Swinging Singles Club MN

 Less is Less. Stealing June (1999) This is the kind of stuff that gets lost in time. The little disc that couldn't and nobody cared and got put into a dollar bin and eventually might find it's way to the landfill, lost and forgotten. Or that sits in a box in the closet of the bass player for twenty years before they clear it out. It's the kind of middling pop rock that every town has. You can rest easy knowing that if you play this you are likely the only person on this entire planet who is doing so on any given night. They won't know, but they'd appreciate it.

 Blah blah The End of the Lion (2006) Electro something or other. Get your synth on.

 Forgot to queue up some shit. Late for work. Write a Letter (2008) A Night in the Box . Warning there may be banjos. It's been a while though. Might not.

 Boo!     Break Up Songs for Relationships That Never Happened (2004) That's all I got.

 Blah Blah Landing Gear (2000) Following the break up of Shatterproof. Jay Hurley next appears in this band. It's only five songs, but I want to get things in the queue. It stands on its own.

 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...

 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 ...

  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.

  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.

 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....

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...

 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.

  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.

 I got nothing. Made in Minnesota Volume 2 (1995) Volume One leans more to the singer/songwriter stuff I'm less fond of, so I never picked that one up. Volume Two has the rock and the pop and the stuff in between. That's the one for me. Tracklist on Discogs .

  I got nothing. But this will get me off the hook until my next week off.     Life on the Installment Plan (2004) The second full length by Valet .  Go ahead. You know you want to.

 So setting up my work week lunches I have an embarrassment of things  made and in process. Still one okonomyaki I can make. Butternut squash soup, fresh wheat bread which I want to use for grilled cheese, a big pot of beef stew simmering and the wife is planning on making the teriyaki burgers she's been craving in the next couple of days.  The pizza I made earlier tonight should be gone though. Such is life. The Glamour is Contagious (2001) Valet This is their first feature length and was named the local album of the year by City Pages for 2001. I don't remember how I felt about that. I probably disagreed.

 I've been getting my lunch stuff together for the coming work week and realized that I should probably refill the queue lest I leave it empty for a period of time. I like to be nothing if not at least reliable. This one is hard though. There's so much stuff that I have things to say about but lack the ambition to do the typing involved. I'm not big on thinking too deeply lately. But here we go anyway. Keep Cats Off Catnip (1998) Flora for this was I'm pretty sure just the result of John Kuker fucking around in his studio, Seedy Underbelly. He was a beautiful crazy motherfucker and it's reflected in this mess. I honestly appreciated him and the version of Flora that he eventually formed and played out with was so very entertaining. There was a night when our band played with them and Eta Carinae and had a friendly competition that night with each band throwing down their version of Pat Benetar's "Heartbreaker". Flora owned it with their bass player (an...

  Ok, this should be enough posts to get me through to the next off week. From Blood to Bubblegum (1995) Marcus Noise I threw this up into the queue and then just as I was getting ready to start the typing part I remembered I also have the single that preceded it that I picked up sometime last year. I may have even digitized it but not finished processing it yet. But I don't feel like making that happen right now. So I'm posting the full length by itself. On their Bandcamp they style themselves as a "Post Punk Indie Band" Let's go with that.

  It exists. So I'm gonna post it. The Penitent Never Regret (2005) I've debated posting this disc by Maudlin for a while. It's a married couple. My impression interacting with them and this band way back in the beginning of this century is that she's quite talented and charismatic. He was kind of a dick. No wait. That's not fair. He absolutely was a complete dick. There. That's better.

 I have shit to do tonight. These are all going to be quickies. 1996 - Go to the Sugar Altar The Kelley Deal 6000 . Featuring Breeders guitarist and Kim Deal's (of Pixies fame) twin sister Kelley Deal. Formed locally here after Kelley completed rehab at Hazelden . Good for her. Saw them once in the 7th St Entry. I enjoyed it. 'nuff said.