A former co-worker and I once figure that one of the worst things to befall a musician was either to wind up in the dump bin or record the cliché blues album. Combining the two nadirs, we entitled an imaginary album, "The Dump Bin Blues". So, MRML's "Dump Bin Blues" series celebrates works obtained for less than two dollars out of one of the ever-growing dump bins that chew-up floor space in the ever-shrinking world of music retail.
The Grace Babies made me hate myself. Back in the mid-nineties, I thought I was writing some pretty hot power pop (non)hits and, in my arrogance, felt reasonably assured that some kind of notice of same would come my way. Then, straight outta Halifax, comes the Grace Babies second full length, Frequency and I'm forced by its glorious perfection to realize how far from my goal I am. Hell, in comparison to "Philosophy" I'm not even playing the same game as these Eastern seaboard cool cats.
Sure, it probably helps the Babies cause to have Todd Rundgren's biggest Northern disciple, Moe Berg, manning the boards but, c'mon, the triptych that opens things up ("Sick", "Wore Glasses" and "Philosophy") would've had to have been recorded on masking tape by Jandek in order to fail. O.K. maybe perfection is a bit of an over statement as things start getting somewhat bland towards the end (a couple of tracks after the token "punk" song "Drag It Out") but honestly this album needs to be a registered classic with the no-longer-Teenage-but-still-Fanclub set. So get up off the couch, put on your glasses and rock out to the band who let me know I'd missed it by a mile.
Thanks to CallPastorJerkface for the guest post.
Let us know what you think of these here Grace Babies in the COMMENTS section (which is where you'll find the Frequency link).
