Random Old Records Podcast #13 is out now!

Yes indeedy, Random Old Records Podcast episode #13 is out now and ready for your downloading pleasure! This is the Nuggets of the '90s edition, featuring an hour of rare, obscure, and forgotten alternative, indie, and punk from the last golden age of music. Remember bands like China Drum, Letters To Cleo, Adorable, Grant Lee Buffalo, Compulsion, Archers Of Loaf, or Hazel? Yes? No? Well, they're all here, along with a selection of vintage PSAs featuring Christopher Reeve and the cast of Saved By The Bell. Some of my favorite songs of all time are up in this thing, so make sure you check it out!

As always, you can stream, download, or subscribe to the podcast by pointing your internets over to http://rorpodcast.mevio.com. You can also subscribe to it in iTunes by clicking the iTunes icon directly to your right. By subscribing, the new episodes download directly to your computer as soon as they are posted, so you'll never miss an episode!

Don't forget, you can hear Random Old Records streaming every Wednesday afternoon at 4PM EST on Real Punk Radio! Go to http://realpunkradio.com and check it out! It's a new site that offers punk, garage, and rock n' roll 24/7, featuring BADASS shows like Burrito Electrico and Cincinnati's own Mottey's Garage. I'm happy to be a part of the lineup, and it's only gonna get better from here! Also, don't forget to become a fan of Random Old Records on Facebook! I'll be posting exclusive content there, so add yourself and don't be a square. Here's a taste of the new podcast, the classic "Web In Front" from the Archers Of Loaf!

The 5 Most Underrated Albums of the '90s Part 5

5. Letters To Cleo - Go!
(Revolution/Warner Bros., 1997)

Rounding out the list of the most underrated albums of the '90s is the third LP from Boston's Letters To Cleo. Yeah, that's the band who landed their song "Here & Now" over the credits on Melrose Place and perfomed "I Want You To Want Me" by Cheap Trick at the end of 10 Things I Hate About You. They were a band so tied into '90s pop culture that listening to Go! makes you instantly wistful for the slightly hedonistic, candy-colored optimism that filled the latter part of the decade before the millennium ended and 9/11 happened. It's like a 11 track jolt of pure sunshine.

Listening to it now, Go! sounds like nothing less than the last gasp for radio-minded, perfectly-produced guitar pop. Seriously, when was the last time you heard a three minute song on the radio loaded with big, real-sounding guitars and vocals without Auto-Tune? Last time I checked, everything was processed and compressed to shit, sounding like angry buzzing bees. It's a far cry from the vibrant, polished, but still organic tunes on display here. Vocalist Kay Hanley overdubs massive walls of vocals, harmonizing with herself, but you can still tell there's a real person behind the studio walls. Opener "I Got Time" sets the tone perfectly, bursting out of the gate with fast, punk energy and twisty lyrical images (lilies in the toilet? spiders driving cars?). The stop-start rhythms recall the nervous energy of '90s power pop heroes Material Issue, and of course, it has handclaps, which is scientifically proved to make any song amazing.

I Got Time - Letters To Cleo

Unlike most albums that came out in the latter part of the '90s, Go! doesn't have a single filler track. Every one has a memorable chorus or wicked vocal or guitar hook, and none of them go over four minutes long. "Co-Pilot" is a mish-mash of classic '60s bubblegum pop and the end credit music for any number of '90s teen comedies. It's a little cheesy, but the performance is just too damn sincere. The regal horn blasts throughout the song are reminiscent of any number of classic '60s AM radio standards. The whole album is loaded with bratty, fun-loving punk rock attitude that you just don't see much of anymore.The band broke up after this, and Kay Hanley's gone onto be an in-demand pop songwriter. Don't forget to check out Go! It is pure '90s pop perfection.

