Six supreme singles!

So I haven't assembled a bundle of Chanukah singles in about three years.  Why? Well, it's not for lack of content to share, rather it's a lot of work, and I just can't do it every year. But if it's 45s you're seeking this is your lucky year. Yep, it's another Wilfully Obscure dozen: six singles equaling twelve amazing sides of 7" wax culled from boxes containing hundreds of fair/decent/good records, but often times just a handful of exceptional specimens - and Chanukah is all about the exceptional. Download links in MP3 or lossless FLAC are available at the end of the post.

Ultra Cindy - Whirlwind/Rollercoaster 7" (1992, Praha)

I'm calling this one a do-over, because it is. I originally tackled this 45 in 2012, but the source vinyl was water/storage damaged and entailed an excruciating amount of surface noise as a result. I've since found far superior sounding versions of these amazing two songs of heady and heavy-handed dream pop. Ultra Cindy were Virginia denizens who not only had a keen ear for UK originators Ride and My Bloody Valentine, but less renown American prodigies Fudge and the Swirlies too.  An equally impressive full length, Mermaid's Parade was issued two years later. Better living through shoegaze!

River Roses - "Phoenix" + 2 7" (1986, Monsoon)

I've had no lack of interest in posting/sharing anything pertaining to Tuscon, AZ's River Roses, rather truth be told they've been pretty attentive to keeping their catalog available either physically or digitally. As such, this 45 will be the extent of what I have to offer from this coed-troupe, and if you're down with deft, ringing guitar pop with a sincere and earnest tack you'll soon discover R/R check off a myriad of boxes. This is one band that doesn't sound like an overproduced or tricked-out studio monstrosity of their era, and that must've been hella refreshing in the mid-80s. The a-side of my copy has a tiny scratch affecting the last rotation or two of "Phoenix," but you'll be happy to know you can buy the song, and the full album it's derived from here.

Slow Children Playing - My Pal God (And Other Tales Of Suburban Ennui)/Typo 7" (1994, Jiffy Boy) 

I lament bands that didn't stick around long enough to make it to the album stage, and I can certainly graft New Jersey's Slow Children Playing to end of that list. It's a fair assessment that these folks had their ears tuned into a lot of Chapel Hill, NC indie rock back in their epoch, and even when they don't scale to the heights of say, Superchunk, what SCP had going for them was still relatively superlative.  Besides this 45, the band is survived by a split single and contributions to numerous low-profile compilations. 

The Othermothers - Party Topics/Traveling in Circles 7" (1984, Chad)

And speaking of North Carolina, my understanding is that the Othermothers were regarded as the pinnacle of their local Greensboro scene. Judging from this 45, and a wonderful ep, No Place Like Home that I pitched ya'll way back in 2008, it's easy to discern why, given their aptitude for churning out edgy and often provocative songs. Here are two halfway-there-punk jams with a slightly cheeky demeanor. "Party Topics" would be rerecorded for the aforementioned subsequent No Place Like Home. My apologies for the choppy audio on this one. Should I come across a better copy I'll happily post an improved rip.

True Rumor - Iowa/Something More 7" (1986, True Music)

I can't recall how True Rumor made their way onto my retro-active sonar a few years ago, but I was impressed enough to connect with one of the former band members who was gracious and generous enough to send me a couple of original T/R albums, and even this early artifact.  Hailing from NJ, and not the Midwest as one would readily assume giving this 45's title, True Rumor specialized in uptempo, working-class guitar rock that straddled one foot in traditional AOR FM rock, with the other well situated in more thoughtful power pop environs. Even if they're not outright revelations, "Iowa" and it's flip-side, "Something More" gratify with ease.

New Flamingos - The Imposter/Talk of Love 7" (1984, Flamingo)

Akin to the Othermothers single I told you about, the New Flamingos are another prime example of  a band who's obscuro single I made a point of seeking out after imbibing one of their other records. In the case of N/F, that would be 1983's In the Pink. In the space of a year, this bygone Seattle foursome went from pedaling rootsy power pop to emulating none other than Declan Macmanus (that would be Elvis Costello to you, me and the rest of the general public) on this ace single.  "The Imposter" eases us into the Flamingos new motif with a tenor similar to E.C.'s "Alison," albeit the hook here isn't quite as memorable. "Talk of Love" packs considerably more thrust and bears enough telltale affectations to almost qualify as a My Aim is True outtake. Had a bit of a moral dilemma in deciding if I wanted to share this, as my copy of the single jumps in a couple spots near the end of "Talk of Love." I'm pretty certain my turntable isn't the issue, and the record itself has been cleaned, but in any event the band has posted their own unblemished rip of the tune on Soundcloud.  Cheers.

MP3  or  FLAC

Notes on new music: mercvrial and Collider.

