Flaming Mussolinis - Watching the Film (1985)

Not quite sure how to approach this one, but I'll start by mentioning I don't have a physical copy of this one, at least not yet.  In spite of their major label (Portrait) The Flaming Mussolinis barely charted in their native England and had no legs in the States, with presumably only a handful of import copies making into the hands of us yanks.  But to their credit, for a band with considerable commercial aspirations, they managed to retain much of their credibility in the process, eschewing much of the fluffy affectations of the Thatcher-era.  Their overall schtick married the slick post-punk attributes of Love-era Cult to the more radio friendly aspects of pre-stardom Inxs, and to a lesser degree Cactus World News.  In short, nothing particularly eccentric here, but for the most part these boys delivered a respectable batch of tunes rife with ringing guitars and melodic persuasion galore...and did I mention saxophones?  Thankfully, the woodwinds are never overly-dominant, and negotiate their way through the door quite appropriately.  Skin pounder Craig McClune would collaborate with David Gray in the '90s.  

01. My Cleopatra

02. Horror Show

03. Catholic Wedding

04. Ember Days

05. Dangerous Persuasion

06. Swallow Glass

07. Landslide

08. Holding Sand

09. A Long Way to Fall

10. Masuka Dan

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Here in the city electric means fun, kilowatts buzzing right through everyone...

From 1978. 

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

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The Group - I Hear I See I Learn (1984)

And here's yet another one I definitely did not come across in the pages of Maximum Rock n Roll.  Relax, it sounds considerably better than it looks, but as you might surmise from the album sleeve, this combo's innovation meter tended to register a tad low. Oddly enough, for a band who chose a moniker as mundane as The Group, these co-eds actually went by a different name a few years prior, X-Effects, to be exact, and released a 1980 single under that banner. The 45 in question has been classified as punk/new wave...and I'll be astonished if I ever get to hear the damn thing.  

Faring better than say, the Thompson Twins or Oingo Boingo typically did, these Brits nonetheless had all the attendant '80s sonic aptitudes and production values bleeding well into the red.  Vaguely resembling a conglomerate of the Fixx and Howard Jones (more of the former thankfully), The Group's commercial ambitions (and even more likely those of their label, Arista) are audibly and visibly pronounced, but crazy enough they managed to whip up at least half an album's worth of memorable, even commendable tunes ("Victims of Circumstance," "Turn of The Century," and "She's 19").  Despite the fact that I Hear... is surprisingly salvageable, from what I gather this LP suffered an utterly indifferent fate upon it's release.  Final factoid - there are no less than three album cover variants for this one floating around, largely dependent upon which country you reside. 

01. America

02. She's 19

03. Iron Chains

04. Private Future

05. Talk to Myself

06. Victims of Circumstance

07. Turn of the Century

08. Republic

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Then we went to my place, and she never did leave...

It really was a simpler era, wasn't it?  Ok, maybe it didn't feel that way at the time, but let's face it, forty years ago mainstream radio was infinitely better than what you'll find on the middle and right-of-the-dial these days, and instantly indelible tunes like "Talk To Ya Later" enabled things go down that much more smoothly.  I don't know how much demand there will be for this on these pages, or even beyond, but instead of just sitting on this rather exhaustive collection of alternate takes, demos and such for The Tubes The Completion Backwards Principle, I thought it couldn't hurt to pitch it out to you.  

The aforementioned fireball of a ditty and, "She's a Beauty" from their subsequent platter, 1983's Outside Inside is what the masses would forever associate them for, but naturally, longtime acolytes of Fee Waybill and Co. are wont to laud the collectives initial string of inspired, albeit not-so-chart-topping albums for A&M.  My Tubes album choice, would probably wind up being the Todd Rundgren-produced Remote Control, but by the time these gents pitched their tent under the Capital Records banner in 1981, my understanding is that the Tubes were strong-armed to modify their schtick in a more "marketable" direction.  Thankfully, this didn't mean they were neutered outright, but incrementally, these developments entailed beefing up and streamlining their overarching m.o. - with the results being frequently mixed.  For all it's attendant slickness much of the magic was still intact on CBP, an album imbued with no deficit of sardonic sass and frivolity.  Even if the Tubes didn't unleash a wellspring of nervy rockers in the vein of "Talk to Ya Later" there was ample spunk in the tank to burn on "Sushi Girl," "A Matter of Pride" and "Think About Me."  You'll find multiple iterations of the aforementioned and a copious amount of other swill in this low-birate, 24-cut reimaging (if you will) of ...Backwards. Ubiquitous as this sucker was back in it's day, CBP falters a few notches short of classic but it went a long way in defining the Tubes and what the early-80s writ large would have in store for the sensibilities of millions of music fans over the ensuing decade. 

