FTM The Valentine Six

I think that I heard these guys on a college radio show somewhere, and got my hands on a copy of a 7” of theirs soon after. I listened to the 7” once or twice and filed it away in my box of records.  I had a vague thought that they had a dark, nourish jazzy feel, and the name of the band lodged in that dark rarely visited file cabinet in the back of my brain…. And then I really found noir, I started reading both the cannon and the new cannon of the genre along with starting to watch the films. Being a Rockfiends, I naturally went looking for Noir Music… and recalled The Valentine Six

     Listening to them via their self titled CD I can hear a rocking Jazzy dusk cacophony of squealing that recalls Hoppers Night Hawks at the Diner, rundown motels. Vocally singer Parker Valentine (and I am thinking Lee Marvin big time just reading his name, and I expect that the FFB Noir crowd will know exactly why that tickled my fancy) emits a groaning croon that you might find on a micro stage at the back of a dingy roadhouse in a 40s crime pic.  This is music for sitting in a rundown motel smoking that last cigarette, downing that last shot of rotgut while looking at your last dollar on the table. 

The Valentine Six

1997

1. Ghost Face    

2. Sonic    

3. Motel girl

4. Thin Red Line    

5. Blood Orange    

6. Silencer    

7. Tucson    

8. Always is my Name    

9. Bad Penny         

10.         Kill Street    

11.         Motel Lights    

The album was released by PCP Entertainment (nope I never heard of them either) and never seemed to get much distribution… and like so many of the lost gems of the 90s is most likely going to be found circling the drain of you local used record shop’s discount bin. Needless to say, if you spot a copy, I recommend picking it up.

Final Thursday Music: Jeeves And Wooster (theme melody) by Anne Dudley

On the list of soundtracks that I have yet to find a copy of you can list the Frye and Laurie series Jeeves And Wooster based on the books of P.G. Woodhouse. The theme by Anne Dudley is a great homage to the music of the era of the series; with its Jazzy hints of both Lounge and Swing.  It also holds up on it’s own, and leaves me wanting to hear what else she could come up with in the same vein. 

Apparently there was a CD release of the soundtrack for the show, which not only included the theme, but also Hugh Laurie’s numbers from the show. IT went quickly out of print in the UK and never appears to have made it to US shores. You would think that in this day and age of iTunes that music featuring Hugh Laurie would at least be available for download, but last time I checked it was MIA.            Over time there have been several TV series themes that have become classics on their own, and Anne Dudley has created one of the greats that is out there waiting to be rediscovered.

TFM: Marillion Brave

I’ve been a sucker for concept albums for a long time; the idea of a rock opera, something that tells a story via a cycle of songs has appeals to the storyteller in me.

Arriving in 1994 Brave, by the UK band Marillion tells the story of a woman found wandering on a bridge in Bath with no memory of who she was or any details of her past.

    It’s a quite reflective album for the most part, dripping in imagery. The lyrics don’t explicitly flesh out the story, but rather provide a mood and feeling of the experience. It’s the kind of album that needs to be listened to and revisited several times. 

On the Web: marillion.com, 
Wiki: Marillion
       : Brave

Final Thursday Forgotten Music: Addicted to Bad Ideas: Peter Lorre's Twentieth Century by The World/Inferno Friendship Society

The World/Inferno Friendship Society

Addicted to Bad Ideas: Peter Lorre's Twentieth Century

The Dark cabaret was one on of those blip on the radar musical movements of the last decade or so. Mostly it's mix of cabaret, rock and punk. World Inferno's Addicted to Bad Ideas is one of the great albums of that genre. It's a suite of songs about the great Peter Lorre with repeating musical motifs via different musical genres, mush like the theme from Altman's Long Good Bye. It's a fresh, energetic mix that hold together well and with titles like "M" is for Morphine, Everybody Comes to Rick's, Addicted to Bad Ideas and Heart Attack '64 there is a intrigue promise to the album that I can't deny. There is also an element of the kind of show tune sound that we have heard more recently due to the show glee, and I have to point out the Jim Steinman, sound that more than a few of the songs incorporate, which I do dig. Addicted to Bad Ideas in particular could have been (and maybe should be) a great Meatloaf single. I picked this album up after seeing that amazing German 30s impressionistic cover, but I had heard of the band, and heard good things about them.

The band followed up with the album The Anarchy and the Ecstasy which was released a couple of months ago and I am still in the process of decoding and engaging with it.

You can find the band on-line HERE

More Final Thursday Forgotten Music at Scott Parker's Blog HERE

Final Thursday Forgotten Music: The Shadows: Shadows are Go!

The Shadows were to the UK what the Ventures were to the USA, or the Ventures were to the USA what the Shadows were to the UK…. Which is all to say that they were an instrumental rock group who were popular in the UK and other parts of the world during the 1960s. Sound wise they were more laid back and less raunchy than Link Wray and even Duane Eddy.

Shadows are go is a solid compilation of their recordings from the 60s. It’s a well put together over view of a band in their heyday. It has several of their hits and other tracks of note. The danger with instrumental music is that it can all sound too much the same or too all over the place. The Shadows are go is a nice mix of sounds that never wander too far afield. It also avoids gimmicks and pandering cover songs. If you like instrumental rock, or if you want to expose a young person or old person for that matter to something different.

More forgotten Music can be found HERE