This is another of the fun vinyl finds I scored while shopping at Toledo's RamaLama Records. The Atlanta-based Swimming Pool Qs cut this one in 1987. It's not REM-style jangle pop, but this definitely rode the wave-- late 80s Georgia indie rock, without sounding terribly Athens alt/indie. The right vibe is definitely there, especially on Working In The Nut Plant, an angsty "hate my job" track with a great doomy instrumental section. This would go well in a mix/mashup with Single Bullet Theory. A nice listen indeed. For some reason I think of Fetchin' Bones, Scruffy The Cat and The Fabulous Poodles when listening to this album, though stylistically they don't really emulate any of those. They do seem to live in the same musical zip code, though. I'd never heard this lot until I picked up the Firing Squad For God EP, but you can check out the Swimming Pool Qs page and get the dirt on all their releases, plus more MP3s and photos. Download/Listen to Working In The Nut Plant by The Swimming Pool Qs. This material is presented to promote the artist. Copyright holders, please get in touch if you object to this material appearing here and it will ...

Remember that old disco classic Funkytown by Lipps, Inc? This is the four-song EP that track was issued on back in 1980. Funkytown is a whopping seven minutes-plus of doot-doot disco, but the B-side has something really hilarious on it...a song called Rock It, which is one part Donna Summer and Giorgio Moroder, a dash of Isaac Hayes funk and one part Kid Creole and the Coconuts (when the bongos kick in). I love the faux Nagel album graphics and the suggestive title...so very very Miami Vice all around. Pure cheese and just as bad for you. This is the type music Frank Zappa derided as being made by robots, but Lipps Inc is a lot of fun. Zappa clearly misses the boat here as stuff like this as deliciously cheesy--just the way I like it round here when The Clash ain't on. I picked up this goofy classic at Toledo's RamaLama Records for a couple of bucks and it's some of the best pocket change I've invested in a while. Who needs to eat Twinkies when you have the sonic equivalent on releases like this? Damn, this is some funny shit. I found this Lipps Inc vinyl for sale on ...

Earlier, I raved about the Boy Eats Drum Machine BooomBoxxx vinyl due out in a few weeks on Tender Loving Empire. Before you can dig on the album, BEDM wants you to check out this free digital EP featuring selected cuts off the vinyl plus a remix by Portland DJ Main Sequence. The tracklist for the EP includes: Planets + Stars The Crack In The Sea Demonic With Horns I'm Alive Don't Bury Me Immovably Reunited (remix by Main Sequence) Download it here and be sure to turn up the volume. Nice work, BEDM, especially on I'm Alive Don't Bury Me. A current favorite.

Don't ask me how I discovered this...let's simply say that I was surprised to learn that Hot Topic is not only still selling vinyl records--I thought they'd give this up ages ago-- to kids with daddy's credit card and a penchant for S&M imagery/mass-marketed faux rebellion, but here they are selling Fugazi records. I was certain this goth-for-trust-fund-kids chain would be knee-deep in the Cookie Monster Metal and Death Cab For Cutie stuff and nothing more. Imagine my shock to find the 7 Songs EP 12-inch vinyl listed on the website for just under eight bucks. That discovery led to a much better one. I hit paydirt with this excellent blog, Hardcore For Nerds, which features this entry on the aforementioned Fugazi vinyl. I thought I was alone among people who liked Fugazi but felt the earliest stuff was the most interesting. I have not guzzled the kool-aid on all hardcore, but I do love much of the stuff from the first and second waves. Minor Threat, The Descendants, Fear, Black Flag, early NoFX, there's too much to name. I could never be one of those people who always seemed to populate any zip code I happened to live in--the types ...

Pampelmoose.com does it again. Thanks to that fine blog, I discovered a great indie vinyl label practically in my own back yard. Polyvinyl Record Co. offers CDs, downloads, but more importantly those delicious 180 gram vinyl platters for most of their releases. This Champaign, Illinois-based label is home to 31Knots, ofMontreal, and Rainer Maria, who I first got acquainted with when I was editing material from SxSW for Gearwire.com back in 06. Currently, I'm a bit obsessed with the ofMontreal track Id Engager which you can hear as an MP3 at Pampelmoose or pre-order on colored vinyl or download from Polyvinyl. Id Engager is a unique modern disco indie track. I like ofMontreal's take on the old mirrorball sounds from the late 70s; this collision of ideas sounds like Studio 54 and Andy Warhol thrown into a blender with the modern indie kids mentality with a dash of ginseng and gaurana. Energetic without being abrasively annoying...this is fun whiteboy disco with great bass playing. Did I mention there's a little bit of Sparks falsetto going on here? When it's well done (as it is on Id Engager) it's pretty great. RECOMMENDED.

