The Lanes - You & Your Ideas (2002, Linear B)

Winnipeg's Lanes strike me as something of an indie guitar-rock holdover from the '90s.  Chunky riffs, sweet tunings and endearingly roughhewn arrangements are thoughtfully deposited into You & Your Ideas ten generally smart ideas (albeit a tad soggy behind the ears).  Two different vocalists keep things interesting, though I'm much more preferable to the one that handles the better half of these selections.  Think early Get Up Kids and Muler intermingled with a smorgasbord of Chapel Hill influences.  The only pertinent copy I was able to locate for this trio was a review floating the idea that the Lanes were akin to "Rush attempting to write Weezer-type tunes."  Perhaps the most laughably and grossly inaccurate assertion I've read in my entire life...and that's saying a lot. 

01. She Treats Me Like a Magazine
02. Comic Reliever
03. Pain
04. Sun/Stereo
05. Atlantic Ocean
06. Farrah
07. Banter Between the Pictures
08. Microfilm
09. The Beige Capital
10. King of the Cool Kids

Hear

Straitjacket Fits - Done ep (1992, Flying Nuns)

I was happy to oblige a recent request for this ep, which I probably hadn't listened to in nearly a decade.  As I gave it a spin today, it dawned on me how much the Straitjacket Fits sounded like Radiohead, at least at this juncture in the career.  Considering the other sound of the coin however, I couldn't honestly say that Radiohead ever sounded like the Straitjacket Fits.  Funny how the comparison thing doesn't always work out evenly.  At any rate, Done was the precursor to the Fits final album, Blow offering two album cuts and two non-LP b-sides.  By now, Shayne Carter and Co. had largely extricated themselves from the feedback-ridden cocoon that colored their noisesome 1988 debut, Hail.  While I have an appreciation for Blow's notably more lucid hues, I still deem that record to be less distinguishable than just about anything else they attached their name to.  Would have been great to have been treated to a follow-up, though the Fits obviously (and perhaps wisely) opted not to overstay their welcome.   

01. Done
02. Spacing
03. Solid
04. Whiteout

Hear

Dolce Vita ep (1984, Brain Eater)

Dolce Vita's brand of MTV-friendly power pop/wave wasn't especially innovative, but for their good fortune, pretty damn effective.  I could easily picture this EP sandwiched in between the likes of the Red Rockers and Serious Young Insects, with Duran Duran occasionally elbowing themselves in.  Hope that last part of the equation isn't a deal-breaker for any of ya'll, because there's some devastatingly catchy moments here.  Enjoy (or not).

01. Beginning All Over
02. Looking Away
03. Break Down Those Walls
04. Never Let Go Now

Hear

The Cinnamon Imperials - I Hope No One Finds Out 7" ep (1996, Broken)

Released at arguably the height of the Bay Area punk/hc '90s revival, The Cinnamon Imperials put out this excellent 45 of spry punk-pop ditties that slotted somewhere north of twee, and a few notches south of that whole riot grrrrl business.  Actually, the Imperials were only comprised of three of the fairer sex, and one of the opposite (the drummer, of course).  Nothing the least bit contrived here - a quartet of minute and a half songs (or thereabouts) that somehow don't draw particular attention to their brevity.  Think Sleater Kinney, but more fun and less angular.  With the exception of bassist Mikel Delgado who graduated to Whysall Lane (Adam Pfahler's post Jawbreaker outfit, circa 2005), I don't know if the remaining Imperials went onto to anything else.  I believe I have a C/I split single lying around somewhere if anyone is game.  Enjoy.

01. Kicked Out
02. Fine Then
03. X Marks the Spot
04. Bored Games, Anyone?

Hear

What should've took months, well it only took hours...

