Since it’s the Tough Love 5th birthday in less than a month, we thought we’d run a series of posts introducing the bands playing and providing a track to download. Here’s the first…
Who?
It’s all here.
Where?
The foothills of the Himalayas. And Dalston.
Sounds Like
Someone owns a £20 guitar and shares three copies of Graceland.
Listen
Fair Ohs – Almost Island
5 years. It feels like a long time. It feels like it went by fast. It feels pretty good, all in all, to have got this far without someone insisting we stop. Either that, or we just didn’t listen to their callow cries.
On the 24th of July we’ll be celebrating this and it wont cost you a penny. Details just below. Between then and now, we’ll be posting some exclusive and long lost songs from the Tough Love archive, as well as previewing the bands to play the party. Keep checking back over the coming weeks for more stuff.
TOUGH LOVE IS 5 – ALL DAYER
Saturday 24th July @ The Stag’s Head, Dalston
Fair Ohs
Graffiti Island
Calories
Cold Pumas
Becoming Real
Prize Pets
Mazes
Cymbals
DJs
Home.Under.Ground
Dummy Magazine
This Is Tomorrow
Tough Love
…more TBC
FREE entry
14:00 – 01:30
BBQ from 14:00 – 18:00
The Fair Ohs sound like Paul Simon, but, y’know, punk. It’s surprising, then, that drummer Joe is heavily into 80s R&B. Or maybe it’s not? Everyone hears things differently.
Since Eddy has already made a mix of African music for me for Platform, I asked Joe to do the same for the music he loves. There will be no favourtism here (Matt was going to do one too, but technology let us down). Perhaps it’s not that representative of Fair Ohs, but it’s Monday and these 9 songs of pure fire make the weekend sound like it goes on forever. Here’s Joe in his own words:
“This is a mix of 80s soul music that I grew up listening to through my parents and as an adult have listen to obsessively. The first three tracks are Jam and Lewis productions; my favourite producers. To me everything they touched in the 80s was just pure gold. The first track here by Alexander O’Neal is a slightly different style for them (made in 1990 where they were starting to develop a New Jack Swing influenced style) but shows how powerful Alex is when he is pissed off in contrast to the last track of his on this mix, ‘Sunshine’, where he is just as comfortable with a ballad. I love this man and still go to his shows whenever he is in town (I missed out on seeing him in the 80s, but what could I do, I was a child!).
The tracks by Cherrelle and SOS Band show more typical Jam and Lewis productions, with Terry Lewis’ idiosyncratic p-funk influenced bass parts and Jimmy Jam’s expert ear for amazing chords, and also their use of the 808 drum machine and Oberheim synths. The Womack and Womack track here I love becuase of how sincere and haunting it is . Luther Vandross’ ‘Give Me the Reason’ combines his technically perfect vocal delivery with jagged, almost industrial, drum programming, as does Teddy’s ‘I Never Felt Like Dancing’.
This music doesn’t really influence what I do with Fair Ohs (We got Paul Simon for that!) but I take a lot of influence from this for a futuristic soul group called The One . ”
Tracklisting
1. Alexander O’Neal – “Somebody Changed Your Mind”
2. Cherrelle – “Will You Satisfy?”
3. SOS Band – “Just The Way You Like It”
4. Womack and Womack – “Strange and Funny”
5. Bobby Womack – “I Can’t Stay Mad”
6. Morris Day – “Love Is A Game”
7. Luther Vandross – “Give Me The Reason”
8. Teddy Pendergrass – I Never Felt Like Dancing
9. Alexander O’Neal – “Sunshine”
(Photo: Kelley Smith)
Huw Stephens and his team of real gold were good enough to invite us to be featured as ‘DIY Record Label of the Week’ on their show last night. Quite an honour.
Since we’re only telling you about this now, you will have likely missed Huw reading out my answers to their questions, and hearing them play William’s “Dilettante” and “Nightcycles” by Seams. But because it’s not 1987 and we’re not still taping the radio for posterity, you can Listen Again (for 7 days at least – history gets shorter) by following the link below. We feature around about the 1hr 33mins 30 secs mark. Roughly speaking.
iPlayer link
Huw Stephens’ micro-site and show playlist
And one more thing, listen out for a Fair Ohs session to be recorded and aired in the next month or so. Not sure what they’re going to do, but I’m excited about the prospect of new songs.
