May 18, 1999
Blondie
- title
Blondie
- label
Chrysalis
- format
- CD
Their first album from 1977! This record originally came out on the label Private Stock. It has not been available for years in the US (the second record 'Plastic Letters' has not been either), but we now have it courtesy of the "Made in Holland" pressing. As far as I'm concerned the first two Blondie records are all you need to own to fully appreciate this band. Both records are great!
Elf Power
- title
Come On
- label
Little Army
- format
- CD
Athens band covering Sonic Youth ("Cotton Crown", from the Sister LP), Flaming Lips ("Felt Good To Burn", from Hit To Death In The Future Head), T-Rex ("Hot Love", which was a 1971 #1 single), Headcoats ("You Make Me Die"), Jesus & Mary Chain ("Upside Down") from their Barbed Wire Kisses LP, Robyn Hitchcock ("Listening To The Higson's") which appears on his 1985 live album Gotta Get This Hen Out, plus a Kincaid remix of one of their own tunes ("Separating Fault" from the When The Red King Comes LP). This CD was a tour-only release intended as a treat for Elf Power's existing fans.
Ultravox!
- title
The Island Years
- label
Spectrum
- format
- CD
This is a compilation of the years that John Foxx fronted Ultravox!, before they dropped the exclamation point from their name and were fronted by the awful (at least to me) Midge Ure. All their best stuff is here, with the strange exception of "Saturday Night in the City of the Dead" & "Wide Boys" from their first record. We still have a scratchy copy of that in our library though, so not all is lost. The best thing about this compilation to me (besides the low price for an import) is the inclusion of "Young Savage", which is a GREAT song that was only out as a 7inch.
Thievery Corporation
- title
'DC 3000' b-w 'Meeting With His Majesty'
- label
Eighteenth Street Lounge Music
- format
- 10inch
This 10" has two songs not on the great new remix record by this great Wash DC duo. Both of the songs are really nice. The A-side moves like something from 70's stock music of the type seeing so much reissue these days, and the B-side is a great reggae-ish song that really grabs you and sticks in your head, complete with vocals.
Seam
- title
'Sukiyaki' b-w 'Heroes'
- label
Ajax
- format
- 7inch
A cover of the 1963 Kyu Sakamoto hit backed with a cover of the David Bowie/Wallflowers classic. Both these songs may have been on earlier Seam releases somewhere, but we don't have them in our collection, and this a brand new reissue.
Karl Smith
- title
The Sky Is Beginning To Bruise
- label
Bad Jazz
- format
- 7inch
Karl Smith (from Australia) now fronts the much tipped acoustic band Sodastream. This 4 song EP is an oddity for the Bad Jazz label, in that it is acoustic guitar/violin/vocal music as opposed to the electronic or spacey music usually presented on the label. The only thing consistent about Bad Jazz releasing this EP is that the music is honest and of high quality.
Miss Mend
- title
Living City Plan
- label
Piao!
- format
- 7inch
Joe Dilworth played drums on early Sterolab records such as "Peng!" and the recently reissued "Switched On", which compiles early singles. Miss Mend has a Swedish vocalist (Lisa Rosendahl) and members from all over the world. There are 3 songs on this EP.
Vyvyan
- title
'Going Out' b-w 'Mickey'
- label
Abuse
- format
- 7inch
Young all girl quartet from England who do not have an LP yet, but who have several EP's which we have. The B-side of this single is a cover of the Chinn & Chapman penned Toni Basil classic 80's song.