The Square Root of Now - Bent Around Corners (1987, Parallax)

Ok, I might be cheating a bit with this one.  Technically, I posted this album way back in 2010.  It was my own vinyl rip, and I opted to remove it a few months later when I learned someone involved with SRoN was selling CD-Rs of a remastered version of it.  Since it's no longer for sale, I'm making it available again in it's remastered iteration - and this time I have more to say about it.

I purchased The Square Root of Now's Bent Around Corners based on it's eye-cathching, Kandinsky-esque cover art, but truthfully the rather oblique song titles adorning the back of the sleeve piqued my curiosity further.   Bent...turned out to be a surreal and sublime re-imagining of new romantic synth pop, the mainstream variation of which was already starting to taste pitifully stale and formulaic.  The record's three architects, frontman Dan DeWeese, bassist and keyboardist Fritz Martin, and drummer Chris Hall took full advantage of the state-of-the-art recording apparatus of the day, without submerging themselves (or their audience) in anything too gaudy or gratuitous.  The mystique exuded in the record's eleven songs aren't merely attributed to their esoteric nomenclature (albeit "If Motif; Why Wagon" and "Honndakanaya" are reflective of just that) rather there's a prevailing sonic aptitude that screams "exotic" pretty much anywhere the stylus falls on Bent Around Corners.  Martin's fret-less bass is a huge part of the equation (pun intended), and is every bit as sensual as the band's more traditional implements.

The production here is nothing short of plush and resonant, particularly when DeWeese waxes romantic on blissed-out ballads like "Compile Your Love" and "After the Rain."  In my original write-up I posited you could draw parallels between Square Root and relative contemporaries The Three O'clock and Glass Moon.  That observation holds true, particularly on the beaming opener, "Between the Light," which wouldn't sound too out of place on the Three's Arrive Without Traveling LP, also from '87.  Bent... concludes with a strapping finale in the guise of the title cut which crescendos to multiple hooks and sumptuous highs, leaving anyone within in earshot to wonder what a second SRoN album would have amounted to.  Regrettably, this was their first and final lap.

It's a bit hard to believe that music this weird, wonderful, and frankly other-worldy emanated from the unlikely locale of Jackson, Mississippi.  Ultimately, it's that dichotomy which makes Bent Around Corners even more of the singular and revealing treasure it is.  Sad to say, DeWeese passed away in 1999 from natural causes.  More can be read on him and Square Root on Facebook.  A huge debt of gratitude goes to Chris for setting me up with these files.

If anyone is interested in a FLAC version of Bent... let me know.  I'll try to make it available at some point.

01. Between the Light
02. Compile Your Love
03. If Motif; Why Wagon
04. Lunge Into Serious
05. Ceramic Angels
06. After the Rain
07. Tundra Stuff
08. Honndakanaya
09. Silly Spender
10. Count Me In
11. Bent Around Corners

MP3  or  FLAC

Six superlative singles!

I wasn't planning on doing another volley of singles until next year, but I've been sitting on a lot of interesting titles, plus let's face it, life is kinda short. This assortment is a pretty good cross section of what I try to feed you these days, but I like to think they're a cut above what I might post on say, a random Wednesday in May. Download links in MP3 or lossless FLAC are available at the end of the post. With that in mind let's proceed. 

Waxing Poetics - Hermitage/Return 7" (1984, Celery)

Perhaps the pinnacle of all the singles I've shared in the last 365 days.  I haven't featured anything by Waxing Poetics since '08. This dandy 45 exudes more than a wink and a nod to vintage R.E.M., with "Hermitage" appealing to the same pleasure centers that made everyone's first spin of "Radio Free Europe" such a revelation. As it would happen, two year later Peter Buck would co-produce this Norfolk, VA quartet's debut album, also titled Hermitage.

The Deflowers - New Day Tonight/Ten Days (1992, Stand Like Cleopatra)

I don't think there's a note by the Deflowers that's passed my ears that I haven't taken an automatic liking to. These Seattle denizens bore a far greater resemblance to Buffalo Tom than Mudhoney, and were all the more stimulating as a result.  A thoroughly winsome mix of melody and sophisticated song-writing chops. Check out their even more cranking Shiny New Pony album and other assorted releases from the link above.

Square Root of Now - But She's a Nice Girl/Dream Belief (1984, DeWeese Music Prods.)

