A flexi mix

I recently discovered the awesome blog I Wish I Was A Flexidisc. This guy has put up a ton a obscure flexis that are mostly from the C86 era. After listening to a few I recognized and wanted to hear I decided to go and download them all and there are certainly some gems. Here is a mix containing 12 of my favorite tracks so far (haven't listened to everything yet). Add this blog to your RSS feed!

Track Listing

1. Heaven Is Blue - The Groove Farm
2. All You Ever Say - The Mayfields
3. Everytime I Open the Bottle - The Morrisons
4. Forevermore Starts Here - St. Christopher
5. Happy Birthday - The Bluebells
6. I Don't Need You - The Enormous Room
7. I Know I'm Nothing Special To You - The Williams
8. If You Were the Only Girl in the World Would You Take Me - The Soup Dragons
9. Roundabout - Esmerelda's Kite
10. Skink - A Riot of Colour
11. Spin - The Darling Buds
12. Twist Me - Splendour in the Grass
    

Hopefully the tracklisting and album/artist tags work properly. This is my first shot at making a mix downloadable.

Download mix

Dirty Looks - Dirty Looks and Turn It Up

Dirty Looks was a power pop band from Staten Island, New York that formed in 1978. They are one of the best power pop bands but sadly receive little recognition and are even overshadowed by a crappy glam metal band of the same name.

Dirty Looks recorded two albums. The self titled is fantastic. Nearly every track is great and 12 O'Clock High is the best power pop song ever. Theband doesn't fall victim to the generic power pop sound and lyrical content that so many groups of the era adopted. Many of the songs have a darkness to them; they are songs for the lonely and confused youth. Dirty Looks makes me want to hop a train and leave the known world for awhile.

Turn It Up only has a few good tracks, apparently due to trouble in the studio because the producer/label wanted a more mainstream sound. Various issues caused Dirty Looks broke up in 1984.

You can buy a 2 CD set containing both LPs plus some live recordings at Amazon.

12 O'Clock High mp3
Accept Me mp3
Download Dirty Looks (Part 1)(Part 2)
Download Turn It Up

Ceremony and Thrushes live on WMUC

My college's radio is horrendous so I've taken to listening to other university stations online. Right now the University of Maryland has some great shows and DJs. They also pick up awesome bands for interviews and live performances. Today Thrushes and Ceremony were on the show. Thrushes is a shoegaze/dream pop band from Baltimore and Ceremony is a shoegaze band from Fredricksburg (look here for my post on their split LP with Screen Vinyl Image).

Thrushes were up first and I was surprised at how good they sounded. I listened to their debut album, Sun Come Undone, a while ago and nothing caught my ear. On the show they played new material that will appear on an upcoming releases. I especially like the second song, Trees.

Ceremony sounded great too. They played my favorite song, For Her Smile, and a few I had not heard before. In the interview they mention an already recorded album coming out this year. Cool!

You can download the complete radio show from WMUC's website. Right click and "save as" the Third_Rail_Radio_1800_2100 mp3. And tune in tomorrow at 1 PM for a live recording of The Pains of Being Pure at Heart!

Ringo Deathstarr

I am so glad to have stumbled upon Ringo Deathstarr through a listing on Pheer.com. I saw them live last year and bought the EP at the show. Just a fantastic band. I think this CD came out in 2007 and there is still no followup. But I just read that the EP is being rereleased on vinyl this March by Fan Death Records! And there will be more vinyl releases by the band this year. Give this EP as listen if you like shoegaze/noise pop. I had it on repeat for a while last year.

Go to their MySpace to find the dates for their March shows where you'll most likely be able to pick up the vinyl for cheaper than mailorder.

I can't wait to see them again in Arlington. And it's a house show too. Before they played in a tiny pizza place and it was perfect. Here's to small venues. Oh and The Vandelles will be there too. Another EP worth hearing; maybe I'll post it in the future.

Starrsha mp3
Sweet Girl mp3
Download S/T EP

Beyond the Implode reissue on Siltbreeze

Siltbreeze continues to be an awesome label with a reissue of four tracks from Beyond the Implode. BtI released a lone 250 press EP in 1979 and since then their songs have appeared on Chuck Warner's Messthetics compilations. This 7" from Siltbreeze includes two tracks from the EP and two unreleased tracks. There are only 300 copies so if you love 70s DIY music like the Desperate Bicycles hurry up and get your order in over at Siltbreeze.

This Atmosphere mp3

HoZac Hookup Klub

Like 2008, 2009 looks to be a good year for 7 inchers. HoZac Records recently announced a singles club. $65 (US residents) gets you ten singles mailed over the course of the year. The pressings are limited to 500 and won't be available anywhere else.

The bands will be:

DUM DUM GIRLS
http://www.myspace.com/dumdumgirls

IDLE TIMES
http://www.myspace.com/idletimesband

WOVEN BONES
http://www.myspace.com/wovenbones

ART THIEVES
http://www.myspace.com/wearetheartthieves

FLIGHT
http://www.myspace.com/inflighttunes

WHITE MYSTERY
http://www.myspace.com/whitemysteryband

TEEPEE
http://www.myspace.com/teepeeasel

MOTHER OF TEARS
http://www.myspace.com/motheroftears

BOX ELDERS
http://www.myspace.com/boxelders

TEETH (side project of BLANK DOGS and SPIDER)
http://www.myspace.com/teethareforeating

Just the Dum Dum Girls, Box Elders, and Teeth stuff warrants signing up for the club. And knowing HoZac the rest of the groups will be great (the last three 7"s were killer).

Head over to HoZac's MySpace and sign up for the newsletter for ordering info.

Blog posts worth checking out

I try to keep the content here fairly original and not repost stuff readily available on more popular blogs. So I'm going to link to some of the best posts I've seen recently.

Singles of the year (2008) at The Finest Kiss - I've heard most of the releases on this list and agree with all of them. Definitely give Catwalk, Sexy Kids, Twig, and The Tartans a listen. A few of the mentioned singles can be found on my blog as well (Nodzzz and Moscow Olympics).

Metro Trinity's Die Young at Take the Pills - I listened to Just Go over and over last week. It's an excellent song.

Just Waiting For a Friend at Another Day On Earth - This guy sent me a random friend request on MySpace last week. Apparently he is writing, recording, and posting songs every day of the year. As with any other incredibly prolific band you have to dig around to find the good songs. This is my favorite so far.

Dum Dum Girls on Skatterbrain - Another noisy pop band from California. Yay!

Real Estate at Cum Horizon - "Breezy lo-fi beach pop that'll make you forget about the harsh winter months" is a good description of this 7".

A Manchester Collection at Last Days of Man on Earth - An awesome compilation LP featuring a bunch of Manchester punk/post-punk bands. The first Grow Up song is excellent (and they have a CD out on the great LTM label) as is the Manchester Mekon's track (if the melody sounds familiar it's because Joy Divison borrowed it for Love Will Tear Us Apart).