It all has to start somewhere, and in this case "it" is my affection for power pop. Thing was, back in the early '80s I was already tuned in but simply unaware of the genre. Tommy Tutone, The Romantics and the Knack were heavy hitters on on my FM playlist. They all qualified as practitioners of the form, but by and large the music overshadowed categorization and nomenclature. Later on, I became a little more power-pop conscious upon adopting bands like Cheap Trick and Material issue, but I simply wasn't wed to the genre - not yet anyway. Fast forward to 1996 of thereabouts. A local record shop had a modest bargain/freebie section near the front cash register. One afternoon upon checking out, I spotted what appeared to be an advance cassette of
The Records Music on Both Sides album. Since
MoBS was a 1982 release, I'm not sure how an ancient promo tape was still lingering around fifteen years after the fact, but whatever, I bit. I think at that point I was acquainted with the Records signature tune "Starry Eyes." Other than that I was going into
Music... fairly cold. Turns out I was in for quite a startling treat, and what would turn out to be a quickly growing appreciation and adoption of power pop wholesale. In fact, that old and worn out tape was such a gateway, I could make the argument that
Music... was one of the key impetuses for me starting Wilfully Obscure. Tonight I'm presenting you with the now out-of-print definitive CD remasters of The Records three proper albums that were reissued by On the Beach Records between 2002-07, featuring a host of b-sides, non-LP goodies and even some live material. So far as I know these aren't available through the usual digital vendors like Amazon and iTunes, or even Spotify.
In the beginning there was the
Kursaal Flyers, a mid-70s UK pub act who churned out a three studio LPs and at least twice as many singles. The Flyers' featured future Records drummer
Will Birch, and towards the end of the Flyers' tenure
John Wicks (deceased 2018) on guitar. After K/F's dissolution in 1977 both men would soon found The Records with bassist
Phil Brown (deceased 2012) and guitarist
Huw Gower. The quartet's first single, "Starry Eyes" hit in 1978, and set the table not only for the band themselves, but modern day power pop with it's merger of Wick's jaw-dropping vocal hooks and Gower's jangly chords. 1979's
Shades in Bed was the name of the UK version of the Records debut album, which was later released in the States simply as
The Records featuring an entirely different sleeve (with less risque cover art) and an alternate track order. As far as debuts go, it's a sheer corker, featuring alongside "Starry Eyes" another equally strong single, "Teenarama," and a devastating array of deeper album cuts like "Girl," "All Messed Up and Ready to Go," and "Affection Rejected," all of which would be live staples for years. The Records mightily advanced and perfected what presaging bands like The Raspberries and Blue Ash had initiated, retooling the power pop formula writ large, setting the template for dozens of bands to follow on both sides of the Atlantic. No exaggeration. The 2002 CD reissue features yet a third variation on the album jacket, and rewardingly an album's worth of bonus cuts. Tracks 11-14 are covers by Blue Ash, The Kinks, Spirit and the Rolling Stones respectively. This quartet of tunes was featured on a bonus disc, originally bundled with both versions of the original 1979 album. We also get some key contemporary b-sides, the album worthy "Paint Her Face" and "Held Up High," alongside the contents of a post-
Shades in Bed single - an improved upon cover of the Bay City Rollers' "Rock 'n Roll Love Letter," and another classic original, "Wives and Mothers of Tomorrow."
Not much time was wasted for the second Records' long-player to make it onto the marketplace, specifically 1980's
Crashes.
John Broack's Shake Some Action, guide to Power Pop albums (now in a
revamped edition) acknowledges that as good and even seminal as
Shades... was,
Crashes was the band's crowning achievement, featuring an even tighter performance acumen, plus more importantly a richer and more developed batch of songs. Despite leading off with another fantastic single, the mid-tempo "Hearts in Her Eyes" (soon to be covered by The Searchers) the album didn't take off on either side of the Atlantic, but
Crashes featured a dizzying array of resonant, melodious guitar pop tunes that few bands of the Records ilk have yet to perfect upon - "Man With the Girlproof Heart," "The Same Mistakes," and "Rumor Sets the Woods Alight," all expanding upon the bittersweet affectations that cropped up intermittently on the debut. Sophisticated, but not the least bit show-offy,
Crashes is downright untouchable. The supplemental material features two knockout b-sides, paralleling anything on the LP itself, "Injury Time" and "So Sorry." There's also "Vamp," a mainstay of the Records live shows, appearing here in a studio incarnation for the first time, along with another solid outtake, "Faces in the Window." I'd be remiss not to mention that the album featured a key lineup change - Huw Gower was gone, replaced by
Jude Cole. Topping off the bonus tunes are early takes of "The Same Mistakes" and "Girlproof" while Gower was still in the Records.
