Tiny Idols

2010-09-15T20:04:00.000-07:00

Sound of My Own Voice

Where's Tommy (1990)

Led by guitarist/vocalist Jamie Trecker, Sound of My Own Voice (SOMOV) formed in 1988 and released three hard-to-find cassettes and a single before breaking up sometime around 1990. The single, "Where's Tommy," occasionally turns up around New York and is a fine example of the sort of Feelies/REM inspired college rock of the day. However, the band's repertoire was far deeper than that as evidenced from cassettes such as Greatest Hits, March, and Lunch with Duncan.

Jim Gibson, who runs the aptly named Noiseville Records, discovered the band when Trecker sent him a tape and released 1,000 copies of their sole single. The tapes had sold fairly well in Syracause, and Gibson had plans to release a full-length album, but the band broke up and the album never materialized.

According to Trecker, the band broke up for "lots of reasons. The thing is, I think we felt like not many people really got SOMOV, and we were kind of sick of playing to small crowds and slaving away in our rooms and attic on stuff. Syracuse was really into hair metal then, and it was tough to find bills to play on because of that. We didn't do covers, and you know, we were kinda weird. The irony was when we disbanded, all of sudden, people were into us."

SOMOV recently played a sold-out reunion show in Syracuse and are playing another show on October 14th in Chicago. They are also finally releasing that lost lp on Noiseville. Check SOMOV's Facebook page here for much more info...

2010-09-08T19:34:00.000-07:00

Honda

Bruce Jenner (1993)
Incense and Peppermints (1993)

Ask any music lover from Pensacola, Florida, about early ‘90s bands, and Honda will inevitably come up. Singer and songwriter Rusty Dungan was older than most of the other kids in bands, and many looked up to him as a father figure—a drunken, occasionally brilliant father figure who often brought entire pitchers of beer on stage.

Along with band mates Ryan Nalley, Mike Kirkpatrick, and Jay Thomas, Dungan aimed to create a sound somewhere between Mudhoney and Syd Barrett. Honda frequenly played shows at local dives like Sluggo's, the Handlebar, and occasionally the Niteowl, the local heavy metal club. During their short career, Honda self-released two cassettes. The six song Honda came out in 1992, and Throw Like a Girl appeared in 1993. They also managed a short East Coast tour in Mike’s mother’s station wagon and saved money by sleeping in the pop-up camper.

Dungan’s residences included a garage and a supposedly haunted basement, but friends mostly remember the time when he lived in a tent. According to friend Ryan Gensemer, who played with Dungan in Inca Kola, “We would walk out on a bluff and yell, and he’d come crawling out of the woods for practice.”

"Bruce Jenner" is a highlight of Throw Like a Girl, which was recorded with Tommy Hamilton at Georgia Street Studios. (It also appears on my CD series Tiny Idols Vol. 3, which just came out in July.) Another highlight of the album is drummer Jay Thomas' insane, over-the-top cover of "Incense and Peppermints."

2010-08-07T21:29:00.000-07:00

The Embarrassing Fruits

Long Distance Breakup Summer (2010)

These three kids from Chapel Hill sound like the last fifteen years hasn't even happened. If you have a soft spot for Archers of Loaf, or miss the kind of records Merge used to put out in the '90s, you can't do much better than this. Good lyrics too!

Trekky Records will release their second album, Frontier Justice, on September 21st. I'll go back to posting about old bands now.

2010-07-21T20:51:00.000-07:00

The Multiple Cat

Savior in a Plaid Coat (1998)

For all intents and purposes, Davenport, Iowa’s Patrick Stolley was the Multiple Cat. He wrote or co-wrote all the band’s material, played most of the instruments, sang lead vocals, and recorded the songs in his home studio. Orbiting around Stolley was an amorphous cast of talented friends and musicians.

Recorded around 1998, “Savior in a Plaid Coat” appeared on The Golden Apple Hits, released by the Plow City label in 2001. Many of the songs are quieter and more introspective than Stolley's earlier work, especially the slow-building "Savior." According to Stolley, "A lot of folks don't get that one. 'Too light' and 'drum machiney' are comments I've heard. It's very meaningful to me, though, because it's about when my mom put me into state custody (I was a bad little Robert Smith look-alike) and I had to go to court and all this drama. I ran away from the state shelter and crossed the river to Illinois, and my girlfriend Nancy picked me up and got me out of town."

The Multiple Cat got their start when Zero Hour, a well-funded but ultimately mismanaged indie, released the Multiple Cat’s debut in 1996. Stolley was mowing his lawn when he got the call from Zero Hour with a generous offer. The label folded soon after the album’s release, forcing Stolley to make the switch to a series of other labels. By the time The Golden Apple Hits came out, the band was no longer active.

After an acrimonious split with his wife, Stolley entered a dormant phase. “I lost touch with music for a while, and was bitter in general,” Stolley told me. “When my life came back together, I felt like the Multiple Cat was more a part of the past.” Stolley abandoned the old name for good and started recording with a slightly revamped sound as the Marlboro Chorus. Since 2001, Stolley has released three albums on Future Appletree under this moniker.

In 2005, Future Appletree also issued a highly recommended collection of the Multiple Cat's best tracks. Get it here.

2010-07-05T20:44:00.000-07:00

Sardina

He's on Drugs Again (1995)

The college town of Bloomington, Indiana, was a breeding ground for countless indie bands in the '90s. (See Jeb Banner's amazing Musical Family Tree site for proof). Unlike other cities in the Midwest, punk never established a dominant foothold there and many of the area's bands leaned more towards the pop and rock end of the spectrum. Sardina is no exception, and their sole album Presents is one of the best and most memorable albums from the decade.

On Tiny Idols, Vol. 3, (out today!) I included their great track "I'll Be Around," written by Michelle Marchesseault. However, while putting the compilation together, I emailed back and forth with LonPaul Ellrich, who wrote Sardina’s cult favorite “He’s On Drugs Again.” He lobbied hard for me to use that song, which is admittedly awesome, but I felt that female songwriters were under-represented on my compilation and wanted to highlight Marchesseault’s song. Sadly, LonPaul passed away in 2008, leaving a huge hole in the Bloomington music community. He will be missed. Besides Sardina, he played in Marmoset and the United States Three, among many others.

Sardina was formed in 1993 by Marchesseault, Marty Green, Lon Paul Ellrich, and P.J. Christie. All four members wrote and sang, but Marty Green was considered by the others to be the primary force in the band. In 1995, just before their debut CD appeared, Green quit. The remaining members auditioned three more guitarists, but none quite lived up to the band’s or the label’s expectations, and the group folded for good in 1996.

Despite Sardina’s brief lifespan (and the fact that they moved to Chicago after forming), Sardina is still remembered by many Indiana residents as one of Bloomington’s best. In addition to Presents, Sardina also released three singles, one on Favorite Street, one on Egg Records and the other on HitIt.

2010-06-14T09:57:00.000-07:00

Sam Elwitt

Way Up High (1997)

Sam Elwitt may be Nutley, New Jersey's most prolific musician. His long list of projects includes a lounge band (Nutley Brass), a punk band (Sea Monkeys), an AC/DC cover band (The Dirt Cheap) and an old timey country outfit (the Small Potatoes), to just name a few. However, my favorite project of his are the psych-pop home recordings that he initally released as the Hazeltones and later under his own name. Elwitt’s brother Jonathan wrote much of the lyrics and Elwitt played all the instrumentation and sang.

Elwitt started recording solo material at home in the early '90s, releasing the best of these under the Hazeltones moniker on a 7" EP called "Scratch the Surface." Released by a tiny German label, the EP featured four terrific slices of '60s influenced indie pop but the 7" only garnered a few reviews and disappeared quickly. Ian Schlein, one of my favorite vendors at the WFMU record fair turned me on to it, and I recently used the closing track "Delirious" on Tiny Idols, Vol. 3 which comes out in July.

Elwitt dropped the Hazeltones name and continued recording throughout the '90s, hoping to release a full-length CD under his own name. He even created the artwork (seen above) but lost momentum and the project remains unreleased today.

For more info and plenty of Elwitt's music, check out his site here.

2010-06-07T20:11:00.000-07:00

Shimmer Kids

Whistle While You Weep (1999)

When I think of early '90s San Francisco bands, I tend to imagine music that is overly arty and hard to love--like the city itself. And yet, the scene was big enough to initially include Green Day and Third Eye Blind (both with Top 40 hits) and Thinking Fellers Union Local 242 and Caroliner (easily two of the strangest bands ever to make a mark on the indie scene).

The Shimmer Kids, then, who appeared towards the second half of the decade, seemed to point the way to a friendlier sound more reminiscent of the psychedelic pop that first put the city on the map. The band never achieved much success, but they perservered. The Shimmer Kids originally formed at the University of California at Santa Cruz in 1996, with guitarist and vocalist Josh Babcock presiding over an unruly and sprawling bunch that included a theremin player, and a melodica player.

The band soon began recording at home and self-releasing cassettes which they sold at their shows. Like their '60s heroes, they made elaborate, trippy fliers, and augmented their stage show with film loops and props. Despite their moderate following at home, the Shimmer Kids unknowingly tapped in to the same energy of the Elephant Six crowd, who were doing many of the same things across the country in Athens, GA.

The Shimmer Kids released their first album Bury My Heart at Makeout Point in 2000 to decent reviews and respectable sales. By 2002, Parasol signed them up for their sophomore release Natural Riot. Both have their moments, but I think the band may have hit their peak in 1999 with their second single "Strange Signals" which features the slow-burning winner "Whistle While You Weep" on side two.

The Shimmer Kids broke up in 2004, but basically reformed intact as the Society of Rockets. For tons more music and pics, check the band's site here.

2010-05-31T19:30:00.000-07:00

Michelene Cherie

Razor Wind (1990)

"Razor Wind" is a rare find from the '90s four-track scene, a well-produced pop song that actually sounds huge and timeless, almost like Neko Case or something. I got in touch with Michelene Cherie, who now works as a wardrobe and pop stylist in LA, to find out more about the song which I found on the B-side of her only single "Sincerely."

"[The single] was recorded and produced by Dave Peterson who played all the instruments," Cherie wrote me. "His sisters are Debbie and Vicki Peterson from the Bangles. Since I had a good relationship with the Bangles and I also worked for them, I asked them if I could release my single on their label Down Kiddie Records and they agreed to do it.

"We recorded it on four track in our apartment. 'Sincerely,' the original Dwight Twilley song, was recorded on 48 tracks and produced by Twilley. We knew him peripherally through Susan Cowsill and Vicki Peterson. Both he and Roger Linn (yes, the Linn drum Roger) called us to ask how we did it on only 4 tracks and how we figured out the backwards guitar solo played by Linn. We really tried to do a note-perfect version and according to the original creators and we pulled it off.

"'Razor Wind' was originally recorded by Dave's band The Howling Dogs, from Los Angeles. They were ahead of their time and people didn't really get them, which was a shame, because they had some cool songs. I fell in love with 'Razor Wind' and wanted to cover it.

"I released the single in 1990 and immediately went on tour with L.A's. Redd Kross as a backup singer in support of their Atlantic Records release Third Eye. We toured the US and Canada supporting Sonic Youth (Goo era) and The Go-Go's first reunion tour. While on this tour, I met the Posies, from Seattle and after leaving Redd Kross I moved to Seattle to hang with my new pals."

After moving to Seattle, Cherie performed as a solo artist and eventually formed Michelene Impossible, who scored some critical notice for their sole release Aquamarine. They disbanded in 1999, but Cherie maintains their myspace page here.

2010-05-23T09:36:00.000-07:00

Trick and the Heartstrings

Music U Want 2 Dance 2 (2003)

Alexander Gedeon, Leif Young Huckman, and Peter Hale first met at the Experimental Theater Wing at NYU. There, they chain smoked cigarettes, talked endlessly about their favorite albums by the Police and the Talking Heads, and occasionally jammed. After graduation, they agreed to form a band.

Gedeon, the band's singer and guitarist recalls, "I was envisioning a name, something silly and explosive and vulnerable. The first thing I said was "Bitch Ass Trick and the Heartstrings". Which would have been a complete joke. But I do have a penchant for long-winded and verbose titles and names, and the somewhat shorter 'Trick and the Heartstrings' stuck."

The trio began playing out in New York, building up a devoted following for their tight playing, choreographed dance moves and an irresistible groove that owed a sizable debt to Prince. They started out by releasing a 6 song EP on their own label which they sold at shows. They followed this two years later with "& I Feel" on North Street Records which featured the popular live staple "Joga," a funked cover of the Bjork classic.

In 2006, the band was riding high and played a series of shows in England. NME gushed, calling them a "perfect" band. 679 Records showed interest, but a deal never materialized. According to Gedeon, "The big brass didn't feel like any of our songs would make strong radio singles, so they kept throwing money our way, hoping that we would develop more. But there was too much tension in the band at that point anyway. We had other options for label support, but it didn't matter by that point. We were over it."

Although they went their separate ways, the old theater buddies remained friends after it was all over and are still on good terms.

2010-05-17T19:56:00.000-07:00

Christmas

This is Not a Test (1989)

Christmas was a true anomaly. With their dadaist sense of humor and restless musical exploration, they never fit into any scene comfortably and were hard to take seriously. And yet, the talent of main members Michael Cudahy and Liz Cox was undeniable, even on the early singles and compilation appearances. As a part of the Boston scene in the mid'80s, Christmas easily stood out from the packs of generic bar bands and REM clones, and Gerald Cosloy helped them secure a spot in history on his influential "Bands That Could Be God" compilation. Christmas seemed to have momentum as they released their debut full-length In Excelsior Day-Glo on Big Time, but the album fell flat and failed to deliver on the buzz.

Christmas fled to IRS for their second album Ultraprophets of Thee Psykick Revolution, a much-improved effort that propped up the band's offbeat lyrics with the catchiest melodies of their career. However, critics hated it and IRS dropped the band soon after the album's release.

Frustrated, Cudahy and Cox broke up Christmas and moved to Las Vegas, where they had more success with their new band Combustible Edison.

