20: Seam | The Problem With Me

We had hoped to publish this on Saturday, the proper 20th anniversary of the release of the record whose album art you see above, but, alas, other things got in the way. But recently we had the good fortune to make the acquaintance of Soo Young Park, a man who once led the stellar '90s slowcore act Seam. Often when we meet persons such as Mr. Park -- that is, a person whose work we have held in high esteem for large stretches of time -- we try to be cool and, well, be cool. Upon meeting Mr. Park, however, we couldn't help but blurt out by way of awkward introduction the name of our favorite Seam number, the closing track to 1993's excellent The Problem With Me, "Autopilot." The tune caps the record, which conveys a singular blend of fiery loudness and frozen introspection. It's Mr. Park's lyrics and singing that, despite the big dynamic moments of cymbals crashing, guitars distorting, rock rocking, has likely led to our impression, a false memory, really, that The Problem With Me is a much quieter record than it actually is. And in fact the opposite is true, with the notable exception of the remarkably still, aforementioned album closer. Listening back to the record now, it certainly feels like a rocker, filled with pretty melodies from precisely layered guitars and bass (check out the final moments of "Road To Madrid," for example) coordinated in precise rhythms that count down to explosions of angst and beauty. It's quite a record, and one whose major anniversary should have been celebrated with something better than this blog post. But we do what we can. As do the fine, relatively anonymous people of the Internet, one of whom put all of The Problem With Me on the YouTubes to stream. Access the stream below. The record, released on Touch And Go under the catalog number TG118 lo those many years ago, is still in print and we recommend you purchase a copy for your off-line music listening right here. Park now plays bass for the very fine international slowcore concern Bored Spies, which played in Boston last month and whose debut single can be streamed at and purchased via Bandcamp right here. We have some vague recollection that Bored Spies are working on a full-length, so we've got that to look forward to. But in the meantime, there's always The Problem With Me, a record that sounds like drifting snow on fire and feels like your face does a minute after it's been slapped.

Coming To Your Local Bandstand: Golden Gurls/Bored Spies

Back in the early days of the blog we'd tell you about tours, you know, the important ones from bands that mattered, like Dirty On Purpose or Relay or Frightened Rabbit-back-when-it-was-a-three-piece or Ringo Deathstarr. We're not sure why we stopped doing the Coming To Your Local Bandstand feature, but there's no better reason to resuscitate it than the pending tour from Baltimore-based guitar-pop heroes Golden Gurls. The trio launch an eight-date circuit of live appearances Thursday night at the Cake Shop in New York, the first night of a tour that travels as far north as Portland, Maine, and as far south and west as Asheville, North Carolina. The Maryland miscreants are touring with the latest project of former Seam fronter Sooyoung Park, Bored Spies. Faithful readers will certainly recall our regular reporting on the goings-on of the double G, but we were also pretty early to the party when it came to reporting on Bored Spies, which issued in January the debut single "Summer 720" b/w "沙鼠E." Bored Spies -- labelmates with Golden Gurls on Damnably in the U.K., incidentally -- were supposed to make their U.S. debut Tuesday in San Francisco, but their appearance has been scuttled by visa issues. We're hopeful that Mr. Park and his cohort get that sorted out at least in time for the band's scheduled Boston date Friday at TT The Bear's Place, when Bored Spies is scheduled to perform with Golden Gurls as well as Boston shoegaze phenoms Soccer Mom and noise-pop stalwarts Reports. That, friends, is what we call a shit-hot rock and roll bill. The tour flyer above lists off all the confirmed dates as of press time, and to get yourself pumped we suggest a refresher on Golden Gurls' best of 2012 set Typo Magic and the aforementioned Bored Spies single, both of which are embedded below. Golden Gurls will almost certainly be previewing material from its planned sophomore collection, and Bored Spies mentioned somewhere months ago doing pre-production on a full-length, so we're hoping to hear lots of new music from them, as well. We'll see you at TT's, nerditos.