And speaking of lineup alterations, one of colossal proportions was on deck for the third and final Records platter,
Music on Both Sides. Not long for life as a Record, Jude Cole's stint was over by 1981, and in his stead, new lead axe-slinger
Dave Whelen was brought aboard. However the far more significant development involved new frontman,
Chris Gent. While Wicks maintained his role as guitarist it was decided upon, apparently on the band's own volition (per the liner notes), that The Records needed a more prominent mouthpiece to advance them commercially. While not particularly known post or pre-Records, Gent was an appropriate "replacement" vocalist with a commanding but not overpowering set of pipes who more than did the bands new tunes justice, even if the vast majority of them were still written and composed by Wicks and Birch. Ironically, the album that introduced me to the band (this one) didn't feature their original singer in his key role, however the songs didn't suffer in the least, and were largely on par with
Crashes. "Heather and Hell," "Keeping Up With Jones," and "Clown Around Town," if not perfect-tens, came within spitting distance and were out-and-out catchy as anything the band offered prior.
Both Sides lead-off (and I believe sole) single featured none other than Paul Carrack on keyboards, but interestingly enough the anthemic b-side, "Your Own Soundtrack" took on something of a life of it's own in the years following it's release. Not so much by the BBC, but by fans like myself who really ended up taking to it - so much so that for the reissue of
Both Sides it was reassigned as the first song on the album itself,
not merely as a bonus cut! And rightfully so. As for the bona fide supplemental selections, we get four original demos with Wicks singing, including the heretofore unreleased "On Time." A clutch of randomly plucked live cuts ("Starry Eyes" among them) are bonus-ized as well, including The Records collaborating with
Jane Aire of the
Belvederes on "Lovin You Ain't Easy." While vinyl copies of
Both Sides are virtually worthless, the CD re-ish is going for exorbitant asking prices on all the usual sites. In 1982 the group called it a day, reuniting in 1990 for a song on a Beach Boys tribute album.
For the time being I'm sharing these as 320 kbps MP3s, but will consider lossless versions at some point if demand is great enough. Don't hold your breath.
Shades on Both Sides/The Records
01. Girl
02. Teenaramas
03. Girls That Don't Exist
04. Starry Eyes
05. Up All night
06. All Messed Up and Ready
07. Insomnia
08. Affection Rejected
09. The Phone
10. Another Star
bonus:
11. Abracadabra (Have You Seen Her?)
12. See My Friends
13. 1984
14. Have You Seen Your Mother Baby?
15. Starry Eyes (45 version)
16. Paint Her Face
17. Roch 'n Roll Love Letter
18. Wives and Mothers of Tomorrow
19. Held Up high
20. Teenarama (remix)
Hear
Crashes
01. Hearts in Her Eyes
02. Girl in Golden Disc
03. Rumor Set the Woods Alight
04. I Don't Remember Your Name
05. The Same Mistakes
06. Man With a Girlproof Heart
07. Hearts Will Be Broken
08. Spent a Week With Your Last Night
09. The Worriers
10. Guitars in the Sky
bonus:
11. Injury Time
12. Vamp
13. So Sorry
14. Faces at the Window
15. The Same Mistakes
16. Man With a Girlproof Heart
Hear
Music on Both Sides
01. Your Own Soundtrack
02. Imitation Jewelry
03. Heather and Hell
04. Selfish Love
05. Clown Around Town
06. Not So Much the Time
07. Keeping Up With Jones
08. Third Hand Information
09. Real Life
10. King of Kings
11. Cheap Detective Music
12. Everyday Nightmare
bonus:
13. Your Own Soundtrack (demo)
14. Not So Much the Time (demo)
15. Third Hand Information (demo)
16. On Time (demo)
17. Insomnia (live)
18. Affection Rejected (live)
19. Starry Eyes (live)
20. Lovin' You Ain't Easy (live with Jane Aire)
Hear
For an artist who arguably peaked on his first two albums, Marshall Crenshaw has remarkably not pumped out a subsequent steady stream of diminishing returns. That's no easy feat given the caliber of 1982's Marshall Crenshaw and the following year's Field Day which are revered by both guitar pop purists and early adopters of the gentleman in question. In fact, from a creative standpoint things never really went "south" so to speak for Crenshaw, rather just on divergent tangents. Nonetheless, some of his albums (roughly a dozen of 'em) fared better than the rest, and there are even ones I've modestly taken exception with (Life's Too Short anyone?).
