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.

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.

Beltbuckle (Sonic Bubblegum)

Sometime in 1993, a now-forgotten Massachusetts label with a Bazooka Joe ripoff logo put out this 4 song EP. It was a bit of a Massachusetts supergroup, being a songwriting partnership between Lou Barlow (of Sebadoh) and Eric Matthews (of Cardinal and a generally under-the-radar solo career). The glue holding it together is Bob Fay, who later would perform in both Cardinal and Sebadoh. But strangely this slips through the cracks of history despite its total excellence. 'Judas Suicide' sets the pace with three distinct sections, merging hypnotic teenage angst with cult-like devotion. Maybe I'm just timewarping back to high school but I'm still a bit shocked at how natural this sounds despite the mood shifts. My eyes wideneds and ears tingled as I clutched my Mexican Telecaster, with this dubbed to my Walkman. Do kids still feel this way anymore or has the digital Myspace era taken all of that away? 'Pocket Skylab Love' mines some territory not far from My Dad is Dead, but with a somewhat more home-spun feel, if possible. But the gem is side two track one -- 'Mary Hair'. Early 90's indierock songwriting rarely hits such magical peaks -- 'King of the roadtrip, no defrocking' and the Beastie Boys are there, and despite fart jokes and cheapass distortion pedals, this is my adolescence captured in a two minute song. Actually, it's what I thought my post-adolescence could be. I was wrong as hell, but I'm thankful for the goal. 'Girl Who Reads' rounds it out with a bit of aggression, like Tar meeting 'God Told Me' from Sebadoh III. These days I only give two shits about Lou Barlow when revisiting this 91-93 New England-centric period -- but this may be my single favorite entry in his discography. Eric Matthews is mostly relegated to background vocals (w/Fay) but I think he certainly had a hand in crafting 'Mary Hair'. The Cardinal LP (an equally awesome project, particularly because the partner is the incredibly singular talent of Richard Davies) found an audience after all these years, getting a deluxe CD reissue. I don't know where this Beltbuckle EP will end up in in the narrative continuum since it's just a tossed off side-project, but for something tossed off, there's an incredible unity in the songwriting.