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A two-fer featuring a 1983 album and ep from a group that practically wrote the playbook for the scene that celebrates itself. **Please do not reveal artist in comments!** Hear

This one is pretty straightforward.  A full live set from Chicago's noisenik, indie/major label rockers Eleventh Dream Day .  This exemplary gig fell between the band's Beet and Lived to Tell albums, and this was one of the last tours audiences would be treated to such old chestnuts as "Watching the Candles Burn."  This recording could pass for a soundboard tape, but the setlist from the torrent I obtained this from notably states that track ten "Michael Dunne" had to be faded out due to a tape flip at the end, so perhaps this recorded by someone in the audience.  I'm offering it in the unaltered FLAC (lossless) from it was originally shared in, and an MP3 version if that's what you prefer. Enjoy. 01. Intro - Liz Beth 02. Between Here and There 03. Love to Hate to Love 04. Testify 05. Tranatula 06. Bagdad's Last Ride 07. Among the pines 08. Merciless 09. Watching the Candles Burn 10. Michael Dunne (fade out) 11. Teenage Pin Queen 12. Awake I Lie...

This long bygone Jacksonville, FL trio had an interesting array of parties cropping up in their "thank you" list - grandmas, the Chickasaw Mudpuppies, Henry Kissinger...  What to make of that is anyone's guess, and to a lesser extent you can apply that notion to the Beggar Weeds themselves.  From what little poking around I was able to do before stringing these 150 (or so) words together, I ascertained the band fancied themselves as "speed folk."  After a couple spins of Sure Pants Alot, the most immediate comparison I conjured up was that of a higher pitched John Fogerty fronting the Violent Femmes.  But as is the case with so many of my comparative attempts that's hardly a spot-on correlation.  There's a certain twangy modus operandi in operation here, and although BW were a discernible product of the deep south their vibe was thankfully more nonchalant than forced.  Word has it the band made inroads with the Athens, GA indie circuit of the day, so ...

Not to be confused withe the Boston band of the same (coincidentally featured here a few years ago) the Rods and Cones I'm sharing today were a more economical three-piece set up, situated in the less urban locale of Bloomington, IN.  Guitar pop with varying dosages of power was their calling card and they played it capably, if perhaps half a step or two shy of the mainstream.  Their approach was plenty accessible, but thankfully not as gaudily decked out as the drivel that say, Huey Lewis and his dudes were crapping out around the same time.  The Rods thing was more in league with Tommy Tutone and later Knack.  "Hypnotize Women" and "Useless Knowledge" were cheeky riff-rockers with ample bite, bearing enough commercial prowess to land on AOR playlists of the day...though I'm not sure if that scenario ever came to fruition.  Rods and Cones winds things down with a novel acoustic reading of the Peanuts theme (lazily titled "Charlie Brown") before...

Something decidedly off the beaten path for you this week.  A chronological, double CD anthology spanning 1971-88 for a band that lay claim to veritable genre-shaping in their native UK, but across the pond, not so much. **Please do not reveal artist in comments!** Hear

Something has always fascinated me about rural/small town indie rock, maybe because there seems to be so little of it.  Signal Thirty , ostensibly hailing from Paducah, KY, could have conveniently chosen to season their ears on such mainstream purveyors of the day as Def Leppard or John Cougar Mellencamp, but I tend to think their collective tastes ran a little deeper than the Top-ten.  Said to have been recorded over the course of Memorial Day weekend in '87, Purpose sounds like a dandy way to have killed three days.  Varying from twangy, albeit skewed roots rock, to jangly REM-isms, this trio never quite settles on a singular penchant here, yet manages to keep the entire affair structured.  Purpose really gets cooking on side two, with brisk keepers like "Wild With Me," "(The Adventures of) Laritasm," and "Some Sweet Day" all exuding verve and zest, not to mention a homegrown aplomb that occasionally floats in the vicinity of what the Meat Pup...

It's time once again for our annual rehash *ahem* taster of the creme de la creme of Wilfully Obscure's juiciest morsels from the year just departed.  Per the title, I say under-blogging in the respect that each year I seem to grow a tad more slack than the one prior in terms of the amount of audio victuals I lay out buffet-style on our coveted, on-the-house table.  Is what it is I suppose, as I'm in no hurry to exhaust my collection.  Revelations continue to abound on these pages, and 2018 brought to the fore some pretty phenomenal vintage wax from the likes of Three Leaning Men, The Woodies, The Lift, November Group and the Cuban Heels amidst approximately twenty others I've managed to shoehorn into one folder. Given the disparate offerings here, more than a few song-to-song segues may not make for the most logical of transitions, though I've attempted to maintain a semblance of continuity, fractured as it amy sometime seem.  Roughly speaking, the first half h...