Did your nervous laugh meet mine when I gave a sign?

From 2016.

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Bob Beland 7" (1980, Deli Platters)

Here's a sweet turn-of-the-decade slice of power pop, from an artist I've had minimal acquaintance with but am anxious to hear more from. Bob Beland, got his start in a mid '70s L.A. combo, Southpaw that also featured the soon-to-be higher profile Jules Shear, though I wasn't able to confirm if anything was recorded.  Beland's first bona fide album, Amnesia Lane, wouldn't drop until 1994, but the early '80s saw the release of an ep in 1982, and this 45 two years prior.  The urgent "Stealin' Cars" shifts into punky gear, with a dash of keyboards, and more substantially, an irrepressible hook. "I Can Walk Away" turns a linear power-pop corner, not far removed from Dwight Twilley, or god knows dozens of contemporary unknowns, the kind compiled on ace fan-compiled compilations like Teen Line, etc.  Quality stuff.   

Stealin' Cars

I Can Walk Away

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Bel-Fires - Fall For the Sky ep (1985, Birdcage)

Here's one of my better browsing-in-the-wild finds, though I have little in terms of pertinent details to disclose about the Cynthia Isabella-fronted Bel-Fires.  Sort of what Let's Active might have come up with if they were aiming for the middle of the radio dial.  Melodic as all-get-out too, with this record's bookends "Fame For a Dime" and "Letter" wafting sky-high into the atmosphere.  Fall for the Sky ever so vaguely suggests what likeminded combos the Hummingbirds and the Millions would have in store for us in just a few years.  Looking forward to checking out the Bel-Airs subsequent '88 platter, What You Need, sometime in the not-too-distant future. 

01. Fame For a Dime

02. Anonymous

03. Fall For the Sky

04. Not For Me

05. Letter

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Taking time, writing out the dates all our friends die.

From 2010. Springtime is upon us, but this is truly a band for all seasons.  

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Paper Route - Go Get It (1997, SSG)

Was under the weather this week, and was unable to digitize any analogue goodies for you, bur in lieu of that I have this sterling nugget.  A friend tipped me off to the Paper Route well over a decade ago, but after much sleuthing I only found their cd in recent years.  Hailing from either Ontario or Quebec (big difference to be honest), this trio stick to the basics - guitar, bass and drums but how they wield them is their secret sauce.  Frontman (Simon Nixon) whose timbre slots somewhere between Eric Bachmann (Archers of Loaf/Crooked Fingers) and Elvis Costello guides his threesome through a relentless passel of bratty, power-pop zingers, bearing a scuzzy indie rock underbite, not to mention more sophistication than I was ever expecting.  Virtually nothing useful about Paper Route exists online, so if any of you have any basic details, fire away in the comments.  Cheers.

01. Where Will it Go

02. Can't Be Satisfied

03. Clean Me Soapy

04. Reservoir/Altamont Speedway Revisited

05. Children of the Revolution 

06. Come Around

07. Countdown/Jeanine

08. Saved by Video

09. Dead Horse

10. No Life

11. Polaroid

12. TV Screens/Want to Get High

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Remember, competition is necessity...

An archival trove of recordings from a neglected Ohio power pop outfit that only released a single in the mid '80s.  

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Big Home Orchestra - Fairytale ep (1989, BHP)

Employing a full-time violinist, this Aussie bunch exude heavy pastoral vibes if anything else.  I wasn't sure what I was getting myself into when I encountered Big Home Orchestra, just not quite what Fairytale had in store. It's about as "folk" as say, the Proclaimers, but thankfully not nearly as precious or aggravating.  They're adept and polished performers for sure, it's merely a matter if you're game for the lilt they opt to finagle with.  One striking anomaly is the concluding "Goodbye," structured around a more guitar-centric motif, that's not terribly far removed from the Go-Betweens, and is stimulating enough to beg repeat listening.  

