the terrible parade - ed mcmahon says 7'' (1991, Presto!)

Looks like I went a whole decade plus without a follow-up to my original Terrible Parade entry from 2009. No, unfortunately it's not another full length (they only made one, 1990's Where Were You When the Light Went Out), but they did follow it up with a single containing two entirely new songs. Sonically, they lightened their attack for the ace A-side, the acoustic "Ed McMahon Says" that ponders what it would be like to be handed a check for a cool million from the man in question. The flip, "Telephone Man" mines a strikingly similar vein (thematically  anyway) to New Edition's "Mr. Telephone Man," though Terrible Parade's take on this often doleful topic is in the form of a wholly unique tune with smarter lyrics. 

a. ed mcmahon says
b. telephone man

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The Difference - Sign of the Times ep (1983, Sugar Maple)

The opening title, "P.M.T," on The Difference's lone ep, Sign of the Times, commences with a deliciously echoing, post-punk guitar line that gradually segues into something more pedestrian, albeit in an inviting way.  The remainder of the record skews in the direction of mainstream-ish '80s pop/rock that might have also persuaded a few left-of-the-dial types as well.  In fact. "If Not For Love"is downright sprite and bouncy - "pop" without an overdoes of the "power" quotient. There's no shortage of potential on Sign of the Times, but this appears to be the only recorded evidence The Difference furnished us with.

01. P.M.T. (Pre Menstrual Tension)
02. Sign of the Times
03. If Not For Love
04. When Tomorrow Comes

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My hero's my burden, and my burden is me.

From 1988. At the peak of their powers this band fused together the finest elements of the Who, Bruce Springsteen and U2. Interesting back story on these guys which you can read via a link included in the folder.

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

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Golden City - s/t mLP (2009, Magic Bullet)

Sorry I wasn't able to offer you more this week, but for what's it's worth this one is pretty excellent. You've probably never heard of Golden City. Fair enough, but you may be familiar with frontman Eric Richter's relatively more visible mid-90s proposition, Christie Front Drive, who were regarded as one of the flag-bearers of the rekindled emo movement of that decade, alongside contemporaries Boys Life, Mineral, and most famously, Sunny Day Real Estate. CFD split after an album and several short form releases, with Richter going on to helm The 101 in the aughts.  Golden City was the band that followed shortly after that, with Richter again leading the charge and Jeremy Jones also making the migration over from 101. To the handful of you that have heard G/C's lone album (with some people technically referring to it as an ep) you know there's not much separating it from The 101 (whom I might try to cover in a Mystery Monday at some point). Loud, chiming guitars with just-right distortion plied to relentless melody lines, and driving, up-tempo arrangements. Golden City is love-at-first-listen caliber indie rock with nods to latter era Promise Ring and lesser known greats Muler, minus any dramatic entanglements.  This one is available digitally from Bandcamp, and possibly Spotify, so I won't be leaving this up for long.  If you enjoy what you hear I encourage you to support the band!  Enjoy. 

01. Gray
02. Diamond Suits
03. Cars in Space
04. Ragdoll
05. Big Country
06. Cavalry
07. Stars
08. Hit the Ground

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I was never a part of it.

This album turns forty this year. Enjoy. 

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

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Apollo Landing - Kleptomania 7'' (1993)

Here's another new-to-me find. Apollo Landing were a Boston five-piece, described as "feminist indie rock" per the archival page linked above, though the band featured only one member with double-x chromosomes, vocalist Jenny Kuhla. Though more than an album's worth of material was recorded over their tenure, only two short-form releases were made available for public consumption including this presumably self-released 45. Two slices of relatively manicured indie pop here, not far removed from the likes of Helium and Belly, with the more distortion-heavy "Marianne" winning me over the most. Based on what I'm hearing, Kuhla was a natural on the mic, and had Apollo caught a genuine break they could have been fairly major contenders in the alt-rock sweepstakes. According to my online sources (all one of them) the band was supposed to have released a posthumous collection in 2018 dubbed, Hysteria, though there doesn't seem to have been much follow-up on it. Guitarist Tony Striker has released a handful of albums under his own name.   