Songs included: TTYL/Let's Make Some Noise/A Matter of Pride/Mr. Hate/Attack of the Fifty Foot Woman/Think About Me/Sushi Girl/Don't Want to Wait Anymore/Amnesia/Gonna Get it Next Time/What's Wrong With Me/Sports Fans. 

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Almost men, always boys.

From 2014.  Though I'm not much of an aficionado of the frontman's more renown endeavors, this was a really rewarding detour, frequently verging on power pop.  

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

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Rifle Sport - Complex 12" (1985, Ruthless)

In spite of the water damaged record sleeve to your left, I'm that much closer to completing my Rifle Sport catalog.  A few years ago I raved about their 1983 debut, Voice of Reason, one of the finest examples I've encountered of a band straddling the fairly nascent divide between hardcore and post-punk.  And though it would be a good four years until the world got a proper follow up to it Todd Trainer, Flour, Gerrard Boissy & Co. chummed out a few tidbits to tide the faithful over, with Complex being perhaps the most notable. I've delved in to the pedigree of R/S's roster (and even those of producers Ian Burgess and Steve Fjelsted) so I'll spare you a rerun and get right down to the record at hand.  The sparse but sonically enriching title cut bears the stripe of jittery but commanding affectations early Gang of Four made their calling card.  It's accompanying a-side, "Bedroom of Ice" is an outright triumph, 140 seconds of nervy, forward-thinking modern rock splitting the difference between Joy Division and American contemporaries Middle Class. Quite literally the kind of stuff I live for.  "Box of Dirt" is a live number, and a comparatively impov-y and amelodic one at that, possessing a vibrant as-all-get-out drumbeat with J. Christopher spouting away boisterously on the mic, sounding like he's having the time of his ever-lovin' life.  

A1. Complex

A2. Bedroom of Ice

B. Box of Dirt (live)

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Transister Sound & Lighting Co. 7" (1996, Vik)

Inevitably, if you heard the lone LP by this Winnipeg troupe it left you craving a bit more.  Transistor (using an alternate spelling here) Sound & Lighting Co. didn't stick around to track a follow-up to their low key, but stunning eponymous debut in 1999...however if you bothered to scrounge for more details on the band, you might have heard about the three-song precursor I'm pitching here. There's definitely something romantic about one-and-done-album bands, or heck, even those who cut a sophomore record before petering out. Given their era, TS&L didn't have much of a web presence, but if you were informed of these guys through alt/college radio or word of mouth, their lo-fi adjacent album was something of a godsend. Eric's Trip and other likeminded folks from the Maritime provinces may have beat Transistor to the punch by several years, yet even if they weren't making music out of whole cloth, their vibe was raw, yearning and inexplicably intoxicating.

What's here are three songs, two wholly exclusive to this 45, as well as a four-track demo for one of their most stimulating album cuts, "Prince Vince." Nothing here necessarily qualifies as a revelation, and you could frankly argue this record is for completists (numbering in the hundreds or low-thousands at best).  As for myself, I'm just gratified there was music in the ether beyond the album.  Coincidentally, a lengthy podcast concerning the band just dropped two weeks ago.  By request I'm also making this available in FLAC.

A1. Prince Vince (4 Track)

A2. Fast Bus Driver (Makes My Auto Obsolete)

B. Puddlecloud, Lovesong

MP3  or  FLAC

We''ll never walk on the sun 'til we can't find a way to love...

Four eps from four decades.  A few of these folders contain some of the most listened-to songs in my entire music library.

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

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Shatterposts - Spear and Magic Helmet (1992, MSO)

I really need to get on the stick and digitize more vinyl and cassettes.  Until then I hope you'll check this out.  Presumably from the Tallahassee area, Shatterposts were a coed quartet with amps and angst to spare, though I don't think anyone would mistake mouthpiece/chord wrangler Kellie Parr for Courtney Love.  Spear and Magic Helmet was profoundly steeped in the alt-rock environs of it's day, but factoring in all the attendant pros/cons of their era Shatterposts managed to sidestep anything embarrassing.  My only caveat is that this selection might have made a more convincing case for the band had a few songs been culled for a more concise tracklist. 

