You Now Know Our Discography

This month I added my 30,000th song to iTunes...and I only keep songs I've rated at least 3 stars out of 5. Though I've only shared a subset of my discography with you, I've finally shared all the stuff I really wanted you to hear: Stuff I own "hard copies" of from the 90s that you may not have heard before or found elsewhere. YSKOD has been going steady since December 2006, except for a lull from May to July 2007 when I smashed the shit out of my elbow (my left arm is now permanently bent like a tone arm), but this marks my 236th and final post. Thanks to all the bands for making the music I've posted here, thanks to the labels for being smart or stupid enough to release it, thanks to my wife for allowing me to fritter away Saturday afternoons posting it, and thanks to everyone out there who stopped by. Bye.

Veronica Lake - Their Complete Discography

From 1992 to 1993, Veronica Lake released 10 first-rate indie pop songs scattered across 8 releases. This year I obtained a reissue of the Winter's Mist compilation EP from Keith at Silver Girl Records, featuring "Emma Maybe", thus completing the set I began collecting more than a decade ago. I love this band. So, for my last music post on YSKOD I present to you the following present...

Veronica Lake Compilation on You Shall Know Our Discography
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1. Sleepyhouse (1992, originally released on Crayon/Veronica Lake 7" on Cher Doll; this mp3 was taken from 1993's "Something Pretty Beautiful" compilation CD on Brilliant Records)
2. This Is My World (You Can Have It) (1992, Bus Stop 7")
3. See Me When You Are 16 (1992, 7", Bus Stop 7")
4. Daisy Kiss (1993, "...One Last Kiss" Compilation CD on spinArt)
5. Insecure Baby (1992, spinArt Pop Licks 7" Box Set)
6. When You Smile (1992, spinArt Pop Licks 7" Box Set)
7. Threnody (1993, Audrey's Diary 7")
8. In The Clouds (1993, Audrey's Diary 7")
9. Saints Above (1993, Simple Machines Working Holiday - May 7")

10. Emma Maybe (1993, Winter's Mist compilation 7")
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Sample mp3: Veronica Lake - Emma Maybe
Full download: http://www.zshare.net/download/142286740cf7e328/

T-Shirts

Found a cache of my old indie t-shirts during our recent move. I think I'll start wearing them again, to give the indie kids of today something to scratch their heads about.

Toshack Highway - Toshack Highway CD

Here is the debut Toshack Highway album from Adam Franklin, released on Catapult Records in 2000, after the rightly lamented demise of the Swervedriver. The album is all over the shop (in a good way), and for me the standouts are "Harlem", "I Thought I Saw My Ship A-Coming", and "Sisyphus". I haven't seen this album posted on many blogs, so I thought a few folks out there might be happy to run across it here.

Sample mp3: Toshack Highway - Sisyphus
Full download: http://www.zshare.net/download/14229291fb45fd47/

Ten Cent Fix - A Jiffy Boy Records Compilation CD

A handful of treats await you on this 15-song compilation from 1993. Features songs by Poole, All About Chad, Melba, The Grit, Ultra Cindy, Slow Children Playing, Barnabys, The Grifters, Apple-O, Sugar Shock, Paint, Viva Satellite, Schwa, and Lilys. As was so often the case in the early 90s indie scene, Jiffy Boy seemed to start and end with this compilation. True?

Sample mp3: All About Chad - Embarrasing Moments
Full download: http://www.zshare.net/download/142294436385a7cd/

Teenage Fanclub - Everything Flows CD EP and God Knows It's True CD EP

Here are two excellent Teenage Fanclub EPs released in 1990 by Paperhouse Records.

Sample mp3: Teenage Fanclub - So Far Gone
Full download: http://www.zshare.net/download/142275004aadebd0/

Tangible Records 7" Box Set

If you search for "Tangible" on YSKOD you'll see that I've posted most all of the six 7" singles from this box set in the past. Here's how I "laid it down" in one of those posts...

Back in 1993, Tangible and Bomp! records co-released an amazing box set of six 7"s by San-Fran-area bands Hollowbody, Orange, Nebtwister, Acid, Brian Jonestown Massacre, and Reverb. Only 500 copies of the box set were made, and mine is #235 (though the 7"s were sold separately too). The box set came with Issue No. 1 of "The Brian Jonestown Blotter", written anonymously in Church-of-the-Subgenius style, which documents the San-Fran music scene from which BJM emerged. Over time, as the alphabet and my discography allow, I will share some of the songs from this box set with you.

Word.

Full download: http://www.zshare.net/download/138208834634b204/

The Summer Hits - Beaches and Canyons CD

Thanks to a reader comment, I learned about this hard-to-find 16-song compilation of The Summer Hits 1992-96 output, released on Christmas Records in ~1996. Rad California-style Beach-Boys-on-Shrooms indie rock by a band that was Further, then splintered off into Beechwood Sparks, The Tyde, etc. I found a sleeveless copy for $3 at CD BBQ and am sharing it with you, so get your Dig! on! Hope you can make out the manifesto on the CD.

Sample mp3: The Summer Hits - Preference
Full download: http://www.zshare.net/download/138451990cecf6f6/

Submarine - Submarine CD and Kiss Me Till Your Ears Burn Off CD

"If it ever stops raining, let's buy a car..."
Sample mp3: Submarine - Jnr. Elvis


"Let's just fuck in your car forever, let's just spend a day together..."
Sample mp3: Submarine - Smile

I have California-era Rena to thank for introducing me to the Sublime Submarine, whose two albums deserve to be heard by every Pablo Honey Powered Indie Rock Fan out there. These are the 1994 versions of their self-titled album (Ultimate Records) and KMTYEBO (Fantastik! Records). Masterful melancholia, both. As the band says, "I'd rather feel bad, than feel nothing at all." Lost love? Bad day? Look no further. Here's your ticket to wallow and/or transcend.

