Recordzzzzzz

[Sue Trowbridge <ins_aset%JHUNIX.BITNET@wiscvm.wisc.edu>]

New and noteworthy--

WEDNESDAY WEEK, "What We Had" [Enigma Records].
Three girls/one boy from L.A.  Guitar rock, swoonsome harmonies,
energetic, fun; everybody's going to compare them to the Bangles
but they're really so much better, and they don't associate with
Prince.  Extra points for naming themselves after an Undertones song.

THE PASTELS, "Up For A Bit With The Pastels" [import].
I loved their single "Truck Train Tractor"/"Breaking Lines";
unfortunately, there's nothing quite up to those songs on this LP.
Drone-y vocals over guitarjangle background, approaching psychedelia
on some tracks.  Shamble on.

A CERTAIN RATIO, "Live In America" [Dojo import].
When New Order toured with ACR in '85, I thought ACR blew New Order
off the stage.  ACR are the probably the funkiest band in Britain, for
whatever that's worth.  All the applause is fashionably deleted, a la
Japan's "Oil On Canvas," and the sound is terrific.  Good track
selection, too, from the old ("Flight," "And Then Again") to the new
("Sounds Like Something Dirty").

VARIOUS ARTISTS, "Some Kind of Wonderful" [MCA/Hughes Music].
Yes, MCA gave teen schlockmeister John Hughes his very own record
label.  In the L.A. Times Calendar, Hughes announced his intention to
release soundtracks filled with songs by obscure Brit bands and make
'em into stars.  Feh, say I -- why the Anglophilia?  In any case,
there's some snoringly dull stuff on here -- songs by Pete
Shelley, Flesh For Lulu, Lick the Tins, & Stephen Duffy.  There are
also two very strong tracks by the March Violets (their cover of the
Stones' "Amanda Jones," "Turn To the Sky") and the seductively
pretty "Brilliant Mind" by Furniture.  Not terribly cost-effective,
then, and anybody in a city with a "nu-wave" commercial radio
station [WHFS hereabouts] will be dead sick of this Brit Pack
in a week or two.

Still depressed about the breakup of Volcano Suns,
--Sue


"I'm madder than a fat man with an empty fridge at the move by
American businesses to build our fast-food restaurants in crummy
Russia...Frankly, I'm frightened at the thought of what will
happen if the pesky Russkies start pigging out on our chow.  After
all, look at me.  Here I am -- a middle-aged guy with a steel
plate in my head after getting half my skull blown off in Korea --
and I can still kick commie butts.  Why?  Because every day for
lunch I gobble down a double cheeseburger, an order of fries, a
chocolate shake, and a pack of Twinkies.  If we want to feed the
Russkies, let's give them the veggie glop the Broccoli Bruces eat.
That way the commies will get fed, but won't be strong enough to
fight their way out of the produce section of the supermarket."
                                --Ed Anger, "Weekly World News,"
                                  quoted in The Utne Reader