Today's Hotness: Johnny Foreigner, Wendyfix, The Replacements

>> Indie rock superheroes Johnny Foreigner have revealed the title to their forthcoming full-length debut. Waited Up 'Til It Was Light will be released this spring on Best Before Records. The release will be preceded March 10 by the single "Our Bipolar Friends" b/w "The Houseparty Scene Is Killing You," as we reported here previously. If our almost wall-to-wall Johnny Foreigner coverage over the last year isn't enough to convince you, then let us speak plainly: this record will be a phenomenon. The other exciting piece of news is that the Birmingham, England-based trio has posted a track from the new set at its MySpace drive-thru here. It is called "Salt, Pepa and Spindarella," and it is a monster. Largely driven by synth pulses and boxy drumming across taut, daisy-chained verses, the rhythm hypnotizes. And then, at two minutes and six seconds... big, giant walls of face-melting guitar, a mile high and a mile wide. It is utter brilliance. Stop reading this and go listen now.

Johnny Foreigner -- "Salt, Pepa and Spindarella" [Stream] -- Waited Up 'Til It Was Light

>> The Internets sometimes make it so easy for indie rockers. Hot on the heels of our posting the band's only proper release here last week, former Haywood fronter Ted Pauly has posted the entire, roundly excellent discography of his old band Wendyfix at his blog. Those of us who were fans when Wendyfix was actually an operating band had to beg to dub the recordings from cassette to cassette, then listen to them on cassette for the years to the point of cassette degradation, at which time we had to beg for digital versions of the recordings. But now, today, all that is Wendyfix is just there for the taking, nicely collected and tied up with a bow, right here. Mr. Pauly has bestowed the title Building Microphones & Megaphones: Everything Ever, 1992-1995 upon the collection. The running order differs from the straight discographical order of the King Size Demos (which we first wrote about here three years ago, having first written about Wendyfix here four years ago), for the four or five of you out there in possession of them. On the upside, the absolutely indispensable "Pillowhead" is included in the collection. So, Wendyfix newbies, you are about to learn the simple pleasure of the buzzsaw distortion that drives the Brian McGrath-sung, now-title track "Microphones & Megaphones," the boundless bummer of "Pillowhead." These are magic times we live in. We're posting below the aforementioned title cut to maximize the possibility you'll hear that delicious distortion.

Wendyfix -- "Microphones & Megaphones" -- Building Microphones & Megaphones: Everything Ever, 1992-1995
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>> We had intended to write about the long-awaited and much anticipated Replacements reissues last night, but we suppose there was just one distraction too many. The long and the short of it is that one-time manager Peter Jesperson has helmed the reissues of the Twin-Tone material, which has been respectably expanded with rarities and which will be released by Rhino April 22. You can bet we will make the lunchtime run across the street to Newbury Comics that day. The Sire Records releases are also being expanded and are to be reissued in October. This is all very exciting, although as we quipped to the 'Noizers over email today, we had finally broken down and completed our collection of used CD versions of all the albums just last month only to discover now that the reissues are coming. Oh well. Full details are located in this Man Without Ties blog post, this Billboard piece and this Pfork item.

>> This sort of x's and o's journalism stuff still catches our eye. Pun Canoes publishes an item about a new The Clash documentary (we already own four -- how many more does the world need?) here yesterday at 9PM. This afternoon Billboard publishes an article here reporting the same thing online and claims the item is an exclusive. Weird. Billboard must not have Pun Canoes in its RSS reader.