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. 

What Goes Around

In 2005 Sister Vanilla released their only album to date, Little Pop Rock. Sister Vanilla was/is Linda Reid, the sister of Jim and William. Back in 2005 Jim and William were only just talking again and the Mary Chain hadn't yet re-united. Instead Little Pop Rock became a sort of Jesus And Mary Chain album by proxy, Linda on vocals throughout and Jim and William recording songs with her in her flat and at their studio The Drugstore (along with Ben Lurie who followed Jim after the JAMC split up live onstage in Los Angeles who plays on it ). The album was recorded piecemeal over a couple of years with Stephen Pastel helping out, while Jim and William presumably found their way round working alongside each other again.

Some of the songs on Little Pop Rock appeared elsewhere in the brothers catalogue- K To Be Lost on William's Lazycame album and Can't Stop The Rock and The Two Of Us on the reformed Mary Chain's Damage And Joy from 2017 (Linda singing on the former). The songs reference the Mary Chain in places- the song called Jamcolas for one, a scuzzy romp with Jim singing the first half of the song and Linda the second. On K To Be Lost Linda sings 'Honey's Dead and Psychocandy, I listened to them all of the time'. Linda had sung on The Mary Chain's swansong, 1998's Munki, the song Mo Tucker being one of that albums few high points. So it's a Mary Chain album in many ways with shared vocals, lo-fi and homemade (and all the better for it), Linda's voice providing a good counterpoint to her brothers.

This one opens with a drum machine and single piano notes and a sense of impending doom. The guitar playing is spindly and distorted and then Linda, vocals smothered in reverb, sings of Tienanmen Square, digital pies and Jim Morrison.

TOTP

What Goes Around is full on self-loathing set to a three chord rumble with lyrics about hookers and LSD, money, drugs, fame, piss, mothers and wives, good times becoming bad times. Eventually William joins in singing 'what goes around comes around'.

What Goes Around

Sister Vanilla 'Jamcolas'

When The Jesus And Mary Chain split up live on stage in 1999 it seemed pretty terminal. William went off and recorded some of the most uncommercial, unfocussed and downright unlistenable stuff any record label has ever put out as Lazycame. I've got the album and it's awful. I've got a 7" which has got a good track on it. Jim took Ben Lurie from The Mary Chain and formed Freeheat, who released some stuff in America, but it was a bit uninspired. Jim had a brief stab at a solo career as well, with a good single called Dead End Kids (remind me and I'll post it at some point). In 2007 they unexpectedly reformed playing Coachella (with Scarlett Johansson guesting) and a few gigs afterwards, but new material has been thin on the ground. A new song was aired on a US tv show and popped up in an episode of Heroes. Typically, they claimed the secret to the reformation was 'Jim doesn't drink anymore, and William doesn't drink on stage'.

In between the split and the reformation, in early 2007, a Sister Vanilla album, Little Pop Rock, came out to a few reviews but little fanfare which was surprising as it was a Mary Chain album in all but name. Sister Vanilla is fronted by the Reid's sister Linda, and she has the Mary Chain drawl down to a t. The Mary Chain are all over the album- the songs are co-written by Jim and William, Jim, Ben Lurie and William produced it, Jim sings on many of the tracks with Linda and plays guitar, William's instruments are all over it. The lyrics reference the Mary Chain (the title of this song for one, another goes 'Honey's Dead, Psychocandy, I listen to them all of the time'). Several of the songs were recorded by earlier Reid projects (Two Of Us by Freeheat, Can't Stop The Rock by Jim as the b-side to his Secret For A Song solo single, K To Be Lost was the best/only Lazycame song). Some of the songs feature William's distinctive misanthropic worldview ('I've had money and drugs and fame, I pissed my money all down the drain, I pissed my mother, I pissed my friend' etc etc, sung with a sweet snarl by Linda). It's a really good little album and well worth looking out for.

Here's a taster- Jamcolas- fuzzy, snarly, warm, narcotic but alive, honey and candy- you know the drill.

02 Jamcolas.wma