Part 3: Stuff You’ve Probably Never Heard Before and/or Should Hear More of . . .

SYNOPSIS Part three in this irregulalry scheduled program of rarities, weirdness, and stuff you just may have missed because you were busy listing to stuff you probably ashamed to admit owning now. For this episode, music from the 1970s to just about 5 minutes ago is played, though the only thing it all has in common is your host’s affinity for it. That and the fact that these songs are fucking fantastic. To moi, anyhow . . . and that’s all that matters. Listen up, track ’em down and then turn on a friend. If you still have any, of course. Also, this information arrived in the shape of a note from the Dolphin Boy himself, some of whose songs we played here last week:

My name is Jacob D Cox. Jack told me he gave you one of my CDs, and that you played a few of my songs in your podcast. It is a compilation of songs I wrote and never played for anyone save three or four friends over the course of three years, then I recorded them on my sister’s dining room floor and put them all together in an old cassette mixtape format. That is Dolphin. Since August I have been recording three songs a week and putting them up on my myspace page. Anyone can go there and ask me for a copy of Dolphin and I can work it out with them. Thanks again and keep in touch…

Mr Cox goes on to tell us the songs we featured were: “Stories of True Love are Wild (I’m a Career man),” “The Fog,” and “Kevin Morby’s Song.”

FYI, your Uncle’s wee book about TMF is still out there languishing on shelves in bookstores and warehouses, just waiting to be loved by you: Won’t your give it a good home?

NEXT WEEK: Artist Allison Smith musters her courage to talk with us about cause(s) and affect…

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Playlist for Episode 32

Intro: “The Earth Covers Us” from Spirit (Acuarela, 2006), excerpt.

Aluminum Group
“Chocolates,” from Plano (Minty Fresh, 1998)
“That Fossil That You Call Your Lover,” from Wonder Boy Plus (Minty Fresh, 1999)

Supremely stylish smartypants brother-act from Chicago who make being adorable and gay and pop look all easy and fun. Wish they gave lessons. But at least they make excellent records, films and other cool stuff for us lesser mortals to enjoy.

Wheat
“Move = Move” and “To, As in Addressing the Grave” from Every Day I Said a Prayer for Kathy and Made a One-Inch Square (Empyrean Records, 2007)
New weird shit from a band that started kinda normal and indie (we just adore their classic “Don’t I Hold You,” from 1999’s rare Hope and Adams ), but then sort of went off the rails. Here’s their newest shimmering gem of loveliness. Pity about that title. Poor Kathy, whoever she is/was.

Plasticland
“The Bunny Bear” and “Euphoric Trap Door” from Make Yourself a Happening Machine
(Rykodisc, 2006)
Oh, we love them bushels and pecks. Almost nobody knows about them, but as Annabella once sang: “This will change!”

Section 25
“Crazy Wisdom” and “Guitar Waltz,” from “Crazy Wisdom” 12-inch single (Factory Benelux, 1985)
Blackpool’s finest, with a sadly typical Factory Records trainwreck of a story. S25 never had the commercial impact of New Order or Happy Mondays, or had the appealing romantic squalor of Joy Division, but they made some excellent singles and sort of inspired a whole corner of house music, according to legend. We love their only real hit, “Looking from a Hilltop,” enormously, but you know that one already. So here are two more tracks to cherish, available on a reissue CD of their vexed final album, Love and Hate [] (LTM, 1999)

Apse
“Legions,” from Spirit (Acuarela, 2006)
Oh those Acuarela folks, who of course have impeccable taste in music. Even my other pal Jesus thinks so.

Suburban Lawns
“Janitor,” from Suburban Lawns (IRS, 1981)
“My Boyfriend,” b-side of “Gidget Goes To Hell” single (Suburban Industrial, 1979)
Two other ditties for this woefully underloved LA art-assault squad. We’ve already played their anthemic “Gidget Goes to Hell,” so of course these had to get their due, too. Somebody with a record label (or a trust fund) oughta find these guys, get the masters and release a CD for us to press to our withering bosoms.

The Black Watch
“Williamsburg” and “Tatterdemalion,” from Tatterdemalion (Stonegarden, 2006)
Shoegazey, geographically resonant. We like great chunks of this Cali band’s record (their tenth, we’re told) and hope they just get better and better and better.