01. Last Swing

02. Swallow

03. Alma Mater

04. Kill Again

05. Worship

06. Simple Way

07. Turn Around

08. Black Wampum and Red Sticks

09. Your Time Has Come 

10. Darkside

11. Greatest Dance

12. Pretty Boy

13. Blood Red Baby

14. Easy Lay

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...pick me up by breaking down.

From 1993.  Another "R" band.  Astonished I didn't get to this mini-masterpiece sooner.

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

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Red Wedding - Up and Down the Aisle ep (1982, Bemisbrain)

Another curiosity from the L.A. underground, that for the life of me I can't remember where and when I made their acquaintance - long after their 1981-85 lifespan to be certain.  Commandeered by Michael Ely and Spider Taylor, Red Wedding were an openly gay quartet, with the aforementioned couple boasting a creative relationship a decade before this band saw the light of day.  A cursory run thorough of side one had me immediately conjuring up Devo comparisons thanks to R/D's sardonic, electro-rock premise, but the remaining portion of Up and Down the Aisle left a far more flattering impression. "Sleeping on the Airplane" and "All (Dressed Up)," while plenty amusing also exude some nervy musculature, with the latter even delving into a more noir post-punk niche.  The best is truly saved for last here, with "Think About It" suggesting Red Wedding were significantly more sophisticated in the melody department than the rest of their record let on. 

Just about all of this record and plenty more is available on a posthumous collection over at Bandcamp.  I've also cut and pasted a brief backgrounder below, while the link in the first paragraph will lend itself to a considerably more exhaustive history. 

Red Wedding was a Los Angeles band from 1981 thru 1985. All the founding members of the band were openly gay. Michael Ely and Spider Taylor were life-long soulmates for over 43 years until Spider passed away from liver cancer in 2015. Michael now lives in Tucson, AZ. Both Marc O and John Tagliavia died from AIDS in the early 90's. Red Wedding was house band at Brave Dog, appeared twice on New Wave Theatre, and played the first Theoretical Party (Sunday afternoon band performances for gay friendly audiences). Over the years, Red Wedding played all the top clubs in L.A. and San Diego and shared bills with Killing Joke, X, Romeo Void, Suburban Lawns, The Bangs (early incarnation of The Bangles), Psi Com (early incarnation of Jane's Addiction), Gun Club, Bow Wow Wow, 45 Grave and many other bands. 

01. Drums

02. Marsha in Pictures

03. Sleeping on the Airplane

04. All (Dressed Up)

05. Think About It

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Intro to Airlift - The Music of... 7" (1997, In All Directions)

As a general rule I don't share music that's commercially available, but every so often I eschew that edict in order to provide you with a brief "taster" of sorts to whet your appetite/psyche for a much larger body of work that you might want to consider patronizing the artist for. Intro to Airlift is a name that's had been popping up on my screen and in music periodicals for decades, yet it's only recently that I actually made a concerted effort to acquaint myself with.  Finding a nice, sharp picture-sleeve 45 in a dollar bin is frequently the last bit of motivation I need, ergo the post you've already invested a few seconds in perusing.  

It turns out this defunct Bloomington, IL trio would have been of enormous interest to me all this time - even if the only thing they ever committed to tape was the song "Ed is on No Side," a clangy, 138-second morsel of ringing guitars, dissonant instrumentation, and a melodic acuity that impresses me as one of the finest tunes to ever bear a 1997 copyright date.  Intro's relatively lo-fi disposition is what really turns the key here, with an overall effect not far removed from Ted Leo's pre-Pharmacists combo Chisel. Toss in some faint, droney proclivities and you've got an absolute keeper on your hands. The second A-side, "Too Easy" finagles with some mod seasoning, while the flip "Because You're New" boasts a DIY  semblance of ramshackle post-punk aplomb.  If you enjoy what you hear, the vast majority of Intro's slim catalog, including a live tape and an album's worth of predominantly unreleased material can be had (for a price) on Bandcamp, so consider throwing your support behind these gents, posthumously as that endeavor may seem.  The three tracks here were taken from my own rip of the record.  

