Long Time in the Bin

 

Getting ahead of a single queued post because I still have a lot of crap to do in order for this new apartment to resemble a place that people currently live rather than one where people are actively moving out of with piles of boxes everywhere.

 

 Welcome to Maryland (1984)

Braille Party.

I like others have really no idea what to say about it. It's all over the place. And there's kind of something for everyone here in a jumble of styles and sounds. Most will probably come for the loud fast hardcore-ish songs, but I'm not you.

I'm not even sure how I feel about it except that it's sat in the "SSC To Post" bin for a couple of years now since I picked it up on a wonderful trip to the nation's capital seemingly a lifetime ago.

Give it a whirl.

Another One Just Because

I need to blow my nose.

And it's an accidentally Maryland post today.
It was unintentional, but it's nice when things come together like that.

If you've been following along at home I can tell you right now that it's somewhere around here in the Swinging Singles Club "To Post" folder that my vinyl collecting and listening pleasure turned to almost exclusively 90s - early 00s indiepop.

If I've survived the COVID-19, expect a lot of that shit in the coming months.
You're welcome or forewarned whichever fits.

Bright Coloured Lights (2000)

Ok, released in 2000, but the recordings date to  1992, so there's that.

It's one of the hundreds of bands that Pam Berry was part of and as is the case with all of them, I like it enough that you get the insert. But by now you already know that. It also explains the origin of these particular recordings, so you get that too. Of note is the English spelling of "Coloured". So Continental.


Listen at volume.

One Wish Too Many (1991)


Our American Cousins have a "Write to" address of Frederick, MD and named themselves after the play that Abraham Lincoln was watching at Ford's Theater the night he was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth. The band however make loud brash pop songs. I picked it up at Jigsaw Records when they were still in Seattle. Chris recommended it. He was not incorrect to do so. (though I'm not putting up the insert for this one)

I also didn't intend to post this now since I have another of their singles apparently and I should have waited until I had that ready and posted them together as a pair. This explains why this one's been languishing in the folder for a while.

If you like it then I suppose you have something to look forward to in a long while whence I finally get around to the other one.

Three Years Since the World Got a Little Shittier

Indeed. Yes. Indeed.

Back Again (Try...) (1984)

So it was on this date in 2017 that the world lost Tommy Keene.

He's someone that nobody I've ever known had a single bad thing to say about.

The world is a lesser place for his passing.

On this 12" you get a side of what made him a Power Pop icon backed with a couple of live covers. First a reasonable stab at Roxy Music and then a Rolling Stones cover from their last listenable record.

Enjoy and pour a glass of something nice for Tommy.

I'm Kinda Annoyed

I'm currently in the process of doing one last Lp before spending the rest of my night's free time converting, tagging, scanning, organizing into folders and filing the next big batch of digitizations. It's a lot more work than you might actually imagine if you don't do this on the regular with lots of records at a time.

Unfortunately the Lp I'm doing is more hacked than I expected or it looked. There's two songs with very big skips in them from scratches. But it's a compilation Lp and those are not the songs I bought this Lp for. In fact they're not even very good songs to begin with.
 But it's the principle of the thing.

I want to at least not enjoy them terribly much on their own merits without physical interruptions.

Is that too much to ask?

The Last Detail (1983)

As near as I can tell this band called Mission is from Baltimore.

They put out a follow up three years later called "When Thunder Comes" and then decided that would be a better name for the band than Mission. (which was probably a good call on their part Discogs shows 21 bands using that moniker and more than a few were contemporary) When Thunder Comes released one more Lp in 1987 and then nothing more was heard.

Everything I know I parsed from their Discogs page.

It's a dark Nu Wave flirting with a just a hint of Goth. Chorus pedal, flange bass and I swear I heard a gong.

Just about right as Halloween nears.

Grab some black eyeliner and your fingerless lace gloves and Doc Martens and enjoy as much as your eternal ennui will allow.

Catching Up with the Late Arrivals and Hyphens

I'm going to make some carrot cake in a few hours. I'm letting the cream cheese and butter soften.
Carrots are already grated, so it should take about the time required to preheat the oven to throw the cake together and another five for the frosting.
Easy stuff.

Here's some recent additions to the discographies of musical entities previously posted here to fill out your dance card. Both bands have hyphens in their names and very little else in common, so it's not like we can crown this a new genre called "Hyphen Rock" or anything.

But it is tempting.

Perhaps it's up to you to create it.

Travelogue (1995)

The third and final seven inch gentle jangling appearance of Glo-Worm.
Complete your collection today.

