the Swinging Singles Club

Suburban Lawns

2011-03-01T13:26:00.000-08:00

No Talk. All Post.

1. Gidget Goes to Hell
2. My Boyfriend

1. Janitor
2. Protection

Suburban Lawns. You can "like" them on Facebook. Be forewarned. You'll have "Oh my genitals" repeating itself in your head for a while after consuming the second of these singles. You have been warned.

More from Bloomington, IN

2011-02-22T13:26:00.000-08:00

Yeah, I'm doing this at a time when I really ought to be studying my Medical Terminology textbook for today's quiz. You're Welcome.

1. Puppies in a Sack
2. Mr. Morse
3. Pop Doormat
4. Best Friend

Pretty much all I know is the Wiki and I'll point you to some awesome live cable access footage. This one's a keeper.

1. Watch Out for the Other Guy
2. Babaloo No More
3. Expiration Date
4. ReModel Yourself

Yeah, this one is pretty much a mystery to my Bloomington connections. But I did dig this rusting hulk of a web thingee for what it's worth with some other files for the intrepid downloader. It's odd and wonderful all at the same time.

Boy's Life redux

2011-02-15T13:26:00.000-08:00

I unfortunately don't have a good way of scanning or photographing 12" album covers. So I have to snag them where I find them. You'll forgive me.

1. It Came From Here
2. Water
3. From A to Z
4. Happy People
5. True Believers
6. Person I Want to Be
(the whole schmeer)

Here's Boy's Life in a 12 inch format. They stretch out a bit and try and hit some of the deep thoughts with lots of saxophone. I can't fault them for it. It's a pleasant slice of nostalgia for me.

Boy's Life vs. Boy's Life vs. the Outlets

2011-02-08T13:26:00.000-08:00

It's an early morning at the beginning of February and I've got some limited time so I'm going to queue a month's worth up all at once. Things may get spotty as time goes on. I've started school again which is a daunting thing to do as you approach middle age.

1. Two Doors Down
2. I Found Her

These guys were the final band of the first afternoon all ages show I ever managed to see as a teen. The lineup was Primitive Romance, Native Tongue & Boy's Life at some store front place in Allston near Commonwealth and Harvard around where the original In Your Ear location was. (I'd eventually live blocks away from there) These two songs went on several cassettes I played the fuck out of on my Walkman. They spoke to me then.

1. Boy's Life - Perfect Life
2. Boy's Life - More Trouble for the Modern Man
3. the Outlets - Knock Me Down
4. the Outlets - You Told Me

A year previously Boy's Life split this single with the Outlets in a Battle Royale. From this 21st C. perspective they sorely got their asses handed to them. There's really something kind of hilariously wince inducing about teenagers attempting to be profound.
The Outlets win with a song about a girl and a Monkees cover.

Inessential & Anal Retentive.

2011-02-01T13:26:00.000-08:00

I finished off a bunch of things all at once and very nearly forgot these were there.

1. Pyjamarama
2. The Pride & the Pain

Let's get this straight right off the bat, you either know and accept that the first four (arguably five) Roxy Music lps are works of uncompromising genius and an essential part of any musical breakfast or you are dull, inane, utterly tasteless and not at all worth speaking to. (And you also probably don't like the Fall either and you are dead to me.)

1. All I Want is You
2. Your Application's Failed

What I was unaware of until I came across these singles was that there were actually singles from the first few lps and actual otherwise unavailable b-sides on them. Unfortunately I didn't get picture sleeves. (Google them up if you absolutely must have the ridiculous glam sleeves.)

1. Street Life
2. Hula Kula

The unfortunate thing is that they're also entirely inessential cuts. It would seem that they were attempts to spread some of the publishing cash around to the various other band members by piggybacking instrumentals to the latest single. I mean, they're not a total loss, but it's hard to get excited about them. "Hula Kula" which is Phil Manzanera's contribution is probably the most successful of the three. I post them mostly for the OOP rarity of them and the curiosity factor.

"Pyjamarama" however doesn't seem to have made it onto any of their lps save the live "Viva Roxy Music" one for some reason. That's sad. It could have easily been slipped onto the first lp with no problem. or at least the Cd version. It is an ace track.

Magic Fingers & Hourly Posts

2011-01-25T13:26:00.000-08:00

Concluding a three post run with this also long long out of print Lp.

1. Rules of the Road
2. Roy's Motel
3. Eye for an Eye
4. Big Motor Man
5. Stray Dog
6. Nowhere Fast
7. Last Ride
8. She's My Witch
9. 1969
10. Little Pig
(Here)

This was pretty much the last gasp for the Turbines. It wasn't long after this came out that they called it a day & Mr. Havorka moved to NYC. (The other guitarist, Jack Hickey eventually joined up with the Lyres for a short but memorable stint.) and I moved far away and lost track of such things. But I did have a great evening playing this again and bouncing around in the kitchen while I made dinner. The cover gives a hint of what the live shows were. Have a Rolling Rock (it was the beer of choice for the Rat back when I was young and innocent and poor.) and crank it.

Last Dance Before Highway

2011-01-18T13:26:00.000-08:00

Keeping it going for another round.

1. Skull & Crossbones
2. That's the Way
3. Highway 51
4. Slop
5. Wah-Hey!
6. Throw It Down
7. Rock in my Pocket
8. Hangin' Tough
(.rar is here)

It's sad that this is so long out of print. It deserves to be heard again. It's held up well over the years and still has some of the fire that these songs had live. (Once again. Metal Snowball. Not much Turbines there, but lots of other goodies.) Big Gretsch sound. Lots of reverb. It's rockin' Give it some love and some volume.

In the Land of All Time Favorites

2011-01-11T13:26:00.000-08:00

We're kind of snowed in & I worked digital magic all yesterday. I'm going for it. I'm going to set this up so I'm two months out and can relax for a while...

1. Bridgeport Lathe
2. Little Cities

If you collect records and talk to people who don't it's generally inevitable that at some point they will ask you the burning building question. The house is on fire and you can only grab one record. Besides the ridiculousness of how the question is asked and setting aside the number of valuable & beloved musical instruments I'd otherwise be tossing out a second story window, I might say this single.
There was a time when there were only two places in all of Boston where I ever got to hear it. The jukebox at Johnny D's in Allston & the Rat in Kenmore Square. When Johnny D's turned into an Irish bar (half a block from my apt. and with an authentic Irish bartender who made a little Shamrock in the head with the run-off when pouring a Guinness.) it was only the Rat. Every time I was upstairs at the Rat, I made sure to have a quarter to play it.
It wasn't until I was weeks away from moving to the Midwest that I ever saw a physical copy. I bought it. I certainly spent way too much money at the time (though that was less than half of what they currently go for on eBay) but I would have regretted it to this day if I hadn't.
Eventually, many years later, "Bridgeport Lathe" became a staple of my old band's setlist and the song which ended every practice. (It was also often better received than a lot of our actual original songs, so there's that too.) It's often talked about but seldom heard and long long out of print.
The man behind it is one John Havorka. He's got a website for his many projects at Metal Snowball including lots more recordings of the 2x4's & his other musical endeavors plus his new novel. Go there and spend money.

1. Wah-Hey!
2. No Sure Bet

A couple bands later and Mr. Havorka had formed the Turbines. I saw these guys a lot. A whole lot. There's somewhere a video of this song & somewhere I'm in that. (It was actually during a break in the filming that they played "Bridgeport Lathe" and I learned how to play that riff by watching his fingers. So simple, but so cool sounding) This is the first version of it. (It got rerecorded for their Big Time record "Last Dance Before Highway". Come back next week.) It's the sound of a long gone Saturday night that tastes like Rolling Rock and cheap cigarettes and smells like sweat and the Rat bathroom.
It's root rockin' at it's finest. The Del Fuegos got most of the attention and the major label deal, but for my money the Turbines were where the action was.

T & A

2011-01-04T13:26:00.000-08:00

Going to start the year off with nudity. It generally speaks for itself.

1. Girl Next Door
2. Drive Me Home

Some fine neo-rockabilly roots type stuff on Hoboken's own Coyote Records.

1. Rock and Roll Weirdos
2. Pyramid Power

Some would be G.T.O.'s stylings from this trio of San Francisco ladies. Use with care. It chafes.

The Twin Cities of Your Mind

2010-12-28T13:26:00.000-08:00

Last one for this morning and I'm good for another month. I'll see you then. (ed. Not any more. This was shifted a couple weeks. I've got more to do)

1. Slack
2. New World

This kind of legendary single round these parts. These guys are up there with Suicide Commandos as part of the vanguard of local music for the time. "Slack" ended up on a Bloodstains comp. It's a good track. Let's just say that "New World" is rather different than "Slack" They're also on the Big Hits of the Midwest Vol. 3 that I will someday get around to...

1. Fire
2. Trip With Me
3. Noodle Man
4. I'm Otto Your Mind

Produced by Bob Mould & Grant Hart. Future Amphetamine Reptile honcho/Halo of Flies mastermind Tom Hazelmeyer on bass and the locally legendary Dale T Nelson. This kind of smokes quietly. It'll sit in the back of your mind and only grow in power over time. Every time I hear it, it worms its way a little deeper. You listen. You like. (& now I have to ask around to see if I can find that video of that odd short film that has Dale dressed up in a bunny suit. It's really incredible..) Oh, and "Fire" is the Jimi Hendrix tune you think it might be.

This is Only the Tip of the Iceberg

2010-12-21T13:26:00.000-08:00

I like Homer & Jethro. A lot. It took several years and lots of time and effort, but I finally managed to acquire a near complete discography that these two released under their own name. I'm only missing a few odds and ends and the full 1968 Christmas album that has all of these tracks and a couple of fresh recordings. (I'm not a fan of Christmas music. It hasn't been a priority.)

1. Santy Baby
2. The Night After Christmas

But you may ask does this mean for me, a gentile refined connoisseur of the many musical delights that pop up on this silly little blog on a (currently) weekly basis?

1. Nuttin' For Christmas
2. Santy's Movin' On

Well Bub, it means this. I mostly finished my discographical quest about four years ago and digitized it all and have mostly enjoyed it since. However, I've upgraded a few things and have improved my tech end since then and the Mp3's I made were at a lower bit rate than I currently prefer. The upshot of which that I'm currently planning on going through it all and doing it all over again.

1. (All I Want for Christmas is) My Upper Plate
2. I Saw Mommy Smoochin' Santa Claus
3. Randolph the Flat Nosed Reindeer
4. Frosty the Defrosted Snowman

And I'm fully planning on sharing the results right here. So over the course of the coming year there's going to be a large number of Homer & Jethro Posts. They're usually pretty funny too. It's been kind of my intention as of late to diversify my posts a bit more from a musical standpoint & it's my blog and I get to do whatever the hell I want. So nyah.
(Besides until Bear Family gets off their German duffs and does up the 16 cd boxset, this is kind of all that there might be.)
Now these Christmas tracks don't necessarily highlight some of their best work, but it's the season and as good a place to start as any. There's still plenty of Skinny Tie stuff in the boxes and some sweet 90's pop and I may even start digging into the largely ignored 60's garage/punk box too. So enjoy your Winter Solstice and let the games begin...

I Fucking Hate Christmas Music

2010-12-14T13:26:00.000-08:00

It's snowing 20" outside & I've slaved over a hot turntable all day for this shitty couple posts. You're Welcome. I've got one more Xmas one next week too. And for good measure I also redid and reupped the Teenettes tracks that seemed to cause some consternation. So no more whining. I've got a headache...

1. Sonny Columbus & his Del Fuegos : Punchbowl Full of Joy
2. Native Tongue : Do You Hear What I Hear
3. SSD : Jolly Old Saint Nicholas
4. Jeff & Jane Hudson : Jingle Bells
5. Christmas : O Holy Night
(As one handy .zip file)

No seriously, as a guy who likes novelty songs, I find Christmas music to be unbearable. And the fact that it tends nowadays to get shoved into my ears from every available speaker well before Thanksgiving only makes it worse. There was a time when I could ignore it, but the older I get the lower my tolerance. I do however have a few Christmas themed items from years gone by that I haven't purged for one reason or another. This is one of them. I did this for you. You owe me.
Jeff & Jane Hudson here are the couple responsible for the Rentals single I posted a long while back. Likewise with Christmas. (I keep stumbling on tracks by them I'd forgotten about...) SSD require little intro to most hardcore fans. Then there's Native Tongue. A friend & I acted as roadies for them (mostly as a way to see shows for free and get into bars at 18...) I also recently got the OK from them to post their Lp & Ep. Look for it sometime in the New Year. It still rocks.

