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:: Primeval Unknown - The Word ::

:: Krewmen - The Hell Train ::

:: Half Life - Crawling ::

:: Popealopes - Violet ::

Some albums hold indelible memories. This is one of those albums for me, and I didn't even own a real copy of it until about a year ago. I used to play softball when I lived in the East Bay, and after most games we'd go collect the free pizza we always got a coupon for from Round Table whilst making short work of several pitchers of beer. That's the whole point of adult slow pitch softball leagues, if you didn't know. Sometimes after these beer and pizza orgies, my teammate Paul and I would hit a record store, drunk. One time we both decided to pick up something random and weird. He picked up this little beauty, and I...well, I picked up The Cavedogs' "Joy-Rides For Shut-Ins." Heck, it seemed like it would be punk, but it turned out to be absolutely great power pop. I made Paul make me a cassette dub of this, which I probably still have somewhere -- it's on one of those real heavy Maxell tapes that was sort of a soft plastic with a buffed texture to it. Like I said, indelible.

So this is a bargain-priced label sampler for Skyclad, and I am pretty darn sure that other than Jigsaw Seen and Only Ones, I've never heard any other songs by any of these bands. A common thread that runs through most of the tracks is a certain griminess, almost like a musical sleaziness. There are a few exceptions, which is one reason I've included the Popealopes song, a sort of shoegazey, Creation Recordsish track in which you can hear the death rattles of 80's drum production. The Krewmen song is one of my favorite songs ever, and I have very little tolerance for modern rockabilly. Skyclad is long gone, and I've (maybe foolishly) never sought out any of the albums these songs are culled from, but this comp is a great slice of late 80's/early 90's independent rock. Too bad they ruined the coulda-been-hot cover art by making the nun look like Tim Curry after a lobotomy.


Tony

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 16, 2006 at 5:23 AM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.