Sunday, March 18, 2007
Firewood - s/t
Firewood s/t 7" (Robber Baron, 1997)
I am 100% positive that the 1990 vinyl boom to glut resulted in hundreds of records like this. Firewood's one and only EP rides the line between punk and Pavement-like indie rock and, aside from a few college dejays and their friends, it is totally unknown. In fact, I live 15 minutes from where it was made (me = Sacramento, Firewood = Davis) and I didn't know the record existed until one Mick Mucas played a cut on his radio show. I happened to show up early for my show and heard it. He told me who it was and that Firewood was from Davis. I asked if he knew how I could get the record. He said that the band was two brothers and one of them has most of the pressing in his closet but wouldn't part with any. Mick had an extra copy himself so he gave it to me. Subtract the Mick part of the story and think about what I just wrote: There are hundreds a very good if not great records still out there waiting to be discovered. However they are not 60s garage punk, 70s KBD punk, or 80s hardcore. Those holes are, statistically speaking, fished out. Nineties punk has not. -Scott S.
Monday, March 12, 2007
Stiletto Boys - 8 Track
Stiletto Boys 8 Track (Zodiac, 1997)
The Stiletto Boys had a micro-career similar to many garage-rockers in the 90s: A debut EP that stirred interest followed by a slow but steady decline in the quality of their releases. The Motards are probably the best example of this phenomenon, although their peak lasted through a few more of the early 45s to be fair. This first Stileto Boys 45 is clearly genuflecting at the altar of late 70s powerpop, cut with a bit of that fading Hollywood-glam feel that so many LA and West Coast 45s of the period also feature. This EP was also notable for its initial 200 press; Nobody outside the Distractors was so pessimistic of their chances in the marketplace, 500 or 1000 being the default press back then. The title track is the best song on the EP, the rest are too long by about 30 seconds each, so we will leave their digitization to others.
The 'Boys managed an LP around 2001 that I picked up out of curious loyalty and listened to a few times before filing away. This first EP is good enough that I'm gonna dig it out for a re-listen for when we get around to posting tracks from LPs in 2010; Maybe there's some gold in there. -Ryan W.
