Fresh And Onlys, “Play It Strange” (In The Red, 2010)This release finds one of today’s finest bands, bar none, in transition from the psych-punk blasts of their earlier work to the more meditative stuff on 2012’s “Long Slow Dance.” This has some of their most gorgeous music, and some of their most explosive.Try 2, 3, […]
Fresh & Onlys, “Play It Strange”(In The Red, 2010)Garage-psych-guitar-pop from one of the very best bands around. This is a further move away from the mind-buzzing cable-car-clang-and-grind noise-phasing of “Grey Eyed Girls,” but its more tempered and spaciously surprise-morphing soundscapes are equally disorienting and majestic in their own right.Try A/1, A/2, B/3 5/12/11
Frida, “I Know There’s Something Going On” 12” (Vogue, 1982)Great solo turn by the ABBA vocalist, glacial new-wave synthscapes over thunder-rolling drums and taut guitar, all in service of Frida’s cool-yet-drama-charged evocation of romantic paranoia.Try 1/14/7/19
Fuzz, “Sunderberry Dream” (Drag City, 2013)Fuzz is the new project from Ty Segall, the hardest-working man in garage-punk, and it’s one of his best: rangy, hyper-kinetic Sabbath-heavy rave-ups with killer guitar. Check out the cool, non-LP King Crimson cover on B/1.1/23/14
Echo Lake, “Wild Peace” (Slumberland, 2012)Nice dreamy/droney Brit indie-pop. Kind of ambient and shoegazy even in its more C86-boppy uptempo moments. Band and album names accurately reflect its excellently crystalline, chill-out qualities.Try 2, 7, 9, 10.7/12/12
Ed’s Redeeming Qualities, “More Bad Times” (Figuring fish, 1990)Guy/gal-vocated acoustic stick-figure-pop, like an East Coast version of early Beat Happening. Their best stuff really captures the unassuming intensity of the everyday-life vignettes they outline.Try 2, 56/0/11
Eerie Wanda, “Pet Town” (Joyful Noise, 2019)Of Croatian origin, the woman behind the Eerie Wand nom-de-pop currently works out of Canada, though I initially thought it was Belgium, based I think on this album’s resemblance to a lot of the stuff on Belgium’s Les Disques de Crepuscule label (Anna Domino, Antena, etc.). Minimal keyboard pop […]
Elastica, “Elastica” (DGC, 1995)Once described as “the pinkest thing ever to happen to Pink Flag,” Elastica pilfered from the catchiest, punchiest late-’70s punk and new wave (and fielded the lawsuits to prove it), but filtered it through a gritty-yet-graceful wall of guitar and juicy double-timed basslines that were all their own. There’s a pure, physical […]
Elvis Presley, “Clambake” (RCA Victor, 1967)Late entry from the man’s “soundtrack era,” on the very eve of the ’68 comeback, so there’s more of an emphasis on gyrating, down-and-dirty rockabilly revamps than a few years earlier, but plenty of props-department-supplied local-color silliness remains for those (like me) who find the preposterous aspects of Elvis’s work […]
Emily’s Sassy Lime, “Desperate, Scared But Social” (Kill Rock Stars, 2005)Formed by the Yao sisters, Wendy and Amy, and their high-school friend Emily Ryan, Emily’s Sassy Lime were true teenage rock and rollers. Inspired by a Bikini Kill show they snuck out to see, they wrote songs over the phone and almost never rehearsed, because […]