Song Of the Day: June 5-6, 2005
The Last-It Had To Be You
The Three O'Clock-All In Good Time
From the compilation LP The Radio Tokyo Tapes,
Ear Movie Records, 1983
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.
5 Comments:
At the risk of sounding like an arriviste, I'll confess my love for all things Jason Falkner-related. I don't know if this Three O'Clock track falls into that category, but I like it.
People have been telling me about The Last for a while. Why do I not listen?
Recommendations for further study for each?
The Three O'Clock's first album under that name, Sixteen Tambourines, is probably the best place to start. "Jet Fighter" especially is a wonderful power-pop song.
Such a coincedence that I pulled out & played this rare comp only a week ago. Anyway, at the time- late 1982-3 ? when this came out, the "paisley underground" was on the rise, so it was a great intro for all us east coast folks to get onboard with new west coast sounds. BTW the Three O'Clock song is a BeeGees cover & 16 Tambourines IS a pop masterpiece.
Ooops-correction, the Three O'Clock song is an original, a Michael Quercio tune.
Weirdly I've been listening to the Salvation Army LP, as well as the first two "proper" Three O' Clock records for the past two days (and I'm just lame enough to mention that these are the Lolita/ French editions w/ the bonus junk. Pink Floyd cover, etc). It's a time-of-year thing for me (going back about 20 damn years now; there's a story here but it's long & somewhat sordid), but I'll pretend there's something more at play & that seeing this post makes it amount to Ye Olde Kismete.
If I may ramble on a bit more, this site has a d/l of the Salvation Army A-Side that's worth a listen or two, and there's some great storytelling/ "vintage" diary entries by Joe Nolte from the Last in the (recently self published & delightfully engaging) "History of Punk Rock" type book "Going Underground" here.
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