Thursday, November 29, 2018

Menorahs in chaos - Festival of Lights BFD thing returns this Sunday evening.

Is it Chanukah time already folks?   Feels like we just did this thing eleven months or so ago.  The holiday falls roughly a month earlier this year than it did in '17, in case you were keeping score at home.  Makes no difference, as I intend to spoil you (to the best of my ability) with an eight day barrage of cherished vintage records and extra special bootlegs.  This annual exercise in the elevation of my blood pressure is your potential goldmine.

Starting in 2012, I decided to spread the goodies out over the eight nights of Chanukah (check out the preliminary details for 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017.  This made sense on a couple of levels.  For one, it gives me a convenient excuse to share several mind-blowing "gifts" instead of just one explosion on Christmas.  Secondly, Chanukah represents personal relevance to me.  We all know you were envious of that boy down the block who had a yarmulke festooned to his head, who was given the privilege of lighting the menorah, and of course, reveling in eight glorious nights of presents.  Once again, I'm paying it forward.  Previous Chanukah entries have featured Wire, Velocity Girl, Jellyfish, Husker Du and Redd Kross, but name recognition is hardly a guarantee.  As in past years, there will definitely be familiar faces, but also several participants that have never garnered face-time on W/O.

At the top of each Chanukah upload will be a thumbnail photo of a menorah, with the appropriate number of lit candles to denote each succeeding evening until all eight slots in the candelabra are occupied on the concluding night, December 9th.

All of this begs the question, "Has Wilfully Obscure been holding out on us for the last 11 months?"  Somewhat...but not quite.  In short, the presents I plan on revealing over the eight nights of Chanukah are of considerably high caliber.  I like to think that everything I share qualifies as good to excellent, but to paraphrase that sage Orwellian dictum, some are more equal than others.

Kindly bear the following in mind:
  • Look for the first Chanukah posting this Sunday evening, and then for the remaining seven nights 'round supper time all next week.
  • Mystery Monday will be taking a break this coming Monday (Dec 3rd) so as not to interrupt the continuity of the eight consecutive nights of the holiday.
  • If I can offer files in FLAC (in addition to standard MP3) I will.  If I don't post a FLAC download link for a certain title you can assume it's not available in that format.
  • No singles this year.  Apologies in advance.
And as always, download responsibly.  Cheers.

Wednesday, November 28, 2018

November Group - s/t ep (1982, Modern Method)

Thought I'd post this while it was still relevant to the month.  Boy, from what I was able to scrounge up on this dual-female led Boston troupe I was under the impression they specialized in cold, expressionless dadaist dance music a la Big Black or something.  Yeah, I suppose there's some inherent rigidity to November Group, rhythm-wise if anything, but overall not only is this a lot more breathable than I expected, but outright catchy on repeat spins. Gotta love "Shake it Off" and my favorite, "Pictures of the Homeland." I'm easily picking up on traces of Gang of Four and Pylon, but don't be surprised if your conclusions differ.  This was ripped from a rather dodgy piece of wax, so perhaps a re-rip will be in order if I happen upon a cleaner copy.

01. Shake It Off
02. Flatland
03. Pictures of the Homeland
04. We Dance
05. Popular Front

Hear

Tuesday, November 27, 2018

Reviews you can use - Posies Amazing Disgrace deluxe reissue, plus new Bill Lloyd and Hot Nun.

Originally seeing the light of day in 1995, Amazing Disgrace is the latest in Omnivore's expanded reissue series of the Posies early catalog.  It's gotten the reputation of being a particularly 'difficult' album, if only for the band themselves.  Lacking the comparatively quaint romantic naivety and niceties of their first two installments, Failure and Dear 23, and even to a certain extent the pop braininess infiltrating their breakthrough Frosting on the Beater, Disgrace added more than a modicum of musculature to the mix, albeit not gratuitously.  But how exactly did, that extra oomph and heaviness factor in to the Posies fourth record?  Some speculated that Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow were pressured to compete with the Soundgardens of the world, but if that were the case Bellingham, WA's finest wouldn't have drizzled "Hate Song" and "Song #1" with so much melody one would think their very lives depended on it.  In fact, 'downcast' or even 'fraught" might be the more apropos nomenclatures to attach to Disgrace, then say, 'outraged' or 'cumbersome.'  Truth was, going into the project the Posies dual architects were beginning to feel jaded by the mechanisms of the major label politics they were now keenly a party to on Geffen Records.  There had also been significant infighting that ultimately brought the departure of the band's longtime rhythm section, Mike Musburger and Dave Fox.