1. A Merry Jingle
2. A Merry Jangle

This posting is dedicated to Vince.
What happens when you take half of the Sex Pistols & meld them with Thin Lizzy and they make a Christmas mashup single. This.
After that you let the engineer get really high and muck around with the tapes backward and you get a B-side.

A couple of quick fixes.

2010-12-12T05:28:00.000-08:00

Just a quick note to report that I fixed the incorrect link for the Ellie Marshall & Christmas b-side "Ciao Allston" to go to the correct link. For anybody who's interested and bothers to read shit that doesn't have files attached to it.

The Teenettes is also a fresh rip.

First couple of Toxic Shock

2010-12-07T13:26:00.000-08:00

Blah blah blah. Punk rock. blah blah blah

1. Kent State : Breakout Breakfree
2. Modern Industry : Out of Focus
3. Moslem Birth : Horror Snores
4. Manson Youth : Penis Brain

Just so you know, I messed up the tags on this one and I really don't feel like reupping them. You're an adult. You can take care of that for yourself. Hell, you probably rewrite my tags anyway because I write them in some kind of stupid way that just doesn't fit with your own anal retentive filing system. I'm cool with that.
This here is Toxic Shock #1. Pushead cover. The state of California punk circa 1983. Side one is the serious stuff, side two is the sillier side. I prefer side two.

1. Man in Black
2. No Change
3. The Egyptian
4. Living in the Shadows

Here's Toxic Shock #2. Modern Industry sound like you expect. It doesn't exactly send a tingle up my spine or a thrill down my leg, but I'm not selling it either.

Catching up

2010-11-30T13:26:00.000-08:00

Certain circumstances in my regular life are starting to kick in an suck up my time and attention, so this little exercise is taking a further backseat than its usual couple times month upload and every couple months digitizing spree. We'll see what happens. For the moment though I'm going to continue to go through the last batches of singles I did a while back and with luck I'll find some hours and gumption to refill that folder with fresh items. Though that 1Tb external drive is starting to get a bit wiggy lately. It does not seem to have long to live. More backing up is in my future...

1. Stand Up
2. Deals in the Basement

Not much to find about these guys. From Connecticut. From the looks of the band picture on the back they seem to be like the only guys in Moodus, CT who wanted to be in a band, so they were stuck with each other. You got a Rocker, a guy who's a little more New Wave, a Hippie & the guy who wants to play drums in a Slade tribute act.
The single itself is actually pretty good. Rather primitive recording and with some nice Kbd edges. "Stand Up" is the stand out track of the two. Faster and louder. I would imagine these guys spent some time in NYC keeping track of what was going on there.

1. No Money No Future
2. Pilgrim's Progress

Another obscure one for which there is little or no info. Minneapolis & not bad sort of aggressivish rock and roll power pop or something despite the beards. It's the kind of thing that might float across a shuffle mix and make you look to see who it was. Some days for good, some days to press "next". Well, maybe the first song. I'm less sure of the b-side. I get the feeling from the tiny bit I've come across that these guys didn't hang out with the cool kids at the time.

Something a bit different

2010-11-16T13:26:00.000-08:00

I need to add a few more things here or my queue will run dry. The usual routine is that I'll spend a couple of days every once in a while and digitize a couple dozen singles and then over time upload them in batches to post every week. Lately I've been about a month or so out. That's why it also takes me time to repost bad rips. It's not a priority until I come back around to another round of digitizing. Patience is a virtue and I now know that I can't browse in another window while recording. And as G.I. Joe says, "knowing is half the battle"

Milhaus : Fit

To be honest, I really don't know anything about this band except that I really really like this disc. Way back when in 2004 or so, the band I was in recorded an Ep at a local studio and the guy who's studio it was gave me a sampler of the best stuff he'd recorded there the over the previous year. On it was "Misunderstanding". I later picked up the Cd. And I've listened to it with some regularity ever since. There's almost no information on the Cd & I don't remember them playing out that I ever knew about. It's beyond obscure even by obscure music collector standards. It's just simple stripped down mature indie pop songs that for whatever reason just happen to float my boat. I pass them on to you to enjoy as well.
Don't fret kids, there's plenty more Skinny Tie stuff to come, but this crossed my mind just now so I decided to post it.

New York State of Mind

2010-11-09T13:26:00.000-08:00

This is the 4th post I've banged out this morning, so I'm off the hook for a month and now I'm ready to go and do something else.

1. Busted Chevrolet
2. Yo-Ho
3. Who's That Saving You?
4. John Glenn

1977. Produced by John Cale. "John Glenn" is pretty Ok. I kind of expected more from the cover. I really don't think the NYC music scene of the late 70's was really all that they would have you believe...

1. Darkest Part of Me
2. Diastole

The back of the sleeve has a Jim Whiting listed and thanks Brad Whiting. There's a Brad Whiting in Leopard Society who I posted many moons ago. Both from Albany. I suspect they're related. This one didn't really do it for me though. I recorded it the first time I played it. I pass it on now. You make your own call. (If you haven't already, go snag the Leopard Society single though. That's fucking great.)

Today's Post is Brought to You by the Letter F

2010-11-02T13:26:00.000-07:00

I'm hungry.

1. Nuke the Whales
2. Electro-Shock

Fleshapoids. Look at the titles. Look at the sleeve. Draw your own conclusions as whether or not this is worth your time and if it doesn't seem to be, you may be looking at the wrong blog there, Bud.

1. People
2. Naked Kiss

F-Systems. Some excellent new wave stylings from Austin, Tx. That is pretty much the extent of what I know.

Del Fuegos vs. Carsickness

2010-10-26T13:26:00.000-07:00

Computer's starting to crawl a bit. I've got too much going on in several windows. Maybe it's a good time to make that second double espresso...

1. I Can't Sleep
2. I Always Call Her Back

There was a certain point in Boston in the early part of the 80's when you could randomly pick up a large rock and underneath it the Del Fuegos would be playing and it would be littered with beer cans. Then came a few lps and a beer commercial ("We play folk music, 'cuz it's for folks" Yeah, they didn't get to live that nugget down.) and the eventual split at the end of the 80's with little hoopla or fanfare. These days main guy Dan Zanes has been making music for kids and has a signature Flea ukulele which as an ukulele player myself, is pretty cool. (Fleas are quite good buys for the money. They play well and are virtually indestructible. They're like the Squires of the ukulele world.) Pop a can of PBR and pretend you're folks.

1. For You
2. They Came Crawling

Carsickness were from Pittsburgh. This is their 3rd single. The ever respectable Mutant Sounds has their lp up for a listen as well. It's something you might want to look into.

Backing things up

2010-10-19T13:26:00.000-07:00

Another day, another morning. I'm bleary eyed. Its 5:05am on a Sunday and I've been awake already for a half an hour. But this coffee is good & I'm feeling good that I've got the spare 1Tb external hard drive out and backing up the important files (ie. the music folders). I'm not going through that hell again if I can help it and especially since I've got three times as much stuff now and a lot of time and sweat into the whole thing. Remember kids, wear a condom & back your computer files up. This has been a public service announcement.

1. Times of Change
2. Mangled Jungle

When last I bothered to look, I didn't come up with much of anything about this bit of Midwestern Nu-Wave. It was recorded in Minneapolis, if I remember correctly. I'm just not feeling like I care enough at this moment to dig in the boxes for it and check. The music is a lot better than the aesthetically challenged high school cover art would lead you to expect, but it's very much the Fresh Young Sound of 1980 (if you were fresh and young and listened to a lot of Public Image Limited).

1. (Now I Wanna Be a) Space Girl
2. Burn Those Bridges
3. Track 9
4. Wasted on You
5. Made in the Shade

A very early Twin Tone record from 1978. Their second release in fact & on red vinyl. It's worth it for the simple reason that "(Now I Wanna be a) Space Girl" is a really fucking kick ass song. A bit of the drive and spunk of 60's garage compressed into a late 70's sound and spat out with conviction. It's kind of a shame that the rest of 7" fails to live up to it. It's not bad, mind you. But I can't pretend I listen to those other songs very much. They're mostly adequate. The also have a couple of tracks on "Hits of Mid-America Volume Three". I may have to pull that out and see if they're better than I remember...

the Marshall Plan

2010-10-12T13:26:00.000-07:00

This is taking forever today but I've got to slog on or I'll forget what I was doing

1. AM
2. You Need Some Lovin'
3. Cruisin' Alone

A lovely bit of pop music from Boston 1980. We all need some lovin'. Ellie Marshall did a bit of touring with Jonathan Richman. There's probably more info to be found for the interested, but I'm not feeling it this morning.

1. Womb Man
2. Ciao Allston

She also did this little single with Christmas in 1989 which is I believe the penultimate Christmas seven inch I've yet to post. We'll see how long before I randomly pull the other thing out of the "to Post" box and decide to digitize it. If I remember correctly this would have been from around the time that Michael Cudahay & Liz Cox were about to make a move to Vegas. Not that any of that matters. It's still just a 45 at the end of the day. But it does remind me of Allston...

The minor inconveniences of Free

2010-10-05T02:18:00.000-07:00

Ahh. It seems like Mediafire has realized that they've allowed their free service to be just a bit too convenient for cheapskates like myself to use. So they've made a few steps to make it slightly more inconvenient to use. Not that it deters my frugal nature. It just mostly annoys me. Or maybe things are just being weird. I don't know. I woke up obscenely early and gave up trying to go back to sleep again.

1. She Wasn't Home
2. Positive Thinking

I just realized that I didn't tag the year on this batch of files before uploading them. This is from 1983. You can take care of that I would hope. the Lumpen Proles. From Albany as near as I can tell. About all I really care to find about them. (as in what pops up on the first page of a Google search) is a few videos of them playing live in 1984. I remember "She Wasn't Home" from some college radio station at the time. It's a solid example of what the kids would call the indie rock circa the time period. I can't complain.

1. Exchange of Goods
2. Industry

Despite the UK label, the Blackouts were from Seattle and moved briefly to Boston in 1982 and then San Francisco before calling it a day and most them eventually being sucked into Ministry. This is their second single from 1981.

the Customs vs. Rousers

2010-09-28T13:26:00.000-07:00

Last quickie and I'm off to do the rest of the stupid crap I gotta do on a daily basis. Lucky me.

1. Let's Get It On!
2, Bring My Cadillac Back!

Lots of exclamation points here! A fine rock and roll single featuring Peter Greenburg who also played in DMZ who were a great band. (It's a shame their sole Lp is so fucking awful. I mean, even the cover is a steaming pile.) This single however. I like this one more than I might have expected.

1. Party Boy
2. Don't Let the Band Stop Playing

the Rousers. It's on Jimboco records & was produced by Wayne Kramer of the MC5. It's still not what you were expecting. It's growing on me.

A couple from San Francisco

2010-09-21T13:26:00.000-07:00

I'm hungry and need more coffee. It's a trend in case you hadn't noticed. I tend to post this stuff early in the morning...

1. New Dark Ages
2. Insect Lounge
3. New Drug

The Mutants

1. Roscoe's Family
2. Lights Out

Hey, I didn't know Jerry Seinfeld & Bun E. Carlos were in a band together with a couple other guys that used to get beat up in high school called No Sisters. The hell you say.

Mickey Mezz

2010-09-15T03:16:00.001-07:00

I was going to add this as a bonus to another post and forgot. So I'm just going to put it up on its own for no particular reason.

1. Hillside Walking
2. Drifting

Here's a single that pops up occasionally on eBay by Mickey Clean & the Mezz which is usually advertised as some 1976 Boston Ur-Punk gem. It's got Asa Brebner who played in the mid-70's incarnation of the Modern Lovers. It's got the first vinyl appearance of Mono Man who at the time was kicking it hard in DMZ before crawling back to the garage for the ever fab Lyres. I personally don't really hear it myself. Maybe you had to be there. I post it so you can decide for yourself if it's worth your time. Delete is always an option.

Groceries

2010-09-14T13:26:00.000-07:00

I really ought to brush my teeth and get ready for work, but I'm doing this instead...

1. Hire High School Girls
2. Out of the Frying Pan (& Into the Eighties)

Note to people forming bands : When deciding on what to name your band, you might want to consider something uncommon so that in the future if for whatever reason, somebody wants to look up information about your musical activities they might discover them rather than scroll pointlessly through pages of crap based around the extremely common word you've decided on.

