I'm mixing the facts around...

An often impeccable sophomore album from '86.

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

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Mirrour - Black and White (1984, Windmill)

Yet another one I took a sheer gamble on.  Went into this one expecting something along the lines of Shoes, Rubinoos, heck maybe even the Bay City Rollers.  In the grand scheme of things, Mirrour had sort of a bedroom DIY thing in mind instead, with precious little of the aesthetics I had predicted.  They were certainly situated in the pop/rock realm, but in spite of the serious visages gracing the album jacket this L.A. quartet were a cheeky lot, with no less than two topical numbers ("It's Only School" and "Get the Edge") pertaining to the nature of compulsory education.  "Shattered" is the strongest and catchiest thing Black and White has going for it, yet might have amounted to something more compelling in the hands of a full-fledged power-pop band, which for better or worse Mirrour didn't quite embody.  I should mention both guitars and keys are employed here, the latter to an almost cozy and cutesy effect.  Another feather in their cap would be an Emitt Rhodes production credit...but how would a bunch of teenage '80s kids know Rhodes from a can of paint?  B&W isn't so much a disappointing record as it is an unlikely and anticlimactic one.

There's an above average amount of surface noise on this disk that I did my best to remedy. If it's a blemish-free version you're seeking, in doing my research on Mirrour I learned that an expanded, 40th anniversary version of this exists on streaming outlets including Spotify and Apple Music, along with a host of entirely separate albums by them, though it's not clear when they were recorded.  One would think these other recordings would entail a considerably more mature incarnation of the band, and though I haven't really had the chance to delve in myself it all looks promising. 

01. It's Only School

02. Double talk

03. Shattered

04. Modern Man

05. Shine it On

06. Get the Edge

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The Hippycrickets - No Shoes, No Shirt, No Dice! tape (1993)

These Atlanta-area denizens took a seemingly unnecessary risk in going with such a hokey moniker, one that doesn't do justice to their overarching potency, but whatever I suppose. Actually, this isn't my first Hippycrickets-centric post, as I shared their 1997 full length, Inconceivable!!! quite some time ago. Submitted for your approval, a 1993 demo of four tunes that would be recalibrated for that album.  "Don't Bother Me" finds the trio in question in an angsty and cantankerous guise. "Margaret Sez" could pass for a primo Material Issue or Cavedogs number, with the sobering "Fall Again," trailing not far behind. 

01. Don't Bother Me

02. Margaret Sez

03. Calling Colleen

04. Fall Again

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Maybe then your glass slippers could leave you to a good nights sleep.

From 2002. A blind bargain bin find that really paid off. 

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

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Faith Global - The Same Mistakes (1983, Survival)

Suppose there was an album so impressive that someone named their music blog after it?  In the heyday of the "sharity" blogosphere, there was (and still is) indeed a site that took it's name from the very album I'm offering here.  Faith Global's lone LP, in my opinion, isn't of epochal, ground-shifting caliber, but it's still pretty damn good. Featuring ex-Ultravox (John Foxx era) guitarist Stevie Sheers, F/G were an even more sonically broader proposition, with heavy angularities in the vicinity of early '70s Bowie, Psych Furs, Japan, and more negligibly Gary Numan.  Heck, they even roped in Furs sax-finagler Duncan Kilburn for a few songs, thus fortifying my comparison.  More art-pop than snyth, and thankfully not run-of-the-mill new wave, F/G's arrangements were fairly dense, sophisticated, and downright stirring at times, particularly on the throbbing "Love Seems Lost" and "Hearts and Flowers."  Elsewhere, "Forgotten Man" dabbles with an irresistible funk groove, and the concluding "Facing Facts" emanates shades of "Space Oddity."

As you might imagine, The Same Mistakes blog once featured the album in question, but this rip was taken from my personal copy.  You can read their write-up, however the site's download link expired.  Regrettably, I'm not in possession of Faith Global's preceding 1982 ep, Earth Report.

01. The Same Mistakes

02. Forgotten Man

03. Hearts & Flowers

04. Knowing the Way

05. Love Seems Lost

06. Coded World

07. Yayo

08. Slaves to This

09. Facing Facts

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People breaking the law just to make ends meet.

From 1993.  Was saddened to learn that one of the co-founders of this band left us last week.

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

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Lime Spiders - Weirdo Libido ep (1987, Zimmer)

"Weirdo Libido" is likely the closest the Lime Spiders ever came to digging into real pay dirt, if only for the fact that the tune was featured on the Young Einstein soundtrack.  It's also a genuinely great number, capably exemplifying Spiders mouthpiece Mick Blood's utterly raspy panache clad to his band's relentlessly pounding garage-punk sway.  "Here With My Girl" ups the frantic ante a notch, regarding what sounds like a potential romantic triangle. If you bought the 45 of this these were the only songs you were served, whereas the 12" ep entailed four more - all live covers fittingly in the band's wheelhouse, including killer takes of Neil Young's Mr. Soul and Love's "My Flash on You."  

And speaking of covers, come to think of it, The Goo Goo Dolls threw their version of the Spider's "Slave Girl" onto their mega-platinum A Boy Named Goo in 1995 thereby earning Blood and his Aussie cohorts a splendid pile of dough (one would hope anyway). 