Make no mistake, the boys cut and angsty, amped-out swath over the course of Disgrace like no record of theirs before or since.  Yet even songs with pointedly bitter titles as "Everybody is a Fucking Liar," and "Daily Mutilation," can still ooze barrels of saccharine and stay etched in your short term memory for days.  "Fight It (If You Want It)," "Please Return It" and the boppy power-pop reprieve of "Ontario" are worth their weight in hook-addled gold, even in spite of the Posies having seemingly ditched their affection for Big Star - at least on this album anyway.  And I'd be remiss if I failed to say a few words about "Grant Hart," the Ken Stringfellow penned tribute to then-alive and well Husker Du drummer/songsmith.  In addition to the clever, spot-on plaudits, the Posies really nail the aforementioned trio's singular aesthetic, veritably mimicking the Husker's Zen Arcade-era guitar sprawl, rendering the song just as much an homage to co-conspirator Bob Mould as Hart.

The original incarnation of Amazing Disgrace numbered a relatively generous fourteen tracks, but the addition of 22 supplemental numbers on Omnivore's reboot reeks of joyous overkill.  A plethora of the bonus cuts are demos that overlap with the now out of print At Least At Last Posies rarities box, but there's a total of nine songs exclusive to this reissue.  As was the case with the demos that cropped up on the expanded versions of Dear 23 and Frosting on the Beater, the early sketches of soon-to-be-Posies classics are stunning and damn near revelatory in themselves.  And you get most of A/D's attendant b-sides, including album worthy stunners "Sad to be Aware," "Limitless Expressions," as well as preview of "Every Bitter Drop" which would appear on the band's subsequent Success album.  The CD version of Amazing Disgrace is available now thru Omnivore and Amazon, with the vinyl set to drop mid-December.

You may know him from the bygone country duo Foster and Lloyd, but I know Bill Lloyd from his more pop-centric solo endeavors like Feeling the Elephant and Set to Pop circa the late '80s and into the Clinton-era.  I would have surmised that he totally dropped off the radar, but in fact he's still mining that plaintive guitar pop muse of his, and has a new record, Working the Long Game to show for it.  Most notably it features songwriting collaborations with the likes of Tom Peterson (yes the Cheap Trick alum). Freedy Johnston and even 10cc's Graham Gouldman.  These pairings don't always make for songs that are as captivating as they might appear on paper, yet the further you burrow into Long Game, things begin to catch fire especially when you hit the second half.  You get the notion that Lloyd might be leaning his ears into recent Teenage Fanclub not to mention Wilco circa Summerteeth.  Not a bad place for one's creative juices to being stewing.  Best of all, if you dig the vibe here, Lloyd hasn't been so invisible of late at all, having released a covers record, Lloydering, just two years ago that you can check out as well.  As for Working the Long Game, it's available straight from Spyderpop Records, Amazon, CD Baby and iTunes.

Hot Nun.  The name conjures up images of an over-clothed old bitty standing adjacent to a cactus in Death Valley or Bakersfield, or something.  In reality, it's the side-hustle of one Jeff Shelton, who you may know from the more renown Well Wishers, and formally. Spinning Jennies.  Even more so than Hot Nun's 2013 debut, his latest, a bruising but cruising half dozen tunes, Born to Blaze, splatters even more gasoline on the inferno in question, with careening doses of unremitting power chords.  Think power-pop with barreling riffs a la Judas Priest on the introductory "Livin a Dirty Mind," and how 'bout a bona fide hardcore punk outburst in the guise of "It's Just Right?"  Blaze is more aggro than just about anything in Shelton's arsenal to date, just don't expect anything quite in the mold of Motorhead or Maiden.  Let the flames lick ya over at CD Baby, Bandcamp and Amazon. PS: As a bonus, Hot Nun recently posted a primo Black Sabbath cover on Soundcloud.

Sunday, November 25, 2018

The Hardback Cafe closed down, now we've got Office Town.

Four eps from four disparate artists, all of which may not be to your liking.  It's been awhile since I've done one of these, but it's back by semi-popular request. 

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

Hear

Saturday, November 24, 2018

Johnny Flame (Superdrag) - Sings the Beatles... and more.