I've been besotted with the Square Root of Now's 1987 Bent Around Corners LP ever since I happened upon it sometime in the early 2000s. And why shouldn't I be obsessed with that album's often surreal but consistently sublime reinvention of new romantic synth-pop?  SRN were kind enough to bequeath us that one mesmerizing full length, but there was a single that preceded it, and here it is.  They hadn't quite fully grown into their sound at this point, so to speak, but this was a solid start, especially the jaunty A-side.

beatrice blinded - two days wide/disappear (1994, Mallbunny)

Evidently this one's so scant that even the mighty Dicogs isn't providing an entry for it. A co-ed quintet from the college town of  Ithaca, NY, Beatrice Blinded's take on dream pop was heavy-handed to a fault, and no doubt why they needed to employ multiple guitarists plus a pedal/effects-board the size of a small canoe. Think the first Lilys album and some of Velocity Girl's nascent shoegaze forays. A little formulaic by todays standards, but B/B were something of an anomaly in their day.  

Nu-Este - From This Side of the Window/If You Want (1982, Intense Intents)

This was another ace discovery this year. Nu-Este were from Philly, and by my estimation the gentlemen in this trio must be hovering around 60 y/o or thereabouts these days. All the accumulating years aside, this is really smart, edgy post-punk sporting an artful flair that thankfully doesn't do so at the expense of eschewing some poignant melody on the driving, mid-tempo "From This Side..."  Vaguely reminiscent of Mission of Burma and Middle Class, Nu-Este opted to volley their tunes at a somewhat milder pitch.  As coincidence would have it, our fellow blogsters at Systems of Romance did a piece on this single a couple of years ago, but the rip you're getting here is completely unique.   

Whooping Cranes - Hope/Stopped Breathing (1986, Zip)

I did an entry on the Whooping Cranes That's What I Need album one whole decade ago, so it's about time for a follow-up, eh?  The band's skittish aplomb and endearing quirkiness on both of these two verbose tracks should've slotted in like a glove on college radio.  The Cranes sounded like they were grazing on the same plateau as contemporaries Agitpop and Nixon's Head, if those names happen to ring a bell. Really nails the dual creative/charming bullseye, and I'm very much liable to revisit their aforementioned follow-up LP for dessert .

MP3  or  FLAC

The Square Root of Now - Bent Around Corners (1987, Parallax)

I was thoroughly intrigued by this albums spiffy jacket, so last year, when I stumbled upon Bent Around Corners by The Square Root of Now I took a gamble, and fortunately it panned out. A trio based out of Jackson, Mississippi with definite wave and new romantic tendencies, Square Root recall a cornucopia of period bands, most notably the Three O’Clock, Glass Moon, early Tears For Fears, and Talk Talk among others. Abstract titles like “If Motif; Why Wagon,” and “Tundra Stuff,” belie relatively plush production. Web-wise, there’s very little background info available on the Square Root, but frontman Dan DeWeese has passed on, and a Facebook page has been set up in his honor. Oddly enough, you can find the album lyrics there as well.

01. Between the Light
02. Compile Your Love
03. If Motif; Why Wagon
04. Lunge Into Serious
05. Ceramic Angels
06. After the Rain
07. Tundra Stuff
08. Honndakanaya
09. Silly Spender
10. Count Me In
11. Bent Around Corners

Go here.

Perfect Strangers - Protected in America (1986, N-Beat)

Mostly a coincidence, this one ties in with another Chanukah entry I gifted you this week, and even a second one (tangentially anyway).  As for the record at hand, there have probably been no less than three dozen bands who've christened themselves as Perfect Strangers over the millennia, with a good chunk of them having had their legacies cataloged on Discogs. 

This set of Strangers congregated in Jackson, MS, and constituted something of a precursor supergroup for yours truly. Granted, it's unlikely you'd be familiar with any of the members or the other acts they were associated with. Not long after this record was issued  bassist Fritz Martin and percussion basher Chris Hall would compose two thirds of Square Root of Now, while guitarist, backing vocalist Scott Coopwood would eventually make another band we've covered before, Yazoo Beach his claim to fame, relatively speaking. The arguable fulcrum of the band, mouthpiece Kris Wilkinson has few outside affiliations, but does a bang-up job on this short but sweet ten-song platter.  Her cool vocal hues on Protected in America's commencing salvo, "Small Towns" sit atop Coopwood's icy, ringing arpeggios a la Martha and the Muffins timeless "Echo Beach," emanating a flawless and inviting pairing.  A similar sonic template courses through bittersweet post-punk traipses like "The Storm," the title cut, and the keyboard-inflected "2 Steps Back," the latter of these approximating a more benign variation on what Siouxsie and the Banshees were attempting just a few years prior.  Ultimately, P/S's modus operandi sat a few rungs shy of conventional new wave, but wielded a textured, noir edge that would've likely dissuaded mainstream FM playlists. Side A is near-perfect and a sheer delight on repeat listens.  