It's been about three years since we've heard more from mercival aside from a volley of recent singles, but after soaking in 2019's rewarding the stars, like dust ep, I'm more than ready for a full length. brief algorithms is indeed the long player in question, and for these America-expats (now residing south of the border) the equation hasn't changed that much for the band whose indebtedness to Anglophile rock and post-punk is still very much the the unshakable bedrock they're wont to reside on. Managing to retain an austere poise, but breathable enough to encourage some discernible flexibility, this Mexican quartet balance the precise instincts of forebears For Against with the empathetic fortitude of the Chameleons and Catherine Wheel. They haven't completely shed the more omnipotent dream-pop sensibilities of the aforementioned the stars... ep, but I'll be damned if ....algorithms isn't a much more lucid beast, capably demonstrated on "Dance in the Dark," and the outright stunning "Dark Stars." "Be That Someone" propelled by a volley of ringing guitars is equally hard to resist, while the concluding "Cats of Cavtat" pulses along like late '80s Wire.  mercvrial's overarching sonic aplomb can get a tad formulaic, but they mix things up with a couple of poignant and not-so-obvious covers, namely Pink Floyd's "Matilda Mother," and the early Ultravox chestnut "Hiroshima Mon Amour." Laudable taste for sure, given they've tackled primo signature tunes from the likes of The Chills and Fudge previously. brief algorithms, is available on the UK Crafting Room Records imprint, and can be had on white vinyl or digitally via the increasingly essential Bandcamp. 

In the where-the-hell-did-this-stroke-of-genius-come-out-of-left-field-from? file, we have Washington D.C.'s Collider, who I gratefully happened on just a month ago.  Let everyone else slobber on their Wet Leg and give me a coed troupe like this any day. Some thirty years ago I couldn't get enough of such heavy-handed shoegaze interpreters as Lilys and the Swirlies on my side of the pond who ingeniously tweaked what their comparatively straight-laced prodigies in the UK had bequeathed.  In a nutshell, Collider are exuding a similar vibe, albeit with even more heart and sincerity. Striking a visceral charge from the word go on "Now What," you pretty know what you're in for on Fell, the band's second full length. It never ceases to amaze me what wonders a little flanged guitar and a robust array of effects pedals can do. The truth is most of Collider's nugaze contemporaries are reluctant to go overboard and really indulge, and while this foursome exercises plenty of impulse control, they're not afraid to wield a modicum of "weird" now and again.  The band's creative and dynamic chops are wed to incredible melodic structures, with perhaps their only peers being Amusement Parks on Fire. Younger ears may find Fell to be something of a revelation, whereas Gen X'ers like myself will bask in a gauzy, sonic soup that's at once seemingly bygone and brilliantly refurbished.  Fell can be had for a modest fee here.

Citrus Groove - Hit the Ground/Beautiful Thing 7" (1991, Honeychain)

Here's one of my lengthiest belated follow-ups ever. I posted the closest thing these guys had to an album, the Sunswayed mini-LP all the way back in 2009. I knew there were a couple of singles surrounding that release and the one presented here is their first. Not quite hopping all the way onto the shoegaze caboose, but still several light years from any of the prevailing mainstream trends of their day, Citrus Groove's indie pop aesthetic was organic and bejeweled with oodles of melodic moxie. Recommended for fans of their contemporaries Fudge, and a good dollop of Slumberland Record's early roster.    

A. Hit the Ground
AA. Beautiful Thing

Hear

Notes on new music: Lannie Flowers, mercvrial, Stuyvesant.

If you've frequented this corner of cyberspace for the last five years or so the name Lannie Fowers is bound to be familiar.  From nicely padded archival releases of material from his '80s power pop cabal The Pengwins to a bouquet of riff-tacular solo LPs (Same Old Story, Circles, etc) in recent years, he's been ubiquitous, albeit in small circles like ours.  Not an experiment so much as a slight departure, his latest, Home is still a (mostly) plugged in affair with the emphasis on reflective, personal themes.  Wielding a mature singer/songwriter tact without succumbing to the more cliched trappings of such a venture, Home is as engaging as it is heartfelt recalling everything from 1970s soft pop (check out the masterclass ballad "Missed You Tonight") to more upbeat triapses that could rightfully take their place on the same shelf as Wilco's Summerteeth.  The vinyl incarnation of Home is set to ship in March of '20, but the CD version is ready to go, and is available digitally through Amazon and even Spotify. 

If nuanced, modern-day dream pop (i.e. "nu-gaze") is one of your proverbial wheelhouses, Mexico's mercvrial are your next go-to destination.  Helmed by an American expat, mercvrial are prodigiously adept conveyors of ethereal haze who opt for melodic songcraft over sheer white noise - and they have a new five song EP, the stars, like dust to show for it.  For a band bearing a self-described Anglophile bent this quintet ironically recall some excellent Yankee purveyors like For Against, Spirnghouse, and more recently the Daysleepers.  Drizzles of chiming guitars and heady sonic structures agilely waft their way around pensively themed originals "Otherworld" and "Carnival."  mercvrial know how to wrap their way around a cover as well, namely The Chills' Kiwi-pop chestnut "Pink Frost," and the considerably less renown but doubly rewarding "Girlwish (II) by Fudge, a bygone Richmond, VA combo I've given no shortage of exposure over the past couple of decades.  the stars... is available physically through CD Baby, and through digital liaisons Bandcamp on a song-by-song basis.

