From The Vault

Ever just sit amongst the stacks of your collection and look through the old forgotten records that reside there? You know, just have a wratch through stuff you bought ages ago and remember where, when, and why you bought a particular record.

Every once and a while, I'll just sit in my record room and just pull out random records. It's a trip down memory lane and a wee bit of fun because it's always interesting to see how I reacted to certain bands years ago. What's even more interesting is to see whether or not I still feel the same way today as I did back then.

Well here are five bands/tracks that have survived my test of time. I loved them back then...and I still do. Enjoy and feel free to let me know what bands have stood your test of time.

The Adventure Babies - Barking Mad:
First things first, this single was on Factory. That means it can't be bad, period. While they might not be quite as big as the other Factory bands, they still managed to put out several fine records for the label. Barking Mad is a nice jangly pop tune that is almost a bit twee. This is the perfect record for a nice walk in the park or perhaps a skip instead. Simple goofy pop songs sometimes just hit the right way and "Barking Mad" does just that.

The Candyskins - Monday Morning:
This is an interesting band because they were around for a while towards the tail end of the baggy thing then got dropped from Geffen and then reappeared in the middle of the Britpop craze and signed to Ultimate Records. Whether they were bandwagon jumpers or not could be debated, but they did put out some really good stuff. Monday Morning was from their Britpop period and was one of my Top 25 singles for 1997. It features Amelia Fletcher on background vocals.

Family Cat - Airplane Gardens:
This is a fun, slightly gazey pop record that has a nice echoey riff that pops up now and again but sticks in your head forever. The Family Cat was generally a noisy band by nature and this single is a pretty good example of what they were capable of. While the record could blow out a Marshall stack it still finds time for a nice chorus amongst all the guitar antics.

The Heart Throbs - She's in a Trance(Remix):
I LOVED this band. They were so damn good and floated easily between dreamy pop and dark suggestive tunes. I guess that's what happens when your twin sister is in the band. Talk about issues. Whether it was the sisters energy that propelled the band or the fact that the drummer used to be in Echo & The Bunnymen, they managed to put out some great tunes. I still love this song, and man did I cane the hell out of this record on radio

The Hinnies - Gong:
Who the hell are the Hinnies? I'm not sure they know or even remember. Hell even allmusic.com doesn't have anything to say about them. What I do remember about this band is that they wrote fairly simple noisy tunes that were catchy and came off like an American indie rock band lost in the UK. "Gong," is lazy and a bit rough around the edges and I would like to think that Mr. J. Mascis would fancy this tune.

So there you have it, a short trip through my past. Tomorrow, we'll bring it back to the present w/a couple of bands from Jacksonville, FL. It's not all Skynyrd and Limp Bizkit over here...trust me.

Ever the anglophile....Paul