Five stripes shining in the sunlight.

From 1998.  The saucy sophomore LP from a Scottish band with a Japanese name.  

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

Hear
 

The Trend - Crash the Bash (1980-96)

It's hard to believe that original copies of a single minted by a teen punk band from Syracuse, NY circa 1980 has fetched as much as $2000.  You can credit The Trend to that unlikely feat. Presented in reverse-chronological order, Crash the Bash, features both songs from that collectible 45 ("Electric Chair" b/w "Band-Aid"), and the trio's 1982 platter Batman Live at the Budokan, alongside unreleased material and reunion songs.  That reunion unfortunately didn't entail one of the Trend's principal members, singer/guitarist J. Marc Patenaude who perished in a 1985 car crash.

Though somewhat rudimentary, not to mention highly topical, The Trend's mid-tempo forte was competent with surprisingly robust arrangements. The Dead Boys or the Saints this trio were not, but they have moments here that almost parallel the Buzzcocks circa their nascent Spiral Scratch ep, bearing some of the same sardonic heft.  Another loose comparison might be the Trends' Belgium contemporaries The Kids, but you're no doubt bound to draw parallels of your own. Love their spot-on rendering of the Mats' "Color Me Impressed," and they also delve into the Damned's Strawberries-era "Dozen Girls."

A thoughtful bio on the band can be read here, and the aforementioned Batman Live... was reissued in limited quantities on the always impressive Japanese Air Mail imprint.

01. Crash the Bash

02. Color Me Impressed

03. Isn't It Mine

04. Dozen Girls

05. Bake Bread Not War

06. Anyone But Me

07. Winneego

08. (Don't) Drink and Drive

09. Candy Striper

10. Office Friendly

11. The Butler Did It

12. Giddy Up and Go

13. Mommy is a Jilt

14. Quaranteen Teen

15. Pop Star

16. Toy Section

17. Peer Pressure

18. Zinc Tabletz

19. Don't Talk to Her

20. Electric Chair

21. Band-Aid

Hear

No one that survived this hurricane would dare deny...

From 1986.  The second album from Placentia, CA's finest. 

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

Hear

The Fat Lady Sings - Fear and Favour 7" (1986, Good Vibrations)

One of my more recent bargain-bin scoops.  Despite the copyright date, The Fat Lady Sings were not lumped in with the usual C86 crowd (i.e. Primal Scream, Close Lobsters, Pastels) perhaps due to their initial locale of Dublin, yet judging by these two numbers they were aesthetically playing in the same ballpark.  TFLS bore a mildly pastoral bent, say in the manner of the Weather Prophets and Housemartins, and might even tickle the same eardrums Aztec Camera made such a vivid impression with.  "Fear and Favour" was the band's first record, coming together mere months after they had formed, and has me piqued to investigate what they came up with subsequently.  

A. Fear and Favour

B. Wishing Well

Hear

Primary Colors - s/t ep (1983, Urbanoise)

In doing what little research I could on this quartet, it was unsurprisingly revealed that there were multiple bands over the years running around with the moniker Primary Colors.  This one presumably hailed from Boston, MA or nearby environs and released this single ep.  Quintessential synth-pop, but with discernable socio-political themes, mildly suggesting an emerging technocratic world.  In short, there isn't a "Just Can't Get Enough" in this comparatively pensive bouquet, and that's absolutely fine by me.  The one comparison I stumbled on that was leveled at these guys was Illustrated Man, if that means anything to you.  With the exception of the icy, quasi-Dadaistic "Original Sin," I enjoyed this one.  

01. Fact or Fiction

02. Notorious

03. Small World

04. Original Sin

05. Fiction (reprise) 

Hear

Then Jerico - Before the Future: 1984-1989 (2024, Cherry Red) - A brief review.

So, me and my extended family were late in getting MTV, and for that matter, cable TV writ large.  In fact we were a good six long years-late to be exact.  The higher-ups in my household finally relented in the summer of 1987, and between that time right up until the mid-90s I was practically glued to eMpTVy.  MTV News, including a 30-minute weekly incarnation thereof was a thing by early 1988 (if not earlier - but how would my deprived eyes have known)?  I don't remember the month, but sometime that year it was a slow news week for the channel in question, and some filler was needed to flesh out said half-hour. Am not sure if payola was still in the ether circa '88 but the endcap for this particular week was a five minute puff piece on three up-and-coming UK artists.  The lucky trifecta entaild the boy-bandish Wet Wet Wet whose album, Popped in Souled Out, wasn't going to be popping in or out of my cassette deck anytime soon.  Next up was none other than a pre-stardom Rick Astley, a young man with vocal superpowers to be certain, but it was clear that this carefully coifed and polished lad would hardly represent anything heroic to my discriminating eardrums.  

