Various Artists
Simultaneous Ice Cream CD
Siesta. Siesta 90.
by Keith McLachlan.
October 19, 1999.
See more about this title.
Out of Stock.
When I was a kid I don't think I ever grasped the notion of
children's music for I was raised on a steady diet of
musical sustenance that consisted mostly, because I had a
brother nearly ten years my senior, of Kiss. Obviously it's
success as family entertainment must surely have been
limited though for while I was seen often re-enacting all of
my favourite Gene Simmons kabuki-esque moments on my top
bunk I don't think I can really recall much of the music as
their skills as marketeers was famously more effective than
the music, although Simmons/Stanley is mentioned in hushed
tones by many in the same vein as Lennon/McCartney. But
really I think the true feelings of songs like 'Lovegun' and
'Sloe Gin' are somewhat lost on the worldview of even the
most precocious of 5 year olds.
The "children's" songs on display here are a bit more wholesome, definitely qualified fodder to soundtrack future jello commercials starring Bill Cosby upon whom the lessons of 'Lovegun' were surely more imprinting. The same musical suspects that appeared on 'Algebra Spaghetti' show up here on the second reverie release and I think each of them top their efforts from the last record with the possible exception of Simon Turner who merely duplicates his previous genius. It is fantastically smileworthy as the silliest sentiments are given pristine arrangements and inspired performances. Most of the people involved in making this record have long ago left the reflections of their youth in the rearview mirror but none of them have allowed the petals of youth that hang around their halos to wilt and fall away. Innocence and wonder and spirit and electricity imbibe all of these tracks with a genuine hideaway for the wee ones within us all.
Various Artists
Songs For The Jetset 2000 CD
Siesta. Siesta 122.
by Keith McLachlan.
April 25, 2000.
See more about this title.
Out of Stock.
I guess the Jet Set franchise is a bit like a football to be passed on to
new strikers who attempt their best shots at making a go at the goal.
Louis Phillipe does not appear to be affiliated with this album but by the
sound on display you wouldn't know it. I've never heard of the guys in
charge now but maybe everyone at Siesta is so clued into their "sound"
that it is almost like auto-pilot these days and it doesn't matter which
producer/arranger is wearing Captain Stubings hat. And to make a poor
segue more obvious, speaking of oceans pricesses and princes, we recently
went to the aquarium here and spent the whole time watching the miraculous
Napoleon Wrasse fish wriggle its way through the tank filled with sharks
and hundreds of other less impressive fish. Wrasses can live over 100
years, they are all born male, then become
female, then a select few revert back and become supermales. Oh and they
can weigh up to 450 pounds and their lips are just the silliest thing
ever. The whole package is fantastic.
Sadly, volume 3, just is not as interesting as this magnificent fish, not that many records are, but this is just cuteness by numbers. No original numbers show up in the credits and while Death by Chocolate do their thing wonderfully and the vibe is all sunshine and love and white belts with pink trousers it just doesn't thrill anymore especially with all of the knockoff labels like Shelflife about combined with the unfortunate belief that anyone can be a graphic designer as long as they are armed with an array of 60s clip art images to plunder.
Maybe Siesta should develop a new theme, at least the reverie releases are specifically aimed at kids though I can't imagine many kids have actually heard either record, but then this one, in fact, probably should have been the third reverie record instead of the third Jetset record. Maybe its title could have been 'Pastel Meatloaf'. We all still love Siesta but I think they should come up with something new or better yet maybe they should release more Bien and Minema records instead of the expected 13 more volumes of Ohio Express and Paul Anka covers sung by 13 year old girls who wear striped knee high socks. Oh but I nearly forgot to say that the record is really quite good.
Various Artists
Songs For The Jetset, Volume 2 CD
Jetset. TWA16CD.
by Keith McLachlan.
April 2, 1999.
See more about this title.
Out of Stock.
The first Jet Set record was a revelation, so elegant, so posh, so
sophisticated, it was the Niles Crane of pop records except that it
was only about a billion times more lovely. This then is the sequel
and the mood seems to be a bit more plebian, which is of course very
amiable and worthy for the egalitarianistic side of us is all for
singing for the people but it just doesn't have the same gleam in its
plastic eye as its predecessor. What it is is absolute aceness, there
is no denying that, but it is like the difference between the Beach
Boys playing surf music and Jan and Dean playing surf music, one is
spooked with the touch of divinity and the other hangs out with burger
cooks in the mall. But then I can't really use that analogy,
therefore it is both reasonable and encouraging for you to assume I
just included it to fill up space in this review:), because it is
mostly the same congregation of folks populating both discs.
The songs here are more self-contained, more bouncey, and generally simpler and perhaps a trifle more disposable than those on Volume One which may be an indication that the success of the first fueled an overeagerness for a repeat of history. Again, though, I am not complaining for on display here is thirty-eight minutes of pure martini pop delight- Loveletter and Milky and Wallpaper show up again with fine return marks awarded to each and new folks with names like Death by Chocolate and Kim and Co. appear and spin marvellous webs of cotton candy cacophonic delights! Louis Phillipe must be someone who hangs out with and coordinates all of the coolest people on earth as this is his baby, well along with Mike EL who is copilot for the second time, and here I am taste testing their progeny with impunity, I have never even had a martini so of course I am fighting the urge to be overly impressed by everything they do because it has that velour allure of someone who is living a life exponentially more full than anything I might consider contentment. It is a delightful struggle really. Oh well, who needs envy. At least my 11 dollars buys me a voyeur's glimpse into this seemingly magical world.
