Meanwhile on either side of the pond

 It's 7 inch compilations time

4 Alternatives (1979)

A four song sampler on Heartbeat Records of Bristol, England bands circa 1979. It's the earnest sound of youth. For whatever reason the Joe Public track is the clear winner for me here. I don't have a dog in this fight, but I put their sole other release in my wantlist after picking this up.


Meanwhile.....

Go Go (1979)

Two out of three bands here are from Philadelphia with the third JJ 180 being from Santa Cruz, Ca. Helen Wheels has some stuff coming up in the near future and I know fuck all about King of Siam.

JJ 180 are named after a highly addictive drug in the novel "Now Wait For Last Year" by Philip K Dick. (It's one of the better ones. Read it.) After a lineup change they became the Realtors whose 7" "Buy or Beware" will be gracing this screen some distant future just like a PK Dick novel and maybe just slightly less addictive.

You have been warned.

The Proverbial Nail

The cat wants dinner. She's sitting in the window by this desk and staring at me intently. She's using all her tiny feline powers to will me into getting up and putting kibble into her bowl

It's not working.

She's wandered off now to sit beside her bowl and wait for me to get up to pee or something to begin a program of loud pained yowling to alert me to her impending demise of starvation.

She'll just have to wait.

the Hang Ups (2003)

So seemingly out of nowhere this one also happened.

I got it for free when we were shopping around for a place to press up some Cds for one of the bands I was in near the start of this century. This one place had a pile of discs that they'd pressed in the front for the taking so that you could get an idea of what they did and how well they did it. (It worked because they got our tiny business.)

Meanwhile the Hang Ups self titled fourth full length. It's a bit of a return. It's stripped back again with a lot less added production which suits these songs so much more. They can speak quite well for themselves.

It was released on Trampoline Records which according to Discogs seems to be a short-lived label owned by Pete Yorn, Rami Jaffee of the Wallflowers, and Marc Dauer and whose main claim to record fame seems to be several full length compact discs by Minnie Driver whose website does not appear to have been updated since 2015.

 

All in all, this probably wasn't a fantastic recipe for commercial success.

That being said. It's a pretty fabulous record.

It's one of those that if in another ten years there's suddenly a group of pop loving record geeks who start rediscovering the shiny pop music of the 90's and hunting it down for deluxe reissues will be a very hard to find and expensive original to get.

I'd suggest getting ahead of that curve while you can.

Listen to it and know I'm right and was right all along.

I sometimes am.

One Adult Beverage Later....

Irish Whiskey is a wonderful thing.

I'm quite fond of Knappogue Castle. I  recommend it. It's a good buy for the money.

I personally have an issue with spending more than fifty bucks for a bottle of liquor. It's more or less that I have a hard time justifying it and would enjoy it less. I don't know. It's how I am. Knappogue is  near the top of my limit, delicious and on sale at my local shop often enough that I seldom have to pay list price.

I'm having a respectable snootful (which google tells me is spelled with a single L.) and reacquainting myself with the third Hang Ups full length which was a bit of a departure for them.

Second Story (1999)

So as the 20th Century ground to a close and Prince was likely able to redo his kitchen or something with the royalties from the song "1999" (which I'm not going to link to because all the links I googled up look kind of sketchy) the Hang Ups revamped and had a bit of a shake up. The bass player became the lead guitarist and the drummer started a slow exit and they became a bit of a different animal than on previous outings.

For this particular recording they worked with Mitch Easter and Don Dixon behind the boards marking the first time those two had collaborated on a recording project since the first couple REM albums. Hopes were, as they say, high.

All of that said, they do a fine enough job but this one kind of lacks the same kind of breath stealing wonder of the previous two. It's a transitional album. They're stretching. They're integrating new people and an expanded sonic palette. They're growing. It's not bad, but they weren't quite as solid in execution of the newer direction.

As it is, I really wasn't even aware that the band still existed by the time this was made. I'd gone through several different musical phases in the intervening years. I think my first exposure to this was some kind of free outdoor show on the West Bank and walking away with kind of mixed feelings.

 

It's not the one I reach for first. Let's put it that way. I won't reach and turn it off when it comes up, but it doesn't quite hit me in the same way as the previous two. 

 

Your mileage will vary. Take my assessments as always with a grain or two of sodium chloride. 

Some Irish whiskey probably wouldn't hurt either.

Hi Ho

It's the first hot day of summer 2017 as I type this in the not so distant past while looking forward to the first cold days of autumn whence this post will finally appear. I have the weekend off and three different events I can attend tomorrow provided I can drag my night shift working ass out of bed before 6pm.

I'm not entirely hopeful that I will manage it, but stranger things have happened and such.

So We Go (1996)


The Hang Ups dropped full length #2 in 1996.

There's new songs and some old favorites that hadn't made it to the first one and in general it's a step in the same shiny pop direction. Familiar live songs transformed in the studio into the heightened versions of themselves.

Essentially, if you enjoyed the previous one, there's no reason not to feel the same or more about this one. Shimmery pop songs about girls with harmony vocals right out of the Byrds.

For those not familiar with Minneapolis, the Entry in the  song of that name refers to the 7th St Entry which is the smaller room adjunct to First Avenue which most people are familiar with from the movie "Purple Rain" It's a great room to play in. (except that one time my Traynor amp literally blew on stage with a flash and smoke in the middle of a set...)

That's about all I have for today.

I worked a long hard week and want an adult beverage.

Cold feet

Well, my feet are cold anyway. And by that I mean physically chilled. I should probably go and put on some socks or something. It would only make sense.
Sometimes, when everything else is going to shit around you the only thing you can do is make a grab for what makes sense and put on some damn socks.

He's After Me (1993)

Get my first real line cooking job in a terrible little Italian bistro type place with a short tempered owner and a kitchen where I could touch the wall behind my stove and the other side without stretching. The dishwasher was a super sweet guy with Downs who would wait at the bus stop across the street and sing along loudly with Jerry Lee Lewis or Elvis on his walkman. I made friends with the pantry guy who turns out lived a block or so away from me.

Turns out also that he was friendly with the members of the Hang Ups.
Got to see a very early performance of theirs in his living room for a party. Got to know some of the various romantic intrigues that would find their way into some of the songs second hand. (the title track for instance)
It was a fun time to be alive, for the most part considering. I don't know. I was going through my own shit too.

The Hang-Ups were kind of doomed to localness though. Their auxiliary guitarist, John Crozier, who had played in the 60's style rave up beat legends the Funseekers wasn't really interested in touring. It's a shame. He stuck around with them live for a bit after this before parting ways. At least that's how I remember it. It was so very long ago..

They would have a brief second shot at things in 1997 when Dave Pirner curated the soundtrack of Kevin Smith's movie Chasing Amy and put "Jump Start" on it. I've never seen the movie, myself. The trailer certainly isn't recommending it either.

But the song is fucking great.
So is "Waiting" and "Runway" and...and...

It's as fine a debut full length as you never heard.

Fix that.