MRL"s Best Music Posts '08: (Singles, E.P.'s etc.)

Yet an-other list?
Yup, those damn bloggers keep spreadin' unjustifiably unheard music around the world for almost zilch reward.

Remember those almost iron-clad caveats:
- avoid full versions of readily available releases
- offer full releases (single, e.p. or album) with artwork
- give a write-up offering at least some context

This is an actual picture of the collection(or some portion thereof).

1. The Gas Ignore Me (UK Angry new wave, 1981) Power-Pop Action

2. V.A. Room to Move (Killed by Ireland, 1980) Punk Friction

3. V.A. Ca Plane Pour Moi (A "one song-many versions" post) Bleedin' Out

4. Grandpa Boy(a.k.a. Paul Westerberg) 7" (U.S. Introspective-rock, 1997) Willfully Obscure

5. Larry Wallis Police Car (U.K. Proto-greebo, 1977) Sons of the Dolls

6. Gaslight Anthem Acoustic Sessions (U.S. Heartland punk, 2008) Nuzz Prowllin' Wolf

7. The Clues Mini LP (U.K. ModSkaPop) Always Searching for Music

8. Innocents One Way Love (U.K. Girl-power-pop, 1980) Killed by Death

9. Cringer Time for a Little Something (U.S. Anarcho-pop-punk, 1991) Nothin' Sez Somethin'

10. V.A. World's in Shreds Volume 4 (U.S. Lo-fi-pop-punk) Punk archives

11. New Math Die Trying (UK High-fructose power-pop, 1979) Short Sharp Kick in the Teeth

12. DeCylinders Singles (Accented Netherlands power-pop, 1979-1981) Vibrator Buzz

13. John Fogerty Mid-period singles (Lodi swamp-rock) Power Pop Lovers (Link shows two singles, "Walkin' Down the Road", which is great and "You Got the Magic" which is not.)

14. Sleeper Wasted Today (U.S. Dischord-ant pop-punk,1993) Punks on Postcards

15. Pure Hell These Boots are Made for Walking(U.S. Bowery-punk, 1978) Last Days of Man on Earth

16. The Strike Take Action (Can. -U.S. Jam/Clash/SLF punk, 1994) Shotgun Solution

17. The Regents 7 Teen (Abba-punk, 1980) Nothin Better To Do

18. Mobster - 7" (U.K. Pop-ska, 1980) Ballistic Wax

19. Grant Hart 2541 (U.S. Mope-rock, 1988) The Blasting Concept

20. Cringer Zen Flesh, Zen Bones (U.S. Anarcho-syndicalist-pop-punk, 1988) Mustard Relics

21. The Pleasers - S/T (UK Beatles-rip-off, 1977) Ratboy

22. English Punk Invasion (A grab bag of singles) Bombs of Peace

Due to my own limitations, many great bloggers are not represented here - find more musical spadework in my blogroll.

Thanks to for keeping tabs on so much of what goes up.



Just to add a great singles post, here' s Scotland's Rezillos (more here) with their slightly muddy 1978 BBC Sessions which includes a revamped "I Can't Stand My Baby".

Download Radio Session

MRL"s Top-Twenty-Two Music Posts '08 (Full-lengths)

Why another list?
Because good bloggers spread unheard music around the world for little reward besides a few hits on the Crackmeter and stray comments. (Written as a proprietor of a blog and a voracious consumer of the same. )
To limit the list I tried (and failed) to chose sites that:
- avoid full versions of readily available releases
- offer full releases (single, e.p. or album) with artwork
- give a write-up offering at least some context


1. Ammonites Demo (U.K. Two-Tone Ska, 1979) Marco on the Bass (In two parts)

2. Ruts Peel Sessions (U.K. Punky Reggae Party, 1979) Commercial Zone

3. V.A. Stiff Sounds (UK Quirk-rock, 1979) (Rocket Remnants)

4. Nils Discography (Can. Hüsker-core, 1983-1986) (Model Citizen...Zero Discipline)

5. Chumbawamba Discography* (U.K. Anarcho-punk-folk-dance) Da Terror
Contains some in-print items but for a band who once recommended people shoplift their album this should not be such a bad thing.

