More coincidence malarky: So there I am yesterday making up a mix for a friend, making careful selections from recent listening. I’m looking at the ‘Scream City SC5.1’ CD (160 copies free with the ‘Scream City’ Factory fanzine) and wondering what tracks to include. I opt for ‘Zeroes’ by The Names and ‘(I Thought You Were Dead) Josephine’ by The Distractions. An hour later an email from Nick at Occultation records arrives in my inbox. The email announces the imminent arrival of the ‘new’ Distractions’ ‘Back Velvet’ EP - three tracks from the same 1995 sessions that provided the ‘Josephine’ cut.
Now if you do not know of The Distractions then you really ought to check them out. There is a fabulous piece in ‘Scream City’ by David Quantick which includes this by Kevin Cummins: “I thought they were the missing link between Freddie and The Dreamers and The Fall. They crafted perfect pop songs. Maybe they were ten years ahead of their time.” Well quite. Here’s the skinny on the new release:
Occultation Recordings are delighted to welcome legendary Manchester beat combo The Distractions to the label. We'll have a series of releases, old and new, over the next few months, starting with the Black Velvet EP as a digital download available from our website now or from most major platforms 13/9/10, but we've also pressed up some promo CDs available only from our website. Links below:
As always, if you buy the promo CD you get MP3s free and we're expecting the CDs next week. The Promos page also features a special offer of a copy of the Distractions promo CD plus the 7" vinyl+promo CD version of the recent Granite Shore single Flood of fortune, which has been picking up some airplay recently, notably on Marc Riley's BBC6 radio show. This saves you money both on the individual prices and, in particular, on P&P, as we only charge for one item. Flood of fortune is also still available either on its own here or in combination with other previous Occultation releases at special prices here.
We'll have a brand-new Distractions single hopefully in November, three tracks recorded in Liverpool earlier this year, with original members Mike Finney and Steve Perrin joined by another former Distraction, Nick Garside, plus Nick Halliwell of The Granite Shore. The session was engineered by Richard Turvey of The Wild Swans, who also contributes piano and organ. It's rather special...
Finally, we recently posted rough mixes of three tracks from the forthcoming Wild Swans album here. See? It really does exist after all and we'll be releasing it as soon as it's finished. In the meantime we hope you'll continue to support the label by buying other releases, if possible direct from us.
good stuff.
here's my (somewhat belated) tribute
http://www.collapseboard.com/song-of-the-day-200-the-distractions
Posted by: Jerry | October 16, 2010 at 11:48
Fabulous piece. Typically brim-full of passion. I was spinning the old album again last night - it does indeed still sound as fabulous as you say. Have you heard the new Distractions recording that is a cover of The Granite Shore song 'Oil Painting'? It's magical.
Posted by: alistair fitchett | October 17, 2010 at 10:43