Last but not least, New Jersey punk-pop stalwarts Stuyvesant still make the rounds intermittently, and when they do they always make it count.  Their latest for Dromedary Records is a two song 45 with a brilliant picture sleeve that cops one of those animal file-card thingys that were all the rage among nerdy sixth graders in the '80s.  And oh yeah, the music too!  "Aardvark" is a sturdy, devastatingly melodi-core scorcher pointing to Stuyvesant's inspirational antecedents All, Samiam, and Porcelain Boys.  Would really love a whole new album of these.  The flip, "Gauntlet" rocks a considerably more dissonant stride that dare I says flirts with different time changes.  Just a heads up, the vinyl of this one is lathe-cut and strictly limited with most of it's 40 copies being sold out already, so head here pronto!  You can buy it digitally from that link as well, and of course, Amazon downloads is always there for you.

fuflej - the microwave ep (1995, Scratchie)

The modicum of buzz fulflej were accorded seemed to dissipate not longer after this ep and a subsequent album, Wack-Ass Tube Riff, hit the market in 1995 and '96, respectively.  Then again, these Richmond, VA rawkers had a lot of competition in the mid-90s from considerably more sizable entities that were exuding a similar vibe...say like the Smashing Pumpkins.  Ironically, Scratchie Records was a boutique label helmed by the Pumpkins own James Iha and D'arcy Wretzky.  Much to their credit, fulflej differentiated themselves from those Corgan crunch-addled titans by embracing a woozier dream-pop bent, exemplified marvelously on microwave's most effective salvos, "Merely" and "Parallel to Gravity."  Whether they were conscious of it or not, fulfej had some excellent like-minded contemporaries in their midst to boot - Monsterland, Majesty Crush, and even their hometown's primo Fudge.  This record's title piece is probably the band's most relatively renown song, a long-winded, Luddite anthem of sorts wherein the protagonist extols on the virtues of being sans a VCR, and yes (you guessed it) a microwave.  A nice article on the band and a link to supplemental fulflej listening can be visited at your leisure here.

01. work in this universe
02. microwave
03. shells
04. merely
05. parallel to gravity

Hear

A slight case of overblogging - Best of the blog mix 2017.

2017 was probably my least prolific year on these pages, and quite frankly, on many occasions I felt a self-inflicted flogging was in order (metaphorically, of course).  Yet after assembling this compendium of highlights, not only is it my opportunity to offer you a "shortcut" or a taster, or whatever, it became apparent that the past year wasn't quite as fruitless as I was wont to convince myself.  In fact, despite 2017's relative deficiency of content, this 25 song exercise turned out to be one of my most cohesive and gratifying collections to date, bejeweled with some pretty seismic left-off-the-dial nuggets.  There's a bevy of tunes from excellent one-album-wonder outfits like the Casual T's, Holiday Slides, Suburban Sprawl, Cement Trampoline, Plasterscene Replicas and the Fingers that were worth tuning in for alone.  And how about not one, but two paeans to the nation of Canada, courtesy of the Ceedee's and Macchu Picchu?

You're also getting perfect tens from the likes of Fire Town, Chixdiggit, The Fingers, and Fudge, not to mention true-blue obscuros Red Buckets, Squirrels From Hell, Our American Cousins, and The Clamheads.  As has been tradition, I'm tacking on a handful of tunes that haven't been made available previously.  Real beauts too, like a primo, non-LP prize from the Pezband, and a vintage, unreleased kernel from Guided By Voices.  And lend an ear to Rebel Waltz, a bygone Wisconsin punk-pop quartet, whose glorious Rubber Walls LP has been reissued digitally.

01. The Reels - Prefab Heart
02. Macchu Picchu - Canada
03. Pezband - Waiting in Line*
04. Cement Trampoline - Pushing the Panic Button
05. Soup - Hangin' Out With Myself
06. Chixdiggit - Best Hung Carrot in the Fridge
07. Rebel Waltz - Highway of Doom*
08. Our American Cousins - Ice 9
09. Side Effects - French Forest
10. Squirrels From Hell - Cinderella Girl
11. Holiday Slides - The Fall of Rome
12. Glass Penguins - Out of the Rain
13. Seven Simons - Lavendar Bubbles
14. The Pony - Broken Kites
15. Suburban Sprawl - Serious
16. Casual T's - Rose Colored World
17. One Plus Two - Much More
18. Red Buckets - Palm Sunday
19. Plasterscene Replicas - What Could Be Incomplete
20. Fudge - Patty Hearst Machine Gun
21. Fire Town - She Reminds Me of You
22. The Clamheads - Everybody Loves Me Cept You
23. Fingers - Too Young
24. Ceedees - Patriotic Song
25. GBV - Tell Me*

* = Appearing for the first time.

