I learned my lesson while I slept eternally.

This band isn't especially renown for their b-sides, but that didn't stop them from curating a presentable compilation of them in 2002.

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

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Bootcamp - s/t ep (1985)

So, I didn't exactly shower you with content this week, but since I had this ready to go I figured, why not?  I've got a buddy that's eternally wed to MTV's nascent era, specifically from the early to mid '80s.  He often requests I burn him music from lesser known acts, and by and large I'm probably the best source he has (not that I'm bragging).  While a lot of us have our ear to the ground, my friend in question had one very much glued to the screen, and is endlessly fascinated with early MTV playlists - that and the hundreds if not thousands of hopeful acts who never released much beyond a locally distributed single/LP whom also had the gumption to film a DIY video in hopes of it being aired nationally on a show like the network's much missed Basement Tapes.  Barring that small miracle, these artists might have equally lucked out by virtue of having their clip played once or twice in the wee hours of the morning.  

My understanding is that Bootcamp, a quartet with roots in Baltimore, submitted multiple videos to the outlet when they were still accumulating their now cobwebbed and largely forgotten library.  To their credit, these blokes were a lot more proficient than your average local yokels, and nearly succeeded at having their AOR and devouring their new wave cake to boot.  Their overall shtick virtually paralleled that of contemporaries the Producers, and maybe less the likes of the Outfield.  More polish than grit for certain, yet virtually every moment here lands in the comfortable pocket the band seemed to be striving for.  It appears Bootcamp CD-R reissues were once a thing, and I know a few songs have cropped up on Amazon digital, so don't be surprised if the link below eventually earns the strikethrough treatment.

01. A Woman's Touch

02. Shoot the Moon

03. Get a Hold of Yourself

04. Fire in the Hole

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The Crepitos - We Just Wanna Have Some Fun 7'' (1995, No Tomorrow)

This is one of about a half dozen singles pumped out by León Spain's, The Crepitos, who managed to bring one studio LP into the world circa 1995 (Pop 3000), coincidentally the same year that this very 45 was minted.  Questionable cover art aside, the rear of this sleeve finds the five-piece in question donning garagey-punk garb, whereas the Crepito's sonic aplomb hits closer to a lively, driving power-pop vein.  The first b-side here, "Far and Wide" inserts sweetly churning organ fills that merely accent the proceedings without dominating them, while the comparatively downtempo "Between You and Me," emanates faint but soulful Elvis Costello tinctures.  

A. Flock of Dumbs

B1. Far and Wide

B2. Between You & Me

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So many times I waited for you. I figured it out and now we're through.

From 2009.  Threw in a couple of extra tidbits, including a little something for you Greg Dulli fans in the audience. 

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

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Fixed Up - Vital Hours (1987, I.D./Closer)

I just can't escape the specter of 1987.  I've already posted two more titles from that year in recent weeks, but it's more coincidence than anything else.  And I can't say this French trio necessarily sounded like a product of their era, barely echoing the more mainstream foundations thereof.  Vital Hours is my first (and perhaps last) encounter with Fixed Up, whose dense aplomb wasn't straight-up garage punk, but at moments they resemble a nuanced hybrid of Lime Spiders bumping elbows with Hanoi Rocks. Fixed Up aren't exactly reinventing the wheel, but why futz with the formula considering such driving rave-up as "Purple Flashes" and the grand trifecta of tunes that close out Vital...? To my ears, the brass section augmented to "The Limit of a Legend" and "One Night Stand" makes for something of a fly in the ointment, as these chaps were in no way, shape or form The Saints.  That aside, other than a little sameness no complaints.

01. Purple Flashes

02. My Love For You

03. What's the News Today?

04. Between Her Hands

05. Speed Ahead

06. The Limit of a Legend

07. One Night Stand

08. Taste of Love

09. Physical World

10. Have You Ever Felt The Creeping Fear

11. Red Hot

12. Teenage Power

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When does this world keep away from me?

The 1988 swan song from one of the era's most consistent pop auteurs.  

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

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Claude Pāte 7" (1987, Pravada)

Following up my post from last night, here's another salvo from '87.  When I belatedly encountered Claude Pāte on the Iowa Compilation (also from 1987) I knew virtually nothing about them, except that I was eager to hear more.  Of their two proper releases, this 45 is all I own thus far, but if you're hankering for straight-up, no frills rock and roll, C/P satisfy along the same lines as Fire Town, Snatches of Pink, and Carnival Season (wilfully obscure references, I know). And btw, they were a band (a trio to be exact), not an individual.  The everyman grippes presented in their songs are seasoned with grit, earnestness, and riffy power chords, however these guys had enough class to keep things from careening off the rails.  

