"She opens up the conversation with hey, what's that, over there?" - the Lilys.

This morning we hit a major milestone. We had arrived at the office to find waiting for us Che's British re-release of the Lilys' Better Can't Make Your Life Better. The purchase brought us tantalizingly closer to owning every commerically available Lilys tune. Che's version of BCMYLB is remixed and augmented and includes two songs not available on the domestic release, including "More Than That Is Deserved" (available also as the flipside to the first version of the "Nanny In Manhattan" single), while leaving off the US version's "The Sammael Sea." We'll contrast the finer points of the US and UK versions of the record at a later date.

Anyhow, around 10 AM a record we've sought for years landed on our desk. It was the Lilys' very hard to get Tone Bender EP, which compiles the first two Lilys 7 inches, which I haven't bothered to try to find. The EP is simply amazing. Clicky Clicky readers out there who struggle with the completist urge know that sometimes when you finally get your hands on something you find that the chase has been more satisfying than the record. Not so here. Sure, the title track and the closer, "Threw A Day," appear on In The Presence of Nothing ("Threw A Day" is unlisted on In the Presence -- it is the track that appears directly before "Claire Hates Me"). But it is tracks two and three of the Tone Bender EP, "Eskimo" and "February 14," both previously unheard by us, that are blowing our mind. Here's why.

Those with even a little interest in the Lilys know that stylistically they are a moving target. Much in the way astronomers can locate stars based on the activity of surrounding stars, we kind of suspected all along that we were going to love these two songs, that they resided somewhere in a mathematically projected stylistic sweet spot (sophisticated, guitar-heavy and hooky shoegaze) the band logically must have inhabited at one point along their trajectory. And we were right. "Eskimo" is clearly my favorite of the EP, but it is quite long and would be too large to post. So here is "February Fourteenth," which ain't too shabby neither.

We now own everything in the top portion of the discography at Returns Every Morning, not too mention many of the other items listed under the compilations and singles. So far as we know the only release available on CD that we don't have in the "Nanny In Manhattan" CD5. This is easily remedied, as the disc seems readily available used. The important milestone, of course, is we now own every commercially available Lilys song (we presume the Tim Buckley thing is a Tim Buckley song so we are not counting it). So kudos to us.

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The Farmhands record release listening party Sunday evening was an unqualified success. Somehow in our haste to avoid seeing the Sox give up more runs, and due to a need to ingest more allergy medication, we actually fled the (remodeled) Abbey Lounge before grabbing a disc. The double record, American League/National League,is really quite an effort, way too smart and full of catchy stuff, at turns gratifyingly or frustratingly lo-fi. Anyhow, the joint was jumping, a pretty clever video rig was set up showing the lyrics and related archival footage, and for a Sunday night the place was full. We'll let you know when the band's website goes up. Fungo was making some big promises about thorough hypertexting of the lyrics, so the thing should be pretty amazing. Another round of kudos, this one for Fungo, Sac Fly and High Cheese.

PlayLouder gets Mascis to talk about the Dino Jr reissues. Via Chromewaves.

That is all.