various artists - Future House: Best Of House Music Vol. 4

I wanted to get in a mid-week post ahead of Halloween, which means a really half-assed post is in order, and this title fits the bill to a T. I picked this up a few years ago for a buck, solely on the presence of a Leftfield track and that it was released on Profile. I kinda dug the cover, too; the green-on-purple just really grabs my attention. How could I turn it down?

Someone more involved in this scene in the mid-90s and less involved in their junior year of high school can speak to whether this is an example of truth in advertising. Is this, indeed, the best of house music from 1992-1993? Shit, I barely knew what Maximum Rock 'n Roll or Fugazi were back then, so I am far from qualified to determine what's good. I like it; it's got a good beat, and you can dance to it. Dick Clark gives this a 69.

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various artists - Mojo Presents: The Route To Quadrophenia

I've been exploring more of the original mod & beat sounds this year, hearing these songs through the lens of proto-punk/new wave. So I'm finding myself hearing an awful lot more from the Yardbirds, Small Faces, Kinks, and Who than I have in the past. For some of y'all, that may seem weird. But I'm prejudiced against the dinosaurs of rock, so I just slept on some of these bedrock rock records until this year.

...which ended up being a fun little discovery for me. The stripped-down, amphetimine-fueled rock records of the early 60s that soundtracked the mod movement in the UK fed into the first wave of British punk. So of course I'd feel a collection like this, coming in the issue of Mojo dated October 2011. With an equal balance between the contemporary mod tracks and the early rock, jazz, and R&B that inspired the song in the first place. I love having Slim Harpo and Mose Allison alongside the Creation and the Action. The addition of a new-in-2011 Booker T. song is a bit weird, but, hey, maybe Stax wasn't licensing any MG's songs at a reasonable rate for this project.

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Torn Apart - Nothing Is Permanent...

In the first couple of years after I moved to Baltimore in 1994, there were two bands who were the kings of the hardcore scene. Next Step Up were the old heads, tied in with CCS and continuing the lineage of tough street level HC. The young bucks were Torn Apart, who drew inspiration from contemporaries like Turmoil, Integrity, and Earth Crisis. And unlike NSU, who seemed like full-blown adults in comparison to us, and thus elevated, Torn Apart was us. Kids from places like Reisterstown and Perry Hall who you had college classes with, hung out with at shows, worked in a bookstore with. This was the first time I'd been aroujnd dudes my own age who could tour outside a 50-mile radius; it was the aspirational made real.

"Nothing Is Permanent..." was Torn Apart's second release for Life Sentence Records in Utah, and their first full-length. It felt like a monumental release; our very own "In This Defiance". That summer of '97, it was a rare record that everyone in my suburban circles could agree on. The punks, the skins, the moshers, the crusties, the headbangers...everybody dug it hard. There was a fair amount of cackling at the hidden track prank call between Brett and LSR owner Dan. "Torn Apart? More like rip a fart." Classic.

Torn Apart is getting back together for their first show in...20 years?...Sunday night, serving as first support at End It's record release show in Baltimore. It's been a long time since there was a show happening back home that I would travel for, but this one fits the bill. The opportunity to fake like I'm 19 again, to clear a dance floor with a floorpunch and a spin kick once more...it's all too much to pass up.

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various artists - Saddle Creek 2007 Sampler

John Davis, formerly of Q And Not U and Corm, has a new book out about the history of DC fanzines. "Keep Your Ear To The Ground" is like catnip to folks like us; those who want to preserve the old days, warts and all, and see value in the things that many others might view as trash. John's zine Held Like Sound still holds a special place in my heart. It was my contemporary look at DC when I first moved to the DMV in 1994. I thought I was moving to the DC suburbs; it turned out to be the direct opposite side of Baltimore. Instead of Positive Force, I got the Loft and Reptilian Records. It was all for the better, but I still wonder what might have changed if I had ended up in Arlington, Sterling, or Laurel.

