Angst - Lite Life (1985, SST)

Though Angst resided on the lower rungs of the SST food-chain, the two albums I posted last year, Mystery Spot and Mending Wall, proved to be remarkably popular with the Wilfully Obscure set.  So when I spotted the predecessor to both of those at a recent record show I took the plunge.  Lite Life was their first full-length (itself preceded by a 1983 ep).  Angst's exceedingly loose and amateurish melange of the Minutemen and Feelies (likely not deliberate on either count) isn't particularly visceral, but the trio's goofball wit amusingly parlays itself into geopolitically themed missives like "This Gun's For You" and "Glad I'm Not in Russia."  Better yet, when these folk-punks put their minds to it, they're genuinely rockin' on "The Poor (Shall Refuse)," and the more angular "It's All a Life."  Below is Trouser Press's take on things.

The articulate lyrics on Lite Life again prove Angst's prowess for turning politically informed ideas into mature and witty tunes. Plain sound and no-frills arrangements underscore the preeminence of function over form. "Glad I'm Not in Russia," delivered as dustbowl country-rock, is a fairly incisive comment on the cultural divisions between the superpowers; the skittish and busy dance-funk of "This Gun's for You" mixes up several topics but stays sharp; personal emotional issues ("Friends," "Turn Away," "Never Going to Apologize") receive the same coldly objective analysis.

BTW, my copy of Life Lite was formally in the clutches of a radio station, so don't be the least bit surprised when you see call letters on the sleeve.

01. Love Dissolves
02. Turn Away
03. Just to Please You
04. Glad I'm Not in Russia
05. The Poor (Shall Refuse)
06. Lite Life
07. This Gun's For You
08. It's All a Life
09. Butler Grace
10. Never Going to Apologize
11. Friends
12. Ignorance in Bliss

Hear

Angst - Mystery Spot (1987, SST)

Angst were one out of as many as two-dozen unknown acts that SST was capable of bankrolling after they began raking in profits from Black Flag and Husker Du records.  They were on an intriguing roster to say the least, but this trio sounded relatively organic when stacked up against their more noisome stablemates.  1987's Mystery Spot was their third full length, and the only one I've really listened to.  It's a samey but likeable batch of songs threaded together by briskly strummed chords and rumbling rhythm accompaniment.  Deliberately or not, Angst definitely had a collegiate rock angle, and were even reminiscent of the Feelies, albeit more concise.  Trouser Press had a real issue with the recording quality involving Mystery Spot, but as for myself, not so much.  You can read their critique below.

Angst took a calculated risk on Mystery Spot, engaging producer Vitus Mataré to help flesh out and upgrade the sound. It almost worked. Multi-tracked guitars and dynamic arrangements bring the songs into near-pop focus, with unprecedented melody, sensitivity, structure and vocal appeal, but atrocious recording quality (and/or a heinously bungled mix) buries them in a flat, muddy swamp. Pope and Risk continue to reveal themselves in emotionally resonant songs — too bad their ambitious effort was spoiled by a technicality.

01. Outside My Window
02. Back in January
03. It's Mine
04. What's the Difference?
05. Looking for a Reason
06. Colors
07. Mind Average
08. One Life (Out of 9)
09. Wazee Street
10. I Remember
11. Ah, the Morning
12. Red Wing

Hear

Angst - Cry for Happy (1988, SST)

So I've belatedly come to post the only Angst album I haven't shared previously.  Fittingly it's the last album in their catalog, and I think it was the only one to be made available on CD.  Like most, if not all of their SST brethren, Angst weren't necessarily going for accessibility, yet Cry For Happy did boast a host of tunes that could have at the very least crossed over to the upper echelons of college radio playlists - "Time to Understand," "The Weather's Fine," and "She's Mine."  All three of the aforementioned operated within the parameters of say, the Feelies or perhaps the Dream Syndicate had that outfit opted for a more casual modus operandi.  There's a few anomalies wafting around this half hour of power, but nothing radical - maybe a little ZZ Top riff-worship on "Lonesome Heart" and "Meine Frau's" relentless blasts of trumpets that don't do much to augment Angst's otherwise humble shtick.  Overall, another nice record by this decades-long bygone troupe. 

