Sunday, September 29, 2024

I had a dream of the sea, but it didn't come for free.

From 1996.  "Hey, you've got your Britpop in my power pop!" "No, more like you've got your power pop in my Britpop!"  Am occasionally encountering shades of Silver Sun and '90s Redd Kross on this one, and I'm sure that more than a few of you will do a double take upon seeing the album cover.

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Saturday, September 28, 2024

House of Pants - Pressed ep (1984, Amorous)

I like this one, even if it's a little non-descript, an ironic circumstance considering the era.  "Just a Movie" exudes a hyper '80s vibe without resorting to anything as cheesy as say, Oingo Boingo.  Further in, the going is more satisfactory amidst the Cars-y power-pop of "Photographs" and "He's Not There." Really no missteps to speak of on Pressed, this San Fran quartet's second and final ep.  My biggest takeaway is that House of Pants mic-fiend Jeff Saltzman has a vocal timbre striking similar to Scott Miller, but these guys had virtually nothing on Game Theory's indigenous stripe of artful indie pop.  

01. Just a Movie
02. Photographs
03. Scenes
04. He's not There
05. To You
06. Different Today

Wednesday, September 25, 2024

Glass Torpedoes - Someone Different 7" (1979, Teen Beat)

Liverpudlians Glass Torpedoes only stuck around long to give us three singles, this being the first. Nestled in a near-perfect sweet spot between punk and powerpop, the Torps vaguely suggested what the Undertones would have amounted to had they been fronted by the fairer sex. Barbara Donovan leads her boy compatriots on a pair of incessantly catchy mid-tempo aces, "Someone Different" and "Morning, Noon and Night" with convincing but charmingly casual aplomb. The flipside is a bit mindless, largely an instrumental punctuated with redundant waves of "whoa-oh's."  The two aforementioned full-fledged keepers however are a different story, and make this band's dearth of a full length a minor tragedy.

A1. Someone Different
A2. Morning, Noon and Night
B. Heart Surgery 

Sunday, September 22, 2024

Was a has-been now's an am-is

A seminal 1987 barnburner paired with this band's preceding album on one handy compact disk.

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

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Saturday, September 21, 2024

Go Man Go - s/t (1990, Whet Regin)

This was a pleasant surprise, even though the album as a whole is a bit inconsistent.  First and foremost, Go Man Go's "25 Years" is absolutely phenomenal.  It could be pure coincidence, but this one sounds like a dead-ringer for Canada's Grapes of Wrath, with glints of everyone from Material Issue to Dreams So Real filtering in.  An absolute perfect amalgam of jangle and grit, and could be one of my top-50 power pop tunes of all time.  I can't get over it!  And the subsequent "2nd Time" is nearly as potent, also bred on the same vine as Grapes. "There She Goes" (not the La's number) comes in as my third favorite on here, with a spicy harmonica lead at the beginning. While the remainder of Go Man Go is at the very least adequate, it's not always stimulating, with our trio of protagonists trying on variations of commercial leaning alt-pop, not far removed from the Rambrandts or a significantly less hip Jellyfish.  There would seem to be no relevant details out there regarding these guys, with the exception of a Campbell, CA correspondence address on the rear album jacket.

01. 25 Years
02. 2nd Time
03. Lay it Down
04. Joe & Mary
05. 1000 Miles
06. Shake
07. Driving One Night
08. There She Goes
09. Getaway
10. Just Like Love

Sunday, September 15, 2024

I was there to cash in my soul.

A solo debut from 1980. In fact, this was his only proper solo album while he was still with us.

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Saturday, September 14, 2024

The Slowest Clock - Smile Futurismo! All I Heard Was Purple (2014, Eye Unseen)

Slowest Clock were denizens of Dublin, IE, and while there may not be a "Dublin sound," this album barely suggests the quartet in question emanated anywhere near the British Isles.  Consisting of recordings tracked between 1989-90, the material on Smile Futurismo! was intended to wind up in the guise of their debut LP.  S/C's fortunes went south soon after the recordings, and frustratingly, the multitrack tapes from the sessions were misplaced for decades as it would turn out.  A subsequent studio session did in fact yield a posthumously released album, Life Still in 1995, but eventually, the aforementioned early lost tapes were located nearly 25 years after the fact, composing the fifteen tunes occupying Smile Futurismo!

Touted as psych/freakbeat revivalists, Slowest Clock weren't necessarily evocative of anyone from the original '60s vanguard.  Not completely removed from that sort of ethos, there is some occasional evidence ("You're So Strange" and "Turning Green") regarding how these guys might have been loosely shoehorned into those environs.  The winsome "Eastern Flowers" leaned in the vicinity of R.E.M., but wasn't quite in league with American indie rock either. Elsewhere, there are several songs here that strike me as unfinished, having miraculously surviving past the demo stage.  ...Futurismo! is an album of anomalies with seemingly minimal connective tissue, yet still rewarding if you're willing to invest a few concerted listens.

01. Going Home
02. Warhola
03. You're So Strange
04. Le Bordel Philosophique
05. Little Fishy
06. Cherie
07. Eastern Flowers
08. Acid Lake
09. Turning Green
10. Say What's On Your Mind.
11. Wasted
12. You Never See Me
13. Desert Mouth
14. Rejoice
15. In the Cinema

Thursday, September 12, 2024

Green Pyramids 7" (1993, Susstones)

Gambled a dollar on this one, and it was a hundred cents well spent.  Despite the fact this coed Minneapolis trio once referred to themselves as power pop, Green Pyramids, though plenty guitarsy, had more in common with the moody sway of say, the Spinanes.  Perhaps a bit too melancholy to rope in mainstream psyches (or more to the point, not visible enough to garner such an audience), the Krystal MacKay-helmed troupe blended depth with an accessible and melodic subtext -  and from the looks of things this 45 was just the tip of their proverbial iceberg. 

A. Tuesdays and Saturdays
B. 10 Miles From the Border

Sunday, September 8, 2024

We’ll be back to you in time.

Heavy alt-rawk from 1993.

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

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Saturday, September 7, 2024

Voices - New Bamboo (1983)

So, for the better part of ten years, some slug on a certain online auction site (take a wild guess) has been asking $100 for the very record you see to your right.  Guess who found a copy in the wild for 98% less of that asking price?  Yep, it was all mine for $2...and better yet, you don't even have to pay so much as a penny. 

Voices are a very bygone Rochester, NY cold case, who apparently didn't give the world much beyond this platter.  A privately pressed LP that doesn't necessarily skew to the aesthetics of "indie rock," just one spin of New Bamboo reveals these gents were tempted to tap into a plethora of markets.  Synthy new wave forays, "Return to Human," and "Out Tonight" aren't as sophisticated as say, Gary Numan but are satisfying nonetheless, particularly the latter. "Drive-in Show" sports a radio-ready power pop acumen, while the concluding morsel, "Death in a Hand Held Package" is subtly more serious, á la what Genesis were striving for around the same period.  Elsewhere on ...Bamboo are a handful of not so new ideas, aimed in a decidedly more AOR direction.  Nothing truly embarrassing, mind you, but a comparative curveball.  At the end of the day, I'm pretty relieved that I didn't fork out a hundred for the better tracks. 

01. Out Tonight
02. Drive-in Show
03. 2:10 E.D.T.
04. If I Gave You My Heart
05. Return to Human
06. Long Nights
07. Dreamin'
08. Death in a Hand Held Package

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Sunday, September 1, 2024

She met a man so understanding there was nothing he wouldn’t do.

From 1990.  This is the OG version with no supplemental material.

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