Hear

Boys With Toys - Big House (1985, Hot Fudge)

Info on this Iowa City trio is pretty scant, but a brief primer can be found here.  I believe Brad Jones (ostensibly the Boys frontman, though I can't confirm) eventually went on to record a solo disk for Big Deal Records a decade after Big House hit the racks.  As for Boys With Toys proper, they struck a pretty reasonable compromise between power pop and rootsy rockabilly.  Their "pop" angle loosely resembled the Romantics and Plimsouls...but I wouldn't get too excited.  "Every Young Boys Heart" and "Ain't No Picture Show" twirl my knob the most.  Enjoy (or not).

01. Every Young Boys Heart
02. Cold Grey Morning
03. I Been Dreamin' too
04. Ain't No Picture Show
05. Holdin' On
06. Two by Two
07. In The Mood for Me
08. Oh Oh, No No
09. Rockin' and Rollin'
10. Don't Put Your Perfume on Tonight

Hear

Fudge - Southside Speedway (1994, Caroline)

In 2009, I offered you no small amount of music/insight regarding Richmond, VA's Fudge, whose weirded-out spin on dream pop was nothing less than sublime on a spate of early singles and an often phenomenal debut, The Ferocious Rhythm of Precise Laziness.  By the time of that particular album (1993) the whole shoegazer shtick was getting a little predictable, but I'll be damned if this crew didn't incorporate something a little indigenous into the recipe - something I was never quite able to put my finger on.  What a difference a year made.  By the time of their '94 follow-up, Southside Speedway, the band had eschewed a lot of that crazy cool haze and tremolo - a development that was a bit of a bummer at first blush.  I have to wonder how many Fudge-istas threw in the towel after checking out SS for the first time.  I know I was almost tempted to, but I persisted and grew into it in almost no time.  On an album that turned out to be their swan song, Southside tilted heavily in the vicinity of American indie rock, with signposts pointing to Superchunk and Monsterland.  There are a few instances of dissonant dross on this bad boy, but thankfully there's plenty of equally primo material that any combo of their ilk would be more than proud of.  But don't take my word for it.  Check out "Patty Hearst Machine Gun," "Superstar Junky," and "Our Francis III," just a handful of excellent songs that transcend any genre-fication Fudge were saddled with (for better or worse).  BTW, the links to most of my previous Fudge entries have been fixed.

01. Tree Fort Stash
02. Dart GT
03. It's Morning, Already
04. Patty Hearst Machine Gun
05. Our Francis III
06. Southside Speedway
07. Feather Splitter
08. Lucky's Tightest T-Shirt
09. Car Stereo Blast Off
10. Superstar Junky
11. Shirts & Skins

Hear

Ultracherry Violet - I Fall to Pieces (1994, Bedazzled)

The D.C. based Bedazzled Records imprint was friendly to bands that veered towards the shoegazer or at the very least quasi-shoegazer end of the indie rock continuum.  Ultracherry Violet were the latter, dispensing noisy and ethereal particulates into I Fall to Pieces engaging sonic stew.   The trio bore a likeness to American practitioners Smashing Orange, Hum, and less so The Drop Nineteens and Fudge, but like any dream-pop unit worth it's salt they cast their collective "UV" rays across the big pond to such obvious entities as the Pale Saints and Slowdive.  Long-ish songs, with a decent emphasis on quality control.  I shan't give away much more than that, but This is That Song blog has a nice write up on Ultracherry that you can peruse here.  More UV to come (hopefully). 

01. Angela's an Angel Now
02. I Think You're Lying to Me
03. Remember
04. Post Wing-and-Prayer
05. Mexico Song
06. Losing My Friends
07. Anything is Feasible
08. I'm Gonna Burn
09. Recur Again

Hear

VA - Pure Spun Sugar: An International Pop Compilation (1998, American Pop Project/Candy Floss)

Pure Spun Sugar's premise is that it's a decidedly anti-punk affair...but it's not all twee sweetness and light as it's title and cover art misleadingly project.  One of the album's key commonalities (with only a couple of exceptions) is it's emphasis on female-fronted groups.  So how does Pure Spun miraculously almost never exude a "chick-rock" vibe among it's fourteen grooves?  Chalk that up to a bevy of indie talents who more than get by with quality songwriting that completely transcends gender lines.

The highlights here are numerous.  Japan's Dizzy Joghurt contribute an exuberant slice of Shonen-like power pop in "Noncense Is Good," Dressy Bessy pitch us the indelibly hooky, mid-tempo "Makeup," and the San Diego based Sleazy Beats lend Pure Spun a pre-homicide paean to Phil Spector, that in retrospect is really how we'd all like to remember him (if we only could).  BTW, I wonder how that fella is holdin' up these days?  The album soon after pivots to the classic indie aplomb of Poastal, who emanate the old school Slumberland Records sound big time. Sweden's Aquadays take the cake as far as this comp's sublime quotient goes, with a Lush-ious stab at chiming dream pop, "Gem."  Red Dye No. 5, Balloon Chase Team and Twig all hit the indie guitar-pop g-spot, in that mid-90s sort of way.  Brian Jonestown Massacre are a surprise entry (and commercially, the biggest draw) that Pure Spun has to offer, with what appears to be a Bowie cover.  The big payoff for me comes relatively early on, courtesy of The Cherry Smash, whose "Split Screen" is an immense surge of gazey-guitars (think Fudge, early Lilys) and intoxicating harmonies to trade a limb for.  I put up a single of theirs quite some time ago that you would do well to investigate.  As for the scan of the album sleeve, let's just say light pink and grey don't make for the most complimentary colors.

