Dadamah

It's going to be a long bleak day. This is what it sounds like.


1. Nicotine
2. High Time




1. Scratch Sun
2. Radio Brain

Dadamah were from New Zealand. They only played out a few times but concentrated their brief efforts with laying down some long droning bleak tracks onto tape. If you follow the lineage of the names you come up with some of the usual suspects in and around the Terminals universe and the really fertile early 90's period for Roy Montgomery. All the recordings were eventually released as This is Not a Dream on lp by Majora and cd by Kranky. My brain isn't functioning too well this morning without any coffee, so words are kind of beyond my current grasp. If you're interested Google is your friend, though I suspect that if you're downloading this you may already have a certain idea of what it is.

The Girls

Whilst I have a spot of time, a full cup of Java and a bit of gumption I'll add something to this pile that needs adding. Things may be a bit sporadic, but I haven't abandoned this ship.


1. Jeffrey I Hear U
2. The Elephant Man

The Girls were from Boston. Theirs was the only non-Ubu related single released on Hearpen records. They existed from mid-70's to some time in the early 80's and if the bass player in a former band is to be believed (and he knew all the principles) actively hated each other which translated into some fierce shows and stage fights. At least as I remember him telling it. This was their only official offering. And it's an amazing corker of synth noises and chaos and in the case of "Jeffrey I Hear U" a single chord.
Shortly after their demise an Lp called "Reunion" appeared out of nowhere and promptly flicked out of existence. (It's on my list of things I need to digitize, but the good folks at Mutant Sounds already took care of it as well.)

Do you need this? Yes. Yes you do. And very loudly.

Getting Around to It

I'm back. I'm fixing stuff. I procrastinate. I have a life. I do this for fun and I finally took the deep breath this morning to fire up the turntable again and dig in the singles boxes to start reupping a couple of faulty rips that needed replacing. (And I'm actually taking the time this morning to listen to everything all the way through before I upload.) There's more that need to be done and leave a comment if you find one that skips that I need to attend to. Or leave a comment anyway. It's the polite thing to do.

So on with the show...

I got fresh & better uploads for the first Ground Zero ep (July 12, 2009) and Hula Hoop's Ben Hogan single (May 12, 2009) that absolutely deserve non-skipping rips.


1. Fast Friends
2. Coughing Up Blood
3. City Streets
4. Another Sex Crime

Someday the Bloomington Indiana scene will get the due and respect it deserves in the history of punk rock. I mean, while NYC & London like to take all the credit as birthplaces of late 70's punk rock, Bloomington, Indiana starting with the Gizmos in the mid 70's independently developed its own little pocket of midwest punk and weirdness that gets shafted whenever the history is written (see also Cleveland). Last (4) Digits were from that scene and threw this little slab into being as the first release on Hardly Music that would release the Dow Jones & the Industrials "Can't Stand the Midwest" next.
I really can't find much about these guys but I do like this one. It's got a love of primitive electronic noises and flangers and is just odd enough and just punk enough in the right places to be interesting. This one is a winner in my book. I just know I'm going to have "Another Sex Crime" stuck in my head for a couple more days now.



1. If You See Kay

This in an oddity out of Worcester, MA. Not exactly punk by any stretch except that it seems to be a calculated effort to make a single to be played on the radio where the title is repeated over the airwaves repeatedly. (say it to yourself a few times to understand.) Both sides are the same song. This is the "Long Version".



1. Amusement
2. Statues

I don't think these guys need any introduction. This got tacked onto the Cd reissue of "Everything Falls Apart" but I just felt like hearing it today in it's original warm crackly goodness on vinyl. If you're ever in Red Wing, MN and hungry I'd recommend looking up Greg Norton's restaurant Norton's. He's a great guy and a hell of a chef. It'll be worth the trip.

Way too Early

I have no idea why the hell I'm awake. I just am. My lost sleep is your gain.


1. This is Working
2. Harvard Bing Bong
3. Beer
4. The Long Ride

Johnstown, Pa 1983. Almost nothing to be found on the Internets about them except that the people that who have noted this don't think a whole lot of this single. I believe that they are quite wrong. There's something quintessentially suburban about this single and its concerns that I find appealing which I suppose the would be arbiters of taste do not. Their loss. It's the sound of a mild Middle Class revolt after a few Fall lps.




1. John Cage Bubblegum
2. Eloge D'Eros

This Stereolab single is my favorite thing they've done. "John Cage Bubblegum" is the long droney Stereolab song sung in French. The b-side is another one. Play loudly.

It's Almost Sunny

Sigh. Another day another post or two. I plan on going back and redoing a few of these damn vinyl rips which skip when they shouldn't. I can't imagine that I was so inattentive to not notice a record hopping around like a frog on a hotplate, but apparently I must have been. I do have to say a recent acquisition of an anti-static record mat has seemed to help immensely in this regard. If there's a particularly egregiously bad rip, please leave a comment and I'll give it a do over next time I'm mucking about with this crud.