Various Artists
Summer Games 7" vinyl
Lookout. LK-129.
by Scott Zimmerman.
December 31, 1995.
See more about this title.
Out of Stock.
The Summer Games split 7" pairs two of today's best west coast
retro-surf-pop-punk acts on a record put out by two of the west
coast's best labels -- Mint and Lookout!
The Smugglers, from Vancouver BC, get the A-side, which contains the enjoyable "She Ain't No Egyptian," and "Elite Manila," a simply great rock & roll song.
"Meet the Hi-Fives," a mostly instrumental piece, initiates the flip-side. It's sort of an intro/theme song for the Hi-Fives, a group from the San Francisco Bay Area. The song is terrificly good--much better than, say, the theme song for Friends.
Track two "I Need Your Lovin' Like A Chicken Needs an Oven (When I'm A Little Bit Hungry)" is mostly cool for its miles long title. The music's good and all, too, but perhaps a bit too straightforward. Or maybe the song fails to impress me because the chorus is such a stupid thing to sing! But hey, if the group is brave enough to sing it, more power to them!
Various Artists
Sunsine Pop '99 CD
El. acme 28cd.
by Keith McLachlan.
October 24, 1999.
See more about this title.
Out of Stock.
'Reissue, repackage, satiate the need.' Prophetic words those,
for not only was the history of the Smiths pillaged but so
too has been the fate of El Records.
Most of the songs here have probably been released on other
compilations as well as their original records. Cherry Red
is a horrble label, it was once grand with the likes of 18
year old Graham Sutton and his band Bark Psychosis but
apparently a couple of corporate rock titan wanna-be's took
over the label with some shady dealings and pushed out the
label founder who is now off to head Che (which itself is not
much of a label these days except for the fact that they
release Lilys records in the UK and have apparently taken
Helen Love to the taxidermist). Cherry Red has decided to
release the entire El Catalog over and over and over and
myself being a relative neophyte to the label, I, am at
their merciless mercy.
So to be truthful, I actually do not mind if these songs have all been released 42 times before because they are almost all new to me except for the ones from Jetset which makes you realise Mike Always is in on painting the vulgar picture, if you will, and that is kinda disappointing. The title does bug me a bit because it is not all that sunshiney once you get past the offerings of Fantastic Something and Bad Dream Fancy Dress. Most of it is rather subdued and more autumnal to my ears which is all well and good as the leaves are all catching their departure flights to the earth below. All of it is quite nice, except for maybe the Felt song who are continually being rammed done everyone's throat and why???... Because Stuart Murdoch says they are the best band ever. Such celebrated mediocrity is not good for the soul.
Various Artists
The Sound Of Leamington Spa, Volume 1 CD
Firestation Tower. FST008.
by Keith Mclachlan.
February 4, 2001.
See more about this title.
Out of Stock.
The cd that makes one recognize that Sarah records was
merely the final step in a rung-like evolution of
English mope-pop. And perhaps a compilation that
makes you realize that perhaps Sarah was not as
seminal as once believed. The devotion to Sarah is a
bit strange anyhow as a good percentage of their
records were almost dreadful, I have a large
percentage of that large percentage actually, and
never do I find myself compelled to return to those
seven inchers in even the briefest bits of nostalgia.
I can recall buying the records with great enthusiasm
but I can't ever seem to recall as many moments of
unbridled glee when it came to listening to those same
records. Sure there were amazing records on Sarah but
maybe by their time the whole jangly, melancholia wave
had already found its crest and began to ebb? Most of
these songs pre-date Sarah and so they are a bit of a
revelation to me because pre-Sarah I had very little
in the way of an indie profile. I've revisited the
early 90s and late 80s with abandon but the mid 80s
outside of John Hughes soundtracks still seemed foreign
when I first popped this cd into the hi-fi. It turns
out their world isn't as strange as I had hoped. The
Smiths reigned supreme in the alternate universe these
bands inhabited, as they had in mine, and if I had
failed to discover obscurity I had already discovered
the emotional topography on display here. Not a great
deal of diversity then, life in one jangly chord and
several cracked voices expressing one pang of regret
after another. Well except for the Pooh Sticks of
course who start the cd off with one of the two songs
on the record I had already heard, the other being the
wonderful Desert Wolves. You get songs from people
who would go on to form Birdie, from people who would
become famous english DJs and a picture of the
Hepburns I could have done without and songs from,
mostly, a bunch of no hopers with large hearts and a
dramatic sense of the fey and grey. Eighties england
must have been a dire consequence for most of these
kids cause the mood rarely edges above comfort and
almost never into content. In fact the whole cd
sounds edgy, almost revolutionary in retrospect, but
that message is very nearly always delivered in a
fractious whisper. There doesn't seem to be the same
level of independent spirit in England these days,
most times when you hear a song that could trace its
lineage directly back to the period of time documented
in this cd it turns out that the song is from some new
dreamers from the new world. Of course that can't
take away from the fact that this album is an absolute
and delightful treasure.