Who are they to say, I do thing’s my own way.

A compilation of singles and non-LP scree spanning 1991-93. Mostly unintelligible lyrics on this one. Dig in.

**Please do not reveal artist in comments!**

Hear

V/A - You're a Super Lady 7'' ep (1996, Corduroy)

I couldn't get enough of Canadian indie rock in the '90s, and even though labels like Sub Pop and Murderecords, Teenage USA, Cinnamon Toast, and Mint had a lot of the bases covered, there were oodles of bands that went underrepresented. You're a Super Lady is a compilation 45 that from what I understand was accompanied by a fanzine, that I either never received or misplaced. Luckily I still have the wax (and oversized picture sleeve) which does a succinct job of covering four neglected outfits, including a favorite of mine, Mystery Machine that ironically as it turns out weren't so neglected given they were signed to Nettwerk Records. They're contribution, "3 Fisted" is a jangly, distortion prone tempest that was a b-side from their spellbinding Glazed album, circa 1992. There's not much info to be had on ThanatoPop and Loomer, although the later churn up a noisome maelstrom that will charm the pants off the Unwound fans in the audience. The all female Halifax quartet Plumtree were able to garner a reasonable following, with three albums to boast for themselves, and a crunchy, muscular indie pop sound that transcended the typical twee contingents of their era. 

01. ThanatoPop – Friend Surplus

02. Mystery Machine - 3 Fisted

03. Loomer - Montazuma's Revenge

04. Plumtree - Fatherhood

Hear

Life in General - s/t ep (1982, Panece)

By 1992 it was a cinch to typecast music emanating from Seattle. Ten years prior, not so much.  Life in General were gestated under the name of X-15, but released two records under the banner of LiG including this ep in '82.  Despite the brevity of their tunes, they didn't quite breach into punk or hardcore environs (and certainly not some proto form of grunge), yet they struck me as discerning connoisseurs of UK post-punk a la Bauhaus and Gang of Four, with mouthpiece Kelly Mitchell dead-panning Peter Murphy at times, just not as austere. The urgency coursing through "The Fog" and "Affliction" really feed into Life's distinctive schtick and make this all too-fleeting ep something of a revelation, or at the very least a revelation when it dropped some 41 years ago. Live versions of material from this record along with a subsequent single and previously unreleased tunes were later compiled under the band's former X-15 moniker in the guise of Bombs and Insurance. 

01. Respite Lost

02. The Fog

03. That's Life

04. Affliction

05. One Way

Hear

Everything you touch just ends.

 From 2017. 

**Please do not reveal artist in comments!**

Hear

Reboot: Fictions - s/t (1980, Intercan)

At long last the drought is over.  Finally some new content...sort of. I went into this Canadian troupe's lone album cold a few years ago, but it wasn't until recently that I purloined an original copy, and as such a cleaner rip...and a more thoughtful reassessment. Fictions' album sleeve exuded seemingly telltale art/post-punk vibes. Was really expecting to parachute into a noir-ish new wave neighborhood, but ended up landing amidst something all the more lighthearted, even jovial at times in fact. There are some lightweight punky inclinations here (see "I Let Go" and the skinny tie endowed "Snob Appeal") albeit don't hold your breath for any political overtones or preachiness. Elsewhere "Shuffle" and "Fixation" could go toe-to-toe with anything the Cars were dishing out around the same time. In a nutshell, I was expecting something along similar lines to the Comsat Angels, and wound up with something more in the vicinity of the Pointed Sticks or early Joe Jackson. Go figure.

01. Won't Wash Away

02. I Let Go

03. Don't Look Down

04. Shuffle

05. Better

06. Fixation

07. Snob Appeal

08. Jersey Shore

09. Dimestore Romance

10. Do it With the Lights On

11. Praying for the World

Hear

To the memories in your mind that misbehave.

From 2020. Smooth, but forward-thinking indie pop exuding a deftly balanced blend of gits and keys. Signposts point to everyone from Roxy Music, China Crisis, Merchandise, and I'm sure you'll draw your own conclusions as well. 

**Please do not reveal artist in comments!**

Hear

Take me back to 1979 so I can find my open eyes.

A debut album from 2003. The last throes of Brit-pop, or a new chapter altogether?  Give this a few listens to sink in.

