Alvvays, “Alvvays” (Polyvinyl, 2015)
Really nice jangly-guitar twee indie-pop stuff, with fine songwriting that has a wandering-the-shadowy-city-streets, looking-for-a-warm-well-lit-place-to-come-in-from-the-cold kind of feel Canadians like them seem to render particularly well.
Try 1/1, 2/ 5.
3/18/18
Allo Darlin’, “Europe” (Slumberland, 2012)
Music from the utmost winsome end of C86-ish pop – gently jangly guitars, feather-soft vocals, bossa-nova/yé-yé-inflected songwriting. What makes this really special is the sharp songwriting and deeply felt performances. They nail the specificity that lets the best of this stuff pull on the heartstrings for real.
Try 2, 3, 5
5/5/12
Afflicted Man, “Complete Recordings” (Senseless Whale, undated; original releases 1979-1982)
A.M.’s mastermind Steve Hall was a survivor of Britain’s early ‘70s psych/hard-rock scene who popped back up at the dawn of U. K. hardcore punk. The result was a unique and staggering synthesis – urban-wasteland powerchord riff-rumble as a launchpad for cyclopean tower-blocks of noise-guitar scree. Gives “psych-punk” a whole new meaning.
Try disc 1: 7, 9. 10; disc 2: 3, 10
2/14/13
Adverts, “Crossing The Red Sea With The Adverts” (Link, 1990; originally released Bright, 1978)
The explosion of creativity and freedom that was ’77 UK punk had many sides. The Adverts were the ultimate expression of its utopian/idealist strain. The sound was melodic anthems delivered in a flurry of charged, ringing guitar and anxious rhythms trying to outrun themselves. The message was make a break for it, the future is around the corner, it’s now or never. The title was not a joke.
Try 2, 3, 6, 11
7/26/12
Adolescents, “Adolescents” (Frontier, 1982)
These guys rank with T-SOL at the ape of first-wave Orange County hardcore, and only the Germs, X and Black Flag surpass them in L.A. punk as a whole. Taut, pummeling beats that roll as much as they rock fuel interlocking guitar harmonics that sparkle like SoCal suburban sprawl at night, an epic backdrop for tales of boxed-in kids going down in a glass-punching tailspin of blind fury as recounted in the archetypically snotty vocals of Tony Cadena. Absolutely heroic work.
Try 2, 3, 6,8, 19
4/7/19
Action Swingers, “Quit While You’re Ahead” (In The Red, 2015; original recordings 1988-1990)
Earliest (hence best, because their goal was zero, only adding-on was a surrender; cf. the title) stuff by New York noise-rock’s answer to Drunk With Guns. “Punk” reduced methodically to something so staggeringly rudimentary, so grainy and casually relentless that it almost re-creates a parallel-universe version of the music’s ostensible roots in the deepest, most hypnotically repetitive blues.
Try 1/ 1, 1/ 2
7/11/18
Action Swingers, “Quit While You’re Ahead” (In The Red, 2015; original recordings 1988-1990)
Earliest (hence best, because their goal was zero, only adding-on was a surrender; cf. the title) stuff by New York noise-rock’s answer to Drunk With Guns. “Punk” reduced methodically to something so staggeringly rudimentary, so grainy and casually relentless that it almost re-creates a parallel-universe version of the music’s ostensible roots in the deepest, most hypnotically repetitive blues.
Try 1/ 1, 1/ 2
Adolescents, “Adolescents” (Frontier, 1982)These guys rank with T-SOL at the ape of first-wave Orange County hardcore, and only the Germs, X and Black Flag surpass them in L.A. punk as a whole. Taut, pummeling beats that roll as much as they rock fuel interlocking guitar harmonics that sparkle like SoCal suburban sprawl at night, an epic backdrop for tales of boxed-in kids going down in a glass-punching tailspin of blind fury as recounted in the archetypically snotty vocals of Tony Cadena. Absolutely heroic work.
Try 2, 3, 6,8, 19
4/7/19
The Adult Net, “Incense And Peppermints” (Beggars Banquet, 1985)
Fall guitarist covers the Strawberry Alarm Clock’s title classic. Not much like the Fall, but a fun piece of cool Kitsch, artifice layered on artifice as if history was a baloney sandwich of pop-culture archaeological strata.
Try 1/1, 2/1
10/2/18
Adverts, “Crossing The Red Sea With The Adverts” (Link, 1990; originally released Bright, 1978)
The explosion of creativity and freedom that was ’77 UK punk had many sides. The Adverts were the ultimate expression of its utopian/idealist strain. The sound was melodic anthems delivered in a flurry of charged, ringing guitar and anxious rhythms trying to outrun themselves. The message was make a break for it, the future is around the corner, it’s now or never. The title was not a joke.
Try 2, 3, 6, 11
7/26/12