01. Time to Understand
02. The Weather's Fine
03. Only Fools
04. Meine Frau
05. Motherless Child
06. I Could Never Change Your Mind
07. Leaving's Been Easy
08. She's Mine
09. Long Road
10. Lonesome Heart
11. My Dinner With Debbie
12. untitled

Hear

Angst - Mending Wall (1986, SST)

By popular demand, I was able to find another Angst album for all of you who were apparently floored with the Mystery Spot LP I shared a few weeks ago.  So far, I've only had one concerted listen invested in Mending Wall, but holy shit, the commencing "Some Things (I Can't Get Used To)" is a surging, melodic indie-rock salvo if I've ever heard one!  While nothing else on this platter holds a candle to that beaut, Mending... is at least reliable in the lackadaisical, homegrown confines Angst chose to situate themselves in.  Wonder what the experts at Trouser Press had to say about this one?  Wonder no more:

Stylistic variety also underpins Mending Wall, another dose of Angst's tense and rough-edged musical simplicity, enhanced this time with noticeably stronger vocal harmonies by (Jon) Risk and (Joe) Pope. The lyrics are less specific and more thoughtful; individual alienation, confusion and anomie are transformed into powerful, uniquely directed songs. A cover of Paul Simon's "Richard Cory," however, goes wrong, pruning the melody and bare-bonesing it into an ugly ghost of the original.

01. Some Things (I Can't Get Used To)
02. Standing Here Alone
03. All of a Sudden
04. The Burning Light
05. 127 Years
06. I Oblige
07. Richard Cory
08. Close the Door
09. I'd Rather Sleep
10. You Never
11. All Day Long
12. One by One

Hear

Tree Fort Angst – Tilting At Windmills ep (1995, Bus Stop)

Personal recommendations are powerful and downright essential in getting the word out about new and emerging artists, and although I knew of the existence of Tree Fort Angst in the '90s I failed to get the "message" so to speak. The band's nucleus was Terry Banks, a one-time member of  the much heralded Brit indie outfit St. Christopher. Though based in the U.S. TFA weren't to-the-core Anglophiles, but instead slotted loosely between twee and power pop.  Thoughtful as TFA's themes and winsome as their tunes were, maybe I was initially dissuaded by the band's name more than anything else, as taken literally it purveyed something of a frivolous notion. Nonetheless, better late than never and I consider myself a much belated convert, as least as far as this particular record goes, one of their last from what I understand. The bulk, if not all of their vinyl catalog has since been consolidated across a couple of CD collections, Knee-Deep In The Rococo Excess Of Tree Fort Angst and Last Page in the Book of Love.

01. Tilting at Windmills
02. Save Me
03. This is the Day
04. Why Couldn't You See This Coming?

Hear

Angst - s/t ep (1983/86, Happy Squid/SST)

This is my fourth plunge into the Angst well, and could be the last (or if you're lucky, second to last).  I've presented no less than three LPs (namely Mystery Spot, Mending Wall and Lite Life) by this defunct trio thus far and today you're about to encounter where it all began...if you so opt to download it.  Seven concise, cheeky blasts highlight their debut ep, with the angular "Neil Armstrong" leading the charge, bearing a self explanatory title if there ever was one - in a mere 68 seconds at that.  God damn.  "Die Fighting" is bristling aggro punk that should have made Crass green with envy, albeit presented in a slightly more accessible package.  "Pig" digs into the distorto funk of Minutemen (with Gang of Four underpinnings to boot), and the concluding "Nancy" ponders a rather "prickly" premise that I shan't extrapolate on any further, ya dig?  Alright, that's enough spoilers for one ep.  Draw your own conclusions on the remainder of Angst at your leisure.

01. Neil Armstrong
02. Die Fighting
03. Pig
04. Dummy Up
05. We Only Rot
06. Another Day
07. Nancy

Hear

Hüsker Dü - Zen Arcade - demos, outtakes, rehearsals (1983) & Psychepowerpopapunk live (1985)

Happy Chanukah, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year.  Now that I've covered all the bases, time to present you with my end of year, BFD upload, with 2011's entry coming in the form of a three disk boot of Hüsker Dü's seminal, 1984 tour-de-force, double LP, Zen Arcade....and a bootleg live CD.  Save for a couple of tribute albums, I've featured next to no Hüsker material on Wilfully Obscure, due in part to SST and WB for keeping their catalog in print, and to a handful of bloggers who've assembled b-sides compilations.  Nonetheless, I firmly believe that music fans could do no better in the '80s than this storied Minneapolis power trio, who fused riff-roaring punk with some of the finest and most innovative melodic structures ever.  I hold the opinion that Bob Mould, Grant Hart, and Greg Norton's halcyon era commenced in earnest with the release of 1983's Metal Circus ep.  Back then, as the case is still largely today, it takes a full fledged album to really reign in ears en masse.  Though Hüsker Dü's first proper studio album, Everything Falls Apart dropped in 1982, Zen Arcade was the record that jettisoned the band into the limelight, for lack of a better word. 