**Please do not reveal artist in comments!**

Here

Dwight Twilley - Between the Cracks - Vol One (When!/Not lame)

The passing of Dwight Twilley on the 18th of this month was more than just another celebrity R.I.P., it was more akin to the passing of an era. Yes, there were a couple of noted Top 40 entries to his credit, but it was really the dedicated power pop cognoscenti that really felt the brunt of this loss. Occasionally whispered in the same breath as Big Star and Badfinger, Dwight Twilley (with the closely associated Dwight Twilley Band that found him paired with the late Phil Seymour in the late '70s), he wasn't always the immediate practitioner of the form that people associated with the genre.  Though musically active (perhaps right up until his unexpected passing) visibility was another story, despite the caliber of his recordings, especially the two landmark DTB albums, Sincerely (1976) and Twilley Don't Mind (1977) that veritably thumbtacked power pop on the proverbial map. 

A lot of you have no doubt read a flurry of remembrances on social media, or have found yourself spinning Twilley albums over the past couple of days. I had no personal connection to him, nor do I necessarily consider myself a major fan, but I appreciated his music, even ravenously at times. Most of what he had to offer is still available via paid download and streaming (and even the occasional reissue), and as of right now, the only thing I have to offer that's even slightly under the radar is this 2000 compilation composed out of outtakes and such, that ranges from 1973 to '94. Per the liner notes a good half of the songs are situated from 1983, just prior to his  '84 Jungle album, the last record of his to score a charting hit by way of "Girls."  That little morsel of trivia out of the way, for an album of abandoned material Twilley exuded a remarkable amount of quality control across a disparate and diverse selection of tracks. So much so, that even if you're a newbie to the man in question, Between the Cracks functions as a representative sampler of his arc as a songsmith.  It's another reminder of a bona fide talent that even the most observant of us took for granted, especially in the latter decades of his career.

01. Black Eyes

02. Let Me Down

03. Don't You Love Her

04. Lullaby

05. Forget About it Baby

06. Round and Around

07. Reach For the Sky

08. Too Young For Love

09. Eli Bolack

10. Oh Carrie

11. Living in the City

12. Christmas Love

13. To Get to You

14. Where the Birds Fly

15. No Place Like Home

16. Perfect World

Hear

Reboot: Ultracherry Violet - I Fall to Pieces (1994, Bedazzled)

This one has been a long time coming. Shortly after I shared this in 2014 it was pointed out to me that the third track on this album, "Remember" wasn't the song in question, rather a duplication of another album track, "Losing My Friends." Indeed this was frustratingly the case, the byproduct of a careless mastering job on Ultracherry Violet's one and only LP, I Fall to Pieces.  Heck, I should have been alert enough to notice it before I posted the thing nine years ago.  Nonetheless, when I became conscious of this snafu, I didn't pull the link because the album was otherwise perfect.  It never occurred to me to reach out to anyone in the band...but many years on someone else did, and although doing a repress of the CD wasn't in the cards, the missing piece of the puzzle (the aforementioned "Remember") was recently posted on YouTube. 

I've updated the folder with the corrected track and have made it available to download per the link below.  The original write-up for the album can be accessed here, and for the uninitiated, if you're an aficionado of '90s dream pop from either side of the Atlantic, this one is something of a revelation. A big thanks to Sam who alerted me of this truly "lost" recording. 

Hear 

Poetry has given way to this.

 A debut album from 2004.

**Please do not reveal artist in comments!**

Hear

Drive me up to London now it's got too dark to see...

Thanks for being patient with me while I find an adequate amount of time to prep more vinyl for some uploads in the very near future. Until then I'm happy to offer you a clutch of 1990 demos from Ride, tracked just prior to a spate of then-forthcoming classic eps and albums. The birth of dream pop, or merely the next essential segment in the evolving continuity of shoegaze in general?  You be the judge.  "I'm Fine Thanks" is the most under-released nugget here, eventually appearing on the rarities compilation Firing Blanks, but to my ears this is a different incarnation, or at the very least mix of the tune.  One version of 
 "Chelsea Girl" has the beginning chopped off, and likewise with the ending of "Unfamiliar," which is a real pisser, but what can we do?  Enjoy in either MP3 or FLAC. 

01. Chelsea Girl #1

02. Drive Blind #1

03. I'm Fine Thanks (aka You Fuck Me Up)

04. Chelsea Girl #2 (cuts in)

05. Drive Blind

06. All I Can See

07. Close My Eyes

08. Unfamiliar (cuts out)

MP3  FLAC

Straightjacket your own beauty, because it's just a breakdown away...

Four eps.  It's been a few months since I've done one of these. Two decades spanning two millennia represented.  

