Pavement - Sensitive Euro Man Picture Disc

Matador (2020)

Twenty-five years ago in 1995, Pavement released Wowee Zowee.  It was the first album I heard by them and to this day it remains my favorite.  I'll always be thankful for my friend Scott in high school playing the record for me.  In my opinion it is just an absolutely perfect record.  For its twenty-fifth anniversary, Matador has reissued the record on vinyl, and while I don't need another copy of the full length, I did need to pick up the little bonus record they put out with it.

This shaped picture disc is meant to mimmic the speech bubble on the cover of Wowee Zowee and the flip side image on this is all yellow and says "PAVEMENT?" across it, along with the track information. It contains two songs.  The A side is "Sensitive Euro Man" originally from the I Shot Andy Warhol soundtrack.  On the B side is "Brink Of The Clouds/Candylad."  This was from a 1994 radio session that was recorded in Australia.  Both songs are interesting and showcase the weirder side of Pavement, but I don't think either really warrant a standalone shaped picture disc.

These tracks were both collected on the special edition 2xCD Wowee Zowee set that came out some years ago, the Sordid Sentinels edition.  That release contained a ton of B-sides and rarities.  I really wish that rather than creating an expensive picture disc with two songs, Matador had gone forward and released all of that material on vinyl.  They started that process awhile ago by putting out Secret History Vol. 1, focusing on the extra tracks from the Slanted and Enchanted era, but the project never went past that release.

I for one would have taken Vol. 3 over this release any day.  While this picture disc is neat looking, it's mostly just a fancy trinket to add to my collection of Pavement records.  There's no way I wouldn't have bought it as I need to keep my collection as complete as I possibly can, but it's not something I'd ever listen to all that much.  Now Secret History Vol. 3?  I'd listen to that all of the time.

Pavement - "Sensitive Euro Man":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFDbhqkr4iw

Pavement - "Brink Of The Clouds/Candylad":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGTzHvMOUa4

Rocket From The Crypt - Return To Monkey Island 7" - Picture Disc

Self Released (2017)

Towards the end of last year the greatest band on the planet, Rocket From The Crypt, went on the UK tour.  They brought with them this two song 7" that was only available at those shows.  So far, that has held true.  This record hasn't been sold anywhere else and has become one of the harder to find releases in the Rocket catalog.  For whatever reason I figured they'd have some of these leftover and would sell them stateside, but that hasn't been the case yet.  Perhaps it's because of less Rocket shows with Hot Snakes taking the spotlight currently, but I do hope these are released to some more folks that desperately want them.

I'm lucky.  I had a friend pick me up a copy at one of the UK shows.  So, I'll take this opportunity to say thank you, and I highly encourage everyone to buy as many records from Drunken Sailor as possible.  Though that's a cheap plug, I do mean it and would say that even if the juice man hadn't picked this up for me.

On this 7" we have two brand spanking new Rocket FromThe Crypt songs.  The first is "Waiting for the Shoe to Fall."  It starts off with a simple guitar riff that reminds me a little bit of the Sultans, but the song just grows from there.  The hook on this thing is unreal.  I don't think the Speedo John gets nearly enough credit for how god damn catchy his songs can be.  The punk rock bonafides can never be questioned, but the dude can write a hook.  Once the chorus kicks in, the horns swell and stay involved for the duration of the song, elevating everything.  If this is a taste of what we could hear on a future rocket album, sign me up.

On the B side we have "Too Dangerous."  This one has some guitar work that at first, makes me thing about one of the shorter, more straightforward Night Marchers songs.  But like on the A side, once the horns hit and the chorus revs up, it is unmistakably Rocket From The Crypt.  Like "Waiting For The Shoe To Fall," "Too Dangerous" is a short powerful blast of Rocket energy in the verse and the sort of chorus that I can just imagine myself jumping up and down to surrounded by my Swami family.  If it's not obvious, I love both of these. 

It still feels surreal to have new Rocket From The Crypt songs.  Greedily I just wish we had more.  I love Hot Snakes and could not possible be more thrilled that they have a new record and are touring.  But if I'm being honest, Rocket From The Crypt is my favorite band in the whole wide world.  Once this batch of Hot Snakes shows wrap up, I really hope Rocket gets down to the task of a new album.  I can't think of anything more exciting than a possibility of a dozen or so new songs by the mighty RFTC.

