Today we introduce the new hope of Burger Records, Mattiel Brown, from Atlanta Georgia and Cojones from Zagreb, Croatia. Two new exciting power pop records came out in Canada, it’s by Chris Church and it’s called Limitations of Source Tape and in Portland OR, by Mo Troper, entitled Exposure and Response. We also welcome back Stereo Soul Future from Boston with their new single. Also, First Base are back with the new record. But the most exciting new thing this week is the new EP by Terry Chambers and Colin Moulding of XTC. Their new duet is called TC&I. This episode is dedicated to Bora OslovÄan, bass player of PekinÅ¡ka Patka who passed away recently in the age 57.
My Buddy Moose – My Wilderness Years;
PekinÅ¡ka Patka – Biti ružan pametan i mlad;
PekinÅ¡ka Patka – Bela Å¡ljiva;
XTC – Buzzcity Talking;
XTC – Runaways Ball And Chain;
TC&I – Kenny;
Mo Troper – Clear Frames;
Steve Wynn – Younger;
Moving Targets – Away From Me;
Chris Church – Understudy Blues;
First Base – Crybaby;
First Base – You Can Come Over;
Mungo Jerry – Milk Cow Blues;
Cojones – Providence;
Mattiel – Not Today;
Ruby The Hatchet – Gemini;
Motorpsycho – The Maypole;
Stereo Soul Future – Remember Alaska.
The First Base LP review of any length would probably end up being too long. To state it very simply, First Base is a band from Toronto that writes simple two minute catchy melodies in the best traditions of bubblegum punk. Songs of unacquainted love, cool harmonies and unpretentious production will win your heart and have you play this record on repeat. Imagine if Ramones recorded an album where all songs were like I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend – the result would be something like First Base. First Base doesn’t want to be your dog, First Base just wants to be in your record collection. The purest fun record this year again comes from Hozac label.
Every musical outlet out there has a year-end list. Little Lighthouse is not an exception, although the order should be understood conditionally. It does not rely on objective measurements, it simply compiles feeling towards albums that preoccupied my attention through 2014. Number one is Sweet Apple. Yours truly marginally participated in making of that record, and perhaps there’s a strong bias towards it for me. You would be right about that. But this particular record is a fun collection of songs without much pretension. What more can you ask from an LP? OBN IIIs and Liquor Store are great new bands which made ambitiously sounding records that rock. They even bring out a long forgotten idiom of hard rock, back into the modern rock’n’roll dictionary and it made me realize how much that sound is missed in the music world today. Together with some important reissues, these two albums mark the revival of that lost musical genre. Those two records are so rich with sounds and ideas that live performances of these two bands must be stripped down to a skeleton. Outragous Cherry has an astonishing return, with one of their best records ever. First Base and Strungs go back to the basic three chords and short songs – a formula that oh so often works great. Lydia Lunch calls out the ghost of Jeffrey Lee Pierce like no other artist before. Doug Gillard attempted to make a good easy listening record and ended up with a timeless masterpiece which will be remembered well in his opus. Billy Childs makes a loving tribute to Laura Nyro which borders madness and saccharine. Who’d have thought those two “lands” share a border? Kelley Mickwee and Haden Triplets show interesting ways to keep bluegrass alive and it trips my mind how most folks out there think negatively of this wonderful Haden Triplets record. Bonnie Prince Billy takes some old songs and brings in a new life to them with an incredibly focused interpretation… and so on. All the best in 2015, actually 2014 wasn’t that bad musically as it may appear on the surface.
Welcome to our first regular show in 2014. After several shows in which we had a year-end review, new records piled up so today’s show is filled with new stuff. We start off with the brand new tune for Games, who we just pronounced as the band with the best record in 2013. We also use this opportunity to learn about some previous bands for Jeremy and Dave in Games. Then we check out the new Apache tune. They have a new single. First Base come from Toronto and they just released a fun debut record on Hozac. We check them out as well. Then we have a relatively new tribute that Ben Deily and his Varsity Drag performed in honor of Wiz (ex Mega City Four and Ipanema). We continue with an exclusive new track from Sweet Apple which is scheduled to appear on their upcoming album Golden Age of Glitter. It sounds a bit like Suicide, so we check out another song that also sounds like Suicide, by a new band Dreamsalon from Seattle. Chris Eckman also has a new record called Harney County. We also check out Rainy Day Saints live in Cleveland. I read in Sanjin Strbac book Token For The Favorite Wurlitzer a quote from Zikica Simic that there’s not enough appreciation for blues these days. So I decided to feature one blues musician that I admire in each new show in alphabetical order. So, in our new regular segment Blues Alphabet, we hear Pink Anderson. Finally, we pay a special tribute to Dick Dodd (ex Standells) and Phil Everly, of The Everly Brothers. Both of them died recently.