2nd Night of Chanukah - Enemies in the Grass - "Day After Day" 7" & Blind Crossing ep (1988/91, Galt)

Happy Thanksgiving.  With that out of the way, this isn't nearly as big an unveiling as last nights Jellyfish box, but New York's Enemies in the Grass were coming from the same place.  Quintessential power pop along the lines of Tommy Keene wasn't an easy sell come the early '90s, and situating themselves on a small time indie imprint probably didn't help matters (though the Enemies were in good company on Galt).  The 1988 "Day After Day" 45 is truly the best of both whirls.  Surprisingly, the A-side wasn't the Badfinger tune, while the flip, "Out of Luck" sports an indelible shade of Merseybeat.  Great.  The Blind Crossing ep followed three years later, featuring re-recordings of those two songs that are almost identical to the single.  We're also treated to the psych-kissed "Wants It That Way," and the chiming "Best Behavior."  As instrumentals go, "Kind of Girl" is enjoyable, but had it been adorned with some text, it would have been just as much of a keeper as the aforementioned.  Enjoy (or not).

1988 single
A. Day After Day
B. Out of Luck

Blind Crossing ep (1991)
01. Day After Day
02. Wants it That Way
03. Out of Luck
04. Best Behavior
05. Kind of Girl
06. Before You Leave

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1st Night of Chanukah - Jellyfish - Fan Club box set (2002, Not Lame)

Time to roll out my BFD uploads for 2013, a tradition that began last year with eight consecutive nights of Chanukah gifts, for you dear readers.   A few days ago I spread the good news that I would be bringing the series back, and it is with this waaaay out-of-print Jellyfish 4 CD box that I am going to commence the festivities. 

For the uninitiated, Jellyfish were one of the leading "smart" pop groups of the late '80s and early '90s - not quite power pop, but almost entirely too crafty and catty for the banal Top-40 set.  Featuring alumni from Beatnik Beatch (Andy Sturmer, Roger Manning, Jr.) and The Three O'Clock (Jason Falkner) Jellyfish embraced a pronounced psychedelic appearance, that wasn't necessarily a reflection of their music, but made for decent eye-candy on MTV.  Couched inside this colorful visage were highly melodic tunes, ten of which occupying Jellyfish's Charisma Records debut, Bellybutton in 1990. It produced a pair of moderately successful singles in "Baby's Coming Back," and "The King is Half-Undressed," but frankly, the album as a whole functioned like a great hits package unto itself.

There was a slight delay with the second and final JF album, Spilt Milk, which tumbled into record shop racks a good three years later.  Exponentially more ambitious and gratifying than the band's debut, Spilt Milk was a sophisticated concept LP, which barely made a ripple, even with the Bellybutton crowd from what I recall.  Problem was, Jellyfish's paisley ethos ran diametric to a world that had recently embraced flannel and Doc Martens.  Not long after the last drop of milk evaporated from the floor, Jellyfish parted ways, but over the ensuing years, die-hard fans were still clamoring for more.  To quote the liner notes on the back cover, as luck would have it, there is more.  The "more" is two very packed CDs of demos and outtakes, one dedicated to each album, and ditto to two more disks of live/radio session material from the accompanying Bellybutton and Spilt Milk tours.  While the 80-track Fan Club will be of considerable fascination to established customers, I suggest newcomers would be served better by investigating Jellyfish's two proper albums beforehand.  Links to each disk are the track listing headers below.  Enjoy responsibly.

Bellybutton demos 1988-89  CD 1
The Man I Used to Be/Bedspring Kiss/Deliver/Now She Knows She's Wrong/Queen of the USA/Always Be My Girl/I Wanna Stay Home/Let This Dream Never End/Season of the Witch/That's Girl's a Man/ Callingb Sarah/All I Want is Everything/Bye Bye Bye/She Still Loves Him/Baby's Coming Back/The King is Half-Undressed

The Bellybutton tour 1990-91  CD 2
MTV promo/King is Half.../Suagr and Spice/91x San Diego promo/Two All Beef Patties/Mr, Late/All I Want.../Much Music promo/Hold Your Head Up~Hello/Calling Sarah/She Still Loves Him/Will you Marry Me/Baby's.../Now She Knows.../Let Em In~That is Why/Jet/Much Music promo/King/Baby's.../I Wanna Stay Home/She Still../All I Want....