(Photo: Matt Mullen)
Tough Love Records presents…
OLD MONEY @The Stag’s Head, Dalston
Saturday 20th March
Fair Ohs/Spectrals split 7″ launch party
Fair Ohs – 22:30
Spectrals – 21:45
La La Vasquez – 21:10
Cosmic Thoughts – 20:30
Tough Love DJs
Home.Under.Ground DJs
Dummy Magazine DJs
FREE entry
20:00-01:00
Thanks again, as always and forever, to Ralph Wilson for the poster. This is perhaps my favourite yet
On Monday 22nd March we’ll be releasing a split single featuring two jams each from Fair Ohs and Spectrals (which you can buy here). You probably know all about this since we’ve hardly shut up about it, but give me a break, it’s cos it’s really good. And you probably know a lot more about the actual release then what it sounds like – that’s cos it’s not out until 22nd March, dummy.
I’d like to think you’ve already found out for yourself, but FYI, Fair Ohs are on a “Paul Simon but punk” vibe and Spectrals sways with blue eyed soul and, according to the girl reading The Stool Pigeon over my shoulder last night, “Teddy Pendergrass and shit like that”. I’m not sure how she could hear that through the ink and paper, but Louis (who’s definitely a boy, Muso’s Guide!) is certainly into soul, doo wop, Motown, girl groups, that kind of thing. You can hear it coursing through the music pretty clearly.
That in mind, I asked him to make us a mixtape collecting together some of his favourite tracks. And he did just that. You can download the entire thing as a zip, with the tracklisting featured below. Thanks to Ralph Wilson for the artwork and obviously to Louis himself for sharing the wealth.
Meanwhile, with the release of said split single coming up quickly over that hill, time’s about right to remind you of this launch night happening in a few weekends time. And here’s that reminder.
Spectrals Mixtape for Tough Love
Tracklisting:
1. The Fascinations – “The Girls Are Out To Get You”
2. The Cleftones – “Heart and Soul”
3. Shirley J. Scott – “Goose Pimples”
4. The Shirelles – “Baby It’s You”
5. The Opals – “You’re Gonna Be Sorry”
6. The Duprees – “You Belong To Me”
7. The Chiffons – “He’s So Fine”
8. The Ronettes – “How Does It Feel?”
9. The Charmaines – “Whenever I Get Lonely”
10. The Capris – “Tears In My Eyes”
11. The Marcells – “Goodbye To Love”
12. The Vogues – “You’re The One”
13. The Jellybeans – “I Wanna Love Him So Bad”
14. The Chantels – “So Real”
15. Blue Magic – “Look Me Up”
Acting as a neat precursor to the release of TLV035, the Fair Ohs/Spectrals split 7″, Spectrals go out on tour next week with Girls, playing two dates either side of three London shows. It’s a sporadic set of shows, taking in Brighton (Feb 22nd) and Southampton (Feb 25th), then Manchester (Mar 2nd) and Birmingham (Mar 3rd), in a sweet defiance of London-centricism (save the three dates in between, of course).
Significantly, the last of the dates in the capital is an all-day affair launching the zeitgeist-defining (although I know they’ll baulk at the claim) compilation released through Paradise Vendors and Italian Beach Babes; the labels run by Male Bonding and Conan Graffiti Island respectively. Here’s a link to details of that show, which you’d be a little foolish not to attend – there’s about a billion people already confirmed on Facebook as it is, if that means anything. You can also buy the record here, which features, among others, Spectrals, Fair Ohs, Not Cool, and Male Bonding and Graffiti Island themselves. And it’s £8. Deal!
Buy the Fair Ohs/Spectrals split 7″ here and receive a code to download the record for free.
Ten years have passed since I downloaded my first MP3 using Napster. To say a lot had changed since then would be like beating you with a plank of wood with the word ‘obvious’ painted on it. We know it’s no longer a pre-requisite to own anything tangible,let alone pay for it. We know that patience is no longer a virtue, but something worthy of Papal status. Anything approaching anticipation is easily thwarted by careless/predicated ‘leaks’. So, while physical media finds itself replaced by intangible files and lines on a screen, what’s left of the old world? And what are the new rules?
