Jejune - Junk LP - Black w/ Gray Swirl Vinyl

 
Number (2026, Reissue)

Jejune is one of those bands that I was on board with from the get go, but also one that never really reached past a certain level for me.  I never was into Garden Variety, so that's not why I bought Jejune's split 7" with them the moment it came into the record store.  There was already scuttlebutt that they were going to be doing a split 7" with Jimmy Eat World and such was the power of Static Prevails that the thought was any band on the other side of a split with them must be worthwhile.  

So the Garden Variety split 7" was purchased and Jejune's "Drive By Negly" proceeded to melt my brain.  What a song.  Just an incredibly perfect song and one that will always be my favorite Jejune song.  Why it isn't on this album as a bonus track or as part of a lavish Numero box set or at least on a lousy singles comp, I'll never know.  But to say that song set expectations high for the impending release of Junk is the understatement of the 90s.  My expectations were so high that in hindsight, they couldn't have possibly been met.

Junk is a very good album.  It contains great songs.  It contains no songs that I like as much as "Drive By Negly" and I think because of that, I always viewed this album and its follow up as disappointments.  Which really isn't fair.  "Meteorite" is a fuzzed out blast of hooky guitar riffs, perfectly timed melodic breakdowns and syrupy sweet harmonies.  It's the kind of song you might be inclined to call perfect if not for "Drive By Negly" taunting you from the distance.  

Throughout the albums eight songs, we have slower tracks that lean into the emo tag a bit more, we have other chunky guitar punk songs and catchy pop ones that sit right in the middle of those.  It's a wonderfully diverse album for its criminally short eight song length.  Which may be another issue I've had over the years, it felt too short.  Add on two more songs (one of them could even be from a certain aforementioned split 7") and you've got a stew going.

But all warped perspectives aside, this is a strong record and one that has aged much better than releases by many of their contemporaries.  As usual, the Numero reissue is the tops of the top notch, but again this probably should have been a box set with all of Jejune's bits and bobs compiled and documented the way they deserve to be.  Also, "Drive By Negly" is a really great song.

Jejune - Junk:

https://numerojejune.bandcamp.com/album/junk

Ugly Duckling – Down The Road 2xLP

Back 2 Da Source (2025, 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 thirty 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.

Other than the Hieroglyphics crew, there wasn't a lot of hip hop that I was paying attention to after 1994.  I had mostly moved on to punk and indie rock and when I would occasionally dip my toe back in to see what was happening, inevitably I would be disappointed.  But in the year 2000, two albums came out that made me reevaluate my relationship with rap.  The first of these records was Jurassic 5's Quality Control.  And the second was Journey to Anywhere by Ugly Duckling.  Both of these albums alerted me that there were still people doing interesting things in hip hop. 

Ugly Duckling seemed the more unabashed of the two when it came to harkening back to the style of hip hop I liked best.  Their production could have slid right in to 1993 and you'd hardly notice.  The rapping also connected with me, mixing the Das EFX pop culture references (but no diggitys) with the non sequitur these-words-just-sound-nice-together feeling of early Beck.  Name drop The Great Space Coaster and I'm paying attention.  What I didn't know at the time was that Ugly Duckling had been around for a while and had even self released an album on cassette back in 1995.  30 years later, Back 2 Da Source stepped up to the plate and reissued that long lost album on vinyl for the first time.

It's every bit as good as Journey to Anywhere.  Quite literally in some cases as six of the songs from that album also appear on Down The Road in some capacity.  For some, like "Pick Up Lines" and "Journey to Anywhere," are quite similar; demos of what was to come.  But for others, "If You Want To Know" and "Down The Road" being big examples, the production is wildly different making them feel like completely unique songs.  And sure, six songs repeating sounds like a lot, but there are ten other songs on here that aren't on Journey to Anywhere, and that's not even including the skits.

It's an incredible collection of songs and is just the sort of thing I really needed to hear in 1995, but never did.  This is the sort of hip hop I love, particularly in the way the beats are structured.  I feel like this kind of production is a completely lost art.  I'll never understand why no one can make records that sound like this anymore, but at least there is a seemingly unneeded number of 30+ year old records that I can go back to and cherish.

Ugly Duckling – Down The Road:

https://uglyduckling.bandcamp.com/album/down-the-road

Unwound - New Energy 7"

Numero (2025)

This is one of those records that definitely falls into the category of being a collectible.  This was made to be a tour only 7" for Unwound in 2025.  Once said tour was over, Numero sold some on there website.  Both songs are originally from their 1995 album The Future Of What.  Not sure why it was decided they needed to also be on a 7", but I do like 7"s and Unwound and I have all of their other 7"s, so I bought it anyway.

I didn't go crazy though, they made three different screened covers for this and they randomly sent them out to the folks that ordered.  They didn't promise that if you ordered three copies you'd get all three versions, though they did say they'd try.  While I wanted one, I don't need three different versions.  

