Hawthorne California's Redd Kross have been on tour this Spring, celebrating the reissue of their classic Teen Babes From Monsanto album. The band is one of the key figures from the late 70's LA punk scene (their first show was opening up for a Keith Morris-fronted Black Flag) who later morphed into a trashy, glammy, power pop, alt-rock outfit. After returning after a nearly ten-year hiatus with their Researching The Blues album in 2012, Kross have been going strong ever since.
The band graced Bowery Ballroom last week and put on an enthusiastic, ninety-minute, twenty-song set. The band had a new drummer (Roy McDonald was unavailable for the tour) in the form of Melvins drummer Dale Crover and touring lead guitarist Jason Shapiro (Robert Hecker, is a teacher and can't just up and tour anymore). The McDonald brothers, Jeff and Steve had a great on-stage rapport, with Steve providing a lot of funny anecdotes. The band were very well-rehearsed (except for one song, "It Won't Be Long", where there was a discrepancy over key and necessitated a few false starts).
The band played plenty of their loved singles; "Switchblade Sister", "Annie's Gone", "Jimmy's Fantasy" and "Lady In The Front Row". Plus a few deeper cuts; "Annette's Got The Hits", "Peach Kelli Pop" and "Neurotica". But the real treat was the band performing the entire Teen Babes all-covers album (ahem, "Rock And Roll Retrospective") in its' seven-song entirety (it's a short album). Hearing them perform "Ann" by The Stooges, "Saviour Machine" by David Bowie and "Citadel" by The Rolling Stones was a very nice treat for hardcore-fans, of which I am one.
They put on a great show with a very-well considered setlist. If you have to opportunity to see the band, by all means do.
XTC were one of the most important, influential and experimental bands to come out of the UK Punk/New Wave movement. For the last few years they've been releasing definitive, deluxe versions of their albums (both on Blu Ray and on Vinyl). Last Summer yielded vinyl releases of both English Settlement and Skylarking. English Settlement is easily on of the bands' best albums; "Senses Working Overtime", "Ball & Chain" and "No Thugs In Our House" were the singles. Noteworthy album tracks include: "Jason And The Argonauts", "Melt The Guns" and "English Roundabout". The band has an easy confidence to their playing and sound at the top of their game.
As far as definitive vinyl box sets go, it doesn't get much better than this.
Double album on 200 gram vinyl, a CD flat master of the album, a sixteen-page booklet with very detailed liner notes written by all four members of the band, and lyrics for all songs. The audio source is the original half-inch masters.
Very highly recommended to fans of XTC and to anyone not familiar with the band; do yourself a favor and check out this album, Black Sea and/or Drums And Wires.
Scotland's Teenage Fanclub have just released their tenth studio album, Here. Their tour stopped at New York's Bowery Ballroom and I eagerly attended the show. It was my sixth time seeing TFC and second time seeing them at Bowery Ballroom. I'd first seen the band in 1993 at CBGB's. Their sound has changed considerably since then - with each album the band seems to ditch the Big Star/Jesus And Mary Chain influence more and more and they've become closer to being Crosby, Stills & Nashesque.
Norman Blake, Gerard Love & Raymond McGinley still deliver the goods. The band were in good form and their twenty-song set contained plenty of old favorites (including "Star Sign", "The Concept", "Radio" and "About You"). The band started the set off appropriately enough with "Start Again" and closed with their epic debut single "Everything Flows". In between the band played newish and genuinely new material (including the fine new single "I'm In Love").
The subtlety of the band's material is a something of a strength unto-itself, and the understatedness of the songs reveal themselves over-time. Which, if you're unfamiliar with, may not reveal themselves immediately, especially in a live setting. Thankfully for me, I knew all of these songs very well and wasn't clinging to a hope that the band was going to break out into a loud medley of material from their Bandwagonesque album. I was however disappointed that they didn't play "What You Do To Me", "Hang On" and even "Sparky's Dream", but I'll get over this some day.
North Carolina's Sneakers are known for containing Chris Stamey and Will Rigby of the dB's and Mitch Easter of Let's Active. Before those people formed their respective bands, they released some of the most challenging and well-recorded independent Power Pop records of the 1970's.