2010-04-25T08:01:00.000-07:00

Trotsky Icepick

Dante's Flame (1988)

Trotsky Icepick were an interesting band from LA who were probably a little too smart for their own good. They had many of the ingredients for success: a hip label (SST), standout lyrics, and generally excellent songwriting. And yet, revisiting their discography now makes it clear that the band was perhaps too unfocused and odd to achieve anything more than cult appeal.

Formed by Kjehl Johansen (100 Flowers) and Vitus Mataré (the Last), the band released seven albums over a ten year career before moving on. All the albums had highlights, but my personal favorite is "Dante's Flame" from Baby, one of their stronger albums. Although we tend to forget it now, many indie bands in the '80s toyed with post-punk rhythms well into the latter part of the decade. "Dante's Flame" almost comes off as a Talking Heads tribute, but succeeds on the merits of its unstoppable exhuberance and killer guitar work. Love it!

2010-04-17T09:09:00.000-07:00

Bacon Ray

Diane Court (1999)

Bacon Ray was a part of Tallahassee, Florida's incredibly rich indie scene in the late '90s that also included Nel Aspinal, Frankenfinger, Flanders, the New You and bazillions more. The band's origins start with Merlin Mann, a huge fan of Mike Coleman's prior bands the Singing Spoons and Ultraboy. When the latter broke up in 1994, Mann persuaded him to form Bacon Ray.

According to Mann, "Mike's old band, Ultraboy, was being interviewed on V89 (the FSU college radio station), and drummer Kelly Shane made reference to a notional "bacon ray." I thought it was hilarious and lobbied that it become the name of Mike's next band. (My other idea, "Kung Fu Grippe," became the title of a weblog I did for a couple years)."

Along with bassist Chris Gleasman from Gruel, the trio started crafting a set of original songs. According to Mann, their sound "borrowed equal parts of Kiss, Big Star, Frank Zappa, and Jonathan Richman."

The lineup changed over the years, but Bacon Ray had a fairly long career for a college band, releasing three cassettes, two singles, two CD's, and numerous compilation tracks before breaking up in 1999. Their final release was "Diane Court" on The Nervous System, a compilation of mostly Florida bands on AAJ Records. The song is a fairly explanatory, and extremely catchy, ode to the movie Say Anything.

Mann is an active blogger today and can be found here.

2010-04-12T19:53:00.000-07:00

Look Blue Go Purple - Cactus Cat
1986

In 1993, I cut out a review of a Tiger Trap album which I still have today. The review was noteworthy, if only for the role call of comparable bands. They all had such wonderful names and I had never heard a single one: the Shop Assistants, the Flatmates, Girls at Our Best, and Look Blue Go Purple (many of the same bands name-checked when the Vivian Girls started getting press). I did end up checking out all the bands, but I have a particular fondness for Look Blue Go Purple.

Look Blue Go Purple originally formed in Dunedin, New Zealand in 1983. Initially, the five girls in the band didn't really know how to play and rehearsed on borrowed instruments. However, the quintet made good on their potential and by 1985 were able to achieve recognition in the largely male-dominated New Zealand musical community. Influenced by peers like the Clean, Look Blue Go Purple played straight ahead pop with harmonies and an insistent beat. Their first EP, Bewitched, was solid, but it was their second EP that captivated a wider audience. With the inclusion of the lovable "Cactus Cat," the economically titled LBGPEP2 was able to crack the top 20 in New Zealand.

Look Blue Go Purple broke up in 1987, but some of the members went on to other bands like the 3D's and Cyclops. What do you say ladies, time for a reunion? Please?

2010-04-05T18:19:00.000-07:00

The Cat Heads

Sister Tabitha (1988)

When the Cat Heads got their first gig in 1985, three of the four members didn't even know they were in the band. According to guitarist/vocalist Mark Zanandrea, "A manager I knew was booking a show for his band, but he needed an opening act. He asked me if I had a band. I lied and said yes. He gave me the slot, which was in a couple of weeks. I called Sam [Babbitt], Mel[anie Clarin] and Alan [Korn] and told them we had a good show booked, let's learn some songs."

The Cat Heads mostly played covers for their first show, but the eclectic mix of songs in their set was a harbinger of the band's wide stylistic tastes: Prince, Donovan, Howling Wolf, the Monkees. The show went over well, and they decided to continue as a band, slowly building up a dedicated following that included scene luminaries like Camper Van Beethoven's David Lowery and the Rain Parade's Matt Piucci.

Piucci helped get the band signed to Restless Records, who released two albums from the group. Piucci also produced the band's debut album, Hubba, which showed off the band's talent. All members wrote and sang, and the band seemed capable of playing any genre well.

With David Lowery on board to produce the follow-up, the band was able to synthesize it's influences better on the lovable Submarine. The album isn't perfect, and it starts with arguably the album's weakest track, Zanadrea's grunge howler "Little Less of Me." After that however, it is one highlight after another. Chiming pop songs like "Apologize" and "Alice on the Radio" sit alongside the unhinged garage rave-up "Hallelujah Dance" and "Grass," a neat approximation of Tom Petty writing kids' music. However, the band saved the two show stoppers for side two, the moving and folky "Bisho" (co-written by the mysterious P. Stirling) and "Sister Tabitha," Zanandrea's attempt at baroque pop in the Left Banke mold.

According to Zanadrea, "Sister Tabitha Babbitt was a real Shaker woman. I took note of her because her last name was the same as Sam's, and they're both New Englander's, so possibly related. The Shakers didn't believe in having sex, so they died out. They got their ya-ya's out with woodcraft (Their furniture is still highly valued). Sister Tabitha actually invented the circular saw."

Since I couldn't find them anywhere online, here are the official lyrics, provided by Zanandrea himself:

Sister Tabitha (M. Zanandrea/M. Clarin)

For those who were not concerned it seemed another normal day

But for sister Tabitha Babbitt there was a bolt out of the gray

And the tintinnabulations of the bells up in the tower

Sang out in praise of carpentry's second finest hour

And then it came to her - the motion circular

All I need is a leap of faith and I could soon be there

Shaking with the sister out in New England fair

And we'd speak in tongues to everyone as they'd skirt out of our way

And it's sad to think of how they slowly died away

But through the circular saw Sister Tabitha still lives on

And the saw goes round and round and round...

Link: The Cat Heads website

2010-03-31T19:56:00.000-07:00

The Low Numbers - Josef Albers
1997

In 1996, Gerhardt Koerner formed the Low Numbers while in college at the University of Pittsburgh. Along with his sister Karola on bass, girlfriend Kara Crombie on guitar, and Jon Vital on drums, Koerner began putting together a set of new wave influenced art pop and playing out in Pittsburgh. As the band lineup changed over the years, Koerner continued to tinker with the band's sound, writing far more songs than they actually played or recorded.

In 1997, The Low Numbers released their debut single "Telekom" b/w "Josef Albers" on their own Instant Tunes label. The single showed big potential and helped to build anticipation for a full length from the band, but it never came. "I work on something every day," Gerhardt told Philadelphia Weekly at the time. "It's about putting a cohesive set together."

The album never materialized, but the band did put out one more single before disbanding sometime around 2002. The final single, on Roof Rack Records, featured "What Good Are Girls For" and "Sunlight Over Detroit." By now, the band was just calling itself The Numbers.

In 2002, Numbers recorded new material with Phil Manley of Trans Am, but Koerner was beginning to devote more time to the Lilys, who he had joined around that time. He eventually formed a new band called the Hi-Soft who released a great four song EP in 2006.

2010-03-21T18:31:00.001-07:00

Majosha - Get that Bug Outta Your System
1989

I sure could have used the Internet in 1990. It was around then that I first heard the song "Get That Bug Outta Your System" by Majosha, a curiously named band that absolutely no one seemed to know about. I had discovered them on the late night Jacksonville radio show "Dangerous Exposure" and immediately went out searching for their cassette. However, every record store clerk I asked gave me the same answer: "Never heard of them." Eventually, I just gave up.

Luckily, I always taped Dangerous Exposure, and I had a rough tape dub of the song. I played it occasionally throughout the years and its charms never wore off. Sometime in 2004, I decided to do an Internet search just to see if anything came up. Much to my surprise, I discovered that Ben Folds (yes, the Ben Folds) was the main man behind Majosha. In addition to playing bass, he also played piano and wrote some of the songs, including "Get That Bug Outta Your System."

Folds formed Majosha in Greensboro, North Carolina in 1988 and their first show was at a Duke Battle of the Bands, which they won. Other band members included guitarist Millard Powers and drummer Dave Rich, one of Folds' friends from UNC-Greensboro.

The band played parties in the area and released a self-produced EP called "Party Night: Five Songs About Jesus". I haven't heard the tape, but according to a Ben Folds fan site, "There were 4 songs, and none were about Jesus. The 4 songs were: Get That Bug (Outta Your System), Kalamazoo, Where's Bohemia and Cool Whip."

The band started to get more popular in the area and eventually put out Shut Up and Listen to Majosha on vinyl and cassette. Many of the songs from the earlier cassette were re-recorded, including "Get That Bug Outta Your System." About fifteen years later after my initial search began, I finally found that album on the internet. Actual copies of the cassette and lp are extremely rare, with the vinyl fetching between $200 and $300, so this is probably all I'm ever gonna get.

Majosha broke up in 1990 and Folds went on to a few other short-lived projects before founding Ben Folds Five.

2010-03-09T19:19:00.000-08:00

Weeping in Fits and Starts - You Do Everything But Heal Me
1998

Although times have changed now, indie-rockers tended to shun self-promotion in the '90s. In hindsight, this can partially be seen as a reaction against the overt commercialism of the '80s, but it was also ingrained into the ethos of DIY. Wanting it too badly was a faux pas; the music was supposed to stand on its own.

Greg Jacobs, the main songwriter behind Boston band Weeping in Fits and Starts, is a classic example of a talented musician who put enormous thought and creativity to writing and recording music but not nearly enough into getting it heard. Like many others, Jacobs opted to release his music himself.

"Rhubarb Records was my own half-assed attempt to have a record label," Jacobs says. "I quickly discovered I shouldn't be running a record label. I couldn't get any distribution or get any kind of foothold or leeway into the music scene at all. No one could buy it unless they bought one at a show or read a review somewhere and took the effort to write to us and buy one directly."

Growing up in Rochester, NY, Jacobs cut his teeth in the music scene playing drums for the Lynchbugs and later the Lotus Eaters. He started playing guitar in college and eventually began writing his own music with a rotating band of players. He had suggested Weeping in Fits and Starts as an album title for the Lotus Eaters, but ended up using it for his side project when they rejected the name. During the last half of the '90s, Weeping in Fits and Starts released two 45's, an EP, and two LP's. The final album, Blue Funnel World did garner some positive press notices, but sold very poorly.

"My friend Pete Weiss, who ran Zippah Studios where Blue Funnel World was recorded, had a joke that his last album went paper. Meaning that if selling one million is Platinum, and 500K Gold, if you followed that down to selling about 20 records, then hey, you can say it went paper! I have no idea how many sold, but not many at all."

"You Do Everything But Heal Me," possibly Jacobs' finest song, was originally released on an EP in 1998, and also included on the Blue Funnel World CD. Weeping in Fits and Starts dissolved in 2000 as the band members and Jacobs moved on to other projects. However, Jacobs recently decided to do a one-off reunion show in May.

2010-02-27T15:50:00.000-08:00

LMP - Graduation Angel
2001

Only LMP, a duo with more ambition than Brian Wilson at his zaniest, could conceive and actually follow through with Century of Song (2004), a six-CD set of cover songs from every year since 1900. But LMP's strange story doesn't start there. In 1992, Ryan Bessler and Eric Haugen formed the band in Champaign, Illinois, naming themselves Lorenzo Music after a voice-over artist with the same name. Two years later, the group landed on Conan O’Brien's College Band Contest with the goofy, but catchy, "Where's the Zamboni?" By that time, they had changed their name to Le Musique Populaire, commonly shortened as LMP.

After this much-needed publicity boost, the duo developed aspirations that seemed to know no bounds. After building their own studio and hiring twenty guest musicians, LMP were beginning to look like the Emerson, Lake, and Palmer of indie pop. The duo kicked off their recording career with Aunt Canada, an extravagant album that often showed a band painfully out of their league. However, LMP more than made up for the album’s faults with ingenious arrangements and an endearingly loopy sense of humor.

The group encountered problems recording the follow-up LP. More than two hundred songs were attempted, but none were finished. Perhaps the duo just couldn't multitask; they were, after all, still in the midst of the Century of Song project at the time.

LMP finally released their first new original songs in 2001 on the EP The New Body Language. The five tracks showed a newfound maturity and a greater grasp of song craft surely absorbed from their two year affair with the American Songbook. "Graduation Angel," the EP's highlight, shows a terrific sense of melody coupled with thematic songwriting straight out of the Brill Building. "Nosferatu" is also a delight, showcasing the conceptual humor that LMP is known for.

The band released their final album in 2003, Love Conquers Alda, and slowly faded away. Sadly, the band appears to be on extended hiatus and there are no immediate plans for new material.

For an extended interview with the band that I wrote five years ago, click here.

2010-01-24T15:22:00.000-08:00

Cerebral Corps - Pam's Purple Spyrograph
1986

Even in this age of hyper awareness and overnight hype, Jeff Saltzman’s story is a rare tale of a humble artist finding an audience solely on the merit of his music. With only a handful of live shows and no self-promotion, Saltzman was able to land a record deal in 1990 with Alias, one of the biggest indie labels at the time. However, by the time his debut came out two years later, all was not right. Despite overwhelming praise from critics, Saltzman was dissatisfied and hampered by self-doubt. He would never release another song again.

A middle-class kid from the suburbs of San Jose, California, Saltzman bought his first four track in 1985 at the age of eighteen. Inspired by Dukes of Stratosphear and British psychedelia, Saltzman coined the name Cerebral Corps and recorded “Pam’s Purple Spyrograph” in 1986. The song stood in stark contrast to the jangly college rock of its day with its overt ‘60s influence, sinister vocals, and driving tambourine rhythm. Saltzman’s friend, Gary Lucy, was impressed with the song and borrowed the tape so he could play it on KSJS, the local college station. To everyone’s surprise, listeners latched on to the song and made it one of the most requested songs of the summer.

