The Leftovers Are Still Good

The Leftovers have gone from re-heating Screeching Weasel's scraps to raiding Elvis Costello's hospitality rider. And the results are hella tasty.


Cheap puns aside, Portland, Maine's the Leftovers' entire new album, Eager to Please, is a knock-out. The songs burst with joyous hooks and non-stop energy; this is no longer music for the insular pop-punk scene, it's pitch-perfect power-pop even a fool could love. The album features a handful of songs that would be perfect summer singles if there was any justice in the world, or it was still 1979.



We here at MRML spend most of our time raving about old songs ("After all there are more old songs than new songs", says Bob Dylan) this is mostly due to out Prime Directive: Do no harm to the band's sales (hence only offering out-of-print items). However since the ultra-cool label Art of the Underground only printed 250 copies of this fun little record, with it's two zippy power-pop-punk tracks, it shouldn't harm anyone to make it available here.
That said, if you like what you hear, please buy some tasty, tasty Leftovers.


Download The Leftovers Art of the Underground V. 21 7"

All the Small Things: Best Singles + E.P.'s of 2011

So there's lots to talk about in 2011 but I've got to break it down to avoid overwhelming anyone, including yours truly. The usual warning I offer is that this is a stylistically-narrow list chosen by a biased (and rapidly-aging) amateur musical historian who only listens to a very humble fraction of what's released in a year. Take it as a set of recommendations, rather then as a pronouncements heavy with the stench of omniscient authority (Pitchfuck, I'm looking at you!)

Our first entry in the best-of-the-year derby, is a list of all those things whose brevity disqualifies them from our forthcoming "Best Underappreciated Albums That Rocked 2011". This list is a bit pop-punk heavy, partly because the best pop-punk of the year seemed to come in small packages

1. Jimmy Cliff: Sacred Fire EP
A reggae pioneer enters a potential late-career Renaissance courtesy of producer Tim Armstrong, who sets up Mr.Cliff with one of his Rancid tunes, as well as a Clash song and a Bob Dylan one.

(Listen HERE)

2. Kurt Baker: Rockin For a Livin' EP
With every album Baker did with The Leftovers, he brought the band closer to a classic late seventies power-pop sound but now that he's gone solo he's fully embraced the skinny tie!

(Listen HERE)

3. The New Rochelles: It's New EP
The best new pop-punk band I've heard in years, one that loves love the Ramones, Screeching Weasel, Teenage Bottlerocket but also Green Day (and even Blink 182!)

(Listen HERE)

4. Wilco: I Might 7"
The fuzzy-garage-pop sound of the A-side, sounds great when backed with a rockin' cover of Nick Lowe's "I Love My Label".

(Listen HERE)

5. Adjusters:  Wrong Plae, Wrong Time 7"
To quote myself, "Another shot of backwards-looking, striped-shirt rock n' roll from a set of young lads from the North West of England.
 (Listen HERE)

6. OFF!: Compared to What/Rotten Apples 7"

SoCal punk vet Keith Morris is cranky, stuck in the past and burning like a motherfucker!
 (Listen HERE)

7. Chixdiggit: Safeways Here We Come EP

Calgary's kings of pop-punk aren't kids anymore (kids don't write songs about friendships ruined by dogs!) but they still sound as irrepressible as ever!

(Listen HERE)

8. The Cry: E.P.
Snotty AM-radio fed punk rock that swaggers!
 (Listen HERE)

9. Sharp Objects: 5 Song EP

Catchy-as-fuck blasts of SoCal Punk Roq with with lots of oozin' and aaah's.
 (Listen HERE)

10. Naked Raygun 7" series
Chicago hardcore legends have returned with their final, and underrated, line up to liven up the singles market.

 (Hompeage HERE)
 

Whaddya mak-a da list? Did you hear anything you dug? Did we miss something that might've fit? Let us know in the COMMENTS section!!!!!!

V.A. Back to Front (1977-1983) Volume Three

When Incognito Records began this limited-edition series back in 1993, they made an honest attempt to contact as many of these late seventies/early eighties bands as they could to secure rights, giving this series claim to being one of best in the torrent of punk retrospectives that the nineties unleashed. While  compiler Peter Parzinger still tilts this series towards wilder, cruder punk rock from all over the Western world with bands like Seize, Schoolgirl Bitch and Friction, the third time around also includes some more charming, more catchy bands like The Rivals, God's Heart Attack, First Steps and tennis-punks, The Rude Kids.