Released on RSD of 2014 in a limited pressing of 1,500 on clear vinyl by Omnivore Recordings, their self-titled debut 7" six-song EP is now a nine-song 10' EP. The songs have a very samey-quality to them; they're all very good but none are immediately memorable and none sticks with you for very long. In that regard, it begs you to return to it since it's obviousness is initially elusive. And the returns, are not diminishing.
So, for fans of The dB's, Let's Active and Power Pop in general.
In 1977, Alex Chilton was in a time of
transition. The band he'd fronted as a teen idol The Box Tops broken
up in 1970 and the Power Pop legends Big Star – the band that Chris
Bell had formed with Alex, Andy Hummell and Jody Stevens - had broken
up in early 1975. Chilton had just released the Singer Not The
Song EP and to properly promote it he moved in New York. There he
formed a band with Chris Stamey (later of the dB's) on bass and Lloyd
Fonroff on drums. Later that year the band was known as Alex Chilton
and the Cossacks and had Fran Kowolski on keyboards.
Ocean Club '77 is what might be
dubbed an official bootleg. It was approved by the Chilton estate. It
claims to be a soundboard show. Which it may well be, albeit a
poorly-mic'd one. The cover art font doesn't do it any favors either.
However, the packaging is nice enough, with nice liner notes as well.
The first thing you hear is Chilton
ordering a “Canadian Whiskey & Coca Cola on the rocks” from
the stage to the bar. So, immediately you know it's going to be a
fairly loose affair. Which it is. Although, it's not too loose as the
rhythm section of Stamey & Fonoroff are tight-enough.
The song selection is pretty wonderful.
“September Gurls”, “In The Street”, “O My Soul”, “Way
Out West” and “Back Of A Car” all get confident airings. The
Third nugget “Nightime” does as well – a good year before it's
release. “The Letter” gets a different, slower arrangement.
“Can't Seem To Make You Mine” (a cover of the Seeds' classic),
“Window's Hotel”, “All Of The Time”, “My Rival” and “She
Might Look My Way” all of which appeared on the rejected Elektra
Demos, are in fine form here. As well as covers of the rock classics
“Memphis”, “Wouldn't It Be Nice”, Walk Don't Run” and
Nelson Slater's Lou Reed-produced “Dominating Force”.
Definitely recommended for the
Chiltonphile of Big Star devotee.
Here's the very special video review version:
Special Thanks to: Ebet Roberts, Norton Records and Dave Rerecich for making me vanish at the end. Into thin air.
Hawthorne, California's Redd Kross were
inactive for inactive for nearly ten years. After the band's tour for
1997's Show World, they
quietly went on hiatus. Lead guitarist Eddie Kurdziel passed away of
a heroin overdose in 1999. Jeff McDonald formed Ze Malibu Kids and
Steve McDonald for the Steve McDonald Group. In 2006 the band
formally reunited with classic Neurotica-era members Roy McDonald (no
relation) and Robert Hecker. This band went on to record the
critically acclaimed Researching The Blues album on Merge Records in
2012.
Throughout
all of this activity/inactivity the band recorded a wealth of
material. Some of which have included on Hot Issue,
which is a self-released album in a limited edition of 500 copies. It
comes in magazine-styled artwork and includes a download code.
Taking tracks that
have been both previously released elsewhere and unreleased from
various time periods and compiling them. The results could have been
pretty scatter-shot, however the results make for a surprisingly
cohesive listen.
“Switchblade
Sister” was a single released in the UK, Spain and Canada in the
Summer of 1993. By all rights, it probably should have been included
on the band's Phaseshifter
album, released that September. Roger Joseph Manning of Jellyfish
co-produces and appears on “Born To Love You” (which was a free
MP3 download in the early 2000's) and “It's A Scream” which
appeared in the horror-spoof Shriek If You Know What I Did
Last Friday The Thirteenth. “Starlust”
appeared on the Jabberjaw compilation
album. “Puss N Boots”, the New York Dolls cover, is from the 1981
Hell Comes To Your House comp,
when the band was still known as Red Cross. “That Girl”
originally appeared as the B-Side to the “Mess Around” single.