A. Kleptomania
B. Marianne

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Units - New Way to Move ep (1983, Epic)

The Units 1980 debut Digital Stimulation, has been regarded as an underground electro/pop classic for four decades and counting. Arriving on 415 Records prior to the label's affiliation with CBS Records, the coed San Fran wunderkinds demonstrated a pop awareness on Stimulation, but clung to avant ideals. A second album, Animals They Dream About, produced by Bill Nelson of Be Bop Deluxe renown was shelved for a good three decades and change. If that wasn't enough the band's third album, also with Nelson working the boards never made it to market either. However, a handful of songs from those third LP sessions were part and parcel of New Way to Move, the Units lone major label outing. Adopting a slightly catchier (not to mention dancier) m.o, the ep's two lead-off numbers, "The Right Man" and "A Girl Like You" are effective stabs at mainstream-ish wave/pop with just enough left-field affectations baked into the cake to keep things interesting. The remainder of the record, isn't as consistent, but say for example a band like Oingo Boingo got their hands on "Your Face," and we might have a real monstrosity on our hands. New Way to Move would be the band's last recorded effort until a collection of remixes, Connections sprouted in 2011.

01. The Right Man
02. A Girl Like You
03. New Way to Move
04. Your Face
05. More Alike
06. More More Alike

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Reviews you can use: Bye Bye Blackbirds, The Loud Family & Anton Barbeau, Hoodoo Gurus

In 2020, I admitted my naivety when I momentarily mistook The Bye Bye Blackbirds then most recent album, Boxer at Rest for their debut, when in actuality it had been preceded by three full lengths.  Chalk that up to Boxer being my first exposure to the band, as well as prime-mover Bradley Skaught, who seemingly wound up on everyone's radar overnight. Most notably, Skaught's plaintive songwriting chops belie an almost startling adeptness for arranging and honing songs, with equal measures of grit and polish, topped off with gallons of class, sans the sass. Rounded out to a six-piece for August Lightning Complex, the Blackbirds aren't ones for extremes. You won't find any full fledged "bangers" or even ballads amidst August's ten songs, nor are they wont to reign this affair in at a static or even keel. However, there are a few things here that pounce out at me like a savage, ravenous lion, namely "Mechanics," and "Favorite Stars," both par excellence, richly crafted bullseyes, situated in the vicinity of power pop, but not necessarily rooted there.  Also consider the more subdued "Something From the Old World" and the harmony-laced "We Got Lost" affording the band more flexibility. My only objection on August, is the meandering "Marching," which winds on for nine-plus minutes, and would be equally effective if edited to half that length.  

I'm tempted to say that Skaught and Co. are prodigiously enlightened...but who might those prodigies be?  It's immensely hard to quantify these things, but here goes. Tom Petty?  In all probability. Wilco?  Likely a coincidence.  Sloan?  Well, just refer to the aforementioned. "Mechanics," and "Favorite Stars." And much like Sloan, this combo play the 'meticulous' card to a fault without conveying themselves as the least bit forced. Not an easy task to pull off, yet it's wholly evident the Blackbirds are masters of this very tact. August... is one of those records where simplicity merges with sincerity, and begets a wellspring of rewards in the process. Grab a strike of the Lightning at Bandcamp or Amazon. 

If you were more or a casual Loud Family fan (admittedly like yours truly) this next one may have slipped past your radar. The Loud Family of course was the long running band fronted by the late Scott Miller, formally of seminal pop auteurs Game Theory, who I may have brought up once or twice on these pages. 2006 saw the release of What if It Works?, a collaboration between Miller and  singer/songwriter Anton Barbeau, which is being reissued by Omnivore next week with practically an album's worth of supplemental tracks. While the album itself was a one-off effort, the duo's association with each other dates back to a couple decades prior when Anton was introduced to Scott at a latter-era Game Theory gig in 1988. In the ensuing years the two hung out and performed at coffee house gigs around UC Davis and Sacramento, and eventually, the then-budding Anton presented a tape of songs to Scott he had been working on. Over the next fifteen years both Scott and Anton pursued their respective meal-tickets, the former with the Loud Family and Anton as a solo act, not to mention the proprietorship of his own label, Idiot Records. Nonetheless, Scott was tuned into what his soon-to-be partner was doing, and by the early '90s they dabbled in producing songs together, but the two weren't officially a "band," per se.

