The Perennials "Oh Kimmy" ep

(Eradicator) By continuing to release stellar songs not only has this band guaranteed that I exceed my minimum daily requirements of infectious lo-fi jangle pop but they have also (finally) schooled me in how many r's are in the word "perennial."

Idle Times "s/t"

(Hozac) If bands like T.Rex, Cheap Trick, the Byrds, and, I don't know, let's say the Monkees, all had $5 recording budgets and their vocalists were really sleepy (from earning the $5, presumably) and their master lacquers got warped, they could only hope to sound this good. Grand, triumphant, genre-non-commital  lo-fi that manages to stay weird despite the grandiosity. Plus really good LP art.

The Hamburglars "Robble Robble Robble Robble" ep

(www.hamburglars.com) It's not just that this is a masked band dressed in full Hamburglar costumes that makes this record the best Happy Meal toy ever. It's not just that they play ridiculous garage rock with blazing guitar so hot it would make Grimace spooge. And it's not that virtually every lyric to every song is "robble robble robble robble robble rbble robbel robble robble robble." It's that they included a lyric sheet!

Reading Rainbow "prism eyes" LP, "Tough Love" b/w "Over It"

(Hozac) I don't know what it is about the recent releases by these Philly phreaks so spectacular but I have some inklings. Perhaps it's the hypno-harmonies that fall somewhere between 8-year old jumprope girls chanting on the playground and Phil Spector love slave backup singers making audio gold. Perhaps it's the ability to make every hook-filled tune sound simultaneously joyfully innocent and unnervingly erotic. Perhaps its the alchemy of removing all the grit and testosterone from garage/psyche/60s music yet never getting "twee."But its probably just because the songs are really, really good.

The Fresh & Onlys "Tell Me What You Want to Know" b/w "Nothing Ever Happens"

(Hozac) Screw any psyche band that makes you feel like you're on laughing gas seeing pink clouds and smiling unicorns...I want my trippy music to scare me silly...I want spooky, dangerous, weird incredibly memorable songs to haunt me...I want music to make me paranoid and scared! Thank you Fresh & Onlys...for gloriously fucking up my brain!

The Morlocks "Play Chess"

(popantipop) Assuming these are the same Morlocks that have been around forever, then the Morlocks have been around forever, and it was inevitable that eventually they would get around to regressively genuflecting in front of the Chess catalogue. Tackling Bo Diddley, Howlin' Wolf, and even Chuck Berry Tunes in a manner less concerned with reverence for the originals and more concerned with capturing the crazy fantasy magic vibe that haunts the grooves of those platters, these garage goons manage to make chestnuts sound intimidating again, using a more ominous, Link Wray-ful approach than the Rolling Stones or Manfred Mann ever thought about. If these cats were busking on Maxwell Street circa 1956 they would scare way all the bargain shoppers.

The Royal Pines "Come Forth"

(www.myspace.com/royalpines Prior to the invention of "Alternative Rock" there was something called College Rock, which was basically REM and a bunch of bands doing doing bad REM impersonations. Occasionally, within those narrow parameters, an act would stand out, and had this record come out in 198whatever this would be one of those bands. Royal Pines takes the REM concept of making poppy, hooky rock with all of the machismo of classic/cock rock siphoned out, then de-wussifies it by laying on deep timbred, dramatic vocals. Royal Pines freshens my world even moreso than their namesake windshield-hanging car-destinkafier. In fact, this is so good it made me not only come forth but also come for a fifth...and that's not easy to do.