6. Semantics Powerbill (U.S. Slick-power-pop, 1993) Puppy Strangler

7. Gary Myrick and the Figures S/T (U.S. A.O.R. New Wave, 1980) Scott's Music Blog

8. V.A. 4 Bands Who Cold Change the World (U.S. Whoa-0h H.C. , 1986) Down Underground)

9. Seventeen A Flashing Blur of Stripped-Down Excitement (U.K. Mod-punk, 1979) Control Total

10. Red Rockers Condition Red (U.S. Clash-Punk, 1981) Sons of the Dolls

11. Numbers Add Up (Can. Power-la-la-pop, 1979) (ISKP)

12. V.A. Canuck Punk (What it says, 1977-1981) (Last Days of Man on Earth)
(Not really a comp but it plays like one)

13. Rattlers Rattled (U.S. Garagey-Ramones-pop, 1985) (Powerpopoverdose)

14. Break-Up Society James at 35 (U.S. Retro-power-pop-punk, 2004) Powerpop Overdose
(Two from one site is usually verboten but both of theses posts represented singular accomplishments in ferreting out and exposing musical obscurica.)

15. Headboys S/T (U.K. Pointy-headed new wave, 1979) Vinyl Goldmine

16. Stiv Bators The Lord and the New Creatures (U.S. Evil-pop, 1983) Power Pop Criminals

17. Billy Bragg Live '84 (U.K. One-man-Clash, 1984) Sir Charlie Palmer

18. Real Kids Outta Place/All Kinda Jerks (U.S. Power-Glam, 1977) Ratboy69

19. The Rumour Purity of Essence (U.K. New Wave of British Pub Rock [NWOBPR], 1980) Twilight Zone

20.Parasite Compost (U.S. Ultra-prolific pop-punk, 2000) Hangover Heart Attack

21. Purple Hearts Head on Collision Time (U.K. Parka-punk, 1985) Born in the Basement

22. Attila International Sandwich (US World-core, 1981) Feelin' Kinda Froggy
(This is a "Trouser Press" album", by which I mean an album long only read about until this post revealed it to be a weird and intermittently fascinating curio.)


Due to my own limitations, many great bloggers are not represented here - find more musical spadework in my blogroll.

Next: E.P.'s and Singles

MRML's Under-Appreciated Albums that Rocked '08

(Image courtesy of Chapter One)

To continue adding to the saturated market of best of lists, I'll add yet another dose of subjectivity, with this caveat:
- I chose albums which show drive, grit and passion and yet, rarely grace best-of-the-year lists.
(Living in the past makes such a post an arduous task, but with ever more delicate, woozy indie-ness dominating year-end lists someone must highlight albums that kick ass.)


1. Ergs - Hindsight
For their swansong, the Ergs laid out their 7" history in inverse chronological order. Pop-punk is usually determinedly simple but there's a prickly, challenging side to these Jersey boys who throw out Miles Davis, Steely Dan and Black Flag in-jokes, while covering The Beatles, the Apers, Vince Gauraldi and Nirvana. Sadly, it's thirty-three track epitaph as the band is calling it quits. (Live)

Listen: It's Like I Say, Y'know

*

2. 241ers - Murderers
Folk-punk that is by turns The Jam and by turns the Dubliners. That might come across as Dropkick Murphys'-ish but instead by adding the political fury of early 80's hardcore and the mad acoustic strumming of the early 60's folk bands this New York band creates their own bracing noise. (Live)

Listen: Little Town of Bethlehem

*

3. Sloppy Seconds - Endless Bummer
As with their last album*, too many songs (i.e. throwaways like “Achy Breaky Skull", which grafts Ice Cube level misogyny to a Billy Ray Cyrus allusion) are not up to this Indianapolis band's junk culture standard. While the surfeit of songs hurts the flow a bit, it's still great to hear what is only their fourth album in twenty years. Ace Hardware's Chuck Berry-isms rock but it's B.A's lyrics, which at their best (and only then), exemplify pop-punk's mix of clever and stupid in ever-shifting proportions. Check out "Shut up and Pour Me a Drink" to hear this dichotomy at full blast.
(*Video for "Fifteen Minutes or it's Free")

Listen: Shut up And Pour Me a Drink

*

4. Lenny + the Piss-Poor Boys - S/T
Can you handle hurtin' tunes about jukeboxes, whiskey and the wrong side of the tracks which also name-drop Motorhead and the Ramones? Yes, of course you can. (Live)

Listen: Cambridgeport Saloon

*

(Note: actually a 7" cover and not the album in question)

4. Gordon Gano’s Army - S/T
Indie-rock tainted English pop-punk akin to the Zatopeks. Check out Russ Rock with it 's sad chorus of, "We won't be here tomorrow, we're only here today - we'll fade away". (Live)

Listen: Russ Rock

*

7. TV Smith – In the Arms of My Enemies
Englishman TV Smith's song writing exists in a terminal present - all of his songs could have been written at any point in his career. This is far from a fault and, in fact, proves his genius. Arrangements vary from punk to new wave to folk to full on rock n' roll but they're always played full force - gritty vocals, strong words, charged guitars and - let us make this the official word of MRML - anthemic, anthemic, anthemic (spell check claims its not even a word!).

