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Showing posts from April, 2022

The Major Label Changed the Name

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 I'm tired and my fingertips smell like onion and garlic. Slip It Under the Door (1995) So this band started out with the name Hovercraft. I suppose it wasn't maybe the best name ever, but it works locally. Then based on the switch looks that just like Lynyrd Skynyrd the boys found themselves Working for MCA . From a quick glance at Discogs it looks like there was a concurrent band with a few releases out of Seattle that was also calling themselves Hovercraft (there are seven total listed there.) So that was out and Shatterproof was the new moniker and this album which the Boston Sun-Sentinel thought highly of. Unfortunately for Shatterproof, this release didn't exactly lead to international fame and fortune and thus it was that they ceased working for MCA a short while later. But they weren't totally done yet. Signal Flare (1996) There was still this three song EP the following year (as well as an unreleased 1996 followup album that got Cdr treatment in 2007. I'm n...

This is Fine.

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 Not much.  I took an extra couple of days off this past week with all kinds of intentions that never came to fruition. So here I am in the early morning hours on the day I have to go back to work and trying to cook some shit to eat for lunch and bang out a handful of posts before the well runs dry. (I'm making stuffed peppers, by the way. Then some hummus for her and if I can get her to do  some prep while I sleep I can throw together Tikka Masala when I wake up.)  So yeah, it's a panic at the end.    Chromosomes in Space (2001) Planet Melvin . I don't know much, but Melvin James has been kicking around these parts for decades without really getting his due. It's good Radio Friendly Power Pop Rock. All I really know for sure is that one of my bands shared a bill with them at Lee's Liquor Lounge one long ago Tuesday night to maybe a dozen or fewer patrons and Melvin and crew kicked out the jams pretty good. They left before our set though, but the guy who ...

It's 4/21. Are You Still High?

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  Are you, hippie?  Soundcheck (1998) God, I hope you're high. It's going to help. The second and final release of Superman Curl in the 90s. Apparently some of them decided to revisit their rebellious punk rock days and threw together an Ep a decade after this thudded to earth.  I don't have that strangely enough. This is more of the same as the previous post.  Suburban, Dockers wearing, motherfucking punk rock at it's absolute most mediocre, cliched and forgettable. (Sorry, Ted. I know you tried. You really did.) I mean, you're perfectly welcome to disagree with my personal assessments. And I welcome the feedback. It's just like, my opinion, man.

Let's Get This Done

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  Yeah, I'm going to toss these two up and call it good for a week...     In Stereo Where Available (1995) So yeah, Superman Curl . Middle class, suburban pop punk by white collar office workers making music between weekend barbecues. They're not trying to reinvent or reinvigorate the genre. They just are the hippest motherfucking punk rockers in their suburban neighborhood. (Ok, I'm being a bit harsh. But I had a friend and future bandmate in this band and seeing them live, because I am a good friend who'd go and see your band play on a Tuesday night was, shall we say, difficult.) This exists to remind you that there is always something else you can be listening to.

Just Going at it Willy Nilly

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 I'm just pulling shit out randomly without thinking now. Loadstar (1993) The second full length by our loud rock and rolling friends who went by the moniker Superball '63. Can't find anything much to link to and only a vague memory of seeing them in the 7th St Entry once or twice and kind of liking what I heard. Take that as a recommendation. Apparently, since I wasn't paying attention to it, I also have a couple of singles by them which are probably just sitting in the box in the corner.  Someday....

I'm Cooking

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So it's been my week off work and I have accomplished a bunch  and then again not a fucking thing. I mean, I've been doing things other than worrying about this space so I'm scrambling here to get some things in the queue before I disappoint the dozen or so people who thumb through this mess monthly. Meanwhile, I'm also hustling to get some food ready for the coming work week where I'll do nothing but work and sleep for four days in a row. So I've got some kind of Jamaican style pork and sweet potato stew on the stove simmering away. (I won't even pretend it's an accurate representation of the dish, but it's a synthesis of a few different versions into a (hopefully) delicious Frankenstein of a meal)  Peachfuzz (1995) This band is Peachfuzz and this is their first album. It seems to be the project of one Andrew Chojnacki and starts in Minneapolis before shifting to California. The alleged Peachfuzz website listed on Discogs comes up with a security wa...

Following Up.

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 This should tide me over until I can give this some thought. Raise High the Roof Beam (1999) So the second (and as far as I know) final album by the band that called itself Fuzzbuster has a title taken from a JD Salinger short story. I never really cared for JD Salinger's stuff very much, but then I didn't read "Catcher in the Rye" until I was in my 20's and rather than relating to Holden Caufield as an angsty teen found him to be a pompous, self involved, annoying twat. So there's that. It didn't exactly inspire me to read more. Plus the pretentious fanboys for his work kind of turned me off of it. But I think they also were just as enamored of the mystery Salinger made of himself. I couldn't care less. The writing didn't do much for me. Also there's this album.

More Nothing.

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  I am full of garlicky cabbage rolls. And in your time, it's April Fools Day. This is not a prank.     Songs From the Sonic Burn (1998) This is a bit of mystery band. But there is a Zack, Joshua and a Noah Norton in the lineup (along with a drummer named Mike Gravenish) so I'm thinking they're like Hanson,  only with butt rock and goatees.