Best Of...

Besides the fun of sharing the music I love, my main impetus for starting a blog was to share in the year-end list-making extravaganzas. Since we're topping off a decade here as well, I'm indulging myself by making lists for the last ten years that I missed (and I've gone way over a "top ten" in most cases). A couple of these entries have gotten posts here already, and I have plans for quite a few more.

2000

11. Dandy Warhols – Thirteen Tales from Urban Bohemia
10. Bratmobile – Ladies Women and Girls
9. Add N to (X) – Add Insult to Injury
8. Schema - Schema
7. Broadcast – The Noise Made by People
6. Grandaddy – The Sophtware Slump
5. Built to Spill – Live
4. Robyn Hitchcock – A Star for Bram
3. Cat Power – The Covers Record
2. Microphones – It was Hot We Stayed in the Water
1. Sleater-Kinney – All Hands On the Bad One

2001

12. The Rapture – Out of the Races and Onto the Tracks
11. Beta Band – Hot Shots II
10. Pulp – We Love Life
9. Landing – Circuit
8. Andrew W.K. – I Get Wet
7. I Am the World Trade Center – Out of the Loop
6. Le Tigre – Feminist Sweepstakes
5. William Basinski – The Disintegration Loops
4. Circulatory System – Circulatory System
3. Surface of Eceyon – The King Beneath the Mountain
2. Mazarin – A Tall Tale Storyline
1. Windy & Carl – Consciousness

2002

17. Deerhoof – Reveille
16. Oneida – Each One Teach One
15. Polyphonic Spree - The Beginning Stages Of…
14. Bratmobile – Girls Get Busy
13. Add N to (X) – Loud Like Nature
12. Ladytron – Light & Magic
11. Landing – Seasons
10. Microphones – Song Islands
9. Of Montreal – Aldhils Arboretum
8. Palomar – Palomar II
7. O.U.T. H.U.D. – Street Dad
6. Apples in Stereo – Velocity of Sound
5. Elf Power – Creatures
4. Yume Bitsu – The Golden Vessyl of Sound
3. Iron & Wine – The Creek Drank the Cradle
2. Sleater-Kinney – One Beat
1. Múm – Finally We Are No One

2003

13. Kaito – Band Red
12. Four Tet – Rounds
11. Young People – War Prayers
10. Landing – Passages Through
9. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Fever to Tell
8. Explosions In the Sky – The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place
7. Mr. Airplane Man – C’Mon DJ
6. Broadcast – Ha Ha Sound
5. [[[VVRSSNN]]] - [[[VVRSSNN]]]
4. Camera Obscura – Underachievers Please Try Harder
3. Movietone – The Sand and the Stars
2. The Aislers Set – How I Learned to Write Backwards
1. Animal Collective – Here Comes the Indian

2004

18. Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso U.F.O. - Does the Cosmic Shepherd Dream of Electric Tapirs?
17. Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - The Doldrums
16. Boredoms - Seadrum / House of Sun
15. Tom Waits - Real Gone
14. Grimble Grumble - Leaves Leader
13. The Casual Dots – The Casual Dots
12. Parenthetical Girls - (((GRRRLS)))
11. On!Air!Library! - On!Air!Library!
10. Animal Collective – Sung Tongs
9. Morrissey - You Are the Quarry
8. Deerhoof – Milk Man
7. Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds - Abattoir Blues / The Lyre of Orpheus
6. Oneida - Secret Wars
5. Blonde Redhead - Misery Is a Butterfly
4. The Go! Team - Thunder, Lightning, Strike
3. The Blow - Poor Aim: Love Songs
2. of Montreal - Satanic Panic in the Attic
1. Xiu Xiu - Fabulous Muscles

2005

15. Windy & Carl - The Dream House / Dedications to Flea
14. Xiu Xiu - La Forêt
13. Acid Mothers Temple & The Cosmic Inferno - Iao Chant From the Cosmic Inferno
12. Boris - Pink
11. The A-Lines - You Can Touch
10. The Russian Futurists - Our Thickness
9. Sufjan Stevens - Illinois
8. Quintron & Miss Pussycat - Swamp Tech / Electric Swamp
7. Soulwax - Nite Versions
6. Andrew Bird - Andrew Bird & the Mysterious Production of Eggs
5. Sleater-Kinney - The Woods
4. Deerhoof - The Runners Four
3. Animal Collective - Feels
2. LCD Soundsystem - LCD Soundsystem
1. Antony and the Johnsons - I Am a Bird Now

2006

20. Belong - October Language
19. Kawabata Makoto - Hosanna Mantra
18. Goodnight Loving - Cemetery Trails
17. Black Moth Super Rainbow + The Octopus Project - The House of Apples and Eyeballs
16. Asobi Seksu - Citrus
15. Yo La Tengo - I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass
14. Espers - Espers II
13. Robyn Hitchcock & the Venus 3 - Ole! Tarantula
12. Lily Allen - Alright, Still
11. OOIOO - Taiga
10. New York Dolls - One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This
9. Morrissey - Ringleader of the Tormentors
8. Sonic Youth - Rather Ripped
7. Boris with Michio Kurihara - Rainbow
6. Midlake - The Trials of Van Occupanther
5. The Blow - Paper Television
4. Mission of Burma - The Obliterati
3. Built to Spill - You in Reverse
2. Tom Waits - Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards
1. Liars - Drum's Not Dead

2007

18. Boredoms - Super Roots 9
17. Rhys Chatham - A Crimson Grail: For 400 Electric Guitars
16. Bearsuit - oh:io
15. Blonde Redhead - 23
14. Deerhunter - Cryptograms
13. Liars - Liars
12. LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
11. Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam
10. The Go! Team - Proof of Youth
9. Studio - Yearbook 1
8. Thurston Moore - Trees Outside the Academy
7. A Sunny Day in Glasgow - Scribble Mural Comic Journal
6. of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?
5. Cats on Fire - The Province Complains
4. Black Moth Super Rainbow - Dandelion Gum
3. Deerhoof - Friend Opportunity
2. M.I.A. - Kala
1. Panda Bear - Person Pitch