Spilt Milk demos 1991-92  CD 3
(World Cafe)/Hush/Spilt Milk intro/Joining a Fanclub/Sebrina, Paste and Plato/New Mistake/Gutton of Sympathy/Ghost at Number One/All is Forgiven/Russian Hill/He's My Best Friend/Family Tree/Spilt Milk outro/Ignorance is Bliss/Worthless Heart/Watchin' the Rain/I Need Love/I Don't Believe You/Long Time Ago/Runnin' for our Lives/Fan Club message

The Spilt Milk tour 1993  CD 4
Glutton.../Baby's Coming Back/That is Why/Ghost at Number One/Joining a Fanclub/(World Cafe)/I Can Hear the Grass Grow/New Mistake/Eleanor Rigby/S.O.S./S.O.S./All is Forgiven/Sebrina/Joining.../The Ghost../Man I Used to Be/Glutton/New Mistake/Think About Your Troubles/King is Half...

You're funny and you don't even try.

A twenty song summation as to why this Athens, GA quartet mattered so much.

Having difficulty accessing the file?  Please try again a little later.  Too many people hammering the link simultaneously is apparently giving Netkup's servers a headache.  With this in mind, I'll leave this up for a few hours past the usual twenty-four, k?  You're welcome to comment, just don't give away anything obvious.  

http://netkups.com/?d=62a2199932ba5 

VA - Lessons From Little Hits, Part 3

Little Hits was an unrelated music blog that preceded mine, which largely dealt with left-off-the-dial indie rock obscurities circa the 1980s.  It left a substantial impression on me, so much so that I decided to throw my hat in the ring with Wilfully Obscure.  During the past two months I've shared self-curated compilations of some of the music I absorbed (or more accurately, downloaded) during Little Hits 2005-2009 lifespan.  I originally promised three installments in this mini-series.  Here is the third, and I may extend it to four, since the response has been better than I expected.

There are actually a few relatively well known entities here, including the Feelies, whose cover of Patti Smith's "Dancing Barefoot" is nearly as captivating as the original.  It was initially released on a flexi-disk, and later appeared as a b-side on a promo single.  East River Pipe also make an appearance with a superb early ep track, "Make a Deal With the City," and 415 Records all-stars Red Rockers dish out their nascent, punky single "Voice of America."  Scruffy the Cat are also represented, a band who I never got around to mentioning on these pages, and sadly their frontman Charlie Chesterman is recently deceased.  Little Hits were spot-on when it came to distilling an artist down to one key single or signature song, and the robust power pop of Scruffy's "You Dirty Rat" is a sheer hole-in-one.  

As for some of the more unknown quantities, New Zealand's Alpaca Brothers made my shortlist, as did a couple of Midwestern bands from the States that weren't quite destine for bigger things, namely The Dangtrippers and Bangtails.  North Carolina's Glass Moon should have scored a monster hit with "Simon," a narrative slice of new wave entailing an Albert Einstein theme.  Rick Rock is actually power pop maestro Parthenon Huxley incognito, whose "Sputnik" is thrown into the mix as well.  Klyde Konner fleshes out this compilations pub-rock quotient, and I would have been remiss if I neglected to include one of my coolest LH discoveries, New York's little known Bandables, who only managed to eke out a single during their lifespan.  "Levitation" however isn't from that 45, rather it remains unreleased to this day.