01. Balloon Chase Team - White Star
02. The Cherry Smash - Split Screen
03. Jenny Mae - Ralston
04. Dizzy Joghurt - Noncense Is Good
05. Bidston Moss - Silver Top Taxi
06. Dressy Bessy - Makeup
07. The Sleazy Beats - Phil Spector's Birthday Song
08. Poastal - Kicked in the Face
09. Aquadays - Gem
10. Red Dye No. 5 - Hope
11. Cuckooland - Rock On
12. The Brian Jonestown Massacre - Good Morning Girl
13. Twig - Clock
14. Azalia Snail - Getting Lei'd

Hear

Spotlight Kid - Disaster Tourist (2012, Saint Marie) - A brief overview

I believe the year was 1991 (or was it 1990?) when My Bloody Valentine, Lush, and Slowdive aligned themselves into the three-pronged gateway drug that ushered my psyche and senses into what would later be regarded as "the scene that celebrates itself."  Yep, I had caught the shoegazer bug in colossal fashion, but little did I know at the time that said trifecta were about as godhead as that mind-bending niche would get.  Sure, there were others to heap praise upon: Swervedriver, the Lilys, Fudge, and Bleach to name a few, but none of them (and the scores of identikit dream-popsters to follow) quite ascended to the bar par-excellence raised by Kevin Shields and Miki Berenyi.  All these decades later, Nottingham, England's Spotlight Kid have floored me to such an extent with their latest, Disaster Tourist, that had this record arrived in the early '90s it could have competed with the coveted vanguard I mention at the beginning of this piece - and as far as the current crop of dream-pop revivalists go, they beat their contemporaries handily.   

A teaming co-ed six-piece, Spotlight Kid's synthesis of shoegazer pioneers of yore frequently borders on the derivative, but what makes Disaster Tourist so unceasingly compelling is the sheer aptitude of it's creators, who are not only adept at wielding potent, tremolo-smacked maneuvers, but armed with a devastatingly melodic fortitude to match.  Engulfing surges like "All is Real" and "Forget Yourself in Me" climb to billowy sonic heights, while conversely, "Lifetime" and some of the more lucid latter album tracks glide back to Terra firma in a smooth-as-silk comedown.  There's some sheer magnificence wafting its way through this platter, and if the proper eleven song album weren't enough, the version coming out on Saint Marie Records this very week tacks on five bonus cuts.  The crazy irony about Disaster... is that word went out last week that the long awaited follow-up to MBV's tour de force Loveless is finally slated for release before years' end.  Normally one would assume the Valentines have no competition in this arena...but perhaps Kevin and Belinda are about to be beaten at their own game, dare I say. 

I was forced to nix the link to two songs I was sharing, so you'll have to rely on thirty second samples from these retailers: Saint Marie, Amazon, or iTunes. 

Ultra Cindy "Whirlwind" 7" (1992, Praha)

Many years ago when there were still a healthy number of record stores, I was plundering for used CD gold, and one day low and behold my gaze fixated on a compilation titled Wyatt's Torch.  It featured four songs from one of my favorite '90s indie standbys, Poole.  It also included four songs apiece from three other groops: The Technical Jed and The Seymores, both of whom I had some familiarity with, and then there was one completely unknown quantity - Ultra Cindy.  In a nutshell, I came for Poole, stayed for Ultra Cindy...and never quite left.  Hailing from Virginia Beach, UC bore all the earmarks of top-shelf dream pop - woozy washes of tremolo, oodles of echo, and slightly murky vocals.  Sure, there was a lot of that stuff going around in the early '90s, and virtually all of it was commendable to one extent or the other, but Ultra Cindy were shining their collective beam of light from a slightly askew direction.  None of that heavy handed, wall-of-noise, Loveless muck - no, no, no, Ultra Cindy took their cues from such Eastern seaboard propositions as Smashing Orange, Fudge, and the Lilys.  Perhaps even a little subtler than that Yankee trifecta I might add, and they were all the wiser for it.

