Saturday, August 23, 2025

Red Lorry Yellow Lorry - Thunder in the Black Cave live 2004

Well it's all sort of come full circle.  The very band that introduced me/you/us to this thing called post-punk (or Gothic, if you must) came out of hibernation to release a new record this year, Strange Kind of Paradise.  The band of course being none other than Leeds' Red Lorry Yellow Lorry.  The dual fulcrum of the Lorries, Chris Reed (vox, gits) and Dave Wolfenden (guitar) reunited with only the album to show for it, with no accompanying tour, and per the band's claim, no subsequent recordings.  While I don't plan to offer much of a critique of Strange Kind of Paradise, I'll impart that it has some pretty exemplary moments that longtime Lorries aficionados will appreciate.

Instead, this post concerns a complete Belgium concert from 2004 that was archived and sold on a limited edition DVD as Thunder in the Black Cave, and as you might guess I'm giving you the audio from it.  Though I have a physical copy, I can't confirm if anyone other than Reed was present and accounted for from Red Lorry's '80s lineup.  The photo to your upper-right (credit to Wikipedia) is in fact from a 2004 performance, and it looks like they're pared down to a trio from their usual four-piece setup.  At the very least, the audio strikes me as a fairly lucid audience recording, though the band's consistent drony surge lends itself to becoming a bit blaring in spots.  It's heavy on their early Red Rhino releases (Talk About the Weather, Paint Your Wagon, and surrounding singles like "Generation"), and their revelatory third album for Beggars Banquet, Nothing's Wrong.  The setlist is downright delightful, touching on virtually necessary Lorries composition - "Spinning Round," "Hands Off Me," "Monkeys on Juice," and "Chance," to name a handful.  Maybe one or two more representative cuts from 1990's Blow should have made the cut (say, "Happy to See Me") but it's really hard to complain with the nearly two-dozen numbers they selected.  For those of you un/under-acquainted with the Lorries, the band's clamshell box on Cherry Red, Albums and Singles 1982-89 is a phenomenal way to get caught up.

01. intro
02. Open Up
03. Big Stick
04. Nothing Wrong
05. Talk About the Weather
06. Crawling Mantra
07. Cut Down
08. Do You Understand
09. Sayonara
10. Blow
11. Monkeys on Juice
12. Train of Hope
13. Running Fever
14. See the Fire
15. Jipp
16. Spinning Round
17. Generation
18. Walking on Your Hands
19. Shout at the Sky
20. Hands Off Me
21. Pushing On
22. Hold Yourself Down
23. Chance

Friday, August 22, 2025

Badbob And The New World Crusade - Today's News ep (1987, Incas)

I didn't think it was quite that long ago when I shared my last Badbob wax, 1988's Now is Reaction, but apparently it's been over a decade.  The 'Bob' in question was none other than Robert Therrian, who cut his teeth in the CT hardcore melee known as Lost Generation (you can check out their Military Heroes cassette here).  Furthermore, the man of the hour ostensibly played a hand in managing the Incas Record label, one of the most reliable and consistently rewarding DIY imprints of the '80s. 

Under the configuration of Badbob and the New World Crusade, three singles and the ep to your right were all cut in the mid-80s.  Considerably a heck of a lot more even-tempered than his Lost Generation days of yore, Bob and his aforementioned Crusade stuck well to the middle of the road on Today's News.  This generally anti-climactic, albeit strummy, four-songer is wholly approachable in the manner of say what the Windbreakers were concocting around the same era.  The title piece makes for a bit of an earworm, but writ large Badbob and his four-piece gaggle weren't a terribly inventive or visionary lot.  I need to check out Today's News' surrounding singles, however thus far, I'm more partial to Now is Reaction.   

01. Today's News
02. Brand New Start
03. On This Road
04. One Man's Choice

Sunday, August 17, 2025

We were probably following too close...

From 2014.  

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

 

Saturday, August 16, 2025

Psychic Archie - 4 Tracked (2015, rec. 1984-85)

This might be the first instance (outside of Mystery Monday) where I've shared an album in it's entirety after previously reviewing it.  In 2016, I went on at length about Psychic Archie, a bespoke indie rock troupe from the Midwest lost to the sands of time...and apparently several long-term memories. In 2014 the bands cassette-albums were digitized and made available on CD, per the cover to your right.  In fact, P/A were so overlooked they even managed to convey this penchant all the way into the next millennium and took down their own webpage.  I'm assuming the 4 Tracked CD is no long a purchasable option, so it's up for grabs here, along with my original review, that I really can't improve upon:

