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. […]
Davie Allan And The Arrows, “The Cycle-Delic Sounds of . . .” (Tower, [1968?])Collection of Vintage “biker rock” instrumentals, i. e. surf music with a sinster vibe and fuzzed out guitars. The guitars get pretty frantic sometimes, and would no doubt have made a good soundtrack for “Vulture” or “The Loser” driving their “hogs” off […]
Davie Allen And The Arrows et al., “The Wild Angels” (Tower, 1968)Soundtrack for what looks like a really cool biker flick. The music is fuzzed-out, amped-up, sinister surf-rock. Not as far-out as the other Allan LP we got, but A/5 is his catchiest tune. Also try A/1, B/210/4/14
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, 55/5/12
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
Amber Arcades, “European Heartbreak” (Heavenly, 2018)Similar controversy here as with the transition from Best Coast’s first to second records a few years back. The first Amber Arcades filtered the dream-pop tune-clouds of Brits like the Sundays through the drone-strum US guitar sound developed from the Velvets to the Feelies to Real Estate and beyond. So […]
American Ruse, “I Don’t Wanna,” 7” (Sympathy, 1990)French garage-punk, very influenced by the poppier side of the ML5 of NY Dolls. Fleet-footed fun, sharp but not too heavy.Try A/11/23/14
Angry Angles, “Angry Angles” (Goner, 2016; original recordings 2005-2006)Now that this wave of garage-punk (the 4th? The 5th?) has been going for well on a decade, it’s worth tracing where it began, and Jay Reatard is a prime candidate. This is the previously missing link between Lost Sounds and his last solo works before his […]
Anna St. Louis, “If Only There Was A River” (Woodsist, 2018)The Woodsist label has a much lower profile than it did a few years back, but it still puts forward outstanding work in its folk-psych ambit, and this is a case in point. The trancey, diaphanous melodo-trippy singer-songwriterisms here evoke Laurel Canyon wraiths from Hope […]
Antena, “Camino del Sol” (Numero, 2004; original release Les Disques du Crepuscule, 1982)French combo that blended synthesizer post-punk with ‘60s tropical sophisto-pop à la Astrid Gilberto. The result is somehow lush and minimal, off-kilter and hypnotically fluid, all at the same time, utterly bewitching in its sun-dazed, elliptical elegance.Try 1, 27/19/12