Sudden Death (1991)

Chapel Hill rock. It's loud, raucous and your grandparents would probably hate it. That's a recommendation.

1978

I really need a shower. I also have an eye appointment in the morning. It's been a few years and my guess is that I'll need the bifocals upped a notch. At least I should be able to just add new lenses to the glasses I currently have. So I've got that at least.

Here's a pair from 1978

Crazy Paving (1978)

So it's 1978. Punk rock has a name and the public consciousness. It's kind of been and from everywhere, but as far as most people know (and still mostly believe) it's primarily associated with the English.

This is Billy Karloff Band single is considered punk rock at the time and still labelled as such.

Peer Pressure (1978)

Ebeneezer and the Bludgeons were from Baltimore, MD. It's also 1978. They're also considered punk rock.

There's also a song on it making fun of Nazis. Who would have thought that four decades later that it would still be relevant.

Unfortunately for me, this is not an original copy, but a 2015 reissue on Windian Records. You may still be able to buy your own copy. Buy something at least. Don't be a deadbeat.

Out of Order

Somewhere along the way despite my semi-meticulous organization, these future posts got slightly out of whack and things got out of order.

This particular post concludes the Half Japanese portion of our current program and sets the order of things and their accompanying post dates back to right.

We apologize for any inconvenience you perhaps might possibly have experienced if you'd actually been aware that anything had gone awry.

You didn't, but feel free to ball up a tiny impotent fist and shake it at the screen in anger anyway.

There.

Feel better?

-The Management

XXOO (1982)

This single came out in 1982. All the people on it are in Half Japanese.
They sound just like Half Japanese. The label is one that released a number of Half Japanese records. There's covers of  both Buddy Holly and the Miracles

This band is XXOO.

Quack, Walk, Duck.

U.S. Teens are Spoiled Bums (1988)

Can't argue with the sentiment.
Purchased directly from Jad himself at a show at the Uptown Bar and Grill in the late 90's. There was a break in the show when the other guitarist broke a string and he performed "Mr. Frankenstein" at my shouted request. It was a great.
 Chatted briefly outside with him afterwards and thanked him for playing the song I wanted to hear. He seemed very nice.

Go to his Fun Store and buy stuff.
It's the right thing to do.

This is a Test

I'm not sure what kind of test, but it seemed like if I typed that phrase up there as a title then in the time it took me to hit enter and start working on the body of this post I could in that half a second devise some kind of gimmick that would allow that particular title to make sense.

I have failed.

Perhaps that was the test. 

I have failed my own test.

(But to be fair, in the midst of typing the above sentences my wife came in and asked me to smell something to tell her if I thought it was spoiled. Having potentially spoiled food thrust under ones nose with very little warning is a bit of a distraction from whatever might otherwise be occupying ones thoughts. Such trains of thought are easily derailed. Especially when accompanied by old food that smells slightly off. That has quite the opposite effect of focusing ones concentration on something completely unrelated to the unwelcome scents of questionable edibles. Of this much you can be assured.)

Now where was I?

Oh  that's right...

Sing No Evil (1985)

This was the last of the Lps I purchased by Half Japanese. My interests went elsewhere, but I kept these too.  I quite like them.

This one least of all because it has "Firecracker, Firecracker" on it.

The song with the immortal words:

"Boys got the muscles
Teachers got the brains
Girls got the sexy legs, they win the game
Muscles ain't strong
Brain's ain't smart
But oh, those legs, they won my heart"

Truer words have seldom been spoken.

After I Hit Publish on this Post

I'm going to go and brush my teeth. They're feeling a bit hairy like they're wearing tiny angora sweaters or something. That's not the way for teeth to feel. That's for torsos. Who wants a mouth full of little torsos wearing furry sweaters? Not me. I'm not that person.

I'm just going to go ahead and brush my teeth right the fuck now, then.

I'll be right back....Don't go anywhere....

Our Solar System (1984)

The same year that Jad Fair released the previous post Half Japanese unleashed this monster of an Lp to little or no acclaim. So many great tracks. "Danger Danger Rachel Lang", "Knocked Down on the Dance Floor", "Too Much Adrenaline" etc...

Half Japanese was really hitting a groove here.

Hard to believe that this actually existed at the same time that "Footloose" by Kenny "Dangerzone" Loggins and "Hello" by Lionel "The guy who's song is a meme" Ritchie  were Top 10 Hits.

Strange but true.

