She met a man so understanding there was nothing he wouldn’t do.

From 1990.  This is the OG version with no supplemental material.

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

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Versus - singles 1994-95

As much as I enjoyed and appreciated Versus' compilation of early singles & odds and ends, Dead Leaves, right from the get go it felt conspicuously incomplete.  Despite it's 1995 release date, it managed to omit two Versus singles that more or less coincided with the era it was covering.  And quality singles at that, aesthetically slotting in with the material not only on their early 45s, but their then-recent debut LP, The Stars Are Insane.  But as these things go, I really don't have a whit of control over such matters...though this is my meager attempt at an addendum.

Perhaps "Frog" isn't their most effective piece, yet it bears the dynamic, yet tentative lilt of the Baluyut brothers and Fontaine Toup's nascent work, which means it's loaded for bear in the charm department.  "Go Tell it on the Mountain" and "Big Head On" exude the consoling mid-fi affectations of virtually everything that made the cut on Dead Leaves, but these numbers (esp "Big Head...") are particularly amped-out, to borderline intense and intimidating proportions.  As for the only tune I have yet called out. "N.I.T.A." mines a slightly less strenuous vein, yet bristles with ample tension and texture.  Marvy stuff.

Versus' palette would expand and become more lucid and approachable on subsequent records, beginning with Secret Swingers in 1996.  And while they've never gone so far off the reservation as to piss me off, I can't help but wish they hadn't shed so much of their comparatively downer and insular vibe that's so meta to these songs.  

Frog 7" (K, 1994)

A. Frog 

B. Go Tell it on the Mountain

Big Head On 7" (Teen Beat, 1995)

A. Big Head On

B. N.I.T.A.

MP3   or   FLAC

The High Bees 12" (1985, Supreme International Editions)

Please tell me there's more where this came from!  A local record shop slapped a handwritten sticker on this one indicating The High Bees entailed ex-members of Orange Juice.  David McClymont, an ex-bassist for the aforementioned co-wrote the b-side here, "She's Killing Time," but isn't actually a performer.  Instead, this Scottish trio was commandeered by Syuzen Buckley whose credits beyond this record are spread a bit thin, while drummer David Ruffy also had stints with The Ruts and Aztec Camera.  Featuring merely two songs on what should have preferably been at least an ep, the Bees make them count, with "Self Indulgence" teaming with warm, almost highbrow pop smarts, that I suppose wouldn't be too sonically removed from O.J., but a more accurate comparison would be mid-80s Scritti.  Nothing really dancy here mind you.  The only relevant reference I've encountered regarding the High Bees is the inclusion of "Self..." on the 2019 Big Gold Dreams compilation book set, and by the looks of it the song is available to stream on multiple platforms if that's your bag. 

A. Self Indulgence

B. She's Killing Time

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I'm laughing but the jokes on me.

From 2020.  Silky-smooth synth pop that frequently bumps up against yacht rock and downtempo R&B.  I couldn't love this band more.

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

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Tiny - tape (1994)

This is quite the 180° from what I offered last night.  Details on Tiny couldn't be more sparse, but a correspondence address of Champaign, IL on the cassette shell is the most pertinent bit of info I have to go on.  The Poster Children and Hum this combo was clearly not, adopting a rather coarser and clamorous sonic m.o., suggesting they had more in common with contemporaries like Garden Variety and even Drive Like Jehu.  Unlike G/V however, you won't find much of an emo overbite here. Tiny boasted something of an acerbic bent - that and a mouthpiece whose delivery system was of spoke/sung aesthetics.  Feel free to chime in if you have any info on these boys and if anything followed this demo up.

01. Company Says

02. Mea Culpa

03. Room 4149

04. Driving Song  

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Symptoms - First Offense ep (1988)

Not a particularly notable hotbed for music, Fort Pierce, FL did manage to produce (the) Symptoms. I wasn't sure what to expect, delving into this one pretty much cold, but I was rewarded upon discovering this Sunshine State quartet exuded some distinct power pop leanings, albeit nothing revelatory.  The band's one and only slice of vinyl sounds like it could have been tracked a good ten years before it's 1988 copyright, with it's most effective numbers, ("Music Interruptus" and "Wonder What You're Doin'") loosely resembling the janglier, not to mention more charismatic, inclinations of the Knack and Tommy Tutone. The album jacket caused quite a local commotion upon it's release.  Here's an accounting of the incident courtesy of the band's Discogs page.  

The release of their first EP, "First Offense", caused a small controversy in the small town of Fort Pierce. The cover art contained a St. Lucie County Sheriff's deputy in his official uniform, his official patrol car, and a woman (Glenn's girlfriend) wearing an official St. Lucie County Sheriff's deputy shirt (she was not a Sheriff's deputy or employed with the Sheriff's Office). When the news reported on this "collaboration", a letter from the St. Lucie County Sherrif's Office was sent to the band requesting that the album no longer be sold in stores, as there was no authoritative permission given to use an official patrol car and uniform in the photo for the cover, otherwise, legal action would be taken. The Sheriff's deputy was also reprimanded for his participation without authorization from the sheriff. The stock of records that remained in stores was allowed to be sold, but no further stock could be provided for sale.

01. A Simple Song of You

02. Answerphone

03. Music Interruptus

04. A Girl With Little Feet

05. Wonder What You're Doin'

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...I'd rather be somebody else with you.

From 1993.  Relatively common in terms of Mystery Monday fare...but don't let that stop you.

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

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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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