There is no universal agreement as to which Hüsker record is the most representative, or for that matter, timeless, but the trio's most ambitious recordings ever committed to vinyl fall squarely in the realm of this auspicious concept album.  Those "concepts," which are somewhat malleable in interpretation, involves a pained childhood, teen angst, and runaway scenarios among other related themes.  What sprang out in that angst-laden aftermath was some of Hüsker Dü's most sophisticated and cathartic song arrangements, setting up something of a template for Zen Arcade's successor albums, particularly New Day Rising, and to a lesser extent Flip Your Wig.  Many, many Hüsker classics reside among Zen's four hallowed sides: "Chartered Trips," "What's Going On," "Pink Turns to Blue," "Turn on the News," and "Something I Learned Today" to roll call a few. 

The collection of 57 tracks I'm offering today consist of alternate versions of just about every song on the album, including rough mixes, demos, and even a handful of rehearsal recordings that were recorded via an idling stylus in the studio.  You'll find several instrumental takes here too, including a vocal-less version of "Eight Miles High," a rather incendiary rendition of the Byrds classic that eventually found it's way onto a single that same year.  As for any obvious revelations, it might be wise to temper your expectations, since the variances between these versions and the finished products are slight in some cases.  One particular number that stood out for me was the fourteen minute plus "Reoccurring Dreams" which leads off disk two in expansive and howling fashion.  For a complete breakdown of which tracks are "rough mixes" vs "demos" etc, the info file found in the folder for disk one does a good job of differentiating and cataloging everything.  Special thanks to the generous and anonymous individual who arranged and digitized this collection, made available as a bit torrent last year.  I'll consider offering a flac (lossless) version of this should there be enough interest expressed.

To sweeten the holiday pot, we've also got a silver disk live bootleg, bearing the title Psychepowerpopapunk.  Eighteen cuts from a 1985 performance in Minneapolis (the actual date is not revealed in the CD booklet).  It's quite possible that the entire show is not represented here, but from what my ears are able to discern, this is a soundboard recording, which by the way features a Buddy Holly cover, "You're So Square" sung by Mr. Hart.  Track ten, listed as "Sons of Bitches" on the CD tray card is actually "Celebrated Summer."  The booklet includes an interview wih Bob, which I've scanned in for your reading leisure.  Bon appetit.

Zen Arcade sessions, Disk 1

Something I Learned Today/Broken Home, Broken Heart/Chartered Trips/Hare Krsna/Indecision Time/I’ll Never Forget You/Beyond the Threshold/The Biggest Lie/Pride/What’s Going On/Masochism World/Standing By the Sea/Somewhere/Pink Turns to Blue/Dozen Beats Eleven/Turn on the News/Newest Industry/Whatever/Eight Miles High/The Tooth Fairy and the Princess

Zen Arcade sessions, Disk 2

Reoccurring Dreams/Chartered Trips/Hare Krsna/One Step at a Time/Monday Will Never Be the Same/untitled (aka Granted)/ Never Talking to You Again/Somewhere/One Step at a Time/Punk Turns to Blue/Newest Industry/Monday Will Never Be the Same/Whatever/Something I Learned Today/Broken Home, Broken Heart/Chartered Trips/Indecision Time/I’ll Never Forget You/Beyond the Threshold/The Biggest Lie/Pride

Zen Arcade sessions, Disk 3

What’s Going On/Masochism World/Standing By the Sea/Somewhere/One Step at a Time/Pink Turns to Blue/Some Kind of Fun/Turn on the News/Newest Industry/Monday Will Never Be the Same/Whatever/Eight Miles High
Rehearsals: Whatever/Indecision Time/Somewhere/Dozen Beats Eleven

Psychepowerpopapunk (live Minneapolis 1985)

The Girl Who Lives on Heaven Hill/Every Everything/Makes No Sense at All/Don’t Want to Know/I Don’t Know For Sure/Terms of Psychic Warfare/Hardly Getting Over It/Sorry Somehow/You Are So Square/Celebrated Summer/Green Eyes/Divide and Conquer/All Work and No Play/Powerline/Books About UFOs/Flip Your Wig/I Apologize/If I Told You

Zen Arcade sessions - all three disks now in one file: Hear
Psychepowerpopapunk live 1985: Hear

m**f - feasting on fried afterthoughts: part four: everybody should stop doing everything (2001, Dizzy - recorded 1992-93)

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Jüke - Don't Hate Us Because We're Beautful 7" (1992, Lookout)

I'm surprised that I didn't get to this one a long time ago.  Guess it didn't help that I practically forgot I owned it altogether.  Not that Berkeley's Jüke were forgettable - completely to the contrary in fact.  Aside from some compilation appearances this was the extent of their discography.  Jüke definitely had that DIY, Cometbus-punk vibe going for them that reminded me plenty of another gaggle from their neck of the woods, Soup, and to a lesser extent Crimpshrine.  This is waaaay more Pinhead Gunpowder than Green Day, and believe me, that's hardly a complaint.  There's a helluva lotta groove fortifying "The Child Bride" and "The Reproduction of Existential Angst," due in no small part to some prominent bass potted up nicely in the mix.  I'm damn fond of this record.  Alongside the ep, I'm tacking on "Retail Therapy" from the Very Small World compilation from 1991.  A total blast.  If perchance someone in the band comes across this post, by all means get in touch.

