various artists - Pop Romantique: French Pop Classics

Record Store Day was this past weekend, and, if you're like me, you avoided it like the plague. The way that it's buggered up capacity, driven up prices on new releases, and generally caused folks to further fetishize vinyl really bums me out. Because I loves a good party. But people...man, do I hate people.

Apropos of nothing, here are a bunch of indie bands covering chansons from the 60s and 70s. Françoise Hardy and Kevin Ayers both pop up for guest appearances. OF COURSE there are Elephant 6 members involved. You get an AIR track, a Heavenly cover, a Stephen Merritt performance. This was a spur of the moment penny bid, based on the cover alone, that 100% panned out for me. I fucking love it like I hate Record Store Day.

Discogs

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bis - The New Transistor Heroes

I've been listening to a bunch of bis in recent months. One of those hyperbolic "it's what got me through the winter"-type statements doesn't apply here, but it sure was nice (re)discovering a band at 47 that I'd written off as unworthy of my attention at 20. I mean, of course I like them now, now that I've had a quarter century's seasoning, listening to Los Campesinos and Eugenius and Another Sunny Day, getting a sense of what came after, what existed during, and what led into this.

It's just punk kids making pop sounds, which is really all I need at this late date. Sure, I just loaded the Faith/Void split back on my phone, and spent March alternating in "Madvillainy" between listens of these Glaswegians. Give me this for a buck and I'm happy as a clam.

This is the US CD version of the record, released on Grand Royal. Willja handled honors in the UK, and Steven from bis reissued this in an expanded version in 2024 on Do Yourself In. Regardless of how you get it, get it, cuz it's good, you know? Hell, if you can get out of the country, go see them on their home turf; they're playing shows all year long!

Discogs

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various artists - Yoyo A Go Go

It's been a few years since I last posted anything from Pat Maley's Yoyo Recordings. But it's been thirty years since the first Yoyo A Go Go, and since I'm less than 80 miles away, as opposed to the 2,800 or so that I was back then, I thought it was time to pay this one a visit, and share it with you fine peep-holes.

Let me tell you what I recollect about this time. I was listening to my cassette of International Piop Underground Convention a lot in the spring of 1994, so when I heard that something similar was going to take place that summer...well, I didn't give it a ton of thought, because how was I going to go from Boones Mill, Virginia to magical Olympia? Especially since I found out a few weeks before school ended that we were leaving the sticks for suburban Baltimore,

But it was definitely intriguing. And, in retrospect, a little bit gumption could have gotten me out there on a four-day Greyhound with more than a few of my hard-earned Taco Bell dollars in my pocket. And who would I have seen? Unwound, Heavens to Betsy, Excuse 17, and Team Dresch remain the big names for me, even this far down the line. How cool would it have been to see Codeine, or Cub, or two thirds of Yo La Tengo, or Neutral Milk Hotel? Would I have even been into it back then? Or would it have been one of those moments I would have only appreciated in retrospect?

I suppose it's better to regret something you have done, rather than somehing you haven't done. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to get up in someone's face and scream "SATAN!" over and over again.

Discogs

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various artists - International Hip Swing

Happy holidays, you animals. I've been helping the newest member of our family recuperate from a spaying over the past week, which should explain why Friday's post was missed.

Don't worry; I'm not dead in a ditch.

"International Hip Swing" compiles tracks from 20 different participants in K Records' International Pop Underground series, now entering its 36th year. That seems almost insane, unreal to me, especially when I realized that the Real Distractions record I bought earlier this year is the latest entry in the series.

What's even more wild to me is the possibility that I could learn something new about this record, which has lived in my collection for at least a decade, and, more likely, probably closer to a quarter century. Tonight, I learned track 7, performed by Brief Weeds, a cut I've probably skipped over more times than I care to think about, is the product of Mssrs. Picciotto & Canty, along with their collaborators Hampton & Janney, all of whom previous made up Rites of Spring, One Last Wish, and Happy Go Licky. The track doesn't sound anything like those other bands, but not even knowing that they'd collaborated on two 7"s for K back in the mid 90s seems like a big gap in my knowledge. Can I even consider myself an unhealthy record nerd having not known this?

