Matador @ 21!

There was a time in the early/mid nineties when it seemed every other new release I bought was on Matador Records. I’m pretty sure that it must be the indie label which is most represented in my record collection. This past weekend, Matador celebrated it’s twenty-first year of existence in Las Vegas with an all-star cast of past and present bands. Last Tuesday, Matador released a fancy little box set to commemorate the occasion with all the proceeds going to charity. I figured I needed to do my own little tribute to the label, so I put together a Matador Sampler of my own.

Twenty-one songs, all culled from what I think of as Matador’s Golden era: 1991-1999. Not to say that there aren’t some fine artists on the label these days, but these are the artists that made me fall in love with the label and kept me coming back for more. Limiting my choices to a nine year period was also an easy way for me to whittle down the number of possible tracks to 21. I did not include any tracks that are on the new box set, nor are there any tracks which may have appeared on the three previous Matador anniversary compilations: What’s Up Matador?, Everything is Nice, and Matador at 15. So this compilation will serve as a great introduction to the label for those of you unfamiliar, and will work nicely as a companion disc for those of you diehard fans who already picked up the box set.

Happy Listening!



Matador @ 21!

01. Yo La Tengo, “Stockholm Syndrome” [1997]. James McNew takes over lead vocals for this should have been a hit from Hoboken’s finest trio.

02. Silkworm, “Couldn’t You Wait” [1995, Marco Collins Session]. I love, love, love this version of “Couldn’t You Wait”!

03. Guided by Voices, “Little Whirl” [1995]. Since I’ve given you all the Pollard you need for awhile, I thought I’d let Tobin Sprout get the spotlight here. From GBV's second album for Matador, Alien Lanes.

04. Bettie Serveert, “Tom Boy” [1992]. As if the world needed another reason to visit Amsterdam?

05. Railroad Jerk, “Bang the Drum” [1995]. The Fall meets Jon Spencer on this romp-- you'll be singing along the first time through.

06. Chavez, “Unreal is Here” [1996]. Matt Sweeney has collaborated with a lot of talented people, but his best work might be the two albums released by Chavez.

07. Cat Power, “Say” [1998]. Backed by Australia’s Dirty Three, this is from my favorite Cat Power album, Moon Pix.

08. Cornelius, “Chapter 8 – Seashore and Horizon” [1997]. Keigo Oyamada (aka: Cornelius) creates interesting sound-collages and this one features the Apples in Stereo.

09. Tommy Keene, “Tuesday Morning” [1998]. Tommy Keene put out two excellent LPs on Matador: Ten Years After (1996) and Isolation Party (1998).

10. Superchunk, “Throwing Things” [1991]. This track was previously featured on Burn and Shine in video form when I celebrated North Carolina during Power Pop Month.

11. San Francisco Seals, “Winter Song” [1994]. Jangly guitars never sounded so good.

12. Pavement, “Elevate Me Later” [1994]. From my favorite Pavement long player: Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain.

13. Bailterspace, “Untied” [1995]. New Zealand’s finest super-group!

14. Spoon, “All the Negatives Have Been Destroyed” [1996]. People who don’t like the first two Spoon records are just plain wrong.

15. Come, “Half Life” [1996]. Four albums, all on Matador, is all we got from the collaboration of Thalia Zedek and Chris Brokaw. All of them worth tracking down.

16. Fuck, “To My Gurl” [1997]. You have to respect a band that would choose ‘Fuck’ as their moniker. Imagine pitching this band to any label, let alone one that was distributed by Warner’s at the time.

17. Teenage Fanclub, “So Far Gone” [1991]. B-Side to their fabulous “God Knows It’s True” single.

18. Guitar Wolf, “Fujiyama Attack” [1999]. The needles were most definitely in the red when this garage-stomper was recorded.

19. The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, “Brenda” [1994]. Jon Spencer’s schtick has not aged well, at least not for me. For a brief moment there in early 90's, however, I really thought he might save Rock & Roll.

