Pigs

 

Bountiful Living (1978)

Chi-Pig were from Akron, Ohio. Akron had a really great and very strange music scene in the late 70's that's never really gotten the credit it deserves. Pere Ubu and Devo get the hipster namechecks but there was a lot of really good and really strange shit bubbling under the surface that nobody knew about at the time. If this had been released in NYC or London, somebody'd be waxing rhapsodic about it. It wasn't. They don't. I like it a lot. It's got that something about it. It's got that certain joy in making music for the sake of having fun vibe about it. They seem like very nice folks too.

If you're really ambitious and want to spend money Soul Jazz put out decent compilation of Akron stuff recently that's as good an introduction as you're likely to find until I get around to digitizing all the Clone Records that I've got. (Including a pile NOS things I dug up in Chicago last month.) Buy that first and salivate a bit to build up your appetite.

Happy Birthday Sweet 16 (1979)

Clive Pig is apparently a children's entertainer now. Good for him.

The A-side of this is a fucking brilliant ode to the various trials, tribulations and awkward frustrations being a teenager without any of the sentimental bullshit. Because they may end up being the best years of your life, but that generally just goes to show how fucking dismal the rest of your existence gets.

It's got a toe tapping beat too.