Thursday, December 21, 2006

The Leather Uppers / Icky Boyfriends - s/t




The Leather Uppers / Icky Boyfriends 7" (Famous, 1993)

A lot of virtual ink has been spilled on account of San Francisco's Icky Boyfriends in the last year or so, most of it spurred by the release of a double CD retrospective on the Menlo Park label in 2005, a release that caught a lot of people by delighted surprise. Who were/are these guys, and why were they neglected for so long? Don't ask this correspondent, my Icky's Sooper-Trooper Fanclub card is number 00047 (Carolyn Keddy's is 00026, does anyone have a lower number please email???? Doug Pearson???). Live they were a delightful mess, a shambolic controlled catastrophe, yet their studio recordings, shockingly, managed to deliver the goods with a 'precision' bordering on elan. I think there were so many kookoo-for-cocoa-puffs outfits treading the boards in the early 90s; gettin' nekkid, painting themselves orange and pooping themselves, that the hysteria the Icky's were offering got overshadowed by the apes hanging off the chandelier. In 2006 the Icky's songs, loaded with their malevolent intelligence, have won out over the long-forgotten poopy-pants brigades.

The Leather Uppers, on the flip, presented the lighter side of what is now known as 'panic rock'. We covered the Uppers early on in this blog, just hit the archives for the early take, which hasn't changed, only ripened.

The Leather Uppers will apparently see some more reissue action in 2007 courtesy the Goner label, while the Icky's can continue to rest easy on their laurels. Although, hmmm, anyone out there feel like reissuing their I'm Not Fascinating LP as a stand alone item? There seems to be some pent-up steam out there for it, based on its continued non-appearance on the 'Bay. I don't think anyone who has one of that original and only 500 press feels like letting go. -Ryan W.

Comments:
Don't have a Sooper-Trooper card, but I do have a Chinese Millionaires Big Spenders Club card. Number eight. Any others out there? Uh, including the seven before me?
 
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