Against Me - Stabitha Christie Spicture Disc 7" (RSD 2017)

Total Treble (2017)

Let's face it, I've drastically lost interest in Record Store Day the past few years.  It's not so much that I lost interest in waking up at 3am or standing outside of a record store for 5 hours before it opens, but the releases themselves haven't been very interesting in a while.  You've got your lazy cash grab reissues and your overpriced exclusives.  Bands that I care about seem to be giving up on the day, so my enthusiasm has waned.

I could say similar things about Against Me.  Since the album New Wave, I've been losing interest.  Each record being less engaging than the one before.  It's not to say any of them are bad, they're not and I own them all, but I don't really go back to them repeatedly like the first few.  So many bands get like that after a while so it's even not a criticism leveled exclusively at Against Me.  Nonetheless, it really felt like I was just going through the motions when I went over to Vintage Vinyl at the crack of four pm this year and picked up this record.

That being said, this Against Me Record Store Day 7" is pretty good all things considered.   Despite it's stupid song title, "Stabitha Christie" is a bouncy little song with an old time rock and roll bassline and a surprisingly poppy hook.  To the surprise of no one, I have always gravitated to the poppier Against Me songs.  B side "First High of the Morning" isn't quite as strong.  It's a little slower and more reflective, but it's totally fine.  Worth a nine dollar picture disc?  That's debatable, but there's a better chance of me going back to this 7" than some of the other Against Me records in the pile.

Against Me - "Stabitha Christie":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58ec2UjNA1g

Against Me - "First High of the Morning":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICrWxWIz7dc

The Odd Numbers - A Guide To Modern Living LP - Picture Disc

Dolores (1997)

When A Guide To Modern Living came out I was already a gigantic fan of The Odd Numbers due to their prior record Jazz Cigarettes.  I played that one to death and was really eager to add another record to the collection.  Well, technically it was a CD at the time, but you get the idea.  For whatever reason, A Guide To Modern Living just didn't resonate with me the same way.  I never listened to it much and eventually sold away my copy during one of my CD prunings of the mid 2000's.

When a friend of mine was unloading the last of his record collection, I perused to see if there was anything I needed before the inevitable sale.  He had a copy of A Guide To Modern Living, so I decided to give it another shot.  I'm glad I did as I like it a lot more now than I did the first time I listened to it twenty years ago.

I will contend that the highs are still not as high as the ones on Jazz Cigarettes.  There's certainly no song that is the caliber of "So Many Girls," but Modern Living has its own charms, despite some missteps that are probably the reasons I didn't like it when I first listened to it.  The pace is quick and the songs are the sort of bouncy mod that you'd expect from the Odd Numbers for the first few songs.  It's really what they're best at.  From their things do start to meander.  You've got weirdly arranged songs like "Clubbin'" an even weirder dub version of it called "Dubbin'" and probably more acoustic numbers than should be around.

While the slower songs just don't hit, the faster, poppier ones land every single time.  I can even appreciate the lesser songs more now within the context of the album.  Sure there's a few strange detours, but as a whole, it's a solid listen.  

The Odd Numbers - A Guide To Modern Living (You Tube playlist):

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpIBU9ncdLqwrlofmvSVp2d32mKAUheBI

Against Me - Unconditional Love 7" - Picture Disc

Total Treble (2014)

Picture discs have always been an odd bird for me.  While I can appreciate that they can look pretty cool sometimes, there seem to be a lot of instances where I just don't see the point.  Particularly since they often don't sound all that great when compared to a normal record.  This Against Me 7" is one of those records.  You can have a picture disc like Rocket From The Crypt's Boychucker 7" that's just bursting with artwork and color.  But this very minimal, very black and white illustration just isn't screaming out to me that it needs the picture disc treatment.  Plus with all of that blank space, couldn't they put the band name on there somewhere instead of slapping that gigantic sticker on the sleeve?

Anyway, musically it's pretty good.  "Unconditional Love" is a song that I really like, though it is already on the last Against Me full length, so this 7" only exists to me as a vessel for the B-side.  "500 Years" is also pretty good.  Just drums and acoustic guitar.  Slower than you'd think without much of the angst that the band can be known for, but still a good song.  It makes sense to me that it's a B-side, though I'm not sure it's strong enough to really anchor this record.

At the end of the day, you still have to respect what Against Me is doing.  This 7" was $5 in the store I was at.  Almost every other 7" I looked through was between $7 - $10 dollars.  If nothing else, at least Against Me and Total Treble are keeping their prices punk rock.  I'm always happy to support that and this record is absolutely worth every penny of the $5.