Straitjacket Fits - Missing From Melt ep (1991)

This is a followup/request to my post of The Fit's Hail CD a few weeks ago. Missing From Melt is a five song EP that was released as a companion to the 1991 album. A couple of remixes and some decent outtakes, but nothing especially revelatory. The Live at the Wireless session at JJJ in Australia is derived from the Arista Records, promo-only "Roller Ride" CD. God it must have been weird for the Fits to share a label with Whitney Houston. Strange bedfellows I suppose.

Missing From Melt
01. Missing Presumed Drowned (LP mix)

02. Bad Note for a Heart

03. Skin to Wear (stripped mix)

04. In Spite of It All

05. Cave In

Hear

The Family Cat - Furthest From the Sun (1992)

As far as music in Britain went in the early to mid '9os, The Family Cat was something of an anomaly, if only because they didn’t subscribe to the Madchester or shoegazer temptations of the day. The laziest comaprison I can conjure up is the Jesus and Mary Chain, but without all that hair in their faces. Furthest From the Sun, is an untrendy, unsexy post-post-punk album, to nail a genre to it. More poignantly, it's sonically impressive, possessing a sense of dynamics that sounded out of place then just as much as it does today. It''s faint psychedelic, swirling guitar fills derive just as much from Television as The Chameleons. The sublime "Steamroller" is arguably the centerpiece here, with it's mesmerising organs and dense arrangement, that's should ideally be experienced with a big pair of headphones.

This is the special limited edition version of the album, featuring two bonus cuts, " Kolumbus," and "Montague Terrace (In Blue)"

Get it from Emusic and iTunes.

Tommy Tutone - National Emotion (1983)

Why Tommy Tutone of all things? Because I can. And because I don't have another damn thing ripped at the moment, and I'm lazy. Overlooked, and undoubtedly underrated, this followup to Tommy Tutone 2, the album that spawned the band's signature hit "867-5309" was as good as it's predecessor. Don't set your expectations too low. National Emotion never made it's appearance onto CD by the way.

Don't fret, there will be hipper selections in the days to come.

01. Dumb But Pretty

02. Someday Will Come

03. Laverne

04. National Emotion

05. Get Around Girl

06. I Believe

07. Money Talks

08. Imaginary Heart

09. Sticks and Stones

10. I Wanna Touch Her
 

Hear

Permanent Green Light - Against Nature (1993)

Back in 1993 when Against Nature was released, given the seismic shifting in the so called "alternative nation," Permanent Green Light weren't so much a blip on most people's radar, mine included. PGL was an L.A. trio fronted by Michael Quercio, lead-man for fey, "Paisley Underground" demi-gods, The Three O' Clock. In the Three, Quercio blended lightweight psyche-pop with keyboard laden new wave, earning significant cult adoration in the process. After their dissolution, Permanent Green Light was his next vehicle. Not as focused as Quercio's previous endeavor, PGL issued a self-titled EP and this album to no fanfare on the struggling Rockville Records label, a division of indie distributor Dutch East India Trading. Against Nature runs the gamut from ballsy riff-rockers, to hushed acoustic folk/rock. The EP is cinch to find, but this isn't, thus prompting me to post it.

01. Honestly
02. Wintertime's A Comin'
03. Martha Raye
04. Portmanteau
05. All This and Alistair Cooke
06. Something On Me
07. (You and I are the) Summertime
08. Marianne Gave Up Her Hand
09. Fireman
10. All For You
11. Sleepyhead

Hear

Various - Cinnamon Toast (Records): Trim Crusts If Desired (1994)

In the 1990s, Halifax, Nova Scotia was ground-zero for quality indie-pop, and an extra special treat for fans across the border. In total, no less than five acts from this fabled locale (Sloan, Eric's Trip, Hardship Post, Thrush Hermit, and jale) had indie or major label deals in the States. By the mid '90s virtually everyone that had been swept up by this maritime phenomenon professed that Sloan were the cream de la creme, end of discussion.