Today's Hotness: Screaming Maldini, Bored Spies

>> Sheffield, England-based pop savants Screaming Maldini have at long last announced a release date for its long-awaited, hotly anticipated debut long-player. The sextet's self-titled set will be issued Feb. 4 by its French label HipHipHip. The 12-song collection will be released on CD, digital and white 180g vinyl. Art on the physical products is in 3D, so 3D glasses are provided. The vinyl issue is a limited edition of 500 pieces that also carries a download card. Screaming Maldini collects choice numbers from the band's repertoire, although we expect all the tracks are newly recorded. Meaning it could be fairly interesting for detail-nerdy fans to compare the LP versions of "The Extraordinary" and "Secret Sounds" to the free downloads the band emailed 'round way back in 2009. But of even greater interest will be the four new songs on the record, "The Awakening," "The Dreamer," "Stutter" and "Four Hours From Now," none of which the heads at Clicky Clicky HQ recall having heard in the past. Screaming Maldini launch a three-week tour Feb. 8 that wraps with what we can only imagine will be an amazing homecoming show March 2. The band recently shot a video for a forthcoming single from the album, which we think may be "The Awakening," but don't hold us to that. You can stream four songs from the collection, all of which we've written about previously at Clicky Clicky if memory serves, via the Bandcamp embed below. Get your pre-order on right here.



>> Seam was a crucial band for us back in the day: when the band's LP The Problem With Me came out we listened to it about 6,000 times. We lost track of what the band and founder Soo Young Park did after about 1998 or so, but if our spidey sense and Google Translate is correct, Mr. Park has just resurfaced as part of the new, transnational three-piece Bored Spies. The act is fronted by Singaporean singer and guitarist Cherie Ko, and also includes ex-Bitch Magnet dude Orestes Morfin and someone credited as Panther Lau, formerly of Seam. According to OtherSounds.sg, Ms. Ko used to play with acts Obedient Wives Club and Pastel Power. If you run Bored Spies' Korean-language web site through Google Translate, Mr. Lau is revealed to be "Sang-Youn Park." We don't think it is too big a leap to assume that is Seam's Mr. Park. All of which is just a distraction from the beautiful, spacey and emotive guitar music that Bored Spies create. The band's debut single "Summer 720" b/w "沙鼠E" was recorded last summer, released today, and is now available for sale via Bandcamp. There is apparently a physical single available somewhere, but we can't turn up the information for it. Grab the stream of both tracks below, and then if you can assure yourself that $2.22 in Singaporean dollars isn't going to break you, we suggest you buy that stuff right up. Bored Spies play two gigs in Barcelona at the end of May, including one as part of the highly touted Primavera Sound festival, and are expected to tour the U.S. in August. Pre-production for a full-length record is reportedly already underway.

Today's Hotness: Line Drawings, Saint Solitude, AC/DC

>> We like what we hear from Line Drawings, an Australian indie rock quartet whose recently released, self-titled EP has been getting a lot of play here at headquarters. No surprise, really, as Sydney-based Line Drawings' first two Top Friends at MySpace -- :: clicky clicky :: favorites Polvo and Seam -- indicate that we're likely as pre-conditioned to be a fan of these Australians as anyone. Although, if we had to pick our own RIYL to slap on a sticker meant to entice college radio play, we might go with Swervedriver first, as Line Drawings is neither as technical as Polvo nor as seething and disappointed as Seam. That said, there are very pleasing curtains of electric guitar and mildly plaintive vocals, a sturdy recipe (along with well-constructed melodies, also present here) for successful indie rock. Line Drawings has been together since 2007, and prior to that certain of the cohort played together in the act Ides Of Space. The band's self-titled EP contains six moody tracks and opens auspiciously with the urgent guitar anthem "Atmosphere Flies," which is certainly Line Drawings' strongest calling card, and which you can download below. Victoria-based Bell Sounds Digital issued Line Drawings March 28.

Line Drawings -- "Atmosphere Flies" -- Line Drawings EP
[right click and save as]
[buy Line Drawings from the band right here]

>> We're inclined to be skeptical of one-man bands, who nowadays often ply their trade with loop machine and/or laptop, because the live spectacle can lack the sort of passion that really drives our fandom. There are exceptions, of course, as we think you'll agree -- if you've seen him -- that Dosh can work some hypnotic business on stage (granted, he performed with a colleague when we saw him). All that said, it really comes down to songwriting, and so we were favorably impressed with Asheville, N.C.-based and Maine-bred solo effort Saint Solitude. The band is a fellow named Dup Crosson, and Mr. Crosson writes very catchy indie pop numbers that -- at least as recorded -- bear none of the undesirable hallmarks of the solitary musician. The piano-anchored toe-tapper "Tosabesatoch" touts a light touch and an arresting melody. The rocker "Soft Contact" sounds like something Ben Gibbard might sing if he were in good mood and was backed by a sunshiney outfit; the guitar-and-voice ballad "Stay In Touch" is obvious enough sentiment-wise but is eminently listenable. "Tosabesatoch" is on the split EP He Is Contrary To Him out this month and available at shows, and Crosson is already at work on a full-length he hopes will be ready for public consumption come summer. Saint Solitude embarks on a three-week tour of the mid-Atlantic and Northeastern U.S. Thursday, and the act touches down at P.A.'s Lounge in Somerville, Mass. April 25, with Midriff Records' Scuba supporting. Full tour dates are at the Saint Solitude MySpace casa right here. Crosson was kind enough to allow us to post "Tosabesatoch" below, so do check it out.