Co-Pilot - Letters To Cleo

Now, it's time for some exciting news on the Random Old Records front. Starting this week, you can hear the podcast streaming at 4 PM every Wednesday over at http://www.realpunkradio.com. Real Punk Radio is a kickass new site featuring punk, garage, hardcore, and all kinds of great tunes streaming 24/7. Tune in and check out badass shows like Mottey's Garage, Burrito Electrico, and more! Watch out for the new episode of Random Old Records Podcast on Monday: The Nuggets of the 90s Edition featuring a tight selection of obscure, classic '90s indie and punk! Enjoy your weekend folks!

The 5 Most Underrated Albums of the '90s Part 4

4. The Joykiller - Static

(Epitaph, 1996)

The Joykiller was the '90s brainchild of legendary TSOL frontman Jack Grisham. After getting kicked out of his own band in the early '80s, Grisham kicked around southern California, doing time in failed projects like Tender Fury and Cathedral Of Tears, and got mired in drug problems and petty crime. By the release of 1996's Static, he was healthy, sober, and fronting a kickin' band loaded with punk rock lifers. The band's name was taken from an early 20th century slang term for a nagging wife, and as expected, the album is filled with vivid tales of the battle between the sexes. There is a "love meter" in the fold-out artwork, and the levels range from "vindictive" to "vengeful" to "spiteful," so don't be expecting any sweet songs of romance. This is a whiplash quick, 30 minute suite of confusion, hatred and loss, full of huge harmonies and choruses.

The secret weapon of The Joykiller is keyboard and piano player Ronnie King, who crams the songs with pounding chords and crashing rolls, adding heft and thickness to the band's already bruising sound. Piano in punk rock music is such a good idea that I wonder why more bands haven't tried it. Combining it with rise-and-fall Bad Religion-style backing vocals and post-hardcore LA skatepunk results in a deadly force. The songs fade in and out of each other, as well, adding a healthy dose of ambition to an otherwise lazy genre. The one-two punch of "I Don't Know" and "Brainless" cements Static's classic status. In the first track, Grisham croons about being suffocated by married life over some super-fast thrash, resorting to knocking back a drink and sneaking off to the movies for a little peace. Instead of a heroic guitar solo, King scampers up the piano like a drunken cat-and-mouse chase, with notes tripping over one another towards the exit.

I Don't Know - The Joykiller

In contrast, "Brainless" finds Grisham on the outside looking in. With a mid-tempo showtune swagger, he hides outside his beloved's bedroom window waiting for her dad to go to sleep so he can plead his hopeless case. "You once would have begged me to come over there and see you" but not anymore. The "oohs" and "ahhs" in the background lift the song into punk rock West Side Story territory. Such dramatic flourishes were why the album crashed with a thud compared to the other standard-issue Epitaph punk bands like NOFX, Rancid, and Guttermouth. After one more album, the even more pop-oriented Three, The Joykiller disbanded and Grisham reformed TSOL with 3/4 of the original lineup. They have released three albums since, but those are more suited to a "most underrated albums of the 2000s" list.

Brainless - The Joykiller

So, there's one more album on the list, so tune in tomorrow to see what it is!

The 5 Most Underrated Albums of the '90s Part 3

3. The Boo Radleys - Giant Steps

(Creation/Columbia, 1993)

Even back in 1993, epic albums were already in short supply. In particular, UK bands were crafting songs for the singles market, fighting for precious column inches in the NME instead of shooting for something a bit more ambitious. Ambition is something the Boo Radleys had in abundance though, naming their third LP after John Coltrane's classic album from 1960. The title just begs for attention, and describes perfectly the massive leap in songwriting skills since their earlier records, which were mired in My Bloody Valentine worship.

Clocking in at seventeen tracks in around an hour, Giant Steps definitely feels like a classic epic. It's a happy coincidence that fall is in full swing, since this might be the best fall album ever. Shot through with a particularly British sense of whimsy, the Boo Radleys sound at once both bratty and wistful, mixing lazy dub reggae rhythms with deliberate acoustic guitar strums and sudden blasts of feedback. Guitarist and main songwriter Martin Carr crafts dreamy beds of sound, perfect for staring out a picture window on a cold November morning. Vocalist Sice floats across the mix sounding positively childlike and giddy. Childhood memories are a large part of one of the main singles, "Barney (...And Me)." No it's not about everyone's favorite purple dinosaur, but New Order frontman Bernard Sumner. The steady acoustic melody turns into a massive feedback freakout at the end before morphing into the next song.

