We don't get the time now, feeling like we're exiles...

This week it's four eps from four different decades.  Chow down!

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

Hear

Lazycain - s/t tape (1996, Rudio Trade Corp)

Got a load of these lazy boys via impressive split singles with No Knife and Jejune, circa the late '90s, but when I bit on their debut length, 1999's Five Days, Eighty Hours, I wasn't nearly as swayed.  Nonetheless, I was down for this nifty demo tape, when I located on Ebay without really trying.  The songs on side A (which eventually made their way to a 45 from the same year as this reel) were an almost instant delight. It's easy to discern how Lazycain were paired side-by-side with No Knife, as they shared the latter's penchant for dexterous, slyly tuneful post-hardcore amidst a dissonant subtext.  The remaining "No Train" subscribes to the dynamic, mathy aesthetics of Slint, while "Fizzy Pop" is a frenetic, gnashy throw-down, with guitar chops that might as well have been ripped from any given Drive Like Jehu record.    

01. Deaf on Corner

02. Stupid Maybe Still

03. No Train

04. Phizzy Pop

Hear

Scratch a message in the side to not resuscitate.

A banger from 2019. 

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

Hear

In Fear of Roses - Beat the Drum (1988, Herb Jackson)

In '88 you might say this co-ed Ohio bunch, had considerable competition from another gaggle of Roses.  That said, even if Axl and Slash weren't marauding the charts, In Fear of Roses likely wouldn't have enjoyed much greater visibility.  That's not merely because they were confined to a modest, local indie label, rather Beat the Drum, while possessing some choice numbers, lacks a definitive m.o. "Clouds" is a ballsy, driving opener, yet few of the LP's ten subsequent songs share it's punchy demeanor.  Elsewhere, there's tasty ska-lite seasoning infiltrating "Living in a Movie World," "Big Lightning" touches on U.S. foreign policy, "Do You Remember" coincidentally or not taps into what the Feelies were dabbling in around the same era, and the Georgi Smith-fronted "Those Eyes," results in one of Beat the Drum's most compelling moments.  The aforementioned highlights would've made for a dandy EP, but even when this crew lapses into auto-pilot mode there's really nothing terribly egregious to complain about here either.   

01. Clouds

02. Dangerous Intercourse

03. Sunday Blues

04. Living in a Movie World

05. Big Lightning

06. Holy Barbarians

07. Do You Remember

08. Those Eyes

09. Just Like Kerouac

10. Straight and Narrow

11. Teatime in El Salvador (WFS)

Hear

I still pretend that I don’t drink alone.

A debut from 1994.  

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

Hear 

Groceries - s/t ep (1983, RD3)

I saw this one pop up on Ebay a few times while doing genre searches and was more than intrigued by the cover. Low and behold I found a copy in  the wild a few years ago and finally got around to digitizing it.  What little I had read about Groceries is that one point or another they bore something of a ska bent, but there's nary a trace of that here. In fact, "cheeky" would be the operative word in summing up the m.o. of this New Jersey five-piece.  Groceries were long on topical themes and performing acumen, yet didn't make a huge name for themselves despite a heavy gig presence in New York City.  Had they put more emphasis on crafting tunes that were a little more melodically sentient, and curtailed the sardonic angle there might be a little more here for me, but for what it's worth I really admire the guitar textures coloring the concluding "Intelligentsia Junkie."  Other Groceries records are floating around (assumedly challenging to locate at this point) and 4/5 of the lineup has reconvened in the guise of the startlingly different sounding Groceries 2.0 which you can ascertain more about here.