01. The Child Bride
02. Kids Will Rock
03. The Standard
04. The Reproduction of Existential Angst
plus: Retail Therapy from a Very Small World comp

Hear

milf - feasting on fried afterthoughts: part two (i want to see the sequel) (1992-94)

Ok, here's the second round, and it's even better than the first. Tracks 1-6 comprised milf's second publically released demo tape, why people suck, containing early incarnations of four songs ("bad idea," "hate me," "angst & daisies" and "me") that would be rerecorded for their viscerally stunning proper debut, ha ha bus! on Big Deal Records in '94. By this point, milf's melodic prowess had developed significantly, and were drawing larger crowds, often sharing bills with Tugboat Annie (the topic of a previously explored split 7").

The next two cuts, "no name" and "2," were released on a single as part of Rough Trade Records singles of the month club from the early to mid '90s. "2" appears as a different version than the one on why people suck. These tracks were also available on a Rough Trade singles of the month compilation CD, which is the source I used to rip them from. "Thom," later retooled for the second milf album, antidope, turned up on a 7" comp, The More You Eat the Better You Are, Vol One - Music From Ithaca, NY. All well and good I suppose, but milf were actually based out of Lockport, NY (Buffalo/Niagara Falls area), which was situated a good 150 miles or so from Ithaca. Maybe I'll upload the whole thing at some point. Finally, we have "Apples" another future antidope venture, cut live to air at the studios of WBNY at Buffalo State College. Click the WBNY link to stream the broadcast (if you know what's good for you that is).

 

why people suck tape (1992)

01. bad idea

02. 2

03. hate me

04. angst & daisies

05. me

06. bullshit

 

Rough Trade Records single of the month, January 1994

07. no name

08. 2
 

from The More You Eat the Better You Are, Vol One 7" comp (Cash Cow, 1994)

09. thom

 

from Alive on Air, WBNY 91.3 comp cd

10. apples

 

Hear

Glide: Open Up and Croon (1995), Disappear Here (1996), Shrikwrapped Real Thing (1997)

As a prelude, I know it’s a hard sell to encourage anybody to investigate music they are entirely unfamiliar with, even if it’s offered *ahem* for “free,” but to anyone who has checked out my previous posts, even so much as one album or single, trust me when I say that Glide are an absolute must listen. I’d probably start with Disappear Here, and go from there but read on… (Please note this is not the same Glide associated with Will Seargent's UK group of the same name).Complete unknowns in North America, and virtual unknowns in their native Australia, Sydney's Glide dispensed bittersweet ruminations of love and angst in the form of incredibly melodic and thoughtful guitar-rock songs that have yet to be replicated since their all-too-brief ‘90s tenure. The untimely 1999 death of charismatic front-man William Arthur short-circuited Glide’s career, but not without leaving behind an impressive body of work that has ostensibly languished out-of-print for close to a decade now.

Glide took their cues from ‘80s American indie-rock, and less obviously availed themselves to a handful suave Brit-pop maneuvers. Despite these touchstones, this phenomenal Aussie quartet yielded something that was unmistakably of their own creation. There’s a certain depth and heaviness to their songs that shine through consistently, but even their most gripping moments never succumb to maudlin or melodramatic trappings. With Arthur’s lyrical acumen and his band’s impressive sonic salvos, Glide melded it all together with a sophistication that defined their sound, and ultimately, their legacy. This band’s catalog is nothing short of astounding.

Open Up and Croon, Glide’s debut full length is the raw, toughened yin to Disappear Here’s bittersweet, reflective yang. Texturally the albums are different, but not entirely disparate. The formers lead-off title cut is a bitter piss-take, aimed squarely at the protagonists romantic rival. The song is somewhat unrepresentative of the remainder of the album, but ultimately Croon gradually segues into mellower, but no less angst-ridden motifs.I feel guilty for suggesting that as good as Glide’s debut was, Arthur didn’t really hit his stride until the following Disappear Here, but there is some truth to that notion. The intensity and fervor is still present as it ever was, however when Glide ease the reigns ever so slightly (i.e. pile on some choice ballads) the end result is that much more rewarding. The melancholic, yet totally appreciable “What Do I Know?,” “Hole in the Middle,” and “Tangled,” bare a minimum of two colossal hooks, just one of which would prop up some other sorry suckers entire album.

