No Skin Off My Ass

The booklet for the "Going Against Maz's Advice" compilation has to be one of my favorite booklets ever: "Jangle, my ass!", "Fuck with Us and We Fuck with You", "Total Running Time: 15 Fucking Hours!" Plus the fact that the label is called Four-Letter Words, I mean, it still makes me chuckle every time I flip through it. Clumsily, I chopped up the booklet with a pair of scissors years ago, trying to make it fit into a jewel case so the compilation wouldn't keep getting lost in my CD tower (the compilation originally just came in a bag). How was I supposed to know that someday I'd eventually be scanning the cover for some internet bullshit. Fuck that.

"Beaches and Canyons" is a great lead-off track, gliding into a huge swell, and in fact both Summer Hits tracks on this are fairly ace. Even if you're not completely sold by some of the other stuff on here-- Cat's Miaow, Belmondo, Holiday Flyer, etc-- you'll still be able to tell where Weed Hounds get most of their ideas from (not that I don't love Weed Hounds, plus they're playing Popfest New England this year, which is weird but great). This was also the first time I'd ever heard Boyracer, whose tracks somehow got stuck at the end of the compilation, as if they were an afterthought. Boyracer, of course, totally floored me; terrifyingly hooky, blown-out, one-minute pop songs, how could you not like that? "Meadowhall" starting off with a tossed-off improv bit and then suddenly switching over to the real song with the click of a recorder button reminded me of Guided By Voices, another band that I was just getting heavily into at the time, and Stewart's laugh as he flubbed the vocal but kept going was sorta Westerberg-ish. "Meadowhall (acoustic)" isn't even the same song, much less entirely acoustic. (Tricycle Popstar is shit, as always.) We need more dumb humor in music.




The Summer Hits -

"Beaches and Canyons"

"Spanish Films"

Starstreamer -

"Halo"

Belmondo -

"Girlfriends' Revenge"

Orange Cake Mix -

"The Doctor's Wife"

Tricycle Popstar -

"No Skin Off My Ass"

Boyracer -

"Meadowhall"

"Meadowhall (acoustic)"