Just four short months ago I posted an Elton Motello single, and was enthused enough about it to spend some quality time with his second long-player, this one. You can refer back to that original entry for some pertinent biographical specifications. Pop Art is a minor new wave masterpiece, exuding just about everything that was creative and incisive about that genre's nascent era, while gracefully sidestepping any of it's patently negative shortcomings that would become ubiquitous over the next couple of years. A fantastically nervy strain courses trough virtually every morsel of this album, that sonically points to the acerbic modus operandi of some of Elton's (actual name Alan Ward) contemporaries likes Devo, Donnie Iris and to a lesser extent Gary Numan. Some surprisingly rollicking and punky outbursts crop up here in the guise of "Pocket Calculator," "In the Heart of the City" (not the Rockpile tune but just as ripping) and "Panic in the Classroom," and if you're looking for par excellence power pop the title piece is both flashy and a hell of a lotta fun. Enjoy.
Hey. You've got power pop in my indie rock! You've got indie rock in my power pop! From 2015.
A handy 17-cut roundup of virtually every song that mattered by these Clash-y Brit post-punks.
In the early '90s British-based Clawfist Records was responsible for a spate of split singles featuring (mostly) indie band covering one another on the same piece of wax. Way back, I featured one of their 1991 specimens, Poster Children/Thin White Rope, and some ten years later I'm sharing another in the Clawfist series. Smashing Orange (not to be confused with you-know-who) were one of my small-of-famers back in the day. A fantastically noisome blur of manicured noise and dream pop ethos who responsible for handfuo of eps and two albums, The Glass Bead Game being the foremost of the pair. On this split 45 they cover The Sunflowers, a combo I'd never really investigated before. Per Discogs the band only released a few singles, and ironically the tune Smashing Orange take to task here, "Something You Said" didn't materialize on any of them. Nonetheless, it's glorious noise-pop overdrive if I've ever such a thing. The Sunflowers return the favor by doing a rendition of one of my go-to Smashing Orange songs, "Collide" nailing it quite capably at that.
It's cherry picking season again. Here's my annual postmortem assemblage of the creme de la creme of what I just offered you a year prior. A taster, or sampler if you will. I'm really not sure if these yearly distillations are really hitting their desired audience (neophytes, stragglers, etc) or if I'm merely preaching to the choir. At any rate, I've plucked 23 of the most succulent feathers from the wild array that was 2019. As was the case in 2018, I've grown increasingly slack in the amount of shared content, and as such offered even less in the past year. Turns out though that a decent chunk of what I managed to get up '19 was of particularly high caliber.
01. White Flag & Kim Shattuck - Dont Give It Away
And so we bring Chanukah to a close with a veritable doozy. If you're at all surprised I went with XTC to close things outs, that's understandable, because in the past twelve years I think I've mentioned them by comparison at best. So why did I finally take a full scale plunge into the realm of Andy Partridge, Colin Moulding, et al? Essentially this bundle of relatively uncirculated booty was too good to keep to myself, and I had a hunch it would have a lot of welcome ears in this humble cyberspace outpost. 
This isn't a rerun, rather a continuation of the Powerpearls series of compilations I shared three years ago. In 2016 I made volumes 1 & 2 available, and this year I'm giving you the fourth and fifth installments. Why no Vol. 3? Well, I haven't come across the third one, not in the wild anyways. To get a better gist of what the Powerpearls m.o. is please refer to the link above, which lays things out nicely. For the uninitiated, the Powerpearls serial were glorified, not to mention fairly well assembled DIY compilations of rare(ish) vinyl singles that hit in the late 70s/early 80s of long departed obscure power-pop and melodic punk acts that most of us wouldn't have encountered otherwise. An unfortunate thing that would be, because the majority of what's presented is of par excellence quality. In short, they're perfectly curated for the aesthetics of the very site you're visiting right now. Also, the emphasis is predominantly on European artists, contrary to the like-minded Teenline series which was exclusively America-centric
Each of these two platters consist of 18 songs apiece. And while I went to the effort of providing a track list below, I'm not going to have time to profile everyone on board. Nonetheless, if you're looking for a shortcut or two I'd be happy to disclose a few of the highlights. Vol 4. breathes life into under-examined 45" wonders from English power-chord bashers 23 Jewels, The Elevators, Resistors and Geneva. The Innocents, a female fronted UK export, deliver the exceptional "One Way Love" sounding a hell of a lot more visceral than Blondie of the Go Gos ever did. Holland's Princes of Piece turn up with a hook-laden slammer that I'd desperately like to hear more of, and there's even a Canadian entry by way of an early Blue Peter cut, before they went snyth-pop and eschewed their bratty sensibilities. And I'd be remiss if I neglected to mention The Keys "I Don't Want to Cry," a primo, Beatles-indebted slice of power pop that arguably beat the Fab Four at their own game. 
