STUFF FROM OVER THE POND

Today's humble offering was inspired by a few tracks coming on the old i-pod in recent weeks from USA-based singers or bands that don't have a great presence in my own vinyl and CD collections, but who have released singles that I've picked up on via the radio, or more likely, music video channels which I tend to flick through when bored with terrestrial telly of an evening (and there's no decent sports on).

Things like these:-

mp3 : Buffalo Tom - Sodajerk
mp3 : Cake - The Distance
mp3 : Faith No More - Everything's Ruined

Doing the wikipedia thing, here's what I learned.....

Buffalo Tom are from Boston, Massachusetts and they took their name from a combination of Buffalo Springfield and that of their shy drummer. They've been releasing records now for just over 20 years, but there were only a couple of singles between 1999 and 2007 which makes me think they broke-up and reformed. Sodajerk is the lead-off song from 1993 LP Big Red Letter Day, which is a CD that sits on my shelf but hasn't probably been played in its entirety since maybe a week or so after it was bought. This would have been at a time when I was travelling back and forth between Glasgow and Edinburgh for my job and I read a lot of music papers and magazines at the time, so I suspect the LP was bought on some journo's recommendation. But I reckon its a fine enough single....

Cake have been going since 1991. They are from Sacramento, California and I know exactly how I first heard this song which was released as a single in 1997....it was via Channel 4 in the UK who showed the video one night in between a couple of programmes. It was the video that caught my attention initially as it was just weird.....



The next day I happened to see the single in a record shop for just £1.99 do I bought it...loved it at the time and still love it now. What I didn't realise is that it climbed to #22 in the UK singles chart...Actually when I think about it, I've four or five Cake singles in the collection so they really shouldn't be included in this series, but far too many words have been typed to remove them now.

I can categorically confirm that this is the only single I have by Faith No More. Wiki describes them as an alternative metal band from San Francisco, California who formed in 1981, broke up in 1998 and reformed again earlier this year. I do know they were quite popular over here with a Top 3 hit in 1993 with a rather appalling cover of Easy by The Commodores. The single I've picked out is from the same year, and I first heard it on compilation tape put together for me by Jacques the Kipper. I reckon he included it for at the time I was raving a lot about a UK band called Senser who combined metal and rap and politically charged lyrics, and the Faith No More single, with its attack on capitalism, wasn't a million miles away.

So there you have it, some more stuff that is not your usual far on TVV, but three songs I'm willing to recommend you give a try.