80s in 20 = APNS 40. Yup, The Math Checks Out...

40 isn't a milestone when it's your birthday. I might only speak for myself, but I felt I took like five years in one once that hill was climbed, little health issues and what not cropping up. But for our oldtimer of series here on One Buck Records? Reaching 40 is nothing to sneeze at, so we won't, celebrating its, uh, 40th birthday volume with, uh, a hearty but underplayed 'yay'. And even for this low-key anniversary, we have invited some illustrious guests, as this volume of All Pearls, No Swine has possibly the highest number of high-profile names to date. 

Starting the festivities is Mr. Warren Zevon with the The Envoy-outtake "The Risk", a synth-driven rock track that sounds one of the Springsteen-inspired tunes Zevon would occasionally write at the time. Well, he certainly beat freakin' Rusty Young in fake-Springsteen-ism! (Ka-ching!) Other big name contributors include Ian McCullough, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Bob Welch, and Bonnie Tyler. The latter has the frankly astonishing Jim Steinman-produced cover of CCR's "Have You Ever Seen The Rain", that is really more of a re-imagining, earning Steinman a co-writing credit in the process. Oh, and there's R.E.M. sending us out with their cover of the classic "Moon River", because why the hell not.  

"I'm not sure, we're looking cool here, guys..."

This volume probably doesn't have as many real obscure treasures as other volumes, but folks like Bryce Wemple, Gable Wales, The Jeffords Brothers and Echo Beach hold up the banner of the tiny indie label/self-pulished record fraction. Toys and The Cheepskates bring the power pop/garage rock yo the table, while Swiss AOR popster Phil Carmen goes country pop with "Born A Rider". Mazarati are almost forgotten also-rans from Minneapolis, who were of course protégés of Prince, who gave them a number of songs to record, but after hearing their so-so take on "Kiss" decided to take back the track and recorded it as the classic we all know and love. Mazarati's backing vocals stay in the mix of the released Prince version, which shows what character can do for a song, but just for comparison's sake it's interesting to hear their original take on "Kiss", inferior as it may be. 

The Bellamy Brothers were never cool, and their smooth country-pop is strictly of the okay variety. I tried to put a little comp of them together, but even a ten track album has some less-than-great stuff on it, so I said 'fuck it', finally gave up on that idea, and instead placed thir far and away best song on here. The rest might be not all that, but "Kids Of The Baby Boom" is great, a prototype of Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start The Fire" perhaps, but with actual insight and humour. They had bigger hits, but never a better song. You will need only one Bellamy Brothers song in your collection, and it's this one (Apologies to "If I Said You Had A Beautiful Body (Would You Hold It Against Me?)", which might deserve inclusion on that title alone. But I digress). 

"Well, look at us, fellas. We really aren't lookin' cool"

All Pearls, No Swine 40 has, as you might have guessed, a ton of stylistic variety from artists both known and unknown, for almost 70 minutes of fine, underrated music from the 80s. Dig it!

And The Electric Eighties Just Keep On Comin'

When I posted the alt Trans last sunday, I didn't think I'd follow it up with another Neil Young post, nor that it would align completely with this, our next installment of the granddaddy of 'em all (series here on One Buck Records, that is), All Pearls, No Swine. This volume is not only set in the 80s, but like the slow riders before them, it is a special themed edition of All Pearls, No Swine. In this case: synths, baby, synths! Condisering that the musical directions on my 80s-set APNS volumes seemed to go further into all kinds of directions, I thought I'd group the electro- and synth stuff together in one handy volume. And so this is it. 

A lot of these are again from obscure releases - yet the album also contains a hit, though I didn't realize how big of a hit that was when I compiled this. That track, Freur's "Doot Doot" is also proof that the details of when you consciously hear a song for the first time matter: I was visiting family, in a rented appartment, with nothing on TV worth watching, so I put on satellite radio and said there in the half-dark living room, when suddenly this little synth intro and those little 'doot' 'doot' came swirling around me. I was mesmerized by that song's opening. I realized only later that I already had the song on one of those 80s hits compilations you had to pick up in the old days before finding everything (or almost) on the internet, and for years, but it never registered. It was this very specific listening situation that made me fall in love with Freur's "Doot Doot" and that's why it's here. 

Oh, okay, you guys...I see you got that 80s thing down pat...

