Transister Sound & Lighting Co. 7" (1996, Vik)

Inevitably, if you heard the lone LP by this Winnipeg troupe it left you craving a bit more.  Transistor (using an alternate spelling here) Sound & Lighting Co. didn't stick around to track a follow-up to their low key, but stunning eponymous debut in 1999...however if you bothered to scrounge for more details on the band, you might have heard about the three-song precursor I'm pitching here. There's definitely something romantic about one-and-done-album bands, or heck, even those who cut a sophomore record before petering out. Given their era, TS&L didn't have much of a web presence, but if you were informed of these guys through alt/college radio or word of mouth, their lo-fi adjacent album was something of a godsend. Eric's Trip and other likeminded folks from the Maritime provinces may have beat Transistor to the punch by several years, yet even if they weren't making music out of whole cloth, their vibe was raw, yearning and inexplicably intoxicating.

What's here are three songs, two wholly exclusive to this 45, as well as a four-track demo for one of their most stimulating album cuts, "Prince Vince." Nothing here necessarily qualifies as a revelation, and you could frankly argue this record is for completists (numbering in the hundreds or low-thousands at best).  As for myself, I'm just gratified there was music in the ether beyond the album.  Coincidentally, a lengthy podcast concerning the band just dropped two weeks ago.  By request I'm also making this available in FLAC.

A1. Prince Vince (4 Track)

A2. Fast Bus Driver (Makes My Auto Obsolete)

B. Puddlecloud, Lovesong

MP3  or  FLAC

We''ll never walk on the sun 'til we can't find a way to love...

Four eps from four decades.  A few of these folders contain some of the most listened-to songs in my entire music library.

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

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Shatterposts - Spear and Magic Helmet (1992, MSO)

I really need to get on the stick and digitize more vinyl and cassettes.  Until then I hope you'll check this out.  Presumably from the Tallahassee area, Shatterposts were a coed quartet with amps and angst to spare, though I don't think anyone would mistake mouthpiece/chord wrangler Kellie Parr for Courtney Love.  Spear and Magic Helmet was profoundly steeped in the alt-rock environs of it's day, but factoring in all the attendant pros/cons of their era Shatterposts managed to sidestep anything embarrassing.  My only caveat is that this selection might have made a more convincing case for the band had a few songs been culled for a more concise tracklist. 

01. Last Swing

02. Swallow

03. Alma Mater

04. Kill Again

05. Worship

06. Simple Way

07. Turn Around

08. Black Wampum and Red Sticks

09. Your Time Has Come 

10. Darkside

11. Greatest Dance

12. Pretty Boy

13. Blood Red Baby

14. Easy Lay

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...pick me up by breaking down.

From 1993.  Another "R" band.  Astonished I didn't get to this mini-masterpiece sooner.

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

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Red Wedding - Up and Down the Aisle ep (1982, Bemisbrain)

Another curiosity from the L.A. underground, that for the life of me I can't remember where and when I made their acquaintance - long after their 1981-85 lifespan to be certain.  Commandeered by Michael Ely and Spider Taylor, Red Wedding were an openly gay quartet, with the aforementioned couple boasting a creative relationship a decade before this band saw the light of day.  A cursory run thorough of side one had me immediately conjuring up Devo comparisons thanks to R/D's sardonic, electro-rock premise, but the remaining portion of Up and Down the Aisle left a far more flattering impression. "Sleeping on the Airplane" and "All (Dressed Up)," while plenty amusing also exude some nervy musculature, with the latter even delving into a more noir post-punk niche.  The best is truly saved for last here, with "Think About It" suggesting Red Wedding were significantly more sophisticated in the melody department than the rest of their record let on. 

Just about all of this record and plenty more is available on a posthumous collection over at Bandcamp.  I've also cut and pasted a brief backgrounder below, while the link in the first paragraph will lend itself to a considerably more exhaustive history. 

Red Wedding was a Los Angeles band from 1981 thru 1985. All the founding members of the band were openly gay. Michael Ely and Spider Taylor were life-long soulmates for over 43 years until Spider passed away from liver cancer in 2015. Michael now lives in Tucson, AZ. Both Marc O and John Tagliavia died from AIDS in the early 90's. Red Wedding was house band at Brave Dog, appeared twice on New Wave Theatre, and played the first Theoretical Party (Sunday afternoon band performances for gay friendly audiences). Over the years, Red Wedding played all the top clubs in L.A. and San Diego and shared bills with Killing Joke, X, Romeo Void, Suburban Lawns, The Bangs (early incarnation of The Bangles), Psi Com (early incarnation of Jane's Addiction), Gun Club, Bow Wow Wow, 45 Grave and many other bands. 

01. Drums

02. Marsha in Pictures

03. Sleeping on the Airplane

04. All (Dressed Up)

05. Think About It

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Intro to Airlift - The Music of... 7" (1997, In All Directions)

As a general rule I don't share music that's commercially available, but every so often I eschew that edict in order to provide you with a brief "taster" of sorts to whet your appetite/psyche for a much larger body of work that you might want to consider patronizing the artist for. Intro to Airlift is a name that's had been popping up on my screen and in music periodicals for decades, yet it's only recently that I actually made a concerted effort to acquaint myself with.  Finding a nice, sharp picture-sleeve 45 in a dollar bin is frequently the last bit of motivation I need, ergo the post you've already invested a few seconds in perusing.  