1. Are You Here
2. Baby, You're a Rich Man

I assume these guys were from NJ and that this is the follow up to the previous effort.

Beast

2010-09-07T13:26:00.000-07:00

I'm going to try and throw a month's worth of posts into the queue with little fanfare and probably little accompanying typing just to have stuff appear. I may or may not go back and add info. You can just as easily google some information up. I just snag whatever shows up on the first page anyway...

1. Possessed
2. Wolfbane Nite

Beast. Bryan Gregory was in an early incarnation of the Cramps.

1. Love in a Dying World
2. Floating/Dead

1. New Moone
2. Guardian

More Coffee Required

2010-08-31T13:26:00.000-07:00

Blah blah blah blah blah to the blah-bitty blah blah blah. You know the drill

1. Corpsemonger
2. Regurgitation

This band is pre-Kilslug. If that or the titles don't clue you into what you're in for with this slab of extruded polyvinyl, then I can't help you. Play loud and often. You'll be a better person for it.

1. I Want to be You
2. Final Abyss

From Denver. Jeri Rossi's band before moving to Boston where she formed the fab Black Cat Bone. Worked with her briefly at a sandwich shop in Kenmore Square. She's a very nice person & "I Want to be You" is a farkin' great song. Black Cat Bone played it. You listen to it. A solo single she did can be found here. A film she did is here as well. She also writes. What have you done with your life?

Pop For the People

2010-08-24T13:26:00.000-07:00

This is a placeholder. No time to type. I put stuff here and maybe sometime in the next week, I'll come back and put more info and nonsense and context to this. Or not.

1. Computer Cards
2. Forgive and Forget

1. Plastic Man
2. Going Down to Liverpool

Getting behind in the queue.

2010-08-17T13:26:00.000-07:00

I'm easily distracted by shiny objects. It's very very hot and humid and I let a month go by before adding to this. I'd better get on it so there's stuff to magically appear on Tuesday's in the future

1. Strawberry Cheesecake
2. Modern Noise

About the only concrete thing I've found about this Detroit band in my two or three minutes of googling is this sentence "This Detroit punk band was led by the African American guitarist Gerald Collins. They released the single "Strawberry Cheesecake" b/w "Modern Noise" on Aftertaste in 1979. " Given how much I really love this odd little kbd single. It's catchy. I got it for not too much on eBay and it seemed to be a NOS copy. Such a shame. It's a favorite amongst the other thousands of favorites I've got.

1. When I'm Home
2. Remains of the Beat

Babylon Dance Band were from Louisville. Some folks in the band went on to other bands that you may or may not have heard of. They briefly reformed to put out a disc in the mid-90's. This is their second single. If you didn't stop reading at Louisville and start downloading, I don't know what's wrong with you. It's cool.

Pink Section

2010-08-10T03:19:00.000-07:00

And here we go again. A single and a 12". Just like nature intended. There's nothing wrong with it and I may do more of them before my time is through. I'm going to brush my teeth while you ponder the beautiful asymmetry of these releases.

1. Tour of China
2. Shopping

1. Wine World
2. Midsummer New York
3. Flat Dog
4. Part Time
5. Francine's List

About the only things I've been able to come up with about Pink Section is that they were from San Francisco and that the two lovely ladies went on to become a half of the much beloved Inflatable Boy Clams (Posted previously. Seek and ye shall find).
The only recorded evidence of their brief two year existence is these two vinyl artifacts & an appearance on the "Can You Hear Me?" compilation of various bands live at the Deaf Club in SF. (which I may get around to one of these days when I start broaching the many compilations that I've got.) There doesn't even seem to be a half assed fan made Myspace or anything. It's too bad. Their particular brand of art damaged new wave makes me giggle. Join the fun. Spread the love. Everybody put on your skinny ties & sneakers and dance.

Kind of Pressed for Time & Feeling Lazy

2010-08-03T13:26:00.000-07:00

I need to be leaving the house kind of soon. Neither of these bands really lends themselves to an easy search and I just can't be particularly bothered right now. You can do your own googling if it interests you. Joe Perry & I are both content to let the music do the talking.

1. Warranty
2. Insecurity

From Long Island City and on the same label as the Mod Frames. The bass player wears a vest with his big collared open shirt. It was the style at the time. They sing "You've got the parts to complete me" on the A-side and it sounds vaguely dirty. B-side is a bit rougher and sounds better for it. You likey.

1. Pick It Up
2. Out of the Light

Cincinnati, OH. 1983. If you look at the back cover, you'll know just as much as I do.

Flirt

2010-07-27T13:26:00.000-07:00

I've been good today & I've been productive and there's laundry done, the sink's clear and the espresso machine has been cleaned and my morning coffee is going to be extra good tomorrow (or later this afternoon). Here's Flirt :

1. Don't Push Me
2. Degenerator

1978. Detroit. Flirt. Seriously, just an all around kick ass motherfarkin' single. Both sides rock, but "Degenerator" is the side I usually reach for when I'm occasionally manning the turntables in public. The kids dig it and you can dance to it.
The lovely Miss Rockee ReMarx appears to be pregnant on the cover, so you know that you probably don't want to piss her off any more than she already is. That would likely turn ugly. Volume is essential for this able slice of awesome.

1. Faster Than You
2. DMA
3. I'm Not Forgettin'
4. You Burn Me Up

Now while the single has been posted a few times around on the internets (I first heard it on the KBD Records) This follow up 10" ep doesn't seem to be that common. And since I finally found a copy fairly recently and really want to listen to it on my PMP, here it is in the finest of 1's & 0's with all the warmth that a scratchy old 30 year old piece of vinyl can bring.
The band is a bit more slick for this go round. There's a bit more Power Pop around the edges with the fancy guitar work, but it's going to take a few more listens before I know if anything sticks with me quite like the single does. Though it's apparent that Rockee Berlin has been wronged more than once in her life in this stupid man world. (Now I want cheesecake...)
If you're interested, (and why wouldn't you be) there is a cd/dvd compilation with a few more tracks to be had to add to your current household clutter. It's the right thing to do.

What I Want to Hear Today

2010-07-20T13:26:00.000-07:00

I must be fast. Time is limited. There are just a couple of things I want to add to my Personal Media Player this morning and this is as good a reason to finish up these files as any.

1. Fell From the Sun
2. All Souls

Before there was Mazzy Star with Hope Sandoval, there was Opal with Kendra Smith and previous to that they called themselves Clay Allison and released this fabulous single. That's all you really need to know. You started downloading reflexively at Mazzy Star. It's Ok. I understand.

1. DYF
2. Bad Mood
3. (radio ad)

The Nurses. DC area. Dacoit. Howard Wuelfing played with the Slickee Boys briefly and Half Japanese later and seems to have some current artist management thing going that has a page that will not load for me right now, so screw it. (follow him on Twitter instead) I really like this single. It reminds me very much of an American version of the Homosexuals and that's all I really have to say on the matter. The Nurses had a couple of other singles and a 7" box set in an edition of 50 with those and some otherwise unreleased stuff that I will never be able to justify spending the money on. But enough with the chit chat. I have things to do. I'm also led to infer that D.Y.F. is shorthand for "Destroy Your Friends" for whatever that's worth.

GG Allin vs the Law of Diminishing Returns

2010-07-13T13:26:00.000-07:00

I don't know. I'm going to post these this morning. I just kind of want to get them over with. They've been done and are ready and apparently some folks find them rather interesting and will pay a bit of cash to have them when they pop up on eBay. I've probably got less than $3 total invested in them myself, but I've been dragging them around for a few decades yet. There's no denying a certain car crash rubbernecking cult following they speak to, but for me personally? Kind of meh.

1. No Rules
2. A Fuckup
3. Up Against the Wall
4. NYC Tonight

Yeah, so ummm... GG Allin. This is his fourth single and the last set of recordings before he started developing the schtick that would propel him to infamy. Four decent cuts of old school punk rock. A solid band. Reasonable recordings and a sound that by 1982 in the height of the rise of Hardcore was already starting to seem a little dated but still has a decent kick to it. I picked this one up for a quarter a few years later. He was already Person Non Grata pretty much everywhere in town by that point.

1. Hard Candy Cock
2. Out For Blood
3. I Don't Give a Shit
4. Drink, Fight & Fuck
5. Convulsions

And here is things start to shift. This one is still pretty listenable to me and GG still looks so young & fresh faced on the cover. But let's face it kids, there's a thin line between being "a total rock and roll rebel who lives completely by his own rules" & being a complete fucked up nihilistic asshole and attention whore who will do anything to get people to watch his freak show.
Personally, I'm not so very impressed. Somebody rolling around in their own shit onstage just makes me think less about the shocking display of total rebellion than about the poor underpaid schlub who's going to have to clean it up afterward. But that's just me. I'm generally pretty polite.
(And I know, blah blah blah..troubled soul. Crappy abused childhood...blah blah. It still doesn't give you license to be a dick for the rest of your life.)
It was also somewhere around this time I came close to auditioning for GG's band. I answered an ad in the local rag looking for a guitarist for GG for a proposed European tour. I talked with his brother Merle and arranged to meet up with him and the drummer for an audition at the band's practice space. (GG himself was unavailable) I had an idea of what I was in for, but was mostly looking at an opportunity to tour Europe on somebody else's dime. It was at this point that Fate intervened. Apparently GG and the boys had failed to pay their space rent on time and they'd been locked out of the room with all their equipment by management. I didn't get to audition that day. Merle never got back to me for a follow up and the European tour never materialized. I kind of have to imagine I dodged a bullet that day...

1. I Wanna Fuck Your Brains Out
2. Teacher's Pet
3. I'm Gonna Rape You
4. Devil's Prayer

Yeah, it's around here that I lose interest. (You can be kind of thankful that I didn't scan the inside of the sleeve here featuring GG & the boys posing & holding their erect penis'. It's definitely not very sexy and probably a lot more homo-erotic than intended.) Everything here is meant to be Shocking! There's copious use of the word "fuck" (how shocking!) Songs about fucking and rape (Shocking!) A song about Satan (Shocking!) Erect penis' on the sleeve (The scandal! think of the children) They thank drugs & booze on the sleeve! (I feel faint) etc, etc...
It personally makes me kind of yawn. It doesn't really horrify me so much as I just find it kind of mildly distasteful. I'm too jaded, I guess. It'd be kind of funny if it wasn't so seemingly in complete earnest.
There's certainly enough information to be found online about GG's life and death for the curious. (And if you're downloading these now, you probably already know enough already)
But I do have one final GG related story to tell that I heard just yesterday. It seems that at one point GG played at the venerable 7th St Entry while a certain renowned local legend was running sound there. As the story goes, if your band ever played the Entry and for some reason you had managed to piss off said local legend in his duties as soundman extraordinaire, he would you give you the unwashed mic that unbeknownst to you GG had shoved up his ass that night.
Remember kids, always be nice to the soundperson.

Pigs

2010-07-06T13:26:00.000-07:00

A slightly themed post today. Pigs. For mostly no particular reason. I've listened to Death in June's very fine "All Pigs Must Die" disc rather recently, so I suppose pigs are still haunting the back of my mind.

1. Pig Pen Victim
2. Social Sacrifice

A lovely sad song about a farmer who falls into his hog pen and is eaten alive by the pigs sung at a slow and mournful pace. Brings a tear to your eye it does. B-side is an even better song about ugly people.
This little tidbit is notable because it's on the very sought after What? Records label that put out some records of note including the (previously posted "Forming" by the Germs.) Pat Smear of said Germs also plays on these toe tapping numbers here as well. He would eventually go onto fame playing live with some famous band with a dead guy in it.

1. Bountiful Living
2. Ring Around the Collar

Chi-Pig. Akron. 1978. All you really need to know.
A song about cruising and a song about that great 70's scourge of collar stains. You tried rubbing them out and you tried scrubbing them out...
The two lasses in the tight pants played previously with the late & much mythologized Peter Laughner If you like be a cool person & buy their Miami cd from CdBaby. It'd make your mother proud.