In my post-Wyatt's Torch world, the next step was to locate their out of print full length, The Mermaid's Parade.  After a few months of web browsing I secured a mint condition used copy, and in 2008 I shared it on Wilfully Obscure, along with the revelatory aforementioned compilation.  Almost as soon as I absorbed Mermaid's Parade I was hankering for more, and after getting in touch with a couple of UC alumni, I was pleased to learn that indeed there was more, if only a little bit.  The single I'm posting today contains a pair of songs that predate the other two recordings I've rambled at length about. "Whirlwind" and "Rollercoaster" depict a noisier, and dare I say untamed Ultra Cindy, teaming with swarms of distortion and other assorted effects, bringing influences like Ride and Chapterhouse to the table.  Well worth the wait if you ask me. I'm afraid you're going to have to contend with a copious amount of vinyl noise, especially on "Whirlwind," but the songs are still very much discernible.  A very big thanks to Josh for setting me up with this wax!

A. Whirlwind
B. Rollercoaster

Hear

Various - Neapolitan Metropolitan 7" box (1992, Simple Machines)

It's 4th of July weekend folks - so what will it be, one scoop?  No?  Ok, how does a double dollop sound?  Still not enough to satisfy that ravenous craving?  Why don't we up the ante to twelve scoops?  There, that's more like it.  Only thing is, this box of "Neapolitan delights" isn't ice cream, rather a snazzy, triple 7" box set compilation, assembled by Simple Machine Records some nineteen years ago.  The Neapolitan theme resonates throughout the packaging in a big way, with vanilla, strawberry, and pistachio coloured wax, each representing one of the three cities of origin (Washington D.C., Richmond, VA, and Baltimore respectively) of Neapolitan Metropolitan's contributing acts.  Heck, they even toss in one of those wooden, mini paddle spoons that are given with those invariably undersized servings of ice cream in dinky plastic cups.  Ah...ain't it just the life?

And then there are the tunes.  A veritable mixed bag if there ever was one.  Roughly half of Neapolitan is fairly expendable, and while I could riff on the bad and the ugly, I'm instead going to hone in on what selections I deem to be praiseworthy, starting with Richmond's Fudge, whose "Montpelier Train Station" I've actually shared previously, alongside the group's crucial trio of early 7" records.  Also on the 'gazer tip, we have the venerable Lily's, who contribute the rich, melodically vibrant "Claire Hates Me," a woozy pop gem that would later appear on their debut, In the Presence of Nothing.  Whorl I wasn't familiar with until I encountered them on here, offering a nicely manicured post-punk maelstrom with some apparent nods to Killing Joke.  I was never one to paint Bratmobile into the riot grrrl corner, but a lot of other people were insistent on doing so.  "She Said" is downright twee compared to Bikini Kill and the like.  Nice tune.  The Jenny Toomey fronted Slack was the precursor band to her subsequently far move visible project, Tsunami, and judging by the sound of "Word Traffic," the apple that would soon drop didn't fall far from Slack's metaphorical tree.  Coral and Candy Machine deliver our daily dose of guitar-wrangling dissonance, quite gleefully I might add.  Last, but not least we have Late!.  Many longtime aficionados of Dave Grohl know that between his tenure in Scream and the Foo Fighters, Nirvana wasn't his only endeavor - not technically anyway.  In 1990 and '91, he cut ten demos in Arlington, that happened to be in a very similar mold of his soon-to-be meal ticket.  The songs were eventually issued on a Simple Machines cassette only release, Pocketwatch, which you can read plenty about by selecting the hyperlink.  The song that appears here, "There's That Song" also materialized on Pocketwatch under the title "Petrol C.B."
 
Richmond (strawberry) 7"
01. Breadwinner - Exploder
02. Coral - More of the Same
03. Burma Jam - You Have the Right
04. Fudge - Montpelier Train Station

Washington D.C. (vanilla) 7"
05. Lilys - Claire Hates Me
06. Whorl - Not Me
07. Bratmobile - She Said
08. Late! - There's that Song Again

Baltimore (pistachio) 7"
09. Slack - Word Traffic
10. False Face Society - Two Tone
11. Tear Jerks - It's Friday
12. Candy Machine - The Constant

Hear

The Sunshine Factory - Sugar & Sway - This Was Tomorrow (2011, Saint Marie) - a brief evaluation

If you stopped following the dream pop circuit when the major labels bailed on virtually every single downward staring signee by the mid-90s, then you've missed out on a cornucopia of hundreds of entries that have opted to go DIY, or for that matter slug it out on the many indie imprints that would have them.  The Sunshine Factory and Sway are representative examples of shoegazer "revivalists" (so to speak) one charting a relatively conventional course, with the latter rolling the dice - both to satisfying effect. 

The Sunshine Factory are denizens of Mobile, AL, an unlikely locale for a duo delivering all the requisite dream pop earmarks we've come to know and expect.  On Sugar, the Factory's second outing, we're divebombed with globs of woozy, penetrating tremolo, and swells of swarming syncopation.  Unsung yank’s like Fudge, Black Tambourine, and Drop Nineteens seem to provide more inspiration to S/F than the genre’s more renown Anglo mainstays and good on them for it (though shades of the Boo Radleys manage to sneak in through the factory gate).   Sugar is seeped in traditionalist, Shoegazer 101 aesthetics, but Factory deftly blend in some shifty electronic tricks, never overpowering mind you.  And would you just listen to the juicy, plump hooks that propel "Domino" and "My Sugar Cane" into melodic overdrive.  Sugar is a killer confectionery. 

