I Had a Spare Buck to Spare

 

Still got nothing.

 

 

Central Services (2006)

2006. Getting up there. Time is catching up. Still fifteen years ago, but damn, I'm still a bit weirded out typing up dates on here in the 21st Century.

Anyway. This was about a buck. I got it based on a Youtube to max out postage because if it's any amount of things for a set amount, I'm going to try and bulk the shit out of that if I can to make it worthwhile.

So here we are with Central Services who were apparently at least popular enough or seeming like they might break through enough that NPR did a short blurb about them.

I didn't see it at the time. Not much info to otherwise be had, but it's some nice indiepop to brighten your day. Everybody needs that now and again.

Loosening Up, Keeping Mum

 

I was posting on Swinging Singles Club MN when I thought that I should probably toss a couple of things in this pile for the heck of it. I really haven't had much to do with posting here for a while since I set the queue up months and months in advance. But maybe it's the whisky talking because here I am typing away.

Sort of.

1995 - 1st String Teenage High

It's the first single by Tullycraft

It's Twee as fuck.

Deal with it.

 

1995 - Bailey Park

Another early single by Tullycraft from the first year of their existence.

Still Twee as fuck.
 

Errrr....Just Something.

 I got nothing but wanted to add something here since I was doing stuff on the Minnesota blog thing.

Summer's Gone But a Lot Goes On (1994)

Lo-Fi home recording stuff by Six Cents and Natalie which in itself is a side project by Sean Tollefson of Crayon and Tullycraft reknown.

Pumpkin Patch (1991)

Stray single by Eugene, Oregon's Some Velvet Sidewalk. 

The Power of Pussy

It's the same night as the previous four posts.

Don't get too excited.

I'm bored and queuing up a bunch.

Jet Propulsion (1994)

Incredible Force of Junior from Seattle, WA.

Amore (1995)

Pussycat Trash from Newcastle, England

A Small Variety Assortment

I need to get some shit done.

Here's some sweet prime 7 inch Indiepop compilations.

You may need these.

 Crayola Catastrophy (2001)

A1	–Tugboat Fantastic!	I'll Stick With You
A2	–The Casino Ashtrays	Gilded
B1	–The Summer In Between	Simple & True
B2	–The National Splits	Your David Starship

Since buying this on a whim I've been slowly acquiring every release on the Kittridge Records label. I haven't been disappointed in anything but the purposeful misspelling of "catastrophe" on this record.
It offends my sensibilities.

Kissing Book/Cherry Ice Cream Smile split (1998)

A1	–Kissing Book	Teen Club
A2	–Kissing Book	Just Another Pop Song
B1	–Cherry Ice Cream Smile	Squeaky Clean
B2	–Cherry Ice Cream Smile	Amelia Earhart

One of the hallmarks of mid to late 90's indiepop bedroom label releases besides the low quality of the vinyl and mastering, was choking the sleeve with massive amounts of bits of paper all kinds of haphazardly cut with scissors.

Whole forests were decimated for this.

This one compounds the immense clutter by including a wooden ice cream spoon with the band's name emblazoned on it like we were sitting here forever  with a nice Italian Ice and no eating implement just about ready to dig into it with our fingers out of sheer desperation before buying this single and the day being saved.

I want nice primitive pop songs, not junk that I feel compelled to keep with the rest of the overstuffed package because that's how it came and I have a pathological need for the intactness of things.

Fortunately I got those too.

Bonus material!

Milky Way No. 1 (1991)

A1	–HoneyBunch	Nothing But Trouble
A2	–Small Factory	The Giant Merry-Go-Round
A3	–The Bachelor Pad	Sunshower Sun

I thought I'd already done this one a long while back when I did all the Honeybunch singles. Apparently not. So here you go.

Good Enough or Not.

Another Lp today because I wanted an excuse to listen to it again.

 

The Allies (1982)

I'm not exactly sure if I like this one or not.
 I only bought it because it was cheap and local when I was in Seattle and the band had the right sort of look to them.
 And it is what it is.

A fairly solid bit of AOR New Wave-ish Rock and Roll.

 I mean it has some decent moments. "Emma Peel" is a solid track that apparently received some airplay on the very early days of MTV but then "Cruel Beauty" sounds like it would be more suited to red spandex pants than to skinny ties. But then one of the founding members was from a band called Bison that had previously had some success in the PNW and toured with the likes of Reo Speedwagon so a certain amount of rock posturing is going to be expected. It does kind of detract overall from my impression.