**Please do not reveal artists in comments!**

Hear

Cotton Mather - Kontiki teaser tape (1986)

So I had some internal debate on whether to share this or not, but if not on Wilfuly Obscure, where?  Per the picture to your right, it's pretty easy to discern this wasn't made available to the general public (but soon would be in a slightly modified guise).  Austin, TX power pop mavens Cotton Mather made a few ripples when they're near-perfect debut, Cotton is King was dropped in 1994, but it's '97 follow-up, Kontiki, was significantly more lauded and met with far wider embrace. Prior to the album's release, Cotton main man Robert Harrison apparently distributed a few hand made tapes of new material he had been working on. One of those cassettes was handed off to a leading luminary/tastemaker in the scene, as it were, and decades later I was fortunate enough to have it fall in my hands. 

As per the title of this entry, this little three-song reel wasn't an advance for Kontiki, so much as a teaser or appetizer.  The first two tracks, "My Before And After" and "Spin My Wheels" would soon feature prominently on the album, with the third, "Innocent Street" being relegated to a b-side. "My Before.." strikes me as either a demo or unmixed version of the final product, which I like to think bears a slightly more organic hue here. "Spin My Wheels" is definitely an alternate take of the song, and an electric version at that. It was later released on the bonus CD of the 2012 deluxe edition of Kontiki.  In addition, that expanded version of the album included "Innocent Street" as a bonus selection too, albeit in an acoustic iteration whereas my cassette provides a differing electric take.  So there you have it. Three songs from 1996 that eventually saw the light of day a year later...with a few discrepancies. Enjoy.

01. My Before and After

02. Spin My Wheels

03. Innocent Street

Hear

Bobby Sutliff - Only Ghosts Remain...plus (1987/2023, Jem) - a brief review.

It's nearly impossible for a recent passing to not overshadow the music of the artist involved. In the cases of high profile specimens like John Lennon and Kurt Cobain it took years for a lot of fans to come to terms with their premature deaths before they could simply sink back in and enjoy the music again. For better or worse, Bobby Sutliff was not a household name, even at the arguable apex of his career in the mid-80s, but fans of both his solo endeavors and the work he did with the more renown Windbreakers certainly felt something when it was announced he lost his battle with cancer in August of 2022. There was really no controversy or prolonged drama tethered to Bobby, and those like myself who didn't know him personally were still able to associate him exclusively with his catalog of music.  Unlike the aforementioned Lennon and Cobain, however, when someone of Bobby's small-of-fame stature departs, their loss tends to exist in a vacuum, one in which there is no media pile-on or ubiquitous airplay on Sirius XM.  But above all else the music lives on with their faithful minions, and a recent reissue of his 1987 solo LP, Only Ghosts Remain is a much needed reminder of his relevance.

Making his bow in the early '80s from the somewhat unlikely locale of Jackson, MS as half of the songwriting quotient of the Windbreakers, Bobby, partnered with Tim Lee, would be responsible for three memorable albums of collegiate guitar pop (Terminal (1985), Run (1986) and A Different Sort (1987), not to mention a handful of preceding EPs. Fortified with national distribution, despite being anchored to smaller indie labels the Windbreakers were something of a staple on left-of-the-dial radio outlets, and were a decent live draw, but they didn't come close to breaching the mainstream.  To fans of jangle-laden indie rock coming remotely from the same environs as R.E.M. (and maybe less so the Dream Syndicate) the Windbreakers were a breath of fresh air.  They were advanced enough to exist in the '80s, yet managed to thoroughly sidestep the most egregious and embarrassing trends of the era. When OGR was released the 'breakers were still a going concern and from what I've been able to glean there was no acrimony between Sutliff and Lee.  That said, it was advisable for Bobby to put the album's eleven songs under a separate umbrella.

Just to get a little bit of trivia out of the way, Only Ghosts..., essentially began life as a Mitch Easter-produced five song EP, the lovingly dubbed Another Jangly Mess, that was only available as a European import which I've seen conflicting release dates of 1986/87.  Another one of Bobby's collaborators, not to mention erstwhile music publicist Howard Wuelfing was so enamored with what he heard that he encouraged PVC/Jem Records to bankroll the recording of another batch of songs, once again with Mitch Easter at his fabled Drive-in Studios to flesh out an entire LP.  Thus, Only Ghosts... was born. Despite being culled from two sessions the album doesn't feel patchworked together in the least, and is as consistent if not more so than anything the Windbreakers had been responsible for up until that point. 

