by Vinyl301 -

That Petrol Emotion: It’s A Good Thing

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Demon Records 1986.  D1042

Discogs

That Petrol Emotion had a great line in uplifting guitar based rock and this single is one of their best.   They emerged from the ashes of The Undertones, and my sacreligious opinion is that they were better.  There’s also a political edge as there ought to be from any Irish music from the 80s – the sleeve has a rant about inhuman strip-searches carried out by the British in those days.

The band were however pretty patchy – B sides were never a strong point, but with an A side this good, who cares.  It probably means it’s not worth shelling out for the 12″.

If anyone has a lossless rip of their album Manic Pop Thrill, preferably from the CD I’d be very grateful.  All I had was a cassette made by a friend which went to meet its maker long ago.

by Vinyl301 -

Various Artists: Fast N Bulbous

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Imaginary Records 1988.  ILLUSION 002

Discogs

Covering Beefheart tracks is rarely a good idea; they really are best left to the man himself.  However I was young back then and knew no better, I was tempted by the strong line-up and the novelty (then) of the concept.

The album is of course quite a mixed bag.  There are tracks which grate (The Dog Faced Hermans for example) and some which are close copies of the original (XTC – impressive but why bother?).  It works when the material is taken somewhere new – I like  The King Of Luxembourg for being bonkers and the Screaming Dizbusters just play some great noisy rock n roll.

Really though, if you haven’t already done so, get some Beefheart rather than listen to this stuff.  Trout Mask Replica for his weird masterpiece, Safe As Milk for early blues based stuff, and Clear Spot for, well, my favourite.

by Vinyl301 -

Various Artists: Beauty

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The Pink Label, 1987.  PINKY 15

Discogs

“One Of The Dads” asked for some McCarthy recently.  I’m pretty sure I don’t have anything other than this rather fine Pink compilation, but they were a great label with a strong identity, so I hope he enjoys it.

That Petrol Emotion have appeared here before and will do again in future; Keen was their first single.  Rumblefish were quite a favourite back in the day – I’m an absolute sucker for an earnest pop song with a trumpet part, but they have a retrospective out, so I can’t post anything other than this.  There’ll be more from the June Brides at some point too.  Of all the tracks here it’s The Wolfhounds’ Anti-Midas Touch  which is most familiar, which is odd as I have nothing by them other than this.  I guess Peel must have played it a lot.

I’ve done a spot of re-uploading in the last few days.  Anything with 4shared, zshare or slingfile links will work.  A few ultramegabit links still work too.  If you’ve missed anything, it could well be up again.  Let me know if there’s anything I’ve missed.

by Vinyl301 -

That Petrol Emotion: Big Decision

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Polydor 1987.  TREX1

Discogs

That Petrol Emotion rose from the ashes of the mighty Undertones, but had little in common with them.  They were darkly political with a killer line in rock guitar riffs.  This was their major label debut (I’ll post their indie singles another time) and almost grazed the charts – although it deserved to be massive.  The extended version on the A side has the sort of pointless embellishments major labels thought the punters were looking for, but the 7″ version on the B side doesn’t bother with that and concentrates on what makes Big Decision a great track (apart from a very short and very silly rap as the track ends).

I don’t usually buy vinyl from this era – if I didn’t get it back in the day I don’t bother, but I was in the excellent Power Records in Bilbao a couple of weeks back and it caught my eye.  I’m mighty glad I bought it, but the 7″ would have been better I think.