The record that's been sending every Saint Etienne fan scrambling to examine just how much a record means to them and if thirty dollars is too much to pay for a record they really want. I've heard stories that even Best Buy is carrying copies of this high priced Japanese only CD, which will not be released in any form in Europe or the US. I passed on this CD for the station for the longest time (I've been enjoying my own copy for that same long time), but I finally realized that it was a crime if the six crucial songs from this CD went unplayed on the wide wild airwaves, so a second thirty dollars had to be plunked down on the line. Here's to "Jack Lemmon", "Saturday", "Find Me A Boy", "It's All Gone Horribly Wrong", "Do It All", & "The Way I Fell for You". May you play them, enjoy them, and play them again.

Berlin's To Rococo Rot get the full treatment by Soul Static Sound label boss Darryl Moore ("D") on this six song 12". I've enjoyed this 12" since the summer, but was only recently able to find a copy for the station. I really love To Rococo Rot. Their sound is sparse, but not to the point where you wonder if you are indeed listening to a piece of music, as sometimes occurs with contemporary releases coming out of the electronic art scene in Europe. Darryl actually makes their sound a bit more dynamic with his treatment, making this the release I would point anyone who has never heard the band to if I wanted that person to like To Rococo Rot. Sadly this 12"/CD5 is quite out of print. Soul Static Sound released a Tarwater 12inch as somewhat of a followup (see the Oct 19th Gull Buy), with it's similiar graphic aesthetic. As for the names of the 6 songs on this 12", I haven't quite figured them out (they are all in one blob with no spaces).

This disc, in addition to having a great price, has bonus songs. There's nothing I need to say to justify our love for this one; it is Boston history: something we gave the world in 1976 that can still happily live on the airwaves as the century turns.

I first started hearing about Ooberman from the Mind The Gap update lists, which mentioned (amongst other things) that they had the brightness of Super Furry Animals. Then I started seeing their singles in Rough Trade lists. Finally when their fifth CD5 was released, it seemed well past time to check them out. The title song from this 3 track CD caught me and held me with it's great melody, delivery, content: everything! Danny, who wrote this song, tells us: "Tears From A Willow is a song that spans five years of growing up, took six months to write and ten months to record. It's all about friends, the countryside and dealing with breaking up. The setting is inspired by two significant events. Five years ago me, Andy and Steve had an amazing summer day trip in Judy Woods, Bradford, where we talked to the cows (laughing at them for being stupid), and chased perceptual bubbles in the air. Then, last year, there was an epic bongo jam with mates from another Liverpool band (Hayley's Cake), when four of us had been dumped in the same week. The words and music are an attempt to take you on a trip through friendship, into loneliness and then back out into hope". The song sounds like pure pop magic. It relaxes you as it pumps you up, and makes you feel warm all over as you look for someone to turn this single onto. The second S.F.A.-ish song ('Moth To A Flame') has a bit of 'Hocus Pocus' (by the 70's band Focus) in it's chorus riff, and Queen's Brian May in the solo guitar's tone. The third song ('Danny Boy') is a ballad that has (briefly) train sounds which fondly cause me to recall State River Widening's beautiful "Interlaken" (see Nov. 9 '99 Gull Buy)

When Rough Trade's Delia (who writes their weekly updates) declared this "The best Spanish indiepunk release ever" I'd have been a fool not to listen. Female vocal music sung in Spanish that reminds me of the sound I once loved when I listened to Cub in their prime.

Incredibly priced 28 song compilation spanning bands of many different record labels. There are 7 songs here that I really like, but I'd almost guarantee that others would like different songs. My faves:

1) Nuerotones "Bop Yeah!!" - sounds like Eddie Cochran's "C'Mon Everybody", which has launched many a classic, such as Sid Vicious's "Something Else".

2) BobbyTeens "Do You Wanna Touch" - their kicking version of the song made famous by Joan Jett.

3) Humpers ""You Dirty Rat" - sounds so close to the 80's band DI, who were THE BEST on their Orange County LA, CA circuit. Their sound is still great when worn by the Humpers.

4) Bulemics "Anywhere and Everywhere" - sounds like Henry Rollin's Blag Flag and Dead Boys, though you have a frequent (though hidden by effects) "F" word to contend with...

5) Verdicts "Six Pack" - beefy Gibson power chord anthem to hot rod engines, becoming a rockabilly riffarama in the bridge.

6) Sinisters "Rubbermask" - reminds me of "I Hate Music" by the '78 NYC band The Mad, particularly in it's use of saxophones, which is as crazy as Fear's "NY's alright if you like saxophone's". and finally,

7) Texas Terri and the Stiff Ones "Cave Woman" - female vocal chunka riff rock that is heavy as sin and melts in your mouth. More than one Boston band would die to sound like this.