Based on my usual luck, I assumed I'd get the cover that I was least interested in, but lo and behold I actually got the Godzilla cover.  This really is the one I wanted and needed, so I thank the record collecting fates for actually letting me get the version I coveted the most.  And now that the picture of it has been taken, it's off to the 7" storage box to sit next to my other Unwound 7". Rarely played as I have all of those songs on albums.

Unwond - "New Energy":

https://unwound.bandcamp.com/track/new-energy

Unwound - "Petals Like Bricks":

https://unwound.bandcamp.com/track/petals-like-bricks

Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E. – New Funky Nation LP

4th & Broadway (1990) 

 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 thirty 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.

I can't write about Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E. without first discussing how much I love the Judgment Night soundtrack.  A lot.  That's how much I love the Judgment Night soundtrack.  Once of the highlights being the Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E. collaboration with Faith No More, "Another Body Murdered."  It's such a tough sounding song with dark, driving music and really hard rapping courtesy of Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E.  Such a great song and back they I was desperate to find more Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E. but I never did.

Many, many years later I found out that they had a record that came out in 1994 called Doomsday and this record, New Funky Nation, that was released in 1990.  Right in the middle of that was a 1992 album called Good Times, Bad Times that was never released.  I think that's probably the Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E. record that would be most up my alley, even though I've never heard it.  It's closest in proximity to the Judgment Night soundtrack, Doomsday is way too overrun with G Funk nonsense and New Funky Nation is just a bit too late 80s to be what I'm looking for.

That's not to say it's a bad record.  It's not, it's actually pretty good, but it suffers from sounded a little bit dated the same way that a lot of late 80s hip hop can often sound.  It's the sort of thing that I need to be in the right mood to listen to, though when I am in that meed New Funky Nation fits the bill nicely.  What sets it apart from a lot of hip hop of the time is that Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E. played instruments on the bulk of this album, laying down funk influenced bass lines, pounding the kick drum and hitting some nicely sung hooks.  

The lyrics and delivery is not quite as tough as "Another Body Murdered," but it's pretty close.  The Boo-Yaa boys are not messing around and it's the best part of the album.  I feel like if it had slightly more advanced sound and had come out in say, 1992 like their second album was supposed to, I think they could have dropped a classic.  New Funky Nation is very good, but I can't help but wonder what Good Times, Bad Times sounded like.  Best I can tell it's never been leaked online anywhere, though if I'm wrong and it has, someone please point me in that direction.

Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E. – New Funky Nation:

https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=wtj3sgm8M_I

Wavers - Look What I Found LP

Salinas / Reach Around (2025)

I shall begin by giving Wavers perhaps the most backhanded compliment I've written in a while.  If this record came out in 1996, I wouldn't have noticed it.  It would have been 'oh, there's another indie sounding band from K / Kill Rock Stars land.'  I don't know that they would have stood out to me at the time as being anything other than 'good.'  But hearing this record in 2026, it kind of floors me because I don't really feel like bands are making this sort of music anymore.  It stands out in a way that I don't know if it could have 30 years ago, even though it's cultivating those familiar sounds.  

Which makes me think, how many bands did I not give a fair shake to back then because of the insane glut of incredible releases dropping what seemed like weekly.  How many gems did I miss?  Many, I'm sure.  Backtracking to bands I overlooked in the 90s in recent years has brought many a band to the forefront that I didn't have the time or money for back then.  I think Wavers would have been the same - appreciated more later.

I hope that doesn't happen to them, as their combination of textured indie pop guitar rock mixed with Rosie's strong, but infinitely hooky vocals are the sort of combination that bands would kill for.  Yes, you can draw a line to other Pacific Northwest luminaries like the Spinanes, Crabs and Go Sailors of the world, but what sets Wavers apart is the music.  This isn't sparse, twinkling indie rock.  This full sounding, bass heavy Indie Rock with a capital I, with those perfect K records style vocals on top.

Again, I don't feel like I hear a lot of bands like this anymore.  Maybe I'm just not looking in the right places anymore, which I won't discount as a possibility (probability?).  But coming across this album is a welcome surprise.

Wavers - Look What I Found:

https://waversoly.bandcamp.com/album/look-what-i-found-2

Dillinger Four - This Shit Is Geniuser LP - Green Vinyl (and Bonus Flexi)

 
Anxious & Angry (2025)

Anxious & Angry has reissued the Dillinger Four singles compilation, dubbing this new version This Shit Is Geniuser.  It takes the existing This Shit Is Genius comp that THD and No Idea put out a few decades ago and spruces it up with a few new tracks.  It is nice to have a new version of this, though I wish they had taken it a step further.  More on that later.  Also included was a flexi of one of the new songs that was added to the album.