“Motorboat” is a Kim Fowley cover that was on the SMG This
Is Not A Revolution...This Is A Mass Awakening!
EP. “Don't Take Your Baby Downtown” is the original version of
“Stay Away From Downtown”.
If you're a fan of
the Kross and can find it, by all means pick it up.
Here's The Video Review:
Thanks to: Roger Joseph Manning Jr. Atomic Pop Monkey and Redd Kross,
Recent Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame inductees Cheap Trick have been making music for over 40 years. Bang, Zoom Crazy Hello their 17th studio album is their first without co-founder Bun E. Carlos and first with Daxx Nielsen (son of guitarist Rick) is a very nice mix of everything that is great about the Trick.
This Record Store Day release offered the new 10” EP Found New Parts – a reference to their last 10” EP Found All The Parts. It's a four song-sampler from their new album. “When I Wake Up Tomorrow” sounds vocally like a David Bowie track and is a great recording. “No Direction Home” & “Do Yo Believe Me” reference Cheap Trick referencing The Beatles. “Arabesque” is repetitive and riffy and only appears on the Japanese version of the album.
The EP works as both a nice little sampler and a nice collectors piece for fans of the band.
Here's the video review:
Special thanks to: Bun E. Carlos and Big Machine Records.
This was a pleasant surprise. I didn't even know about this until I wandered in to a local record store and saw this item staring right back at me in the Record Store Day/Black Friday section of 10" vinyl by the counter. Apparently, this is a taster of the forthcoming Complete Third box set coming out in 2016. This is the third Big Star release on Omnivore Records in the last few years (the others being the Nothing CanHurt Me soundtrack and Live In Memphis) and by all accounts they've done right by Big Star fans.
What's on it? It 's the album version of the now-semi-holiday classic "Jesus Christ", the demo version of "Jesus Christ" (which made it's debut on the Keep An Eye On The Sky 2009 Rhino box set). Two untitled instrumentals by Chris Bell (that were in the Nothing Can Hurt Me documentary). A demo of "Big Black Car". "Thank You Friends (TV Mix)". And "Another Time, Another Place & You"
"Another Time, Another Place & You" is something of a holy grail amongst Big Star fans as there is still some debate as to who plays on it, when it was recorded and what it's intended purpose was. Even the songwriting credits are somewhat mysterious. It was co-written with sometime drummer Richard Rosebrough and either Chris Bell or Alex Chilton. The credits in Nothing Can Hurt Me attribute it to Bell/Rosebrough while this record credits Chilton/Rosebrough.
These songs were the some of the last that band recorded (either demos or studio cuts in 1974 for the legendary Third album, and/or the Chris Bell tracks). It's a beautiful looking blue 10" EP and it sounds beautiful as well. It comes with an mp3 download card. The cover art comes from a 1973 Ardent Records promotional Big Star poster. It's so nice that these rare tracks are finally becoming commonplace for all to obtain and are out on various releases for Big Star obsessives like myself to pick up.
If you're a Big Star fan and a vinyl connoisseur, this item is just waiting to be purchased by you.
Zion, Illinois' Shoes were
influenced by the usual suspects that influenced Power Pop bands of
the late 1970's; namely The Beatles, Nazz, The Who, The Raspberries,
Big Star and Badfinger. Although they'd recorded three privately
released albums in significantly small quantities the band
commercially released their fourth album Black Vinyl Shoes.
Released on their own Black
Vinyl label and on US indie PVC shortly thereafter, the album was
recorded in guitarist Jeff Murphy's living room on a TEAC
3340S reel to reel tape recorder.
The
warm sound, low-key yet mellifluous multi-tracked harmony vocals and
overall impact of the material made the entire recording industry sit
up and acknowledge the fact that an album this professional sounding
could be recorded at one's home and completely take place without the
financial help of a major label. It was released on Sire Records in
the UK in 1979 and in no time at all the band signed with Elektra in
the US and went on to record albums that sounded not too different
than Black Vinyl Shoes.
Musically
the band has the crunch of the Dwight Twilley Band, the vocal
harmonies of The Raspberries, the
melodic punch of fellow Illinois bands Pezband and Off Broadway.
