Birds & Batteries - I'll Never Sleep Again

Year: 2007
Label: Self-released
Style: Alt. rock, alt.country
Location: Aquarius Records, San Francisco
Medium: CD
Condition: Used
Dollar diamond or dud: Diamond

Info:A few of you might remember this from one of my other blogs. It fits in here too. Here's what I said about it the first time:

Well, okay, imagine this: Right after cutting "Heart of Gold," Neil Young has a Nostradamus-esque prescient vision and is shown a music world that's filled with Tortoises, Kid-As, and clickin' and cuttin'. He runs into the studio and cuts a record that's half twangy Americana country/folk and half electronically manipulated madness with woozy synths and enough bleeps and bloops to make every song sound like a Deep Blue mating call. After reading that, there's a natural inclination to stick I'll Never Sleep Again right next to similar electro-enhanced rootsy albums like Songs: Ohia's Ghost Tropic--and one must admit that Mike Sempert's vocals are as close as you can get to Jason Molina without having to build a tenor guitar to properly accompany them--but Birds & Batteries's songs are far more richly layered, coming close to almost Beatlesque pop at points; just, you know, with synths. It's an interesting touch that keeps the album straddling the glory years of early '70s country rock (Young, Parsons, etc.) and the modern peaks and valleys of dub-influenced post-rock. At the very least, the first four songs are worth a listen. The "Heart of Gold" cover nearly eclipses the original and "I'll Never Sleep Again" sneaked into my top ten list last year; a slowed-down number that shimmers with melancholy and just begs to be slipped into the CD player any time you drive past long n' lonely pastures that are only illuminated by headlights n' moonlight.

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Lustre - Lustre

Year: 1996
Label: A&M Records
Style: Alt. rock/pop rock
Location: The Warehouse (closed)
Medium: CD
Condition: Used
Dollar diamond or dud: Diamond

Info: A rare Friday/Saturday/Sunday/Monday post from me since I'll typically be absent those days. Excuse the quality, but I've already got one leg out the door.

One of the most bittersweet types of dollar finds is when you come across bands that were supposed to "make it." It's cool that you're able to scoop something notable up for dirt cheap, but rather sad because, like DJ Shadow said, it's humbling. No matter how big you are, how much money is thrown at you, or how good you are, there's a place waiting for you in the dollar bin, along with all the other shooting stars that were promised big things before you. It's then that you realize how fleeting and how luck-based the chance at longevity in the art world truly is and blah blah blah give me the download link already.

Anyway, Lustre were a band from North Carolina, the future hotbed of metalcore. They had a song on a hit soundtrack (Empire Records, which, seemingly, everyone from my generation has a copy of), were getting pushed by a major, and had a video. Then...nothing. Nothing really happened. Of course, even with the slick production job that pushed the vocals way up front, Lustre were never really geared to appeal to the masses. Their brand of hook-laden power pop is uber-attractive and accessible, but wasn't quite mainstream ready, if you know what I mean. What we have here is pretty much a Husker Du-disciple that has taken into account the mini-rock revolutions of shoegazer's din, jangle-pop's hooks, and, of course, the head-in-the-clouds space rock of Hum, Shiner, et. all. The guitars are fucking huge, like the Gin Blossoms backed by an amp army all fuzzed out and turned up to eleven. The major (w)rec(k)ords influence has tried to reign 'em in, but this is still a satisfyingly noisy and ballsy record. The songs, though, are largely hit or miss and if you own Empire Records, you already have the best song, "No Overalls." But, nitpicking aside, this is a minor miracle to find for an uno.

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Ned's Atomic Dustbin - Brainbloodvolume

Year: 1994
Label: Sony
Style: Alt-rock
Location: The Great Escape Discount Store (Nashville)
Medium: CD
Condition: Used
Dollar diamond or dud: Dud

Like most of North America, I first came across Ned's Atomic Dustbin with the release of "Grey Cell Green" off their God Fodder record. Also, like most of North America, I wasn't impressed with their duelling-bassists gimmick, although I will admit that I enjoyed God Fodder for what it was, which was ultimately just future $1-bin (god) fodder. Although I liked it okay, I didn't enjoy it enough to pick up Are You Normal?, and I only picked this one up because... well, it was $1. Enjoying something of a minor alt-rock blip with "Grey Cell," Ned's failed to capitalize on anything by releasing two consecutive boring records, before collapsing and fading away entirely...

