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. 

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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.

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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.  

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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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