Superette - Tiger (1996)

Ages and ages ago in Kansas, I used to go to this really cool record shop called Love Garden. It was located above a toy store and full of cats, so teenage me thought it was the coolest place EVER. Never mind the fantastic selection of records for five bucks and under! Oh, I found so many gems there. I also found a bunch of crap, which I usually bought because 1. it looked cool and 2. I was always too shy to ask where the record player was so I could listen to stuff before I paid for it. Nostalgia!!

One of my better purchases was Superette's Tiger, $4. It was the cover that sucked me in: bright colors, fancy name, and a badass pouncing tiger! I flipped it over to check out the tracklisting: Kiss Someone ("Eh."), Saskatchewan ("Ooh, I love Canada's beautiful provinces!"), Cannibal ("...and cannibals!"), Killer Clown ("...and killer clowns. Goddamn!"). Then I saw it was a Flying Nun release. SOLD! I took it home, slapped it on my turntable and was not at all disappointed.


Superette - Tiger.rar (320 kbps)

If you like sludgy-poppy-indie rock songs from the '90s, then this album is for you. I think my favorite track is "Touch Me," which is about shooting John Lennon from Mark David Chapman's POV, but that's not ALL this album has to offer. Other stand-outs include: Saskatchewan, Cannibal, I Got It Clean, Taiwan.

GRL PWR: Bratmobile, Julie Ruin, Huggy Bear, The Murmurs

Let's see what ye old Mediafire account has for us today:


Bratmobile! Not the best of Bratmobile, but it works. Highlights: "Are You A Lady?" and "Shop for America." As far as mp3s go, they're on the low quality end (128kbps), but it's fuckin' Bratmobile. It's not going to sound nice no matter how HQ it is.
BRATMOBILE - GIRLS GET BUSY.rar


Another lo-bitrate lo-fi offering, this time from the Riot Queen herself: Kathleen Hanna! This is the fabled missing link between Bikini Kill and Le Tigre, people. It's an album that sounds like it was recorded in somebody's bathroom...and probably was. What I'm trying to say is that it's pretty great. Quintessential summer album!
JULIE RUIN - JULIE RUIN.rar
If you're curious about Julie (Juliecurious?) but not ready to commit to an ENTIRE album, I'd recommend trying the only other Julie Ruin song of which I am aware, The Well. It's got all you could ask for out of Julie Ruin: subdued singing about eating gas station chips and her fucked up friends over a ticky-tacky reproduction of the Stones' "Satisfaction" on a synthesizer Kathleen must have found in a dumpster. I can't stop listening to it!


The Huggy Bear wikipage is both short and worth reading, so read it. This is the Huggy Bear half of a Huggy Bear/Bikini Kill split album and it's pretty kickass. "T-Shirt Tucked In" is probably one of my favorite songs of all time for 3 reasons:
1. it has never failed to make me shake my ass
2. the line "all night long cleavage beat initiation" (???)
3. I used to think he said "alt-turtleneck" at some point, which I guess isn't a word. I always thought it would be a good name for a musical sub-genre.
But there really isn't a dud in the bunch, in my opinion. Other favorites include:
"Into the Mission,""Hopscortch," and "Aqua Girl Star," which MUST be a tribute to Heavenly. Could it really be a coincidence that, after using the same bit from Big Top Pee Wee that prefaces "I Fell In Love Last Night," they launch into the twee-est song on the album? I WANT TO BELIEVE!
HUGGY BEAR - OUR TROUBLED YOUTH.rar


I can't shake the feeling that I would have found this album loads more compelling (??) back when I was twelve and only had classic rock radio and No Doubt for comparison. But like most twelve-year-olds, I had a pretty good ear for pop music and the album delivers on that front. Let's see, "I'm A Mess," "Don't Lie" and "Squeeze Box Days" are great for stupid angsty days, while "Sucker Upper" and the perplexing surf-country "Underdog" are perfect for your beach mix. If you ever needed a Murmurs album ("No, I didn't."), it's this one.
THE MURMURS - PRISTINE SMUT.rar

TRIUMPHANT RETURN!

It sure has been a while since I got around to posting hot traxxx and hit singles on this thing. I bet you thought I was dead! No such luck, Internet; I was off gettin' educated and making friends. But now -- sufficiently educated and socialized -- this pirate is back in business! Let's start off kind of light with a mix I made for an ex-girlfriend a few years ago. Though ostensibly a compilation of the songs and bands I was most into at the time and thought she'd like, astute musicopsychologists (alternately: people with ears) will probably be able to pick up the subtly romantic vibe I was trying to send out. As far as I know, she never heard it, which is probably for the best. Still, the high level of care and thought I put into it probably makes this my favorite of all my mixes.