2008

25. HEALTH - //DISCO
24. Acid Mothers Temple & The Cosmic Inferno - Pink Lady Lemonade - You're From Outer Space
23. Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds - Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!
22. Boris - Smile: Live at Wolf Creek
21. The Verve - Forth
20. Oneida - Preteen Weaponry
19. The B-52's - Funplex
18. High Places - High Places
17. Teeth Mountain - Teeth Mountain
16. Ducktails - II
15. Bardo Pond - Batholith
14. Eddy Current Suppression Ring - Primary Colours
13. Windy & Carl - Songs for the Broken Hearted
12. Predator Vision - II
11. Deerhunter - Microcastle / Weird Era Continued
10. Portishead - Third
9. Why? - Alopecia
8. Ponytail - Ice Cream Spiritual
7. Sun Araw - Beach Head
6. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
5. Rhys Chatham - "Guitar Trio Is My Life!"
4. Fuck Buttons - Street Horrrsing
3. Quintron - Too Thirsty 4 Love
2. TV on the Radio - Dear Science
1. James Ferraro - Marble Surf

2009

21. Shrag - Shrag
20. Blank Dogs - Year One
19. Le Loup - Family
18. Starfucker - Jupiter
17. HEALTH - Get Color
16. Circulatory System - Signal Morning
15. Real Estate - Real Estate
14. Atlas Sound - Logos
13. Oneida - Rated O
12. Black Moth Super Rainbow - Eating Us
11. Morrissey - Years of Refusal
10. Espers - Espers III
9. The Flaming Lips - Embryonic
8. A Sunny Day in Glasgow - Ashes Grammar
7. Ducktails - Landscapes
6. My Robot Friend - Soft-Core
5. Micachu - Jewellery
4. Bardo Pond - Peri
3. Candy Claws - In the Dream of the Sea Life
2. Sun Araw - Heavy Deeds
1. Cats on Fire - Our Temperance Movement

Close Lobsters. Never Seen Before.

Spangled and scintillating like light on rippling water or silver sequins on a black dress. Fast sounds, big hooks. Fire Station Towers and Wide Waterways (an Only Ones cover) were both excellent. You will feel better after listening to this.

Never Seen Before

Close Lobsters on myspace

Close Lobsters. Nature Thing.

Nature Thing is, like all the Close Lobsters' best songs, barbed and jangly. This single also includes a cover of Neil Young's Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black), Leonard Cohen's Paper Thin Hotel, and a live version of one of their early songs.

Nature Thing

Close Lobsters on myspace

Close Lobsters. What Is There to Smile About.

Short and tight without a single wasted moment. The Close Lobsters hailed from Paisley, which seems fitting considering their hazy neo-psych/indie/jangle pop sound. Horribly underrated and unjustly forgotten, especially since of all the C-86 bands, the Lobsters exemplified the absolute best of the post-Smiths period of snarky, trebly, British pop. Everything they did still sounds fresh, from their sharp hooks to singer Andrew Burnett's pointed, adenoidal vocal style. I keep hoping they'll get back together.

Smile

Close Lobsters on myspace

V/A. Corrupt Postman.

One of the best C-86 twee comps ever.

Disc One:
1. The Fat Tulips - Independence Day
2. The Bollweevils - Turn Your Head
3. St.Christopher - The Summer You Love (Live)
4. Spin Out - Put Your Face To The Ground
5. Mousefolk - End Of The World
6. The Candy Darlings - Station On A Bridge
7. Your Flat Intitled - Pieces Of Meat (Feet)
8. Nine Steps To Ugly - Vaudeville
9. Strawberry Story - This Time Baby
10. Dave Hulston - Julie
11. The Colgates - Depth Of Love
12. Paintbox - Who's Got The Money
13. The Felicitys - Irresistable
14. The Apple Moths - Everything

Disc Two:
1. The Haywains - Shine
2. Emily - Purist
3. The Sedgwicks - Why Now Girl
4. The Driscolls - Circles
5. Remember Fun - Clearly Blurred
6. Killing Time - Perishing Flowers
7. The Applicants - Crush
8. Steamtown - Living & Loving
9. Thrilled Skinny - High Street Conspiracy
10. Emil - Edwin Blaze
11. Feverfew - Crisom Gloom
12. The Wildhouse - Paint The Whole Day Red
13. The Eclairs - Switzerland
14. The Field Mice - I Wish I Meant More To You

Disc 1
Disc 2

V/A. One Last Kiss.

It's not the Courtney Love you're thinking of.

1. Swirlies - Chris R
2. Suddenly, Tammy! - Lamp
3. Lorelei - Mimesis
4. Veronica Lake - Daisy Kiss
5. The Magnetic Fields - 100,000 Fireflies
6. White Town - Hair Like Alain Delon
7. Honeybunch - Arm in Arm
8. Swirl - Helicopter
9. Our American Cousin - One Wish Too Many
10. Tree Fort Angst - You Should've Seen the One That Got Away
11. Crayon - All the Stars
12. Jane Pow - Shutdown
13. Whorl - I Love Her All the Time
14. Small Factory - Hey Lucille
15. Velocity Girl - My Forgotten Favorite
16. Courtney Love - Baseball Bat
17. Lilys - Any Several Sundays
18. Black Tambourine - We Can't Be Friends
19. Wimp Factor 14 - Change of Address Kit

Kiss

V/A. Lets Try Another Ideal Guest House.

1. A.C. Temple - Make Mine Money
2. Bats - Block of Wood
3. Close Lobsters - Let's Make Some Plans
4. Dragsters - Fine Sense of Humour
5. Flatmates - Heaven is Blue
6. Hermit Crabs - Surfin' Vietnam
7. Househunters - Househunting
8. Laugh! - Shed Caved In
9. McTells - It Happens
10. Passmore Sisters - Difficult
11. The Pleasureheads - Something You're Above
12. Stars of Heaven - All About You
13. Talulah Gosh - My Boy Says
14. Television Personalities - Miracles Take Longer
15. A Witness - Faglane Maurice Wind
16. 3-Action - If I Only Had the Guts
17. 14 Iced Bears - Like a Dolphin
18. 1000 Violins - Beautiful Shirt

Guesthouse

V/A. Take 5.

