White Feather "Summer Days / Golden Haze" (No No Records, 1983)

Original copies of the "Summer Days / Golden Haze" 7" by lost pastoral psych-poppers White Feather recently appeared for sale on the Perfect Lives Records site. A tiny amount of rummaging revealed that it was a "self released 1983 single, in an unlimited edition of 500" most of which were still in group member Alan S Robinson's cupboard.  My guess is that Perfect Lives were able to retrieve some from the cupboard and I'm glad they did as it's a lovely record which deserves a second shot at finding an audience, however small. Surely, fans of the gentler side of R.E.M.'s earliest work or those who avidly thumbed the pages of Bucketful of Brains or relished rifling through the 45s in Standout and Minus Zero will see its appeal. 

P.S. An mp3 of the A-side can be downloaded for FREE here with the B-side being available here.

Juniper "Juniper"

So far, 2020 has been a real head scrambler of a year so anything that is an uncomplicated source of joy is most welcome. "Juniper" by Juniper (Shelley) (lp on FABCOM!/CD on Confidential Recordings), therefore, showed up at just the right time; a dozen accomplished, wholesome and super-catchy songs about teenage matters such as the merits (or not!) of boys and dating, in general (Juniper is 15 so that's entirely appropriate) that'll have your foot tappin' and your heart swellin'. The songs cover a range of styles from dreamy soda shop pop ("Girls Just Want a Boy To Rest Their Head Upon") through glam stompers ("Kids On The Corner", "Everybody's Got A Crush on Chad") to punkin' power pop ("Punk Rock Boy"). There's even a nod to Springsteen on the almost absurdly singalong-worthy "Best Kept Secret". The arrangements are great with lots of surprising little touches. For example, I sure didn't expect the wah-wah on "How Long's She Gonna Stay In That Room", still less the electric sitar at the end of closing track "I Don't Wanna Dream About You". Throughout, Juniper's vocals are high in the mix, with good reason; her clear but unshowy voice is immensely likable. "Juniper" boasts a host of top contributors (Ira Kaplan! April March! Beans Geddes! Francis Macdonald! Kim Shattuck! (RIP) and more) but I suspect I'd enjoy it even if the songs were largely unadorned. That's the power of succinct, well-written songs steeped in the good stuff from the past 50+ years of pop music.