01. Power Soul
02. Ike's Hammer
03. Evil Iron Any Day Now
04. ParaPolyAnna
05. Engine
06. Mother Michigan
07. Sky Head
Saturday, January 30, 2021
Reptile House - Listen to the Powersoul (1988, Merkin)
Wednesday, January 27, 2021
The Spinning Jennys - It's It It It 7" (1991, Tea Time)
A. It's It It It (Part VII)
B1. Supermarine
B2. I'd Laugh If Your Head Exploded
Sunday, January 24, 2021
We can rip apart those socialists and all their damn taxes...
**Please do not reveal artist in comments!**
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Saturday, January 23, 2021
SFT Boys - s/t ep (1983)
01. What You're Up Against
02. As a Matter of Fact
03. Tomorrow Boy
04. Underground
Tuesday, January 19, 2021
Matthew Sweet - Catspaw (2021, Omnivore) - A peak under the hood.
There are untold artists who initially accumulate a respectable following based on a few minor/moderate hits only to see diminishing returns with successive albums, yet still manage to maintain a modest core audience of dedicated adherents. A lot of them put the emphasis on touring, and put writing and recording on the back burner, while some have never strayed from the prolific work ethic that established them with a fanbase to begin with. A few troubadours that come to mind in this category would be Pete Yorn, Juliana Hatfield, and Matthew Sweet. As for the initial swath of fans that flocked to Sweet during his power-pop heyday that made 1991's Girlfriend his signature success (not to mention subsequent triumphs Altered Beast and 100% Fun) a good swath of them gradually fell off the bandwagon. Of course, this is a loss to Sweet and the aforementioned, especially in terms of sheer revenue - but those former listeners are missing out on a wealth of new music in the process. From a spreadsheet standpoint, his latest, Catspaw is likely to rack up only a fraction of the sales Girlfriend, or even say Blue Sky on Mars garnered. Luckily, for those who haven't tuned-out, music is an un-quantifiable commodity, and the man in question seems to be angling for some fresh chords, not to mention a tact that wasn't present on his more renown works of yore.
Catspaw squeezes a dozen cuts into about forty minutes - immensely par for the course in terms of Matthew Sweet records. But straight from the get-go, on the initiating "Blown Away" something feels different about this one. Not only does Sweet sing, but his guitar does just as much so, peeling off searing fills that would sound perfectly at home on a vintage Neil Young and Crazy Horse album. In fact the demeanor of "Blown Away" sounds considerably more sobering and beleaguered than we're accustom to hearing from him, and while the tunes that immediately follow it ("Give a Little" and "Come Home") are comparatively lighter in posture, the sonic context of Catspaw arches, aches and quite frankly cranks like Young, not to mention other heritage-worthy purveyors of classic rock. Nonetheless this is unmistakably a Sweet record with no shortage of chorus hooks and plaintive ruminations on romance and self-actualization. If you're looking for respites more in keeping with say, his last few records like Tomorrow Forever and the Record Store Day-exclusive LP, Wicked System of Things, you're likely to latch onto "Coming Soon" and "Stars Explode." Not 100% Fun, nor 100% flawless, Catspaw is bejeweled with wailing guitar textures and creative impulses that nicely contrast with what we typically hear from this semi-charmed, power pop maven. By the way, as a first, Sweet is responsible for handling all instruments here, save for drums which are commandeered by his longtime accomplice and Velvet Crush veteran Ric Menck. Catspaw is available direct from Omnivore, Amazon, and I would hope a physical vendor in your own corner of the world.
Sunday, January 17, 2021
Let’s re-dress this mannequin and let these ghosts in...
**Please do not reveal artist in comments!**
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Friday, January 15, 2021
Blue Spots - s/t (1983, Sound Machine)
01. See Her in the Sun
02. Don't
03. I Always Miss
04. Experiment That Failed
05. I Wanna Be With You
06. Life in the City
07. Girl
08. Two Fools
09. Rock 'n Roll's Ok
10. Industrial Waste
11. This Girl is Mine
12. Time Out
Tuesday, January 12, 2021
Senseless Things - The First of Too Many (1991) - R.I.P. Mark Keds.
