Various Artists – "Ideal Guest House" (Shelter) 1986 & "The First After Epiphany" (Ron Johnson Records – ZRON 21) 1987

As I received a request for a Ron Johnson compilation,it reminded me of the official comedian attached to this shambling Ron Johnson style stuff, Ted "I was Walking Down the Road" Chippington. I'm not sure if he was into this kind of popular music,but he was enlisted to be the compare of this trendy compilation cassette to support homeless charity "Shelter"; which is rather apt as we are facing the largest homeless crisis in Europe since world war too. Its time to start world war Free (dom) innit? I am of course referring to the current Invasion of Ukraine by that nice Mr Putin man....just in case you are part of the uninformed majority,or living in Russia....in which case i have to inform you that your army has been committing War crimes against your Slavic brothers in the west.....basically you're fucked.

The drole monotone self-elected worst comedian in the world ever Ted,links together a bunch of shambling C86-era,Johnson related groups in his characteristic stoic manner...at times he's even funny!?

Its got Bog-Shed and bIG fLAME on it, what more could you want or need?......just ignore the Chumbawamba track,...oooooh, they didn't like Neil Kinnock.....edgy stuff not, nuff said.

Tracklist:

A1 Big Flame– Man Of Few Syllables
A2 The Wedding Present– You Should Always Keep In Touch With Your Friends (alt Version)
A3 The Soup Dragons– Fair's Fair
A4 The Creepers– Sharper And Wider
A5 The Shop Assistants – Home Again (Live)
A6 The June Brides– This Town (Accoustic)
A7 Rob Grant with Yeah Yeah Noh– Mr. Hammond Has Breakfast In Bed
B1 Stump– Kitchen Table
B2 The Legend!– Everythings Coming Up Roses
B3 Pigbros– Barren Land
B4 Stitched Back Foot Airman– The Deadly Spore
B5 BMX Bandits– Sad?
B6 Bog-shed – Jobless Youngsters
B7 Chumbawamba– Kinnochio

DOWNLOAD and give these tracks a home HERE!

Oh Yeah!...here's that Ron Johnson sampler LP "The First After Epiphany" that i mistakenly thought had no exclusive tracks on it, and you could get them from the other official releases on the blog if you search for Ron Johnson Records. I was wrong, There's at least a Twang! track that one can't get elsewhere,and maybe an errant Splat! number,or anything else with an exclamation mark in it's name:

"The First After Epiphany"
Ron Johnson Records – ZRON 21 (1987)

Tracklist:

A1 Splat!– Mistook
A2 Big Flame– XPQWRTZ
A3 A Witness– Dipping Bird
A4 Stump– Big End
A5 MacKenzies– Man With No Reason
B1 The Shrubs– Blackmailer
B2 The Ex– Knock
B3 Twang – Here's Lukewarm
B4 The Nose Flutes– Bodyhair Up In The Air
B5 The Great Leap Forward– Drowning Speechless
B6 Jackdaw With Crowbar– Crow

DOWNLOAD this epiphanal moment HERE!

The Shrubs – "Vessels Of The Heart" (Public Domain Records – DOM 2) 1988

Looking back in Die or DIY? blog history, i was astounded at my omission of quite a few Ron Johnson Records type recordings that I inexplicably left out. Of course everything possible by Bog-shed is there,and they weren't even on Ron Johnson;whereas,The Shrubs, were!? The missing second album,released after Ron Johnson went bankrupt.....it was only a matter of time of course....must now be sent forth into the digital domain.Something that i am not aware has happened to the medium of the Digital Compact Disc concerning The Shrubs.

At the time I was not aware of any second album being released,having assumed that the rest of the 'Shambling' stable had succumbed to the perfect storm of Ron Johnson disintegration and the impending awfulness of Madchester and white boy idiot dancing. Breakbeats and funky wah-wah guitars were not The Shrubs thing. So they disappeared,and I will have to admit through clenched buttocks,that I was shamefully swept along with all that Indie Dance shit.....'twas either that,or be billy no mates on a Friday night.I am,however, particularly proud of the fact that I was ejected forcefully from the Happy Mondays gig at Leicester Polytechnic in 1989 for projectile vomiting over the bar.I remember nothing of the evening in question apart from that.......I blame the music and the worst ever clothing fad since the Bay City Rollers.

