Postcard Records Poll: a-sides

Orange Juice "Falling and Laughing"

yeah can't see voting for anyone except orange juice, but which one is the question. all pretty classic imo.

the go betweens will win as they cant be vote split

I had the first few Postcard singles, blue labels...

How to get the ones that aren't Orange Juice? Or is that radio show online someplace?

http://wfmu.org/playlists/shows/44335

http://kahnartistry.net/wfmu/031812/postcat.gif

Voting Blue Boy (for the guitar solo, amongst other things...)

xpost ta

pretty cool looking singles, i have to admit
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_-r1yC23kIDM/TIjBms6_lsI/AAAAAAAABZg/nHeMJ2dYdLg/s1600/Postcard+Records+Collage.jpg

Wow they got the flexis too!

All of these are classic. I went with Blueboy just ahead of Falling & Laughing as I prefer the rerecorded album version of that. It's Kinda Funny and Just Like Gold would be close too. I Need Two Heads is classic just for the "The best detective is the child detective" line.

I'm surprised there hasn't been a compilation of all these songs in the last few years. I guess it's partly as Roddy Frame has some odd thing about not letting his songs come out on CD.

chance meeting

the go betweens will win as they cant be vote split

i don't dislike this single of theirs but i'll be surprised if it gets any votes up against those OJ and JK tracks.

yeah i like that go-bs single but it is leagues behind their best work.

'only fun in town'

yup!

I thought I'd post the releaed WITH b-sides, since that could make a difference:

Orange Juice "Falling and Laughing" b/w "Moscow" + "Moscow Olympics"
Orange Juice "Blue Boy" b/w "Lovesick"
Josef K "Radio Drill Time" b/w "Crazy To Exist" (live)
The Go-Betweens "I Need Two Heads" / Stop Before You Say It"
Josef K "It's Kinda Funny" / "Final Request"
Orange Juice "Simply Thrilled Honey" / "Breakfast Time"
Orange Juice "Poor Old Soul" / "Poor Old Soul (Pt 2)"
Aztec Camera "Just Like Gold" / "We Could Send Letters"
Josef K "Sorry For Laughing" / "Revelation"
Josef K "Chance Meeting" / "Pictures (Of Cindy)"
Josef K "The Only Fun In Town" LP
Aztec Camera "Mattress Of Wire" b/w "Lost Outside Tunnel"

unreleased at the time (and some even now):
Jazzateers (unreleased album, save one track)
Secret Goldfish (unreleased single)
The Bluebells (unreleased single)
Aztec Camera "Green Jacket Grey" LP
The Go-Betweens "Your Turn, My Turn" b/w "World Weary" (unreleased by Postcard, but released by Missing Link)
Orange Juice "Wan Light" b/w "You Old Eccentric" (planned single, never released though both songs came out in various forms later)
Josef K "Sorry For Laughing" (unreleased debut; later released on CD by LTM)
Orange Juice "Ostrich Churchyard" LP (unreleased at the time, released by the revived Postcard label in the early '90s)

+ some others

Someone asked where you can get all this stuff:

Pretty much the entire Orange Juice catalog is available on the ". . . Coals To Newcastle" box set, which came out on Domino. This includes all recordings for Postcard, Polydor, various radio sessions and rarities.
The Go-Betweens single (as well as the Missing Link one) are available on the deluxe 2xCD reissue of their "Send Me A Lullaby" album.
The Josef K stuff was all released on two CDs via the LTM label - that's their two albums on one CD and another CD of their singles, Peel sessions and a few rarities. These are now out of print.
There's also a Josef K live CD called "Crazy To Exist (Live)," which is pretty fine, and includes the unrecorded-in-studio "Adoration," later covered by Momus.
Domino released a compilation of Josef K stuff, which draws upon the two deleted CDs - its "conceit" is that it only includes one version of each of their songs.

There's a Go-Betweens "Postcard Sessions" file that goes around - these sound like run-throughs of some of their early material, and like their Postcard single, it includes OJ's Steven Daly on drums.

Oh yeah, the Aztec Camera stuff has not been made available anywhere in the digital age, but boots of "Green Jacket Grey" with the singles appended would be a great release. Like the singles, some of the "Green Jacket Grey" material ended up on "High Land, Hard Rain," but in different arrangements and in different recordings.

Outstanding summary, Crusty! Think I'm voting Josef K, gonna mull over which one...

I've got them all...on tape!