If it's Monday, it's mysterious.  Having difficulty accessing the file?  Please try again a little later.  Too many people hammering the link simultaneously is apparently giving Netkup's servers a headache.  With this in mind, I'll leave this up for a few hours past the usual twenty-four, k?  You're welcome to comment, just don't give away anything obvious.  Enjoy.

http://netkups.com/?d=66f47ce89b5e1

Jo Broadberry and the Standouts (aka Local Operator) - s/t (1980, Revenge)

I had a request for this one, as well as a re-up of the second Jo Broadbery album, The House of Love, which I shared all the way back in 2008.  Technically, Jo Broadbery and the Standouts was originally released in 1980 on Virgin Records, and was labeled and credited to an entirely different music entity, Local Operator.  Under that original guise, the album had a proper title, Pushing Out the Poets, which didn't carry over when it was reissued with thoroughly new sleeve art.  I don't have the scoop on why such a drastic alteration was called for, but my guess is that the label wasn't satisfied with the "optics" of the Local Operator version of the record, and thought that they could better market the group with Jo posing on the album jacket.  Complete speculation on my part, but I believe my theory holds some water.

In a nutshell, this adeptly penned power pop album delivers in spades.  It's heavy Elvis Costello slant serves not so much as the end, rather a durable means for Broadbery and Co. to build on.  Super tight arrangements and the hooks are nothing to sneeze at either.  The aforementioned sophomore record, House of Love proved to be the group's final offering, and tragically, Jo would pass away in 1987 at a relatively tender age.

PVAc to 44.1 kHz blog was originally hosting this one, but the download link isn't functioning.  I took it upon myself to grab it ages ago, so I hope they don't mind we're re-homing it.  Enjoy (or not). 

01. The One That Got Away
02. Put You in Exile
03. Animals Games
04. Mumbo Man
05. Cut Out the Real
06. Temptation
07. Footsteps in the Dark
08. In Disguise
09. Backroom Boys
10. Love is a Conspiracy

Hear

The Joey Sweeney - Barely and by Default tape (1995)

One of my best Ebay cassette discoveries in recent years.  Joey Sweeney is a Philly native, but unbeknownst to me at the time I picked this up, he had previously fronted the Barnabys, an early '90s indie aggregation I had some vague familiarity with.  At this point, I don't exactly recall what the Barnabys were all about, but the five inspired songs comprising Barely and By Default make it evident that Sweeney had heartily devoured the first couple of Pavement albums, and went back to the slacker buffet for more than just seconds.  Truth be told, our man mixes up the prevailing Malkmus vibe with a dash of Westerberg at times, though nothing heavy handed.  Default is credited to The Joey Sweeney, which has me questioning whether this was a solo endeavor or a full blown band.  Hmmm.  From what I've been able to glean online, after this tape he eventually billed himself as The Trouble With Sweeney, but presently his emphasis appears to be on editing and publishing Philebrity.com.  A compilation of his life's musical endeavors, Joey Sweeney Your Life is Calling: 1992-2012 is available on Bandcamp.  Something tells me I'm going to have to re-investigate the Barnabys... 

01. Tiny Ships
02. The Lever, Please
03. Flag Against Princess
04. Friday Evening, Friday Night
05. Agnes Irwin

Hear

One Million Pieces 7" (1990, Phantom)

Aussie import time again, from a band I can find not a shred of info about, save for a Discogs entry.  "Deep Dark Hole" is a taught, bouncy riff-rocker in the vein of 2X4-era Guadalcanal Diary.  I kinda like the chorus harmonies on this one.  The sobering rumination of the flip-side, "I Think I'll Take My Life Tonight" strikes a decidedly bleaker tone to say the least.  Not as intense as say, "The Ledge" by the 'Mats, but in that same arena.  Per the above link, One Million Pieces had two other singles to their credit. 

