We were shaking off the shade from the Missiles of October...

A lo-fi masterclass recorded in 2010, but released two years later after multiple, painstaking revisions.

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

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Yazoo Beach - Binge (1993, N-Beat)

Not only have I already introduced you to Yazoo Beach (over a decade ago in fact), I've also enlightened and entertained you with phenomenal music from guitarist Scott Coopwood's prior two bands, The Square Root of Now and Perfect Strangers.  Binge was Yazoo's somewhat belated follow-up to their inviting 1988 debut, The Solace and the Blaze, and is demonstrably more mature. Playing it right down the middle, a la fellow deep south contemporaries Dreams So Real and the Windbreakers, this is guitar pop of the collegiate, "new south" variety offering a bevy of pretty persuasions.  Generally, the R.E.M,-isms are on the downlow, but glints are lovingly apparent on "By the Hand" and "Shades of Solitude," amidst other scattered offerings.  Binge's acoustic traipses, specifically "Islands" and "Heaven Coming Down," fall loosely between the confines of The Moody Blues and Workbook-era Bob Mould, albeit not as engrossing.  Though said to be available on CD, I was only fortunate enough to happen upon a cassette, which is where his rip is derived from.  

01. Last Until Tomorrow

02. By the Hand

03. So Much is Love

04. Caroline

05. Heart So Heavy

06. Heaven Coming Down

07. Shades of Solitude

08. Wooden Horse

09. Piece of Her Mind

10. World Inside Your Heart

11. Islands 

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I’d rather talk some more than look into your eyes.

A compilation capturing the brunt (but not everything) this overlooked C86 proposition put out into the world.  

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

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Surgery - Souleater ep (1989, Glitterhouse)

Realistically, I could have shared this one eons ago, but I just kept putting it off.  If someone else out there in blogland got to Souleater before me, I didn't mean to step on you.  Surgery ended just as the internet was about to go mainstream, so details on this New York by-way-of Syracuse foursome aren't exactly plentiful.  Most of their tenure was spent on the noise-mongering Amphetamine Reptile label, which suited the band, who had their collective tentacles steeped in a combustible grunge/punk aesthetic, with trace elements of the soon to be burgeoning stoner rock movement.  Unruly salvos "Dance" and "Brazier" pack a sumptuous degree of sway alongside righteous heaviness, and alone make Souleater veritable required listening.  Not much in the way of pop sensibilities here, but five years in from this ep, Atlantic Records scooped these fellows up, and by then they had an incorporated an often infectious groove-rock slant, outdoing their more renown, albeit lame-o contemporaries the Chili Peppers...however the mainstream was regrettably oblivious.  Surgery called it a day in early '95 upon the sudden illness and passing of frontman Sean McDonnell.   

01. Dance

02. Brazier

03. Goodtime

04. Stupid Chile'

05. Slap

06. Souleater

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Dragstrip - The Heliocentric World of... 7" (1997, American Pop Project)

In what might be the first time I've featured music from a strictly instrumental combo, my working knowledge of Bloomington, IN's Dragstrip largely begins and ends with this single, and not a bad intro at that. Known for their surf bona fides, the band's spin through BÖC's "Don't Fear the Reaper" does traverse through said motif, just not as doggedly as you might assume. There probably isn't one of you reading this that isn't at least partially burned out on this overplayed tune, but it's arpeggiated allure still calls to me on occasion, and I enjoy the context here. The flip, "Sun Ra" a supposed tribute to the jazz titan, could instead pass for the bed of a really enticing Dinosaur Jr. track.  Go figure.

A. Don't Fear the Reaper

B. Sun Ra

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All of the elements are present and tense.

From 2006. 

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

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A Few - It's a Wonderful Life (Gark, 1985)

I'm sharing a record titled It's a Wonderful Life, and it ain't even Christmas.  This one did come out forty years ago however, and moreover it was a request that I'm happy to fulfill.  Conducting a web query on A Few was practically a fool's errand, but from what I'm able to glean they hailed from Minneapolis and have one other elusive record to their credit.  This one starts off splendidly enough with a trio of keepers to please the halcyon-era collegiate rock crowd, bleeding hues of everyone from Aztec Camera to R.E.M.  Further in, A Few's footing is less steady, with the rather aimless shouter "Hang Tough," and heck, by the time they kick into "Gas is Gold," they may as well have mutated into a different band altogether. Luckily they recover on the jangly "Best Around," and close things out on a contemplative note by way of the decent enough ballad, "Wandering."   

