Boilermaker – Not Enough Time To Get Anything Halfway Done Box Set - Blue Vinyl

Numero Group (2024, Reissue)

I was reasonably plugged in to a lot of music that was happening in the mid 90s.  I followed as much as I could and bought as much as I could afford.  Yet despite my best efforts, there are bands that slipped through the cracks for me and Boilermaker is one of them.  You'd think that being from southern California would have helped get them on my radar considering how much I tried to follow what was happening in San Diego, but it wasn't until many years after they stopped playing that I had even heard of them, let alone heard them.  Full disclosure, listening to this box set was the first time I have heard the vast, vast majority of these songs.

But it's records like this that I think the phrase "better late than never" was invented for.  Boilermaker is a pretty great band.  They're in that post punk, emo adjacent wheelhouse if you want to throw around genre specifications that don't really mean a whole hell of a lot any more.  What I can say, in my dumb way, is that they're a noisy rock band, that has just enough melody to make their angst palatable to me.  There are times, particularly in the vocals, that I'm reminded of fellow California cohorts, No Knife.  There are other times where the vibes feel more midwestern in nature, bringing to mind new label mates and last week's box set stars Boys Life.

As with most Numero offerings, this box set is a triumph.  Complete to a fault with all of their albums and an singles along with some demos and live material.  The box set itself is gorgeous with their usual perfectly executed liner notes book that helps tell the story of this band.  The closest thing I have to a complaint is that two of the songs are included on a bonus 7" that went out to the first 500 orders and those songs aren't part of the larger box set.  I have the 7", so I'm good - but it is a little strange to me that it feels like an add on.  I'm sure there's a reason for that, I'm just not sure what it is.  Other than that minor quibble, it's another home run from Numero.

Boilermaker – Not Enough Time To Get Anything Halfway Done:
https://boilermakernumero.bandcamp.com/album/not-enough-time-to-get-anything-halfway-done

T-Max - The Alleywalker 2xLP (/250)

 

Trumindz (2024) 

Every Wednesday, in honor of Ed Lover Dance Day from Yo! MTV Raps, I take a break from rock and roll to write a little bit about hip hop. In the late 80s and early 90s hip hop ruled my musical life. During this often called 'Golden Era' I discovered so much incredible music. As I am slowly replacing the CDs I've had for twenty-five plus years with vinyl copies, I'm going to talk about some albums that had a really important impact on me during some very formative years.

The Alleywalker was originally meant to be released back in 1993, but for whatever reason (I looked, but couldn't really find any information about why) it wasn't actually released.  30 plus years later, here it is courtesy of Trumindz Records.  I had never heard of T-Max prior to this reissue popping up and I'm grateful I was in the right place at the right time when it came out so I could grab it.  It's sold out now and I would have been bummed out to miss on this one.

In some ways, I sort of feel like the only thing I need to say about this album is that it was supposed to come out in 1993.  It has the sort of beats and production that are kind of synonymous with that year and it's everything I'm looking for in my hip hop.  The tracks are fast paced, the bass lines are real head nodders and that aggressive snare drum crack hits right where it needs to be every time.  T-Max is from Boston, so you definitely get that golden era classic sound.

Lyrically, T-Max more than gets the job done.  I sort of hear a little bit of a similarity to Ed O.G., but that just might be my brain applying someone else from Boston to T-Max's sound.  Regardless of who is is or isn't similar to, he knows his way around a rhyme and lays out some standard, but excellent tales of life and of mic supremacy.  This is definitely the sort of album I'd recommend whole heartedly to folks that like that early 90s sound and are looking to check out something that hadn't heard before.  It's a bummer it's sold out, but it's definitely worth hunting for.

