Bright Coloured Lights "Open Your Eyes" 7 inch (Slumberland Records/2000)

Seriously who doesn't love Pam Berry? I have been following her music and projects that she has been involved with for a long, long time and I can safely say there isn't a single one that I am not really into. And the only 7 inch from this Pam Berry related project is no different. Open Your Eyes was the only release from Bright Coloured Lights which is a band Pam and Mike started after Black Tambourine folded. The single contains two original tracks and a Desperadoes cover. Musically speaking, Bright Coloured Lights sound like a marriage of two of Berry's projects- the noise pop bliss of Black Tambourine mixed with the peppiness of one of her later projects, The Castaway Stones. Seriously just download the damn thing already..

Oh yeah this 7 inch was originally issued on A Turntable Friend Records and then later re-mixed and re-issued in this form on Slumberland Records.

Bright Coloured Lights Open Your Eyes track listing
1. Open Your Eyes
2. Leave You Behind
3. Count The Raindrops

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Amp "Beyond/Lutin" 7 inch (Wurlitzer Jukebox/1996)

Here is a band that outside of this single I don't know a whole lot about but to my ears it strikes me as the type of shoegaze that is less traveled by bands staking claim in that genre. And by that I mean sounding less like My Bloody Valentine and Swirlies and more like lovesliescrushing and Flying Saucer Attack producing more lush, ambient sound scapes and minimal melody. Funny thing is that upon further investigating some background info on Amp and I learned that the band's found Richard F Walker was indeed a collaborator with David Pearce of Flying Saucer Attack so the similarities between the two certainly make sense. The only other track I have by Amp is on a four way split 7 inch compilation on Wurlitzer Jukebox that also includes The Summer Hits, Third Eye Foundation and Dear. I shall be sharing that 7 inch shortly but in the mean time if you are into ambient, droning type of shoegaze then I recommend you give Amp a spin.

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v/a "Ow, Quit It! Volume 2" double 7 inch (Volvolo Records/1994)

I have made it no secret that my favorite type of music is music that is recorded at home. Some see it as romanticizing but for someone like myself with a background as a publicist and a writer for a variety of music magazines where I every mediocre band was touted as the best thing since sliced bread, music that is recorded at home is simply a breath of fresh air. Music that is personal and just made to simply pass the time or express one's self. No one is selling you anything-well except for a record, or tape or whatever but I think you all know what I mean. And a double 7inch release like Ow, Quit It! Volume 2 is great as it documents a nice cross section of the type of stuff that people were recording during the whole home taping explosion of the 90s. There are great tracks from Lou Barlow's Sentridoh, Portastatic (Mac from Supercbunk's solo project), Tugboat 3001ad (Darren Rademaker of Further/The Tyde),  Soul Junk, O (from Fluf), Back Off Cupids, The Yak, Fellaheen, and Steve Fisk. The sounds captured on these two pieces of vinyl are lo fi bedroom pop, folk, bedroom and experimental stuff. I also must say that regardless of how off sounding the song starts out "I Stopped Singing" may possibly be my favorite Sentridoh song. I'll just shut up so you download the darn thing already.

Ow, Quit It! Volume 2 track listing
1. Tugboat 3001ad "One Planet From Home"
2. Back Off Cupids "Painted Half a Picture"
3.Portastatic "Weighted Raft"
4. Steve Fisk "To Abide in the Flesh Pt. 3"
5. Soul Junk "Matthew 5:13-16"
6. O "Little Lamb"
7. Sentridoh "I Stopped Singing"
8. The Yak "You're Breaking My Fucking Heart"
9. Fellaheen "Mor-X (A Tribute to Darren)"

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Kicking Giant "Halo" cd (Spartadisc Records/1993)