But as an AOR rock lp, it's mostly successful and interesting enough in that sense. But then I could only imagine them as an opening act for Blue Oyster Cult more so than say, Blondie though.

I Got the Splits

Here we go again.

Bunnygrunt/Tullycraft (1997)

Split singles.
What to do with them? How to file them? Do we even like the idea?

I don't know. There's a lot of them.

Here's a couple of examples.

This one has Bunnygrunt.  Who released enough stuff on enough releases that I keep inadvertently gathering a collection of their recordings when I buy other records.

Like this one which I initially picked up for the raw pop sounds of Tullycraft.

So there's that.

 

the Billy Crosby's/Anomie (1998)

I don't know anything about these bands or this label or this release. But there are acoustic guitars, a female vocalist and a fiddle on the Billy Crosby's track while the Anomie track is instrumental. It also has a fiddle as well as an accordian and slide guitar and sounds like it was recorded in their practice space. 

These are the facts as I know them and present to you.

You're welcome.

Thirteenth

It's compilation day.

Harmony of the Spheres (1996)

Three Lp box set on Drunken Fish with six artists doing side long tracks of spacey jams to fuel a long evening utilizing whatever substances along the way that a person who enjoys this sort of thing might otherwise utilize in situations where they are prone to spending long evenings listening to side long spacey jams.

For external use only.

1. Sangh Seriatim - Bardo Pond
2. Since When - Flying Saucer Attack
3. Jessamine - Jessamine
4. Fantasia on a Theme by Sandy Bull - Roy Montgomery
5. Revolt! - Loren Mezzcane Connors
6. Naked in Our Deathskins - Charalambides

With Me When I Need a Friend

Yeah, It's August.

That's also a song from my personal favorite Love album.

Here's a link to it.

You're welcome.

Kim the Waitress (1986)


Speaking of things that are personal favorites...

(*Note clever segue)

Here's the first single by the Green Pajamas and one of the best non-beer related dollars I ever spent in the late 80's. Another awkward staple of mixed tapes for girls. Lovely stuff from Seattle in the gray rainy days before Grunge would come along and ruin everything.

Some of the older kids in the audience may be familiar with the song through a decidedly inferior and overwrought version by Material Issue in 1994 that entirely misses the earnestness of  the original to make it seem much more creepy. Much more. They sound less like shy artists with a crush on a pretty girl and more like stalkers with a knife, a shovel and a supply of duct tape in the trunk of their car. No wonder Kim quit her job and avoids the place.

But the Green Pajamas.

That's the fucking ticket, Jack.

Discipline (1982)

I think, If  I've made one thing apparent last Autumn (see there's actually a theme developing here that I didn't actually think of until just now. Damn, I'm good) it's that I really really love the Fall.

So here's God's Gift. This is there 3rd single as duly noted on the sleeve.

They too were from the war torn streets of Manchester England. They have some sonic similarities to the mighty Fall that extend beyond the Mancunian accent.

It's more of the good stuff. 

Another "Wait, I Didn't already post the previous singles" post

So here's another incidence where I thought I'd already posted some Coctails and the other two Dame Darcy singles I've got and was looking back so I could link to the previous posts and bring some closure to the world, only to discover I hadn't done anything of the sort.

Tardvark (1994)

It's Dame Darcy. It's the Coctails

The songs were recorded in a barn or something in a single day. Your enjoyment may vary depending on your tolerance level for singing saws and weirdness. I'm Ok with it personally.

( Now I have to figure out if I really need to cram those other singles into the queue...)

Because the other thing I had for this was this

the Cowboys (1981)

From Seattle WA.

So "Rude Boy" is that faux ska that one might expect. But the flip "She Makes Me Feel Small" is the power pop song you should pay closer attention to. It's not going to change your world, but it's better than getting a pencil lead jammed into your forehead. Trust me.

Blacking out vs English Professors

Next couple of posts I've got new additions to musical acts I've already posted.

This may or may not be a good thing. I like to imagine it is.

But this is my collection and I tend to quite enjoy my purchases.

Blackouts - Lost Soul's Club (1985)

So if you've been following along at home, you may vaguely remember a post from a while back of  the first two singles by Blackouts. If not you can head on over to that and have a look. I'll wait....


