(May-December 1993)

BLAST OFF COUNTRY STYLE
I Love Entertainment
Teenbeat 45
There's nothing like rock music by people who sound as if they've never heard the art form before: behold Harrisonburg, VA's own Blast Off Country Style. To wit, what I always hoped the Pussywillows would sound like. Minimal beach-party drums, aboriginal versions of Ventures riffs, and the ever-intriguing vocals and lyrics of Evelyn Hurley, whose larynx just drips with great non-sequiturs and odd couplets ("I'm not a social butterfly/I'm a social firefly!"; "I'm a teenage unicorn/Please give me your candy corn"). Surf music for the Sea Of Tranquility; the best of their three singles.

THE CANNANES
Caveat Emptor
Feel Good All Over CD
After far too many trials/tribulations to recount here, the third Cannanes' LP features more of the sad, sweet, happy songs for which this band is known. It sounds a bit more like the Crabstick LP than A Love Affair With Nature, but that's fine as far as I'm concerned. Different instrumentation than past efforts — harmonicas, French horns, saxophones — but a coherent link with other works by the Cannanes and their offshoots. I don't care anymore about the delays. I'm just glad to have this in my hands.— Sean Murphy

KICKING GIANT
Halo
Spartadisc CD
Hearing Kicking Giant now makes me nostalgic for the spring of 1991, watching Tae and Rachel rip it up in my now ex-girlfriend's backyard in front of a couple dozen partygoers ripped on Oly and Everclear (and that's not even counting the intermission act, two embarrassingly wasted attendees trying to fake their way through "Cast A Shadow" and "Christine"). Time has, as it always does, marched determinedly onward, and hindsight makes it clear that Kicking Giant were (and are) minimalist masters, foregoing indie-safe cuteness when what they really wanted to do was bang guitars and pound drums and scream hornily. Early Some Velvet Sidewalk still stands as the closest historical antecedent, but listen to the brief interstitial pieces, the acapella tinnitus version of "She Comes In Colors," adorable ballads like "Rocket," and the totally strange way they all intersect, and you're left with the true primal, non-pose rock. Kicking Giant has more frustration, passion and energy than they know what to do with. You'd be wise to share all of it with them.

LITTLE SWITZERLAND
Geneva, OH (City Of God)
SKAM 45
According to my Rand McNally 1991 Road Atlas, Geneva, OH lies in the northeast corner of the state, maybe 100 miles east of Little Switzerland's Oberlin home. Were you curious about that? I bought this single purely on the recommendation of the Septophilia sisters, and was quietly blown away. There are so many seven-inch pieces of plastic out there by so many marginal bands that the occasional pleasant surprise seems that much more powerful. There is a slight Vomit Launch tone to the delicate-to-blaring guitars and Sarah Warren's vocals (maybe Autoclave and fellow Ohioans Scrawl woo, now that I've listened for a 35th time). "Erie Canal (Built To Last)" and "Marketplace" are ragged instant classics, the former a cut-and-paste collage of three or four repeating segments. "Hunting Season" is spookier (really!), as the spoken-word verses explode by chorus time . An admirable DIY spirit and an absolute refusal to be categorized colors the whole project. Bits and pieces of Little Switzerland's music will affix themselves to you. It's anyone's guess whether they can sustain this over an entire show or album, but I sure we hope we get a chance to find out...

MAGNETIC FIELDS: The House Of Tomorrow EP (Feel Good All Over)
THE 6THS: "Heaven In A Black Leather Jacket/Rot In The Sun" (Harriet 45)
More songs about country roads the loved ones who disappear down them...Stephin Merritt can barely crank out these gems out of his Macintosh quickly enough, and we're all the richer for it. The FGAO EP features four songs, all of which were apparently sculpted out of four-bar tape loops. I thought this was Merritt's weakest effort at first: now I'm not sure it isn't his best since Distant Plastic Trees. The full-band lineup seems to finally be meshing, and the necessarily simple Spectorish progressions are the perfect backdrop for songs that tape place in disused railroad stations, antique cars and horrid small towns. Those waiting for another "100,000 Fireflies" or pining for Susan Anway's return to the fold are missing the point: Stephin's obviously been using the 45 rpm format to stretch out and tinker with his own songwriting process. In that respect, the 6ths single, a collaboration between Merritt and Robert Scott) should be a heavenly combo, but instead seems a step backwards. Scott's involvement is restricted to lead vocals on the A-side and a few harmonies on the flip. Pleasant but predictable, and I don't think high standards are entirely out of the question when dealing with these two. Apparently future 6ths projects are slated to include a variety of superstars past and present, and the Magnetic Fields' third album is a work in progress as we speak, so enjoy these simple pleasures and hold your breath.

BARBARA MANNING AND FLOPHOUSE
"B4 We Go Under" / "I Love You 1000 Ways"
Teenbeat 45
Barbara has the precious gift of making any song she tackles her own, be it an original composition, a song written by an ex-boyfriend, a Beatles cover or this new dual-covers offering. "B4 We Go Under" was written by Robert Scott expressly for Ms. Manning (possible payback for the cover of "Smoking Her Wings" on One Perfect Green Blanket?). Both parties rise to the occasion: this is no Bats throwaway, but one of Scott's best songs since the Magick Heads 45, maybe even The Law Of Things, with most evocative nautical metaphors throughout. The B-side's a Lefty Frizell cover, a classic I-was-an-asshole-so-my-baby-left-me barstool blues number. Really, I can practically visualize Barbara singing it to herself, drunk out of her mind on the floor. There's no Manning-related product not worth owning, and the sleeve looks nifty too.