But obviously I've run out of ideas here today. I'm recycling material and can't even be bothered to link the songs in the previous paragraph to their corresponding YouTube videos. It's probably a clear sign that I should stop for the day.
 I'm obviously slacking.

The question is....Will I?

October already.

Where does the time go?

I suppose the universe works kind of like the final hole of a mini-golf course with time being the ball they don't want you take home and you're forever shooting it into the last cup where it is eternally sucked away forever to be recycled and the circle of life continues.

That would probably make more sense if one of us was high or something.

I'm certainly not, so I guess, it's up to you

Get on that.

Monarchs (1984)

Another solo venture by Jad Fair.

If  you liked the previous one.
You'll like this one as well.
Be his friend on Facebook.
Buy some of his art.
Show the man some love.
It's all he wants for you.

First World Problems

I'm a bit peckish as well, but I have a lot of one thing that I made a few days ago and I'm already kind of over it even though it's really quite good and was pretty satisfying the first few times I ate it. But the honeymoon is over and it's time for it to head to the freezer. Unfortunately for me, it's also the only thing I have to currently eat.

So I guess, I'm stuck eating this delicious thing that I'm not really in the mood for anymore.

Everyone Knew...But Me (1983)

The first time that Jad Fair flew solo on a Long Player and it's just chock full of hits that should have been.

While the actual Billboard Chart Toppers for the year were that creepy stalker classic "Every Breath You Take"by that band with that one dude your mom listened to in the car back in the 90's and "Billie Jean" by that other creepy dead guy plus a song from a movie about a really hot welder/softcore stripper and a whole host of other crap Jad Fair made this and released it and nobody paid that much attention.

Seriously, I'd like to travel to that other of the infinite other parallel dimensions where "Snake on my Head" was a smash single and #1 on the charts.
I think I'd like that dimension a lot better than this one.

How I Feel.....Horrible

Blah Blah Blah

Horrible (1982)


It's Half Japanese. It's a 12" 45rpm Elongated Player. It has "Thing With a Hook" and "Rosemary's Baby" on it and I really like those songs a whole hell of a lot. Spend some money and buy some of the reissues yourself.
That is all.

Some Days I Just Don't Have It in Me.

Yeah, it's chilly and there's a cat in my lap and I'm just generally feeling kind of grouchy,  but things must happen and I'll churn out a post or two and call it good

Spy (1981)

So we're continuing with the Half Japanese stuff. There's also going to be some Jad Fair stuff mixed in because they're essentially the same thing. After the big box set of the last post we start getting to the things that I can listen to more often.

It does however start off with a Doors cover. I never really liked the Doors.

They were music that the people who gave me a shit in high school listened to. Plus Morrison was such a pretentious douche who's literary stylings were about as profound as anything that ever was scrabbled in a teenage sophomore journal.

I just can't do it.

But here's the Half Japanese take on it.





I find the other side of this to be more enjoyable anyway.

Take It Magazine Flexi (1981)

In the year of 1981, Half Japanese also shared space on this flexi with the Mutants that came with a copy of Take It Magazine, back issues of which you can apparently still purchase.

How cool is that?

On this one the boys in the band do a version of "Heart" by Petula Clark but done much better by those Boston garage legends the Remains. That's the one that I know and love ever since I found a beat original mono copy of that Remains Lp for two whole dollars in Central Square in probably 1983 or so.

But you can listen to this one now.

Brutal Firsts

This.

Half Gentlemen/Not Beasts (1980)

I've had this box set for decades. I've had it so long and it's been sitting in my record shelves for such a length of time that it barely registers on my any more that it even exists. It's just one of those dust magnets. It's there.

 I've also only listened to all three Lps in one sitting precisely once in all these years.

That was when I digitized it.

To be fair (or Jad Fair if I wanted to make a pun), I hadn't actually pulled it out in a long long time. I was kind of traumatized by it when I first got it because I had no idea what to make of it. It was noisy and almost non-musical and sounded for all the world like adults making music like they were six year olds which is, I guess, kind of the point but didn't quite click with my youthful brain at the time. All these years later, and a bunch of other records later and life and what not, it still sounds like that but I find that it makes more sense and that for the most part I kind of like it. It's certainly the most primitive album that Jad and David Fair made under the Half Japanese moniker.

Still not likely to be the first Half Japanese record I'm going to pull off the shelf at any given moment, but I'm not going to curl up in a corner.

If you're the type to actually go out and purchase things and not a filthy leech then you should also know that Fire Records has done a bang up job with reissuing pretty much everything and you can have it for your very own to stroke lovingly in your very own home.