Nick Hobbs.....not Mick Hobbs I may add to avoid confusion, did posses an uncanny ability to get on one's proverbial Titz with his wailing vocal style, but that's all part of their endearing charm innit?

Musically,like the rest of the unrelated bands in this 'Shambling' category......us 'Normals' need categories y'know.....has that alluring bouquet of "Trout Mask Replica" style dueling discordant guitars and dueling time signatures;with,of course, that J J Burnel bass sound  as played by that bloke from The Rezillo's.(RIP).Maybe even hinting at some Rockette Morten four string influence,which can't be bad?....The Drums?......the rhetorical answer to which has to be.... "Drumbo"?

This may be their best long playing record methinks.

Tracklist:

A1 Papa Chaperon 3:08
A2 Cole 3:54
A3 Resurrection Chain 3:17
A4 Ballet Gorilla 1:41
A5 Cashregister Brain 4:23
A6 Mass Mental (Long Abusive Rental) 2:54
B1 Villa Burgher 2:40
B2 Shawl Blight Zone 3:44
B3 Myth Night 3:43
B4 King Urn 2:52
B5 Sullen Days Are Over 3:13
B6 Mistress Of The Moral Ground 3:43

DOWNLOAD into the vessels of your heart HERE!

Various Artists ‎– "C-86" (New Musical Express ‎– NME 022) 1986

Amazingly,five of the Ron Johnson stable appeared on the Iconic 'Indie' compilation "C-86", as released/compiled by the NME.

Indeed we also find Bogshed nestled in amongst such pale floppy fringe wearers as The Wolfhounds, the Bodines and other jangly foppish nonsense.

I'm surprised to discover that the tape that defined an Indie Era of jingly jangly tweedom, did in fact have some very non-jangly groups included.

Primal Scream open up the proceedings sounding, for all the world exactly like the very shit Stone Roses, three years in advance of all that 'Madchester' crap.

Of course Primal Scream would become one of those very same ,terrible bandwagon jumping combo's of 1989. Of the rest only The Soup Dragons would join them in making dance/indie crossover awfulness; which is a shame because I quite liked early Soup Dragons......I'll admit......in fact i quite enjoyed a lot of this tape!?....which is strange, as I regarded this stuff (Ron Johnson acts excepted), as the enemy,rather than the NME.

30 years removed,one now finds this jangly indie pop refreshing,and charmingly youthful.Unlike me.

Tracklist:

1–Primal Scream Velocity Girl 1:22
2–The Mighty Lemon Drops Happy Head 2:42
3–The Soup Dragons Pleasantly Surprised 2:05
4–The Wolfhounds-Feeling So Strange Again 1:41
5–The Bodines-Therese 3:09
6–Mighty Mighty-Law 3:40
7–Stump-Buffalo 4:30
8–Bogshed-Run To The Temple 3:28
9–A Witness-Sharpened Sticks 2:30
10–The Pastels-Breaking Lines 2:59
11–The Age Of Chance-From Now On,This Will Be Your God 3:12
12–Shop Assistants-It's Up To You 2:38
13–The Close Lobsters - Firestation Towers 1:48
14–Miaow-Sport Most Royal 2:54
15–Half Man Half Biscuit-I Hate Nerys Hughes (From The Heart) 3:46
16–The Servants-Transparent 2:36
17–MacKenzies-Big Jim (There's No Pubs In Heaven) 2:34
18–Big Flame-New Way(Quick Wash & Brush Up With Liberation Theology)1:37
19–We've Got A Fuzzbox And We're Gonna Use It-Console Me 1:24
20–McCarthy-Celestial City 2:59
21–The Shrubs-Bullfighter's Bones 3:48
22–The Wedding Present-This Boy Can Wait 4:00

DOWNLOAD to see and hear 1986 HERE!

The Shrubs - "Peel Sessions 1986/87" (a Die or DIY? compilation)

Surprise! Surprise! The Shrubs did some(2) Peel Sessions.
The usual complex skewed guitar interplay, rolling drums, and manic vocals; resulting in a glorious, abstract, art damaged collection of Shrubbery.
Congratulations to the BBC's Dale Griffin(RIP), who managed to blend the vocals further back in the mix to previous releases by the group.Obviously the Singer (Nick Hobbs) must normally have been in the control room asking for his vocals to be louder; as is a normal pastime for most musicians in the recording studio.
Rule number one for a producer is to never have musicians in the control room during the mixing process....they think that they're 'Artists'!?

