sound of the suburbs

Lists, they are just about everywhere these days, you can't avoid them and music journalism seems to have made them almost the backbone of their craft. It all started with end of the year lists and has gradually overtaken some publications to the extent that the lions share of an edition is given over to Bob Dylan / Beatles / Rolling Stones 50 greatest songs or some other half baked idea, I guess it won't be to long before we get 50 songs to walk your dog to! Years ago I used to like the end of year best of listings finding them entertaining, though of late I have started to see this reliance on lists as little more than journalistic laziness, and it's annoying. Despite my feelings I often I find myself looking at them rather than ignoring them as maybe I should and it was in the July issue of Uncut that I came across the double list (new take on an old idea) of the ten best and 10 worst baggy bands lists. Now this was of above normal interest to me as Madchester and all things baggy corresponded with the period that I worked in local radio and many of the bands from this era I have kept a soft spot for, this has motivated the direction for this weeks posts which I rather feel is going to take an early nineties avenue.So who better for this weeks Peel session that Manchester's Inspiral Carpets, a band that to some ears might have more in common with garage, though they were definitely part of the movement, and yes, those trend setting journalists at Uncut put them on the good list. According to AMG they were the 3rd most popular baggy band, a position that they certainly merited as they were more than capable of throwing catchy foot tapping tunes in our direction. Personally I wouldn't consider them to be the archetypal Peel band despite the fact that one of their singles featured Mark E Smith on vocals, though as I have said before JP had wide personal boundaries for taste and had a good ear for recognising a good band and because of this the Carpets found themselves heading down south on four occasions between 1988 and 1990 to lay down tracks for his show. Three songs from the second session from March 1989, 'Out Of Time', 'Directing Traffic' and their surprisingly good cover of the Rollings Stones 'Gimme Shelter', I would say that they had a way with cover versions, their grunge inflicted reading of 'Tainted Love' remains a personal favorite to this day.