Squeeze have largely suppressed memories of their admittedly uneven John Cale-produced debut album, but they've practically wiped this three-song 7" out of existence in the manner of the old Soviet purges. They barely acknowledge it exists even in the recent song-by-song overview of their career, even though they don't seem particularly embarrassed by the largely awful Domino album. Still, you can't really blame them. I only found it myself a couple of months ago, while I was trolling eBay looking for an old Mekons single my wife wanted. I only paid ten bucks for it in VG+ condition, which is under the going rate, but I still think I overpaid a bit. This song, the a-side, is a catchy little pub rock tune, but the two on the flip are indeed pretty bad. However, they deserve points for using a lockgroove on the fadeout matrix, a neat trick I've always liked. I've included a few seconds of the effect at the end of this file.

Anglophile trivia: "Packet of three" is the common UK term for a box of condoms. Given that the band's original name was Cum, this is not the least bit out of character.

-Stewart Mason

To this day, I still get guff for my love of brooding big guitar 80’s bands from the UK. The Chameleons, Echo and the Bunnymen, the Comsat Angels, etc. Dramatic, overly-serious, romantically depressive, and epic (some would say pretentious) in all aspects. Gothic without actually being Goth. I’ve often wondered what band put out the first record of this genre. Does it stem from Joy Division? Early U2? My latest shaky theory is that it originated with the Damned’s excellent “Wait for the Blackout”–the opening tune of my first ever radio show–with a bit of Siouxsie and the Banshee’s “Happy House” thrown in there.

TV 21 was one of the lesser known bands that trafficked in these pre-Raphaelite lands. An early-ish Ian Brodie production in the vein of Steve Lillywhite, the drums pound, the guitar oscillates through its chorus and Roland Echoplex, and the synths re-enforce the general vibe of precision and uneasiness. You can almost hear the peroxide hair and multi-zippered blue janitor’s suits. Precision is the right word for this–I love how precise and alive the production and playing sound on so many of these English records, especially when compared to most of the stuff coming out of the US underground (and mainstream, too) at the time, recordings which seemed flat and staid by comparison. Bright beefy English production that added a nice aggressive edge. The 7” of Something’s Wrong is edited slightly from the album version, probably for the better. Edits like this for 7”’s, probably for radio, seemed fairly common back then. I somehow wound up with three different edits of U2’s “New Year’s Day” (speaking of Edge). The other notable track from the TV 21 album A Thin Red Line, “Snakes and Ladders”, also became a single.

Andrew Chalfen

This trio has always maintained a foot in two different camps without ever fully committing to either. Too weird and psychedelic to grab the twee indie kids, but a little too poppy and light to be fully embraced by the Ptolemaic Terrascope crowd, Uncle Wiggly are left with the small handful of people who like both. Luckily, that part of the Venn Diagram includes me. The flip of their 1990 debut single "Litmus Nephew," "Favorite Movie Theme" is a strummy-jangly near-instrumental with a vocal part that's so indistinct that I'm quite certain the lads aren't actually singing real words. Oddly appealing, though.

-Stewart Mason