1994 saw the release of the Trim Crusts If Desired compilation on the once venerable Cinnamon Toast label based in Halifax. At 15 tracks this hour of power is an accurate snapshot of the local scene at the time, featuring The Hardship Post's finest moment, "Won't You Come Home," as well as worthy contributions from jale, Rebecca West, Eric's Trip, and Thrush Hermit. Oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention, Sloan aren't anywhere to be found on this disk. Sure, Trim Crusts has it's share of non-names and duds, but by now you know the drill. Hear the album for yourself. Enjoy (or not)

01. The Hardship Post - Wont You Come Home?
02. Quahogs - Them
03. Bubaiskull - Eel Monkey
04. Skreech - Theme Song
05. Jale - Brother
06. Leonard Conan - Frightened Of...
07. Rebecca West - Sick
08. Thrush Hermit - Pink Is The Colour
09. PlumTree - Dog Gone Crazy
10. Erics Trip - Laying Blame
11. Cheticamp - Coincidence
12. Les Gluetones - Reincarnated
13. Jale - Twisted
14. Strawberry - Buried Treasure
15. Hardship Post - Rock Is My Life

Hear

The Parasites - Pair of Sides (1990)

In the spring of 1994, The bay area Parasites quietly released Punch Lines, an album as infectious, commanding, and endearing as any pop-core band could ever hope to mastermind. It's out of print, but if you can snag a copy, I predict you'll enjoy it as much, if not more so than any given Descendents or Green Day platter. Punch Lines, wasn't their debut, but Pair of Sides is. Once I was able to lift my jaw off the floor back some 13 years ago when I became enlightened about Nikki (aka Dave) Parasite and his crew, I immediately made a point of tracking down their earlier releases to find out what I had missed the first time around. There were a bevy of great singles, but most of were in the hands of collectors. Eventually, I came across a sealed copy in of Pair of Sides a dusty record rack in upstate New York. With Punch Lines being the seismic experience that it was, my expectations of their debut were cautiously optimistic. It certainly didn't have the agility and melodic structures the Parasites would later develop, but the energy and dysfunctional aesthetic were hemmed well in place. More importantly, Pair of Sides, was a fun record of minute-and-a-half, Ramones-y indebted rock and roll. Besides Punch Lines, the Parasites would release only one more proper album of all-new material, but there were plenty of excellent stop-gap disks in the interim that are worth investigating.

It appears that the Parasites have gone on permanent hiatus. Rumor has it that roughly 50 different musicians have passed through the Parasites lineup over the band's 15-year tenure, with Nikki (aka Dave) being the loan constant. Incidentally, Pair of Sides was a vinyl-only release. Doesn't that make you feel special?

01. Refuge
02. Fool For You
03. I Wanna Be Like Dee Dee Ramone
04. Wild Youth
05. Never Giving Up On You
06. If You Knew
07. Waiting Game
08. Where The Kids Are
09. Make You Mine
10. My Demon Eyes
11. I'm So Happy Now
12. Good Grief
13. Getting Together
14. It's Getting Hard
15. 772
16. New Voice

Hear

Cotton Mather - The Crafty Flower Arranger ep (1992)

I hesitate to post Cotton Mathers' s rarer than rare, The Crafty Flower Arranger for a number of reasons. Number one I don't own an original copy, or even possess a burned copy from an original. Number two, the best rip I was able to locate on MP3 sharing sites was a paltry 128 kbps, half of what I personally rips my CDs and records at. Strangely enough, I was able to find this at a slightly higher bit rate on Soulseek, but with much inferior quality than the 128 kbps version I'm hosting. Finally, and most significantly, this is an ethical dilemma. The eight song CFA was never intended for public release, rather as a tool to book shows in the Austin, TX area, where Cotton Mather resided. Some people might refer to this CD as a "vanity release," and by and large that would be accurate, taking into account it's scarcity and the cherry-picked audience it was targeted for. No one perhaps the band knows exactly how many copies were pressed, but estimates are in the low hundreds - if not less than a hundred!