1. Happy Birthday Sweet 16
2. Our Movement

I don't usually go much for the English white guy pop reggae beat kind of stuff, but for some reason this lovely little slab of pure teenage angst rises well above the crowd of tedium to be quite a lovely little tune with some really nice lyrical touches.
Not much really to find about the band online. I do recognize the name of Nick Haeffner on the back as the person behind an odd neo-psych lp called the "Great Indoors" that I had back in the Dark Ages when you had to find out about music on the streets and in magazines in the back of dark dingy stores. He's apparently made a name for himself as an Alfred Hitchock scholar of some sort. Good for him. The single itself came out on the Waldo's Records label.

Dennis Most & the Instigators vs. the Mor's

2010-06-29T13:26:00.000-07:00

Another day. I believe bowling is in the offing. None of which really means a whole hell of a lot, but it's nice to have a bit of preamble in the post for the sake of the visual aspect of having something over the first set of pictures. A sort of verbal foreplay before diving into the nitty gritty of whatever the hell it is I've got in mind for the day. Now that's done. Let's get on with it.

1. Excuse my Spunk
2. Destructive Love

Dennis Most & the Instigators spurted this little single into the moist and meaty center of 1979. Some folks may be familiar with it from it's inclusion on Shielded by Death Volume 2. Some may not. Doesn't matter either direction. It's a corker. From the ratty lo-fi guitar jabbing to the snotty sarcastic challenge to "Excuse my Spunk" it's nothing but win. B-side is a little less affecting, but not as they say a total wash. It maintains altitude, but never quite delivers like the A-side. A quick google also turns up an interview with the spunkmeister Dennis Most for those interested in knowing more about his current and past activities. I just like records.

1. Girl Next Door
2. Telephone Action

Another one from the oddness that was Minneapolis' own Break'er Records. The little label that nobody ever mentions when they talk local rock history. This little vinyl tidbit inhabits the more garage side of the equation though "Telephone Action" is the more aggressive of the pair. I'm still a few releases short of the discography and actively looking....

Novelty Songs

2010-06-22T13:26:00.000-07:00

Farkin' hell, it's been a chore this morning to wrangle with computers trying to get this poop together. Hopefully it's all worth it in the end somehow. I do like comments, kids. It lets me know that somebody's stopped by and appreciated the crap I go through.

1. Death to Disco
2. Wipeout

Hard to disagree with the Jim LaLumia's sentiment and I suppose being in NYC at the height of it all probably didn't help. And how can you go wrong with Wipeout?

1. Tomahawks
2. Dial-A-Teen
3. Pump-Rama
4. Teenage Enema Nurses in Bondage

Killer Pussy. The title alone is enough for me. I'm pretty sure that if I'd had this years ago that much of this Ep would have found its way onto countless mix tapes for decades.

1. A Blind Man's Penis
2. Call to a Motel

But I saved the best for last today. "A Blind's Man Penis" has to rank as perhaps the greatest single novelty song in the history of modern records bar none. It's also a classic Song Poem & a prank. Follow the link and read the story of how it came to be. It's brilliant and beautiful and never fails to bring a little tear of joy to my eye. This is a first class winner for the ages.
For the sake of anal retentive completeness I include the prank phone call on the b-side, but personally I find it rather uncompelling.

Today is a Good Day to Totally Rock Out

2010-06-15T13:26:00.000-07:00

Well actually most days are. I'll see what I can do about right effin' now, man. It's summer, baby. And we're going to rock with the windows rolled down and the warm breeze messing up our hair.

1. Tie Me Up
2. 1978
3. Just a Little Insane
4. Jumpin' on the Bandwagon
5. Cry Real Tears
6. The American Dream

It doesn't get more meat and potatoes Middle America garage/punk rock than the Gizmos. The Pride of Bloomington, Indiana and the progenitors of that tiny intrepid band of Hoosiers who had already made their own little punk rock scene long before NYC & London were pretending to have invented the idea. This little seven inches that would ably represents what would be the Gizmos (2.0) when Dale Lawrence took over the band.
There's scads of discs available of virtually every peep the various incarnations that wore the Gizmos mantle if you look. It's worth it.
On this slab. "Tie Me Up" gets my personal nod, though I do have a soft spot for "Cry Real Tears" (I can't help it my fontanelle never fully closed.) And for the record, "Just a Little Insane" seems to be the Gizmos take on the Sex Pistols "Did You No Wrong" only without the bullshit and bondage pants. (The Gizmos were so authentically punk rock they didn't need to play dress up.)
At some point I'll have to dig out and digitize the Gulcher comps. Red Snerts and Hoosier Hysteria to add to the Gizmos pile. You know you want it.

1. Where'd You Get That Cigarette
2. Everybody Wants to Survive

This is the very first Ace of Hearts single and is usually overshadowed by much of what followed on the label (I'm looking at you Mission of Burma.). It's a very rock and roll single, but the A-side manages to capture one of the greatest growling guitar sounds ever scratched onto vinyl with the needle tickling the red. It's all about tone, baby.
There's apparently a song on the other side as well. Meh, I say. This single and a couple of tracks on the famous 1976 "Live at the Rat" double lp are all that exists of the Infliktors.

On a Roll Now, Baby

2010-06-08T13:26:00.000-07:00

Just to keep this going for a bit longer since I have nothing better to be doing right about now and this keeps me out of trouble.

1. Hey Little Bird
2. You've Got to Understand

Boston 1964. The Barbarians. Moulty. the rest is history and legend, but here's the single that kicked it off. Nobody paid attention. I personally think "Hey Little Bird" is one of the strongest tracks they ever did,but what do I know. I'm just a guy who types stuff. They performed it in the T.A.M.I. Show movie, but their part seems to be frequently edited out of most showings. It's too bad. They rock hard and look groovy doing it. Even now I can't seem to find a decent link to the clip. (it's worth tracking down.)

1. One Kiss
2. Eve

As long as we're by that dirty water of Boston, my hometown. Here's Monad. "One Kiss" is manic and as schizoid as anything I've ever heard in my life. It's rather unlike anything else and perfect genius. It simply starts and spazzes its own way to an end. It's been posted a few times around the interwebs that I've come across and most tend to leave off the b-side, which I think is rather unfortunate. I rather like it, myself. You judge for yourself. I'd love to hear what else these guys were doing...

A Quick One and I'm Away

2010-06-01T13:26:00.000-07:00

A bunch of quick posts done in advance and scheduled to plop into place whether I'm there or not. This is more like it. Finally taking advantage of the post scheduling has made me a different kind of blogger. You're Welcome.

1. Throw Aggi Off the Bridge
2. For Ex-Lover's Only
3. Can't Explain

Black Tambourine. Loud buzzy pop of the finest caliber. There's a disc available of their complete recordings from their all too brief existence. It's worth your time. Listen to "Throw Aggi Off the Bridge" on repeat until it arrives. (And yes, "Can't Explain" is a cover of the song by Love. Thanks for asking.)

1. Guys are Not Proud
2. Bad Girls in Love

The Anemic Boyfriends were from Alaska. Cut them some slack. They can see Russia from their front porch. The other notable thing about this single is that it is one of the 130 singles that the late great John Peel kept in a special box for his favorite singles (though seeing that he was apparently such a big White Stripes fan kind of kills some of the magic for me.) As it is, I'm not sure about this one. It can go either way for me on most days and certainly wouldn't make it into my special magic singles box were I to have one or admit that I had one.

How to Influence Friends and Induce Headaches

2010-05-26T13:26:00.000-07:00

The day rolls by and I'm staying out of trouble and I'm home safe and sober and slightly bored. So I'm setting up a few more posts to set into the queue for a day in the future from when I'm typing this. It's all so 21st Century. I may need goggles.

1. White Line
2. Just a Kid
3. Big Wheel
4. Ronny Raygun

Norman & the Rockwells were a new wavish bar band from Omaha Nebraska. Yeah. I know, that's what I thought too. But I just can't resist a single with a contemporary Ronald Reagan song. (though sadly it's probably the weakest cut on this Ep) If you're interested in the further musical exploits of the bass player, his info is here.
What we do end up with is a four song Elongated Play seven inch that seems to come from the same headspace as say, Tin Huey. They're jazz influenced players with chops. They know some Zappa, they like Blue Oyster Cult, perhaps and when they get sick of playing in cover bands they like to let their hair down and make this odd racket.
For my money the winner here is "Just a Kid" with it's short little punk rock burst in the middle bridge. It's an odd duck for sure.

1. THC
2. Quit It

the German Shepherds formed in San Francisco. (Mutant Sounds has the other two recordings and a little history that I won't bother paraphrasing. You can read it there.)

Say you're sitting at home minding your own business, just idly whiling away the hours whittling a replica of the Lincoln Memorial out of ham and for some unknown reason you get the Meow Mix jingle stuck in your head. You're concentrating deeply on shaping the delicate nasal bridge of Lincoln's tiny head in pork and your brain is all "meow meow meow meow, meow meow meow meow..." The German Shepherds have a sure fire scorched earth cranial cleansing method meant to sear the offending jingle into a charred shadow on the inside of your skull and leave a pounding headache in its place.
You'll thank me later.

1. Whole Lotta Love

And as an added bonus here's an instrumental flute/horn rock version of a Led Zeppelin song by C.C.S. perfect for those quiet romantic evenings with the one you love when only Flute Rock will put her or him in the mood.

Bright and Shiny Pop Music for All Your Yesteryears

2010-05-21T13:26:00.000-07:00

I still had a bit of vim. So I lopped off another while I did the previous post (and may yet do another couple) and then waited a day to post it. I feel like I'm accomplishing things. How wonderful for me.

1. I Don't Want to Go Back
2. Falling

From the great city of Hoboken. Just like Frank Sinatra. I picked this little 1983 number up half expecting a bit of rockabilly or something. I was incorrect. What it is however is a prime slice of jangly pop music like your mother used to hum. Not much to say. It chimes for itself. The bass player has a current band going. And the man behind the mic, Frank Bednash has continued on under an assortment of names on the Parasol label as duo with one Donna Esposito and managed to strum his way to the Seattle area. This was certainly a pleasant surprise to listen to the first time. I try not to have any expectations when I snag unknown quantities but I have come to quite enjoy its existence. Beyond this little slice I do believe that one of the Teenline comps may have a little later demo as well.

1. Alfa Romeo
2. Smile on Your Face

This is the Dangerous Birds single I mentioned months and months ago in passing. I've had it for nearly 30 years. "Alfa Romeo" being just one of those songs. It'll get stuck in your skull and it won't let go. It's all a bit hazy, but I think that the only time I saw them was at the Bradford Ballroom early show of Mission of Burma's last Boston shows in 1983. I could be wrong. I can't find much online and I feel too lazy to ask anybody. Accept it as fact or don't. Either way. "Alfa Romeo". Make it your morning wake up song for the summer.

Acrylix vs. Shirkers

2010-05-20T11:50:00.000-07:00

Here We Go again as if nothing ever happened

I've got nothing to say really. I've got a cold and some free time. Here you go.

1. Waiting in the Car
2. Dancing in the Middle of Inflation

Acrylix were from the DC area and made a pleasant synthpop sound that you could dance to wearing an asymmetrical haircut & smoking a clove cigarette during Reagan's first term while anticipating the looming possibility of Nuclear Annihilation. Sometimes that was the only sane response. (Plus New Wave chicks were hot and smelled nice.)

1. Drunk and Disorderly
2. Suicide

The Shirkers were also from the DC area. They made a raucous punk rock noise. It's been comped several times, but here it is again only this time with a pattern of surface noises and clicks and pops unique to my personal vinyl copy. A very fine $1.50 well spent on my part. Listen to loud and often.

Dadamah

2009-12-21T04:56:00.001-08:00

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

2009-12-05T07:02:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-17T06:14:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-08T04:20:00.001-08:00

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

2009-10-30T07:33:00.001-07:00

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

2009-10-12T07:30:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-30T08:00:00.001-07:00

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.

Eggplants

2009-09-24T05:47:00.000-07:00

I made a spicy eggplant dish the other day based on something served at the Maple Garden restaurant in Honolulu. It's quite good. It's a variation on Ma Po's Tofu substituting eggplant for tofu. And for no other reason than the eggplant connection I'm going to put up a couple singles by Eggplant.

1. Your History is Not Mine
2. All I Can Do
3. Often I Lie
4. Still We Fall (Into the Same Trap)

There were apparently two different bands going by the name of Eggplant in the early part of the 90's including a California band that put out a trio of discs called "Sad Astrology", "Monkeybars" & "My Neutral War". This isn't the Eggplant were dealing with here.