A mixture of "awkward" and indie-pop. Plus Spacemen 3. My favorite part is the way Death By Milkfloat shouts "YOU LOOK WEIRD!".

1. King of the Slums - Spider Psychiatry
2. Cud - Treat Me Bad
3. Yukio Yung - Jean Gabin
4. Dog Faced Hermans - Yellow Girls
5. Death By Milkfloat - Vagrancy
6. Kilgore Trout - Peacock Nose
7. Jackdaw With Crowbar - Lies
8. Bachelor Pad - You'll Be Mine
9. House of Love - Plastic
10. Boy Hairdressers - Assumption as an Elevator
11. Spacemen 3 - Rollercoaster

Take 5

V/A. The Waaaaah! CD.

A fantastic collection of indie and janglepop bands from Bring On Bull Records. The fine folks who ran it have made their entire catalog available for download on their webpage.

1. Kind- The House (A Dream)
2. Dufflecoats- Sunny Tuesday Afternoon
3. Home and Abroad- Wipe Those Tears Away
4. Field Mice- Other Galaxies
5. Strawberry Story- Ashlands Road
6. Fat Tulips- James
7. Dalek Beach Party- Way Out West
8. Haywains- Dusty Springfield
9. They Go Boom- Body
10. Confetti- Warm
11. Confetti- Jenny
12. Bedflowers- My Ex- Lovers Address
13. Cesspit Rebels- Cabbage
14. Cesspit Rebels- Deodorant Face
15. Haywains- Kill Karaoke
16. Music Seen- Friend Of AFriend
17. Red Alarm Clocks- Cobwebs
18. White Town- We'll Always Have Paris
19. Duglasettes- Bellshill's Son
20. Dalek Beach Party- Teddy Boy's Picnic
21. Music Seen- Hairdresser In The Sky
22. Dufflecoats- Uncertain
23. Home And Abroad- Smokey Town
24. Fluff, Fluff, Fluff, Fluff and Cuddleyness- I'm not ashamed
25. Cudgels- Summer Colours

Part 1
Part 2

V/A. Audacious (Lovely Records).

1. Are You Mr. Riley? - I'll Love You Tomorrow
2. Fat Tulips - The Way Things Are
3. Toy Department - Nursery
4. Strawberry Story - Buttercups and Daisies
5. Fat Tulips - Where's Clare Grogan Now (Original Demo)
6. St Christopher - All Of A Tremble (Live)
7. Home And Abroad - Christopher
8. Patrick Skelly And The Prescriptions - Oranges and Lemons
9. The Waiting List - Hide
10. PO - Ever Been Had
11. Those Naughty Corinthians - Butter Mountain
12. The Volunteers - Migraine
13. Jane From Occupied Europe - Little Valley Town
14. The Losers - Bad Day
15. Those Naughty Corinthians - Pie
16. The Keatons - Remain
17. The Moving Jelly Brothers - Girl Moneypleasure Rides Again
18. Megacity Four - Holiday Song
19. Thrilled Skinny - Pop Star Prat
20. Watch You Drown - It's My World
21. Megacity Four - Behind Closed Doors

Audacious

V/A. Sprat and Mackerel Compilation Extravaganza.

Some insanely good contributions by eminently weird bands.

1. Jackdaw with Crowbar - Sailor Soul Survivor
2. The Shrubs - Ballet Gorilla (live)
3. Datblygu - Hen Ysgol Cloff
4. The Noseflutes - Shallow for Deep
5. The Membranes - Electric Storm
6. Sperm Wails - Lady Chatterly's Lover
7. Plant Bach Offnus - Pyrdredd
8. Howl In the Typewriter - Water Yr Plants
9. Howl In the Typewriter - Close
10. The Noseflutes - Girth
11. The Lungs - The Day James Cagney Died

Sprat

The Tears. The Tears.

The best teenage garage punk band ever to emerge from Algoma, Wisconsin. There's nothing on here that's new or groundbreaking or life-changing or original, but so what? It's loud, fast, ferocious, and just wants to rock the fuck out, and what more can you ask of four kids (two guys, two sisters) in a garage? Shit, they're way tighter and more melodious, and've got buckets more energy and spirit than most bands in this vein. I guarantee you your band wasn't anywhere near this good in high school.

Tears

Heavens to Betsy. Calculated.

Corin Tucker has always had one of the best voices in rock. It's like getting hit upside the head by Big Mama Thornton. Plus, she can scream bloody murder or quietly cut you to the emotional quick with equal intensity. Strangely, I find I really miss her interplay with Carrie here in a way I didn't with Excuse 17. Maybe it's because Excuse 17 already had a similar dynamic between Carrie and Becca plus Carrie's ferocious guitar that I ended up liking them a little bit more. If I weren't counting backward from Sleater-Kinney I'm not sure how I would feel.

It's raw, but in a different way than Excuse 17 or even early S-K. They're still casting around for the right feel, and a few of the songs don't really differentiate themselves. But that's a minor quibble true of most young bands. They're definitely on to something, and when they hit it (Axemen, Complicated) it's easy to see what sort of greatness lay ahead. I think they put Corin's voice too low in the mix, and too often I find myself thinking that she really needs Carrie's slashing sound to underpin her anger, but that's just my problem. The whole thing's a bit like a feminist zine in album form (the word "privilege" makes a number of appearances): messy, heartfelt, exciting, still figuring things out; the sort of thing that would get passed around hand to hand like a secret gift, a key, the thing that says you are not alone.

Calculated

Heavens to Betsy on myspace

Excuse 17. Such Friends Are Dangerous.

It's a disservice to remember this band solely as the practice run at Sleater-Kinney, but then again, S-K were so monumental, so earth-shaking that it can hardly end up any other way. Listening to this again for the first time in ten or so years, I'm amazed at how well-formed, confident, and bone-cuttingly visceral they were. Of the two pre-Sleater-Kinney bands, (we'll get to Corin's Heavens to Betsy tomorrow), Excuse 17 sound the most like what's to come, with their dual, tangled, razor-wire guitar attack, back and forth vocals, gut-wrenching screams, and sense of moral urgency.

