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  mike's cd odyssey

Monday, April 22, 2002

Twig "As the Twig Is Bent So Grows the Tree" (Candy Floss, 1996): I saw Twig a bunch of times when I lived in Boston: they were always opening for someone or other. My favorite thing about them was the bass player's groovy '70s mustache, plus the fact that his name is Niels. They're a good example of "you can't judge a book by its cover," because despite their hippie-ish look, they play pretty straightforward indie-style pop, with no hints of psychedelia or any other sort of Woodstock nostalgia. Kudos to Twig for bucking expectations and doing their own thing. A few of the songs run kind of long on this disc, and the recording quality is kinda flat, but overall it's pretty enjoyable.

Velocity Girl "I Can't Stop Smiling" & "Sorry Again" EPs (Sub Pop, 1994): These singles have the exact same b-sides, but one is from Germany, so I guess that's OK. Also, the German one still has liner notes in English. What's up with that, Sub Pop? The b-sides are quality songs ("au gratin potatoes: that's a quality side"). "Gilded Stars And Zealous Hearts" (Sub Pop, 1996): Like a lot of kids who hopped on the VG bandwagon with "Copacetic", I abandoned ship after "Simpatico!" and never got this one. The thing is, their early stuff was nice melodic pop played with reckless crazy energy, which has dynamic tension, and by the time they did this, it just became nice melodic pop, which is just nice. It just doesn't have that zing, zork, and kapowza ("it's mazooma in the bank"--woo, 2 Simpsons references for one band) that they used to.

Viewmaster "Laugh Lines" (Popfactory, 1997): What an interesting surprise...I was expecting something along indiepop lines but instead what I got was some slightly edgy post-punkish indie rock. This was produced by Gene Holder, who I believe produced some early Yo La Tengo stuff, and this has a similar sound quality and nervous energy (though the music is quite different). The nervous quality and the fact they're from Jersey also brings the Feelies to mind, though Viewmaster isn't as poppy or nerdishly charming. They've definitely got a mid-to-late-'80s thing going on. This isn't immediately accessible but it's quite engaging.

Weeping in Fits And Starts "Blue Funnel World" (Rhubarb, 1998): This is a solo recording guy and as such he runs into some solo recording guy pitfalls (and I can speak from personal experience here). Many of the songs are either over- or under-developed, and there is a bit of a self-indulgent streak running through it. On the plus side, he's very talented and has a great pop ear--the strongest stuff on here calls to mind GBV, Dump, and even a bit of the pop gymnastics of TMBG. All he needs to do to approach genius level is work on his editing skills.

Thus endeth the Odyssey. There are still a lot of compilation CDs to listen to, but I don't think I'd be able to encapsulate those in this kind of format. Thanks for tuning in, and if you've read this whole thing, well, wow!

 posted by mike baehr 1:23 PM


2002
3/17 - 3/23

3/24 - 3/30

3/31 - 4/06

4/07 - 4/13

4/14 - 4/20

4/21 - 4/27


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