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Taking the rest of the week off.  Sue ya next Monday.

One man provided the lyrics while another developed them into eleven impeccably great songs. 

First and foremost, Yung Wu is/was a band, not an individual.  With that sorted out, in my opinion this New Jersey five-piece may as well have dubbed themselves "That Feelies spinoff band." Not only does that denote there lineage, it invariably trails any mention of Yung Wu anywhere, be it online, The Trouser Press Record Guide, or even the occasional '80s fanzine that was thoughtful enough to offer them some press three decades back. In a nutshell, the story goes like this.  After the very belated release of the Feelies not-so-difficult sophomore LP, 1986's The Good Earth, yet another hiatus was in order.  This sabbatical would entail the revival of Yung Wu, a band that had it's roots in The Trypes .  Dating back to 1982, the Trypes were local indie scenesters who included a guy named Glenn Mercer in their ranks, who just happened to be the Feelies prime mover.  In the ranks of this arcane indie curiosity sat Glenn on drums, a 180 from his role in the Feel...

Damn, not sure how I didn't get to this one sooner, especially considering it's of Chanukah caliber.  Souvenirs.. . came out almost ten years ago on the Swedish Sound Asleep imprint, but the emphasis here is strictly on US and occasionally Canadian contingents.  The subtitle, Little Gems of Pop is right on the money, honing in on underexposed power pop acts from the '80s, with a few selections spilling over into the '90s.  There's a decent amount of talent that's been previously addressed on this site, inculding Carnival Season, Choo Choo Train, Leatherwoods, Wishniaks , etc, but the overwhelming majority are artists that Wilfully Obscure have never breached into. Oodles of gold here, including San Diego modsters Manual Scan , singer/songwriter troubadours Jimmy Silva and Eric Voeks , Zero's expat Hector Penalosa , Todd Newman and The Leatherwoods (and even their antecedent act Lions and Dogs ).  We're also treated to not just one but TWO precursors...

Have at it. Local Operator - singles Jo Broadbery and the Standouts - s/t & House of Love V/A - Squares Blot Out the Sun V/A - Neapolitan Metropolitan V/A - Bad Timing (Perth pop) V/A - Teen Line , Vols. 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 & 6 The Heaters - Energy Transfer   Push Push - Can't Wait Cannon Heath Down - Heart-Throb Companion Phil 'n' the Blanks - Multiple Choice Nightman - No Escape Sunday Cannons - Red to the Rind ep Full Fathom Five - Multinational... , Cry of a Fallen Nation , 4 A.M. Rifle Sport - Primo & White Tall Tales and True - Shiver All Systems Go - two eps Green Magnet School - Blood Music Snatches of Pink - Dead Men and Send in the Clowns Danny and the Door Knobs - Poison Summer The Catch - Girls in Uniform ep Gapeseed - Lo Cell A Picture Made - Past ep Polo - s/t ep Apology - Pass You By ep Ff - Lady Shoe

This southern Cali quartet do the jangle and strum thing with homespun aplomb and more than enough charm to get by, purloining a thing or two from REM - and they wouldn't sound entirely out of place on a bill with one of their other local contemporaries, The Three O'Clock.  Other than that, I can't offer much in the way of background info on the Colours , who may have only issued this one slice of vinyl.  Modest, but mightily effective stuff here.  A few notches shy of a masterpiece, Details at Thirteen is at the very least well above average.  Funny they went with a black and white sleeve, contrary to their moniker.  01. Faces in the Window 02. Somewhere in Between 03. untitled 04. Long Distance 05. What You Mean 06. Turn Around https://www54.zippyshare.com/v/l9C7FLyR/file.html

When I posted a home-curated assemblage of Velocity Girl singles, b-sides and compilation contributions about five years ago, I purposely omitted their first two singles on Slumberland Records, given they had been made available on the CD I'm sharing here.  Turns out, that ep isn't so available anymore, as one of our readers recently pointed out to me.  So here it is.  The two singles in question, 1990's "I Don't Care if You Go/"Always" and "My Forgotten Favorite"/"Why Should I Be Nice to You" arriving two years later, which not only served as Velocity Girl's sublime calling card, they epitomized the indie pop strata of the alterna-centric '90s.  From the relatively twee "I Don't Care..." to the gauzy but dizzying melodious "My Forgotten Favorite," VG were at the top of their game from the get go.  True, superior songs were in the offing, but their pre-Sub Pop singles were downright impeccable - and a ...

