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Sunday, July 7, 2024
Murder or rape your king's English...
VA - New Wave Hell: Double Digit Inflation Pop V.2
Friday, July 5, 2024
Daddy-O - Paris on the Prairie tape (1989)
Sunday, June 30, 2024
Johnny if you want to survive, you got to play your part to stay alive.
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Saturday, June 29, 2024
Marginal Man - s/t (1988)
Friday, June 28, 2024
Painted Willie - Live From Van Nuys ep (1986, SST)
Wednesday, June 26, 2024
Reviews you can use: The Mosquitos, Falling Stairs and sparkle*jets u.k.
In case you haven't noticed I'm way overdue for some reviews of current releases and reissues, and I'm going to try to address that over the course of the next few paragraphs. I appreciate everyone that has been gracious enough to set up vinyl and CDs. Being provided with physical media is more of a luxury than ever, and if I haven't been thoughtful enough to those who go to the trouble your generosity is appreciated. More critiques to come in the near-future, I might add.
Spandex. Breakdancing. Mullets. And just about dayglo-everything. For better or worse this is the world in which Long Island's Mosquitos were forced to toil and contend with. But guess what? They weren't having a lick of it. In fact, it would seem like this quintet hadn't gotten the bat signal that the world had evolved past say, 1966. Stuck in their own time-warp, not unlike similarly bespoke San Diego brethren The Nashville Ramblers, this quintet carved out a small niche within the environs of New York's power pop circuit alongside contemporaries The Bongos and Fleshtones, yet their antecedents were entirely steeped in British Invasion and Merseybeat pop, with nary an inclination to the present day - and you can take that literally. Their discography consisted of a well received 1985 ep, (That Was Then, This is Now), and if you want to get technical a few demo tapes, but that lone record was essentially all that was made available for public consumption - until 2023, which saw the release of the double CD This Then Are the Mosquitos, and the more concisely consolidated vinyl incarnation, In the Shadows.Sunday, June 23, 2024
I got a ringing in one ear and reason whispering in the other...
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Saturday, June 22, 2024
The Great Divide - s/t ep (1987, Big Fish)
Monday, June 17, 2024
Alter Boys - Counter Intelligence (1995, Ng)
01. Gashound
02. Hold Me Up
03. Let's End
04. Nothball
05. Ironlung
06. Cry a Little Bit
07. C'n Opn'r
08. If You're So Smart
09. Sundown
10. Diesel Down
11. How Long, Far?
12. Another Lonely Weekend
Sunday, June 16, 2024
I get ripped apart, pick it up and take it home again.
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The High Five - Working For the Man 7" (1984, Big Village)
Over the years I've featured titles that are bona fide classics (some far more renown than others) that have more than earned their installation in the echelons of indie/alt rock glory. I'm afraid the single I'm offering today isn't quite of that lofty caliber...though it's still certainly commendable. The hard scrabble, stick-it-to-the-man, ethos laid out on the comic strip gracing the sleeve of this 45 does indeed lend itself to the modus operandi of Liverpool's The High Five, albeit this quartet's delivery system wasn't particularly punk, pub, wave or the like. That doesn't render the band any less anthemic however, with these gents loosely conveying themselves as a kinder, gentler Big Country or Alarm. A full length, Down in the No-Go, followed in 1986, and I'm curious to lay ears on it to gauge what their inevitable progression yielded.
Sunday, June 9, 2024
Jules Shear - Demo-itis (1986, Enigma)
That being said, I'm not sure why I opted to take the plunge with Demo-itis, which technically isn't even a proper album, rather as it's title makes obvious, prototypes of songs to be pursued and perfected at a later date. Oddly enough, the vast majority of these songs (save for "If She Knew What She Wants" and "She's in Love Again") didn't make the cut for his bona fide solo records. As Demo's compiler, Sam Franklin is wont to point out in the liner notes, that's not so much a byproduct of these tunes being throwaways, rather the exact opposite - Jules Shear was so prolific and substantive that this collection exists as a means of salvaging many primo compositions that would have otherwise languished on the shelf.
I'm not sure exactly how many of this baker's dozen tracklist were actually sold or given to other artists to make their own, perhaps for two well known exception, "If She Knew..." which went to the Bangles for 1985's Different Light, and of course, the considerably more veritable hit "All Through the Night" which Cyndi Lauper ballad-ized and took to the bank. Jules' early incarnations of both future-hits sound a tad stiff held up to the more famous versions, yet somehow more earnest than the ones the general public became acquainted with. Elsewhere, there are plenty more invigorating guitar-pop salvos, including "Deliver Love," "Chain Within a Chain," and the aforementioned "She's in Love" which would have held up to just about anything on the first two Marshall Crenshaw albums. The driving "Trained For Glory" sports a rollicking, Dylan-esque air, "Eligible For Parole" wields Rockpile-ish punch galore, and the synth-endebted "Take The Risk" indulges in some mild concessions to the new wave era. Not bad for a record of glorified outtakes!
