Bored of all the things they brought her up to say...
Chumbawamba – Ugh! Your Ugly Houses!One Little Indian – 139 TP 7Vinyl, 7", Single, 45 RPM, UK, 1995
I've a had a short run going here of women artists and vocalists. I move too slowly for these to turn up during women's history month, but I figured I'd keep it up for a minute to help balance the over representation of men on these pages (and in pretty much every discussion of music in the world). Chumbawamba, was a mixed gender band, so maybe they don't completely fit the bill, but the women (and the group's feminist politics) were always upfront. Plus I threatened promised to someday rip more vinyl by them, so here we go...
These two tracks come from Swingin' With Raymond, Chumbawamba's eighth LP and their last before the major label adventure that scored them status as a bar trivia one hit wonder answer. The album was split in two parts, corresponding with cover star Raymond's knuckle tattoos: Hate and Love. The "Hate" side had them playing guitars faster than they had in years, shouting and reminding people that they had once been a punk band. On the "Love" side, the women took the vocal lead, acoustic guitars (and harmonica?!) pulled out and melodies highlighted.
By 1995, Chumbawamba was already a few years and albums into being a pop band. Swingin' was an odd record- one side pointing back a bit at their punk roots and the other side maybe giving a preview of yet another rebirth they'd go through, becoming a folk group on the other side of the worldwide hit around the corner. But I liked this LP and always got a kick out of this single... And it shows! The vinyl shows some signs of its age and the play it got back in the day, but after a good cleaning I think it came out sounding alright.
Inspired by the zillion dollar mansions of Bono and other celebrity liberals, they recorded the A side, Ugh! Your Ugly Houses. While the political thinking is spelled out a bit more on a postcard included with the 7", the song is so punk that the brilliant title is pretty much the entire lyric.
The B side is what I had on my mind though when I decided to record and share this a few days ago. This Girl celebrates women making trouble, its hero kicking back against every stupid expectation dumped on her (and occasionally getting revenge on those doing the dumping). Catchiest song you'll hear today with the line "all the priests in all the world couldn't save this girl."
Enjoy!
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Running with the theme, here's a rare bonus track from Chumbawamba... After the death of Poly Styrene in 2011, the Chumbas quickly recorded and shared their tribute, Girlsong. Singing for the early punk band X-ray Spex, Poly was a Black teenager in the UK, wearing braces on her teeth, dayglo clothes, and belting out songs about commercialism, social pressure, and the way "some people think little girls should be seen and not heard." Another girl who "didn't grow up quite the way she was supposed to do" and inspiring plenty of other girls (including the women of Chumbawamba) to grab instruments and break the rules with her.
Chumbawamba – GirlsongNot on labelDigital only, MP3, UK, 2011
Sorry, a fairly low quality MP3 is all I have- I don't think it was ever really circulated beyond a posting on Soundcloud (alongside the message "For Poly Styrene and all of us girls she inspired"). It's really a sweet little love letter to one of their teenage heroes. And if you're interested, you can find the commentary from their website about what inspired the song archived here.
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Ugh! Your Ugly Houses / This Girl
Throwing goodbye notes wrapped up in FLAC (download zip file).
Content with all the bloody noses, scabby knees, you get from fighting MP3 (stream or download).
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