Saint Solitude -- "Tosabesatoch" -- Split EP
[right click and save as]
[buy Saint Solitude music from Crosson here]

>> Let us be the first to suggest that in the inevitable TV movie that will re-tell the heroics of the past weekend (remember that whole hostage/pirate/sniper thing?), the climax should be dealt with as a montage soundtracked by AC/DC's "For Those About To Rock, We Salute You." The events leading up to the snipers' dispatching the three Somali pirates should unfold in real time, and the decisive gunshots should be unleashed as Brian Johnson shouts "FIRE!" Just sayin.'

Review: Pavement | Brighten The Corners [Reissue]

We are crestfallen to find that one of our strongest memories of a grey April day in Budapest, 1997, goes un-documented in a journal we maintained during three months spent loitering in Western and Central Europe. Not long after arriving in that great city we fell in with a scruffy bunch and spent several immensely fun and endless night-days in dark bunker-esque basement bars, mirrored, baroque coffee shops and monolithic, Soviet-styled opera houses. That there is a hole in our written account is somewhat understandable, as the entries for those days offer a litany of consumption: giant $.16 beers, cheap smokes, and eating and sleeping very little. We had made the hard decision before leaving on the trip not to take any music, as we didn't want a set of headphones to get between us and the experience. One of our favorite fellow travelers in Budapest was named James, and he bestowed an incredible, Natalie Portman-esque moment upon us when he reported that not only did he have a Discman with him, but he also had the new Pavement record, Brighten The Corners, which we did not even know had come out. We sat on a top bunk in our dank grey-green dorm room and listened to the album end-to-end, and it blew our mind as perhaps no record had done since leaving university the prior May.

From the ping-ponging opening of "Stereo" through the icy dread of the final moments of the funereal "Fin," we were transported. Some context is important here: our initial assessment of Pavement's prior set Wowee Zowee was not entirely favorable, as at the time -- a time largely spent worshipping Seam, Superchunk and Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain -- we found Pavement's third full-length to be (we'll borrow a comment from a professor's assessment of a contemporanous paper authored by a former housemate here) "willfully obfuscating." Which is to say we found it to be self-consciously jammy and difficult just for difficulty's sake. We've since come to grips with the genius of Wowee Zowee. But the embrace of the relatively straight-forward Brighten The Corners was immediate and welcoming. We we're instantly blown away by "Stereo" and "Shady Lane," and both tracks remain a favorite in the Clicky Clicky household. But most of all we recall sitting on that bunk and listening to "Fin" wash over us with wave after wave, guitar solo after guitar solo, those haunted backing vocals riding low in the mix, and everything receding into that long, inevitable march to the fadeout. It sounded like the end of everything. In a very good way.

Matador Records reissues Brighten The Corners in an expanded, remastered, double-disc edition Dec. 9. The second disc may be our favorite of all the second discs of the Matador Pavement reissues. Miraculously, the label is running a promotion right now whereby you can purchase all four expanded Pavement reissues for $50. This is an absurdly good deal. Here is the link. If, like us, you already had the previous reissues, you can purchase just the Brighten The Corners: Nicene Creedence Edition from Matador right here. Earlier this fall Matador made available its Intended Play Fall 2008 sampler of free MP3s, which included the very fun Brighten The Corners outtake "Cataracts," which we're posting below.

Pavement -- "Cataracts (Unreleased Outtake)" -- Brighten The Corners: Nicene Creedence Edition
[right click and save as]
[buy the reissue from Matador right here]

Muxtape No. 13: Make Those Horses Jump Through Hoops Aflame

First things first: with this 13th :: clicky clicky :: Muxtape, we have decided to now create new mixes monthly instead of weekly. This is partly because we feel like we've been reviewing fewer records because of the process of putting the mix together over coffee on weekends. It is also because come this fall we'll be lucky if we can get a monthly mix up let alone a weekly one. We may or may not have mentioned this, but much like it was last fall, :: clicky clicky :: will be largely dormant in September and October because of a very intense work project that will stretch from mid-September until around Thanksgiving. Unless we find someone we trust to steer the blog during that time, there likely won't be much to look at here (although we're hopeful we'll be able to keep our Twitter feed fairly lively).