I am actually surprised it has taken me such a long time to share one of my more "rarer" cds on this blog. I have been focusing so much on my vinyl and tapes that I haven't acknowledged the fact that I do have a large amount of obscure cds in my collection. And this cd Halo by the noisy indie/art rock duo Kicking Giant is certainly quite obscure, at least these days. This cd which is packaged like a 45 with a hard plastic sleeve, however the sleeve folds out to be a intricate 3-D structure of sorts with the inserts acting as "stands".  This cd version was released on Spartadisc while a cassette version was released on the band's own Loose Leaf label. Halo is a lengthy effort at that with 22 tracks!!! Remember this was the day of lo fi indie rock excess. Our parents generation had double and triple albums-our generation had Guided By Voices Bee Thousand! A few of the songs on Halo also appears on a few of their self released cassettes, namely Present and Secret Teenage Summer but given the even greater scarcity of those cassettes Halo was and is the only game in town for most folks to hear these tunes. While Kicking Giant's Alien ID on K Records showed off the duo's more noisier side I think it is safe to say that Halo documents the pure indie pop side of the band. The tunes on Halo prove that the song "She's Real" wasn't a indie pop fluke, Kicking Giant were superb pop songwriters. Halo does find the duo delving into more abstract, noisier elements at times but at that heart the album is pure pop. To me Kicking Giant were a perfect amalgamation of all that I loved about the 90s independent music underground. They were indie rock, bedroom pop, riot grrl, art rock, and punk rock all in one.

As a side note if anyone out there in blog land has a rip of the Present cassette please send it my way as it is the only Kicking Giant release that I *know of* that I don't have.  And as I was saying, releases that *I know of* that is reference to something I came across last year. I was looking through old college radio single play lists and I came across one from WCKS Fm from back in 1995. And on their list is a Kicking Giant 7 inch called Monogahella on Generator Records. I have never seen this record or it mentioned elsewhere. I was getting into Kicking Giant in 1994 and was able to snag most of their releases as they were coming out but this single is something that I never heard of until a year ago. So if anyone has information on this record actually existing or even a rip or (gasp!) perhaps a copy to sell drop me a line.

Kicking Giant Halo track listing
1. Satellite
2. Wierd
3. Three
4. Throw
5. Five
6. The Way That You Are
7. Rocket
8. Ruby Red
9. Suck
10. Go Girl (Riot)
11. Rachel's Song
12. Fuck the Rules
13. 13 13 13
14. This Sex
15. Mario
16. If Not You
17. Halo
18. Hi
19. Rocket Dreams
20. Stereo Hi Fi
21. Love Science
22. Come in Colors

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v/a "Ghost of a Rollercoaster" 7 inch (Shrimper/1991)

How I miss the days of Shrimper compilations. Shrimper released so many compilations like Ghost of a Rollercoaster that were a revelation of sorts to me growing up getting exposed to all this great homemade music that was all over the map. From lo fi bedroom pop, indie rock, folk, experimental-Shrimper always showcased a wide variety of genres on their compilations, yet there was always a sense of unification in the over all presentation. Well at least to my ears and eyes. This comp crams nine artists all on one 7 inch with something for everyone. There are wonderful tracks from Franklin Bruno and Refrigerator as well probably my favorite Wckr Spgt track as well. There is a really strange Sentridoh tune as well that is nowhere near Lou Barlow's finest hour but for for die hard Barlow fans it certainly provides itself as a interesting curiosity in his discography. If you are not familiar with the legendary Shrimper label, they were/are best known for releasing tons of cassettes throughout the course of the 90s. When people talk about the lo fi home taping explosion of that era this is the label that is primarily responsible for influencing a lot of that. However, through the years they started releasing vinyl as well as cds. Ghost of a Rollercoaster gives a pretty idea of what the Shrimper "sound" was all about.

v/a Ghost of a Rollercoaster track listing
1. Halo "L Wheel"
2. Refrigerator "Map to the Stars"
3. Shoeface "I Hate the Government"
4. Franklin Bruno "Lifetime Seance"
5. Satnam Puppets "Guitar in Room P. 7"
6. Wckr Spgt "Fluffy Cat"
7. Guffey "Creepy"
8. Sentridoh "Me and My Arrow"
9. Jim Bishop "O 5"

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Dump "International Airport" 10 inch (Smells Like Records/1994)