01. Kingdom of Rain

02. As Long as a Heart

03. New Horizons

04. Poison and Thunder

05. Dark Star

06. Goodbye

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half string - oval 7" -

At some point in 1992 I summoned up the misguided notion I could count all of the shoegazer/dream pop bands in the world on my fingers and toes.  Turns out I was off by several extremities. Deeper into the '90s as the movement seemed to wane I was stunned by the sheer depth and breadth of what still existed, and of course, the number of bands that had passed that I was belatedly becoming acquainted with.  Arizona's half string were one such later discovery.  Not necessarily bringing anything out of whole cloth to the table, h/s took a more subtle approach, mirroring the melancholic, contemplative hues of Springhouse and early Moose, never nailing you over the head with anything too sonically dense of engulfing.  This is ripped straight from my 45 with plenty of surface noise intact.  Unblemished versions of these songs can be had easily enough on the 2012 reissue compendium, Maps for Sleep.  

a. oval

b. sun less sea

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We're just two deep space lovers and this feels alright...

Chilled out grooves from 2012.  A recent favorite of mine.

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Dark Side - Rumors in Our Own Time, Legends in Our Own Room (1980, Gohog)

Though they were once the pride of Towson, MD, I'm not sure if Dark Side were exactly my bag.  Not precisely power pop or punk, this combo definitely strode on the sardonic and livelier side of the moon.  Intermittently peppered with surges of organ and sax, Rumours In Our Own Time, in my opinion satisfies optimally when the fellas flex melodic guitar chops on "Lamented Love" and "Down the Tubes."  Dark Side also sport no shortage of personality, with a highly animated mouthpiece in the guise of David Jarkowski.  The overall effect bears mild resemblances to the Tuff Darts, New York Dolls, The Sweet, and I'm sure you'll be motivated to draw your own conclusions.  This album and a host of additional numbers made it into the digital era in 2005. 

01. #1 Man

02. Lamented Love

03. Good Boy

04. Scared Straight

05. Bondage

06. Nobody's Girl

07. Can't Get Used to It

08. Fun in Nicaragua

09. Back on the Streets

10. Blow it Up!

11. You Should Envy Me

12. Rendezvous

13. Down the Tubes

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We were shaking off the shade from the Missiles of October...

A lo-fi masterclass recorded in 2010, but released two years later after multiple, painstaking revisions.

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Yazoo Beach - Binge (1993, N-Beat)

Not only have I already introduced you to Yazoo Beach (over a decade ago in fact), I've also enlightened and entertained you with phenomenal music from guitarist Scott Coopwood's prior two bands, The Square Root of Now and Perfect Strangers.  Binge was Yazoo's somewhat belated follow-up to their inviting 1988 debut, The Solace and the Blaze, and is demonstrably more mature. Playing it right down the middle, a la fellow deep south contemporaries Dreams So Real and the Windbreakers, this is guitar pop of the collegiate, "new south" variety offering a bevy of pretty persuasions.  Generally, the R.E.M,-isms are on the downlow, but glints are lovingly apparent on "By the Hand" and "Shades of Solitude," amidst other scattered offerings.  Binge's acoustic traipses, specifically "Islands" and "Heaven Coming Down," fall loosely between the confines of The Moody Blues and Workbook-era Bob Mould, albeit not as engrossing.  Though said to be available on CD, I was only fortunate enough to happen upon a cassette, which is where his rip is derived from.  

01. Last Until Tomorrow

02. By the Hand

03. So Much is Love

04. Caroline

05. Heart So Heavy

06. Heaven Coming Down

07. Shades of Solitude

08. Wooden Horse

09. Piece of Her Mind

10. World Inside Your Heart

11. Islands 

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I’d rather talk some more than look into your eyes.

A compilation capturing the brunt (but not everything) this overlooked C86 proposition put out into the world.  

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Surgery - Souleater ep (1989, Glitterhouse)

Realistically, I could have shared this one eons ago, but I just kept putting it off.  If someone else out there in blogland got to Souleater before me, I didn't mean to step on you.  Surgery ended just as the internet was about to go mainstream, so details on this New York by-way-of Syracuse foursome aren't exactly plentiful.  Most of their tenure was spent on the noise-mongering Amphetamine Reptile label, which suited the band, who had their collective tentacles steeped in a combustible grunge/punk aesthetic, with trace elements of the soon to be burgeoning stoner rock movement.  Unruly salvos "Dance" and "Brazier" pack a sumptuous degree of sway alongside righteous heaviness, and alone make Souleater veritable required listening.  Not much in the way of pop sensibilities here, but five years in from this ep, Atlantic Records scooped these fellows up, and by then they had an incorporated an often infectious groove-rock slant, outdoing their more renown, albeit lame-o contemporaries the Chili Peppers...however the mainstream was regrettably oblivious.  Surgery called it a day in early '95 upon the sudden illness and passing of frontman Sean McDonnell.   

