Victorian Parents - Silence Follows (1981)

I usually save most of my revelatory finds for the end of the year, but what the hell.  And a major label release (Polydor) no less, but unless you snatched up Victorian Parents' Silence Follows as as an assumedly pricy import, this would have flown well below your proverbial radar.  Not only has it not been reissued since it's 1981 release, so far as I can tell this band has yet to be anthologized on any of the myriad of Cherry Red Records post-punk compilations that have cropped up in the last decade or so. Save for a YouTube digitization, Silence Follows hasn't made a showing on any of the usual streaming outlets, nor have any of it's songs made it into the sharity blogosphere.  Whomever saw the need to kill off the memory of this band was a bit too thorough, if you don't mind me venting.

Hailing from Lichfield, England, V/P's modus operandi was very much in league with contemporaries, The Sound, Modern Eon and Comsat Angels, especially the latter.  The quartet boasted both depth and artful tangents, while remaining almost wholly approachable, albeit there weren't many obvious hits or singles here - even for the one track that actually was appointed for 45 status, "All American Hero." At the end of the day, Silence Follows is still unmistakably steeped in post-punk affectations, minus any excessively droney ambience. C.S. Angels comparisons are inevitable on this album's most proficient offerings, "Uncommunique" and "No Response," but again, that band was a contemporary to V/P, so it's not very logical to cite them as a legit "influence," per se. Perhaps not through-and-through brilliant, Silence... is considerably effective, not to mention well above average, and far more deserving of the dim spotlight it enjoyed when the Parents were extant.  Yes, there were surrounding singles, but I'm not in possession of anything else by them.  I am however making this available in both MP3 and FLAC.

01. All American Hero

02. On the Border

03. Self-indulgence

04. Dead Red Grass of Home

05. Uncommunique

06. No Response

07. Wasteland

08. My Advantage

09. Endless Wire

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An unpredicted ends to a means...

From 2004.  Picking up on morsels of everyone from Nada Surf to Creeper Lagoon and even Mercury Rev. Enjoy

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Medelicious - Miss N 7" (1994, Lucky)

Not as egregiously grungy as many of their counterparts due south in Seattle, Bellingham, WA's Medelicious were still a mightily noisy aggregation wielding copious amounts of angsty amperage and distortion.  This 45's A-side "Miss N" isn't far removed from Up In It-era Afghan Whigs, but I'm more partial to the flip, "Hands," which mines a vaguely more tuneful indie-rock vein. Not Sebadoh or Superchunk mind you, Medelicious nonetheless bore a considerable quotient of potential...and regrettably never got around to issuing a full length. 

A. Miss N

B. Hands

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Autumn Teen Sound - demo (1995)

Just as I was about to drop the "cold case" tag on this Phoenix-area foursome I discovered they have a Facebook page.  Sounding heavily indebted to another band they shared the same area code with (Gin Blossoms), Autumn Teen Sound may not have been the stuff of innovation, but in terms of sheer songcraft they really had something. "My Star" goes down delightfully easy, coincidentally not unlike the tune of the same moniker by Gameface, and the remaining cuts easily slot between the Blossoms and what Michael Penn was dishing out around the same time.  ATS shared bills with the Plimsouls and Joey's Molland's Badfinger before rechristening themselves as Sugar High.

01. My Star

02. 100 Years to Love You

03. Juliana No

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Too many holes in your story, jeans alright.

This week it's four eps spanning three decades.

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The Charlottes - Lovehappy+ (1989/2020, Radiation)

Typically on Record Store Day I share something released on a prior RSD, but I'm quickly run out of "safe" items to post, simply because most titles released on the most agonizing Saturday morning of every April are alternate pressings of records still in print. Either that or a lot of "new" titles subsequently get a proper release outside of RSD.  The Charlottes' Lovehappy saw the light of day in 2020 in a limited pressing of 500 pieces, and I don't believe it's been available since.  

For the longest time my only familiarity with the Petra Roddis-fronted quartet from Cambridgeshire, England was the single "Liar," but oh what an utterly phenomenal tune! The Charlottes stitched the scuzzy distortion of the Jesus and Mary Chain and early Primal Scream together with the immediacy of the Primitives, and increasingly laced their concoction in a woozy dream-pop gauze. They didn't consistently live up to this lofty proposition on their debut mini-ep, the hit or miss Lovehappy, which often resembles shambolic demos, though there are genuine glints of potential on "Keep Me Down" and "See the Danger Shine."  Radiation Record's reissue tacks on two Charlottes' follow-up eps from 1990, the aforementioned Liar and Love in the Emptiness, which finds them leaning into the fainter semblances of shoegaze hinted at on Lovehappy, yielding inspired downer indie-rock in the guise of "Blue" and "Could There Ever Be."  Their spin on Shocking Blue's "Venus" is faithful to the original yet more stimulating than I had imagined. The hype sticker on the sleeve states all of the material presented has been remastered, but the audio here strikes me as a bit muddy, and quite frankly mono, measured up to the original records they're derived from. Who knows.  At any rate, enjoy.  

01. Are You Happy

02. Cold

03. Keep Me Down

04. Stubborn

05. See the Danger Shine

06. Everything to Me

07. In My Hair

08. Love Happy

09. Liar

10. Blue

11. Venus

12. Love in the Emptiness

13. Be My Release

14. Could There Ever Be

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I'm not here if someone calls, unless it's from apartment 3...

From 1998.  I remember being thoroughly immersed and invested in this when it came out.

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That Hope - Beating the Dumb Guy (1987, FOT)

I had high hopes for That Hope, given the impression they left me with on their debut, Eight Dollar Hat, which I shared way back in '11. I recall it garnering a considerable number of downloads as well, so taken all this into consideration I was ready to be dazzled by this Bloomington, IL quartet's follow up.  The first three songs comprising Beating... certainly don't disappoint, exuding tinctures from the likes of artful, post-punk sophisticates Gang of Four to Pylon, with T/H depositing a spot of their indigenous seasoning into the affair.  Things go downhill soon after with the aimlessly, embarrassing throwaway "Big Sex" clogging up the proceedings for a painful seven minutes.  From there's it's a tossed salad with a somewhat sloppy retread of "I Am the Walrus," to the bouncy and redemptive Pylon-goes-pop shtick of "Comfort Never Looked So Big."  Though not listed on the sleeve or record label, there's a useless segue of a 75-second piece falling between "Space Boys and Love" and "Go About Your Business" that I'm not sure if it's supposed to be it's own individual "song" or rather the outro/intro of the aforementioned tracks. 

01. Looking To Get Their Fill

02. Lounge Lagoon

03. Jeff Matt Joey

04. Big Sex

05. I am the Walrus

06. Space Boys in Love

07. untitled

08. Go About Your Business

09. Cow Gang

10. Comfort Never Looked So Big

11. Love, Need, Attention

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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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