The Eggplant above was an English band of superb fuzzy girl pop that had releases on the Bus Stop Label, Elefant & Pop Narcotic through the first part of the 90's when the underground was littered with pop bands while Grunge ruled the Earth. They put out a handful of singles and a couple of discs and there's really not a whole lot of info to be found beyond "Eggplant are : Julie - Guitar/Vocals
Tammy - Bass
Graham - Drums"
But if you're a fan of short catchy pop songs like me there's really no reason not to like Eggplant.

1. Candy Floss Conspiracy
2. Big Red Rock Eater
3. Chips With Everything

Bus Stop did eventually release a Cd compilation of the singles that they did for them entitled "Anorak Twat" that you might want to look into. It turns up for cheap on eBay occasionally and there is apparently a full length entitled "Catgirl" to be found as well that I haven't quite tracked down though hearing these today is making me want to.

1. Pretty
2. Per(version)

Mark Beer had a number of releases. This is the only one I've heard and I got it because it was a Rough Trade release pre-1984 when they were pretty reliably releasing things that I enjoy. It's a mildly catchy paean to getting dressed up and wearing make up regardless of sex or something. Not exactly my favorite Rough Trade release, but one that I don't mind hearing every great once in a while. The B-side here is a dub version of the same song which I suppose might interest the herbalists amongst you. Me, not so much.

The Wacky World of Primitive Synthesizers

2009-09-15T06:39:00.000-07:00

Ok. My 1TB removable hard drive that has all my music files just had a little weird burp where it wasn't reading. This is very scary and the level of suck that would ensue from its failure would be pretty devastating considering the amount of time and energy I've put into filling it up three quarters of the way. Time to get a back up for my back up....

It's hard to believe it today, but for a few years back in the early 80's guitars were thought to be on their way out. Synthesizers were the wave of the future and today we'd be listening to nothing but minimal blips and bloops (or as they call it today Techno and then they get all anal retentive about sub genres depending on where it blips and/or bloops so they can differentiate between songs). It was a time when Gary Numan had hit records and everybody was trying to cash in on the bandwagon with a synth record.
And at the same time lots and lots of small time recordists started pumping out singles with primitive synths and could still be considered kind of punk. As it is via a deadly combination of laziness and obscurity I haven't found much of anything online about these singles so they're just going to have to stand on their own merits....

1. Occupants - Video Games
2. Occupants - There is a Place
3. Shortwave Band - Moon on the Water
4. Shortwave Band - Computer Carnival
5. Shortwave Band - Das Energija

This is one of my favorites of the genre that I've picked up. Mostly because I find "Video Games" pretty hilarious as a gamer and I'm old enough to recognize the sound of the original Space Invaders that comes in at the very end. I feel positively 12 again and my button mashing finger gets a bit itchy just hearing it.
As near as I can figure from the insert here, there were three guys in the Occupants (a name I can only imagine as homage to the Residents) and two of them are also responsible for the slightly artier instrumental synth stylings of the Shortwave Band. They also seemed to be based in Chicago.

1. Diagrams of Women
2. Mister E Chaos

Delta were based in Austin, TX. A city not necessarily known for sythesizers and pretty much the only reason for Texas to exist. It's good stuff.

1. Back Tonight
2. Weightless

Mannikin comes to us from Alsip, IL and at 1985 is really really late for something of this particular style. Most likely one guy with a bank of electronics making his bid for the brass ring half a decade too late and with probably not the voice that's going to make a million teenage panties damp. But at least he put in a good effort. Lots of hustle.

1. Subterranean Homesick Blues
2. More Kane Than Abel

Ever wonder what would happen if you lived in the UK, had a bank of primitive electronic equipment and tried talking your way through a Bob Dylan cover?
You have your answer.

A Fresh Installment of New Wave

2009-09-06T07:57:00.000-07:00

I've got a bunch of other stuff going on presently so I'm going to toss up some kind of interesting New Wave obscurities fast and nasty and move on with the rest of my Labor Day weekend activities. You know what to do. I suggest that you just go ahead and take care of that now.

1. CN Tower
2. Prime Time

The Poles were from Toronto. You now know just about as much as I do. The single was released in 1977. Canada had much better punk rock than the UK. That's just a fact.

1. Metronome
2. Moscow 1980

Not much to be found about Manicured Noise. They apparently only released two singles in their lifetime and were fronted by one Steve Walsh formerly of some incarnation of the famed Flowers of Romance though he's not mentioned in the wiki. It's in the same school as things like Essential Logic & Monochrome Set. There's saxophones and tinny guitars.

1. Money Changes Everything
2. Quick With Your Lip

"Hey, I know that song!" is probably what you're thinking. And it would most likely be true. What you're probably less aware of is that the Cyndi Lauper version is a cover. This is the original.
The Brains were from Atlanta. Following this single they got signed by Mercury and managed to squeeze out a couple of forgotten Lps before succumbing to obscurity. I do have to say that while the keyboards aren't my favorite thing about this version it does come off with a lot more bitter snarkiness that serves the song well. The B-side never appeared anywhere else.

1. Jagged Edge
2. Second Story
3. Nothing Special

Here's one that I've had for a long time by the Schematix that I've seen going for over a hundred clams. So I had to pull it out and give it another listen. I'm still not completely sure I understand. It's good fast farfisa inflected garage punk. Which I suppose is good enough. Usually the organ turns off the punk rock collector scum. You listen & figure it out for yourself.

Discographic Odds and Ends

2009-08-26T06:11:00.001-07:00

I've had a hankering to hear a few things that I hadn't considered in much too long and digitizing Lps and hunting down rare things and digging around in various boxes and such because sometimes there's nothing quite like blasting Flipper at brain numbing volume over a couple of beers on a pleasant Summer's night. But then there's always a few straggling tracks somewhere that need to be culled and gathered together for the sake of completeness. So today I'm getting a couple of those cases out of the way and banging out the last few strays of a couple bands that I've been revisiting lately along with the matching compilation singles that go with them.

1. No Alterative - Johnny Got His Gun
2. Flipper - Earthworm
3. Tools - Asexuality in the 80's
4. Ballad of Pincushion Smith

I've had this for so long I don't remember not having it. I picked it up for Flipper. I'm doing it now for Flipper. However it is a pretty essential blast of San Francisco punk. The guitar tone on the No Alternative song is pretty wonderful and it's nice to have at least one Vktms song knowing that I'll never feel justified in dropping the wad of cash on an original copy of the "Midget" single no matter how much I do truly love that song. This is goodness.

1. Spikes - Life is Hell
2. Lewd - Mobile Home
3. Society Dog - Title Role
4. Undead - Hitler's Brain

The follow up compilation single. It's got some nice heavy hitters on it. It's classic punk rock. There's another song about Hitler's brain on it. I don't think I need to spell it out for you what this is going to be like. You're an adult. You make your own choices.

1. the Neats - Six
2. People in Stores - Factory
3. CCCP-TV - Fear That Mindless
4. the Wild Stares - Moving Targets

Propeller Records was supposed to be a nice cooperative label with a small and intrepid group of similarly minded Boston bands getting together to release each others records. It actually worked for a few years and put out seven items before imploding amidst the usual bickering about money etc. you might expect when communal projects go awry. (and most unfortunately before they could release the planned Art Yard "the Law" single) This was the first shot across the bow. It's notable mostly because it has the Neats song "Six" which I still have to say is perhaps their most shining recorded moment and the first thing they ever released. It was a long slow decline for them after that. The Ep "Monkey's Head in the Corner of the Room" and the first Ace of Hearts Lp are both fine slabs, don't get me wrong. But this song just has an extra special place in my heart.
The other track of minimal interest here is the CCCP-TV track mostly because I was briefly in an attempted band in the mid-80's with the guy who plays bass on the track. That band never had a name or got out of the practice space for better or worse. I just remember the experience whenever I hear this one.
The other couple of tracks I find to be pretty reasonable examples of the state of the art for Boston of the era and better than the entire Chicago back catalog.
Another tidbit I've come across in a few places is that the master tapes for all the Propeller releases went up in flames in a fire, so this is it, kids. These won't be made again...

1. 21-645 - Babble
2. Dangerous Birds - Emergency
3. V - Schtized
4. Christmas - I Close My Eyes

The other Propeller compilation seven inch. I wanted the Christmas track. This one is however chock full of good things starting with the 21-645 song "Babble" As far as I know the only traces of this band's existence is this and a song called "Red Red" on the first Throbbing Lobster compilation "Nobody Gets on the Guest List" Both are fab songs. Dangerous Birds are the first band that Thalia Zadek was in before Uzi, Live Skull and eventually Come. (which reminds me that I need to pull that Uzi ep out and give it a listen again...) Propeller also put out a Dangerous Birds single for "Alpha Romeo" which I almost included here until my innate laziness decided to put it off for a follow up post. V is the post-Girls project of David Hild
and then there's Christmas. I loved this band. They'd eventually morph in to the much less interesting to me Combustible Edison in the early 90's hipster Lounge backlash to Grunge. For my money Christmas was where they shined. I saw these guys a lot. I recently pulled out their catalog and began revisiting it. I still like it a lot. This is one of the stray tracks that I still hadn't added to the digital realm. I feel whole again for however briefly until I remember something else. (like that damn Uzi ep...)

And while we're on Christmas strays there's still the single...

1. (the Ballad of) The Invisible Girl
2. Wilhelm Reich

Here it is in all its personal weird and wonderful glory. I still have a very distinct memory of the first time I encountered Christmas. It was at a benefit for the Neats after they'd had a house fire that had not only left them homeless, but had destroyed all their equipment since they'd been using the basement of the place as a practice space. Christmas took the stage in full on pastel Prom wear covered in soot. Michael Cudahy took to the mic, let out a big exhale of smoke and exclaimed "We just came from a really great party at the Neats' house...."

And More Again

2009-08-12T07:01:00.001-07:00

Another morning. I've got the bug to start digitizing another pile of stuff. Before that I suppose I should toss another few into the aether and reattach the speaker cables to the right hand speaker by my desk that the stupid cat keeps knocking out when she goes behind it to "hide" while watching birds on the ledge outside the window.

1. Mary Had a Steamboat
2. Glover

Alf Danielson is a longtime musician from New Zealand who was in a number of bands that found their way onto Flying Nun Records through the 80's and early 90's. Most notably Goblin Mix, Stephen, and Chug. This is a solo single that appeared on Merge in 1992. Lately it seems he's making bloop noises.

1. Strawberries are Growing in my Garden (and It's Wintertime)
2. Burning the Thoughts From my Skin
3. Doreen

I like the Dentists. They are the quintessential Uk jangly pop band with hints of neo-psych. The sort of band that Bucketful of Brains magazine spent pages rhapsodizing over. And rightly so. This is their debut recording. It's a corker. It wasn't easy to track down and I probably spent too much on it, but damn, I needed these two B-sides. Their catalog is well worth looking into. I never did get to see them, but did meet them outside a record store while they were on tour with Shonen Knife sometime in the mid-90's.

1. Jubilee 77
2. Hooked on You
3. Fascist DJ
4. Windmill

the Exile extruded this little Ep into Glascow's nascent punk scene in 1977. It's one of Scotland's first punk records and the band themselves were quite important to the burgeoning scene. That said, I personally find it kind of meh. Their roots as a pub cover band show through in a kind of dull way. I'm sure it was pretty revolutionary sounding at the time, but not so much for me now. But people do rave about and are willing to shell out some cash for it, so it must have something going for it that I'm not hearing. You can decide for yourself. They do score points though for managing the whole recording and mixing session in three hours. That's impressive. But seriously, "Windmill" kind of blows.

Another Assortment

2009-08-05T07:41:00.000-07:00

These were a few things that have been sitting around in the SSC .wav folder since sometime in early January. Not a lot of info to be found about any of them. So I'll skip the preamble and let y'all get to the music.

1. Torture
2. Middle Room

About all I can gleen about these guys is that they were from Baltimore, MD and this single came out on a Florida label and that Nemb is hilariously short for "Non-Erotic Male Bonding" It's a sort of darkish New Wave with some nice Gang of 4 influenced guitar jabbing on "Middle Room" It kind of grows on me a bit every time I play it.

1. Change of Plans
2. No Attraction

Another Minneapolis Power Popper. I must have been in a very different mood the first time I played it because I don't remember thinking much of it. Today as I was clipping it all together it sounded much better to me. I suspect this too will grow on me over time. Hear it now before it gets comped on one of the Teenline compilations.