01. Dance

02. Brazier

03. Goodtime

04. Stupid Chile'

05. Slap

06. Souleater

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Dragstrip - The Heliocentric World of... 7" (1997, American Pop Project)

In what might be the first time I've featured music from a strictly instrumental combo, my working knowledge of Bloomington, IN's Dragstrip largely begins and ends with this single, and not a bad intro at that. Known for their surf bona fides, the band's spin through BÖC's "Don't Fear the Reaper" does traverse through said motif, just not as doggedly as you might assume. There probably isn't one of you reading this that isn't at least partially burned out on this overplayed tune, but it's arpeggiated allure still calls to me on occasion, and I enjoy the context here. The flip, "Sun Ra" a supposed tribute to the jazz titan, could instead pass for the bed of a really enticing Dinosaur Jr. track.  Go figure.

A. Don't Fear the Reaper

B. Sun Ra

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All of the elements are present and tense.

From 2006. 

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A Few - It's a Wonderful Life (Gark, 1985)

I'm sharing a record titled It's a Wonderful Life, and it ain't even Christmas.  This one did come out forty years ago however, and moreover it was a request that I'm happy to fulfill.  Conducting a web query on A Few was practically a fool's errand, but from what I'm able to glean they hailed from Minneapolis and have one other elusive record to their credit.  This one starts off splendidly enough with a trio of keepers to please the halcyon-era collegiate rock crowd, bleeding hues of everyone from Aztec Camera to R.E.M.  Further in, A Few's footing is less steady, with the rather aimless shouter "Hang Tough," and heck, by the time they kick into "Gas is Gold," they may as well have mutated into a different band altogether. Luckily they recover on the jangly "Best Around," and close things out on a contemplative note by way of the decent enough ballad, "Wandering."   

01. Every World is Hot

02. Ride Halley's Comet

03. Something Wonderful

04. Do You Remember

05. Things Change

06. Hang Tough

07. Gas is Gold

08. You and Me

09. Sail Up to the Moon

10. Best Around

11. My Own Mayhem

12. Wandering

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...and you can make it baby, until you've made you're bed.

 A killer, not to mention concussive, sophomore effort from 1992.

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The Social Act - Little Sally "O" ep (1988

*Sigh.* Just a damn black and white sticker?  Really? The cherry red colored wax was a sharp move, but I still think a picture sleeve of some sort was warranted.  At any rate, The Social Act features Ellis Clark from Chicago power-pop mavens Epicycle, a band which can trace it's roots to the late '70s.  Though devoid of graphics, the music is a wholly different ball of wax, with the ace A-side, "Little Sally "O" pulling off something akin to Flesh For Lulu with a respectable AOR inflection.  Thoroughly rockin' stuff, with Ellis sporting a vocal aplomb that negotiates a fusion of Robyn Hitchcock and Mick Blood of the Lime Spiders.  The two flip sides, albeit not as crucial are at minimum satisfactory. The band appears to be a going concern, with a statement on their website purporting to them having recorded seven albums, but I'm not certain if all of them saw the light of day.  

A. Little Sally ''O''

B1. Boog-A-Loo

B2. In Your Arms

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The Nines - "Gonna Get a Ring" 7" (1995, Clamarama)

I recall buying this one in a rather large lot of power pop/indie 45s but I only gave it a concerted listen about a week ago.  Not to be confused with jangle-pop wunderkinds of the same namesake from Ontario, Canada, The Nines this post concerns really didn't persist long enough to capture any significant online presence.  Rambunctious, but manicured just enough to keep the proceedings from careening off the rails entirely, this quartet make their case across two brief numbers coming in just under five minutes total.  Nothing artsy here, just potent, power chord-addled rock and rule that aficionados of Redd Kross, Bash & Pop and the Smugglers will eat up faster than Jimmy Chestnut going to town on a platter of chicken wings.  A Nines ep and a full length followed this wax in 1996 and '98, respectively.

