Velvet Elvis - What in the World...and more (1998/recorded 1985-89)

Lexington, KY's Velvet Elvis were one of a bazillion college-radio bands in the '80s to record for local record labels despite brandishing the quality befitting of a national, or for that matter international audience. Think "indie," "New South," dB's, Let's Active (who's Mitch Easter contributes on a track here), and even a little Tom Petty-esque jangle.

In actuality, Velvet Elvis did have a shot on the national stage, via a self-titled album in 1988 on Enigma Records, which did precious little to boost their notoriety. This assumedly very limited cd-r compilation rounds up their superb 1985 ep, Fun & Trouble, and the What in the World album that followed a year later, as well as eight bonus cuts tracked between 1987-89, some produced by Mr. Easter. Both of the main recordings were released on Hit-a-Note-Records, and the CD was put out in conjunction with Better Days Records. A review can be read here.

Here's what Allmusic has to say: 

Although part of the fertile indie rock scene centered around Lexington, KY, during the late '80s, Velvet Elvis focused more on country- and pop-oriented rock than their experimentalist contemporaries, recording an EP and one album for the Hit a Note label before signing a contract with Enigma in 1987. The quartet began recording with producer Mitch Easter (R.E.M., Let's Active) and released a self-titled album in 1988. 

 

What in the World

01. Ambition

02. What in the World

03. Too Much of Anything

04. Back Where I Belong

05. Making Plans (With a Married Man)

06. Back It Up

07. All the Girls in Town

08. Nowhere

09. Something Happened Today

10. Out of My Hands

 

Fun & Trouble ep

11. Still Another Reason

12. Second Best

13. Patron of the Arts

 

etc...

14. If You Say It's So

15. Hard to Hold

16. Guilty

17. Suitcase Song

18. Whatever's On Our Minds

19. Little Town Jerk

20. Which Way Now

21. Try!

 

Hear

Velvet Elvis - s/t (1988, Enigma)

Received a couple requests for this album since I posted a less well known anthology of Velvet Elvis' earlier material before they made the jump to Enigma. Per the intro to that previous feature I did:

Lexington, KY's Velvet Elvis were one of a bazillion college-radio bands in the '80s to record for local record labels despite brandishing the quality befitting of a national, or for that matter international audience. Think "indie," "New South," dB's, Let's Active (who's Mitch Easter contributes on a track here), and even a little Tom Petty-esque jangle.

Several songs from their debut LP, What in the World turn up here in revised versions, all produced and tracked under the watchful eye of one Mitch Easter. Now if that's not a trademark of quality, I sure in hell don't know what else is.
 

01. When it Comes
02. I Got Everything
03. Privilege
04. This Could Be
05. Something Better
06. Something Happened Today
07. Ambition
08. Take It If You Want It
09. What in the World
10. Second Best
11. Don't Tell Me Stories
12. Over and Out
 

Hear

Revived links for Black Friday.

Your re-up requests have been coming at a fast and furious pace, but I aim to please.  Feel free to keep them coming.  Enjoy

Defenestration - Dali Does Windows and s/t ep
Sorry - The Way it Is
The Squares - Enjoy Yourself and Answer
V/A - Pure British Pop for Raw People Vols. 1 & 2
V/A - Diamonds and Porcupines 
Band of Susans - Blessing and Curse 
Polvo/New Radiant Storm King - split 7"
Splendor Head - Mirth
Swallow - s/t and Sourpuss
fig. 4 (Tobin Sprout) - s/t ep
Voodoo Gearshift - s/t
Get Smart! - Action
True Believers - Live, Harder... tape
Dreams So Real - Nocturnal Omissions, live in Charlotte 1988, Bearing Witness 7", interview promo tape
Young Officers Movement (pre-Dreams so Real) - 7"
Gigolo Aunts - Everybody Happy
V/A - Hotel Massachusetts 
V/A - Loud Ugly Pop
Tubetop - singles
Cinderblock - Greatest Hits
The Sneetches - Starfucker ep, Think Again ep, Sunnyside Down 7"
m.i.j. - 7" ep
Let's Active - Afoot demos & Cypress demos
Sheriff Jack - Let's Be Nonchalant ep 
Velvet Elvis - What in the World and s/t
Enuff Z' Nuff - demos
seade - (perf)
The Volcanos - s/t

VA - Teen Line No. 4 (covering letters R to Z, 1978-88)

Looks like I'm about half a year overdue in my presentation of the fourth volume in the much coveted Teen Line series of primo, power pop arcane-ology, that is writ large the province of this very website.  Only thing is, I didn't assemble any portion of Vol. 4 or the three installments preceding them.  Teen Line was a formally in-progress and now sadly incomplete and abandoned project that was in the hands of the Hyped to Death curators who were also responsible for the Messthetics and Homework series, loosely modeled after the considerably more renown Killed By Death DIY punk comp empire.