Anyway, Muxtape No. 13. We're not sure if there is a theme, but there are a few tracks from the excellent Lounge Ax Defense & Relocation Compact Disc compilation from 1996. It includes a number of hot numbers including Guided By Voices' "Under A Festering Moon" and Seam's "The Prizefighters," both of which you can stream along with the rest of the Muxtape at this link. The playlist and more exposition about the various tracks below.

1. The Feelies -- "It's Only Life" -- Only Life
(We were gripped with a mild case of Feelies reunion-a-mania of late, although not so gripped that we made the trip to New York to see a show. But we took the reunion as an opportunity to re-rip our Feelies discs and revisit them in turn. We turned on to the band when Only Life was released in 1988 based on a review in Spin. An odd place to start with the band, but we were 14 at the time and therefore not really musically aware during the band's earlier (non-)heyday. This is the opening track, and it is fair to say it drew us in immediately. The rest of the record took a bit longer to grow on us, but it became a favorite. We remember re-discovering it during a drive through western Carolina sometime in the last decade.)

2. Palace Brothers -- "Horses" -- Lost Blues And Other Songs
(This track has one of the most unabashedly awesome guitar solos in recorded music. Which is strange, because Will Oldham's music typically never stresses guitar pyrotechnics. But after the p'ar-fully mournful verses the solo is especially transforming. Wait for it, and then turn it up loud. And during the solo the sound of the guitar pick strumming the acoustic playing rhythm starts to sound a little like buried hand-claps. Weird.)

3. Seam -- "The Prizefighters" -- The Lounge Ax Defense & Relocation Compact Disc
(Typically exemplary and quiet seething from Soo Young Park and Seam with a verse that alternately waltzes and inevitably builds. Never quite explodes, but it is still very satisfying. The second guitar in the second verse does something unusual and we don't know what the effect is. This track is so good we're going to post the MP3 as well right here: Seam -- "The Prizefighters" -- Lounge Ax Comp. Right click and save as.)

4. The Magnetic Fields -- "Too Drunk To Dream" -- Distortion
(A drinking anthem from the luckiest guy on the Lower East Side. After having this title written in our little spiral notebook of records to buy (yes, we've got one) for months, we finally remembered to pick it up at Newbury Comics last week after popping in for the Liz Phair reissue. We had high hopes, as one reviewer at the time of Distortion's release made the blasphemous assessment that the set was better than The Jesus And Mary Chain's Psychocandy. Well, it most certainly is not. That said, it is an interesting experiment for Stephin Merrit and there are several tracks that are very good, including this one.)

5. Meneguar -- "Freshman Thoughts" -- Strangers In Our House
(At home the press gets hold of freshman thoughts, they give your sad life away. We realized recently that we'd made little comment about the Meneguar vinyl-only release The In Hour which was released this year. That's primarily because we rarely listen to it. The production is a bit frustrating, and of course we don't have it digitized, so we usually just reach for Strangers, which you will recall was our favorite record of 2007. "Freshman Thoughts" is still ace, and will always be ace. Whoa -- we just got a MySpace bulletin from Meneguar and apparently The In Hour is now available as a CD. Guess we'll have to buy it so we can rock out to it properly.)

6. Paul Westerberg -- "Something Is Me" -- 14 Songs
(We love this song exclusively for the lyric "Something went wrong, my name is Paul." Blitzed genius from the former fronter of The Replacements.)

7. Psapp -- "Tricycle (Live)" -- Morning Becomes Electric Radio Session, June 14, 2006
(Kind of a jarring gear change from the Westerberg cut, but there you go. Galia Durant's voice is so pretty it hurts. This one has a great lyric as well: "I drag my feet and drag us down, you don't want me around..." As the title suggests this is from a radio session which is surprisingly solid considering the band has taken tunes composed electronically and rendered them very nicely with acoustic instruments.)

8. Shannon McArdle -- "Poison My Cup" -- Summer Of The Whore
(We mentioned this track within last week's Muxtape. We love the increasingly dense production here: big toms, big guitar reverb, lurking distorted guitar. And then the airy, buried backing vocals. And then the brief teases of bass guitar. McArdle's vocal is one of her most fetching. Very much looking forward to this record.)