01. Every World is Hot

02. Ride Halley's Comet

03. Something Wonderful

04. Do You Remember

05. Things Change

06. Hang Tough

07. Gas is Gold

08. You and Me

09. Sail Up to the Moon

10. Best Around

11. My Own Mayhem

12. Wandering

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...and you can make it baby, until you've made you're bed.

 A killer, not to mention concussive, sophomore effort from 1992.

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

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The Social Act - Little Sally "O" ep (1988

*Sigh.* Just a damn black and white sticker?  Really? The cherry red colored wax was a sharp move, but I still think a picture sleeve of some sort was warranted.  At any rate, The Social Act features Ellis Clark from Chicago power-pop mavens Epicycle, a band which can trace it's roots to the late '70s.  Though devoid of graphics, the music is a wholly different ball of wax, with the ace A-side, "Little Sally "O" pulling off something akin to Flesh For Lulu with a respectable AOR inflection.  Thoroughly rockin' stuff, with Ellis sporting a vocal aplomb that negotiates a fusion of Robyn Hitchcock and Mick Blood of the Lime Spiders.  The two flip sides, albeit not as crucial are at minimum satisfactory. The band appears to be a going concern, with a statement on their website purporting to them having recorded seven albums, but I'm not certain if all of them saw the light of day.  

A. Little Sally ''O''

B1. Boog-A-Loo

B2. In Your Arms

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The Nines - "Gonna Get a Ring" 7" (1995, Clamarama)

I recall buying this one in a rather large lot of power pop/indie 45s but I only gave it a concerted listen about a week ago.  Not to be confused with jangle-pop wunderkinds of the same namesake from Ontario, Canada, The Nines this post concerns really didn't persist long enough to capture any significant online presence.  Rambunctious, but manicured just enough to keep the proceedings from careening off the rails entirely, this quartet make their case across two brief numbers coming in just under five minutes total.  Nothing artsy here, just potent, power chord-addled rock and rule that aficionados of Redd Kross, Bash & Pop and the Smugglers will eat up faster than Jimmy Chestnut going to town on a platter of chicken wings.  A Nines ep and a full length followed this wax in 1996 and '98, respectively.

A. Gonna Get a Ring

B. My Soul For You

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I'm chained to your ego and there isn't a key...

Released in 2013, and encompassing material recorded 1981-87, this singles and b-sides compilation superseded that of a similar collection issued seventeen years prior.  

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

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Secret Science - Pound Out (1981)

I did something this week that I don't think I've done in ages - I broke the cellophane on an unopened 44-year old record. Just think of all that's come and gone in the life of this undisturbed vinyl relic.  But it had to be done if I was to ever hear what Austin's Secret Science were all about, as they're a veritable cold case online with no relevant mentions save for your standard Discogs entry. Their first and only full length, Pound Out, starts out promisingly enough with "Drive My Dreams" a catchy, swaying slice of homegrown synth/guitar rock, with inclinations to Devo, yet not-quite derivative of.  "Filthy Pillows" plays like a more pedestrian Talking Heads outtake, and the penultimate "In the Trenches" bears a sturdy, sobering hue, hinting to what might have developed on subsequent records had S/S stuck it out a bit longer.  Regrettably there's not much happening in-between the aforementioned, with an abundance of meandering, undercooked experiments and notions, merely flowing into one ear and out the proverbial autre.  Nonetheless, I'm still content with my decision to rupture the seal on Pound Out, and give it a whirl or two.  

01. Drive My Dreams

02. Filthy Pillows

03. Shannon is Dead

04. Teenland

05. Dark Continent

06. Dog Dance

07. Twin Jet China

08. Three Minutes

09. It's Only Barbeque

10. In the Trenches

11. Save the World

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I'm mixing the facts around...

