Hail the Midlands!

Prolapse almost made it. For a while they were the freshest, most chaotic, silliest band in the Uk (replacing Birdland?) and then, well I guess the joke wore a bit thin. Are they still around? Still producing records? I think their site is down now and apparently they've gone on to form other bands (they'll come to me in a minute...)Anyway, this track TCR is just by way of reminder: little girl vs nasty boy vocals, The Fall playing after a good beating by Mark E, pot n pans, clunking percussion, shouting, cooing and smoldering. And they had good hair. Well, apart from the curly guy. Leicester's finest, except perhaps Volcano the Bear who's Larkrise and Larkrise are worth a listen if you like the sound of folk bands wrestling with Austrian free improv quartets whilst alternating from mogadon haze to speed-balled, eye-popping. These tracks are probably produced by Steven Stapleton of Nurse With Wound. Whether or not the band noticed is debatable.

Oh, and as for Birdland, a mate of mine saw them in the Kentucky Fried Chicken the other year. Yeah, I know. Apparently The Manic Street Preachers were massive fans. No, really; couldn't you tell? "I love everyone from Birmingham, me!" Richie Manic was heard to say, just before taking the leap and this is now taken to be a reference to the premier Midlands bleach-blonde Mary Chain copyists. Sorry, but I haven't got any MP3s of this band so this is all going to be a tiring waste of time but if anyone knows where I could get some I'd love to hear Hollow Heart again, even if it's just so I can sneer all over again.