I'm always a bit late to cracking open books I purchase, even when I obtain them relatively close to their publishing date. In fact I'm usually a couple of years behind the curveball with anything I read, save for the occasional periodical.
Jim Ruland's Corporate Rock Sucks - The Rise and Fall of SST Records has been no exception, and as I write this I'm about three-quarters of the way through the tome in question. If you've been an early adopter of Wilfully Obscure,
Painted Willie might not be quite such an arcane quantity, as this is the fourth
post I've dedicated to them, yet despite their SST pedigree there isn't much in the way of ephemera to be had on them, online or otherwise. Maybe you can chalk up their low-key legacy to the trio's stubbornly "intermediate" aptitude, which entailed no shortage of skate-punky riff-ola, and a prowess for arpeggios which never completely gestated. Their reliably fun, albeit good-but-not-great penchant did however translate effectively in a live setting, and this bite-sized chunk of a March 1986 gig situated near their home turf is actually a decent introduction for the uninitiated. The track selection for
Live From Van Nuys is wisely cherry-picked, centering on some of the Willie's most immediate and memorable salvos, chief among them the power-chord ridden "The Big Time" and "Crossed Fingers." They plow through Love's "Little Red Book," upping the tempo of the chorus, just shy of butchering the overarching effect. Truthfully, I admired P/W for what they were, meager as their capabilities sometimes were - and therein resided 90% of their charm.
01. Crossed Fingers
02. The Big Time
03. Kill It
04. Upside Down Town
05. Little Red Book
06. Cover Girl
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