Bandables - Levitation
East River Pipe - Make A Deal With The City
Erratic Sculpture - Cholera
Glass Moon - Simon
Klyde Konnor - Suit For All Occasions
Los Popularos - Working Girls
Red Rockers - Voice of America
Rick Rock (aka Parthenon Huxley) - Sputnik
Scruffy the Cat - You Dirty Rat
Shake Appeal - My Danger
The Alpaca Brothers - The Lie
The Bangtails - While Laughing
The Dangtrippers - Masquerade
The Feelies - Dancing Barefoot
The Group Image - Anything You Feel

Hear

Zonaea - As the Stars Collapse ep (2013, Zoo and a Movie) - a brief overview

Got some new noise from Charleston, SC to inform you of, but it's the good kind of noise.  Zonaea are a new quartet mixing up time-tested ingredients, predominantly dissonance and dynamics by means of a tense, math-rock delivery system, while keeping some semblance of "the song" intact.  Touchstones range from Archers of Loaf to Slint, but Zonaea's aggro undercurrent on As the Stars Collapse, points to something a tad more sinewy and abrassive.  But enough of my yammering, check out a couple of tracks from the Reverbnation widget thingy below.  The Zoo and a Movie website is either temporarily down or hacked, so if you're interested in purchasing the ep, I would suggest you email the band.  Cheers.

Free Electronic Press Kits from ReverbNation.com

Watching the candles burn - The eight nights of Chanukah returns Wednesday night.

Last year I started a new holiday tradition.  In lieu of posting one great-big, extra special upload for Christmas, I decided to spread the goodies out over the eight nights of Chanukah (check out the preliminary details from 2012 here).   This made sense on a couple of different levels.  For one, it accorded me the opportunity to share several mind-blowing "gifts" instead of just one mind-blowing whopper.  Secondly, Chanukah represents personal relevance to me.  We all know you were envious of that kid down the block who had a yarmulke festooned to his head, who was given the privilege of lighting the menorah, and of course, reveling in eight glorious nights of presents.  Once again, I'm paying it forward.

A few of last years entries included Velocity Girl, Aztec Camera, Redd Kross, and The Dentists.  Some of the items I have slated for later next week are considerably more obscure, but there will also be some familiar faces.  In fact, one of the titles is such a doozy, it's going to absorb two nights.  FYI, I will forgo "Mystery Monday" for the week of the December 1, in order to maintain the continuity of the holiday as it falls on the calendar. 

All of this begs the question, "Has Wilfully Obscure been holding out on us for the last 11 months?"  Somewhat...but not quite.  In short, the presents I plan on revealing over the eight nights of Chanukah are of considerably high caliber.  I like to think that everything I share qualifies as good to excellent, but to paraphrase that sage Orwellian dictum, some are more equal than others.  Keep your eyes peeled.

Rein Sanction - s/t mLP (1989, W'sup)

Before signing to Sub Pop in the early '90s, Rein Sanction were virtual unknowns outside of their native Jacksonville, FL.  To their detriment, this is how their circumstances would remain despite the backing (or perhaps lack thereof) of a high pedigree indie label.  Two albums (1991's Broc's Cabin and '93s Mariposa) and two singles were what RS presented to the world while they were in cahoots with Pavitt and Poneman, but the trio was active in the '80s, and had this exceedingly scarce record to show for it. 

Reliably murky and downcast, Rein Sanction also had a knack for stirring up a racket, wielding squalls of noisome, feedback-ridden fretwork a la early Dinosaur Jr., Eleventh Dream Day, and even Neil Young.  They possessed a certain psychedelic panache too, which meshed nicely with the mangled arpeggios and whatnot they were wont to throw fans.  Broc's Cabin was their finest moment, but Rein Sanction is largely cut from similar cloth - so much so that a couple tracks were actually rerecorded for Broc's.

I don't own a physical copy of this record, rather the band made it available for download on their long defunct webpage.  As for the blue-ish image to your right, it may or may not be an accurate depiction of the record jacket.  The band left that somewhat ambiguous on said website.  Rein Sanction released a third album in 1996 titled, Blue Men.

01. Hill Frye
02. Limestone
03. I Took a Walk
04. Wilt
05. Do You Remember
06. Black Building
07. Circle

Hear

Do you have the guts to pick up a penny?

The second and gracefully reflective album from an astute, co-ed D.C. quartet, circa the mid-90s.

