The Wild Poppies - Heroine - 1987

The Wild Poppies - Heroine - 1987

Jangle pop, and from what I've gathered, pretty rare. Heroine is a gorgeous if subtle trip through the pastures New Zealand. Fans of Modern English need to hear "I Don't Need You." The highlight of the album for me is the guitar-work in "Walkabout." Fan-favorite is "This Person," which sounds too much like the Verlaines to me (see video below). Worth your time if you give it your attention.

for example

jangle-poppy

Christmas Island - Blackout Summer - 2009

Christmas Island - Blackout Summer - 2009

Repost from my old blog. Lo-fi garage rock with the Beach Boys occasionally poking through the tape hiss. The lyrics are often childish but might catch you off guard: "I don't know what the hell I'm doin' / I'm no good at being human" ("It's True"); "My baby, I miss you / In my dreams I still kiss you" ("My Baby"). In this case, B-Side stands for Better-Side.

for example

summer!

Duster - 1975 EP (1999)

Duster - 1975 EP (1999)

This is my second album posting with an album named "19x5" (see the Afghan Whigs below). The 1975 EP bridges the lo-fi shoegaze of 1998's Stratosphere LP (which was home-recorded on a 4-track) and the polished space rock of 2000's Contemporary Movement LP. This EP sounds like what would happen if the two full-lengths had a baby that grew up listening to Spacemen 3 through bad headphones. "August Relativity" is my personal favorite, and I think someone should sample those played-backward laser-sounding notes at the end. Great for a rainy spring day.

for example

spring!

90z indiofilez volume 1

90z indiofilez volume 1

This is the product of my spring-break slacking. This playlist has been growing for a long time, but I really put it together and made yea/nay decisions this week. Indie from the early 90s. Some is clearly influenced by the Stones (Royal Trux), some draws from the Beatles ("Hey Aardvark"). In places psychedelic (Mercury Rev), in others grungy (Grifters, Some Velvet Sidewalk, "Weedking"). Sometimes recorded well (Built to Spill, The Afghan Whigs), sometimes fuzzed out (Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments, "Backwash"). The mix is primarily focused on the quirky slack of the underachieving musicians from the early 90s; I took pains to exclude shoegaze and hardcore/metal tracks.

for example

1. Built to Spill - Big Dipper
2. Eric's Trip - Girlfriend
3. Garageland - Fingerpops
4. Helium - Oh the Wind and Rain
5. Mercury Rev - Syringe Mouth
6. Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments - Is She Shy
7. Royal Trux - Move
8. Guided by Voices - Weedking
9. Monsterland - Insulation
10. Archers of Loaf - Backwash
11. The Folk Implosion - Waltzin' With Your Ego
12. Grifters - Maps of the Sun
13. Superchunk - Cast Iron
14. Beat Happening - You Turn Me On
15. Beatnik Filmstars - Diseaser
16. Sebadoh - Soulmate
17. Thinking Fellers Union Local #282 - The Piston and the Shaft
18. The Afghan Whigs - Debonair
19. Jawbreaker - Kiss the Bottle
20. Arab Strap - The First Big Weekend
21. Archers of Loaf - Underdogs of Nipomo
22. Some Velvet Sidewalk - Curiosity
23. Guided by Voices - Hey Aardvark
24. Jawbox - Savory
25. Pavement - Half a Canyon

slack trackz

-Andrew

Grails - Deep Politics - 2011

Grails - Deep Politics - 2011

New album from Grails. They nailed it. I guess you could call this post-rock, it's all instrumental and you can definitely hear moments of western-movie surf-rock soundtrack influence. This blog is gonna focus more on 80s/90s music in the future, but for now I wanna put something more current up. Also, check back for a lo-fi, epic-old-school-indie, and shoegaze playlists in the near-ish future.

Preview

Get deep down, deep down

-Andrew

kiwipedia: gems from nz: volume 1

kiwipedia: gems from nz: volume 1

If you love Pavement, Superchunk, or the Velvet Underground, check out these gems from Dunedin and Auckland’s underground music scene! Borrowing the urgency and DIY attitude from punk, the motorik and repetition from krautrock, the blue-collar storytelling from folk, and the art-damaged, brooding anxiety from post-punk, bands such as the Clean and Toy Love invented a sound that became highly influential on the lo-fi melodies of the 90s. This is a collection of my favorites; a second volume might be in the works.

For example

1. Toy Love - Don’t Catch Fire

2. The 3Ds - Hairs

3. The Chills - Pink Frost

4. Bored Games - Joe 90

5. The Bats - For the Ride

6. Tall Dwarfs - I’ve Left Memories Behind

7. The Clean - Point That Thing Somewhere Else

8. The Garbage and the Flowers - Catnip

9. Sneaky Feelings - Here’s to the Other Six

10. Headless Chickens - Do the Headless Chicken

11. The Max Block - Sonic Blur

12. Nocturnal Projections - Understanding

13. Goblin Mix - Venus Fleye Trap

14. Straitjacket Fits - She Speeds

15. Gordons - Sometimes

16.  Ballon D’essai - Artificial Romance

17. The Cake kitchen -  One + One = One

18. The Pin Group - Low Rider

19. The Great Unwashed - Boat With No Ocean

20. Trash - Good Times

kiwi fuzz!

-Andrew