Shinkwrapped Real Thing gathers up a myriad of early ep tracks, with much of the material on par with Glide’s proper albums. A posthumous Glide album of new, unreleased songs, Last, was released in 2000 in conjunction with the band’s official website. A full discography and catalog of “available” Glide CDs are provided, but the site has seen no updates since it’s inception seven years ago, I wouldn’t hold your breath when whipping out your Mastercard. Glide’s Myspace page has a bevy of useful info, and the usual obligatory songs. If anyone is interested, I have a superb compilation of Glide b-sides and radio sessions I can upload.

Tracks:

Open Up and Croon (1995, Hypnotized Records)

01-Open Up and Croon
02-Why You Asking?
03-Something
04-Line
05-Pitch and Sway
06-He Sees a Way
07-Dead Weight Beauty
08-Spin Doctor
09-Caterwaul
10-Spit You Up
11-Tripped Up and Stalled
12-Picking at Your Paws

Disappear Here (1996 Shock Records)

01-You Were Always More Than A Trick To Me, Ray
02-What Do I Know?
03-Two Wrists
04-Tangled
05-Wrapped In Fingers
06-Here She Comes
07-Surfaced Euphoric
08-To Your Side
09-Hole in the Middle
10-Ripped and Stripped
11-Cradlesong

Shrinkwrapped Real Thing (1997 Hypnotized)

01-Something Of Me Inside
02-Not So You'll Wake Him
03-16 Years To Life
04-Turn My Life Out
05-Water Falls
06-Thin Faced Man
07-One More Mistake
08-Worlds Away
09-Wake
10-Your Time
11-Dream Of Sammy
12-Scary Pale
13-Bug

I've decided it wouldn't be too smart to host these disks anymore, now that they've been made available on iTunes.  From what I understand some physical copies might be available through Glide's website.  Go here for all the pertinent details and links.  If you're encountering Glide for the first time, check out the handful of tunes they have streaming on their page, or go with the 30 second clips on iTunes linked above!  

I'm coming clean, and it's a mess.

From 2006.  The third and said to be final album from a challenging, idiosyncratic pop/rock conglomerate with themes ranging from wrenching angst to the relatively lighthearted.  An acquired taste, but once the hooks set in...  As a bonus, you're also getting a Posies cover which appeared on their previous LP.

http://www68.zippyshare.com/v/7546466/file.html

Well Wishers - Comes and Goes (2016) - A brief overview.

I'd be flatly deceiving if I were to inform you that Well Wishers henchman, Jeff Shelton had something on his agenda other than power pop, so deceive you I shan't.  While he doesn't futz with his linear recipe too much on WW's eighth outing, Comes and Goes, there are moderate tangents at play here, operating in a framework just malleable enough to keep things interesting.  A pair of true blue keepers bookend the album, "Impossible to Blame" and "Nature's Son," neither of which will allay the bevy of Posies comparisons that have been leveled at Shelton.  As I've recently noted, The Posies aren't sounding much like themselves these days, so dare I say these riff-addled pearls serve as inadvertent equalizers?

As for what falls between the two "bookends," Comes and Goes rewards sublimely with the resonant, harmonic sway of "Comes Around" (featuring Lisa Mychols on backing vox) and Shelton's patented, plaintive jangly persuasion imbuing "Tomorrow," and "In Love With."  The album isn't without it's rawer flirtations with tension and cynical frustration, as only a forty-something could engender, on the crankin' ''Somebody Lied" and "Three Nights in Bristol."  Par for the course with any Well Wishers album, Comes... conversely counters said moments of constructive angst with sobering comedowns, specifically in the guise of "Nobody's Dancing Alone" and the aforementioned "Comes Around."  

Have and hold Comes and Goes for yourself today through CD Baby, Bandcamp, iTunes, Amazon, or purchase a hard copy straight from the band, with a bonus CD of your choice no less...for a limited time.

Summer Suns - Greatest (2008, House of Wax)

Well, the whole Rapidshare mess remains thoroughly unresolved, so in the meantime all future entries will direct you to a d/l link with an alternate file hoster.  In short, any link with a netkups addy should still work.  