As weird as it sounds, this is my favorite Dillinger Four record, even though it's not a proper full length.  The main backbone of it has always been The Kids Are All Dead 7", Higher Aspirations: Tempered and Dismantled 7" and the split 7" with The Strike.  These are the songs that first made me fall in love with Dillinger Four.  I vividly remember when my buddy Alan played me The Kids Are All Dead at Flipside records and in that second, I became a D4 fan for life.  

Particularly because of my favorite song of theirs, "Two Cents."  I can't even describe that song in anyway to do it justice.  An incredible song with a driving, attacking verse that somehow transitions into a the catchiest, bounciest, angriest chorus you've ever heard.  It's ridiculous.  And it's one of many unbelievable songs.  All of those 7" tracks are borderline perfect.  The compilation song "Holy Shit" often gets my vote for the song I wish was three times as long as it actually is.  I love these songs.

This new version has all of those songs and adds in the four from the Mutant Pop 7" and "Like Spreewells On Wheelchairs" from the Rock Against Bush compilation (which is also the song on the bonus flexi).  All welcome additions, but by my count there's at least nine more D4 tracks floating around out there from various compilations and what not.  The two tracks from the Pinhead Gunpowder split 7" being the ones that seem the most obvious.  If it's me, maybe this needs to be a double LP?  Or you do a straight reissue of the original version and then do a volume 2?  Lots of options, but the point I'm making is that my main complaint is that I want more and more and more Dillinger Four in my life.  Give me more of these old song.  And give me new songs, we sure could use them in 2026.

Dillinger Four - This Shit Is Geniuser:

https://dillingerfour.bandcamp.com/album/this-shit-is-geniuser

Sons Of Sam - You Oughta Know 2xLP

90s Tapes (2023)

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 thirty 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.

You Oughta Know is another one of those albums that has been sitting in my to-write-about piles for way too long.  This came out in September of 2023.  That's almost two and a half years ago and it seems crazy that I still haven't gotten to it.  Better late than never I suppose, but this write up is not what I would call prompt.

Sons of Sam existed in the early 90s and were recording tracks during the peak of the golden era of 1993 to 1994.  They released one 12" single and that was pretty much all that was heard of them until some reissues later on.  You Oughta Know is the ultimate of this reissues as it puts out what should have been the groups debut album.  Recorded during the timeframe mentioned earlier (aside from bonus track recorded in 1996) this feels like the sort of record that would have slid nicely into a late 1994 release.

The beats are good and many of the tracks lean towards the more laid back side of the equation.  We're not yet at a full on 1995 and later snoozefest, there's enough ruggedness that propels the tracks forward with hard hitting drums.  If anything these songs are more like the jazzy mellower moments of Tribe with lots of upright bass, but with very different vocalists.  And it's not every song, you get to something like "Get It On" and the BPMs ratchet up while hitting the soul section of the crate digging and we're in the midst of a song that would have definitely been a favorite of mine if it had been released back then.

Lyrically PA-Kid and Xav both bring their A game and the result is two MCs that have that deep voiced gravitas that make their rhymes seem even more important.  Admittedly, I don't always know which one is which as they are not the type of MCs that say their own names all the time, but they are equally skilled and whoever is rapping gets the job done.  

The album recieves the usual lavish 90s Tapes treatment saving this album from the dustbins of history.  When they pull something like this out of obscurity and make it available, that's when they often do their best work.  And Sons of Sam is right up there with their best releases.

Sons Of Sam - You Oughta Know:

https://90stapes.bandcamp.com/album/ya-oughta-know

Uniflora - More Gums Than Teeth LP - Blue Vinyl

Shuga / Charm Co-op (2025)

Until I was sent this album to check out, I hadn't heard of Uniflora.  Didn't know a thing about them or what I was in for until I started this up for the first time.  My first thought being, 'well that's a very Pixies sounding bass line they're starting off with.'  Which, if you are going to try to get me interested in an album, making me think about the Pixies isn't the worst way to keep me listening.  Uniform doesn't really sound anything like the Pixies aside from those opening moments, but the bass playing stands out on pretty much every song.

I don't feel like I write about a lot of albums and focus on how much I like what the bass guitar is doing, but this is a unique album in that regard.  The songs on here are wildly different as the album progresses.  Slower, math-y ones lead into faster noisy ones lead into sort of poppy ones and every single time the bass is doing something unique and exactly what it should be doing to make the song sound interesting and stand out.  The fact that the drumming is locked in creating a super tight rhythm section only helps to accentuate that.

They lay the foundation which allows the guitar to play a different role in each of the different styled songs.  This is a band that can take chances and succeed when they try something different, which even today I think is something not many can do.  The vocals that tie everything together lean towards the monotone.  Think So Cow or Eddy Current Suppression ring.  Sometimes they work perfect for the song, other times it might be nice if there was a bit more emoting.  But musically, this is a really interesting album to listen to and I'm glad it was sent along.  If you like some post punk math Midwest type stuff, they're worth checking out.

Uniflora - More Gums Than Teeth:

https://uniflora1.bandcamp.com/album/more-gums-than-teeth