The Patchy Skies - "Markings" 7"

The Patchy Skies – “Markings” 7”

Extra Small, 2006

Acquired: KJHK Music Staff, New, 2007

Price: $0

It’s absolutely amazing how much music gets made and recorded. Just unfathomable. So much so that sometimes music, like this 7” from San Franciscan all-girl lo-fi bedroom-pop trio The Patchy Skies sounds like white noise. The hooks are unremarkable, the recording muddled (almost assuredly by design), and it’s hard to differentiate this from any of the myriad quasi-punk lo-fi bands who operated in the mid-00s. This feels like a standard KJHK music staff review from that era. The gravel you dig through and occasionally stumble across a nugget of gold. There’s nothing wrong with gravel, it’s fine, even necessary, but ultimately I can’t even remember what these songs sound like five minutes after listening to them. The significance of The Patchy Skies is that they were the starting point for frontwoman Jess Scott for her next band Brilliant Colors, who released two Black Tambourine-y records on Black Tambourine’s label Slumberland (the ultimate purveyors of hazy throwback dreampop).

Here's the Brilliant Colors track "'Round Your Way." For the Patchy Skies, imagine this, but recorded in a dumpster.

My Morning Jacket - "Off the Record" 7"

My Morning Jacket – “Off the Record” 7”

ATO, 2006

Acquired: Half Price Books, Used, 2013

Price: $1.50 

I dabbled in My Morning Jacket’s early discography but never got around to their fourth album, Z, thanks to the weird DRM that came with the album. Coupled with the bad reviews, I didn’t even bother (Note: According to Wikipedia, Z actually got very postive reviews so I don’t know what was going on back in 2006 and I flat out shunned this album). A couple years later my friend and fellow DJ Nick Dormer played “Off the Record” for me and I changed my tune. I don’t think I ever got around to listening to Z in its entirety, but the groove of that track and the hook in the chorus got to me real good. It was such a 180 from the atmospheric alt-country/folk I was used to from Jim James & co. There’s almost a reggae vibe to the track despite upstroked guitars being the only vaguely reggae-ish trait. The song is just fucking smooth as hell. The b-side “How Could I Know” sounds a lot more like the My Morning Jacket I know. It’s gorgeous and an excellent pairing with the more adventurous single on the A-side. My Morning Jacket is one of those bands I keep meaning to get into. I have all their albums on the hard drive and I know for a fact that I really like their album It Still Moves and their sound in general, and yet for some reason, I don’t bother. Which is weird, because this stuff is basically what I would call “Bearded Dad Rock.”

"Off the Record"

"How Could I Know"

Morrissey - "You Have Killed Me" 7"

Morrissey – “You Have Killed Me” 7”

Attack, 2006

Kief’s Downtown Music, New, 2007

Price: $1

“You Have Killed Me,” the first single from Morrissey’s 2006 album Ringleader of the Tormentors was one of my top 10 favorite tracks of that year. I played it to death. I haven’t heard it in 8 years, but listening to it now, holy shit, I must have listened to this song 100 times. The production sounds weaker than I remember. I remember it sounding much more majestic, but it’s still wonderfully hyper-dramatic and has these big, swooping strings that make Morrissey’s personal life sound like the only personal life that really matters. On the flip side, “Good Looking Man About Town” is a legitimate b-side and a quality one at that. It sounds like the Smiths! I mean, the guitar player is obviously trying to riff on Johnny Marr and doesn’t hold a  candle, but Morrissey’s voice is seemingly ageless. Also, the cover image of Moz lounging on railroad tracks is absolutely perfect.

"You Have Killed Me"

"Good Looking Man About Town"

The Hipshakes - "Stick Around" 7"

The Hipshakes – “Stick Around” 7”

Fistful of Records, 2006

Acquired: Crossroads Music, Used, 2013

Price: $2

 

From the heart of the late 00s garage punk revival, comes this British trio who specialize on a particularly ramshackle variety of the genre. I vaguely remember this band’s full length—Shake Your Hips, 2007, Slovenly Records—from KJHK’s rotation. Honestly, this is the sort of thing I’d love to hear on college radio. The songs are short, fast, and loud and they play to my short attention span. There is no wheel-reinventing going on here, just some dudes trying to record as loud as humanly possible as if loud recording were a nod of respect to obvious touchstones the Oblivions. The brisk title track is a catchy romp of overblown guitars, a slightly out of synch rhythm section, and hysteric vocals packed into a minute. Concentrated grungy goodness.