A1. Ed is on No Side

A2. Too Easy

B. Because You're New

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Ambitious songs that kept me up for hours long.

From 2011.

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

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July 14th - Till We Meet Again (1988, Greasy Pop)

Naturally, I'm featuring this one today to coincide with the band's moniker (indeed, I've been anxiously waiting all year for this moment).  I'm a sucker for any record gracing the Greasy Pop Records imprint, given my overwhelming satisfaction with the likes of Mad Turks From Istanbul, Exploding White Mice and Lizard Train among others, and I was happy to give this one a shot knowing virtually nothing about July 14th.  Nonetheless I went into this one hoping/expecting this Adelaide, Aussie quartet would cast some sort of a jangly spell on me, but I was in for a surprise.  Little did I know July 14th, were a relatively conventional bunch wielding a penchant for diversity, with Till We Meet Again often resembling a compilation record, rather than an album with a monochromatic agenda.  Aided and abetted by no less than ten guest musicians (not simultaneously mind you) July 14 exude no shortage of genre wanderlust, hopscotching from textured pastoral pop ("Take My Hand") to rambunctious blues forays ("Bubble") and even brass-laced ballroom jazz ("Foolin").  The taut, "Only One" is the album's most straightforward assertive rock venture, and should have been a shoo-in for a single.  Till We Meet... is occasionally rewarding, but is so scattershot that you walk away without an adequate sense of what kind of impression the band strives to present.  I have to wonder if their first full length, Australian Bite, yields a more consistent set of tunes.  The cassette version of this one is padded with six additional tracks.

Technical note: The forlorn ballad, "To Be One" has a skip towards the end that I was unable to remedy, but if possible will try to correct at a later date.

01. Take My Hand

02. Love Vietnam

03. Lonely Planet

04. Souls on Fire

05. To Be One

06. Bubble

07. Sun

08. Only One

09. Foolin'

10. I'm Gonna Die

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God's Eye 7" (1991, 20/20)

Yet another fairly recent discovery of mine by a band who barely missed the internet age. God's Eye were Massachusetts denizens, who from what I've been able to glean hailed from the Boston area.  "Back Again" is sturdy, instantly catchy riff pop not far removed from the Gin Blossoms, The Lemonheads and Buffalo Tom.  The flip, "The Other Ones" sports a mildly discernable downer bent, quintessentially fitting the guise of an indie rock b-side of it's era - not a throwaway, albeit not particularly stimulating.  I have God's Eye's full length, Love's a Bargain, which might turn up on these pages at a later date. 

A. Back Again

B. The Other Ones

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Murder or rape your king's English...

A sublime selection from 1991, often striking me as one of the finest things Mark Burgess never concocted. 

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

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VA - New Wave Hell: Double Digit Inflation Pop V.2

This was a quickee, slapped together cd-r compilation offered by a certain power-pop centric label and distro in the mid '00s to incentivize potential customers.  New Wave Hell... isn't one of those legendary or totemic Rosetta stones passed along en masse between music fans, rather a casually prepared yet highly consistent mix-tape highlighting a bevy of obscure, yet still integral artists from the late '70s and early Reagan-era involving the likes of under-the-radar exports The Yachts, Scars, The Nits, Reels and Nick Gilder.  The Reputations "I Believe You" is an especially worthy and arcane revelation, as are solid tracks from a couple of entities I've enlightened to you over the years, specifically Maurice & The Clichés and the Heaters.  New Wave Hell... is classy stuff, and surprisingly gratifying, and if you're anything like me you can't help but wonder what songs made the cut for Volume 1...

01. Nick Gilder - Amanda Greer

02. The Nits - A Touch of Henry Moore

03. Maurice & The Cliches - It's All Talk

04. Scars - David

05. Robert Ellis Orrall - Baby Go

06. The Reels - Baby's in the Know

07. Yachts - Yachting Type

08. The Reputations - I Believe You

09. The Heaters - Talk is Cheap

10. The Killermeters - Twisted Wheel

11. Modest Proposal - Live Today

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Daddy-O - Paris on the Prairie tape (1989)

