Record collectors know that this one is about as common as the Boyfriends single on Bomp, but we love it for its absurd juvenile delinquent pose and classic pop bridge. This is of course Sylvain Sylvain from the New York Dolls, who subsequently made two LPs for RCA after he jettisoned the Criminals moniker. Probably appropriate; while those recordings draw upon the influence of the same trash-rock sources that the Dolls did, Sylvain's solo stuff was considerably less edgy than "Personality Crisis" and that ilk, especially in the vocal department.

I have been absolutely obsessed with this bit of Marxist jangle-pop for about the past two months, but I don't think it's the snippets of socialist imagery that move me nearly as much as the incredible drumming. McCarthy has a fairly lengthy discography by the standards of indie-pop bands of the era, but they are most famous for contributing Tim Gane and Laetittia Sadier to Stereolab. You might want to check out some of their CD re-issues at the Cherry Red Records website.

One of the many enchanting artifacts from the initial era of Creation Records was this disc by the Revolving Paint Dream, which included members of some of the other Creation notables of the era like Primal Scream and Biff! Bang! Pow! They took a long break after this single, then resurfaced with another terrific single ("Sun, Sea, Sand") and a couple of albums a few years later. Like some of you other folks, I first heard this song on the I Love the Smell of Napalm compilation, which introduced many of the wonderful 45s Alan McGee had corralled to the US for the first time.

A. More, AKA Anthony More, formerly of British Art rockers Slapp Happy (post-Henry Cow), released a terrific pop LP in 1979, Flying Doesn't Help, that suggested that he was a pop scientist in the realm of Brian Eno, Thomas Dolby or John Cale. This 45 version of "Lucia" is quite different from the one that appears on that LP, and sounds more like a Bowie track than the lush, less driving album version. His next effort, World Service, was much more difficult, suggesting a return to his prog rock background.

Here's a double header from one of my favorite compilation albums; two tracks by two great bands that are unavailable elsewhere. The first Radio Tokyo Tapes compilation has a mess of great stuff: "Paisley underground" bands like the Rain Parade, Bangles, and Long Ryders, punk tracks by the Minutemen and Wurm, arty postpunk outfits like 100 Flowers and Savage Republic, and more. There were two subsequent volumes which were eventually mashed along with the first into one CD, which for the most part preserved the very best songs but lost a little bit of the spirit and diversity of the LPs. There were a bunch of great comps coming out of LA at about this time; Joe Nolte of the Last/Happy Squid Records says that two of the best of them, Warfrat Tales (Last, Rain Parade, 100 Flowers and others) and Keats Rides a Harley (Gun Club, Meat Puppets, Human Hands, many more) will be re-issued on CD this year. Watch the Happy Squid site for details.

It is likely that we haven't heard the last of the Last or the Three O'Clock on Little Hits.