September 2012
1 post
Ultrasound
The other day, I received an email. This is not, in and of itself, news. Not bragging, but I get upwards of three emails a day. Jealous? But this particular email, the one that brought on this out-of-nowhere blog update, was surprising for a handful of reasons. Firstly, it was from Club Fandango, a cabal of indie promoters in London from whom I’ve not heard in over a decade, since I left the...
August 2012
1 post
What The Hell Happened?
Hey everyone,
Remember when this used to be an active site, with updates conscientiously posted every Thursday? No, me neither. As I alluded to the last time I wrote in here - I think it was during the Mesozoic Era - I just started a new job. Without wishing to bore anyone with details, I’m the Managing Director of a new not-for-profit legal education startup, and as you may imagine based...
June 2012
4 posts
No update this week
Again, it’s been a busy week, so I’m sorry to say that there’s no new YG update today. I will give you this music video by Welsh rockers The Crocketts, though. They were quite good.
Ash
I was inspired to write about the Northern Irish trio today because, (a) they are currently celebrating their 20th anniversary of existence, and (b) as part of such, my friend Suzi got to sing ‘Oh Yeah’ with them last weekend. Suzi is John’s wife. You know, John, who’s written about Symposium and Kenickie here before. Comedian Josie Long (perhaps you recently heard her on...
No update this week
Sorry, everyone, but I’ve recently started a new employment thing, plus the European Championship is happening, so I haven’t had time to write about a band today. There’ll be regular service next week, though, and until then, here’s the anthem to end all anthems.
3 tags
Regular Fries
In my post about Ikara Colt, I mentioned a genre called The Scene with No Name, which a) did, in fact, have a name, and b) it was a fucking stupid name. Well, today to (almost) match the inanity of that title, let me tell you about Skunk Rock. The Lo-Fidelity Allstars (also former Youth Groups subjects) were the biggest names within this scene, and that ought to tell you something about it. Other...
May 2012
6 posts
1 tag
Kenickie
Once again, Youth Groups’ dearest friend John Hart provides this tribute to a band that largely passed me by, but meant a great deal to him. Follow him on Twitter, won’t you?
Kenickie, then. The indie Spice Girls, weren’t they? A giggly blur of Malibu and fake fur. Inconsequential, lightweight three chord teenage thrashing about snogging, shopping for mascara and Saturday nights in...
2 tags
Arab Strap
Plenty of today’s songs have been added to the YG Spotify playlist, which you can enjoy here. Subscribe to it, if you’d like. Or don’t. No pressure.
The last couple of entries in here have been focused on bands that I liked during the Youth Groups era but haven’t really paid much attention to in the decade since. I wanted to buck that trend, and today I’m writing...
2 tags
Reef
For a year or so, I used to sit next to a dude called Richard on the bus to and from school. He was into music too, and we’d often spend the 45 minute ride sharing earphones and listening to some new album. In January 1997, Richard said “I think I’m going to buy the new Reef album”. I was pretty excited, because (a) their single ‘Place Your Hands’ had been...
Straw
The internet has a lot to answer for. In 1998, I heard Straw’s debut single ‘Weird Superman’ on MTV2, thought it was great, and bought a promo copy in Camden. There was very little info to be found about them, so I thought, why not start a website for them? I knew a guy who’d done a similar thing for Mansun a few years earlier, and now that they were pretty big, his fansite...
Elsewhere
I wrote a little piece for Low Times about a handful of British boy bands that were around during the Youth Groups era. Read it if you’d like. And make sure you check out the Low Times podcast, which is one of the best in the business.
One of the bands I covered in that article is East 17. Here is the funniest video of theirs I could find. Make a list of all the goodness in this clip.
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The Wannadies
When I started making a Youth Groups shortlist a few months ago, a few trends became noticeable. Most of the bands weren’t around anymore. (Although a disconcerting number of them had reunited). Many of the bands had Greatest Hits compilations, sometimes more than one. And a few bands are best remembered, if at all, for their one super-giant smash hit, and not for anything else. I’m...
April 2012
5 posts
1 tag
Idlewild
Lots and lots of the songs mentioned in today’s post are included in the rolling Youth Groups Spotify playlist. Subscribe to that, if you’d like!
A wall of distortion. Pure noise. Clattering drums. A screamed “1-2-3-4!” and then some nonsense about culture. Then some semblance of melody. The repeated refrain “A song is a beautiful lie”. Then the same again....
No update this week
Due to my computer being uncooperative; the Florida Film Festival; and a visit from my sister, there’s no new update in Youth Groups this week. Sorry, everyone.
To make it up, here’s the video for Manic Street Preachers’ breakthrough single ‘A Design For Life’, which was released sixteen years ago this week. I could write a book about this song and what it means to...
Symposium
Here’s our first ever guest post on Youth Groups, written by my pal and new dad John Hart. (He’s a new dad. Not MY new dad. My existing dad remains my dad.) You may remember John from the Six by Seven post and our attempt to interview Chris Olley. John and I went to high school together, and he was one of my regular writers at the Brain Farm. You can follow him on Twitter...
1 tag
Bonus: Andrew W.K.
Here’s an unprecedented Saturday update here in Youth Groups. Last night, I saw Mr. W.K. bring his “I Get Wet” 10th anniversary tour through Orlando. Now, I’m not much a fan of his - I enjoy ‘Party Hard’ and ‘She is Beautiful’ but couldn’t name any other songs - but I had some free tickets, a buddy who’s a big fan, and I figured...
