Swinging Singles Club MN

 The leftover Chinese is eaten. Big Hits of Mid-America Volume Three (1979) This has the two other released tracks by NNB which was the subject of the previous post. It also functions as a good intro to the Sound of Young Minneapolis in the late 70s just preceding the arrival of Hüsker Dü and the ascendance of Prince. If you watched the Jay's Longhorn documentary like I suggested then you have an idea of what this is. Or maybe if you're already for some inexplicable reason following a Minnesota based blog it's because you were there to begin with. I wasn't but I collect records so you don't have to. They're really heavy when you have to move. tracklist

 The struggle is always when I start posting on this one is what do I want to post today? Most times it's all a matter of whim and what fits with my mood. My mood currently involves being hungry and needing a shower with some more vinyl waiting to be split into tracks on the other laptop with the flip side of that record also needing to be done in the  same way. So after a small bit of hemming and hawing, this is what I came up with. Slack (1979) An important release within the Minneapolis punk rock microcosm built around Jay's Longhorn NNB released this small slab of black vinyl in 1979. (and if you haven't seen the Jay's Longhorn documentary yet, you ought to. It's on Prime and worthy of your attention) Both sides written by Mark Freeman who links this to the other record to be presented here today. 25 Reasons (1983) Mark Freeman also wrote both sides of one too. And if I'm being honest. I like it better than the NNB one. Now go watch the Jay's Longhorn ...

  I need a snack. Here's something I'm going to listen to for the first time while I type away about it as if it's been something I've known for the last couple of decades. Thank You for Telling Me What I Already Know (2002) This is the one I got in that package I've been blathering about all over several posts on two separate blogs. It's the final album piece of the Love-Cars saga with the same link to a website that hasn't been updated in a decade. So there. The other two were sitting in the folder waiting this moment. This day.  And now that moment has arrived. It feels...I don't know...a bit empty. No wait. That's my belly. I'm going to have a snack. That's what really needs to happen.  

  I bought a really huge Athena melon the other day and cut it up tonight. Now all I can smell while I sit here is the rinds in the trash. It's a bit distracting. I guess I'm going to have to eat some when I'm done. I'm Friends with All Stars (1999) It's Love-Cars again. One thing that comes up when you google "Love-Cars band" is the Wiki page for band member James Diers which quotes the Washington Post as saying "He is known for writing literate, thought-provoking lyrics in a modern indie rock context". I just kind of hope that he's not the one behind his own Wiki.  I'd be too embarrassed to toot my own horn with that kind of quote. But then I tend to avoid provoking too thoughts in my writing here or in my musical compositions.  If people do have them I trust them to keep those to themselves.

  Yeah, It's just me queuing up posts. And it's one of those rare occasions when the heavens congeal and there's posts on both blogs at the same time. Lucky You So anyway. Got packages in the mail. One of them is the reason that this is the stuff coming at you today. Lucky you yet again. Chump Lessons (1998) Love-Cars . They first came to my notice with a song on the second volume of the Twin Town High School Yearbook series that local free weekly City Pages put out yearly for a decade. The song was called " Even The Animals Have Realized That We Are Not Alone In This World" and I quite like it. (I only need one more volume before I start posting that) So today as part of the larger of the two packages the elusive third and final album arrived and they become the subject of what I'm gonna queue up tonight. So here's the first. If you're in need of the late 90s indie rock this may scratch that particular itch in ways you were unaware of being itchy.

  It's the night before I start my work week and I'm in the middle of hours of cooking tasks so that I have minimal amounts of things to do on that front while I'm slaving away 12 hours a night over a hot ventilator and putting on and taking off all my PPE because a bunch of selfish little bitches did their own "research" on Facebook and YouTube and won't do the simple shit it takes to help stop the spread of COVID which means that I don't get to see any fucking live music or travel anywhere. I think that pretty much most of us in healthcare these days are having some serious compassion fatigue and sick as fuck of those self same "free thinkers" who fuck around and find out suddenly running to us as soon as the reality of it hits them. If you didn't trust us before you got sick, then why do you now? Anyway. That's my rant. I need to have some live music. Here's Farm Accident Vane (1992) Not much to say. Some country/bluegrass/roots ro...

  I wasn't paying attention and fucked up the post timings between the two blogs. All fixed now. I feel better. Where were we.... Curse of the Selby Tigers (2002) The second full length of Pop and Punk goodness by St Paul's Selby Tigers. A solid effort that will set toes a-tappin' and hearts a-beatin' in time with the tunes. The would-be tastemakers and general turds at Pitchfork gave it a 6.4 and spent most of their article just kind of shitting on St Paul and the Twin Cities. It and we deserve better. It's capsule of a time and a place and a scene and being old enough to appreciate the fleetingness of it all. Crank it up and rock unabashedly with the windows open. It may be your last chance before winter comes.