A. Deep Dark Hole
B. I Think I'll Take My Life Tonight

Hear

Nocturnal Projections (Peter Jefferies) - Nerve Ends in Power Lines (1995, Raffmond)

Prior to his collaborations with a bevy of home country figureheads, not to mention his own outright solo endeavors, noted Kiwi Peter Jefferies made a caustic and occasionally tuneful noise with his brother Graeme in the Nocturnal Projections, circa the early-80s.  While Peter eventually went on to relative notoriety and acclaim, it was Graeme's jittery guitar leads that splattered the Projections canvas with vivid aplomb, particularly on the aggressively fervent "In Purgatory," "Moving Forward," and "Walk in a Straight Line," all of which practically scream "post-punk" from every pore.  Brilliance.  Elsewhere, faint proto-goth gestures ooze their way into NP's sonic slipstream, suggesting that the brothers Jefferies may have been early adopters of Bauhaus and Echo and the Bunnymen.  In their lifespan, the New Zealand quartet released merely a handful of eps.  Nerve Ends in Power Lines compiles various fragments of all of them, padding on unreleased material to boot.  As an extra special bonus, there are no less than four hidden tracks, culled from "self-released cassettes," per The Doledrums blog, who have been thoughtful enough to supply us the titles of which.   

This rip was taken from my own CD copy, which from what I understand is just about as scarce as the original Nocturnal Projections 12" eps.  I've separated all the hidden tracks for your convenience.

01. In Purgatory
02. People Who Told Me
03. Another Year
04. Difficult Days
05. Walk in a Straight Line
06. You'll Never Know
07. No Problems Here
08. Moving Forward
09. Could it Be Increased?
10. Nerve Ends in Power Lines
11. Restoration

hidden tracks
12. The Down Song
13. Alone in the Corner
14. Obsessions
15. Inmates in Images

Hear

Jacob's Mouse - No Fish Shop Parking + first ep reissue!

I received word a couple weeks ago that an album I previously shared, 1991's No Fish Shop Parking by the scrappy UK noisenik threesome Jacob's Mouse had been digitally reissued and was now taking up residence on the pages of Bandcamp.  Thought I'd give everyone a heads up, so these gentlemen can be duly compensated.  Here are a few quips from my original 2011 assessment:

Jacob's Mouse were a raucous, noisenik contingent hailing from the boondocks of Britain who largely went unnoticed, or to put it in more colorful terms were metaphorically trampled by all the Madchester, shoegaze, and Brit-pop trend-hoppers who were making a headlong dive for Glastonbury and Reading mosh pits. "Twist" is the choicest morsel No Fish Shop Parking has to offer, with it's bruising, angular slide guitar riff, not to mention something resembling a damn decent hook.  Bootstrap blog claims this ranks with The Pixies, but surely that's a bit of a stretch, albeit a vaguely similar aesthetic. 

In addition to NFSP, Jacob's Mouse have also digitized their 1990 Dot ep (depicted to your left) for consumption on, you guessed it, Bandcamp!  Conjuring up and even more cacophonous alchemy than what would follow on No Fish, it's no surprise that the five demonstrably dissonant song-things comprising Dot would pass muster with Kurt Cobain, who professed to being a fan of JM.  The group's abrasively-endowed penchant earned considerable praise and promotion from John Peel as well.  Factoring in how gonzo Peel was for The Fall, it's little wonder why he gravitated towards Jacob's Mouse, a trio who arguably raised Mark E. Smith's esoteric template to a decidedly higher, distortion-soaked plateau.  Transport thyself to Bandcamp, and immerse yourself in these delights. 

Lucy Brown - s/t (1988, T.O.G.)

For a handful of you thirty/forty-somethings in the audience, the name Lucy Brown might ring a bell.  Not a woman, rather a D.C. area metal/funk hybrid who released a self-titled album for Atlantic Records in 1991, and had a video in lite rotation on MTV.  The quartet was commandeered by a soulful firebrand of a mouthpiece in Gene Hawkins (R.I.P.) whose timbre approached that of Living Colour's Corey Glover.  In fact, juicy Lucy sounded like Living Colour.  A lot.  So why am I rambling on about this bygone, headbangin' footnote?

