Sebadoh - Special Elitist Mail-Order Single

Picked this up a while ago, but forgot that I hadn't posted it yet.

Released right before Harmacy, Sebadoh seemed to be making fun of Sub Pop with this one. Despite the name, it was not part of any Sub Pop Singles Club, or anything like that.

It's a strange release. Not much Lou, really. Two Jason songs, and unusual covers on the B-Side. Jason's "Princess" is quite good, one of his best songs. The B-side is all covers of surrealist/experimentalist 70's New Orleans band The Residents. They're strange. "Act Of Being Polite" has some sort of quirky cool thing that fits with Sebadoh's sound.

A: Princess, 1/2 Undressed
B: Act of Being Polite, Moisture, Suburban Bathers

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!

Sebadoh - Soul and Fire

We're getting to the end, folks. But of course, there's got to be at least one more Sebadoh/Lou Barlow item stashed in here somewhere.

This was from the Bubble and Scrape album, the end of the Eric Gaffney era. Like their other 7" records, there's a lot of material on here, and it's all over the place.

"Soul and Fire" is one of those heartbroken Lou songs. While he's got a ton of them, to the point where he even makes fun of himself for it, this one is particularly well written.

My favorite track here is a cover of the Necros "Reject". Sebadoh manages to take a 90 second long hardcore tune, slow it down, and breathe a bit more emotion and depth into it.

The B-sides are for Jason ("Sister") and Eric ("Bouquet...") to do their thing, but Jason hadn't fully arrived as a songwriter yet (that happened a year later on Bakesale) and Eric's over the top maniacal shtick was on the way out.

Going to see these guys in Boston tomorrow night with a friend. Should be a lot of fun.

A: Soul and Fire, Reject
B: Sister, Bouquet For a Siren
Enjoy!

Tomorrow: The end of the Daily 7, at least the daily part, anyway.

Nirvana - Sliver

Picked this up at Newbury Comics in Cambridge. I knew they had released a full length album on Sub Pop, and the label had big aspirations for them. They were described in the Sub Pop mail order catalog as "They're young, have their own van and are gonna make us rich."

I still hadn't heard anything by them, but shelling out $3 for a 7" seemed reasonable, and I noticed that Mudhoney's drummer appeared on one of the tracks. Sold! It's on black vinyl, unfortunately, I know lots of blue ones to match the cover were made. It's still got the Singles Club sign up card from 1990 in there.

Most people have heard the songs, as they were later released on Insesticide, but most people probably have not heard the phone call between Jon Poneman of Sub Pop and a confused/hungover Krist Novoselic that appeared after this version of "Sliver". I'd even forgotten about it, cutting the recording until I realized the record was still playing. I split it out as a separate track.

A: Sliver, Phone Call
B: Dive
Enjoy!

Sebadoh - Skull

Well, if I've learned one thing so far, it's that I bought a lot of Sebadoh stuff way back when. Excited to see them in a few weeks. The last time I saw them was on their Harmacy tour.

Unlike yesterday's pick, which had a band on the decline, this is a band at it's peak. Or at least one of two peaks during their lineup shuffles. "Skull" was a single off of Bakesale, which, to me anyway, holds up as one of the best albums of the era.

Everyone's heard "Skull". No big deal. Not their best song on the album, (or even close, there's a handful I like more) but probably the most accessible, so I can see why this was put out as a single. The B-sides are good. "Punching Myself" is a solid, shuffling Jason Lowenstein song. "Sing Something/Plate O' Hatred" is filled with clever wordplay, and is a throwback into some earlier Barlow Lo-Fi stuff, only far less crappy sounding. It's still clearly lo-fi, but it just sounds a million times better than the earlier stuff. Audiophile quality lo-fi?

A: Skull
B: Punching Myself, Sing Something/Plate O' Hatred
Enjoy!

Gas Huffer - Hot Cakes!

Solid Seattle Sub Pop band, one that followed Mudhoney's lead in terms of their sound. It's an enjoyable listen, but nothing that will blow you away.  Tom Price went on to join part-time side project The Monkeywrench with two of the Mudhoney guys.

