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(Hidden Agenda, 1998) Late-night psychedelic mood-music, comparable in feel to one of the quieter, more meandering tracks on, say, Atom Heart Mother. Which is probably the exact comparison these guys would've wanted from a review, so let's offer the caveats (not gonna play into NO ONE'S hands! Nope! Yeehaw!) that the nasal vocals do not at all help this spaceship achieve liftoff, and while the whole thing is definitely PRETTY, "Lullaby" isn't nearly as melodically strong as those Pink Floyd records. It feels like it should be much longer; I would have been happy to hear the song drift 'n' glide along for another five minutes instead of lurching into the abrupt-sounding ending. Is the problem the run-time limitations of the 7" format, or is the song just under-developed?? A mystery! A clean-sounding cover of Can's "Oh Yeah" picks up the tempo on the flip, with the drummer handling himself quite nicely. Whoosh-y sound effects boost the psych-out factor.
Parasol.com has marked these things down to fifty cents, and any geek who gets a kick out of similar '90s goodies like Asteroid #4 or even Flying Saucer Attack should be happy to lay out that kind of dough. I was. And am.
(Merge, 1993)
Never was a Stephin Merritt fan. It’s always been about disinterest rather than dislike, even when my earholes were force-fed 69 Love Songs for a few college years. That record’s witticisms and (I’m told) sophisticated bent just didn’t get my motor chooglin’; I far prefer dum-dum to clever when the music’s cutesy. But hey! This 6ths single mostly rights those wrongs. Robert Scott from the Bats (sez the insert; who dat?) sings about kissin’ on a Hollywood girl/guy in the strummy, Scot-pop soundalike title track with the kind of awkward, guileless innocence of bands like the Pastels. Do I make that comparison just because he has an accent? Do I find the whole thing appetizing just because it isn't Stephen M vocalizing? MAYBE. And yet…!
Brisk, squelchy electronic drums give the B-side a goofy appeal, even as Merritt waxes pessimistic about the entertainment biz and – ho ho! – sorta responds to the disc’s A-side, droning on about not finding love in L.A. and how he’s watchin’ it all “rot in the sun.” Two short, simple songs – one sunny, one bleak – both of ’em musically peppy and charming, even if not AT ALL memorable. Total candy!
(Hopscotch, 1998)
While !!! didn’t really pull it all together until the lengthy dub freakout on its side of the Out Hud split 12” a year or so later, it had the whole f/punk formula figured out well enough on this first single. What the band was doing back then was a lot more exciting than the zillion-selling (I think?), chart-busting (right?), stadium-filling (I'm pretty sure?) music it released on Touch & Go and Warp a few years down the road: these songs are more basement than disco, with a much looser, rawer feel than on later records. The rhythm section is definitely locked in, dance-wise – especially on catchy B-side keeper “The Funky Branca” – but there’s an overarching, appealing messiness in the brass blats, stereo-panned guitar squiggles, and mini drum breakdowns.
The lyrics and vocals have always been iffy (particularly live, with the added embarrassment of the less and less bearable frontman/MC antics), and the sophomoric ruminations on scene phonies in “The Dis-ease” are indeed purty bad: “Well what about U / Y do U do what U do / R U fabricated R U fake or made up / Come on let’s tell the truth.” Still, the mix emphasizes the music enough to successfully marginalize the singer’s yowlings, and the aforementioned POETRY wouldn’t be intelligible without the assistance of the lyric sheet.
Sure, this one's not a must-have, but it's successful partytime stuff that’s toe-tappy enough on its own, and tons o’ fun next to the comparatively sleek and lyrically “confrontational” (yawn) product the band has put out since joining the ranks of the bigs. If you manage to find both this and the rump-kickin' split-12" on GSL, quit while you're ahead.
(Hidden Agenda, 1998) 