The album's title was a bit of a misnomer, as it wasn't the combo's debut (that honor goes to 1989's Postcard C.V.) rather their sophomore effort. And definitely not a "difficult" follow-up record at that, as it perfectly conveyed the Things penchant for brash, riff-happy salvos paired with themes that exuded just enough frivolity to lighten the mood of anyone within earshot. Drawing on inspirational antecedents like the Buzzcocks, and generally keeping tunes in the two-and-a-half minute range, the Senseless Things didn't exactly set the table for Britpop, but they managed to churn out a few modest hit singles in the UK during that ballyhooed era. On the other side of the pond ...Too Many proved to be the band's lone offering, outside scarcely seen and pricier imports of subsequent albums. There's rarely a wasted nano-second here, with "Everybody's Gone," "Easy to Smile" and "Ex Teenager" proving to be some of their most definitive moments.
Kerrang! offered a lengthier piece on Mark Keds life and musical exploits, though I (along with other fans) have suspicions about the actual circumstances that lead to his death. In addition to ...Too Many, I previously shared S/T's third album Empire of the Senseless. Finally, I'm sitting on several folders of b-sides, rarities and live tracks, so who knows, this may not be Wilfully Obscure's final word on these folks.
01. Everybody's Gone
02. Best Friend
03. Ex Teeneager
04. It's Cool To Hang Out With Your Ex
05. 19 Blue
06. Should I Feel It
07. Lip Radio
08. Easy to Smile
09. In Love Again
10. Got it at the Delmar
11. American Dad
12. Radio Spiteful
13. Chicken
14. Wrong Number
15. In Different Tongues
16. Fishing at Tescos
Sunday, January 10, 2021
Forever learn as time goes by.
**Please do not reveal artist in comments!**
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A relatively acute case of underblogging - Best of the blog mix 2020.
Well, it wasn't my intention of going the entire week without sharing any fresh, vintage tunes, but at the very least I was planning on my latest annual compendium, which is usually get to early in January than this. Hopefully this will be the exception and not the rule. Needless to say I didn't partake in as much record shopping this year as I normally do. While we can chalk that up to a one very obvious (and tragic) aspect, I've accumulated so much stuff over the past few years that I really didn't have an excuse for being so slack in posting entries. Hard to say what 2021 might hold, but content-wise thus far I've been less than generous - but hopefully I'll be turning the corner on that soon.
The 26 songs occupying the folder that you may opt to capture to your hard disk of choice, are arranged loosely at best, with most of the more fun, less heady selections occupying the first quarter, with the last quarter placing the emphasis on the opposite tenor, you might say. What's in between varies in terms of mood/mode/modus operandi, but I'll let you draw your own conclusions. I'm pressed for time to elaborate on any particular titles, though I plan on attaching links to the original artist entries, if not later today, soon. As usual I've tossed in a handful of previously unshared kernels that are noted with an asterisk. Speaking of which, I'm looking for a quality rip of Ghost Of An American Airman's Some Day LP from 1988. I'm assuming few copies made it to mainland America from the band's native Ireland. At any rate, dig in.01. Great Outdoors - World At My Shoes02. Cool It Reba - I Saw Snakes
03. The Choice - Candy
04. Secrets - Uniform*
05. Rockin Beats - Foreign Girl
06. Ring Theatre - Mrs. Ann
07. Children's Crusade - Your Time is Through
08. Chicken Scratch - House the Size of Your Mind
09. Quinn the Eskimo - Samantha Rain
10. The Waxmen - Hands That Speak
11. Ghost Of An American Airman - I Hear Voices*
12. Airstrip - English Guns
13. Eyes - Disneyland
14. Sgt. Arms - Company Girl*
15. The Seen - Younger Than Yesterday
16. The Heats - Night Shift
17. 11th Hour - Pictures In My Room
18. The Glory Box - Aarr
19. Jet Black Factory - Tonight
20. Crashing Plains - I Dream of Structures
21. Nothing But Happiness - Buried in the Flowers
22. Friends of Ghosts - Eleven Boy
23. Red House - 25 Reasons
24. Bond Bergland - Found Wonder
25. Nice Strong Arm - Minds Lie
26. Lifers - Wealthy Additions
Sunday, January 3, 2021
...blowing bucks into banks with no shame.
**Please do not reveal artist in comments!**
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Friday, January 1, 2021
Baby Boom - Driven too Far ep + 7" (1987, Cheese)
02. Out of Nowhere
03. Reason to Hide
04. Broken Records
bonus 7"
A. Raining Glass
B. The Problem With Vicky and Laura