Noo Outlet 4: Compilationships
Confirming: The late 80s/early 90s are literally back again. Plus our first Brush of Note, an early personal AOTY candidate + concert alert, and a follow-up on "Planet Uterus".
Hello from my floating endorphin buoy, made possible by an extensive weekend bike ride with great friends through some very idyllic landscapes. The Golden State looks gooood in emerald.
Today we’re celebrating something pretty nerdy: compilations and re-releases! They can be a convenient gateway to some very eccentric scattershot discographies, some passionate fan’s roundup of things they think deserve to be heard by more people in this world. Sometimes it’s just a remaster on a big heavy vinyl with some film scans, and sometimes it’s a whole revelation. This Noo Outlet is, I hope, about the latter. These are three short-lived groups that burned bright and disappeared, growing in note far later on. Shall we?
Music Recommendations
Black Tambourine—Black Tambourine (2010 compilation of unreleased 1989–1991 songs)
{alternative} {noisy pop} {shoegaze} {Silver Spring}
I first came into this one when I first got into college radio, where it was in the Essentials stack (of CDs) at KJHK 90.7 FM Lawrence—Your Sound Alternative. I had no knowledge of the band or its influence, but from the first play of recommended track “Black Car”, this record struck my rabbit heart like dive-bombing hawk.
And soar and screech through the air it does, replete with fuzzy, loud guitars and their harmonics, honestly pretty vocals, and emphatic but economical drums bashed and clanged out in a way that feels energetic but almost politely restrained. The whole thing is a pretty lo-fi recording operation, but it sounds so, so good to my ears. There’s an urgency to everything here that feels a bit punk, even when they slow up the tempos, and an earnesty that feels maybe a bit doo-wop, and I mean that in a very dear and reverent way.
One of my favorites from Slumberland Records’s deep catalog of excellence. Come for the Pastels love/diss track, stay for the incredible Suicide cover. Ace stuff, start-to-finish.
RIYL: Velocity Girl, Galaxie 500, Rocketship, The Pastels, The Jesus & Mary Chain
Rec’d Tracks: “For Ex-Lovers Only”, “Black Car”, “Throw Aggi Off the Bridge”, “Dream Baby Dream”
Label: Slumberland
Lee Tracy & Isaac Manning—Is It What You Want (2022 compilation of unreleased 1980s–early 1990s songs)
{funk} {r&b} {soul} {gospel} {hip-hop} {lo-fi} {DIY}
Oooh honey this is a special record, a bubbling concoction of funk, soul, electro, R&B rendered at home by two talented, committed artists in late-80s/early 90s-Nashville. Today we might call it DIY and lo-fi, and we even have artists with studios and engineers that are going out of their way to create a particular tape hiss haze on their finished tracks.
This is not that; the intensity of invention drives the vibe here. Lee Tracy is absolutely brilliant throughout, a clear talent instinctively delivering the perfect vocal part for whatever Isaac Manning brewed up. He can simmer with the haze, lick like flames over a bed of hot coals, stride with a bass line as his staff, yelp and shout above a swirling din, and always, always lead the congregation of the heart to salvation. For Manning’s part, wild fusion of genres is the norm, absolutely no big deal to pull gospel synths and madcap electro experimentation into one swirling expression of creative energy. In their ranging pastiche of decades from mo-town and the Jackson 5 to gospel and hip-hop, though, these two made something dynamically rich, happily new, and powerfully personal. The lo-fi aesthetic is pronounced, but becomes immersive. I’ll leave it with how my friend Marc put it, more succinctly: “this whole record is smol huge”.
RIYL: Prince, Madlib, Molly Nilsson, prog-y synths
Rec’d Tracks: “Jesus Going to Clean House”, “Is It What You Want”, “Love is Everlasting”, “I Need Your Love”
Label: Athens of the North
Stephen—Radar of Small Dogs (2020 compilation of unreleased 1989–1990 songs)
{aotearoa} {experimental} {nz} {pop} {experimental pop} {indie rock} {jangle pop}
I wrote a micro history on this band for context, but for brevity: suffice it to say Stephen was spun off from The Clean, New Zealand’s early-80s jangle-pop darlings. If that name doesn’t pique your interest, the backstory probably doesn’t amount to much anyhow—and that’s okay! The only reason I even found out about this particular band is that it got a compilation re-release on Liz Harris (of Grouper fame)’s record label.