A. I Will, If You Will

B. Ain't There/It's Gone

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Roy G Biv - s/t ep (1987, Whitelight)

If not an outright cold case, Minneapolis' Roy G Biv didn't exactly leave behind a proverbial trail of crumbs with the exception of this disk.  This quartet clocked in/out circa that late '80s era when punks were slowing down a notch and getting more tuneful.  Ramshackle, albeit not particularly abrasive these boys could've rubbed shoulders with contemporaries the Nils and Junk Monkeys, when they felt enthused enough to apply themselves to such inspired nuggets as "Off My Path" and "Poor Little Baby."   Four songs does not a long record make, and frankly, "Carousel" could have used some editing, usurping a valuable five+ minutes here.  The folks that put together the Homework cd-r comp series must have been impressed, as "Off My Path" appeared on volume 4. 

01. Dallas

02. Off My Path

03. Carousel

04. Poor Little Baby

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One hundred cigarettes all alight...

"Field recordings" from a short-lived, UK post-punk proposition circa 1979-81, who never realized their loftier ambitions.

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

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God's Eye - Love's a Bargain (1990, 20/20)

Last year you came for God's Eye's "Back Again" 45, not realizing it was actually dessert for their main course, Love's a Bargain.  Not necessarily in league with the likes of other Beantown combos, Buffalo Tom or The Lemonhead's G/E do conjure the overarching modus operandi of the John Strohm/Freda Love fronted post-Blake Babies combo, Antenna.  This is to say, while God's Eye weren't innovators they were still passable. The aforementioned single "Back Again" is for better or worse the centerpiece of ...Bargain, wielding a big, juicy colossal hook - but was this nugget so potent that the trio in question weren't able to transcend it?  As for the album writ large, I might have to offer a reluctant "yes," yet it's still worth a few rotations. Merely one ep followed ...Bargain so we can only wonder if a hypothetical sophomore God's Eye album would have yielded the sort of knock-out punch suggested by "Back Again."

01. Rapunzel 

02. Back Again

03. Overground

04. Sea Chantey

05. Liberty

06. All Adds Up

07. Bright

08. Trial Size Hearts

09. Good Years

10. For Example

11. What's Love Worth

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Rock 'n roll lose control, just forget you're on the dole.

I don't think I've featured anything by this long-running UK band to date.  Bit of a confusing release this, as it's not a best-of, rather a compilation of b-sides and unreleased material from the first half of the '80s.  Who knew at the time they'd still be going?

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

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Standing Waves - Vertigo ep (1981, Classified)

Not particularly Texan sounding, Standing Waves were nonetheless denizens of Austin, and for a few years (mostly early-eighties) were responsible for some alluring new wavish pop/rock.  They didn't stick around long enough for an LP, so the six-song Vertigo was as close as we got. Typically favoring organs over traditional synths, S/W were more in league with the Pointed Sticks than say, Naked Eyes.  I hear a little bit of The Units in their sonic pastiche, yet I wouldn't go into this expecting any full-blown revelations.  Vertigo's two bookends, the hooky title track, and the comparatively reflective "Never Say" make the deepest impressions.  This was produced by The Pool's Patrick Keel (of "Dance it Down" fame).  Standing Waves have a compilation collection available here and Bandcamp.  

01. Vertigo

02. Crash and Burn

03. Can't Let it Go

04. Behavior Mod

05. Sensory Overload

06. Never Say Die

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Positive Noise - Positive Negative 7" (1981, Statik)

Like a lot of bands that impressed me on college radio circa the early-'90s, I didn't immediately follow up on Positive Noise, simply due to a sheer lack of resources (say, like the internet).  By the time I actually thumbed across their records in the wild, I had completely forgotten the track in particular that exposed me to them.  Upon seeing this for $2 I decided to take a stab at the band's debut 45, "Positive Negative." Oddly enough, the song in question came out as the same year, 1981, as their debut LP, Heart of Darkness, but didn't appear on it.  That's actually logical, as "Positive Negative" presented itself as bubbly new romantic synth pop.  Nothing egregious mind you, just a bit generic for it's niche.  The flip, "Energy" fared better.  Albeit not too far removed from it's aforementioned A-side, "Energy," nonetheless boasts a chillier façade, situating itself in a more natural construct, dovetailing more appropriately with what I encountered on the comparatively brooding ...Darkness. 

A. Positive Negative

B. Energy

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I just wanna hold you, I bought and sold you...

A two CD collection of pretty much everything this New Zealand quartet committed to tape between 1979-80.  I wasn't able to scan the entire booklet, just the most important bits.  