An often impeccable sophomore album from '86.

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

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Mirrour - Black and White (1984, Windmill)

Yet another one I took a sheer gamble on.  Went into this one expecting something along the lines of Shoes, Rubinoos, heck maybe even the Bay City Rollers.  In the grand scheme of things, Mirrour had sort of a bedroom DIY thing in mind instead, with precious little of the aesthetics I had predicted.  They were certainly situated in the pop/rock realm, but in spite of the serious visages gracing the album jacket this L.A. quartet were a cheeky lot, with no less than two topical numbers ("It's Only School" and "Get the Edge") pertaining to the nature of compulsory education.  "Shattered" is the strongest and catchiest thing Black and White has going for it, yet might have amounted to something more compelling in the hands of a full-fledged power-pop band, which for better or worse Mirrour didn't quite embody.  I should mention both guitars and keys are employed here, the latter to an almost cozy and cutesy effect.  Another feather in their cap would be an Emitt Rhodes production credit...but how would a bunch of teenage '80s kids know Rhodes from a can of paint?  B&W isn't so much a disappointing record as it is an unlikely and anticlimactic one.

There's an above average amount of surface noise on this disk that I did my best to remedy. If it's a blemish-free version you're seeking, in doing my research on Mirrour I learned that an expanded, 40th anniversary version of this exists on streaming outlets including Spotify and Apple Music, along with a host of entirely separate albums by them, though it's not clear when they were recorded.  One would think these other recordings would entail a considerably more mature incarnation of the band, and though I haven't really had the chance to delve in myself it all looks promising. 

01. It's Only School

02. Double talk

03. Shattered

04. Modern Man

05. Shine it On

06. Get the Edge

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The Hippycrickets - No Shoes, No Shirt, No Dice! tape (1993)

These Atlanta-area denizens took a seemingly unnecessary risk in going with such a hokey moniker, one that doesn't do justice to their overarching potency, but whatever I suppose. Actually, this isn't my first Hippycrickets-centric post, as I shared their 1997 full length, Inconceivable!!! quite some time ago. Submitted for your approval, a 1993 demo of four tunes that would be recalibrated for that album.  "Don't Bother Me" finds the trio in question in an angsty and cantankerous guise. "Margaret Sez" could pass for a primo Material Issue or Cavedogs number, with the sobering "Fall Again," trailing not far behind. 

01. Don't Bother Me

02. Margaret Sez

03. Calling Colleen

04. Fall Again

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Maybe then your glass slippers could leave you to a good nights sleep.

From 2002. A blind bargain bin find that really paid off. 

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

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Faith Global - The Same Mistakes (1983, Survival)

Suppose there was an album so impressive that someone named their music blog after it?  In the heyday of the "sharity" blogosphere, there was (and still is) indeed a site that took it's name from the very album I'm offering here.  Faith Global's lone LP, in my opinion, isn't of epochal, ground-shifting caliber, but it's still pretty damn good. Featuring ex-Ultravox (John Foxx era) guitarist Stevie Sheers, F/G were an even more sonically broader proposition, with heavy angularities in the vicinity of early '70s Bowie, Psych Furs, Japan, and more negligibly Gary Numan.  Heck, they even roped in Furs sax-finagler Duncan Kilburn for a few songs, thus fortifying my comparison.  More art-pop than snyth, and thankfully not run-of-the-mill new wave, F/G's arrangements were fairly dense, sophisticated, and downright stirring at times, particularly on the throbbing "Love Seems Lost" and "Hearts and Flowers."  Elsewhere, "Forgotten Man" dabbles with an irresistible funk groove, and the concluding "Facing Facts" emanates shades of "Space Oddity."

As you might imagine, The Same Mistakes blog once featured the album in question, but this rip was taken from my personal copy.  You can read their write-up, however the site's download link expired.  Regrettably, I'm not in possession of Faith Global's preceding 1982 ep, Earth Report.

01. The Same Mistakes

02. Forgotten Man

03. Hearts & Flowers

04. Knowing the Way

05. Love Seems Lost

06. Coded World

07. Yayo

08. Slaves to This

09. Facing Facts

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People breaking the law just to make ends meet.

