Still stuck on 7" singles!

In the 80s I loved Crackerjack. The best bit was when somebody got gunked (as happens 39mins 35secs into this clip).  I've bought so many records but gone to so many gigs of late (there's been quite a run in Glasgow in recent weeks: Terry/Woolf/Anxeity, Moritz von Oswald, The Goon Sax/Boys Forever/Spinning Coin, Cavern of Anti-Matter, Colleen Green/Cassie Ramone/The Pooches, Bill Orcutt/Okkyung Lee etc. etc.) that on those rare evenings when I do actually sit down to listen to them it feels akin to being sat in a Crackerjack gunking booth, voluntarily pulling the cord and getting soaked to the skin by new music.  At the most recent gunking these are the 7" singles that widened Not Unloved's eyes the most:



What a heart melting slice of bounce-pop!  Tangible Excitement! have tremendous pop pedigree, being a collaboration between Scott Stevens, (singer with The Earthmen, Summer Cats), Stewart Anderson (Boyracer and a million other fab groups) and Mark Monnone (The Lucksmiths, Monnone Alone etc).  For good measure Louis from The Zebras/Bart and Friends guests on guitar, too.  On the flip there's an irresistibly fizzy cover of Tiger Trap's much cherished "Puzzle Pieces" that rivals the original in terms of sheer joy.



I don't think I'll be hearing from any lawyers if I say that The Jeanies have a fondness for the records of Big Star and Milk'n'Cookies.  That, of course, is no bad thing and when they can craft melodies as instantly memorable as "Amilee", they'll earn admiration for more than just having fine record collections.



At a recent gig a friend declared that they were officially over the 60s garage sound and never needed to hear or see another group so fixated on that period ever again.  It being 2016 and hence a whole five decades since the bulk of the touchstone records of that ilk were released, I could see their point.  Then I heard the latest blast of downer garage jangle from Hamburg's The Wrong Society's and knew I wouldn't be turning my back on that sound anytime soon.  The sombre "Don't Know Why" on the flip is particularly beguiling and would earn its place among the greats on any one of my favourite volumes of the Teenage Shutdown series.