Bohemia - Deviations (1981, VU)

Picked this one up a few years ago based on good looks.  Bohemia presumably hailed from Chicago, though I should mention there's also a hamlet named Bohemia tucked away in Long Island.  Anyway, what I took away this whirl is that said band predominantly featured a female front-person, and the Deviations overall schtick was skin to X, and considerably less-so the Cramps.  That being said this is a bit of a "mood" record often entailing a rollicking fervor, but whomever was the ringleader of this cabal manages to keep the proceedings from getting too haywire.  The punkier tracks, including but not limited to "312," "State of Affairs" and "Standard Deviation" leave the most compelling and lasting impressions. Merely good, if not always astonishing, Deviations is nonetheless a keeper, and you'll be glad to learn there were several singles and eps surrounding it.  

01. Standard Deviation

02. Empty Room

03. State of Affairs

04. Hydrogenic

05. Dr. Werner

06. 312 

07. Plastic Doll

08. White Couches

09. Penitentiary

10. How Could You Advertise?

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...at a Mexican Bar Mitzvah for seven hundred years...

The much ballyhooed alternate mix of a 1989 LP that housed a few exceptional tunes, but as a whole was merely satisfactory.

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

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Quix*o*tic - Heliotrope 7" (1998, Ixor Stix)

Not exactly a toe-tapper, but a veritable curiosity that I think some of you will appreciate.  Until I did my homework on Quix*o*tic, I didn't realize that subsequent to this 45 the coed trio in question recorded an under-the-radar full length for Kill Rock Stars, Mortal Mirror, before disbanding.  The band beat a lot of their contemporaries to the punch in the coming post-punk revival, bearing an economic yet highly textured aplomb on the angular and eerie "Heliotrope," with the song's final  moments steeped in a tense, staccato-heavy foray, tapering off to an uneasy nadir. The rhythmically sentient "Prediction of a Crash" is comparatively accessible (and stimulating), while "Reqi*es*cat" exudes a doomy flow, that taps into a Sonic Youth by way of The Fall middle ground.

A. Heliotrope

B1. Prediction of a Crash

B2. Reqi*es*cat

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Blood Uncles - Petrol ep (1985, Drastic Plastic)

So...the gruff vocals on this one were an immediate turn-off, but fortunately not a deal breaker.  Ditch that element of Blood Uncles and you had a pretty crack band, not far removed from what the Cult and U2 were offering around the same era, granted not quite as anthemic. On top of that, "Swallow" splendidly futzes with some early Gang of Four histrionics.  I just wish the mouthpiece would relent with the whole Lee Ving approach he insists on perpetuating here.  In fact, said singer does curtail the schtick a tad on "Never Happy Man," adopting a more measured timbre (either that or someone else in the band took over on the mic for this one).  An LP, Libertine, followed two years later, bizarrely containing a Prince cover of all things. I don't think that one is about to rise to the top of my want-list anytime soon.  

01. Swallow

02. Mad As You

03. Never Happy Man

04. Drink My Sweat

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I want to float upon my memories...

 Aussie bullion from 2004.  

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

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The Lost Tropics - s/t (1983)

It's been another week where I simply didn't get o much of anything in terms of this site, one that feels like it's very slowly going to pot due to my neglect.  Am definitely going to make more of an effort to get in the swing of things by spring.  In the meantime, I present to you The Lost Tropics, major label casualties from the mid-80s, who were ostensibly responsible for a one-and-done album, pictured to your right. New wavish for certain, but thankfully nothing gaudy or egregiously over-produced which was the norm for their era.  Coed vocals as well, splitting the difference just about evenly, with the "he" quotient vaguely recalling Ric Ocasek - convenient as some of the Lost Tropics skews in a Candy-O-esque vicinity (sorta).  Competent and even enjoyable, albeit nothing particularly innovative. Nonetheless you can count me as a fan.