Between 1984-85 Psychic Archie were responsible for two ep length cassettes, remastered and re-sequenced on the newly minted compendium 4 Tracked.  It's not necessarily a wall-to-wall goldmine, but the band's best moments are stunning.  This is due in part to local Topeka collaborator Alan Oliver, who wrote two of PA's most memorable songs, "Happy Man," and "No Pictures of Dad."   That latter gem was licensed to Josie Cotton (yes, of "Johnny Are You Queer" fame) who performed the song on an episode of the '80s sitcom Square Pegs.  The Archies spin on "No Pictures of Dad" isn't as gussied up as Cotton's, rather they transform it into a mid-fi marvel, tweaking it to such a bittersweet extent that you might mistake it for something Guided By Voices wrote, say, in 1990.  "Happy Man" was later adopted by a fantastic, one-album-wonder of a band, The Leatherwoods who covered it on their 1992 Topeka Oratorio LP.  As you might guess, that band named themselves after the recording studio where PA recorded.  And there are even more must hear salvos - "Don't Kiss Me Stranger," the previously unreleased "Flag of My Own," and "Every Time it Hurts," which if listened to attentively reveals a slight similarity to The Paul Collins Beat classic "Walking Out on Love," just when the chorus hits.

01. I Never Loved Her
02. Don't Say Love Costs Too Much
03. Happy Man
04. Things I Ain't Got
05. Man's World
06. It Wasn't There
07. No Pictures of Dad
08. Every Time it Hurts
09. Don't Kiss Me Stranger
10. Circumcised
11. Gonna Make You
12. NSBL
13. Flag of Her Own

Friday, August 15, 2025

The Maxxturs - It's Just Like You 12'' (1988, Pisces)

Where have The Maxxturs been my whole life?  The most factual answer to that query is likely 'defunct,' given this single was the only thing they made available for public consumption, nearly four full decades ago.  Seriously though, this was so impressive I thought about reserving it for Chanukah, but naturally I can't always be that stingy.  Ostensibly from the greater Miami area.  Dense, post-punky goings-on here, spinning in the same wheelhouse as Brighter Than a Thousand Suns-era Killing Joke, with stronger melodic chops, and even some harmonies to boot.  This would also slot in perfectly with the likes of mid-80s The Sound and the first volley of Comsat Angels LPs.  To be honest, The Max had even more "hit potential" than the aforementioned, especially on anthemic "This Fligan Icehole," but as I'm pretty sure anyone would attest, "It's Just Like You" is the showstopper here.  Desperately wish there was more where this oozed out of.  I'm making it available in MP3 and FLAC.

A. It's Just Like You
B. This Fligan Icehole

Sunday, August 10, 2025

damned if I can make out the lyrics...

 ...but this was one of the most flawless albums to grace the racks in 2018.  A heady, enveloping mélange of dream pop and subtle electronic affectations. Dig in.

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

Hear

Saturday, August 9, 2025

The Drive - The Journey is the Reward (1987, Thrust)

How about some no frills rock 'n roll?  This is one is situated far more to the middle of the dial than what I normally give you, and in fact only about half of The Drive's lone LP really slots into Wilfully Obscure territory.  That's not to say the rest of deserves to be omitted - anything but, however The Journey is the Reward is considerably...pedestrian.  

From what little I've been able to glean on this quartet, they actually had ties to another band I introduced you to some time ago, the vaguely new-wave inflected The Lines from Boston, who dished out a wad of independently released wax in the early/mid-80s. It appears that the Drive's keyboardist/mic fiend Pat Dreier is the one who specifically had a role in both bands.  Journey's... tenor isn't far removed from the likes of the Hooters, John Cafferty, and less-so Drivin 'n Cryin' - not necessarily power pop, so to speak, but often adjacent with mid-tempo salvos "Something There," "Life Ain't Without You Baby," and "In Her Head," striking me as compulsively catchy.  The Drive weren't pompous enough to work an arena, but definitely a notch or two above your typical bar band fare. Nonetheless, this is ambitious and tight as a duck's ass, impeccably produced and engineered by the band alongside a gent named Phil Greene.  Enjoy (or not).  

01. Something There
02. In Her Head
03. Key to Heaven
04. There's a Reason
05. Goin' No Where
06. It Must Be Bedtime
07. Ain't What You Say
08. Tunnel of Love
09. Life Ain't Without You Baby
10. No Way Out

Sunday, August 3, 2025

The terrible shouting in my ears, we wouldn't last the year.

My apologies for not getting any new music up last week.  Will try to remedy that soon.  As for M/M, this one is from a NJ indie trio circa 1994.

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

Hear