If you like Cotton Mather, or for that matter have an inclination for quality guitar-pop in general, then it's a safe bet to say that you love/will love their debut album, 1994's Cotton Is King. The Crafty Flower Arranger is effectively a CD of demos for that very record, making it no small object of intrigue to die-hard CM fans. Only three of the tracks would latter appear in slightly modified versions on Cotton Is King, and five others ("Asterisk Man," "Listen to the Angel," "Spellbound," "Ship Shape," and "I'm in Debt") are 100% exclusive to this coveted, five inch circle of aluminum. Simply put, the full-length album that these eight tracks were the appetizers for, transcend mundanely termed "power-pop", "indie," etc. Cotton Mather would record two more albums, Kontiki and The Big Picture, and while they imbued all of their music with class and wit, they never were able to match the magic and moxie of Cotton Is King. For the uninitiated, hearing is believing.

If anyone associated with Cotton Mather objects to this post, please contact me. I might however ask why you would want a record of this caliber and scarcity removed from the public domain. As a shout-out to the band, I hope you will consider reissuing Cotton Is King, along with the tracks from CFA as a bonus, or for that matter a separate release.

Incidentally, I was able to swipe a jpeg of the cover from a listing for this CD on Ebay, some four or five years ago. So far I as I can tell, it hasn't reappeared since. Enjoy.

01. Asterisk Man

02. Ship Shape

03. Spellbound

04. April's Fool

05. Cross the Rubicon

06. Lost My Motto

07. Listen to the Angel

08. I'm in Debt

Get a superior rip here. 

Versus - Let's Electrify! ep (1993)

The NYC trio Versus, were a spin-off of the dissonant, guitar-heavy Flower, a late-80s indie rock crew also based out of the Big Apple. Brothers Richard and Ed Baluyut and Fontaine Toups solidified the Versus lineup, that spanned a considerable ten years

Even on the 1990s indie-rock circuit, Versus were not one of the more preeminent visages of their era, yet the band's recorded output was quite prolific, yielding roughly a dozen albums and EPs, not to mention several singles and copious compilation tracks. 1993's Let's Electrify! was the band's first foray into the digital realm. Better albums and extended players would come, but this record, albeit heavily resembling early-Sonic Youth in certain places, honed in on Versus as they attempted to mesh clangy chords with melancholic pop structures. If you ask me, they nailed it pretty well.

01. Silver Vein

02. That Girl's Gone

03. Noogie

04. Let's Electrify

05. Seaweed Rising

06. Sea Girl

Available on Bandcamp

Close Lobsters - Headache Rhetoric & Nature Thing CDS

Always the debut, never the follow-up. As one of the premiere, if not the outright definitive band of the mid-80s, British "C86" jangle pop movement, many fans and critics alike revere the Scottish band's 1986 debut album, Foxheads Stalk This Land while somewhat marginalizing Headache Rhetoric. The album in question is indeed a step forward, but an entirely logical one at that. A little more polished? Yes. Fuller, and more robust arrangements than on the Lobsters debut and early singles? You got it. Despite the band's increased proficiency, and the incorporation of more macabre lyrical content, nothing is compromised here. And even if Headache isn't your favorite Close Lobsters lp, you'd be hard pressed to convince me that "Nature Thing," and "Got Apprehension" don't deserve their rightful place on a hypothetical Close Lobsters "best -of" mix tape.
But wait, there's more! I'm also including as a separate upload, "Nature Thing" cd single containing three non-lp cuts, including a cover of Neil Young's "Hey Hey, My My," which I believe also found it's way onto a compilation. The cute lil' 3" CD that the four cuts are enshrined on makes for a perfect companion to the album.

