Marc Fagel's Blog: Jittery White Guy Music: The Blog, page 141

The Three O'Clock: Sixteen Tambourines (1983)

The Three O'Clock were part of the California Paisley Underground scene of the early/mid-80s, with updated Byrds-influenced jangly psychedelia, not far afield from fellow scenesters the Rain Parade. They had a few albums (including an early release while they were still called the Salvation Army, which they were forced to change for obvious reasons) full of jittery pop songs, intricately styled hooks that leaned to the baroque. They could also be a bit divisive; for all their shimmering pop soun...

Tuluum Shimmering: Linus & Lucy (2017)

Been awfully quiet in these parts lately! Post-vaccination, I've been catching up on some long overdue family visits (still masked, no shaming!), so I've been slacking off music-wise.

Alas, one hazard of travel for me is insomnia. I'm a lifelong insomniac, always worse when away from home. Sometimes it gets to the point where I'll just put on some headphones and a spend a few hours listening to ambient music, which (at best) buys me a few hours of sleep, or more likely just gives me something to ...

Old 97's: Satellite Rides (2001)

It sometimes seems like Dallas-based Americana band Old 97's don't get the attention they deserve. Ridiculously consistent, the band's released a dozen or so perfectly solid albums over the years (to say nothing of another half-dozen terrific releases from frontman Rhett Miller). My personal fave (and this can fluctuate) is their fifth album, 2001's Satellite Rides. It's got plenty of twangy country rock, but like the first couple Wilco albums also draws heavily from hook-heavy power pop and Rep...

My Bloody Valentine: Isn't Anything (1988)

My Bloody Valentine have been showing up in my news feeds lately... apparently yet another reissue program underway (and the return of a chunk of their catalog to streaming media, though the early stuff is still absent). So it seems like a good excuse to pull out my old copy of Isn't Anything, their stunning and disorienting debut album (not counting a number of singles & EPs that preceded it). It's not something I play nearly as often as the delightfully astounding follow-up, 1991's Loveless , b...

Blanketman: National Trust EP (2021)

Here's a minty-fresh new release I've stumbled across and felt the need to pass along ASAP. I still remember my excitement a little over a year ago coming across the debut from Kiwi Jr., a Canadian band unafraid to proclaim a love of Pavement and legendary New Zealand garage-rockers the Clean. (And that band's follow-up from earlier this year was similarly enchanting.) But apparently they're not the only ones expertly mining that same intersection: Manchester-based Blanketman's debut EP has a si...

Klark Kent: Kollected Works (1980/1995)

Following up on yesterday's out-of-print lost psychedelic minor masterpiece, here's another hard-to-find release, New Wave edition.

Klark Kent was, of course, the alter ego of Police drummer Stewart Copeland, who released a number of singles, as well as a self-titled album, as Klark Kent in 1980, supplying all the instruments and vocals. Some pressings were also labeled "Klerk Kant," apparently to limit exposure to possible lawsuits from DC Comics. (Though Copeland omitted his name from the recor...

Euphoria: A Gift From Euphoria (1969)

Despite a seemingly endless well of obscure, long-out-of-print 60s psychedelia, this little gem still manages to stand out as one of my favorites (or at least among the strangest). It's a weird blend of Gram Parsons/Michael Nesmith- styled country rock, fuzzed out acid rock guitars, and symphonic orchestration and sound affects. It sounds like a cross between the Byrds' Notorious Byrd Brothers and the trippy curiosity the United States of America. Alas, while I try to focus these posts on readil...

Neil Young: ZumaZuma (1975/2020)

One of the biggest treats on Neil's second Archives box, released last year and covering his work from 1972-1976, was a wealth of previously unreleased material from the 1975 Zuma recordings. And while that album is one of my personal favorites, not exactly in need of reworking, I immediately set about creating an alternative double-album version of the record, adding in the newly unearthed electric recordings with Crazy Horse. (I didn't include the unreleased acoustic stuff, which didn't really...

Dressy Bessy: S/T (2003)

Been spending some time digging into my records from the various bands in the Elephant 6 collective, as I'm working up a list of the Top 10 songs from the acts in this loose, interconnected stable of alt.pop bands from the 90s and beyond for an upcoming Toppermost submission. One of my favorites is Dressy Bessy, the feel-good bubblegum fizzy power-pop band who never seem to get the attention they deserve. I've talked about my love for their debut, but I'm also a big fan of their self-titled thir...

Too Much Joy: Cereal Killers (1991)

Too Much Joy were an alt.rock band from the late 80s and 90s, blending snarky, humorous, and often surprisingly clever lyrics (shades of Camper Van Beethoven, Young Fresh Fellows, Dead Milkmen, They Might Be Giants) with harder-edged punk-pop-tinged power pop. And while they had some great songs (particular when you took the time to sit down and listen with the lyric sheet), the risk you run with more humor-based songs is that they can quickly grow dated, coming across more like novelty songs th...