Elephants - 'Music Machine'/'Jesus' (Paper)

The Elephants are an already-forgotten band from Kentucky that lived in the world of melodic guitar pop, though without much notable influence from the Elephant 6/Apples in Stereo gang that shared the stage with them. 'Music Machine' is a bouncing, bright song with lots of space, and a vocal melody that isn't easy to compare to. But it's the B-side, the somber 'Jesus', which is chilling - singer Jason Zavala's investigation of a personal relationship that is somehow fragile, tender and honest despite the subject matter and the 'ba ba ba ba' vocal bit. His voice has a complexity and dynamic that's deliberately underplayed, until the last movement comes along and it gets dangerously "emo" -- yet the overall aesthetic of the Elephants is so far from that, we're spared any clichés. The liner notes include a website address which seems to be for a music shop in California, so I'm impressed by the lack of Internet presence for a band this recent.

Eat Skull - 'Jerusalem Mall' (Woodsist)

Coming off their great second album, I expected more from 'Jerusalem Mall', the song, which (if you're gonna command the A-side alone) should deliver more punch. Overall, this 7" feels like a bit of Eat Skull's different sides. My preference is for the fun, poppy stuff, represented here by the 7"s best track, 'Don't Leave Me on the Speaker'. Unlike 'Jerusalem Mall' this sounds bright, with the guitars working in a style that is melodically ramshackle instead of discordantly ramshackle. 'Thank you! Smokebreaks' is a fast punker along the 'Nuke Mecca' lines from Wild and Inside; fun, sure, but I think these work better on the longform player where there's a lot more meat in the sandwich. 

The Dutchess & The Duke - 'Never Had a Chance' b/w 'Scorpio' (Hozac)

For some reason I was really taken by She's the Dutchess, He's the Duke, the first of two albums from this Pacific northwest pair. The "duke" sings lead over hard-folk strumming, with the "dutchess" doing backing vocals, and that's about it. He has a real early-Stones affect to his voice, and the whole exercise feels pretty retro -- but with really, really solid songwriting. This single continues the feel, starting with 'Never Had a Chance' which is good, set up over a twangy guitar part accompanied by a tambourine or some other such percussion. But it's the b-side, 'Scorpio', that kills. It's a sad, simple look back at lost love, with a dual-vocal chorus of 'I'm a long, long way from you / my heart....' that's incredible familiar, derivative even, yet un-pinpointable. The Duke truly dominates this band - his vocals are double-tracked even - but as soon as this song ends, I start it over. I'm fairly certain that this pair has split up and he's gone on to make records as Case Studies, who also made a pretty good album. On pretty green vinyl, too. Let the early 60s live on forever.

Dogbowl - 'I Am Too Drunk Everynight Because Of The Blue Fur Bosom Girl' (Vital)

The 7" section of venture is obviously my least attended-to, as I just made the first post in 2 years. This is an accurate reflection of how my 7" box (or boxes, rather) is the least attended-to section of my music accumulation, which is a shame since there's so many gems. But there's also a lot of oddities buried in this mud, such as this single from Dogbowl released in 1991. Dogbowl is of course the original guitarist for King Missile, during their earliest records. He brought a softer, more folk-based sound to King Missile and is also, I think, responsible for the true bits of genius such as 'World War III is a Giant Ice Cream Cone'. He left and the Missile went towards full-on rawk, but I always felt John S. Hall's sense of humour meshed really well with Dogbowl. Now this is basically novelty music, except novelty music with arthouse tendencies, and for that reason I have a real soft spot for this single. Side A, the title track, has beatnik style brass accompaniment over Dogbowl's lonely lament -- and the quite literal cover art shows the girl in question. It's weird, but too funny to appeal to anyone except deliberate oddballs. The B-side, 'Here Comes the Man with the Plucked Out Eyes', is the 'classic' that I keep going back to (or would, if I remembered to listen to this song more than every 7 years). It's built around a driving beat that keeps stopping to let some droning pulse almost overtake it - like a horror movie, except the vocal delivery and instrumentation and pretty much everything else makes it ha-ha funny. Yes, I bought this single in high school. Yes, I still like it lots. No, I've never listened to anything else by solo Dogbowl, nor have I been particularly curious.

The Dead C - 'Vs. Sebadoh' (Siltbreeze)

Apart from the heaving, panting excerpt of 'Air' that closes side two, The Dead C Vs Sebadoh sounds nothing like the Dead C or Sebadoh, though I imagine the Deep Wound 7" was somewhat of an influence. There's 8 songs at 45 rpm, most built around fast rock riffs and completely unintelligible lyrics, making this the Dead C's 'hardcore' record for sure. It's great, though -- the attitude and atmosphere blow past everything. Some cuts, like 'River of Lethia', merge the more exploratory tendencies associated with the Dead C ca. 1993 with the short format, and I wonder if this was taken on as some sort of challenge for them to record and release it. This isn't exactly a departure - 'Bad Politics' could fit on here easily, though the lyrics would have to be made less audible -- as a slightly different flavour.  Twenty years later, I consider this a prized cultural artefact, though the numbers of people who would understand or care about such an evaluation continues to dwindle.