Anastasia Screamed - 7" (1987) & Electric Liz ep (1988)

When I posted Anastasia's Screamed's Laughing Down the Limehouse CD a couple weeks ago, someone mentioned how much they loved an A/S tune called "What Kind of Truth Is This?" I have an equal admiration for the song as well. It initially appeared on their debut single, and later as a b-side to the "Samantha Black" 12" single. I have both, so after determining the 7" version was a lot less crackly than the 12," I opted to go with the single for this upload. Per my previous ruminations on Anastasia Screamed:

Mouthpiece/focal point Chick Graning possess the same worn-in, raspy timbre Peter Searcy of Squirrel Bait became legendary for. Though his guttural croon is nearly impossible to forget, Graning's cohorts are a much looser, ramshackle bunch, flailing about like so many flannel-flyers from points due Northwest...Glorious feedback squalls, not to mention extra enthusiastic percussion, put them right up there with Dino Jr at times.

Quit simply, "What Kind of Truth Is This?" is an out-and-out killer. Glorious melodic indie-punk, coming off as a second cousin of sorts to the Replacements "Bastards of Young," and every iota as vital I might add. Unfortunately, the mellower flipside, "Gravity" brandishes it's fair share of surface noise. I'm also including here A/S's Electric Liz ep, a record I don't own a physical copy of, but found a great rip of on Soulseek awhile back. It features five utterly cathartic cuts, terrifically conveyed by Graning's anguished, golden throat. This guy's got more emo in his pinky than the entire Fueled By Ramen roster combined.

 

7"

A. What Kind of Truth Is This?

B. Gravity 

 

Electric Liz ep

01. Sun Celebration

02. Now

03. I Am (A Horse You Are)

04. Augusra Furnace

05. Da 

 

Get both here

Anastasia Screamed - Laughing Down the Limehouse (1990, Roughneck)

Just as much of an acquired taste now as they were when they first surfaced in the late '80s, Boston's Anastasia Screamed nevertheless made a relatively immediate impression on me with "Searcher no. 9 (Song 16)" a cut from this very album that I was exposed to by the grace of college radio. Even by obscuro standards, this Beantown quartet (who ironically didn't boast any females in their lineup) were sheer unknowns nationally, despite distribution through Dutch East India Trading. Well, I suppose you want to know what they sound like before taking the plunge. Mouthpiece/focal point Chick Graning possess the same worn-in, raspy timbre Peter Searcy of Squirrel Bait became legendary for. Though his guttural croon is nearly impossible to forget, Graning's cohorts are a much looser, ramshackle bunch, flailing about like so many flannel-flyers from points due Northwest. Glorious feedback squalls, not to mention extra enthusiastic percussion, put them right up there with Dino Jr at times, and to a lesser extent the demi-psych meanderings of SST-era Screaming Trees. By today's standards however, new schoolers would likely deem Anastasia Screamed a really sloppy "emo" band, due in no small part to Graning's maudlin vocal theatrics. A/S delivered a second album, Moontime, along with several eps and singles. They also contributed a Television cover to the Pipeline! WMBR radio comp I posted this March.

Graning would go onto the higher profile Scarce (and have a near-death-experience to serve as that band's compelling back story, which you can read about here). Click the A/S hyperlink above to learn about what pursuits the other band members followed.

01. Beautiful
02. Lime
03. Disintegration, Yesterday
04. The Skidder
05. Violet
06. Searcher No.9 (Song 16)
07. Tide
08. Parts of Us
09. Tricked Into Feel
10. Shade
11. Samantha Black
12. Notown

Hear

V/A - Pipeline! - Live Boston Rock on WMBR (1996, Slow River/Kimchee)

Pipeline - Live Boston Rock on WMBR, not only serves as a two CD compendium of vintage performances from the first six years of the long-running, in-studio performance weekly radio show, but is a veritable "Who's Who" of eastern Massachusetts indie-rock acts from the early '90s. An institution at MIT campus since 1989, Pipeline is still broadcast every Tuesday evening from 8-10 pm eastern on 88.1 FM WMBR, and as you might guess, can be streamed or podcast gratis.

This 40-track collection of exclusive live-to-air recordings feature no less than ten acts that have been featured on Wilfully Obscure in one form or another: Dambuilders, Gigolo Aunts, The Cavedogs, Roger Miller (Mission of Burma), Lou Barlow (Sebadoh), Flying Nuns, Bullet Lavolta, Moving Targets, Christmas (the band), and Fuzzy - and there are probably another ten names here that would be equally as suited on these pages, including the likes of Anastasia Screamed (who indulge in a choice Television cover), Buffalo Tom, Green Magnet School, Smackmelon, The Queers, and Come. Given it's era, Pipeline has it's share of meathead grunge/punk (mostly situated on disk one), but hardly enough to detract from a startlingly consistent and jaw-dropping lineup. Not a bad place to expose yourself to some underexposed, but worthy hopefuls from yesteryear either. Dig in!

