Josh Has a Crush on a Femme From Reed

"Off The Leash" is a live New Bad Things record (recorded for a California radio station--hey, no swearing!-- and also in London) on Blackbean and Placenta Tape Club, a label that had a whole slew of homemade-looking releases, almost all of which were impossibly limited pressings (150 to 300 copies, sometimes) and were usually one-sided vinyl with blank white labels, and jackets out of construction paper that had photocopies of handwritten track listings pasted on 'em.

As such, the source tape wasn't too great for this. Some of the songs were recorded very quietly, and there was an annoying hum on a few of the tracks ("Vic Chestnutt", "Cigarettes", and most of the way through "The Dirge") that I couldn't do too much to get rid of, though it doesn't sound as bad through speakers as it does through headphones. "Vic Chestnutt" is such a cool song that I just couldn't leave it off, but anyone who isn't a die-hard New Bad Things fan should probably start with one of the other tracks first.

If you're not a New Bad Things fan, then they've got some good stuff here... brilliant, messy pop songs with clever and sometimes very biting lyrics. I've got a bunch of New Bad Things records, and for the most part they're all pretty great.




New Bad Things -

"Intro", "Hospital"

"Death Hump, Puss and The Wussies"

"Goethe's Letter to Vic Chestnutt"

"Cigarettes", "The Dirge"

"Josh Has a Crush on a Femme From Reed"

"The People We Stayed With In London"

"Place We Used To Get Stoned"

(these files are now listen-only)