Turns out LB started life as a far different beast before enlisting Hawkins as their frontman.  The album I'm sharing today was recorded by the band when they were a trio, with bassist Scott Llewellyn taking care of vocals.  Even in '88 they were dabbling in funked-up bass lines (try "Silly Mind" on for size), but a good half of this record skews towards garden variety, if not relatively melodic hardcore.  However, two excellent post-punk anomalies, "Clouds" and "Don't Know Why," each bearing sweet, echoing chords, are what make Lucy Brown worth investigating.  Stay for the remainder of course (uneven as the going may get), but I bet that aforementioned pair is what will encourage many returns.  Not much info is out there regarding this phase of LB's tenure, save for the fact that this record more or less stuffed.  For what it's worth, the Gene Hawkins-era of the group was commendable, albeit an almost 180 from what you're going to hear amidst these particular grooves.

01. Toys
02. Fair
03. What to Say
04. Clouds
05. Need
06. Slip Away
07. Lucy Brown
08. Lying
09. Silly Mind
10. Don't Know Why
11. Crack
12. I Just Gotta
13. Cave Man

Hear

Orange skies will pick you up.

This weeks offering is a not-too-vintage indie rock nugget from an outfit whose modus operandi isn't far removed from that of a certain middle-aged Ohioan.

Having difficulty accessing the file?  Please try again a little later.  Too many people hammering the link simultaneously is apparently giving Netkup's servers a headache.  With this in mind, I'll leave this up for a few hours past the usual twenty-four, k?  You're welcome to comment, just don't give away anything obvious.  Enjoy.

http://netkups.com/?d=5276540f158e7

Progress report: All 2009-2013 links fixed.

Greetings.  As many of you know, in late January I learned that my file hoster since Wilfully Obscure's inception in 2007, Rapidshare, decided to lock my account without warning, making it impossible to download anything from the site via their links.  Not only that, but I was denied personal access to anything of mine on their server.  You can read more about the situation when it began here.  In short, I had three options: shutter Wilfully Obscure entirely, leave all the broken links as is with the text still intact, or finally, restore as many of the links as I was able to and carry on as I had been.  With some reservations I chose the last of those options, and have thus far restored all the links that I know of dating from the beginning of 2009 to today.  If you see any exceptions, this likely means I am presently unable to locate the file/cd/etc, but I'm working on it

"Reconstruction" has been a huge undertaking, and has absorbed many, many hours over the past two months.  While I plan to get to the remainder (2007-08) up and running agan, I'm wary that as with Rapidshare, my new file hoster, Netkups, could take it away all in instant if they had the inclination.  Netkups isn't quite as convenient as Rapidshare, given they have blackout periods at night that prevent me from uploading anything to their servers due to maintenance on their end (which thankfully, doesn't affect downloading).  To get to the point, I'm relatively enthusiastic about full restoration, but if you see something you want don't sleep on it.  I can only push this boulder up the hill one more time.  We're talking about 1000+ files folks.  One more thing I should add - even though I'm a premium Netkups user, files that are inactive for 30 days or more may or may not be deleted.  Am still trying to get a definite answer on this, but until then, if you see a broken link please email me.

Thanks for your support and patience.

The Opossums - (marsupial eruptus) (1989, Picnic Horn)

Your basic four-guys, rock and roll setup here.  Bought this on a whim, and largely got what I bargained for.  Very strong similarities to Mercyland (likely a coincidence), and to a lesser extent the Smithereens and Nova Mob.  I so wanted to draw a Replacements comparison, if only for the fact that the chap on the left side of the album jacket looks suspiciously like Paul Westerberg, circa 1985.  The closest the Opossums come to mimicking the Mats might be "Alphabet Roadway," easily marsupial eruptus' most aggressive moment, and perhaps finest.  A satisfying experience overall.  No relevant details to be had on these boys, save for an Ann Arbor, MI correspondence address on the back cover.  Apparently, the Picnic Horn Records label was also associated with the marginally more popular Holy Cows, if that's worth anything.

