Corduroy - I'll Get Around To It 7"

Truckstop (1993)

Today's review is going up a little bit later than usual as I took the day off from work in order to sleep in this morning.  With Record Store Day tomorrow and the thought of way less sleep than usual for tonight, I figured I'd treat it like a real holiday and just relax today.  Hanging out on the couch listening to this Corduroy 7" again is a pretty great way to spend a Friday morning in the spring.

This two song 7" from 1993 completes my Corduroy 7" collection to the best of my knowledge and what a capper it is.  Both songs are just outstanding.  "I'll Get Around To It" is the more aggressive of the two.  It's got an upper mid tempo beat, fuzzy guitars and those raspy vocals that just make this band for me.  Listening to these records again, it surprises me that Corduroy seemingly ended up as just a forgotten footnote of the early 90's because they're so great.

The B-side "Ill Be On My Way" could be even better than the A-side.  Slightly slower, it's a total throwback to 60's guitar pop.  While it's a bit gruffer and contains more static than your typical 60's production, the singalong chorus and catchy riffs just make me smile when I listen to it.  Throw in the little bit of whistling in the middle and I'm a fan for life of this song.  I wish I could find it streaming online somewhere, but sadly I cannot.  Trust me, it's worth grabbing off Discogs.  It's cheap and it's just fantastic.

Corduroy - Hum 7"

Truck Stop (1992)

It was about a year ago where I noticed that my Corduroy 7" collection wasn't complete.  I'm not sure how that happened exactly but I knew it was something that I needed to fix.  Well, it slipped my mind again until randomly their CD compilation Dead End Memory Lane popped up on iTunes shuffle the other week.  That got me over to Discogs and I picked up the two 7"s I was missing to complete the collection.

This first one is the Hum 7".  It's a four song 7" from 1992 that sounds amazing.  There's something about this sort of low budget, fuzzy and poppy punk rock that just takes me back.  I feel like you don't hear too many bands like this anymore, but twenty-three years later, I guess things are bound to change.  

What hasn't changed are how great these songs are.  First track "Hum" is an upbeat, but mid tempo pop song with raspy vocals and that quintessential 90's move of dropping to drum and bass only in the first part of the verse when they come back from the chorus.  I'm just a sucker for that.  Second up is "Cornflake," which is built off of a slower pace and a more subdued guitar sound.  Another great song though.  

"Strychnine Porcupine" is next and it has a bit of a more generic take on punk rock with the the guitar riff in the verse stopping so some vocals can be shouted, kind of like a hundred mile an hour "Bad To The Bone."  It's probably the weakest song of the bunch, but it segues into "Four Wall Drive."  Perhaps saving the best for last, "Four Wall Drive" is another blast of sing along punk rock with a definite 1990's East Bay flair, but a little more melodic.

All these years later and I just love this band.  I have no idea how this record was not in my collection, but it's here now.  I'll write a bit about their other 7" I picked up tomorrow.

Corduroy - "Cornflake":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiCsTt7lnEs

Corduroy - Overhauls 7"

Corduroy - Overhauls 7", a photo by Tim PopKid on Flickr.

Insignificant (1994)

It's funny, I thought I had all of the Corduroy singles. In fact, I thought I had this one, but not only was I missing the Overhauls 7", there's 2 other 7"s I don't have that I'm going to have to pick up. See kids, I didn't have the internet back then and it used to be tougher to keep track of all of the records bands released. I'm old.

And this 7" sounds old, but in the best possible way. It's wonderful 90's rock. Corduroy have a dash of the Bay Area punk rock sound, but they lean a bit more towards raspy vocal 'alternative rock' than some of their peers. The A-side "Overhauls" has big fuzzy guitar riffs, a gigantic punchy chorus and stomp-on-the-floor overdriven guitar solos/breakdown.

The B-side "GE" takes it down a notch with borderline sludgy bass and palm muted guitar. The muffled, distorted vocals are just audible during the verse that lead into the chorus. I think it's the chorus anyway, it's mostly just a loud chaotic blast of noise with a few random shouts here and there that is sandwiched between the verses. It reminds me of a noisier version of some of the weirder Pavement songs.

I love these old 90's 7" bands. Corduroy, Jolt...the bands that never ended up doing a full length. Well, I won't let them be forgotten, even if I forgot to get 2 of their other 7"s. Discogs, don't fail me now...