Moving from the sweet to the sweetly-surreal, Sway have been kicking around Ventura, CA for over a decade, evolving from a quartet to what is presently a solo vehicle for Andrew Saks.  The unsuspectingly enlightening This Was Tomorrow falls on the heels of a handful of eps dating back to 2006.  Billowy, rhythmically aware, and deliriously ethereal to a fault, this corker of a debut suffers from a staggering embarrassment of sublimeness (let alone riches), and as far as I'm concerned we wouldn't have it any other way.   ...Tomorrow is a pristine, gale force surge of disorienting, blissed-out dream pop, basking in the digital glow of soft keyboard treatments that unfurl and erupt with astonishing frequency.  My Bloody Valentine melded with a touch of Owl City?  Sort of.  New Order on a Swervedriver bender?  Perhaps.  Saks has a damn near-perfect thing going, but I would probably nix the vocoder (or whatever device he's applying that sounds like one).  It's difficult to pick a favorite song here, but I'd sweat it down to "What I Know" or "Nucifera."

Buy from Saint Marie Records.

The Flying Saucers - Startime ep (1993, Unclean) & s/t ep (1995, Propeller)

I'm sure that many outfits past, and perhaps even present, have usurped the rather ubiquitous term Flying Saucers for their moniker, so if these recordings were made by a different Flying Saucers than you had anticipated, I'm afraid all I have to offer are my utmost apologies...and some enjoyable music to boot.  It's safe to say that these Saucers did not emanate from a different galaxy, rather Austin, TX - at least that's a safe assumption based on the label addresses for both disks. 

On Startime (the one with the Prozac on the sleeve) the quartet delivers lean, polished pop, with some fuzzy guitar effects to keep things interesting.  Sharing a similar airspace with contemporaries the Belltower, School of Fish, and to a lesser extent Fudge, the Saucers exude no shortage of winsome hooks, even if their execution isn't particularly innovative.

Things got a little more adventurous on their 1995 self-titled ep, due in part to more robust arrangements and a reshuffled lineup.  They may have dropped a few dream-pop hints on Startime, but take those inclinations to a loftier atmosphere on "Winning Wash" and "Starball Contribution," where the flange enjoys a little bit of a workout.  Song for song, the first ep beats this one, but both are worth investigating.

Startime ep

01. Wait & See

02. Amphetamine

03. Insensitive

04. Melt

The Flying Saucers ep

01. Fitting (Come in For a)

02. Starball Contribution

03. Egg

04. Winning Wash

05. One More Try

Hear

The Werefrogs - Swing (1993, Ultimate)

Going back aways to the summer of 2008, I shared a nice lil' slab o' wax from The Werefrogs, a downstate New York indie coconglomerate.  What I didn't realize at the time was how much more prolific a discography that had amassed throughout their early '90s tenure, the vast majority I don't have.  In addition to that aforementioned single is this nine-cut album, Swing, issued on the British Ultimate Records imprint.  It wouldn't faze me if some of their other singles and eps didn't bear some mighty succulent fruit, but it would have to stack up to Swing's most exemplary tracks, including but not limited to "Potvan," "Nixie Concussion," and "Green."  The Werefrogs seemed to occupying the same lofty airspace as post-shoegaze cases Fudge and the Drop Nineteens, and elsewhere they brought on the howling guitar melees that Pond were so effective at.  Portions of Swing kinda sag, but it's choicest offerings are downright sublime and rewarding.

01. Jellyfish
02. Doctor Pain
03. Nixie Concussion
04. Lighthouse
05. Goddess
06. Potvan
07. Green
08. Transfigured
09. H. Dumpty

Hear

Dynamic Truths - Understanding is Overrated (2010, Little Black Cloud) - a brief evaluation

Well before Merge Records became the tastemakers they are today, jettisoning much of it's roster into the Top-10 Billboard album chart and whatnot, the label's pre-2K era reputation hinged on such comparative heavy hitters as Superchunk (the house band for those of you not in the know), that band's associated offshoots like Portastatic, as well as unrelated acts like Polvo, the Magnetic Fields, and Neutral Milk Hotel. During the '90s Merge would release a one off single by virtually unknown acts, (many of whom would sadly remain as such) including Richmond, Virginia's Dynamic Truths, an offshoot of some slightly more prominent area forerunners, specifically Coral, Honor Role, and Fudge. I shared DT's lone Merge Records entry two years ago, a 1998 single which was never followed up by a full-length until a good twelve years or so after the fact. Enter 2010 and a fifteen song assemblage of the group's recorded legacy, Understanding is Overrated, released in a scant quantity of *gulp* 250 copies, and available 'til it's slim supply runs out from Merge.