I was bitten by the Superdrag bug, right around the release of the SeƱorita 7" in 1994, and I've followed the exploits of frontman Jonathan Davis ever since.  Presently inactive, during their first blush in the '90s, virtually ever Superdrag single and album that came down the pike was something of a revelation, and Knoxville, TN's finest rarely, if ever, turned in a half baked song.  With the advent of the internet, and more specifically message boards, Napster and such I was able to delve even deeper into the nooks and crannies of Davis and Co., and learned of some of the band's extracurricular functions.  

One of Davis' moonlighting endeavors was/is Johnny Flame.  This lo-fi alter-ego, if you will, seems to have gestated in the very late '90s, possibly as recently as 2000 or so.  The JF umbrella was predominantly set up as an informal vehicle for Davis to get a myriad of cover songs out of his system.  And that he does on the 25 or so tunes I'm setting you up with today, including no less than seventeen Beatles renditions.  The audio quality leaves a bit to be desired, with all tracks ranging from 128 to 160 kbps rate.  It's easy top pick up on the muffled and less than pristine fidelity, but Davis is faithful to the original structures of the tunes, albeit recreating them within DIY constructs, employing cheap synths, effects and the like from time to time.  In addition to the mondo Fab Four homage there's another folder with ten additional tunes, about half of which are readings of Misfits classics.  Appropriately enough, they take to task "September Gurls" as well, plus Husker Du and My Bloody Valentine covers among others.  Enjoy.

Johnny Flame Sings the Beatles
Thank You Girl/I Should Have Known Better/You're Going to Lose That Girl/Nowhere Man/Wait/Norwegian Wood/Rain/And Your Bird Can Sing/She Said She Said/For No One, I'm Only Sleeping/Blue Jay Way/Happiness is a Warm Gun/Everybody Has Something to Hide/I'm So Tired/Helter Skelter/I Want You

plus:
Beginning  to See the Light/Bullet/First of the Last Calls/Horror Hotel/I Turned Into a Martian/Never Understand/September Gurls/Sympathy for the Devil/When You Sleep/Where Eagles Dare

https://www69.zippyshare.com/v/PeioMlQ5/file.html

Tuesday, November 20, 2018

The Uncalled Four - s/t ep (1990, El Goodo)

Well, when I did a query on these folks I brought up references to a current act named The Uncalled Four that are unrelated to this one, as well as another combo of the same moniker from the '60s...but alas, nothing relevant to the nearly three decade past Oakland quartet this entry concerns.  I suppose you could usher these fellows in the collegiate power-pop neighborhood (with one of those contingents being more applicable than the other depending on the song).  For the first couple of tunes, the Miracle Legion might be a loose reference point, and the guitars even resemble the Smithereens here and there.  "Set Me Straight" is way more potent, sparking a vibrant flurry of bash 'n pop power chords.  Things conclude on a curious note with the 88-second "Deleted" that juxtapositions from an acoustic ballad to something startlingly more combustible.

01. Bodie
02. Butterfly
03. Set Me Straight
04. Another Half Pint
05. Deleted

Hear

Sunday, November 18, 2018

Swiss time is on the move...

From 1999.

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

Hear

Saturday, November 17, 2018

The Dead Boys - Younger, Louder, and Snottier - The Rough Mixes (1997, Bomp)

To this day, I'm still trying to get my head wrapped around the term "rough mix."  Does this translate into "unmixed" or "casually mixed," or even "carelessly mixed?"  All I know is that pre-album mixes (or lack thereof) can sound palpably different from the finished product we pluck off the shelves.  In the case of the first Dead Boys album, Young, Loud and Snotty, the seminal punk record in question didn't sound particularly glossy in the first place.  On this incarnation of the LP, the overarching effect is less bass-y, Cheetah Chrome's guitar wails are a tad more prominent, are the background vocals are more discernible...and that's "roughly" (sorry, couldn't resist) the extent of the discrepancies.  I'm not privy to the fact if actual demos exist for YL&S, but I couldn't imagine them sounding to far off the mark from these unfettered takes.

Young, Loud and Snotty isn't one of my desert island picks, but it did make an impact.  It's even more rollicking at times than Never Mind the Bollocks, not to mention less calculated.  The Dead Boy's follow-up, We've Come For Your Children is nearly as potent as their debut but is rarely if ever mentioned.  Funny that.  Anyway, the Boys found a replacement fill-in for Stiv Bators a few years ago.  They've commenced touring, and have even gone to the effort of re-recording YL&S with said replacement.  Will wonders never cease...