 A little further in "I Live For You" finagles with a poppier underbelly, the subdued, ballad-esque "Treasure is Kept" falters slightly, but Perfect Strangers regain their footing with a vengeance on the melancholic finale, "Shelter."  Not to belabor the point, the Strangers mesh of chiming guitars and vaguely downcast vocals make for a compelling and alluring combination just about anywhere the needle lands on Protected... As for the tie-ins I mentioned, I just featured a Square Root of Now single last night, and I'd be remiss if I failed to point out that Tim Lee of the Windbreakers sings and plays on "Treasure is Kept." Perhaps not a carpet-to-carpet masterpiece, Protected in America is still more than ovation worthy, and might be the most enticing LP I've unleashed in '23...so enjoy. 

01. Small Towns

02. The Storm

03. Protected in America

04. Another Faith

05. 2 Steps Back

06. Majority Rules

07. I Live For You

08. The Treasure is Kept

09. Halloween

10. Shelter

MP3  or  FLAC

Hypnolovewheel, The Spliffs and Square Root of Now available in FLAC.

You've asked for it, and we've delivered - lossless versions of three popular Wilfully Obscure chestnuts.  The MP3 versions are still available.  Click the band name to be taken to the original entry, or it's corresponding title for a direct download (i.e. instant gratification).  Enjoy.

Hypnolovewheel - Wow 7" and Sybil ep
The Spliffs - House of Seven
Square Root of Now - Bent Around Corners

V/A - Strum & Thrum: A benign reimagining (1983-88)

Howdy everyone.  Before I launch into my spiel (and it's a bit of a wordy one), I just want to acknowledge that any music shared in this entry does not contain that which has recently been made available on Captured Track Records' Strum & Thrum: The American Jangle Underground 1983-1987.   I don't usually do disclaimers, but I have no intention of raising concern or confusion with any associated parties.

Not long ago (mid-August to be exact), I teased the release of a much anticipated double LP compilation, specifically the one I named above that was due to drop this fall.  In fact, I just offered a couple sentences and a YouTube link, and didn't even have a proper link to send you at the time to glean more details about the album.  In the ensuing weeks and months more information on Strum & Thrum was made public, a release date for a limited edition, colored vinyl version was set for a late-October Record Store Day "drop," and currently, it's more widely available, digitally as well as on wax.  For those of you who've done your homework on Strum... (and of course, those of you who already own a copy) know what it's premise is all about.  This is Captured Tracks first foray into self-curated, genre-centric compilations, much along the lines of such veteran reissue labels as Rhino and Numero.  The subject couldn't be closer to my site's wheelhouse - college and indie rock circa those collective genre's halcyon, mid-80s era.  S&T was of particular interest to me since it overlapped so overwhelmingly with artists I've been featuring here since 2007.  The compilation features twenty-eight artists - no less than fifteen of whom I've featured on Wilfully Obscure, and have offered nothing but praise for (One Plus Two, The Windbreakers, Primitons, Bangtails, Riff Doctors, The White Sisters and Pop Art to name about half).  This was an unlikely but wholly wonderful coincidence, and I saw a great opportunity to do some cross-promotion with Captured Tracks, not to mention I felt a sincere personal investment, regardless of the fact I had absolutely no role in bringing the album to market.

