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What possesses the benignly mercurial affectations of the Rain Parade, the mid-fidelity penchant of early Guided by Voices, and is chockablock with comely, chiming arpeggios and empathetic vocal aplomb? Why it’s none other than Stumbling Blocks, the new LP by L.A.’s Exploding Flowers. Applying just any one of the aforementioned characteristics would likely emanate a certain magic unto itself, but with all elements functioning in tandem the Flowers imbue “Among Burn Out Stars,” “Far, But Never Gone,” and the especially striking title cut with an even more mesmerizing alchemy altogether. Contrary to the album moniker, no stumbling blocks here, just a dozen winsome stepping stones with myriad charms and a keen forward-thinking temperament that’s retrofitted in all the right places. Stumbling Blocks is available from the band's Bandcamp page or The Beautiful Music.
It's been awhile since I checked in with San Diego's Sofa City Sweetheart, just over a decade in fact, when their self titled 2008 effort made it's way into my CD player (remember those?). Not many more sofa albums have filled the gap between that one and 2019's Super(b) Exitos, which surprisingly finds focal point Juan Lopez bartering in the same thoughtful, warm-hued singer/songwriter pop that's equal parts invigorating and empathetic. Tunes including (but not limited to) "Stanley Waited" and "Stop the Thinking" exude the competent, harmony-ridden craftsmanship of Sloan and Mike Viola, while simultaneously bearing the emotional heft that the late Elliott Smith made his calling card. There are lilting ballads along the way as well, featuring ornate and refined flourishes of piano, strings and even an abundance of cooing oohs and ahs. Much to revel in here, as well as SCS's Bandcamp site, which not only offers Super(b) for a modest amount of shekels, but other goodies like an even more recent collection of Elliott Smith covers.
Here I am sharing a single I don't actually own (but really have no excuse not to). This isn't the Red House from New Jersey whose album I shared eons ago, rather this was an even less renown band bearing the same moniker. The Red House in question were actually Minneapolis denizens, and frontman Mark Freeman came from a late '70s post-punk outfit, NNB, who also released but one single before closing shop. Both tracks here border on excellent, with "25 Reasons" representing itself as a comparatively insular but forward-thinking pop-rock number. The darker "Teenbeat" is antithetical to it's title with minor chord shadings and a subtle but well-placed piano line situated around the chorus. A big thanks to whomever ripped the files for this one.
A. 25 Reasons
B. Teenbeat
I learned of Pinko Pinko the old fashioned way - a friend lent me their CD. I already knew going into this one the band was of Swedish stock, but had I not I would have unsafely assumed them British, because right down to the seemingly mimicked accents they sounded every bit the part. Traffic was their parting shot, and after a few spins it occurred to me that this is what I had really hoped the first couple of Blur albums could have amounted to back in the day. Blur didn't truly win me over until Parklife, and even on subsequent albums they didn't do a whole lot for me, but Pinko points to where those guys might have gone if they had modified their aesthetic a tad and went for something more ironic. Another one of Pinko's Britpop contemporaries, Salad, come to mind on more than a few occasions here, albeit no one in P/P is female. Traffic isn't swimming in obliqueness, though it's hard to ignore its creators wry and not-so-obvious maneuvers. Again, this band sound nothing like their Swedish brethren and are Anglophiles to the ever lovin' core. Check this out and draw your own conclusions. In addition I've tacked on a couple of era b-sides.
01. No. 1
02. Lately, My Mind's Been Going Lots Of Places Without Me
03. Nosebleed
04. On the Show Tonight
05. Shangri-La
06. Juvenile Delicay
07. Mad helicopter
08. Cheekbone
09. Oh Mother, Oh Brother
10. Sirocco
11. People in Motion
12. Nature is Hasty (Nosebleed b-side)
13. Nobodyknows (Cheekbone b-side)
As far as tribute comps go...let's just say this isn't one of the more appealing ones. Plenty of reasons for that but none too dramatic to torpedo this affair outright. Arthur Lee & Love are good enough candidates as any for this type of homage, and in fact the same year this double 7" ep made it's way onto shelves so did an entirely unrelated Love tribute CD, We're All Normal and We Want Our Freedom. For whatever the reason, Unloved only plucks songs from one of the group's albums, namely their 1966 debut. Not a bad record at that, but if you're craving any favorites along the lines of "Andmoreagain," "The Good Humor Man..." or even "Seven and Seven Is," you're flat out of luck, Jack.