Not sure where I picked this up, it's not a Singles Club single. My guess is that I picked it up after the kung fu battle split single they did with Mudhoney, curious to hear some of their other stuff.

I got a kick out of the B-side artwork, so I thought I'd throw that up too.

A: Hot Cakes!
B: Beer Drinkin' Cave Men From Mars
Enjoy!

Seaweed - Bill

Another Sub Pop single, but this was not from the singles club. No clue where I got this. I think I might have picked this up after a solid review of this band somewhere. I remember liking this one quite a bit. The B-side sounds like something Moving Targets might have recorded.

The poor use of early layout software makes me cringe. There's a huge screwup with the font there, (note the double-lettering) someone bolded a truetype font style. I had to fix a lot of crap like that in the 90's.

A: Bill
B: Pumpkin
Enjoy!

Tad - Loser

Tad is back! And yes, long before Beck, there was someone singing about being a loser, but this song isn't quite so anthemic-sing-a-long-ish. Neither is the B-side, which mostly consists of Tad shouting "We're cookin' with gas!" It's all delivered in the usual heavy, stomping Tad-style.

Inscribed in the vinyl around the label is "The show ain't over..." and on the B-side "...until the Fat Man sings"

Mystery Train was kind enough to leave their price tag right on the sleeve. One of the few with that, actually, most are on a plastic outer sleeve, but at least I know I paid $3.50 for this in Amherst.

A: Loser
B: Cooking With Gas
Enjoy!

Mark Arm - The Freewheelin' Mark Arm

Mudhoney's Mark Arm takes on Dylan's "Masters of War", and even steals Dylan's album cover, putting him in a gas mask.

This was released during Gulf War part 1, and wasn't exactly a topic about to be covered by Mudhoney, who were as apolitical as any band could be. Arm doesn't exactly have the best voice for folky stuff, but then again, neither did Dylan, so why not?

The B-side is a goofy Bo Diddley-esque thing (he even gets partial songwriting credit) about rickets, Amsterdam, and getting beat up.

A: Masters Of War
B: My Life With Rickets
Enjoy!

Beat Happening - Red Head Walking

The pile of done stuff is starting to approach the size of the pile of stuff yet to be done. Almost, but not quite halfway. It's been fun so far, not sure what to do when there is no more pile of "to-dos" left, except to find some vinyl to buy I suppose.

Another influential Pacific NW band. Beat Happening were a minimalist, Lo-Fi trio with a male and a female "singer" neither of whom really seemed to sing.

They founded the successful DIY label K Records so that they could record and distribute their stuff, and through K helped launch all sort of other acts out of Olympia, such as Courtney Love (the band...) and a lot of the Riot Grrrl bands.

Despite their running K Records, they maintained a relationship with Sub Pop, and this is one of a few things that Sub Pop put out for them. As Sub Pop was taking off at the time, this was probably a smart business move by the band.

Calvin handles the vocals on both tracks. His voice is so deep and low, it sounds like he smoked and drank quite a bit the night before.

Not sure where or when I got this. Probably picked it up because I'd heard of them, but hadn't heard anything by them, and it was on Sub Pop. Interesting enough, but not really my thing at the time. Not bad though.

A: Red Head Walking
B: Secret Picnic Spot
Enjoy!

Hole - Dicknail

This was supposed to be in the box of stuff I got from my ex-GF. I clearly remember buying this in Amherst and listening to it in her dorm room. This was the first thing I looked for, quickly flipping through them all, looking for the fluorescent green stripe. Sadly, it was not in the box. The other early Hole single was missing as well. I guess she had kept the Hole stuff, which I understand. I tracked them down to restore the collection. Luckily, these little early 90's artifacts are pretty cheap these days. Had Courtney Love faded into obscurity, they might be worth more, I think.

Before she became famous for being Mrs. Cobain and a junkie with lousy fashion sense, she fronted a pretty good band. Loud, abrasive and angry as hell, Hole was not for the faint of heart. I remember them being lumped in by the press at the time as a Riot Grrrl act, (which spurred my girlfriend to buy it at the time) though they were anything but. They had big time aspirations, and a big-time sound to match.

