CRUISING "You Made Me Do That"

Ever since the early Pavement e.p.'s led my ears towards the crunchy side, a hefty amount of fuzz and distortion allied to a good pop tune is a shortcut to my heart.  On the evidence of "You Made Me Do That",  CRUISING deal in heftier levels of fuzz than most and know their way around a chunky, insistent garage punk tune:

Has there been a more enjoyable ear-walloper since Catatonic Youth's mighty "Control My Gun"?  Not that I've heard (although all suggestions are welcome!).  Hopefully, somebody will feel it incumbent upon them to have it pressed-up on vinyl.  CRUISING boast members of both Girls Names and September Girls so it's no surprise that the first song they've unleashed is such a prime slab of austere scuzz.

New (to me) vintage D.I.Y. #1 : Happy Refugees

Happy Refugees I can safely say would've have bypassed me totally were it not for the good work of Acute Records and boomkat saying the following in their review of the "Return To Last Chance Saloon" compilation:

"Happy Refugees are noted favourites of US revivalists Crystal Stilts and Girls Names"

I've not fully digested the record but initial impressions are good.  "Hamburger Boy" rattles along with primitive beats, heads down but quiet guitars and fab,  non-aggressively ranted lyrics.

"Garish colours hit me from the billboard
 Feeding my greed. It's a setup!

Just one spin and you too will be lip-curling and sneering, "Please don't die on the sidewalk, it's so embarrassing!".  "Last Chance Saloon" is astonishing, Its guitars all super-trebly and rusty Brillo pad abrasive.  A less gothic take on The Birthday Party maybe?  Having said 'less gothic', there are a fair few references to death  throughout the lyrics.  On the much sparser "Bury Me", however, there are a couple of lines of innocent yearning worthy of Dan Treacy at his "Someone To Share My Life With" best:

"I just need some who can make me smile
  I just need someone who can make me cry"

"Screaming and Shouting", with its warmth and bar room piano, brings to mind Vic Godard and his Subway Sect.  There are many touches which elevate Happy Refugees above a lot of their 80s peers.  They must've sounded glorious on John Peel!  Definitely one for the Swell Maps fans.

Girls Names "Dead To Me"

My chemistry teacher once told me that "Procrastination is the thief of time".  20 years on and it would appear that diddling on the internet has replaced procrastination as the thief of my time.  That pesky internet has stolen so much time of late that a shameful number of records and cds have been suffocating in their shrinkwrap instead of breathing on my hi-fi.  One such cd was Girls Names' debut.  After their rollicking set at Commercial Alternative last year, I was hotly anticipating the release of "Dead To Me" (Slumberland Records / Tough Love) so it's a bit odd that it suffered such a fate.  Anyway, it finally got a few spins last night while I was reading The Observer from 2 Sundays ago which I didn't read at the time because I was diddl...er...you get the picture.  Girls Names' earlier eps and their ace split with Brilliant Colors suggested that a full length would sound like this and it's a relief that it actually does.  Which is to say that I'm glad that, unlike some of their peers, they didn't feel the need to get too polished too soon.  Most tracks sound like they were made by a gang of kids sent wild on hearing Crystal Stilts, Joy Division and the grumbling, rumbling music of the Estrus Records / Dick Dale axis of surf (as opposed to the harmony spangled surf of The Beach Boys and Jan and Dean).  So, a record to nourish those with a love of the sparkier side of guitar pop.  It's at its sparkiest on songs like "I Lose"  (previously aired on the aforementioned Brilliant Colors split) on which the guitar rattles like the chrome fittings on an aged school bus battering along a pothole riddled road circa 1975.  At last Friday's Ducktails show D suggested that it sounded as if I loved just about every record out at the moment.  Of course that's not true.  What is true is that recently there have been a number of records such as the aforementioned Crystal Stilts' latest, Amor de Dias's debut, the new Comet Gain record,  etc. that haven't disappointed so I feel compelled to evangelise (ok, chunter on at length to anyone who'll listen!) about them.

Girls Names - "I Lose" by Tough Love