Having difficulty accessing the file?  Please try again a little later.  Too many people hammering the link simultaneously is apparently giving Netkup's servers a headache.  With this in mind, I'll leave this up for a few hours past the usual twenty-four, k?  You're welcome to comment, just don't give away anything obvious.  

http://netkups.com/?d=9422409851918 

Splendor Head - Mirth (1989, CFY)

The only relevant info I was able to procure on Splendor Head was the following blurb from a distro site that's apparently still carrying unsold copies of Mirth:

Thoroughly modern, thoroughly tuneful lyrical pop rock, falling somewhere between REM introspection and something considerably noisier. 

Well, it would be nice if this Cali crew's shtick was that cut and dry, but at least I agree with the noisy quotient, which varies from song to song.  Sonically, Mirth tends to tilt in the direction of a myriad of contemporary Homestead Records stablemates (a touch of Nice Strong Arm, maybe a pinch of Phantom Tollbooth), and some miscellaneous but exceptional post-punk acts from the Midwest, specifically The Libertines and Pedaljets.  Despite a few misfires, Splendor Head manage to elicit their fair share of spot-on keepers, including but not limited to "Number on the Radio," "Sick Architecture," and "Mother Tongue."  Am quite pleased I took a gamble on this one.

01. Green M&Ms
02. Mother Tongue
03. Sick Architecture
04. World Dog
05. Sacrifice
06. In My Nightime
07. The Toymaker
08. Number on the Radio
09. She Is a Girl

Hear

aMINIATURE - Plexiwatt (1991, Scheming Intelligentsia/Restless)

Ever since namedropping them a few night ago I've had this kinetic San Diego troupe on the brain.  Thing is, they didn't sound particularly kinetic until they hit their stride on their 1993 mini-masterpiece Depthfiveratesix.  It was on that record that aMINIATURE proved their dextrous knack for melding math-rock dissonance with emotive hooks.  For better or worse, everyone has to start somewhere, and for this bunch that spelled a thing called Plexiwatt, which I'm offering today.  It's a formative debut for sure, and though I regard it as fairly nondescript, aMINIATURE were at the very least laying down some sweet guitar tones here and there.  Plexiwatt was initially released on the micro-indie Scheming Intelligentsia in '91, but reissued on Restless on the heels of the band's relatively successful Depthfive... and 1995's Murk Time Cruiser.   You can check out a couple of split singles with aMINIATURE and locals Drip Tank here. 

01. Skyline
02. Security From a Stranger
03. Bassboost
04. Windskirt
05. Fake It
06. Memory Traveler
07. Frozen
08. A Ragged Town

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VA - From '93 to Infinity (2013, Dromedary) - a brief overview

I haven’t made this proclamation public, and for that matter rarely in private, but I regard the 1990s as the last full decade which we had truly memorable music, coming at us from all directions I might add.  I’m talking about ten solid years in a row where I didn’t have to agonize about fleshing out any personal top-20 music list. Comparatively speaking, this is a minor beef in a real-world fraught with crises of macro proportions (need I make out a list?), but damn it, music was just plain more visceral in the twentieth century. 

Hence the notion for someone to compile a various artists collection of current (and one recently-out-of-retirement) acts looking over their shoulder to the bygone Clinton-era for music that moved them in a similar manner.  Enter From ’93 to Infinity, a truly stimulating covers album that fits said bill perfectly.  If it’s retreads of Smashing Pumpkins and Collective Soul numbers you’re craving, I can safely advise you tootle along lil’ grunge cowboy, because this sixteen-song agenda is downright indie-centric, from the bands reworking the magic ( Stuyvesant, The Brixton Riot, and Flash Flood) to the originators themselves (Swervedriver, Archers of Loaf, and Seam), respectively. 

