JOBY'S OPINION: Slippy Jewels (Friction Media)
PEE SHY: Don't Look
MY PRETTY FINGER: 1970
Lo-fi is more and more becoming the sound that just about anybody can make a decent stab at. Maybe that's because its un-aesthetic is one I like (and can tolerate mediocrity in), but certainly the focus on easy-access/home recording makes it more a folk music (as in participatory, "people's" music) than other styles of rock. The stuff on these four tapes is good enough to challenge most listener's pre-conceptions of how good music is circulated. Not only does it not require a "hip" label, but it doesn't take a label at all; it doesn't take vinyl or CDs or live shows; it only barely takes recording equipment.
PEE SHY is a Tampa, Fla., duo specializing in girly sounds on accordion, clarinet, and trŽs perky keys. Very Harriet. Six songs, including one helluva Alice Cooper cover ("Only Women Bleed") and a couple originals that'll melt your butter ("You Said" and "The Ax Song"). Euphoric.
1970 is the seven-song product of four guys now living in Chapel Hill, Asheville and DC, MY PRETTY FINGER. The DC contingent, Jon Elliston, released the excellent Little Songs For Peace compilation summer 1993 and Chris Palmatier plays in Chapel Hill band Joby's Opinion. Many moments of pleasantness, but "Let's Make A Baby" is an absolute triumph in-just-under-two-minutes. Really, if I had $1,000 I'd put this beauty on a single backed with a couple Pee Shy tunes . . . or maybe that dreamy June song (the one about Christmas).
WXYC station manager Bob Boster put together COGNITIVE MAPPING to benefit the station's tower fund. Though a couple of the bands here have records out, (MINERVA STRAIN, JUNE), the cassette is mostly garden-variety home-recordings by XYC jocks. Consistently good stuff. . . my picks: PROTOBLAST (aka Nate Florin aka Asst. Manager aka housemate) doing the suspiciously Sebadoh-esque "Hardcore," DETERGENT's (aka Palmatier aka the guy who lets me use his e-mail account) twisted, "acoustic" habit, ALEX & RUGARE's (aka Graham Entwhistle and Bob) Gloria Steinem audio cut-up, "Sex and Race," and JOBY's OPINION . . . but best of all, other than hearing Jay Murray sing "Plastic Disaster," is the unlisted cut at the end; a couple guys (one sounding a lot like Palmatier) screaming in "unison" about Friction Media. A theme song.
JOBY'S OPINION evolved out of Marsh Arabs, a trio of XYC jocks who never released anything (though the Matt "Small 23" Label carries some demos) but made a mess last summer at Local 506. The Arabs' weakness is Joby's strength; percussionist Tim Ross had been playing about two months when the Arabs had their heyday and is a key force in the new band. In fact, his sheet-metal bashing comes close to defining the Joby sound - creative and "soulful," if imprecise, it's the kind of drumming most people hate. The rest of the band is made up of guys named Chris (Palmatier, Crowson and, though he doesn't play on the tape, Williams) making fuzzed-out, fucked-up, beat-senseless guitar-noise punctuated by gloriously cheesy Moog synths. Awe-inspiring. If you've seen the band live, you only have part of the picture. The most self-consciously lo-fi band in the Cognitive lot, Joby's home is still very much in Palmatier's garage.
Three-fourths of the band contributed to this month's Stay Free! (Carrie McLaren)
Don't Look is $4 ppd from Jenny Juristo, c/o WMNF, 1210 E. Martin Luther King Blvd., Tampa, FL, 33603-4417.
1970 is $4 from Joel Elliston, 23 Evelyn Pl., Asheville, NC 28801
Check local independent records stores for Cognitive Mapping and Slippy Jewels; or write Friction at PO Box 373, Chapel Hill, NC 27514.