20. Belle & Sebastian, “A Century of Fakers” [1997]. Technically this did not get released by Matador until 2000, but since it was a reissue of a band already on the roster, I included it here.

21. Liz Phair, “Glory” [1993]. I recently listened to Exile in Guyville for the first time in ages. It still holds up.

Total Time: 1:01:59

Download it here: Matador @21!

Download Jewel Case Artwork here: Thanks rem2rigs!

Release Date Pushed Back Until February 28.

Only two days left in Power Pop Month, it's been a fun ride. All kinds of milestones here at Burn and Shine. So I thought I'd share those with you:

01. I've had my first spammer.
02. Three of my comps have gone Gold (for downloads of 100 or more!).
03. The number of my Followers has more than doubled.
04. I'm pretty sure I've also more than doubled the number of hits I've received since the existence of the blog.
05. I had more blog entries for the month of February then I did for 2007, 2008 and 2009 combined.

Many of you are tuning in today because today's the day #6 in the BoPP series is supposed to come out. I decided the final compilation needed to wait until Sunday, so come on back in two days. I promise it will be posted nice and early-- then I get to take a break until St. Patrick's Day.

But don't fret, I've got a nice little surprise: another out of print Power Pop compilation! This time it's from the spectacular Not Lame Recording Company. I've done a little recon, and I can't find this anywhere in the blogosphere, and it has become quite a collectible among Power Pop fans. In 1998, NL set out to document the very fertile pop scene in Nashville, TN. They called the compilation Nashpop, and it has 18 tracks, with nary a throwaway to be found. From the liner notes by Derek Scott:

The Range of bands represented here reveal the many facets of Nashville's pop community, everything from the airy sophistication of Swan Dive to the charming garage pop of the Luxury Liners; the explosive entergy of Joe Marc's Brother and Who Hit John to the well crafted works by Owsley, Doug Powell and Bill Lloyd. And every week new acts emerge to reinforce the sense that something truly special is going on in Music City . . . And it isn't Country!

Too many highlights to mention them all. One song, Swag's "Everyday is Christmas" has already been featured here at Burn and Shine on Christmas Redux Two. I can't believe I've never used any of the others. Anywho, Here's the track listing and artwork (enjoy!):


















Nashpop: A Nashville Pop Compilation (NL - 046)

1. Contact High - Bill Lloyd
2. Suzie Failed the Acid Test - Who Hit John
3. Beautiful Excuse - Swan Dive
4. I Hate That Song - The Shazam
5. Sonny Boy - Owsley
6. Penelope Wilde - Idle Jets
7. She's So Clean - Millard Powers
8. Torn - Doug Powell
9. Paper Star - Neilson Hubbard
10. Feel - Joe, Marc's Brother
11. Anything You Say - Ross Rice
12. If I Cry - The Luxury Liners
13. Spirit of '76 - The Rayon City Quartet
14. Christina - Idle Jets
15. Congratulations - Who Hit John
16. Second Hand Man - John Keaney
17. How Can We Go On? - Bill Lloyd
18. Everyday Is Christmas - Swag

Download it Here: Nashpop

We've Reached the Mid Point - Happy Valentine's Day!

We are halfway through Power Pop Month here at Burn and Shine. There are still two more volumes left in my Birth of Power Pop Series, and I'm planning at least a couple more video tributes to geographic locations. If you'd like to see your favorite Power Pop State or country celebrated here at the Shine, then drop me a comment.

As a special Valentine's Day bonus I'm giving out a pretty nifty, somewhat obscure compilation that came out on S'more Records back in 1999: Pop Till You Drop. This isn't particularly hard to find, but it is out of print (I couldn't even find a website for S'more Records). Neither could I find PTYD up anywhere currently in the Power Pop blogosphere, so it might be something you haven't heard. When it came out, it was an inexpensive (I'm pretty sure it retailed for less than six bucks) pop sampler distributed by Redeye. From the liner notes:

This compilation began as an answer to a question we Redeye folks were frequently being asked - "Since you guys deal with a ton of these 'Pop' bands breaking the scene, why don't you do a pop comp?" So we decided to do this, and do it in a big way with two full discs of songs from the preeminent bands in the so-called "Pop Renaissance" currently storming the Southeast. Here in the Southland and on this compilation, Pop music has a rather all-encompassing definition from straight-ahead power pop, to the most delicate of hooks and harmonies and songs swirling with soft psychedelia-- this is POP.

