Adds for April 27, 1999
Price / Format / Artist / Title / Label / Comments

CD / THE GREEN PAJAMAS / All Clues Lead To Meagan's Bed/ Camera Obscura

following the 7" that Peter L. added a few weeks ago, here is the new CD by the long running Seattle band The Green Pajamas, who are currently mining the same territory as the Elephant 6 bands. There are many good songs, and their arrangements are entirely professional (even if less grandiose) than the Elephant 6 stable.

CD / ORDINARY PSYCHO / Solitaire Solution

"Orchestral Pop in a kind of Divine Comedy/El/Louis Phillippe style" (description in Rough Trade update) from the South coast of England. They do a standout cover of the John Foxx/Ultravox song 'Hiroshima Mon Amour'. Rough Trade's description doesn't work for me unless you add The Doors into that stew, as Ordinary Psycho are much darker/mysterious than The Divine Comedy and Louis Phillipe, or anything on Mike Alway's legendary record label El. The first song ("Lunatics Two") is about the death of Princess Diana. "Fever" starts with samples from 'Psycho' (the CD sleeve honors the film as well). One song ("Whole of Hollywood") sounds a bit like the London band Gretschen Hoffner. "The Road" is their epic and is my favorite song on the record, like Doors "The End" played by Gretschen Hoffner and a violinist/small orchestra. "Dread Me Now" has sparse Morricone-ish music with a girls struggled breath and Pram-like wierdness (suggested by a hint of trumpet), and is the most atmospheric song. There's a few songs I really do not like, as their sense of self worth seems to rival Ian McCulloch, without the history of Echo & The Bunnymen to back up such self-importance. Those songs are made up for by the uncredited bonus song (#14) which is like a 'Rebel Yell'-era Billy Idol song crossed with The Chameleon's song 'In Shreds'. This is the song that hits you strongest on first listen, though it's not really represenstative of the band's sound. Overall its a good record. When I played 'Hiroshima' I got a great call from a listener, and found an email when I got home from Peter Choyce emoting over it as well. Today at work someone asked about the song as well.

CD / SIMPLY SAUCER / Cyborgs Revisited / Fistpuppet/

Circa 1974, Edgar Breau & Co. were messing with the Canonical Avant-Garde Rock Texts in a way that has rarely been repeated with such finesse. Ping Romany's bizarro electronica on "Mole Machine" may be the only recorded collision of the respective aesthetics of first-Roxy-album Eno and pre-"Autobahn" Kraftwerk. Breau lifts his snarl in "Nazi Apocalypse" from Stooge-era Iggy and his cool from Lou Reed. The guitars are hard but clean (courtesy of the then-nascent Lanois franchise) and the controls are set for the heart of the sun as "Illegal Bodies" unfurls over 10 minutes. There's nothing kitschy or queasily psychedelic about vintage Simply Saucer. The band was too lean, too coolly self-possessed, and too freaky to inspire a record company to spend any cash on outfitting its sound in a prom dress. Out of step, out of time.--Jason Anderson, music editor. I like the first song ('Instant Pleasure') and the sixth song ('Here Come the Cyborgs part one') best out of the 9 songs here. Sometimes Simply Saucer's influence on the '79 SF band The Twinkeyz can be heard. That band in turn influenced Dream Syndicate a lot. Trace back the lineage of modern rock one step further!

CD / RUDOLPH ROCKER / The Exotic Sounds of… / Mook Records of Leeds

Named after the famous German Anarchist. Vocally this band sounds a lot like The Wedding Present, musically they are somewhat similar to New Order and Satisfact when those bands are happy. heir single 'Rousseau' (also included here) is a favorite of Ben Walker. There is a Mekon connection to this band, but I'm not sure what it is. The members are M. Goodall, S. Goodall, and J. Dyson.

7" / CUL DE SAC / "The Portland Cement Company at Monolith, California" b-w "Hagstrom" / Earworm Records

Boston post-rock pioneers. Robin Amos used to play in The Girls, who were a Devo-ish Boston band from 1986 who put out the great 'Reunion' LP. This single has 2 instrumentals that should bring Cul De Sac the type of attention that has always evaded them in their career thus far.

7" / THEE MICHELLE GUN ELEPHANT & THE BRISTOLS / Split single / Vinyl Japan

Thee Michelle Gun Elephant is a Japanese rock band who we just got a CD from, and The Bristols are a UK band who have a cool female vocal cover of The Troggs song "Our Love Will Still Be There" on this single. The Bristols sound way better than their somewhat bland name would suggest.

CD / LADDIO BOLOCKO / Hungarian Agog

Second record (actually this is a 5 song EP) by this Brooklyn transplant from upstate NY band who seem to always end up favorable compared to the 77-81 UK band This Heat. Drew from the band gave this to me for us when Laddio Bolocko opened up for the incredible set by the Finnish duo Pan Sonic at the Middle East last week. Despite urging from the WMBR DJ "TheTurkish Queen"., he would not say who the name of the band referred to. He did say that he hates the mix on this record, but I think it's a fresh record from a band playing a type of music you just don't get to hear much of these days.