It turns out this defunct Bloomington, IL trio would have been of enormous interest to me all this time - even if the only thing they ever committed to tape was the song "Ed is on No Side," a clangy, 138-second morsel of ringing guitars, dissonant instrumentation, and a melodic acuity that impresses me as one of the finest tunes to ever bear a 1997 copyright date.  Intro's relatively lo-fi disposition is what really turns the key here, with an overall effect not far removed from Ted Leo's pre-Pharmacists combo Chisel. Toss in some faint, droney proclivities and you've got an absolute keeper on your hands. The second A-side, "Too Easy" finagles with some mod seasoning, while the flip "Because You're New" boasts a DIY  semblance of ramshackle post-punk aplomb.  If you enjoy what you hear, the vast majority of Intro's slim catalog, including a live tape and an album's worth of predominantly unreleased material can be had (for a price) on Bandcamp, so consider throwing your support behind these gents, posthumously as that endeavor may seem.  The three tracks here were taken from my own rip of the record.  

A1. Ed is on No Side

A2. Too Easy

B. Because You're New

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Ambitious songs that kept me up for hours long.

From 2011.

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

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July 14th - Till We Meet Again (1988, Greasy Pop)

Naturally, I'm featuring this one today to coincide with the band's moniker (indeed, I've been anxiously waiting all year for this moment).  I'm a sucker for any record gracing the Greasy Pop Records imprint, given my overwhelming satisfaction with the likes of Mad Turks From Istanbul, Exploding White Mice and Lizard Train among others, and I was happy to give this one a shot knowing virtually nothing about July 14th.  Nonetheless I went into this one hoping/expecting this Adelaide, Aussie quartet would cast some sort of a jangly spell on me, but I was in for a surprise.  Little did I know July 14th, were a relatively conventional bunch wielding a penchant for diversity, with Till We Meet Again often resembling a compilation record, rather than an album with a monochromatic agenda.  Aided and abetted by no less than ten guest musicians (not simultaneously mind you) July 14 exude no shortage of genre wanderlust, hopscotching from textured pastoral pop ("Take My Hand") to rambunctious blues forays ("Bubble") and even brass-laced ballroom jazz ("Foolin").  The taut, "Only One" is the album's most straightforward assertive rock venture, and should have been a shoo-in for a single.  Till We Meet... is occasionally rewarding, but is so scattershot that you walk away without an adequate sense of what kind of impression the band strives to present.  I have to wonder if their first full length, Australian Bite, yields a more consistent set of tunes.  The cassette version of this one is padded with six additional tracks.

Technical note: The forlorn ballad, "To Be One" has a skip towards the end that I was unable to remedy, but if possible will try to correct at a later date.

01. Take My Hand

02. Love Vietnam

03. Lonely Planet

04. Souls on Fire

05. To Be One

06. Bubble

07. Sun

08. Only One

09. Foolin'

10. I'm Gonna Die

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God's Eye 7" (1991, 20/20)

Yet another fairly recent discovery of mine by a band who barely missed the internet age. God's Eye were Massachusetts denizens, who from what I've been able to glean hailed from the Boston area.  "Back Again" is sturdy, instantly catchy riff pop not far removed from the Gin Blossoms, The Lemonheads and Buffalo Tom.  The flip, "The Other Ones" sports a mildly discernable downer bent, quintessentially fitting the guise of an indie rock b-side of it's era - not a throwaway, albeit not particularly stimulating.  I have God's Eye's full length, Love's a Bargain, which might turn up on these pages at a later date. 

A. Back Again

B. The Other Ones

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Murder or rape your king's English...

A sublime selection from 1991, often striking me as one of the finest things Mark Burgess never concocted. 

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

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VA - New Wave Hell: Double Digit Inflation Pop V.2

This was a quickee, slapped together cd-r compilation offered by a certain power-pop centric label and distro in the mid '00s to incentivize potential customers.  New Wave Hell... isn't one of those legendary or totemic Rosetta stones passed along en masse between music fans, rather a casually prepared yet highly consistent mix-tape highlighting a bevy of obscure, yet still integral artists from the late '70s and early Reagan-era involving the likes of under-the-radar exports The Yachts, Scars, The Nits, Reels and Nick Gilder.  The Reputations "I Believe You" is an especially worthy and arcane revelation, as are solid tracks from a couple of entities I've enlightened to you over the years, specifically Maurice & The Clichés and the Heaters.  New Wave Hell... is classy stuff, and surprisingly gratifying, and if you're anything like me you can't help but wonder what songs made the cut for Volume 1...

01. Nick Gilder - Amanda Greer

02. The Nits - A Touch of Henry Moore

03. Maurice & The Cliches - It's All Talk

04. Scars - David

05. Robert Ellis Orrall - Baby Go

06. The Reels - Baby's in the Know

07. Yachts - Yachting Type

08. The Reputations - I Believe You

09. The Heaters - Talk is Cheap

10. The Killermeters - Twisted Wheel

11. Modest Proposal - Live Today

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Daddy-O - Paris on the Prairie tape (1989)

"Hey, what up daddy-o!"  Um...actually, I don't think that's the vibe here at all.  This bygone Chicago export weren't casual or cheery in the least in fact. Try a decidedly austere, goth/post-punk/noir modus operandi instead and you'll see what Daddy-O had in mind - and they were thoroughly adept at it as well.  The spindly atmospherics and icy, chiming chords that commence "Run to Hide" smack of the kind of gripping latticework of early For Against staked their reputation on...that is until Laura Ryan's vocals insert themselves about a minute or so in, transporting the song to a wholly more dramatic stratum, not unlike Siouxsie and the Banshees circa their '80s salad days.  Imbued with more discernable melodic chops, subsequent pieces "16 Days" and "Your Yesterday" curtail the tension a notch, occasionally recalling then-contemporary Midwesterners The Millions.  You won't find so much as a bum or weak spot on Paris on the Prairie, however this cassette ep (an early credit for indie producer Brad Wood) was all Daddy-O left for us.  This was a primo find.  

01. Run to Hide

02. 16 Days

03. Your Yesterday

04. Rudy's Trunk

05. Two Sharp Clicks

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