Saltzman continued to record for the next few years, eventually releasing Oxide Sox, a homemade tape featuring more of his distinctive four track recordings. Local stores routinely sold out of it, and Saltzman estimates he sold close to 300 copies over the years. By 1989, one of the tapes made its way to the Alias office in San Francisco and quickly became a favorite there. It wasn’t long before they offered him a contract to record an album.

Alias fronted Saltzman enough money to upgrade to a 16-track recorder and plenty of new gear but he took over a year to acquaint himself with the new equipment. The label started to get antsy, especially when Saltzman's recording partner, Robert Vickers, left. Alias finally sent in Bruce Kaphan from American Music Club to make sure Saltzman delivered the album.

In the liner notes, Saltzman claimed that the songs were recorded in one evening. “It was a joke, mostly for the label, since it took so long to record,” Saltzman said. “If it was true, it would be quite impressive. And it certainly would have made my life a lot easier.” Still, the misinformation was often taken as fact and repeated in the press. It still persists today on the Internet.

The album, released under the name Cerebral Corps and titled Attributed to… had many factors working against it. Just before the release date, Alias’ San Francisco office closed. The other office, located in LA, knew little about the album or its reclusive creator. Saltzman didn’t exactly help his cause by refusing to play live or tour in support of the album. At the time, he thought it was a fair request, but looking back now he says, “I was kind of a jerk.” Furthermore, the artwork was high-concept and probably confusing to many people. Saltzman, who was studying art in college at the time, arranged all the graphics to look like an Art History catalog. There was an even a portrait inside of him and Vickers, nude.

Despite ample critical praise, Saltzman was unhappy. He refused to read reviews, even when friends shoved the glowing notices in his face. Saltzman went into what he calls “a sort of post-partum depression” and was unable to begin recording a new album. Eventually, he and Alias parted ways.

Saltzman spent the rest of decade engineering and producing for other bands, and later moved to Portland, Oregon where he still lives and works today. He has worked with Menomena, Sleater Kinney, the Decemberists and many more. However, he has little time for his own projects and says that it would be difficult to do it all himself, especially since it would feel like his day job. But, he adds, “Knowing what I know now, I could still make a great record. I probably should.”

For more, be on Jeff Saltzman, be sure to check out Art into Dust.

2010-01-19T20:16:00.000-08:00

Mills and Nebraska - The Marlon
1992

Named after an intersection in Orlando, Mills and Nebraska was formed by two high school friends in 1991 as an acoustic duo. The two friends, Gabe Fowler and Brian Salmons, recorded hundreds of songs in their parents basement,but only managed to play one live show in their five year existence. They released nothing. In 2001, Fowler put together Technological Abomination, a CD-R retrospective culled from the band's enormous catalog. "The Marlon," a joyful instrumental, is included on that compilation.

After Fowler left Orlando for college, the duo played less frequently, and eventually called it quits in 1996. Fowler later played in a series of bands and now runs a comic shop in Brooklyn called Desert Island. Salmons is now a family man and a collector of business cards.

2010-01-16T20:05:00.001-08:00

King of Prussia - I Work for Ryder
2002

Philadelphia's Sam Henderson had been recording for nearly ten years before his first album came out in 2002 under the King of Prussia moniker. The album was compiled from close to 400 tracks recorded at home on a four track or DDclip. Henderson's friend Ben Warfield released the album Blood Rains Down on my Hometown on his Best Friend label and it slowly got passed around the Philly scene.

According to Henderson, "people started coming over to the house we lived in and listening to me record, which I just did all the time. That's how the band happened: people would hear the record and want to be in the band. It sounds dumb, but that's actually how it happened. There ended up being about 15 different people in the band, and we played around Pennsylvania and New York and Chicago about 25 times at the most."

Warfield folded his label in 2003 and Henderson moved to New York, effectively ending the band. After a year spent touring with Man Man, Henderson formed Whales & Cops in 2006. That band released an EP called Great Bouncing Icebergs which is Henderson's only other recording to date. However, he is currently working on new material.

"I Work For Ryder" was recorded in 2002, right before the final mix of Blood Rains Down.

2009-12-30T18:25:00.000-08:00

Galaga - Winter
1992

Galaga existed for a decade, but barely released anything in that time. They started out promisingly enough, releasing the excellent "Winter" single in 1992 on their own Spider label. The track garnered some radio play in England on the Gary Crowley show and in America on CMJ.

The band formed in 1991 as a four piece with Matt Ayotte on drums, Dave Lampton on Guitar, Peter Park on Bass, and Andre Vogel on Guitar. The latter two sang vocals on "Winter," an excellent, driving slice of early '90s indie rock.

Vogel, like many others at the time, was experimenting with different tunings and setups for his guitar. "I was heavily influenced by Sonic Youth, tweeking tunings," he said. "So for 'Winter' I just doubled the stings in unison. It sounded like a sitar."

Later, in 1997, the band released a single on the Noise Pop label that included "Arilang," a trippy melding of Hendrix and Kevin Shields that is featured on the Tiny Idols, Vol. 2 CD.

Galaga called called it quits in 2000.

2009-12-23T14:25:00.000-08:00

Blue Sparks - Paint it Gold
2004

Lost in the post-Strokes deluge of NY rock-revivalists was Blue Sparks, an interesting quartet that had the talent but lacked the distinctive voice to get noticed. Of course, the other New York bands that achieved more success at the time--The Witnesses, Elefant, The Flesh, the Fever, Ambulance LTD--are all forgotten now too. Perhaps the band's biggest problem was their outsized expectactions. After the Strokes blew up overnight, every talented New York band thought they could do the same.

The Blue Sparks were actually far less rock-oriented than their press pics suggested. If they were retro-anything, it was more late-'80s college rock in the mold of the Feelies or Yo La Tengo. The quartet, fronted by Phil Aceto and Kerry Kennedy, were long touted as the best unsigned band in the area, but they only managed to release a five song, self-titled EP in 2004 before breaking up the next year.

"Paint it Gold" was written by Kennedy. I wonder what she is up to now...

2009-12-13T17:26:00.000-08:00

Big Louise - Angels
1991

Big Louise was less a band than a collision of various talents on their way to other projects. Naming themselves after a Scott Walker tune, the New York band formed in 1990 around the core of Spike Priggen and twin sisters Laura and Leslie Sink. Priggen soon brought in bassist Robert Vickers and drummer Doug Wygal to complete the lineup, but Lisa Jenio and Mark Mulcahy also had brief stints with the band.

Big Louise began building up a set of songs, most of which were written by the Sink sisters, with contributions from Vickers and Priggen. In 1991 they did a short north-east tour opening for Jack Frost and later recorded a live to air performance on the WFMU show "The Water Faucet".

In May of 1991, Big Louise went into the studio and cut two songs for a 7" single that they released on their own label, #1 Records. The A-side featured Leslie’s "Angels" and the B-side was Vickers’s "Morning Glory." The label, named for the Big Star album, also released singles by The Streams, The Caroline Know, The Hello Strangers and Deep Six. The Big Louise single was released that September.

In 1992 the band drifted apart to pursue other agendas, Robert Vickers and Spike Priggen to record with Malcolm Ross (ex-Orange Juice) and the Sinks to return to college. Vickers later formed The Mad Scene with Hamish Kilgour (The Clean), recording two albums for Merge Records.

In August 1993, Rough Trade Record store in London compiled an album of US 7” vinyl singles called Unnecessary Niceness, for release in the UK and included the track "Angels." It was however, too late for a band who had already moved on, leaving only the merest trace of vinyl behind.

2009-11-27T11:07:00.000-08:00

New Idea Society - Alibi on the Menu, Weakness on the Menu
2002

Mike Law formed New Idea society with Steve Brodsky in Boston around 2001. By the next year they recorded a self-titled EP with four songs, all of which were written in one day. According to Law, "We borrowed an 8 track that we didn't really know how to use and recorded the songs at my Dad's house, all in a day as well. I remember trying to sing really softly because we didn't know how to stop the microphone from making that popping noise. We didn't know what windscreens or compressors were. Somehow it ended up on CD and New Idea Society became my full time band."

After releasing the EP, Law moved to New York and brought the band name with him. He recruited new bandmembers and the group recorded a full length in 2005 called You Are Awake or Asleep. They followed this with The World is Bright and Lonely in 2007 and have a new album on the way.

"Alibi on the Menu," which comes from the debut EP, is a great slice of lo-fi power pop in the Elephant 6/Guided by Voices mold that I find myself singing any time someone says "Can I get a witness?"

2009-11-23T19:48:00.000-08:00

Grit - Where the Red Fern Grows
1993

Anyone looking to peg Grit’s sound need only scan the song titles of their first cassette, Teach Me To Rock, Baby. One song is called "Haley Mills" and another is a cover of a song from Degrassi High. Tony Perkins and Marc Mazique, who met while attending Rutgers university, formed Grit in 1992 after the demise of Mazique’s other band Sponge. The band never played outside of New Jersey, opting instead to play informal shows in dorm halls on campus.

After recording this cassette, Perkins and Mazique went into a studio to cut a few tracks for an upcoming compilation that their schoolmate Mark Gutkowski was putting together for his Jiffy Boy Label. Tony was still tweaking the lyrics to "Where the Red Fern Grows" the night before the session, but the song made the cut and appeared on the comp, Ten Cent Fix.

By 1994 the band broke up, and both went onto to other projects. Marc Mazique lives in Seattle and Tony Perkins lives in Olympia, Washington with his wife Carrie and daughter Imogen.

2009-10-17T06:10:00.000-07:00

Love, Execution Style
Custom Made Music

One Song Not About Pain
Commissioned by Brian Weitz for Ruth Fertig's birthday (October 1999)

Wrestling Mayhem Federation Theme Song
Commissioned by Mister Carlo for the WMF television show (July 2000)

Rock and pop have never been immune to grand gestures and high-concepts, but a humble genre like indie pop would seem to be mutually exclusive with anything resembling a press angle or marketing hook. And yet, some of the most outsized ideas sprang forth from bedroom popsters in the '90s. Sufjan Steven concocted the fifty states/fifty albums project, the Magnetic Fields released the self-explanatory 69 Love Songs double CD, and LMP recorded a cover song for every year between 1900 and 2000. The little guys, it seems, like to dream big too.

Love, Execution Style, a one man band based in Tennessee, coined his own unique proposition in 1997: custom made music. The man behind LES has made a half-hearted effort to hide his identity (which I will honor here), although he freely communicated with many of the people who took part in his project, some of which include Dark Beloved Cloud label owner Douglas Wolk, Brian Weitz from the Animal Collective, and many TV producers looking for a cheap theme song.

The deal was that a customer could provide specifications—as few or many as desired—for a song, and LES would write and record an original song and send it to the person, all for only five dollars. From 1997 to 2007, LES recorded nineteen custom made songs for the project. Tracks were commissioned for two television shows, a radio program, and two short films, one of which was broadcast on the Documentary Channel. One track served as the theme song for an Internet service provider; another ("Punk Rock Comedian") was used as runway music for a man in a bachelor charity auction. Other songs were used as love tokens or birthday gifts.

There are a few songs that have a particularly interesting history. "One Song Not about Pain," was requested by Brian Weitz for his friend Ruth, a huge John Cusack fan who later started a film career. Another track, made for a weekly radio show in Chattanooga, changes genres every few seconds as a tribute to "Speedfreaks" by Naked City.

The song commissioned by Wolk is particularly bizarre. It was requested for a friend who had just earned her PhD in mathematics. After discovering that her thesis was about Markov chains, LES used a random number generator and probability matrices based on "Pomp and Circumstance" and "Y.M.C.A." to create the melody. The details are in a paper entitled "Faster than a Calculator—or Using Markov Chains for the Construction of New Wave Music" which may be read here.

2009-09-12T06:27:00.001-07:00

Mustard – Trampoline
1996

Most bands don't take 11 years to release their debut album; then again, most bands don't name themselves after a condiment either. According to Daryle Goldfarb, who formed Mustard with Steve Tousand and Sean Whitley in 1985, the band was christened at Santa Monica Place, a mall in West LA. "We were throwing out names of random items around the mall," he said. "After tossing out things like Fork, Spoon, and Ketchup, 'Mustard' just stuck as a cool, 70's-sounding food name for a band."

The band recorded sporadically for the next few years and one of their projects included scoring a student film at Crossroads High School starring Jack Black. Before they all left for UC Santa Cruz, the band released a 7" single which somehow landed in the lap of a Rolling Stone editor who put the band's picture and bio in a college-music special.

In 1996, the trio finally got around to releasing a proper album, which was recorded between 1994 and 1996. Unfortunately, the trio was not able to capitalize on it at this time because they were all beginning to scatter across California after graduation. Mustard still occasionally gets together to record and Goldfarb is still threatening to release the follow-up.

2009-08-16T17:08:00.001-07:00

Rex Aquarium - Remember
2003

Rex Aquarium were an LA band that seemed to be poised for success in 2004. They had broken out locally and their song "Alicia" was hotly tipped by the press. The song was indeed one of the highlights of their uneven debut. However, the band's second album sank with barely a trace and the bank broke up a few years later.

Like many LA bands, Rex Aquarium had members with showbiz ties. Guitarist/vocalist Charles Wadhams and his brother Christopher were the children of Bill Wadhams, the singer and songwriter from Animotion. The band bears no traces of a new wave influence, instead sounding more like an unholy fusion of Steely Dan and the Strokes. "Remember" leads off the debut CD and is a sleepy, sly tune that has a way of staying in your head for days.

Here is a link to the video for "Alicia."

2009-07-17T21:18:00.000-07:00

Henrietta's Lovers - Monkey Barrs
1990

Led by charismatic frontman and trumpet player Alexander Davidowski, Henrietta's Lovers was formed at the University of Florida in 1990. The band didn't fit into any particular scene, as their sound was an odd collision of Joy Division moodiness, jazz-funk, and Davidowski's warbling croon.

