[Christopher Arnott can’t stop rummaging through his old 45s.]

The Pills, Scooter Gurls (She’s So Faithful) b/w The Back of Your Head and Soft & Brown. Self-conscious ‘60s-styled mod/pop green-vinyl single by a Boston band that I saw a couple of times and which truly didn’t need to disguise themselves with all those skinny-tie trappings.

Reddy Teddy, Novelty Shoes b/w Goo Goo Eyes. A band from Winchester, Massachusetts, the suburb where I grew up, two towns over from Cambridge and about 12 miles from Kenmore Square, where Reddy Teddy became one of the early legends of the Rathskeller (aka Rat) proto-punk club. They did some recording and performing with my hero Willie Loco Alexander, but in the annals of rock history they are known as the band that was vying against Aerosmith for a record contract with Columbia. The band broke up in 1978 and lead guitarist Matthew Mackenzie died in 1988 at age 36. Reddy Teddy was too guitar-glorifying to be considered pre-punk, but their generally scruffiness, and self-deprecating songs such as “Moron Rock” definitely helped loosen up the Boston scene for the impending switch  from guitar picks to safety pins. This classic single has a B-side that would not appear on the sole Reddy Teddy album.

Jennifer Trynin, Happier b/w iKWIFLTB Down, B-side is better known as “I Know What It Feels Like to Be Down.” On yellow vinyl with ironic happy-face iconography on the cover art, “Happier,” which became a cool closed-circuit TV video which aired on MTV, was an unorthodox swift-and-shouty Trynin, who was always loud but usually more emotionally reserved and leisurely with her riffs. My high school friend Mike County played on this.

The Velvet Underground.  A  100-page square book that mostly consists of Velvet Underground lyrics printed in Italian and English (“I’m searching for my mainline” = “Sto cercandoi la mia strada maestro”), plus a discography… and a disc! The 7-inch 33rpm EP has a bootleg 1967 version of Ride Into the Sun on one side and covers of the VU songs Femme Fatale (by The Carnival of Fools) and European Son (interpreted by Subterranean Dining Rooms) on the flip.

Grand Passion, Negative Jesus b/w Ass Cat. Ocean-hugging angular rock trio that ruled the Mystic/New London axis in the early 1990s. “Negative Jesus” comes as close as fans could hope to capturing Grand Passion’s live exuberance and knack for suspenseful tempo shifts.