very good when they toured Psychocandy two years ago.

Some Feedback

The Jesus And Mary Chain came on stage last night and announced they would play the encore first, then go off for a few minutes and return to play Psychocandy. They then launched into April Skies, Head On and Some Candy Talking, all crystal clear and fine, William's guitar twice as loud as everything else put together, the occasional missed note or out of tune string not mattering a jot. Two more songs later they ramped up the noise with an massive version of Reverence. Two minutes and a bit after that they were off- having played Upside Down, loud and drenched in squealing feedback.

A brief public information film from the early 60s projected onto the stage wall advertised the pleasures of moving to East Kilbride and they reappeared with Just Like Honey. Then we got the rest of Psychocandy. The projections (biker gangs, Super 8 home video footage), strobes and dry ice splashed all over the stage, added some visual drama. There isn't much to look at with The Mary Chain- five middle aged men dressed in black not moving much, apart from Jim occasionally lifting the mic stand up. At some reunion gigs you get a communion between band and audience, a mass singalong, arms around shoulders, joy at hearing songs you thought you'd never hear live again, beery good times, nostalgia. The Screamadelica shows were a joyous celebration. Not here. Psychocandy is an album about alienation and while the audience weren't alienated, we stood and watched, apart from some sporadic moshing down the front. This was noise, feedback, earsplittingly loud, with Jim's vocals and the melodies sneaking through the distortion, like in You Trip Me Up. The Living End and The Hardest Walk, garage riffs with a wall of ringing noise. As the band left the stage, William's guitar bleeding loudly against his amp, Game Over, in 80s video game graphics, flashed up and down the back wall. Still alive, still kicking. Game Over.

Paris, Upside Down, a few nights ago.

Just Like Honey

Tonight, six months after paying for the tickets, I'm going to see the Jesus And Mary Chain play live, Psychocandy and related songs, at Manchester Academy. It's twenty-nine years since Jim and William Reid released the album, one of the key albums of underground British 'rock' (rock seems like the wrong word somehow- this isn't rock, it's shattering glass or something similar). I've been looking forward to this and while it can't replicate mid-80s JAMC and I'm not sure I'm that much in favour of bands playing albums in their entirety (just play what you want, or play all the hits)- I love 'em.

Grapples With The Earth With Her Fingers

I was planning to post this anyway and happily reader Gentle Ben pointed it out in the comment box on Monday's Sugarcubes remix post. Jim and William Reid also remixed Birthday, three times in fact (labelled Christmas Eve Mix, Christmas day Mix and Christmas Present Mix). They kept Bjork's vocal and added buzzing guitars, dropping in and out in bursts, some 'hey-hey-hey-hey' backing vocals and a spoken word part. And some feedback. The Justin Robertson remix and these Jesus And Mary Chain ones show what good remixing should do- get the source material and take it somewhere else. All three versions are good.

On the original 1988 vinyl release these Mary Chain mixes were double grooved so depending on whether you hit one groove or the other you got one version or another. The third was on the B-side with a live song. The eight track ep, released in 1992, plays conventionally and has the Robertson mixes, Tony D remixes and The Sugarcubes demo version. Just so you know.

Birthday (Christmas Eve Mix)

Broken

Friday the 13th- I trust none of you put any store in superstition (it's bad luck to do so I think). Death In Vegas' breakthrough album The Contino Sessions has several good collaborations on it, Dot Allison and Iggy Pop standing out. I loved this record at the time but can't help but feel some of it sounds a little dated now. I think with this type of record it's the beats that date- until a time comes around that those drum programs become fashionable again. This song has vocals from Jim Reid, on Mary Chain hiatus, doing a fine line in self-loathing over a bunch of noise.

Broken Little Sister

Or Else You Gotta Stay All Night

It's been quite Mary Chainy round here recently and I was going to leave it alone but then this appeared on the mp3 player on the way to work- Jim Reid's solo cover of If You Gotta Go, Go Now. It's nicely understated, sounding like a good demo rather than a polished song, just Jim and guitar mainly. It's a Bob Dylan song- you knew that didn't you?- written in 1964 but not recorded by Bob til a year later. It's been covered by scores of people- the Flying Burrito Brothers, Manfred Mann, Fairport Convention (in French), Johnny Hallyday (in French presumably) and Cowboy Junkies.