Personally, I wish they had retired after this album.  Instead, they sullied their good name for decades to come.  This one, however, is a peach. Hear

I feel it would be jumping the gun to throw one of today's new Record Store Day releases out there for public consumption, so how about one from a couple years back instead?  The title of this all too limited edition platter is either going to lure you in or not I suppose.  Seattle's late and stupendously great Green River were a hot mess even when they got around to recording proper albums including such wrenchingly angsty missives as the Dry As a Bone ep and Rehab Doll , but a messy ending almost always entails an even sloppier genesis. This LP of nine nascent recordings was essentially tracked in prep for the band's debut, Come On Down, though few songs from this session actually carried over to it.  If you're familiar with that one you know it's a bit of a winded slog of a record, that hit the market before Green River truly perfected that "groove" thing.  Sort of the same premise on these nine cuts, but, wherein future Mudhoney -mates Mark Arm ...

I think this one will have special relevance to my Buffalo and Toronto peeps.  It's not often when a band garners a stronger following in a city/country other than one they're indigenous to, but so be it the case of TO's Lowest of the Low .  Circa 1991 in Buffalo, NY, the city just 50 miles south as the crow flies, there were hoards of early and enthusiastic adopters of the Low and their auspicious debut, Shakespeare My Butt .  With the now-renown Ron Hawkins at the helm, spewing diatribes, anecdotes and clever truisms galore, western New Yorkers caught the Low's indelible bug from the get go, as word of mouth spread rapidly - all pre-web mind you.  Pair Hawkin's timeless tact for writing with a melodic indie rock penchant and you have a formula that should have infiltrated the entire continent, but Canada and a sweet chunk of the Empire State would have to suffice. This 2004 show technically took place in Williamsville, NY, an affluent suburb, not the city proper...

One glance at the front (and especially the back) cover and you'd reasonably have Rockphonics pegged as feisty, rockabilly ball-busters.  Instead, this duo had something a little less rambunctious in mind.  Ostensibly hailing from that congested, but little spoken of New York berg, Yonkers, the 'phonics no frills aptitude geared more towards traditional; un-twangy rock that was often just a riff or two shy of full blown power pop.  When playing to their janglier strengths they would have slotted in nicely with colleagues like the Windbreakers, Dreams So Real and Fire Town.  Get the Picture?, the combo's second and final record, is a thoroughly listenable affair, if not consistently rousing.  Rockphonics catch fire on the hooky "Lock and Key," churn up a gutsy. barroom barnstormer in the form of  Picture's title track, and they even get fairly sublime on the harmony soaked "Lost Time." 01. Wild Sun 02. Alright By Me 03. Turning Us Around 04. Lock a...

This week it's the bonus material (and only the bonus material) from an expanded reissue of a 1992 indie classic that has earned it's 'seminal' distinction. Hear

Diesel Park West aren't one of my most powerful hankerings, and maybe not many others as well, but I thought a few of you might enjoy this. My own appreciation of them revolves more around certain songs, not so much entire albums.  These tunes were cut in anticipation of the band's 1989 debut, Shakespeare Alabama .  It's "modern rock" in perhaps the most commercial sense, but there are some real stunners here in the guise of the jangly "All The Myths on Sunday," and the more anthemic "When the Hoodoo Comes."  If you're looking for a few lazy comparisons, DPW run/ran the same gamut as contemporaries Mission UK, latter-80s Alarm, and occasionally Simple Minds.  Like the aforementioned, these Leicester, UK chaps emanated something resembling a social conscience, without ever getting too pious.  This set is well worth checking out, even though the finished versions were minimally revised from these prototypes. PS: I neglected to mention, this ...