Hello Blue Roses – Wild Nights! (Jaz Records)

Sydney Hermant makes folk-influenced art pop no doubt from some bohemian enclave in Vancouver, BC. Her WZO LP really dominated my turntable in 2015 with its analog rhythm box based sparse moods. Fellow trippy Canadian Mary Margaret O’Hara’s Miss America LP might be in Hermant’s stack of vinyl alongside other un-rock oddities from Joe Boyd’s Witchseason Label heyday and Rough Trade’s peerless 80s catalog. If I mention David Thomas and the Pedestrians, Family Fodder and Bridget St John in the same review, do I win some sort of record collector badge? I can only hope. There are many peaks but “Lightning Storms” with its crackling electronic sounds and bold vocal melody is transporting me from own personal quarantine hell. Appearances from other Canadian mavericks Carey Mercer, Dan Bejar, Kay Higgins and more only sweeten this enjoyable and subtly weird album.

Strum & Thrum: The American Jangle Underground 1983 – 1987 (Captured Tracks)

Ok, now here’s a release that can’t be any more Failure of All Pop if it tried. This is so up my alley, I am actually annoyed, but I will buy it. It promises to be a stellar collection of mid-80s jangle obscurities, stuff that rang out on college radio stations played by people in thrift store flower-print shirts and dirty white Chuck Taylors. Right off the bat it has several of my pet favorites: The Windbreakers and Crippled Pilgrims. Neither were strictly jangle acts, especially not Crippled Pilgrims who had some Meat Puppets and Gray Matter in their DNA, hailed from DC and included a member of Government Issue. Other gems include several Rick Menck acts and a track from the first Downy Mildew EP that is a lost classic. This release kicks-off Captured Tracks’ own Nuggets-style series covering the 70s-90s, which will be a great thing for lost bands who deserve fresh ears.

BMX Bandits – C86 (Glass Modern)

Here’s a reissue of a 1990 LP I wish I could buy at my local store on Record Store Day. Well, that’s not happening cuz there is pestilence, plague and evil afoot. BMX Bandits made and continue to make bubblegum, glam pop ear-worms with a crude swagger and earnest warbled vocals. Some folks from Teenage Fanclub and the Soup Dragons are involved somehow. Pop escapism on this level is needed now more than ever. File next to Wreckless Eric, Bay City Rollers, The Partridge Family, early Pastels. Mostly I need this for the killer hot pink sleeve.