A few more discs from the big green box, with the requisite inclusion of long-forgotten discs from the early 90s. I never quite know what I’m going to get when I start writing things down about the listening experience – sometimes, It feels like I’m just phoning it in, sometimes I hit on some interesting places I didn’t expect I’d get. I leave it as an exercise to the reader to decide which entries are which:

♦-The Blibbering Humdingers – Free Awkward Hugs: I picked this up as a digital download card from the Band’s table at RavenCon this year, thrilled to see them once again on the bill. The Humdingers are a wizard rock band from North Carolina who tend a bit more towards the pop and folk end than genre godfathers Harry and The Potters, and I’d argue they’re better songwriters. the tunes are mostly humorous and often a bit naughty; historically, they’ve gotten a lot of mileage out of the unresolved sexual tension between Harry and Ginny in the films – this record goes to that well with the infectious “Zip Me Up”, a well-crafted pop tune featuring a nod to the Bangles’ cover of “Hazy Shade of Winter” (immediately endearing it to me). It’s kind of a catch-all record, mixing new stuff with some re-recordings, live performances, and karaoke tracks(!), though it’s the new, original (and not necessarily HP-related) tunes that really do it for me, particularly the D&D epic “Natural 20” (linked in a recent post) and “That Time of the Month”, which runs with the obvious but underused metaphorical link between werewolves and the monthly visit from Aunt Irma.

♦-Soul Asylum – Grave Dancer’s Union: This is another one of those “didn’t realized I owned it” CDs, and quite probably a record club infiltrator. Soul Asylum is one of those cliche 90s bands that became AAA radio staples, especially once they broke out the acoustic guitars. This record had a ton of radio hits, but at the same time, it’s considered a lesser, “sellout/gone soft” record by the group’s fans. While never a huge fan of the band, I can agree with the sentiment, as I favor the more agressive tracks like “Somebody to Shove” and “Keep It Up” over the ballady “Black Gold” and (especially) “Runaway Train”; this band is better with an edge to them. Doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy the mid-tempo “Without A Trace”, largely due to the lyrical bravery of rhyming “popsicle” with “possible”.

♦-John Mellencamp – The Best That I Could Do 1978-1988: There was a time when I would have directly identified with the sentiment of Mellencamp’s signature hit “Small Town”, though as the years have gone by, I’ve found myself drawn more to urban landscapes and away from the idealized Norman Rockwell portrait of rural small town life so many people romanticize. Of course, Mellencamp doesn’t really romanticize it either, if you just go with the text of most of the tunes on this collection. It’s kind of the Springsteen thing – “Born in the USA” isn’t the celebration of American values a hundred Republican politicians tried to make it (Mellencamp has had similar problems with right wingers using his tunes at events, given his progressive politics); in the same vein, much of Mellencamp’s midwestern aesthetic has a hint of tragedy behind it, even when it is nakedly nostalgic – “Pink Houses”, “Paper and Fire” and even “Jack and Diane” all have a bit of melancholy in there below the surface. The Springsteen connection is apt – Mellencamp kind of inhabits the same space, if displaced a thousand miles or so west of the Jersey shore – much of his earlier output has a kind of a faux E-street vibe to it, down to the sax solo on “Ain’t Even Done With The Night”. In any case, despite the fact that I don’t identify so strongly with the sentiment in my middle age, this is the kind of music that hits me in the right place; I’ve come to terms with the fact that I’m an elitist hipster snob that loves this americana music. Acoustic guitars, applachian violins, and that accursed Autoharp from the “Cherry Bomb” video will, on some level, always make me happy.

♦-The Clarks: If pressed, I’d probably call the Clarks the best pure bar band I ever saw play (and I’ve seen a lot of bar bands over the years). Despite being “self titled”, this is actually the band’s second record (as evidenced by the big photo of the number 2 painted on a brick wall on the back cover), and is the one that broke them in their western PA stomping grounds. I picked this one up at the merch table at one of my first encounters with the band when they ventured east into Yuengling territory. There’s a lot to love here: “She Revolves”, a clever tune with a great title, an excellent fuzzed up cover of the Beatles’ “Dear Prudence” and “Penny on the Floor”, the breakout hit (according to wikipedia) – for once I’ll agree with the majority sentiment and pick the “hit” as the standout track on the record – a not-entirely healthy meditation on a failed relationship and the strange symbolism the mind creates, driven along by a nicely played mandolin riff. Also of note is the acoustic hidden version of “Caroline”, which will show up two albums downstream as one of the two “girl songs” on Someday Maybe with a much louder arrangement.