To backtrack on something I just mentioned, much of the roster crowding up Teen Line 4 actually isn't as arcane as you might expect, with veritable heavy hitters like 20/20, Real Kids, Paul Collins (Beat), Sylvain Sylvain.  That being said, there's a host of others I've already introduced you to over the course of Wilfully's tenure - Wild Giraffes, Ramrods, The Strand, Radio Alarm Clocks, Velvet Elvis, and The Wind.  If that weren't enough there are some true-blue cult classics from the likes of Shane Champagne, The Toms, The Quick, the Sighs, not to mention a cavalcade of others I never broached myself until I made their acquaintance with this dandy little disk.  The full tracklist is to your right. 

Hear

Fourth Night of Chanukah - The Figgs: 20th Century Masters - The Singles Collection...plus

Well look who came to bestow some happy Chanukah tidings?  The Figgs were kind enough to bequeath us with a steady flow of singles and such during their tenure in the Clinton-era, and I was kind enough to hem together as many of the disparate and sometime random non-LP Figgs jams that I was fortunate to collect over the years.  In fact, this entry has been in the pipeline for awhile now.  I had been procrastinating out of sheer fear that assembling this collection would be a bear of an undertaking, but I finally nailed it, save for a couple of tracks from tribute albums, and the elusive "I Am Clean" from a Blue Lunch Records comp cassette that I'm sadly missing.

As the long held notion goes, Beatles b-sides were usually superior to most other band's A-grade material.  So far as I'm concerned, The Figgs were another "fab four" (later pared down to three, but I digress) whose non-LP catalog could go head to head with their strongest album tracks.  Case in point, a spate of four exquisite singles that came down the pike between 1993-95, beginning with "Miss Velvet" and ending with my favorite Christmas record ever, the Christmas Shake ep which I originally posted here in 2007.  Still performing and recording, the Figgs sassy and charm-schooled power pop formula is microbrewed by two key singer-songwriters Pete Donnelly and Mike Gent, with drummer Pete Hayes contributing text on a less frequent basis, in proportion to say, Ringo Starr.  The net result isn't Beatle-esque, so much as Material Issue getting juiced up on Elvis Costllo's genius, late '70s tear.  Edgy, indigenous and endearing The Figgs halcyon era in the mid-90s was a sight/sound to behold, and proper full lengths, Banda Macho and Lo-Fi at Society High, were merely half the story.

Since I don't have the time to provide you with a track-by-track spiel, let me cherry pick a few highlights.  The Figgs first single, "Happy" was backed with a cover of the Green Pajamas winsome "My Mad Kitty."  Other single sides from the same era "Let's Get Arrested" and "One Hit Wonder" were big audience favorites, and rightfully so.  You can read more about the Christmas record in the link I supplied below.
"What Became of It" was initially released as the b-side to the Banda Macho era "Girl, Kill Your Boyfriend" single, not on 7" wax, but would you believe a 5" compact disk sized record.  If you ever gone to the trouble of playing a 5" piece of vinyl on a record player you know how dicey it is to get the needle to drop without the arm automatically retracting to it's resting position, but anyway.  There's more covers too.  The Figgs's spin on "Father Christmas" is even more breathless and strident than the Kinks, while Chuck Berry's "Don't You Lie to Me" is virtually reconfigured into a lounge number.  Yet another Kink's tune, "Johnny Thunder" is capably executed, as is an Undertones oldie.  There are some really obscure compilation tracks here too.  Immediately after the tracklist is a source listing for everything,  MP3 bitrates may vary slightly from song to song.

BTW these aren't the first Figgs rarities I've shared.  I've refreshed the links for their 1992 Ginger cassette album, and the vinyl only outtakes collection Rejects.  Then there's my original entries for Christmas Shake, the split singles with Prisonshake and Coffin Break plus the Undertones tribute and Half-Assed compilations.  A lot to love.  Enjoy.  Thanks to A Minor Obsession for the painstaking discogrpahy details.