Listening to Beaters, it’s clear that post-punk isn’t going out of fashion any time soon. “Fishage” finds them cast in a Wild West caper, in hot pursuit of some hectoring Liars-alike Apaches. Evolutionary concerns are slurred, bass burbles and sheet metal clangs in the distance. This burial ground isn’t quite cursed, rather more a place of sly humour and tasteful shabbiness.
But still I’m haunted by these rules. When I was a boy, I’d be certain to find out as much as I could about an artist I was listening to. Now I wonder with the casting off of prior moral duties if this should perhaps also be forgotten. As a result, the most I could bring myself to find out about Beaters was that they were from San Diego, California. The post-hippy consensus is that the ‘Golden State’ quit being so just after The Manson Family commenced door-to-door house calls, long before Rollins and co flew the Black Flag. And yet, the thought of a group of young Californians making music for sewer dwellers and C.H.U.D.’s doesn’t quite sit right with my immediate preconceptions.
But then, looking at those awful Californian Tourism adverts on TV, you’re reminded that Conan The Barbarian is their head of state. That’s enough to keep me awake at night, as I lie in wait for a new set of rules to take hold.
Liam Manley
(Photo: Square Eyes)
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Thanks to Matt Flag from the Fair Ohs for pointing us in the direction of this song. He’s releasing a selection of Beaters’ songs through his cassette imprint Suplex very soon. More details here
TLV035 – Fair Ohs//Spectrals – Split 7″
A1: Fair Ohs – “Hey Lizzy”
A2: Fair Ohs – “Himalayas”
B1: Spectrals – “Birthday Kiss”
B2: Spectrals – “Keep Your Magic Out Of My House”
7″ hand-numbered blue vinyl
Limited to 500 copies
It’s with absolute joy that we can announce the release of TLV035 – the next single in our Split 7″ series. This one features tropical punk bros Fair Ohs and Leeds’ very own one man Rat Pack, Spectrals. Each band contributes two tracks to the record, with Fair Ohs’ infinite summer sun bombs offset beautifully against Spectrals’ surf-style slow jamz. Yep, it’s a pretty special record.
Artwork is provided courtesy of Male Bonding drummer and all round hero Robin Silas, assisted by our other favourite drummer Ralph Wilson (the man responsible for tons of Tough Love-related design, not least this very website). Big love to you both.
The record is now available for pre-order from our Shop here. All orders will be shipped one month prior to official release (Monday 22nd March) and we’ll also send you a code to download all of the songs for free. Keep checking the site for forthcoming information on some very exciting launch parties and a Spectrals tour with a band you all know and love…
Earlier this year I started writing for Platform, for the most part about music, in one form or another. It’s still not a real job, but it’s a start, and stop judging me. Tory.
Below I’ve copied in links to various articles I hope may be of interest (I also wrote about a lot of things relating to girls too, but you can find those articles using your own initiative). There’s a host of free music to download, in keeping with the saintly spirit of the festive period.
Retrohohohospective!
TRACK REVIEWS
Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros – “Home”
Fair Ohs – “Almost Island”
Japandroids – “Young Hearts Spark Fire”
Small Black – “Despicable Dogs”
Summer Camp – “I Only Have Eyes For You”
Tap Tap – “Queen of Hearts”
Truman Peyote – “New Wife, New Life”
The Twilight Sad – “I Became A Prostitute”
LIVE REVIEWS/INTERVIEWS
Bill Callahan @ Union Chapel + interview
Blur @ Hyde Park
Steve Gullick Interview
Transgressive Records Interview
MIXTAPES
Becoming Real – Get Hyperreal Mixtape
Fair Ohs – Women, Death, Beer Mixtape
Washed Out – Fantastic Symphony Mixtape
OTHER
ATP Film Review
ATP Fans Retrospective
Classic Shit Albums
Crisis Or A Boring Change? – Pavement Reform
Essential Student Albums
Guided By Voices
Soundtrack Your Heartbreak
Soundtrack Your Suicide
Ungrateful Dead – Exploding Hearts