To my good fortune, the remaining contender, Then Jerico wasn't as quick to excise the last distinguishing marks of rock and roll as thoroughly as the aforementioned, and in fact impressed me enough to plunk down the better part of $10 for the stateside release of their debut, First (The Sound of Music).  Their comparative stature to Mr. Astley, and even that of flash-in-pan saps Wet³ was diminished in their native England, and held a virtually non-existent presence in North America...but I couldn't have been more delighted to have TJ all to myself.  As luck would have it, we can all partake in the privilege of indulging in Then Jerico's entire '80s output, as Cherry Red has assembled a four CD box set, Before the Future 1984-1989, encompassing the band's classic first album, it's 1989 follow-up, The Big Area, plus two entire CDs worth of surrounding singles, b-sides, remixes and even a cluster of early demos.

With sizable nods to Simple Minds, as well as lesser concessions to the likes of Duran Duran and U2 (the more preferable eras of all three I might emphasize), The Mark Shaw-fronted Then Jerico usually functioned as a five-piece and wielded a 50/50 sonic wallop of keys and guitars to match their manpower.  No, this wasn't quite new wave, rather an advanced outgrowth thereof, buttressed with a manicured fury of dense, robust arrangements, a flair for the dramatic and colored with somewhat opaque socio-political themes.  Heck, even the album title alone, First (The Sound of Music), reeked of ambition and sophistication.  A volley of singles from the effervescent album in question commenced with 1986's "Muscle Deep" (reissued as a single for a second go-around in '87) , "Let Her Fall," "The Motive," "Prairie Rose," and finally "Blessed Days," the latter for  TJ's Japanese market exclusively it appears. Sweeping, anthemic, yet wholly benevolent and above all else, melodically captivating, First... is practically a salvo of greatest hits unto itself.  Not quite on the level of say, the Joshua Tree or Songs From the Big Chair, First.. but merely a rung or two down on the same ladder, deftly avoiding any ostentatious or preachy pitfalls.  It's an unheralded classic with even it's deepest cuts, specifically "The Laughter Party" and "A Quiet Place (Apathy and Sympathy)" landing as effectively as it's more renown singles.   

The version of First... presented on Before the Future, is sensibly enough the original British iteration of the album.  When First... saw the light of day in America in 1988 several tracks were remixed, the U.S. variants thereof are included as bonuses here - and there's gobs more on top of that, with all the contemporary extras from the album occupying not one or two CDs, but would you believe three all told?  We're treated to TJ's excellent premiere independent 12" "The Big Sweep," circa 1985 and it's follow-up, "Fault." From there on ...Future leaves virtually no stone-unturned, catching every solitary non-LP b-side (including gems like "Searching" and "Electric"), remixes of the more danceable cuts, and a plethora of single edits.  It's a bit overkill, and the sequencing/intermingling a bit dodgy (occasionally separating A-sides and B-sides on different disks), but nothing egregious mind you, and this collection is very much assembled with the completist in mind.  The fourth CD here, dubbed From the Vaults, houses something I've been craving for an eternity- demos for roughly half of First... Early takes of "Let Her Fall," "The Hitcher," and "The Motive" aren't necessarily raw or rough-hewn, per se, but certainly presented in an interesting embryonic context, and worth my decades-long wait.     

Still possessing a healthy quotient of the grandiose sweep that imbued much of First..., TJ's 1989 sophomore effort, The Big Area is by significant degrees more of a commercial venture, demonstrating a tighter and more lucid approach, and notably guitar-centric. Even when the emotional pull isn't as evident as before, Mark Shaw & Co. don't yank the rug out from underneath much of anything, rather Jerico's collective stride pursues a comparatively streamlined tact.  And they were still amassing solid material in the shape of "What Does It Take," the pulsing "Helpless," and "Reeling," the latter accented with strings. Six b-sides and such are appendixed to the Big Area CD, including an unlikely reading of Led Zeppelin's "Trampled Underfoot." Considerably uncharacteristic territory for Jerico, but they manage to pull it off.

Overall, Before the Future... makes an exhaustive case for rediscovering Then Jerico's often neglected catalog, and its attendant bells and whistles (not to mention ace remastering) ushers all of the band's missing pieces into the digital era in one succinct space. It's available direct from Cherry Red, Amazon. and hopefully a brick and mortar retailer near you.

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.  

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

Hear

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

Hear

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. 

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

Hear

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

Hear

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!"

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

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.

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

Hear

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

Hear

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 

Hear

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.

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

Hear

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

Hear

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.

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

Hear

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

Hear

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

Hear

We’ll be back to you in time.

Heavy alt-rawk from 1993.

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

Hear

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

Hear    

She met a man so understanding there was nothing he wouldn’t do.

From 1990.  This is the OG version with no supplemental material.

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

Hear

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

Hear