Tuesday, April 6, 2010

KAREN COOPER COMPLEX-SHINJUKU BOARDWALK, 1981, USA, UNRELEASED


Despite the fact that this album has already been featured on a handful of other sharity blogs ('cause I was evidently asleep at the switch when it was being proffered), it feels essential to mount this unearthed gem inside the Mutant Sounds vitrine, as it both extends from one of the more significant bands featured on the NWW list (namely Bomis Prendin, whom Karen Cooper Complex's Bill Altice played with before this) and approaches the medium of post punk from a completely screwy perspective. As would be expected, there's a degree of hangover from Altice's days in BP, but the vibe here, while undoubtedly art fucked is absent some of the hot house freakishness of the early era of Bomis Prendin that Altice took part in. The tip that this feels like it's coming off instead is one that shares some of the inscrutable lopsided charm of Tom Fazzini, the off the cuff wacky gal whimsy of The Inflatable Boy Clams and Y Pants and, when the freakiness is foregrounded, a whiff of Milo Fine's old Residents-damaged unit Teenage Boatpeople. Hopefully, some enterprising reissue label will snatch this one up, as it's too good to exist only in the ephemeral form of a download.

Get it Here

7 comments:

  1. we was also sleepin at the switch, so many daps for this one here hear~

    lepyr mklymn

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  2. I've been reading this blog for a little while and it seems like you're taking requests here and there as far as what to post, but I have no idea how to contact you other than through comments, so here it goes: I would appreciate it so, so, so much if you all could post the album Utakata No Hibi by the Japanese band Mariah. I've been looking everywhere for it with no luck.

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  3. oh man, Bomis Prendin. so, so good.

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  4. It's a Lady GaGa on the cover?

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  5. this is a fantastic album. i have recently been in contact with Bill Altice, [the guitarist for this band] . . . we produced a little video for one of the tracks on this album, 'Jerkin' Pretty'. . . some wild guitar playing to be heard

    if you'd like to see the video, check it out here . . .

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AY_-ejmrjY0

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  6. Ahh, Richmond, your crazy underground musicosity stretches further back than I imagined...thanks for posting, this shit rules!

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