Collection / LC-007

Hoover
The Lurid Transversal of Route 7
(Dischord, 1994)
CD-011

I think I’d borrowed this from my cousin Dan about 10 years ago, but it wasn’t until I scored it for a ridiculous $1.99 at Reckless Records during our recent trip that I’d listened to it intently.

On Hoover’s debut, I hear shades of Q and Not U, The Constantines, Twelve Hour Turn, and Black Eyes among many others. But all of those bands were still 5-10 years from releasing a record. I think that is the definition of seminal.

More than that, The Lurid Transversal of Route 7, fits perfectly with my current 90s kick. The music here is complex, intense and timeless. Songs like “Electrolux” perfect the kind of quiet-loud-screaming mix that 12HT would later bring to the swamps of Florida.

One of the best things about getting into a band/album like this after-the-fact is that while I can’t see them live, I have a number of ex-Hoover bands to explore (Crownhate Ruin, June of ‘44, 1.6 band, etc.).

Jason Anderson
Tonight
(ECA, 2007)
CD-010

I think I first heard of Jason Anderson after Tonight showed up on someone’s Best of 2007 post. I’d never heard of him before and was drawn in by the album cover. I poked around a little on Ye Olde Tube and found some videos that totally fucking blew me away — and I was hooked; I had to get this record.

I’m not sure where I finally found a copy — but I remember being a little disappointed that Tonight didn’t have the same earnest-bordering-on-painful-but-also-bordering-on-disingenuous lack of irony.

But today J told me to pick out a CD for Avett to listen to while he played in his crib and Anderson’s brand of posi bar rock seemed a great fit. Listening now as Avett moans and sings in his crib, I realize the difference is these studios recordings are simply different. Not better or worse just different than Anderson’s one man and a guitar sets live. This is a fun record that still has tons of Anderson’s joie de vivre and soul.

Coda: The next-to-last-song “So Long” litterally brought me to tears (of joy) as Avett smiled and cooed as Andersom repeated “…the best thing in the world / is to love someone / and they love you back…”

Hot Water Music
The New What Next
(Epitaph/No Idea, 2004)
CD-009

Another record I’d probably not listened to in a few years that I pulled from the shelf in advance to our last trip to—appropriately—Gainesville. Even more appropriate since HWM’s first record in 8 years, Exister, was released yesterday.

While it may not have the same desperate urgency of HWM’s earlier records, I like the New What Next a lot. This is an album by a band settled into a solid groove, comfortable in what they do — play anthemic post-hardcore. The music here is maybe a little more post and a little less hardcore, but Ragan, Wollard, Rebello and Black still make memorable music with heart and conviction and soul.

And where Ragan and Wollard would trade of versus on their early records, on The New What Next they trade of songs — Chris’ “There are Already Roses” flowing into Chuck’s “Keep it Together”.

I ranked TNWN #10 when I originally did my Best of 2004 list, but I could easily see it nudging up to somewhere in the 5-7 range in a hypothetical rerank.

Smashing Pumpkins
Pisces Iscariot
(Virgin, 1994)
CD-008

I don’t think I’d listened to Pisces Iscariot in years. Maybe it was two, maybe five, maybe ten? By the time I listened to it through the first time — driving home to Tallahassee late at night — I found myself thinking that while it started off strong, there was a reason these songs didn’t find their way onto the Smashing Pumpkins’ previous record, Siamese Dream. (Though in grabbing the cover art, I learned that it charted higher than SD.)

But the more I listened to it the more I was surprised by the strength of the music here, at least in as much as it fits in with the rest of the Pumpkins pre-deep-end catalog. There’s a range between sounds that not all bands can pull off.

Say what you will about what they became, but the Smashing Pumpkins made some catchy, memorable music. Sometimes fuzzed out, sometimes tender, sometimes just brutal (in a good way). And they were prolific as the music here testifies to. Put out as a b-sides collection it stands fairly well on its own.

This record foreshadows, though, the overindulgent decline of the band. It’s an hour and would have done well at 40 minutes. And the 11-minute Starla could have just as easily been 7 minutes, or 8 or even 9 without losing its way.

But there’s enough good stuff here — Soothe, Frail & Bedazzled, Whir, Pissant, Hello Kitty Kat, etc. — to make me want to not wait 8 years to hear it again.

The Riot Before
Rebellion
(Paper & Plastick, 2010)
LP-001

The Riot Before are, in my worthless opinion, one of the underrated bands of the last few years. I mean they were popular, but I can’t understand why they weren’t bigger or more celebrated. They play full-bodied, politically-infused upbeat punk rock and they play it well. Well, they played it well. Sadly, Rebellion would end up being their swan song.

The music here is just a little more aggressive than on their breakout, Fists Buried in Pockets, but no less precise. Literate tales of love, misery, hope and playing the music they love. More than most bands I can think of the Riot Before excel at writing music that’s memorable instantly filled with hooks and choruses that stick in your head all day… hell, all week. An album in the truest sense, Rebellion sounds like one long song with 10 different parts, each song connected to the other.

Maybe the Riot Before are just stuck in the wrong era. The passion and drive behind their music shares a DNA with the bygone, post-hardcore spirit of, say, late-90s Hot Water Music and Small Brown Bike, just with a poppier sound. But now detachment is king and giving a shit is passe and bands like The Riot Before fade into the past. To wit, their Gainesville show behind this record had maybe 100 people at (in a room that holds 500) it but they still threw everything they had at us. It was a reminder of what this music means, why we destroy our ears and drag our asses to work exhausted.

I’ll keep loving my Riot Before records — Rebellion came as a beautiful gatefold from Paper & Plastick — and keep an eye out for where the members wind up next.

Letters to Cleo
Wholesale Meats and Fish
(Warner Bros./Giant, 1995)
CD-007

Ah, the follow-up. Expectations are so high that they’re rarely met. I think this it what happened to Letters to Cleo’s sophomore record, which is every bit as packed with indie-rock hooks and goodness as their debut Aurora Gory Alice — just without a song played on Melrose Place. “Awake” got some airplay (now there’s a dated term…), but wasn’t the supersmash that “Here and Now” was so I think Wholesale Meats and Fish is seen as a disappointment. I like it.

Having bought their record before “Here and Now” hit, I’ve always had a soft-spot for Letters to Cleo and thought them talented pop songwriters. Evidently this record was recorded when “Here and Now” hit, leading to it being shelved for a while. This makes sense as the music here sounds less strained by expectation listening to it now than it did in 1995 when it came out. This is a record I’ll pull out and play every year or so — and enjoy for an hour.

The Smithereens
Especially for You
(Enigma, 1986)
CS-001

Listenting to the Smithereens’ debut album, Especially for You, on our boombox while making dinner makes me happy. The Smithereens play thoughtful, sometimes somber, sometimes realistic, pop music and the songs here remind me of high school — especially a friend named Ed Q for some reason.

The Smithereens’ brand of power pop is a part of the musical constant. The Beatles begat Big Star, Elvis Costello and Cheap Trick, who in turn influenced R.E.M. and the Smithereens, who you can hear in bands like Title Tracks today.

I might never be the biggest Smithereens fan but their debut and it’s follow-up, Green Thoughts, are some of my favorite pop records. Sadly the cassette I have of Especially for You is starting to wear out—ironically since it’s the first I’m writing up here—so I’ll have to start scouring the dollar bins for this little gem.