Lots of '80s, lots of good singles, a ton of songs I love to sing along with and an extra-special THREE Modern Lovers tracks! I was (still am?) so fucking obsessed with that album. Good for listening to while: hanging out at the pool with your pals, working on art projects, driving long distances. Makes me think of summer!
Tracklisting and notes below.
Cool Tunez.rar
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1. Dignified and Old - Modern Lovers
2. Thru the Flowers - the Primitives
3. She's One Of The Other Kind - the Embarrassment
I'll be posting their woefully-hardtofind retrospective comp soon enough, but until then, here's taster of Kansas's best band, past or present. Something about the guitar sound on this song makes me think of peacock feathers and spinning hypnosis wheels.
4. Oblivious - Aztec Camera
5. The World's A Mess; It's In My Kiss - X
"The music made Dirk think of black roses on fire. He wanted to leap onstage and dive into the crowd the way some of the boys were doing. He wanted to play music that would make the boys in the pit sweat like that. Maybe that was how those boys cried, Dirk thought. Maybe he would start a band called the Tear Jerks. For a moment he remembered sitting in his room with Pup, Pup holding the guitar, but he let the drums beat the thought away. His own band. Dirk and the Tear Jerks. Tear Jerk Dirk. His throat and heart felt tight, constricted with dryness, so he bought a beer and gulped it down. Then he went and stood at the edge of the slammers. Some boys behind him were moving up and down in place, jostling him forward. Finally he flung himself into the writhing body mass. It was like surfing in a way, fighting to stay up above seething waters that wanted to consume you, part of you wanting to be consumed, to vanish into radiance.
'The world's a mess it's in my kiss,' X sang." - Francesca Lia Block's Baby Be-bop, pgs 37-8.
6. Mandinka - Sinead O'Connor
7. Keats Song - Pete Shelley
Not the BEST song off Homosapien (p.s., underrated album!), but definitely the shortest! And as the old dead fictional character famously said, brevity is the soul of wit (and charming pop songs).
8. He's So Fine - The Chiffons
Girl-group candy so sweet even George Harrison couldn't resist ripping it off! And if that pop music tidbit wasn't exciting enough for you, here's a delightful countrified version of the song by "Queen of the House" Jody Miller!
9. Bubbles - Johnny Concrete
Badass Danish punk song that never gets old, possibly because of the lyrics. Here's what I've got: "I can't free the bubbles in my brain/they're crashing through my nerves, causing me to shake//They essen^[1] in the graaahss/They hate women and the queeaaaars//I want to escape from all these hetero people/they're all just rotten to the core//[chorus]//Just piss off and leave me alone/'cause I'm sick of all these fancy admirers/hanging on my words and blowin' me/I'm just trying to dancercize heaaare!" Breathtaking!! If you want more (or even if you don't, fucker), I highly recommend you check THIS out!
10. Buffalo Stance - Neneh Cherry
If you don't like this song, we're not friends.
11. Government Center - Modern Lovers
12. Seven Languages - Camper Van Beethoven
You have no idea how much time I spend looking at my Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart poster trying to make Vampire Can Mating Oven a perfect anagram of Camper Van Beethoven. With a little luck and more drugs, maybe I'll make it happen one of these days! Something I about this song that I can't quite articulate is very un-CVB, but I love it so much.
13. School Days - the Runaways
14. Through the Roof 'n' Underground - Gogol Bordello
Like many people, I first heard it in Wristcutters: A Love Story and as it (presumably) was for many people, this song was my life as rendered in charmingly broken English.
15. From the City to the Sea - the Family Cat
16. False Eyelashes - Dolly Parton
17. I Will Dare - the Replacements
18. Serrated Edge - the Dead Milkmen
Dead Milkmen forever! This song was my ringtone for the longest time. It turned the act of answering the phone from a terrifying crapshoot to a party!
19. Prove It All Night - Bruce Springsteen
20. Crowd of Drifters - the Magnetic Fields
As a gift to a fellow a Magnetic Fields fan, I included this alternate version of Charm of the Highway Strip's "Crowd of Drifters" featuring their original singer Susan Anway. It's from a (fantastic) Doctor Death compilation.
21. Rudy, A Message To You - Dandy Livingstone
Famously covered by the Specials as "A Message To You, Rudy." I'm not a fan of either incarnation of the title.
22. I Wanna Sleep In Your Arms - Modern Lovers

^[1]That's "eat" in German, right? Which is like Danish, kind of? I used to think they were German, I guess.