Frostiva 'Ochnomos'

my first encounter with frostiva was when they were already broken up but some of 'em were called rabbit and they got a song on an alive comp, so forgive me if i completely missed th boat. this disc knows what it's doing and clocks in at th perfect 26 minutes, tho' with six songs ya gotta wonder what th ladies are doin' rilly, i mean 15 songs/26 mins, sure, one song/26 mins, sure, but six/26? hm. well i can tell ya what they're doin' in fact is darkly jammin' around with some smooth and sinister harold faltermeyer synths they hint at with th first tune ("la magia verde") but there they are knee-deep in track three ("zero hour") after begging ya to notice in track two ("paramount impostor"). kind of a siouxsie-without-a-budgie vibe in some ways, or a magneta-lane-without-th-pop-songcraft. fourth tune ("eros") is straight in with a throwing muses approximation that almost immediately gives way to something that coulda been on th fourth or fifth lush lp. certainly a post-shoegaze vibe that carries over into th fifth track ("pathos") but th kind of shoegaze vibe that's aware that lush covered zounds on a single, and isn't afeared of borderline prog/math arrangements and that kristen hersh warble. this sounds more cle that col's even down to th post-industrialisms (lestat, i mean) of th final number ("suspiria" - complete with those goblin synth-swathes). more than anything tho' i'm thinking they were a VERY indie heartthrobs which makes sense i guess i mean they shoulda had a tune in th end credits of th l-word too. i think they're pretty much back together or at least were as behind you with knives (possibly th best kitchen reference band name ever).

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Human Boys

human boys have a lot in common with ipps for sounding exactly dick like them: they play shows slim-to-no times a year; their tapes, tho' killer, pale extremely seriously in th face of those rare live shows; and they're in th tippity-topmost percentile of insanely great bands to ever aimlessly wander col's streets. th first of th two cassettes here compiled finds h.b. in a similar setup across th tracks, with one of 'em on drums, one of 'em on vocals (predominantly positively SPAT across whatever room they were in), and one' of em (i should mention there's only two of 'em) on grinding, distorted keyboards; th second tape obfuscates this arrangement (if indeed it's employed) with jackhammered samples and an even-more boombox-esque recording quality, but weaving thru th bilge is some of th most aggressively inventive aand necessary musick this side of th suicide, throbbing gristle, & this heat records that it belongs in league with.

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Superstar Rookie // Early Empire

roughly 150,000 years ago i was talking to kevin from 84 nash and he mentioned that they (of consistent drummer woes up to that time) were almost positive they were gonna hire this dude dan i'd never met and would i like to go "check out" his band even though he played guitar in it? yeah, sure, ok, sez i, so we go to th then-newly-reopened northberg tavern (aka basement of donato's) and see superstar rookie play. i left afterward pretty jazzed aboot it cuz they were doing a sort of jawbreaker thing that was a lotta fun and (i know it seems impossible to believe) no one else was mining th same territory, so (for that as well as myriad musical reasons) it seemed damned fresh. after meeting those dudes my old band (don't ask) played with them many a time and they at one point dragged me to this funky, failing bar/grill they said they were gonna turn into a rock club by badgering th weirdo old dude there who would nuke you a hotdog for 75¢ (which they did, that place is our beloved bobo) and then of course after awhile they broke up like everybody does. dan (bandman) did indeed play with and eventually quit 84 nash and started the handshake and is now back drumming in kyle sowashes and for awhile a coupla th other rookie guys (travis & cop) had a band called early empire (with another handshake guy - joel walter, who also plays with kyle sowash now, but in his other band, animal cubes - as it happens), whose ep i am so nice as to include in this file here available as well. listening to th 'problem with words' disc after digging it out from oblivion a few months ago, i was pleased as PUNCH to note how well it's holdin' up. i ended up playing it three times at th bar that nite and no one bitched.

early empire are maybe a bit more "serious" - with some uncomfortable nods (probably inadvertent) toward th crummy butt-rock side of 'emotion' so prevalent in th late '90s (and still) - but it's good to hear th dudes let go on some of th mid-song passages and fast bits. their love for intertwine-y treepeople guitar figures really shines on "january one" - probably th most rookie-like of th songs on their disc - and their abiility to write sunny day-style stuff without completely ripping them off quite maybe inspired a little jealousy from th rookie's recordist jon chinn. (file includes th aforementioned 'the problem with words' cd & early empire ep - 'resolutions and a gun' - as well as superstar rookie's way-great debut 45 on diaphragm.)

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16 Bitch Pile-Up

sarah bernat was in town last last wknd (at least) & talkin' to her briefly at th bar reminded me that i'd found a few instances of their tapes &c being available to dl but hadn't mentioned that on this here blarg yet. as with all (sure) groops that get lumped in with their peers, 16 bitch are about as different from sword heaven as they are from rc mob, but their recordings are of such a consistently high quality that i wouldn't hesitate to mention them in th same breath with not only s.h. but mb, pengo, sightings, &c. if you actually downloaded th magician killer record (if not well DO IT NOW), dug it, & haven't heard these ladies, fucking pucker up. they released appr. 7000 records; here's four. thanks to not noise music and the static fanatic for these.

b.f.f.
lord hall
make like a fetus and abort (with mike shiflet)
ADAD

Tom Foolery & The Mistakes

before there was them kyle sowashes there was tom foolery and the mistakes and if you like th latter you'll like th former and fer shirley vice-a versa. once i seen em open for duvall in dayton. like you care.

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The Bygones 'Circles'

the bygones' first proper album-length release here, and tho' i prefer th two sessions prior (one released on cdr with a sleeve photo depicting much desk clutter and milwaukee's best and th other - th debut of "burgundy eyes" - simply a lost demo; i have since lost my copies of both of these), that doesn't mean this isn't a fuckin spectacular disc. every song on here is a classic and if anybody gave two sh*ts aboot th first wallflowers record i'd say this one deserves to be right up there alongside it. as it is, it is - but in th $3 bin (great things come from there). sigh.

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