True, there are a plethora of unknown quantities occupying From '93..., but that doesn't work to the detriment of the album, if only by virtue of it's predominantly familiar "setlist."  And it's a sweet setlist at that, featuring some bona fide indie classics, including Superchunk's rousing "Precision Auto" (The 65's), Liz Phair's iconic "Fuck and Run" (d.smithsucks), The Posies "Flavor of the Month" (Anderson Council) and Seam's "Autopilot" (Flash Flood) among a bevy of others.  The more straightforward the cover the better, and the bulk of From '93... is comprised of faithful readings, with some occasional deviations, like Cinema Cinema's unorthodox spin on PJ Harvey's "50 Ft. Queenie," which was really something of a freakshow to begin with.  As for the "out-of-retirement" participant, it's none other than New Jersey's left-off-the-dial tribe Dots Will Echo who close the whole affair out with a Mommyheads cover. 

From '93 to Infinity is available directly from Dromedary Records on CD, or digitally through Bandcamp.  Below is a link to a two song sampler I've set up.

Overlake - From A Motel 6
d smith - Fuck and Run

http://netkups.com/?d=7e2345a80b55d

Lion Tamer 7" (1995, Cargo/Headhunter)

I don't know very much about Lion Tamer, but I certainly know what I like, and I'm really digging this.  Where the hell was this Richmond, VA trio back in the mid '90s when I was jamming to likeminded, dissonant noise-pop combos like Archers of Loaf, aMINIATURE and Edsel?  My guess is the Tamers were sticking close to home, and unfortunately were unbeknownst to me at the time in the pre-social media era.  At the very least, this single (perhaps their lone release) offers two bittersweet mementos from the golden age of indie guitar-rawk.  If anyone can shed a ray or two of light on these guys, don't be a stranger.

A. West 64
B. Shoes

Hear

You said you need a boyfriend, well you've already got one.

Hard to believe that this glamish, punkish indie quartet steamrolled out of the country and western confines of their homestate, Oklahoma.  This is their first album, from 1990.

Having difficulty accessing the file?  Please try again a little later.  Too many people hammering the link simultaneously is apparently giving Netkup's servers a headache.  With this in mind, I'll leave this up for a few hours past the usual twenty-four, k?  You're welcome to comment, just don't give away anything obvious.  

http://netkups.com/?d=4db802559491c

And I guess I just don't know...

I didn't want to jump the gun two weeks ago when Lou Reed's death was announced, and rush something onto these pages for the sake of it.  Here's the straight dope.  I have way more invested in Reed/The Velvets than your average man on the street.  I own the Peel Slowly and See box set, and a couple of the VU double disk reissues of individual albums.  Admittedly, my collection is sorely lacking Reeds solo efforts, but in my own way I've followed him from album to album, at least during the last three decades.  Much like the Beatles, Clash, and Joy Division, The Velvet Underground were frankly overrated and shamelessly over-exploited by their respective record labels.  Yet all of the aforementioned produced an undeniably respectable body of work.  Reed and his revolving cast of cohorts may have beaten everyone else in the proto-punk sweepstakes, but the originators of a genre (or sub-genre) don't necessarily represent it's apex.  See where I'm coming from?

Nonetheless, I feel the need to pay homage, if only because, as the fabled adage goes (greatly paraphrased), not many people picked up a Velvets record contemporary to when it was released, but everyone who did was inspired to start a band.  I'm an awfully big fan of a lot of those bands, and that alone is sufficient reward.

As you can imagine, a lot of people have been coming out of the woodwork of late, offering live Lou Reed shows, including this Buffalo, NY performance originating from 1973.  A soundboard recording, but a deficient one at that, with the guitars buried way down deep in the mix.  Just as frustratingly, "Satellite of Love" fades out not long after the two-minute mark.  As for the man himself, Reed sounds noticeably tipsy on this particular evening, but not enough to blemish the performance.  Ten songs that roughly split the difference between his solo endeavors and VU, including a 21-minute rendering of "Sister Ray."  I'm offering two download options, lossless FLAC, and 320 kbps MP3.  Have at it.