Powerpearls Vol. 5 couldn't commence with a stronger contender than one of Stiff Records finest stablemates, Any Trouble, only to be matched a little further in by my faves The Freshies with one of their signature numbers, "Oh Girl." And there's scads more gold to be plundered in these hills - The Snips, Time Wasters, Boyfriends, and Young Lords among others. A couple of American entries on this one, and pretty fantastic ones in my opinion, specifically the Windbreakers and The Jetboys. I'm under the impression that each of these comps included one token Netherlands act, and the contestant on Vol. 5 is the Undertones-inflected Rotjoch. And not to overlook the land down under, Australia's in the house with a strummy tune by Division 4. By the way, don't be scared off by the non-English singing entrants either. 
Fifteen seconds is all it took to sell me on The Big Picture. I found The Homeless House while browsing a shop in Akron, OH last year. The sleeve intrigued me. I inquired if there was an in-store listening station where I could preview it. Nope...but the clerk kindly offered to throw it on the store's turntable. And within fifteen seconds of absorbing the opening of "Poison Town" I knew this was going home with me.
Alright ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to night five of Chanukah. Since this entry concerns six singles it might have more sense to wait until tomorrow night, but my hectic schedule won't allow that. I skipped the singles bundle last year, but not this one. It is a little more time consuming to string this array of 45s together than you might think, so I hope you'll excuse me if the "essay" portion of this entry seems a little brief. Maybe it will encourage more downloads if my brevity lends a sense of mystery to this whole endeavor. Hmmm... All audio files have been bundled into one folder, with links at the tail end of this write-up.
The End - 7 Day Servant/Dasvidanya 7" (1985, Pool)
The Terrible Parade - Ed McMahon Says/Telephone Man 7" (1992, Presto)
Bok Bok - Come Back to Me/Misfit (1980/2014, Bok Bok/Captured Tracks)
Another Pretty Face - All the Boys Love Carrie/That's Not Enough 7" (1979, New Pleasures)
They're not often spoken of, but in the rare instances The Necessaries name pops up, it's almost always with a certain amount of reverence. Never heard of them? Despite having two albums on Sire, and serving as a launching pad for the late singer/songwriter/composer/avant-ist Arthur Russell, there's been no effort up until very recently to acknowledge the existence of this often stunning quartet.
Apparently the band and/or management didn't see it that way, because in 1982 the record was apparently withdrawn and dramatically re-calibrated with half of the original track-listing removed/replaced, rechristened with a new title (Event Horizon). and given a wholly different sleeve. From what I've been able to glean, Event Horizon was only released to European markets, and both albums were out of print for decades, until the UK based Be With label reissued Horizon in 2017 in an exclusive vinyl edition. If you enjoy what you hear on Big Sky, please considering purchasing the reissue (linked above). A full review of it can be imbibed over at Pitchfork.
Welcome to night three. Now, after this trifecta of short form 12"s (EPs, duh) you might be asking yourself, is this really the best he could come up with this year? Well...yes, the best I had time to listen to anyway. Every year I must come into possession of 20-30 eps from the 1980s that never made into the digital era, and believe it or not I may not get a chance to listen to all of them in depth - or even until a subsequent year. In short, here's what rattled my bones in 2019.
Now this one I was real eager to pick up. You might say Seattle's Tree Climbers (spelled as one word on the cover, but as two on the spine and just about everywhere online) were a pre-supergroup of sorts, featuring no less than three members that would go onto more prominent roles. Foremost among them, bassist Jonathan Poneman who would in a few years become co-founder/owner of Sub Pop Records with Bruce Pavitt. Guitarist Gary Thorstensen became a member of Tad, playing on all of that hallowed trio's Sub Pop releases (God's Balls, 8-Way Santa, etc) and even a bit beyond. Loren Evans was front Climber, and in the early '90s went onto lead another obscuro Seattle fave of mine, Gnome, albeit his vocals sounded completely different there than what you're about to hear on this record. At any rate, the word "grunge" was nowhere near the Tree Climbers vernacular, who instead sported a clean, alt-rock aplomb that didn't really steer towards any particularly describable angle, merely they had a batch of excellent songs. "Second and Counting" and the sax driven "Chills" had very faint latter-era Roxy Music tendencies, but in reality the Climbers were more muscular than that. Track two, the driving "On Location" is the one you're most apt to get stuck in your noggin. The band's roster numbered five members, yet only three are depicted on the sleeve. Hmmm. Just wish there was more where this 1985 ep came from. You can read a little bit more about these guys here.
