Soul Vandals - "Flower Killer" 7"

Soul Vandals – “Flower Killer” 7”

Scat, 1993

Acquired: Love Garden, Used, 2007

Price: $.25

The “Flower Killer” 7” is the lone release in Soul Vandals’ catalog. I love these weird mystery 7”s. Since it’s on Scat, I’m guessing these guys are from Ohio and, based on a quick google search…shit. Here’s what I got: a lady from South Euclid, OH posting RIP Chris Marec (Soul Vandals’ songwriter/frontman) on a Facebook page for Marec’s former band Spike in Vain. I can’t verify that. I also can’t verify if Chris and his brother/bandmate Andrew spell their last name “Marec” (as listed on the 7”s sleeve) or “Marek” as it is written on the handful of web entries about the brothers’ music careers. This lineage of obscure alt-rock bands from the 80s and 90s is of great interest to me. Alas, I am have not the time that I once did to dig in to this obscure shit but I’m hoping one of the dudes in this band has “Soul Vandals” set as a Google alert and I’ll hear from them at some point for the full story!

Linda Smith - "Till Another Time" 7"

Linda Smith – “Till Another Time” 7”

Slumberland, 1993

Acquired: Love Garden, Used, 2012

Price: $1

The dreamy lo-fi pop of Linda Smith’s 1990 “Gorgeous Weather” 7” gives way to a fuzzy, languid shoegazer vibe that jibes well with her new label, Slumberland. “Till Another Time” sounds like it has a buzzsaw running through it. It feels much akin to the recent crop of Slumberland shoegaze-revival bands that resurged like mad at the end of the 00s. The b-sides have a bit more jangle but on the whole were a lot quieter and I ended up taking a nap somewhere in the middle of it all.

The Meanies - "Rhyming Logic" 7"

The Meanies – “Rhyming Logic” 7”

Merge, 1993

Acquired: Love Garden Shotgun Room, Used, 2008

Price: $.25

 

Australian group The Meanies cut an intriguing line between indie rock and punk. This was their only release for Merge Records. It’s fun, and a little strange (“Darkside on My Mind” features random sound effects of a beer being opened and poured into a glass, a crying baby, and an A-Bomb exploding), and a little more raucous than I was expecting. Although, I was expecting ska, because I immediately associated this band with the Blue Meanies, natch. “Rhyming Logic” is the Meanies’ best offering, or maybe I’m biased because it hits the sweet spot in my heart that looks like a big, comic-booky button that reads “COLLEGE ROCK: PUSH IF YOU WANT IAN TO EXPERIENCE PURE JOY.” The guitars just sort of vibrate in a way that is immensely satisfying. Almost equally exciting as these excellent jams is the insert detailing the happenings at Merge in August ’93, when they were “releasing a new Lambchop (formerly known as Posterchild) single.” Lambchop before they were Lambchop! THRILLING! It’s like a time capsule! “Hopefully by this time, all you folks have heard/have/love the 3D’s ‘Beautiful Things’ single.” Yes! Great track (from a time when Merge was apparently doing a lot of exporting from Oceania)!

"Rhyming Logic"

Guided by Voices - The Grand Hour EP

Guided by Voices – The Grand Hour EP

Scat, 1993

Acquired: Love Garden, Used, 2014

Price: $12

 

In college, I spent way more money than I should have on records. This sad fact is the reason this blog exists. In recent years, I’ve learned a great deal about self control and my record buying has been almost exclusively to buying records at work with my employee discount, and even then nothing over $10. Still, it’s incredibly dangerous walking into Love Garden with a wad of birthday cash in my wallet, and when GBV records show up, well, the money is as good as spent as GBV records are my kryptonite. The only thing other than books that I truly enjoy collecting. The Grand Hour EP was impossible to pass up, not only because of its importance in GBV’s discography (it’s not really that masterful of a record, but it almost directly precedes Bee Thousand and Alien Lanes and contains those albums’ title tracks and the 7”s weirdness is almost like a preamble to two of the greatest albums ever recorded by anyone ever) but because it has “Shocker in Gloomtown.” The song was amazingly popularized by the Breeders, but the GBV original crams an obscene amount of punch into its brisk minute-and-a-half long frame that the track positively explodes. It is infinitely replayable, and usually finds its way into the first five tracks on every GBV mix I make for the uninitiated. Outside of “Shocker in Gloomtown,” the EP is full of weirdness. A five-second snippet of the guitar line from “Hot Freaks” opens the second side and is followed by Tobin Sprout’s brief and gorgeous “Off the Floor,” which is polluted by Bob Pollard wailing and some skronky guitars in the not-so-distant background. “Break Even” nails down GBV’s knack for mid-song stylistic change by morphing a heavy stomper into a lovely acoustic interlude before turning up the heat again. The whole affair is a slice of wonderful weird.

