Upgrading

As long as I'm here.

Pyramid Landing and Other Favorites (1997)

I was looking at my Marbles folder and realized I needed to upgrade the rips for this disc.
So here we are. More of the Robert Schneider solo stuff from the previous post in a long playing compact disc format.

Life is good and it's Summer.

That Guy in That One Band

Multitasking is messing with my head.

It's also dinner time and I need to take a shower.

Nevertheless I persist.

Go Marilee (1997)

As stated in the the insert, this Marbles is just Robert Schneider better known as the driving force behind Apples in Stereo doing his own solo recording schtick.

I reflexively purchased anything with the Elephant Six logo on it.
I have no regrets.

Sweet lo-fi pop songs.

That's a good thing.

I Love the Summer (1998)

More of the same.

 If you're familiar with Apples in Stereo then you have an idea of Mr. Schneider's writing and recording style.

It's the perfect stuff of making mixtapes for girls.

What's not to love?

What Was Once Modern is Now Outdated

I tried for a solid five minutes.
I've also cleared some chaff out of the "to Post" file folder. It's kind of liberating.

Modern Kids (1983)

I couldn't seem to find much of anything about this band. Way too many broad and generic words in all of it to come up with much. I got bored. I also misplaced the record itself for about five minutes. (It was on an empty shelf rather than properly filed.)

The back of the Mini Lp lists a Denver, CO address.

The record itself is some AOR style New Wave. Not exactly a "lost classic" but interesting enough for what it is and obscure enough to warrant a post.

So here we go.

So pop your collar, slap on a skinny tie and hit the Mall for an Orange Julius with this in your walkman while you shop for a new Members Only jacket...

It's a seven song sense memory machine...

Not Much Really Needs Saying for This to Make Its Point

I'm not doing anything of any importance tonight.

Least of all this post.

But it is as the kids say "Lit AF!"

My Dad's a Fuckin' Alcoholic (1983)

This is Frantix. I paid more money for this seven inch record than I had ever previously spent on a record. Not a huge amount in record collecting terms, but more than I've ever been willing to part with for a piece of vinyl.

I have no regrets. It's a fucking monster of a record and makes me happy.
That's what life is all about.

Masochist in Drag (1983)

I also got this single by Golden Gate Jumpers recently too. It doesn't tickle my fancy to quite the same extent, but it cost me considerably less. Perhaps if one were to quantify things like comparison shopping they may just about even out in terms of the cost to enjoyment ratio.
If one was able to make a math of such things.

This is the fourth of four singles that James Freeman made under this moniker.

According to his website:

"After a stint of cabaret singing and stand up comedy, Freeman has returned his focus to musical composition in a new light, combining jazz and classical, seeking a spiritual vision."

So yeah, there's that too. 

It does not appear that he has updated anything since June of 2016.

The Elephant 6 Recording co.

The Elephant 6 Recording co. A loose collective of friends and bands that put out lots and lots of varied and interesting things throughout the 90's with long involved names and mostly done independently and at home. Anything with that logo was like a stamp of approval for me and I'd buy it without blinking or question and for the most part thoroughly enjoy it for the longest time. I really enjoyed the modern lo-fi aesthetics (born as much out of necessity as conscious decision) that took certain aspects of 60's Pop & Psych and fed through a meat grinder into a 4-track machine. It worked for me. I'm a sucker for a good trippy pop song.

 Hypnotic Suggestion

My introduction was Apples in Stereo and it was happenstance that would lead me down the rabbit hole for a long time to come. Their first single was released on the Bus Stop Label. I liked Bus Stop records. I bought the Apples in Stereo one. I liked it. I noticed the little Elephant 6 Recording co. logo on the record and started seeing it on other things.

 

Small Fi. no. 4

I got this one for the Apples in Stereo and found myself introduced to Olivia Tremor Control. The bands would tour and I'd go and see them. Apples in Stereo played with Olivia Tremor Control in the 7th St Entry and had some guy who called himself Neutral Milk Hotel playing with them and so one and so forth and then I got a computer and hooked onto the interwebs and a universe opened up and rained down glorious music upon us all and I end up with a drawer full of aging t shirts of nearly every E6 band that came through ton at some point in the following decade and fond memories & impressions of a lot of shows. And everybody lived happily ever after, amen. You should have been there.

A couple of things I like a lot

Your Funeral were from Denver, CO. They were three piece. The members were Jeri Rossi, Karen Sheridan and Cleo Tilde. They put out this really nice dark and somewhat gothic single in 1982 before disbanding. Jeri moved to Boston which is where I met her when we both worked at a sandwich shop in Kenmore Square for a while. I liked working with her.

 

Your Funeral (1982)

After moving to Boston she formed a really good band called Black Cat Bone. It is always a relief when somebody you're friendly with is in a good band so that you're not having to constantly make excuses why you don't go to their shows. Black Cat Bone unfortunately never got around to releasing any music, but they did make a video for their version of "I Want to be You" which is a lovely little time capsule of the mid-80's as experienced. Perfect Sound Forever did a long interview with Ms. Rossi a few years back. Read it.

There's probably not much to say about this single or this band. It's the first single. I love the A side. It's everything you could have loved about this band. The B side initially comes off as a total throwaway, but it's got a lot more going for it after a couple listens. Both sides got added to the reissue of the first lp. Buy that.

 

First Single

I'm not going to even type the band's name. (We'll see how long this lasts before some bot finds it and has me take it down.) I pulled it out because half the band has gotten back together to play a few shows, one of which is at the MN State Fair coming up (as I type this anyway in late August). It's not personally worth sixty bucks to me to see them now. I saw them twice in the 80's. One a smoking all ages show at the Channel where they were relatively sober and a second time after the major label debut where front man was so drunk he couldn't finish a song. The band kicked him off the stage and pulled up the lead singer for the opening band, Barrence Whitfield, to sing whatever songs they could figure out the both knew. It was an entertaining shambles of an evening.