"Stick Around"

Lemuria/Kind of Like Spitting - Your Living Room's All Over Me

Lemuria/Kind of Like Spitting – Your Living Room’s All Over Me

Art of the Underground, 2006

Acquired: Mississippi Records, Used, 2013

Price: $4

 

Everything happens for a reason. Or something like that. While I’m no diehard fatalist, I am often infinitely creep out by the way the universe thrusts things into my hands. Though the time I spent at Portland’s tiny yet absolutely brilliant Mississippi Records was brief, I managed to find about five awesome records. This Lemuria/Kind of Like Spitting split is something I’ve been trying to track down since I first got into Kind of Like Spitting about five years ago. I couldn’t find a download of it anywhere. I recently recommitted myself to Kind of Like Spitting and Lemuria’s latest LP The Distance is so Big totally blew me away. So finally acquiring this split fees a bit uncanny.

It’s odd hearing Lemuria’s early stuff. If I hadn’t heard The Distance is so Big, I’d still get down on these six tracks, but I’ve got a different appreciation at work given that I know how this band is going to morph into one of the most compelling indie rock bands of the present. There’s a lot more pop punk elements (mostly heaps of power chords), and Sheena Ozzella’s vocals are extremely raw and borderline chirpy, but the off kilter song structures are present in an amoebic state and it is apparent that the germ of this band, the little core of their being, has always been a wonderful listen. Though Lemuria’s lyrics often have a heaviness about them, it’s so obvious that this band is having a whole hell of a lot of fun making something old new again.

Though this split features the dawn of Lemuria, it consequently features the twilight of Kind of Like Spitting. Not to say that Ben Barnett’s songs here are bad, more like I’m just bummed he basically quit making music after 2006’s The Thrill of the Hunt. The songs here are of the refined, emo-leaning variety that populated the late Kind of Like Spitting albums and removed from the quieter, more lo-fi bent of his earlier stuff. “Why I Smoke Mad Weed” and “Afraid of Crushes” are standout representations of Barnett’s latter day work which incorporated his distinct guitar work and pained vocals with affecting tales of misery. Kind of Like Spitting make the most of their five songs on this split and it’s a nice surprise from a band that never really made a cohesive album. I love that I thought “You I Seek” sounded a whole hell of a lot like the Thermals only to check the liner notes and IT IS BASICALLY A FUCKING THERMALS SONG! Awesome. So awesome.

Lemuria - "Hours"

Kind of Like Spitting - "Why I Smoke Mad Weed"

Flaspar - Quadruple Trouble 7"

Flaspar – Quadruple Trouble 7”

Natrix Natrix, 2006

Acquired: Half Price Books, Used, 2012

Price: $1

 

In which a Las Vegas band unleashes four different versions of their single “Double Trouble.” I’d applaud them for the clever title, but four versions of “Double Trouble” should be called Octuple Trouble, right? RIGHT?! Anyway, I’m not here to nitpick album titles (at least not today), I’m here to nitpick “Double Trouble.” To the band’s credit, they moved out of the desert to Portland. I can only presume the Killers ran them out of town so they could have sole claim over that bizarre and terrible place. Flaspar themselves fell victim to the mid-00s dance-punk phase that ruined the rhythm section of many a band from roughly 2002-2007. Or maybe it’s just not my thing, but either way those dance-punk drumbeats are the cheesy sax solo of the 00s. The trouble with putting four versions of the same song on a 7” is that if the song isn’t inspiring enough and the remixes aren’t diverse enough, you’re pretty much digging your own grave. Which is pretty much exactly what Flaspar did here. “Double Trouble” ain’t no “Mr. Brightside,” but it’s serviceable. It plays with those neo-soul vocals Of Montreal were rocking in 2006 and if you can ignore the now dated-sounding drums the song is kind of groovy. I wouldn’t call in requesting it, but I probably wouldn’t change the station if it came on the radio. The “Problem Solver” remix pretty much sounds exactly like the original except those awful drums are pushed front and center (at least it’s mercifully short). The “Need More Confusion” remix beefs the thing up with dirty synthesizers and pitch shifts the vocals so the singer sounds like an 8-year-old Japanese girl. The “Extended Instrumental” remix does a minimalist stripping down of “Double Trouble” and is nothing but drums and a synthesized melody that sounds like the last words of a dying computer. In the background an electric guitar solo wails and wails underneath the hauntingly bad drums. It’s not even the drummer’s fault! There’s just something about that drum sound that makes me queasy.