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

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

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

Unwound – A Single History 1991-2001 2xLP - Black w/ Splatter Vinyl

Numero (2024, Reissue)

I wrote a lot about Unwound on this website many years ago as I picked up the various Numero box sets that came out.  I love those records and they are the epitome of completeness and a well done retrospective.  That said, there are so many great Unwound songs that are sprinkled throughout those boxes, which makes listening a little scattershot when you're looking at non-album tracks.  Numero makes it easy for dummies like me and have put out a reworked version of the A Single History compilation.

This was originally called A Single History 1994 - 1997, was a single LP and came out on Kill Rock Stars.  Obviously it didn't contain the entirety of Unwound's singles, but gathered up most of the early 7" songs.  Numero took that ball and ran with it farther than a very far thing.  This version is called A Single History 1994 - 2001.  It boasts 23 songs as compared to the original's 16 and is a double LP set.

They also fixed one of the things I find most annoying on singles comps.  The Numero version has all of the songs in chronological order and keeps all of the songs that were on a single together in the track listing.  It's always been a pet peeve of mine when tracks aren't in order on singles comps and to me, this is a much more satisfying listening experience.

There's a ton of great Unwound songs here like "Mkultra," "Corpse Pose" and "Negated."  All hits.  Plus it has my very favorite Unwound song of all time, "Broken E Strings" from the Jabberjaw compilation.  While my friend from high school Pat was super instrumental in making me pay attention to Unwound even before that Jabberjaw comp came out, that song is the one that really grabbed me and made me a fan for life.  This is a great compilation and despite owning these songs on those Unwound box sets, I'm excited to have the easy listening experience of a proper Unwound singles comp.

Unwound – A Single History 1991-2001:
https://unwound.bandcamp.com/album/a-single-history-1991-2001

Unwound / Karate - Fantasma Split 7" - Red Vinyl

Numero (2023)

This 7" was originally available at the Primavera Sound Festival that took place in Barcelona.  Unwound and Karate both played on day three and were grouped as part of the third font size (out of four) on the poster.  As both of these songs are also available on albums by each band, I assume this was mainly released to be a take home trinket of the experience.  Lucky for record dorks like me, Numero put some extra copies up on their website, so I was able to keep my Unwound 7" collection up to date.

On the Unwound side we have "Look A Ghost," from their Leaves Turn Inside You album from 2001.  While the later era Unwound records are definitely not my favorite of their overall discography, this song does stand out as one of the best.  It's not quite as noisy as I usually want my Unwound songs to be, as they rely more on a clean (as in not distorted), but muddy guitar tone.  The playing is intricate though and it's not sleepy like some of the band's other later era songs. 

Karate is a band I never listened to.  I'm not entirely sure why as they aren't a band that I can point to and say "I don't like them because ______."  I just never listened to them and I think I always thought of them as a slow, kind of boring band.  Now that I've heard their contribution to this 7", "There Are Ghosts" from the 1998 album The Bed is in the Ocean, I'm not sure my assumption was incorrect.  It's not a bad song, it is pleasant enough, but it has that slow, smooth jazz sort of indie rock vibe that never did anything for me.  Maybe they have other songs that are a bit more dynamic and exciting, but this one is kind of just there.

If you didn't go to the festival and already like either band, I'm not sure this is an essential release as you probably already have the song.  But for that segment of people that need to hunt down things like this, you can get it at a reasonable price from the fine folks at Numero.

Chisel - Set You Free 2xLP

Numero (2023, Reissue)

I think that most people first heard of Ted Leo as he and the Pharmacists started to gain notoriety.  But for me, I was lucky enough to have gotten on board when his main outlet was still Chisel.  From the moment I heard to opening riff of "Hip Straights," the lead track from their album 8am All Day, I was hooked.  I think that Set You Free had just come out when I had first heard 8am All Day so I essentially bought both albums at roughly the same time.

And as great as 8am was, Set You Free really took things up to a higher level.  The songs were a bit more complicated and you could tell that as songwriters, everyone in the band had grown considerably since the last record.  Yes, there was definitely the mod influenced, Odd Numbers type sound as the ground floor of this record, but there was a stronger indie rock feeling starting to seep in.  The songs were still bouncy, for the most part, but there was a different sort of heft to them this time out.

Numero has reissued Set You Free on double vinyl with some bonus tracks.  I have the original pressing of this, so it was a double dip for me.  The bonus tracks aren't the most eye grabbing, spectacular list of tunes that I've seen.  A live version of "Town Crusher," an extended version of the album's instrumental track, and early versions of two songs, one from the OTS 7" and the other from a split 7" with Velocity Girl.  Only the B side "Guns From Meridian Hill" is a song that's not already on the main album.  But the thought of having it this expanded to the double LP was the real selling point as the original track listing was a bit long to fit comfortably onto a single LP.  

In a real departure for me, I didn't even buy the colored vinyl.  I had some store credit kicking around a place that only had the black vinyl in stock and just figured that I already had this album once, so if I'm going to buy it again it probably makes more sense to buy it with 'pretend money' than it does to shell out new spending on the colored vinyl.  I'm not positive I made the right call to be honest, but as I get older I'm starting to shift more towards having a nice copy in the collection that sounds great versus always trying to chase down the rarest variant.

Set You Free and Chisel as a band have long been favorites of mine.  I was always very happy to see Ted start to receive some of the credit I thought he was due as the Pharmacists thing started to take off, but I always held an extra special place in my heart for Chisel.  I am also very eager to finally get to see them play for the first time in May.  More than anything, what I want to know is if Numero ever plans to tackle 8am All Day or Nothing New and the various singles.  There's a lot of great Chisel music still out there needing the deluxe treatment.  Enough for a proper box set, really.

Chisel - Set You Free:
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=XcLAdr48xuo&list=OLAK5uy_lRs8FvV28IC-wY8ZBRQJ4c4XTILL24nrs