Helen Love
"Beat Him Up" 7" vinyl
Damaged Goods. Damgood 89.
by Scott Zimmerman.
December 31, 1995.
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Alert: The CD-single of "Beat Him Up" has a third song "Matthew Kaplan
Superstar" that's not available on the 7"! Argh. I hope there's a good
explanation for this! I'll be forgiving this one time and just assume
that the bonus track is available elsewhere on vinyl. But if not, I hope
Damaged Goods knows that the baby blue vinyl of the 7", as nice as it
looks, doesn't quite make up for the fact that the record is missing a
song!!! Anyways, as for the music on the record, it's the usual
smiley-keyboard-pop perfection we've all come to expect from Helen Love.
And the usual super lines, too: "All the girls in the world go 'woo! what
a really great guy!' in his great black trousers, with the beer stains
down the side!" Too great!
Prolapse
"T.C.R." 7" vinyl
Love Train. PUBE06.
by Scott Zimmerman.
December 31, 1995.
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Mumbling incomprehensible boy, with screaming incomprehensible girl,
whining guitars and driving bass make Prolapse's "TCR" song of the year?
Could be! It's so wild and unusual, it demands to be replayed
and replayed. And the flip side "Irritating Radiator" is quite an
interesting experience, too. Granted, the catchiness of the A-Side
is not present, so there will be no song of the year honors here, but
based on the nicely descriptive title, the characteristic of
overflowing pop sensibility probably was not meant for it anyways.
little a
"You" 7" vinyl
Say Aahh.
by Scott Zimmerman.
December 31, 1995.
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Sound aspects of Smashing Pumpkins and Stone Temple Pilots
combine here to form quite an intense little 45 in
the form of "You/My Lover" by the Massachusetts' group Little A.
It's musically adept, with an original crossing of noise,
quiet, melody, anger, intensity, and calm.
the Heartworms
"If Everything Goes As Planned" 7" vinyl
Popfactory. poof-4.
by Scott Zimmerman.
December 31, 1995.
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Archie Moore gets all the lead vocals on this 3 song Heartworms
7". They're overcast songs, with damn fine guitar work, up there with
the best of the Heartworms. "A Lover Sings," a Billy Bragg cover, has
the Heartworms sounding like Camper Van Beethoven (or Cracker if you
prefer, sigh). Too cool!
Various Artists
Double Agent 001 7" vinyl
Double Agent. DA 001.
by Scott Zimmerman.
December 31, 1995.
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Out of Stock.
Rose Melberg and Dustin Reske singing and composing a song
together--is that a musical match made in heaven or what? At the very
least, it's a record label's dream. Ok, so maybe it wouldn't be DGC's
dream or Warner Bros. dream--they might be thinking more on the line
of Eddie Vedder/Courtney Love, or Michael Bolton/Whitney Houston. But
since we're talking about indie-pop, something which the major labels
probably think is a cola not unlike Pepsi that's popular with Bombay
teenagers, we can just dismiss their dreams as irrelevant. So, as for
this indie-pop musical dream, Double Agent lives it on its very first
release! The song is "The Love We Could Have Had," a fuzzy, catchy,
totally lo-fi offering with (of course) brilliant vocals. However, the
must hear song that it is, I had higher expectations that it might end up
being the best song ever written in the history of all music. But it's
not. Oh well. It's still awazingly good though.
And the three songs by the other three artists on this EP are a treat, too. Papas Fritas contributes "Here She Comes." And if the Dustin Reske/Rose Melberg duet was a pop dream, this is a pop miracle! I really need to pick up their album soon.
Zaius, which is an alias for Peter of the Double Agent label, starts up the B-Side, with "29th Scroll, 6th Verse," the most mellow track on the EP. It's a bizarre crossing of soft folky guitar pop with samplings from the movie Planet of the Apes!
And with "Cult Here, Come Home," My Favorite bring the EP to a close, with an upbeat, yet nostalgically sad male/female vocaled guitar pop tune, the kind you just know you'll still love years from now.
the Judybloom
Zoe Goes Crazy CD
Tic Toc.
by Scott Zimmerman.
December 31, 1995.
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Out of Stock.
Zoe Goes Crazy has an unusually nice trait, one that I
appreciate immensely, particularly when I'm feeling lazy. It is
pretty much no problem to listen to this album straight
through a few times in succession without going completely
mad. I put the CD player on repeat, and I'm set! That
would tend to suggest that this is not a musically challenging
experience, and I would agree. However, anybody can
create a musically challenging experience. Put a two
year old at a piano, and you've got one. Zoe Goes Crazy
instead offers a bunch of good natured, gratifying
guitar-pop songs, none that are likely to set you screaming,
running down the street with a "Everybody, you've got to
hear this!," but certainly good enough to keep you smiling!
There's a nice balance of the upbeat ("Every Month is May,",
"Donna Maria Way," "Nothing Now") with the downbeat
("Devastation," "A Buddha Song") with the cool croon ("Lemon &
Lime") and the haven't heard that since the mid-1980s (a cover
of Ozzy Osbourne's "Crazy Train"). So if you're looking only
for noisy Trent Reznor produced teen angst MTV buzz clip rock,
forget this record, but if you want to simply locate a batch
of original pop songs, with quirky lyrics that even your mother
might approve of, pick up this completely agreeable offering
by the Judybloom!