Swinging Singles Club MN

 Boop      2004 - Escalator The follow up release by Alva Star. It aims to be a little more polished and is somewhat subdued compared to the previous release. But while still a nice listen, Just doesn't quite have the same flavor of the previous disc.  But then I haven't spent as much time with it. I may change my mind in the future. "Curtain Drops" is the highlight for me which transitions nicely into "Today" As always your mileage may vary.

  Beep    2001 - Alligators in the Lobby Pop Rock. Power Pop. I don't know. Indiepop. Alva Star. They existed. Then they didn't. Never saw them. I would have if I'd seen that they were playing. But there's nearly fuck all about them to be uncovered with a fast and nasty google. As near as I can figure it's based around songwriter/producer John Hermanson (who apparently abandoned his website in 2016. Doesn't really matter. There's this disc. And there's a song on it called "Unhappily Yours" which is one of those songs which will come up on random play and require bellowing along and replaying almost immediately. It should have been something. I heard it on Radio K and had stop everything until they said who it was. Which isn't to say that the rest is all chaff. It's quality. "Beautiful" and "Girlfriend" are also worth  the price of admission. But that song. You need to hear that one.

  I moved some posts ahead to next month. It will make sense when you get to them. Trust me.   1998 - Oh My G*d - It's the Odd A half joke garage band made up of dudes in other bands called the Odd and centered around Mark Mallman in one of his earliest incarnations. They touch on all sorts of shit here. There's some disco, some fake soul It's great fun if you're not looking to take things too seriously for a bit.  Liquor can only enhance enjoyment.  I quite like "Tarantula" and there's a song about "Wet Pussy" released when Cardi B would have been all of 6 years old. Plus there's tits on the cover. Always a sign of quality.

  This is the last of the Superhopper posts which buys me another few weeks to recover and get up the energy to post more Minnesota music stuff which I've been gathering at such a scary rate lately that I barely have the time to listen to half of it. And then for every band I find or rediscover there's four more related bands to track down. It's been a small but really active scene forever. It's like a bottomless musical pit. You have been warned. I want some tea.     2006 - Party Killers The Superhopper swan song and it's a fucking monster built on touring and drinking and all the stuff that tightens up a good band even as it's approaching the end it doesn't quite know is coming sooner than later. But if I were to play you a single song by Superhopper that summed up them up in under three minutes it would have to be "The Eye of the Tiger Applies to Everything" It's truly the way victory sounds. But the album is a bit of lost classic, or at lea...

  Same Night.  Another post which buys me more time to ignore this for a few weeks and try and get back to some semblance of healthy enough from my bout with COVID to go back to work and care for people sick with COVID again.  2003 - Does This Sound Exciting Yet? Superhopper's 3rd. Another contemporary non-interview article from the Minnesota Daily . Liquor seems to have been involved. This round they have ditched the trombone and are asking the really important questions like "What ever happened to Laraine Newman ?" Other highlights are "I Am the Hermit" and definitely "What It Takes". Oh yeah, Superhopper also have a Bandcamp page with a number of miscellaneous and compilation tracks including a title track for this album that they left off it for reasons.  Fill in the gaps.

   So I'm still unsteady on my feet and in a perpetual brain fog, but we have a shower stool now, so that's nice. 2001 - Days of Wine and Whiskey Sophomore effort by Superhopper. "Chatter Chatter Goes the Girl" is the should have been hit. It's a lovely song that anybody who's ever worked a service job can relate to. "Pay Day" is a close second. The Minnesota Daily had a would be interview with them from around the time of this release. Lacks some of the fire of the debut, but still is a fine listen.

  Yeah. So. It happened. I got COVID. Had to have happened at work because I didn't start to feel like shit until the few days after my 6 out of 7 day work week. Ended up in the hospital for five days and you can just go ahead and write off the entire month of December off as a loss. Sickest I've ever been and my case was pretty fucking mild. Wear your mask, kids, and stay the fuck away from each other. You don't want this bullshit I also realized that I was rapidly approaching the day where my queued posts on this blog were coming to an end. So here I have risen from my convalescing bed to bang out a start for the new year. So here's your introduction to Superhopper.  1999 - Music for Downtowns Superhopper .  I came by them a few years into their run when one of my bands played a couple of shows with them. Fucking hell they were monsters live. Seriously, on like a winter Tuesday night to a couple dozen people who wandered into the Turf Club and they're ripping it u...