9. Preston School Of Industry -- "The Spaces In Between" -- Goodbye To The Edge City EP
(Quirky space pop from Pavement's Spiral Stairs. This is his best track from any of his bands, in our opinion. Just one hook that spills everywhere with vim and vigor. We wish this song was about 30 minutes long, and maybe had a remix by KLF. That'd be hot.)

10. The Raveonettes -- "Blush" -- Lust, Lust, Lust
(Frightened Rabbit's Imeem guest list contained a Raveonettes track and reminded us of how taken we were with the record earlier this year, when it had almost exclusive ownership of our car CD player. Wall of sound. Distortion. Perhaps this should have been sequenced next to the McArdle track. Oh well.)

11. Guided By Voices -- "Under A Festering Moon" -- The Lounge Ax Defense & Relocation CD
(At first we were enamored of this track during our college radio years because of the sound of an amp -- and its reverb chamber -- being dropped on the ground in the chorus. Which is what we presume makes the repeated crash in this excellent track. But the tune is more than its window dressing. It's a solid Pollard composition. It sounds like cold beer in a can, and then it wanders off like a purposeful drunk at the end.)

12. Radiohead -- "Last Flowers To The Hospital" -- In Rainbows Disc 2
(Thom Yorke does sad as well as anybody. Probably should have sequenced this next to the Palace track, but there you go.)

Muxtape No. 9: Tired Of All The Largesse

Welcome to the weekly Muxtape. More auditory spelunking into the '90s, and into things that sound like they came from the '90s. You can stream all the tracks at this link, and we've jotted some thoughts about each track below, as is our wont.

1. Coco B's -- "Give Up The Money/1982" -- RCRDLBL download
(After learning of the whole Retriever/Coco B's connection last week we dove into the latter band's stuff and have been enjoying it. After our third or fourth run through this track it finally occurred to us why we dug it so much. Put simply, Coco B's 2008 = Haywood 1994. Even one of the Haywood guys think so. This one is a rocker with lots of guitars; it even has a slight hint of something Walter Schreifels-ish in the vocal.)

2. Versus -- "Glitter Of Love" -- Secret Swingers
(A song filled with many guitar lines we stole at one point or another. After re-ripping our Versus records it was hard to pick which track to include. We thought pulling something off The Stars Are Insane would be a little obvious, so here is a superlative mid-period track from the band's 1996 set. Tons of interlaced guitars and gratuitous movie star references. This one has a big lyrical payoff at the end when Richard Baluyut shouts "we can try to pretend that we're still in love.")

3. Clown Down -- "Living Alone" -- Living Alone
(Before the guys in Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!! who are not Alec Ounsworth were in The Clap, they lived in Boston and had a band called Clown Down. We never saw them live but a friend of ours who is a friend of theirs gave us a CD-R of what were purported to be the band's demos. Turns out the demos were this record, the title track of which you can hear here is one hot bummer. Some nice "oohs" in here; it's surprisingly hard to get those right.)

4. Bedhead -- "Bedside Table" -- What Fun Life Was
(Two band names in a row with an internal rhyme scheme. We also recently re-ripped all of our Bedhead and have had a nice time rediscovering certain tracks. This one is amazingly peaceful at first with its smiling little ride cymbal-enabled trudge around the corners of your mind. Of course, the track has a tumultuous ending, but you didn't just think they were going to stand around with all of those Telecasters and not rock out eventually, did you?)

5. Joey Sweeney -- "Largesse" -- Heartache Baseball
(More ride cymbal in here, that must be why we sequenced things this way. We almost went with "My Name Is Rich," which we think about when we're waiting at a bar alone, or "Fixing Coffee," which we think about when, well, that one's kind of obvious. But this quiet number has a nice feeling of resignation to it, and it seems to go nicely with a morning in the middle of a heat wave. We really like the talking in the background toward the end that stretches the space. One of Sweeney's best lines is in here, namely "Why do you want a disease when you know we could get by on a cold?")

6. Sebadoh -- "Happily Divided (Demo)" -- Bubble And Scrape [Expanded Reissue]
(This has always been our favorite Sebadoh jam. The new expanded reissue of Bubble And Scrape is almost out in the U.S. and it is chock full of interesting extras, but perhaps the best is this demo. Although the demo of "Soul And Fire" is nice as well. We had high hopes for Bakesale after hearing "Skull" on the Hotel Massachusetts compilation, but that record never was able to eclipse our affection for Bubble And Scrape.)