Guitarist Matt Herrero coined the band name after a short story he wrote based on a family member. The band remained coy about the exact nature of the story, and apparently Herrero's family wasn't all too keen on the name. Herrero also came up with the title of the band's only release, The Pagoda Woman, which was recorded in August 1990 at Mirror Image studios in Gainesville. According to Davidowski, the cassette sold a hundred copies or so. The band didn't really tour outside of Florida and after recording one last song "Crystal Castles," the band broke up.

Although uneven and amateurish at times, The Pagoda Woman is an engaging and unique album that gets by on the band's enthusiasm and wealth of ideas. Side one leans towards atmospheric jazz-funk and quirky pop while side two features a live set that veers from carnival barker trippiness ("Cat's Eye") to goofy garage punk ("Itomni"). The album closes with a minor-key, new wave dirge.

"Monkey Barrs," named after the slap-pop-happy bass player Ceb Barrs, is the quintessential Henrietta's Lovers track, showcasing Davidowski's unhinged vocal antics and the band's eclectic range of ideas. It appeared on their lone cassette, as well as a compilation of local bands called Gainesville Can't Dance.

(Corrected 4/4/11)

Bonus link to an old article on the band: http://ufdc.ufl.edu/UF00028290/00524/11j

2009-06-22T09:03:00.001-07:00

Billy Crosbys - Ashtray
1996

Inspired by DIY label Shrimper, John Gleason formed the Billy Crosbys in Metuchen, New Jersey in 1992. By the late '90s the band's ranks swelled to include two female singers and a violin player, but the core always remained John Gleason and Jeremy Benson.

Like Shrimper, the Billy Crosbys primarily released handmade cassettes, issuing five of them on their own imprint Gugliano Family Picnic Records. They also released a string of singles, a cassette on Brassland Records and appeared on numerous compilations.

According to Gleason, "Ashtray" was inspired by the film Gorillas in the Mist. "I had seen it when I was younger and never forgot the image of an ape's hand being used as an ashtray. So, ‘that makes for a hell of an ashtray’ is actually a disapproving statement."

2009-04-19T08:13:00.000-07:00

Russell Hoke - Someday Among Flowers
1984

In 2003, Chris King of Eleanor Roosevelt passed me an odd, mysterious CD-R by Russell Hoke called Magic of My Youth. It has a xeroxed cover and very little information beyond the song titles and dates. I later posted a song by Hoke on this blog, lamenting the fact that he never released anything on vinyl. Hoke soon got in touch to let me know that he did in fact do a tiny vinyl edition of another collection called Cosmic Outlaw. Pressed in an edition of 100 copies with handwritten song titles, the album is now hopelessly rare.

In 2009, Hoke belatedly released Magic of My Youth on vinyl, again in an edition of 100. The only place to buy copies is directly so contact him at at Russnbus@yahoo.com for for more info.

2009-03-29T16:48:00.001-07:00

Kurt Vile: The Early Years

2003: "Me and Work"
2004: "Ocean City"

2009 is looking to be Kurt Vile's breakout year. He just released God is Saying This to You (Mexican Summer) and word of mouth has been mostly of the drool variety. This April, Woodsist is rereleasing Constant Hitmaker, Vile's sleeper disc from last year, and there is also a big label deal in the works.

I have been listening to Kurt Vile's homemade cd-r's for the past few years and it's been a pleasure to see him grow. Of course, that growth isn't always apparent to recent converts. Both God and Constant Hitmaker are actually compilations, handpicked from Vile's vast catalog of bedroom recordings. So what the new listeners don't get is the wider palette and occasionally rough edges of Vile's earlier work. "Detoxanne," from Kurt's 2003 debut Ten Songs, features clanging percussion and a vaguely klezmer feel. Rarities and Rejects, also from 2003, features a very indie cover of Pavement's "Zurich is Stained."

Still, these were diversions. Many of Vile's key songs from the early period (many of which have now been compiled) were his acoustic ones. At the time, Vile was most comfortable in Fahey mode, casting lonesome and haunting melodies over fingerpicked guitarlines. He also tended to write more direct lyrics. "Me and Work," from Ten Songs is a classic example, with Vile articulating a sense of purpose out of passivity.

Vile continued to broaden his sound on 2004's 9 Recordings with the Syd Barret-like "Ocean City" and the droning, sample-based "Best Love." By 2005's Trial and Error, Vile began experimenting with ambient and electronic elements and tightening his compositions. A prime weakness on his first two albums were overlong songs.

Vile really turned the corner in 2006 with the remarkable Accidents EP, which featured his strongest songs to date. By now he'd replaced the loner folk vibe with warped, cryptic pop and it fit him well. On "Don't Get Cute," he sang "I wanna be a success, give me my style." He emphasized the word "suck" as he sang "success," as if to make a point of the inevitable dilution of talent that comes with the territory. Perhaps he'd grown bitter, or maybe he could feel it coming. Either way, it was here that Vile finally synthesized his influences into a refined, cohesive aesthetic.

It will be interesting to see Vile move beyond his bedroom recordings. As the appetite for his work grows, Vile will have to create new material on cue, a challenge that often stumps emerging artists who have had so much time to tinker with their initial batch of compositions. When he does, I'll be the first in line to buy whatever this fascinating artist delivers.

Discography:

Full Lengths:
2003 - 10 Songs (Self-released)
2003 - Rarities and Rejects (Self-released)
2004 - 9 Home Recordings (Self-released)
2007 - Constant Hitmaker (Gulcher)

EP's:
2005 - Trial and Error (Self-released)
2006 - Accidents (Self-released)
2009 - God Is Saying This To You (Mexican Summer)

2009-03-19T06:08:00.000-07:00

Love Child - He's So Sensitive
1990

In February 1990, Lovechild recorded Okay?, their debut LP for Homestead. Too schizophrenic and intellectual to ever capture a large audience, the band nevertheless predated many prevailing trends of the decade: riot-grrl, lo-fi, noise and angular guitar rock. The album barely holds together, but the band's wealth of ideas is inspiring and invigorating. An easy standout is bassist/singer Rebecca Odes' "He's So Sensitive," a song that seems tailor made for the Kill Rock Stars label.

Comprised of guitar-wizard Alan Licht, Odes, and Will Baum, Lovechild only managed to release one more album before falling apart in 1992. Licht went on to record one of the most baffling noise records of the '90s, Sink the Aging Process on Siltbreeze. According to Licht, the album deeply disturbed Mike Watt and Ron House, and Bob Fay reported that after listening to the first side, there was an earthquake.

2009-03-08T13:46:00.000-07:00

Vinylstar - Rays
1994

Most of Vinylstar’s members were still in highschool in Valparaiso, Indiana when they recorded their first batch of songs in 1994. Perhaps Vinylstar never got the memo about the DIY revolution because none of their early material was released until much later. When it came to playing live however, the quintet was quite resourceful, often renting out the American Legion hall to play shows with other local bands.

After highschool, Paul Foreman left Valpairso to attend college at Indiana University in Bloomington. His band mates eventually followed him there, and Vinylstar slowly worked their way up the indie rock food chain. Although, as Foreman says, the band may have made this more difficult than it needed to be. "I know that we rubbed a lot of people the wrong way when we moved to Bloomington. We were kinda cocky jerks for a while."

Vinylstar finally got a chance to release their music when Clark Giles saw them at a big outdoor festival called Culture Shock. Although his label largely focused on hardcore and screamo bands, he liked Vinylstar enough to release all three of their albums. The final album I Like Today, appeared in 2003 and was produced by Vess Ruhtenberg of United States 3.

"Rays" comes from a posthumous, three-CD collection of Vinylstar's early, unreleased material.

2009-03-04T21:03:00.000-08:00

NDolphin - Red Town
1990

My first post on NDolphin seemed to be popular, so I thought I'd upload a track from their second cassette, Wail. I spoke to Joshua McKay recently and he gave me a little more info on the band. He said the first cassette sold almost 5,000 copies. Quite a number for a band that barely toured outside of their hometown of Gainesville!

McKay was never really an official member, but he produced the first EP. The band produced Wail themselves, and at times it shows. Overall the songs aren't as strong as on the debut and the production work is a bit unfocused and muddy. However, "Red Town" is still an enjoyable track, and one that recalls the best of Jefferson Airplane's vocal interplay.

Click here to read my first NDolphin post. I finally got around to re-uploading that track. Sorry for the two year delay!

2009-03-04T20:18:00.000-08:00

Minerva Strain - Strum
Recorded 1991, Released 1992

Formed in Chapel Hill, North Carolina in 1990, Minerva Strain maintained a consistent line up for all six years of the band’s existence. Pat Johnson, Nick Lingg, Andy Shull, and Jason Summers all met while working at UNC student radio station WXYC. Shull was the primary songwriter, but Summers and Lingg also wrote. Ted Goss, who ran Jettison records, attended the band’s first show and agreed to release a single. "Fissure," backed with REM-ish "Strum," appeared in 1992. Minerva Strain followed their debut single with two more singles and eventually Blue Tarantella, a 73-minute album that appeared in 1995.

An early song called "Anushka Babar" appeared on Cognitive Mapping II (Cognitive Mapping I was cassette-only), which is an excellent introduction to the ‘90s Chapel Hill scene.

According to Shull, "Things just wound down sometime during 1996, as our futures pulled us all in diverging directions. There was no official farewell performance, so under band law, we are still a band."

2008-09-24T13:06:00.000-07:00

Ton Bundle - Inbetween and Afterward
1990?

Ton Bundle formed at Wheaton college in Illinois. Led by Rob Bell, they released a few cassettes in the early '90s. A friend made me a dub of the tape in high school and I actually listened to it fairly often. I forgot about the band a few years later, but rediscovered the tape when I was researching tracks for my Tiny Idols comps. I decided to see if I could find the band, and it turned out that Bell is now a hugely popular pastor at Mars Hill church. I left several messages with Bell's secretary, but she seemed dubious about my intentions and probably never even passed on the message. I never heard back from Bell.

Upon relistening to the tape, it does in fact have some Christian themes, if not overtly so. In hindsight I also now remember that the friend who gave me the tape was raised in a devoutly Christian home. A coincidence? Probably not.

In my research I discovered that Ton Bundle attracted a fairly devoted following at the time (I guess some were born to lead, huh?). Many of the old fans were dying to hear tracks, so I thought I'd upload my favorite from the cassette.

2007-01-27T11:42:00.000-08:00

Walt Mink - Little Sister
1996

Any band lucky enough to get a rating of 10 on Pitchfork today would probably be pretty happy. Maybe they'd even assume that such a strong endorsement would assure them a career. Certainly the Arcade Fire acts as if this is so, and they didn't even get a perfect score. But Walt Mink, a power trio from St. Paul, Minnesota, flamed out just as their critical star was rising.

Walt Mink began life at Macalester college in the early '90s and achieved a moderate level of fame. They scored a deal with Caroline for their debut album and sales were not horrible. However, the band's sound--Smashing Pumpkins as sung by the Chipmunks--was an odd one, and surely no one predicted these guys would become much more than cult faves. If not for their brilliant swan song El Producto it is doubtful that Walt Mink would even qualify as "cult."

On their final album, Walt Mink exorcized the naive posturing found on their first two records and found an original voice amid the rubble of punk, prog, and folk. An odd mix, sure, but the band delivered a bonified masterpiece just before they imploded and "Little Sister" is but one of this album's amazing tracks.

2007-01-01T18:45:00.000-08:00

Dallas - Let's Split
1999

Before blogs, bands still got hyped to death. Estonian band Dallas (big JR Ewing fans, I presume) racked up critical raves throughout 1999, including a spot in the Toronto Star's top ten albums of the year. But the band sat on their hands until 2003 and by then everyone was tired of Stereolab ripoff bands. Well, Dallas wasn't really a Stereolab ripoff, but they certainly drew from the same panoply of influences: jazz, lounge, pop, krautrock, etc. Still, their self-titled third album is a cutout bin surprise, with plenty of good songs and period touches like fuzz guitars, tambourines and canned strings.

Dallas formed in 1992, one year after Estonia gained independence from the Soviet Union. They released a few singles, an EP, and two albums before signing to American label High Park records to release the much lauded Dallas. The primary songwriters were keyboardist/vocalist Holger Loodus and guitarist Tauno Pääslane, but others were involved, especially vocalist Kristi Kindel who can be heard on "Let's Split" and pretty much every other song on the album.

Click here to buy the album from CD Baby.

PS: This is NOT the band's website.

2006-12-17T19:50:00.000-08:00

Smack Dab - Right Smack Dab
1994

No, this isn't a novelty song. All of Smack Dab's songs sound like this. Short, catchy, and a little bit silly. Ahh, but I love it! Smack Dab's charm can surely be pinned on the inimitable voice of the eternally childlike Linda Hagood, who sounds like a primitive, purer version of Joanna Newsom. (Guess Hagood should have learned to play the harp.)

Trouser Press has an informative write-up on the trio here, but I have a story of my own. I first heard the band when their second album, Majestic Root, was originally released in 1994 (containing the above song), but forgot about them a few years later. Fast forward to 2001; I'm living in San Francisco and one night I go to a bar in the mission with a friend. I sit down at the bar and the female bartender says--in a squeaky, cute voice-- "What can I get for you?" I nearly fell off the stool. "You used to be in Smack Dab, didn't you?!" I asked. Strangely, she didn't even seem that surprised. She was more surprised that I didn't recognize her from the Double U, a San Francisco based-band she was in at the time.

The above photo is a recent image of Hagood. I couldn't find any cool vintage photos. See, Google Images doesn't have everything.

2006-12-11T21:24:00.000-08:00

Palm Fabric Orchestra - The Garden
1994

In 1988, Poi Dog Pondering quickly built a reputation as a lovable troupe of scruffy kids from Texas who often had trouble fitting on the stage, literally and figuratively. Orbiting around lead singer Frank Orral was a constellation of eight or ten folk journeymen and musical stragglers who played exotic instruments like the ukelele and accordion (what, you thought Beirut invented that?). And with their debut single and college radio hit "Living with the Dreamy Body," Poi Dog had the perfect song to launch a legend. Introduced with a tin whistle and Scottish drum rolls, "Dreamy Body" sounded like nothing else on college radio, and yet, with its nasal vocals and silly lyrics, was not so far removed from other alternative bands of the time.

