Beach Blvd

various artists
label:: Get Back

Rerelease of a 1989 compilation on Posh Boy Records featuring 1979 recordings by three Southern California LA suburb bands from West Covina in Orange County - The Simpletones, Rik L Rik and The Crowd.

This CD is a solid buy - there are lots of great songs, and all three bands have a different take on the era they are representing.

Boobs: The Junkshop Glam Discotheque

various artists
label:: RPM

RPM continues digging through the glam trash heap for little known gems on the latest installment from the Lip Smackin' 70s compilation series.

This time around there isn't a lot of novelty tracks, and while there are a few glam by numbers tracks, there's enough hard hitting great glam tracks to make this another worthy edition to the series.

The Merry-Go-Round

title:: Listen, Listen: The Definitive Collection
label:: Rev-Ola

The Merry-Go-Round were a Beatles and Bryds influenced band formed by Emitt Rhodes in 1966 with some of his high school buddies.

Rev-Ola has combined the entire recorded output from The Merry-Go-Round, including their sole album from 1967 and a handful of single tracks (with one hidden bonus track too), along with the first Emitt Rhodes solo album from 1970.

The Mystery Meat

title:: Profiles
label:: Shadoks

The Mystery Meat are like the Judson Fountain of garage. In the same was that Judson self-recorded radio dramas he wrote himself, Mystery Meat had a vision and ran with it with no outside support.

Like Judson Fountain, their work had the elusive midas touch, and ended up brilliant by fact, instead of design.

Vitalic

title:: No Fun
label:: PIAS

Vitalic is French artist Pascal Arbez-Nicholas. The second single from his OK Cowboy full length has two versions of the album track No Fun, a new version of the album track Repair Machine, and one new track.

Even if you own the OK Cowboy full length, the No Fun EP is a worthwhile purchase. It may even be that Vitalic is remembered as an artist whose EPs defined his career.