"Hey, what up daddy-o!"  Um...actually, I don't think that's the vibe here at all.  This bygone Chicago export weren't casual or cheery in the least in fact. Try a decidedly austere, goth/post-punk/noir modus operandi instead and you'll see what Daddy-O had in mind - and they were thoroughly adept at it as well.  The spindly atmospherics and icy, chiming chords that commence "Run to Hide" smack of the kind of gripping latticework of early For Against staked their reputation on...that is until Laura Ryan's vocals insert themselves about a minute or so in, transporting the song to a wholly more dramatic stratum, not unlike Siouxsie and the Banshees circa their '80s salad days.  Imbued with more discernable melodic chops, subsequent pieces "16 Days" and "Your Yesterday" curtail the tension a notch, occasionally recalling then-contemporary Midwesterners The Millions.  You won't find so much as a bum or weak spot on Paris on the Prairie, however this cassette ep (an early credit for indie producer Brad Wood) was all Daddy-O left for us.  This was a primo find.  

01. Run to Hide

02. 16 Days

03. Your Yesterday

04. Rudy's Trunk

05. Two Sharp Clicks

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Johnny if you want to survive, you got to play your part to stay alive.

Vintage goods from the Netherlands.  In a perfect world I would have been tipped off to this one decades ago.

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

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Marginal Man - s/t (1988)

Before I received a request for this one a couple of weeks ago, my awareness of Marginal Man began and ended with their 1984 Dischord Records debut, Identity, wherein the band made a solid case for their hardcore punk bona fides, a la 7 Seconds and Government Issue.  Even back then they suggested further development was on the horizon, and by the time they got around to their third album (this one) they may as well have changed their moniker along with their rebooted ethos.  There's not a shred of the early, proto-emo dabblings from their days of yore to be had on Marginal Man, rather this crew completely traded that inspired guise in for gritty, punk 'n roll vaguely recalling the Lime Spiders, early Snatches of Pink, and likely some more obvious comparisons that I'm blanking on at the moment.  Sounded like these guys were making a play for the radio as well. I certainly appreciate the snarl factor here, and it's a satisfying listen, just quite a 180.  Would be fascinated to learn what led to Marginal Man's drastic transition, because I'm sure there's a story there.

01. Time

02. What Did He Say

03. Metal Madness

04. Gentry

05. Under a Shadow

06. Home

07. I Had a Feeling

08. Mind on Hold

09. Spirits

10. Sea of Sorrow

Hear

Painted Willie - Live From Van Nuys ep (1986, SST)

I'm always a bit late to cracking open books I purchase, even when I obtain them relatively close to their publishing date.  In fact I'm usually a couple of years behind the curveball with anything I read, save for the occasional periodical.  Jim Ruland's Corporate Rock Sucks - The Rise and Fall of SST Records has been no exception, and as I write this I'm about three-quarters of the way through the tome in question.  If you've been an early adopter of Wilfully Obscure, Painted Willie might not be quite such an arcane quantity, as this is the fourth post I've dedicated to them, yet despite their SST pedigree there isn't much in the way of ephemera to be had on them, online or otherwise.  Maybe you can chalk up their low-key legacy to the trio's stubbornly "intermediate" aptitude, which entailed no shortage of skate-punky riff-ola, and a prowess for arpeggios which never completely gestated.  Their reliably fun, albeit good-but-not-great penchant did however translate effectively in a live setting, and this bite-sized chunk of a March 1986 gig situated near their home turf is actually a decent introduction for the uninitiated.  The track selection for Live From Van Nuys is wisely cherry-picked, centering on some of the Willie's most immediate and memorable salvos, chief among them the power-chord ridden "The Big Time" and "Crossed Fingers." They plow through Love's "Little Red Book," upping the tempo of the chorus, just shy of butchering the overarching effect. Truthfully, I admired P/W for what they were, meager as their capabilities sometimes were - and therein resided 90% of their charm.    

01. Crossed Fingers

02. The Big Time

03. Kill It

04. Upside Down Town

05. Little Red Book

06. Cover Girl

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Reviews you can use: The Mosquitos, Falling Stairs and sparkle*jets u.k.

In case you haven't noticed I'm way overdue for some reviews of current releases and reissues, and I'm going to try to address that over the course of the next few paragraphs.  I appreciate everyone that has been gracious enough to set up vinyl and CDs.  Being provided with physical media is more of a luxury than ever, and if I haven't been thoughtful enough to those who go to the trouble your generosity is appreciated.  More critiques to come in the near-future, I might add. 