There are some other somewhat known names here: The Psychedelic Furs sneak in with the US Remix of "Love My Way" and if you know the origins of your beloved mid-80s AOR bands you might remember that Mr. Mister's Richard Page and Steve George started as a synth-pop outfit called Pages who are represented with "Automatic". You might also remember 'The White Zulu' Johnny Clegg from South Africa, who had a couple of international hits, the biggest of which is probably "Scatterlings Of Africa", also featured on the soundtrack for Rain Man. Here he's climbing "Kilimanjaro" with his first group Juluka, notably the first interracial group out of South Africa. And finally, Johnny Stew strikes again. I already highlighted John Stewart's new wave adventures, but he really throws on the sequencer and dips fully into synth rock with his "Home From The Stars" whose opening sounds like a lost Vangelis track. 

But the rest of the album is, as it should be, filled with virtual unknowns, one-off adventures, private press adventurers or never-was's (as opposed to has been's). Some of this is what some would call outsider art, like Bryce Wemple's DIY synth rock on "Scene 58", Apeiron's "Dancing Spirits" (which was only ever issued on casette tape) or Michael Iceberg with his, uh, idiosyncratic cover of "Here Comes The Sun". There is also a distinct World music aspect here: Canadian synth poppers Strange Advance are back with "She Controls Me", and, from the ranks of the amaeurish and completely unknown, we also have German electropop outfit Caraganda with the weirdly cheery "Living In A Sect". There's French coldwave band Coldreams with the icy "Eyes" and Kiwi band Dragon who were big in Australia with mainstream-friendly pop rock in the late 1970s, but dip more than a toe into synth/new wave rock on 1983's "Rain", also your kick-ass opener du jour, and, as something of a series tradition, we end things with a longer track, the DIY synth ambient piece "Dancing Spirits" by Apoeira. 

We're coldwave, man, so b/w pics and no one looks at the camera, alright...stare dreamily into the distance, guys...

So, there's tons of things to discover here, if you are somewhat willing to let the synth sounds of the 8às in your heart. And why wont you? If Uncle Neil could do it, if ol' Johnny Stew could do it, so can you...

You Want A Bit Of Everything In Terms Of Pearls, Sir, but Absolutely No Swine - Did I Get That Correctly?

Well, of course you do, 'cause that's what's on the menu today, lovingly cooked up as usual by le chef lui-même. For our latest adventure in All Pearls, No Swine land we go back to the 80s, and if you thought that past editions from that period could be eclectic, whoo boy, do we have some eclecticism for you in store today. All Pearls, No Swine Vol. 24 really has a bit of everything, starting with the slightly jangly underground pop of The Mahoney Brothers' "Don't Freeze Me Out" and ending 78 minutes later with Geoffrey W. Newhall's ambient/new age instrumental "Butterfly". In between you get an unlikely reggae-soul hybrid from Dede Higgins with "One Thing For Certain", atmospheric new wave from Jackie Leven and his cohorts in Doll By Doll with "Under My Thumb", groovy rock from beloved vets Little Feat via an outtake from Down On The Farm, throwback 60's-style garage rock from The Optic Nerve, and Christian folk-pop by Aina. And that's just the first seven songs! 

So, yeah, diversity is the name of the game here, no doubt about it. We also get some Oz rock courtesy of Australian Crawl (below) immortalizing the "Daughters Of The North Coast", country-pop from The Maines Brothers' having lovely "Dreams Of Desirée", hard to categorize (outsider folk rock?) but really cool stuff from virtual unknowns The Freemasons, moody rock from Uncle Friday and the return of power popper de luxe Jonathan Kupersmith! 

And the list goes on and on. We have some mainstream-ish artists making an appearance like Spirit with their remake of "1984" and the Go-Go's with their demo of classic "Lust For Love". And then there's new wave/electro-poppers Commuter with the bubbly "Young Hearts" (Cobra Kai influence, natch!) and Canadian's Depeche Mode Strange Currencies with the beautiful and uncharacteristic (acoustic guitars!) "This Island Earth", as well as one of Britain's premier alternative rock outfits, The House Of Love. 

When they say there is something for everyone here, what that sometimes means is that there's nothing for no one. But not with our All Pearls, No Swine, of course, where treasure hunters will be rewarded with a ton of cool music and acts with varying degrees of being known. So, dive into this veritable smorgasboard of cool-sounding goodies from the decade that gets better with every year in the retrospective mirror...

