the earlies - i must have been blind (mp3)

the boats - sarah alice (mp3)

sifting through the beef blog archives i noticed scholes' two home town sounds posts and i thought i'd chip in (i know, not like me to share an opinion). i was all ready to pick some slightly more pastoral gems from my adopted home town of the last six years but then thought sod it; i'll leave the 'manchester musical heritage (tm)' rant for another post and see what treasures i could dig up from my actual motherland some 40 minutes further north.

whilst only a quarter of the 'official' earlies might come from burnley (the rest being a manc and two texans), i reckon the fact that at least half of the ten strong touring band do (including the drummer from my school orchestra no less) qualifies them for the purposes of this exercise. i was toying with going with something from their spiffy-though-be-warned-it's-a-bit-of-a-grower new album the enemy chorus but instead have picked this possibly-missed treat from the dream brother tim and jeff buckley covers album from last year.

i've never had much of a chance to get into either of the buckleys so don't really feel qualified to say too much about the original, but i do feel safe in saying that the slow-brewing majesty of the earlies' version definitely adhere's to the second half of the 'do it better or do it differently' covers adage (and maybe event the first half too - look i was only saying... right okay so i don't know anything about... look stop looking at me like that... now come on there's no need for that... just put it down before you do something you'll regret... )

there's no doubting the burnley credentials this time (i wonder if that's been said with a straight face before) as the boats are some chap called craig from the remote viewer and his two friends andrew and elaine (not his only two friends i'm sure) and they're from sunny haslingdon and they make music like this: the second song from their second album we made it for you. some might call it folktronica but i really don't think there's a need to resort to name-calling just because it has a piano, acoustic guitar and some bleepy stuff in it. instead i'll just say it's as delicate and crisply sharp as a frosty morning on pendle.

oh, and just in case you were wondering, i thought it far too obvious just sticking up a run-of-the-mill run-down-mill-town picture so i decided to show you all the lovely new bus station. i'm sure you'll be pleased to know that tramps still wee in it and 13 year old kids still mug you for fags. such memories; i'm welling-up just thinking about it.