And then everything went to shit. The band signed to Columbia and released a really embarrassing album of crunchy granola folk that was too bland even for the '89 Earth Day festival. After that, Poi Dog went electric and tried rap and Smiths soundalikes. With one chord from Kurt Cobain, Poi Dog was rendered both obsolete and uncool. In 1992, Orral dissolved the band temporarily to record a new, one-off album under the name of Palm Fabric Orchestra.

Thankfully, Orral didn't attempt to stay current by going grunge. Instead, he retreated into that strange boomer netherworld, New Age, and believe it or not, the album he recorded (with a bunch of other Poi Doggers) is actually a classic of the genre. Released on Carrot Top in 1994, Palm Fabric Orchestra's sole album Vague Gropings in the Slip Stream has held up better than anything in the Poi Dog catalog (except that first EP). Of course, it is New Age, so an open mind is most definitely required.

After releasing the Palm Fabric Orchestra album, Orral kicked Poi Dog Pondering back into gear and continued to release albums. They are still recording and playing as of 2006.

2006-11-16T09:38:00.000-08:00

Chapterhouse - Pearl

Almost anyone who loved music and grew up in Jacksonville went to Einsteins at some point. It was an underage club so they didn't serve alcohol. Kids went there mainly to dance and to be seen on the scene. The uniform for girls was jeans or skirt, doc martens, and a white or blank tank top. People who visited from out of town were always mystified by the fact that people all faced in the same direction while they danced. People also tended to dance right in front of the speaker and air-guitar...a lot.

Anyway, this pic is from Einstein's early days, before the monodirectional craze kicked in. But I swear it's true! I was there pretty much every Saturday night.

One of my all-time favorites from the Einsteins playlist was Chapterhouse's "Pearl." It wasn't obscure at the time, but I bet most people under 22 have never heard the song. Download it now and imagine yourself dancing in front of the speaker, air-guitaring the night away, and it's like you're there.

2006-11-13T16:21:00.000-08:00

Folky Goodness

Raven Sings the Blues is a nice little blog that profiles new and old music. In August, the site posted some mp3's from two amazing femme folkies, Linda Perhacs and the newly discovered Sibylle Baier. Click here to download some truly beautiful (and slightly weird) tracks.

Also, the brilliant Waxidermy blog posted on Mossy Davidson a while back. Mossy, who recorded this album in Alaska, is actually related to Jewel! She put out one double album of lonely folk tunes sometime in the '70s and it's definitely worth hearing. Click here for an mp3.

2006-10-03T18:06:00.000-07:00

Azitis - Who's to Blame
1970

Released in 1970, the sole album by Azitis (pronounced "as it is") is regarded by some folks (mostly the band themselves) as the first Christian rock album. Certainly, the themes are apparent enough from the overtly religious album cover and song titles like "Judgment Day," but this claim is dubious. Most Christian rockers consider the first Christian rock album to be Larry Norman's Upon This Rock. Nevertheless, Azitis' record is certainly the first overtly Christian psych album, if that counts for anything.

The band started out as a fourpiece in Sacramento, calling themselves the very unchristian sounding Cambridge Coroners. The key members were Don Lower and Steve Nelson; other members came and went.

Somehow the band got signed to Capitol and drove down to LA to record Help, an album presumably concerned with more important issues than what John Lennon had on his mind when he wrote a song of that name. According to the band, the cover was a symbol "chosen to represent Christianity, piercing the earth. It was the theme for our earlier work. The invention of christian faith was overshadowing the other philosophies of mankind. Our message was, all religions give us hope and faith in our fellow man. The only solution for a crowded planet."

Draw your own conclusions about the band's philosophy, but the music is indeed an intriguing mix of Floyd-style space rock and LA-styled folk rock.

The band has a website that badly needs updating, but does contain some useful information and plenty of period pics.

2006-10-03T07:50:00.000-07:00

In the past year a large number of psych/folk blogs have been appearing. Most of them post entire albums and the quality is generally amazing. I advise everyone to head over to Joy of a Toy, a new blog, and download Mellow Candle's brilliant Swaddling Songs.

2006-09-29T09:54:00.000-07:00

Mosquitoes - Special Powers
2001

Sometime around 2001 I started up a record label to release a 7" by my then-favorite local band, Mates of State. After that single quickly sold out,it was apparent that Mates of State had outgrown the confines of little indie labels like mine. So without any artists to promote, I began attending shows in San Francisco looking for cool new bands.

I think I saw the Mosquitoes at the Edinburgh Castle, a Scottish pub in San Francisco that hosted big-screen soccer parties and shambling indie shows. I was drunk and tired when I saw the Mosquitoes, but their show captivated me nonetheless. They reminded me of the Bartlebees and the Television Personalities, indie pop bands with great songs and shoddy instrumentation. I talked to the Mosquitoes singer afterwards and he gave me an untitled, handmade CD with the songtitles written on a little card inside.

Last month I looked up the band and found out some real details. The band is largely the work of Drew Cramer, a San Francisco free-spirit who has worked as a gardener and dessert chef to pay the rent. He is a firm believer in DIY and does almost nothing to promote the band beyond playing the occasional show.

The band is bigger in Australia, where the Lost and Lonesome label has issued an official CD. Check the website here for more info and an interview with Cramer.

2006-09-05T14:10:00.000-07:00

New post coming soon. In the meantime, there are two new fantastic blogs out there catering to the psych crowd. I highly recommend you check these out:

Acid Dazed
It's Psych

2006-08-30T20:46:00.000-07:00

Bully Pulpit - You Flatter Me
1994

Bully Pulpit was a truly strange band from LaGrange, IL. Their only CD Beyond Elysium... was released on the interesting '90s label Lotuspool. It was hard for me to find information on the band at first since all the bandmembers used pseudonyms. Luckily, Lotuspool co-founder Chris Garibaldi finally helped me get my facts straight.

According to Garibaldi, "the album was recorded in LaGrange and at a barn in Kansas from 1992 to 1994. Most tracks were laid in the loft of a large dairy barn with electricity coming from a single extension chord, which stretched from a Jerry-rigged light socket in the milking facility, just one building away from the barn. The recording was moved to the farm house when the owners of the property discovered the recording and the many highly flammable situations it fostered."

Garibaldi's notes also include a cryptic reference to the band's relationship with William S. Burroughs. Apparently, they all used to shoot various weapons together at the barn.

Beyond Elysium, a demented amalgam of country, avant-garde rock and psych, got some notices at a few CMJ stations and from John Peel, but failed to generate much interest nationally. The band was clearly influenced by the San Francisco music scene of the '90s, especially the skronky experimentalism of the Thinking Fellers. Unfortunately, Bully Pulpit's songwriting rarely reached the same heights as their innovative impulses, and the album is a patchwork affair that is listenable only in spurts (or with the aid of drugs.) Album opener "You Flatter Me" effectively summarizes the band's interests, and remains an intriguing and original artifact of the era.

Bully Pulpit recorded a second album Jockeys in 1995 which was never released, but was available online at one point. I can't find it now. It's supposed to be more cohesive and accessible.

2006-08-20T17:48:00.000-07:00

Great Lakes - Storming
2000

Pitchfork's recent feature about the best songs of the '60s was definitely an impressive achievement. To me, it was a coming-of-age moment for the site. Still, I was a little surprised to see the Beach Boys' "God Only Knows" listed as the best song of the '60s. Sure, the song is gorgeously produced and arranged, evoking that melancholy nostaglia that Brian Wilson perfected. But I thought all the hipsters had moved on to psych-folk now (or some other hip new thing) and they'd pick a Fairport Convention track as the song of the decade.

See, in the mid-to-late '90s, the whole Beach Boys obsession got really out of hand. Every band in Magnet and Spin was clamoring to cite Pet Sounds as an influence when two days before they thought it was junk. It was a weird shift to live through, because in the '80s and early '90s the Beach Boys were reviled by the indie scene. In 1993, a couple friends and I gave the album a listen and couldn't hear what all the Rolling Stone hype was about. "Isn't this the band that did Kokomo?" we asked. Well, something in the air changed because two years later, in 1995, everyone I knew suddenly realized what a monster Pet Sounds was.

I know this is true because of all the bands that emerged with thinly veiled knock-offs of Pet Sounds at that time. The mother of all these is of course Hawaii by the High Llamas, a record that isn't so much a tribute as it is the sound of an obsessive music fan stalking Brian Wilson's legacy in a very creepy way. By the time Athens band the Great Lakes joined the Beach Boys bandwagon, most of the others had already moved on. Too bad, though, because this is a wanna-be record of the highest order. Opener "Storming" not only matches Wilson's melodic grace but it makes the most of a makeshift orchestra of friends and acquaintences that probably wondered in the room after a bong hit. The rest of the album splits the difference between late '90s twee pop and orchestral flourish and for the most part, it works.

In 2006, the Great Lakes came out with a third album called Diamond Times. Check here for info.

2006-08-08T11:29:00.000-07:00

Tiny Idols, Vol. 2 is out today!

In case you didn't know, this site is an extension of a compilation series of the same name. Tiny Idols, Vol. 2, subtitled "Transmissions from the Indie Underground, 1995-1999" is a survey of the best obscure and out-of-print tracks from this fertile decade. Go on over to my website for some mp3's and info on how to buy.

2006-08-07T18:09:00.000-07:00

Madder Rose - Madder Rose
1993

English people are always great at repackaging American music and selling it back to us. Perhaps you have heard of the Beatles? Well, in 1993, the British did it again.

Inspired by the influx of American indie-pop singles, influential British label Rough Trade decided to put out a compilation of the best emerging talent. Titled Unnecessary Niceness, the compilation begins with one of Madder Rose's finest compositions, "Madder Rose," and proceeds to offer up nine more equally great tracks by bands like the Spinanes, Helium, Lois, and all-time indie comp fave Lorelei. That many of these bands are now considered staples of the genre testifies to Rough Trade's amazing ability to spot talent. Either that or this compilation made these bands.

Madder Rose's career got started around the same time this compilation came out, and at first they seemed destined for stardom. This New York quartet had all the right influences (Velvet Underground, Jonathan Richman) and a great frontwoman in guitarist/vocalist Mary Lorson. The band's songs were simple, catchy, and a little lethargic in that late-night kinda way that Galaxie 500 tried so hard to perfect.

Lorson made it look easy. Madder Rose's chord progressions and melodies were often deceptively simple, hiding oblique, sometimes cynical lyrics that concealed more than they revealed. While Madder Rose's intellectual spin on indie pop solidified their status as the archetypical New York band of the '90s, it also may help explain the group's lack of album sales. What I don't understand is why Luna was able to mold a similar sound and have a more successful and lasting career.

Madder Rose's first two albums still stand as fine examples of smart, sleepy-eyed indie pop and have not aged a bit.

2006-08-01T16:34:00.000-07:00

Mary's Danish - These Are All the Shapes Nevada Could Have Been
1991

In 1985 two college friends went to see X play a show in Los Angeles. It was a night that would dramatically alter the course of their lives. Inspired by X's off-kilter harmonies, Gretchen Seager and Julie Ritter decided to form a band that would ultimately become Mary's Danish. Ten years later, the band would break up after signing to a hopelessly mismanaged indie label that burned through loads of money before burning out themselves.

But in 1989, everything looked rosy for Mary's Danish. The band's first album, There Goes the Wondertruck introduced Mary's Danish's formula -- countrified vocal harmonies atop slippery swaths of funk and headlong rock. It was a quite successful sound at the time, and it yielded a huge college radio hit, Don't Crash the Car Tonight. But it is a sound which has not aged well. Slap-pop bass, wha-wha guitar solos, and blaring saxophones are to the '90s what big hair and shoulder pads were to the late '80s: trends that even the most retro hipsters are doubtful to imitate.

Circa, Mary's Danish' follow-up, casts an even wider net than the debut, tacking on instrumental mood pieces, a Jimi Hendrix cover, heavy metal guitar moves, social protest songs, and a horn section. Although there are plenty of embarrasing moments, the album remains a highly enjoyable, if admittedly patchwork affair. "These Are All the Shapes Nevada Could Have Been" finds the band adding disco to their to-do list, and it comes up sounding great, to these ears anyway. (Most of my friends ridicule the band.) Another standout track, "Hoof," displays Seager and Ritter's sensitive side with a ballad that fits their twangy vocals perfectly. Unfortunately for Morgan Creek, the label that put a great deal of money into releasing the album, Circa's sales did not measure up to the debut despite solid critical support.

After a hastily recorded follow-up that sanded down the band's splintered edges, Mary's Danish, and their label, called it quits.

2006-07-24T00:06:00.000-07:00

Dharma Bums - Haywire
1988

Contrary to popular belief, few '90s bands actually sounded like Pavement or Sebadoh. Sure, many recorded under the assumption that a recording budget had no correlation to -- and was perhaps even detrimental to -- good music, but the true source of all '90s bands was in fact R.E.M. This truth is obscured by the fact that R.E.M. had entered the '90s as something of an embarrassment, a reminder of alt-rockers' tree-hugging days spent thinking that maybe 10,000 Maniacs actually could solve the homeless problem with a hit song. Worse still, on their 1994 misfire Monsters, R.E.M. offered proof of their own irrelevancy by plagiarizing the genre that supplanted them, three long years after Nirvana and the Smashing Pumpkins heralded the new sound of a more angry, disillusioned generation.

But in 1988, R.E.M was still king. The Dharma Bums, although legendary in their hometown of Portland, Oregon, possessed neither the charm or media savvy that R.E.M. so effortlessly mutated into commercial stardom. That didn't stop the Bums from releasing two decent albums of what critics were then accurately calling "college rock" -- accurate, because absolutely no one else was listening to it. Still, the Dharma Bums' debut did produce one great song. The effortlessly brilliant "Haywire" stands as one of the most appealing R.E.M. ripoffs of the late '80s, an era that hardly had a shortage of them. The chiming guitar arpeggios and no-nonsense drumming is an easy enough feat to replicate, but what amazes still is the way in which Bums' singer Jeremy Wilson captures Stipe's ability to mix mumbled, vaguely poetic lyrics into a beguiling confection that pulls the listener in like a beautiful girl whispering at you across the table.

