Feel the world tapping on my shoulder...

Recordings from 1987-89.  The word impeccable comes to mind.  Don't pass on this!

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

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Pavement - Red Asphalt (1993, Bloody Buddies)

This is essentially nothing more than a bootleg of an early-ish Pavement gig circa the spring of '92 (right around the time Slanted and Enchanted hit shelves), and a Peel Session.  Sounds like a soundboard taping, though this really doesn't entail the swanky sonic aesthetics of a 'proper' live album. You can't go wrong with a setlist like this.  Upon finding this I dove right into the unrecognized "She Believes," which actually starts off as "Greenlander," Pave's contribution to the renown Born to Choose compilation. For more fun, make sure to check out another Pavement banger I've been sharing for a good fourteen years now.    

Uptown Lounge, Minneapolis, MN 6/11/92

01. Here

02. Perfume V

03. Frontwards

04. Home

05. Conduit for Sale

06. Summer Babe

07. Texas Never Whispers

08. No Life Singed Her

09. Loretta's Scars

10. Trigger Cut

11. In the Mouth a Desert

12. Debris Slide

13. Two States

14. Zurich is Stained

15. Lions

16. Angel Carver Blues

17. From Now On

18. Greenlander/She Believes

19. Box Elder

20. So Stark

Peel Session 7/10/92

21. Circa 1762

22. Kentucky Cocktail

23. Secret Knowledge Of Backroads

24. Here

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Skyscraper/Grady Sisters 7" (1995, Omnibus)

Haven't posted a split single in awhile, and this one features a band that's brand new to these pages, Skyscraper.  Ostensibly hailing from Davis, CA the coed foursome in question, whip up a fury of serrated guitars and distortion sounding some like three parts Jawbreaker and one (or two) parts Archers of Loaf, circa Icky Mettle.  Their side of this wax, "Rockgirl" is the only tune of theirs that I've been enlightened to, and though they didn't persist long enough to give us an album, a couple of other Skyscraper items are floating around, if you can locate them.  The Grady Sisters were another Cali indie-rock proposition, whose 1993 ep on Geometric Records I offered a few years ago.  The Sisters' contribution to this 45, "Meridian" loosely hovers in the vicinity of their east coast contemporaries Chisel (yep, Ted Leo & Co.). Satisfying if not particularly remarkable.  

A. Skyscraper - Rockgirl

B. Grady Sisters - Meridian

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Five stripes shining in the sunlight.

From 1998.  The saucy sophomore LP from a Scottish band with a Japanese name.  

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

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The Trend - Crash the Bash (1980-96)

It's hard to believe that original copies of a single minted by a teen punk band from Syracuse, NY circa 1980 has fetched as much as $2000.  You can credit The Trend to that unlikely feat. Presented in reverse-chronological order, Crash the Bash, features both songs from that collectible 45 ("Electric Chair" b/w "Band-Aid"), and the trio's 1982 platter Batman Live at the Budokan, alongside unreleased material and reunion songs.  That reunion unfortunately didn't entail one of the Trend's principal members, singer/guitarist J. Marc Patenaude who perished in a 1985 car crash.

Though somewhat rudimentary, not to mention highly topical, The Trend's mid-tempo forte was competent with surprisingly robust arrangements. The Dead Boys or the Saints this trio were not, but they have moments here that almost parallel the Buzzcocks circa their nascent Spiral Scratch ep, bearing some of the same sardonic heft.  Another loose comparison might be the Trends' Belgium contemporaries The Kids, but you're no doubt bound to draw parallels of your own. Love their spot-on rendering of the Mats' "Color Me Impressed," and they also delve into the Damned's Strawberries-era "Dozen Girls."

A thoughtful bio on the band can be read here, and the aforementioned Batman Live... was reissued in limited quantities on the always impressive Japanese Air Mail imprint.

01. Crash the Bash

02. Color Me Impressed

03. Isn't It Mine

04. Dozen Girls

05. Bake Bread Not War

06. Anyone But Me

07. Winneego

08. (Don't) Drink and Drive

09. Candy Striper

10. Office Friendly

11. The Butler Did It

12. Giddy Up and Go

13. Mommy is a Jilt

14. Quaranteen Teen

15. Pop Star

16. Toy Section

17. Peer Pressure

18. Zinc Tabletz

19. Don't Talk to Her

20. Electric Chair

21. Band-Aid

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