Spandex. Breakdancing. Mullets. And just about dayglo-everything.  For better or worse this is the world in which Long Island's Mosquitos were forced to toil and contend with.  But guess what? They weren't having a lick of it.  In fact, it would seem like this quintet hadn't gotten the bat signal that the world had evolved past say, 1966.  Stuck in their own time-warp, not unlike similarly bespoke San Diego brethren The Nashville Ramblers, this quintet carved out a small niche within the environs of New York's power pop circuit alongside contemporaries The Bongos and Fleshtones, yet their antecedents were entirely steeped in British Invasion and Merseybeat pop, with nary an inclination to the present day - and you can take that literally.  Their discography consisted of a well received 1985 ep, (That Was Then, This is Now), and if you want to get technical a few demo tapes, but that lone record was essentially all that was made available for public consumption - until 2023, which saw the release of the double CD This Then Are the Mosquitos, and the more concisely consolidated vinyl incarnation, In the Shadows.  

The Mosquitos replication of the Cool Britannia epoch was awe-strikingly spot-on, wherein the band's five protagonists uncannily could have slotted in precisely with Help!, Face to Face-era Kinks, or the Dave Clark Five, etc.  They completely had the instrumentation, tonality and poise of the mid-60s down to a science, so much so that "I Know a Secret," "You Don't Give a Hang (About Me)," and "Put Your Foot Down" could have passed for veritable oldies - that is if it wasn't for copyright dates revealing these tunes were actually minted two decades later.  The 'squitos were genuinely expert and adept at the card they were playing, but for every fan they successfully roped in, there was likely to be a dozen or so would-be-listeners that were put off by their schtick, or more realistically, completely checked out in a haze of MTV and video games.  That being said, the bustling forty song-plus This Then... is really aimed at two parties - Brit Invasion aficionados and the Mosquitos small but gonzo fanbase.  Though their studio work was limited (hovering around fifteen numbers) the band was remarkably well documented, with about ten quality soundboard recordings of live gigs surviving over the ensuing decades, yielding much of This Then's... retro-laden manna.  I'd be remiss if I failed to mention The Mosquitos were responsible for writing the original version of the Monkees '80s comeback hit, "That Was Then, This is Now," which might ring a bell to a lot of Gen-X'ers in the audience.  A bit cloying?  Sure, but if you're down for what these not-so pesky insects were dishing out there's a bountiful hive of music to adore here. This Then... is available directly from Kool Kat Musik or Bandcamp. 

Having surely made your acquaintance with Falling Stairs when I posted their marvelous That and a Quarter mini-album several years ago (2010 if you're keeping tabs), you'll be pleased as punch to know that they've made their slim but estimable catalog available again - physically no less. In  reference to the moniker of this long defunct Queens, NY quartet, you’ll find nary a stumbling block on Falling Stairs first record in 35 years.  Not that everything occupying the twelve grooves on Life is a Kick Trial 1988-1993 is actually ‘new’ per se, considering this is a retrospective absorbing the entirety of the aforementioned, That and a Quarter alongside five scarce and/or heretofore unreleased tracks.  F/S deserved a better lot than their meager exposure on a few left-of-the-dial outposts accorded them, with a warm, reverby vibe that smacked of halcyon era R.E.M., not to mention lesser renown buried treasures like Bleached Black, Beauty Constant and Lifeboat.  From the jackhammer power pop fervor of “Man-Made” to “Good Intention’s” acousti-folk lilt …Kick Trial makes a crucial argument for this combo's neglected legacy. It's available immediately as a limited vinyl and digital release here.

Not unlike the Mosquitos compilation I went on about at the beginning of this piece, my assessment of sparkle*jets u.k.'s 2023 platter, Best of Friends is loooooooong overdue.  So much so in fact the band is actually on the verge of releasing a new album this summer, Box of Letters, which I'll try to share my thoughts in a more timely manner.  So, why am I not dedicating space to the new one, when Best of Friends is several months (if not close to an entire year in the rear view)?  Because for me ....Friends is the most consequential item in the sparkle*jet's long and storied catalog. In a nutshell, back in the mid/late-90s I couldn't get enough of the groovy power pop (and adjacent) music scene emanating from the City of Angels.  It seemed as is every other month during the Clinton-era another crucial, revelatory album from a Los Angeles-based cabal was dropping, be it in the guise of new CDs from the likes of The Wondermints, Baby Lemonade, The Sugarplastic, and more that I'll be disclosing momentarily.  