Listen: Weak Glue (Clone Town video)

*

6. Cute Lepers - Can't Stand Modern Music
Retro-minded, perhaps but this Seattle crew have their mind stuck in that sweet spot of 1979 - the Buzzcocks, the Rezillos, The Boys and the Circles - which makes for punk-mod-power-pop-new-wave joy.

Listen: Terminal Boredom (Video)

*

8. Ezra Furman and the Harpoons - Inside the Human Body
The "Dylan Was a Punk album" of 2008 and also the band who really deserve the name, "Gordon Gano's Army". (Perhaps, with all this attention, the Violent Femmes' frontman's cultural re-birth is at hand.)

Listen: Take off Your Sunglasses (Video)

*

9.Steve Barton and the Oblivion Click - Gallery
Heartrendingly catchy power-pop from this resurrected former leader of the mid 80's San Francisco also-rans Translator.
Listen: Cartoon Safe (Video)

*

10. Kung Fu Monkeys - Christmas for Breakfast
Another single collection detailing a pop-punk band's erratic evolution, except this time it's all sunshine, lollops and la-la-la's as the Kung Fu Monkey (the New York twee-punk band not the Tijuana ska-punk one) prove why they are "America's Favorite Band". (Live)

Listen: America's Favorite Band


There, now you can ring in the New Year to the tune of 2008.

The MRML Top-Twenty-Two (2008)

(Thanks to Charles Schultz and WMFU's Beware of the Blog for the image)

To add to the saturated market of best of list's, I'll add one more dose of subjectivity, with the following caveat:
- I chose, smart, catchy and driving songs from 2008, or thereabouts*, scrupulously avoiding songs that could be be described as, delicate, hushed or ethereal.

1. Away From Here* (The Enemy) Did I ever tell you about that customer at the music store, back in the 90's who told me how he bought Black Crowes' albums, "To keep up with what's happening in music " and how I sneered at him? and yet who's here now claiming that retro-Jam worshipers like the Enemy represent some type of modernity. Damn me to hell. (Local Boy by The Rifles is more retro-Jam but it dates back to 2006.)
2. Don't a Hear a Single (The Major Labels). Everything good about power-pop, from the kitsch-obsessed lyrics, to the layered vocals to those the busy arrangements full of verses, choruses, pre-choruses, bridges and whoknowswhatelse.
3. Gimme More (The Peacocks) Sometimes a shot of psychobilly is what you need.
4. Out of Ideas (Copyrights) In a disappointing year for pop-punk the Copyrights' sole lapse was not surpassing their previous album. That said, all of Learn the Hard Way - especially this song with it's "We're gonna roll with a punch-drunk love song" refrain - rips.
5. Cupidity (Dopeamines) The Great White Hope of pop-punk ("We peaked with our demo") didn't quite deliver a full-length classic, though some raging pop songs did ensue.
6. Bad Kids (Black Lips) An album's worth of this? Maybe not. But by its lonesome this is a novelty song with enough garage-rocking heft to have staying power. (Not be confused with I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You by the Black Kids which is actually a pretty fair retro-80's tune).
7. Ladies of Cambridge (Vampire Weekend) "Overrated" is a weak word – it defines the quality of a work strictly based on a perceived level of popularity or esteem, both of which are, strictly speaking, beyond the artist's control. I added this b-side from the "Mansard Roof" single not only for the bringing the ska to the lethargic genre of indie-rock but because, unlike say, "A-Punk", fewer people will have rated it.
8. What the Fuck (Carbon/Silicon) I think therefore I backtrack; yes, The Last Post is far better than The Clash Mk II's Cut the Crap - that being said, I know which album I will have played more times by the time I die from Mp3 poisoning.
9. Boots of Chinese Plastic (Pretenders) Chrissy does Dylan.
10. Who's Gonna Build Your Wall? (Tom Russell) Even if you think the designation "protest song of the year" isn't worth a pinch of shit this tex-folk broadside should not be missed.
11. Add Me (Chumbawamba) Most people remember "Tubthumping", but I remember "Picture of Starving Children Sell Records" and this track, a savage but hummable attack on Generation Text. (Plus it's got the nastiest punch line of the year.)
12. You’re Getting’ Married*(The Replacements) A gritty old ballad, newly revealed - like a lost Dylan masterpiece.
13. Most of the Time*(Bob Dylan) In the hyperbole race critics have fought over Dylan these last few years, few hit the mark quite like, "Dylan throws away more masterpieces than most artists ever record". So, while Tell-Tale Signs is essential for Dylan appreciators and fanatics for the insight it gives us into his post 80's revival (and it keeps the vastly underrated Under the Red Sky in the narrative) perhaps two full CD's would be of less interest to casual listeners. Speaking of Dylan obscurities, check out Wagon Wheel, a re-write of a Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid outtake by Old Crow Medicine Show.
14. I Dreamed I saw Billy Bragg (Yuri Gordon and the Goods) Billy gets added to a dream list that includes Joe Hill, St. Augustine and Phil Ochs but here, rather than being a ballad, it's done in double time.
15. '59 sound (Gaslight Anthem) The single from what is certainly a contender for Album of the Year, if just for its anthemic choruses and the deliberately dated references - Marvin Gaye, Miles Davis and Mary-Lou - that comprise the lyrics. Unfortunately, I compile an "Underappreciated albums" list, a category into which the album does not fall.
16. Three Sevens Clash (The Alarm) As mentioned in the Songs about Strumming post, this may be the best song the Alarm (who already have a passel of them) ever wrote.
17. On the Clock (Methadones) A catchy, 1 minute and fifty-nine second "Goddamn Job" song from veteran Dan Schaefer which fuses Screeching Weasel punk with Bram Tchaikovsky pop.
18. Never Miss a beat (Kaiser Chiefs). This band gets slagged for being a singles band - the CCR of whatever Britpop's being called at this second ("Indie landfill"?). Wake up Britain, the time has long since come time to bury the brothers Gallagher.
19. I Wanna be the One (Yum-Yums) Pop-punk Beach Boys songs, with "Wanna-Wanna's" and "Whooo-ooohs" fill an ungluttable market.
20. Children of the Lord (Slim Cessna) Gospel-punk anyone?
21. Texas Cops (Tim Barry) Avail, after a stunning and original debut, got stuck in a conservative-holding pattern (Fat Wreck-Chords in a a nutshell) but lead singer Tim Barry escaped that trap by adopting a hard-travellin' folk-punk persoane.
22. Furr (Blitzen Trapper)- To these ears, this sounds like 90's Canadian jangle-rockers, the Skydiggers covering John Wesley Harding era Dylan. And that's mighty good, even if they're sorta indie-rock. After all, to avoid all Pitchfuck kinda bands would merely be reverse snobbery.