Shoes' vocal harmonies and hooks seem to just roll off very
naturally. Lyrically, Black Vinyl Shoes seems to be
preoccupied with the politics and dynamics of romantic relationships.
The songs can be pretty dark yet they never come off as such on the
surface. There's a certain saminess to the material on this album (as
there are on most Shoes albums). However, generally speaking, if you
like Shoes sound, approach and material, you won't have a problem
with this.
The Flamin' Groovies
started their career in the late 60's as a San Francisco-based bluesy
garage rock band. They released four albums in this guise with lead
singer Roy A. Loney fronting the band. After Loney left the band in
mid 70's, Chris Wilson joined the band as lead singer and rhythm guitarist and they moved
to England and teamed up with guitarist/producer Dave Edmunds and
released three albums of Rickenbacker-driven
jangley late 60's power pop.
The second of these Flamin'
Groovies Now is a very
satisfying listen. The guitars sound wonderful and the band sounds
great. Of the originals “All I Wanted”, “Don't Put Me On” - which has a simply amazing coda - and “Between The Lines” are the
greatest of the batch. The band tackles The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Cliff
Richard, The Byrds and Paul Revere And The Raiders with varying
degrees of success. Only the Stones covers seem a bit off. I personally love the
album and think it's well-worth hearing (as are the other two albums
that form a late 70's Power Pop trilogy – Shake Some
Action and Jumpin' In
The Night). As is their 1971 classic album Teenage Head.
2,500 Redd Kross Fans Can't Be Wrong (Sympathy For The Record Industry/1993)
Lady In The Front Row (This Way Up/1993)
Visionary (This Way Up/1994)
After the commercial
failure of Third Eye to turn Redd Kross into a houshold name, the
band left Atlantic Records and released a few UK-only indie singles.
Super Sunny Christmas was released in late 1991 in Australia on Inspid
Vinyl, Trance was released in the Spring of 1992 on Seminal Twang in
the UK and Switchblade Sister was released in Summer of 1993 on This
Way Up Records in the UK and in Canada.
Sympathy For The Record
Industry collected various tracks from those releases for the
six-song ten-inch” vinyl release of 2,500 Redd Kross Fans Can’t
Be Wrong (a spoof on Elvis Presley's 50 Million Elvis Fans Can't Be
Wrong). Highlights include the early 70's glammy “Switchblade
Sister” (which should have appeared on their then-new album
Phaseshifter), the glam/grunge rave-up“Trance” and its' B-Side “Byrds &
Fleas” co-written bv Jeff McDonald and future-wife and Go-Go
Charlotte Caffey.
Next we have the Lady
In The Front Row ten-inch single from 1993 on This Way Up
Records. The title track appeared on their Phaseshifter album
and is a slice power pop perfection. A re-recording of “Standing In
Front Of Poseur” from their self-titled 1980 debut EP. Also are a
cover of The Kinks' “Fancy” and PJ Harvey's “Oh My Lover”.
Lastly
we have the Visionary single
from 1994 (also on This Way Up). The title track, again from
Phaseshifter has a
metaly riff and has big harmony vocals from the McDonald brothers.
The B-sides are cover of The Beatles “It Won't Be Long” as
performed by Queen and a live acoustic version of “Visionary”.
These
are nice little unique starting places for the uninitiated, granted
there are better places to investigate as to who Redd Kross are.
However for the vinyl fanatic these three ten-inches (the only three
released by the band) are fine additions to any power-pop, proto-grunge, glam pop fans collection. Or just check out Neurotica, Researching The Blues or Third Eye.
Alex Chilton had been a teen idol in the mid-late 1960's with blue-eyed soul band The Box Tops. He'd then been a power pop innovator in the early 1970's with Big Star. He then embarked on a long and sometimes controversial (amongst fans) solo career. The first release from his post-Big Star period was the Singer Not The Song EP released in 1977 on Ork Records. This was recorded in Memphis and was produced by rock critic Jon Tiven in 1975, and was released in its' entirety in 1981 as Bach's Bottom (a play on "Box Top"). But these recordings aren't really representative of the first true solo music Alex made with his first solo band.