I forgot to mention that the sole Jazzateers' track released from their debut album "Lee" is called "Don't Let Your Son Grow Up To Be A Cowboy," and it's more or less the same song as "Texan" from their self-titled debut (but actually their second recorded album) on Rough Trade. This released Postcard track is sort of like a very low-key countrified James Kirk-written Orange Juice song with "Falling And Laughing"-level production. Which is to say, the vocals aren't too great, but it's a nice song. The Jazzateers' "I Shot The President" CD on Marina contains this oddball Postcard track, the entire Rough Trade album (sadly minus one great track, "First Blood"), both sides of a 12" and some other tracks. It's uneven, but the Rough Trade album which forms the basis for it is astounding - imagine a tighter Postcard / "You Can't Hide Your Love Forever"-era Orange Juice more influenced by Neil Young than Al Green and the Byrds, more rock than fey. Totally underrated. The Marina CD is, I think, technically out-of-print, but copies are on Amazon / Amazon UK for not too much cash. You can hear the self-titled Rough Trade album's "Sixteen Reasons" on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvCc7tDcz7Q

I vaguely remember unreleased French Impressionists and Bourgie Bourgie singles too. Though I could be imagining those.

Bourgie Bourgie wasn't formed until Postcard had been dissolved, and I've never heard anything about a French Impressionists release on Postcard, and I'm in touch with many of the people around the scene. Obviously, both bands had connections on many levels with various Postcard alumni. But even among the "confirmed" unreleased stuff there is a lot of speculation as to the truth of it - for instance, The Secret Goldfish were meant to be Orange Juice in disguise (and their name, taken from "Catcher In The Rye" makes them somewhat believable - the OJ "imprint" on Polydor was at one point called "Holden Caufield Universal), but most people I know swear there was never anything specific discussed about that release. (And oddly, a Scottish band called "The Secret Goldfish" were on Creeping Bent, a label with a million Postcard connections, but this was much later and was a completely different band than whatever the Postcard-era Secret Goldfish were meant to be.)

Postcard used to sort of trumpet their connection with the Fire Engines (who deliberated over signing with them - later leader Davey Henderson's Nectarine No 9 were on the revived Postcard, and before that his band Win were on Alan Horne's Swamplands label between the iterations of Postcard itself) and the Blue Orchids (never happened either, but apparently a release was considered and they were even labelled as Postcard artists on the NME's C81 cassette.)

There's always the Dave the Rave "Miniature Dogs" unreleased flexi...as listed in Volume. Drove me crazy looking for it until I learned it never actually happened.

ha, mysterious stuff! that jazzateers track is great, thanks for posting.

That (supposed) Secret Goldfish 7" on Postcard had titles - "Hey Mister" b/w "The Poorest Boy In Town." What's odd about that is that "Hey Mister" is also the title of one of the tunes on the unreleased Jazzateers album for Postcard, the tracks for which were:

Can It Be / Hey Mister / Different Feeling / I Shot The President / Red Letter Day / Blue Moon Over Hawaii / Don't Let Your Son Grow Up To Be A Cowboy / Different Drum / Lee / Après Ski / Two Part Harmony / Slight Return / Natural Progression

Paul Quinn (who guested on an Orange Track and with Edwyn Collins later, and later released two albums on the revived Postcard) was the singer on many of these tracks, some of which were later reworked for Bourgie Bourgie and other for the second Jazzateers album (th eon on Rough Trade which didn't feature Quinn.) The infamous Rutkowski sisters sang on a bunch of tracks as well. One of the "Messthetics" compilation CDs has "Blue Moon Over Hawaii," Stephen Pastel is supposed to have based the Pastels' interpretation of Mike Nesmith's "Different Drum" on the Jazzateers version, and "Après-Ski" as a song title was bandied about by several artists - Memphis (James Kirk's post-OJ combo) released a 12" on Alan Horne's Swamplands label) with a song by that name.

Volume infamous added some fake entries to "catch" plagiarists - I suspect that "Miniature Dogs" thing was one of them. But it could have been something Alan Horne said once as a gag - you never can tell.

Thanks for the B-sides -- was going to vote "Blue Boy" but "Moscow Olympics" is maybe my favorite OJ track of all and this makes "Falling and Laughing" the choice. But not really fair since I haven't heard any of these which are not by Orange Juice.

i don't imagine you would regret for a second familiarising yourself with the josef k tracks

That radio show is excellent, all the postcard single tracks are there

Zigzag magazine had a 'small labels' guide, one of them had an "I wish I was a Postcard" listing with five entries or more.

As far as I know, only one actually happened, "Felicity".. I think one of the others was called "Texas Fever"

I bought most of these when they came out, so I know that Josef K's "Sorry For Laughing" was never released on Postcard (although a catalogue number may well have been assigned). Instead, it appeared on the Belgian label Les Disques Du Crépuscule:

http://www.discogs.com/Josef-K-Sorry-For-Laughing/release/386686

Yes, but as the radio guy says (and the back of my "Poor old Soul" sleeve), it got a 'postcard' catalogue number.