THE RAINCOATS
The Raincoats
DGC CD
OK, people, here's your window of opportunity. On a major label no less, you can now easily find the groundbreaking 1980 debut by the Raincoats. It's a faithful and tasteful reissue: lots of rare photos and lyrics, the addition of "Fairytale In The Supermarket" from their even more amazing Rough Trade single, the front and back covers exactly as they originally appeared. The liner notes from Kurt Cobain say little more than "I'm famous and I like this band," but Ana da Silva's annotations shed some light on why the Raincoats came together as they did. The music? Well, we covered this in detail back in Writer's Block, but don't feel like I'm getting lost in superlatives when I say these 11 songs are LIKE NOTHING BEFORE OR SINCE. Folks, records like this have never exactly been plentiful, and this one is still ahead of its time. Buy it and watch your preconceptions of music change.

SIP
various artists
Blue Tongue cassette
Rejoice, readers, for Mercer County, N.J. now has its own counterpart to Shrimper Tapes' living room ramblings. Blue Tongue belongs to a guy named Dave from the outskirts of Princeton, who compiles tapes of his own bands and those of his friends and wraps them in handwritten covers. He's been sending me tapes since just after Flux #1 came out, but I bought this one for $1.50 at the Indie 500 and bub, it was worth at least three times that. As with Shrimper's comp tapes, Sip is of wildly varying musical quality, but taken as a whole it makes a skewed sort of sense. The best advice I can give is to throw aside the track listing and let the tape wash over you. If you do, you'll hear massively distorted guitars, the sound of a padlock being swirled around in a mug, tender female vocals over tinny guitar, Sebadoh-styled musings, five-second bursts of sound, and far far more.

SPIRAL JETTY
Band Of Gold
Enemy CD
What can I say? It took Andy, Adam, Dave and Brad three fucking years to finish this record. I kind of knew the result would be slightly stale, and uh, I ought to buy a crystal ball and open up a storefront somewhere judging by the end result. Decent songs left in the oven too long; intricate little melodies amplified in wrong ways; an unfortunate predilection for rocking out that's a holdover from Dogstar. It's not bad, but its moment has come and gone. And yet the record ends with "Social Age," a masterstroke of a song that sounds like a farewell. "In my dreams I see a new age...in dreams begin responsibilities," sings Adam with as much bitter emotion as anything else in Spiral Jetty's long career. I'd like to think they had New Brunswick in mind when they resurrected this song, a chestnut from their earliest days. Still, if you weren't there for the band's late-1980s heyday, buy Tour Of Homes or Art's Sand Bar in the cut-out bins instead for the real forgotten favorites.

TEENY POPPERS
various artists
Anorak cassette
Yeah, I'd be put off by the label name too, but you can't argue with 28 bands for 40 French francs (a little more than $7.00US). Especially when the participants include White Town, Confetti and Fat Tulips. While this is no Waaaaah! CD, you're sure to find at least a few bands you'll like among the hour-plus of music. There's a faintly Sarahesque feel to the proceedings — all soppy vocals, wry song titles and the like — but my main impression was that, at least in Europe, Felt has been a huge influence. Not only does the band Antiseptic Beauty name itself after Laurence & co.'s first album, but the shimmery, gauzy guitar sound of those early records seems to have made an impression (along with Field Mice and the Pastels). Of the bands you might have heard of, White Town offers yet another delectable ode to loneliness and betrayal, this one directed to a PC ex-girlfriend ("Save The Earth But Don't Save Me"). There are also barely-audible live versions of Confetti's "Who's Big And Clever Now?" and Fat Tulips' cover of Julian Cope's "Passionate Friend" (keep the sound quality in mind if you're buying this for them). There are also tracks by Saint Christopher, Our American Cousins and Music Seen that you probably don't own already. As for the rest, it's a melange of little-known bands primarily from the U.K. and France; subtle charms emerge over listenings.

UNREST
"Cath Carroll" + 2
Teenbeat 45
Of course, you're all familiar with Cath Carroll and her rich musical history by now: critic for the British weeklies, leader of Miaow (whose "When It All Comes Down" Unrest covered a couple of years ago), Factory Records' resident chanteuse, maker of underappreciated solo album England Made Me. "Cath Carroll" pays tribute via a pop anthem that probably took 5 minutes to write and sounds like it's always been there. It's impossible to resist lyrics that go as far as including the catalog number of Miaow's "When It All Comes Down" ("Cath Carroll/FAC 179!"). "Cherry Cherry" and "Suki" sounded like dry runs for this. The B-sides are filler-free as well: "So Sick," a midtempo pop song, and the flamenco-flavored "Capezio." I love the Perfect Teeth CD as well — a continuing refinement of Unrest's pop style, with "Angel I'll Walk You Home" and "West Coast Love Affair" the most successful bossa-nova updatings since the Wayfarers, maybe even Weekend — but see below for an opposing opinion.

UNREST
Perfect Teeth
4AD/Teenbeat CD
It's the new Unrest LP, but much of it sounds like old material on a quick listen. "Cath Carroll" is a hybrid of "Cherry Cherry," "Suki" and "Christina," while another song merely speeds up "She Makes Me Shake Like A Soul Machine." Changes include a duet between Mark and Bridget to open up the album, two songs by Bridget, and one by Phil. These are probably the better songs on the LP, but I think it's a case of extreme familiarity with Mark's pop song style that holds me back here. There are a couple of odd things here (the whistling "Food and Drink Synthesizer" is brilliant), but the bulk of the album is very safe, enjoyable...missing something. Another 20 plays on my Walkman will probably help, as will the upcoming release of Black Power Dynamo — both Malcolm X Park and Kustom Karnal Blaxploitation on one CD. —Sean Murphy