If You Gotta Go, Go Now

Jesus Creation

'The sun comes up another day begins

And I don't even worry 'bout the state I'm in'

The Jesus and Mary Chain have appeared here several time before. I make no apologies for that. They're one of the best bands ever. From the Creation roster you can make claims for Primal Scream (and I'd agree with you about several/many of their records), claims for My Bloody Valentine (and I'd concede some points there too), claims for other minor players (The Loft, The Weather Prophets, The Pastels, The Telescopes, The House Of Love say) and claims for Oasis (if you're an idiot), but Jim and William Reid's feedback drenched pop makes them the original and archetypal Creation band, even if not actually many of their records came out on Creation. And they may only have written one song but it's a great, great song.

This is from an October 1984 Peel Session as played by the original JAMC line up of the Reids, bassist Douglas Hart and 'drummer' Bobby Gillespie. The Peel Session also featured In A Hole, You Trip Me Up and Taste The Floor. Never Understand would become their second single.

Never Understand (Peel Session)

Black And Blues

Jim Reid, ex-Mary Chain frontman, has got a new song up on here on Soundcloud called Black And Blues. It's a Jim Reid song, you know what it'll sound like. I like it. Jim's comment about it is 'What I've been wasting my time with lately'.

The Mary Chain's five studio albums are soon to be re-released as triple packs, 2 cds with all the extras you'd expect and a dvd of videos, tv appearances and so on. A couple of these might be tempting if Rhino hadn't put out a box of rarities a couple of years back and double cd best of last year, and the whole set of albums were re-mastered and re-released not too long before that. The Smiths soon to be released boxset features their albums (and singles on the big box set, in both vinyl and cd format) re-mastered (because the originals sounded awful didn't they?), and depending on which format you buy would set you back £50 or £300. It's all a long way from 7" and 12" singles for a quid or two in the mid 1980s and junk shop clothes.

Happy When It Rains

Unlikely Remix

I don't how these two crossed paths but in 1999 Jim Reid, fresh from the recently split up Jesus And Mary Chain, remixed Fun-Da-Mental's Ja Sha Taan. Fun-Da-Mental make political, electronic, agit-prop mixing in rap, Asian sounds and Qawwali singers, in this case Nawazish Ali Khan. Jim Reid makes feedback drenched, American influenced, British indie rock. This remix manages to cover both bases.

Ja Sha Taan

Record Company Compilation Album Blues

Apparently there's a new Jesus And Mary Chain compilation out. I haven't so far been bothered to look for it, not even on the internet. I read somewhere it contains the studio version of this song, All Things Must Pass, the only song they've released since reforming two years ago. Do I want to spend over a tenner on a compilation album containing, in all likelihood, 98% songs I already own on several formats?

This is All Things Must Pass (not a George Harrison cover) ripped from a perfomance on an American tv show a year or two back. What does it sound like? The Jesus And Mary Chain of course.

All_Things_Must_Pass.mp3

Jim Reid 'Dead End Kids'

Bagging Area featured Sister Vanilla, Jim and William Reid's sister Linda's band a short while back, so I thought I'd post this solo single by Jim from 2006. It's JAMC-style scuzzy indie rock, a three chord Velvet's riff and 'ooooh' backing vox but Jim carries it off with a bit of gutter panache ('It's just like a grape in a bottle, it's wine today, it's piss tomorrow) and a bit of cliche ('I'm a rock 'n' roll amputation'). Jim did some pretty good covers around this time too- If You Gotta Go (by The Byrds and Dylan, can't remember which one wrote it) and an electronic version of The Saints I'm Stranded, which was excellent. Suppose to complete this post-JAMC mini-series I'll have to look for something postable by William's solo project Lazycame now, something so ramshackle even Alan McGee refused to put it out.

01 Dead End Kids.wma