1. Motor Drive
2. James Brown Medley

The Catholics were from the DC area and while this seems to be not so very uncommon a record not even :30 Under DC which is a prime resource for band info in that part of the country has it listed. (Though they do show another Catholics single for "Little Ceasar") The single itself is in that not really punk, but not really new wave nether world. A bit too rock and roll to be power pop and with some synth on "Motor Drive". It's the sound one might imagine made by some guys who have been toiling in late 70's cover bands might make if they decided to write a few songs of their own to slip into a set. They do get props for the James Brown Medley which they almost pull off. Set a low bar of expectation and it's pretty Ok.

An Assortment of Delicious Things

2009-07-29T07:40:00.000-07:00

Blah Blah Blah. There's not really much of note that I feel like saying. I'm too busy listening to the Sex Clark Five's "Strum & Drum" lp to really give a dang about coherent typing in regards to a having some kind of introduction to today's drop into the aether. You can make up your own backstory, if you care to. Something involving laser guided sharks and vanilla pudding. There you go. Ball is in your court...

1. Fall Into You
2. Snailtime
3. Sunshine and Stuffed Leaves Escalating
4. Guarded Moon

Once upon a time in the mid-90's there was a strange microscopic record label originating in New Zealand called Trinder that released a small number of recordings in extra limited runs. This is their third release. It's a lathe cut single in a 2nd edition of 70. Meaning this record was cut by hand on a record cutting lathe by a single person and there were only 70 of them brought in to existence. I have no clue as to the origins of this though there are few names associated with it that will be familiar to anybody with a passing interest in New Zealand music of the last couple decades. (I'll leave the insert scan to speak for itself) Sonically speaking you've got what might best be described as Avant-Garde field recordings, perhaps. A bit of odd drones. A little bit of ethereal vocals. A clarinet solo. Some violin scrapings. But all oddly haunting at the same time.

1. Get Up and Use Me
2. Everything's Roses

The Fire Engines. Edinburgh's answer to the Fall. That's high praise from me.
Not so very long ago their recorded works were rereleased to compact disc under the title of Hungy Beat. You might want that.

1. Ketchup If You Can
2. You Left the Lights on in Your Eyes
3. Love
4. When Words Become a Kiss

The Sex Clark Five need to be better known. Or even just plain known. This particular slice starts with a bit of Swell Maps style free form nonsense, but the following three songs are some of the purest lo-fi pop to ever escape from Alabama or any other state for that matter. When the hipsters of tomorrow rediscover Power Pop, these guys will be gods.

And for no particular reason other than it exists.

1. Chiheisen
2. Sentimental Street

What happens when you take sweetly sung covers of 70's folk songs by Japanese songwriter Morita Doji and mix them with ear shattering walls of screeching noise?
Slap Happy Humphrey. Enjoy.

A Trio of Doubles

2009-07-21T06:24:00.001-07:00

I don't have much going on today. Here's two singles each by three artists.

1. Don't Let It Bring You Down
2. Haze is Free (Mounting a Broken Ladder)

Barbara Manning. She put out a number of quite wonderful records in the 90's and always seemed just ever so close to breaking through to at least a lasting indie status. It never quite seemed to materialize. I saw her a number of times back when and they were some grand and reliable evenings of musical entertainment. Sometime at the end of the 90's she found herself without a band or a record contract and it all kind of faded away. It's very much our loss. But she doesn't want you to let it bring you down. It shouldn't. This is an effin' great single. Not so long ago a three cd box of her first two lps was released. It's called "Super Scissors" and you can pick up for $20 at Cd Baby. I would do it if I were you.

1. B4 We Go Under
2. I Love You 1000 Ways

The scans don't really do justice to the lovely silk screened covers on this. The whole thing is a masterwork in heavy cardboard handmade goodness. The A-side was penned by Mr. Robert Scott of New Zealand's Bats. He would later go on to record a version with a one-off group called the Magick Heads, but I can't say as he surpassed this. It's one of those recordings that I just want to immediately hear again right after it's over. The B-side here is a version of the Lefty Frizzell classic. Stripped and plaintive.
I suppose there's nothing to do but wait for the next generation of hipsters start digging into the piles of 90's releases and "rediscover" Ms. Manning. Until then, dig these.

1. Bad Hearts
2. It
3. Cracked

The Tights had the distinction of having the first record released on Cherry Red records in 1978. They released these two and called it a day until 2004 and like a lot of middle aged former punk rockers decided to relive a bit of their youth. This single's quite good. You'll have "Cracked" stuck in your head for a while.

1. Howard Hughes
2. China's Eternal

I initially wrote these two singles off, but I think that's because the first side I randomly played was "China's Eternal" which is their weakest track and the one with the synth. My mistake. That said, the other single is the better one.

1. If Not True
2. One Thing Two Believe

The Velvet Crush. One of my favorite 90's power pop bands. Not much to say about them. Paul Chastain & Ric Menck have been musical partners for a long ass time. This is the first single under the Velvet Crush name. I love this single.
What you hear here is also the very last time that this particular copy was ever to be played. Despite the claim of "Unbreakable" clearly and decisively written upon the label as I was lifting the 45 off the spindle the same as I have done with thousands of singles over many decades it just snapped in half. First time that has ever happened. And I hope it never happens again. I ended up having to track down another copy in the UK.

1. Ash and Earth
2. Circling the Sun
3. Everything Flows
4. She Cracked

Another Bus Stop Label release for the boys. Jeffrey Bordchardt who was drafted to take on the guitar duties for Velvet Crush also had a much more twee group of his own called Honeybunch who put out some wonderfully wimpy pop singles.
On this one "Ash & Earth" would end up on their first lp "In the Presence of Greatness". "Everything Flows" is a Teenage Fanclub cover and "She Cracked" is of course a recording of the Modern Lovers classic from their first (and inarguably best) Lp.

Ground Zero vs Limbo Race

2009-07-12T05:18:00.000-07:00

I woke up way too early again today. It just doesn't seem right to be up at 5:37am on a Sunday. Just not right. But I am and since I've got nothing much else to do I'll do this. A couple of requests from friends of things I've got that they haven't heard in way too long.

1. Cybernetic War
2. Telivoid
3. Prima Donna
4. Breakapart
(improved rips as of 11.17.09)

I really have no memory or idea about this Ground Zero (one of several bands of the era with this name) except that they were from Boston and put out a couple of singles. This is the second one. There's probably something about them out there if you want to look. Soundwise it's rather an odd thing. It's got some great rollicking guitar and then it's got your raw synthesizer noises worked in. I think I initially described it to someone as the missing link between the Nervous Eaters (who penned the single greatest oral sex anthem of all time "Just Head") and the Girls (who are responsible for my personal favorite one chord song "Jeffrey I Hear You"). I may or may not yet stand behind that comparison after listening to it a few dozen more times. It doesn't really matter. This is quality damage.

1. Down and Backwards
2. What It Is

Limbo Race. This is one I have kind of mixed feelings about. I've got a bit of history with this. "Down and Backwards" is still a frickin' great song. And Mr. Randy Black was always stand up guy to me. Unfortunately I also used to work with the guy who played sax with them at a place in Kenmore Square and there was a rather unpleasant incident involving a woman that kind of left a bad taste in my mouth. It's all long long past and dimly felt, but that sax still kind of grates on me a bit. Their two singles did get a good write up on Julian Cope's Head Heritage though which is nice. And they've got a Myspace where you can hear the other single if you so desire.

Mighty Sphincter vs Shockabilly

2009-07-11T06:38:00.000-07:00

While I consider what breakfast will entail for me this morning in which I've arisen once again far too early to escape dreams that annoyed me more than anything else (as they frequently do. I seem to spend most of my sleeping hours quietly exasperated by dreaming situations.) and having already consumed my morning allotment of espresso it appears that the time and this run on sentence is ripe for another post. (not to mention that ever lengthening backlog of goodies that keep coming in the mail.)

1. Heathouse
2. Fag Bar
3. Exterminator
4. Electric Hose-Bag

Ahh...Mighty Sphincter. The name says almost everything. If they don't either make you laugh or piss you off they have failed. From the same Phoenix scene that spawned the wonder that was the Sun City Girls and the Feederz. These folks have chops and a mean streak. "Electric Hose-Bag" is a nice reworking of Black Sabbath's "Electric Funeral" that should be a hit at any social function at which you want to play it. Grandma loves her some Sabbath.
Oh and yes, they are making fun of you.
"Doug Clark says:
The idea to form Mighty Sphincter was solely my idea and here's how it happened. Around 1980 I was working at a drag bar and the idea of forming a band that used aspects of drag mixed with my fascination with monster movies and characters seemed like a perfectly acceptable reason to start a band. I brought some of my friends like Joe and Greg into the fold and we started practicing immediately, just in time to open for the Feederz who I had played with before. I brought Ron Reckless into the band because we wanted to make fun of all the incredibly annoying hardcore bands that started touring all over the country. It had become so that the emphasis wasn't on presentation or content of the bands or their songs of the time, but just on how fast you could play. So we started playing with all these crappy hardcore bands in order to make fun of them and to show that we knew how to play. Actually Mighty Sphincter was started to make fun of the entire punk scene in general, I mean if you look at the lyrics of every song on the first two albums, it's just that apparent. "Impetigo" was actually a song that made fun of one of the local girls who had to be "punk rock" and had gotten impetigo from a homemade piercing. Anyways, making fun of the entire punk scene worked. All of the band has always focused on making fun of everything, even ourselves. Christians, gays, punk rockers... Nothing was sacred when it came to being made fun of and we took every opportunity to do so, and still do.”

You can't argue with that.

Meanwhile

1. 19th Nervous Breakdown
2. City of Corruption

Then there was Shockabilly. As long as we're talking chops and a sense of humor you can't forget Shockabilly. Though I suppose lots of people have. (I have to say having seen Eugene Chadbourne play solo a whole bunch of times in the mid-80's that he is by far the most skilled guitar players I've ever witnessed.) Apparently you can get their discography through iTunes now. You should.

bonus

1. Ambivalence & Spark Plugs
2. Submerged

A perfectly reasonable slab of Chicago Nu-Wave circa 1979 before hardcore kids and loud guitars came along. It's not the sort of thing that I think will change anybody's life, but you're probably not going to run for the next button on your portable listening device if it were to shuffle past your ears either. Not much to be found about them online. They were. This is. You decide.

Breakouts vs the Maps & the Dark

2009-06-28T11:18:00.001-07:00

Lots of ground to cover and I'm groggy still on a sleepy Sunday. So I'm just going to throw together a packet of things and have at it. It should keep both of us out of trouble for a little bit anyway.

1. In Vagueness Deals
2. Millirems
(here)
The Breakouts were from San Francisco. This is their debut single. It's quite good US punk rock from 1979. I'm sure somebody else out there knows more about them than I do. All I did was fish this out of a record bin for a buck somewhere. Good Music for Bad Bad Times has posted their other two records. A single from 1980 & a 12" from 1983. I'd say it pretty much speaks for itself though.

1. I'm Talking to You
2. My Eyes Are Burning
(here)

I brought up the Maps in the last post. Here's their single. Judy Grunwald would go on to form Salem 66 who had a good run in the 80's. Even now I can listen to "I'm Talking to You" and smell the harbor from parking lot of the Channel night club.

1. Judy
2. Houses R Falling
3. Mission of Promo
(here)

The Dark are a little more elusive on the interweb. I saw them once or twice. They generally didn't do a whole hell of a lot for me. The exception is the first track on this Ep (the other two songs. meh or less). And not coincedentally the Judy of that song is the very same Judy Grunwald mentioned a paragraph higher in this post. They even manage to eke out a little quote from "I'm Talking to You" in the intro. I don't have any idea if the singer's plea to have Ms. Grunwald "take him home, please" was ever answered, but it made for one heck of a nu-wave love song and the two singles have been kind of indelibly linked together on various mix-tapes for many years. One of the great stalker anthems.

Meanwhile as an added bonus and tribute to the poster that launched a million teenage boners :

1. Farrahclones
2. Call Me
(here)

The Mark Hoback Band and I both know there was only one irreplaceable original.

Emma v. Fashion Central

2009-06-17T07:12:00.001-07:00

Sometimes there's nothing that can be done but to move forward. So today while I decide what I want to do about some breakfast, I'll throw another couple of pop nuggets on the pile for consideration.