7. Come -- "Shoot Me First" -- Near Life Experience
(Relatively rare instance of journeyman musician Chris Brokaw taking the lead vocal on a Come track, which is understandable: Brokaw's voice is adequate, but Zedek's has always been singularly emotive and powerful. And maybe that's why Mr. Brokaw has so many great lines in this song, as at the time he may have had fewer outlets for them. "When you laugh I can see everything I think you used to see in me.")

8. The Sea And Cake -- "The Sporting Life" -- The Fawn
(Bit of a hard contrast here. This track is as light as "Shoot Me First" is dark. It's sort of got the "Thriller" bass line going. In our opinion this song epitomizes the best of the more electronic efforts from the veteran Chicago foursome. The song has especially strong impact in the context of all of the amazing guitar-based tracks on the band's prior set The Biz, a copy of which should exist in every household in America.)

9. Tricky -- "The Lovecats" -- Vulnerable
(A nice cover and an attempt at an appropriate segue to the Willie Williams jam.)

10. Willie Williams -- "Armagideon Time" -- Version Dread Dub Specialist
(The original version of the track made more popular -- at least to us -- by The Clash.)

11. The Remote Viewer -- "It's So Funny How We Don't Talk Anymore" -- Let Your Heart Draw A Line
(Nice emo electronic jam. We should buy this record; can't recall where this MP3 came from.)

12. Seam -- "Autopilot" -- The Problem With Me
(Very purposeful and well-crafted devlopment in this track. Persistent layering. Hypnotic. The soundtrack to the blizzard of 1995.)

Today's Hotness: Maps & Atlases, Bottomless Pit, Hurl

>> Our man Stengelero now and again turns us onto a hot rock 'n' roll act, and recently he emphasized to us that noodly post-rockers Maps & Atlases were the real deal. So we got our hands on the Chicago-based quartet's 2006 self-recorded and self-released record Trees, Swallows, Houses a couple months back. We've been smitten ever since with its maelstrom of melody and guitar spasms that somehow bridges the space between freak-folk and hardcore. In the '90s when we didn't know any better we'd probably refer to this as jazz-core; here we'll just say that if you've yearned for a band that seemingly gives equal credence to its love of Fugazi and Bob Wills And His Texas Playboys, stop your yearning. We were surprised to get an email this evening that Trees, Swallows, Houses is already getting reissued; Sargent House will release the set Aug. 7. Wanna stream the whole record for nada, gratis, free-like? Here it is below inside one of those funky fresh Imeem players. And here above the player is a link to an MP3 of the stunning album opener "Every Place Is A House."

Maps & Atlases -- "Every Place Is A House" -- Trees, Swallows, Houses
[right click and save as]



>> The 'Nac reports here that Bottomless Pit, the act featuring the surviving members of late-lamented indie rock stars Silkworm, will soon issue an impressive debut. Hammer Of The Gods will be issued as a double album; the razzmatazz is that the records are 45 RPM discs and all four sides contain two songs each. Pretty darn cool. Bottomless Pit features Silworm's Tim Midgett and Andy Cohen along with Seam drummer Chris Manfrin and 27's Brian Orchard on bass. Silkworm drummer Michael Dahlquist was senselessly killed in 2005 by a mentally disturbed vehicle operator. There is no release date yet for Hammer Of The Gods; for educated guesses on its track listing, hit the link to The 'Nac in the first sentence. Finally, let's not forget that IODA's Promonet has a classic Silkwork cut ripe for the downloading. Here's "Punch Drunk Five," from the excellent 1994 set In The West.

Download "Punch Drunk Five" (mp3)
from "In The West"
by Silkworm
C/Z

• Buy at eMusic
• Stream from Rhapsody

>> Built On A Weak Spot here continues a hot streak today with a short survey of erstwhile Pittsburgh math rockers Hurl. Make certain you download the excellent track "Dual Showmen," which features a lyric that always use to get us right in the gut: "and I wouldn't have talked myself to sleep, for good..." We saw Hurl live a couple times around 1995 and they were a hot ticket. We also seem to recall that one of the fellows from Hurl was quoted in an MTV News story about one of the Lollapaloozas saying that Guided By Voices possessed "the ancient Chinese secret to indie rock." Or maybe we dreamed that. Sometimes we have trouble differentiating our real memories from our fake ones. Anyway, Hurl was a stupendous band who did the LOUDquietLOUD thing as well as anyone in the mid-'90s. So make certain to check out all the MP3s at BOAWS.