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

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Chris Bailey - Prime Numbers (1983, Shower Fantasies)

No, not that Chris Bailey (the deceased frontman for Australia's legendary Saints) rather another guy with ditto moniker, possibly with ties to Vermont or somewhere else in New England.  No correspondence address provided, and with such a common name, there's little relevent info to be had on this privately pressed curio.  1983 may have been the era of new wave and AOR, but Bailey and his three compatriots simply weren't having it.  More like DIY pop abundantly punctuated with funky basslines, rarely sounding comparative to anyone else. The spry "Easier Done Than Said" boasts plenty of catchy sway and could have easily been massaged into something Top 40-worthy.  "Pablum" is a bit of an anomaly, a punky two-minute basher that would have slotted in nicely on one of Joe Jackson's first two albums.  Prime Numbers houses plenty of other satisfactory moments, but few outright revelations, and as I alluded earlier, a bit non-descript.  My copy of this was defaced with all manner of radio station call letters and assorted markings, so I took it upon myself to purloin a cleaner jpeg of the cover art from an Ebay listing.  Imagine that.

01. Easier Done Than Said

02. Oooof -- Why Girl?

03. Lover's Plight

04. Pablum

05. My Shadow

06. Such a Blur

07. Shrapnel

08. Do It! (Again)

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It's just form and function.

Primo post-punk stuff from 2007.

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

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Bouncing off Bob - Cha Cha Cha at the Coral Reef ep (1987, Stretch)

I've had this 12" kicking around my "to-be-listened-to" pile of records for a considerable amount of times, and wouldn't you know I finally gave it a spin.  BOB were from Jersey, and before ostensibly  functioning as a quartet, they were a five-piece, at least for this record.  Cha Cha... kicks things off with the band's finest number, "Bedside Manners," a rootsy albeit manicured slice of left-of-the-dial pop benefiting from a subtle splash of organ.  "Whoops! (Baby's in Love)" boasts a rollicking, rockabilly bent and admittedly pretty fun if you have appetite for the stuff.  The seven-minute ballad "Through With You" could have respectfully used some editing, but BOB compensate with the lively concluding salvo, "Dear Editor." 

01. Bedside Manners

02. Whoops! (Baby's in Love)

03. Bust Some Heads

04. Through With You

05. Dear Editor

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Couldn't find you any place upon my screen...

Disk two of a retrospective covering the second half of this band's career. Some of this material was made available on subsequent reissues and "vault" type releases, but it's nice to have these b-sides and outtakes all in one concise spot.

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

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Yo - Good Tidings (1984, Deadbeat)

Today I deliver an album entitled, Good Tidings, and it isn't even Christmas. Yo's second and third albums (Charm World, Once in a Blue Moon) seemed to over fairly well with you a few years back, so how about one final go-around, this time highlighting their debut?  Decidedly on the collegiate tip, this Cali-based contingent struck me as the types who were born for left-of-the-dial notoriety, and for better of worse that might have been the extent of their appeal.  I've highlighted Bruce Rayburn's distinctive timbre in the past, and it's no less notable here, with the man on the mic sporting a panache combining Guadalcanal Diary's Murray Attaway, Gordon Gano (Violent Femmes) and just as  coincidentally, a twinge of Morrissey.  Ten songs in almost twice as many minutes, but there's only a couple of items here that would qualify as punk adjacent, the terrifically driving and muscular "Pot O' Gold" and "Living Lie."   

01. Train of No Return

02. Pot O' Gold

03. White Eyes

04. Buildings

05. The Plough

06. Something

07. Black Forest

08. Living Lie

09. Good Tidings

10. Knives

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I'd rather be no one than someone with no one.

This week it's a relaively well circulated boot of this band's nascent 1986 recordings.  The artist may well tantalize you, but as for the songs within...that's more debatable.

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

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V/A - Every One A Classic!!! Vol. 5

In 2023 I introduced you to a new-to-me series of bootleg compilations gathering vintage and neglected punk/powerpop singles, predominantly derived from the UK, circa the late '70s through the early Thatcher years. What I may not have mentioned at the time was that the Every One a Classic!!! series actually consisted of six titles, not merely the four volumes I presented in '23.  I'm picking up where I left off with the fifth installment.

As was the case with vols 1-4, I would not go into this expecting the next G.B.H., or even UK Subs, rather EoaC skews delightfully to bands with a relatively melodic penchant. Last Sentence, The Moondogs, Flying Colours, Terminal Spectators best exemplify said ethos, but if you're looking to up the ante with something slightly more vigorous, The Proles and Nothern Ireland's Ruefrex might be more your speed.  Fast Cars "The Kids Just Wanna Dance," has been comped several times before, but it's a genuinely wailin' banger that truly bears repeating. I wouldn't say there's much in the way of anomalies populating Vol. 5, save for The Unwanted whose "Bleak Outlook" sports an extra modicum of bratty vim and spite, clad to a dollop of  Cockney sass for good measure. Enjoy.

