Can’t keep Christopher Arnott away from his record collection, even though it’s in the basement.

1. Mighty Purple, When Kingdoms Fall/Explode. Mighty Purple was many things to many people: hip high school coterie, heavily promoted pick-to-click regional rock stars, kids living the dream, suburban rebels… This was a band without an “in their prime” time: you simply saw them grow up from teenagers to young adults, watching as their tastes and talents expanded. This single, on their own well-designed Wonderland label, was from a particularly grandiose phase of studio exploration. Some think psychedelia is a nostalgia thing, but it’s a frame of mind we all go through. The A-side here runs over five minutes.
2. Bo Donaldson and The Heywoods, Who Do You Think You Are/Fool’s Way of Lovin’. The Heywoods were not a one-hit wonder, and here’s the proof. They were part of a ‘60s style pop revival in the mid-1970s, which suited them fine, since they’d formed in Cincinnati in 1965. As a snotty youth whose father would bring me back the latest UK hit singles from his regular trips to England, I lambasted BD&H for swiping thieir biggest hit, “Billy Don’t Be a Hero”, from Paper Lace, but “Who Do You Think You Are” utterly redeemed them for me. I finally got the chance to see the band live when they ably backed up an Archies-themed double bill of Ron Dante and Andy Kim at the Mohegan Sun Wolf Den in the mid-‘90s.
3. Wishbringer, It Came From My Grave/ Lost Children/ Nigh Time. Slushy-cool psych-garage, elegantly underproduced yet exorbitantly overpackage. The sleeve is a piece of purple construction paper adorned with cut-outs stickers, rubber stamps and a “#23 of 300” marking, the single also comes with a ripped out page (#137-138) of the paperback Go Ask Alice and a bubblegum sports card (Joe Caldwell of the Cougars: “They call him Pogo Joe”).
4. Cherry Red, Get Set/I Told You. Girly glam from the same label that hosted New Haven’s supreme female-fronted garage band, The Botswanas. Skillful approximation of the hallowed Chapman/Chin—style guitar sound.
5. Boiling Man, Roadkill Museum EP. Seven songs on a 45 rpm 7-inch! Those were the (hardcore) days. The sleeve design is overstuffed as well, thanks to the aesthetic proclivities of Todd Rogers, as famous in the New Haven scene for his street fliers as for this eminently worthwhile band. The crushingly fast music is full of shouted interludes that really draw you in, especially the “Fuck You!” parts.