This past Sunday night I made the trek into Brooklyn to see Dump play a show so in spirit of the show today I shall be sharing with you fine followers of this blog a nice long play effort from Dump called International Airport. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised to hear that the lengthy title track of this record was played Sunday evening and yes, it was awesome. Earlier in this space I posted a rare single from Dump but in case you missed it, Dump is the long running solo project of James Mcnew who is better known for his "day job" in Yo La Tengo. Since the early 90s Mcnew has been sporadically recording music on his 4 track in his home and releasing it in various forms over the years. This 10 inch record was released Smells Like Records, the label run by Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley. Dump has been one of the bigger influences on my own bedroom recordings over the years as Mcnew never just settles into one style as he deftly switches back and forth from bedroom pop, ambient, drone, folk, and even what can be described as lo fi new wave or dance music. Fans of the New York City indie rock band Versus should take note as International Airport features a great re-working of their song "Flax". Some of Dump's releases are tough to come by but his full length cd albums A Plea for Tenderness (Brinkman Records) and Grown Ass Man (Shrimper Records) can be found rather easily and most likely on the cheap due to the cd format not being "cool" anymore or whatever the fuck. Both of those albums are probably the best starting off points in the Dump discography so I highly recommend you seek them out.

Dump International Airport 10 inch track listing
1. Words
2. International Airport
3. Flax
4. The Way Love Used to Be
5. Memorial Trauma #1
6. Laurdine

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Sleepyhead "Fairyboat" 7 inch (A Picture Book Artifact/1991)

I can't believe it has taken me this long to post something by Sleepyhead. This a band who was responsible for some of my favorite tunes of the 90s. While the band lost me a bit with their later material, their first two albums, Punk Rock City USA (Slumberland) and Starduster (Homestead) are some of the best noisy yet infectious guitar indie pop the 90s had to offer. I have fond memories of driving around with my girlfriend in high school listening to the Half Cocked soundtrack and cranking it every time Sleepyhead's "CB" came on.  And in addition to those two great albums they released a whole bunch of singles and appeared on just about every cool compilation. Sleepyhead were originally based out of New York City though at some point relocated to Massachusetts, and they played really uptempo indie rock that to my ears was a cross between My Bloody Valentine, The Shop Assistants and Dinosaur Jr. Noisy guitar stuff but not in obtrusive, tuneless manner-make no mistake Sleepyhead is way catchy. And I say "is" because Sleepyhead is still together writing and releasing new music as well as playing shows when the can. I am still mad that I missed their show at The Cake Shop a couple years back. Nothing like finding out about the show two days later.

The single I am sharing with you all today is pretty awesome. The version of "Fairyboat" here is different than the version that appears on Punk Rock City USA and on the b-side is a great rendition of My Bloody Valentine's "Thorn". My one gripe is that no matter what I did the record ripped a bit on the noisy side but quite frankly that is what the actual record sounds like more or less. Distortion, shoegaze over load in all its glory. I shall be uploading the rest of my Sleepyhead singles over the course of time. They are a truly great and in my humble opinion a sorely overlooked band from that era.

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Diskothi-Q "Lane Discipline" 7 inch (X-Mas Records/1995)

I have been so busy with school the last several weeks that the blog has been neglected so I apologize to those faithful readers out there! So to get back on track let me kick things off with a request of sorts. I received an email to post some more Diskothi-Q which I planned on doing and well here is one of the releases in that said plan. Lane Discipline is a great four song 7 inch that was released by X-Mas Records- the label run by Brent from Further/Beachwood Sparks/etc. There are two original tunes and two absolutely fantastic covers, the first being "Heartland Feeling" by Beck. That is a great old obscure Beck tune that appears on two old Beck cassettes Fresh Meat and Old Slabs as well Golden Feelings, the latter of which was released on Sonic Enemy, a wonderful label run by Diskothi-Q's Peter Hughes. As a side note Golden Feelings which was originally released on cassette was later reissued as a cd and as the story goes Beck was completely unaware of that and thus asked Sonic Enemy to cease manufacturing the cd version. Only 2,000 of those made it into circulation and can fetch serious cash on Ebay. Anyhow back to Diskothi-Q's Lane Discipline- the second cover tune on this 7 inch is a rendition of "Javelin" by the one, the only and sorely under appreciated Simon Joyner. The originals on this single are the title track and reprisal of that tune to close out the 7 inch. Even though two of the songs are covers Diskothi-Q really makes them their own and this is one of my favorite singles from the band's discography.

Diskothi-Q Lane Discipline track listing
1. Heartland Feeling
2. Lane Discipline
3. Javelin
4. (Reprise)
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