All Pearls No Swine 13: An Eighties Pu-Pu Platter, anyone?!

Time to dip back into our All Pearls, No Swine series once more, this time to go back in the 80s with a number of fabulous unknown numbers, coming from all over the spectrum. This one doesn't have much of a guiding principle, other than, you know, providing good music, and it does so in all kinds of styles. Just look at the first five tracks: Jonathan Jupersmith opens proceedings with his lost power-pop classic "Pauline", The Freemasons play a strange, echoey version of folk rock, Sunhearth & Friends' "Front Seat, Back Seat" is modern bluegrass, Robert Theobald's "It's Alright" is psychedelic pop and The dB's' "Black And White" is somewhere between highly charged new wave (bordering on punk) and power pop. The dB's are probably also the most known name around here, as almost everyone else is again coming from the ranks of self-publishing and micro-labels. 

Later we get some straight up southern country from Dennis Ross and The Axberg Brothers Band, Christian psychedelic rock from Master's Touch, some acoustic finger-picking from Robert Hoke and orchestral dream pop from Carl Schmidt and his "The Phoenix" (while obviously inspiring the cover choice as well). Also noteworthy: Native American Bill Miller and his fabulous folk-rock gem "Whirlwind". And for those that want some heavier guitars, there's Southern rockers Sweet Southern Harmony with "You're The Same". Seriously, you've really got a bit of everything on this collection, though admittedly, power pop has a pretty big place, as we also have Canadian unknowns Peer Pressure asking "When" and Randy Gun apologizing. Alan Dunham's "A Little Bit Longer" loosely fits the genre, but seems to be more inspired by 60's jangle pop. 

So, go on a journey through the 80s that doesn't sound anything like the 80s for 65 minutes before DIY ambient musician Daniel Kobialka whisks us off with the extremely lovely "Minddance/Song For Lisa". So, jump on that Phoenix's wings and take off, it's a journey you won't regret...

All Pearls, No Swine Vol. 10: I found some 80s stuff lying around...

Time for another round of our semi-popular series discovering unknown gems, and we're back in the 80s. This volume splits the difference between the first two 80s-themed volumes, half in the singer-songwriter, folk and country rock sound left over from the 70s, half embracing the shiny new sounds of the decade. So, on one hand this volume gathers up a bunch of stuff left from after the first 80s-themed volume was finished, so you'll find alumni like Jan Schim, Geoffrey A., Dan Knight and A Little Road And A Stone To Roll, as well as other self-published/micro-label folks such as Adrian Calandra and Chris Montgomery with the blissed oout respectively fitfully drugged out sound of "Narcotic Abusers". Did someone here say "psych folk"? A label that probably also works for Paul Mowbray, Scott Key and Dan Knight with the dramatic "Forever Grey Afternoons".  

And you also get to hear old heroes try out new things! Hear Rick Nelson go for a chunky 80s sound for "Chump Change Romeo"! Hear Ian Matthews continue his new wave adventures with Hi-Fi, though comrade David Surkamp is assuring lead vocals on "Time After Time"! Hear John Stewart do him one better, firing up the sequencer and going full Vangelis on "Behind The Wheel"! 

For some variety, hear Idlewild South declaring that Southern Rock isn't dead, stopping by at "Pedro's Bar and Grill". The song is the b-side of the lone single they issued in 1980 before splitting up a couple years later, then reuniting and cutting their debut album in 2014! This album even has known artists incognito, such as Elliott Smith showing up with his teen band Stranger Than Fiction. And some international flair, as folkie Nick Lambing is from Switzerland!

So, friends and neighbours, there's a bunch of cool little known and unknown music within, as is customary for the series. Enjoy, and tell me what you think of these folks in the comments, if you ever get around to it...

A change to this blog's flight plan...

A ton of things to be featured are lying on their dedicated space on my HDD for a good long while now, while other things just come up in the moment, while I post some of those first things. In more plain words: I tend to get distracted. Which is not necessarily a bad thing, since it means I'm still discovering and researching and reworking on the fly. Life is constant flux, so why should a music blog be any different. All this is a long-winded way to say that when I posted Yes' From A Page (A Single Page) a week ago that got me thinking of the Drama and Fly From Here era bands, which in turn got me interested in the origins of the latter album's centerpiece. I knew it was based on a piece Trevor Horn and Geoffrey Downes a.k.a. The Buggles had presented to Yes and occasionally played live on the Drama tour before that specific version of Yes, lovingly dubbed BugglYes by me as opposed to other fans' more dismissive-sounding The Yeggles, disbanded. It turns out that "We Can Fly From Here" has a much bigger importance for Mrs. Horn and Downes than initially thought, which also explains why that song is the thread that binds the two bands together, over a time span of almost forty years. 