Download both albums here: http://www.zshare.net/download/13821244df1a27ee/

Strapping Fieldhands - Discus LP

I posted a few songs from this lost album back in the day, but here's the whole thing for your listening pleasure. Released on Omphalos Records in 1994; vinyl only.

Sample mp3: Strapping Fieldhands - Mysterious Girl
Full download: http://www.zshare.net/download/138201799d64e4a1/

SpinART Pop Licks 7" Box Set

SpinART's third release, a six pack of coloured 7"s by Poole, Throw That Beat In The Garbagecan, Trampoline, Swirl, Veronica Lake, and Suddenly Tammy!, in a popsicle box containing toys and candy, in a limited edition of 1500, solidified them as stone cold cool indie kids in 1992, and caused those who grabbed a copy to feel they were stone cold cool indie kids too. Hard not to covet and feel chuffed about owning something as fun and ephemeral as this.

Sample mp3: Throw That Beat In The Garbagecan - I Can't Walk
Full download: http://www.zshare.net/download/135465138ee6eee8/

Sons of Freedom - Sons of Freedom CD

I discovered this 1988 album through my high school buddy Jo Johnson. It was our staple summertime weekend album which we played loudly on his ghetto blaster up at Winnipeg Beach. We were able to buy 2 litre plastic bottles of Canada Cooler from the liquor vendor there (7% alcohol for $7), tear off the label, and drink them right on the beach--the vendor staff pretending we were of legal drinking age, and us pretending we were drinking 7 up. So, this is a nostalgia post. Sons of Freedom were a Vancouver-based band, and their debut on Slash Records is a monster of chunky rock riffs, odd lyrics, and non-conventional song structures. Not to everyone's taste perhaps, but I am willing to claim that this album is one of the most original Canadian rock records of all time. I dedicate this post, and the cover quote (by early "Valiant Five" feminist Nellie McClung) in particular, to Spinster Rock's Nolan Micron who is thinking of shutting down his wonderful blog due to The Man.

Sample mp3: Sons of Freedom - Mona Lisa
Full download: http://www.zshare.net/download/135470641eda6fbc/

Songs About Croaking - Mean Green Mutha Vol 1 Compilation CD

The title and cover from this 1993 compilation on London's Frog Records pay homage to this Big Black album. Appropriately enough for a Friday the 13th, it contains 13 songs by Animals That Swim, Frantic Spiders, Spokepoker, Boyracer, Hula Hoop, Scissormen, Shiva Affect, Bleed, Johanna's House of Glamour, Bush Pilot, Wand, Thumper, and Helen Love. Far as I know there wasn't a Vol 2...though I would be happily wrong.

Sample mp3: Animals That Swim - Roy
Full download: http://www.zshare.net/download/13547361d94c6f9f/

Something Pretty Beautiful - A Brilliant Compilation CD

Not sure if this compilation was named after the band, but it's apt! Apt! I think I've posted almost every Brilliant Records release, and it's time to post this 19-song tour de force from 1993 that features Fudge, Small Factory, Tree Fort Angst, The Waking Hours, All About Chad, Schwa (VA), Ultra Cindy, The Tribbles, Lorelei, Fudge (again), The Technical Jed, The Lid, Veronica Lake, The Magpies, Twitch Hazel, The Knievels, The Waking Hours (again), Petals, and Jane Pow. Wow.

Sample mp3: All About Chad - I Can't Sleep
Full download: http://www.zshare.net/download/13547583515bfa04/

Smog - Floating 7" EP

Anudder band-in-name who made a Kuhnian paradigm shift in sound is Smog. Though some of you hopefully prefer Bill's dickaging around to his ubber-songsmithery, most of us will find ourselves loving "A River Ain't Too Much To Love" more than this 6-song Shinning that formed Smog's 1991 debut on Drag City. Regardless, this is still good stuff that, downloaded along with The Arizona Record below, will provide you with a fine half-hour escape from fidelity. I shall nose my discography!

Full download: http://www.zshare.net/download/132109780a943180/

Silver Jews - The Arizona Record CD

If you enjoyed the low-fi Dime Map of the Reef 7" EP I posted here, then you'll want The Arizona Record too, an enjoyable 9-song mini-album released on Drag City in 1993 before D.C. Berman gave up recording through a ghetto blaster. It's taken me 15 years and several Jews albums to realize how much fun this album is, and given my disappointment in 2008's "Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea", The Arizona Record is no longer my least favourite Jews album. Party Bargers and Candy Jailers may not concur.

Full download: http://www.zshare.net/download/1321141719e408ec/

Sebadoh - Local Band Feel LP

A bootleg collection of live Sebadoh recordings from 1992-93 formed the debut release on the X-Mas label. The Earth, The Wind, and The Fire make a pretty dinny din here, though I tend to prefer Lou's introspective earth to Eric's kegger fire. Lots of each can be heard here to balance the universe. I missed the break between Cliche and 2 Years, 2 Days when hacking the soundwave into bits, but they work well back to back anyway.

Sample mp3: Sebadoh - Willing to Wait (Live)
Full download: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=TUMHLW4P

Sebadoh - The Freed Weed CD

Homestead Records released this compendium of cassette recordings in 1990, consisting of the Weed Forestin songs from 86-87 and The Freed Man songs from 88--40 songs in all. Probably my favourite low-fi album of all time. Bob Pollard wasn't the only dude who could pull a catchy tune out his bottom, ya know.

Sample mp3: Sebadoh - Brand New Love
Full download: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=JMS9F8F9