Last I heard of this band was on a 7" I bought in 1995 by them. It was the second release ever on Mobstar Records (the label run by the folks in Beatnik Filmstars). The EP was called "Elegants Who Fly" and it was great Mod styled surf instrumentals. Little seems to have changed in 6 years. Murdersvile is an 8 song EP that sounds just as great as the first one. "You Have Just Been Murdered" kicks like a Davie Allan & The Arrows track. "Stay Tuned" has a riff like the period of The Kinks songbook that Billy Childish is so fond of. "Race" is a short track that has the most straight out loudness of any of the tracks yet. "Wish You Were Here?" closes out side A with the most traditionally 'surf' sounding track with reverb drenched guitar. "The Man Who Knew Too Much" adds organ and an air of mystery to the sound. "Bizarre" is a great cut that is very psychedelic with 'out there' guitar and bongo drums padding along. "Witness X" brings back a spy sound along with some lo-fi audio samples from a movie. "Wish Your Were Still Here?" ends it off with a continuation of the surf sound which closed out side A. Faves: A1,A2,B2

The 4th single by this French band led by Cecilia of the No-Talents. Once again the sound is pretty top notch if you like go-go flavored ye-ye rockers with garage guitars and acetone organ. "Avec Les Garcons" makes you want to move. It has a beat that doesn't quit, and all the right embellishments in just the right doses. "J'Aime Le Popcorn" has crowd sounds mixed into it like the 60's song "Farmer John" by The Premiers. Faves: A1,B

In 1978 I bought a 7" on What Records? It had 3 bands on it, each doing one song. The Eyes "Don't Talk To Me" stole the show as the A-side, but the 2 songs on the flip were no dogs either. They were The Controllers "(The Original) Nuetron Bomb" and The Skulls "Victims". "(The Original) Neutron Bomb" sounded like The Dead Boys or The Mad, both raring it up on the opposite coast of America at the same time. This CD has the first material I heard by the Controllers since that single. The Controllers were an LA punk band who formed in 1977. The Wierdos were the first to release their song called "Neutron Bomb", so The Controllers changed their song into it's somewhat awkward 'the original' moniker. The Controllers had a great sound and this CD collects lots of fine studio cuts. The lineup was a trio with tight rhythm honed sharp through many shows at The Masque. If you've wanted to check out some first wave west coast punk, this CD is a super place to start or end up. Faves: 1,5,6,10

Split single between 2 bands from Wales. Both bands have female vocals in a guitar based setting that also uses electronics. Both have a 'big sound' in the recording (a la The Breeders), and a touch of Sonic Youth inspired dissonance in their riffs. The 2 sides actually sound like they could be the same band. To me the sound is a bit dated, reminding me of the late 90s. At that time I would have really loved this single!

Following the 'Mescalito remixed' 12" added in the gullbuy last week, I present the original LP the remixes were taken from. Newbury Comics had the vinyl version of this record marked down for quick sale, and I had heard that the LP was good from one of WZBC's DJ's, Brian Cleary. My favorite songs on this LP are the ones with female vocals. "Rambla" (A4) was remixed by Blue States on the 12". Where I thought Blue States added the vocals in the remix, I now find that the vocals I liked so much were always there in the original. "Lovegate" (B1) has dreamy vocals which sound like a female version of Tim Love Lee himself (the head honcho of Tummy Touch Records) on his latest LP. My favorite of the instrumental is "The *ucker" (B2). Mescalito have a very relaxed sound that jibes perfectly with records made by Tim Love Lee, making them a good fit for his label. Faves: A4,B1,B2 y

A reissue (the first in a series) of the library music that Perrey recorded for the Parisian label Montparnasse 2000 after he left America in the early 70's, already a major name through his work on TV, radio, and as the producer for Baroque Hoedown, an electronic parade for Walt Disney. At this point he already had his recording career with Vanguard Records behind him, where he had produced the works he would forever become known for at home and abroad. Faves: 5,13,19

I remember the early incarnation of Arling & Cameron's 'Easy Tune' website stating "rebellion is obsolete". It went on to explain that the wildest thing you could do is go 'square'. It sounds like John Zorn wanted to rebel in a big way with this record, because it is truly a great exotica record with no trace of irony or dissonance. It sounds very much like an updated Les Baxter CD. It does not have the tongue in cheek samples of Tipsy, or the slice n' disc craziness of DJ Me, DJ You. It sounds like a straight band based exotica record that I could picture the Millionaire making at some point. The only trace of perversity of the record comes from the sleeve. It is almost traditional for exotica sleeves to contain sexy women, but John Zorn's sleeve for 'The Gift' contains drawings of asian girls in various sexy/S&M poses and actions. Put the disc in the player though and it is a cool time for anyone with a love of the smooth and easy.

Compilation of Polish (and some Czech) Jazz from the early 70's. Jimi Tenor has been a champion of this music for several years now. Compost Records released a collection of Polish Jazz with the Novi Singers on it. However, no one has released as high a profile collection as this before. While many of the songs are a bit 'jazzy' for my personal taste, I love listening to this because I love the music of Poland, and I value the effort that was put into putting this comp together, choosing 16 special songs out of the hundreds of important records released during Communist rule in Eastern Europe. My favorite band here are Mahagon from the Czech Republic. They have 2 songs on the comp. My fave is "Divka's Jablky" (#4) which has a chorus of male and female vocalists, just as Novi Singers do. "Divka's Jablky" has a funky trebly bass part with a dirty sound similar to The Bee Men's song "Green Submarine". Novi singers are represented here on "Dancing Nuts" (#5). It is a vocal chorus song with a jazzy wordless vocal that is fantastically realized.