"Butterfly McQueen" is everything good about Giant Steps squashed into one three minute, thirty second track. Ringing acoustic guitars kick off the song into a sing-songy intro, then it fades into a drum and bass dub-reggae vamp. Sice explodes with a huge trumpet fanfare as the dub rhythms build into swirl of sound until the track takes another direction into a forceful, 80's-style jangle-pop tune before finishing up with a patented feedback blowout. If that sounds like a lot, you're right. This song is an overload in every sense of the word and leaves you breathless. The album was a huge hit with critics when it came out, but never has gotten the classic album status or huge sales that it deserves. America just ignored the band, since it didn't sound like Guns N' Roses or Nirvana and it was made by a bunch of funny talkin' Brits. Giant Steps is one of many British albums that slipped through the cracks before Oasis made it OK for Yanks to like British music again. It is an all-time classic that you need to get, like now!

Check back tomorrow for #4 on the list, and keep your eyes and ears for Random Old Records Podcast #13 out later this week!

The 5 Most Underrated Albums of the '90s Part 2

2. Medicine - Shot Forth Self Living

(Def American, 1992)

The reason Medicine's debut LP was a commercial failure is apparent as soon as you press "play." Lead-off track "One More" begins with an huge, ear-splitting squall of guitar feedback that loops and builds for a full minute before a simple bassline and drumbeat fade into the mix. It then takes another 90 seconds for anything resembling a melody to begin, and even when it does, it's just a huge, layered pile of the same noise and feedback folding in on itself over and over like an origami puzzle. An uncompromising, nine-minute opening track undoubtedly led a bunch of critics and casual listeners to throw the disc in the shitcan before checking out the rest of the songs. What they missed out on was a classic set of beautiful noise by Brad Laner and his ramshackle band of musical miscreants.

Sounds a bit like My Bloody Valentine, does it? True, the influence is impossible to escape. The cooing, mumbled male/female vocals, sculpted noise, and machine-driven dance beats are straight outta Glasgow, but this isn't navel-inspecting UK shoegaze. Nah, this is what I would call "stargaze": a uniquely American sound born out of the gutters and alleyways hidden behind California glitz and palm trees. Each song reaches for beauty and optimism and looks to the heavens for inspiration and release. Album centerpiece "A Short Happy Life" sums it up perfectly. Vocalist Beth Thompson sings about crawling across the floor for what? Love? Drugs? Sunlight? Who knows. Her voice is buried underneath a massive blanket of reverb and blends into the mix. The song pulses and builds for over five minutes before Laner unloads with an epic, triumphant ascending riff that repeats until the track fades out. The result is honestly astonishing.

After hearing Shot Forth Self Living, you would probably assume Laner used a bathtub full of effects and processors to get all the ridiculous guitar tones and noises scattered all over the album. I was shocked to find out that everything was created by running his beat-up guitar through a wah-wah pedal into a 4 track recorder. Just dig this obnoxious riff from the track "Defective." It cuts through the hi-hat-heavy dance beat and swirling layers of echoing feedback like a dentist's drill. By the end of the song, the riff is brutally chopped to the first three notes looped over and over, and it goes on almost to the point of madness. Coming right before America's love affair with Nirvana and everything alternative, and after the UK moved on from shoegaze to Britpop, Medicine's debut fell between the cracks. It is currently out of print, but easy to find in used bins.

Check back tomorrow for the final three entries on the list! Hell yeah!

The 5 Most Underrated Albums of the '90s

In preparation for the next Random Old Records Podcast, I've been gorging on music from the 1990s. Since I've dubbed it the "Nuggets Of The '90s" episode, I've naturally been digging on the more obscure albums released during the last golden age of music. As a result, I've compiled a list of the five most underrated albums of the '90s. This isn't a smug, hipster-style list of the most obscure bands or albums, mind you, just five all-time classics that somehow ended up in dollar bin purgatory. I'll be countin' them down over the next three days, and today I'm starting off with #1.