So here's their 1985 swan song on Wax Trax! Half the band would end up joining Ministry around this time and Mr. Al Jourgenson himself took the producer's chair for this release.

I don't know. I'm a bit distracted. The tv is on and I'm barely paying attention to my own typing.

Just listen to it. I was a bit taken aback when I first threw it on the turntable. I would have absolutely hated it in 1985, but I would have been completely off base in my assessment.

So suck it, past me! You pompous music snobby little shit.




Meanwhile

 

I Feel So Weird (1996)

This is the Black Watch. This is what happens when an English Professor forms an indie pop band.

My wife likes them.  They have a lot of releases. She has some of the cds and I'll probably pick up more of it as I come across it. Make of that as you wish.

Not with a bang, but...

 
It's New Years Eve and time to bid farewell to the stinking pile that was 2016.

Fuck you 2016.

I'm glad that time is for all appearances linear so I can be relatively assured that I will never have to experience your seemingly bottomless abyss of suck again.

the Elements - Honest Enough (1985)

So with that in mind we come to the final nail in the posting coffin of 2017.

And it's a simple and straightforward indie pop Lp from Seattle, WA. A half a decade or so before the rest of the world realized it was a real place and that people lived there and had jobs and houses and band and shit like that. Just like real people do.

I picked this up because it was on Green Monkey Records who most famously release the output of the Green Pajamas who did that one song you know because Material Issue covered it for a minor minor hit. (If you're patient it will eventually appear here too. I love that song.)

I didn't know the Elements from a small stack of pancakes when I bought this.
Still don't.
I'd probably have a hard time telling them apart if presented with a police lineup. I'd have to guess based on which was one tasted better with butter and syrup. Even then, it could be dicey.

The album is titled "Honest Enough" and I find it to be an appropriate title. Pleasantly so.
It's as simple, fun and unpretentious as a record could be in 1985 and devoid of any of those terrible sound choices that were rampant then. It exists in a timeless bubble of sound where it could have comfortably been recorded anytime in the past 40 years.

You can take that as my recommendation.

A-Hunting We Will Go

Time to crap out another quick post with the band names sharing a theme.

Aren't you fucking lucky.

Egg Hunt (1986)

This was an intensely exciting thing when it came out because it was a one off project by Ian McKaye and Jeff Nelson from Minor Threat. Together they own Dischord Records. It was half of that band making music. We listened to it often. I still like to listen to it. You may too.

 

Duck Hunt (1991)

This is also a one off project on K records by Steve Fisk noted Seattle producer musician & all around good egg and his Pell Mell bandmate Bill Owen.

If I wasn't incredibly lazy I'd look and see if I'd previously posted the single he did in 1980 as Anonymous which is also an odd sonic mish mosh of studio fuckery. I may or may not have. If I didn't I may come back and post it later if anybody gives a shit and maybe asks nicely. But I'm not holding my breath.

China

Chinas Comidas (1979)

I'm reasonably sure that Chinas Comidas is spanish for Chinese food. This is a poet fronting a New/No Wave band on one side and with some other kind of improv jazzy background on the other.

It's Beat poetry with fewer berets. 

China White (1981)

Zero berets. You'd probably have gotten your ass kicked for wearing one.

Punk rock rules.

Cities (1979) : Seattle and San Francisco cont.

Coincidences abound today.

The last post was of the Blackouts who started in Seattle and ended up in San Francisco. The next thing I have to post is of bands from both those places. I'll bet they all knew each other. Probably shared bills in dingy little clubs playing to a couple dozen disinterested people together. Maybe even hung out. It is a pretty small world after all if one is to believe animatronic dolls at amusement parks.

 

Man as Hunter (1979) 

If it matters, the Cheaters were the starting point for Kurt Bloch who would go on from here to form the Fastbacks who would go on to make some fine pop punk for the couple of decades. B-side is the winner for me on this one, but you know, that's just like, my opinion, man.

 

In Vagueness Deal (1979)

First issue by San Fran's Breakouts. They're more or less a bit of a mystery to me and I couldn't find much in the five minutes I spent looking. Apparently this seems to be their best release. Loud and sloppy and poorly recorded and the punk rock fan favorite over the other releases that I neither have nor am willing to spend the money for. (The three copies of  this for sale on Discogs start at $200)

 I paid a single dollar for my copy. I feel like I got my money's worth.