During the era surrounding OGR's recording/release, the Windbreakers was ostensibly Bobby's main meal ticket - yet not one iota of the record sounds half-hearted, or casually strewn together. Retaining much of the 'breakers edgy, forward-thinking pallor while simultaneously emboldening Bobby's overarching sonic heft, this was an album that seemingly had one foot steeped in indie rock aesthetics, with the other sporting an ambitious stride that could have instantly impressed more pedestrian ears. 

The Windbreakers were partial to downcast themes and moreover, were known to exude a pessimistic tenor when it suited them, but as a solo entity Bobby was discernably more assured, and even downright confident. The driving, decided "Same Way Tomorrow" made for a primo opening salvo, declaring something of a brash clarion call. "Always Love You" and "Couldn't Help Myself" mine a similar, if slightly less strenuous vein. Further in, Only Ghosts... reveals itself as more of a mid-tempo specimen, albeit our protagonist is wont to circumvent traditional ballads. The overall effect is comparable to the first couple of Matthew Sweet albums, not to mention the Sweet-adjacent Velvet Crush precursor Choo Choo Train. Intoxicating jangly and strummy notions like "Won't Be Feeling Blue" pour down like an unremitting waterfall, and while the context of any given Bobby Sutliff tune is a cinch to glom onto, there's more than surface level depth at play here.  OGR may not rewrite or out-innovate anything that came before it (by the Windbreakers or otherwise) but it's nonetheless a life affirming example of par-excellence power pop, with an aptitude that's nothing short of wholly earnest. 

As mentioned above, Only Ghosts Remain has been given a new lease on life on the label that originally minted it, Jem Records.  The album's original running order has been bested with eleven additional cuts from three of Bobby's subsequent albums (Bitter Fruit, Perfect Dream and On a Ladder). Amazon has you covered via CD or digitally.

Numb to the world and it's dangers, dumb to the world and it's strangers.

An expanded edition of this English band's 1987 debut. 

**Please do not reveal artist in comments!**

Here

Upangybottoms - Upangymania (1987)

You'd be forgiven if you took this band's moniker as anything less than frivolous, but fear not, Oingo Boingo Upangybottoms weren't. Light hearted? Indeed, jovial even, yet while the emphasis on Upangymania is certainly fun this Edmonton, Alberta trio were deft pop-craftsmen in that early Posies (say Failure) sort of way.  For all of it's inherent cheekiness, this album is relatively situated in the power pop realm with "Cry," "Christine" and "She's Gonna Let You Down" are all representative examples of the three minute form.  Elsewhere, the brisk "Tell Me Why" bears an acousti-folk bent, while the comparatively wacky "Egyptian Holiday" sports the goofball motif it's likely to imply.  

01. She's Gonna Let You Down

02. Tell Me Why

03. Cheryl My Friend

04. Cry

05. Pushin' Up the Daisies

06. Christine

07. Mister Adams

08. Egyptian Holiday

09. How Many Times

10. Boys and Girls

Hear 

I became much more quiet when I learned to speak.

From 1994. So overlooked that even I'm prone to forgetting about them for extended stretches of time. 

**Please do not reveal artist in comments!**

Hear

The Monks - No Shame: The Complete Recordings (2023, Cherry Red) - A brief review.

Just a quick disclaimer, this is not the group of American ex-pats named The Monks who in the mid-60s recorded the lauded, proto-garage "Black Monk Time" LP. 

Right place, right time, right song.  It's rare when all three circumstances are perfectly in alignment, however toss in a fourth improbable factor to boot. When The Monks charted with their 1979 debut single, the sassy, Cockney-esque punk classic, "Nice Legs, Shame About Her Face" the gentlemen responsible for it weren't aware they were even an extant band at the time. This unintentional hit was in fact never designed to be a single (by the Monks anyway), much less the beginning of a career that spanned two albums in just as many decades. Nonetheless, their place in history was solidified, and their discography has been bundled up in the guise of No Shame, a double disk collection that tacks on virtually a whole third album's worth of bonus material.  

Sometime in the late '70s a trio of British musicians who boasted lineage to the rather prim and proper folk-rockers the Strawbs (Richard Hudson and John Ford) and the even more unlikely prog combo Elmer Gantry's Velvet Opera (Terry Cassidy) were looking to branch off into something decidedly different - even if it meant fielding songs to unrelated artists. "Nice Legs..." was cut as a four-track demo, and oddly enough would remain as such. So the story goes it was specifically tailored to be adopted by an unnamed punk outfit who ultimately rejected it, but Carrere Records caught wind of the track and insisted on releasing it as is.  With that The Monks were born, though the song was released on such a lark that nobody assumed anything would come of it.  

