Month: March 2024

Following on from my alternative version of the Smashing Pumpkin’s ‘Gish’ album, I now take a look at its follow up, ‘Siamese Dream’. Recording once more with producer Butch Vig helping out behind the desk, Billy Corgan was not exactly in the right frame of mind for recording a record. He was suffering from writers block and would later admit that he was planning for his own suicide. His band mates might not have helped matters either. James Iha and D’arcy Wretzky had ended their romantic relationship. Drummer Jimmy Chamberlain had become addicted to heroin and even though the sessions were moved to a studio in Georgia, away from the bands Chicago base in attempted to get him from his suppliers failed. Chamberlain disappear fro days on end feeding his drug habit. The drummer would eventually enter rehab. 

Corgan would continue with the working practise of playing practically every instrument on the record, apart from the drums, himself. He and Vig would be in the studio for days on end, perfecting the sounds and crafting the songs before Corgan was happy with the finished product. He had set himself the task of producing an album that would set the world on fire and he did just that, even though the record went over budget by $250,000. 

I tried to find a version of every song on an official release, and got close with only ‘Sweet Sweet’ needing to come from a Bootleg. I have followed the running order of the vinyl LP, as that was the format I bought this on back in 1993 when it originally came out in the UK. The cover is the original cover but in negative. 

Side A

1. Cherub Rock – Acoustic Live On MTV Europe 1993 (Earphoria)
2. Quiet – BBC Session 1993 (Siamese Dream Deluxe)
3. Today – Broadway Rehearsal Demo (Siamese Dream Deluxe)
4. Hummer – Lost Tapes 94 (Viewphoria)

Side B

1. Rocket – Rehearsal Demo (Siamese Dream Deluxe)
2. Disarm – Live On The Word, UK 1993 (Earphoria)
3. Soma – Live At Astoria 1994 (Earphoria)

Side C

1. Geek U.S.A. – Live At Alabamahalle 1993 (Earphoria)
2. Mayonaise – Acoustic Alternative Version (Rarities & B-Sides)
3. Spaceboy – Acoustic Mix (Siamese Dream Deluxe)

Side D

1. Ache – Sliverfuck Rehearsal Demo (Siamese Dream Deluxe)
2. Sweet Sweet – Demo (Quiet & Other Songs Bootleg)
3. Luna  – Apartment Demo (Siamese Dream Deluxe)

As I have mentioned on previous posts, Britpop was the first era when I buying a good deal of the music that was being released. Remember folks, this was a time when if you wanted the music, you need to have it on some sort of physical media, even if that included copying the music onto a cassette. I am old enough the remember the ‘Home Taping is Killing Music’ campaign 

However, there was a period before this that went by many names. These included Baggy, Madchester and Indie, but there were others as well. I might not have been buying due to a lack of funds (I was at school at the time) but I was listening, soaking it all up. However, by the turn of the century, the first retrospective compilations of that time started to see the light of day. One of my favourites, and the inspiration for this compilation was released in 2001. ‘Unbelievable’, named after the song by EMF, covered all the big hitters from that era including a few who would continue into the Britpop era. 

Not only did I take songs from the ‘Unbelievable’ compilation, I have also included songs from around the same time that were on ‘The Best Album In The World Compilations’ that I was buying throughout the Britpop years and tunes that I heard from people I was at University..   

Disc 1

1. Surfin’ USM – Cater The Unstoppable Sex Machine
2. This Is Your Life – Banderas
3. Only Love Can Break Your Heart – Saint Etienne
4. Even Better Than The Real Thing – U2
5. There’s No Other Way – Blur
6. One Way – The Levellers
7. The Size Of A Cow – The Wonder Stuff
8. Kinky Afro – Happy Mondays
9. Loaded – Primal Scream
10. Unfinished Sympathy (Nellee Hoper 7” Mix) – Massive Attack
11. Enjoy The Silence – Depeche Mode
12. Under The Bridge – Red Hot Chilli Peppers
13. Shine On – The House Of Love
14. There She Goes – The La’s
15. Can You Dig It? – The Mock Turtles
16. Move Any Mountain – The Shaman
17. Hippy Chick – Soho
18. The Only One I Know – The Charlatans
19. This Is How It Feels – Insipral Carpets
20. Groove Is In The Heart – Dee-Lite

