Before reinventing themselves as some sort of baggy/indie crossover stars with 1990's Lovegod album, The Soup Dragons were one more band off the indie production line that comes out of Glasgow and has produced such luminaries as the BMX Bandits and Teenage Fanclub.In the mid- to late-1980s The Soup Dragons were knocking out Peel-friendly indie of the sort featured here - Soup Dragons - The Majestic Head (and I think I'm right in saying this is the first picture disc featured). It was only with the release of their third album that they went all I'm Free; at much the same time that Scottish chums Primal Scream were also leaving their rock roots behind and experimenting with ecstacy-fuelled indie dance.
And in the same way that the Happy Mondays "covered" Step On, I'm Free, a danced-up cover of a 1965 Rolling Stones song, brought the Soup Dragons fame and fortune.
Anyway, today's post is to celebrate the 'original' Soup Dragons, the band that recorded Peel Sessions and made it into the 1986 Festive Fifty. Twice.
For more detail, the Trouser Press biography is the page you want to read and This Is Our Art
, the album of the mp3 above, was recently re-released for you to enjoy the first incarnation of the band, before digging out the flares and the hooded Inspiral Carpets tops and shuffling around the house like it was 1990 all over again..
God, I LOVED the Soup Dragons for a few months when I was 15ish. Can't Take No More was an awesome song. Wonder if it still is?
ReplyDeleteFor my money the Soup Dragons had already gone down the pan by the time they recorded the first album. I preferred them when they were busy ripping off the Buzzcocks on 'Whole Wide World'. Still, it's funny how they and Primal Scream did some parallel genre hopping - indie rock to vaguely psychedelic pop to dumb garage rock to baggy/indie dance.
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting this though, I hadn't thought about them in years.
I'd forgotten about "This Is Our Art..." - my God, reading these pages is making the hair on the back of my neck stand up.
ReplyDeleteKeep up the good work...!
OMG! This picture disc has Corporation Headlock on it, hasn't it? I used to have it meself but like much of my vinyl, it's loooooong gone. :-(
ReplyDeleteI don't suppose you could rip CH and post it, could you... please???
Rob, drop me an email at the address above and I'll try and remember at the weekend!
ReplyDeleteMatt
you picked the wrong side to play!! corporation headlock is one of their finest tunes. my copy is locked away in my basement pending a house move-please post it!
ReplyDeletestill no corporation headlock?
ReplyDeleteYeah...give us Corporation Headlock
ReplyDelete