The Bongos - Splinters

Another track from the Bongos' 1985 album, The Beat Hotel. This album got mixed reviews but I remember this song being widely acclaimed as one of the stand-out tracks and I would certainly agree. It actually strikes me as being like something the Sound might have done if they were more on the power-pop and less on the post-punk end of things. Wonderful, in any case.

Kickstand - My Reputation

Here's another wonderful piece of super-lo fi DIY twee pop from Kickstand - Hoboken, New Jersey's tragically underrated answer to Beat Happening. Only much better.

Their compilation LP, self-titled and issued on the short-lived Queenie Records from New York, really is essential.

Yo La Tengo - The Summer

Because I really needed to hear a summer song on a bitterly, bitterly cold winter night like this. From Fakebook.

Yo La Tengo - Alrock's Bells

Yo La Tengo's debut album Ride the Tiger seems to be generally viewed as something they did when they were still just a work in progress, but I prefer it to a lot of their later material - especially once they started getting into that spaced-out drone stuff. To me they were always at their best as a simple folk-pop group.

This is one of the nicest tracks on the album.

The Bongos - Numbers with Wings

I've posted a couple tracks already for this Hoboken, New Jersey band but I've just come across this video for the title track to their 1983 EP. While the production marks it clearly of its era, it's still a lovely, haunting tune that shows what a great pair of songwriters Barone and Mastro were.

The Bongos - Blow Up

The Bongos were a lovely little band from Hoboken, New Jersey, who in the early to mid '80s were absolute darlings of the critics, although I'd guess that hardly anyone under my age or so has ever heard of them now. They put out two proper albums and a lovely little EP and the two guitarists, Richard Barone and James Mastro, also collaborated on a nice album called Nuts and Bolts which featured one side each of their own solo work. All highly worth seeking out, if you can find them.

This is from the final Bongos album, The Beat Hotel from 1985.

Kickstand - Full Moon

Let's get back to some proper indiepop here. Kickstand were Hoboken, New Jersey's answer to Beat Happening, only better: better songs, better vocals, definitely better musicians although obviously that wasn't really the point. They also reminded me a lot of Young Marble Giants (and not just because they recorded a cover of "Colossal Youth"). They should have been a lot better known than they were.

Just noticed that this song is exactly three minutes long. No wonder it's my favourite.