01. Zoo Story

02. Feels Like Love

03. Girls

04. Too Much to Handle

05. I Think of You

06. Rumble

07. Any Other Day

08. Keep on Sleeping

09. A Different World

10. Tonite is Booked

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Hard times right now might be bliss deferred...

From 1995.  Was saddened to learn of the recent loss of this power pop maven.  He may not have vaulted to the highest tier of my favorites, but still leaves behind a choice legacy.

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

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V/A - Succulents - The Letter "S" folder mix.

The idea was to get to all 26 letters in the alphabet, when I initiated the "letter" series compilations way back in 2011.  By 2016 I had only managed to cover nine rather random installments in a series that was supposed to have been completed looong before that year.  And wouldn't you know I decided to take a ten-year long breather (of sorts), but since I didn't have much slated for this week I opted to arouse the dusty letter archives out of their decade-long slumber. You see, on my overloaded hard drive, for almost every complete album I have by an artist, I store just as many random one-off songs by artists I don't have a dedicated folder to.  These random one-offs have been corralled into "letter folders" A through Z. I often forget these particular folders exist, that is unless I feel the urge to hear a specific track. Given the disparate genres that run into each under this alphabetic scheme, each folder unto itself reveals some intriguing bedfellows. Being that "S" is the most used letter in the English vernacular, I decided to go really big with this one, offering no less than forty artists, about half of which I've never given coverage to on Wilfully Obscure heretofore.  

Since I'm not going to be revealing a full tracklist, I can at the very least provide you with a few spoilers.  There's rarities from the likes of Slowdive, Schatzi, Swimming Pool Q's and Steve Malkmus & the Jicks, live action from the Scientists, and strangely enough field recordings of radio emissions from Saturn (yes, the planet).  And if you want covers, we've got you covered - literally with about ten remakes total, including Silverstein, Screamfeeder, Scared of Chaka, and Seafood all getting in on the action.  Naturally, I'm tossing in some huge under-the-radar personal favorites from Swollen Members, Sebadoh, The Secrets and Shrapnel among oodles of others.  And if you're curiosity is piqued, please visit similar setups for already attended-to letters "E" "D" "H" "O" "P" "B" "T"  "Z" and "G."

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...test your faith, you shimmer like a godsend

From 1993. Likely one of the fifty most listened-to albums in my collection, yet I've been hesitant to share it because I know a good chunk of you will frown on the genre.  I've presented them on a previous M/M, and as I may have mentioned in my leadup to that one, this band embodies the throes of a harsh, unforgiving winter like few others I've ever crossed paths with.  

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

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Bpeople - Petrified Conditions 1979-1981 (1986, Restless)

Though this isn't necessarily designed to be an introduction to Bpeople (ideally you might want to go with their two proper self-titled releases from 1981) the artful aesthetic they quietly championed is wholly evident on this collection of alternate takes and previously unreleased material. Though I haven't encountered any "no-wave" accusations leveled at these guys, Bpeople certainly weren't striving to land amongst the ubiquitous new romantic contingents hovering amidst their L.A. airspace. Instead, manicured dissonance was a more their bag, entailing flourishes of intermittent saxophone and choppy syncopation. Amidst these proclivities real songs frequently emerge from the avant detritus - "You at Eight," "In the Mind" and the chilling "The World's the Arrow," albeit falling well short of pop terrain.  Mouthpiece/guitar wrangler Alex Gibson bears parallels with that of the Wipers' Greg Sage, but that's likely more coincidence than adulation. To date, Bpeople's catalog hasn't been represented or preserved in the digital realm, at least not formally, but I guess that's what music blogs are for.  I should also mention that contemporary to some of these recordings, Gibson unleashed a solo ep, Passionel in '81.

01. Special Kind of Fun

02. Can Can't

03. I Said Everybody

04. The World's the Arrow

05. Give Up

06. Perseuction, That's My Song

07. The Thing

08. I Said Everybody (Vers 2)

09. You at Eight

10. In the Mind

11. Weather to Worry

12. MPCD

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