01. Sonic Reducer
02. All This and More
03. What Love Is
04. Not Anymore
05. Ain't Nothin' to Do
06. Caught With The Meat In Your Mouth
07. Hey Little Girl
08. I Need Lunch
09. High Tension Wire
10. Down in Flames

Hear

Thursday, November 15, 2018

Splatcats - tape (199?)

The Splatcats rarely come up in conversation these days, if ever - even in their misbegotten home turf of Buffalo, NY.  But in their brief reign during the mid' 80s right up to the dawn of the Clinton era, these gents proved to be one of the most reliable and competent combos on the circuit, even generating ripples all the way over in Europe.  Sporting a penchant for ballsy rock with a delightfully punky verve, and even some garagey undercurrents, the band released a trio of remarkably consistent albums between 1986-90, with their debut Sin 73 garnering then the most notoriety.  Their earliest material loosely hovered in the vicinity of contemporaries the Lime Spiders, and by the time their 1990 swan song, Right On! was rolled out (albeit exclusively overseas to the frustration of local fans), the boys took a more linear tact.  This cassette only compendium (not an official release) focuses on the 'Cats latter era, offering a side of then brand new material, while the flip functioned as a six-song sampler for Right On!  

No copyright date is provided, but I would peg this tape right around 1991.  Some of the band's final cuts truly were their finest, with the smart "Smile Jenny, You're Dead" and "Susan, God & I," exuding a bright, tuneful penchant vaguely channeling the Replacements, and more accurately that band's unheralded acolytes the Magnolias and Junk Monkeys.  To my knowledge the first seven songs here are resident to this release only.  Perhaps another Splatcats morsel or two will drop on this site in the future.

Side 1: new stuff
01. Supercharger
02. Smile Jenny, You're Dead
03. Requiem for a Heavy Date
04. Desperate Living
05. Susan, God & I
06. Bad Penny
07. Keep Your Pants On

Side 2: selections from Right On!
08. In Like Flynn
09. Bedknobs and Broomsticks
10. Gordon Ritchie
11. Cost of Admission
12. Lights, Cameram, Action!
13. Fort Apache

Hear

Sunday, November 11, 2018

I'd throw myself at this house to break windows and smash walls...

It just dawned on me that this disk turned twenty this year.  Sometime in 1998 a friend told me these guys sounded like Lifetime and that I'd love them.  Gladly, she was correct on both of those claims.  They've been a part of my life since, and even though they vastly outdid themselves on subsequent records, I was pretty dazzled with this debut at the time.

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

Hear

Thursday, November 8, 2018

The Raves - Past Perfect Tense 1980-89 (1992, Hologramophone)

Here's a band that time forgot...but Not Lame didn't.  No, this wasn't a Not Lame Records release, rather a title I procured from their distribution arm of other labels they were thankfully carrying.  This Atlanta era quartet had roots all the way back to an early-70s group, Nod, before rechristening themselves as The Raves in the subsequent decade.  Unabashed power pop was their calling card, rooted in the likes of the Raspberries, but in practice more tangibly resembling Shoes, The Rubinoos, and a variety of their equally obscuro contemporaries on the Titan Records imprint (e.g. the Secrets and Arlis).  A handful of the songs here are culled from The Color of Tears LP, but the bulk of them are unreleased.  I don't have liner notes to refer to, as my copy only came with a b&w tracklist with no credits or background details to speak of.  The Raves were immensely competent and gratifying, and in fact their only shortcoming (if it can even be referred to as such) was their likeness to a myriad of similar combos during their tenure.  A second comp of Raves (and Nods) material supposedly saw the light of day in 2002 but seems to have vanished upon release. 

01. Every Little Bit Hurts
02. C'est la Vie
03. Make Up Your Mind
04. Now You've Really Done It
05. I Can't Take Anymore
06. Whatever She Says
07. I Bet You're Lonely Too
08. Calling Your Name
09. It Doon't Matter At All
10. When She's Gone
11. To Your Face
12. Nevermore
13. Any Way You Can
14. My, My, My
15. Tonight It's Gonna be Great
16. Chastity

Hear

Monday, November 5, 2018

Permanent Green Light - Hallucinations & The Death of Rock: Peter Holsapple vs. Alex Chilton (2016, Omnivore) - A brief review.