Disc 2

1. On 33 – Stereo MC’s
2. Feeling’ – The La’s
3. Where’s Me Jumper? – Sultans Of Ping F.C.
4. The Fly – U2
5. Unbelievable – EMF
6. Sit Down – James
7. Saturn 5 – Inspiral Carpets
8. Step On – Happy Mondays
9. Orange Crush – R.E.M. 
10. Monkeys Gone To Heaven – The Pixies
11. After All – Frank & Walters
12. Shall We Take A Trip – Northside
13. Then – The Charlatans
14. The Killing Moon – Echo & The Bunnymen
15. Ten Years Asleep – Kingmaker
16. How Soon Is Now? – The Smiths
17. Sing – Blur
18. All Together Now – The Farm

The artwork is adapted from the compilation of the same name that came out in 2001.

Where many Britpop bands focused on the works of Lennon & McCartney, The Who, The Kinks or XTC, Kula Shaker were one of the few, if the only band from the era who seemed to have listened to the work of George Harrison, including those songs that were influenced by his journeys into Indian music. The name of the band was even inspired by Kulasekhara who was one of the twelve Vaishnavite avatars. I would recommend you look it up if you don’t know what that is. Lead by singer and guitar player, Crispian Mills, his songs were also inspired by Indian culture and Hinduism which he had encountered whilst he was on a backpacking trip around India in the early 1990s. Having played in a couple of bands, Mills would recruit college friend Alonza Bevan on bass, Paul Winterhart on drums and Jay Darlington on keyboards. 

The band were signed to Columbia Records and released their first single, ‘Tattva’. The chorus of the song is a slice of Hindu philosophy sung in Sanskrit which reached the lower reaches of the Top 100. Not bad for a debut single that was limited to 1000 copies. The band continued by releasing some more conventional sounding rock songs in the shape of ‘Grateful When You’re Dead’ and ‘Hey Dude’, as well as a rerecording of ‘Tattva’ and ‘Govinda’. Govinda has the distinction of being the only top ten hit UK single to be sung entirely in Sanskrit. The meaning of the chorus translates as ‘Krishna, Glory, Glory’. The band seemed to go from strength to strength with the release of their debut album, ‘K’, which would eventually reach double platinum status in the UK.1996 had been a good year for the band and 1997 seemed to be going in the same direction when their cover of Joe South’s ‘Hush’ made number two in the UK singles chart, but some ill advised remarks by Mills regarding the swastika lead to a backlash in the UK press. 

This and the delay in releasing the second album lost the band the momentum they had built up. Only ‘Sound of Drums’, the first single from the ‘Peasants, Pigs & Astronauts’ LP breached the top ten. The parent album did make the Top Ten in the UK album chart but sold nowhere near as many copies as the previous album. By the end of 1999, the band split up even though they did get back together in 2007 and are still going today, even though it has taken until recently for th original four members to come back together. 

This is another in my series of B-Side albums from the era’s big hitters and there was enough material to put out an album that would stand up (in my opinion) to the main albums. Well, in some respects it does, even thought I did include what would have been an unreleased song if this album had come out in reality. That additional song is ‘Strangefolk’ which was included on the ‘Kollected’ album. ‘Strangefolk’ was the original title of the second album, but this was edited and the full length song would see the light of day on the 10th Anniversary reissue of ‘Peasants, Pigs & Astronauts’.  

Side A

1. Avalonia (Mystical Machine Gun – 1998)
2. Guitar Man (Mystical Machine Gun – 1998)
3. Moonshine (Tattva – 1996)
4. Holy River (Mystical Machine Gun – 1998)
5. Dance In Your Shadow (Tattva – 1996)
6. Goodbye Tin Terriers (Shower Your Love – 1999)
7. Troubled Mind (Hey Dude – 1996)

Side B

1. Prancing Bride (Mystical Machine Gun – 1998)
2. Raggy One (Waiting For Tomorrow) (Hush – 1997)
3. Gokula (Govinda – 1996)
4. Under The Hammer (Grateful When You’re Dead/Jerry Was Here – 1996)
5. Drop In The Sea (Hey Dude – 1996)
6. Another Life (Grateful When You’re Dead/Jerry Was Here – 1996)
7. Light Of The Day (Shower Your Love – 1999)
8. Strangefolk (Kollected – The Best Of Kula Shaker – 2002)

The cover is adapted from the bands 2007 release of the B-Sides from their ‘Strangefolk’ album.