Evenin' all. It's my own fault really, I announced the other night that the blog was gonna be a bit more sporadic over the next few weeks, yet here I am, under twenty four hours later, slumped over my keyboard tapping this out. Fickle-ty, thy name is thegeneral.
So who what why and wherefore?
You know sometimes you have those evenings when there's nowt on telly, you can't be frigged reading and all your friends have cut you out of their lives because you're a sad, hopeless nobody, clinging on to your shattered dreams as you swig the last dregs out of your tea mug, bemoaning the lack of custard creams in your life.
...no...?
That really is just me then, isn't it?
Ah.
Anyway.
Moving on.
So anyway, over the weekend I spent an idle hour or two flicking through 90s indie music on YouTube, it's like a Vortex of Delight sometimes. You go on looking for one thing and end up being distracted by another...I ended up briefly looking to my right to see the selection of other videos that were recommended for me and I was at once both flummoxed and jaw droppingly happy to see a song called "Kewpies Like Watermelon". For anyone that doesn't know it - listen here:
Now apart from the fact the video is a Warhol-esque lover's trifle of good hope, it was an immediate remembrance of the band that kindled my imagination most. Urusei Yatsura. The second I heard the opening roar and guitar riff I was seventeen again. Now, in all honesty, I wouldn't want to go back to being that age for all the alcopops in The Red Lion, but hearing this did take me back to a time when I didn't want to listen to what everyone else was listening to, when I wanted to find bands that were that bit different and when it actually felt like something explosive was happening on the indie scene. This band were IT.
They were a four piece from Glasgow who formed in the early 90s and really took hold of alternative rock and shook it by its checked shirt. In the early days they were managed by Alex Kapranos (come on fact fans..bonus tea time muffins if you know who he is...) and their debut album "We Are Urusei Yatsura" was released in 1996. This, dear readers, is the record I immediately rushed to dig out and listen to this week and it has been at the top of my "repeat repeat repeat" list pretty much every day.
Stand out tracks are of course the sublime, aforementioned "Kewpies", but also the raucous and repetitive "Siamese" (reminded me a little of early Idlewild stuff) and "Plastic Ashtray"
This song also brought back my memory of having a slight crush on the singer. Yes, it was the floppy hair and the angular jawline that did it. Oh and the perfect teeth. Oh and the shy little smile. Yeah.
Many said that the track "Phasers On Stun" was their finest moment on here and, yes, there is a strong case for that. It's got a really pleasingly discordant feel to it, with sharp, angular riffs and a spiky vocal. The song does feel of it's time, but by the same token it doesn't sound like anything else that was around and still feels unique now.
Although they never really made it big - they only had one song scrape the Top 40 in all the time they were together, they had a strong cult following and when they did eventually split in the early noughties it did feel a bit like the music world was going to miss something that bit quirky and wonderful.
So yeah, while I do bang on about championing new music all the time, sometimes it's good to be reminded of the bands that helped you along your way to finding your musical feet. UY were one of those and I love them dearly. If you can get hold of a second hand copy of "We Are Urusei Yatsura" try and do so. Che Records finest and most long forgotten group. Go go go get them into your lives.
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