Featuring both songs from that aforementioned gem of a single, with it's remaining thirteen selections being culled from 1996-99 recording sessions, Understanding is Overrated hones in on DT stitching together the dissonant, noisenik maneuvers of it's antecedent groups (particularly Coral and Honor Roll) with a heightened tunefulness that wandered into the environs of Portastatic, Sonic Youth, Mission of Burma, and the Verlaines to name a few. Something of a perfect indie-rock storm if you will.  I would encourage you to make a beeline to Merge's online retail outlet if you don't want to miss out on this one.

Splitting the Difference # 7 - Twitch Hazel (pre-Fudge)/The Technical Jed 2x7" (1993, Brilliant)

More vintage pre-Fudge music, and a perfect tie-in with my split singles series, Splitting the Difference. This is a double 7" split single - one for T/H (maroon vinyl) and the other Technical Jed (blue vinyl). As with Engine No. 9 (see the post directly below this one), Twitch Hazel were another project involving David Tony Ammendolia and David Jones, before they formed Fudge and went on to worldwide acclaim and idolization. The four T/H songs originated from a 4-track demo session in 1989, but when the tapes were subsequently lost, they were rerecorded in January of 1993, which is what you have here. The two a-sides, "Nowhere" and "Chilled" are the standouts to me, but there's hardly any filler here. Sounds like the early Fudge singles with maybe a little Posies thrown in for good measure.

I was never really a follower of Richmond, VA's Technical Jed, but I'm aware of the two albums they cut for spinART Records in the mid '90s. The pop quotient isn't as much an emphasis for them compared to who they share this release with, but as I listen to their a-side "Blank 60," it's not too far removed from Death Cab for Cutie's more recent records. Not bad. If you're lucky, you might still be able to buy a copy from Insound. 

 

Twitch Hazel

01. Nowhere

02. Chilled

03. Believe

04. Mention 

 

The Technical Jed

A. Blank 60

B. What

 

Hear

Engine No. 9 (pre-Fudge) 7" (1991, Bus Stop); V/A -Peppermint Stick Parade (1995, Bus Stop)

As promised, here's another installment in the Fudge legacy series. Turns out that prior to getting all woozy in Fudge, the band's nuclei of frontmen Tony Ammendolia & David Jones had their antecedents in a group called Engine No. 9, who's recorded output involved a mere 7" single. Gee, thanks a lot guys. If you would have been a little more generous I wouldn't be lamenting the fact there were no more songs cut from the same flabbergasting fabric that bore "Sleep," and "Waterfall," two modest, but deeply affecting mid-fi downer pop classics for the ages.

 

While I've scanned the sleeve for the single to your right (that Pier Platters tag ain't getting peeled off for nothin'), both tracks also appeared on Bus Stop Record's Peppermint Stick Parade compilation, which I've posted in it's entirety (that means the whole thing). Since you've been gracious enough to come for Engine no. 9, stay for jangle-pop keepers by the equally impressive Bag-O-Shells and St. Christopher. And if that weren't enough, there's also some vintage Velvet Crush action going on here too, and believe it or not, the pre-VC Springfields (Rick Menck) and a solo cut from the Crush's other prime mover, Paul Chastain. Should you crave more of the Menck/Chastain axis, proceed to this pertinent post from last year.

 

01-The Stupid Cupids - Big Blue Bus

02-Bag-O-Shells - Almost Home

03-Honeybunch - Warts and All

04-The Mayfields - Deeper Than the Ocean

05-Engine No. 9 - Waterfall

06-St. Christopher - Even the Sky Seems Blue

07-The Springfields - Sunflower

08-The Sneetches - Flying on the Ground

09-Bag-O-Shells - Whatever Happened to My Life?

10-Engine No. 9 - Sleep

11-Honeybunch - Hey Blue Sky!

12-The Mayfields - Feels Like Yesterday

13-St. Christopher - Our Secret

14-The Caroline Know - Orphaned Too

15-Paulie Chastain - Raining All Day

16-Velvet Crush - Circling the Sun 

 

Hear

Fudge - 20th Century Masters: The Singles Collection (1992)

This is a timely follow-up to this weeks post for Fudge's The Ferocious Rhythm of Precise Laziness album, something of a lost shoegazer classic, at least in my book. All nine songs here were ripped straight from the original singles, and six of them were rerecorded for Ferocious Rhythm. Fudge not only absorbed the dream-pop fundamentals from their British originators, there sound was also a wink and a nod to bands closer to their Arlington, VA home turf, including Edsel and Velocity Girl. "Oreo Dust," "Pez," and "Drive" (all of which would appear on the album) remain as some of my all-time favorite American indie pop songs, and believe me, that's saying a lot. More Fudge related posts to follow. Here's the track info:
 

Bomb Pop ep (Brilliant Records)

01. Oreo Dust

02. Mull

03. Pez

04. Inez
 

singles:

(Bus Stop Records)

05. Astronaut

06. Drive 

 

(Super Fly Records)

07. Wayside

08. Girlwish
 

from Neapolitan Metropolitan V/A 7" box set

09. Montpelier Train Station
 

Hear