Let me just give you some of the highlights. First, the the two tracks that kick off discs one and two are worth the time to download each file alone. The Mayflies USA (or as I like to call them, Teenage Fanclub USA) track, "Make Me Susan" isn't available anywhere else, that I'm aware of, and neither is this early version of Superdrag's "Some Kind of Tragedy" (titled here, "Some Kinda Tragedy"). Speaking of the Drag, there's an early version of Who Hit John's spectacular "Stu" (later recorded by Superdrag, after Sam Powers joined for a spell). If you don't own the Put-Out's Sing the Hits, then you need to remedy that situation immediately, but in the meantime you can sample an early version of "Ultra-Wrong" from that record here. There are other memorable tunes, and some fairly big names (Superchunk, Mitch Easter, Jack Logan, Elf Power) along side some pretty obscure bands (Nine Minute Snooze or Luxurious You anyone?), and at least one more band with ties to Knoxville, the mighty Flesh Vehicle.

Happy Listening!



DISC 1:

1. Make Me Susan - The Mayflies USA
2. B Street Wanderer - Maki
3. Romance - Ho-Hum
4. Fire - Ashley Stove
5. When I Was Broken - The Lures
6. Sudden Crown Drop - Mitch Easter
7. Rock, Scissors, Paper - Gumption
8. Girls With Glasses - Kenny Howes
9. Sinker '99 - The Boy Wonder Jinx (remix)
10. Red Mopar - Gerty
11. Cursed Mirror - Superchunk
12. Coming in the Mouth of America - Cry Baby Cry
13. Steal Your Keys and Crash Your Car - Flesh Vehicle
14. Kamikaze Pilot - The Luxurious You
15. Sweet, Sweet Six-Nine - The Comas

Download it here: S'more Records Presents - Pop Till You Drop (Disc One)

DISC 2:

1. Some Kinda Tragedy - Superdrag
2. Simon (The Bird With the Candy Bar Head) - Elf Power
3. Madison Ave. - The Pawn Rooke Four
4. Put the Damn Gun Down - Noah's Red Tattoo
5. Understanding Is Over-Rated - Dynamic Truths
6. Stu - Who Hit John
7. Ultra Wrong - The Put Outs
8. Genius Boy - Jack Logan
9. Lie to You - Lie To You
10. Magic 8 Ball - Gladhands
11. Terza Rima - Cliff Retallick
12. Driller Killer - Doleful Lions
13. Vanity Girl - Clay Merritt Of The Shames
14. Tooth Under Your Pillow - Nine Minute Snooze
15. Always on My Mind - Star Collector
16. Wrong About Winter - Rodeo Boy

Download it here: S'more Records Presents - Pop Till You Drop (Disc Two)

Merge Records Turns 20 This Year!

Happy B-day Merge, I hope you'll be around for another twenty! In celebration of this momentous occasion, Merge is releasing a series of compilations this year via their website and they've also decided to have a little contest. Anyone can submit their own 20 song compilation of Merge artists, and if your comp gets picked (at random) you win some cool stuff. Details here: Make Your Own Score! I decided to make, but not submit, my comp and post it here. So here is my Score 20:

01. Spoon, "Sister Jack" (Piano Demo) from the bonus disc of 2005's Gimme Fiction. Personally, I think this version slays the album version by a mile. (1:44)

02. Camera Obscura, "Happy New Year" from Biggest Bluest Hi-Fi, 2002. It's hard not to love these Scottish popsters. (4:03)

03. Neutral Milk Hotel, "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea" from the album of the same name, 1998. Arguably the most lauded album in the entire Merge catalog. Jeff Mangum has never issued a follow up, and thus the cult of NMH (for better or worse) was born. (3:22)