John was also one half of Georgie James, whose sole full-length came out on Omaha's Saddle Creek in 2007, and who are represented by two tracks on this sampler. Saddle Creek's luminaries also show up; Bright Eyes' "Cassadega" and the Good Life's "Help Wanted Nights" both came out that year. Within a year, Conor Oberst would be out on the campaign trail, playing Obama rallies with Bruce Springsteen. It was a weird time. The twelve tracks are rounded out by two each from ex-Azure Ray artists Art In Manila & Maria Taylor, and S.F. folky duo Two Gallants, who I'm pretty sure I booked on their first show in Baltimore around this time. This is all a stretch to suggest y'all check out Davis's book, but I think I got us there.

Discogs

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various artists - Mojo Presents: Come On Let's Go! (A Modern Jukebox)

You can count on Mojo and Paul Weller to compile a disc every couple of years. And this is the offering from 2012. Highlights (for me, at least) are Weller's cover of Nick Drake's "River Man", a live recording of "Love Is A Losing Game", and a program led off and titled by Broadcast, the beloved pop experimenters from Birmingham.

This came on in the car while the missus and I drove into Seattle to see Baltimore hardcore luminaries End It a couple of weeks ago. She's never rarely boggled by what I play in the car; 15 years and numerous free jazz, grindcore, and K-pop records on, she's heard just about all of it. But to hear Joanna Newsom, Tame Impala, and Joan As Police Woman in quick succession had her asking if I was ok. I was just following what Mr. Weller put together for me, was my response.

Discogs

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various artists - Chairman Of The Board: Interpretations Of Songs Made Famous By Frank Sinatra

Forty-one bands covering forty-one Sinatra standards, released by the short-lived Dutch East India imprint Grass Records in their first year. "Over 2 hours of music!" it proclaims from the cover.

Is this good? Well, even though I've owned this for 20+ years, I can't say that I've listened to more than a handful of tracks (Jawbox, Cherubs, Screeching Weasel, GvsB). So I'll say...maybe? Probably? Shit, man...I don't know YOU.

I did NOT properly tag genres on this before uploading, and I'm not going to do it now. You get to decide if you'd categorize the Toadies as alternative, grunge, or college rock.

I probably should listen to these in full before I go sharing them. So let's dive in together.

Discogs

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various artists - Mojo Buried Treasures (15 Key Tracks From The Greatest Albums You Never Heard)

It's a late evening drop for this week's Mojo Monday. So for those of you waking up Tuesday to see this fresh in your feed: my apologies. I've reached that stage in life where I can't read without my cheaters. Nor can I type with any sort of accuracy. And I couldn't find my reading glasses Sunday; hence, no midnight Monday AM post.

But enough of that. This one is about the ability of music to still surprise you. This one landed in my lap earlier this year. I'm sure I didn't pay more than a buck or two for it, and I snagged it on the basis of completion, more so than any other factor. I have the Third World War and Creation Rebel records from which their tracks here originate. And, at the time, other than Joe Meek, there was nothing here that piqued my interest. But it's a buck, and I like sharing and writing about Mojo comps, so why not splash out? It arrives, I rip it, it goes in a box, and I move on.

At some point between then and now, I decide I'm going to load a bunch of comps I've yet to write about onto my phone. It''s the way these things go for me; I'm at work, I want to hear something new, I put one on, I write about it later on. Onto the phone goes "Mojo Buried Treasures". I hit Shuffle. The phone plays me a ton of different stuff: Augustus Pablo, Masshysteri, Stiv Bators, LeeHi. Y'all should know by now that there's little I won't give a shot to. A song settles in on my headphones. It reminds me of Richard Thompson, Bert Jansch, the British folk music that I used to shelf at my first record store job a million years ago, back when I thought it was all dusty tea sippers with long beards. There's a percussive nature to the way the guitar's being played, like m'dude is beating the hell out of his acoustic while singing a tale about a drowned miner. I gotta say, I was enthralled. So I played it again. And again. And one more time on the way home, as I drove north into the gray Washington fall.