Tony Fate "Half Virgin"

(Vital Gesture) This CD of solo instrumentals kind of reminds me of that Steve Martin record where half the album is him doing comedy and half is straightforward bluegrass banjo music. This is in part because "Half Virgin" opens with two ace finger-pickin' old timey barnburners (the best tracks here) but also because hearing these spare, solo instrumental tracks from a man who is synonymous with crunching, balls to the wall guitar solos is as odd as hearing the Wild and Crazy Guy get all folksy. The make or break point that determines if you could be a Bellrays fan was always love or hate of nasty garage rawk guitar solos, so hearing all this delightfully dainty stuff from the Bellrays (and Grey Spikes and Reactors and a bunch of other bands) guitar slinger is a surprise treat. This disc features acoustic guitar, mandolin (played in a florid Spanish style), some slide stuff that sounds almost like Hawaiian slack, keyboard that sounds like Korla Pandit gigging at Pee Wee's Playhouse, and only one fuzzy rock tune out of 21. At times the rudimentary references to ethnic music styles borders on hokey, but for the most part this is a tremendously pleasant listen. Play this for your lady and she won't be half anything for long!

Go Time! "hit it!"

(Sound Gypsy) There it is! I was wondering where all the regular guy rock went. You know, rock n roll music for actual people who actually like to have a beer,  have a good time, and hear some rock n roll. Hook-filled, driving, unpretentious, timeless stuff here...if they are playing at your corner bar don't dare miss 'em, and if they're not, then be sure to get this CD ASAP, cuz you'll dig it. Or you ain't regular.

V/A The New Hope (reissue)

(Smog Veil) GUEST REVIEW BY CHRIS BUTLER
My father was from a Cleveland suburb, so there were many trips to visit the Grandparents. I remember sunny days in the summer, and tons of Lake Erie snow-belt produced snow in the winter. And I remember being really excited about being able to tune in WMMS, the proto-classic-rock (because it wasn't quite 'classic' yet, it was current) FM radio station. But I also remember sometimes we would visit this guy on the East Side who rented his upstairs apartment to my parents before they had kids. Their old place was in a nondescript residential neighborhood, not like super-urban downtown Cleveland or anything, but it seemed to me that whenever we went there, it was always  drizzling, dim and depressing. This is pretty much the historical and emotional context I put this compilation into. Like the bands on this record were all comprised of kids from the gloomy neighborhoods, somewhere between the inner-city and the suburbs, of Cleveland, OH.
And it's funny that WMMS, a station that was so instrumental in promoting glam and arena rock bands from England and other parts of the US, was so blatantly scornful of local music. They occasionally played a token Cleveland band (Michael Stanley Band), but during this same time period (late 70Ss/early 80s) they were overlooking bands like Rocket From The Tombs (who would splinter into Pere Ubu and the Dead Boys), the Pagans, Electric Eels, X-X, etc, who were busy creating the Cleveland legacy most of us know today. And while none of the aforementioned bands are on this reissued 1983 comp, I think some of their influence shows up. 'The New Hope' could be considered a representation of the Silver Age, or second generation, of Cleveland punk.
Anyway, since one of the participants on this comp (Tom Miller from Agitated and the Offbeats) mentioned in the press release that when they made 'The New Hope' they were emulating (perhaps a little too hard) comps like the DC area collection 'Flex Your Head', I feel compelled to mention some comparisons between these records. First off, the driving force behind 'The New Hope', the Ian MacKaye if you will, was one Tom Eakin (aka Tommy Dark) and his band (the Dark) was on the comp (ala Minor Threat). Furthermore, Tommy's brother's band The Guns were included, as with Ian's brother Alec's band The Untouchables. Both comps feature a pompously named, politically over earnest band that also had a song of that name (Artificial Peace from DC and Positive Violence from OH). Positive Violence's theme song didn't appear on the original release, but it's included in the expanded material on this reissue. There's also a cerebral, sarcastic, scene critical, slightly poppy band on each comp; Government Issue on 'Flex Your Head' and The Offbeats from 'The New Hope'. And then there are the rest of the bands on each record, many of whom were just sort of going through the hardcore motions. But this reissue is totally worth it for the gems that are on it, and for the bonus content, all of which adds to a clearer picture of early 80s US hardcore punk than the coastal gatekeepers have been presenting.