01. Weirdo Libido

02. Here With My Girl

03. I Was Alone (live)

04. Mr. Soul (live)

05. Time of Day (live)

06. My Flash on You (live)

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Red Letter Day - Released Emotions ep (1986, Quiet)

For a bunch of Brit punks, Red Letter Day weren't particularly obnoxious, but it seems that was hardly their m.o.. I can't quite envision this foursome on the same bill as say, G.B.H., yet this plenty spry ep (and second release overall) vaguely suggests what combos like Mega City Four and Perfect Daze would soon have heating up on the same stovetop. Released Emotions is all I've heard by these folks so far, but their catalog runs significantly deeper, and per their webpage, they're still extant in some form. 

01. Killing Ground

02. So Far Away

03. Spark of Love

04. Tomorrow Today

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Best of the blog mix 2024.

I'm a bit tardy in posting my annual "condensed" adaption of a year's worth of uploads to this page, so I hope you'll forgive me. For better or worse 2024 has come and gone, and not counting Mystery Monday offerings, I only shared about 80-90 titles.  That was largely on par with 2023 and could be the norm going forward.  Not every piece of music emanating from this site is a sheer pearl or revelation, but I like to think that this pared down summation is pretty consistent, and as usual I've inserted a few random morsels exclusive to this playlist (denoted with an *)

Go Man Go's phenomenal "25 Years" is the clear runaway winner in terms of my finest retro score of the last 365 days and is placed at the head of the class.  As for the remaining 21 cuts I have virtually no preference, though the High Bees "Self Indulgence" comes within spitting distance.  Oodles of power pop (and adjacent) is yours for the taking here, be it from House of Pants, Green Ice, or even the little known Crowd who've never made an appearance here prior to this compilation.  There's also succulent post punk entrails emitted from the likes of Rifle Sport, Daddy-O and Mettle.  Plenty of great anomalies as well, but I won't give much else away, except for the last selection courtesy of the Specs, a coed combo featuring a teen Matthew Sweet, who were responsible for merely one original composition, "Look Out Girl (You Need a Direction)."  They made it count. Enjoy. 

01. Go Man Go - 25 Years

02. The Cavedogs - La La La

03. His Boy Elroy - New England

04. House of Pants - Photographs

05. Voices - Out Tonight

06. Flaming Mussolinis - Swallow Glass

07. God's Eye - Back Again

08. High Bees - Self Indulgence

09. British Properties - Eight Days a Week

10. Jules Shear - She's in Love

11. July 14th - Only One

12. Rifle Sport - Bedroom Full of Ice

13. Mettle - Evening Ocean

14. Intro to Airlift - Ed Is On No Side

15. Daddy-O - Run to Hide

16. DCD - A Passage in Time*

17. Tanjent Image - Suranland

18. Windbreakers - So Much

19. Glass Torpedos - Someone Different

20. Crowd, The - Passwords* 

21. Green Ice - Breakdown at Geneva

22. The Act - The Art of Deception

23. The Specs (Matthew Sweet) - Look Out Girl (You Need a Direction)* 

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He just sits and stares.

Post-punk from 1986 that's far more moving than my lyrical clue might portend.

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

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XTC - Black Sea demos (1980)

Happy New Year, and welcome to night eight. I was debating what I was going to offer for the finale, and was on the fence about this one, as technically these were actually made available on the 2017 mondo bluray edition of Black Sea.  Well, for starters I don't own that highfalutin version.  Secondly, these files were sourced from a bootleg cassette (with a nominal amount of tape hiss intact).  Finally, it appeared that no one else was sharing this in FLAC, so I figured why not?

Most XTC fans will insist that the band never made an unsatisfactory album, and I can't argue with that at all.  But not all XTC records are equal, and their first two LPs, White Music and Go 2 (both from 1978) simply aren't as revered as those which followed. 1979's Drums and Wires is generally deemed as the beginning (though not necessarily the apex) of their halcyon era, and it's around this time a lot of folks jumped on the Partridge/Moulding wagon, particularly in the States.  

'80s Black Sea was arguably XTC's most consistent salvo to date yielding a pair of genuine signature songs "Generals and Majors" and "Sgt Rock. (is Going to Help Me." While I have no reason to frown on those tunes, I gravitate for deeper album tracks, and "Rocket From a Bottle" and "Don't Lose Your Temple" really quickened my pulse, and maybe a tad less so, "Respectable Street."  So far as I was concerned, there were zero throwaways, and I'll always regard Black Sea as one of XTC's career highlights.  These prototype variations (save for the instrumentals) don't radically deviate from the finished product, but they don't have to be in order to still fascinate. What's more there are three solo Partridge demos of songs that never carried over to the album or it's adjacent b-sides ("Pearl," "Monkeys in Human Skin Suits," and "Holding the Baby") that really might have been rendered into crucial nuggets in the XTC oeuvre had they had been fully fleshed out by the band.  Then again, maybe not, so I'll just let you decide.  Have at it.

01 Living Through Another Cuba [instrumental]

02 Sgt. Rock (Is Going To Help Me)

03 Rocket From A Bottle

04 Towers Of London

05 Smokeless Zone [instrumental]

06 Ban The Bomb [instrumental]

07 No Language In Our Lungs

08 Pearl [Andy Partridge solo]

09 Holding The Baby [Andy Partridge solo]

10 Monkeys In Human Skin Suits [Andy Partridge solo]

11 Burning With Optimism's Flames

12 Paper And Iron (Notes And Coins)

13 Travels In Nihilon

14 Don't Lose Your Temper

15 Respectable Street

16 Generals And Majors

MP3/FLAC