Alice Donut - Nadine

Another 90's band that I never got too much into back then (hard to find their stuff where I was for some reason), but after re-discovering them, I find I like them. This seems to go against the grain, as a lot of people think they haven't aged well. I find them to be a bit in the Butthole Surfers vein of throwing some odd stuff into their songs, or writing about some strange things, but they were a bit more mainstream about it. Nothing wrong with that.

A: Nadine
B: The Chicken Door, Empty Streets

Enjoy!

Moby - That's When I Reach For My Revolver

Hey, why not, right? I was never into electronic music, but Moby covering Mission Of Burma and Devo on a 7" sounds too good to pass up.

The MOB cover is straight up, not all that much different from the original. A little more crunch on the guitars, but that's about it. The Devo cover is hilarious.

A: That's When I Reach For My Revolver
B: Whip It (Death Metal Version)
Enjoy!

Nirvana/The Fluid - Split Single

January 1991 Singles Club. I joined a few days too late to get this one way back when. I picked this up online. Needless to say, it cost a bit more now.

It's a decent live version of "Molly's Lips". They'd become well known for this song after a Peel Session recording of it showed up on Incesticide. I admit that I did investigate The Vaselines after realizing how much Cobain was into them, and I have their anthology CD around here somewhere.

The Fluid's guitarist Rick Kulwicki died recently. I'm not sure how these guys didn't make it bigger when the whole Seattle scene was under a microscope. Roadmouth is a solid rock album.

A: Nirvana - "Molly's Lips"

B: The Fluid - "Candy"

Enjoy!

The Specials - More Specials

Another one from the trunk! I thought I had this in digital format, and on closer inspection, I was wrong. So I ripped it and thought I'd put this up. This isn't as good as that first album, which is truly great, but the follow-up has its moments.

They definitely tried to stretch themselves a bit musically on this record, drawing on American Soul, Morricone soundtracks, 40's pop songs, and so on. It does make the album seem a bit scattershot compared the focused all-ska sound of the debut. "Enjoy Yourself" is a 40's song, and is a fun album opener (and closer, the reprise is sung with the Go-Gos, believe it or not...)  and "Man at C & A" is an outstanding psychedelic ska cold war song.

Anyway, a fun album, and certainly worth a listen. Throw it on at a party some time, it would fit right in.

Enjoy!

The Black Keys - The Moan

I first heard about these guys on NPR right when Rubber Factory came out. This was during my nearly music-free days, and I figured I should get off my ass check these guys out. I was hooked.

I guess Dan and Patrick want to cash in on the recent vinyl craze, because this 7" is a recent release of two songs they recorded in 2002. They're fun, high energy blues-garage tracks. The B-side is a solid cover of Richard Berry's 1959 song "Have Love Will Travel", which was also famously covered by garage pioneers The Sonics.

A: The Moan
B: Have Love Will Travel
Enjoy!

The Vivians - I Fear

By request. If I can find it at a reasonable price, sure, why not? Vinyl only though.

I managed to track an unopened copy down fairly cheap with some internet sleuthing.Unopened vinyl rips like a dream.

As for this, I can see why someone might fondly remember it. They seem like a pretty decent local act out of Cleveland in the early 90's, doing their version of the girl-grunge thing. They're heavier than I thought they would be. My only gripe is that they're a little weak on the lyrics. I tried to dig up something on this band and the only thing I could find was that the singer died a few years ago.

Hope you like it, panzan, whoever you are.

Enjoy!

The Stooges - 1969

OK, so I'm free from the burden of the trunk, but that just means I have no excuse now for my taste. No blaming me from 20 years ago for liking something terrible. Anything I post after that Shellac/Mule single had better be good, right?

This was a 2009 record store day re-release from Rhino/Elektra. It's hard to believe this stuff is over 40 years old. You just don't associate "menacing" with 60's music. "1969" is solid, with its Bo-Diddley beat backing up Iggy's boredom, but I'd really love to track down a 7" of  their "1970". That song rocks. They had a theme going. Rhino re-released that recently too, by the look of things. Hmmm. Might have to track that down.

"Real Cool Time" was written and recorded in an evening after the label told the Stooges that their planned debut record was too short. It's a filler track soaked in wah pedal.

A: 1969
B: Real Cool Time
Enjoy!

Big Boys - Lullabies Help The Brain Grow

When I ended the original portion of this blog, I mentioned that it would be strange not putting records from the old trunk up here. And that's true to some extent. But I'm also freed from the constraints of the trunk now too. I feel like a train that's been let off the rails, free to go wherever I want. I can go backward or forward in time at will now, exploring the recordings that led to the contents of that trunk, and the stuff that followed after it.

So, with that, here's the Big Boys' 1983 album  Lullabies Help The Brain Grow. I snagged a demo copy off eBay a while back. It's a strange mish-mash of early hardcore and funk. There are bits and pieces throughout this record that bring to mind the Minutemen, Dead Kennedys and Gang of Four. Songs meander from straight up speed ("Lesson") to stuff with horns ("Funk Off"), to ballady indie rock ("Sound on Sound") and back again.

The Big Boys played shows with the Dicks quite a bit. Their split live LP "Live at Raul's" is considered a classic. I'm trying to hunt that one down, but it's tough to get.

Enjoy!