It's difficult to say who among the throngs of talented indie guitar-pop outfits that called Perth, Australia home in the mid-80s onward was "king" so to speak.  Take your pick - DM3, Stems, Triffids, Early Hours, and Marigolds amongst the most preeminent of the bunch.   As luck would have it, Dom Mariani who headed the first two of that lot I just rattled off, hooked up with Kim Williams (formally of the Holy Rollers) for what was to be a brief one-off recording session in '86 that ultimately yielded a new life force of it's own in the shape of the Summer Suns.  Mariani, having had his day in the Sun, left the band not long after they had gestated, leaving Williams as CEO.  Once referred to as a "revolving door for Western Australia's premiere pop musicians" due to ever shifting lineups, the Suns shined more resplendent jangle than garage-addled angst, and I wouldn't have done it the other way around.  Right up until the mid-90s, Williams and Co. recorded for such iconic indie imprints as we Get Hip, Bus Stop, Parasol and Waterfront, leaving behind an album, two eps and roughly a half-dozen singles.  Greatest, as it's title capably implies, is a creme de la creme compendium, entailing roughly 60-70% of the Summer Suns discography.  Limited to a CD pressing of 1000 copies, it quickly sold out a few years ago, but fear not, it's available here and now, ready to regale you with such diamonds as "She Understands," "Brighter Than the Sun," and "Ash and Cinders."

01. Thank You Holly
02. Ash and Cinders
03. Why SayNo
04. She Understands
05. Another Carrie Anne
06. Samantha
07. The Angel Angeline
08. Brighter Than the Sun
09. Why I Fell
10. Politics of Love
11. All for Her
12. Love in Stone
13. In Your Eyes
14. Waiting for My Love
15. Meltdown
16. Honeypearl
17. Rachel Anne
18. Girl in a Mexican Restaurant
19. All Away
20. Hey Little Sister
21. Stephanie
22. Run Like Hell

Hear

Red Fox Grey Fox - Bear-sides and Rarities (2009)

I've been holding out on sharing one of the best albums to materialize since I started Wilfully Obscure, namely Red Fox Grey Fox's epic, 2007 emo barnburner From the Land of Bears, Ice and Rock.  Sadly, today is not that day, nor shall it be for awhile, since that album is readily available on iTunes, Bandcamp and Amazon.  In lieu of it, I am offering a companion CD of demos, acoustic versions, side-project experiments (e.g. We Are the Willows), and the like, that has only been available in the merch den of RFGF concerts.  It's packaged in a hand-screened, chipboard sleeve, and is furnished with a handsome page of liner notes.

Thought it's virtually been bastardized into a pejorative at this point, the "emo" handle is unshakable in defining the strenuous and sheer naked vulnerability RFGF are wont to throw down like a raging beer keg at a frat party.  The aforementioned, From the Land... triples down on the angst Sunny Day Real Estate and Mineral emanated in their heyday, piling on heaps of melody and demonstrably more technical arrangements.  The group's secret weapon is frontman Peter Miller, whose androgynously deceiving falsetto croon, typically culminates into a glorious cathartic wail.  Get acquainted with this assemblage of alternate versions and other material that fell by the wayside, but regard it as merely an appetizer (or perhaps dessert) belonging to the main course - which in itself was the best thing to come out of this genre in ages.  I should also mention that a follow-up ep, A Snake, a Scoundrel, This Man is Cursed was released digitally in 2009.  Red Fox Grey Fox is currently on semi-hiatus. The best place to keep tabs on them is FB. 

01. A Sketch Of A Sketch Of A Drawing I Once Drew (acoustic)
02. Building A Building (acoustic)
03. Up With Mittens, Down With Gloves (acoustic)
04. Oh Man, Oh Man, The Madman!
05. The Doves That Quietly Coo
06. These Heavenly Heights
07. Wait For Me Abby Bernstein
08. Shit bag
09. It's Finally Here! But I'm Staying Inside (by of Yesteryears)
10. Bravery (We Are The Willows)
11. The Windows (We are the Willows demo)
12. Dinosaurs

Hear

A not-so tedious endeavor in the precise art of underwhelment - Best of the Blog mix 2022.

After consecutively assembling these annual compilations for a good decade now, much like the token ball-drop in Times Square, I'm sure plenty of you saw this coming. I may be a day late and a dollar short, but at the very least give me some credit for consistency. The original premise when I did my first Best of the Blog mix was to whittle down the foremost highlights from a years worth of postings, sometimes totaling roughly 200 a year (not counting Mystery Monday entries).  Since then, the amount of content I've been able to offer has gradually been scaled back to roughly 100 titles a year (again, not counting MM posts).  To shed a little light on my diminished output, look no further than the laundry list of legit reasons and/or excuses I extolled upon a year ago. 