From 1993.  Was saddened to learn that one of the co-founders of this band left us last week.

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

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Lime Spiders - Weirdo Libido ep (1987, Zimmer)

"Weirdo Libido" is likely the closest the Lime Spiders ever came to digging into real pay dirt, if only for the fact that the tune was featured on the Young Einstein soundtrack.  It's also a genuinely great number, capably exemplifying Spiders mouthpiece Mick Blood's utterly raspy panache clad to his band's relentlessly pounding garage-punk sway.  "Here With My Girl" ups the frantic ante a notch, regarding what sounds like a potential romantic triangle. If you bought the 45 of this these were the only songs you were served, whereas the 12" ep entailed four more - all live covers fittingly in the band's wheelhouse, including killer takes of Neil Young's Mr. Soul and Love's "My Flash on You."  

And speaking of covers, come to think of it, The Goo Goo Dolls threw their version of the Spider's "Slave Girl" onto their mega-platinum A Boy Named Goo in 1995 thereby earning Blood and his Aussie cohorts a splendid pile of dough (one would hope anyway). 

01. Weirdo Libido

02. Here With My Girl

03. I Was Alone (live)

04. Mr. Soul (live)

05. Time of Day (live)

06. My Flash on You (live)

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Red Letter Day - Released Emotions ep (1986, Quiet)

For a bunch of Brit punks, Red Letter Day weren't particularly obnoxious, but it seems that was hardly their m.o.. I can't quite envision this foursome on the same bill as say, G.B.H., yet this plenty spry ep (and second release overall) vaguely suggests what combos like Mega City Four and Perfect Daze would soon have heating up on the same stovetop. Released Emotions is all I've heard by these folks so far, but their catalog runs significantly deeper, and per their webpage, they're still extant in some form. 

01. Killing Ground

02. So Far Away

03. Spark of Love

04. Tomorrow Today

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Best of the blog mix 2024.

I'm a bit tardy in posting my annual "condensed" adaption of a year's worth of uploads to this page, so I hope you'll forgive me. For better or worse 2024 has come and gone, and not counting Mystery Monday offerings, I only shared about 80-90 titles.  That was largely on par with 2023 and could be the norm going forward.  Not every piece of music emanating from this site is a sheer pearl or revelation, but I like to think that this pared down summation is pretty consistent, and as usual I've inserted a few random morsels exclusive to this playlist (denoted with an *)

Go Man Go's phenomenal "25 Years" is the clear runaway winner in terms of my finest retro score of the last 365 days and is placed at the head of the class.  As for the remaining 21 cuts I have virtually no preference, though the High Bees "Self Indulgence" comes within spitting distance.  Oodles of power pop (and adjacent) is yours for the taking here, be it from House of Pants, Green Ice, or even the little known Crowd who've never made an appearance here prior to this compilation.  There's also succulent post punk entrails emitted from the likes of Rifle Sport, Daddy-O and Mettle.  Plenty of great anomalies as well, but I won't give much else away, except for the last selection courtesy of the Specs, a coed combo featuring a teen Matthew Sweet, who were responsible for merely one original composition, "Look Out Girl (You Need a Direction)."  They made it count. Enjoy. 

01. Go Man Go - 25 Years

02. The Cavedogs - La La La

03. His Boy Elroy - New England

04. House of Pants - Photographs

05. Voices - Out Tonight

06. Flaming Mussolinis - Swallow Glass

07. God's Eye - Back Again

08. High Bees - Self Indulgence

09. British Properties - Eight Days a Week

10. Jules Shear - She's in Love

11. July 14th - Only One

12. Rifle Sport - Bedroom Full of Ice

13. Mettle - Evening Ocean

14. Intro to Airlift - Ed Is On No Side

15. Daddy-O - Run to Hide

16. DCD - A Passage in Time*

17. Tanjent Image - Suranland

18. Windbreakers - So Much

19. Glass Torpedos - Someone Different

20. Crowd, The - Passwords* 

21. Green Ice - Breakdown at Geneva

22. The Act - The Art of Deception

23. The Specs (Matthew Sweet) - Look Out Girl (You Need a Direction)* 

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He just sits and stares.