01. Proles - Stereo Love

02. The Unwanted - Bleak Outlook

03. Last Stand - Just a Number

04. Terminal Spectators - Another Day Another Dream

05. Sneeky Feelin's - Private Mail

06. The Method - Dynamo

07. Fast Cars - The Kids Just Wanna Dance

08. Flying Colours - Abstract Art

09. Strate Jacket - Too Soon, Too Young

10. Ruefrez - Capital Letters

11. The Moondogs - She's Nineteen

12. Terry Tranz n' the Vestites - State Hand-out

13. Sabotage - Standing Alone, Cold Girl

14. Frank Details - False Pretences

15. The Names - Scared

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...it's glimmer blinded me, so I never saw you leave.

From 2016. This Orlando band's third and final.

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

Red Lorry Yellow Lorry - Thunder in the Black Cave live 2004

Well it's all sort of come full circle.  The very band that introduced me/you/us to this thing called post-punk (or Gothic, if you must) came out of hibernation to release a new record this year, Strange Kind of Paradise.  The band of course being none other than Leeds' Red Lorry Yellow Lorry.  The dual fulcrum of the Lorries, Chris Reed (vox, gits) and Dave Wolfenden (guitar) reunited with only the album to show for it, with no accompanying tour, and per the band's claim, no subsequent recordings.  While I don't plan to offer much of a critique of Strange Kind of Paradise, I'll impart that it has some pretty exemplary moments that longtime Lorries aficionados will appreciate.

Instead, this post concerns a complete Belgium concert from 2004 that was archived and sold on a limited edition DVD as Thunder in the Black Cave, and as you might guess I'm giving you the audio from it.  Though I have a physical copy, I can't confirm if anyone other than Reed was present and accounted for from Red Lorry's '80s lineup.  The photo to your upper-right (credit to Wikipedia) is in fact from a 2004 performance, and it looks like they're pared down to a trio from their usual four-piece setup.  At the very least, the audio strikes me as a fairly lucid audience recording, though the band's consistent drony surge lends itself to becoming a bit blaring in spots.  It's heavy on their early Red Rhino releases (Talk About the Weather, Paint Your Wagon, and surrounding singles like "Generation"), and their revelatory third album for Beggars Banquet, Nothing's Wrong.  The setlist is downright delightful, touching on virtually necessary Lorries composition - "Spinning Round," "Hands Off Me," "Monkeys on Juice," and "Chance," to name a handful.  Maybe one or two more representative cuts from 1990's Blow should have made the cut (say, "Happy to See Me") but it's really hard to complain with the nearly two-dozen numbers they selected.  For those of you un/under-acquainted with the Lorries, the band's clamshell box on Cherry Red, Albums and Singles 1982-89 is a phenomenal way to get caught up.

01. intro

02. Open Up

03. Big Stick

04. Nothing Wrong

05. Talk About the Weather

06. Crawling Mantra

07. Cut Down

08. Do You Understand

09. Sayonara

10. Blow

11. Monkeys on Juice

12. Train of Hope

13. Running Fever

14. See the Fire

15. Jipp

16. Spinning Round

17. Generation

18. Walking on Your Hands

19. Shout at the Sky

20. Hands Off Me

21. Pushing On

22. Hold Yourself Down

23. Chance

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Badbob And The New World Crusade - Today's News ep (1987, Incas)

I didn't think it was quite that long ago when I shared my last Badbob wax, 1988's Now is Reaction, but apparently it's been over a decade.  The 'Bob' in question was none other than Robert Therrian, who cut his teeth in the CT hardcore melee known as Lost Generation (you can check out their Military Heroes cassette here).  Furthermore, the man of the hour ostensibly played a hand in managing the Incas Record label, one of the most reliable and consistently rewarding DIY imprints of the '80s. 

Under the configuration of Badbob and the New World Crusade, three singles and the ep to your right were all cut in the mid-80s.  Considerably a heck of a lot more even-tempered than his Lost Generation days of yore, Bob and his aforementioned Crusade stuck well to the middle of the road on Today's News.  This generally anti-climactic, albeit strummy, four-songer is wholly approachable in the manner of say what the Windbreakers were concocting around the same era.  The title piece makes for a bit of an earworm, but writ large Badbob and his four-piece gaggle weren't a terribly inventive or visionary lot.  I need to check out Today's News' surrounding singles, however thus far, I'm more partial to Now is Reaction.   

01. Today's News

02. Brand New Start

03. On This Road

04. One Man's Choice

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We were probably following too close...

From 2014.  

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

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