Code BMUS "Strike Now"

(1981/2014, EVER/NEVER) Mysterious 1980 post-punk broken furniture/field recording/coffee jitters art rock that's haunting is a pesky poltergeist way.

donnie "the colored section"

(2002, Giant Step/Motown) I spent a lot of this year re-visiting what I think might be a top ten neo-soul album of all time, and probably, the number one underrated album in the genre. Deep, challenging content married to deep smooth grooves, this album (as the kids say in 2019, so it will be outre in the new year, thus this shall be my last usage of said vernacular) slaps! If there is any knock against this it might be that the artist's nods to Stevie Wonder's work are too spot on/blatant, but then again, if you can write (and perform!) songs that sound as good as vintage Stevie it might be a sin to not do so.

Sir Deja Doog's Love Coffin

(2014) Screaming Lord Such & Such!

Toni Basil "Word of Mouth"

(1982, Chrysalis) I think this record is REALLY slept on. I went to Apple Music and they don't even have it, just a compilation. I really believe Basil is one of the most fascinating figures in American entertainment, certainly on screen: she's in a top tier Elvis film (in probably the most dazzling music number in any of them), attends an Annette beach party, meets the Rat Pack, is in Easy Rider, helped the Monkees go psyche, made Shindig swing, and appeared in a brilliant segment during the launch of Saturday Night Live, introducing proto-hip hop dancing to non-Soul Train viewers. Significantly, she was no Zelig/Forest Gump stumbling into iconic moments in pop culture history, she was a visionary choreographer, a thrilling dancer, and a radiant screen presence. As a musician she made two LPs, this debut being known for the smash "Mickey," a sly remake of a Brit hit which topped the charts around the globe and earned the ultimate accolade, a Weird Al parody. But unlike many so-called One Hit Wonders, her song was no fluke floating in the ether; Basil's keen sense of which exciting youth/underground cultural trends were Ready For Prime Time that she demonstrated in her 'ography was being applied to pop music, and this record is insanely good. I do not have the 1981 UK version which has a few different tracks, but the US version is thrilling. Most of it has a Devo vibe, and a lot of it just has Devo literally playing the music. She cover's Love's "Little Red Book" as a New Wave groover! She makes David Essex' "Rock On" more futuristic and less creepy! Every song was created with video and dancing in mind, and the kinetic energy is always sizzling, while also always being whimsical and fun in the way the best pop is serious about structure but not too serious about anything else. I am particularly enraptured with the single "Shoppin' From A to Z" (the picture sleeve looked like a shopping bag). This absolutely absurd alphabet song has Basil sexily buying matzo, liver, zippers, and other staples to a beat, because as you know, "good girls shop, bad girls shop," so what else can she do? And for "X" she pays tribute to Margaret Wise Brown's most intriguing "good night" recipient. As far as poppy New Wave albums I really don't feel like there are any that I love more than "Word of Mouth." 

GLvis

(2018, owlsnest) Outsider music that's as introspective and thought provoking as it is raw and strange. More Daniel Johnston than Wesley Willis, but more GLVis than either of those colleagues, this Midwestern troubadour addresses topics of race, gender, and religion with jarring honesty, making this more than an oddball novelty. In fact, though some odd balls are juggled here, and this has humor and an original POV, there's really no novelty here at all (oiher than this being a one sided LP that used a font on the back cover that makes Comic Sans look dignified).

Livefastdie "Hitstains"

(2014, Almost Ready)  Lots of shit references here in the art, lyrics, and liner notes (though I am counting "kick the shit out of..." as literal), but I think its fair to call this Vomit Rock. Trashy, ugly,  Zed Fi punk blurs culled from rare EPs onto this now rare LP. Makes your head feel like bad weed on a bad night.

Mad #11, #12, #13

(2019, 2020, Madmag.com) When the Internet began reporting the death of MAD last year I was a bit perturbed, but hopeful, as they committed to publishing on a regular schedule with a mix of reprint and new material. Because Sergio Aragones and Al Jaffee are still alive, and because some of that oft-reprinted material is worthy oft-reprints I held out judgement. And judgment is ...mixed! The first issue was their now annual 20 Dumbest People, Events, and Things entry, which hinted at a great strategy, as they included a lot of old material that complimented the new material because they had vintage stuff about Trump and the environment and politicians and celebrities and corporations that completely, and very specifically, mirrored the subjects' contemporary shenanigans. Mr. Jaffee was not active (give a near 100 year old a break every now and then) but Sergio was as robust as ever., and the contemporary Gang of Idiots did pretty good in their now-limited capacity. Issue 12 was even better. Excited that QT included a Tom Richmond drawn Mort Drucker homage imaginary 1960s-era MAD cover in Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, they used that cover as the cover, then had a killer section of new material by contemporary artists designed to look like it was in a 60s issue of MAD, including a piece by Chicago's own Johnny Sampson doing a Fold In (and I cannot recommend his zine about his relationship with MAD Fold-Ins highly enough: http://www.johnnysampson.com/shop/tru-ly-mad-ly ). So VERY promising so far. But the latest issue, with a music festival theme, is more disappointing than the fact it came out in advance of a music festival-free Summer. Some of the new material is OK, but some is weirdly topical in a non-hip MAD Kids way, though there are a few great ones (I believe Sergio's long overdue A Mad Look at Port-a-Potties was new). But the reprints were curated inanely. Some were decent but one was a Steve Allen sheet music parody from the 1950s that eleven people would have found funny in the I Like Era era and zero people would like today. And that was not the only sheet music entry. Honestly, because Trump is unparody-able I felt MAD was just about the only outlet that was doing a pretty good job these last few years, as he is a worthy target of smartly juvenile humor., so I felt they were on a roll. The hybrid reprint issues originally only lost a little momentum. But this new issue does not bode well. That said, batting .667 is pretty good, and considering the clunkers in Dick DeBartolo's movie parodies the last half Century, disappointment is no stranger to MAD readers. But I will only give them another 68 years to straighten up, then I am out!

The Tunes "Love Uncool"

(1982/2013, Cheap Rewards) Bouncy, chirpy Midwestern power pop that is SO prototypical it is almost hard to believe this is real and not a fictional band created by 21st Century Power Pop Re-enactors. There are some tempos that seem too fast for 1982, which makes me believe this is probably real, as fakers wouldn't have made that mistake, but this is SO perfect I'm still skeptical. Contains all the songs from the sole release by these Not-In-Kansas-Anymore (even though they are in Topeka) pop dreamers, plus six unreleased tracks, and they are all about girls, love, loving girls, and body temperature. And elevators and escalator metaphors. And like those machines, this takes me where I wanna go: To Deepfake Pop Heaven!

Midwestern Cuban Comics, Blammo by Odin Cabal

(https://www.facebook.com/Midwestern-Cuban-Comics-142788702486660/) I wrote about this raw, ambitious, funny, sexy, strange, ugly, confounding, inspiring comic a bunch, but I wanted to write about it one more time, as I fear its' lengthy, worthy run came to an end a while back. It is so good! That's all.

Blood Rhythms "Assembly"

(2015, No Parts Of It/RRR)  This cyclical cacophony is comparable to watching Warhol's Sleep (which is not a five hour shoot of a dude sleeping through the night, but rather a series of repeating eight minute loops of a dude sleeping, thank you very much) on fast forward repeatedly while wearing Clockwork Orange eyeball openers...consensually!