The Bonus Track: Orange Juice, Talking Heads, Cody Chestnutt and Bruce Springsteen

A sideways look at the world of music

Freshly squeezed

Happy times for those old enough to remember when Postcard Records was “The Sound of Young Scotland”. First came the 30th anniversary of Aztec Camera’s High Land, Hard Rain, commemorated with three beautiful shows in London, Manchester and Glasgow. And now there is news that Domino is rereleasing the first four Orange Juice albums on CD, vinyl and download. You’ll have to wait until February, in the meantime you can quell the craving with a vintage ­performance of “Falling and Laughing” from 1982 at independent/bonustrack.

Tribute acts

The release this week of a debut album from Ireland’s young garage-pop hopefuls September Girls, got this column thinking about bands named after songs (“September Gurls” being the title of a track by Big Star, covered by the Bangles, but you knew that). It’s a tough trick to pull off, with only, perhaps, Radiohead (named after the Talking Heads song “Radio Head”) eclipsing the success of the source artist. Most unlikely? Roxette (named after the Dr Feelgood song of that name). And the most desperate being Rage Against the Machine, named after a song from singer Zach de la Rocha’s first band, Inside Out. The most band names provided? Well that honour appears to be The Smiths, who we have to blame for ­Shakespears Sister, the ­Ordinary Boys, Girl in a Coma and Pretty Girls Make Graves, to name a few. Watch Thom Yorke dancing to “ Radio Head” at the Bonus Track web page, as above.

Freedom of choice

If it seems a little strange, given the context, how few African-Americans there are on the Divided and United compilation (see review, right), might I point you in the direction of a neat ­counterpart in the 12 Years a Slave soundtrack, released tomorrow. Listen to Cody Chesnutt’s “What Does Freedom Mean … at the Bonus Track web page.

Next week’s biggie…

Kevin Harley has, er, high hopes for Bruce Springsteen’s (top) 18th studio album, High Hopes. Can it possibly live up to them? Watch the video for the title song at the Bonus Track web page.