"We Can Fly From here" has the distinction of directly and indirectly starting two bands: According to Horn's introductions in concert, it was the first song the Buggles ever wrote together, then became the song that got them the gig as the bulkheads of Drama-era Yes. They never got to finish a version of "We Can Fly From Here" for their debut album Adventures in Plastic, but - like other tracks - noticed how, well, proggish the song sounded and, having the same manager, decided to offer the song to Yes, who had recently suffered the defections of Jon Anderson and Rick Wakeman. Whether the Buggles were angling for this or not, their meeting to offer "We Can Fly From Here" to Yes turned into the remains of Yes offering them a place in the band. A demo version of the song was produced in 1980, but the song seemngly wasn't developed much further and never made it onto Drama, though some archival live recordings exist. Horns and Downes then cut an impressive, elaborate demo in 1981 for possible inclusion on the second Buggles album, Adventures In Modern Recording, but this didn't come to pass, either. Basically , Horn and Downes decided to end their collaboration and Horn finished the album alone, with only three tracks featuring Downes, none of them "We Can Fly From Here". And then that was it, for a long time, for the song that started it all. 

Songs that have such a personal importance for its authors tend to die hard, though, and it seems obvious that Horn never really let the song go entirely.. So when the band reconnected with him in the late 2000s (after having been produced by him through their 1980s chart-making era, a.k.a. the Trevor Rabin years) and where throwing ideas around for a new studio album, Horn brought "We Can Fly From Here" up. Soon the idea was born to turn the original ideas into a long-form piece rivaling their early to mid-70s work, to be further developed from The Buggles' original demos. Oliver Wakeman, the keys man at the time was gently asked to leave to make place for Geoff Downes, because the latter was supposed to have a "greater sensibility for the material". Duh. Also brutally ironic, considering that Wakeman the Younger had suggested to contact Horn to begin with. The songs he developed finally ended up on From A Page, as mentioned in the intro. And so, BugglYes was reborn, or almost. 

Having recruited David Benoit from a Yes cover band to replace Jon Anderson a couple of years earlier, the first version of "Fly From Here", the long-form suite, featured him singing on the album that was named after it, 2011's Fly From Here. But the BugglYes were not quite done yet, and Horn still didn't have this song that was so close to his heart, in the form that he - secretly or not so secretly - wanted. After having unceremoniously fired Benoit for falling ill (history repeating itself for Yes vocalists), Horn - parallel to the band touring with Jon Davison - returned to Fly From Here and recorded replacement vocals for the entire album, including its centerpiece "Fly From Here" suite. The result, complete with new mixing and guitar and keyboard overdubs, was released in 2018 as Fly From Here: Return Flight. And, finally, after almost 40 years, the BugglYes had finally won. Their baby, the first song Horn and Downes wrote together, was finally out - with Horn on vocals and Downes on keyboards, like back in 1979. To be honest, I prefer the original 2011 version of the suite and Benoit's vocals, which seem more emotional and expressive, whereas Horn's vocals are more robotic, perhaps wilfully so, perhaps not. 

So, the album of the day. At four tracks it is probably more of an EP, though at 40 minutes length it's having classic album length. It captures the journey of the BugglYes' work on "We Can Fly From Here" from the relatively rudimentary first demo which is supposed to be Yes, but it's not obvious who besides Horn and Downes is playing on it. Even the drums could easily be a drum machine. Then, off to a live version from the same year's Drama tour, followed by the more elaborate demo Horns and Downes cut in 1981 and finally the suite from Fly From Here: Return Flight in slightly altered form. Some of the transitions of the suite were really iffy and not particularly thought out, glued together with an old piece of chewing gum and some duct tape. So I worked on the suite to get rid of some of these pretty bad transitions and tightened up the thing by eliminating some slow spots and redundancies (including the first part of Steve Howe's "Bumpy Ride" section, which was really badly integrated into the piece). "Fly From Here" is now coming in at a little over 19 minutes, almost five minutes less than the original. I think it works better that way. 