A few weeks after the news broke, I emailed C/T proposing Wilfully Obscure not only do a typical feature/review of Strum & Thrum, but perhaps something more encompassing like an in-depth interview/deep dive with the parties involved in assembling such a worthy project.  A day later I received a response from C/T's press contact with a link to an advance download of the compilation.  A fine and much appreciated gesture on their part, but no response on my proposal for doing a full-fledged feature as I had hoped for.  A week or so passed and I decided to try again with the same press person, illustrating how much Strum & Thrum tied into my website, but this time, no reply whatsoever.  What was I doing or saying wrong I thought to myself?  Second to reaching out to the people who assembled the compilation, I entertained the idea of interviewing members of one or two of the artists featured on S&T, but quickly came to the conclusion their stories and observations would be limited to their own experiences, and not those of the entire movement writ large.  So I soon abandoned my idea of going "all-out," so to speak and considered scaling down my "dream" feature to one of my standard 400-word reviews.  Certainly better than nothing, right?  Truth is, at the end of the day, due to C/T's apparent disinterest in working with me, my motivation to do anything surrounding the album gradually deflated, much like the sound of trumpets on a game show accompanying a dejected contestant's inadequate spin of the wheel.  The best laid plans of mice and men... (sigh).  Ultimately I didn't do anything at all - until this week.

I have a physical copy of Strum... within two feet of the computer desk I'm situated at.  I love the track selection, adore the roster of artists involved, and think the presentation is peerless, specifically the accompanying book which is terrifically detailed with personal accounts of the bands involved and loads of rare archival photos. An absolutely phenomenal collection, and to put it in perspective, quite literally the Nuggets of my dreams.  Should you have any doubts yourself, examine the tracklist and some screenshots of the package here.  Whomever prepared this collection delved very deep, culling together a delightfully arcane array of indie DIY-ers who were responsible for some phenomenal tunes that never got their moment in the sun or on MTV, much less their proverbial fifteen minutes of fame.  Arguably, R.E.M. were the outright inspirational antecedents to many if not most of the group's spotlighted on S&T, but contrary to the compilation’s extended title, there's more than just winsome, jangly chords threading their way through this music.  

So-called college/alternative/left-of(f)-the-dial rock was far more intricate than individual sonic properties, guitar tones, etc.  It was about advancements and modernizations in music itself - progressions which managed to maneuver their way through an overcrowded slipstream, in spite of an exceedingly superficial era saturated with gobs of hairspray and neon visuals, not to mention deeply entrenched, corporate-driven bottom lines.  True, combos like the Crippled Pilgrims, The Darrows, Absolute Grey and Salem 66 (all present on Strum) never got within a mile of breaching mainstream playlists. But every band that garnered a morsel of encouragement or inspiration from a dubbed copy of Murmur, or caought a grainy dispatch on some lower rung of the FM dial in the mid-80s played a role, regardless of how minor, in proving that genuinely organic, melodic and earnest musical notions could rub elbows with the fresh, cutting-edge advances of the day, often yielding something fresh and gratifying in the process.

If the purpose of this piece isn't to promote Strum & Thrum itself, what is?  Almost as soon as I was introduced to the premise of the compilation in question, it dawned on me that I've been excavating the very type of music it entails for a sizable chunk of my life, particularly in the form of essays and digital audio files I share on a weekly basis.  I couldn't help but ask, what if I had selected the S&T roster out of whole cloth?  Not as a foil to the version that officially exists, or even an attempt to outsmart/out-obscure the curators at Captured Tracks, rather just as a fun exercise in what my vision for the album might have amounted to, largely based on music that I've presented on Wilfully Obscure.  In essence, I'm presenting a parallel playlist to Strum... predominantly (though not exclusively) adhering to the same parameters divulged in it's title, consisting of like-minded American artists who released independent records in roughly the same time frame. Twenty-eight songs to be exact, matching the same amount of acts on the official record.  This is purely a celebration of the music - all that it's given me, you and the small microcosm of hearts and ears that have partaken it for four decades, two centuries/millennia and counting.  By the end of the week the goal is to provide links in the tracklist below to the original entries I've posted, although some of the download URLs will have likely expired.  I'm going to try to attend to any of broken links as well, so feel free to check back Sunday or so.  Additionally, there are songs/artists I haven't officially featured here before, some of whom I've just become acquainted with this year, and/or don't own official physical releases of.  Enjoy.