R.E.M. was influential in many ways, but Stipe's lyrical equivocacy was ultimately the band's most important innovation. The cryptic song titles and lyrics of both Pavement and Guided by Voices is undoubtably a testament to R.E.M.'s lingering fingerprints, even if neither was quick to admit it. In fact, when Pavement did finally acknowledge R.E.M.'s influence, my friends and I must have breathed a sigh of relief. "Okay," we thought, "I guess it's okay that I know every word of 'It's the End of the World as We Know It' after all." In 1988, the Dharma Bums wouldn't have been embarrased though. They'd ingested the R.E.M. formula so well that they could regurgitate it into an accidental masterpiece, a song from an era before R.E.M. could do no wrong.

2006-07-18T18:36:00.000-07:00

Kurt Vile - Song for John in D
2003

If Kurt Vile is as obscure and unknown as he seems, why is it that everyone I meet has heard of him? Of course people like Ariel Pink, curator of the absurd, and his outsider art teacher R. Stevie Moore know who he is. But at a recent Lilys and Human Television show, both bands made comments about him to me backstage. "He's a great guitarist," one bandmember said. "He's spotty, but he's got some good songs too," another musician said. And a quick google search reveals that this kid, who only releases handmade CD-R's and plays rarely, actually has an fan site. (Vile's own site has been "coming soon" for months.)

Okay, what is this? Some kind of conspiracy or a vast coincidence? I'm not sure, but it's true what they say: Vile can play the guitar. Like a bedroom version of John Fahey, Vile picks out delicate tunes on an acoustic guitar and decorates the scenery with fractured electronics and his pretty, fragile voice bouncing off the walls in the distance.

Last year, Vile sent me 6 CD-R's in the mail, all with scrappy, black-and-white artwork collages adorning the covers. I found that the music within was a bit spotty but Vile's lonely voice and nuanced guitar playing intrigued me. I attempted to wade through his dense catalog several times and every time I did, I kept coming back to "Song for John in D," a beautifully played song that gets more eerie every time I hear it.

2006-07-09T15:32:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone, it's Jay from :: clicky clicky music blog :: filling in a bit for Mr. Griffey while he is off contemplating the finer things in life like Steve Winwood. Anyway, as a rabid fan of the '90s indie rock Mr. Griffey so often concerns himself with, there are several things I feel compelled to share with you, but we'll start small.

At the heart of the knot of threads that lead back from so many great indie bands is the D.C. scene and acts such as Black Tambourine and Whorl, the latter of which we'll concern ourselves with today. Specifically I'd like to publicly declare my love for a song that close aquaintances know well is one of my favorites. "Maybe It's Better" is the A-side to the "Maybe It's Better"/"Christmas" single released on Slumberland in February 1992 as DRYL-11 (it was the single directly following the tactical nuclear strike that was DRYL-10, Velocity Girl's triumphant and unequalled "My Forgotten Favorite" [MP3 posted here with a ton of other Slumberland cuts). This was before Slumberland [new Epitonic page, Tweenet page] moved out west, when it was still based in Silver Spring, Maryland. Says so right on the label. Anyway, according to the insert that came with the single the song was recorded at Inner Ear studios in June 1991, and the lineup was Brian, Dan, Rob and Mike. You may recall that in the early '90s nobody had last names. The Mike in the lineup, if memory serves, is Michael Schulman, also a member of Black Tambourine [MySpace] and one of the principle owners of Slumberland. So there you go. Whorl, so far as we can tell, only ever issued five songs -- two singles and a compilation cut. But we haven't really exhaustively researched their output.

We were drawn to the this single at first because we had transferred to a new small liberal arts college in Connecticut and were confronted with an entire new library of music at their radio station to get through. As a big fan of the first two Lilys CDs, our first instinct was to plow through the available Slumberland and Spin-Art releases for gold. One of the biggest finds of course is "Maybe It's Better," which we've posted below. The song is the sound of a man broken by love, bobbing in the ebb of reverbed, jangly guitars and clattering drums, drowsy with drink, mumbling and slurring his heartache right into your ears:

"I know there's something wrong /
think it's kind of funny we lost our charm /
maybe I stayed too long."

And on and on. The song is brutally poignant, and if you've ever felt completely ill-equipped for success in a romantic relationship, it is also weirdly familiar. This song file is ripped from a tape recording of the vinyl single at WESU Middletown. As such there's a little extra crunching and popping, but just think of that as more evidence of Whorl's bottomless heartache.

Whorl -- ~~"Maybe It's Better"~~ -- DRYL-11, 1992, Slumberland Records

2006-07-02T10:00:00.000-07:00

Subset - Cabin Fever
2000

Just after moving to Austin in 2000, I saw a TV news story about a young kid who decided to start his own record label, which he called Post-Parlo records. "This is newsworthy because...why?" I asked myself. Nevertheless, I checked out the label's website and heard the above track by Subset and made a mental note of it. Six years later, I'm wondering what ever happened to Subset.

Turns out that little information is available on the band beyond what can be found on the Post-Parlo website, which hasn't been updated since 2004. According to the site, the band was formed by Lindsey Simon (guitar, vocals) and Nathan Fish (bass, vocals) in 1999. After releasing a 7", they added Silver Scooter drummer Tom Hudson and recorded their debut CD, Overpass. After garnering some local radio play, the band dissappeared and have not been heard from since.

I recently picked up Overpass in a CD bargain bin and got to hear it for the first time in six years. Although "Cabin Fever" stands out, the remainder of the CD is clogged with mediocre, guitar-based indie rock that splits the difference between Death Cab for Cutie and REM. Patient listening yields a few rewards, like the almost rootsy "Strained" and the outdated charm of, uh, "Outdated," but some of the emo moves become grating quickly. Anybody know anything about Subset's whereabouts?

2006-06-26T17:14:00.000-07:00

Starlight Conspiracy - Silver Holler
1996

Starlight Conspiracy were a part of the Burlington, Vermont music scene in the '90s. With the exception of Guppyboy's homespun folk, most Vermont bands preferred the muddier turf of grunge and punk. Looking back, it would seem Starlight Conspiracy were smack in the middle of these two extremes. Instrumentally, Starlight Conspiracy honed their guitars into a fuzzy assault, while vocalist Jen Tofferi floated above the din like an enchanted pixie. This concept has become standard now (see Evanescense), but back then it was original enough to confuse critics into misfiling the band under shoegaze.

Starlight Conspiracy formed in 1994 when guitarist Denny Donovan met drummer Brad Searles while working at an indie record store. After recruiting bassist Shawn Flanigan, the trio auditioned a parade of vocalists, only to eventually opt for Tofferi, a friend of Searles. Searles, who writes the enjoyably informative blog, Bradley's Almanac, still thinks highly of Tofferi, even though the band broke up in 1998 after recording only one album. "I'd loved her voice since the time I'd played with her in my first band, Hover. I wish she was still singing with someone, I'd blog the hell outta that band."

Still, Searles depature from Vermont eventually led to the band's breakup. "We
tried to make it work," Searles said, "even with the multi-hour commute I'd make once a month, but that just wasn't enough practices to keep it going, or to keep everyone interested. Eventually Shawn moved out west, Jan headed to southern Vermont, and Denny came down to Boston, where we eventually started up the Also-Rans together."

Searles is the gatekeeper for the Starlight Conspiracy estate, and you can check out his lovingly curated site here for more mp3's, photos, and more.

2006-06-14T18:36:00.000-07:00

V/A - Thrasher Skate Rock Vol. 5

The Stupids - Born to Built to Grind
1987
Naked Lady Wrestlers - Scrapin'
1987

Around the time this album came out, I was a twelve-year old skate rat with all four walls of my bedroom covered in pictures from Thrasher magazine. All I did was think about skating. If I was doodling at school, I was probably drawing a skate ramp or a guy on a skateboard. If I was swimming, I had the board with me underwater. If I had a girl over (which happenned for the first time in 7th grade), we mostly talked about skateboarding. Thus, picking up this cassette when it came out was a no-brainer for me.

This was the only volume of Skate Rock I bought, but I certainly listened to it a lot. some of the songs scared me, and they still kind of do. I have never had a taste for hardcore, and can really only listen to punk stuff like this: simple, dumb, and catchy. But it was a great soundtrack for being 13 years old. By the time I was 14, I moved on to more sophisitcated fare - goth rock, the Meat Puppets, the Velvet Underground. Suddenly a song about being "born to skate" seemed pretty stupid. I filed this tape away and forgot about it - until now.

When I decided to post these songs, I looked around for some info on the bands that made them. The Stupids, it turns out, actually have a Best-of CD on a British label and a small cult following. I had no idea that "Born to Built to Grind" was a Bruce Springsteen rip-off/cover as a kid, but in hindsight this can be read as an early indicator of my more mainstream leanings, at least when it came to pop song structure. The Naked Lady Wresters, according to this website, were from Northern California and only appeared on this Thrasher comp and an Alternative Tentacles comp released by IRS records. Anybody got the dirt on them? Their contribution is actually something of a nugget. Dig that speed metal guitar solo!

2006-06-13T16:25:00.000-07:00

Treewave - May Banners
2004

Most reviews of Treewave's 2004 EP, Cabana+ mention's the band's unusual tools for making music. Whenever a group does such things, they are doomed to read about it for the rest of their lives. (Perhaps this would explain why the singer of Pianosaurus, a band who used all toy instruments, went insane and dissappeared after the release of his group's debut.) Thus, I will let the image above give you a hint, and leave it there. What I like about Treewave isn't necessarily a product of their methodology anyway; I just like the way it sounds.

Before I go, I feel that I must mention the fact that Treewave is from Dallas. For some reason, this city consistently produces quality psychedelic bands. It must be the heat. That and the insanity that surely comes from being land-locked in a place as conservative and dull as Dallas. Either way, the list is as long as the state is wide: 13th Floor Elevators, Golden Dawn, the Moving Sidewalks, Butthole Surfers, Lithium X-Mas, Tripping Daisy. Anybody got any more?

Check out Treewave's fast-loading website here and buy their CD.

2006-06-07T17:04:00.001-07:00

Wide Boy Awake - Slang Teacher
1983

If you go to hip parties in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, chances are you've danced to music played by the Crazy Rhythms DJ's, Dan Selzer and Mike Simonetti. The duo cover a wide range of styles, but their core set is drawn from disco, post-punk, and new wave. Selzer, who runs the email list NY Happenings, as well as the reissue label Acute, is a big proponent of Italo-disco, and has been instrumental in bringing this hip subgenre to hipster prominence. Simonetti isn't exactly sitting on his ass either. In 1994, Simonetti started Troubleman Records, a diverse and prolific label best known for unleashing Erase Errata on the world.

On a recently released mix CD, Rvng Prsnts MX4, Selzer and Simonetti show off their DJ skills by assembling a compilation of some of their staples ("Slang Teacher" being one of them), as well as their coveted Italo-disco obscurities ("Massimo Barsotti's "Whole Lotta Love"). After starting off with some low-key disco moves, the DJ team gradually quickens the pulse to a monotonous house thump, only to settle back down to classic disco tracks and some post-punk dance workouts.

As for Wide Boy Awake, little information is available on them. According to Trouser Press, they were formed by Ex-Adam and the Ants bassist Kevin Mooney in the early '80s. "Slang Teacher" was released as a 7" single, and also appeared on a five song EP released by RCA in 1983. The band dissappeared not long after.

Click here to order.

2006-06-03T14:09:00.000-07:00

The Academy - Magic
2005

Everyone I've played this song for thinks that it's an '80s song, and that they've heard it before. The truth is that it was actually recorded last year by a group of dudes from Bloomington, Indiana who used to be in a low-fi indie rock band called Smart Milk. I don't know exactly who to compare it to, but my fingers itch to type names like Mr. Mister, Christopher Cross, or maybe even that guy who sang "Walking in Memphis." Cringe all you want, but there's no ignoring the fact that this ultra-slick lullabye is put together with enough melody and finesse to convince you, if only for a few minutes, that making music this sanitized is actually justified.

The song "Magic" comes from an album with the same name, that has yet to be released on CD. The rest of the album flirts with similiar ideas, but doesn't quite match the melodic insistance of this track. A short bio and more songs can be found here. The band's website, which offers almost no information about the band's motive or history, is here.

2006-06-01T16:55:00.000-07:00

Kelley Stoltz - Memory Collector
2006

It's taken me a long time to figure this out, but I think I'm getting it. In mainstream pop, and to some degree rock, familiarity is the ticket to record sales and success. Elvis took black R&B and put a white face on it, and wha-la, instant fame and recognition. Other examples spring to mind: Vanilla Ice bleached the ghetto out of rap; Billy Idol made spiked hair and a sneer a Top 40 commodity; the Stone Temple Pilots took Nirvana's angst to the bank.

And yet, the same does not hold true with indie rock -- originality is prized over all else. Bands like Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Beirut, and Fiery Furnaces seem to have little in common on the surface, yet a closer look reveals bands with a stubbornly original identity. This comes as no surprise in a genre that thrives on unsettling the mainstream and must therefore take a contradictory stance. And yet, it leaves much great music undetected and underappreciated on what I feel are flimsy ideals. It is a world where the next big thing is only cherished before it is big. Indie rock, it would seem, lives cautiously in the future, with one eye fixated on an ever-shifting past.

In other words, if Stotlz had released this pastiche of Beach Boys harmonies and ELO tunesmithery in 1990, perhaps he'd be declared a genius. At the time, power-pop bands like Teenage Fanclub and the Replacements actually had a chance. Sixteen years later, merely mentioning the Beatles in a review puts the reader to sleep. This attitude, while probably inevitable, is detrimental to well-crafted music because it emphasizes context over content, fashion over form.

Don't get me wrong, Stoltz is no genius. A talented songwriter, yes, but certainly not a visionary of any kind. Songs jump from one touchstone to the next, as if Stoltz were playing the listener records from his collection. And yet, that same informal, derivative quality lends the album a levity that makes it easy to enjoy. It expects little of you, and you expect little of it. Why, after all, do many psych and garage fans prefer the imitators of the Rolling Stones and the Beatles to the actual legends themselves? Well, duh. It's because the copy cats were ten times more fun, and in their own way, more listenable.

