The Smurfs, “The Smurfs All Star Show” (Sessions, 1981) The lovable l’il blue critters have quite the musical range, from marching band to disco. Stands to reason, since the Smurfly realm is sort of a parallel dimension to our own. Just don’t munch on the toadstools or you’ll hear the backwards-Hendrix guitar-freakouts hidden between the tracks. Try 1/1
Sid Vicious, “Sid Sings” (Virgin, 1979)
On the cusp of his assassination-by-syringe at the hands of Nancy’s drug-dealing admirers, the man leads a veritable Hall-of-Fame team of NYC punk junkies through a Stooges/Dolls-oriented selection of punkrock chestnuts (J. Thunders is audible from time to time). A perennial candidate for Worst Record Ever, according to closet moralists, this record is actually pretty great – a snarling, nihilistic buzzsaw grind that sounds like it was recorded in a slaughter-house (or the toilet in CBGB’s).
Try 1/ 2, 1/ 4, 2/ 5 (most intros & between-song patter)
Stargazer Lillies, “Here are the Dreamers” (Graveface, 2013)
I like a lot of current shoegaze acts, but not a lot of them get that the road to genre glory here is one of excess, i. e., sounding like you’re on huge amounts of drugs. Here’s one that does. Vast sheets of guitar-skreak suddenly washing songs away mid-way through, voices that sound like they’ve been in a cavern for days, this is definitely a trip worth taking.
Try 1, 7
10/4/14
St. Etienne, “So Tough” (Warner Bros., 1992)
Brit electronica/EDM duo with (early) Marianne Faithfull-reminiscent diva Sarah Cracknell out front, and that contrast is their M.O. – delicate Carnaby Street retro-‘60s pop that blends into the techno-industrial nightscape of contemporary London, and vice versa. The wonder is how thrillingly natural and unaffected it all sounds.
Try 1, 6, 11
11/10/16
St. Tropez, “Hot and Nasty” (Destiny, 1982).
The LP title effectively conveys the aesthetic of this vivid, pleasantly sleazy elecro-disco record. Try 2/1.
11/12/12
Stacey Q, “Better Than Heaven” (Atlantic, 1986)
‘80s techno-dance-pop refined to its purest essence. The cold shimmer of propulsive, cool-and-controlled beats, synths that peal like bells or stairstep up and down M C Escher mazes, Stacey’s vox alternately lighter-than-air or fiercely alien.
Try 1, 3, 10
11/10/16
Stacey Q, “Hard Machine” (Atlantic, 1988)
Ms. Q was the most puckish and punky of the femme-electro-pop dynamos to emerge in the shadow of Madonna, and as the title suggests, this is her most hard-hitting album. Crystalline, hammering sequencers and syndrums drive Stacey’s cyber-courtesan siren-song through a glittering nocturnal cityscape that disciples of the style will want to return to.
Try 1/ 1, 1/ 5
11/10/16
Stalag 13, “In Control” (Upstart, 1984)
Stream-lined, propulsive skate-core from Oxnard, clean execution of hooky, complex riffs takes place at high velocity. And check the vintage Jaime Hernandez cover art (Stalag 13 are referenced in “Love & Rockets,” which is set in Oxnard).
Try 1/1, 1/5, 1/6, 2/2
1/12/11
Steely Don, “Katy Lied” (ABC, 1975)
Fourth album from the ‘70s jazz-rock/singer-songwriter greats and my favorite. The music is sparser and more elliptical, but sweeter in a melancholy mode, surges of rainy late-night urban eeriness filtered through wine-tinted sentiment.
Try 1/5, 2/4
4/7/19
Still Corners, “Creatures Of An Hour” (Sub Pop, 2011)
I thought I heard Sterolab in this pop-inflected indie-rock/electronica-crossover groove machine, and so did another reviewer I saw recently. But come to think of it, these guys are vaguer, but less mannered. Nice music to listen to while kicking back and looking at the sky, or the ceiling.
Try 3, 5, 7
1/29/12