I think I previously mentioned that my favorite Long Fin Killie EP is Buttergut, which I orignally scored on vinyl; lucky for y’all I remembered my cd copy, picked up long ago for the ludicrous price of $1. Their first recording, from 1994, it includes the soon-to-be-on Houdini “Lamberton Lamplighter,” a nice narrative sung by a gay city worker justifying his taste for boys at dusk. It also contains three tracks not found anywhere else, and they’re decent — the stop-start, guitar feast of “Boy Racer” (about that band?) and the propulsive, gothic, violin-rich “Suki,” which contains vocal ideas Luke Sutherland would hone for Houdini. But the elephant in this room sits in the shape of an instrumental track that never appeared anywhere else, and should have, being the only example of breakbeat, ambient bluegrass I can recall. That sounds worse than it is, but then the parts aren’t easily identifiable, but only words I use to describe them.
Also on the Scottish tip, Camera Obscura has be recalling Lloyd Cole, with their tune “Lloyd, I’m Ready To Be Heartbroken” and although I’d be smart to post Commotions-era stuff, I’m not especially close to that, having come to it inexcusably late. Nostalgia value, for me, lies in Cole’s 1990 self-titled solo rekkid. I stole it from the campus radio station and kept it, if only for the later-to-be-used-in Shitspotting track “Downtown,” but more for the first three songs, all gorgeous. And by the way, his band here is drummer Fred Maher and the late Robert Quine, both of Voidoid fame, along with some frikkin’ guy named Matthew Sweet on bass.
Lloyd Cole – No Blue Skies
Lloyd Cole –What Do You Know About Love?
Lloyd Cole –Don’t Look Back
PS – I don’t like Ratatat. Yet? Dunno. Don’t see why I’ll ever not be bored by it. New French Kicks tracks so far: wow, but took ’em long enough, right?
Stop Loving Everything 
Fred Maher also played drums/produced Lou Reed and produced Luna, your favorite band. Maher was with Reed during his New York album.
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While the Commotions were all Jocks and the band was based in Glasgow, Mr Cole is actually English. But good to hear these again. Shame about his other solo albums….
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J Frank did not make that mistake. Camera Obscura is Glaswegian, despite recording in Sweden and being on merge.
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Do you think Long Fin Killie have posters of The Edge on their walls?
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Nah. Edge might be bald, but he’s not gay.
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lloyd’s solo album are real shit; I saw him live with the commotions twice in the eighties and that strucked me a lot; no blu sky has a guitar line and style like the worst american pop, and no ideas in the melodies; the commotions were great creatives, and great musicians, especially live. It all finished there, when they splitted.
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Most of his solo albums do suck. The rest of the one I mentioned is awful. But you certainly haven’t been listening to American pop if you think Robert Quine played guitar like that found on Britney Spears or Dixie Chicks songs. To say No Blue Sky has a bad guitar line is to reject much of VU. And to say there’s no ideas in the melodies is just wrong. Listen again.And lets be honest – the Cmmotions were painfully overrated. Lukewarm folk pop, like the Beautiful South etc. Another band worth little more than one greatest hits collection.
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Quine playes some sweet, restrained guitar on Lou Reed’s Blue Mask. Reed should have given him a longer leash.
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Lloyd Cole’s solo work has not been bad, just inconsistent.There’s some good stuff on each album, with the best IMO being the “Love Story” release. I still enjoy listening to his music and especially his voice.
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No overrating for the Commotions, sorry.Rattlesnakes is a fresh 10 perfect song disc; those years bands used to write a couple of nice songs, add some rubbish and voilà, the lp was ready; few albums from the eighties a re a perfect bunch of perfect songs like those in Rattlesnakes; Easy Pieces has nice melodies, but sometimes bad use of strings (live they played those songs more rnr style, and that was great); Mainstream was underrated, but still a nice disc to listen to.Anyway Rattlesnakes is a gem.
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