Headache Rhetoric
01. Lovely Little Swan
02. Gun Powder Keg
03. Nature Thing
04. My Days Are Numbered
05. Gutache
06. Got Apprehension
07. Gulp
08. Words On Power
09. Skyscrapers
10. Knee Trembler

Nature Thing cds
01. Nature Thing
02. Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)
03. Paper Thin Hotel
04. Never Seen Before (live)

Update: Headache Rhetoric is now available on Amazon and iTunes
 
Nature Thing cds: Hear

Material Issue - Eleven Supersonic Hit Explosions (1991)

Imagine the excitement of being a music director in 1991 (preferably at a college radio station) and having this promotional-only Material Issue CD fall into your lap. Issued in conjunction with Material Issue's iconic power-pop classic, International Pop Overflow, Eleven Supersonic Hit Explosions never made it's way into stores (with the rare exception of used shops, only by virtue of ignorant and/or unappreciative twits, swapping it for the new Garth Brooks album). Eleven Supersonic's enticement is that it contains practically another album's worth of songs unavailable elsewhere. Leading things off are three "emphasis" cuts from International. The gravy officially kicks in with a cleaner-than-clean acoustic take of a key LP track, "Diane." Three of the eight non-LP cuts are covers - "The Boxer" (Paul Simon), "Blockbuster" (Bay City Rollers), and "Cowboy Song" (Thin Lizzy), the last one being a butane anthem for the ages. There's also a re-recording of their debut EP's "She's Going Through My Head," a live version of "Valerie Loves Me," and a couple more LP outtakes. To say that this 11-song promo CD was a "treat" would be a colossal understatement. Enjoy!

01. Very First Lie

02. Crazy

03. Renee Remains the Same

04. Diane (acoustic)

05. The Boxer (live)

06. Cowboy Song

07. The Girl Who Never Falls in Love

08. Echo Beach

09. She's Goin Through My Head

10. Valerie Loves Me (live)

11. Blockbuster 

Hear

Arcwelder - Jacket Made in Canada/This (1989-90, Big Money))

A 30 second video clip for this album's "Missing You," broadcast on MTV's 120 Minutes eons ago, was enough to make me an instant Arcwelder fan. Released on Big Money Inc Records, Jacket Made in Canada was the follow up to the band's debut, This, which was originally credited to Arcwelder's original moniker, Tilt-a-Whirl. Name infringement ugliness ensued, and Tilt-A-Whirl became Arcwelder.

Imagine a cockeyed version of Husker Du, or Mission of Burma had they made a deliberate attempt to scale the pop charts, for an idea of what this off-kilter Minneapolis trio have in store. Over the course of the '90s, four more Arcwelder albums on Touch & Go Records would eventually hit shelves. As exemplary as most of them were, little on those records could quite adequately capture the spontaneity of Jacket's skittish punk-pop, particularly on standout tracks like "Favor," and "Everything." 

The CD version of Jacket includes Arcwelder's first album This, which was recorded in 1989 when the band existed under the Tilt-a-Whirl banner.

Jacket Made in Canada (1990)

01. Harmonic Instrumental

02. Daydream

03. Missing

04. Hint Taken

05. Left

06. Plastic

07. Favor

08. When You're Gone

09. Everything

10. Staback

11. I Hates to Lose

12. Bob Sez 

This (1989)
13. This
14. Such a Very Long Time
15. Blue
16. What Am I Supposed to Do?
17. Living Legend
18. What Have I Done to Me?
19. Arcwelder
20. Pint of Blood
21. Moment of Passion
22. It Won't Change
23. Understanding

Hear

Baby Lemonade - The Wonderful ep (1993)

Baby Lemonade made their way onto my sonar in the late '90s, with their blissed-out, pure-pop masterstroke, Exploring Music. With that album, this marvelous L.A. trio transported themselves into an ethereal strata that a lesser band could only dream of. Naturally, I was fascinated enough to explore Baby Lemonade's previous outfit, which included the 68% Pure Imagination LP, as well as The Wonderful EP referenced in this post, both on the Sympathy For the Record Industry label. This five-cut 10" record is perhaps most notable for containing a sublime medley of the Beach Boys Smile-era "Windchimes/Wonderful," but speaking for their original material, the band was clearly on their way. Rusty Squeezebox and Mike Randall, the nuclei of Baby Lemonade, would later comprise part of Arthur Lee's backing band for the legendary reformed Love in the early part of this decade.