04. Portastatic (featuring Georgia and Ira of Yo La Tengo), "St. Elmo's Fire" by from the Scrapbook EP, 1995. A fantastic cover of Brian Eno's gem, by one of the founders of Merge, Mac McCaughan. (3:33)

05. Butterglory, "Carmen Cross" from Rat Tat Tat, 1997. Terrible band name, I agree, but a great little band nonetheless. They started out as Pavement copyists, albeit with a little more pop sensibility, but by this, their final album, they had really found their own voice. (3:46)

06. The Rosebuds, "You Better Get Ready" from The Rosebuds Unwind EP, 2005. I never really know what to expect from the Rosebuds, from disco influenced dance-athons to mid-tempo ballads to flat out rockers-- this one falls in the last camp--but they are always interesting. (2:07)

07. Caribou, "Hello Hammerheads" from The Milk of Human Kindness, 2005. This was the first album I heard by the artist formerly known as Manitoba. I was hooked by this sparingly, beautiful tune. (2:46)

08. Lambchop, "It's Not Alright" from What Another Man Spills, 1998. Another cover, this time Kurt Wagner tackles Dump (Yo La Tengo's James McNew's side project). (3:26)

09. Conor Oberst, "Sausalito" from Conor Oberst, 2008. Picking up where Bright Eyes' I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning left off, Oberst convincingly puts out a country record. (3:10)

10. The 6ths (feat. Lou Barlow), "In the City in the Rain" from Wasps' Nest, 1995. Stephin Merritt is one of the most celebrated of Merge's alumni, here I chose the Lou Barlow sung gem from one of his various side projects. (3:43)

11. Teenage Fanclub, "It's All in My Mind" from Man-Made, 2005. From their first, and so far only, release on Merge. Come back guys! (3:45)

12. Polvo, "Vibracobra" from Cor-Crane Secret, 1992. This band were tagged, maybe a little unfairly, as "math rock". I never really understood that genre, but I always loved Polvo. (4:47)

13. Crooked Fingers, "New Drink for the Old Drunk" from Crooked Fingers, 2000. After the Archers of Loaf dissolved in 1998, Eric Bachmann put out a couple of interesting solo records as Barry Black. Nothing on those records prepared me for the brilliance of his next project, Crooked Fingers. This is from their debut. (3:53)

14. Versus, "You'll Be Sorry" from Hurrah, 2000. By the time I bought this, my first, Versus record, they had been putting out albums for six years. This was their first for Merge and sadly their swan song-- still one of my favorite albums of the decade. (4:40)

15. Richard Buckner, "Town" from Meadow, 2006. Apparently, Merge is in the process of doing some Richard Buckner reissues due out later this year. Hopefully that means a new album soon. (4:09)

16. The Ladybug Transistor, "The Places You'll Call Home" from The Ladybug Transistor, 2003. Sasha sings on this lovely little Ladybug Transistor track. (4:04)

17. The Beatnik Filmstars, "Wrong" from In Hospitalable, 1997. The British answer to the American lo-fi scene of the early/mid 90's. (2:38)

18. The Essex Green, "Don't Know Why (You Stay)" from Cannibal Sea, 2006. One of my favorite psychedelic, indie-pop bands of the current decade-- though I'm not sure what they're up to these days as this was their last release. (3:27)

19. M. Ward, "Outta My Head" from Transfiguration of Vincent, 2003. I'll admit, I really didn't like this record when I first heard it back in '03. I listened to it again not too long ago (mainly because I liked the She & Him record so much), and it absolutely floored me. I don't know what I was thinking the first time around. His new one comes out next Tuesday (Feb. 17th)! (2:52)

20. Superchunk, "Slack Motherfucker" from Tossing Seeds (Singles 89-91), 1992. How else could I have possibly ended this tribute? (2:54)

Total Time: 1:09:39

Download it here: Score 20 - A Merge Records Tribute