I'll admit it.  Even I've privately referred to Permanent Green Light as "That post-Three O'Clock band."  I didn't have an immediate allegiance to PGL, if only because my intro to the was not through one of their originals, rather a B-52s cover on the Freedom of Choice compilation.  No, in order to really see the Light, I started with the ringleader's (Michael Quercio) more renown predecessor band, the aforementioned Three O'Clock.  During their mid/late '80s tenure, TO'C christened the very namesake of the movement they were the quintessential vanguard of - the Paisley Underground.  Alongside local L.A. contemporaries Dream Syndicate, Rain Parade and even pre-stardom Bangles, the Three O'Clock married a forward thinking collegiate rock aesthetic with the more docile affectations of '60s psych-pop.  From a sonic standpoint, this melange wasn't as sub-rosa as I may be leading on, but the subtle nuances these groups exuded went along way in earning them copious amounts of critical acclaim and cult status.

By 1990, The Three O'Clock were more than half past their anointed hour, and the next year saw the first flurry of activity by Quercio's newly activated Permanent Green Light, a trio fleshed out with emerging area indie stalwarts Matt Devine (bass) and Chris Bruckner (percussion).  Not a total 180 from what TO'C were about (but nonetheless a horse of a demonstrably different color) PGL's aptitude proved to be a whip smart dalliance of power pop and the more cerebral quotient of ‘90s alt-rock.  Survived by an ep, the 1993 full-length Against Nature, and a clutch of singles, the band's catalog has been cherry picked for the newly minted compendium Hallucinations, an album that makes an almost air-tight argument for PGL, even more consistent and inviting than the individual releases it's sourced from.

Michael Quercio has a fairly unmistakable timbre - high, running just shy of a falsetto.  It was an ideal fit for Three O'Clock's more whimsical New-Romantic forays, but how did that translate to a power trio template?  Surprisingly apropos, in fact, as PGL's comparatively muscular tact never exceeded to the point where Quercio was forced to overpower the music.  Possessing a stupefying array of sophisticated, melodic chops didn't hurt either, acutely evidenced on "The Truth This Time," "Street Love," and "(You & I Are The) Summertime."  And these guys packed a visceral wallop as well, with stinging slammers like "Honestly" and "We Could Just Die" which soared in the same airspace as Redd Kross and Frosting on the Beater-era Posies.  I should also point out that Michael gave guitarist Matt Devine the "green light" to pen and present some of his own songs, yielding the spare ballads "Portmanteau" and "Marianne Gave Up Her Hand."

Were it not for the fact that Permanent Green Light releases were confined to such small labels (predominantly Gasatanka, a subsidiary of Rockville Records helmed by recently deceased White Flag frontman Bill Bartell) there wouldn't be a need for such an exhumation as Hallucinations.  Nonetheless, even if PGL are a posthumous discovery to most there's some fantastic music here that's far better discovered later than never.

File The Death of Rock under: Peter Holsapple, Alex Chilton, Big Star, The dB's, proto-power pop, or simply under informal recordings.  Music fandom can take a person a long way.  In the case of one future dB's co-frontman Peter Holsapple, the man in question was so enamored with the first two Big Star albums, he headed to the band's hallowed home turf of Memphis, TN to track some recordings at the storied Sam Phillips Studios.  It was his intention to imbibe some of the vibes that made the Birthplace of Rock and Roll what it was, and perhaps cross paths with his "mentor" Alex Chilton himself.

The Death of Rock is and never was intended to be a proper album.  It exists as an artifact to document a mildly haphazard collection of 1978 recordings cut by an ambitious Holsapple who set out to be something of a Chilton protege.  Only thing was, by this time Alex had very much fallen out of love with the brand of semi-precious pop that gracefully adorned Big Star's Radio City and #1 Record landmark albums, and was very much in the process of forging his own path, soon to be evidenced on the freewheeling and genre dabbling Like Flies on Sherbert.  The first quotient of Death is actually pretty together, with Holsapple previewing two of the dB's signature pieces, the lusciously hooky "Bad Reputation," and nearly as potent "We Were Happy There."  The centerpiece of these glorified demos is the ambitious title track, channeling what both contemporary Rolling Stones and The Who had notched themselves up to the late '70s.  Amazingly, the song would be given to the Troggs who would retool it into a song dubbed "I'm in Control" for a 1992 reunion album.