01. Part of the New America

02. Hieroglyphic Shuffle

03. Government Rock

04. Tropical Island

05. Noon on Tuesday

06. Intelligentsia Junkie

Hear

Tirez Tirez - Under the Doorstep 12" (1984, Another Side)

I'm dealing with heavy, flu-like side effects from the latest Covid immunization (funny how that works) so I may keep this one sort.  This isn't my first go-around with this seemingly clandestine Kansas City duo, as I've shared no less than two Tirez Tirez releases, one issued in 1980, and the another a few years subsequent to this single, but the mere two cuts that were allocated to this '84  wax just might be the most stimulating tuneage they ever committed to a black plastic circle.  A healthy chunk of press clippings that accompanied my copy of this record played-up Tirez's dance floor appeal. While I can't be any entirely dismissive of that notion, this is synth-pop/rock of a more sophisticated nature endeavoring in a conspicuously more layered sonic heft, that also nurtures a discernable hook in the guise of "Under the Door." The elongated flip-side, "Sleep" with it's near-trance inducing redundant rhythm/riff slowly blooms into a heightened tuneful savoir faire all it's own.  I'm not sure if any full-scale Tirez reissues are in the pipeline, but their 1983 import-only Story of the Year has recently been made available for streaming.  

A. Under the Door

B. Sleep

Hear

You said to ring you up if I was in Toronto...

A reissue of a 1980 Canadian classic (eye of the beholder I suppose).

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

Hear

VA - Art'sAPassion (1985, Art'sAPassion)

What's actually supposed to be a faint blue album sleeve came out more black and white than it should have.  And oh yeah...the music.  I can talk about that as well.  The Art'sAPassion compilation is simply screaming for an album insert or something more than a plain track list on the reverse sleeve, as not a morsel of info is shared about any of it's five participants.  From what minimal sleuthing I was able to do, it appears everyone on here is from Connecticut, potentially with a heavy emphasis on the New London region based on a correspondence address for the label.  I've covered one band here, namely Paisley Jungle, who if I recall correctly consisted of two bass wranglers, minus an actually six-string guitarist or keyboardist.  Their two numbers are faintly reminiscent of the direction the Minutemen were angling towards during their all-too brief post-Double Nickels... era, albeit in a mellower context.  I've laid ears on New Johnny 5 (typed as one word on the album jacket and label) previously and don't remember hearing anything as good as the driving "The Reasoning," or conversely the drastic white-boy rap curveball of "Let Go."  Millenial Aspect, one of multiple cold cases here really should have put out an APB for a more charismatic mouthpiece.  Their "Trance State" is still fairly enticing and would have functioned quite effectively in the hands of Pylon.  Finally, Dangerous Club's "Breakthru" exudes an offbeat allure, riding the crest of a goes-down-easy snyth riff. Does anyone in the audience have the scoop on these guys?

01. New Johnny 5 - The Reasoning

02. Millenial Aspect - Trace State

03. Dangerous Club - Breakthru

04. Fugitive Colours - Don't Stop

05. Paisley Jungle - Cool Vacation

06. Paisley Jungle - Rip Torn

07. Fugitive Colours - Our Situation

08. Dangerous Club - I Forgot

09. Millenial Aspect - Proclaim the Truth

10. New Johnny 5 - Let Go

Hear

All those friends you've been talking to...

A mostly complete compendium of this band's first three eps, released 1984-86. 

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

Hear

Someone & the Somebodies - Bops on the Head ep (1981, Modern Method)

It's a pretty shocking coincidence that Someone & The Somebodies had the inclination to cover "Workin' in a Coal Mine" the very same year Devo dished out their own rendition of it.  Then again, this was well before the internet, and Devo were from Ohio while this foursome were situated in New England...so who knows.  I just hope these guys didn't have egg on their face, because at the very least they do the tune justice, and perhaps coincidentally or not they also bore an eccentric, spastic electro-rock modus operandi of the same genus that Akron's boys-done-good took to the bank.  Admittedly, Someone's overarching pastiche recalled early 415 Records geeks the Units more than anyone else. The closest this troupe approaches the realm of the serious/conventional evidences itself on "It's Only Extazy" loosely dangling a melodic, post-punk carrot over it's near five minutes.  Subsequent S&tS releases would follow though I've yet to encounter them.   

01. Workin' in a Coal Mine

02. We Were Only Kidding

03. It's Only Extazy

04. Mombo Sombo

Hear