2006-05-21T15:36:00.000-07:00

Powerdresser - Split Fingered Fastball
1992

San Diego's indie explosion of the early '90s included Heavy Vegetable, Truman's Water, and Rocket From the Crypt. Powerdresser, while neither the most popular nor influential band of the scene, is probably the most tragic. Lead singer and guitarist Denver Lucas drowned under mysterious circumstances in 1994, just before the band was scheduled to record new material. He was 22. Drummer Lee Chapman had recently left the band, leaving its future unclear. Denver's death ended it.

The band's tricky time signatures owed a debt to prog, but the short run-times, mumbled vocals and dry guitar sound made the sound startlingly unique, if a bit obtuse. The band's only official releases were a split single with Heavy Vegetable and "Split Fingered Fastball," which appears on Ask for Disorder, a San Diego compilation.

Last time I checked, Powerdresser's entire recorded output could be downloaded for free here.

2006-05-15T17:28:00.000-07:00

Black Moth Super Rainbow - Lost, Picking Flowers in the Woods, Excerpt
2005

Although their name suggests a Japanese noise band, Black Moth Super Rainbow is actually from Pittsburgh, PA. The band's affinity for skewed word play isn't just limited to the band's name either; Black Moth Super Rainbow counts Maux Boyle, Seth Ciotti, Donna Kyler, and one Power Pill Fist in its ranks.

The band slithered onto the scene with 2004's Start a People, a record that smashed proggy electronics, lo-fi soundscapes, and fractured noise into a surprisingly attractive package. The band continued to tweak those same elements on their next release, Lost, Picking Flowers in the Woods, which sounds like Air attempting to cover Dark Side of the Moon, with phased moog solos and ambient electronics effectively conjuring up images of a forest, albeit a dark, twisted one. The excerpt here is the first track off that album, and like the other tracks, is untitled.

Click here for the band's My Space profile.

2006-05-02T18:22:00.000-07:00

Heron - Big A
1972

A few weeks ago I heard this song at a party and literally charged over to the stereo. After the song was over, I hit repeat and looked around the room to see if anyone noticed. They didn't. Six listens later, they still didn't notice. That pretty much tells you the story of Heron right there. If we could just get people to listen to the damn band, they'd probably be converted too.

Heron's story begins in 1967 at the Dolphin Folk club in Maidenhead, England. It was there that songwriters Roy Apps, Tony Pook and Gerald T. Moore met and played together in free-form sessions. In less than a year they united to form Heron. The only addition was keyboardist Steve Jones, who joined just after the band secured a record deal with Dawn records.

In 1970, Dawn released Heron's self-titled debut. Although featuring worthy contributions from all members, the album is most notable for the fact that all the music was recorded outdoors and for the inclusion of "Yellow Roses," an unquestionably brilliant song on par with Heron's idol Bob Dylan.

Jones asserts that their debut was a "runaway failure" on his website, but Dawn still allowed Heron to release a double album, Twice as Nice and Half the Price, as the follow-up in 1972. It has been said that the album's length is unwarranted and I have to agree. A few songs, such as covers of "You've Really Got a Hold on Me" and "This Old Heart of Mine" are enjoyable, but fluff nonetheless. The remainder of this album however is nothing short of genius. Anyone into freak-folk vegetation like the Espers, Feathers, or Devendra Banhart would find much to chew on here, from the meditative "Winter Harlequin" to the rousing chorus of "Big A." Although recorded over 30 years ago, Heron's music remains vital and fresh, a feat that most of the "known" bands from that era have failed to duplicate.

Buy the album here.

2006-04-06T17:04:00.000-07:00

Blog Roundup
The Best of February and March

Crystal Skulls - Cosmic Door

Crystal Skulls are my new favorite band. I've been annoying all my co-workers by repeatedly playing tracks from their new album, which is due in May on Suicide Squeeze records. For more downloads, check here.

Self - Donating to Science

Hey, I didn't find this one on a blog, but whatev. Self keeps releasing well-crafted, tuneful albums that absoluely no one buys. Well, some people. He did have a major label deal in the '90s and a minor hit. But can someone explain why his new album hasn't found a label? Half the shit is brilliant and it was released a year ago. Guess that's the whole point of this site.

Track a Tiger - Glad to be Scattered

This Iowa group began as a solo project of Jim Vallet and slowly evolved into a real band. "Glad to be Scattered" is the more upbeat and catchy of the songs the band has available from their website, but all the tracks are great, nodding in the direction of Fleetwood Mac or maybe just nodding off. Beautiful harmonies, sad lyrics, it's got that Gene Clark spark.

Electric Soft Parade - Cold World

Clever Titles are So Last Summer offhandedly posted this mp3 recently as part of a story on some dude who is making mixtapes for charity or some other harebrained scheme. Either way, download this now. Electric Soft Parade is a great, underrated band from England who were supposed to be hot way back in 2002 but ended up drifting into the same no-man's land populated by the likes of Gay Dad and Starsailor. Like all good underdogs though, ESP is bouncing back with a new album to be released in May on Better Looking Records.

2006-03-28T19:21:00.000-08:00

Mac and Katie Kissoon - Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep
1971

Mac and Katie were just two of eight siblings from the Kissoon family who moved to England from Trinidad in 1962. Both singers had solo projects before they realized maybe they should try a Brady Bunch/Cowsills kinda thing and sing together. "Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep," an ode to baby birds, was barreling into the Top 40 in England in 1971 when it was suddenly overtaken by a cover version by another band, appropriately named Middle of the Road.

The Kissoons kept at it and later found bigger success in the mid-'70s. For me, though, this track is their defining moment: simple, silly, bubblegum pop at its most deliriously infectious.

2006-03-13T08:32:00.000-08:00

The Deaths - Birmingham
2005

I meant to write about The Deaths a while ago. Like some other bloggers, I downloaded tons of mp3's from the SXSW web site in hopes of finding the next small thing. What I found was a distressing level of mediocrity. This track by the Deaths caught my ear though. A little research turned up the following info:

The Deaths are a four-piece from Minneapolis. Probably even played a show with good ol' Tapes n' Tapes. In 2005 they self-released Choir Invisible which is going to be re-released this year. The band has yet to mention who exactly is releasing it though. This year the Austin Chronicle called the Deaths a SXSW sleeper (I won't delve into the irony here) and boy were they right. Pretty much nobody outside of Chuck Klosterman has written about these guys. And that was way back when Klosterman actually worked for Spin. If the Deaths are lucky, Klosty might mention them in his next memoir about Death and generate a little more buzz.

My take on the band? They sound a bit like the Charlatans, the original old-timey drug sailors from San Francisco who scored big with a rustic cover of "Codine" that essentially jump-started the psychedelic revolution. Civil War pop -- with lovebeads.

2006-03-12T17:05:00.000-08:00

Bobb Trimble - Premonitions Fantasy
1982

With outspoken fans like Ariel Pink, Thurston Moore, and Devendra Banhart, you'd think maybe Bobb Trimble would finally be getting his due after toiling in obscurity for 26 years. But no, this woefully out-of-time genius is still just as unknown now as he was in 1980 when he self-released his debut album, Iron Curtain Innocence. The album drew heavily on California psych and showed Trimble to be an astonishingly gifted songwriter and vocalist. The album was barely distributed outside Trimble's home state of Massachusetts and sank without a trace. However, psych collectors eventually stumbled on the album and collectively shit their pants. Originals now trade hands on ebay for about $1,000.

Trimble followed up his debut with the even better Harvest of Dreams which was recently bootlegged by UK label Radioactive Records. Trimble, who is hip enough to actually have a myspace profile and a website, eventually found out and was not happy about it. According to his website, Trimble is in talks with a few labels right now to legitimately resissue his first two albums using the original mastertapes.

2006-02-21T19:59:00.000-08:00

NDolphin - Birthday Song
1989

Whatever you are listening to at the age of 14 will forever have a place in your heart. When I was 14, a friend of mine went up to Gainesville, Florida, the nearest hip college town, and came back with a mix of college bands that blew my mind. Aleka's Attic, River Phoenix's band was on there. Henrietta's Lovers, an artsy funk band with a singer who played trumpet, was on there. Ndolphin, a neo-hippie band with male and female singers was on there. I devoured it all without discretion. The big regional trend in Gainesville at the time was percussion, and all three bands had bongos on their songs. I thought it was the coolest thing I'd ever heard.

Ndolphin was a short-lived, though popular Gainesville band; they released two EP's between 1989 and 1991 and then broke up. The main songwriters were Ane Diaz and Jack Mason; both sang. After Ndolphin split, Diaz sang with a succession of bands including Sumac and the Causey Way. She now plays in an intriguing duo called Producto. Mason also played in Sumac, but eventually left the music business entirely, as far as I can tell from my research. Another notable band member is Josh McKay, who played bass on the band's first EP but left soon after. McKay later achieved minor success with the Athens, GA band Macha. Although it is rumored that McKay would rather forget about his past bands, two NDolphin mp3's turned up on a website last year and McKay was the last one seen with the master tapes.

The band's first EP, which is pictured above, is pretty solid, containing four gems and one clunker which is a rap song about hating George Bush. Too bad every word of it still rings true today. The band's second EP, called Wail, is less developed than its predecessor, but still has moments of brilliance, especially the opening three songs. Good luck finding either of these tapes. They were released in tiny editions and are virtually impossible to find. Thank god some mystery person uploaded this mp3.

2006-01-30T16:21:00.000-08:00

Blog Roundup
The Best of December and January

The following are a few songs that I downloaded in the last two months and enjoyed for one reason or another:

Attorneys - The Way I Want to Love
This to me sounds far more new wave and '80s than the bands that get credit for reviving this era (Killers, Bravery, etc.). My roommate complained that the vocals were too wussy, but that's exactly the point. And the muscular guitar riff more than makes up for the frailty of the Journey-esque vocals.

Band of Horses - the Funeral
There are some songs that you listen to twenty times in a row and then never listen to again. "The Funeral" is far too dense with yearning and emotion to encourage compulsive listening. However, it will creep up in your subconscious with a little time. My only complaint is the band name which is one of the most forgettable monikers in years.

Greg Ashley - Apple Pie and Genocide
Buddyhead's blog posted this one. If you like wacked-out cult-rockers like Syd Barrett and Skip Spence, get this in your ears now. Also recommended in this genre: Deadly Snakes

Clean Prophets - Tambourine Crown
Now here's a piece of indie rock that is actually danceable without trying too hard. It's a little bit sterile, like so much indie music these days, but it's still memorable. Chalk that up to the head-bobbing disco guitar part. This band is from LA.

The A-Sides - The Sidewalk Chalk
This is another enjoyable slice of indie dance pop. Kind of a Motown thing -- upbeat, sunny, persistent.

Sparrow House - When I'm Gone
A solo project from a guy in Voxtrot. Overexposed on the blogs, but amazing nonetheless.

2006-01-20T08:10:00.000-08:00

Karl Blau
Into the Nada

"I, Karl Blau, am a recording artist from Anacortes, WA. My debut K record Beneath Waves should be available in January of 2006. You may have heard my flute, sax, or drums on various K records. I've recorded with Mirah, Wolf Colonel, the Microphones, Little Wings, and I'm one third of the band D+(with Phil Elverum and Bret Lunsford). And more recently I've been touring & recording with the fabulous Laura Veirs." -- Karl Blau

Is it just me or are the music blogs totally ignoring K records? I just visited the site and found this excellent mp3 from Karl Blau. To my ears, this song updates the Canterbury sound of Gong and Caravan for the mp3 era. Lovely.

2006-01-11T16:32:00.000-08:00

Still Flyin'
Mystery Tent
2005

To all those who wondered what would happen if the Polyphonic Spree played reggae, listen up. This combination ain't nearly as bad as it sounds; in fact, Still Flyin' pretty much rules. This San Francisco band turned a lot of heads last year as the opening act for Architecture in Helsinki, due in part to their outrageous stage show (20+ members!), but also for their odd mix of indie sensibilities and stoned-out dub beats. Sean Rawls, Still Flyin's primary singer, is no stranger to indie rock it turns out. Rawls used to be in Masters of the Hemisphere, an Athens band who recorded a couple of albums for the now-defunct Kindercore label. (Where for art thou Kindercore?)

2006-01-07T13:37:00.000-08:00

Lispector
I Love my Recorder
1999

The song title says it all. In the sweetly addictive "I Love My Recorder," Julie Margat's vocals ride a hip hop beat with all the sensuality of Brigitte Bardot in her prime. No surprise then that Margat hails from Paris, France, where she currently records her self-released records under the Lispector moniker. To my ears Margat clearly wants to fuck her four-track, but Margat herself compares the song to Virginia Woolf's A Room of Your Own.

Margat swiped the Lispector name from a Ukranian-born author. Although Margat had not read Lispector's books at the time, she eventually grew to be a fan. Margat has never toured, but she has released two full-length albums and appeared on a few compilations. "I Love my Recorder" is from her first full-length, Human Problems and How to Solve Them. Her new album is out now and can be downloaded for free at her website here.

2005-12-31T13:37:00.000-08:00

Mountain Goats
Tell Me on a Sunday
1994

John Darnielle, who records under the misleadingly plural Mountain Goats moniker, largely built his reputation on a series of cassettes released by Shrimper in the early ‘90s. Although the songs were usually recorded in one take using a cheap boombox, sound quality was never the issue with Darnielle, who used a forceful voice and incisive songwriting to cut through the layers of tape hiss. Hot Garden Stomp, released by Shrimper in 1994, is the only cassette that I’ve heard, but it is nothing short of astonishing. (Shrimper, why hasn’t this stuff been reissued??)

I listened to “Tell Me on a Sunday” for years before I even realized it was a cover of an Andrew Lloyd Webber song. The fact that I didn’t realize this speaks volumes about Darnielle’s talent. I just assumed this classic piece of songwriting was merely another Mountain Goats song. The guitar playing is sloppy and the sound quality is even worse than usual, but Darnielle’s reflective singing perfectly captures the songs’ complex mix of idealism and sorrow. Hope, it seems, is a tricky thing. On the one hand it reflects the optimism inherent in all of us; on the other hand it probably indicates unhappiness in the present.