The Grand Hour entire:

And here's the Breeders' cover of "Shocker in Gloomtown" for kicks. Notice the familiar faces hounding that Dayton, Ohio garage!

Insides/The Glee Club - Split 7"

Insides/ The Glee Club

4AD, 1993

Acquired: Half Price Books, Used, 2013

Price: $1

 

I don’t think I’d ever heard the real 4AD until I listened to Cocteau Twins for the very first time earlier this year. Strange how certain things elude you. The world of music is a vast, vast, vast place. And the true world of 4AD is a dark, gothy place. And then it cracked itself open to reveal the Breeders, the Pixies, Red House Painters, Unrest, and TV on the Radio. Maybe Dead Can Dance are the only real gothy band, but Insides definitely have some of that forlorn gloom woven into their ambient, trip-hop influenced dream pop. Dream Pop! That’s the word I’m looking for! 4AD were purveyors of dream pop! And now dream pop is a genre tag that gets bandied about every which way and it’s like “No! Go listen to this 4AD stuff that sounds like it exists somewhere between the half awake world and dreams!” The Insides track “Walking in Straight Lines” is pure hypnosis. Kirsty Yates vocals recall Bjork, but that is more about her delivery (Bjork’s aptly titled solo debut Debut was released in 1993 too so maybe that ethereal thing was all the rage in the early nineties. Still, Bjork had been tearing it up with the Sugarcubes since 1986 so I’m gonna say Yates is a little Bjork-y and not the other way around) than her actual voice which is more pedestrian than the Icelandic diva’s (not a bad thing, not meant to be backhanded, it’s just you know, wait, how did this whole entry end up being about Bjork?). “Walking in Straight Lines” is very clearly carbon dated to the early 90s and I’m wondering when young bands are gonna start ripping off this sound. The Glee Club turn out a nice blend of dreamy pop and Breeders-esque indie rock and their contribution to this split—“Bad Child’s Dolly”—is easily my favorite side. The Irish group only made one full album, but based on the strength of this song I’m dying to hear it. Joanne Loughman’s vocals are absolutely towering. The verses are deceptively plain, more akin to Sarah Records twee pop than the wonderfully haughty dreamy ethereal shit 4AD was built on, but then the chorus kicks in and she just knocks you out with this really wonderful, throaty delivery that displays a surprising amount of range. Jenny asked if I was listening to Kate Bush, and that’s about as apt as a comparison as there is. It’s an interesting track. The verses feature a repetitive electric guitar line (and a saxophone later on that become more and more dissonant as the verses continue) but the choruses have this big, effects-addled acoustic guitar that pairs with Loughman’s delivery remarkably well. The track morphs into a cacophonous blend of everything that has been slowly added over the duration and I’m left sitting here very impressed. It snuck up on me. Some random 7”, purchased randomly, packing a song I’ve listened to ten times this morning and found something new to like about it each time.

Insides - "Walking in Straight Lines"


The Glee Club - "Bad Child's Dolly"

Greenhorn - "Liars' Song"/ "Lovers' Song" 7"

Greenhorn – “Liars’ Song”/ “Lovers’ Song” 7”

3 Beads of Sweat, 1993

Acquired: Love Garden Shotgun Room, Used, 2008

Price: $.25

 

Greenhorn illustrated that the long-reaching tentacles of grunge got as far inland as Columbus, Ohio. I shouldn’t be surprised, as I’ve previously noted that the last house we occupied in Lawrence housed at least two different grunge bands/bands capitalizing on the post-grunge boom in the early 90s (fun fact: Behind the house there was a shed that served as a carport and the always open door to the shed bore the logos of Black Flag and the Dead Kennedys in spray paint, thus leaving behind the legacy of the punk bands that lived in the house before the grunge bands moved in). The grunge comes through in full-force on the A-side “Liars’ Song,” but B-side “Lovers’ Song” is more of a tender, jangly pop number that redeems the 7” even if the bass is mixed way too high and goes on about a minute and a half too long.

