Glass Eye - Marlo ep (1985, self-released) & Huge (1986, Wrestler)

Glass Eye were part and parcel of what is loosely referred to as the "New Sincerity" mini movement of collegiate rock bands hailing from Austin, TX in the mid-to-late '80s, that also included the likes of The Reivers and Texas Instruments, who I have expounded on here before.

A coed quartet, Glass Eye didn't quite fit into the more straightforward jangle-rock mold of the aforementioned, nor did they forge their own, at least not on their initial releases. On their first effort, the self-released Marlo ep, led predominantly by Kathy McCarty Glass Eye were seeped in the choppy, rhyhtmical inclinations of none other than the legendary Gang of Four. McCarty however lended a sense of warmth and relative serenity to what could have been an out-and-out lock-step affair. Surprisingly palatable given the heavy influence of said predecessors, the crisply recorded and executed Marlo is Glass Eye's finest moment in my opinion (yeah, it's all kinda downhill from here).

Their followup, the long playing Huge, is a step in a couple different directions. Stella Weir's keyboards are boasted much more prominently in the mix than on Marlo, suggesting the work of bands like Polyrock (i.e. new-wave meets watered-down no-wave). Huge also marks the increased participation of bassist Brian Beattie as mouthpiece. "Lake of the Moon," and "Invention" were two of the album's most sparkling selections, but elsewhere, Glass Eye's songwriting deficiencies were quite evident. After Huge, the band went on to record two more albums and an ep for Bar None Records that you can read up on here. The quartet regrouped in 2006 for some shows, and while speculation of a CD reissue of Marlo and Huge once loomed on their website, nothing has come to fruition as of this posting. You can also get a fill of their Myspace page.
 

Marlo ep:

01. The Big Moment

02. Clean Living

03. Vegetable Wheel

04. Glass Eye

05. Calling

06. Chrome Shoes
 

Huge:

01. Lake of the Moon

02. What's With You Now

03. (I Can't) Go to Sleep

04. Mean

05. Losing the War

06. The Sleeping World

07. I Don't Need Drugs To Be Fucked Up

08. Invention

09. Treefort

10. Maggie

11. Minnie the Moocher
 

Marlo: Hear

Huge: Hear

Glass Eye - Christine ep (1988, Bar None)

Nine years ago I wasn't expecting such a fevered reaction to two records I shared by an old school Austin, TX outfit, Glass Eye.  Those releases, the Marlo ep from 1985, and 1986 full length follow-up, Huge saw gazillions of downloads and at least two or three rounds of refreshed links.  Amazingly, the band's official website is still intact, and evidently interest in Glass Eye is still palpable.  I didn't realize it at the time I procured it a couple years ago, but the 1988 Christine ep was an appetizer of sorts for the quartet's second LP, Bent By Nature.   The dynamic title piece is intermittently disciplined and wiry and one of the single most effective songs in their catalog.  A traipse through Paul Simon's "Cecila" absorbs a full two minutes of it's precious 150 seconds building up to it's frenzied crescendo, albeit still gratifying.  Christine winds things out with the sardonic country rendering, "The Ballad of Abraham Lincoln," a song bearing, shall I say, schizophrenic tendencies.

01. Christine
02. Cecila
03. Perder La Guerra
04. Comeback
05. The Ballad of Abraham Lincoln

Hear

Moth Macabre - s/t (1993, Interscope)

I remember virtually disregarding this when it came out back in 1993.  Too samey and derivative I thought.  Pulled it out again a few years later.  It still didn’t gel with me, but I wasn’t compelled to discard it or trade it in either.  For the longest time I went under the mistaken premise that “Moth” was the name of the band, and that “Macabre” was the album title.  At any rate, I’m glad I hung onto it, because I have a far better appreciation for Moth Macabre these days, albeit posthumously by nearly two decades.  A coed four-piece that called San Francisco home base, M/M had an intense penchant for dynamics, entrenched waist deep in the Pixies quiet/loud/quiet algorithm.  The screaming opener “All Great Architects Are Dead” is a sheer knock out, and although the remainder of Moth Macabre isn’t quite as startling, it is rewarding.  I’m hearing a little Smashing Pumpkins and Drop Nineteens on here too.  To add another wrinkle to the equation, frontman Daniel Presley is often a dead ringer for the Straitjacket Fits Shayne Carter.  You can download a live M/M show (featuring a nifty Velvet Underground remake) on this page curated by guitarist Tom Risse.  The video for “All Great Architects…” is below.