01. Beauty Constant - Ed's Anthem (1987)
02. Dreams So Real - Maybe I'll Go Today (1986)
03. The Shakers - All Tied Up (1987)
04. Buzz of Delight - Southern (1984)
05. Neon Rock Garden (NRg) - Don't Say Baboon (1986)
06. The Big Picture - Poison Town (1986)
07. Even Greenland - Another Place to Hide (1986)
08. The Libertines - Voices From the Past (1986)
09. Cordy Lon - Covering the Ground (1988)
10. The Need - Clandestine Shield (1985)
11. The Pedaljets - Sensual Cardboard Event (1986)
12. Northern Pikes - Teenland (early vers.) (1985)
13. October's Child - I Can't Stand It  (1987)
14. The Blinkies  - Waiting for April (1985)
15. The Lift - Monetary Means (1985)
16. The Bandables - Cynicism (1984)
17. The Spliffs - You Know What They'll Say (1986)
18. The Wake - Lion's Heart (1985)
19. The Reivers (Zeitgeist) - Sound And The Fury (1985)
20. Not Shakespeare - Get Well Soon (1986)
21. Jagged Rocks on the Perimeter - The Soldier And The Painter (1986)
22. Beat Feet - She's on Time (1986)
23. Other Bright Colors - Time Was (1986)
24. Cannon Heath Down - Bone of Contention (1987)
25. Turning Curious - Out Into The Light (1985)
26. Spooner - Walking With an Angel (1986)
27. U Thant - Little Chlorine (1986)
28. The Square Root of Now - Bent Around Corners (1987)

Hear

My most listened to albums of 2014 (but not necessarily from 2014).

You would think that compiling an end of year best-of list would be simple enough.  For most of us, that's the easy and logical way out.  Truth be told, that model is becoming more and more flawed for me, as I invariably discover my favorite release of any given year the year after, and in some cases years later, thereby nullifying the supposedly "static" ranking I routinely prepare at the end of December.   To give you a more honest representation of my annual soundtrack, my sequence for 2014 is based roughly on how often I listened to a piece of music.  Albums from the year passed feature prominently (nineteen by my count), but older titles that I either recently learned of and/or didn't give a concerted listen to when I initially purchased them also made the cut, based largely on the frequency they occupied my stereo, earbuds, etc.  Too idiosyncratic for my own good, I know.  If I've already confused/alienated you I wouldn't be surprised.  Maybe I'll just skip the list thing in the future altogether, but I digress.

2014 turned out to be the year of Philly for some reason.  I would say that a recent trip there prompted me to dedicate four slots to bands from the city of brotherly love, but truthfully, my awareness of Marietta and The A's predated my journey, and the Wonder Years and Beach Slang didn't make it onto my radar until months after returning home.  My number one pic is a prime example of me discovering my "album of the year" posthumously.   Marietta's debut, Summer Death is everything a legitimate emo record should be - sincere, skittish, cathartic, and even a tad tone deaf albeit oddly melodic.  A sophomore record is sure to follow, but I question their ability to top this one.  The Wonder Years are a guilty pleasure fit for the Warped Tour circuit.  Nonetheless their second album, The Upsides (which I found at a thrift shop for a mere $1) is one of the most invigorating examples of post-adolescent angst to ever grace my jaded, aging ears.  As for Beach Slang, I think we'll be hearing plenty more from them in the coming months.  Check out the link. 

Were it not for having my mind blown via Passion Pit's Manners in 2009, electronic-based music would have been as irrelevant to me in 2014 as it was in say, 1994.  Thankfully I wised up.  Porter Robinson's Worlds was pretty much at the pinnacle of the laptop-cum-snyth heap this year, wielding a dizzying array of glitched-out grooves and Auto-Tuned trix.  The devastatingly infectious Great Good Fine Ok, had a more saccharine take on the whole techno-pop bag, while slightly bygone digital delights from Desire, Postiljonen, and Breathe Carolina also rolled into the same wheelhouse. 

As for the new(ish) crop, Cheatahs, Lees of Memory (that's Johnathan Davis of Superdrag's newgazer outfit), Eagulls, and The Hobbes Fanclub all dazzled with winsome indie-guitar rock albums that delivered on the strength of 2013 singles and eps.  Bravo to Literature for their unsuspecting sophomore disk Chorus, and to Dinosaur Pile-Up for one of the most visceral power-chord motorcades this side of the Foo Fighter's Wasting Light.  Brooklyn's pedal-hopping Regal Degal dazzled me when they opened for DIVV this summer, and I quickly absorbed their back catalog.  What Moon Things issued a devastating declaration of revivalist post-punk, and Imaginary Cities crafty pop persuasion could simply not go unmentioned.
 
Don't call them a comeback: The Manic's Futurology went a long way in rectifying 2013's limp and underwhelming Rewind the Film.  Elsewhere, Interpol's latest humdinger, Elpintor, was the most impressive thing they've put their stamp on since Antics, Floor's concussive, bludgeoning Oblation shoved me off the fence and into their demi-stoner camp, while Lagwagon ended a nine-year LP drought with the blistering, metallic k.o. of Hang.  

