Forty Second Scandals - Not That It Matters, Now That It Matters

Busy squiring the girlfriend about town, and all the clubs, so desolate in the sunheat, made me think of all the bands who’ve come and gone in this proud lil’ city. Here’s a set of lads who heard the muse in high school and actually put together three decent records before calling it a day. My brother turned me on to the FSS, and if the music is too callow for you, well, I wish you could hold the delicate self-made packaging in your sepulchral hands.

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Golden Arm Trio - Swift Ship Sailing

There are so many people toiling in composer/instrumentalist Graham Reynolds’ Trio, it’s beyond funny. And yet, here’s a stripped-down track that has closer to three people on it than the 16 who appear on Why the Sea Is Salt. Short track, but eminently sampleable. The rest of the album is more in a classicist vein, and features Tosca of Waking Life fame.

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St. Joy - Rise Above

One of those conversational stoppers, as far as music criticism is concerned, is “critics don’t create, they talk about other people’s art, they’re just another set of ears” et cetera. And although people never level that claim when they read a review they agree with, I still want to head off that kind of talk right now. So here’s my brother’s newest old band, with me as guest vocalist, trading lines on Black Flag’s hardcore chestnut. We recorded this last November, at a church in a strip mall one Sunday afternoon, and everything else you need to know about the giddy amateurishness of the project is in your extra set of ears.

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