Rough Trade Shops Counter Culture 2020

Music
1

On a whim I bought the annual Rough Trade Shops compilation this year. I used to buy them every year ages ago but got bored. This one’s pretty good and the best thing about it is how little of the stuff I’ve heard before.

This is the track list:

CD1
Jeffery Lewis - Keep It Chill / Coriky - Clean Kill / Bob Vylan - We Live Here / The Lounge Society - Generation Game / Dog Unit - Lab Coats / Disq - Gentle / Chubby and the Gang - All Along The Uxbridge Road / Kiwi Jr. -Salary Man / Bright Eyes - Dance and Sing / The GOA Express - Be My friend / Viagra Boys - Ain’t Nice / Slift - Hyperion / Habibi - Angel Eyes / Becca Mancari - First Time / Dry Cleaning / Bananagun - Freak Machine / Ribbon Stage - Favourite Girl / bdrrmm - A Reason To Celebrate / Brent Cobb - The World Is Ending

CD2
Jane Weaver - Flock / Happyness -Title Track / Hotel Lux- Tabloid Newspaper / Jockstrap - Acid / Soccer96 - I Was Gonna Fight Fascism / Soft Power - New Beginnings / Lightning Orchestra - For Those Who Are Yet To Be Born - (Radio Edit) / The Avalanches - Rivers / Cuomo & Pink Siifu - Running Red Lights / KeiyaAI -! Gits! Weary! / Kassa Overall - Show Me A Prison (feat. J Hoard & Angela Davis) / Berwyn -Glory / Karate Boogaloo - Haunted Boat (Buyer’s Remorse) / Rudy De Anda - Espume / Brijean - Moody / Nation of Language -The Wall And I / Samia - Big Wheel /Andrew Weatherall -Slap & Slide.

Of these I had heard two songs before (Avalanches and Keiyaa) and heard of only ten of the artists. Am I just painfully out of touch these days?

Number of these songs I have heard

  • Five or less
  • Six to ten
  • Ten to twenty
  • More than twenty

0 voters

Number of these artists I have heard of

  • Less than five
  • Five to ten
  • Ten to twenty
  • More than twenty

0 voters

2

Happily the voting so far is suggesting that I am only averagely out of touch.

3

This has to be intentional, right?

Also, Bob Vylan

2 Likes
4

There’s a typo in the way they’ve formatted the name/artist of the Avalanches track. Bob Vylan is a completely different person from Bob Dylan (it’s a very angry and quite good British rap/grime track about racism)

5

think i’ve heard 3 or 4 of the songs, heard of about 12 of the artists?

last year’s looked pretty good imo, never listened to the actual comp but quite a few things i already liked on there. was happy to see Just Mustard and The Claque both make it on although Just Mustard didn’t make the vinyl edition

6

It’s pretty good. I’ve only listened to it all the way through once but I really enjoyed Dry Cleaning and Nation of Language, neither of whom I’d ever heard of. A fair few of the other tracks might grow on me and there are no obvious clunkers.

I used to buy these every year but I think 2009 was the last one I got. I don’t even know whether they carried on releasing them every year. I think when streaming became so comprehensive it initially seemed like these sort of compilations had had their day, but actually there is so much stuff that it is impossible not miss loads.

1 Like
7

Dry Cleaning were the last band I saw before lock down and they were the best thing I’d seen in ages. Singer just stood stock still singing deadpan whilst the band raged behind here - was really compelling to watch and was bloody ace.

New album on 4AD soonish I think

1 Like
8

These used to be really good. Got 2003 through to 2009, but I haven’t bothered with them since. Might see if they’re on Spotify or something.

1 Like
9

Don’t think they are, but if you have the track lists you could pretty much recreate them as playlists (although a few of the tracks are unreleased).

10

There are some playlists for some of the more recent ones. 2007 and 2008 were properly excellent compilations

11

They used to do that thing where the first disc was pretty standard indie guitar music and the second disc was much more interesting and varied. This new one is a bit more ‘disc 2’ throughout, which is good.

1 Like
12

Heard 4 tracks and heard of 9 of the artists.

Is it quite indie disco vibe or more varied?

13

You’re assuming Rough Trade are ‘in touch’ :wink:

2 Likes
14

Listening to a spotify playlist just now, really liked the Dog Unit track.

15

Quite a bit more varied actually.

1 Like
16

That tracklisting has been invented by one of them neural AI bots.

1 Like
18

Isn’t the idea that most people won’t have heard of the artists on it?

19

Dry Cleaning are ace!

1 Like
20

Can I just say ‘Counter Culture’ is such a fantastic name for a compilation. Cos it’s like a recod shop counter, etc.

1 Like
21

Really like Slift

French psych rock band, ffo of Oh Sees (arguably to the point of being a bit on the nose but they’re great and I’m a sucker for this stuff so happy to let it fly). Their album Unnon from last year is real good.

1 Like
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