It was also a year for some exceedingly belated discoveries, key among them New Model Army (in their early prime I might add).  Speaking of Britain, I also uncovered a thoughtful reissue of an arcane but superlative female-fronted post punk set who went by the moniker of Indian Dream, and then there was Seattle's Queen Annes, whose Something Quick collection revealed a bevy of fantastic and multifaceted tunes far outdoing the single I shared by them years ago.  The New Dylans' twenty year ol' Warren Piece was my retro pure-pop platter of choice for '14, and wouldn't you know it, they're just getting around to assembling their third LP due in the new year.  Finally, Italy's Victrola, whose 1983 Maritime Tatami 12" single was revived thirty years after-the-fact, dominated my coldwave playlist for the past twelve months. 


In the "I had it lying around for some time now, but just got around to it" file, I shed overdue light on scintillating records from Lowest of the Low, Heatmiser, Moss Icon, Death Cab, and Philadelphia's long defunct power pop-purveyors The A's. 

After the list, you'll find a link to a mix of songs from exactly half of the roster outlined below.  It skews more towards the newbies, but that's the only clue I'll concede.  There's no track list, and the songs aren't presented in any particular order, so cherry pick to your heart's content.  This was my 2014 soundtrack in a nutshell - a haphazard, top-40 countdown that only a wilfully obscure nutjob like myself could conceive.  Enjoy (or not). 

01. Marietta - Summer Death (2013)
02. The Wonder Years - The Upsides (2010)
03. Porter Robinson - Worlds (2014)
04. Postiljonen - Skyer (2013)
05. The New Dylans - Warren Piece (1994)
06. New Model Army - Vengeance - The Whole Story 1980-84
07. Merchandise - After the End (2014)
08. Trevor Keith - Melancholics Anonymous (2010)
09. Lees of Memory - Sisyphus Says (2014)
10. Great Good Fine Ok - Body Diamond ep (2014)
11. Beach Slang - Cheap Thrills on a Dead End Street ep & Who Would Ever Want Anything So Broken ep (2014)
12. Lowest of the Low - Hallucigenia (1994)
13. Imaginary Cities - Fall of Romance (2013)
14. Orange Roughies - Detroit (2012)
15. Floor - Oblation (2014)
16. Victrola - Maritime Tatami 12" (orig. 1983, reissued 2013)
17. San Angelus - Soon We’ll All Be Ghosts (2014)
18. Moss Icon - Complete Discography (2012)
19. Breathe Carolina - Hello Fascination (2009)
20. The Bon Mots -  Best Revenge (2014)
21. The A's - The A's/A Woman's Got the Power CD (1979/1981)
22. Cheatahs - s/t (2014)
23. Eagulls - s/t (2014)
24. Desire - Desire II (2009)
25. The Square Root of Now - Bent Around Corners (1987)
26. The Queen Annes - Something Quick 1980-85 (2014)
27. The Wake - s/t ep (1985)
28. Death Cab For Cutie - The Photo Album (2001)
29. Manic Street Preachers - Futurology (2014)
30. Lagwagon - Hang (2014)
31. What Moon Things - s/t (2014)
32. Hobbes Fanclub - Up at Lagrange (2014)
33. Interpol - Elpintor (2014)
34. Dinosaur Pile-up - Nature Nurture (2014)
35. Heatmiser - Mic City Sons (1996)
36. Literature - Chorus (2014)
37. Indian Dream - Orca (1989)
38. Regal Degal - Pyramid Bricks ep (2013)/Veritable Who's Who (2012)
39. Graig Markel and the 88th St. Band - s/t (2014)
40. Popstrangers - Fortuna (2014)

Hear

The Lift - Nearly Gear! (1985, Roo)

Hailing from the not oft spoken locale of Newport News, VA, The Lift weave some intermittent magic across the dozen song (and one stray chord) Nearly Gear!  The album jacket suggests this trio might be of rockabilly stock, but to far greater delight they apply a bevy of advanced maneuvers within our sometimes routine left-of-the-dial environs.  I say intermittent in the respect that the Lift have a tendency to diverge from song to song, resembling a cornucopia of their contemporaries.  The band light the pleasure sensors ablaze on "Plush With Blonde" and "Monetary Means," emanating the stripe of creative juices Matthew Sweet did with his early Buzz of Delight endeavor, and ditto for such oddly alluring combos from Wilfully Obscure's back pages like Cannon Heath Down and Square Root of Now.  Something Fierce comes to mind as well.  When the Lift shift into peak performance, Nearly Gear! resembles some sort of long lost Mitch Easter production credit.  Elsewhere, we're allotted a par excellence serving of power pop in the guise of  "Good Head," and "This Is Bad's" Johnny Marr inflected jangle is nearly as sublime.  Despite some demonstrable inconsistencies this record still manages to border on a revelation.