Post-punk from 1986 that's far more moving than my lyrical clue might portend.

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

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XTC - Black Sea demos (1980)

Happy New Year, and welcome to night eight. I was debating what I was going to offer for the finale, and was on the fence about this one, as technically these were actually made available on the 2017 mondo bluray edition of Black Sea.  Well, for starters I don't own that highfalutin version.  Secondly, these files were sourced from a bootleg cassette (with a nominal amount of tape hiss intact).  Finally, it appeared that no one else was sharing this in FLAC, so I figured why not?

Most XTC fans will insist that the band never made an unsatisfactory album, and I can't argue with that at all.  But not all XTC records are equal, and their first two LPs, White Music and Go 2 (both from 1978) simply aren't as revered as those which followed. 1979's Drums and Wires is generally deemed as the beginning (though not necessarily the apex) of their halcyon era, and it's around this time a lot of folks jumped on the Partridge/Moulding wagon, particularly in the States.  

'80s Black Sea was arguably XTC's most consistent salvo to date yielding a pair of genuine signature songs "Generals and Majors" and "Sgt Rock. (is Going to Help Me." While I have no reason to frown on those tunes, I gravitate for deeper album tracks, and "Rocket From a Bottle" and "Don't Lose Your Temple" really quickened my pulse, and maybe a tad less so, "Respectable Street."  So far as I was concerned, there were zero throwaways, and I'll always regard Black Sea as one of XTC's career highlights.  These prototype variations (save for the instrumentals) don't radically deviate from the finished product, but they don't have to be in order to still fascinate. What's more there are three solo Partridge demos of songs that never carried over to the album or it's adjacent b-sides ("Pearl," "Monkeys in Human Skin Suits," and "Holding the Baby") that really might have been rendered into crucial nuggets in the XTC oeuvre had they had been fully fleshed out by the band.  Then again, maybe not, so I'll just let you decide.  Have at it.

01 Living Through Another Cuba [instrumental]

02 Sgt. Rock (Is Going To Help Me)

03 Rocket From A Bottle

04 Towers Of London

05 Smokeless Zone [instrumental]

06 Ban The Bomb [instrumental]

07 No Language In Our Lungs

08 Pearl [Andy Partridge solo]

09 Holding The Baby [Andy Partridge solo]

10 Monkeys In Human Skin Suits [Andy Partridge solo]

11 Burning With Optimism's Flames

12 Paper And Iron (Notes And Coins)

13 Travels In Nihilon

14 Don't Lose Your Temper

15 Respectable Street

16 Generals And Majors

MP3/FLAC

The Act - Too Late at 20 (1981, Hannibal)

Is this my favorite retro discovery of the year?  Hard to say, as even in the eye of the beholder these things are difficult to quantify.  At the very least it's well above average, despite not being particularly visionary or inventive.  And though I've encountered this title years ago on a sadly defunct, and quite frankly outstanding blog, I didn't consider sharing it until I found a personal copy of the record, used and abused as it was.

If you have any familiarity with The Act, such beforehand knowledge likely resides in the fact that this was Nick Laird-Clowes band prior to enlisting as the frontman for the Dream Academy.  Not that there's much novelty in that mind you, but for what it's worth don't expect to hear any contemplative elegies to Nick Drake on Too Late at 20.  Instead, what the Act had in store was well-executed and concise power pop, bordering on the skinny tie variant.  Taking cues from the likes of more visible contemporaries, including but not limited to The Records, Nick Lowe, and less-so Joe Jackson, the quartet in question really don't place any new fabric to the table.  Other than the vaguest of finagling with dub rhythms on "Protection," Too Late... plays it safe...yet never calculated or rote.

Nick and the lads are at their most potent on "The Long Island Sound," "The Art of Deception" and "Get it While You're Young," and the sprite title piece - all of which slot into a mode akin to a more pedestrian Elvis Costello.  Despite this seemingly vanilla tableau The Act really did possess the songwriting chops and incisive melodies to turn what could have been an ordinary record into something considerably more substantial.  In 2024, that was good enough for me. 