Scott had disbanded the Loud Family around 2000 and had largely walked away from pursuing music. At some point in the '00s, Scott's wife Kristine remarked about how well he and Anton sounded together, and that largely sparked the idea to make a record. Towing along former Loud Family alum Kenny Kessel and Jozef Becker, the combo went about recording What if it Works?  What was initially slated to be an EP snowballed into a full length, and not merely a footnote either. Scott is the slightly dominant songwriter here with both trading off on vocals. While the Loud Family dealt in elaborate and challenging arrangements, the Miller/Anton collaboration boasted a looser and more casual bent. In fact, What If's opening salvo is their interpretation of the Stones "Rocks Off," and a raging one at that.  It's immediately followed up by "Song About "Rocks Off," which ironically isn't as much of a response to the tune in question as it's title suggests. It's a great song in it's own right, and is one of the most effective things Miller penned since his tenure in Game Theory.  Following this is Anton's own excellent "Pop Song 99" which bears the unmistakable gait and tincture of early Game Theory, circa Blaze of Glory.  Scott's trademark lyrical charms and melodic agility on "Total Mass Destruction" and "Mavis of Maybelline Towers," are compelling as ever. Hard to believe he was semi-retired from music at the time! Anton's "Flow Thee Water" and the album's uptempo title track are equally satisfying and showcase his ongoing progression as a slightly off-center pop scribe, akin to Scott Miller himself.  Along the way they also indulge in a cover of Cat Steven's "I Think I See the Light."

As mentioned before, there's a huge clutch of bonus swag on this reissue, including a couple of fine Anton-penned outtakes, "Third Eye" and "Little Daisy," along with early prototypes of roughly half of the record. And don't get me started on Anton's gritty, Stooges-esque "I Wanna Make You Come Just By Looking at Your Eye."  What if It Works? will be available March 25 direct from Omnivore, Amazon, and hopefully your local music vendors.

What can I say?  With a tenure of over forty years, The Hoodoo Gurus simply will not die. Granted, they've been together intermittently of late, with their last album Purity of Essence having dropped in 2010, but not only are they still in existence, they've retained 75% percent of their original 1981 lineup (Dave Faulkner: vox/guitars, Brad Shepherd: guitars, Richard Grossman: bass)!  Purloining elements of garage rock and punk, with neither of those genres ever quite dominating, these Aussie vets are virulent rockers to the core who've never lost their ethos or sardonic bite. Their latest, Chariot of the Gods, their tenth studio effort overall, is for better or worse not a return to their nascent sonic forte, the kind that engendered global fandom with records like Stoneage Romeos, Mars Needs Guitars, etc... Heck, at times Chariot barely resembles 1991's Kinky.  That said they're back with 13 or 16 fresh songs (quantity dependent on your format of choice) and if your an established customer it's time to break out your Mastercard.

There are some honest to goodness corkers here - "World of Pain," "Hang With the Girls," and "Don't Try to Save My Soul," all of which are plenty taut and potent, still bearing much of their eminently powerful sound of yore without resorting to a outright throwback. Conversely there's a slew of linear, yet relatively uncharacteristic numbers hitching a ride on this Chariot. "Get Out of Dodge" "Settle Down" and "Carry On" skew close to power pop, but the comparatively tranquil "Was I Supposed to Care" and the Lou Reed-indebted "Got to Get You Out of My Life," suggest what a Dave Faulkner solo record might culminate in. Chariot of the Gods is one of the most varied albums in the Guru's voluminous canon, and while not necessarily representative of past triumphs, it's a testament to their sheer longevity not to mention capabilities. If you're brand new to these guys, a good jumping off point might be a best-of collection, or better yet, Blow Your Cool or Mars Needs Guitars, before sinking your teeth full bore into Chariot. The vinyl variant of the album features three bonus tunes, and is available from their website. Finally, the band is touring Australia in early April, and are playing two shows in the States later in the month in Nashville and Philadelphia!

 Watch this space for additional record critiques to come this weekend.

Make the most of a million times no.

From 1983. Quite possibly the only album I really enjoyed by this band.

