Can't rest on your laurels now, not when you've got none...

From 1977-78.  The building blocks for arguably the most important post-punk entity ever.  

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FAQ - Pre-Pay (1990, Spikey Music)

Granted, I realize skate-punk isn't on everyone's musical itinerary, but I thought this would still be worth pitching to you.  FAQ's cheeky anacronym (Foolish American Quartet) belies a slightly more serious m.o. than you might wager on this Kalamazoo bunch, who largely sidestep straight-up hardcore in favor of something more tuneful.  The band's lone full-length concedes more to the likes of 7 Seconds (think Soulforce Revolution era), early Shades Apart, Porcelain Boys, and even '80s Doughboys than say, Suicidal Tendencies.  Pre-Pay, FAQ's lone full length kicks off with a trio of recommendable slammers, commencing with "Rules We Bend," exuding no shortage of posi-core affectations.  This platter isn't without some filler, and arguably would have been stronger were it whittled down to a more consistent ep, but Pre-Pay's more satisfactory moments make it worth bellying up to the cashier.  One final thought. The main riff in "My Dreams" faintly resembles that of Hüsker Dü's "Chartered Trips." Emphasis on the 'faintly' part.  Enjoy (or not).

01. Rules We Bend

02. Two Sides Blind

03. Euthanasia Wishes

04. All in One

05. Stuff

06. Silly Dreams

07. Fly

08. Aerobics in Japan

09. My Dream

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You were my best friend, and I stood there and watched it еnd.

A reissue of this fringe Paisley Underground concern's 1986 LP, that also tacks on an even more effective preceding ep, and some additional swag beyond that. 

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St. Johnny - High as a Kite (1993, Caroline)

I haven't talked about St. Johnny on these pages, at least not much. These Connecticut by way of NYC noiseniks were worthy of significantly greater attention, both in the blogosphere and generally speaking.  1993's High as a Kite (perhaps these lads were self-referential to their own mental state?) functioned like a bona fide debut album but it actually compiled from a trifecta of early singles and previously unreleased clatter.  And what a glorious din St. Johnny concocted, not unlike equally squalling but tuneful contemporaries Monsterland, Sometime Sweet Susan, and pretty much every other mid-90s headache wallowing in that post-You're Living All Over Me sort of hangover. They were adept enough to insert just enough poignant melody amidst feedback-addled screeds "Stupid" and "Go to Sleep" to get me stoked for their nearly as impressive 1994 premiere LP, Speed is Dreaming, coming down the pike c/o Geffen Records, of all labels.  Some comparatively sensitive, slacker-esque feels were the icing of St. J's dissonant, bittersweet cake.  Again, we should have made them a bigger priority than the vast majority of us did. 

01. Go to Sleep

02. God in My Head

03. Highway

04. Velocity

05. My Father's Father

06. Matador

07. Black

08. Stupid

09. High as a Kite

10. Ashes+Slashes

11. Unclean

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I slept through the thundershowers …the day that she pulled out the flowers.

This is disk five of a six-CD discography box set and not a proper album. I shared one of this band's singles early on in the days of W/O and for whatever the reason decided to yank it.  Truth be told this band recorded several more singles, most of which I didn't get around to digitizing.  Luckily they did that for us. 23 tracks total spanning 1993-97. In addition to the aforementioned 45s it encompasses compilation appearances, the band's second demo tape and unreleased material. In the band's own words, "holy sh%t!"

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Hiatus.

Taking this week off. This means no new content until next Mystery Monday.  Cheers.
 

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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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

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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 

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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.

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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

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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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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

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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

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We’ll be back to you in time.

Heavy alt-rawk from 1993.

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

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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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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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Versus - singles 1994-95

As much as I enjoyed and appreciated Versus' compilation of early singles & odds and ends, Dead Leaves, right from the get go it felt conspicuously incomplete.  Despite it's 1995 release date, it managed to omit two Versus singles that more or less coincided with the era it was covering.  And quality singles at that, aesthetically slotting in with the material not only on their early 45s, but their then-recent debut LP, The Stars Are Insane.  But as these things go, I really don't have a whit of control over such matters...though this is my meager attempt at an addendum.

Perhaps "Frog" isn't their most effective piece, yet it bears the dynamic, yet tentative lilt of the Baluyut brothers and Fontaine Toup's nascent work, which means it's loaded for bear in the charm department.  "Go Tell it on the Mountain" and "Big Head On" exude the consoling mid-fi affectations of virtually everything that made the cut on Dead Leaves, but these numbers (esp "Big Head...") are particularly amped-out, to borderline intense and intimidating proportions.  As for the only tune I have yet called out. "N.I.T.A." mines a slightly less strenuous vein, yet bristles with ample tension and texture.  Marvy stuff.

Versus' palette would expand and become more lucid and approachable on subsequent records, beginning with Secret Swingers in 1996.  And while they've never gone so far off the reservation as to piss me off, I can't help but wish they hadn't shed so much of their comparatively downer and insular vibe that's so meta to these songs.  