Alex moved to New York City in February of 1977 and formed a band with Chris Stamey on bass (later of The dB's) and Lloyd Fonoroff on drums. Shortly thereafter Fran Kowalski joined the band on keyboards and they became known as Alex Chilton & The Cossacks. They regularly performed at CBGB's, Max's Kansas City and The Lower Manhattan Ocean Club. They were approached and courted by Elektra Records' Karin Berg, whom Alex had known for some time. Elektra funded recording sessions that were engineered by John Klett at Trod Nossel Studios in Wallingford, Connecticut with the hopes of signing the band.
These sessions yielded unique and interesting recordings of "She Might Look My Way" (which Alex had co-written with Tommy Hoehn), "Shakin' The World", "My Rival", "Windows Hotel", "A Little Fishy", "All Of The Time" and a cover of The Seeds' "Can't Seem To Make You Mine". Sadly, Elektra passed on these recordings deeming them "too uncommercial". This is a great shame as it is an excellent document of where Alex was at during this stage of his career (he wooed the critics during his time in NY, but not the major labels). Two recordings that were in fact released that Alex had recorded with Chris Stamey at Trod Nossel - the fantastically produced "The Summer Sun" b/w '"Where The Fun Is", released as a Chris Stamey single (produced by Alex, he also plays guitar, drums, percussion and shares vocal duties with Chris).
The Dusted In Memphis bootleg contains six of the seven Cossacks songs (omitting "All Of The Time"). Other songs included are a rough mix of "Lovely Day" (an outtake from Big Star's Third which eventually came out on the Keep An Eye On The Sky box set), "Baron Of Love Part Two" which appeared on the Peabody Records version of Like Flies On Sherbert in 1979 and "Take Me Home And Make Me Like It" & "The Walking Dead" (both later appeared on the Razor & Tie version of Bach's Bottom, the latter in an edited form). The Cossacks material (excepting "Little Fishy") later appeared in digital form on (also a bootleg) Beale Street Green.
"My Rival" was re-recorded in a drastically different arrangement and released on Like Flies On Sherbert and "Can't Seem To Make You Mine" was re-recorded an released on the B-Side of Alex's "Bangkok" single in 1978. A live version of "A Little Fishy" came out on the Japanese-only release One Day In New York. "She Might Look My Way" came out of Tommy Hoehn's Losing You To Sleep album.
Allegedly, the only copy of these recordings that anyone associated with band had was lost in the house fire that claimed Alex Chilton's mother's life. If this is true, and the masters have been lost, it is truly a great, great shame as these are possibly the best post-Big Star recordings of Alex's long solo career.
If you find this release, I high recommend you pick it up.
Here's the video review:
Special Thanks to: Ardent Records, Stephanie Chernikowski, Michael O'Brien & Allan Tannenbaum
Too Much Joy was a punky power pop quartet with a sense of humor. Lead singer Tim Quirk wrote wonderfully witty lyrics and was able to touch upon young adulthood as well as the best in the field. The band had the unique ability to sound loose while in fact being a rather tight outfit thanks to the crack rhythm section of bassist Sandy Smallens and drummer Tommy Vinton. They had an-almost MTV hit with "That's A Lie" (a rap-to-rock cover of the LL Cool J song) and a few hit singles on Billboard Modern Rock Tracks in "Donna Everywhere" and "Crush Story" (the latter of which deserved to be significantly more well-known than it ultimately became).
TMJ relaxing on the set of the "That's A Lie" music video
Too Much Joy was dropped by Giant in the Autumn of 1993 after
the Forever In Your Face Tour and this was released during the big dry-period following the 1992 album Mutiny and preceding ...finally in 1996. This was issued by the official TMJ fanclub
newsletter Joybuzzer in the Summer of 1994. It was offered to both new-subscribers and renewing-members, which was a pretty sweet deal. Joybuzzer was run by Clive Young and was all-around excellent zine. "Just Around The Bend" sounds
like a great lost early 90's TMJ single. "Never Work" is good but isn't done much
justice by the soundcheck recording. "Hey Merlin" has cool would-be psychedelic
lyrics but suffers from a clumsy arrangement (or perhaps that was just the performance). "Outtakes" for this EP are
"Death Ray Machine" (later on Gods & Sods) and the great "Sunroof"
(a Gods & Sods download-only bonus track via eMusic).