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

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Late Rivals - Casting Shadows (198?, Crown)

Another blind purchase, sealed no less.  Not turning up much pertinentn info about Late Rivals, who may have been denizens of Tennessee, albeit their isn't a single southern accident to be identified amongst this album's eight tunes. Definitely a collegiate edge to much of Casting Shadows, particularly "Ghostown" and "My Marcelle," both of which illicit some tasteful R.E.M. jangle.  A thoroughly listenable, and occasionally rewarding record, just don't expect much in the way of mystique. BTW, no copyright date was provided anywhere on the graphics, but it's pretty safe to say this dates from the mid/late 1980s. 

01. Wilderness
02. Ghostown
03. All Mixed Up
04. Stars
05. Her Tie's Bind
06. My Marcelle
07. Slow Down
08. When You're Gone

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...but this is hopeless, i'm handing in my notice...giving my four days.

Four ep's from four disparate artists, each coincidentally, representing a different decade.

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

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Ceedees - s/t ep (1986, Freedom)

The Ceedees' 1980 debut, Hit the Ditch, certainly had it's charms, not to mention quirks. In fact, I extolled on these bygone Canucks in a piece I did surrounding said record about five years prior. They took their sweet time with a follow-up considering this ep arrived over half a decade later, but it was worth the wait considering the Curtis Drieder-helmed trio sounded genuinely improved, with a stash of smart, memorable tunes, often topical in nature, and sonically, packing a much tighter wallop. I'm picking up on some XTC-isms throughout this one, albeit the Ceedee's have a singular mouthpiece in Drieder, bearing no likeness to Andy Partridge. As for highlights, "I Wanna Be Somebody" sports a sprite, Let's Active-esque power-pop gait, and "Hook in Me" is sung from the vantage point of a fish who's experiencing anything but a pleasant day. According to the album insert, at the time of Ceedees release a book was available from the band featuring lyrics to no less than 40 compositions, leading one to wonder if that plentiful batch of tunes was actually committed to tape. Check out a nice essay regarding this album over at Vinyl Burn blog. 

01. Eskimo Lullabye
02. I Wanna Be Somebody
03. France
04. Hook in Me
05. I Worry About My Baby

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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

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Ask me again, I’ll tell you the same way...

In 1996, the disk I’m featuring this week was the best thing this side of a new Archers of Loaf album (and we even managed to get one of those too).

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

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A note on re-ups/dead links.

Alright, finally time to stare down the elephant in the room.  Roughly 80% to 90% of the download links on this site have EXPIRED.  Some five or more years ago.  My apologies for this. For a good six seven years I've been using Zippyshare as my file hoster. While they've been reliable on a short term basis, several of you have complained about dodging adware and porn links in order to get to what you're really after, the music. In a nutshell, Zippyshare links remain active until a file hasn't been accessed in over thirty days.  For years now I've been playing an endless cat and mouse game of responding to your requests by way of comments that I'm often very tardy in reading. There's such a backlog of dead links and perfectly well intentioned and reasonable requests that I simply don't have time to realistically address. In short, I need a more permanent solution, even if it means going with a paid file hosting option that will retain the links I upload provided I pay an annual or semi-annual fee.

By and large, the out-of-pocket expenditure is not an immediate concern (so long as I'm employed). One option appears to be MediaFire.  Their site claims to guarantee up to 1 TB of file hosting for what seems like a reasonable fee (about USD $50 for the first year), but can anyone attest to how reliable they are with hosting data (i.e. MP3s) that may be copyrighted (even if is completely out of print)?  If you're a fellow blogger who has used MediaFire, have you ever had anything scrubbed from their servers, particularly without warning?  Ideally I wish to make all previous links on Wilfully Obscure active again, provided that the content hasn't been made commercially available since I originally shared the files. I just want to ensure the next file hoster I opt to go with is copacetic with my overarching objective.  Any input would be helpful.  I will try to attend to some of your more recent requests in the near future. Thanks.  