Frog 7" (K, 1994)

A. Frog 

B. Go Tell it on the Mountain

Big Head On 7" (Teen Beat, 1995)

A. Big Head On

B. N.I.T.A.

MP3   or   FLAC

The High Bees 12" (1985, Supreme International Editions)

Please tell me there's more where this came from!  A local record shop slapped a handwritten sticker on this one indicating The High Bees entailed ex-members of Orange Juice.  David McClymont, an ex-bassist for the aforementioned co-wrote the b-side here, "She's Killing Time," but isn't actually a performer.  Instead, this Scottish trio was commandeered by Syuzen Buckley whose credits beyond this record are spread a bit thin, while drummer David Ruffy also had stints with The Ruts and Aztec Camera.  Featuring merely two songs on what should have preferably been at least an ep, the Bees make them count, with "Self Indulgence" teaming with warm, almost highbrow pop smarts, that I suppose wouldn't be too sonically removed from O.J., but a more accurate comparison would be mid-80s Scritti.  Nothing really dancy here mind you.  The only relevant reference I've encountered regarding the High Bees is the inclusion of "Self..." on the 2019 Big Gold Dreams compilation book set, and by the looks of it the song is available to stream on multiple platforms if that's your bag. 

A. Self Indulgence

B. She's Killing Time

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I'm laughing but the jokes on me.

From 2020.  Silky-smooth synth pop that frequently bumps up against yacht rock and downtempo R&B.  I couldn't love this band more.

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Tiny - tape (1994)

This is quite the 180° from what I offered last night.  Details on Tiny couldn't be more sparse, but a correspondence address of Champaign, IL on the cassette shell is the most pertinent bit of info I have to go on.  The Poster Children and Hum this combo was clearly not, adopting a rather coarser and clamorous sonic m.o., suggesting they had more in common with contemporaries like Garden Variety and even Drive Like Jehu.  Unlike G/V however, you won't find much of an emo overbite here. Tiny boasted something of an acerbic bent - that and a mouthpiece whose delivery system was of spoke/sung aesthetics.  Feel free to chime in if you have any info on these boys and if anything followed this demo up.

01. Company Says

02. Mea Culpa

03. Room 4149

04. Driving Song  

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Symptoms - First Offense ep (1988)

Not a particularly notable hotbed for music, Fort Pierce, FL did manage to produce (the) Symptoms. I wasn't sure what to expect, delving into this one pretty much cold, but I was rewarded upon discovering this Sunshine State quartet exuded some distinct power pop leanings, albeit nothing revelatory.  The band's one and only slice of vinyl sounds like it could have been tracked a good ten years before it's 1988 copyright, with it's most effective numbers, ("Music Interruptus" and "Wonder What You're Doin'") loosely resembling the janglier, not to mention more charismatic, inclinations of the Knack and Tommy Tutone. The album jacket caused quite a local commotion upon it's release.  Here's an accounting of the incident courtesy of the band's Discogs page.  

The release of their first EP, "First Offense", caused a small controversy in the small town of Fort Pierce. The cover art contained a St. Lucie County Sheriff's deputy in his official uniform, his official patrol car, and a woman (Glenn's girlfriend) wearing an official St. Lucie County Sheriff's deputy shirt (she was not a Sheriff's deputy or employed with the Sheriff's Office). When the news reported on this "collaboration", a letter from the St. Lucie County Sherrif's Office was sent to the band requesting that the album no longer be sold in stores, as there was no authoritative permission given to use an official patrol car and uniform in the photo for the cover, otherwise, legal action would be taken. The Sheriff's deputy was also reprimanded for his participation without authorization from the sheriff. The stock of records that remained in stores was allowed to be sold, but no further stock could be provided for sale.

01. A Simple Song of You

02. Answerphone

03. Music Interruptus

04. A Girl With Little Feet

05. Wonder What You're Doin'

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...I'd rather be somebody else with you.

From 1993.  Relatively common in terms of Mystery Monday fare...but don't let that stop you.

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Flaming Mussolinis - Watching the Film (1985)

Not quite sure how to approach this one, but I'll start by mentioning I don't have a physical copy of this one, at least not yet.  In spite of their major label (Portrait) The Flaming Mussolinis barely charted in their native England and had no legs in the States, with presumably only a handful of import copies making into the hands of us yanks.  But to their credit, for a band with considerable commercial aspirations, they managed to retain much of their credibility in the process, eschewing much of the fluffy affectations of the Thatcher-era.  Their overall schtick married the slick post-punk attributes of Love-era Cult to the more radio friendly aspects of pre-stardom Inxs, and to a lesser degree Cactus World News.  In short, nothing particularly eccentric here, but for the most part these boys delivered a respectable batch of tunes rife with ringing guitars and melodic persuasion galore...and did I mention saxophones?  Thankfully, the woodwinds are never overly-dominant, and negotiate their way through the door quite appropriately.  Skin pounder Craig McClune would collaborate with David Gray in the '90s.  

01. My Cleopatra

02. Horror Show

03. Catholic Wedding

04. Ember Days

05. Dangerous Persuasion

06. Swallow Glass

07. Landslide

08. Holding Sand

09. A Long Way to Fall

10. Masuka Dan

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Here in the city electric means fun, kilowatts buzzing right through everyone...

From 1978. 

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