Darnielle has recorded many albums since his early cassettes and he now resides at esteemed British label 4AD. In 1995, I decided to start a microcassette label as a conceptual joke. Every release would be a limited edition of one. I emailed a bunch of artists and Darnielle was the only taker. Of course. I should have gone through with it. He probably would have recorded a gem.

2005-12-15T06:19:00.000-08:00

The Dollar Bin

In 1996, when I was a junior at the University of Florida, you couldn’t download music for free. There was no Napster, no Audio Galaxy, no iTunes. If you wanted new music, you had to either buy it or burn a copy off a friend. Even making burns of CD’s was rare back then. Stuck in town working during spring break, I found myself thirsting for some new and interesting music besides indie rock. I also needed to get away from the endless parade of half-naked girls on MTV that I would never sleep with. But as previously stated, I was in college and therefore broke. Buying CD’s just wasn’t an option.

I went to the local record store after work one night to see what was going on and it finally hit me: the dollar bin. Most of what I found there was exactly what I expected: broadway soundtracks, classical albums, Barbara Streisand atrocities, and of course, Herb Alpert. But there were also bands I’d heard of, classic rock behemoths who’d sold more records than there were humans on the earth. In a word: Frampton.

My first few purchases – Saturday Night Fever, The Moody Blues’ Days of Future Passed, and something by America – were far from good, but at least they made me cringe in new ways. The real find though, the one that kept me coming back to the dollar bin for the next ten years, was Todd Rundgren’s Something/Anything. Ambitious, original, and stuffed with inventive pop songs, this album was the gem I’d been hoping to find all along. And it was only a dollar!

Since I began perusing the dollar bin, I’ve noticed some gradual changes. Some would say it’s evolved, but that would imply that it’s getting better, and I tend to believe that everything is getting worse. When Esquivel suddenly became hip in the early-‘90s, I couldn’t walk more than two feet without running into some asshole who’d bought Esquivel’s entire discography for 50 cents at the local Goodwill. As annoying as this was, it still taught me a valuable lesson: there was gold in them thar hills.

Of course, Esquivel was an aberration; he was like the Arcade Fire of the dollar bin. His rise from dusty unknown to ultra-hip collector’s item was unexpected and meteoric. Moog records and Persuasive Percussion records also made the leap in the mid-‘90s, although the latter has inexplicably found its way back to the worthless pile as of late.

Many of the records that I used to call the dollar bin classics – albums by bands like Queen, ELO, Hall and Oates, Yes, Steely Dan, and Fleetwood Mac – have gradually moved off the floor and back to the shelves of self-respecting record stores. Sure, you can still find the occasional copy of Rumors or The Yes Album among the endless rows of Al Hirt LP’s but it’s getting harder to do, at least in New York.

For this article, I decided to go to three record stores in Brooklyn and Manhattan (Academy, Eat, and Gimme Gimme) to see what I could find that I would actually recommend for a casual music fan to purchase. Some of the records are extremely common – things I’m sure you could find with a little patience. Others are less common, and probably ended up in the dollar bin not because they were plentiful, but because no one cared about them. Below is the list of what I found.

1. Prefab Sprout – Swoon
Epic, 1984

This copy was in mint condition and looked like it had possibly been marked down a few times before getting consigned to the dollar bin. I can kind of see why it’s here, even though it is an extremely likable album. Paddy McAloon, the singer/songwriter behind this preppy British new wave band, is one of those smart alecks who can’t help reminding you of his superiority. There are songs about chess prodigy Bobby Fischer, the need to give up basketball and foil fencing, and falling in love with the wrong people. And yet, even at their most flowery and academic, the songs never fail to weave their way into your brain and ultimately, your heart.

2. Boz Scaggs – Silk Degrees
Columbia, 1976

I’m seeing this one less these days, but it’s still pretty easy to find. On principle, I always buy albums by people named Boz. Another good reason to pick this one up is the album cover, which shows Boz awkwardly perched on a bench by the ocean. A woman’s hand is visible, but we don’t see her face. I think we can safely assume that this is how Boz saw all of his groupies. And possibly his fans.

For some reason, Boz put all the hits on side two; I’m not sure I’ve ever listened to side one, so maybe it’s good too. The standout track is “The Lowdown,” which is a song you’ve most definitely heard at a doctor’s office or the supermarket, but never realized who sang it, and how genius it actually is. The guys who did the soundtrack for Saturday Night Fever asked Boz if they could use “Lowdown” in the movie, but his clueless manager turned them down in favor of the not-so-classic Looking for Mr. Goodbar. The dollar bin is full of stories like that.

3. Doobie Brothers – Minute by Minute
Warner Brothers, 1978

The great thing about this album is that there is only a 0.001% chance that it will ever be stolen. If anything, Minute by Minute may mysteriously appear in your collection in place of another more valuable record. The only reason to own it, and the only reason why it is so common, is because of one song. And that song is “What a Fool Believes,” a critique of nostalgia that focuses on some hapless dude’s infatuation with a girl he kissed once in eighth grade. Many facts conspire against it -- Kenny Loggins helped write it, it’s on a Doobie Brothers album, and the song even won a Grammy -- but “What a Fool Believes” is great.

4. The Roches – The Roches
Warner Brothers, 1979

Don’t be fooled by the annoying intro track, “We,” this album is good from start to finish. This is what folk sounded like before the Moldy Peaches ruined it. Possessing gorgeous voices and dazzling wit, these three sisters from New Jersey charmed the world for a few years in the late ‘70s while harmonizing about strawberry apricot pie and the joys of screwing married men. Folkies had huge expectations for the band, but their next two albums fizzled and the rest went out of print before they were even recorded. Definitely worth more than a dollar.

5. Diana Ross – Diana
Motown, 1980

Here’s another album that sold oodles of copies at the time. Produced by Chic masterminds Nile Rogers and Bernard Edwards, Diana is easily the best disco album unfortunate enough to be released in the ‘80s. Recently remastered and reissued, Diana has been migrating away from the dollar bin in the past year. Snap it up while you can.

Side one is jam-packed with disco gems, especially “Upside Down” and “Tenderness,” which sound exactly like Chic but with Diana Ross singing. It’s like if the DFA collaborated with Britney Spears or something. Oh wait, they tried that already? Nevermind.

6. Genesis – Abacab
Atlantic, 1981

A friend of mine was recently looking through my records when he uttered the words I’d long feared: “Why the fuck do you have so many Genesis albums?” Sadly, I didn’t have an answer. Well, now I do. Abacab is the answer. This is the album where Phil Collins finally stopped whining about his divorce and started delivering the goods. (The sappy balladry was yet to come.) Besides the obvious hit “No Reply At All,” other winners include the title track, which is like Trans Am without the irony or German techno with a soul, and “Keep it Dark,” which one-ups Gary Numan. In a few years, every band is going to rip off this album. Sure, I’ve been saying that for the last ten years, but this time I really mean it. Really.

2005-12-04T16:26:00.000-08:00

Company - Silver and Gold
2002

Ladies and gentlemen, step right up to the most un-googleable band name ever. Just type the word "Company" into Google and try, if you dare, to find the band's webpage, or for that matter, any info on the band. After seeing the Brooklyn-based band in 2002 at a friend's recommendation, I became an instant fan. But it wasn't until a chance meeting with David Janik at another band's show two years later that I finally found out the name of their website and figured out when and where they were playing again. Jesus.

Although they formed in 2001, Company didn't release an official album until this past October on Jagjaguwar subsidiary Brah Records. The band's website features 2 mp3's from the new album, but I decided to feature the song that blew me away when I first heard the band play live. On "Silver and Gold," singer Stephanie Rabins injects equal doses of callousness and yearning into her lilting, lonesome voice to portray a view of love that is both practical and sad. When she sings "Make new friends, but keep the old," at the song's outset, it almost sounds hopeful. By the end of the song however, we realize that she had to learn her lessons the hard way.

Company's website

2005-11-23T07:47:00.000-08:00

Blog Roundup - The Best of October and November 2005

This is a new feature I'll be doing where I repost my favorite mp3's from other audio blogs.

Millbrook - Meet Me in the Fields
This comes from Marathon Packs. I saw a mention of Steely Dan in the blurb about this band and instantly knew I'd like it. The song actually sounds more like ELO than ye olde Fagen and Becker.

Crazy Penis - Lady T
This reminds me of the Scissor Sisters, in a good way. Totally gay, totally disco, totally great.

Moneybrother - It's Been Hurting All the Way Joanna
I think I was clued into this one by My Old Kentucky Blog. It's from a Swedish band who sounds a bit like the Verve with a dollop of Bruce Springsteen-style sincerity. Strangely compelling. From what I hear the band is huge in their native country.

The Knife - Heartbeats
Brooklyn Vegan hyped this one to death, as did Gorilla vs. Bear, but I love it too.

October Country - My Girlfriend is a Witch
October Country was a '60s band headed up by Michael Lloyd, a producer and songwriter who was also a member of the more well-known West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band. His best project was with the Smoke, who only recorded one LP for Capitol subsidiary Sidewalk, but all of his projects from the '60s are great. He made all of his money however producing mega-blockbuster dreck like "You Light Up My Life" in the '70s.

Green - Gotta Get a Record Out
Franklin Bruno mentioned this in a Time Out review of Art Brut like two days after Jon posted it on Little Hits. It could be a coincidence, but I'd bet money that Franklin reads Little Hits.

Field Music - If Only the Moon Were Up
I'll take this over Maximo Park any day.

Modeselektor - Dancing Box
I thought this was some crazy grime shit at first, and then I realized they were singing in French.

2005-11-08T17:03:00.000-08:00

Eleanor Roosevelt - Creepy Part of Town
1994

The band Eleanor Roosevelt were loosely associated with St. Louis' nascent alt-country scene in the early '90s that also included Uncle Tupelo. In hindsight, Eleanor Roosevelt's inclusion in that genre is probably based more on their use of banjo than any affinity for country. The band, which was spearheaded by African History teacher Chris King, drew primarily from bluegrass, blues and dusty folk on the band's two albums, both of which were self-released.

"Creepy Part of Town," which originally appeared on Walker, has become something of a standard around town in the open-mic scene. King told me that he's not sure why, but the local folkies have taken to playing the song. He added that they probably don't even know who wrote it. Another cut from Walker, "Head in a Hummingbird's Nest," appears on vol. 1 of Tiny Idols the CD.

2005-11-03T16:58:00.000-08:00

Anonymous - J. Rider

1976

Rock scholars often point out the rapid evolution of music during the '60s. Just look at how much underground rock evolved from 1965 to 1967. One minute everyone is playing acoustic guitars and hanging Joan Baez posters in their dorm rooms; the next minute everyone is dropping acid and recording twenty minute free-form jams. This breakneck pace didn't slow down much in the '70s either, what with metal, disco, rap, funk, and punk all jockeying for position. Odd then, to discover this album by the appropriately-named Anonymous was actually recorded in 1976. One listen to "J. Rider," a standout track from their lone album, Inside the Shadow, immediately conjurs up the Summer of Love. Saturday Night Fever, this ain't. Today of course it's not strange to hear a band 10 years past their expiration date. Just ask all the bands that haven't stopped worshipping at the altar of Weezer since, oh, 1995. Still, even in the stylistically diverse '70s this record must have sounded way out of place.

It didn't help that the band only printed up 300 copies of Inside the Shadow . Now almost impossible to find, originals command around $500.

According to Fuzz, Acid, and Flowers, the group was from Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

2005-11-01T13:42:00.000-08:00

Soft - All That You're Shown

2005

Holy Stone Roses, Batman! Soft has got that Manchester vibe down cold, right down to the shambling dance moves and big fat Gretsch guitars. I discovered Soft through ex-Fader girl Marisa Brickman who told me I had to see them live. Other friends started telling me the same thing and finally I broke down and checked Soft out at the Delancey. You know what? The hype machine was actually right for once; if anything, this band isn't hyped enough.

Soft has already played some shows in England and a bunch of hip parties in New York, one of which involved Paris Hilton, so I guess they're on their way to become coke addicts already. But this is gonna be one hell of a ride folks. By the way, I've heard the whole album and it's all awesome. Very Charlatans UK circa 1990. The lead singer told me the labels are swarming like pigeons on a stale bagel, but I don't think they've signed anything yet.

2005-10-25T14:58:00.000-07:00

Jale - Nebulous
1994

If Jale weren't Canadian and if their songs weren't owned by Sup Pop, this song would be prime fodder for my Tiny Idols '90s comps. It's definitely obscure enough. Formed in 1993 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Jale was made up of four talented songwriters named Jennifer, Alyson, Laura, and Eve. Take the first letters of each bandmembers' name and you have Jale.

I've only heard their first CD, Dreamcake, which I think is spotty, but occasionally brilliant. The follow-up, So Wound, is supposed to be more consistent. Jale broke up in 1997.

Mareko

2005-10-20T12:34:00.000-07:00

Mareko - Here to Stay
2003

While New Zealanders adore the whole American hip hop culture, right down to the Nikes and Allen Iverson jerseys, they also have their own homegrown rappers, almost all of whom are Maori. Local rap has existed in New Zealand since the '80s, but it wasn't until recently that it really broke through to the masses.

The song that forever changed New Zealand radio was Scribe’s “Stand Up,” which stormed to the top of the charts in 2003. Scribe's basic message was “I am unable to quit rapping. Seriously, I can’t stop. I also reside in New Zealand. Perhaps you have seen the Lord of the Rings trilogy. You have? Cool.”

I’m completely misrepresenting the song here. It’s actually a cute little call-to-arms that tells the locals to give up the Fat Joe posturing and represent their home turf.

Around the same time that Scribe dropped this single, a crew called the Deceptikonz also garnered a lot of attention. Two of that group’s most talented MC’s, Savage and Mareko, have recently become stars on their own. Mareko’s White Sunday sold a shitload of copies in 2004 and Savage just blew up in May when I was there visiting my sister. I downloaded Mareko’s “Here to Stay” when I got back to the States and it now resides at the number 3 slot in my iTunes Top 25. That’s pretty impressive for a New Zealand rapper that no one in America has heard.