Back in 1991, The Wedding Present released the LP Seamonsters, reckoned by many fans to be their finest ever piece of work. Certainly, it has been the highest charting LP of their entire career, reaching #13 in the UK album charts.It was an album that was engineered by Steve Albini, but Seamonsters hadn't been their first collaboration. Instead, a few months prior to the release of the LP, the band and its then record company RCA slipped out, almost under the radar, a piece of work known as 3 Songs EP which did sneak into the Top 30:-
mp3 : The Wedding Present - Corduroy
mp3 : The Wedding Present - Crawl
mp3 : The Wedding Present - Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me)
Those of you familiar with the recorded output of TWP will know that they have never shied away from doing some cover versions, some of which work a lot better than others. Most of them end up sounding not too much like the original and more like a song David Gedge himself might have written. This particular cover however, falls somewhere inbetween as it is fairly faithful to the original and yet still manages to sound like a Gedge composition. I think its a belter of a version.....
Oh and as for Corduroy, a slightly different version of this song was made available on Seamonsters. Cant make my mind up which one I prefer mind you.....but the noise after about 35 seconds of the single is one of my favourite bits of music ever.....turn it up and play very loud for best effect.
Roll on 2011 for the 20th Anniversary Seamonsters tour. Be prepared to be deaf for days afterwards.
5 comments:
That cover version is an absolute stormer. Probably my second favourite cover version ever.
I take it we aren't getting a Bizarro 20th anniversary tour, then? Sigh...
@Ed: Yes, you are, actually. US next spring, UK in the fall (21st anniv.) Nothing confirmed for Seamonsters 20th, but you'll see me in the UK if it happens.
Even prior to this EP, Albini also collaborated w/ TWP to recor...erm...engineer the superior version of "Brassneck" as well. It's available on the Bizarro remaster that came out a few years back. That and the Seamonsters re-master, both with some outstanding b-sides tacked on, are well worth picking up. Standouts on those two being "Don't Talk Just Kiss", "Mothers", "Dan Dare" (my personal favorite), "Fleshworld" (epic), and on and on.
3 Song EP is definitely my favorite piece of music released by The Wedding Present. Crawl might be my favorite TWP track overall. This music gets you off your feet!
Always thought that the passage that begins at 2:45 beat out the 0:35 bit myself.
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