01. Windchimes/Wonderful
02. Please Consider Us
03. Drown
04. The Only One
05. The Hole

Hear

Rain Parade - Crashing Dream (1985)

It probably wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that whomever downloads this album knows more about L.A.'s Rain Parade than I do. Chalk that up primarily to the fact that I didn't become familiar with them until some 15 years after Crashing Dream came out. I did however experience their preceding studio album, the psychedelically tinged Emergency Third Rail Powertrip, before I laid ears on this one, which from my understanding never made it into the digital age. Rain Parade was a significant prime-mover in Los Angeles' fabled "paisley underground" movement, which was a key component of the new romantic scene of the era. That only goes so far I suppose. As opposed to Emergency ..., Crashing Dream seems to cater to the more commercial auspices of the record biz, and understandably so, given it's Island Records credentials. Not a bad disk though. I do have to strongly disagree with the Trouser Press critic that claims "Mystic Green," could pass for The Records. Nonsense.

01. Depending On You
02. My Secret Country
03. Don't Feel Bad
04. Mystic Green
05. Sad Eyes kill
06. Shoot Down the Railroad Man
07. Fertile Crescent
08. Invisible People
09. Gone West
10. Only Business

Bandcamp has you covered

The Sugarplastic - Polly Brown ep (1996)

If I had to boil it down to one single artist that was the essence of Wilfully Obscure, it just might be Los Angeles' long-running Sugarplastic. With their wry, XTC-ish (a lazy and obvious comparison, I know) sensibilities and esoteric wit, the Ben Eshbach and Kiara Geller-helmed Sugarplastic are one of the most curious and intriguing "pop" bands to have ever snagged a major-label deal. It was 1996 when the 'plastic grasped for the brass ring, resulting in their sophomore album, and Geffen debut (and finale) Bang, The Earth is Round.

The four-cut Polly Brown single however, did not see any domestic release. From my keen observations, I estimate that no more than a few hundred copies made it to American shores, outdone by it's sheer scarcity only by the band's triple-7" box set on Pronto Records, and the "Sheep"/"Superball" 45, that was limited to a mere *gasp* 200 copies! Read 'em and weep. There are two LP tracks here, "Polly Brown" and "Another Myself," as well as "Where Dead Bullies Go," which previously saw the light of day on a Minty Fresh Records 7" (and later on a CD compilation). So, the real curiosity here is "Daisy May," that thus far hasn't appeared anywhere else, including the Sugarplastic's b-sides and outtakes Japanese import, Primitive Plastic. Now that's what I call quite rare.

Unless there are any objections, look forward to future Sugarplastic posts. I'll even take requests. Enjoy (or not).

01. Polly Brown
02. Where Dead Bullies Go
03. Daisy May
04. Another Myself

Hear

Mega City Four - Magic Bullets (1993)

Although Mega City Four frontman, Darren "Wiz" Brown outlived his band's fourth album, Magic Bullets, by some 13 years, one gets the sense that on a certain level, this was his artistic nadir. The album was a far cry from the manic punk-pop of Tranzaphobia and their early singles, but a logical progression from 1992's Sebastopol Road. That record introduced a more delicate, contemplative template that Mega City Four's British contemporaries in the Brit-Pop, Madchester, and shoegazer scenes were all but ignorant to. All the better, because Magic Bullets is a favorite of many, if not most die-hard MC4 fans. And while it may lack the visceral thrust of their early material, "Wallflower," "President," and ''Toys" convey the kind of bittersweet pathos that so many of the Brit-plop hopefuls of MC4's era could hold a candle to. Not that they'd even try to of course. "I saw myself burning with passion, aching for the world" - Wiz Indeed. 

