The B-Side Is Dead

Did I miss the day when the headlines were full of the fact you can no longer get your hands on a hard copy of a single? I trudged around Taunton last week trying to find the latest Courteeners single only to be told everywhere that they no longer sold singles! Even Woolies who used to have 25% of the singles market no longer sells them. Then again that was kids spending their pocket money on the cassette singles (even years and years after CDs came in).

So what does this mean? Well not a lot I guess, if I'm impulse buying a song I download it as I want it there and then. However, when it's a new band or a band I REALLY like I'll buy the single as I like to hear what they've got to offer from their b-sides. Usually it's not much but occasionally (and as I tried to put this post together I realise how occasional) there is an absolute gem on the b-side. Does this mean with singles being downloaded as a song on it's own we'll no longer get b-sides? Take White Lies latest single Death, all we got as a b-side was a remix, is this the shape of things to come? I hope not. Remember all those fantastic early Oasis b-sides, maybe we would have never heard Masterplan or Acquiesce. By the way, Sister Lover is another good Oasis b-side but like all their Be Here Now era music it's twice as long as it needs to be (hence why I went for the earlier song).

Below are a selection for you to enjoy some are great hidden gems, some are a bit of fun and ended up on Greatest Hits even though they were only a b-side (Space). I think that's more a reflection of Space than the quality of the song...

MP3: Jacket - The Courteeners
MP3: Bigger Boys and Stolen Sweethearts - Arctic Monkeys
MP3: Snowed Under - Keane
MP3: D'Ya Wanna Be A Spaceman - Oasis
MP3: Valley - Doves
MP3: Sleeping Sun - Coldplay
MP3: Being Around - Lemonheads
MP3: Broken Window - Arcade Fire
MP3: We Are Monkeys - Travis
MP3: Spiders - Space
MP3: Huckleberry Grove - Ocean Colour Scene
MP3: Let Me Know - The Enemy
MP3: Hit By A Car - The Wonder Stuff
MP3: You Don't Amount To Much This Time - Embrace
MP3: It's A Boy - The Bluetones

All Yousendit links as Zshare wasn't working as I was trying to upload them.