Kindercore Single of the Month Club: July, August

We continue....

  July

Dressy Bessy & the Four Corners

Another peripheral Elephant 6 band in which Apples in Stereo guitarist, John Hill also played. They're very adorable and a boy could have had quite a crush on Tammy Ealon. Their first cd "Pink Hearts Yellow Moons" is quite fun. (Unfortunately it seems like there seems to be much less emphasis in singing in tune on the follow up discs which kind of mars my personal enjoyment.)  I have no idea who the Four Corners are. The do a cover of Spinal Tap's "Gimme Some Money"

  August

Etienne Charry & Babalu

No clue. Enjoy.

Kindercore Single of the Month Club: May, June

Here we go again.

  May

Great Lakes were one of the slightly later generation of Elephant 6 Recording Co. bands but no less good. I listened to their first cd a lot when it came out. Elf Power were a mainstay E6 group and I saw them live a number of time with various other E6 bands. Quite enjoyable live. For this one Great Lakes nail a cover of the Zombies "This Will Be Our Year", while Elf Power bang out the Byrds "Feel a Whole Lot Better" It's a good time to be alive.

  June

Vermont & the Mendoza Line

These two were unknowns to me and remain so. You know how to google, don't you? Pleasant pop songs all around

Kindercore Single of the Month Club: March, April

And now for the next installment of the 2000 Kindercore Single of the Month Club

  March

Japancakes & I am the World Trade Center

I don't doubt that a year later that second band may have regretted their choice of name. Japancakes give us a sweet instrumental with steel guitar. I Am the World Trade Center do a Promise Ring cover.

  April

Chronicle Ape & the New Sound and Freedom Goose & the New Situationalists

Evidence suggests that both of the musique concrete audio collages heard here were the work of the Frosted Ambassador, aka Eric Harris, the drummer for Olivia Tremor Control. Drop a tab and partake if you dare.

Kindercore Single of the Month Club - January, February

Way back in 1999 I forked over something like fifty bucks cash up front to Kindercore Records to join in on their proposed Single of the Month Club. It was a fair chunk of change to me at the time. (Still is, actually) But it seemed like a brilliant concept. I give them money and they send me one brand new and usually exclusive split seven inch record by various bands.

Some of these bands I already knew and like, a few were various Elephant Six Recording Co. projects that I wanted to keep up on and mostly

I like pop songs and getting mail. It was a win-win.

And with various kerfuffles and mix ups and outright fuck ups etc... Things came out of proposed order and the final two singles for November and December never actually materialized. I waited and waited, but they just never happened. The identity of the last four bands on those last two is lost to me in the mists of time with the internet strangely enough being of no help in the matter. I do remember being kind of disappointed because at least on of those lost singles was one of the reasons I joined in the first place.

 

 January

My First Keyboard & Marshmallow Coast

 

February

Wolfie & Kincaid

I set the records aside as they came in with the idea that instead of listening to them individually I'd for whatever reason save them all up for the entire year and listen to them all at once in one fell swoop and then make a big compilation tape to listen to at work. I never ended up getting around to it. So after fourteen years I find myself finally sitting down and listening to them and while making these little sonic packets for sharing. There's some good stuff.

I probably shouldn't have waited.

Blah Blah Pop Songs Blah Blah Blah

Barnabys (1992) 

I got nothing. Here are a couple of  nice pop records a couple of decades apart.

 Back to Zero (1979)

I Got Nothing Really.

I got nothing to say, but stuff to post. Here's a couple more 12" records.

 

Charlotte Pressler (with the Styrenes) (1982)

I know nothing of Charlotte Pressler. There isn't much on the internet. She's backed by the ever fabulous and underrated Styrenes for this one. A band that formed in that never credited enough Cleveland scene in 1975 and eventually moved East  to that really rather overrated NYC scene at some point after. They released a handful of lovely and essential things worth tracking down. ("Drano in your Veins" remains ever a favorite in my tiny little world)

The A side of this is a spoken word piece by Ms. Pressler with a fine musical accompaniment by the Styrenes. The B side is the same music accompaniment without the spoken word part which makes for quite enjoyable listening on its own but can also function for Charlotte Pressler karaoke which I can only imagine is the highlight of any social affair.

Impotent Sea Snakes (1984)

The cover of this alone was worth the whatever paltry amount I shelled out for this beauty. It screams half assed high school punk band. Certainly not something you'd ever want to use to pad out a graphic design portfolio, but sometimes you have to let the significant other make the cover if want to continue to get some. They were from Tampa, Florida.

This is the Impotent Sea Snakes first effort and it appears that they did evolve into quite the elaborate performance artists with costumes and dancers and nudity and everything a boy could ask for including an endorsement from Ron Jeremy.  The band wants to shock, offend and amuse you. Totally punk rock. Starting out with "Pope John Paul Can Suck My Dick" you kind of can get an idea of where the rest of this is heading. It's all very junior high school with a not overly special punk rock backing and ending with an out of nowhere relatively straight cover of Martha & the Vandellas "Heatwave"  where the singer didn't quite learn the lyrics particularly accurately. For me the highlight of the whole experience would be "I Wanna Fuck Your Dad" which seems to hit the intended mark a bit more than some of the other songs. You can decided for yourself