Midway through the recordings, Holsapple managed to corner Alex Chilton in a Memphis bar.  A belittling compliment from Chilton directed to his junior ultimately led to a jam session, which is what the second tranche of songs on Death zero in.  Per Holsapple's liner notes, AC ambled into Sam Phillips studio shortly after for some casual woodshedding - and the results were caught on tape. Problem was, the very loose collaboration appeared to be intended as a demonstration by Chilton, not so much a substantive recording session.  Wielding a painfully untuned bass, the former Big Star/Box Tops wunderkind joined Peter in a seemingly impromptu bluesy piece "Tennis Bum," concerning Chris Bell's fixation for the pastime. "Marshall Law" is similarly cut from less-than-structured cloth, and jammy renditions of "Train Kept a Rollin'" and "Hey Mona" were also priorities of the moment, and in fact make a more lasting impression than the aforementioned Chilton originals.  In all frankness this brief meeting of the minds was likely never intended to see the light of day, but it points to the looser direction Alex was embracing, just as his counterpart was striving to be the popsmith his icon was merely five years or so before.

The Death of Rock rounds out with a grab-bag of session leftovers, mostly of Holsapple rehearsal takes including the title cut, "Bad Reputation," and even some very brief finaglings of Big Star's "O My Soul" and "In the Street."  Just don't get your hopes up as far as those renditions.  Generally speaking this is not your traditional "reissue," nor is it representative of the quintessence of anyone involved.  Nothing seminal here, merely a few moments in time captured on tape, passed along digitally to whomever may be eager enough to experience it.

Both Hallucinations and The Death of Rock are available direct from Omnivore or iTunes and Amazon.

Sunday, November 4, 2018

So when the atom age collects it's toll...

1989 album from trio of downstate New York lads.  Bit of an acquired taste this one.

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

Hear

Saturday, November 3, 2018

The Delfields - Ogres (2008)

Surprisingly, the internet doesn't have much to offer on The Delfields despite this album having only been in existence for ten years.  In terms of band-specific details, I can only inform you that these are five NJ cats who seem to have an affinity for Office Space, based on their depiction on the back of the cd case.  Luckily, their album is considerably more enticing.  Ogres is bejeweled in shimmering, lucid indie pop, tuned into the given intelligentsia of the time - Shins, early Rogue Wave and even Outrageous Cherry.  We're served nine concise slices here, and the Delfields don't piddle away a second on anything frivolous or contrived.  Be sure to indulge in the sprite "Fawn Fight" for maximum sustained tingle inducement.

01. A Slippery Slope
02. Honest
03. Francine
04. Short Sleeves
05. Ogres
06. Solvents and Vacuums
07. Our Beds
08. Fawn Fight
09. Highlands

Hear

Thursday, November 1, 2018

The Lift - Nearly Gear! (1985, Roo)

Hailing from the not oft spoken locale of Newport News, VA, The Lift weave some intermittent magic across the dozen song (and one stray chord) Nearly Gear!  The album jacket suggests this trio might be of rockabilly stock, but to far greater delight they apply a bevy of advanced maneuvers within our sometimes routine left-of-the-dial environs.  I say intermittent in the respect that the Lift have a tendency to diverge from song to song, resembling a cornucopia of their contemporaries.  The band light the pleasure sensors ablaze on "Plush With Blonde" and "Monetary Means," emanating the stripe of creative juices Matthew Sweet did with his early Buzz of Delight endeavor, and ditto for such oddly alluring combos from Wilfully Obscure's back pages like Cannon Heath Down and Square Root of Now.  Something Fierce comes to mind as well.  When the Lift shift into peak performance, Nearly Gear! resembles some sort of long lost Mitch Easter production credit.  Elsewhere, we're allotted a par excellence serving of power pop in the guise of  "Good Head," and "This Is Bad's" Johnny Marr inflected jangle is nearly as sublime.  Despite some demonstrable inconsistencies this record still manages to border on a revelation.

BTW, Lift fulcrum Bryan Forrest has a Reverbnation page featuring music from a variety of his endeavors, including the one I just introduced you to.  Well worth exploring.  

01. Nothing Sacred
02. Fair Airplane
03. Plush With Blonde
04. Monetary Means
05. To Have and to Hold
06. Shift the Edge
07. This of That
08. This is Bad
09. Swayed (Scottish Mix)
10. She Gets By
11. Good Head
12. Must I?
13. Paul's Lost Really Gear Chord

Hear