[Another batch from Christopher Arnott’s 45 collection]

The Swansons, All These Things EP. Three-song 45 rpm rarity from a New Haven band which was flying pretty close to the sun in the early ‘90s—signed by a major, with a sound perfect for the commercial grunge trend of the time. Unfortunately for the sonic arts, the Swanson’s songwriter/guitarist chose to pursue the career choice his Yale degree had prepared him for, the label lost interest in touting a band that had changed line-ups before its debut LP was even in stores, and the band dissolved after a national tour.

I was blessed to cover The Swansons from their very first shows through their gradual dissolution, and still have cassette demos from whence the well-produced (by Glenn Rosenstein) tracks on this vinyl came. With clean riffs and Lauren Fay’s soaring vocals, The Swansons sound far less dated than a lot of the moody pop acts of their time.

 

Blair Carriage, Tepid/Everyone I Know. I dug Blair’s Carriage—they hailed from Massachusetts, and played pretty regular at Rudy’s Bar & Grill, the bar I lived next door to. But I would have gone out of my way anyhow to pick up a single with an A-side titled “Tepid.” (I remember seeing an add for a bar band called Tepid once, and wondering if the musicians knew what it meant.) Peppy pop stuff in the Gigolo Aunts vein, a very pleasant era of Boston rock & roll.

 

Catwalk, Livin’ on the Edge/Thinking About You. Catwalk was as well known in New Haven for a court settlement as for their slick metal-pop songs. When MTV announced a series about a struggling fictional rock act called Catwalk (a name the network thought they’d sewn up the rights to), the real-life Connecticut rock act Catwalk sued. For dropping the suit, the band was promised professional assistance from the big-deal producers involved with the show. It didn’t work. When not catwalking, singer Amy Crelin was a mainstream FM radio disk jockey, and Bob Crelin created inlaid designs for classy guitars. Crelin, a dedicated stargazer, later became a crusader against light pollution.

 

Snowplow/Madelines, split single. Don’t know where this came from—probably sent to the Advocate offices to promote an out-of-town gig I missed–but I’m glad I have it now. Both bands are from Burlington, Vermont, a thriving music scene worth studying and preserving. This is from 1993/94 and sounds it—droney beats from Snowplow and raw rangy harmonies and fuzzy guitars from Madelines. But both pack surprises, especially those reckless Madelines guitars.

 

Giogolo Aunts, Mrs. Washington/Ask. This is the second single version of “Mrs. Washington,” from 1994, produced at Q Division studios in Boston. The flip side, “Ask,” was done at a different, equally renowned indie-friendly Boston studio, Fort Apache. It’s classic Gigolo Aunts in the first flush of their never-quite-fame. The band was a decade old by this point, but had only been releasing records for a couple of years before this. The beautiful harmonies and ‘60s AM radio sound is here, but so are the unexpected raucous rave-ups which keep the studio technique at bay.