01. 14 Reasons Why
02. (We Would) Break Down
03. Hearts Run Wild
04. My Thing
05. Saturday
06. Roll River
07. In and Out
08. Alphabet Roadway
09. Something's Here
10. Disappearing Waves
11. Farmtown Rita

Hear

Popealopes - Cavalcade (1991, Skyclad)

In honor of the appointment of the new pontiff, I present you with the third album from Davis, CA's Popealopes.  I've dedicated previous entries to these not-so-papal blokes, most recently a review of the Yolo County Line rarities collection, and before that, their first two disks, An Adders Tale and Kerosene.  The Popealopes were a unique collegiate indie proposition, with a penchant for wailing, slow-burning guitar salvos that negotiated a spot between Carlos Santana and Black Francis.  Negligible traces of psych and spaghetti western still manage to crop up, but by the time they hit Cavalcade the Popes' were a bold, well-oiled machine of their own making.  Incidentally the follow-up to this platter, 1994's Slowest Eye is available from Amazon downloads and iTunes. 

01. Monkey Driver
02. Sunyata
03. Water Tower
04. Summer's Triangle
05. Pic
06. Sailor Song
07. Cavalcade
08. Southernmind
09. Knot You
10. Sunyata (remix)

Hear

Fabulous Knobs ep (1980, Moonlight)

Here's one I've been sitting on for awhile, for no particular reason...which I find is often the best reason. The Fabulous Knobs were among the most revered players in North Carolina's fabled Comboland scene throughout the late '70s-mid '80s.  A co-ed five piece, the Knobs focal point was Debra DeMilo, who has been noted as adding a soulful element to her male compatriots.  Taking a relatively straitlaced pop/rock formula and imbuing it with mainstream wave tendencies, that all-enticing "power" quotient rears it's head on the tracks that bookend this record, "Next Big Thing" and "Tired of Hearin' About It," easily winning out as my favorites.  Don Dixon and Mitch Easter earned early production and recording credits, respectively, for the EP, though it hardly bears any of the "new south" sound that I've made a habit of mentioning so frequently. 

Debra parted ways with the Knobs in '84.  Upon recalibrating the band as The Woodpeckers, none other than Dan Baird filled the vacant vocalist slot, but he wasn't long for that position with his new band The Georgia Satellites in the offing.

01. Next Big Thing
02. Fool For Your Love
03. Please You No More
04. I'm Tired of Hearin' About It

Hear

Catching up with Saint Marie Records

Fort Worth, Texas may strike you as an unlikely locale for a taste-making indie label to set roots down, but that's where Saint Marie has operated for about half a decade now, dispensing superlative albums with an emphasis on new-school shoegazer bands, like Spotlight Kid who I fell over the moon for a few months ago on these pages.  I thought I'd dedicate some space to a spate of even more current Saint Marie titles, starting with Panda Riot's Northern Automatic Music.

A Chicago by way of Philadelphia four-piece, the Rebecca Scott-helmed Panda Riot have probably earned their fair share of Lush comparisons, but as pervasive as that particular influence might be (not to mention a woozy schmear of Loveless-esque magic to boot) P/R manage to punch a new hole or two in the tremolo asteroid belt.  Northern Automatic Music succeeds not only by virtue of the competence of it's architects, but by Panda's finagling of the ambient dimmer switch - just enough to keep you guessing which direction the knob is about to spin.  A bit derivative yes, but song for song, NAM is the product of a prodigiously gifted talent.