01. All Great Architects Are Dead
02. Amazing
03. Elizabeth
04. Pale
05. Blow
06. Two Days
07. Malibu
08. Glass Eye
09. Screwdriver Girl
10. Lemuria
11. AEIOU

Hear

Fields Laughing 7" ep (1985, Stonegarden)

Fields Laughing, a co-ed trio from Berkeley, CA from way back when were yet another pleasant eBay discovery for yours truly. Despite their arcana, there's actually a Fields Laughing Myspace page with a great bio (some of which I've included below). This upload may seem redundant, given that the entirety of this ep is available for streaming on their Myspace site, if it weren't for the fact that the fidelity of my copy is noticeably better, with at least a few less pops. Green On Red seemed to have significant sway with Fields Laughing, who are endowed with a temperment recalling other rootsy, left-of-the-dial types, like Austin contemporaries Glass Eye. Members went onto other bands including Too Much Joy, and Pop Art, the latter also on Stonegarden Records. Here are some more pertinent details from their bio:

Fields Laughing was formed in 1984 in Berkeley, California, by several college students attending U.C. Berkeley, including Steven Weisburd, Jay Blumenfield, and Nancy Hess. After a brief period with singer Dave Leavitt from Athens, Georgia -- in which the band had a gentler Americana/R.E.M. feel -- Fields Laughing reformulated with guitarist/singer Joel Brandwein and reemerged with a rougher and harder sound. In this formulation, Fields Laughing became a very active bay-area alternative rock band in 1985 and 1986, getting substantial college radio airplay in the bay area (KUSF and KALX) and elsewhere. While headlining local clubs on their own, Fields Laughing also played many opening slots for a number of the leading bands of the era (e.g., 10,000 Maniacs) as well as other local successful acts (e.g., Chris Isaac).
 

A1. Almost Never

A2. Curtain

B. New Falling
 

Hear

Doctors' Mob - She Said 12" (1986, Wrestler)

Doctors' Mob were part and parcel of Austin, TX's so called "new sincerity" indie movement circa the mid-80s, alongside contemporaries Glass Eye and the Reivers among several other bygone aggregations.  The word "sincerity" of course is subjective and is a lousy descriptor of any piece of music, but this guitars-y cabal were considerably amped-out and boasted the kind of integrity most of you will appreciate.  This three-songer finds the Mob applying a Husker Du-ish treatment to their cover of the Fab Four's "She Said, She Said."  They keep things at a rolling boil on this single's pair of crankin' originals, "Time's Up" and "Lost of Course," the latter of which appears to be exclusive to this 12". Additionally, there are two Doctors' Mob full lengths (1986's Headache Machine and '87s Sophomore Slump) to supplement this hearty appetizer.

A. She Said, She Said
B1. Time's Up
B2. Lost of Course

Hear

A few restored links.

By request.

The Acid Drops - 7"

American Standard - Wonderland & 7"

Aviators - Deed to a Ranch ep 

Jim Basnight and the Moberlys - s/t ep

Beat Temptation - Concerned About Rock Music?

The Bent Backed Tulips (Dramarama) - 7"

Bring Home the Lobsters - tape

Paul Collins Beat - live NYC 1979

Diodes - Survivor  

Doll Congress - s/t ep

The Donner Party: Complete Recordings -  Disks 1 & 2

Drive - covers 7" 

The Figgs - Rejects & singles

Fingers - Video Games ep

For Squirrels - Baypath Rd & demos

Gem - Hexed & I Am a Tree ep 

Glass Eye - Huge ep, Marlo & Christine ep

Gentleman Jesse and His Men - Singles and Rarities

Greg Kihn Band - Next of Kihn

Gunbunnies - Paw Paw Patch

Hummingbirds - LoveBuzz & singles 

Husker Du - Zen Arcade demos/outtakes & Psychepowerpopapunk   

I Can Crawl - Desert

I-Rails - Panharmonium, Nine Songs From Nowhere, Unfocused, Valentino Says, Same Old Me 7", live 1990 

