Young Fresh Fellows

MC Paul Barman, “UNDOING ALONENESS”

Back when MC Paul Barman was just getting going, I remember a lot of thinkpieces coming out about him. Lots of descriptors for him describing him as smart or whatever in a way that in retrospect just strikes me as gross. To his credit, he never seemed to try and court that reputation or try and turn himself into a savior or anything. He just made his debut record, popped up on guest spots every now and again, and mostly kept a low profile. His output wasn’t fast, with his first record in 2002 and this, his third, in 2018. But, overall, it’s fun stuff - off-kilter but entertaining, and worth looking into if you read the hype back in the day but never actually tried it.

Pixies, “Dead”

I was going to make a “ooh, another Lost 90’s Gem” joke here, as if anybody has ever forgotten the Pixies. And then I remembered, no, this album came out in 1989. Time is an illusion.

Jamire Williams, “Dos Au Soleil”

This is so good. It reminds me of nothing so much as Einstürzende Neubauten, in the way it approaches rhythm and the use of open space in the song. I should really look up more work from Williams.

The Young Fresh Fellows, “A Fake Hello”

Tad Hutchinson is really going the extra mile on the drums here. He doesn’t have to, Scott McCaughey’s singing can carry this little tune. But Hutchinson was always the Fellows’ secret weapon, I love his work across the board.

Queen, “Body Language”

Hot Space contains the magnificent “Under Pressure”. It also contains a bunch of other songs, about which the less said, the better.

Uzeda, “Female”

You know, there’s more than a little similarity between Uzeda and the Dog Faced Hermans. There’s no personnel connection between them, but there’s a shared space of a kind of arty noise rock. Excellent stuff.

Squirrel Bait, “Kick the Cat”

No! Squirrel Bait, I just said nice things about you the other day. Don’t kick the cat!

N.W.A, “Express Yourself”

When I worked at WRCT, there was shelf in the DJ booth with all the new releases that the program manager wanted us all to work into our shows. We were required to play a couple songs from that shelf each hour. You could choose whatever you wanted and there were always plenty of things across genres. To assist us with the task, every new release that came into the station was listened to by a member of the staff and we wrote up some quick notes on an index card to help DJs make good choices. A key thing to note on those cards was which songs were safe to play outside “safe harbor” - in other words, which ones didn’t have profanity.

John Oswald, “Btls (Marco Integer)”

Chopping up the Beatles is really playing with fire, copyright-wise. It’s powerful source material, of course, so I’m glad he went for it. But you know, there’s a reason this stuff was so hard to find for a while.

The Minders, “Now I Can Smile”

An Elephant Six band, the Minders were very much, uh, an Elephant Six band. I mean, you can hear them. They were pretty good at it, but it’s kind of…I guess I’d rather just listen to the Kinks instead?

The Young Fresh Fellows, “Another Ten Reasons”

Tad Hutchison is really smokin’ on the drums on this tune, friends! I was going to say that this is from the last Young Fresh Fellows album, Tiempo De Lujo, but no! Turns out there was one last year, exciting!

Unsteady, “Darkie Love Affair”

I was going to say that Unsteady is one of the lost gems of the third wave, having put out two outstanding, unique albums that combine a sort of carnival atmosphere with a jazzy take on ska. But, uh, that song title is not great. Listening carefully, I think it’s an attempt to be clever, there’s no malice here, but yeah.

Mantar, “Eternal Return”

I long ago ran out of stuff to say about Mantar, so let’s just have a close listen to this. The shift up to the double-time drums fifty seconds in is nice. And a nice change in the gallop shortly after the vocals kick in. There’s a restlessness here, where they’re refusing to totally settle into a groove, which is kind of nice. Although sometimes the fun of music like this is a nice punishing rhythm. Views differ, apparently even in my head!

Marvin Gaye, “Can I Get A Witness”

It’s sometimes a little hard to reconcile the early Marvin Gaye with what he would eventually become. This is from 1963, and yeah, sure, it’s an excellent tune. But it’s just so far away from where he would end up. Popular music evolved so fast in this decade, it’s still hard to wrap my mind around it.

The Young Fresh Fellows, “View From Above”

The first Fellows record, The Fabulous Sounds of the Pacific Northwest, was kind of tied together with these little spoken word travelogue snippets, as a theme. The Fellows are light hearted enough that the gimmick comes off as charming, and the music is all just kind of loose, happy rock. While there’s plenty to like, they also didn’t really totally have control of their songwriting yet, so the record is kind of just for fans.

Kool & the Gang, “Funky Man”

The second Kool & the Gang record was a live album, including a couple tunes from the first record, but mostly otherwise new songs. They followed it up with another live record with more new material, which was an interesting move. Anyway, both live records rule, like all early Kool & the Gang material.

The Beatles, “Please Please Me”

It’s pretty fascinating that the band went from this to Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band in just four years. I guess that sort of rapid evolution can happen when you release nine albums in those four years.

Astronoid, “Resin”

We’ve frequently talked here about the blurry space between black metal and shoegaze, and some of the bands occupying that liminal space. There’s a fair bit of distance to travel between My Bloody Valentine and Bathory, mind you, but because they do exist on something of a continuum, most of the spots in-between are viable. So, today, we have Astronoid: those drums and rhythms are pretty metal, but the dreamy vocals and triumphant tilt to the music is very shoegaze. This record really very much sits at the midpoint, I’d say.