Comments and counter-offers are strongly encouraged.

P.S. Hope you didn't miss "McLaughlan Groove"Andrew W.K.'s greatest contrition to humankind

Killed By Volume: Five

The Moondogs (Gerry McCandless - guitar/vocals, Jackie Hamilton - bass/vocals, Austin Barrett - drums) were a late 70's Irish band signed to Good Vibrations Records, so you can expect retro-fitted pop songs played with punk bobble. On their MySpace they narrow down their influences to the Ramones, the Beatles and the Bay City Rollers, which encapsualtes their sound nicely. More history is available but the least you should know is that the Moondogs had their own TV show, Moondog Matinee, which kinda crossed the Monkees with Friday Night Videos (of course that's the view of the uninitiated) . As with their fellow Undertone-wanna-be's, Protex, there is no available collection of these singles, though the band has reformed and recorded some excellent new material.


"She's 19" and "Ya Don't Do Ya", from their debut single of 1979 are punk-pop-glam concoctions of a high order.


1980's follow-up single, "Who's Gonna Tell Mary" b/w "Overcaring Parents" are even catchier odes to the boys' yearning for those Teenage Kicks.


1981's "Talking in the Canteen" has more layered vocals and jungle drumming to recommend it on top of those great songs.


Their final single (also from 1981) "Impostor" b/w "Baby Snatcher" was produced by Ray Davies, which didn't make the band sound any more like the Kinks. However, thanks to the trade-off vocals and Barrett's big beats it does sound like the band was jonesing to work with 70's bubblegum god Mike Chapman.

Download Singles (1979-1981)


Supposedly the band didn't even know their lone album, the Todd Rundgren produced That's What Friends are For (1981), was actually released until someone showed them a German pressing years later. The album does sound unfinished, not like demos, but like an abandoned ambitious project, comparable to the Ramones dalliance with their own celebrity producer on End of the Century. There's another great pop single on here, (say, "Schoolgirl Crush" b/w "I Wanna be a Popstar") but without a vision beyond punked-up bubble-pop the band hit the wall that was the thin-and spacey-sounding 1980's. So, for a long time, they laid low awaiting a more fitting time to return.

Download That's What Friends are For