This blue 7" vinyl EP (at 33 1/3RPM) is pretty rare. It was a limited pressing of 500 or 1,000 copies. It was mastered directly from DAT to vinyl. Only "Hey Merlin" has since appeared in a digital format on Gods & Sods, but all three-tracks are available for a very inexpensive download from toomuchjoy.com. If you can find this nifty release, by all means, pick it up.
Here's the video review:
Special thanks to: Clive Young of Pro Sound News and Joybuzzer Zine.
Cleveland, Ohio's The
Raspberries were, along with Big Star, Badfinger, and Blue Ash the
main purveyors of what became known as Power Pop. The Raspberries
were easily the most successful band of this genre (with Bandfinger
coming a near second) and later Cheap Trick. Critics were split in
their decision on them. Some deemed them square/unhip, others loved
their blend of the music of Who and harmonies of the Beatles/Beach
Boys. The band had four big hit singles in “Go All The Way”, “I
Wanna Be With You”, “Overnight Sensation (Hit Record)” and
“Let's Pretend” before breaking up in 1975.
Raspberries' Best,
released in 1976, is a near-perfect vinyl-era compilation of the
bands singles. “I Can Remember” and “Starting Over” as album
tracks and as fine as song “Starting Over” is, it could've been
easily replaced here by “Crusin' Music” and “I'm A Rocker” ;
both two fine singles that were omitted here for reasons unknown.
If you've not heard the
band but have read their name countless times on various Power Pop
articles, this is a fine collection that probably won't cost you more
than a few dollars.
Omnivore Records is a specialty label
that has released previously unreleased or reissued albums by Big
Star, Alex Chilton, Bob Mould, The Three O'Clock, Camper Van
Beethoven and Jellyfish. Radio Jellyfish is the fifth of these
releases. It's a ten-song live acoustic collection of promotional
radio appearances the band made for their swan song 1993 album Spilt
Milk.
Recorded in Holland and Australia it's
a nice distillation of Jellyfish's songwriting prowess and their
then-modern take on retro-70's material. Lots of harmony vocals ala
The Beach Boys, Beatles and Chicago. Half of the album are single
sides and it also contains a cover of The Move's “I Can Hear The
Grass Grow” and Badfinger's “No Matter What”. This is a
release that is aimed toward the hardcore Jellyfish fan, but I would
recommend this to any fan of 90's pop and certainly any fan of Power
Pop.
The packaging is beautiful as Omnivore
does right once again. The inner-sleeve resembles a pop-out frame
from Magical Mystery Tour and the nice clear vinyl is also pretty
wonderful.
Winston-Salem North Carolina's The dB's
were one of the leading-lights of the American Power Pop/Jangle Rock
movement of the late 70's/early 80's. In 1988, after ten years and
four albums the band called it a day. In 2005 the original line-up
reformed to play various shows and in 2011 they released the Picture
Sleeve single on their own
Orange Sound Records (“The Label With Appeal”) and the Falling
Off The Sky album on Bar/None
Records in 2012.
Released
on Record Store Day in 2013 Revolution Of The Mind
(also on Orange Sound Records) is a four-song EP on Orange Vinyl in a
limited pressing of 2,000 (and includes a digital download). The EP
is basically a four-song distillation of makes the band special. The
title-track is a minor-key rocker that features a hypnotic
siren-esque lead guitar riff. “Lakefront” is compelling ballad
with Mellotron-strings that would've been a lovely addition the most
recent full-length album and recalls earlier dB's tracks such as
“Nothing Is Wrong” and “From A Window To Screen”. “Orange
Squeezer” is a whimsical Chris Stamey composition about a Dan
Armstrong compressions pedal. And rounding things out is a live
version of “pH Factor” (which first appeared as a the B-side to
their 1982 “Neverland” single). “pH Factor, which references
song author Peter Holsapple, is a sleepy Raybeats-like surf
instrumental. And
this is a very-well recorded live version of the song.
The EP
is once again, a nice distillation of what makes the dB's a special
band (i.e. good songwriting, a thoughtful approach to playing and
challenging hooks). The vinyl itself is of nice quality and is on
nice Orange Vinyl. All-in-all a nice piece for the dB's fan. And also
quite appealing for the uninitiated as well.
