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, 1011/10/16
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 […]
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, 2/21/12/11
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 […]
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, 2/44/7/19
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 […]
Ray Stinnett, “A Fire Somewhere” (Light In the Attic, 2012; original recording 1971)Commissioned by A & M, then never released, this effort by the former Sam The Sham And The Pharaohs guitarist really is a lost classic – funky, hard-edged white Memphis r & b filtered through spooky acid-folk, or vice versa. If there was […]
Student Teachers, “Invitation To . . . .” (Nacional 2013; original recordings 1978-80)A unique and excellent thing. These gals and guys were NYC teenagers drawn to the early/arty Big Apple punk scene, and they created a distinctly teenage take on that sound – twisty song structures and sarcastic/Dada lyrics delivered with glitter-rock energy and edge. […]
The Suburbs, “Credit In Heaven” (Twin/Tone, 1981)Second LP is a double, and they needed it, because their invention here is at its most frantically fertile. U.K.-inflected Roxy-romantic swashbuckling heartachery and Contortionesque cool atonal twitch get irrigated by their local Minneapolis fluids in the mode of Princetly sophisto-perv funk and Replacements-reiniscent smash-up-the-bar-at-4AM rockin’ recklessness. Yet it […]
Summer Twins, “Limbo” (Burger, 2015)Sophomore effort by this sibling duo finds them taking the fresh-faced charm of their twee-pop-meets-garage/surf debut into darker, more complex territory, in sound and feel. It’s a measure of what makes them special that you can’t always tell if these songs are happy or sad.Try A/3, B/3, B/4, B/62/21/16