T-Max - The Alleywalker:

https://youtu.be/gokFivAkvMY?si=FopaPJf-UE35enQk

Jesse - Complete Discography 2xLP - 3 Versions (UK/US, Germany & Japan)

Little Rocket / Sounds Of Subterrania / Waterslide / Rad Girlfriend (2024, Reissue)

Jesse is the Frankie Stubbs band that released records for a brief moment in time between 1995 and 1998.  It was after the initial incarnation of Leatherface and the band Pope, before Leatherface eventually started playing again.  They released three 7"s, a Japanese tour split 7" with Hooton 3 Car and a full length album that capped things off in '98.  This new double LP discography compiles everything from those releases plus a previously unreleased bonus song.

Let's start out with the music, it's flawless.  The songs album is in rarified air for me as I absolutely love it and have been pretty obsessed with everything the band was doing since those 7"s first started coming out.  It's very much a band that makes sense as being a Frankie Stubbs band, it's not dissimilar to Leatherface or Pope enough to not appeal to fans of those bands.  But at the same time, I always felt there was something a little smoother about the Jesse songs.  

Maybe it's just that they are a touch slower and more melodic than some of the more aggressive Leatherface recordings that proceeded it.  But if you had heard The Last or the Pope record, if made a lot of sense that this is where Frankie was going next.  Just flawless songs and the only complaints I ever had is that I wish the LP didn't also have all of the 7" songs on it. and we had gotten 14 brand new ones instead of just seven.

OK, let's get to the variations.  First up is the standard version on grey swirl vinyl.  It was also available on orange, blue and white vinyl.  Not sure of the pressing information on each of the individual colors, but I'm not aware of any one of them being rarer or pressed in different numbers than any of the others.

Second, we have the Sounds of Subterrania version from Germany.  This one was pressed on good old fashioned black vinyl, but has alternate, screened artwork that is just spectacular.  The picture doesn't do justice to the flap, tuck in thing that closes up the whole package.  The cover art is taken from the Indestructible 7", which also happens to be my favorite Jesse song.

Finally is the Waterslide version from Japan.  This one is on clear vinyl, that is described on the Waterslide website as being "coke blue."  It also comes with a sharp looking obi that I'm a big fan of.

I don't buy as many duplicate copies of albums as I used to.  The variant game is a game I've decided is just too expensive these days.  But for an album as important to me as this one is and the three distinct versions that were made, I just couldn't pass them up.  But hey, I'm showing some restraint.  I didn't get all four different colors of the standard version.

Jesse - Complete Discography:
https://jesselrr.bandcamp.com/album/jesse-complete-discography

Boys Life – Home Is A Highway Box Set - Clear/Blue Vinyl (/250)

Numero Group (2024)

Boys Life was a band that I originally discovered while writing for my college newspaper.  In my dealings with Cargo records, they sent me a review copy of Departures and Landfalls and I was immediately taken with it.  While I tended to prefer the poppier strains of that wave of emo, something about Boys Life really connected with me.  Or I guess it's more accurate to say that Departures and Landfalls connected with me, for whatever reason, I never hunted down their other records the way I did for most bands of that era.

Luckily, Numero has done the hunting for me.  Which is a relief as that first album in particular was very rarely available and when it was always seemed to be priced outside of my comfort zone.  This box set solves that problem by gathering up both Boys Life full lengths along side of every other song from their demo and various 7"s.  There's even some live tracks as a bonus.

It's those first two albums that are the biggest draws for me and both sound fantastic as part of this set,  I've been kicking myself that it took me so long to finally hear the self titled one as it's really great and something I really should have been listening to for years at this point.  The singles/demo part of this box set is also outstanding.  A lot of those early songs did end up on the first album, but typically different versions, so I enjoy having access to everything.  Plus there's still a solid amount of songs not on either full length.  The live material is nice to have, but I'm not really a live record guy, so it's probably the bit I'm least interested in.

Of course, Numero comes correct with outstanding packaging on this release.  Everything is given the extra primo good treatment and the accompanying liner notes really are more of a book than just notes for the albums.  If there was a label to tackle this project, I couldn't think of a better one than Numero.  There are so many bands I'd like to see them give this sort of treatment to; Seaweed, Christie Front Drive, No Knife...but they could start by doing Chisel, who thus far have only had one of their LPs reissued on Numero Group.  Gimme a box!