01. Perfect Circle

02. Drown

03. Rainman

04. Toys

05. Iron Sky

06. So

07. Enemy Skies

08. Wallflower

09. President

10. Shadows

11. Underdog

12. Greener

13. Speck
 

Hear

Mark Arm - The Freewheelin...7" (Sub Pop 1990)Dinosaur Jr. - The Wagon 7" (Sub Pop 1990)

Here is the first in a series of Sub Pop two-fer 7” uploads. Kicking things off is Mark Arm’s (of Mudhoney fame) one and only solo recording (that I’m aware of anyway). Recorded in September 1990, Arm’s rendering of Bob Dylan’s scathing anti-war indictment, “Masters of War,” was presumably in reaction to the impending Gulf War. Either that, or Arm was seriously craving a good excuse to parody a Bob Dylan lp sleeve. Occupying the relatively lighter flip-side is the Bo Diddley-inflected “My Life With Rickets.”

Dinosaur Jr.’s lone Sub Pop slab of wax features “The Wagon,” which sounds like a slightly different mix than the one that made it onto their fourth album, Green Mind. The b-side is a Don Fleming penned and co-sung number, “Better Than Gone,” that’s exclusive to this release.

Mark Arm Hear

Dino Jr: Hear

The Straitjacket Fits - Hail (1988) & Life in One Chord ep (1987)

The Bats and The Chills may have beaten them to the clock by several years, but for me, The Straitjacket Fits were the quintessence of what New Zealand's revered Flying Nun label had to offer. I'm not really sure that the Fits debut album, Hail did them adequate justice, given its somewhat dense mix, but nevertheless, it was too satisfying to resist. "Life In One Chord" (a song that appeared on Hail, not the EP that confusingly shares it's namesake) bears a monstrous hook, coupled with an engulfing sonic wallop that makes this song worth the price of admission alone. Unfortunately, these days you can't really name a price on any Straitjacket Fits song/album (except perhaps Ebay), as their entire catalog has ostensibly been deleted, save for a token best-of CD.

This upload contains the Hail LP, plus the preceding Life In One Chord EP. The US Rough Trade release of Hail forfeited four of the album's original ten tracks and included the entire four-song Life EP in it's place. Not necessarily the worst move quality wise, but completests like myself were forced to hunt for the New Zealand version on CD, which contains both the album and the EP in their entirety. The CD track sequence, intermingles the songs from each release haphazardly, but this should help:

Hail (1988)
02. Telling Tales
03. Dead Heat
04. Hail
05. Only You Know
08. Take From the Years
09. So Long Marianne
10. Grate
11. Fabulous Things
13. Life In One Chord
14. This Taste Delight

Life In One Chord (1987)
01. Dialling a Prayer
06. She Speeds
07. Sparkle That Shines
12. All That That Brings

Now available on Bandcamp

Eleventh Dream Day - Borscht (1990)

For every indie band that gets hitched with a major label and rockets to debaucheristic stardom, there are ten others that barely make a dent in the conscience of the album-buying/MP3 plundering mainstream. Chicago's Eleventh Dream Day were the latter. Granted, in this bittersweet scenario, it's somehow comforting to established fans that they can now find their newly-minted major label signees in FYE, while still having the luxury of keeping them in their back pocket as well.Eleventh Dream Day's major label-debut, and second album overall, Beet, was simply not the stuff of stadiums, boom boxes, and adoring groupies. It was however one of the most unaffected corporate co-opted albums of it's kind, bristling with wailing feedback squalls, Velvets-y swagger, topped off with enviable escapist motifs and dark character vignettes. The vinyl only Borscht, was a promotional release on Atlantic Records that was bestowed upon radio stations as a companion piece of sorts to the Beet LP. Enshrined to cassette on January 6th, 1990 at the legendary Lounge Ax in Chicago, the seven live tracks here capture Eleventh Dream Day at the peek of their powers, with full-bore firecracker intensity. It's an intense and enthralling live document of what was arguably one of Eleventh Dream Day's finest moments.

