various artists - Chunklet Issue #12: The Money Shot!

I hold Mrs. Mummy responsible for my most recent missed deadline. She was the one who kept my attention focused on laundry and food preparation; she shook her most bodacious ta-tas, flicked her eyelashes, wiggled her bum in a most enticing way. What was I to do? Blogging was farthest from my mind! Who amongst you could be strong under such circumstances?

Today's treat: the giveaway that came with issue #12 of esteemed Athens/Atlanta zine Chunklet, published & compiled by close, personal pal Henry O. Owings. H2O was, in his early days, a proto-shitposter extraordinaire. He gave the likes of yours truly a mentor and role model to emulate; be clever and funny and talk mad shit and support great music and play the occasional round of Whirlyball. Amongst the 22 tracks contained herein are contributions from Arcwelder, Elf Power, Man or Astro-man?, Six Finger Satellite, and Harvey Milk. It's a veritable "who's who" of late 90s indie rock, with nary a superstar to be found.

It's the kind of shit I can still sop up with a biscuit.

Discogs

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various artists - Spin This V

I've been laying pretty low on purchases since the first of the year. But I broke edge a few days ago; a record nerd can't stay out of the thrift store for long. I stumbled across this now-31-year-old sampler from Spin Magazine, and immediately flashed back to seeing the video for "Undone (The Sweater Song" in my neighbor's den for the first time. His folks kept the shades well drawn, so what natural light made it in had this yellow tinge to it. We stopped what we doing at the first beats from Patrick Wilson; it was unlike anything we'd ever heard up 'til then. Fuckin' Weezer, man. Always brings a smile to my face.

Plus: Mazzy Star! Frente! covering New Order! Major label Meat Puppets! Morphine! Guided By Voices! Plus a bunch of stuff that 30 years on I still don't recognize outside of a radio station giveaway bin. Kinda perfect for this space. I can never resist throwing a buck to a animal rescue or a job's program in return for something like this.

Discogs

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various artists - Amateur Soundtrack - A Film By Hal Hartley

"I am a star / A Hal Hartley movie / I read my lines / Straight faced in the mirror"

 Kind Of Like Spitting, "Your Favorite Actor"

Here's another Matador soundtrack from the mid 90s, this time from Hal Hartley''s fifth film, 1994's Amateur.

Does it feature Martin Donovan? You bet it does.

Is Parker Posey in it? She is not.

It does star Isabelle Huppert, a secret crush of mine, as an ex-nun named "Isabelle" who gets wrapped up in criminal hijinks spining out of her new career as a pornographer.

Did you get all that? I was told recently I had a way with log lines, but I dunno.

This is one of the places where Liz Phair, My Bloody Valentine, and the Jesus Lizard could comfortably rub elbows back in those days. And I find the Ned Rifle/Jeffrey Taylor score to be a pretty great appendix to what would have otherwise been a decent Lollapalooza 1995 sampler.

8/10. Now go watch the movie. You're going to have to find a physical copy, tho; it's ain't on streaming here in the States.

Discogs

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various artists - CMJ Presents Certain Damage! - Volume 38

I posted another "Certain Damage!" sampler a couple months ago, and while that one was good, anytime you can lead off a mix with My Bloody Valentine/Hole/Pixies/Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet...well, that's a good-ass moment in music. Add in killer tracks from Black Sheep, Matthew Sweet, Manic Street Preachers, Dead Can Dance, Sinead O'Connor, and Enya, and you got a real stew going, doncha?

Discogs

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various artists - Topshelf Records 2012 Summer Sampler

Another day, another time I forgot to write something. Selah.

We'll keep this short and sweet. This was the state of the union in 2012. Just a step up from basement DIY, featuring a pretty decent mix of emo, hardcore, indie, shoegaze, post-hardcore, and probably some other subgenres I can't remember. A lot of these folks played the Art Space that summer. If a generation in punk lasts three years, then I was probably five generations past what was appropriate for attending these shows in 2012. No bother: I had a good time working the front door and cracking wise to a bunch of kids.

The Slingshot Dakota track is an all-time banger, Pianos Become The Teeth still rip, and I found a Code Orange CD for $2 at the thrift store the other day.

I gotta go; I just encountered a Busch Light commercial with Sarah McLachlan appearing in it. I think it's time to call it a day.

Discogs

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Crimson Wave - 2013 demo

Crimson Wave (photo by Jeffrey Lash)

There was this wave of bands in Baltimore in 2012 and 2013 that came up all at the same time which, while they may have had dissimilar sounds, all fit together really well. There was Denny Bowen's post-Double Dagger band, Roomrunner. Angie from CCAS joined with Ian from Give to start Big Mouth. Wildhoney came out swinging with a demo and 7" that evoked some of my favorite indie records from the early 90s. But then Sophie, who'd been singing for Wildhoney, left the band to start something new with her friends, and it became one of my favorites.

Crimson Wave was fairly short lived; maybe they were around for two years. But in that time, I'd be hard pressed to miss one of their gigs in Baltimore. It fit well into that nebulous C86 world that's comprised of indie pop, twee, shoegaze, dream pop, and a million other micro-genres from the 80s that got revisited over the past 10 years. Had they been a thing in the 90s, it's a near certainty that their demo would have come out on K Records. Instead, it got a fairly limited release on Rainbow Bridge, which was based in Baltimore at the time. CW would put out a 7" in 2014 with Sean Grey's Accidental Guest Recordings, then call it a day shortly after I moved away from Baltimore.

Why bring it up now? I'd like to say it was a roundabout plug from Sam from Crimson Wave's current band, All Hits, whose new LP is out on Iron Lung. But I was really feeling dirgy today, and this is great, guitar driven, funereal music from a group of women who I miss very deeply.

Discogs

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The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Say No To Love

Just a quick one today; I have therapy and a virtual doctor's visit and I have shop for a new healthcare plan and honestly it's just so overwhelming. So I threw on a Donnie Yen wuxia and figured I'd bang one out.

I love Love LOVE The Pains of Being Pure at Heart's first few years of releases. They were just a brilliant, modern version of that Darla/Velocity Girl/53rd and 3rd vibe that I got into as it wound down in the 90s. Their singles were perfect lil slices of pop goodness; their first two LPs still get a ton of play around these parts. Even though I hadn't followed them as closely once they left Slumberland, I was kind of bummed out to hear they'd dissolved in 2019.

The "Say No To Love" single was a capstone to their first album cycle, despite having artwork thematically in line with their upcoming "Belong" release and the singles from that record. The artwork is my favorite thing about this release; all of Winston Chmielinski's painting build around "Belong" are beautiful. It's a nice non-album single release that you just never see anymore. These would pop up on the Japanese release of their debut album in 2012 as bonus tracks, but you shouldn't have to pay $40 to hear them, right?

Discogs

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