I Just Woke Up

I haven't had my second cup of coffee yet.

Lover Boy (1978)

Gonna keep it real. Going local.

The Jets. Power Pop from the Twin Cities.

It's on Twin Tone.

I really like the flip "Paper Girl"

Enough said.

Climbing Vine (1990)

Liquid Pink were from Milwukee, WI.

It's some swirling psychedelicate pop in that weird zone between pop and the lost era of undefined sounds that was the end of the 80s. It's really a musical gray area.

The flip "Pretty Lizard" is a rousing rocker about an actual lizard. Even reptiles need songs now and again.

One has to wonder how many times they played with Plasticland.

Stuck in the Middle

After a couple of Bi-Coastal posts we pause for a moment and wonder:

"What about the fly over country? What was going on there?"

I have an answer

Certain Death (1983)

Killing Children were from Columbus, Indiana.
Accept no substitutes or alternate Columbuses.
This is the only one.

It's nice to add some straight up punk rock to this mix now and again.
Keeps life interesting

and speaking of interesting

Learn Greek in Greece (1980)

Otto Kentrol is the nom de saxophone of one Bill Ylitalo who went on to play with a shit load of other bands including Appliances SFB & God is my Co-Pilot who I've posted before. (I'm pretty sure I did anyway. You look and tell me...)

This is fractured weirdness that tickles my fancy like a fancy French tickler in my earholes.

Damn it. Now my ears are itchy.

Let's just finish up the month

A new day.

Same five pound bag.

Hi ho.

Monsters (1992)

This is what I was looking for in the last post.

It's a 10" record by the Gothics. Two thirds of this band was previously in Plasticland.
This is kind of the continuation from there and your experience will vary depending.

As I said, I went specifically looking for this one in the recesses of the mostly overlooked 10" record stash. I feel like I've made myself clear on where I stand.

A Midwest 60's Invasion.

I don't know.

Here's a couple of things.

Breakout (1964)

Some instrumental madness from the Invictas. The Discogs entry for them simply says "US group probably from Michigan" and mentions that they later picked up a singer and changed their name to Ruth Anne & the Footsteps. Now you know as much as I do.

The Invasion is Coming (1967)

A nice little garage rock number about an alien invasion. Maybe. It's not like the lyrics really make a whole lot of sense on any closer examination. They don't need to. It's a garage rock song. It's better if they don't.

According to Discogs these guys were from Milwaukee, Wisconsin and had previously called themselves the Ethics. They had second single.

I wish I had that one too.

Um...Yeah...Whatever

Another day. Another post.

Civil Rice (1983)

I'm not sure what I'm actually supposed to make of Einstein's Riceboys. They're kind of an odd gumbo of contemporary ideas in a single package that missed the mark a bit more often than it hits it. A bit of punk rock, some synth nonsense. Post-rock, New Wave, Annoyance. It's all in there.

Maybe I'm being harsh. I haven't really listened to this very much. But the initial impression was that I really didn't need to. Perhaps at a future date I will revisit it and change my mind, but for now it's an interesting period oddity out of Milwaukee that may or may not appeal to the average consumer.

I don't know. You listen to it. Tell me what you think for once.

This Post is Aces

A pair of things I rediscovered and reconsidered to be worth the posting.

I do that on occasion. I don't post everything I've got. That would be just madness.

And yeah, I know if what I post is the "good stuff", how fucking terrible must the rest of my shitty record collection be.

Precisely this shitty.

the Acetones (1980)

From the riot torn streets of Milwaukee, WI and straight to your heart comes the rock and roll stylings of the Acetones. Our bowtied hero from the cover apparently has a thing for handcuffs and ladies in polyester uniforms.
B-side gets a bit funkier and is probably the sort of stuff that maybe got them an extra gig or two. You could dance to it, but I might break a hip at this point so I'll refrain

Ace & the Eights (1979)

This is an interesting oddity singularly for the presence of one Rockette Morton on bass and with a smoking slide solo on "Explosion". For the uninitiated this is one of the original and one of the longer lasting musicians who played with Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band. Here they are on German Tv in 1972. Rockette (aka Mark Boston) is looking particularly stylish in his suit and pimp hat playing bass on the first song.

This single sounds absolutely nothing like Beefheart. That's a good or maybe a bad thing depending on your perspective. For me it falls kind of in a nebulous middle gray area. I don't hate on the single, but I had hoped for more Beefheart than it provides with Mr. Boston's esteemed presence.

You make your own decisions. You're presumably an adult.

Bruce

I used to have a roommate. His name was Bruce. We worked the same shitty restaurant job together and drank a lot. We were in our 20's. I'm pretty sure it's what kids still do. I sometimes wonder whatever became of him. We lost touch decades ago and he apparently doesn't have a Facebook account, so I may as yet never know. That's too bad. I'd like to say hello sometime.

 We're Not So Smart (1986)

That little anecdote naturally is our segue into this post featuring Couch Flambeau from Wisconsin, the Dairy State. We probably heard this played on the morning show on WMBR some bleary eyed weekday morning prepping case after case of fucking avocados for the lunch rush. It amused us. I bought it. I'd put it on mix tapes for work and we thought it was hilarious. I still think it's kind of funny. The b-side is a piss take on the Mountain classic rock tune and #1 cowbell song. It's also still pretty amusing.

So I post this now. It's dedicated to Bruce wherever his 6' 4" soulless ginger badass self is these days.

 Constant Pain (1996)

A decade later Constant Pain from New Zealand released another in our series of why it's poor design to print your sleeves with metallic paints on dark paper. They are almost always completely unreadable and any artwork is completely lost. At least there's the music to enjoy.