Track Listing:

01 John Corpse [22-06-86]
02 Blackmailer[22-06-86]
03 Animal[22-06-86]
04 Assassin[22-06-86]
05 King Um [26-08-1987]
06 Papa Chaperon [26-08-1987]
07 Sullen Days Are Over [26-08-1987]
08 Bullfighter's Bones (Bonus C-86 track)

DOWNLOAD directly to your musical garden HERE!

The Shrubs ‎– "Take Me Aside For A Midnight Harangue" (Ron Johnson Records ‎– ZRON 23) 1987

What did I say about not allowing The Shrubs to do an LP?....this would have made three great EP's.
The Beefheart Influence looms large, leaning towards an amphetamine fueled Magic Band 'Shiny Beast" era. Morris-Teper rather than Horn Rollo; but whereas the good Captain took a break from the manic-ness  with the occasional poem,field recording, or calm instrumental. The Shrubs are in top gear for nigh on the full 13 Tracks, only ending with a calming Peon-esque instrumental.
However, the music is fantastic; the guitar interplay is worthy of The Magic Band itself, filtered through a very English psyche! There can be no higher compliment than that.

Tracklist:

A1 Mysterious Places 2:58
A2 Luke 2:20
A3 Fashion Show 3:33
A4 Middle Men 3:52
A5 Claykiln Mouth 3:35
A6 Blackmailer's Heartache 3:11
A7 Rivers Of Toads Flow Forever 3:24
B1 Sinister Missions 3:06
B2 John Corpse 3:57
B3 Hail Chauffeurs 4:28
B4 Serial Revelry 2:42
B5 Farmers 4:45
B6 Edith 4:04
B7 Albert Ross 0:54

DOWNLOAD for a midnight harangue HERE!

The Shrubs ‎– "Blackmailer EP" (Ron Johnson Records ‎– ZRON 17) 1986

Its spring again and the Shrubs are in bloom, nurtured from dormant seeds sown thirty years previously.
These particular Shrubs are a variety nourished by equal quantities of Trout Mask Replica and Pere Ubu, resulting in wiry green shoots tipped with bitter tasting but, nutritionally rewarding berries.
Side A's two seeds were germinated in This Heat's Cold Storage, under the auspices of Henry Cow and The Work's Tim Hodgkinson.
Side B's were re-potted from the BBC's John Peel Show, after being cultivated by the late Dale Griffin in june 1986.
Again, I reiterate, that these Shrubs' tendrils must be pruned back to EP length, as Album length tendrils can irritate due to the annoying sound of the Nick Hobbs warbler which likes to nest among these very leaves.
Thankfully, the leaves of the 'Blackmailer' variety are perfect for these Shrubs.

Tracklist:

A1 Blackmailer 1:59
A2 River Of Toads 2:36
B1 Assassin 2:27
B2 Animal 3:01

DOWNLOAD without being blackmailed HERE!

The Shrubs ‎– "Full Steam Into The Brainstorm" (Ron Johnson Records ‎– ZRON 10) 1986

Now, musically, The Shrubs were fine exponents of the Captain Beefheart dueling guitars in challenging time signatures method of composition.
But, unlike the Magic Band, they didn't have a singer to match the music.Former Henry Cow manager, Nick Hobbs had the microphone, and he irritates the fuck out of me! His over enthusiastic forced warbling outstays its welcome very quickly; as does his obvious desire to sound as weird and unusual as he thinks he is, which sounds as contrived as Don Van Vliet but without the artists sense of the Abstract that the late Beefheart obviously had.
Formerly called The Kevin Staples Band(despite not having anyone called Kevin Staples in the group!), they changed their name to the forgettable Shrubs'' moniker  before they released this debut EP on Ron Johnson Records. And, the 'EP' format definitely suits them, to limit the listeners exposure to the grossly annoying Nick Hobbs, File under annoying lead singers, alongside Steve "Shirley" Solomar of The Spherical Objects, and Alan Jenkins of The Deep Freeze Mice.

Tracklist:
A1 Carbreaker 3:38
A2 Dead Teachers 2:55
A3 Warm Sea 3:20
B1 Black Saloons 3:33
B2 The Dealer 4:42
B3 Bullfighter 3:45

DOWNLOAD on full steam ahead HERE!