Comments on: C86, 20 Years On

C86, 20 Years On

jack_mo — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 15:06:50 -0800

C86: Side A and Side B.

By: jack_mo

jack_mo — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 15:08:15 -0800

In case anyone was wondering: the Wikipedia entry on C86.

By: Kirth Gerson

Kirth Gerson — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 15:11:26 -0800

"Twee Pop"? Really.

By: nola

nola — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 15:31:13 -0800

this is really cool. thanks jack_mo

By: Joey Michaels

Joey Michaels — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 15:32:46 -0800

I played nearly all of that when I was a college DJ. Good lord, I've turned into a Venture Brother's character.

By: Banky_Edwards

Banky_Edwards — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 15:42:59 -0800

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.

By: Kattullus

Kattullus — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 15:47:41 -0800

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.]

By: sgt.serenity

sgt.serenity — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 15:50:15 -0800

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.

By: carter

carter — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 16:03:47 -0800

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.

By: Kronoss

Kronoss — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 16:05:13 -0800

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).

By: Kattullus

Kattullus — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 16:44:08 -0800

Actually, now that I'm on side b, I remember now why I shouldn't have been excited by The Shop Assistants.

By: takeyourmedicine

takeyourmedicine — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 17:46:05 -0800

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.

By: shoepal

shoepal — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 18:13:04 -0800

Thanks, jack_mo!

By: StickyCarpet

StickyCarpet — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 18:27:05 -0800

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.

By: Jimbob

Jimbob — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 20:26:42 -0800

I hope that doesn't mean that the mp3 is a digitized cassette. What the hell's wrong with that?

By: Jimbob

Jimbob — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 20:28:12 -0800

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.

By: caddis

caddis — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 20:38:21 -0800

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

By: Skygazer

Skygazer — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 22:04:13 -0800

Thx for this. I love that Wedding Present song, heard them do it live once and was blown away.

By: ceiriog

ceiriog — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 01:36:01 -0800

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?

By: thatwhichfalls

thatwhichfalls — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 01:49:51 -0800

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.

By: jack_mo

jack_mo — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 02:07:11 -0800

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.

By: johnny novak

johnny novak — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 02:32:41 -0800

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.

By: sgt.serenity

sgt.serenity — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 03:00:25 -0800

tinny, solemn, small bands. Agreed , small in every way.

By: bluefin

bluefin — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 04:08:21 -0800

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

By: ClanvidHorse

ClanvidHorse — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 06:31:22 -0800

Thanks jack_mo. Great stuff. Makes me feel old though.

By: takeyourmedicine

takeyourmedicine — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 08:26:10 -0800

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.

By: carter

carter — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 08:51:16 -0800

Neat. You can see the influence of C81 bands like Orange Juice on the jingly-jangly guitar pop bands of C86 ...

By: macdara

macdara — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 09:08:46 -0800

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.)

By: carter

carter — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 11:08:34 -0800

Also - the Wedding Present (C86) did a particularly rocking version of Orange Juice (C81)'s 'Felicity.'

By: thatwhichfalls

thatwhichfalls — Sat, 26 Aug 2006 22:09:15 -0800

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)