I knew nothing about this fun outfit from Australia before I stumbled across them on YouTube while searching for groovy sounds and bowl haircuts. And now "The Clothes She Wears" by The Breed is stuck in my head on endless repeat. At least til the caffeine wears off. This is good stuff! The Breed hail from Tasmania, playing Brit Invasion/Mersey Sound style with some punk-pop thrown in for good measure. They are featured on a variety of comps including the vinyl Trans-Pacific Pop Conspiracy EP on Smashed Records, which you can also check out via KlickTrack. Here's a sampling of The Breed. Cheers, lads!

Oh YES, dear friends, we've got a genuine, unclassifiably cool anomaly on our hands here. Aquaserge starts off with a bit of the old Vampyros Lesbos soundtrack vibe crossed with a dash of Mellow (that Air side project band that did the soundtrack for Roman Coppola's movie, CQ ) thrown in for good measure. Already I am hooked, but then this veers off into Miles Davis territory circa the Cellar Door sessions in 1970--it's those gloriously dated keyboard sounds. Prog, psych, and groovy all mixed together in a glorious melange all the way from the south of France where Aquaserge resides. Chris Joss, Air, Aquaserge...what is it about France that keeps me coming back for more? I am loving this group and I have only heard the one track, La Femme De Tahiti. This is so utterly required listening that I'm not going to rant and rave about it except to say that this is my favorite accidental find in a long time. I haven't loved an accidental find of this nature so well since I stumbled across Gang Gang Dance. The label this is on, Manimal Vinyl is definitely worth exploring, this band is not the lone anomaly of the lot...but I'll ...

Chasing Lions (formerly Puddlegum) has launched as the first blog label. There will, no doubt, be differences of opinion on who the actual "first" blog/label combo is or was--Dave Allen ran Pampelmoose.com for a time with an indie label section by the same name, but Pampelmoose the label seems to have disappeared from P-Moose the blog at present (unless I am just a sightless doink). But I digress...it doesn't really matter. Forget labels, the proof is in the music. Chasing Lions has partnered with The Soft Drugs, who offer Side A of their forthcoming vinly/CD release Get Back as a free download. After having a go at Side A (four times in a row, back to back) I see good things for both the Chasing Lions and The Soft Drugs. I was a bit doubtful of the obvious Beatles tie-in (which are usually dreadful), but fortunately the Let It Be track has nothing whatsoever to do with the Fab Four's song--except as a lyrical reference. "It could be your Hey Jude. . . It could be your Let It Be..." The best of this mid-tempo, laid back four-song download is also the most energetic of the bunch. Comparisons are odious, but I Need Space manages to somehow channel GBV in the vocal department, ...

Born Bad Records released BIPPP in 2006. This is an enjoyable collection of French "synth wave" recorded between 1979 and 1985. The quality of these tracks is fairly consistent across the board both in the songwriting and recordings themselves. For a longtime fan of obscure new wave, this is a real treasure trove. You can practically taste the quaaludes. "Ping Pong" by Act and "Touche pas mon Sexe" by Comix are standout tracks. Both are described in other circles as "Devo-esque", which seems to be the favorite term used by reviewers who lack the imagination to describe these bouncy synth masterpieces any other way. Personally, I'd just say that they make you want to snort cocaine and bounce your cranium around like you had a bobble-head. The short version--if you like music that goes "boingy-boingy-dingy-dingy-blip-blop-bleep," this is for you. It certainly works for ME. Especially when they aren't singing in English. I think that's the best part of all...I prefer NOT to know what they are on about. It's just more fun that way. Visit the BIPPP Myspace page to hear some tracks from this one. It's distributed in the USA by Everloving Records, for which I thank them profusely.

Gang of Four is a favorite from way back. I got my start with this band by picking up the compilation CD, A Brief History of the Twentieth Century. Once I heard the Damaged Goods track, I was hooked. As a bass player myself, I was amazed at the athletic playing of Dave Allen, and later tracks like Cheeseburger and the blistering live version of What We All Want. Dave Allen recently offered up a lovely zip file of the three songs from the GoF vinyl Damaged Goods EP in a post on his excellent blog, Pampelmoose.com. I'm a complete fan of the site for a variety of reasons, but mostly because Dave's a character and I enjoy the posts by him and his contributors. I'm also a bit hooked on the Portland music scene. As the songs offered in the Pampelmoose entry are ripped from vinyl, they TECHNICALLY fit here, thought I'd much rather chase down the original record and pop it on the turntable. MP3s are fun, but I do love the size, smell and artwork of the good old stuff. MP3s just don't have any distinctive features whatsoever except the audio itself. Me, I enjoy the whole package. The ...