Lou Reed, Century Theatre, Buffalo, NY 3/24/73

01. intro
02. Vicious
03. How Do You Think it Feels?
04. Caroline Says
05. I'm Waiting for My Man
06. Lady Day
07. Heroin
08. Sweet Jane
09. Satellite of Love
10. Rock and Roll
11. Sister Ray

FLAC  or  MP3 (320k)

Garden Variety - Hedge 7" ep (1991, Mint Tone)

I haven't said it often enough on here, but Garden Variety were responsible for the grandest sound to ever emanate from everyone's favorite sand bar, Long Island, NY.  Despite a relatively minute discography (two albums, this ep and several split singles) this Valley Stream trio managed to lodge themselves into my personal top-ten favorite artists of the '90s - perhaps even the top-five. 

Garden Variety's wailing maelstrom distilled the most crucial components of early Soul Asylum, Superchunk, and Rites of Spring, all couched in a tuneful, post-hardcore delivery system that rarely, if ever relented in intensity.  The three song Hedge ep was their premiere release, and although GV's closing act, 1995's Knocking the Skill Level was more sophisticated on virtually all fronts, they were white-hot from minute one.  In strenuously adenoidal fashion, mouthpiece Anthony Roman (who later fronted Radio 4) boasted a set of pipes that intoned something poignant about the human condition, while Anthony Rizzo's guitar salvos were clangy, crunchy, and LOUD to a fault.  Joe Gorelick (later of Retisonic) dealt a frenetic, as-if-his-life-depended-on-it hammering to the skins.

As for the Hedge ep itself, I had a slight moral dilemma about sharing it, as all three songs were appended to the CD edition of GV's first album.  In the end I couldn't resist, given the fact that I actually own the vinyl incarnation of it which this rip was derived from.  Plus, there's the unique circumstance of this record being the only one in their catalog equipped with a lyric sheet - something their two albums desperately called for.  Anyway, if you dig what you hear please consider buying the self-titled Garden Variety album from iTunes or Amazon.  It's a scorcher.  You can check out Knocking the Skill Level via the link above.

A. Turnout
B1. Hedge
B2. On Track

Hear

Red Fox Grey Fox - Bear-sides and Rarities (2009)

I've been holding out on sharing one of the best albums to materialize since I started Wilfully Obscure, namely Red Fox Grey Fox's epic, 2007 emo barnburner From the Land of Bears, Ice and Rock.  Sadly, today is not that day, nor shall it be for awhile, since that album is readily available on iTunes, Bandcamp and Amazon.  In lieu of it, I am offering a companion CD of demos, acoustic versions, side-project experiments (e.g. We Are the Willows), and the like, that has only been available in the merch den of RFGF concerts.  It's packaged in a hand-screened, chipboard sleeve, and is furnished with a handsome page of liner notes.

Thought it's virtually been bastardized into a pejorative at this point, the "emo" handle is unshakable in defining the strenuous and sheer naked vulnerability RFGF are wont to throw down like a raging beer keg at a frat party.  The aforementioned, From the Land... triples down on the angst Sunny Day Real Estate and Mineral emanated in their heyday, piling on heaps of melody and demonstrably more technical arrangements.  The group's secret weapon is frontman Peter Miller, whose androgynously deceiving falsetto croon, typically culminates into a glorious cathartic wail.  Get acquainted with this assemblage of alternate versions and other material that fell by the wayside, but regard it as merely an appetizer (or perhaps dessert) belonging to the main course - which in itself was the best thing to come out of this genre in ages.  I should also mention that a follow-up ep, A Snake, a Scoundrel, This Man is Cursed was released digitally in 2009.  Red Fox Grey Fox is currently on semi-hiatus. The best place to keep tabs on them is FB. 

01. A Sketch Of A Sketch Of A Drawing I Once Drew (acoustic)
02. Building A Building (acoustic)
03. Up With Mittens, Down With Gloves (acoustic)
04. Oh Man, Oh Man, The Madman!
05. The Doves That Quietly Coo
06. These Heavenly Heights
07. Wait For Me Abby Bernstein
08. Shit bag
09. It's Finally Here! But I'm Staying Inside (by of Yesteryears)
10. Bravery (We Are The Willows)
11. The Windows (We are the Willows demo)
12. Dinosaurs

Hear