Like much of the work Carrie's associated with, it's an album of catharsis. Whether on the bouncy standout track Watchmaker (a dig at music journalists and scenesters), the painful This is Not Your Wedding Song, or the biting The Drop Dead Look, their combination of pure punk fury and tight musicianship is some pretty righteous shit, no matter what came next.

Such Friends

Excuse 17 on myspace

Them Wranch. Medium Rare.

Them Wranch say they're from Columbus, Ohio, but really they hail from any seedy bar where cowpunk, surf, garage rock, roots music, and psychobilly meet up to swill diesel fuel, steal your girlfriend, and convince you to let them crash on your couch. And somewhere along the way they will rock you like a sweaty hurricane.

Recommended activities while listening: 1. Burnin' past the fuzz while haulin' moonshine in your custom Mercury lead sled; 2. Bare knuckled boxing with an orangutan; 3. Converting your riding lawnmower/barc-o-lounger/dog into a nitro burning funny car.

Medium Rare

Them Wranch official website

Them Wranch on myspace

Leningrad Blues Machine. Leningrad Blues Machine.

I don't know what it is about Japan, but for the last two decades or so they've turned out more atomic-monster sized rawk bands than anywhere else on the planet. Add Leningrad Blues Machine (not from Leningrad, not really playing the blues, probably lying about being machines) to the list. Although lead guitarist and vocalist Tabata Mitsuru has been in Acid Mothers Temple, The Boredoms, and Zeni Geva, Leningrad Blues Machine dabbles in none of their abstract, scribbly freak-outs and instead offers up righteous slabs of "traditional", brain-melting, psychedelic awesomeness.

Roman Castavet makes me think of Red Krayola and Boris covering something from Echo and the Bunnymen's Crocodiles. Woodstock Monster sounds like L7's Pretend We're Dead and Nirvana's Aneurysm holding hands and headbanging at a Hawkwind concert (even weirder, considering this was recorded in '88). And Moon & Milk Bar builds into something resembling one of the Butthole Surfer's old brown-acid instrumentals (In fact, several of their songs display the type of psych-damaged heaviosity that the Flaming Lips burned through on Hear It Is, and both records reference Eddie Cochran's Summertime Blues).

They have at least two more albums, although I haven't had any luck finding anyplace that sells them outside of Japan. If you know where to get them, leave a note in the comments, please.

Leningrad Blues Machine

Leningrad Blues Machine website (in Japanese)

The High Violets. 44 Down.

I was pretty sure these guys were British (probably as a result of discovering them in a record store during my one trip overseas), but it turns out they're from Portland. They could easily have been some lost band from the early 90s prime dream-pop/shoegaze period, sounding as they do like an otherworldly mix of The Field Mice, The Cocteau Twins, MBV, Lush, Spaceman 3, Galaxie 500, and Julee Cruise. Cool angelic vocals, waves of white light climaxes, and spooling gossamer guitar chaos make this perfect dorm-room make-out music. It's like mirrorballs as satellites.

44 Down

High Violets on myspace

Henry's Dress. Henry's Dress.

Long before founding the divine Aislers Set, Amy Linton fronted this noise-pop garage band on Slumberland Records. Here, her sweet, laid-back voice floats atop peals of crisp feedback and heavy bass-lines that judder and thump like a dragster down a dirt road. Chopping down early Jesus & Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine, and Black Tambourine into a Phil Spectorish girl-group sound, Henry's Dress made heavily distorted and immensely fun bursts of messy pop.

Henry's Dress

Henry's Dress on myspace

An old interview with the band

Stereolab. Rose, My Rocket-Brain!.

It's Stereolab. You either love them or haven't cared since Dots and Loops. This was a single from the Margerine Eclipse tour and sounds pretty much exactly like what you expect it to sound like. I actually think they're a little more on the ball here than they were on the album. The space-age bachelor pad muzak has a lot more punch than they'd recently managed, and never overstays its welcome. I never saw them in concert that they didn't rock the hell out of everything they played. I only wish they'd gotten around to putting that sound on record.

Rose

Stereolab on myspace

Official Stereolab website

The Loft. Once Round the Fair: The Loft 1982-1985.

I remember a professor once saying that the worst thing you could write about something is that it was “nice”. The Loft are nice, and I am totally OK with that. It’s music for when you feel fine; when the weather’s good; when you’ve grabbed a book and decided to stay in bed. For the most part, they wrote mid-paced songs with mid-range vocals, but managed to give them just enough of an edge with well deployed spiky guitars lines and a little bit of grit and self-deprecation. The stand out is, of course, Up the Hill and Down the Slope, which I’ve rhapsodized about before. It’s an instant classic of the genre; all tangled guitars and crooked melodies that feels just like rolling and flailing your way down a grassy hill as a kid. To their credit, The Loft got in there early (only recording between 1982 and 1985 and putting out a handful of singles and a Peel session) and, along with bands like the June Brides and Biff Bang Pow, helped create the indie-pop template of perfecting your imperfections.

Once Round

The Loft info from Creation Records

The Loft on myspace

The McTells. What Happens Next.

Like most bands of the C-86 era, The McTells made idiosyncratic and amateurish music. They sound a bit like The Cananes and the Modern Lovers falling down the stairs together.

What Happens Next

The McTells on myspace

Pigbros. Cheap Life & Just Call Me God.

The bros add a wailing sax to beef up their sound and turn out some excellent, stomping, danceable punk. Parts of this make me think some 1960's spy movie theme as written by a less gothy Bauhaus crossed with The Birthday Party in a really good mood.

Cheap Life
Just Call Me God

Pigbros. The Blubberhouses.

I think I first heard Pigbros on the Commercially Unfriendly compilation, doing the kick-ass War Food. "There must be something radically wrong here..." True of them and many of the other bands from their scene (The Membranes, A Witness, Bogshed). There's something about the way their songs progress that reminds me of Kodos' proclamation that "we must move forward, not backward, upward not forward, and always twirling, twirling, twirling towards freedom!".

Here's an unexpectedly glittery video.

Blubberhouses

Bonecloud. Teenage Lycanthropy.