This was one of their earliest releases, coming out a good 9 months or so before Pretty On The Inside.

A: Dicknail
B: Burnblack
Enjoy!

Mudhoney - You're Gone

Another Mudhoney single. These are from the Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge time period. "You're Gone" was only released as a single, but "Thorn" was on the album.

The final song, "You Make Me Die", introduced me to English garage rock king Billy Childish. It's his song, and he's singing it with Mudhoney backing him up. He released an album on Sub Pop around this time, with Eightball's Dan Clowes doing the art. His stuff all sounds the same, but at least you know what you're getting from him. I grabbed the Sub Pop Singles Club record he did, which came out around this time too.

A: You're Gone
B: Thorn, You Make Me Die
Enjoy!

Sebadoh - Not Too Amused

Jason gets an A-side with this track that appeared on Bakesale. This is the album where he really started contributing songs that were just as good as Lou's, and it's a solid choice for a single.

The B-side is really, really strange. It's got some of the early Sebadoh Lo-Fi quality to it, but they add bongos, cackling laughter, discordant guitar and Hank Williams playing on a radio. They also throw a slower version of "Not Too Amused" in there. Some of the weirder stuff they did without Eric Gaffney in the band.

Looks like we've got a storm on tap, might get myself caught up on Wednesday.

A: Not Too Amused
B: Hank Williams
Enjoy!

TAD - Jack Pepsi

One of my first Sub Pop singles, though not a part of the Singles Club. These guys were already known as the band that was "too ugly for MTV" and the Peter Bagge artwork on the back cover certainly helped sway me to shell out $4.99 at Newbury Comics for this one. I love it when the sticker is still on it.

Anyway, TAD was a Sub Pop staple, going back to the first days of the label. They're pretty much the first grunge act, or close to it. They were on the heavy side of grunge, and I'm not just talking about their sound. Their front man/guitarist Tad Doyle must have weighed around 350 pounds. They also had this image of being a bunch of hicks from the backwoods of eastern WA, complete with the flannel and boots. Unlike, say, the image UO created for themselves, this was at least grounded in some reality, as these guys really were from the sticks and worked as butchers and the like. I'm not sure if their clothing choices helped create the grunge fashion sense or not, but they seem to have been contributors.

In keeping with their redneck backwoods image, "Jack Pepsi" is about drinking Jack Daniels and Pepsi while driving on barely frozen lakes. Ice Road Truckers meets alcohol, I guess. The B-side isn't quite so heavy. It's a snappy, bass-driven thing. Sounds like it's an homage to serial killer Ed Gein.

One thing about Tad, in addition to their MTV problem (which just gave them more credibility, really) they had some issues with their cover art. I got the revised artwork version of this single, as the original version featured Pepsi's logo, only with the word "TAD" in it. They were sued immediately, and put this version out instead. They were also sued for the cover art that appeared on their 8-Way Santa album, (Great album, and the original cover is fantastic) where this song originally appeared, and I passed up a chance to buy that once. Oh well.

A: Jack Pepsi
B: Eddie Hook
Enjoy!

The Monekywrench - Clean As A Broke-Dick Dog

Introducing LP Sunday, the first in an occasional series. Writing about the Monkeywrench earlier gave me the idea to do this.

Why break my own rules? It's called The Daily 7, not The Occasional 12, right? Well, because I can, and I've got maybe 25-30 LPs that are at least reasonably hard to find in digital format, and I'd like to get around to converting these, too. And LPs are a bitch to convert. You've got play a 45 minute record, split the tracks up by hand, and so on. So I'll work on those on the weekends while (if) I have some extra time to do that, and stick to singles during the week.

