M+M – “Cooling the Medium” b/w “Big Trees” (WAKE 8)
“Cooling the Medium” b/w “Big Trees” Current/RCA Records WAKE 8 (Canada) Released in summer 1984 Produced by Daniel Lanois, Mark Gane and Martha Johnson All album versions for this single… although apparently there’s also an alternate Canadian 7″ of “Cooling the Medium,” even with the same WAKE 8 catalogue number, that swaps out the album...
M+M – “Black Stations/White Stations” b/w “Xoa Oho” (WAKE 7)
“Black Stations/White Stations” b/w “Xoa Oho” Current/RCA Records WAKE 7 (Canada) Released in February 1984 Produced by Daniel Lanois, Mark Gane and Martha Johnson Exhausted by keeping a group of full-time members together, Martha Johnson and Mark Gane informed Jocelyne Lanois and Nick Kent after the final concert of the Danseparc tour (at Toronto’s Ontario...
Martha and the Muffins – “Several Styles of Blonde Girls Dancing” b/w “I’m No Good at Conversation” (WAKE 4)
“Several Styles of Blonde Girls Dancing (Edited)” b/w “I’m No Good at Conversation” Current/RCA Records WAKE 4 (Canada) Released probably in spring or summer 1983 Produced by Daniel Lanois with Mark Gane and Martha Johnson Were you maybe disappointed by Martha and the Muffins’ use of album cuts for both sides of their previous two...
Martha and the Muffins – “Suburban Dream” b/w “Girl Fat” (DIN 21)
“Suburban Dream” b/w “Girl Fat” DinDisc Records DIN 21 (UK) Released August 29, 1980 Produced by Mike Howlett This is the second single that Martha and the Muffins issues in advance of their second album Trance and Dance. Upon its release, the lineup it features had already begun disintegrating with the departure of Martha Ladly...
Martha and the Muffins – “Paint By Number Heart” b/w “Copacabana” (VS 1115)
“Paint By Number Heart” b/w “Copacabana” Virgin/DinDisc Records VS 1115 (Canada) Released probably in summer 1980 Produced by Mike Howlett Like the rest of the world outside the UK, Martha and the Muffins’ home country Canada took longer to embrace “Echo Beach” for the simple reason that Virgin proposed a wait-and-see approach and delayed the...
a video playlist of Pulp and other Sheffield music
In preparation for the Musical Urbanism course readings on Sheffield, England, we’ve put together this playlist of music documentaries and promo videos to get you further acquainted with the city, its music scene, and our point of departure, the band Pulp. PULP VIDEOS When reading Owen Hatherley’s book Uncommon: An Essay on Pulp, it...
I survived the grunge era: introduction to a screening of “Hype!”
Welcome to the first of a series of “lab sessions” this semester in conjunction with the Musical Urbanism seminar. Tonight we’re screening Hype!, a 1996 documentary that’s currently out of print. This means the version you’re watching was torrented by your professors. Although as we heard it’s also available on YouTube, I promised our students...
album radio spots, 1967-82
Continuing with my last post on the decline of urban music retail, here’s a truly extinct medium: the album radio spot. These advertisements flourished in an era when record companies pursued mass markets of radio listeners who bought their music in record stores. How many of those conditions exist anymore, at least in this combination?...
Restless Records, 1989: from an independent label intern’s view
The inspiration for my latest post: a request. How cool to find out @enigmarecords, where I did my first internship, is on @twitter. Tweet more, Enigma! What are the Effigies up to? — Mara Schwartz (@mara_schwartz) December 8, 2013 @MusicalUrbanism @EnigmaRecords I would like to read this. — Mara Schwartz (@mara_schwartz) December 9, 2013 In...
how the sound of New York came from four Brooklyn high schools
One of the great eras in New York City music comes not from a ‘scene’ of musicians and audiences as we normally think of this term, but from the very mercenary activities associated with the songwriters, publishers, and promoters associated with the city’s Tin Pan Alley. In Always Magic in the Air: The Bomp and...
listening to home, encountering the other: book review of “Migrating Music”
The settlement of foreign-born ethnic migrants has to be the oldest source of urban vitality. It’s also a wellspring of musical innovation. Might the latter connection offer insights into the modern city? That’s always my hope when I read books like Migrating Music (Routledge, 2012). Edited by Jayson Toynbee and Byron Dueck, this volume addresses the cultural...
weird scenes from the 5 and the TCH: metropolitan structure and rock in Canada
It was November 1977, and it was the first time any of us had traversed our home and native land. We soon found out what a big-ass country Canada is. The ground in Saskatchewan was covered with snow, and it was so fucking flat that you could see a grain elevator miles away. It looked...