A blend of Madchester beats, punky riffing, alt-pop dreaminess, and blandness, Ned's sound like about forty-seven British bands at the time, most notably Jesus Jones, except without the hookiness. This isn't awful--it's merely competent. And consequently, it's sort of pointless for anything more than $1. Back to the two bassists, one would play a higher melody line and the other would play the more traditional bass parts, so there's a combination of the typical post-punk British "let the bass carry the melody" ideal with the usual "let the bass fill out the sound' aesthetic, but that's more interesting in print than practice, I'd say.

Pale Divine - Straight To Goodbye

Year: 1991

Label: Atlantic
Style: Alt-rock

Location: The Great Escape Discount Store (Nashville)

Medium: CD

Condition: Used

Dollar diamond or dud: Dud

Not the killer doom metal band, but instead a St. Louis-based you'd-swear-the-singer-was-British early-90s alt-rock band, sort of like a darker Live or something similar. At this point, the biggest claim-to-fame this band would have is the presence of future-G'n'R guitarist Richard Fortus. I've seen the word "industrial" tossed around when discussing this record, but I don't really equate this with industrial music, at least not industrial in the sense of Einsturzende Neubauten or NIN or whatever. Maybe this has some elements of martial, mechanical percussion or general industrial darkness, but overall, this is like a more gothic Live mixed with a depressed U2 or something.

The drumming is bouncy, like Larry Mullen Jr, and the guitars are psychedelic-tinged and generally riff-free, clean and spacey, so this is college-y alt-rock. Nothing here rocks, though--it's all mid-tempo at best, with some almost King's X-y vocal melodies. Vocalist Michael Shaerer possesses a disaffected version of that 90s-alt world-weary I've-got-something-to-say-ness, if that makes any sense--that palpable sense that, for better or worse, these artists meant what they were saying, even if what they were saying didn't make shit for sense at times. (See also: Ed Kowalczyk or Eddie Vedder.)

I'd also read some reports on this band talking about how they were St. Louis' favorite sons back in the day, how they were the biggest band from that area, but here's the deal: at the risk of pissing off a minor major city, I've been to St. Louis--I've got friends there even--and that place sucks. Sorry. It sucks. And this band is good, but compared to Live, for example, they're stuck in Mental Jewelry, without the brilliance of Throwing Copper, and rightfully condemned to the $1 bin. Not an awful purchase, but far from transcendent.

About the Great Escape Discount Store: Nashville's Great Escape is one my favorite stores on the planet, and I spend a ridiculous amount of money there. (The first CD I bought there: a used copy of Malevolent Creation's The Ten Commandments in 1993.) The discount store is just an overflow store for their unsellable CDs, with everything discounted. I find it's a great place to catch up on the last decade's popular bands, like Live or Counting Crows or the Cranberries, all for $1. I'll pay $1 for almost anything.

Scheer - Infliction

Year: 1996
Label: 4AD
Style: Alt. Rock/Shoegazer
Location: The 99 Cent Store
Medium: CD
Condition: New (sealed)
Dollar diamond or dud: Diamond

Info: I always thought that the back of the local 99 Cent Store was filled with Muzak rejects and soft jazz abortions, not well-regarded mid-'90s rock from a label that boasts the likes of indie heroes such as The Birthday Party, The Pixies, and the Cocteau Twins. I also wasn't expecting something like this based on the cover art that would be more fitting on some kind of nu-metal/aggro-rock disaster. Instead, Scheer is a noisy female-fronted alt. rock band that sounds like something that would result from the Cranberries and Swervedriver fucking (i.e. big ass guitars anchoring some fairly catchy hooks, Irish accent-inflected singing, and a bit of jangle below all that distortion and foot-triggered atmospherics). Anyway, this was their debut full-length for the label before "contractual disagreements" pushed them off 4AD and their follow-up back to '00 (I've heard, although I can't confirm, that the breathy Audrey Gallagher sang techno in the meantime. That's a mighty cred-crumbler). With this one, though, the band saw some chart time with two singles and even had a couple of videos that you can see down below. This, of course, makes it even harder to figure out why this was sitting near the bottom of a decaying box in a place that'll sell you English Leather cologne ("musk" scented, even) for a penny less than a paper Washington; especially since this is pretty decent.

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