Eternal Triangle - Touch and Let Go (1984, Situation 2)

Bargain bin find here, and a slightly above average one at that. Hailing from the UK and containing a guy from Fischer-Z (Steve Skolnik) the co-ed Eternal Triangle entangled their new romantic pastiche with a dash of this and that, with the finest results yielding themselves on the chilly "Small Town" which smacks of the same austere poise that made the early Comsat Angels such a pleasure. The quartet's ambitions, writ large are commercially ambitious by comparison, and even if the title track, issued as a single, is less than thrilling, E/T compensate with the uptempo, extroverted "I Need You," and "Nothing But a Friend." There's a couple more highlights lurking among these grooves - "Stay With You" and "Only In the Night," but Touch and Let Go ends on a rather inglorious note, with the sappy, naval-gazing soliloquy "It's a Story" playing this affair out. 

01. Touch and Let Go
02. I Need You
03. Small Town
04. Nothing But a Friend
05. Can't Blame Me
06. Stay With You
07. Same Mistakes
08. Only in the Night
09. Won't Work
10. It's a Story

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I’d like for each of the senses I wear behind my sunglass lenses…

The entire discography from one of the Deep South's best kept secrets, spanning 1984-87. One critic described them as "Earth's strangest pop band. Utterly unclassifiable and stunningly possessed."

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

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Reviews you can use: Urge Overkill, Rave-Ups and Marshall Crenshaw.

When Urge Overkill parted ways in 1997, due largely in part to a reported falling out between the key nuclei of Nash Kato and Eddie "King" Roese, the band already seemed like something of an afterthought. To mainstream alt-rock fans the band's two minor flashes in the pan, the single "Sister Havana" from their 1993 major label debut Saturation, and a cover of Neil Diamond's "Girl You'll Be a Woman Soon" featured in Quentin Tarantino's iconic Pulp Fiction in 1994 were already in the rear-view.  Not much was heard from them in the new millennium, save for an independently released Kato solo album Debutante in 2000. Urge rekindled the urge once again in 2004 and a reunion ensued minus longtime drummer Blackie Onassis. By this time the band's presence was a shadow of their Clinton-era heyday, and despite dropping a satisfying new album, Rock & Roll Submarine circa 2011 it didn't do much to elevate their profile. Seemingly Kato and Roese took another extended sabbatical. As luck would have it, the boys have fired up the Americruiser with a decade-belated follow-up in the guise of Oui.

If a genteel Neil Diamond cover seemed ironic for a band who once had records minted on Touch & Go, recorded with Steve Albini, and toured with Nirvana, you can imagine the shock value unfurled when Urge Overkill inexplicably place a cover of Wham!'s "Freedom" front and center on their seventh platter. Playing somewhat fast and loose with the arrangement, and even futzing with the melody a tad, they casually rebrand the '80s nugget as their own. Further in, they flex discernible musculature on "Follow My Shadow," "Forgiven" and the Dino Jr-esque "I Been Ready," albeit nothing on Oui outright pumps like the band's punkier forays on Saturation. Then there's the curious character study, "A Prisoner's Dilemma," a tune which ponders none other than Amanda Knox - to catchy effect no less.  The record winds-down on a comparatively sobering note with our protagonists extolling bittersweet hues on "I Can't Stay Glad@U" and "Snow." To draw a parallel to the Stones, Oui is Urge's Steel Wheels or Voodoo Lounge, and given Kato and Roese's intermittent longevity that's not a bad spot to reside in. You can check it out for yourself courtesy of Omnivore. 

Despite coming up with like minded contemporaries Uncle Tupelo and the Long Ryders in the mid-80s (and a little bit beyond), The Rave-Ups have been given short shrift in terms of nostalgia and reverence for the Americana contingent they were part and parcel of.  Why is that you might ask?  Obviously, fame and stature can be difficult if not utterly impossible to quantify, so I dare not make even a feeble attempt. As a quick backgrounder for the uninitiated, The Rave-Ups were an L.A. quartet with frontman Jimmer Podrasky originally having taken root in Pittsburgh. By 1980 an early incarnation of the band was formulated with intentions to pursue a punk rock modus operandi. Fast forward a few years with the line-up being fortified enough to enter the studio to cut a pair of independent records, 1983's Class Tramp ep, and the more renown Town + Country seeing the light of day two years later. By this time the band had matriculated to more mature pastures, with a telltale country inflection apparent amidst a more conventional rock ethos. A few notches removed from genuine "cow-punk" terrain, the band made a go of it in the big leagues releasing two albums, The Book of Your Regrets and Chance issued in 1988 and '90 respectively via Columbia.

