One of the tracks from the great Tuatara compilation that introduced me to Flying Nun was the powerful and haunting "The Man With No Desire" by the Expendables. I remember this song being in heavy rotation on my Walkman as I took long, late walks accross the KU campus in the late 80s. Jay Clarkson was the voice and the songs behind the Expendables (sometimes credited as They Were Expendable); she had several releases on Flying Nun including an anthology CD called Packet. Her other huge Little Hit is the logical follow up to "The Man With No Desire," "The Boy With the Sad Hands," which was on the European CD of the second Flying Nun compilation, In Love With These Times. It has unforyunately been deleted from the current issue. We love 'em both, but "Boy" wins on the basis of being unavailable at the moment. We split the outcome by showing "Man's" picture sleeve, a good example of the wonderful DIY artwork the early Flying Nun bands came up with. Vinyl obsessives should note, however, that I've heard three copies of this 45, and all of them were so off-center as to be unlistenable.

Hey, if you don't own much Flying Nun Material why not hop on over to Smoke CDs and order Tuatara, In Love With These Times/Pink Flying Saucers, and the ten-year anniversary compilation, Getting Older. These four discs will set you back about $50 with shipping, and I can't imagine a better way to spend the money. If you do that, you can hear "The Man With No Desire," and one of the most shivering, desolate and utterly perfect guitar breaks ever committed to tape.