Which brings me to Hawthorne California's other favorite sons of Summer Redd Kross.
"Super Sunny Christmas" is perhaps my favorite holiday single. It was recorded shortly after lead guitarist Robert Hecker left the band after the Third Eye tour in 1991. It was only released in Australia on Insipid Vinyl and came out on black, red and green vinyl. It features then-Redd Kross keyboardist Gere Fennelly on the picture sleeve. The song hasn't too many appearances anywhere. It's on Vital Juices - a compilation on Insipid Records and Rodney Bingenheimer's Santa's Got A GTO: Rodney on The ROQ's Fav X-Mas Songs. The B-Side is the non-holiday song "Huge Wonder" which was re-recorded for the bands' Phaseshifter album. This is the superior version of the two.
"Super Sunny Christmas" is a straight-forward power pop song with nice harmony vocals from the McDonald brothers. It's basically a Christmas-in-July song with lyrics such as "I'm so glad there ain't no snow/It's gonna be a Super-Sunny Christmas I know". The song features synthesized harpsichord (which is fairly unique for a Redd Kross song) and sleighbells in the bridge and coda. This isn't the only Christmas song that Redd Kross has written & recorded. The other being, "Mary Christmas" which appeared on the A Home For The Holidays: Phoenix House compilation in the late 90's. Also worth checking out if so inclined.
San Francisco California's Jellyfish had some minor initial commercial success. Their brand of Badfinger meets The Partridge Family and XTC pop was popular enough critically circa 1990/1991 but never really received the widespread attention it really deserved. Their debut album Bellybutton spawned five singles, one of which ("Baby's Coming Back") even reached number 62 on Billboard's Hot 200 chart. One single was released as part an EP.
That song was "Now She Knows She's Wrong". It's a power pop meets bubblegum confection with Steve McDonald of Redd Kross guesting on bass. It starts with a minor-key Partridge Family synthesized harpsichord part. It isn't long before sleigh bells ala Brian Wilson and glockenspiel join-in. And after two-minutes and thirty-five seconds the song is over. "Bedspring Kiss" is a five-minute long groovy piece of nuevo cocktail-lounge and exotica noir that references cocaine and heroin use with a bridge that sounds like a missing link from Pet Sounds. It is one of several highlights from the Bellybutton album.
The B-Sides of the Scary-Go-Round EP are nice live obscurities. There are variations between the 12" EP, CD EP & 7" EP. Each come with two live tracks per-B-Side. The CD contains "Let Em In/That Is Why" & "The King Is Half-Undressed". The former is a medley of the intro and chorus of the
Wings hit single for the Summer of 1976 and segues into the
Supertrampesque "That Is Why". This medley was recorded live at Bogart's
and was finally issued (along with the rest of that complete 2/21/91
performance) on Omnivore Records' Live At Bogart's. The latter is a great performance of their debut single (also on Bellybutton) and was recorded at LA's The Roxy and subsequently was released (along with several other tracks from that show) on the now-ultra-rare box-set Fan Club.
The Vinyl 12" & 7"'s tracks all come from their 2012 release of Live At Bogart's. Those tracks are the stately monster of a track "The Man I Used To Be" and "Calling Sarah" which musically sounds like the lovechild of Brian Wilson and Paul McCartney. It is perhaps Jellyfish's greatest single sleeper/dark horse of a song. "She Still Loves Him" tells of an abusive relationship whilst sounding like the Badfinger backing The Beach Boys. "Baby's Coming Back" (the band's lone minor-hit) which is a tale of promises of giving up the fast life for one particular girlfriend and actively references The Partridge Family's "C'mon Get Happy" in the song's coda.
If you're a fan of the band, who've since acquired something of a
substantial cult-following since their break-up in 1994, I'd recommend
picking up the EP. It's a nice little slice of what made Bellybutton so
great. It also shows the band in a live-context, which for a band renowned for their studio wizardry (especially on Spilt Milk) they probably doesn't get too much notice for. This is a small slice of Jellyfish's Power Pop Heaven.