01. Love to Hate Love

02. Bagdad's Last Ride

03. Go

04. Testify

05. Tarantula

06. Bomb the Mars Hotel

07. Albert C. Sampson

08. Between Here and There (studio version from Beet)

 

Hear

Liquor Giants - You're Always Welcome (1992)

Unlike a lot of Liquor Giants fans, I wasn't a holdover follower of lead-Giant Ward Dotson's more celebrated project, The Gun Club. As for me, my acquaintanceship with the Giants was the result of tuning into CBC Radio 2 at just the right time (more specifically, on a late Saturday-evening pizza delivery run during the summer of 1999). The tune that won me over was "Paint the Whole Town Blue," from the debut LG album, You're Always Welcome, which you may now download at your leisure for an indefinite period of time. With a dollop of swagger infiltrating the buzzsaw pop of say, late-period Replacements or Let's Active, Ward Dotson's approach is genuine and satisfying, if not particularly innovative. The Liquor Giants would go onto make better albums, but little else in their catalog could scale the heights of the aforementioned "Paint...Blue," as well as their instant-classic (in a perfect world) beer can/shot glass anthem, "I Wanna Get Drunk With You." Just FYI, this album was also released in some countries under the title, America's #1 Recording Artists.

01. Over the Hill
02. Mrs. Griffith
03. Greatest Hit
04. Paint the Whole Town Blue
05. Middle of Nowhere
06. Just Might Cry
07. I Wanna Get Drunk With You
08. The Little Song
09. Lost on Mars
10 My Teeth and Tongue
11. The Jokes On You
12. Fine Line
13. My World

Now available on iTunes and Emusic as America's #1 Recording Artist.

The Saints - The Monkey Puzzle (1981)

With the departure of Saints founder/vocalist/guitarist, Ed Kuepper, the band's fourth LP, The Monkey Puzzle, retreats even further away (if not altogether) from The Saints blistering punk beginnings, than even the preceding transitional album, Prehistoric Sounds. Instead, Chris Bailey with the boys (and girl) in tow, nix Prehistoric's overdone horns and just make a straightforward rock record, much along the lines of Stiv Bator's post-Dead Boys solo material. The tempo is decidedly moderate, and the guitars chime and strum sweetly, almost as if to compete with the post-punk trends of the era. Monkey Puzzle manages to avoid any new wave/new romantic trappings, but to the chagrin of certain Saints followers, this was light years away from the gale-force thrust of their 1977 punk masterpiece, (I'm) Stranded.

My rip of this album was taken directly from the 1989 CD reissue on Australia's Mushroom label, but you would probably have better luck hunting this one down on vinyl.

01. Miss Wonderful
02. Always. Always

03. Paradise

04. Let's Pretend

05. Somebody

06. Monkeys (Let go)

07. Mystery Dream

08. In the Mirror

09. Simple Love

10. The Ballad

11. Dizzy Miss Lizzy 
 

Hear

Gaunt - Whitey the Man ep (1992)

Bearing static-ridden, lo-fi-ish punk rock, Columbus, Ohio's Gaunt infused a lively rawness into a genre that was (and for that matter still is) escalating itself into the commercial mainstream. Along with hometown acts like the New Bomb Turks and the Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments, Gaunt reaped the meager rewards of the nationally exposed Columbus music scene by the mid-90s, and eventually garnered a major label deal that led to their final album, 1998's Bricks and Blackouts. Generally speaking, their early to mid-career releases were the most captivating. The vinyl-only, Whitey the Man, issued on Thrill Jockey Records, came on the heels of a handful of red-hot, locally released singles. A cut from one of those 7"s, "Jim Motherf@#$er" was redone for this fabulous 10" slab. The even better Sob Story EP and I Can See Your Mom From Here LP, (both still available from Thrill Jockey www.thrilljockey.com) were shortly in the offing.

Gaunt lead singer, Jerry Wick had his life cut tragically short in January of 2001, the result of a vehicle related accident, thus abruptly capping the band's career.