 (Incognito INC. 055, Germany, 1993)

    Treat Me Like A Doll (God's Heart Attack, Holland, 1978, from only 7")
    Day Doult (Chaos, Austria, 1979, from split 12" with The Sick)
    Out Of Order (Seize, UK, 1982, from 2.7")
    Just Like Your Mom (Vox Pop, USA, 1980, from only 7")
    Industriemadchen (S.Y.P.H., Germany, 1979, from 1.7")
    Next Time I'll Beat Bjorn Borg (Rude Kids, Sweden, 1980, from 4.7")
    Here Comes The Night (Rivals, UK, 1980, from 3.7")
    Nothin' To Lose (Red Rockers, USA, 1980, from 1.7")
    Think For Yourself (Schoolgirl Bitch, UK, 1978, from only 7")
    I Never Thought I'd Find Someone Who Could Be So Kind (Manikins, Australia, 1978, from 1.7")
    New Lottery (Godhead, USA, 1981, from only 7")
    Where Is The New Wave? (Cybermen, USA, 1978, from 1.7")
    Profit (Ebba Gron, Sweden, 1978, from 1.7")
    Pistol (Friction, Japan, 1980, from 2.7")
    Kill Me I'm Rotten (Luchs Brothers, USA, 1978, from 1.7")
    The Beat Is Back (First Steps, UK, 1979, from 1.7")
    Going Out With The In-Crowd (Manic Depressives, USA, 1980, from only 7")
    Cigarettes & Alcohol (Leftovers, Australia, 1978, from only 7")
    Ono (Wasteland, UK, 1979, from 1.7")

COMMENTS ARE THE CURRENCY OF THIS BLOG, SO HOPEFULLY YOU'LL COUGH UP A THOUGHT OR TWO TO ALLOW THIS BRILLIANT LONG-UNAVAILABLE SERIES TO CONTINUE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Click the image to visit Incognito Records

MRML's Under-Appreciated Albums that Rocked '09

To continue adding to the saturated market of best of lists, I'll add yet another dose of subjectivity with this one caveat: I chose albums which show drive, grit and passion and yet, too rarely grace typical best-of-the-year lists. Being a tad retro-minded may taint my list in some eyes but with all these nature-named bands and their delicate sound-sculptures dominating best-of lists someone's gotta highlight albums that kick ass - not just punk but driving country, folk, glam, power-pop, gospel, hell even an indie rock album if it shows some damn fortitude.

1. The Parasites (more here) Solitary
New Jerseyite Dave Parasite, a one-man force in pop-punk for decades waited till two-thousand-and-fucking-nine before releasing his best record, full of racing guitars and soaring tunes - score one for the late-starters!
Listen here
2. Ripchord Beginner's Luck
If I told you I'd discovered a band whose two greatest influences are the Kaiser Chiefs and the Housemartins would you run away or listen closely? Choose carefully...
Watch here

3. Those Darlins’ S/T
Always nice to have a funny, pretty and catchy country album on the list; even if gets a bit arch in spots.
Watch here

4. Houseboat The Delaware Octopus
The lame name (but netter than Barrakuda McMurder!) can't disguise the fact that Grath Madden, formerly of New York's Steinways is starting to grow up. Now backed by members of Dear Landlord and the Ergs, Grath's more musically developed songs show that his old cute self-loathing is veering towards self-disgust, ("everyone's fucked and alone" he sings on "Alonelylonelylone") which he still makes sound pretty appealing.
Listen here

5. Frank Turner (more here) Love, Ire & Song
An odd entry due to the Frank Turner Overdose on the net this year and this album being from 2008 but as the hype focused on the disappointing Poetry of the Deed and since Epitaph did release this wordy-but-wonderful folk-punk album in North America this year (though without the corrosive "Thatcher Fucked the Kids") and I need a "Dylan-was-a-punk" album of the year we will have to bend the space-time continuum just to the left.
Watch here

6. Used Kids Yeah No
Nato Coles (self-described as, "like Bob Mould, Howlin' Wolf, Paul Weller, Tom Waits, Bruce Springsteen, Paul Westerberg, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, Johnny Cash, Joe Strummer, Mike Ness, the baritone guy from the Coasters, the slightly less baritone guy from the Coasters ... all rolled into one giant burrito." put out two heartland punk records this year and I'm giving this one the edge for the astounding ballad, "Desperate Times".
Listen here