Tomorrow, recently released on Omnivore earlier this month, marks the Rave-Ups first return to the studio in over three decades.  It finds the quartet to Podrasky, Terry Wilson, longtime drummer Tim Jimenez and Tommy Blatnik picking up not particularly far removed from when they pressed pause in the early '90s, with a penchant for playing it right down the middle of the country/rock divide. Absent is some of their youthful rancor, but a plentiful quotient of pent up vigor manages to infiltrate the comparatively high strung "So You Wanna Know the Truth?" and the tight, irresistible hoedown "Brigitte Bardot." If Tomorrow is dominated by any particular sonic motif it's the slower, mid-tempo air of "She and He," "Cry," and the pedal-steel soaked title track - none of which are outright remarkable or visionary but undeniably pleasant.  A soundtrack for the hammock on a clear 75° day if there ever was one. The closest Tomorrow comes to offering any sort of anomaly is "Coming After Me," a relaxed excursion into pure guitar pop. Though not wholly representative of the small legacy they carved out for themselves in their original epoch, longtime connoisseurs of the Rave-Ups, not to mention acolytes of modern alt-country will find plenty to feast their ears on here. Tomorrow ironically, is available today here and from the label that brought it to fruition, Omnivore.

Contrary to the title, #447 is actually the second in a series of revamped and reissued albums in Marshall Crenshaw's catalog, specifically the records he cut for the Razor & Tie label during the 1990s. An overhaul of his first album for the label, 1996's Miracle of Science, saw the light of day two years ago on his in-house Shiny-Tone imprint with the original LP presented along with two newly recorded bonus cuts. The same premise follows for the reissue of '99s #447.  You might be asking yourself, what's the relevance of that particular number in the first place?  For all we know it could be a closely guarded secret, or an exercise in sheer randomness. If the latter, that arbitrary logic folds in conveniently with said album, given it's an eclectic patchwork almost to a fault. But what #447 lacks in flow and connective tissue it compensates for in stimulating song-craft. 

Crenshaw hasn't been a straight-up power pop guy since the early '80s, but there are couple of concessions here that point squarely to the reputation he forged on his self-titled debut, and it's follow-up, Field Day. The economically acoustic "Glad Goodbye," and what could be #447's most gratifying number, "Right There in Front of Me" (curiously billed as a demo) skew in the vicinity of his younger self without amounting to deliberate throwbacks. "Tell Me All About It" and "Television Light" adhere to a similar ethos but boast a more relaxed delivery system. A pair of instrumental pieces caught me a bit off guard here, namely the loungy stride of "Eydie's Tune" and the even more appealing "You Said What??" I'd also be remiss if I failed to mention that Crenshaw is aided and abetted by no less than a dozen guest musicians on this record including Brad Jones, Bill Lloyd, and even an ex-pat from the E. Street Band, David Sancious.  As was the case with the recently reissued Miracle of Science, there are two factory fresh recordings appended to #447 proper, the plaintive "Will of the Wind" and "Santa Fe" that don't necessarily enhance the album but fortunately don't detract from it either.  The slightly modified and lovingly reissued #447 is available from Amazon and here if you're seeking the vinyl variant.

Whirling Dervishes - Strange and Wonderful (1992)

Though this Westfield, NJ setup (who recorded this album as a six-piece) is potentially still playing live gigs, their discography ceased in 1994. Furthermore Whirling Dervishes don't seem to channel any particular niche on Strange and Wonderful, their one and only album surrounded by a handful of eps. Still, you're bound to pick up some stray and slight noir touches, and a slick but earnest acumen belying heartfelt, every-man notions. They sounded just about ripe for modern rock radio, with the caveat being that said format was opting for a grungier tact that what these fellows were striving for. Strange... is colored from a strikingly diverse palette, and if I had to sweat it down to one tune that really presses my proverbial buttons, the arrow would land on the ballad-esque "What's Left of My Mind," a tune that maximizes it's money-hook without over emphasizing it.

01. Madison Avenue
02. To Define You
03. Strange and Wonderful
04. The Deadliest Pause
05. Norman
06. Death of the Party
07. Cop
08. Dance For Your Life
09. Death of the Party (R.S.V.P.)
10. What's Left of My Mind
11. Your Little Finger
12. Watch You
13. Madison Avenue (radio edit)

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This winter is lasting forever, at least for tonight...