My apologies for making you wait so long for some new tunes this week. If you're a long time visitor of his site you may have come across this Nashville combo before. In fact, I've shared three whole White Animals long-players that came out between 1984-87. They struck me as erstwhile purveyors of the more pedestrian end of the college rock thing...but their first ep, Nashville Babylon was quite the horse of a different color. Behold, six no-frills rootsy cuts of unadulterated rock 'n roll in the manner of the Flamin' Groovies, by a crack quartet wielding an acumen that could realistically slot anywhere between the Easybeats and George Thorogood. The Animals weren't quite Nuggets, but vastly removed from the mainstream FM hoi polloi of the day. Two covers on this ep make their intentions relatively well known, specifically a hearty rendering of the Yardbirds signature cut "For Your Love," and kicking off side-B, the blues-pop pearl "Tobacco Road" (originally done by the Nashville Teens, later popularized by Johnny Winter and others). There's a discernible purity to this disk that never quite translated to W/A's later records, as good as some of them were. Enjoy.
I suppose there isn't one individual dot on the map Weather Permitting strike me as sounding indigenous to, circa the era of this record. England for sure - in a heartbeat in fact. Maybe down under in Christchurch, NZ or more broadly Australia. Heck, toss New Jersey in there too...but Montreal? Yeah, it surprised the heck out of me to learn WP's actual stomping grounds were in Quebec, because they sure in hell don't resemble any Canadian band I've laid ears on before. Not that they were swilling out anything particularly exotic mind you, but these Anglophiles had a solid grasp of what was going in Britain's indie scene of the day, taking a page from the June Brides, Bodines and Felt. They have enough jangly inclinations to conjure up a likeness to New Zealand's Bats, and a gift for meaningful strummy song-craft faintly recalling the Triffids. And if your sensibilities are anything like mine you may even hone in on the tincture of American, left-of-the-dial fixtures the Feelies.
There's something for everyone here - that is, everyone that has even a modicum of appreciation for power pop and wave. Dick Tracey were coed kids from Philly who hung around in the mid eighties for a couple of singles and an LP, Talkin' Bout the Future, but Movin' to the Beat is the only one I can vouch any real familiarity with. The lead-off title piece is quite the corker, brandishing enough guitar crunch to propel half a dozen like-minded cuts, if that's the direction they intended to take things. D/T were more diverse than that however, pitching us the noticeably sweeter keyboard-enhanced "A Modern Experience." Not to be mistaken for a ballad, "When the Lites Go Out" manages to shift the proceedings into a more benign modus operandi, with washes of pleasant ringing chords. Sadly, I'm not in possession of this record, and in fact I purloined files thereof several years ago from the now defunct Vinyl Obscurity Blog - which to this day I'm thankful for it's brief but revealing existence.
Four EPs time again, all from fairly disparate artists. Remember, no spoilers kids.
Passionate Friends, who despite their namesake did not follow in the same creative footsteps of the Teardrop Explodes, were a Scottish six-piece who made minor waves with a pair of singles in the early/mid-80s. Consisting of no less than three brothers John, Malky and Allan McNeill, the Friend's debut 1982 single, Time Bandits/What's the Odds was an impeccable stab at new romantic pop firmly in league with A Flock of Seagulls, but somehow more resonant. The band caught the interest of MCA a year later, who released the 7" platter I'm presenting today. Bearing a mildly more linear tact with the guitars taking on even footing with the synths, the band's self-titled tune (imagine that, beating Living in a Box to the record presses by a good three years or so) exudes melodic and casually melancholic hues, to gratifying effect. The flip, "Wake Up/Shake Up" charts more of an uptempo course, but not as memorable (patented '80s sax wails don't do them any favors). However, I've decided to do you a favor by tacking on the winsome "What's the Odds" from their previous 45. The Wiki2 link provided above will steer you to all of the biographical deets you could want on the Passionate Friends, including info regarding their 2008 reunion. Cheers.
Got a request for this one recently. The Great Divide was the fourth in a series of Punchbuggy
albums to feature less songs than the LP that preceded it. I suppose
they called it quits after this one considering the only logical move
for a fifth record would entail offering merely ten songs (or less). That would hardly be a complaint though given the caliber and consistency of what they pumped out for almost ten solid years. These Ottawa-based Doughboys proteges knew their way around a hook, not to mention chunky punk-pop riffs, all the while sustaining maximum sonic density. I've gone back and forth on my favorite Punchbuggy albums over the years, but since they're not a band that anyone normally "debates," so guess what? I don't have to pick favorites. Even with the absence of Jim Bryson on guitar (who also wasn't aboard from 1998's My Norwegian Cousin) The Great Divide is another wall-to-wall trove of aces, wherein the band even negotiates some modestly mature gestures on the slower (but not quite ballad-worthy) "Easy to Leave" and the relatively contemplative title cut. Aficionados of the Doughboys Crush or Goo's Superstar Carwash will find plenty to love here. In fact, the only thing that might have improved ...Divide is if the band employed another halter-topped model for the album cover, as they so effectively did with the aforementioned My Norwegian Cousin...but once again I digress. You can also find the band's second LP, Grand Opening Going Out of Business Sale here.