1. Blue Girl
2. Losing
3. Silent & Still
4. Younger
(here)

I've had this double seven inch for a while. It had a place on one of the umpteen mixed tapes I'd made in tail end of the 20th Century and played while working one particularly odious kitchen job. I always liked it, but never had any clue as to it's origin. I just dug the stripped down pop songs with just enough sloppiness to keep 'em honest. I probably picked it up entirely based on a dollar price tag and the really nice packaging. A quick googling this morning brings up a couple of things. Emma hailed from Philedelphia and their drummer currently works with Bardo Pond. They apparently put out a couple of full lengths that I now know I need to look for.

1. Count Me In
2. Half a Mind of Your Own
3. Adeline
(here)

I'm pretty certain that this was on that same tape and probably gotten at the same time. Spin Art was a pretty safe bet for me. Chances are that it was going to be something pop. I like pop songs. As for information on the band, there's not much that I've been able to unearth on the interwebs. Their apparent complete discography is this single and a track on a Spin Art compilation and this tidbit from a site so eyebleeding that I'll spare you a link and just cut and past the relevent portion.
Fashion Central (After changing their name from Schwa, the late, lamented Fashion Central released a 45 on the Brilliant label to add to the Richmond-based group's already stacked discography of vinyl, tape releases and CD comp appearances. Alas, another great band RIP.)
I wouldn't hesitate to suggest that the bouncy "Count Me In" is very likely to get stuck in your skull for quite a long while after listening. Use with caution.

the Young Snakes

2009-06-15T08:32:00.001-07:00

Another deviation from the seven inch single format, but I wanted to hear this today. It's the sole bit of vinyl output by the Young Snakes. (well, besides the track "Brains & Eggs" on the "Wicked Good Time" compilation) and it's the band that first brought the musical stylings of Aimee Mann to the world.

(1982)
1. Give Me Your Face
2. Suit Me
3. Don't Change Your Mind
4. Way the World Goes
5. Not Enough
(Here)

I sadly never got to actually see the Young Snakes perform, but I did buy records from Aimee Mann when she worked at Newbury Comics back when it was the tiniest hole in the wall about halfway down Newbury St. I actually bought my first copy of this ep from her personally and had her autograph it. (if you own that copy. You're Welcome.) I sold it when I left Boston and only recently got around to replacing it when I realized that even in the vast resources of the Interwebs there isn't a decent rip of "Bark Along with the Young Snakes" to be found. Apparently as late as 2002, she had copies she was hawking on her website for the few of her current fans who were interested. (And a quick glance over her message board and it seems like her current fans do not care for it.)
Not very long ago an Ebay vendor started offering a really superb compilation of the Boston Underground Scene (1979-82) with a previously unreleased Young Snakes track.
(Not to mention the band I roadied for Native Tongue. When the Walls Close In" is a great track. But the revelation is Art Yard who rose out of the ashes of the Maps (their single is in the pile) to make some of the most glorious arty pop noise this side of Mission of Burma. Buy the disc for them. You won't regret it.) Turns out the person selling the disc was one of the Young Snakes. According to him Aimee won't let anybody reissue the Young Snakes stuff because she's "embarrassed" by it. I personally disagree, if anything she ought to be much more embarrassed by Til Tuesday, but that's another story.
Placing this in context of the scene from whence it arose this little angular slice becomes all the more remarkable. It manages to effectively sidestep all the pratfalls of many of their other Boston contemporaries. First off by not taking a stab at sounding like "Pornography" era Cure. Secondly while it flirts with it a bit in the basslines, the Young Snakes never quite give in to the urge to go the full white funk new wave monty. The guitars are too disjointed and the song structures are fractured while still maintaining a strong pop sensibility. You can sing along with them. The third thing that rescues the endeavor is the sparseness of the recording. They totally eschew any of the early 80's studio gimmicks and crap synths that are the dated downfall of many recordings of the time. The focus is on the the three instruments and the vocals with minimal overdubs. Chances are that it's as much a factor of time and money as aesthetic choice, but it works for me. I love this record and it deserves to be heard.

Queen Meanie Puss

2009-06-11T07:02:00.000-07:00

I've been having motivational problems the last few days. Maybe it's all the clouds and that the temperature has been generally well below normal. It's sleeping weather. I see some sun today and wanted to get something up while I had the least bit of gumption. So here's both of the Ep's by New Zealand's Queen Meanie Puss while I work at getting something else up and running.

(1991)
1. Big Madonna
2. Contracts
3. Painkiller
4. My Eyes

(1992)
1. Here & Gone Again
2. Diamonds
3. Glass Hole Pit
4. Darkling
5. Lilyheart

(both together)

The band was pretty short lived as far as I can tell. There's these two seven inches and a track on Siltbreeze's "I Hear the Devil Calling Me" compilation which was the revelation that led me to so many of the second wave of New Zealand music that started flourishing in the early 90's around the Xpressway label helmed by Dead C. empressario Bruce Russell. Queen Meanie Puss had their nucleus in a band called Angelhead (whose sole recorded output consists of an Xpressway cassette called "Eat") which included a young Michael Morley who performs in the aforementioned Dead C. as well as under the monikor Gate when doing his solo noise. (previously he had been part of Wreck Small Speakers on Expensive Stereos) QMP alum Rachel Shearer has been recording under the name Lovely Midget Another member, Stella Corkery made a few lathe cut records as part of a duo called White Saucer.

the Five

2009-05-29T13:46:00.001-07:00

I'm still waiting for the mailman. I've got nothing much else going on for this afternoon. So I suppose I've got time for this.

1. Napalm Beach
2. Excite Me

The Five were originally from Pittsburgh where they put out this single and another one called "Act of Contrition" before moving to Boston. For a number of years I saw them quite frequently not out of any particular intention but they simply seemed to play with virtually every band I went to see. They eventually managed to release an Lp (which is apparently still available) that has a number of songs that I like and remember them playing. They sounded like you would imagine a band who came from Pittsburgh at the end of the 70's should sound like. It's not particularly happy music. They were also friendly with friends of mine and quite nice fellows. The Five was fronted by Reid Paley who still makes music in NYC.
This particular single is apparently stupid rare. I pulled it out of the Let it Be used singles bin for a buck fifty in the mid-90's. Unfortunately though, there is some kind of flaw in the vinyl at the very edge like somebody picked up the raw record at the plant before the vinyl had fully hardened or something. The first twenty seconds on each side have big pops where that is. Thanks to the wonder of the modern age, I've gone through and snipped out the noisier bits. Now it's listenable in a way the actual record isn't. So appreciate the extra effort.

Ed's Redeeming Qualities vs Brown Velvet Couch

2009-05-28T10:45:00.000-07:00

I've had a bit of a rough morning. Without going into it in depth (as if it really mattered), I may take a nap and the toilet is (hopefully) fixed and I'm still in a bit of a crappy mood. As good a time as any to break out the Ed's Redeeming Qualities.

1. My Apartment
2. The Boy I Work With
3. Walk Again
4. Lawn Dart
(here)

Ed's Redeeming Qualities were I suppose best described as a folk group. They sort of appeared on the Boston scene at the end of the 80's and charmed the pants off of everybody. They had two dorky guys playing guitar and baritone ukulele, a woman switching off guitar and violin & a big guy in the back with some bongos and a coffee can full of rice. They sang songs that on first glance were sort of humorous and amusing that were stretched over the bones of something that if you actually took a second to look at it could be rather dark and disturbing. I liked them.
At a garage sale a few years back I picked up a set of Jarts in the original box for a couple of bucks. I usually end up humming a little bit of "Lawn Dart" in my head whenever I notice it on the shelf in the living room.
For a brief period of time ERQ held court in the Rat (r.i.p.) holding a thing they called Ed's Basement on Sunday afternoons where they'd play a couple of short sets and all sorts of local and national acts would perform informal versions of themselves. I have a bleary eyed hungover memory of standing by the bar with a best Rolling Rock ever in hand one particular summer's day after scuttling into the Rat and out of the too bright sun for a surprise appearance by Robyn Hitchcock . It just was a nice way to spend an afternoon.
Sadly in 1989, the dorky guy who played guitar and wrote most of the songs I really liked died of cancer and I moved halfway across the country. The band shuffled along for a while longer and moved to San Francisco before calling it a day, but I really don't think it was ever quite the same. If folks are familiar with Ed's Redeeming Qualities at all it's from the Breeders cover of "Driving on 9" Ed's Redeeming Qualities were good people.

1. Once in a Very Blue Moon
2. Soft October

Brown Velvet Couch is a one off single featuring Bruce Blucher and Paul Cahill from the bass-less feedback clatter that was Trash, Bo Martek, the drummer for noise surf combo King Loser and singer Viv Crowe. I picked it up at the Uptown Bar & Grill the night that Trash sheered another tiny slice out of the upper end of my hearing during that too brief period when bands (and in particular New Zealand bands) still made their way through Minneapolis. I recommend it.

And for no particular reason other than typing the word "Minneapolis"

1. Jetsetter
2. Cruel World
3. Hippy Hippy Shake
(here)

Here's a reasonable slice of Minneapolis power pop circa 1980. I haven't found any info about the band beyond a couple of mentions (including a post of "Jetsetter" on the always fabulous KBD site) "Jetsetter" is power pop. I can't object to it. And I don't think in nearly two decades of living in the Twin Cities have I ever heard these guys mentioned for better or worse. This single used to be everywhere for a dollar or less too. I suppose it's only a matter of time before it gets comped and the kids start salivating. You can yawn and tell 'em you already heard it. It's pretty Ok.

Germs - Forming

2009-05-24T08:03:00.000-07:00

1. Forming
2. Sex Boy (live)
I'm short on time today so here's a quickie. I couldn't find the site that has a good run down on the various versions the single went through, but I do know that this is a second press. Chances are good that if you're looking at this you already have an idea of who the Germs were. Here's their first record. Play loud.

Hula Hoop

2009-05-12T05:09:00.000-07:00

I'm kind of deviating from the normal modus operandi here for a post because I can and because it's worth it. This is what I've been doing for the last few days.
Hula Hoop.
All the Hula Hoop I've gotten my sweaty hands on.
This isn't a bad thing at all. They certainly deserve much better.

1991 - Winter Farming 7"

This isn't unfortunately a complete discography of the band. There's at least one more single, I believe and a handful of flexis and several tracks on Tribute singles to folks like Galaxie 500 & Felt and a few more stray tracks on a few more compilations I don't have or know about.
There is another Hula Hoop track on the "Louisville Sluggers III" double 7" of the state of Louisville rock and roll circa the early 90's that I have in the pile, but I haven't gotten to that one yet. (I've got "Louisville Sluggers" and when I finally score "Louisville Sluggers II" I can do them as a set)

1993 - My Sweet Amputee lp (pt.1, pt 2)

1993 - Louisville Leeds TKO lp (split with Boyracer)

1993 seems to be the banner year for Hula Hoop. They put out one and a half lp's and had tracks appear all over the place. "My Sweet Amputee" was released on Fluff Records and seems to have been issued in some sort of criminally small pressing. I certainly didn't know it existed until fairly recently. Another one with a nice Dame Darcy cover. Then there was the split lp with Boyracer. (This may have been my first encounter with the ever prolific Boyracer.) where each band covers a song by the other. Boyracer does "She Comes Alone" and Hula Hoop gives "Patric Walker" a run for its money.

1993 - Calling at Duke Street compilation

There actually isn't a whole lot of info about the band to be found. Barely a blip in Allmusic and just this half-assed thing on Discogs.com. If anything, they seem mostly known at all because they were the band that Rachel Grimes was in before Rachel's (the band) who were a hipster favorite namecheck in the mid-90's. (And who I saw one bright Sunday afternoon at the Bryant Lake Bowl in 1996. It was pretty wonderful.) And if you hadn't gathered it, they were from Louisville, Kentucky, just like Slint and the Kentucky Derby.

1994 - Butterfingered 7"

This was the single where I first encountered them. "Butterfingered" is still a favorite. (Unless it was "Prince William Oranj" on "Louisville Sluggers III" I'm a sucker for a good Fall reference.) It ended up on the mixed cassette that was the soundtrack of that summer back in the darkest of pre-iPod days. It wasn't necessarily a banner year by any stretch, but I remember that tape fondly at least. And Dame Darcy again. She was like an indie rock art star in the early 90's.

1994 - Peel Sessions 7"

They managed a coveted Peel Session.

