STEAMING COILS-THE TARKINGTON TABLE, LP, 1987, USA

Continuing my series of Steaming Coils posts, this second dispatch from Brad Laner and Dave Chrisman's anarchic art damage crew modifies the riotous aberancy explored on their debut (posted here a few days back), pulling back the dense thicket of mutated post-Beefheart/Residents motion to reveal the wobbly pop underpinnings that only fitfully reveled themselves inside the bedlam of aural psychosis on "Never Creak". This partial recasting of their muse coincided with a reformulation of their lineup. Now pared back to a core of Laner and Chrisman, with L.A. Free Music Society patriarchs Rick Potts & Joseph Hammer (and nutter Spencer Savage) being supplanted by guest contributions from C.O.M.A. (California Outside Music Association) stalwarts James Grigsby and Lynn Johnson of The Motor Totemist Guild, this change of tack allows for the some heartbreakingly beautiful art pop nuggets to surface amidst the melee. Tracks like Intents And Purposes, 4/10 and Proposed Pink City exhibit a degree of delirious pop psych mastery that's simply breathtaking, their themes burned into my brain for eternity. These (and other) dollops of songform wonderment exist in tense balance with garrulous bursts of semi-improvised irregularity from the Motor Totemists in a way often quite distinct from the fracas generated on the their debut. A different window into a world of wonder and one that would set the stage for the poignant addled art pop perfection of their third and final release "Breaded", which will follow shortly.

THANKS TO BRAD FOR PROVIDING THE MISSING INSERT IMAGES...I NEVER EVEN KNEW AN INSERT FOR THIS EXISTED!

Get it Here