Boys Life – Home Is A Highway
https://boyslife.bandcamp.com/album/home-is-a-highway

Bomb Threat - Bomb Threat LP

 

 90s Tapes (2024, Reissue) 

 Every Wednesday, in honor of Ed Lover Dance Day from Yo! MTV Raps, I take a break from rock and roll to write a little bit about hip hop. In the late 80s and early 90s hip hop ruled my musical life. During this often called 'Golden Era' I discovered so much incredible music. As I am slowly replacing the CDs I've had for twenty-five plus years with vinyl copies, I'm going to talk about some albums that had a really important impact on me during some very formative years.

Originally released on cassette in 1995, Bomb Threat was definitely not something on my radar back then.  It's another one of those misplaced relics that 90s Tapes has leapt in to rescue and give a proper reissue to.  It's a short album, clocking in at 25 minutes and really only has six actual songs, making it one of the rare single LPs in the 90s Tapes discography.  But it's still treated with the usual respect, looking and sounding great.

Bomb Threat is a crew and the album plays more like a compilation.  Five of the six songs are helmed by specific MCs or groups and it's not until the final track that the whole unit is credited for a song.  I don't know any of the individual groups or MCs on this record, but I certainly wouldn't mind hearing more from some of them.

As I've mentioned many times, 1995 is that line in the sand year for me with hip hop most of the time.  1994 and earlier is where my heart typically lies.  If a record came out in 1995 or later, it's more of a rarity for me to connect with it.  It does happen though, and Bomb Threat is one of those time, and it really boils down to the production for me.

There are great beats on this album, and while they tend to lean towards the mellower side of the golden era, they also lean close enough to that rougher early 90s sound to grab my attention.  This is particularly apparent in the first two songs.  "Phenomenal" by Bleak may not quite be phenomenal, but it's awfully good with a killer beat that Bleak runs roughshod over.  The other highlight for me is "Sabotage" which is attributed to Lifesavas & Sly Brown Da Hornet.  Again it's the production that seals the deal for me, though everyone on the mic gets the job done on this as well.

The rest of the songs are all good, there's nothing on here that I don't like, it's just those first two that tend to steal the show every time I listen to it.  I'm not sure if any of these guys have more material from the early to mid 90s but if they do, I'd love to hear it.

Bomb Threat - Bomb Threat:
https://90stapes.bandcamp.com/album/bomb-threat

Bambies - Snotty Angels LP - Smokey Gray Vinyl

Spaghetty Town / Wanda (2024)

This album was sent to me along with the Peawees album I wrote about a few weeks back.  I didn't know Bambies before getting this LP, but I'm pleased to make their introduction.  This band is from Montreal and I guess has been going since 2014.  Snotty Angels is their second full length, with their first one having been release on tape only, it seems.

I was mildly trepidatious before playing this, as snotty isn't usually a descriptor used for the bulk of the bands I'm into.  I can't tell you how many times I've put on a record where the music is promising only to have it ruined by someone who absolutely can't sing in any capacity.  Luckily, that didn't happen with Bambies.  While the vocals do certainly have an element of 'snot' to them, it's not to the point where the growl takes over and the tunes become painful.  There's enough melody still coming through to carry the songs and when you add in the backing vocals, we've got some nice choruses going on here.

Musically, this is some really nice jangly power-pop-punk-garage type stuff.  I'm reminded a bit of the the two Love Boat records that came out on Alien Snatch quite a few years ago.  There's also a bit of The Cute Lepers mixed in as well.  It's upbeat, the musicianship is on point and is just a generally enjoyable record.  A pleasant bonus with another record I was already looking forward to.

Bambies - Snotty Angels:
https://thebambies.bandcamp.com/album/snotty-angels