Best of Friends is a covers album that's a self described "love letter" to the 'jets' local peers - bands and songwriters they shared bills with, came up with, and generally speaking, mutually supported.  It functions both as a flattering tribute and as an ingenious time capsule of sorts, revisiting the music of essential L.A. aggregations Cockeyed Ghost, Double Naught Spies, The Negro Problem, Sugarplastic, Shazam, and Big Hello just to rattle off a portion of those paid homage to here.  You'd think half the rosters of Not Lame and Big Deal Records are represented on ...Friends, because veritably speaking that's practically the case.  And represented reverentially at that, with the coed 'jets in almost all cases impeccably retaining the original arrangements. True, the original incarnations of TNP's "Mahnsanto" and The Wondermints' "In and Around Greg Lake" are stunningly priceless, yet the new coatings of paint they're treated to here illicit a similar visceral rush - a feat than any given tribute album should strive for, yet so rarely achieves. Heck, along the way I even discovered a handful of songs from phenomenal acts like the See Saw and Kompost that were brand new to this set of this ears, offering plenty of motivation for me to investigate their respective bygone catalogs. And with 21 selections, there's no shortage of hooks to engulf yourself in.  Best of Friends can be had directly from Big Stir Records and Bandcamp, digitally or on double-LP and CD.

I got a ringing in one ear and reason whispering in the other...

From 2006.  This one's a bit more aggressive than what I usually offer, but when I first encountered it two year ago I was utterly compelled.  The second greatest band to ever hail from Bellingham, WA?

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

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The Great Divide - s/t ep (1987, Big Fish)

I'm about to lose some serious indie cred for this one, despite the fact that it's a legit independent release.  The truth is, I had a lot of affection for '80s Top-40 when it was still a going concern.  Although this Cambridge, MA co-ed six piece, whose name was never uttered by Casey Kasem, The Great Divide nonetheless would have fit in like a glove wedged between say, The Hooters and Mr. Mister.  To be even more specific, these folks resembled a carbon copy of one of their equally lesser-known contemporaries, Tuesday Blue.  There's more sheen on this ep then you'd ever attempt to wax your proverbial pony with, but I'll be damned if "The Touch" and "Walk Into the Fire" don't exude the same affectations that had the aforementioned success stories dominating the middle-of-the-dial four decades ago. I'm not quite as moved by the second half of The Great Divide, even taking into consideration the title track's crafty juxtapositions.  True, this isn't quintessential Wilfully Obscure terrain but I stand by it, albeit with some reservations.  

01. The Touch

02. Walk Into the Fire

03. Open Roads

04. The Great Divide

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Alter Boys - Counter Intelligence (1995, Ng)

I've taken quite the hiatus from posting anything regarding the Alter Boys - and considering they haven't been a recent proposition I suppose they have as well.  Yep, you heard it here first folks, way back in 2011 when I spoon fed you a 1987 album dubbed Soul Desire, and a few months later an even more stimulating single from earlier in their career.  The Alter Boys ramshackle, Replacements-cum-U2 bash 'n pop was utterly irresistible when I first laid ears on that wonderful debut 45, "Piles," and it still elicits something of a rush. Yet, I know all along that this NYC conglomerate weren't merely a Reagan-era venture, and that Counter Intelligence, a mid-90s reunion album of sorts also existed - and, voila, today it's yours for the taking. Boasting a tighter and logically more mature aptitude, CI beats Soul Desire to the punch in the diversity department, dipping it's collective fingers in a myriad of pies while still skewing to the informal moxie that brought me to the table in the first place. ...Intelligence isn't necessarily one for the time-capsule, yet the Alter Boys casual but committed aplomb yielded a dozen (mostly) solid songs, and functioned as a comforting antidote to the flashier and billowy trappings of it's era.

01. Gashound
02. Hold Me Up
03. Let's End
04. Nothball
05. Ironlung
06. Cry a Little Bit
07. C'n Opn'r
08. If You're So Smart
09. Sundown
10. Diesel Down
11. How Long, Far?
12. Another Lonely Weekend  

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