C86, 20 Years On
August 24, 2006 3:06 PM   Subscribe

C86: Side A and Side B.
posted by jack_mo (29 comments total) 4 users marked this as a favorite
 
In case anyone was wondering: the Wikipedia entry on C86.
posted by jack_mo at 3:08 PM on August 24, 2006


"Twee Pop"?


Really.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 3:11 PM on August 24, 2006


this is really cool. thanks jack_mo
posted by nola at 3:31 PM on August 24, 2006


I played nearly all of that when I was a college DJ.

Good lord, I've turned into a Venture Brother's character.
posted by Joey Michaels at 3:32 PM on August 24, 2006


God bless DownloadThemAll. Some blasts-from-the-past, some who-the-fuck-were-they, and some serious how-cool/dorky-am-I-for-having-this-song material potential! Nice post.
posted by Banky_Edwards at 3:42 PM on August 24, 2006


OOH! I'm giddy with excitement! [No sarcasm. In my mid to late nineties indiekid days this was mythical. However, my current mid-twenties self feels slightly weird about being excited by The Shop Assistants.]
posted by Kattullus at 3:47 PM on August 24, 2006


Ah ....c86 .....complete fucking bollocks the lot of it......it's tragic really how little music there was in indie at that time...there was a good 45 that you got when you bought sounds...it had that petrol emotion , the fall and the go-betweens on it if i remember rightly - i remember waiting for the shop assistants and the pastels to turn into this unstoppable musical force , they were unstartable really - it was all so disapointing , especially when bobby gillespie started rocking out.
posted by sgt.serenity at 3:50 PM on August 24, 2006


Cool! Nice to hear the Wedding Present again. I didn't get this, but did get C81, a whole bunch of keepers on that one.
posted by carter at 4:03 PM on August 24, 2006


Wow. This is great. How come this never got (at least to my knowledge) the nicely-packaged CD reissue w/ extensive liner notes, etc? I'd love to see Rhino do something like that, but I bet there's lots of legal/trademark red tape and such (to answer my own question).
posted by Kronoss at 4:05 PM on August 24, 2006


Actually, now that I'm on side b, I remember now why I shouldn't have been excited by The Shop Assistants.
posted by Kattullus at 4:44 PM on August 24, 2006


C06 anyone? [from Keeping C86 Alive / Indie Mp3 - the blog dedicated to all things C86 and Indie-Pop.]

C81 and C86 tapes also available there with a lot of background and writing on the scene, it's past and future.
posted by takeyourmedicine at 5:46 PM on August 24, 2006


Thanks, jack_mo!
posted by shoepal at 6:13 PM on August 24, 2006


C86 is the name of an cassette compilation released by the British music magazine New Musical Express in 1986

I hope that doesn't mean that the mp3 is a digitized cassette.
posted by StickyCarpet at 6:27 PM on August 24, 2006


I hope that doesn't mean that the mp3 is a digitized cassette.

What the hell's wrong with that?
posted by Jimbob at 8:26 PM on August 24, 2006


By the way, off C81 - "The Day My Pad Went Mad" – The Massed Carnaby St John Cooper Clarkes. People really need to listen to this if they haven't heard it.
posted by Jimbob at 8:28 PM on August 24, 2006


You posted this with just intro clips? Wha? Lame.
posted by caddis at 8:38 PM on August 24, 2006


Thx for this. I love that Wedding Present song, heard them do it live once and was blown away.
posted by Skygazer at 10:04 PM on August 24, 2006


I downloaded this a while back and found the stuff I like most now is the stuff I liked least back then. Time for a Ron Johnson revival?
posted by ceiriog at 1:36 AM on August 25, 2006


Just for reference, here's the track listing for the C81 tape.

Side One

1. "The "Sweetest Girl"" – Scritti Politti
2. "Twist and Crawl Dub" – The Beat
3. "Misery Goats" – Pere Ubu
4. "7,000 Names of Wah!" – Wah! Heat
5. "Blue Boy" – Orange Juice
6. "Raising the Count" – Cabaret Voltaire
7. "Kebab Traume Live" – D.A.F
8. "Bare Pork" – Furious Pig
9. "Raquel" – The Specials
10. "I Look Alone" – Buzzcocks
11. "Fanfare in the Garden" – Essential Logic
12. "Born Again Cretin" – Robert Wyatt

Side Two

1. "Shouting Out Loud" – The Raincoats
2. "Endless Soul" – Josef K
3. "Low Profile" – Blue Orchids
4. "Red Nettle" – Virgin Prunes
5. "We Could Send Letters" – Aztec Camera
6. "Milkmaid" – Red Crayola
7. "Don't Get in My Way" – Linx
8. "The Day My Pad Went Mad" – The Massed Carnaby St John Cooper Clarkes
9. "Jazz Is the Teacher, Funk Is the Preacher" – James Blood Ulmer
10. "Close to Home" – Ian Dury
11. "Greener Grass" – Gist
12. "Parallel Lines" – Subway Sect


Makes C86 look a little crappy doesn't it? Mind you, C86 was entirely representative of the indie music scene of the time. It was such a relief when the resurgence of dance music blew all those tinny, solemn, small bands away.
posted by thatwhichfalls at 1:49 AM on August 25, 2006


You posted this with just intro clips? Wha? Lame.

Shit, really? I have most of the songs already so just tested that the downloads worked. Sorry about that, head hung in shame.

Makes C86 look a little crappy doesn't it?

Totally, the music on C81 is much more my thing, but like you say C86 is interesting in capturing a little moment in indie time.
posted by jack_mo at 2:07 AM on August 25, 2006


agreed that c81 makes c86 look total rubbish. It suffers further when you compare it with the US music being made around this time, e.g. Husker Du, Big Black, The Replacements.

I still like Velocity Girl though.
posted by johnny novak at 2:32 AM on August 25, 2006


tinny, solemn, small bands.

Agreed , small in every way.
posted by sgt.serenity at 3:00 AM on August 25, 2006


Anyone know a site where I can download the mp3s for C81 without using torrents?
posted by bluefin at 4:08 AM on August 25, 2006


Thanks jack_mo. Great stuff. Makes me feel old though.
posted by ClanvidHorse at 6:31 AM on August 25, 2006


Anyone know a site where I can download the mp3s for C81 without using torrents?

Right here. Zip downloads of each side hosted on Rapidshare.
posted by takeyourmedicine at 8:26 AM on August 25, 2006


Neat. You can see the influence of C81 bands like Orange Juice on the jingly-jangly guitar pop bands of C86 ...
posted by carter at 8:51 AM on August 25, 2006


That bIG fLAME track was alright. They've got one on the Rough trade post-punk comp as well; sounds like they took their lead from the Minutemen. (At the same time, it looks like the surviving Minutemen took the Brits' lead when they styled their name fIREHOSE.)
posted by macdara at 9:08 AM on August 25, 2006


Also - the Wedding Present (C86) did a particularly rocking version of Orange Juice (C81)'s 'Felicity.'
posted by carter at 11:08 AM on August 25, 2006


You know what I hate most about C86?

The way it was supposed to be so important -

These bands with their artfully out of tune guitars, base lines i couldn't hear because they were mixed down so far, their drums that sounded like wet cardboard boxes being hit by ping-pong bats

And NME went on about them for years.

The Smiths had been around for a couple of years at that point, the Fall were probably in one of their best live versions. And the NME decided that these jangly wankers were the best thing going.

(Apologies to any members of fuzzbox - you rocked)
posted by thatwhichfalls at 10:09 PM on August 26, 2006


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