following theier recent 7inch, here is the new CD by the long running Seattle band The Green Pajamas, who are currently mining the same territory as the Elephant 6 bands. There are many good songs, and their arrangements are entirely professional (even if less grandiose) than the Elephant 6 stable.

"Orchestral Pop in a kind of Divine Comedy/El/Louis Phillippe style" (description in Rough Trade update) from the South coast of England. They do a standout cover of the John Foxx/Ultravox song 'Hiroshima Mon Amour'. Rough Trade's description doesn't work for me unless you add The Doors into that stew, as Ordinary Psycho are much darker/mysterious than The Divine Comedy and Louis Phillipe, or anything on Mike Alway's legendary record label El. The first song ("Lunatics Two") is about the death of Princess Diana. "Fever" starts with samples from 'Psycho' (the CD sleeve honors the film as well). One song ("Whole of Hollywood") sounds a bit like the London band Gretschen Hoffner. "The Road" is their epic and is my favorite song on the record, like Doors "The End" played by Gretschen Hoffner and a violinist/small orchestra. "Dread Me Now" has sparse Morricone-ish music with a girls struggled breath and Pram-like wierdness (suggested by a hint of trumpet), and is the most atmospheric song. There's a few songs I really do not like, as their sense of self worth seems to rival Ian McCulloch, without the history of Echo & The Bunnymen to back up such self-importance. Those songs are made up for by the uncredited bonus song (#14) which is like a 'Rebel Yell'-era Billy Idol song crossed with The Chameleon's song 'In Shreds'. This is the song that hits you strongest on first listen, though it's not really represenstative of the band's sound. Overall its a good record. When I played 'Hiroshima' I got a great call from a listener. Today at work someone asked about the song as well.

I like the first song ('Instant Pleasure') and the sixth song ('Here Come the Cyborgs part one') best out of the 9 songs here. Sometimes Simply Saucer's influence on the '79 SF band The Twinkeyz can be heard. That band in turn influenced Dream Syndicate a lot. Trace back the lineage of modern rock one step further!

Named after the famous German Anarchist. Vocally this band sounds a lot like The Wedding Present, musically they are somewhat similar to New Order and Satisfact when those bands are happy. heir single 'Rousseau' (also included here) is a favorite of Ben Walker. There is a Mekon connection to this band, but I'm not sure what it is. The members are M. Goodall, S. Goodall, and J. Dyson.

Boston post-rock pioneers. Robin Amos used to play in The Girls, who were a Devo-ish Boston band from 1986 who put out the great 'Reunion' LP. This single has 2 instrumentals that should bring Cul De Sac the type of attention that has always evaded them in their career thus far.

Thee Michelle Gun Elephant is a Japanese rock band who we just got a CD from, and The Bristols are a UK band who have a cool female vocal cover of The Troggs song "Our Love Will Still Be There" on this single. The Bristols sound way better than their somewhat bland name would suggest.

Second record (actually this is a 5 song EP) by this Brooklyn transplant from upstate NY band who seem to always end up favorable compared to the 77-81 UK band This Heat. Drew from the band gave this to me when Laddio Bolocko opened up for the incredible set by the Finnish duo Pan Sonic at the Middle East last week. Despite urging from the WMBR DJ "The Turkish Queen," he would not say who the name of the band referred to. He did say that he hates the mix on this record, but I think it's a fresh record from a band playing a type of music you just don't get to hear much of these days.