On to the record of the day, Clean As a Broke-Dick Dog. I'm pretty sure I mail-ordered this directly from Sub Pop, knowing that the odds of this reaching the stores in the Pioneer Valley were pretty small. This was a must-have as far as I was concerned, and I wasn't about to take any chances. Mudhoney/Gas Huffer/Big Boys side project? Sign me up! It's beautifully packaged, with an homage to old blues/jazz artists with the blue duotone cover and the lengthy, ridiculous essay on the back that explains the relationship between the blues and punk (with a Darby Crash reference! I love it when these things come full circle!) before moving on to extol the virtues of The Monkeywrench. It's perfect. I compared the cover art to an old Coltrane album I have, and even both of the essays fonts are identical. It's on fairly heavy, nicely marbled blue vinyl that makes it look like a bowling ball. Sticking with the old record theme, the label is black with silver ink.

What's inside the cover isn't exactly perfect, but it's close enough. Mudhoney, my favorite garage-slop-grunge act of the early 90's, gets the blues. That's pretty much it. Straight up garagey rock n' roll with some added slide guitar, harmonicas, and so on. It's a solid album, with some standout tracks. "Call My Body Home" is probably the best song about insect infestation ever recorded. "Bottle Up And Go" is as cool as its title sounds, and there's a great little slide-guitar hook to it. They do a great job covering the unlikely pair of Buffy Sainte Marie's folkey "Codine", and Redd Kross's "Notes & Chords Mean Nothing To Me". They nail them both, adding a lot of depth to what started out as two pretty stripped-down songs.

I never did check up on these guys after I got this. I just figured it was a one-off side project. I'm just now finding out that they cut 2 more albums, seems like they do this every 7 or 8 years, which is pretty cool, and probably a lot of fun for them. I should go track those albums down. Amazing how much I've lost touch with this stuff. There was a musical void in my life starting in the late 90's that lasted until recently. At first, I lost track of what was current, and then I just lost touch with everything. I didn't even know that Sub Pop did a Singles Club parts 2 & 3 until I started on this little vinyl project. School, kids, jobs, more school...it all sort of distracted me. Now I've got a decade of music to catch up on, and I'm already trying to catch up with the stuff I already own. But that's cool, it's a good problem to have, really. I've got something new to listen to every day.

1. Call My Body Home
2. Angelhead
3. Cold Cold World
4. Codine
5. From You
6. Doubled Over Again
7. Great Down Here
8. Look Back
9. Bottle Up & Go
10. The Story as I Was Told
11. Notes & Chords Mean Nothing To Me
12. Stop This World
13. I'm Blown
Enjoy!

Codeine - Realize

Sub Pop sort of changed the landscape for the 7”, at least for me. They used to be these ephemeral little things, quickly recorded, distributed, and forgotten. They were for 15 year old girls and DJs. Then Sub Pop came along with the “Singles Club”, announced limited releases, put them on colored vinyl, grabbed some decent bands from other labels to do guest recordings, and then packaged them up nicely, making them instant collectibles. I was a huge fan. I signed up in 1991, about when enrollment peaked, and stuck with it through 1993, though I dropped out before the bitter end.  Coughing up $35 bucks seemed like too much trouble at the time, there were a few duds in there, and I was constantly moving.  But The Singles Club got me buying 7” records. Not just the collectibles, but the throw-aways too. I like that bands experiment a lot more in this format, and you find stuff that wouldn’t normally get released on a full-length album. 

This is the July 1992 Sub Pop Singles Club release. Codeine is credited with being the first “slowcore” band, which makes their name quite appropriate.  This is some sloooow, and too much of it will certainly make you sleepy. Slow was about the last thing I was looking for in 1992. Slow was OK, as long as “heavy” went with it, but this is slow accompanied only by “sad”. I think this got played two or three times at most, and then put away until yesterday, when I randomly pulled it off the shelf (that’s the selection process for this endeavor, by the way, though there will be exceptions for requests and holidays). Listening again after 18 years though, it’s pretty good, and I’m glad to have listened to it again. “Realize” is methodical and deliberate, but it works. Despite the slowness, there’s some energy and life in the guitars and vocals. The B-side, “Broken Hearted Wine” feels more plodding, and the nasal vocals make it more whine than wine.

Good news for the day; my old Harmon Kardon turntable is back in action. Thanks to John for the loaner!

A: Realize
B: Broken Hearted Wine

Enjoy!