Looking at the journey of the song from its admittedly wobbly beginnings, I'm mightily impressed with The Buggles' version of the song, which probably convinced Yes in 2010 that there was something there. On the suite you can still trace back its opening parts to the demos from 1980 and 1981 and make some other fun observations, like how it takes the chord progressions of "Machine Messiah" at one point in a callback to Drama (starting from the "Sailor...sailor beware" section at 12.50 and re-appearing several times in the four minutes that follow). Spending an entire LP's worh of time on a single song and its progression can only work if that song is worth it, and I think that "We Can Fly" in all its incarnations is worth it. 

I'll let you discover if you agree. Ready For Takeoff in 3-2-1... 

The 1.000 Faces Of Randy VanWarmer

O.K., the title is slight hyperbole. More like two and a half faces. Which is still one and a half faces more than I originally thought, having crossed VanWarmer and, presumably, his signature song "Just When I Needed You Most" a couple of years ago when I dipped my feet into soft rock. And that song was so soft, that I wrote VanWarmer off as an artist of potential interest. Imagine my surprise when a couple of months later - while still on a bit of a soft rock kick (if such a thing can exist) - I found "Suzie Found A Weapon" on a soft rock comp, but it didn't sound at all like soft rock, more like some punchy new wave. 

I made a mental note to check out that VanWarmer, then of course promptly forgot about him. Somehow, this year I fell in with VanWarmer again, this time taking the time of checking him out, especially his early stretch for Bearsville Records. And I wasn't disappointed. Apart from the first album - which is all softer-than-a-baby's-butt soft rock - he showed encouraging signs of being a secret enfant terrible: Bringing out ten-minute faux prog rock, alternating with power pop/new wave songs, and being generally a lot more irrevent than something like "Just When I Needed You Most" would suggest: Whether its proposing cocaine to his girlfriend to get her to hang out with him (in "Hester's Song") or mocking televangelists in "Amen" ("Send us your money, we will pray for you").  

VanWarmer was hip to what was happening around him. His version of the old gospel classic "Farther Along" suggests he had listened to Adam & The Ants, with the Burundi drums coming in on what is certainly one of the most interesting takes on that old chestnut. He also loved 60's pop, as evidenced by his faithful cover of the Lovin' Spoonful's "Do You Believe In Magic". 

Waitaminute, you might say, didn't he talk about 1.000, or at least two and a half faces? Where's face number two and a half I hear you murmur? Well, turns out my first encounter with VanWarmer was many years ago. When checking out his work from the 90s and 2000s, I realized that I had first encountered RVM in the mid-90s when my dad was subscribed to a magazine called "New Country" and VanWarmer had put his soft rock bona fides to good use by adding some country instrumentation and hanging out with the new 'hat acts' as a mulleted soft country pop guy. Really sentimental stuff, but what can I say, I have a soft spot for such fare, so even that side of Randy I'm fine with. 

You will find none of that on today's One Buck Record though, which - as the title suggests - focuses on his first four albums for Bearsville Records and there mainly his new wave stuff. It's fresh, it's adventurous, it's a lot of fun. Maybe Art's recent work on Robert Palmer over yonder at Jonder's place pushed me to pull up RVM in the posting queue - like Palmer, VanWarmer is a lot more than "the 'Just When I Needed You Most' guy". So check out some cool Bearsville Beats courtesy of Mr. VanWarmer...

All Pearls, No Swine Vol. 6: Where Things Get A Lot Eighties-ier...

 ...and yes, that is a word I just made up. Eighties-ier it is, because after having the first foray into the Eighties of our All Pearls, No Swine series still firmly with both feet in the sound and sensibility of the 1970s, it's obvious from the opening track, Australia's Triffids and their mighty "Wide Open Road" that we have fully arrived in the decade of the synth swirls, gated drums and echoey production. And if that isn't enough, then track two, The Lover Speaks' synth anthem "No More I Love You" should seal the deal. That song only scraped the lower regions of the charts, but became a huge hit for Annie Lennox almost a decade later. From there we get to ol' Fleetwood Mac alumni Bob Welch and his best stab at a New Wave sound with "I'll Dance Alone" and Men At Work's original version of "Down Under". It was originally a b-side to a forgotten single and didn't yet have the famous/infamous flute melody that got them sued and ultimately led to the self destruction of Greg Ham. Instead it is a weird country-flavored regatta da blanc. Then we get two saints replacing one madonna, as Canada's Sophie St. Lauren does her best stab at Madonna-style pop with the absolutely irresistible "Sex Appeal", before Tera St. John kidnaps Lou Reed's "Walk On The Wildside" for a synth-pop joyride as a self-published one-off (on the impeccably titled Didit M'Self Records!). Plus more sultriness from Rosie Vela, aurally and visually (see below). 