Now for some unreleased stuff. Teenage Fanclub. I'm a bigger fan than you might think. Up until now I haven't shared much by them, and it's likely to stay that way since the bulk of their material is still available. My first encounter with the Fannies is still pretty vivid. By the miracle of in-store-airplay at Erl Records in Albany, NY circa early 1991, they were spinning The "God Knows It's True"/"So Far Gone" 45 on Matador. It struck me as melancholy, perhaps even a tad depressing, but a visceral love at first listen. I quickly picked up their first album (on cassette no less) A Catholic Education, and was generally treated to more of the same. At that phase in T/F's tenure they weren't regarded as pop purists, and from my standpoint they may as well have been an emo band...but anyway. Was thoroughly on board for Bandwagonesque too, and subsequent records like Grand Prix and Songs From Northern Britain stand as pop/rock pillars for the ages.
In the beginning there was the Kursaal Flyers, a mid-70s UK pub act who churned out a three studio LPs and at least twice as many singles. The Flyers' featured future Records drummer Will Birch, and towards the end of the Flyers' tenure John Wicks (deceased 2018) on guitar. After K/F's dissolution in 1977 both men would soon found The Records with bassist Phil Brown (deceased 2012) and guitarist Huw Gower. The quartet's first single, "Starry Eyes" hit in 1978, and set the table not only for the band themselves, but modern day power pop with it's merger of Wick's jaw-dropping vocal hooks and Gower's jangly chords. 1979's Shades in Bed was the name of the UK version of the Records debut album, which was later released in the States simply as The Records featuring an entirely different sleeve (with less risque cover art) and an alternate track order. As far as debuts go, it's a sheer corker, featuring alongside "Starry Eyes" another equally strong single, "Teenarama," and a devastating array of deeper album cuts like "Girl," "All Messed Up and Ready to Go," and "Affection Rejected," all of which would be live staples for years. The Records mightily advanced and perfected what presaging bands like The Raspberries and Blue Ash had initiated, retooling the power pop formula writ large, setting the template for dozens of bands to follow on both sides of the Atlantic. No exaggeration. The 2002 CD reissue features yet a third variation on the album jacket, and rewardingly an album's worth of bonus cuts. Tracks 11-14 are covers by Blue Ash, The Kinks, Spirit and the Rolling Stones respectively. This quartet of tunes was featured on a bonus disc, originally bundled with both versions of the original 1979 album. We also get some key contemporary b-sides, the album worthy "Paint Her Face" and "Held Up High," alongside the contents of a post-Shades in Bed single - an improved upon cover of the Bay City Rollers' "Rock 'n Roll Love Letter," and another classic original, "Wives and Mothers of Tomorrow." 
If nuanced, modern-day dream pop (i.e. "nu-gaze") is one of your proverbial wheelhouses, Mexico's mercvrial are your next go-to destination. Helmed by an American expat, mercvrial are prodigiously adept conveyors of ethereal haze who opt for melodic songcraft over sheer white noise - and they have a new five song EP, the stars, like dust to show for it. For a band bearing a self-described Anglophile bent this quintet ironically recall some excellent Yankee purveyors like For Against, Spirnghouse, and more recently the Daysleepers. Drizzles of chiming guitars and heady sonic structures agilely waft their way around pensively themed originals "Otherworld" and "Carnival." mercvrial know how to wrap their way around a cover as well, namely The Chills' Kiwi-pop chestnut "Pink Frost," and the considerably less renown but doubly rewarding "Girlwish (II) by Fudge, a bygone Richmond, VA combo I've given no shortage of exposure over the past couple of decades. the stars... is available physically through CD Baby, and through digital liaisons Bandcamp on a song-by-song basis.
Last but not least, New Jersey punk-pop stalwarts Stuyvesant still make the rounds intermittently, and when they do they always make it count. Their latest for Dromedary Records is a two song 45 with a brilliant picture sleeve that cops one of those animal file-card thingys that were all the rage among nerdy sixth graders in the '80s. And oh yeah, the music too! "Aardvark" is a sturdy, devastatingly melodi-core scorcher pointing to Stuyvesant's inspirational antecedents All, Samiam, and Porcelain Boys. Would really love a whole new album of these. The flip, "Gauntlet" rocks a considerably more dissonant stride that dare I says flirts with different time changes. Just a heads up, the vinyl of this one is lathe-cut and strictly limited with most of it's 40 copies being sold out already, so head here pronto! You can buy it digitally from that link as well, and of course, Amazon downloads is always there for you.