7. Michael Roe (more here) We All Gonna face the Rising Sun
I've already raved to ridiculous degrees about this gos-pel ex-plosion, which is basically a one man condensation of the the Goodbye Babylon box set (the Oh Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack would be a more widely known, if less accurate, comparison).
Listen here

8. The Leftovers (more here) Eager to Please
Another one I've spilled many words over, but how can you resist such sparkling power-pop melodies being given the pop-punk once over?
Watch here

9. TV Smith (more here) Live at NVA
Thirty songs hammered out by one skinny fifty-something balladeer with an acoustic guitar who'd sooner kick the shit out of James Taylor then confess his inner demons.
Watch here

10. The Takeover UK Running With the Wasters
The kind of swaggering egotistical glam-pop thievery that the British music press would usually salivates over, if the band wasn't from Pittsburgh - yup the Takeover UK are from steel-town.
Watch here

11. MewithoutYou It’s All Crazy! It’s All False! It’s All A Dream! It’s Alright
Experimental post-hardcore band who, despite their roots is Sufism and Judaism record for Christian label Tooth and Nail, find the Neil Young and Sufjan Stevens within, thereby breaking all my stupid rules (it's even number eleven!) and make an album that when described sounds like a pretentious bag o' shit but in execution aches, shines and refuses to relent.
Watch here

Okay, MRML Readers, leave us a comment on our choices and then tell us your picks for the great album of '09.

The Blue Shadows: Lucky To Me

During my longest stint in music retail, I worked in the E.T.C. room. E.T.C. (as in et cetera) was a room tucked along the side of a massive music store (Musiplex) and housed what didn’t fit in the Rock/Pop/R + B room or the Classical/Jazz room (which had a separate entrance to keep the riff-raff and the hoity-toity from colliding). E.T.C. had the leftovers - reggae, children's, gospel, folk, soundtracks, easy listening, world, comedy, blues, new age and – gasp! – country. Quite the musical education for a punk purist. First Johnny Cash happened. When American Recording arrived it went on the store stereo every bloody day. The next Boxing Day, I purchased the Essential Johnny Cash box set (a shining light in a dim packaging format) and began looking back. And what I saw (and heard) was the raw power of country music. Yes, sappy Nash-Trash (in its shifting forms) has infected country music for a donkey’s years but when that devious formula (3 Chords + Truth = Country) is followed the aural impact is devastating. (It helps the listener along if a long love affair has reached an explosive conclusion.)


It was in the midst of this musical and personal mix-up that I first heard the Blue Shadows {Billy Cowsill (guitar, vocals) J.B. Johnson (drums) Jeffrey Hatcher (guitar, vocals) Elmar Spanier (bass) Barry Muir (bass)}.“Hank goes to the Cavern Club” was the Blue Shadows M.O. and they built a rock-country hybrid that stands up better than a thousand other rural-urban fusionists. Uniting Winnipeg mainstay Jeffrey Hatcher (who fronted late seventies power-pop band the Fuse) and former sixties teen-pop idol Billy Cowsill of The Cowsills (the model for the Partridge Family) in the early 90’s seemed a strange idea on paper but it played out like fevered dream version of pre-psychedelic rock n’ roll – Everlys, Orbison, Beatles, Buck et al. The harmonies soar, the guitars ring, the lyrics lament; everyone wins whether you’re a power-pop fan, a British Invasion fanatic, a lover of gut-bucket country or just damn broken-hearted. On the debut you can take in Coming on Strong which hits like the Buck Owens freight train sound, then sway along to the old-fashioned hurtin’ tunes like The Embers. The second, less commercially successful (but I believe better) album, Lucky To Me, "rocks harder", as the sophomore cliché goes, so you get to enjoy more driving tunes like the harmony-drenched kiss-off song, Riding Only Down - non-embeddable video here.


So whatever your genre bias, wander into the E.T.C. room for a spell…

Finally, an On The Floor of Heaven re-issue is available!

Doug Updates:
You can order the album directly from Bumstead Records. Payment via PayPal.
Billy Cowsill Discography
Blue Shadows article in No Depression
Billy Cowsill's legendary album "Nervous Breakthrough" (is that not one of the greatest titles of all time?) is over at Red Telephone.