BTW, Lift fulcrum Bryan Forrest has a Reverbnation page featuring music from a variety of his endeavors, including the one I just introduced you to.  Well worth exploring.  

01. Nothing Sacred
02. Fair Airplane
03. Plush With Blonde
04. Monetary Means
05. To Have and to Hold
06. Shift the Edge
07. This of That
08. This is Bad
09. Swayed (Scottish Mix)
10. She Gets By
11. Good Head
12. Must I?
13. Paul's Lost Really Gear Chord

Hear

Best of the blog mix for 2014.

Following up my 2014 "Top-40" list (of sorts) from a couple nights ago, here's my annual highlights mix tape of music I've shared in the past year.  It's my attempt to distill a years worth of features and posts into something a little more digestible and less exhaustive.  As per this site itself, the emphasis in this compendium is on unheralded indie rock from the previous millennium (ok, the '80s).   I'm not going to dedicate any space here to critiquing and such, as I already abundantly have in the original postings, all of which are linked via selecting the hyperlinked artist names below.  This mix is designed to be both a recap for those of you who frequent Wilfully Obscure, and a springboard for anyone who's just plain overwhelmed by the quantity of material I share on a weekly, if not daily basis.  In a nutshell, if you count yourself among the uninitiated and don't know where to start, start here (and of course, work your way backwards).  As for those of you who have been studiously checking things out on this page on a regular basis, I'm tacking on four extra songs that I haven't shared heretofore, and they've been denoted with an asterisk.

01. Fan Club - Just Another Kiss
02. Penguin Fury - And You Will Shine
03. Yazoo Beach - Waiting for Woods
04. Squares - Blue Note*
05. Town Cryers - Like a Telegraph
06. Breathers - Stay the Boy
07. Fun With Atoms - Last Cigarette
08. The Movement - I've Got Eyes
09. U Thant - Little Chlorine
10. Crocodile Shop - April Reigns
11. The Wolves - Good News
12. Grapes Of Wrath - A Very Special Day*
13. Z-Rocks - The Way She Looks at Me
14. Blue Movie - Trouble in the Yard
15. The Hairs - The Ghost Train
16. The Clergy - Pieces*
17. Acid Drops - Deep Sea Dream
18. The Graphic - The Hour Has Come
19. Square Root of Now - Compile Your Love
20. Ten Bright Spikes - Spleen
21. Miracle Legion - Stephen, Are You There
22. Edsel Auctioneer - Stickleback
23. Rocking Shapes - Cracked Marbles
24. Toy Love - Don't Ask Me*

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Yazoo Beach - Binge (1993, N-Beat)

Not only have I already introduced you to Yazoo Beach (over a decade ago in fact), I've also enlightened and entertained you with phenomenal music from guitarist Scott Coopwood's prior two bands, The Square Root of Now and Perfect Strangers.  Binge was Yazoo's somewhat belated follow-up to their inviting 1988 debut, The Solace and the Blaze, and is demonstrably more mature. Playing it right down the middle, a la fellow deep south contemporaries Dreams So Real and the Windbreakers, this is guitar pop of the collegiate, "new south" variety offering a bevy of pretty persuasions.  Generally, the R.E.M,-isms are on the downlow, but glints are lovingly apparent on "By the Hand" and "Shades of Solitude," amidst other scattered offerings.  Binge's acoustic traipses, specifically "Islands" and "Heaven Coming Down," fall loosely between the confines of The Moody Blues and Workbook-era Bob Mould, albeit not as engrossing.  Though said to be available on CD, I was only fortunate enough to happen upon a cassette, which is where his rip is derived from.  

01. Last Until Tomorrow

02. By the Hand

03. So Much is Love

04. Caroline

05. Heart So Heavy

06. Heaven Coming Down

07. Shades of Solitude

08. Wooden Horse

09. Piece of Her Mind

10. World Inside Your Heart

11. Islands 

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