The Cavedogs - Fall Back In It (2001)

Boston's Cavedogs were should-have-been luminaries that deserved their place among the likes of The Replacements and Posies. Their story is an utterly familiar one - nationally distributed records, videos, "buzz," but ultimately, it just wasn't to be, not universally at any rate. Armed with acumen, wit, and some of the best damn songs the indie contingent of the "power pop" genre ever had to offer, the Cavedogs were more advanced than many bands their senior. As always, the proof is in the pudding, and their two crucial albums, Joyrides For Shut-Ins (1990) and Soul Martini (1992), either of which were high caliber enough for inclusion on the recent and often ludicrous Shake Some Action top-200 album list, can be found in gently used condition from the usual suspects, Half and Amazon, or in a bargain CD bin near you.
If you're new to the Cavedogs, it would be good to have an appreciation of those albums before delving into Fall Back In It, a compendium of unreleased rarities, demos and live cuts, wrapped up in the guise of a faux radio program, rife with goofy and animated dialogues. In fact, the band sums it up a lot better than I can:

This is a collection of demos and previously unreleased songs by the Cavedogs, along with pieces of their radio show, "The Cavedogs Funtime Hour." Each title corresponds to it's equivalent digital start ID number, resulting in 20 little dioramas, each more compelling and/or stupid than it's predecessor.

The Fall Back In It CD was available from the band's now defunct website as a mailorder only proposition a few years ago, and was unadorned with any artwork to speak of. An essential listen for established Cavedogs aficionados! To read up on the Cavedogs here are a few links:

http://powerpopulist.blogspot.com/2006/11/cavedogs.html - a nice primer with a handful of choice MP3s

http://www.desertisle.com/cavedogs/homepage.shtml - aka Tayter Country, an extremely thorough fansite with lots of info and tons of live MP3s of questionable quality.

Here's the tracklisting:

01-intro~better than that
02-midnight hour (live)
03-bed of nails (acoustic)
04-turn it off (live)
05-folderol (original demo)
06-country song #1 (live)
07-bury the beat
08-on for the ride (acoustic)
09-strapped on mendelssohn
10-christmas song (orig vers)
11-i hate you (live)
12-as you were ~goodswift ad
13-mike the tiger
14-typical witty banter
15-country song #2 (live)
16-clownland
17-hangman's pop
18-pais de la potato (live)
19-la la la (orig vers)
20-outro

Update: Fall Back In It is now available on Bandcamp for SUPER cheap!  Please go there are patronize these fine folks!