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March 22, 2007
Crate Digging
While I still think that picking on boring music is worthwhile as an occasional pastime, a comment from Koren on my last hyper negative post made me think for a second. My defense was that most of the things that we've been recently loving have been floating around in the e-ther for quite some time, and have thus been dissected to death. But nothing's stopping us from opting out of modernity entirely. At any time, we are more than able to dive into the gigs and gigs of old and unloved songs over stuffing our hard drives. There are scores of forgotten acts whose names do not yet grace the annals of Hype Machine.
In short, we could try a bit harder.
the Revelons - "Lover's Dilemma"
The Revelons were also rans in the New York punk scene, and though they played CBGB's and shared members with some of their more famous contemporaries (Fred Perry played in Television, and Jay Dee Dougherty was part of the Patti Smith Group), they slipped immediately into obscurity without a proper LP to their name. A few years back, Sepia Tone Records collected all of their existing studio material, along with some live takes. It did not spark a massive revival.
The unequaled gem of that compilation is 1978's "Lover's Dilemma." Singer Gregory Lee Pickard pulls off the tortured whining punk voice even better than the more celebrated scenester Richard Hell. He's on the brink of collapse from his first trembling word. The real star might be the hissing, far away production and an insistent guitar line that's ever so slightly warped, as if the master tapes were left on a van dashboard in Arizona. The chugging rhythm and call and response vocals on the chorus sound like a mob of tear stained teenagers storming City Hall demanding to get laid more. Of course it was actually just a bunch of homely guitar wonks, who do a nice bit of shredding around the two minute mark (in hopes of getting laid more).
// the Revelons - Anthology buy
the Eggs - "Government Administrator"
The Eggs were a brainy early 90's indie pop band from D.C., which meant that they were commanded by law to be on Teenbeat Records. Label founder Mark E. Robinson's Unrest got a larger slice of attention, and the fact that we're still periodically posting demands for folks to like that band does not bode well for the Eggs. Not that singer Andrew Beaujon is sweating it, spending his post rock career living in Virginia with wife and kid, writing about music for Spin and the Washington Post. He's even joined the blogging masses with a site amusingly named Jimmy Page's Sweater Vest.
The Eggs finest hour is "Government Administrator," a slacker anthem about taking the civil service exam because you haven't got any better ideas. Since this decade seems to be more about self promotion than self pity, minor classics about not wanting to do anything have fallen out of fashion. Which is itself a pity. The slacker, though basically the 90's version of the hipster, is much more romantic than their modern counterpart. The repulsion towards visible effort is key. Anyway, the lovable Jonathan Richman-esque "singer's got a cold" vocals and non stop wit on display here attracted John Peel's attention back in the day, which is always clear sign that it deserves yours now.
// the Eggs - How Do You Like Your Lobster?: a Collection of Crustaceans and Flotsam buy
Posted by Jeff Klingman at March 22, 2007 09:20 PM
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Comments
That Eggs tracks is awesome, but I'm always cool with negativity.
Posted by: Randall Monty at March 22, 2007 10:20 PM