Way back in high-school when I had dreams of being an artist, I wanted to make what I thought of as "dry art"; things made out of dust and cobwebs and stale air that functioned analytically as much as poetically. I read later that Duchamp had coined the same term (art sec in French). Bonecloud seem to have embraced the same idea for their music. Even their name conjures images of dessicated nothingness (it also might work if they were a Norwegian death metal band). This album, especially, makes me think of what William Basinski might sound like as a live act; crumbling bits of accumulated notes, silver dust from the backs of antique mirrors, a midden of cellular detritus under a cold sun.

Teenage Lycanthropy

Bonecloud on myspace

Honey Tongue. Nude Nudes.

I can't decide if a Breeders/Spiritualized collaboration would be awesome or impossible. This album doesn't answer that question anyway, despite featuring Josephine Wiggs and Jon Mattock. It sounds more like Nico recovering from a hangover with the Young Marble Giants. Released way back in 1992 and completely overwhelmed by the success of their respective "proper" bands, this is a decidedly eccentric affair and clearly the baby of two people who wanted to do something that wouldn't be recognized by fans expecting incandescent pop or sonic bombast. Although Josephine played every instrument other than drums, it all sounds as if they just sat down together in front of the mic with an acoustic guitar and a little drum kit and played the album through direct to tape. It's spare and intimate with snaky melodies and a slightly nervous edge. I find it a bit dour, although Driver (which I think the Breeders occasionally covered live) and Like a Lobster are both quite good.

Tongue

The Weather Prophets. Temperance Hotel.

Guitarist/vocalist Peter Astor formed The Weather Prophets with drummer Dave Morgan immediately after their previous band, The Loft, called it quits. Astor had gotten fed up with the indie scene and the lack of control he'd had over The Loft, and purposefully picked musicians from outside its world to round out the new band. Unfortunately, much like The Loft, the new band couldn't seem to catch a break. They didn't fit too well with the direction their new label, Creation, was going in, and they were still making great jangle pop when the rest of the country was just starting to turn to dance music and Madchester. They hung around long enough to put out three pretty good albums. Temperance Hotel adds a collection of outtakes, b-sides and live bits to their legacy.

You may notice that Mayflower sounds familiar, since it's yet another reworking of The Loft's Up Hill and Down the Slope that also got incorporated into one of the Caretaker Race's songs. That's OK. The Weather Prophets bring a rather Kinks-ian approach to their indie pop, and if we learned anything from Ray Davies it's that if a song is worth writing once, it's good enough to be written twice. Loft fans will notice that Why Does the Rain makes another appearance here, too. (It occurs to me that I haven't put up anything by The Loft, an oversight I'll try to correct next week).

Hotel

Weather Prophets on myspace

Official website

V/A. Something's Burning In Paradise Again.

The volume drops off a bit between the Field Mice and the Volunteers, though not to unlistenable levels. It's just a shame because the Field Mice's cover of the Feelies' Loveless Love is wonderful, and I don't think I've ever seen it anywhere else. I looked around, and everybody's copy seems to have this fault. Apparently it was original to the tape.

1. Poke It With A Stick - He's Bloody Happy
2. Throw That Beat In the Garbagecan - Just 16
3. The Wildhouse - Everything I Hate
4. Shrug - Fear & Violence On the Last Bus Home
5. Thrilled Skinny - Pop Star Prat
6. The Locations - I Keep Wondering Why
7. The Vinegar Blossoms - Quality Seems Totally Foreign to Me!
8. Those Naughty Corinthians - Butter Mountain
9. The Keatons - French Bench
10. The Field Mice - Loveless Love
11. Bobby Scarlet - Steppenwolf
12. The Windmills - 360 °
13. Charlotte's Web - The Train for June
14. Apple Moths - Everything
15. The Volunteers - Long Wavy Random Arm (Do It)
16. The Losers - Down at the Bottom Where You Belong
17. The Harbour Pilots - Orchid Sunrise
18. Debonaire - The Distance
19. This Poison! - Driving Skills
20. St. Christopher - Our Secret

Again

V/A. Something's Burning In Paradise.

There's a thesis in here somewhere for anyone who wants to analyze the fetish/artifact nature of releases like these. I have no idea if the sound quality was better in first generation tapes, but something about the xeroxed quality of the (already lo-fi) music makes it seem more authentic and valuable. It's like listening to ancient field recordings of blues musicians on 78s; if you could travel back in time and make fresh, digital copies, it would suck all the life and soul out of it. It's the found quality that makes it feel so special (doubly so, since most of these bands never went on to anything else). I half wonder if any of these tapes were made in the first place. It seems much more likely that each and every one appeared ahistorically in a dusty shoebox underneath a bed in an abandoned flat.

1. The Pilgrims - Chemically Yours
2. Emil - Raining In My Heart
3. Another Sunny Day - I Want You
4. Thrilled Skinny - Love Rut/Knee On Sea
5. Slob - Mister Ugly
6. Mousefolk - Grannies Cake Crisis
7. The Ruth Ellis Swing Band - I Would Have Saved You
8. Remember Fun - Cold Inside
9. The Candy Darlings - Southern Line
10. The Paper Tulips - Not Fair
11. The McTells - This Afternoon (Version)
12. James Dean Driving Experience - Drop Dead Darling
13. The Wilderness Children - 15 Minutes Fame
14. Emily - Really Mad Dogs (Dance Mix I)
15. The Librarians - Irene Handl Knew My Postman
16. The Benjamins - The Way Things Are
17. Buy Off the Bar - There's No Fridge On The Bristol Bridge (Live)
18. Girl of My Best Friend - Throwaway Girl
19. The Driscolls - Groovy Little Town (Acoustic)
20. The Mayfields - Season's Pass
21. St. Christopher - To The Mountain

Paradise

The White Foliage. Zurich.

What with the holidays coming, this would be great music to make out to underneath fresh sprigs of holly and Christmas-tree lights. Considering it was recorded through the mail by a pair of love-struck nineteen year olds in North Dakota, it's an astonishingly gorgeous and mature album. Awash in french horns, delicate banjo, and buoyed here and there with elecrtonic flourishes, they make me think of a Baroque, chamber-pop version of the Circulatory System. There's that same sort of textural psychedelia that's just far away enough from folk music to be receiving smoke signals from Charalambides. It's very "woody" music. Nothing tinny about it at all.

