Shhhh....

Be very quiet.

From Here to There (1993)

There are currently a few different bands using the name of Hushpad that I came up with in the few minutes spent looking up things. None of  them are these guys.

Anyway, twee quiet songs about love and longing.
This on is on the Bus Stop Label.

Dear Jenny (1997)

Their second and final single. More of the same. Would have been right at home on Sarah records.
Let that be your guide.

The Roman in the title is Polanski

I remember that from a contemporary radio interview when the album came out.
It stuck with me for some reason.

In a Roman Moon (1981)

The sophomore and final Lp for this particular aggregation of people. Soon after this came out they'd lose the backing vocalists and strip down to a solid quartet that after at least four names finally stuck with the Zulus who put out a few criminally underappreciated bits before dissolving.

But that was in the future. Right now we're dealing with this lost masterpiece. If the previous one was a camp classic, this is where they hit stride. Songs are stronger, some are even stranger and it's heady and delicious. "Andy Fell" and "Land of the Glass Pinecones" are absolute stunners.

(And I lost my train of thought here when my wife woke up and wandered in the room to kvetch...)

Anyway. When I did the digitizing on this one I was thinking that it'd be a nice trip down nostalgia lane, but found myself surprised at how well this Lp has aged.

I don't know. Whatever accolades I'd lined up in my head have been lost.

I love this record.
Let that suffce.

Not Exactly What Masters & Johnson had in Mind

I'm posting a lot of Lps lately it seems. A lot of good ones just came up as I wander haphazardly down the alphabet. So it goes and does and is.

This is one that kind of stuck in my teenage brain for many many listens when I picked it up not long after its release.

Fig. 14 (1980)

So what happens when you take a spunky little (for the lack of a better term) New Wave band and front it with a quintet of singers ala the Supremes. You get Human Sexual Response and this actually rather campy classic Lp. I played it a lot.

Between a song about wanting to be Jackie Onassis and the very important question embodied by "What Does Sex Mean to Me?" there was a lot to absorb and ponder as a teenager in those questioning years of adolescence.

Then there was their appearance on the Saturday afternoon (!) public access show "Boston Live" which may or may not have gotten them in trouble for this number called "Butt Fuck" or their version of the Capitols "Cool Jerk" in drag as nurses.

Those were surely different times. But I still have a special place in my heart for this one.

Hand v. Switchboard

A quickie. I'm doing other stuff plus eating.
I don't always multi-task very well.

I Gotta Know (1978)

As previously noted a few posts back (10/10/18 to be precise) this is the original recording of "I Gotta Know" as done by the Human Switchboard. It's on Clone Records as well. It's also a farfisa driven garage rocker. That shouldn't come as a surprise. Listen to both and decide which recording you prefer.

Blue Eel (1981)

 So at the same time that Bob Pfeiffer from the above band was revisiting the A side of that single with his new band, the Housekeepers, Human Hands got their shit together and put out this wonderful little single.
Everything you may want to know about this band is on their website. But it should also be noted that there's some strong connections to the LA Free Music Society and other assorted wonderful art damaged nonsense in their collective discographies.

I'll shut up now.

To Suffer is to be Human

Freshly showered, beef stew warming up and 16 inches of surprise April Blizzard shoveled off the driveway. (If you haven't been following along. I'm typing this six months ago.)
It's kind of sucked ass today.

Which brings us to today's post.

We're all suffering.

Human Sufferage (1984)

For starters that cover is pretty insufferable. But it's also pretty appropriate for this second and final release from Columbus, Ohio's own Human Sufferage. They made a punk rock noise with a healthy dose of the hardcores. They sound as primitive and amateurish as the cover which is not necessarily bad. Not exactly groundbreaking stuff, but nobody's going to throw you out of the party for liking it and the record is just obscure enough to be dropped in a record collector conversation to make you seem like you know more than you do.

I mean, I'm beyond that bullshit stage by now myself. But you know how people are.