… if I hadn’t spent the past two four six eight weeks writing that last *@&!ing Scandal post:
I went through a late 70’s power pop phase a month or so back, centered around classic L.A. trio the Nerves. Previously I’d only known them from two cuts on one of Rhino’s D.i.Y. comps
(“Hanging On The Telephone” pretty much squashes everything else there), but that actually represented half the band’s official output — they released a single four-song EP in 1976 and then broke up, with members Peter Case and Paul Collins forming the Plimsouls and the Beat (respectively), and Jack Lee having some limited success as a songwriter. Last year, Alive Records put out a full-length collection of Nerves recordings, One Way Ticket
, collecting the EP, the never-released follow-up single, demos, live cuts, and three tracks from immediate post-Nerves projects (including a version of “Walking Out On Love” by interim Case/Collins band the Breakaways that I find superior to the version on the Beat’s first album). The first eight cuts sound like the core of one of those great lost pop records, and if you can get over the poor sound quality of the later tracks, there’s some great stuff there too. Alive has also put out a live set
(vinyl-only, alas) and the Breakaways demos
(on CD), but I haven’t listened to either yet.
Asobi Seksu‘s Rewolf
, which I mentioned in passing here, has been out for a bit now, and I quite like it. Gorgeous acoustic re-recordings of songs from throughout the band’s catalog, the album has a mellow, late-60’s folk vibe, the songs largely stripped down to guitar and voice, occasionally augmented by flutes, chimes, or organ. The renditions vary in how far they stray from the original — “Breathe Into Glass”, for example, makes a 180° shift from the emotionally remote (frigid, even) original recording to a rather intimate, confessional piece, but “Urasaii Tori” (renamed “Bossa” here) largely retains its playful nature. I’m not sure how well this would work as an introduction to the band, but if you’re a fan, this is quite a treat.
Shonen Knife played at the Rickshaw Stop at the end of October, and I made a rare foray out to see them. At this point there’s only one original member left (the drummer looks like she hadn’t been born when the band formed in 1981, though Wikipedia tells me that she was in fact four), but the band still plays with infectious amateur enthusiasm. Their new album, Super Group
(released in Japan in ’08 but just out recently in the States) is fun in the same way: catchy, silly, three-chord pop-punk.
Well, that’s it for now. Expect this quasi-hiatus to last pretty much forever.
Ack Phhht! 