As fate would have it, by mid-'79 "Nice Legs" gained traction in the charts, peaking at #19 in the UK, and The Monks were suddenly a red hot commodity, in spite of the fact they didn't exist as a band yet. But capitalize they did! Additional members were quickly supplemented to the lineup (fleshing out to a quintet all told), a record contract with EMI was inked and an album of par excellence punky power-pop, Bad Habits, hit record shelves later that year. Only with the release of the LP no subsequent hits followed, at least not in Britain, and in America Habits was an import-only proposition.  Due to label-politics at EMI and an overall reluctance to prioritize the album after The Monks were 'outed' as being punk-imposters (so to speak), the Monks took advantage of a licensing deal in Canada, and were soon off to the races again with yet another top-20 single ("Drugs in My Pocket"), albeit exclusively north of America. Bad Habits ran up the charts in the provinces, managing to go double platinum there, and it's status was deservedly so boasting a consistent bevy of often sardonic but substantive melodic slammers including "Spotty Face" and the title track.  Even when operating on a less-strung level the Monks were still mightily effective, and I'd recommend this album for enthusiasts of The Jags and Joe Jackson who are seeking something a bit more irreverent. The bonus content on Habits includes b-sides, alternate versions, and three Devo-ish inspired outtakes.

The band's second album, 1980's Suspended Animation, had it's target audience aimed almost exclusively at the Canadian market, given the runaway success of Bad Habits there.  It didn't yield any major hits, but managed to spin gold (about 50,000 units) up there, and found the band broadening their pastiche to incorporate ska/dub ("I Don't Want No Reds" and "King Dong"), sprite jangle pop ("Cool Way to Live"), and back again to zippy, serrated punk-pop ("Don't Bother Me, I'm Christian," "Grown Ups" and "Oxford Street," the latter featuring a fake street-busker lead in). Still cheeky as hell, The Monks really seemed to be honing in a niche on Animation, even if that niche was situated in just one North American country. A tour of Canada followed the album's release, with Huw Gower of the Records brought aboard to fill one of the guitar slots. Plans for a third album were mapped out, with about a half dozen songs being cut for it, but due to more record label drama and changing priorities for some of the Monks, it was ultimately aborted. These songs, some pointing in a subtler new-wave direction comprise the bonus material for Suspended Animation. 

The sharply packaged and well annotated No Shame is a testament to the creative germ of a one-off song parlaying itself to something far more substantial and rewarding, and is available at your fingertips from Cherry Red Records, Amazon and beyond

The Clergy - Glow tape (198?/199?)

As it turns out I may have usurped this from another blog at one point, but I really hope not. That being said, I don't own a physical copy of The Clergy's Glow cassette, but I certainly am endeared to it. Pretty much all details I can offer about this coed, Rockhampton, Australia five-piece are sourced from Cloudberry Records always useful website. Twee was the name of the Clergy's game, and that game is a whole ton easier when you have a charming but humble chanteuse absorbing some of the vocal duties, in this case Cherri Busby. Despite a glaring absence of a copyright date (though 1989-91 were established years of the band's existence) Glow exudes much of the same wet-behind-the-ears charm that made so many of the British indie staples of the mid/late '80s such a treat. Even back in 2014 I was impressed enough with The Clergy to include the strikingly melodious "Pieces" (which could pass for an ace Blake Babies outtake) on my best of the blog mix for that year, so I thought I'd finally treat you to the whole album. Cherri tragically passed away in a car accident in 1994, but prior to that she formed another band, St. Jude, with her brother John Busby, also part and parcel of The Clergy.

01. Pieces

02. This Ugly

03. Ride

04. Futile Child

05. The Dream

06. Something

07. I Am the Sun

08. Sorrow

09. You're Not Real

10. By This Time Tomorrow Baby

11. Vietnam

12. Warm

Hear

But now I kick my mind out in the wind and driving rain...

Recorded in 1982 but remained unreleased until 1990. These are essentially demos or working versions for this UK post-punk staple's aborted third album. Not the greatest introduction if you're new to them, but better than what a lot of folks might have ya'll believe. 