Geir Jenssen was a founding member of Bel Canto. After the 2nd Bel Canto CD he decided he didn't want to perform live, he just wanted to record ambient / experimental music. One he once performed a legendary show high on a mountain in the far north of Norway. 'Substrata' originally came out in 1997 on Brian Eno's All Saints label. This re-mastered reissue contains also contains the soundtrack to Zziga Yertov'ss 1929 film 'Man With A Movie Camera'. Geir Jenssen made the soundtrack following the instructions left behind by Zziga Yertov, who had never produced a soundtrack to the film, but had left behind explicit instructions to be used by anyone attempting such a task at a later date.

Double CD compilation of dirty electro tinged disco monsters on the label run by DJ Hell. The CD is dedicated to Arnold Shwartzineger, who sued the label for using his image as part of their logo, as they did on all their past releases. The head of Sid Vicious now graces the body builder form they have chosen as their icon. I would go crazy trying to give you a track by track on this set. All I will say is that if you have enjoyed anything on this label before, you would do well to get this set as well. My absolute faves on the set are Der Zyklus "Shapeshifter" (2.7), Romina Cohn's "I Want To Be The Residents" (2.3), Poladroid "Zuper Orgasmo" (2.9), Inform3r "Random Jazz" (1.1), Filipo Naughty Moscatello "Final Signal" (1.4), Steril "Grey" (1.7), and Stalker 7 "Chloe" (1.11).

Genesis is a re-release of the sole record Wendy & Bonnie put out on Skye Records in 1969. Wendy and Bonnie Flower were 2 young sisters (17 and 13 respectively) from San Francisco. The Wendy & Bonnie track "The Winter is Cold" (#10) is covered on the El Records comp 'The World in Winter' by Tomorrows World. This CD also contains "The Night Behind Us" #11), which was a single they recorded in 1967 with the garage psyche band Wendy sang and Bonnie played drums in, Crystal Fountain. Skye Records heard the sisters singing and asked them if they had more songs to record. Using the connections Skye had with the jazz world, in demand session players were recruited for the LP and 'Genesis' was recorded. The record has the same type of harmonizing and sophistication the the post-Honeys band Spring had. Sundazed has been putting out some really fine discs lately. Most of the songs on this one are pretty fine, though my faves are "Let Yourself Go another Time" (#1), "The Paisley Window Pane" (#2), and "You Keep Hanging Up On My Mind" (#5). "The Winter is Cold" (#10) (the song honored on the El compilation) sounds very familiar, as Tomorrows World did little to it except faithfully record for a new audience. Faves: 1,2,5,10

Somehow Bee Men keyboardist Chris Ullman found mention of his bandmates old band L'Augmentation in one of the instances where I compared some other band to them in the gullbuy. Last month he wrote and we started corresponding thereafter. I was floored when I found out he was one of the authors of 2 books I own and use: "ASP 3.0" and "HTML Programmer's Reference", put out by the popular Birmingham publisher WROX. I already had the first single by his new band The Bee Men, which has 2 members of L'Augmentation in it. Chris told me: "Although it's true the Bee Men are partially L'Augmentation, we actually existed before them as bedroom side project, existed alongside them, and have outlived them since. The other two members of L'aug (Simon - keyboards, Lisa - trumpet) are meant to be pursuing a secret solo project, that is yet to bear fruit. However Simon does guest on the 3rd Bee men single singing and add extra keyboards." Chris was nice enough to send both Bee Men singles to the gullbuy from his home in the UK. Next week I will add the new "Braindrop" single. "Green Submarine" was described on Rough Trade's weekly update list as "John Barry meets the Beach Boys". I love the bass sound in the song. It reminds me of the sound Jean Jacques Burnel got on the Strangler's song "Peaches". The song has a wordless vocal mixed low in the back that probably brought the Beach Boys comparison. "Underwater Bus" has a somewhat hollow production which still does not squash the open feeling of the track. It is an instrumental that doesn't take you on a round trip anywhere. It just plays through and then fades out, leaving you feeling as if you only sat in for one or two short stops on this underwater bus' expansive route.

This 2 song CD took me a bit by surprise. I wasn't crazy for the bands name, and had little expectations (at least positive ones) as I put the disc in my player. "Don't Expect" sounds like the Elvis Costello song "Radio" sung by a young Joan Jett styled female vocalist. It's a very catchy song with no band points at all. "Are You Ready?" doesn't catch me quite as much as the first song. It reminds me a bit of The Clash song "Capital Radio". It is sung by the guitarist Meredith, while the first song is sung by the other guitarist Melissa. The clincher for this band is that the bassist is Pat Lynch of The Flying Nuns. The 'Nuns were one of the best pop bands Boston ever turned out. They made club going a joy in the early 90s with their energy and creativity, and left behind a handful of singles and EPs that never quite matched the potential they showed live

The third full length by this Cambridge based band centered on Dave Dugan, and Angela from Wierdo Records. As with past releases, this duo plays music that is hard to reconcile from one song to the next. Some songs show a strong feel for melody and harmony ("What Do Bears Do?" & "The Man who Hated Mornings") while others defy you to remain listening all the way through ("Is Marian Zazeela A Purist?", "Without Your Skin"). I like it best when the quirky is balanced with the tuneful, as in "Won't You Ride In My Little Red Wagon?" (10). Then of course I ALWAYS love a song dedicated completely to bird sounds, as "The Aviary" (#12) is! Next to songs with hot rods or motorcycles in them, bird sounds can be the best, though THESE birds sound awfully HUMAN in parts. Faves: 2,4,10