Gorn.

Zurich

Buy It

White Foliage online

White Foliage on myspace

Men of Westenesse. Are You Brothers?.

Another long lost british indie-pop band from the late 80s. You may have heard their song Boating on The Sound of Leamington Spa Vol. 5. They only released one ep back in the day, which you can now find here, along with eleven other unreleased songs. They remind me a bit of Hey Paulette or the Bodines. Well worth a listen.

Brothers

An interview with Guy De Cruz

14 Iced Bears. Let the Breeze Open Our Hearts.

Breeze is a compilation of their debut album and a number of singles that cover about a year and a half of the Bears' history, and as such, feels a bit more disjointed than the epic Wonder, or even the Slumberland collection of their early C-86 material. It's still essential since they released so little, and there is some unquestionably great stuff on here. It definitely sounds like a mid-period record, as they try to build their early sound into something more momentous. They're just beginning to explore the shoegaze and neo-psychedelic sounds that would find full flower on Wonder. Rise, World I Love, Falling Backwards, and Moths are all dreamy, woozy, giddy bursts of bright, sparkling, psychedelic pop. There's even a ripping live take on Pink Floyd's Interstellar Overdrive.

Open Our Hearts

14 Iced Bears on myspace

Datblygu. The Peel Sessions 1987-1993.

From the BBC biography:

A highly influential post-punk band, Datblygu dabbled in everything from dub to rock.

Formed by schoolboys David R Edwards and T Wyn Davies in 1982, Datblygu were joined in 1985 by Patricia Morgan. By then four cassettes had been released by the group, Amheuon Corfforol (Body Doubts), Trosglwyddo'r Gwirionedd (Transferring The Truth), Fi Du (Me Black) and Caneuon Serch I Bobl Serchog (Love Songs For Lovers).

At worst the songs are a product of a mind incensed by circumstances. I make no apologies for them.

Datblygu's music was, as their name suggests, often experimental. In their time they played in such diverse styles as disco, country, nursery rhymes, rockabilly, crooning and just about anything else. The NME described them as "Kraftwerk with a hangover". Their debut EP Hwgr Grawth-Og was released in 1986 on Anhrefn. The following year they recorded the first of five John Peel sessions.

The band's attitude towards the artistic bourgeoisie and politicians in Wales liberated a whole generation of bands who certainly owe a debt to the pioneering work done by the band. They were, in their own words, "non conforming non-conformists".

Datblygu were one of the first bands to record modern music in their native Welsh tongue; a language they were forbidden to speak in their own schools. Both Gorky's Zygotic Munci and Super Furry Animals have cited them as a major influence.

This is just one CD, but even at a low bitrate it was too big for mediafire, so I went ahead and split a high quality copy into two parts.

Peel Sessions

Datblygu on myspace

Datblygu fan site (in Welsh)

Bogshed. Step On It.

Bogshed's first official long player, Step On It is just a tad more focused and controlled than their usual level of derangement, but they still pack it full of unplayable guitar riffs, bludgeoning bass lines, and opaque sloganeering. As always, it's magnificently, aggressively awkward.

Step On It

Unofficial Website

Bogshed on myspace

Bogshed. Morning Sir.

"I once ran into a pillar and knocked myself stone-cold out, dancing to Bogshed."
(someone reminiscing on the web)

That sounds about right. I should hope similar tributes occurred at every Bogshed gig. They poured a boundless amount of energy into their mayhem, and listening to them is likely to inspire a similar lack of self-regard for personal safety. Rock out 'til you knock out.

Morning Sir

Unofficial website

Boghsed on myspace

Bogshed. Brutal.

I love that they were originally called The Amazing Roy North Penis Band. That they made supremely weird, herky-jerky, spazztastic, monstrous, thrash-pop should come as no surprise. Just brilliant in every way.

Brutal

Unofficial website

Bogshed on myspace

Bogshed. Tried and Tested Public Speaker.

Like Captain Beefheart suffering from St. Vitus' dance. You'll find them either terribly fantastic or fantastically terrible. And they will eat you alive.

Public Speaker

Unofficial Website

Bogshed on myspace

Bogshed. Let Them Eat Bogshed.

Bogshed thrash and stomp with all the precision and grace of an amputee ballet recital. Which is to say, actually quite well, but with a rhythm and meter that shocks you out of seeing what's underneath. There was something ingeniously imperfect about them that made them all the more exciting. The more I listen to them, and other like minded bands, the more shocked I am at how little they are remembered. Someone desperately needs to put together a box set of the "Death to Trad Rock" bands.

You can grab a live set from them here.

Eat

Unofficial Bogshed Website

Bogshed on myspace

Les Rallizes Dénudés. '77 Live.

When the end of the world comes, it will be a relief. Sister Ray prepared the way, and now Les Rallizes Dénudés have given us a glimpse of the disintegration awaiting us in the universe's sub-atomic foam, and there is nothing to fear. There is no afterlife, and no one is being punished. Creation and destruction are merely different verses of the same song.

Oh holy fuck...Guitars are slowly burning...It is the ecstasy of noise that prevails...

This is the ur-sound; the abyss and pinnacle of rock. It seems like it has been playing forever, but this is undoubtedly their finest moment. Every song on here feels like the GREATEST SONG EVER, and then you hear the next one and it's even better.

Disc one welcomes you gently, building slowly from Enter the Mirror's sparse guitar carefully filling the empty space, gradually joined by a wandering base and minimal drumming as Mizutani ratchets up the tension and squall. it's followed by their most "song-like" moment, Night of the Assassin. This song alone could power all the primordial engines at the Earth's core. Yes, they are playing the bass line from Little Peggy March's 1963 hit, I Will Follow Him. No, I don't know why. It's hypnotic in the extreme, and it will keep you sane when Mizutani rips off the veil of reality with the most painfully exhilarating guitar shriek-out ever recorded.

By disc two, you are subsumed in a massive sea of feedback; an infinity of noise and obliteration. The peace that surpasses understanding is pure annihilation. This is the holy grail of sound.

Disc 1
Disc 2

Gaze. Shake the Pounce.

