My impulse purchase from a few months back that I'm still attempting to get over the brilliance of. I bought it because...well, it had a neat cover, it was $5.99, and the helpful little blurb Reckless Records stuck on it declared it to be a Japanese cross between Smile and Sgt. Pepper (in fact, the cover prominently declares "Sgt. Smiles Sounds").
It isn't. But it's ohhh sooooo goooood. And it's from 1998!
I'd describe it as a Japanese version of XTC's Dukes of Stratosphear project, but a) actually sounding like it's from the sixties, and b) with *much* better songwriting, and c) being really, really odd instead of really, really English. It's also up in the air as to whether this is intended as a parody, or tribute, or a liberal mixture of both (I find it fascinating how not knowing the "motives" behind a record can infuse it with a certain mystery lacking from things with copious liner notes, etc.).
The music is great...the two guys in the band glom onto that certain melodic mode that seems to have disappeared as of late (another advantage it has over "Chips from the Chocolate Fireball," as *that* always sounded like a collection of eighties songs). The lyrics are also appropriately psychotic, as they oscillate between things that may or may not be intended for a laugh ("We were so close/But we should have been so closer") and some things which make you question whether they're as "new" at English as you thought ("Look at the ceiling/The clown sleeps inside birdhouse/Snores like birdcall/Which sounds like a foolish waltz").
Verdict: the second best impulse purchase I've ever made (the first best is and will always be "We're Only It It For the Money.") I've been enjoying the Japanese kick I've been on recently--what with the GS stuff from the 60's and the more recent efforts by super-excellent Japanese powerpop/mod band "The Collectors"--but "Underground Radio Show" is the first thing I've bought in a while which has made me go "Jesus...how was there a period where I didn't know this?"
And its followup--entitled, hilariously, "Life is Question"--is damn great as well.
That is all.
Brown'Nose "The Underground Radio Show"
Brown'Nose "The Underground Radio Show"
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"Fuckin' Koreans" - Reno 911
"Fuckin' Koreans" - Reno 911