Various Artists
Fanboy OST (Silver Girl)
We haven't seen "rock 'n' roll thriller" Fanboy, but it sounds like a hoot, in the Green Room vein. A band called Xenos is out on tour, pursued by a stalker-fanboy. It only has two stars on IMDB, with the standard of the acting coming in for some strong criticism. Still sounds fun though.
The soundtrack is excellent. All manner of filthy reprobates from the worlds of punk, stoner rock, garage rock and everything in-between pop up, including the magnificent Hot Snakes with the killer (pun intended) opening track "Hatchet Job."
Noise merchants Big Business (there's a Melvins connection there somewhere) drop in with the one shaking goodness of "Focus Pocus," and Red Fang's "Malverde" is gloriously heavy. And that's just side A (there are four sides in total).
A lot of the other bands on here aren't as well known as those already mentioned, but they're still a treat. The likes of Milky Wayne, The Marsupials, The Cherry Valence, and Tourettes Lautrec are deliriously great.
Just need to check out the film now.
Xenos
"Left to Die" 45 (Silver Girl)
As mentioned above, Xenos is the fictional band from the rock 'n' roll thriller movie Fanboy. The songs on this 45 don't appear on the soundtrack album, and as we haven't seen the movie, we don't know if they appear in the film.
For a fictional band though, the songs are great. We assume the members of the cast are performing, including a snarling female singer. "Left to Die" and ""This Isn't Anywhere" are on side A of the white, blood-splattered 45, while the brooding "Cold Blue Violence" and "The Loom" are on side B. It's better than the music of Wyld Stallyins and The Lone Rangers, at least.
Poem Rocket
Lend-Lease (Silver Girl)
Clear vinyl LP
True story, and just as a little aside: we accidentally played this LP on 45 rpm, due to the fact that we had listened to the Xenos 45 immediately prior. The thing is, it sounded beautiful.
That said, as soon as we span it at the proper 33 rpm, we found ourselves stunned. The experimental art rock/ noise rock band from New York City recorded this EP back in '99, but it's only seeing the light of day now. The fact that something to mind-falteringly beautiful if esoteric was kept under wraps for a quarter of a century seems criminal.
Sandra Gardner's vocals are haunting and hypnotic on the four tracks here: "Depth Charge" and "Vera Shore" on side A, and "Black Freighter Contraband" and "A.R.P. (Air Raid Protection) on side B.
The lengthy sleeve-notes reveal the story of this lost and/or forgotten gem, while the clear vinyl is delicious.