Sunday, June 2, 2024
Don’t say I’ve got no heart. What I put together, I can take apart.
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Saturday, June 1, 2024
Bastro - Rode Hard and Put Up Wet ep (1988, Homestead)
Friday, May 31, 2024
Coral - Pillowtalk (1994, Fistpuppet)
Coral, much like Honor Role themselves, entailed a certain amount of concerted observation - probably too much so for someone like myself, circa 1994, who was besotted with the likes of The Posies and Jawbreaker. Time marches on, tastes become more refined, and the need for instant gratification wanes...and as such, a reassessment of the band in question was in order. The post-rock inch evidenced in H/R may not stretch a mile or even a kilometer in the guise of Coral, but I'll be damned if what I'm encountering on Pillowtalk isn't considerably more breathable, simultaneous to this band's frequent penchant for all things dissonant. Schick's sung/spoken patois blends in well with Coral's finagling of first generation-emo sonic leanings, yet never concedes to anything wrought or exaggerated. You'll certainly not unfurl any twee or precious niceties here, but this quartet falls well short of the abrasiveness of say, Fugazi or any of that legend's fill-in-the-blank Dischord Records stablemates. A torrent of incongruent minor chords goes a long way in coloring-in the tense, cerebral, and all-around obliqueness of Pillowtalk, an album that challenges and ever-so-subtly provokes. As I've said in reference to a copious amount of unrelated artists on these pages, this one is an acquired taste well worth acquiring.
Sunday, May 26, 2024
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry - World's Collide (aka "Black Tracks" ep) (2004)
News dropped earlier this year of an impending (and final) Red Lorry Yellow Lorry LP, Strange Kind of Paradise, to surface in the near-future along with some potentially accompanying eps to boot. To tide you over, check out a live 1992 concert that was made available via BandcampBandcamp a couple of years ago, bonus-ized with some modern-era studio tracks.
Sunday, May 19, 2024
First he started with furniture, then he moved onto parking lots...
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Saturday, May 18, 2024
Mettle - s/t ep (1982, RMS)
Wednesday, May 15, 2024
British Properties 7" (1983, LowTown)
Sunday, May 12, 2024
Another push, another jab, another round. I'm not on my knees, I'm face down.
His Boy Elroy - It's Only Me tape (1988)
Sunday, May 5, 2024
I haven't got a steady job and I've got no place to stay.
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Friday, May 3, 2024
The Windbreakers - A Different Sort (1987, DB)
02. Fit In
03. You Closed Your Eyes
04. Better Left Unsaid
05. So Far Away
06. A Different Sort...
07. So Much
08. We Never Understand
09. Forget Again
10. Any Longer
Monday, April 29, 2024
V/A - Downtown NYC (1988, Virgin)
Downtown NYC is not one of those legendary time capsules, like say, No, New York. documenting a certain niche, rather a mish mash of widely disparate genres, for the most part honing in on new and upcoming talent. The only real semblance of a unity here in fact is the opening cut, a euphoric, soulful spin on Petula Clark's "Downtown" by the impromptu Downtown Chorus featuring members from a handful of the other bands occupying this same 33 1/3, the Uptown Horns, Jerry Harrison, and I would imagine some session musicians to boot. The overall effect is that a of a lively Broadway cast recording. This leads into the album's finest moment, a just-under three-minute slice of guitar pop genius from Mark Johnson. "Breakin' Rocks" is a perfect-ten that sounds 100% inseparable from anything that might have jumped off the first two Marshall Crenshaw albums, and is quite literally worth every penny of this record's cut-out-bin admission. I'm flabbergasted and will be checking out the arears of this mans catalog soon. Surprisingly the only band featured here with any Wilfully Obscure overlap is Rude Buddha who's sassy "No More Gravy" is more nervy than anything on their 1985 Blister My Paint ep. As for Loup Garou, I was never a mark for zydeco, but damn, these gents are mightily adept at their craft.
Side two offers several pleasant surprises. Going into this, I wasn't at all familiar with the late Frank Maya, who was a comedian by trade, however more notably on "Polaroid Children" he's backed up on guitar by Naux, a one-time Voidoid and part of the creative heft behind China Shop, a rather arcane but rewarding artifact of New York's no-wave syndicate. Soma Holiday's syncopated synth-pop boasts more 1980s production indulgencies than one can shake a stick at, the absolutely frenetic and dissonant Ritual Tension are in prime under-your-skin form as usual, and Ok Savant whose discography consists of merely two compilation showings (this one included) involves the talents of Vernon Reid on "Rain."