Radar of Small Dogs a pretty new addition to my library and my life, but it feels like a charming and familiar classic. It rolls along with brilliant-yet-simple/simply-brilliant arrangements, brisk tempos, some gauzy movements, and catchy melodies (often synthesizers!), all kept together by consistently laudable bass parts. While the album sounds plenty cohesive, each track tugs at some different thread in my music memories, in the best way, and is likely what endeared this record to me so quickly.
Also just an amazing name for an album. Like, c’mon.
RIYL: The Clean, The Kinks, The Velvet Underground’s poppier stuff, Television Personalities, Twerps, Ducks Ltd.
Rec’d Tracks: “Loved by You”, “Little Audrey”, “Spins You Round”, “Kills All My Fun”, “Hedgehogs (live)”
Label: YELLOWELECTRIC
Bandcamp (BC player not embedded here because the re-pressing sold out)
Noo Sampler
As usual, here are the links to the playlist if you’d like to hear the recommended tracks from albums featured in this and prior editions of Noo Outlet.
Amazing New Album/Incoming Concert Alert
Cindy Lee—Diamond Jubilee (2024)
Patrick Flegel, of the c. 2010 group Women, drops a heartbreaking work of staggering genius on us here: this self-produced two-hour masterpiece, three LPs-worth of dreamy transmissions channeling the great girl-groups and Motown into something deeply personal, yet extra-dimensional, all organized into a double-disc format. This is due for a proper endorsement in a later Outlet, but for now, I humbly but emphatically suggest getting into this one, available in full on YouTube or via suggested download .WAV files on the Realistik Studios Geocities page.
If you’re feeling it, check for your town on their soon-upcoming North American tour:
I (now) have tickets to the show at Thee Stork Club, and may just go ahead and get one or two more to see them in SF the next night. It really is that good.
Brush of Note
As it turns out, I find brushes more interesting and compelling than the average citizen. Yes, like brushes, brushes. Perhaps some of the actual fascination is how underrated I think they are, but nonetheless I’m pretty down with brushes. I’m going to back a few (honestly might get to a dozen) just to get it out there, but not like, link for purchases or anything. Just think about it.
Face brush for wet use, by iris hantverk
This was the first brush I bought, even really the first I was compelled to buy, just kind of out of nowhere, I saw it in 2015 at Canoe, in Portland, and it really struck a chord. Again, I can’t totally explain, but it has not been some passing interest. This little thing (7" x 1.25") is from Sweden’s iris hantverk, so named because their products are handmade by vision-impaired craftspeople.
Washcloths are great for some things (hotel rooms with linen service; patting the face dry) but more effort to deal with when all wet after use for actual washing. Maybe skin care people are way ahead of me on this, but here’s where the face brush rules. Brush in small, gentle circles, flick it a bit at the sink or shower/tub to dry a bit, then hang on a hook. I read now how the maker advises leaving it bristles-down to dry so the water doesn’t keep the wood wet, but I’ve had mine in daily use for almost nine years now, and I’m just now starting to see any deterioration.
They sell a dry-use-only brush in goat hair and a wet-use-specific one in horsehair, which is slightly rougher when dry, but softens as you use it. Mine is the horsehair one. If you only get one—and you really should—surely that’s gotta be it. This is not an affiliate marketing link, just something I feel strongly about compared to most people, so I’m putting it out there.
Nootes & Addendum
Last week in Noo Outlet 3 I mentioned “Planet Uterus stuff”, but then didn’t explain whatsoever. I realize everyone has access to search engines and an ability to exercise their own curiosity, but I want to give this Traumprinz project a big nod anyway. The Soundcloud is a serious trove of deep ambient treasures. You can’t really miss with any of it, but you may as well start from the top with DJ Healer—Planet Lonely (2018).
Whew, snuck in just under the email length limit. Thanks for reading!