These compendiums are not just a convenient foot-in-the-door portal to what many of you would consider an overwhelming amount of vintage records and such that I tend to serve up over the course of twelve months, but also as a reminder to myself that I haven't exhausted the pool of bygone and unheralded bands from the twentieth century that I continue to discover, or at the very least get around to digitizing. Thankfully, 2022 wasn't an exception. The 25 songs that made the cut for this mix are loosely sequenced by genres to ensure relatively comfortable song-to-song segues, but you're sure to encounter a odd transition now and again.  Keep in mind, I don't profess to be a pro at this shtick by any means. In keeping with tradition, I've tossed in a handful of previously un-shared nuggets from artists I haven't covered before. They are noted with an asterisk. Enjoy, and stay tuned. 

01. Steppin' Razor - Follow the Leader
02. Ghost of an American Airman - Big Lights
03. Last Gentlemen - One Possession*
04. Love Pushers - Radio Girl
05. Tree Fort Angst - Save Me
06. River Roses - Phoenix 99
07. Breck & Scott - Day Into Night
08. True Rumor - Iowa
09. Gels - Quaker
10. Golden City - Diamond Suits
11. Hotline TNT - Lawyers in Love*
12. Crystalized Movements - Up Falling Down
13. Braille Closet - Tomorrow Russo
14. Eagertones  - We're Only Kids
15. Unaccounted IV - You're Always Alone
16. Bad Sneakers - Pictures of You
17. Paper Train - Catcher in the Rye
18. Red Rain Coat - Footsteps
19. Room Nine - Sea Without a Shore
20. Crawl Away Machine - Maps of Asia
21. 86 - The Prisoner
22. Eternal Triangle - Small Town
23. The Difference - P.M.T. (Pre Menstrual Tension)
24. Late Rivals - Ghostown
25. Lonely Bunker - Last Toast*

Hear

The Dream Syndicate - The Days of Wine and Roses (1982, Slash/2015 Omnivore) - a brief overview.

Go ahead and trick yourself into believing that the Dream Syndicate spearheaded a movement, or were the figureheads of the 1980s so called "Paisley Underground" in their stomping ground of Los Angeles.  The truth is Steve Wynn and Co. would have had just enough going for them had they been the lone fish in the pond of say, Boise or Gloversville.  To get down to brass tacks, what the Dream Syndicate had going for them was sheer inspiration, which in their case involved extending an outstretched arm into the well of Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground.  It was a nervy reach at that, sparing no interest in the likes of Neil Young and CBGB fixtures Television either.  And nowhere in the band's revered catalog did they spark as visceral a charge than with their 1982 debut full length, The Days of Wine and Roses, which is seeing reissue this week on Omnivore Records. 

Then again "visceral" may not be the most apt term after all, considering Days of Wine... does require a modest amount of emotional investment.  Mine paid off with my second or third listen to the lead-off "Tell Me When it's Over." It aches so fabulously with Wynn's indelible guitar spiel, continuously cycling throughout the piece until the "ache" is gracefully transformed into a blissful, incendiary massage.  This sweet but sobering 3 1/2 minute masterstroke manages to segue seamlessly into the altogether more rousing "Definitely Clean," a furious slice of proto-punk outpacing anything the Velvets put their stamp on.  The breathless "Then She Remembers" follows suit, with a forward-thinking guitar progression situating the chorus.

The division of album sides that was all but lost in the CD age is of great significance to records like Days... where each physical half represents a (relatively) different modus operandi.  Though by no means "pop" songs, side one features considerably more concise and linear fare than it's flipside. The curtailed flights of fancy evidenced in the first half give way to the downright abstract on side two, not the least of which a pair of epic, stemwinding jams.  "Until Lately," the weakest link in otherwise strenuous set of tunes, ambles on for an aimless and ennui-laced four minutes or so before reaching anything resembling an apex, before finally thudding out a few minutes later.  As far as grand finales go, they don't get much grander than the concluding title track, a searing, white-knuckled catharsis, bleeding copious amounts of feedback and angst, the frenetic yin to the consoling yang of "Tell Me When It's Over."  The sound of petulant self destruction never sounded this good before or since.

This latest remastering job is crisp and clean, but does nil to exude any sonic elements that weren't present before.  As for the bonus tracks, none from the 2001 Rhino reissue of DWR (which included the preceding Down Here ep and two songs from Wynn's pre-DS outfit 15 Minutes) are appended to this incarnation.  Instead, all of that material is substituted with six songs from heretofore unreleased rehearsal sessions, ostensibly the closest items the band had in the vaults resembling traditional demos.  Among them are sneak previews of two songs ("Armed With an Empty Gun" and "Still Holding on You") that would appear on the Syndicate's second platter, 1984's Medicine Show.  The prototype of "Still Holding on to You," feeble as it may be, nonetheless boasts a sinewy charm the finished product lacks.  Also plucked from rehearsal tapes are two more long-winded jams: yet another Velvets indebted slow burner "Like Mary," and the more clamorous "Outside the Dream Syndicate."

