"So what else you got?"- Dinosaur Jr.

The laptop goes back to Dell tomorrow, so here is another post to tide you over until I get my stuff back on track.

Many of my all-time favorite records were released on Spin-Art Records. By the time Virginia-based indie-poppers Poole issued their first full-length on Spin-Art they had developed an addiction to sugar that over-sweetened much of their material with too much gloss, too-perfect harmonies, and not as much atmosphere as their excellent earlier 7" record "Mary Shakes Her Hair" b/w "Car"/"Meredyth on a Monday" (Spin-Art #15). These three songs were all either re-recorded or heavily remixed and remastered for the "Alaska Days" full-length (Spin-Art #44, which featured head Lily Kurt Heasley on one track playing, ahem, water) that I was a bit disappointed with them. This despite the presence of a lot of other great power pop on the record that I hadn't heard before, and that I still like to listen to nowadays.

The final track on Poole's 7" release was committed to tape at the same studio as the Lilys' amazing first record which I often discuss here. The studio, Cat Box, was based in Lancaster, PA, where at least one of the Spin-Art founders was educated at Franklin & Marshall (which soon after served to educate Haywood bassist Jeff Paretchan as well, and host the final Garden Party show prior to the formation of Haywood). So I suppose there was a relationship there between the Spin-Art guys and the studio guy, one of the Heitmullers, who had his own band Suddenly, Tammy! and is aquaintanted with the Monkey. Anyway, before I finally tracked down the Poole 7" earlier this month for my own collection, I had a cassette dub of it I made at Wesleyan some 10 years ago. Ripped from that cassette, here is Poole's "Meredyth on Monday," featuring background vocals by Suddenly, Tammy!'s Beth Sorrentino.

PopMatters last month published not one but two Mendoza Line interviews, one with Shannon McArdle and the other with Peter Hoffman. Both are quite enjoyable and worth your time. I highly recommend all the Mendoza Line recordings, although I have still yet to obtain "I Like You When You Are Not Around" and "Fortune." And come to think of it, I don't have "If they Knew This Was The End," but I think that is a greatest hits kind of thing, and I have most of the songs on other releases.

Haywood Update: Rob V tells me that mixing was slated to begin today on the new Haywood record, and should be completed in early March. Longtime readers will recall this is a studio project only, and Haywood, to my knowledge, has no plans to tour to support the record. They may not even gig, tho I suspect they will play a gig or two.

That is all.