And that's how I discovered Nic Jones. Off a Mojo comp that I barely even paid attention to.

I ended up ordering the Shanachie reissue of "Penguin Eggs" a few weeks ago. I've not really dug into yet. But I'm taken aback that I've discovered this 30 years after I probably first grudgingly placed the same recording between Sandy Denny and Iain Matthews solo records. These things can still sneak up on your ears and grab hold of your brain and make you seek out more. What an amazing thing.

Discogs

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various artists - Trick Or Treat (Music To Scare Your Neighbours - Vintage 45’s From Lux And Ivy’s Haunted Basement)

Stinky's gone and done it again, dropping another fantastic comp over at Jokonky, this time celebrating spooky season for 2025. While I (justifiably) razzed him for the lack of Misfits, it's a pretty spectacular outing, as I've come to expect from his curations. It also inspired today's post, for what that's worth.

Those of you who have been on this trek with me for a while know that I like to share a Mummies record as my Halloween post every year. This year shall be no different, but I turned up this double CD for a tenner down on the Central Coast last winter, and I've been sitting on it for 10 months to bust it out. There's this cottage industry of "songs that Lux and Ivy taught us" comps, of such varying qualities that I can't bother to separate the wheat from the chaff. This one, though, has proven to be a wise investment of $10. Originating from the Righteous label (a Cherry Red imprint), you get 50 cuts of horror rock, all stemming from a time when jukin' and jivin' caused a moral panic. The horror was real!

If you're a rockabilly novice like I am, but want something different than Bobby Pickett or Glenn Danzig to play at your party this year, throw this one on the speakers and cut a rug.

Discogs

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various artists - Mojo Presents: Communion (A New Generation Of Songwriters)

When I listened to this for the first time, I thought, "Well, they can't all be winners, can they?"

But who I am to judge? 500,000 Mumford & Sons fans can't be wrong.

I'll be over here, listening to a similarly named Fall best-of.

Discogs

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various artists - Spin: 100% Original

The words "Ocean Pacific" pops out at me, one of those brands of my youth, up there with Airwalk, Vans, Stüssy, Jncos, Bones Brigade, and Sex Wax as signifiers of teenage fashion of a certain era. Not that I could afford any of the above, nor did I have the cool uncle/aunt/older sibling who'd plunk down money on them so I could feel cool. As a result, I'm not particularly driven towards tracking down any fluorescent shorts or skin-tight monochromatic tees from early adolescence. Thank g_d for Mom & Dad's cheapness for avoiding that particular nostalgic curse.

This promo, sampling the contemporary Atlantic Records roster of 1999, is the sort of thing I would have tossed immediately back then, but happily share with you today. Just do yourself a favor; avoid track 4. Nothing good comes of listening to Bob Ritchie nowadays.

On the other hand: Fountains of Wayne, Fat Joe, Bad Religion, and Latin Playboys all provide no worse than decent cuts from their then-current records. There's a Collective Soul track, a sampling from the swing revival, and a few others that I cannot be arsed to revisit. Also sponsored by Spin Magazine, although I couldn't say if this was a giveaway with Spin, an OP purchase, or a mailaway. I'd think this was attached to a Spin subscription; otherwise, how would I have ended up with a copy?

Discogs

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various artists - Modern Life Is Rubbish (Mojo Presents 15 Tracks Of Everyday British Angst)

This specific era of British pop music is not my particular cuppa. Excepting the Pop Group and the first couple of Libertines records, those artists represented here are, as my dad once described Aphex Twin, "a bunch of pops, clicks, and whistles." It's not my bag, is what I'm saying.

But someone once told me to check out Sleaford Mods, and I remain a fan of the output of the late, great Mark Stewart, and this sucker was a buck when I plucked it from the shelf, so I had to have it. EVEN THOUGH I KNEW I probably wasn't going to dig most of this. Even ten years on from publish date, the only name I recognize here is Half Man Half Biscuit, who I own a much healthier amount of records by/including than I would have ever guessed.

Discogs

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