 

Disk One

01-The Dambuilders - Digitized

02-360's - Hang it Up

03-Gigolo Aunts - Star 69

04-Milkmoney - Leash

05-Morphine - Scratch

06-Orangutang - Best of Enemies

07-Otis - Smith and Wesson

08-The Cavedogs - Leave Me Alone

09-Roger Miller - Kuchkah Tay Zod

10-Anastasia Screamed - Marquee Moon

11-Twig - Breed

12-Mung - Dope

13-Green Magnet School - Two Fold

14-King Moon Razor - Countrified~C'mon

15-Tree - Inside Out

16-Scarce - Cry Me a River

17-Prickly - 'Sposeta Be a Funeral

18-6L6 - 'Til Then

19-The Vehicle Birth - Two Seconds Hate

20-Lou Barlow - Skull

Disk Two

01-Bulkhead - A Dong Market

02-Cordelia's Dad - Brother Judson

03-The Queers - I Met Her at the Rat

04-The Bags - Wail

05-Syrup - Rosy, Why?

06-The Zulus - High Tide

07-Slughog - Poor

08-Come - Brand New Vein

09-Big Dipper - Extrodinary Worm

10-Buffalo Tom - Larry

11-Helium - Lucy

12-Flying Nuns - Summer

13-Bullet Lavolta - Mother's Day/Bloodstains

14-Moving Targets - Faith

15-Smackmelon - Raymond

16-Dirt Merchants - W

17-Pie - Sink This Ship

18-Christmas - Scissors Paper Stone

19-The Upper Crust - Ne'er-do-well

20-Fuzzy - Miss the Mark 

Hear & Hear

Scarce/Funland 7" (1994, Delmore)

This single surrounds two bands who were eventually scooped up by the majors in the wake of the Smashing-vana hoopla circa the mid-90s.  In the case of Scarce, originating from Rhode Island, there's a pretty fascinating backstory to be had. Frontman Chick Graning fresh off of a stint with gnarly, indie distortion-mongers Anastasia Screamed suffered an aneurysm shortly after the release of Scarce's 1995 debut DeadSexy, which necessitated him to relearn to walk and speak. By 1996 Graning recovered enough to warrant Scarce to book shows again, but ultimately, the band splintered a year later and wouldn't reconvene until the late '00s. Bearing a throaty timbre, Graning's vocal aplomb on the dynamic and lovingly scrappy "It Was Dry" recalls the cathartic wail of Squirrel Bait's Peter Searcy. This tune also wound up as a b-side to an import ep. 

I've covered Dallas' Funland by way of their fantastic Sweetness ep, which saw the light of day a full thre decades ago. In a classic case of "I loved their early stuff," by the time the band (with a pre-Centro-Matic Will Johnson in their lineup) got around to tracking this single's contribution, "Blue Sister" they were beginning to shorn the power-pop affectations that made Sweetness such a treat. What they still had was impressive even if "...Sister" rang a bit repetitive, not to mention a little lyrically underwritten.

Scarce - It Was Dry

Funland - Blue Sister

Hear

Scarce - "All Sideways" 7" (1994, Rocka Mundo)

Even if Scarce frontman, Chick Graning, hadn't suffered an amnesia-inducing brain hemorrhage in 1995 (running right into the Stateside release of his band's major label bow, Deadsexy) the odds were stacked up against a good 95% of alterna-inclined bands (his being no exception), given the seemingly wonton signing spree engendered by the runaway success of Nirvana and Green Day.  More often than not, left-of-center propositions like Scarce, simply weren't accorded the same level of nurturing and artist-development of the aforementioned multi-platinum behemoths.  A veritable shame, as Graning & Co's. angular guitar splay on the dynamic "Sideways" leans into the a curious soft/loud/soft schematic with it's phenomenal harmonic chorus yielding a robust payout. The prolonged flipside, "Dozen" is considerably less climactic, albeit it's contemplative tenor functions as a soothing comedown.  Brace yourself for mucho surface noise on this one.

The 1993 demos for Deadsexy are well worth absorbing, as is a split 45 with Funland, and last but not least Graning's '80s endeavors with the even more amp-shredding Anastasia Screamed. 

A. Sideways

B. Dozen

Hear