Sunday, April 28, 2024
Monday, April 22, 2024
Mission -- The Last Detail (1983, Frantic)
Sunday, April 21, 2024
Saturday, April 20, 2024
Human Switchboard - Fly-In ep (1977/2019, Fat Possum)
Naturally, you took note of this records original 1977 copywrite date, and although this coed trio (eventually a quartet) called one of punk's early Meccas their hometown, they hardly bore any overlap with, say Pere Ubu or the Dead Boys, or for that matter other class of '77 mainstays like the Ramones and Talking Heads. The four song Fly-In ep finds the band slotting in more appropriately with the likes of Question Mark and the Mysterians due in part to a mildly churning undercurrents of organ. You won't find much in the way of jarring power chords here, rather a comparatively meager, and dare I say tentative lo-fi garage-pop aptitude overflowing with charm and integrity. Fly-In's concluding number "San Francisco Nights" oozes an aplomb thoroughly steeped in the vein of the Velvet Underground, yet it's derivative nature is it's very selling point. The 2019 Record Store Day reissue of this was adorned with wonderful packaging, a rather thick, 40-some-odd page black & white zine chockablock with articles, record reviews, gig flyers/posters and such, all pertaining to the band in question. I didn't have the time or patience to scan the vast majority of the text, but I did sneak in roughly a page of concise liner notes.
Sunday, April 14, 2024
Seaweed - Beasides
As far as this somewhat haphazard collection is concerned it is presented somewhat chronologically, and for better or worse is chockablock with covers. Yes, they pursue Fleetwood Mac's most overplayed hit, but they compensate for it with excellent readings of songs that Beat Happening, The Fastbacks, Jonathan Richman, and even hardcore cult legends The Dehumanizers. Weak's "Squint" is subjected to a radical remix, while "Losing Skin" is massaged much more subtly, skewing closer to it's original incarnation. And there's plenty more gold to boot. A big shout out to whomever curated this collection.
Monday, April 8, 2024
Tuesday, April 2, 2024
PopeAlopes - Yolo County Line: The Good, the Bad, The Ugly (2002, P on the K)
Going into this near 50-song collection of b-sides, outtakes, piss-takes, and concert and cable access TV performances it would be ideal to have some familiarity with the 'lopes, and seeing that I've featured their first couple of proper albums An Adder's Tale and Kerosene it's not beyond the realm of possibility to take that plunge. A lot of you might be asking what in the hell were these chaps all about. The aforementioned review can clue you in on that, but I tend to a spirited yet casual mélange of the following: The Reivers, Long Ryders, The Doors, and perhaps more minimally the likes of fIREHOSE, R.E.M. and the Replacements. If you go by what Trouser Press has to say the PopeAlopes come across as acolytes of True West, but my interest in T/W never extended that far to levy such a comparison. At last half of Yolo... consists of live recordings, the audio of which sounds to be culled from soundboard tapes.
The collection is divvied up between what the band regards as material that ranges anywhere from decent to mediocre to not-so-much, but my assessment is that if they had the cojones to make this material available for public consumption in any amount even "the ugly" quotient of this is set is still relatively approachable. And oh yeah, there's no shortage of covers populating this thing - "Wichita Lineman," "2000 Light Years From Home," Opal's "Happy Nightmare Baby, Galaxie 500's thoroughly winsome "Pictures," not to mention a riveting reading of T. Rex's indispensable "Telegram Sam." As for originals, if I had to sweat it down to just one particular song to recommend in the band's repertoire here, I'd settle on the angular yet relentlessly ringing "Blesh." I've provided the entire tracklist directly to your right, and tucked the full artwork including liner notes inside the CD 1 (The Good) folder. Enjoy.Sunday, March 31, 2024
Me and you forever!
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Arcwelder - 6/11/09 @ Vera Project, Seattle, WA
Nonetheless, I took a shine to this trio no less than 30+ years ago, due in no small part to their resemblance to another Twin Cities favorite of mine, Hüsker Dü. I never had the opportunity to encounter them in concert and due to some of the factors I've outlined above I likely never will. That's a shame, because Arcwelder made seven thoroughly convincing albums circa their run in the 1990s. Over the years I have been lucky enough to have come into a couple of live bootlegs of theirs, including this one of a rare out-of-town performance in Seattle in 2009, where they happen to churn out a bevy of fan favorites like "All Mixed Together," "Lahabim" and "Captain Allen." This is a band that's always scratched a certain itch for me, and by some miracle the boys did us a solid this January reuniting for a Mpls gig, and finally unleashing a brand new album, Continue, their first since 1999. If you have yet to make your acquaintance with these guys this live set isn't a bad place to get your feet wet, and check out the aforementioned posts in the first paragraph.
02. Lahabim
03. And Then Again
04. Treasured Island
05. title unknown
06. Criminal
07. Captain Allen
08. Harmonic Instrumental
09. title unknown
10. All Mixed Together
11. What Did You Call It That For?
13. Cranberry Sauce