Most of you beat music fans out there are already familiar with this fantastic Dutch band, but dear me, they were awfully good. Fortunately there are a plethora of releases currently available where you can sample their wares, from a couple of tracks (including this one) on the Nuggets II box set, to the half-dozen or so on the Nederbiet 63-69 box set, and several CD re-issues of their proper albums (this track is on Revival), as well as a singles compilation or two. Then you may want to go back and pick up all of the Motions and Outsiders stuff. Then the Bintangs. Perhaps the Haigs. And the Sandy Coast. And so on...

John Otway deserves far more description than we could ever provide here, so we'll just mention that he is one of the highlights of the film Urgh! A Music War, that he has a charming autobiography entitled Cor Baby That´s Really Me (Rock And Roll´s Greatest Failure), and that this B-side of "Really Free" is our favorite Otway tune, and that we covet a copy with picture sleeve.

One of the coolest things that has happened to me as a result of being in a band was that I struck up a friendship with an affable fellow named Patrick Hawley after he played drums on the first What Gives record. He was an excellent musician who seemed to be involved in a number of projects, but he was particularly excited about a band he was playing in called Twiggy. Shortly thereafter, I went to visit him in Champagne, and met his roommate Todd Fletcher, who not coincidentally was Twiggy's singer/songwriter/guitarist. I remember Todd being shy, intelligent, and gratuitously talented. They sat me down and played a tape of this for me; it was slated to be released soon on Parasol. I was a little annoyed because their record was much better than ours. Still, I loved hanging out with those guys in Champagne, getting to meet people like Nick Rudd and Charlie Dold. It was a wonderful time.

Years later, this remains one of my favorite records, and the only reason I'm not just posting the whole thing is because I keep thinking Parasol is going to do a comp of all of the Twiggy recordings at some point. The Stamey-influenced "Beaujolais" was drawn out of a hat, but the other two tracks are also fantastic.

More catch-up with some songs based on your comments and conversations. First, The Johnsons from Philadelphia with their swell cover of the Peter Laughner classic, then Boston's much-maligned Scruffy the Cat with one of their best pop songs. We conclude with the marvelous Flies, also from Boston, who were described as "Bob Dylan meets the Soft Boys" by (I believe) Gerard Cosloy back in the day.

Not your typical Little Hits fare, but pop is, after all, in the eye of the beholder, and we've always had a warm feeling for this chunk of non-MIDI electronica from the instrumental half of Suicide. It evokes lo-tech modern moonlight in much the same way as Love Tractor's version of Kraftwerk's "Neon Lights." The LP from which it comes is underrated and consistently interesting.