The album with the giant turquoise block adorning the cover is available direct from Omnivore, Amazon, and hopefully a fine record dispensary near you. 

Delta Clutch - Shine 7" (1994, Lady, I Like)

I've owned a CD by this Mass. trio probably for a solid 60% of my life, yet the impression it left was somewhat nondescript.  The 45 I'm sharing today is another matter.  Two memorable, strummy numbers, with "Shine" bearing resemblances to certain late-80s SST signees, albeit nothing obvious.  A much more lackadaisical fIREHOSE or Angst perhaps?  Anyway, the chorus is undeniably the selling point that keeps this five-minute A-side pleasantly afloat.  The plaintive "Baby, The Rain" is a subdued, acoustic traipse, the kind of comfy, goes-down-smooth ditty that would be the perfect accompaniment for any given afternoon slouch in a hammock.

A. Shine

B. Baby, The Rain

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milf - ha ha bus! (1994, Big Deal)

Back in 2009 when I went milf crazy (as in the band folks) and posted the bulk of their discography, I left out two important pieces of the puzzle with the intention of featuring them at a later date.  That "later date" turned out to be today in fact, as my priorities inadvertently shifted in the five year layover.  For those of you with a question mark over your noggin in regards to the aforementioned, let me catch you up to speed with my synopsis on the band from my March 2009 entry for their split single with Tugboat Annie:

Got milf? Buffalo sure did, at least throughout a good swath of the early-to-mid '90s (before most of us actually knew what the now infamous acronym meant). One record scribe likened the trio music to a Husker Du 45 played at 33. Though not the most spot-on description of their sound, milf dispelled a sinewy, distorto guitar sprawl with jawdroppingly tuneful sensibilities bands from the Queen City have experienced before or since. Numerous short form recordings (tapes and 7"s) came and went, but their flooring debut album ha ha bus! on Big Deal Records found them at their creative apex, with the commendable antidope to folllow shortly thereafter. 

Five years on, I wouldn't rephrase a smidgen of that summation, but if these guys are fresh to your eyes/ears milf's proper debut is a good place to start your journey.  ha ha bus! isn't wall to wall fireworks, though it's most stunning offerings (check out this trifecta of perfect tens: "hate me," "model t," and "and there's me") are as visceral and gloriously amped-out as music of this ilk gets.  Dense, gauzy guitars soaked in a dream-pop haze, a noisome delivery system, and Justin Chapmans loud/soft vocal aplomb were milf's killer cocktail, one that was employed to it's fullest extent on ha ha bus!, which unfortunately wasn't quite duplicated on their follow-up, antidope.  Will get to that one soon, and hopefully fix the broken links in my previous ovations to the group.  Enjoy.

01. punch
02. model t
03. bad idea
04. angst and daisies
05. me
06. and there's me
07. hate me
08. hair bitch
09. certain people shouldn't lie
10. primate me

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V/A - Misfit Heartbeat 2X7" (199?, Take A Day/Iteration)

Why Misfit Heartbeat? Because we're all misfits at heart. This was a double 7" compilation that came out in either 1993 or '94, as a split release between two San Fran area labels, Take a Day and Iteration. It functions as an utterly concise, as well as convincing snapshot of California's indie-punk scene of the era, starring Pinhead Gunpowder (who's lineup included Billie Joe of Green Day renown, and Crimpshrine's Aaron Cometbus) as the most established and recognizable participants here. Their contribution, "I Wanna" also turned up on their crucial Jump Salty singles compilation (incidentally, no home should be without this record).

Davis, CA's finest sons, Playground offer up a stunning slice of melodicore punk, "Brighter Days," a la Moving Targets. More by them to come on Wilfully Obscure. Quickly following this up are the Wynona Riders with their spin on the Kim Wilde classic "Kids in America." This is a different version than that which appeared on the Wynona's J.D. Salinger LP (also an album everyone needs). Other highlights include aggro pop-punks Rhythm Collision, the quasi-riot grrrl assault of Bitchcraft, and the strangely dynamic angst of Pot Valiant.

 

01. Pinhead Gunpowder - I Wanna

02. Playground - Brighter Days

03. Wynona Riders - Kids in America

04. Jerrymite - Brother

05. Delightful Little Nothings - Like-minded Soul

06. Pot Valiant - Long Dark

07. Rhythm Collision - How Do You Know

08. Bitchcraft - I Never Faked It

 

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