1. Urge Overkill - Exit The Dragon

(Geffen, 1995)

You might remember Urge Overkill from their ultra-suave cover of Neil Diamond's "Girl, You'll Be A Woman Soon" from the Pulp Fiction soundtrack, or from their MTV semi-hits "Positive Bleeding" and "Sister Havana," which were short, sharp blasts of '70s Cheap Trick/Badfinger-style power pop. Steve Albini once famously slagged 'em off as "weiners in suits playing frat boy party-rock," and "the worst band I've ever recorded." After their initial brush with fame, all the bad vibes and excess came crashing down on Urge Overkill, and the result was this album, one of the darkest ever recorded. Opener "Jaywalkin'" sets the tone with the line "There's evil in this world, and there's not a damn thing you can do" and the bleak atmosphere just never lets up.

Tour burnout, mental torment, drugs, and disillusion are the main themes, so you can tell you're in for a good time. Exit The Dragon perfectly captures the late night, slopped-out atmosphere of '70s albums like Exile On Main Street and Big Star's 3rd, full of false starts, bum notes, awkward chord changes, and thinly-veiled drug references. Drummer Blackie Onassis was a heavy-duty heroin addict when the album was recorded, and his playing is all over the place. His solo spot "The Mistake" is probably the most harrowing song, detailing a lonely hotel room overdose that is so detailed that it can't be anything but autobiographical. First single "The Break" is frontman Eddie "King" Roeser's cry for help. He doesn't use the phone because he's too busy getting wasted alone while simmering, seething late-period Badfinger guitars crunch away in the background.

"Somebody Else's Body" was the second single, written and sung by bassist Nash Kato. Though the music takes the form of a jaunty, Beatlesque shuffle, the lyrics are no less bleak. This time, the protagonist is so numb to reality that they've totally forgotten who they are and what they're doing. No wonder Exit The Dragon was a complete flop upon its release in 1995. Fans expecting the good-time handclaps and power chords of their earlier hits had to have been confounded by the album's unending darkness. Critics also missed the boat, and eventually the label pulled the promo plug and sent it into dollar bin purgatory. Too bad, as Exit The Dragon is Urge Overkill's best album and the most underrated album of the '90s.

Tune in tomorrow for #2 and #3 on the list, and as always, thanks for readin'!

Psychedelia for a Rainy Day

So yeah, today's weather is the pits. It's rainy and gross outside, and the people here at work didn't get the memo that today is Friday. What's a person to do? Close your eyes and float downstream with some blissed-out psychedelic pop! It worked wonders on my mood, so I figured I would share that mellow mood with everyone. This Fall Friday mix is loaded with 13 unlucky tracks and 42 minutes of tripped-out pop old and new from the likes of Olivia Tremor Control, Fields, Stereolab, Can, Galaxie 500, Caravan, and more! Click the link below, download, and enjoy!

http://bit.ly/2iG7YX

Here's a sample: some joyfully goofy Canterbury rock from Caravan - "Love To Love You"

Thanks to everyone who checked out episode #12 of Random Old Records Podcast, and if you haven't, what are you waiting for?! Click the iTunes link on the right to subscribe, or point your internets to http://rorpodcast.mevio.com to stream, subscribe, or download FOR FREE! It's an hour of classic girl group tracks, plus interviews with Ellie Greenwich (RIP), and people have been saying it's my best one yet. Who am I to argue? While you're at it, add yourself to the Random Old Records Podcast fan page on Facebook! Episode #13 will be out in a couple weeks, and this one's the Nuggets of the '90s edition. Tune in for a heaping helping of obscure and unhearalded hits and never-were's from the last golden age of indie rock, alternative, and punk.

Don't forget, it's the freakin' weekend! Sunny days are around the bend, so don't forget to get out and enjoy 'em!