Every Chanukah I tend to alternate between offering up a volley of singles or a trio of eps, and this year I opted for the latter. Even with just three records, it's the equivalent of three regular blog entries, so I try to make them count, and even made a point of taking to task three acts that have somehow never made an appearance on W/O prior to this evening. So without further ado, let's have at it, starting with...
...
Green Ice, who hailed from the 'burbs of Seattle, and are just one of many acts I've shared from the greater Emerald City that possessed not a smidgen of grunge in their DNA. Even more so, none of the gents in this quartet (to my knowledge anyway) parlayed their talents to higher visibility endeavors post G/I. That's a shame, because the men in question boasted three-minute, power-pop moxie for days and turned in four bona fide keepers on their lone record, with "Breakdown at Geneva" taking the 'lost-classic' cake. I know that some of you might be begging me for comparisons, and although none in particular come to mind, Green Ice would've slotted in on
Strum & Thrum seamlessly.
Green Ice - s/t ep (1986)
01. Breakdown at Geneva
02. Color Blue
03. Talking in Tongues
04. Shattered Eyes
Though some of us wouldn't be prone to admitting it, a sizable block of the
Zulus humble fanbase only learned of the group after the fact, when it was revealed circa the release of
Sugar's 1992 smash,
Copper Blue, that drummer
Malcom Travis could vouch for role of Zulus (not to mention HSR) percussionist on his resume to boot. In actuality, the fulcrum of the Zulus was
Larry Bangor and
Rich Gilbert, two of the more prominent alum of Boston's artful kinksters
Human Sexual Response. Bangor's near-maudlin vocal histrionics went a long way in defining the Zulus' edgy post-punk inclinations. Though by and large the foursome in question had some divine creative juices flowing concerning the "Bones" ep depicted to your left, the same wasn't said for their debut full length, 1989's
Down on the Floor, which encouraged many to crow the band's rough edges had been sanded down. At any rate, fast forward to 2020. Long having been defunct, the Zulus released the sprawling multi-disk
Cockfight in a Bullring, an archive of their early epoch featuring two CDs of studio material - all the tunes from this ep, previews of songs to be revamped for
Down on the Floor, and roughly two full albums' worth of wholly unique songs that saw the light of day for the first time. The Z's even reunited for a proper 2022 sophomore album,
Outer Space, which I evidently slept on.
The Zulus - s/t ep (1985, Greenworld)
01. I Can't Wait To Tell You The News
02. At the Subway
03. Back to Sleep
04. Kings In The Queen City
05. Can't Stop Having Fun
06. Gotta Have Faith
"But I only liked their early stuff!" he decried. That certainly isn't the case for every band I follow (I suppose a few prime examples would be Husker Du, Jimmy Eat World and The National, among loads of others), but for my time and money,
That Petrol Emotion never surpassed their 1986 debut,
Manic Pop Thrill, not by a longshot as far as I was concerned. Even a recent discography
box set wasn't able to get me on board for the remainder of their repertoire. Incredibly, there were still a few odds and ends circa-
Manic that the aforementioned box missed, many of which found a home on
In the Beginning. Composed of 1985 recordings made when the band was still an indie proposition,
Beginning culls together non-LP goodies like their ace early single, "Keen," b-sides "Happiness Drives Me Around the Bend," "V2," and a pair of drumless 4-track demos. I wouldn't say this 10" is the most ideal way to acquaint yourself with the Petrol's stripe of UK indie pop spiked with user-friendly psychedelia, but it's a rewarding footnote.
That Petrol Emotion - In the Beginning ep (2016, rec. 1985)
01. Keen
02. V2
03. Zig Zag Wanderer
04. Happiness Drives Me Around the Bend
05. Keen (4-track demo)
06. V2 (4-track demo)
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