25. Les Cox Sportifs - Total Straightness

1. The Hand & The Heed (The Heel, The Teat, The Hair & The Beak Grew)
2. Wrong Side
3. It Gave Back

"We party to distract from the pointlessness of life, and to remind ourselves of the optimism of living. Viva autonomia!" Les Cox Sportifs, "a politically correct band from the North East", play a punk, folk, rock 'n' roll blend. To date they've done two albums (Never Heed and Scheiß Mit Reis). I've not heard the second but the first is excellent. This EP was released between the two, and you can download it for a very reasonable £2 here. Although, weirdly, the tracks are only 50p individually. It's been two years since their last album, but their Facebook page tells me that they will soon "unearth a keech load of new sh*t". The links I've put up are just to their Bandcamp page, because I couldn't be arsed to upload them to Youtube. Enjoy!

2009, Clunk Click Records.

24. Pere Ubu - 30 Seconds Over Tokyo

1. 30 Seconds Over Tokyo
2. Heart Of Darkness

It was about time I acquainted myself with Pere Ubu, founders of "avant-garage" and influential art-rockers; so that's just what I did, working my way through their entire singles discography in one sitting (I don't have a job). They started 37 years ago, in Cleveland, and have never had any actual success. Only David Thomas remains from the original line-up, while 12 others have left - impressive, but obviously not a patch on The Fall. I tend to pride myself on my enjoyment of tiring, attritional music, but even I found this lot tough to handle. 30 Seconds Over Tokyo I've always known and had a soft spot for - it's about six minutes of noise, although you can discern a melody if you listen hard - and the rest of their output is well worth a listen to as well. Incredible to think that this came out a year before New Rose and punk rock. The b-side, Heart Of Darkness, is just as "fun" - if you like the same thing done over and over again, or The Fall, then the commercially nonviable Pere Ubu are definitely for you. I'm no expert but I'd also recommend Non-alignment Pact from The Modern Dance (1977). I have so much catching up to do with this band, I hope the neighbours like experimental art-punk. Watch out for their new album, Lady From Shanghai, due out in January. "No-one can come close to matching our loss to longevity ratio."

1975, Hearthan
Thanks to @ackleite for the suggestion

23. Half Man Half Biscuit - Look Dad No Tunes

1. Look Dad No Tunes
2. Ecclesiastical Perks
3. Lock Up Your Mountain Bikes

Nigel Blackwell is the greatest poet of the 20th century and Half Man Half Biscuit are better than The Smiths. They're a funny band, but don't make the mistake of thinking they're a naff comedy band - "No disrespect to the Grumbleweeds, but I think there's a bit more to us", as Blackwell puts it. Although Look Dad No Tunes did not even make it through the group stages in 2011's Lux Familiar Cup, it's wonderful and brilliant. The other songs, admittedly, are below par for our Birkenhead pals. Lock Up Your Mountain Bikes is fairly conventional observational comedy, and as such worthless. Their masterpieces, or some of them, are A Country Practice, A Lilac Harry Quinn, National Shite Day and the Fall-esque Thy Damnation Slumbereth Not. There's a whole army of dedicated Biscuit fans out there - have a look at the Half Man Half Biscuit Lyrics Project, which has grown into so much more (best site on the internet?). God, I love this band. And now you shall too. Lyrics

1999, Probe Plus

22. Vic Godard - Better Not Turn On

1. Better Not Turn On (Vic Godard)
2. Entre Les Marolles Et St Gilles (Georgio 'The Dove' Valentino)

Vic Godard was, along with Perry, Devoto and Lydon, one of the four great figures of the punk era. You definitely ought to get acquainted with their second single, Ambition. Thirty five years later and he's still plugging away, sometimes still under the Subway Sect moniker. Vic very rarely indulges us with any new material, so a new a new single should be cherished - Better Not Turn On, this year's offering, is fine. Not great, but fine. As usual, you can't hear a word he's saying, but as with Mark E Smith that somehow barely matters. The b-side is not Godard, but Georgio 'The Dove' Valentino. How is it? Meh. More mellow, and less good. I only paid £1 for the single of their website, so it was just about worth it. Also listen to Vic's 6Music session with The Sexual Objects here. We can expect a new album next year, 1979 Now! which I think is a re-recording of the album which got lost in a flood back in 1979.

21. Public Service Broadcasting - Everest

1. Everest

Spitfire (reviewed here), which came out in March, is probably the best song of the year. The EP it was on, The War Room, was new and interesting - I actually paid money for it. By now you'd hope the band would've evolved a bit, but Everest follows the format of its predecessor far too closely, to the point where it sounds like a parody of itself. The music is very good - I won't pretend that PSB aren't very good at making music - but J Willgoose, Esq. and Wrigglesworth haven't really taken the band in a new direction. Also, they look like twats. I wondered what the point of the song was, what it was trying to communicate to me. It might just be that it's a bloke from the fifties talking over some admittedly fairly catchy melodies. And that's been done. I'm pretty disappointed with this single (three irritating remixes are also available), but I'll buy the album when it comes out. I just hope that it's different somehow.

2012, Public Service Broadcasting

20. The Wedding Present - Why Are You Being So Reasonable Now?

1. Why Are You Being So Reasonable Now?
2. Not From Where I'm Standing
3. Give My Love To Kevin (Acoustic Version)
4. Getting Better

The Wedding Present have been doing one thing for nearly 30 years now, but they do it well. Like all Wedding Present songs, Why Are You Being So Reasonable Now? is about a domestic argument with jangly guitar noises in the background. It's ace. The EP also contains the one of the best Beatles covers in Getting Better (perhaps second only to Laibach's One After 909). This was recorded during the golden period of The Wedding Present, in the middle of their wonderful trilogy of George Best (1987), Bizarro (1989) and Seamonsters (1991). The band are often mocked - and in fact, I did it above - for always sounding the same, for having easy-to-parody song titles, but some of what they write is genuinely moving. As one Youtube commenter puts it, "If he'd spent the last 24 years disappearing up his own a***hole like Morrissey he'd no doubt be lauded as one of this country's best artists." I find it hard to disagree. For further listening, My Favourite Dress, Brassneck and the much later Interstate 5.

1988, Reception

19. Dot Dash - The Past Is Another Country

1. The Past Is Another Country
2. Shouting In The Rain

Dot Dash contacted me a week ago with information on their latest album, Winter Garden Light. Luckily, I was saved the embarrassment of politely ignoring them, because it's actually rather good (and you can listen to, then buy it here). The Past Is Another Country is catchy and poppy, and certainly doesn't outstay its welcome at one and a half minutes. I chose Shouting In The Rain as the second song from the album, but it's best if you listen to whole ten tracks in one go. Dot Dash are made up of guitarist/singer Terry Banks, bassist Hunter Bennett, guitarist Bill Crandall and drummer Danny Ingram, and they've played with, among others, The Drums and Hugh Cornwell. You can also read an interview with the band, and watch Learn How To Fly from their previous album if you like what you hear. And if you still live in the 1940s you can buy Winter Garden Light as a CD (remember CDs, folks?) here. This is good, fun, stuff. Post-punk with a human face.

2012, The Beautiful Music

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