We also get new wave goodness from Randy VanWarmer and Sniff'n'the Tears, both soon to be getting their own write ups and home-made compilations here, an underrated synth-pop number from Tears for Fears' first album that The Americans used for an amazing sequence, more Aussies with Big Pig, more Canadians with brainy synth-poppers Strange Advance, a trip to Italy for Raf's (as in Raffaele) original version of "Self Control", issued months before Laura Branigan took over the song and rode it into the Top Ten. That lady sure had a knack for picking up Italian hits ("Gloria") and turning them into world wide smashes! And a trip to France for post-punk psych band The Vietnam Veterans and their take on "The Days Of Pearly Spencer". And out of the 'huh?' department, folk rock veteran Iain Matthews, who after forays into soft rock and new wave ends up in power pop outfit Hi-Fi, covering Prince's "When U Were Mine". How much more Eighties-ier than that can you get?   

Have no fear, fellow musical travelers, for even the Eighties, that most dreaded decade for fans of classic rock look better with every passing year, and have some treasures to unearth, starting right here and now...

All Pearls, No Swine Vol. 3: Time Keeps On Slipping...Into The Future

 

Volume Number Three, and adventurously the APNS series wanders out of the Seventies. But don't worry, friends and neighbours, it will be a smooth transition, because while we do enter the Eighties, these pearls are essentially of a piece with the preceding volumes. Mainly because artists and styles are pretty much a continuation of the hallmarks of the series: singers/songwriters, a bit of country rock, a touch of Southern rock. Nothing here is coming from the second part of the decade, and stylistically the artists here are somewhat still 'stuck in the Seventies'. In the best possible sense of course. So, no gated or cavernous drums, no huge keyboard swooshes or hair metal guitar a.k.a. the hallmarks of the Eighties. These things will come a bit later in the APNS series (a promise or a warning? - YOU decide!). So for now you can stay in the easy-going groove that the first two volumes have established. 

As for the artists, this volume is almost a hundred percent free of major label artists and, admittedly, anyone you have heard of. Which is part of the fun! Like me you discover artists you've never heard of before. All of them are American or Canadian and published these songs on private press (a.k.a. vanity labels) or local microlabels. The only artist here who sniffed major record label atmosphere is Joey Scarbury, whose song is actually the title song of the 1982 mix of coming of age and crime film "The River Rat", incidentally the first film produced by the Sundance Institute. The film is almost as unknown as the artists of APNS Vol. 3, though well worth searching for, or stumbling onto. It has the easy-going rhythms of an 80s "thriller" (yes, it's slow), but also some really impressive deep focus photography and a really good child performance from a really young Martha Plimpton. Plus Tommy Lee Jones and Brian Dennehy. 'Nuff said. But I digress. 

Blackhawk, opening proceedings with" Colorado Woman" were local southern rockers from - you guessed it - Colorado. Darryl Corley is a singer/songwriter from North Carolina. Dan Knight is a singer/songwriter from Ontario with a 1982 one-off album of improbable Christian psychedelic folk-pop songs. Michael Behnan, another Canuck, had two albums out in 1979 and 1980. Broken Bow was a country rock group from Wisconsin with a single album out in 1980. Dave Keir was a British folkie and acoustic picker who lived and taught music in Germany for a while and had a loyal cult following there. Jan Schim (below) was a folkie from Florida who recorded her single album in 1978, but finally issued it on her own label (the modestly titled "Jan Schim's Records" that obviously never issued anything else) in 1982. So she, like the fantastically named Doc Holiday or the less fantastically named Kurt Van Arsdel (who sounds a little like a Nazi villain in a Hollywood movie, am I right or am I right?) pressed their albums as private press releases in tiny numbers. 

So, there you have it. Another twenty pearls from truly unknown artists, and yet what a fine 70 minutes you'll spend with this. Fun (?) fact: This was the first APNS compilation I burned to CD because I really liked the flow of this one. Here's hoping you do, too.