Glimmer, Glimmer

It's late in the afternoon and I just got up pretty recently. I need another cup of espresso and possibly a shower. You know, the usual.

Glo-Worm (1994)

This band that called themselves Glo-Worm, conceivably after the Johnny Mercer tune made famous by the Mills Brothers. They released three Eps in their short existence. This post is two of them.

The various people in this band were in other bands and formed other bands after. You can investigate that yourself.  The singer is Pam Berry, who if you've been following along at home was previously in Black Tambourine as heard in Post #50

Wishing Well (1995)

It's dreamy reverby pop. A cover on each. Very sweet and something that you could play for your grandmother and she wouldn't be too upset about, but would still go on about how the music of her generation was the better, you have no idea, such heady times they were and how awful today's culture is until you just stopped listening and went back to playing Candy Crush on your phone and nodding occasionally while you hum along.

I'm going to make more coffee now and stare out the window for a while until I feel like doing anything. 

Linked by general geography

More or less, give or take etc...

Food For Worms (1981)

These guys were from Baltimore which goes a long way to explaining why their record label is Balto Weird Records. There's a farfisa. Some minor chords and a garagey nu-wave vibe. They don't want to be president. I don't blame them. It would really cut down on how much golf you could play. (At least for legitimate ones anyway.)

Eggs (1993)

These guys were from the DC area and on Teenbeat records.
That is all.

A Quick One

No time for introspection and words and shit.

I've got shit to do and coffee to drink and I'm working tonight.

Zombies of Mora-Tau (1982)

It's Jad Fair from 1/2 Japanese with a solo single in 1982. Notable for one of my favorite recorded sounds. The gunshot on "Mr Frankenstein".

I  actually have two copies of this.

I like it that much.

 

Four Song ep (1986)

This Full Fathom Five was from Iowa City, Iowa. That's another one for your fifty states collection. They're mentioned in an article in the Chicago Tribune in 1989 if you're interested. Otherwise this is...well, it just is and precisely good enough that I wanted to add it to this shit show I call my blog.

I only have one copy of  this.  That's all that's necessary.

So there you go.

Balloons & Emotional Cripples

So I went on a vacation in January. I had a layover in Seattle. I have a friend there I haven't seen in many many years. I met him for a quick drink at the airport. I missed my connecting flight. Shit happens. So I got an unexpected day to spend in Seattle. When I woke up hungover the next day I did what I do best, I went record shopping until it was time to go to the airport. I found this

Balloons for the Dog (1980)

They were apparently from Silver Spring, MD. There's precious little to be found on the internet. No Youtube videos. It's some quirky shit with an electric violin and probably more than a little bit of Zappa influence, but more New Wave. The songs are "Tuna Tonite" & "Assassination Candidate"

I just appreciated that sometime in the last few decades somebody took the time to draw some boobs on the cover girl.

 

Delphobics - Transylvanian Serf Music (1980)

Looking back I posted the other Delphobics single on February 9. This is their other one. The A-side is "Emotional Cripple".  I can relate.

Post #50

I  suppose since I'm halfway to 100 I may as well pretend I'm doing something special. So here are two entirely unrelated things that I just happen to like very much. (edit: though it should also be noted that I put this post in the queue quite a while ago and kind of messed up the order of things, so it's really #51

JAMC (1984)

 

The very first single by the Jesus and Mary Chain. Granted they only wrote two songs at this point. The loud faster one with all the feedback and a slow one with less feedback, but I still like this single a whole fucking hell of a lot. "Upside Down" is the former song and just an all around great pop number. The B-side is a cover of one of the unreleased Syd Barrett Pink Floyd songs that is kind of cool up to the point where they don't know when to stop the song already and it kind of drones on for much longer than it really needs to. But I'll take it over a cup of lukewarm coffee any day of the week.

Black Tambourine (1992)


I've had this single for fucking ever. "Throw Aggi Off the Bridge" was the lead off track on several cassette compilations made for women over the years. (which should give you an idea of how long I've had it. I was making cassettes and dating...)

I like this record. A lot. Apparently, or at least according to Wikipedia, this band has been influential over the years. I'm not sure I could name five people I know who've heard of them and I know a lot of record geeks, so I'll take that assertion with a large grain of salt. Either way, this is a corker and there are other singles that I've never found and a complete recordings Cd that can be had. The third song on this one is cover of "Can't Explain" by Love. They do it right and end it appropriately. It's a keeper.

So I guess that both singles end with covers. Ok, it's a marginal relationship, but it ties the whole post together like the Big Lewbowski's rug.