Ooh, a nice website of the record I had, and what happened when I sold it...

http://www.popsike.com/Orange-Juice-Falling-and-Laughing-wFlexi/4857183627.html

do boots of "Green Jacket Grey" exist then?
for me this is "Poor Old Soul" v "Sorry For Laughing"
anyone going to vote for "Radio Drill Time"? always thought that was a bit of dirge.

Boots of "Green Jacket Grey" exist - very scarce, though.

I went for "Mattress Of Wire." Always liked that one (also great B-side, "Lost Outside The Tunnel").

Famously Roddy Frame won't reissue them on CD because he thinks seven-inch singles are works of art and should be cherished as such. Well, Rod, the downside of that is that "Mattress Of Wire" retails for crazy stupid prices in MVE and will only be bought by a saddo who looks like Dara O'Briain and will put it straight on ebay.

(nb: by "them" I mean the Postcard Aztec Camera singles)

That's very disingenuous on Roddy's part, as:

1) People have offered to reissue the Postcard singles as 7" singles.

2) This doesn't explain the missing "Green Jacket Grey."

3) It hasn't stopped him from anthologizing and collecting post-Postcard singles on various CDs (like all the "High Land, Hard Rain" b-sides.)

Of course, it's his business and he can do what he likes! And I can understand that he might be embarrassed by his own juvenalia . . . but I don't think his Postcard stuff is anywhere near as embarrassing as some of the mid-to-late period Aztec Camera material.

Well, this has been my first chance to hear most of those tracks!

There is a version of "Letters" on an NME cassette, and if it had been that little bit more 'together', I'd have bought them at the time. By the time the first 'Oblivious' came out, they were too pricey.

Oh, and there's no such thing as a 'scarce' bootleg. NAME THE LINKZ!!

yes, also i need those go betweens postacrd sessions k thx!

Sorry, don't have links! Got my copy of "Green Jacket Grey" aeons ago, on cassette. It had "Release," "Pillar To Post" and "Orchid Girl" (earlier versions than the Rough Trade / Sire ones, obviously), a song called "Green Jacket Grey," "Remember The Docks," "His Spirit Shows," and several more. It'd be a killer CD if one included the singles. Roddy still plays "His Spirit Shows" now and then - or at least did a while ago. The tracks form an album that's more diverse than "High Land, Hard Rain," with a sound that's occasionally more overtly post-punk than anything Roddy did later.

I can probably send the Go-Betweens' "Postcard demos" stuff to anyone who writes me - I have those as MP3s and didn't get them all that long ago. It's a different version of one of the single sides, and two more songs which showed up later on that "Very Quick On The Eye" bootleg (though in different version from that. Those same VQOTE versions are on the 2xCD reissue of "Send Me A Lullaby." So it's probably not essentially . . . but still cool.

The Green Jacket Grey I have is pretty similar: Pillar to Post, Remember the Docks, Orchid Girl, In Another Room, Release, Green Jacket Grey, When the Spirit Shows, Nothing in the Sky, Green Jacket Grey 2, Remember the Docks 2, We Could Send Letters

Also of relevance are the three early songs from the Urban Development comp cassette: Abbatoir, Stand Still, Real Tears. Very muffled...has them sounding more like Joy Division or the early Cure.

That tape (1980) also has the earliest version of "Blue Boy." Though here it's called "No One Listening," and the band is listed as The Unknowns. Pretty much Edwyn in his bedroom bashing a guitar.

A more overtly post-punk sounding Aztec Camera? Sign me up!!

As much as I love High Land, Hard Rain, those first Postcard singles are truly something special. I've always found later Aztec Camera a little too fussy and polished.

I just realized that Messthetics #105 (DIY 77-81 Scotland I) has an early Jazzateers tracks - Blue Moon Over Hawaii. This is evidently not the version from their unreleased debut, Lee, but rather a demo. And apparently, the never-released Jazzateers 7" single on Postcard, which I knew about but forgot to list above, was a cover of Donna Summer's "Wasted."

This same compilation talks about Alan Horne and Malcolm Ross producing an Article 58 single, but failing to actually sign them to Postcard (as was assumed) instead, it claims, signing Aztec Camera, so Josef K's manager signed them to his label, Rational. (I used to have a cassette compilation on Rational with various Josef K-related stuff. Long lost, can't remember too many details.) Article 58's guitarist, Douglas McIntyre, is the guy behind Creeping Bent, which (as mentioned) has many Postcard connections.

The original incarnation of Postcard must have had four or five times the material in the vaults than what they released, and it's odd that so little of it still has come out.

Postcard seemed to be that very rare thing, a successful record label that closed (more than once) because the main man 'kept getting bored'..