Tiger Trap, Fifth Column, Seaweed, Beat Happening, Teenage Fanclub, Unrest, and Heavenly also appear; all wonderful bands providing superior cuts. Don't want to overlook the songs I've listened to and loved for years for the one I just rediscovered.

Discogs

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various artists - Periscope (Another Yoyo Compilation)

I had wanted to post "Tulip", the second Yoyo comp, in this space. But I seem to have deleted it from my hard drive, and the hard copy is in a box in one of my storage units, and who knows when the Christ I'll find that, so here we are.

"Periscope (Another Yoyo Compilation)" is the third release sampling recordings from Pat Maley's Yoyo Studios. This one's as strong as the preceding volumes, with a mix of bands and performances you'd probably never find elsewhere in the world. On the noisier side, you get Mukilteo Fairies, Fitz of Depression, Copass Grinderz, and Bloodthirsty Butchers. If you're looking for something a bit more twee, then check in for Love As Laughter, Go Sailor, or Tattle Tale. Even a pair of indie rock/alternative luminaries make appearances. Beck shows up with a song pre-dating his "Mellow Gold" breakout. But the stand-out has got to be the otherwise unreleased Neutral Milk Hotel cut, "Bucket". It's a winner.

Please forgive the shitty genre tagging on these cuts. I think I ripped this when I was hopped up on goofballs or something.

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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Los Campesinos! ‎– The International Tweexcore Underground

Los Campesinos! was probably one of the first bands I heard of exclusively from the Internet.

I was a few years into suburban married life, and I desperately missed going out regularly to see shows and hang out, in addition to dealing with as-yet-to-be-diagnosed mental illness. I'm sure it was a thrilling combination for my ex-wife. I had no interest in Napster or Limewire, mainly because I never gave a shit about Linkin Park and I owned all the Metallica I ever needed to own. While MRR and Punk Planet still existed, there weren't equivalents for what could still be called "indie rock". So thank the gods for music blogs, because I would have otherwise fallen off completely. Somewhere during that time, one of the indie writers I read on the regular posted an EP from this Welsh group that sounded like a K Records group all hopped up on Mountain Dew. What was not to like? Within a few months, I saw the "Death To Los Campesinos!" video, and it was a lock:

Cute British boys and girls making music? Is that singer wearing a Crass t-shirt (note: it was a Xiu Xiu tee)? Are they getting attacked by memes? I fucking love it! So I went to the website of this UK indie distributor, slapped down $12, and ordered "The International Tweexcore Underground".

So what you get here is a non-LP single in the form of the title track, a Heavenly cover, and a Black Flag cover, none of which I was aware of when I ordered the single. There are some sterling lines in "The International Tweexcore Underground": "Said, 'How're you gonna bring the state down /When you're propping it up?' / With daytime radio / And skimmed milk and soppy bows". Man, that's pretty goddamned subversive. They refer both Amelia Fletcher and Henry Rollins within the song, which lead into the two covers on the EP. This isn't LC!'s finest hour, but this EP stands as an entry point for me and a lot of the rest of the world. It's full of piss and vinegar and sentiment and if it were a Simpsons character, it'd end up on the cover of Non-Threatening Boys.

Within two years, I'd left my married home, and met a girl, who'd take me to see Los Campesinos! on our third date. We've been together since.

Discogs

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Tiger Trap - Tiger Trap

Note: reposted from my sideblog. Originally written October 2018.

This may have been the best-selling K Records release at one time, but I'll be damned if I could find a  physical copy until I moved to the PNW and started hitting every Value Village between Bellingham and the U District. And why did I want a copy so bad? Mainly because I'd only ever owned a third-generation cassette version, then a download off some long-defunct blog.

And who gives a shit if one owns a physical copy in 2018? I'm a bet hedger, and I love dead media. I get sweaty palmed when I see some out-of-print indie CD that came out when I was 16. It still sounds just as vital as it did when my girlfriend in 1993 passed me a C-60 with this and some Bikini Kill singles on it. The big difference is I'm not some dumbo in southwestern Virginia; I'm in the stomping ground of this amazing four-piece. Kids making music will never not be awesome to me.

Anyway, here's Tiger Trap's self-titled LP. Ripped from the K Records CD at 320kbps. Enjoy. I found this for $2.

Get one on Discogs.

Download.