Alex Chilton

Deltron 3030, “Virus”

Hmm, gotta say this song hits a little different than it used to.

Cinerama, “Maniac”

Yet another live-in-studio thing! Two yesterday, another today. This is from John Peel Sessions, the progenitor of all these projects. Well, not this particular one, the John Peel sessions in general. John Peel loved David Gedge, so Cinerama did a bunch of these things (as did the Wedding Present). This session actually preceeds the release of Va Va Voom, and this song would end up as their debut album opener. If you’re a huge Cinerama fan, it’s fun to hear things in an earlier form.

Less Than Jake, “Automatic”

As the majors decided that ska, and especially ska-punk, was Really Hot, a bunch of bands signed contracts even though it probably didn’t make a ton of sense. But, honestly, Less Than Jake wasn’t a bad bet by the labels. There’s enough catchiness in their songs that you could see Green Day’s audience becoming interested, and ska was also pretty trendy. It made some sense, and given that there were some pretty huge hits from similar bands, there’s no reason one of those couldn’t have been LTJ. But, it didn’t quite work out, so only two records came out on Capitol Records before they moved back to smaller labels. Good record, though.

Excellent one today.

Alex Chilton, “All of the Time”

Alex Chilton, of Big Star, is one of the leading influences on a ton of later rock bands in the underground. Here, for instance, you can really hear the Replacements. This song was on his solo record Bach’s Bottom, but this actually comes from the excellent Ork Records: New York, New York compilation.

Slapstick, “The Geek”

This is what ska-punk should sound like when it’s done well. Lots of speed, lots of energy, it gets in and out without hanging around too long. For your “Operation Ivy substitute”, you really can do so much worse.