1995 - Loveliest Rings of Saturn cd

And a full length Cd as well.

1996
1. Ben Hogan
2. The Last Part
(improved rips as of 11.17.09)

This one I found only pretty recently and I wish I'd known about it before so I could have had spent more time listening to it over the years. It's quite good.

1998 - Delmore split 7" (with Allen Ginsburg)

(the singles crammed into one fell swoop - the singles (pt 1, pt 2)
(ed. as of 11.17.09 I redid the rips for the "Ben Hogan" single that you should snag above. You'll be glad you did)

and they seem to have finished up their recording career with a split 45 with Allen Ginsburg reading and a sweet version of "Midget Love" In the intervening years between there and now and overlapping and all of that Hula Hoop's Eric Stoess hooked up with Stewart Anderson of Boyracer fame to form a lo-fi recording project known as Hulaboy which I can heartily recommend. All in all, a pretty good run for any band. It is too bad that everything is out of print. A decade past their demise and they're worth having a second listen too. It's not the sort of stuff that's going to immediately knock your socks off, but does have a tendency after a few spins to slowly seep under your skin.

Sleepers vs. Odes

2009-04-30T12:34:00.000-07:00

I've got things to do and not much to say. So I'll be brief and to the point or less.

1. Mirror
2. Theory

The Sleepers were from San Francisco. One of the guys used to be the drummer for Crime. They lasted a short time. Put out a couple of things and this is one of them. It's keyboards and drum machines. If you need more info then go over to Allmusic. They'll give you the highlights. Anybody else remember when you could be all synthesizers and still be considered punk?

Meanwhile

1. Meltaway
2. Honey Gets Hard

Odes is the sobriquet that Rebecca Odes used for this single following her stint in Love Child with Alan Licht. She also made a solitary full length after this called "Me & My Big Mouth". I'd forgotten how much I liked this.

Spare Snare vs. Archipelago Brewing Co.

2009-04-24T07:51:00.001-07:00

I've been lax. Spring fever, maybe. Other fish to fry. Stuff to do. I don't know. I skipped a week. That's how I roll sometimes. Meh. I actually have a bit of a hard time with this because since I started doing this I've gotten inspired to get even more seven inches and I end up with an ever lengthening backlog of things in the folder to post and new things in the mail to listen to and that I want to post because they're new and fresh while other worthy things languish. So I leave it up to chance. Load the folder and hit randomize. Whatever floats to the top is the next contestant. Today it's Spare Snare.

1. Super Slinky
2. As a Matter of Fact

Spare Snare are a lo-fi Scottish pop outfit. They still exist and still make music. They're one of many groups that popped up like mushrooms in the late 80's and early 90's at the beginning of the Tascam 4-track recording boom. You start with one guy alone in a room somewhere who records a record. Then he decides he wants to play live and forms a band. The band lives on.

1. Thorns
2. Skateboard Punk Rocker

I'm generally not one to pass up on a handprinted sleeve in an edition of 100. It takes dedication to get out the tempera paints and painstakingly printing out a sleeve. (been there. It's tedious.) The music itself is the sort of really hissy minimalist 4-track cassette thing that where you either get stiff nipples for or can't understand how anybody can listen to such a crappy recording. It's your call. "As a Matter of Fact" is a winner in my book.

Meanwhile

1. Criswell
2. Fresh Fish
3. Wussies R Us

the Archipelago Brewing Co. were one of the umpteen bands that spun before in and around the Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 universe. I'm not really up for attempting to weave some sense out of all of that and to be honest I don't particularly care to. I like this single. "Criswell" kicks ass and I'm going take it and its "FOUR GODDAM GIRL DRUMMERS" for what it is and enjoy it. If you want to untangle the minutia surrounding the whos and whats and wheres, have fun. I'm going to make some lunch.

And as an added bonus

1. Thin Fine Line
2. She Took a Long Cold Look
3. Cable Hogue

A generally pretty mediocre little seven inch by the Dophins. I couldn't find much info about it beyond somebody else's speculations based on more detective work than I think it really deserves. However the cover of Syd Barret's "She Took a Long Cold Look" is actually pretty good. It redeems the rest of the single and saves it from being permanently tucked in the back of the box. The John Cale cover is however much less successful. It's certainly not one of Cale's stronger efforts to begin with. So I offer it now based upon the one song. Enjoy it as such.

Kittywinder

2009-04-10T08:12:00.000-07:00

It's a lovely Spring day. I may even open the window. I'm sitting here and I'm anxiously awaiting UPS to bring me a package that is "out for delivery" and hoping that this time will be the charm wherein the UPS guy is at last able to get a handle on working that doorbell. The last couple of times I had to drive halfway across town to pick it up personally in the evening when the doorbell seemed to difficult for the poor delivery guy to handle. It's a button. It's not rocket surgery.

1. Wishing Well
2. Narrow Canal

Today we've got two singles by Kittywinder. They popped onto the scene in the early 90's in the wake of Babes in Toyland and Hole and the hype surrounding the whole riot girlz movement which I always thought was cobbled together more in the minds of journalists than in reality. There were certainly plenty of great female musicians in bands, but not so much an organized grand neo-feminist movement surrounding it. Lots of people were forming loud rock and roll bands. Some of them were women. It always reminded me a bit of the Bosstown Sound hype of the late 60's where marketers tried to hype a scene into existence from the outside.

1. Bats
2. Catfight

Unfortunately for them things didn't work out for Kittywinder (perhaps if they'd kept with their original name Motorpussy..). They did two albums for Zero Hour and when it went under the band folded shortly thereafter. It's too bad. Narrow Canal could have at easily been a college radio hit had anybody taken the time to listen to it. It certainly would have made great early 90's mix tape fodder. There was a video made for Wishing Well though.
And then the other single has such lovely Dame Darcy cover art. I really can't fault them for their efforts. Though in truth I haven't actually heard their full lengths, I would expect them to be at least as enjoyable as these small slices. Absorb and enjoy.

Nice Strong Arm vs the Mickey Bliss Band

2009-04-06T09:13:00.000-07:00

It seems like the last of the snow in the yard has finally melted. I've got the cat on my lap and just downed a nice warm cup of macha after a hearty breakfast. I'm ready to post some more.

1. Secret Language
2. Fiesta of Swirliness

Nice Strong Arm were a short lived (1987-90) band from Austin, TX and later moved to NYC. They put out three lps, a single and an ep and I saw them a number of times in Boston. There's actually very little info to be found. But they were pretty damn good as a live band. The kind of noisy psychedelic power trio for which the term Squall of Sound might be coined to describe. Hazy and loud and well deserving of reissue and reexamination. I can't honestly say that this particular record does them complete justice, but it gives a sweet taste of the experience. Volume is important.

1. Venus Dressed in Plastic Garbage
2. Trapezoid

This is an odd one. From Boston in the early 80's. Primitive synth organ based. I mean, how could anybody pass up a song entitled "Venus Dressed in Plastic Garbage" and live with themselves. Not me. And to tell the truth I find it very strangely compelling. It's the kind of bad that transcends itself into something greater. That weird mix of college freshman poetry class and your very first synthesizer that you saved up your money working at Friendly's to buy. It's funny, tragic and pretentious as hell and yet somehow it works. The b-side is more pop oriented with a little bit of that new wavey space feeling and a valiant attempt to snag a bit of various late 70's Bowie guitar sounds. As far as I can tell from a bit of internet research is that Mickey Bliss is still somewhere in Boston, making occasional music and booking for the Cantab Lounge. If you're in the Cambridge area tell him I said hello.

1. Feminine Deodarant Makes Me Sneeze
2. the Big Sneeze

As an added bonus today I'm throwing up a third single. It's novelty pop/new wave number from 1982 that I digitized, but didn't otherwise seem worth posting. But it's there, I did it and I'm posting so I offer it to those who have an interest in such things. It's the sort of thing you listen to once,put on a mix tape for somebody and forget about. The B-side is simply the backing tracks of the A-side with people sneezing in lieu of the lyrics. You have been warned.

Weird Noise ep vs Angst in my Pants dbl 7"

2009-03-24T06:20:00.000-07:00

I could sit here and wax poetic about the glory of the late 70's DIY movement that sprung up in the Uk and the oodles of strange primitive home recording and tape trading outfits that appeared and disappeared leaving only a scant handful of raw incompetent Dada-esque sonic missives, but it's been done and done better over here. But then again just like writing and movies, it's better to show than to tell and who needs to read the pretentious ravings of fanboys who like their music weird so that he can act all snotty and above it all when somebody mentions something *gasp* with a shred of popularity or hipness. You're just looking for stuff to fill up your iPod and break up the monotony of your everyday life anyway. I'll see what I can do.

WEIRD NOISE EP (Fuck Off Records FEP 001)
(Here 'tis)
1. The 012 - Fish From Tahiti
2. Danny & The Dressmakers - Cathy and Claire
3. The Sell Outs - Ballad Of Fuck Off Records
4. Danny & The Dressmakers - The Truth About Unemployment
5. The Door And The Window - Number One Entertainer
6. Danny & The Dressmakers - Legalise Vimto
7. Danny & The Dressmakers - Hey Ho My Cholesterol Level Is Low
8. The Instant Automatons - Electronic Music
9. Danny & The Dressmakers - Don't Make Another Bass Guitar Mr. Rickenbacker

This is one of the great shots across the bow of modern music and probably 100 times more punk rock than anything your average posing blue mohawked safety pinned "punk rocker" type was capable of. It's music for sake of making a racket. And it's a glorious racket and tuning your guitar is for pussies. You can learn about the Instant Automatons from their website which has yet more stuff to download and digest.

ANGST IN MY PANTS EP (Deleted Records DEP 002)
(Parts the 1st, the 2nd, the 3rd, the 4th)

1. The Instant Automatons - Restless Night
2. The Instant Automatons - Scared To Be Alone
3. The Door And The Window - C.C.H.
4. Mic Woods - Cracked Actor?
5. Mic Woods - Weekday Lovecrush
6. The Midnight Circus - Silicone Baby
7. The Midnight Circus - The Hedonist Jive
8. The 012 - 9 To 5
9. The 012 - In The Ghetto
10. The Digital Dinosaurs - The Sideways Man
11. Lily Malone & Angus McSteering-Wheel - No Got Champagne
12. Colin Potter - Is It You, Is It Me?
13. Colin Potter - I Am Your Shadow
14. Colin Potter - Quick One
15. Missing Persons - The Blue-Eyed Boy Addresses Himself To The Matter In Hand
16. Missing Persons - Angst In My Pants

There's really nothing much else that need be said. Things were getting a bit more musical by this juncture, but still quite wonderful. "Weekday Lovecrush" is sad and hilarious and you might wonder where the Midnight Circus and Digital Dinosaurs have been your whole life. They've been trapped like tiny mosquitoes in the black vinyl amber of this record.
I suppose that I should also remind you that "Angst in my Pants" as a title here precedes the Sparks lp by at least a couple of years and Missing Persons here has nothing to do with the one you normally associate with that name. This stuff is obscenely rare. (and I mean that not in the standard Ebay sense where every record ever made is "rare", but in the grand likelyhood that you're not going stumble across this stuff most good days.) Enjoy it now.

the Neighborhoods vs Tuff Monks

2009-03-19T18:17:00.001-07:00

It's late in the day. I should probably be making with the pots and pans and getting some dinner together. Instead I'm trimming .wav files and tagging Mp3's. It's a sickness.

1. Prettiest Girl
2. No Place Like Home

I've got a particularly soft spot in my heart for this single by the Neighborhoods. It's two sides of fine power pop with an edge that in so many ways defines a certain bit of high school for me. There's a song about escaping a crappy home life with records on one side and some boobs on the cover to look at. . Tailor made for my teenage brain. I'd also hazard that it's the second best single released on Ace of Hearts right behind "Academy Fight Song" by Mission of Burma and just ahead of "1+1<2" by the Classic Ruins.
Then there was a local music show on the PBS station that ran on Saturdays that aired some footage of them playing both sides around the time it came out. I taped it on our Betamax machine. Even today I'm very impressed with David Minehan's incredible proto-mullet and eye makeup. Sadly, they really lost me after this one and I rapidly lost interest. But I still love this single.

Meanwhile half a world away and two years later

1. After the Fireworks
2. After After the Fireworks

Have you ever wondered what it would have sounded like if the Birthday Party had melded with the Go-Betweens ? What would a dub version of that have sounded like?
You have your answer.