Wilfully Obscure

When I attended the final Hey Mercedes concert at the Metro in Chicago in 2005, the opening act was celebrating their debut album release....

A little pedigree action going on here.  File under Yo La Tengo and Hypnolovewheel , cos' A Special Pillow entailed James McNew and D...

Two months ago, I introduced many of you to Crocodile Shop's 1987 ep, Head .  With a quintessentially indie rock sound that drew from...

The 1986 album from an unheralded Minneapolis combo.  Lots of ringing guitar leads on this one, not dissimilar to another troop from this er...

Thirty links or so revived from the dead.  Some of these were requests, others were items that may have been neglected or passed over when ...

I went into this one with a couple of serious misconceptions.  Doll Congress' lineup contained a pre-solo/pre-fame Michael Penn , who w...

Presumably taking their name from the R.E.M. song, it's virtually inevitable for me to draw some sort of parallel between this Cleveland...

From 1993.  Stellar indie rock from Canada, with nods to Sonic Youth and Superchunk.  Loads of sweet jangly breaks throughout. http://ww...

I didn't rip much vinyl this week, nor do I have much time on my hands today, but since I've been on a bit of a Swell Maps kick o...

The gentleman on the cover is flipping us da bird, and for the life of me I can't figure out why.  Maybe I shouldn't take it so pe...

Another Orange County jewel.  Blurring the lines between new age and new romantic (skewing heavily to the latter), Graphic's surreal ...

Pure pop for not-so-now people.  From the Great White North, circa 1987.  Impeccable stuff here my friends, and one of the best M/M titles I...

Was surprised to see this one wasn't archived elsewhere online (save for Discogs ).  Imitation Life presumably called Los Angeles their...

Yes, I was into these guys for a spell.  Noise meets rock, rock meets noise.  Included is their 1993 debut album, as well as a compilation...

Even with the resurgence of vinyl, the compilation 7" seems to be an entirely lost art.  They were ubiquitous in the '90s, at least...

I would have probably cast aside this San Diego trio as just another dime-a-dozen, acousti-pop also-ran were it not for mouthpiece Steve Har...

I really question my judgement when I decide to post a record, particularly a full length, with only one genuinely stimulating song on it.  ...

" Have a couple new morsels to tell you about, the first one being a newly minted 45 from the Saratoga Springs, NY quartet, Party Boa...

From 1987.  In rapt anticipation of the greatly expanded C86 compilation that's coming out in June.  http://www73.zippyshare.com/v/2...

The name Royal Court of China might ring a bell for you fanciers of late '80s hard rock, albeit far from household moniker status. ...

It's that time of year folks.  Warped Tour season is upon us.  I make mention of this, because during the mid-90s inception of said mara...

Given the uber-arcane nature of some of the vintage goodies I make available here, it's heartening to learn that every so often one of t...

From 2003.  Last week, this band performed this very album in it's entirety...only out of order and acoustic...but not entirely.  Anyway...

I won't be telling you much about the Convictions , a quintet ostensibly from San Francisco, as there isn't a shred of relevant i...

I've been on something of a punk rock tear this week, and I thought this would be an apropos follow-up to the Tantrum comp I unfurled...