01. Happy
02. My Mad Kitty
03. Miss Velvet
04. Powder King
05. Go Before
06. Let's Get Arrested
07. J Card
08. One Hit Wonder
09. Father Christmas
10. Christmas Sake
11. Merry Christmas, Girl
12. What Became of It
13. Let Me Have It
14. Up the Charts
15. Citizens Band
16. Appointments
17. This Phaser Sounds Divine
18. Wiser Goldfish
19. Don't You Lie to Me
20. Got Back Your Baby (live)
21. 1000 People Grinning
22. Who Hung That Sign
23. Johnny Thunder
24. Boys Will Be Boys

1 & 2 - Happy 7" (1992, Absolute A-Go-Go)
3 & 4 - Miss Velvet 7" (1993, Matt Label)
5 & 6 - Go Before 7" (1994, March)
7 & 8 - J Card 7" (1995, Square Target)
9-11. Christmas Shake 7" ep (1995, Chunk)
12. b-side to "Girl, Kill Your Boyfriend" 5" (1996, Capitol)
13. split 7" w/ Coffin Break (1992, Negative Feedback)
14. split 7" w/ Bloom (1994, Paint Chip)
15. split 7" w/ Incredible Casuals (1995, Kranepool)
16-19. split 7" with Prisonshake (1998, Flipped Out/Philthy Rex)
20. V/A - Live at the QE2 (1990, Sweetfish)
21. V/A - Half Assed 7" ep (1994, Kranepool)
22. V/A - Sponic magazine 7" comp (1998, Sponic)
23. V/A - Daydreaming in an Empty Station Wagon CD (1999, Dizzy
24. V/A - Here Comes the Summer - Undertones tribute (1995, Square Target)

Hear

The Young Lords - s/t LP (1984, A Night in Tunisia)

If the rather graphic depiction on the Young Lords album sleeve (to your left) has you doing a double take, it's probably for a valid reason.  Rage Against the Machine used a photo of the same self-immolating, Vietnamese Buddhist for their debut record as well.  Thing is, barely a modicum of intensity or tumult grazes the agenda of the Lords, a power trio whose modus operandi is par-for-the-course garage rock.  Not a bullet or a bombtrack in sight.  Sonically unremarkable (to be quite honest) these guys drifted from lightweight psych to punkier barroom maneuvers, peppering their tunes with churning organ riffs and occasionally sax.  In spite of frequent generic tendencies, The Lords succeed in a face-value capacity, even exposing shards of character on "Working for the Underground" and "I Want a Doctor Like Elvis Had."  A halfway there cover of "There She Goes Again" (cleverly hidden under the title of "Here She Comes") is somehow not credited to the Velvet Underground.  Funny that. 

01. Could You, Would You
02. Tearing Up My Heart
03. I Want a Doctor Like Elvis Had
04. Working for the Underground
05. 100,000 Miles
06. Paradise Now
07. No Mercy
08. Central Park South
09. Pretty Parasite
10. Here She Comes
11. Summer of Love

Hear

Barely Pink - Starduster ep (1995, Full Scale)

Once upon a time, a grand indie power pop label (Big Deal Records) released a stupendous album (Number One Fan) by one Barely Pink in 1997. I'll try to avoid anymore superlatives and parentheses from here on in. Evoking the best of likeminded acts, including but not limited to Velvet Crush, Teenage Fanclub, and Big Star, Barely Pink also injected a mild southern vibe into an already winsome recipe. Number One Fan, (also known written as a single word Numbeonefan) linear and straightforward as it was, helped cultivate a small following for BP, but as luck would have it, after Big Deal folded the band's subsequent releases did not enjoy anything resembling wide-scale distribution. Admittedly, this Orange State quartet fell off my radar too, despite two follow-up albums, Elli's Suitcase and Last Day of Summer that never made it into my CD player. The Starduster ep was a precursor to ...Fan, featuring a smattering of tracks that made it into the album and one or two that didn't. It also boasts three unlisted cuts, including a Big Star remake.

01. Baby A.M.
02. Dot-to-Dot Elvis
03. Face Down
04. It's Okay
05. Never Wrong

Hear