Three times, really, since Swamplands (which occurred between the two versions of Postcard) was pretty much a similar cast of characters (Paul Quinn from the Jazzateers, Edwyn Collins from Orange Juice, James Kirk of Orange Juice's Memphis, Davy Henderson from the Fire Engines in Win, as well as the under-heralded James King & the Lonewolves) and the label was run by Alan Horne, who pretty much walked away from it. None of the Swamplands stuff is on CD, except for some of the Win material, which has been out of print for years and highly desired.

Blue Boy, love that song

That Rational cassette was (and I guess still is) called Irrationale. It came with a short 'zine and had three songs by Josef K (Romance, Heads Watch, and Variation of Scene), then one each by the Associates (Even Dogs in the Wild), Bébé Blanche et les Affaires du Coeur, Article 58, and The Distance. It's that last one ("A Threat") that's the real winner, a pulsing, female-fronted, minimal thing as close to the Young Marble Giants as any Scottish group got, so far as I know. I wanted to put it on a comp once, but found it too late, then Chuck Warner was thinking about it for the Scottish Messthetics. But nobody knows who The Distance were. If any of you know....

Is there a cover image for that cassette? I need it for that Associates track. ;-)

i have that cassette somewhere. i will look for it. iirc, it came in a plastic bag with a xeroxed sheet of paper; no case or anything for the cassette. i also have an old cassette by Paul Haig, called Drama:
http://www.discogs.com/Paul-Haig-Drama/release/2256550

This is the Article 58 song from the tape; the video shows most of the 'zine, actually, but not the cover.

http://www.facebook.com/bentpage

Oops that's the Creeping Bent page, which does have the link down a little bit on the right, but here's the direct link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u58_kU3t_FM

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/22568706/Irrationale.jpg

This isn't really a proper cover; it's about 19.5cm X 25cm. A single sheet. 'Zine was separate. Plus the cassette. all in a plastic bag.

mine came with a Delmontes 45 too.

Mine came in a plastic bag, with bonus stuff like a ticket stub for a heavy metal concert and random pieces of paper. No Delmontes single, though.

i always liked that Article 58 single w/ Malcolm Ross... and what about the Happy Family 45 on 4ad--Malcolm Ross and Dave Weddell from Josef K wrote/produced i think?

They wrote the a-side. It's a pretty good single and the album's not bad either. To my mind, much better than anything Momus did later.

MT, you rock, as always, thanks for sharing!

Welcome. It'll come down at some point since it's in my dropbox.

ugh: i finally found my Irrational cassette, put it in my cassette deck, and it's all of a sudden DEAD. no response; tape stuck inside.

bummer!
ended up voting for "falling and laughing".

anyone going to vote for "Radio Drill Time"? always thought that was a bit of dirge.

― zappi, Wednesday, March 28, 2012 6:13 AM (4 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

all josef k is dirgey to me, something leaden about even their uptempo numbers. they've never clicked for me. i voted for poor old soul, really like the aztec camera songs as well.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Tough to argue with the results too much - I figured Orange Juice would dominate due to their 7" brilliance, although I am a little surprised that the Josef K album didn't do a wee bit better. I also reckon that "Chance Meeting" and "It's Kinda Funny" are better a-side / b-side combos than "Sorry For Laughing" / "Revelation," but "Sorry For Laughing" is probably the strongest of their a-sides.

If this hadn't specifically been an A-side poll, I'd have voted "Blue Boy"/"Love Sick". As it was, I voted "Poor Old Soul"...

Anybody interested in some early Aztec Camera should take a look here: http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=6776777782419637264&postID=397659703817561387

Wow, that's 22 tracks! It must be mostly demos? I have it queued, so haven't heard yet. It certainly eases some of the frustration of the recent expanded edition reissue of High Land, Hard Rain not including the Postcard singles.

It's not exactly critical stuff in their catalog, though. Some interesting bits if you haven't heard them.

RS link for that Aztec Camera - Dustbin collection is dead. Anybody have it handy to reup?

*cough*

http://consolationprize.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/pale-fountains-thank-you-aside.jpg

the entire Rough Trade album (sadly minus one great track, "First Blood")

creeping bent have just reissued the jazzateers RT album inc this track, there is a noticeable difference in sound quality on it so maybe it was left off the other reissue for this reason? cool song but.

Anyone got "Green Jacket Grey" yet?

You've seen this, Mark?

http://soundcloud.com/elframo/green-jacket-grey

One massive pic of a pale fountains single back at you!

Cheers.

Green Jacket Grey is absolutely stunning, thanks Tim

So cast the film:

https://deadline.com/2018/08/aztec-camera-label-postcard-records-set-to-be-focus-of-feature-film-as-freedom-strikes-bbc-studios-deal-edinburgh-1202450025/