Gastr Del Sol - 20 Songs Less

Gastr del Sol – 20 Songs Less 7”

Teen Beat, 1993

Acquired: Half Price Books, Used, 2013

Price: $1

 

Gastr del Sol’s line-up on this 7” is more impressive than the actual music. Here we have Squirrel Bait’s David Grubbs, the indomitable Jim O’Rourke on guitar, founding Tortoise member Bundy K. Bundy, and long time Tortoise drummer Jim McEntire. This is Gastr del Sol’s second release and their first with O’Rourke. The music is haunting, disjointed, and built around aimless acoustic guitars. I’m a big fan of Jim O’Rourke’s acoustic guitar based solo albums (opposed to the crazy noise based ones) so I have that to latch onto as I face these pretty straight-up experimental tracks. The A-side is quite a bit wilder than the B-Side, featuring a few moments where the sound cuts out that are reminiscent of your shitty headphones cutting out because the headphone jack on your iPod is busted. I’m sure you are familiar with that sensation. That said, I much prefer the spaced out B-side with its gentle guitar strums and audio clips of children playing in a park meeting up with the distant electronics in the dense background. There are some insane, jazz-fueled drum bits here and I think they last all of ten seconds. It’s rooted in that weird, avant-garde/post-rock/post-hardcore/math rock era that is effectively a total mystery to me outside of Spiderland, the first Squirrel Bait record and cursory listens to Codeine, Big Black, and all that stuff that was touted by the great Chicago record labels in the mid-90s (Touch-and-Go, Drag City) with the east coast contingent of avant-pop/punk held down by Teen Beat and Dischord. It’s a weird world that I am only loosely acquainted with and fortunately I’ve got plenty of time to dig into all of that stuff at a later date (sooner rather than later, considering that I have Teen Beat and Drag City LP compilations in my stack of LPs awaiting write-ups).

Flop - "Anne" 7"

Flop – “Anne” 7”

Frontier/Insipid, 1993

Acquired: Love Garden Shotgun Room, Used, 2008

Price: $.25

 

One of my favorite DJs at KJHK was a guy named Justin Brown. I ended up taking over Alternative Flashback for him when he graduated. I remember him playing this song “Anne” and raving about Flop’s album The Fall of the Mopsqueezer. Something about that album title stuck in my head (probably because it’s a fucking great album title). SO, I heard that song and I was like “Hey alright this song is pretty groovy!” and then months later I found it on 7” in the Love Garden Shotgun Room! Sitting down with the track, I became obsessed and played it on probably half of my Alternative Flashback shows. It just so perfectly encapsulates everything that was good and holy about that early 90s alternative rock. Hailing from Seattle, it’s amazing that their sound isn’t more mired in grunge. I didn’t think I could love this band more than I already do until I read this bit on their Wikipedia page: “Never intending to actually become a real band, they toyed with many self-deprecating names including ‘Butt Sweat and Tears’ and ‘The Value Village People.’ Eventually however they lied their way into a show and needed an official name and inspired by a headline for a review of a local play in the newspaper ‘Resounding Flop” was shortened to ‘Flop’ and the band was born.” Mythmaking at its finest! They’re like the Undertones with a greater reverence for pop bliss. “I Told a Lie” sounds like an Exploding Hearts b-side, if that helps to convey the sense of glee these guys exude (frontman Rusty Willoughby’s other band was called Pure Joy, so it all makes sense). These guys are just a lot of fun, but I’m partial to bands who start out as a joke and not giving a shit, discover they really have something going, and end up channeling that not-giving-a-shit attitude into pure, perfect, and more than a little ramshackle pop songs.

The amazing video for "Anne" has that same VHS sheen as my memories of the early 90s.

Fire in the Kitchen - Glow EP

Fire in the Kitchen – Glow EP

Walt Records, 1993

Acquired: Love Garden Shotgun Room, Used, 2008

Price: $.25

 

Fire in the Kitchen is a mystery. I can barely find any information about them on the internet, and the blurb for this 2x7” on the little mail-order insert reads: “Out of Winter’s laboring pain comes this four song EP from NYC’s reclusive guitar outfit. The most recent recordings from this quartet of tall, skinny, well read individuals.” The mail-order insert also advertises the early Mountain Goats cassettes on Shrimper and 7”s by Versus, Nothing Painted Blue, and Sebadoh. The insert boasts “Book prepared by MAIL-ORDER MEN, Not by College Professors” for a reason that may or may not be an inside joke. Other than Fire in the Kitchen being from NYC, Discogs informs me that they released two additional 7”s, a full-length (1990’s Theory of Everything) and a compilation. I am dismayed because Glow is absolutely fantastic. It’s an inspired blend of chiming college rock, proto-math rock, a dusting of post-punk and some surprisingly tuneful melodies. It looks like the guys in the band didn’t do much after Fire in the Kitchen, which is heartbreaking because this is the sort of bread-and-butter early-to-mid-90s indie rock that I could listen to all goddamn day. Sometimes it feels like bands go out of their way to maintain a false sense of mystery when there are tons and tons of bands just like this that had a few releases in the 90s and dropped off the face of the earth.

I couldn't track down any samples, but you can acquire Fire in the Kitchen's 3 EPs and their teriffic full length Theory of Everything over at Wilfully Obscure.