**Please do not reveal artist in comments!**

Hear

V/A - Everyone a Classic!!! Vol. 4

It probably won't be until next week that I have the opportunity to rip some new wax for you, but in the meantime, I do have the fourth installment in the excellent Every One a Classic!!! series. These are fan curated compilations of underexposed British/Irish punk, power pop and mod.  A good half of this one in particular featured bands that were wholly unheard by me, and even the ones bearing some name recognition are hardly ones I bring up in conversation - Tours, Cigarettes, Valves, and most significantly to my eyes and ears, Seventeen who featured a pre-Alarm Mark Peters.  As for the completely unknown quantities, I took a bit of a shine to Squire and The Jump. Take the plunge and find a fave or two of your own.

01. The Cigarettes – They're Back Again, Here They Come
02. Hoax - Nice Girls
03. The Dyaks - Gutter kids
04. Shag Nasty - Looking For Love?
05. Vicitimize - Where Did The Money Go?
06. UXB - Crazy Today
07. 3rd Men – Your So Fashionable
08. Moral Support - Just Where It's At Tonight
09. Seventeen - Bank Holiday Weekend
10. Tours - Language School
11. Squire - Get Ready to Go
12. Private Sector – Just Just (Wanna) Stay Free
13. The Valves - It Don't Mean Nothing At All
14. The Jump - Shake it Up
15. Smart Alec – Scooter Boys

Hear

I'm not cutting you down, I'm just carrying the axe.

From 2002. The second album from my all time favorite "side project."  It's a grower folks... Track nine is a Posies cover. 

**Please do not reveal artist in comments!*

V/A - The Class of '81 (1980, Upper Class)

More like the class of 1980, considering that's the year this thing was copyrighted, but anyway.  Been hanging into this one for a few years before I finally got the motivation to share it. What can I tell you about eight vintage Brit bands that I know zilch about?  The Class of '81 was (mostly) produced by Bram Tchaikovsky (the guy who split from The Motors before they really started to go downhill), and there isn't a ton of straight-up punk (save for the much comped Innocent Vicars, who are likely the only ones here bearing a trade of name recognition). The pair of hopefuls that appear twice on ...'81, Exeros and Emil & The Detectives weren't really to my liking but tolerable. I outright loved Bino's "Dream (For My Sake)" a tuneful waver that doesn't sound far removed from what Bowie was dispensing around the same era. Ditto for "New Day," courtesy of The Fringe who impressed me in that Magazine/Rich Kids sort of vein. Finally, The Void and The Troopers kick up some respectable post-punk dust, and hopefully boasted a legacy beyond this compilation. 

01. Void - Pop Love

02. Exeros - Accident

03. The Troopers - Love You

04. Emil & the Detectives - Girl

05. Bino - Dream (For My Sake)

06. Picasso's Optician - Given Up Trying

07. The Fringe - New Day

08. Emil & The Detectives – Instant Magnet

09. Exeros - Chita

10. The Innocent Vicars - Starship 22

Hear

Pennies from a skyscraper can kill...

A 2004 collection of demos and outtakes from one of my top tier favorites of the '90s.

**Please do not reveal artist in comments!**

Hear

Cap'n Swing - Almost the Cars demos (1976)

Since another outpost in cyberspace has already written exhaustively on these recordings, I'm probably going to defer to them to do most of the explaining.  As for my part, I'll break this down fairly succinctly.  Cap'n Swing were the band populated by Benjamin Orr and Ric Ocasek after the their folk-rock combo, Milkwood and of course, the hallowed Cars.  This is a collection of eleven demos cut two years prior to the Cars now legendary and eponymous debut circa 1978.  Cap'n Swing bore zero resemblance to Milkwood, and despite the diminished roll of keyboards here, these songs skew considerably closer to what the pair would be responsible for courtesy of their impeding meal ticket.  Heck, we even get a sneak preview of "Bye Bye Love." Further in, "City Lights" and "Strawberry Moonlight, sport some proto-punky pizazz, while "Jezebel" and "You're Always Brighter" mine Rundgren-esque veins without being too obvious.  And it would be hard to overlook that the midtempo "Come Back Down" conveys itself as a vague rewrite of "Sweet Jane." Yes, a few things here are a bit overlong, but again these are demos and not necessarily intended for the general public. Enjoy.

01. Bye Bye Love

02. Strawberry Moonlight

03. Jezebel

04. Goes on Sleeping

05. Twilight Superman

06. You're Always Brighter

07. City Lights

08. Dream Trader

09. You Can Have 'Em

10. Come Back Down

11. Crazy Rock-n-Roll

Hear