The Iodine Raincoats - I Wonder ep 

The Killing Field - Courage tape

Killjoys - Starry, Gimme Five, Melos Modos, One Night and a Morning After

Lines - Standby ep

Lonesome Strangers - Lonesome Pine  

Math Bats - Bat Day ep

Nashville Ramblers - The Trains 7" (MP3/FLAC)

Native Tongue - s/t ep

New Sweet Breath - singles

Todd Newman - Too Sad for Words & Temporary Setback

The Nines - demo tape 

Nuns of the Great West - The World Ain't Safe ep 

Odolites - Chimes 7" & Persistence of Memory

One Plus Two - Once in a Blue Moon 

Orange Humble Band - Down in Your Dreams ep

Our American Cousins - demo

Poole - two eps

Prodigys - Another Lazy Wednesday

Raves - Past Perfect Tense 

The Records - A Sunny Afternoon in Waterloo & live Dallas 1979

Retriever - Greatest Moments of Doubt & Three Second Stereo ep

Rollerskate Skinny - Trophy & Novice eps

The Seen - Under the Sun/In the Rain/

Shins - Nature Bears a Vacuum ep

Something Blew - s/t ep

Sometime Sweet Susan - Fuse, Point ep & The Coming Lights 

Stag - Kickstart the Ramparts

Swimming Pools Q's - Pow Wow Hour

Trikona Frame - tape 

UV Prom - Field of Vision ep

V. Card - Pool Shark ep & 7" 

Velocity Girl - singles  

Venus in Furs - Real Moral Fibre

Ward 8 (Winter Hours) - tape

Wishes and Water - s/t ep

Wishing Wall - Maybe  

Wolfie - Necessary Sailing tape

V/A - Been There, Done That

V/A - Power pop special: Paul Collins Beat, 20/20, Sinceros live 1979

V/A - Powerpearls Vols. 4 & 5

V/A - Propeller

Best of the blog mix 2024.

I'm a bit tardy in posting my annual "condensed" adaption of a year's worth of uploads to this page, so I hope you'll forgive me. For better or worse 2024 has come and gone, and not counting Mystery Monday offerings, I only shared about 80-90 titles.  That was largely on par with 2023 and could be the norm going forward.  Not every piece of music emanating from this site is a sheer pearl or revelation, but I like to think that this pared down summation is pretty consistent, and as usual I've inserted a few random morsels exclusive to this playlist (denoted with an *)

Go Man Go's phenomenal "25 Years" is the clear runaway winner in terms of my finest retro score of the last 365 days and is placed at the head of the class.  As for the remaining 21 cuts I have virtually no preference, though the High Bees "Self Indulgence" comes within spitting distance.  Oodles of power pop (and adjacent) is yours for the taking here, be it from House of Pants, Green Ice, or even the little known Crowd who've never made an appearance here prior to this compilation.  There's also succulent post punk entrails emitted from the likes of Rifle Sport, Daddy-O and Mettle.  Plenty of great anomalies as well, but I won't give much else away, except for the last selection courtesy of the Specs, a coed combo featuring a teen Matthew Sweet, who were responsible for merely one original composition, "Look Out Girl (You Need a Direction)."  They made it count. Enjoy. 

01. Go Man Go - 25 Years

02. The Cavedogs - La La La

03. His Boy Elroy - New England

04. House of Pants - Photographs

05. Voices - Out Tonight

06. Flaming Mussolinis - Swallow Glass

07. God's Eye - Back Again

08. High Bees - Self Indulgence

09. British Properties - Eight Days a Week

10. Jules Shear - She's in Love

11. July 14th - Only One

12. Rifle Sport - Bedroom Full of Ice

13. Mettle - Evening Ocean

14. Intro to Airlift - Ed Is On No Side

15. Daddy-O - Run to Hide

16. DCD - A Passage in Time*

17. Tanjent Image - Suranland

18. Windbreakers - So Much

19. Glass Torpedos - Someone Different

20. Crowd, The - Passwords* 

21. Green Ice - Breakdown at Geneva

22. The Act - The Art of Deception

23. The Specs (Matthew Sweet) - Look Out Girl (You Need a Direction)* 

Hear

The Square Root of Now - Bent Around Corners (1987, Parallax)

Ok, I might be cheating a bit with this one.  Technically, I posted this album way back in 2010.  It was my own vinyl rip, and I opted to remove it a few months later when I learned someone involved with SRoN was selling CD-Rs of a remastered version of it.  Since it's no longer for sale, I'm making it available again in it's remastered iteration - and this time I have more to say about it.