A. Gonna Get a Ring

B. My Soul For You

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I'm chained to your ego and there isn't a key...

Released in 2013, and encompassing material recorded 1981-87, this singles and b-sides compilation superseded that of a similar collection issued seventeen years prior.  

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Secret Science - Pound Out (1981)

I did something this week that I don't think I've done in ages - I broke the cellophane on an unopened 44-year old record. Just think of all that's come and gone in the life of this undisturbed vinyl relic.  But it had to be done if I was to ever hear what Austin's Secret Science were all about, as they're a veritable cold case online with no relevant mentions save for your standard Discogs entry. Their first and only full length, Pound Out, starts out promisingly enough with "Drive My Dreams" a catchy, swaying slice of homegrown synth/guitar rock, with inclinations to Devo, yet not-quite derivative of.  "Filthy Pillows" plays like a more pedestrian Talking Heads outtake, and the penultimate "In the Trenches" bears a sturdy, sobering hue, hinting to what might have developed on subsequent records had S/S stuck it out a bit longer.  Regrettably there's not much happening in-between the aforementioned, with an abundance of meandering, undercooked experiments and notions, merely flowing into one ear and out the proverbial autre.  Nonetheless, I'm still content with my decision to rupture the seal on Pound Out, and give it a whirl or two.  

01. Drive My Dreams

02. Filthy Pillows

03. Shannon is Dead

04. Teenland

05. Dark Continent

06. Dog Dance

07. Twin Jet China

08. Three Minutes

09. It's Only Barbeque

10. In the Trenches

11. Save the World

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I'm mixing the facts around...

An often impeccable sophomore album from '86.

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Mirrour - Black and White (1984, Windmill)

Yet another one I took a sheer gamble on.  Went into this one expecting something along the lines of Shoes, Rubinoos, heck maybe even the Bay City Rollers.  In the grand scheme of things, Mirrour had sort of a bedroom DIY thing in mind instead, with precious little of the aesthetics I had predicted.  They were certainly situated in the pop/rock realm, but in spite of the serious visages gracing the album jacket this L.A. quartet were a cheeky lot, with no less than two topical numbers ("It's Only School" and "Get the Edge") pertaining to the nature of compulsory education.  "Shattered" is the strongest and catchiest thing Black and White has going for it, yet might have amounted to something more compelling in the hands of a full-fledged power-pop band, which for better or worse Mirrour didn't quite embody.  I should mention both guitars and keys are employed here, the latter to an almost cozy and cutesy effect.  Another feather in their cap would be an Emitt Rhodes production credit...but how would a bunch of teenage '80s kids know Rhodes from a can of paint?  B&W isn't so much a disappointing record as it is an unlikely and anticlimactic one.

There's an above average amount of surface noise on this disk that I did my best to remedy. If it's a blemish-free version you're seeking, in doing my research on Mirrour I learned that an expanded, 40th anniversary version of this exists on streaming outlets including Spotify and Apple Music, along with a host of entirely separate albums by them, though it's not clear when they were recorded.  One would think these other recordings would entail a considerably more mature incarnation of the band, and though I haven't really had the chance to delve in myself it all looks promising. 

01. It's Only School

02. Double talk

03. Shattered

04. Modern Man

05. Shine it On

06. Get the Edge

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The Hippycrickets - No Shoes, No Shirt, No Dice! tape (1993)

These Atlanta-area denizens took a seemingly unnecessary risk in going with such a hokey moniker, one that doesn't do justice to their overarching potency, but whatever I suppose. Actually, this isn't my first Hippycrickets-centric post, as I shared their 1997 full length, Inconceivable!!! quite some time ago. Submitted for your approval, a 1993 demo of four tunes that would be recalibrated for that album.  "Don't Bother Me" finds the trio in question in an angsty and cantankerous guise. "Margaret Sez" could pass for a primo Material Issue or Cavedogs number, with the sobering "Fall Again," trailing not far behind. 

01. Don't Bother Me

02. Margaret Sez

03. Calling Colleen

04. Fall Again

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