The obliquely monikered The History of Color TV don't square the dream-pop circle so much as shape-shift it into chilling, oblong permutations, thanks to a treasure trove of avant ebbs and flows.  Grandiose, engulfing, and frankly too challenging to define in a one-hundred word blurb, one thing's for certain - there's way more than My Bloody Valentine worship happening here.  Sweeping flourishes of synths and other electric accoutrements lend an cinematic air to History's seismic finesse, one that won't be lost on acolytes of everyone from Mew to Chapterhouse to Neon Indian.  Go ahead.  Try not to get swept up in Emerald Cures Chic Ills' staggering sonic tsunamis like "I Knew It Was Wrong..." and "Selisse Estates."   

Nightmare Air are another foal in the Saint Marie stable who straddle the digital/six-string divide.  Swaan Miller strikes me as a chanteuse in the offing, singing atop expansive aural vistas, not dissimilar to the ones explored by the likes of Silversun Pickups and Curve.  There's barely a dream-pop glint filtering it's way through High in the Lasers nine chapters of technical ecstasy, but you won't miss it.

If I've whet your appetite for what I've presented above, you're in luck because there's a handy (and very inexpensive) two-CD taster available, Static Waves, featuring pretty much the entirety of the SM roster, as well as a bevy of unaffiliated acts who to one extent or another brandish the same aesthetic, even if it isn't specifically within the dream-pop realm.  Standout selections by Lightfoils, Spotlight Kid, The Sunshine Factory, Jetman Jet Team, Bloody Knives, Blesses Isles, High Violets and Sway, make Static worth the price of admission alone, but on top of that, the bulk of it's 26 contributions are previously unreleased.  Physical copies of all the aforementioned are available direct from Saint Marie, and the usual digital peddlers. 

I’m the cause and you’re the blame.

If it's Monday, it's mysterious.  Having difficulty accessing the file?  Please try again a little later.  Too many people hammering the link simultaneously is apparently giving Netkup's servers a headache.  With this in mind, I'll leave this up for a few hours past the usual twenty-four, k?  You're welcome to comment, just don't give away anything obvious.  Enjoy.

http://netkups.com/?d=d341ede48c52c

Tommy Keene - Retrospective digital bonus (2010)

Tommy Keene has been a relatively frequent mention on Wilfully Obscure, and three years ago when Second Motion Records released his two-disk, career spanning set, You Hear Me - A Retrospective 1983-2009, I offered a rather charitable assessment of it.  And why not, considering the man has given us album after stellar album of intoxicating guitar pop?  As if the 42 tracks occupying that collection weren't enough, Second Motion had a pre-order bonus prior to it's release - an exclusive digital collection of ten Keene rarities.  I for one wasn't about to pass up on the offer, and it was probably the best decision I made that month.  Suffice to say that promo has long come and gone, and as such, I'm placing it directly at your fingertips.  Live cuts, demos, etc.  The tracklist below tells the story.  Hope you enjoy.

01. Places That Are Gone (alt mix by Bill Wittman from Songs From The Film)
02. Stuck On A Ship (Demo 1983 from Dolphin Places That Are Gone EP)
03. Fall Down Too (Unreleased track from T-Bone/Don Dixon album recorded July 1984)
04. All Your Love Will Stay (Home Demo 1999)
05. Eyes of Youth (Home Demo 1999)
06. Never Really Been Gone (Live in Chicago 1998)
07. Nothing Is Grey (demo 1982)
08. Call One Me (Live at Campbell University NC - 1996)
09. Compromise (Live at Campbell University NC - 1996)
10. Love Is A Dangerous Thing / Brad's Boogie (Live at Campbell University NC - 1996)

Hear

Radio Bandits ep (1982, Zoa)

For whatever the reason, my expectations were high for the Radio Bandits, and luckily the first half of this ep is very much commendable - three scoops of deftly crafted power pop, illustrating that this trio (not counting the drummer) truly had "the knack" for what they were attempting to convey.  "Cellophane Girl" is some highly catchy shit, I might add.  As for side deux, our half-hour session plummets rapidly.  "Takes Two Fools" shifts the Bandits into pedestrian gear, tantamount to an AOR holdover from the late '70s.  "Mark of Cain" is an organ laced ballad that could practically pass for a Bruce Springsteen outtake, and the long and oh-so languid "Doublecrossed" barely registers a blip on the enthusiasm meter.  I cannot find a morsel of info on the Bandits anywhere, and for better or worse, this record appears to be their only release in circulation.