01. Too Late at 20

02. The Long Island Sound

03. Touch and Go

04. The Art of Deception

05. Protection

06. Sure Fire

07. Skip the Beat

08. Zero Unidentified

09. Ok Jerko

10. Get it While You're Young

MP3/FLAC

V/A - Home Runs Vols. 1 & 2 (Songs That'll Take You All The Way) (2000/02, Sound Asleep)

The number of homegrown various artists collections compiling rare, turn-of-the-decade power pop and punk singles that seemingly materialize out of the blue never ceases to amaze or impress me, even in the event when I may not own physical copies of them. In previous years I've shared multiple volumes of well-curated series like Teen Line, Powerpearls, and Every One a Classic.  Home Runs (Songs That'll Take You All The Way) courtesy of  Sweden's Sound Asleep Records quietly cropped up in the early 2000's gathering up dozens of vintage of should-have been classic 45 sides from the late '70s to the mid '80s with a similar aesthetic to the aforementioned, and I've got volumes 1 & 2 on tap for tonight.

As much as I'd like to give insight to all of the 41 bands represented, a much more cursory synopsis will have to suffice.  For starters, there's not much overlap between the bands covered on Home Runs and Wilfully Obscure, though there are some relatively higher profile names that we've covered - Seattle denizens The Heats and Moberlys for starters, not to mention The Windbreakers are present, and I think I've namedropped the likes of Screen Test, Beat Rodeo and perhaps even the Incredible Casuals, but that's about the extent of it.  The rest of these names, generally speaking, are uncharted territory for the bulk of us...and as such are ripe for further picking and examination.  And what of this cavalcade of virtual unknowns you might ask?  The Shakers and Jimmy True are jangle-merchants of the highest order, New Jersey's Modulators are loosely on par with Shoes, and X-Dreams are a cheeky, rollicking blast.  Elsewhere, New York's Beatles-indebted Poppees appear with the melodious "If She Cries," Meantime proudly take a cue from Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers, and the Hi-Fi's featured a young Jim Cuddy and Greg Keelor, prior to their more renown stint in the long-running Blue Rodeo.  By no means are these the only highlights, but I'm not about to give anything further away.  I will mention there's a third volume in the Home Runs series that I still need to get my hands on...and I think you know what that portends.  Cheers.

Volume 1 (2000)

01. Gary Private – Home Run

02. Barry Knoedl – Baby Don't Give Up

03. Windbreakers - I Never Thought

04. Rikki Rush - Donna

05. The Patriots - That Way

06. Young Fresh Fellows - How Much About Last Night Do You Remember

07. Pete Holly & The Looks – What Did I Say

08. Eric Collis - Someone Better

09. The Rooms - She Loves Me/She Loves Me Not

10. The Shakers - Til I'm Gone

11. David Hines - I Go to Pieces

12. The Impossible Years – She's No Fun

13. David Quinton – Does It Matter To You

14. Willie English - I Can't Have You

15. The Badbeats - Lies

16. Tom Wilson - Break Down Your Door

17. Dynette Set - Learn to Love

18. X-Dreams – Space Shuttle Stowaway

19. The Incredible Casuals – Money Won't Buy You Happiness

20. The Mercenaries - oh Sally

21. Tommy Rock - It's Later Than You Think

Hear

Volume 2 (2002)

01. The Dawgs- Shot of Your Love

02. The Poppees - Is She Cries

03. Modulators - She's So Cynical

04. Tom Stevens - Just One Night With You

05. The Heats - Nights With You

06. Beat Rodeo - Mimi

07. Moberlys - You Know I Know

08. The Rubinoos - Gorilla

09. Saucers - A Certain Kind of Shy

10. Jimmy Rue - Cheap Fun

11. The B-Girls - Fun at the Beach

12. The Toys - I'm Telling You Now

13. The News - Don't Talk to Me

14. Meantime - Two For One

15. The Shout - Sha-Day-la-Day

16. Hi-fi's - Look What You've Done

17. The Nads - You Don't Know Me

18. Screen Test - I Am Sincere

19. Buddy Love - I Just Wanna Hold You

20. The Right Profile - Underneath the Window

Hear