I just missed the two-decade anniversary of this one.  I didn't suspect this would be a timeless album upon it's release, but low and behold...

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

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Crawl Away Machine - s/t ep (1985, CD Presents)

Definitely a good 'un, but as with the situation with scores of other records on this site, another sheer cold case. Released on San Fran's CD Presents (the label that brought us the Avengers classic album) Crawl Away Machine bore a clangy, post-punk veneer with an emphasis clearly on substance over style. A co-ed five-piece (featuring male vox almost exclusively). Vaguely recalling everyone from Comsat Angels to The Fixx, and even a dab of Bauhaus, CAM had the downcast, anglophile thing down pat without resorting to anything trite or calculated to arrive at that destination. Not a bum tune in the bunch with my only complaint being that four weren't nearly enough.

01. Maps of Asia
02. Look Down
03. Americana
04. Pieces

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jade - Syrian Border ep (1990, Merkin)

Yet another record in my collection with an album jacket that's not so reflective of the music housed within. Was expecting indie rock of some stripe (goth maybe?) but instead I was treated to four slices of mid-tempo skate punk. jade, a Maryland foursome don't have squat on the likes of say, Big Drill Car and the Hard-Ons, but they pile on an avalanche of gnarly riffs and ever-so-slight metallic undertones. Despite a deficit in the melody department what they're able to sport on the half-pipe almost works to their advantage on "Blackeyed Susan" with mixed results elsewhere. Contrary to this ep's title, jade hardly strike me as a worldly lot, and a lack of a lyric sheet doesn't help to decode what they're ranting about. It would've been interesting to see what this crew's next move would have been, but aside from a demo tape Syrian Border appears to have been the final word from jade.

01. Over Now
02. Black Eyedsusan
03. Ten Million Times
04. Line

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If only they could see when you touch me I tingle.

Music from 1988-89. The album featured is a tad uneven, but entails some genius moments. Appended to it are nine songs from surrounding singles and compilations that fare even better. Enjoy. 

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

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Bad Sneakers - Beat the Meter (1984, Now & Then)

No, I don't know if they named themselves after the Steely Dan tune, but I can assure you that Bad Sneakers don't sound a stitch like Fagen & Becker. With that out of the way, this quartet (ostensibly from Delaware) deliver a solid and a fairly consistent album of radio-friendly power pop, that believe it or not could have competed with the work of contemporaries like Tommy Tutone, early-80s Rick Springfield, and dare I say even Todd Rundgren/Utopia. Despite this album and two surrounding ones, seeing the light of day on a small-time indie imprint, it certainly sounds like the Sneakers had loftier ambitions than playing the local club circuit - and why not with hook-savvy numbers like "Caught in the Act," "Pictures of You," and "Man Overboard" to vouch for? Beat the Meter might have been short of innovation, but the songs certainly compensate for that. I'll have you know the band established a website where you can stream this album and their others, but this rip came from my own copy and naturally, is fully downloadable. 

01. Caught in the Act
02. Ground Zero
03. Man Overboard
04. Blue Light
05. Down to It
06. Invisible Man
07. Pictures of You
08. All I Want to Know
09. Anesthesia (live)
10. Invisible Man II

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The Thought - I Had Too Much to Dream Last Night 12" (1983, Index)

I'll try to get a full length onto this site sometime within the next twelve hours or so, but here's something to tide you over.  Hailing from the Netherlands and having evolved from a power-pop/pub outfit dubbed The Rousers in the early '80s, the band was rechristened The Thought and opted for a new-wavish modus-operandi...but you might not know it from this particular disk, which features a faithful execution of the Electric Prunes' "I Had Too Much to Dream Last Night," rife with a telltale, whirring keyboard line. It's backed with two b-sides that are far less psych-endebted that still manage to buck many of the new romantic trends of their era. 

A good quotient of my record collection still needs to be organized, and is so unwieldy that I'm not certain if I have anything else to offer from this outfit, but if I do I just might be inclined to share the spoils at a later date

A. I Had Too Much to Dream Last Night
B1. There's a Boy (remix)
B2. Am I

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