01. Suzy
02. Cellophane Girl
03. Tidal Wave
04. Takes Two Fools
05. Mark of Cain
06. Doublecrissed.

Hear

Divine Weeks - Through and Through (1987, Down Here/Restless)

Country time.  Kinda anyway.  You'd be hard pressed to fine a rock album (that still qualifies as one) that boasts more of an Americana vibe than Divine Week's Through and Through.  I'm not so much referring to the "New Depression" variant of alt-country that was codified by the likes of Uncle Tupelo and Ryan Adams in the early '90s, rather the slightly more vintage iteration championed by Green on Red, and to a lesser extent, Lone Justice.  Brimming with twang, heartland fervor, and no shortage of Southern drawl (be it legit or cleverly feigned), Through... cuts an earnest and passionate swath through searing guitar rockers and heavy-handed ballads.  A second Divine Weeks platter, Never Get Used to It, surfaced in 1991.  As a sidenote, Divine Weeks began life as The Need, who were more in the power pop mold from what I've heard.

01. Goddamn Real to Me
02. On a Soapbox
03. Can't Get You Out of My Mind
04. I'm Gonna Fall
05. Bitterness
06. Black Eye to the Sky
07. Dry September
08. In the Country (for Jim Carroll)
09. Higher Ground
10. When I Go
11. Wide Eyed

Available on Bandcamp with lots of bonus swag.

I for one would not believe it...

If it's Monday, it's mysterious.  Having difficulty accessing the file?  Please try again a little later.  Too many people hammering the link simultaneously is apparently giving Netkup's servers a headache.  With this in mind, I'll leave this up for a few hours past the usual twenty-four, k?  You're welcome to comment, just don't give away anything obvious.  Enjoy.

http://netkups.com/?d=33cd4b1c53733

Sugar Drive 7" (1994, Honeychain)

I bought this one for the cover - heck, the damn color scheme alone for that matter.  Passing judgement by Sugar Drive's moniker alone, I was expecting something in the dream pop arena.  The closest similarity to that particular realm might be a band like Smashing Orange (remember them?).  Both songs exhibit no small quotient of swirly guitars, but the emphasis is much more fixated on the groove.  Sugar Drive exuded the whole Madchester psyche-rock motif, but spared us from the druggy overtones of the Happy Mondays and Brit accents.  I'm pretty certain this quartet was stationed in the Los Angeles area.

A. One Time
AA. Bumfuzzle

Hear

Jane From Occupied Europe - Coloursound (1991, 7%)

If the name Jane From Occupied Europe rings a bell, you've probably encountered the Swell Maps album of the same name.  As it turns out, a Salisbury UK five-piece adopted it as their moniker of choice, and managed to eke out this album and a couple of eps.  In 2009 JFOE unveiled their own blogspot page and hosted MP3s of their entire recorded output, but since the links have expired, I took it upon myself to make Coloursound available since I'm nothing short of mightily impressed by it.

Having little in common with the Swell Maps' shambolic, post-punk cacophonies, JFOE clad the chiming appeal of C86 indie pop to unmistakable psyche overtones without overdoing either.  Think very early Stone Roses with murkier fidelity and perhaps you'll get the gist of Jane's fuzzy charm.  Cleaners From Venus and Telescopes wouldn't be inaccurate signposts either..  Enjoy, and btw, I'm finally going to have the opportunity to rip some more vintage vinyl in the coming days.

01. Mourning Glass
02. Parade
03. Drift 13
04. Loss
05. Trash - a303
06. God's Sonic Telephone
07. Obsession
08. Synaesthesia

Hear