Besides, it's Monday #1: Million Dead

I've always been a fan of the single format. Perhaps because a lot of the first records I bought tended to be cassette singles from Woolworths. Whilst some people overlook them and head straight for the album, I've always felt it was worth investing in singles for one main reason: the b-side! Whilst these days a lot of groups see it as an opportunity to bundle off a dodgy remix and increasingly, in our digital world, no b-side altogether. However, in it's hayday the other side of the wax was an opportunity for a group to display another side to their craft - perhaps a song that didn't gel with the rest of the record, perhaps a demo, or a cover. In some cases the b-side would end up almost as popular as the a-side (see New Order's 1963, originally released as the b-side to True Faith in 1987, later issued as a single in it's own right).

Right then, my first audible treat for you comes in the form of the b-side to Million Dead's 2003 single Breaking the Back. The track in question is There are Ghosts, a cover of a Karate song from their 1998 record The Bed is in the Ocean. As previously mentioned, the b-side is a great chance for a group to throw down a cover of a group that have been an influence on their music, and Geoff Farina et al may not instantly be an obvious influence on Million Dead, their take on the track shows similar regard to breaking the standard as Karate's take on indie, punk, jazz and the blues.

Million Dead

'Breaking the Back'

Integrity Records, 2003

b-side:

There are Ghosts

Recorded at Mighty Atom Studios, Swansea by Joe Gibb.

Ten Years Later #1: Nirvana 'Nevermind'

Nirvana 'Nevermind'
DGC Records, 1991
Purchased 28/01/2001
Paid £2.00

It's fitting that I begin this series of blog pieces with a classic album, and an album that has shaped my musical listening habits of the past 10 years. I started buying music in earnest back in 2001; up until this point I had mostly copied cassettes off of my Dad or bought the odd singles from Woolworths on a Saturday morning, however I now had a paper round and could afford to buy myself some records. Nirvana was an obvious place for me to start. My Dad had a few of their albums which he had picked up through Britania music club in the mid-nineties, and the tracks from Nevermind which appeared on their posthumous live album From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah had already become favourites.

I already had a CDR copy of Nevermind but didn't feel that I was doing the band justice by having an illegal copy - even at 14 I was well on my way to becoming a music snob. I didn't really go shopping in the town centre very often so most singles I had bought at this point were from Wellington, where I tended to go each Saturday shopping with family. I actually found this album on a market stall in Wellington, and as it was in good condition I happily payed the £2 asking price to get myself a proper copy. At the time it was the only official Nirvana record I owned (I would buy In Utero a week later from Woolworths) - now it is one of many albums, singles and bootlegs I have by the group, a band who I consider to be a big part of my youth and inspired many of my early purchases.