70s Cup Round 7 Match 15 *Gash 18- Dayodead 11*

[never/ever]

A

Swell Maps - Read About Seymour





B

The Cramps- Domino

[Dayodead]

Well, Avatar rules apply, obviously going with B...

In almost any other match up, I would vote for Swell Maps...

[Belle Lettre]

B though I did like Read About Seymour.

[Purgatory Brite]

B

[naughty boy]

A is one of my favourite things by anybody!

[Polishgirl]

I like A, but B is right up my alley.

B

[Darkness_Fish]

1:31 is a promising song length for me, especially after just voting for 9 minutes of Neil Young. There's a lot to be said for getting in there, getting the job done, and pissing off. This reminds me of a more interesting Fall/a less experimental early Virgin Prunes (20 Tens, particularly). I like it. The only other Swell Maps track I know is "Midget Submarines" which is one of the worst tracks on the superb industrial comp The Tyranny of the Beat. This is better, it feels properly rough and not-quite-right to me.

I do love The Cramps, especially when they're doing covers. Lux was one of those singers who gave a song everything, put a massive amount of character into every performance, he really did breath life into what might not be particularly strong songs. That overall sound is just perfection, this is more rock n roll than a knife fight between Jerry Lee Lewis and Hasil Adkins.

But, I'm voting for A on the grounds of being a more interesting cup pick. Good round though.

[The Modernist]

The Swell Maps track is engaging lo-fi post-punk, but there's not too much to it really. The Cramps have more exciting moments but I dig their early sound.

B

[Loki]

I don't know from Swell Maps (have heard of them, tho) - I really like this. First thing I thought was it sounds like something MES would have come up with, and apparently Dave concurs - OK that's twice now in this round I've agreed with him. I'm scared.

I like the guitar work on B, but that vocal has to go. Sorry

[C]

Pass



.

[sloopjohnc]

B

[joels344]

A for me.

[toomanyhatz]

Like 'em both a lot, but have always pulled up just short of being a full-on fan of either band. A takes up less of my time, and is one of my favorite SMs songs that I've heard. B seems like typical Cramps (not that there's anything wrong with...oh, never mind).

[Penk!]

I like the Cramps in general, but a little goes a long way. They don't really have a lot of variety.
Swell Maps also have their particular sound, but they get more out of it with a song like this (and throw in more curveballs over a full album).

A

[T. Willy Rye]

A

[GoogaMooga]

I like the ska punk of A

[Osgood]

Never heard A before and I loved it immediately. Then I cannot tell if I have heard B before or not, it happens to me all the time with The Cramps, but it's good fun as usual none the less.But I'll reward the unknown (and yes, being a short tune is a plus)

A

[Rayge]

Well of course I bought both of these on singles when they came out (colour me kewl), although I've since sold them on for vast sums that support my extravagant lifestyle, and I'm hard-pressed to choose between them (second or third tie this round where two faves have been pitted against one another), so I'm going to listen to both.
a - The Maps were darlings, weren't they? I spent some time (less than a day) with that there Biggles Books once (shared friend) in the early 1980s, and he was a sweet, diffident chap, a little embarrassed about his former status, not helped by the way said mutual friend, Rosemary Ritchie, ribbed him unmercifully about it, insisting on referring to him as Biggles, rather than his real name, Richard (incidentally, looked that up to check and found his surname was Earl. In an adjacent universe, he was Dick F Earl, just a heartbeat and a slurred vowel away from an American number one) and introducing him to me as her 'rock star' friend: but I digress (often, habitually, charmingly). Anyway, I'm not even sure if he's on this one, but this 90 second blast of fresh air and good old English spunk effectively begat the TV Personalities, 'O' Level, Teenage Film Stars, the Jacobites, the notsensibles, and eventually the Pastels, the entire Postcard, Creation and Sarah labels, and half skope and Billy's record collections (not to mention a good portion of mine) and first embodied the tropes and eventual glories of a whole British sub-scene of punk where shambolic charm, whimsical amateurism and incompetently copying the Velvets third album were the touchstones, rather than the razor guitars, snottiness, Stooges and Dolls influences that characterized the first bands to be signed.
The fact that some guys have paid me more than £100 a time to relieve me of this and other singles from the scene only increases my appreciation for their oeuvre. I listened to it five times while writing this. The dog has left the room in despair at ever getting walked - 8 / 10
b - Gravest Hits is a juddering brute of a 12" EP. There's no way that an upload to youtube is going to get close to replicating that: the primitive thud and thump of Ivy is still upfront in this, but Bryan's guitar lines aren't as slashingly scary as I remember. Lux's deranged take on a hiccuping Roy Orbison rockabilly vocal isn't his best, but it's not bad either. Prompted by my memory of the way the single sounded, rather than this, a solid 7.5 / 10

Sorry B, don't think I've ever given that mark to a losing track in a cup, but

A

Seeing as Domino is losing I may change this. Voting's open until Saturday, if anyone would like to sway me

[Diamond Dog]

Two things from similar backgrounds.

I think the Cramps track is probably better but.... i'm much more likely to play A

[fange]

Excellent match. Wish i could vote for both.
The rock and roll/rockabilly lover in me is going with the Cramps here; a sound that is a cornerstone of my musical world.


B