3 tags
Embrace
When people ask me what my first concert was, I answer with “Pulp, Wembley Arena, March 1996”. I’m lucky that I saw that cool of a show at thirteen. It could have been New Kids on the Block or something. But that was one where a friend’s mum drove us to the gig and sat through it with us. For the next year and a half, there were a handful more like that, where someone’s dad would chaperone us,...
March 2012
8 posts
2 tags
The Cooper Temple Clause
Like last week’s inductees to the Youth Groups hall of fame, The Cooper Temple Clause was another band that I was able to get onboard with very early in its existence. I used to get a lot of CDs in the post to write about for the Brain Farm, and I was dedicated enough to at least listen to all of them. The ones I didn’t care for much, I’d pawn off to my writers, most of whom I’d see every day at...
1 tag
My Vitriol
Unlike some of the other bands mentioned in here thus far, My Vitrol were actually from London, and as such, there was an eighteen month period when they were always around. Seriously: I saw them at the Astoria, at ULU, at Dingwalls, at the Shepherds Bush Empire, and at the Camden Falcon, now a posh modern apartment complex. I’m sure I’ve seen them like ten times, supporting Mansun,...
2 tags
The Soundtrack of our Lives
The day was February 5th, 2002. Me and the gang were at the London Astoria to see Ash. An impressive rock band from Northern Ireland called Jetplane Landing had just played. Hundred Reasons were up next. But first, a band from Sweden that we’d heard of but didn’t know anything about. The Soundtrack of Our Lives.
They come out, metaphorical guns blazing. The singer looks and dresses the way I...
1 tag
Lo Fidelity Allstars - appendix
After reading my post about the Lo Fidelity Allstars, friend-of-the-site Dina emailed me this link from Vh1.com. It contains the tour dates for the band’s summer 1999 jaunt across these United States.
A couple of things about this tour itinerary blow my mind. Keep in mind that the band had released its debut album, ‘How To Operate With A Blown Mind’ the previous summer, and were...
Interlude: ‘Ladykillers’ by Lush
Quick disclaimer: I know that this song originally came out in 1996, before Youth Groups’ five-year window, but I only knew it in passing then, and really got into it more in 2001 when Lush put out their Best Of collection. So there, pedants!
Onwards.
25% of Ikara Colt notwithstanding, this is the first time that women have been featured on...
1 tag
Lo Fidelity Allstars
As I mentioned the other day, I recently became reacquainted with my old vinyl collection. It’s not all that extensive, but it’s nice to see some old favourites again and listen to them on the turntable. Among my 12-inch singles was Kool Roc Bass by the Lo-Fidelity Allstars, and so I thought I’d talk about them today.
I have written in the past about how the Chemical Brothers’ track ‘Block Rocking...
Interlude: ‘ELO’ by Scarfo
My wife bought me a beautiful record player for Christmas, the first one I’ve had since moving to the States in 2002. This past weekend we visited my parents, who live about a hundred and thirty miles away, and I came back with my box of records. I was never a huge vinyl snob, but ever since December 25th, I’ve been eagerly awaiting coming home...
Ikara Colt
(The YouTube clips here are all from user “ELASTICAMAN”, who has compiled a great collection of live footage, but sadly the picture and audio are terribly out of sync throughout. Still, you’ll get to enjoy the music.)
Today in Youth Groups, it’s London’s own Ikara Colt. For a while, the NME put them, the Parkinsons and some other bands that I remember even less...
February 2012
8 posts
Interlude: ‘Mill Hill Self Hate Club’ by Ed Ball
Notable things about this song/video:
- Ed Ball put out a few albums on Creation Records in the 90s. He looks just like Sice from the Boo Radleys, another band that was on Creation, and I have no evidence that they are different people.
- This is the only song of his that I know, and I think it holds up pretty well.
- I like...
1 tag
Six By Seven
Six By Seven aren’t very well represented on YouTube, so for this band, more so than others, I’d strongly recommend checking out the ever-growing YG Spotify playlist, which you can subscribe to here.
So here’s where this thing finally gets interesting.
Six By Seven are the first band to be featured on Youth Groups that were never associated with a major record label. They are the...
Interlude: ‘East Winter’ by Scott 4
I mentioned...
1 tag
Terrorvision
One of the ways to hear so-called indie bands when I was thirteen years old was via the long-running television series Top of the Pops. That’s where Alex James wore an Oasis shirt, Manic Street Preachers made their first TV appearance as a three piece, and just about every band with a top 40 single stopped by. I once went to a TOTP episode filming in Elstree and watched Busta Rhymes, standing not...
2 tags
Interlude: ‘Miss Parker’ by Morgan
So...
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Mansun
It was hard to pick a band to begin this project with. I have a long list of potential candidates to cover, but of course, I’d need to start off with something special to convince you all to keep reading. Today’s subjects operated almost entirely within Youth Groups’ 1997-2002 window, and achieved a lot during that time. And yet, there’s a good chance that many of my American readers will never...
8 tags
Youth Groups: An Introduction
I came of age in London during the Britpop boom of the late 1990s. I still remember 14 August, 1995, the day that Blur and Oasis both released long-awaited singles and it made the national news. Even though these bands were the definition of “mainstream”, it was the first time that I had paid attention to something that sounded like an alternative to the stuff that was all over the radio. (For the...