I purchased The Square Root of Now's Bent Around Corners based on it's eye-cathching, Kandinsky-esque cover art, but truthfully the rather oblique song titles adorning the back of the sleeve piqued my curiosity further.   Bent...turned out to be a surreal and sublime re-imagining of new romantic synth pop, the mainstream variation of which was already starting to taste pitifully stale and formulaic.  The record's three architects, frontman Dan DeWeese, bassist and keyboardist Fritz Martin, and drummer Chris Hall took full advantage of the state-of-the-art recording apparatus of the day, without submerging themselves (or their audience) in anything too gaudy or gratuitous.  The mystique exuded in the record's eleven songs aren't merely attributed to their esoteric nomenclature (albeit "If Motif; Why Wagon" and "Honndakanaya" are reflective of just that) rather there's a prevailing sonic aptitude that screams "exotic" pretty much anywhere the stylus falls on Bent Around Corners.  Martin's fret-less bass is a huge part of the equation (pun intended), and is every bit as sensual as the band's more traditional implements.

The production here is nothing short of plush and resonant, particularly when DeWeese waxes romantic on blissed-out ballads like "Compile Your Love" and "After the Rain."  In my original write-up I posited you could draw parallels between Square Root and relative contemporaries The Three O'clock and Glass Moon.  That observation holds true, particularly on the beaming opener, "Between the Light," which wouldn't sound too out of place on the Three's Arrive Without Traveling LP, also from '87.  Bent... concludes with a strapping finale in the guise of the title cut which crescendos to multiple hooks and sumptuous highs, leaving anyone within in earshot to wonder what a second SRoN album would have amounted to.  Regrettably, this was their first and final lap.

It's a bit hard to believe that music this weird, wonderful, and frankly other-worldy emanated from the unlikely locale of Jackson, Mississippi.  Ultimately, it's that dichotomy which makes Bent Around Corners even more of the singular and revealing treasure it is.  Sad to say, DeWeese passed away in 1999 from natural causes.  More can be read on him and Square Root on Facebook.  A huge debt of gratitude goes to Chris for setting me up with these files.

If anyone is interested in a FLAC version of Bent... let me know.  I'll try to make it available at some point.

01. Between the Light
02. Compile Your Love
03. If Motif; Why Wagon
04. Lunge Into Serious
05. Ceramic Angels
06. After the Rain
07. Tundra Stuff
08. Honndakanaya
09. Silly Spender
10. Count Me In
11. Bent Around Corners

MP3  or  FLAC

Crossfire Choir (1986, Passport)

More rock o' the '80s, comin' atcha.  So...this one wasn't exactly what I was expecting.  I've been interfacing with Crossfire Choir's albums for awhile - more like a decade or so to be exact.  I initially took the plunge with their third record, Dominique a couple years ago (which I'll get to in a future post) but I thought I'd start chronologically with these Florida to NYC transplants. A good half of the quartet's self-titled debut is actually pretty respectable, albeit nondescript at points.  Residing in the middle of the FM bandwidth, the band offer meager concessions to us left field types, sporting an array of mainstream-ish likenesses such as late '80s Duran, the Alarm, and Glass Tiger (yeah, I know, but occasionally accurate).

Oddly enough, C/C would wind up accumulating artistic cred as their tenure progressed, which was usually the polar opposite with any of their contemporaries, famous or otherwise.  So far as this platter is concerned, revelations are in short supply yet it's more than listenable, perhaps with one glaring exception.  One of Crossfire Choir's key selling points for yours truly was the inclusion of a CD bonus track (remember those?), "Frantic Romantic."  Any indie music-head worth their salt would make the safe assumption this was a cover of the Scientists post-punk classic, but startlingly it's an original - one that veers heavily in the vicinity of Oingo Boingo to boot.  Bummer.  Here's a link to an archived article on the Choir pertaining to the era surrounding the record in question. 

01. Love Hate Relation
02. Nation of Thieves
03. To Be Young
04. Walk Walk
05. The Last Word
06. Well Lets...
07. What's it to Ya?
08. Disappointment
09. Blue Eyed Thunder
10. Spark In Your Eye
11. Left Behind
12. Hell Hath No Fury
13. Waiting
14. Heaven and Earth
15. The Bringing
16. Frantic Romantic

Hear