1. Disco Pope
2. Nothing
3. TV Set
4. Nobody Noticed

The Prats looks like they average about 12 years old in the picture on the back of this little gem and sound just as primitive and wonderful as you'd expect. They do believe in the Disco Pope and may incline you to do the same. They're an odd little Scottish analog to Red Cross (or maybe Hanson) only they've got a bit of a social conscience with a very teenage treatise on the plight of the poor in "Nobody Noticed" which must have seemed very deep to them at the time. (Rather than singing songs about tits and Linda Blair like those naughty McDonald brothers.) I just dig the beat. Yet another fine example of the genius of the early Rough Trade sensibilities.




1. General Davis
2. The Alliance

A year on and a whole lot of puberty later and it seems they've added an actual girl to the line up (having perhaps finally coming to an understanding that cooties is not a communicable condition in females) and gotten a few more effects pedals and skills under their collective belts. A tad less charming than the previous single as they stumble in to that awkward adolescent recording stage where you want to be taken seriously as "artists". Perhaps if they'd survived high school as a band they might have gone on to bigger and better things and written proper pop songs about the soulful yearning a young man feels deep within himself when he needs to get properly laid. It sounds a bit better to me today than I remembered it, but they do grow up so fast.




1. Come Back to Me
2. Misfit

Bok Bok is a band featuring Steve Garvey who had been in the Buzzcocks and Karl Burns who at the time was still playing with the Fall. (an early incarnation of the band called the Teardrops also featured former Fall member Tony Friel) A veritable Mancurian Supergroup of minor type proportions. It's sort of Power Pop. Both tracks written by Mr. Burns with the vocalist Dave Price. They're rather ok. I find them the sort of songs that I quite enjoy while they're playing and then almost immediately forget when the needle lifts.


1. Gee George
2. Love is the Drug

I really couldn't find much info on this one. From the photo on the back cover one would rather expect some kind of neo-rockabilly skiffle group instead of the post-punk musings that ooze out of your speakers and owe more than a little bit to Joy Division (seriously guys, you're not fooling anyone you know.). The b-side is the Roxy Music song you think it is. This one is definitely a comp. worthy addition to your listening pleasures.

It's Effin' Snowing

It's Snowing. Halloween hasn't even happened and there's an inch and a half of snow on the ground this morning. This is the beginning of something that won't likely cease until next March. It doesn't please me. So as I sit blearily here and bemoan this state of affairs I can only do that which I do. Drink coffee and post cruddy records from the days of the skinny tie. I have noticed a bit of quality control that has slipped by on a few singles with some previous software I'd been using and not paying attention while recording. (I multitask.) At some point I'll have to go back and redo and re-up a few things.

Let's start with the gem for today.


1. I.U.D.
2. Sophistication

"I.U.D." was comped on "Bloodstains Across Texas". If you're aware of what that is, then you have an idea of what you're getting here. A little blurt of arty TX Punk Rock circa 1979 with a great fuzz sound. The B-side has a very obvious nod to the might Fall with the singer's little sneering of "Sophis-tication-uh". I find it very endearing.
A compilation of their two singles and demos and other crud was released a few years ago. It may be worth both our whiles to find a copy. You'll let me know when you dig it up.



1. Darkest Hour
2. Distractions

The Delphobics were from New York. They called their label Fake Doom. There's some great synth in "Darkest Hour" that probably annoys most folks, but I'm not most folks. The single has a wonderful dark "end of the world" quality to it. There was apparently a second single,but I've never seen it. (or I'd own it). The B-side loses the synth but certainly doesn't get much cheerier, just a bit rawer. This one is a keeper for me.




1. My African Baby
2. Out to Lunch

The Socials were a high school band from New Orleans. They've apparently very recently gotten back together to relive their glory years as a funky New Wave band. I suppose that if these guys had been from the UK they'd have given Haircut 100 a run for their money. They've got a Facebook page even. It's pleasant enough stuff. Give yourself an asymmetrical haircut and put on some creepers and a bandana and enjoy.

Inflatable Boy Clams

I really just felt like posting something this morning as a constructive method of procrastinating on my various household chores that are the meat and potatoes of the rest of my day. It should make a couple folks rather happy while I sort laundry and do kitchen stuff.



1. Skeletons
2. Snoteleks
3. Marin
4. I'm Sorry
5. Boystown

What exactly is there to say about the Inflatable Boy Clams that needs to be said? It's spare. It's primitive and naive and from San Francisco. the first single in the set is a palindrome. It's hilarious. This double single appeared in 1981 and is one of those records that almost nobody heard, but everybody who did was charmed. It's a precious and wonderful thing. (I was intrigued to find out that two of the members had previously been in Pink Section another SF band in the pile for this space. You learn stuff every day.) It pleases me. Listen and enjoy.