Saturday, April 11, 2009

Wreckless Eric's Karaoke Hi


Every great artist survives a Difficult Period. During these periods, albums are marred by ill-advised instrumentation, spoken word sections, slack song-writing and a a burning desire to destroy a myth or two. Think of Neil Young's Trans or Dylan's Self-Portrait. These D.P. works are occasionally championed by wide-eyed fans intent on being difficult but for the rest of the world they remain baffling.

Karaoke (1997), Wreckless Eric's (see here) sole release under his own name, Eric Goulden, is such a beast. Don't say I didn't warn you.


Download Karaoke e.p.

Whether or not "Bungalow Hi" (2004) still falls under this ''Difficult Period" can be debated. Clearly Eric is developing a brooding, menacing musical style to complement his bilious lyrics but it's simply less listenable without his grasp of rock n' roll history and pop smarts.


Download Bungalow Hi CD Fixed version re-upped!

As befitting MRML policy, the albums posted in this series are functionally out-of-print (and most, but not all, are quite expensive used).That being said, the following excellent releases remain readily available and we would plead with you to support Wreckless Eric so that he may continue to offer us whatever the hell he wants to record.






These are available from your local Amazon domain (no link needed).


As an added inducement here's the deeply-excellent "the Downside of Being a Fuck-Up from his most recent album(on Stiff!) with his new wife Amy Rigby.




Eric also wrote a witty book, likewise available on Amazon.

P.S. If anyone has the artwork for Eric's "Sweet Jane" single, the songs for his Christmas single or or the artwork and songs from his Southern Domestic e.p. let me know and I'll post 'em sometime.

Update: Wm Perry recommends WE's cool-sounding radio show available here (and this article on WE + AR here.)

8 comments:

  1. Thanks for even more Eric!!!!

    But please note the song "Bungalow Hi", Track 1 from that album, is missing. It has a duplicate of Track 12, "Housewives", identified as Track 1 for some reason...

    Anyway, great job!
    --P

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  2. Thanks for the speedy service!
    (I like the Bungalo Hi LP alot... but then I like weird shit, haha)

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  3. Yeah Bungalow Hi sure falls into the 'Weird Shit" category.

    It's an interesting record at any rate.

    Glad you enjoyed.

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  4. Thanks for all the Wreckless stuff.

    Best wishes from Sweden

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  5. Artsider

    Thanks for commenting.

    You're welcome, from Canada.

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  6. Hi,
    Just discovered your blog - recommended by a freind. Just wanted to say serious thanks and kudos for the Wreckless fest. I absolutely love Mr Goulden ever since I got hold of an orange vinyl 12" single of Hit & Miss Judy. I then went onto give some serious welly to the Big Smash double Lp and played it to death. With the possible exception of Ian Dury, Eric has to be the best Stiff artist by far. Cheers again

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  7. Sir Les
    Glad you enjoyed all the Wreckless-ness, he is one of Stiff's less-celebrated treasures for sure.

    P.S. We will get to Ian Dury one day...

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  8. muchas gracias!!!!este loco es un capo!!!!!muy bueno!!!!!!!!!de argentina dani!!!!!

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