01. Silly Watches
02. Back-Off
03. Salvation Army
04. Ignored
05. Whitey
06. USA
07. Jim Motherfucker

Hear

Archers of Loaf - Vitus Tinnitus ep (1997)

Back in 1993 when Chapel Hill, NC on-deck-hitters Archers of Loaf dropped their splendid debut, Icky Mettle, an acquaintance of mine described them as "two-parts Pavement, one-part Superchunk." That observation worked well at the time, but the Archers gradually forfeited their derivative tendencies for something a little more esoteric (not to mention cranky). Virus Tinnitus was issued commercially as a limited edition 10" in 1997, featuring six live cuts culled from the soundboard of an October evening gig in '96, at the fabled Middle East in Cambridge, MA. My understanding is that this EP was not commercially available on compact disk, with the exception of a few being sent to indie-retailers and radio stations (if I have my facts messed up, don't be shy to comment). Long story short, this was ripped from the barely distributed CD version). Two remixes of songs from the Archers third album, All the Nations Airports, are tacked on as well.

Tracks:

01. Harnessed in Slums
02. Underdogs of Nipomo
03. Greatest of All Time
04. Form and File
05. Audio Whore
06. Nostalgia
07. Vocal Shrapnel (remix)
08. Scenic Pastures (remix)

Now available on Amazon

Splitsville - Splitsville U.S.A. (1996)

I was posthumously introduced to a fantastic pure-pop guitar band from Baltimore named The Greenberry Woods at some point in the late '90s. After two near-perfect (okay, maybe "perfect" period). albums Rapple Dapple and Big Money Item both on Sire Records, the Woods were...well..splitsville. To the good fortune of power-pop hanger-oners everywhere, GW drummer Brandt Huseman and his guitar-slinging brother Matt Huseman, turned their then side-project, Splitsville into a full-time endeavor. Splitsville are decidedly more enthusiastic than the brothers Huseman's former outfit, especially on this debut album chock full of giddy, devil-may-care attitude, that occasionally approaches mid-tempo punk. Future Splitsville albums were a bit mellower (and more representative IMHO), but out of their three albums on Big Deal, U.S.A. is their scarcest and most obscure-worthy.

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The Pointed Sticks - Out of Luck ep (Stiff #59, 1979)

This 1979 three-song nugget of gold proved to be Vancouver's, Pointed Sticks debut and finale for the much coveted Stiff Records. After a trio of absolutely flooring singles on the local Quintessence label, The Sticks wanted to manifest their Buzzcocks inspired, organ-enhanced punk-pop to a larger audience. Stiff Records seemed to be just the place, but things fell through during the recording sessions for what was intended to be their first proper album. A full-length, Perfect Youth would eventually surface on Quintessence, but ultimately, the Pointed Sticks would leave a footprint on Stiff, albeit a smaller one than they had anticipated. The versions of the three cuts here are exclusive to this record, but alternate variations exist on the Quintessence recordings, which have recently been re-released on Sudden Death Records (www.suddendeath.com). Many a die-hard Sticks fan will contest that the original incarnations of these songs were more representative than the Stiff 7" versions, but IMHO both are commendable.

1. Out of Luck
2. What Do You Want Me to Do?
3. Somebody's Mom

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The Payola$ - Introducing...ep (1980)

For better or worse, my familiarity with the Payola$ essentially begins and ends with this EP issued on IRS in 1980. Introducing is considered by longtime fans to be one of the last recordings they made that was unfettered by the more commercial whims of the "industry" at the time. The four tracks housed within this gatefold 7" seem to accurately support that opinion. Not quite punk, and miles from "new wave" "China Boys," and "TNT" sport a fierce, edgy kick, with just enough melodicism to attract some of the wavers while not alienating the more aggro wing of their audience. As with their more renown contemporaries, The Clash and The Police, The Payola$ dabble with rasta rhythms on this EP's "Rose."

And of course, it's hard to overlook the fact that guitarist Bob Rock would eventually helm the production of a string of not-so-hot Metallica albums...if that means anything to you.

1. China Boys
2. TNT
3. Rose
4. Juke Box

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