The second (and final) album from the Calvin Johnson approved indie sweethearts. It's more bitter-sweet, jangly, confessional pop with a punk heart. Overall, it's a tad more melancholy than Mitsumeru, but their cover of Game Theory's Nine Lives to Rigel Five will make you happier than a kitten on the moon.

Shake

Gaze on myspace

Kitchen and the Plastic Spoons. Best Off.

Wonderfully manic, deranged, tightly-wound, minimal, cold-wave synth band that sounded like a Teutonic Siouxsie fronting Liliput covering Devo. Fantastically barking mad in all the right ways. This was out of print for a while, but I believe you can buy a copy from the band on their myspace page.

Now is the time on Sprockets vhen ve dance: Happy Funeral, Liberty, The Poet (kind of bauhaus-y), Filmen, Polska Korridoren, Instrumental

Best Off

K&TPS on myspace

K&TPS official website

Wingdings. Wingdings I: Return to Earth.

Windings traverse the same sunny, intergalactic, hypnagogic, scrambled-tape recesses of space as James Ferraro and Matrix Metals. There are two more Wingdings tapes available from Outer Limits Recordings, all of which come with extensive inserts that read like Dr. Bronner's spaced out cousin explaining his theory of everything.

Return to Earth

Buy a copy

Tuscadero. The Pink Album.

Leather fits in all the right places.

Word on the intertubes is that both Sleater-Kinney and Rilo Kiley nicked Tuscadero's riffs for their own songs. I don't blame them, as this album is a candy-coated classic. It's effortless-gangly-confident-goofy-adorable fun, like sex in high-school.

Heat Lightnin' starts things off with a choppy riff, blitzkrieg drums and a exuberant "Woo!". It's instantly irresistible. Quick as a flash / The Light can ride you / Like having a motorcycle stuck inside you, which pretty aptly describes the whole album. Tuscadero catalog, celebrate and mourn all the tacky splendour and junky fun of growing up in the 70s—songs about board games, the best candies, crayola crayons, Nancy Drew books, their "beaver cleaver neighborhood", and teen idol crushes. What could so easily have come off as unbearably twee is instead non-stop, action-packed, punky pop. I'd bet the Rondelles and Shitt Hottt had Tuscadero in their record colelctions. You should, too.

P.S. This is the original Teenbeat release, not the re-recorded, slicker sounding Electra version (which I haven't heard, but by all accounts, this one is far more amateurishly fun).

Pink

Tuscadero on myspace

The Rondelles. Shined Nickels and Loose Change.

Someone should make a "New Tape Smell" unisex cologne/perfume. Wear it to your next concert and guys or gals old enough to remember would be inextricably drawn to your hazy aura of nostalgia. You'll smell like each person's best memories of youthful musical discovery. It will subliminally make them want to unwrap you. And after they sidle up to you, you can slip them this little album from shoulda-been, indie superstars, The Rondelles. They're fun incarnate. It'll totally get you laid.

Before they were even out of high school The Rondelles had an album under their belt and had toured with Sleater-Kinney and Sonic Youth. In fact, they sound a bit like S-K crossed with the Shangri-Las, with a heavy dose of garage rock fuzz organ and cheerleader choruses. This is actually a collection of their early, vinyl only singles and a handful of new songs, all of them catchier than the swine flu.

Seriously. You're gettin' some.

Shined Nickels

Rondelles on myspace

Yah Jazz. Six Lane Ends.

UPDATE: OK, I've got a new rip linked in the download. There shouldn't be any problems with it playing on "unauthorized" computers. Sorry for that. If you have any more trouble getting it to play, let me know.

Yet another lost 80's British indie band. I can't find much about them online other than who was in it and a list of their albums. They formed in 1983 in Uttoxeter, Staffordshire, if that means anything to you, and are described as having a "folk oriented" sound. If you downloaded The Sound of Leamington Spa Volume 6, you heard their song "Julie and the Sea Lions". They remind me of the Apple Moths, Candy Darlings, Remember Fun, and the Ammonites, or any of the other Leamington Spa bands. Several of the songs seem to be about class issues and display a distinctly down-at-the-heels working class life. "Sharon"—about a guy turning to someone (a girlfriend? an ex?) for help, but angry at his own desperation—is guaranteed to get stuck in your head. "All of My Days" and "Stones" are pretty wonderful, too. They played on and off throughout the 80s and 90s, and later changed their name to Big Red Kite to release an album in Germany (which you can find here).

Six Lane Ends

Yeah Jazz on myspace

Shitt Hottt. Are You There God? it's Me Shitt Hottt.

Shitt Hottt are indeed just that. They are also defunctt (the extra t is for "typo"). Thankfully, before they left the stage, they put out one hell of a kick-ass, sing-along, tambourine-shaking, farsifa-organned, cowbelled, garage-rock, party record. It's like Bratmobile, Tuscadero and Sleater-Kinney got together and wrote a Sweet Valley High concept album over a few too many beers. It's sexy, sloppy, happy music to jump around your bedroom to. "Boxx Damage" and "Tony Danza Dacestravaganza" rule your school.

Are You There God

Shitt Hottt online (you can get a free ep here, too)

Shitt Hottt on myspace

The Grateful Dead & John Oswald. Grayfolded.

I feel like I need to make all sorts of excuses for posting something related to the Grateful Dead as they seem to be the one band permanently barred from hipster/music snob appreciation. I don't think you're even allowed to like them ironically. I never thought they were the greatest band on the planet, but they're not the worst, either. LiveDead is a magnificent album, American Beauty is a ramshackle gem, and other than those two I'm pretty "meh".

This, however, is a magic mushroom of a different color. John Oswald (a way early proponent of the mashup) took twenty years worth of live recordings of the Dead's signature song Dark Star, fed them into his computer, twisted, sliced, folded, and did all sorts of unnatural things to them, and spit out a two hour version that was simultaneously something created by the Dead, but unlike anything they had ever played. Guitar solos from the 60s float atop drums from the 80s. A Chorus of a hundred Garcias are layered into infinity. At other times his voice starts a line, only to stretch out a single note until it melts into the sonic tapestry. It's deep and spacey and, in places, transcendently beautiful. At various times I'm reminded of Hovercraft, Yume Bitsu, Emeralds, and any number of recent, underground, psychedelic tape releases. If you enjoy any combination of turning off your mind, relaxing, or floating downstream, it's worth a listen.

Transitive Axis
Mirror Ashes

Listen to Grayfolded online

John Oswald online

Magic Hour. Will They Turn You on or Will They Turn on You.

Leaf changing music.

After the demise of slowcore giants Galaxie 500, Damon Krukowski and Naomi Yang ventured forward as the even more dreamy (and aptly named) Damon & Naomi. Unbeknownst to even most Galaxie 500 fans they also briefly joined Boston psychedelic/garage fixture Wayne Rogers (of Crystallized Movements) as the new rhythm section of his band, Magic Hour. Still as nimble and light as ever, they added depth and nuance to Wayne's neo-psychedelic style.

Perhaps taking a vacation from themselves, they don't sound anything like their more well known incarnations here. The music is densely textural, at times stately, often erupting into fiery bursts of bright, speaker frying guitar squall. The first five tracks are great, buzzing, college rockers, but the main reason to have this album is the 20 minute jam that closes things out. Passing Words twists and darts like a bottle rocket. Building up to crescendo after breathtaking crescendo, it pauses for a moment to breathe and then erupts once more into a profoundly satisfying guitar freak-out; as crisp and wondrous as the chlorophillic death throes of flame-hued trees scoffing at the winter ahead.

Turn You On

Yamamoto Seiichi & Acid Mothers Temple. Giant Psychedelia.

Yesterday, the end of two weeks of rain announced the first day of Fall: frisky breezes, cool sunlight, deepening shadows stretching away from our bodies like pulled taffy. All I wanted to do was lay in the grass with my girlfriend and feel the pink, pulsating glow of the sun through closed eyelids. It was this sort of weather—crackling with the energy of possibilities—that, back in high school, always had me throwing open my windows and blissing out to Wish You Were Here; the music and cold air raising goose pimples on my skin.

This album would be suitable for either activity. Hooking up with former Boredoms (and Rovo, and Omoide Hatoba) guitarist, Yamamoto Seiichi, the Acids leave (most) of their usual frenetic scribbling behind and aim instead for pure, gorgeous, stardust, hippie nirvana. And god damn do they hit it. Kawabata and Yamamoto meld the acid drenched DNA of Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Dark Star, and their own Pink Lady Lemonade into spiraling, mutating, transcendent comet tails of sound, forever rising into the stratosphere, pushed upwards on gusts of nimble fretboard runs—the necks of their guitars veritable stairways to the heavens.


Disc 1
Disc 2

Windy & Carl and Heavy Winged. Monolith: Earth.

The original vinyl version of this was a lovely, single-sided picture disc with both tracks mixed together, but hard panned to the left and right channels. By adjusting the balance, you could control how much drone you heard in relation to your rock (sort of like Boris' Dronevil, or the Velvet Underground's Murder Mystery). The groove on the vinyl also spiralled out from the center of the record, which was a little confusing at first, since it didn't come with instructions.

Windy & Carl have melted into pure, gorgeous drone that barely shifts or stirs but still manages to entrance and immerse (the CD version, which I'm making available here, has an extended mix of this). Heavy Winged lay down an epic free-rock guitar jam bolstered by primitive, gargantuan drumming. It's surprising how well these tracks work, whether together or alone.

Part one has both of the individual tracks. Part two is the hard-panned stereo mix.

Part 1
Part 2

Windy & Carl official website
Windy & Carl on myspace

Heavy Winged on myspace

V/A. The Future Sounds of Leamington Spa.

UPDATE: OK, I somehow managed to post this without the rather important download link. I'm going to blame a migraine. Or being lost in a sex fog, fantasising about my girlfriend. Either way, it's fixed now.

I came across this collection years ago on Soulseek. It's not an official Leamington Spa release, nor do I know if it was put together by anyone associated with them, or just an enthusiastic fan of their sound. Regardless, it's just as good as the official compilations with some great tracks I haven't heard elsewhere (the contributions from After This and Rabbit's Wedding were particularly good).

1. A Craze - She Is So
2. A Thousand Miles of Sunshine - Jimmy Highlife
3. After This - Fields
4. Company She Keeps - What A Girl Wants
5. Distant Cousins - Concrete Boxes
6. Exhibit B - It's Hypothetical
7. Fat and Frantic - Last Night Mt Wife Hoovered My Head
8. Graham Fellows - Sorry Samantha
9. Hardyboys - Fifteen
10. I-Lands - Back Before the Pain
11. Rabbit's Wedding - Coming Like Summer
12. Sensation - Yesterday Things Got Worse
13. Sensible Jerseys - Go To Work
14. The Boothill Foot Tappers - Jealousy
15. The Boy Hairdressers - Tidal Wave
16. The Bridge - Shame is a Girl
17. The Frontier Scouts - Out of Your Shell
18. The Frontier Scouts - When Daddy Blows His Top
19. The New Colours - Do You Want to Pray
20. The Future Kings - Bury My Heart
21. Wake Up Afrika - Simple Words

Future Sounds

V/A. The Sound of Leamington Spa. Volume 6.

1. Gradapenda Rosindale - Bad Days Must End
2. Company Of Cowards - Summer Story
3. Rumblefish - Medicine
4. The Candie Maids - Threadbare
5. Who The Hell Does Jane Smith Think She Is - Use Imagination
6. Easter And The Totem - Acid Reign
7. The Decemberists - James Is (Still The Same)
8. The Artisans - All I Ever Wanted
9. The Hyacinth Girls - Sometimes You're Incredible
10. The Sullivans - Standing On
11. Bookemdanno - BJs
12. Yeah Jazz - Julie And The Sealions
13. Plume - Everything I Need
14. Ginger Bottles - Goldfish
15. A Riot Of Colour - House
16. The Applicants - Say Goodbye
17. Mirrors Over Kiev - Different Girl
18. The Jactars - Not Seen, Not Heard
19. Lilac Trumpets - My Heart Bleeds
20. The Potting Sheds - Matches
21. Emily - Merri-Go-Round

Volume 6

The Sound of Leamington Spa info on TweeNet