Beer and Pavement

I’m not dead and neither is this series. I have, however, slowed on collecting the first 100 Matador releases because they are hard to come by and often times expensive. I mean, there’s a Toiling Midgets release I’ve been chasing for a while and it’s cheap, but there isn’t a copy for sale online in this country. I will pay more for shipping that I will for the record. And that’s if I can even get it past customs.

Anyway, I’ve digressed before I’ve begun. This series, as some may be aware, is my attempt to collect and listen to the first 100 releases from my all-time favorite label, Matador Records of NYC. What follows is a rundown of the next three releases, Olé-0026-0027, a couple of great 7 inches.

Superchunk released its first handful of titles on Matador. The seven inch “The Breadman” (Olé-0026) was their second release, I believe. The guitars are fast and layered. Laura Balance’s bass lines are particularly fleshy. Mac McCaughan cries over the cacophony. From what I can tell, he’s singing about a baker who never realized his dream of playing guitar. Or I could be way off.

The b-side is the more start and stop “Cast Iron” which makes an appearance on the band’s second full-length release, No Pocky for Kitty. I guess it’s about yelling at someone from the front porch, but that seems likely an oversimplification.

The cover art is somewhat iconic. Mac (I believe) is featured shirtless with a head full of hair, reminiscent of a caveman. I always found this interesting juxtaposition of Superchunk with anything agro. They are smart, nice, funny people from what I can tell. However, the music can be loud, fast, and incredibly intense – even with Mac’s high-pitched wails. Still, this image of Mac as a cavemen always makes me laugh. I hope that’s how it was intended.

Come…er…comes in next with their seven inch “Fast Piss Blues,” released in 1992. Come featured the legendary Thalia Zedek and Codeine’s Chris Brokaw. This was the second release from the band, the first on Sub Pop the previous year.

“Fast Piss Blues” is a gnarly, modern blues song. Could it be post-blues? “I don’t remember being born,” Zedek growls. The guitars soar at times and the bass lines are heavy and thick. This is followed by b-side “I Got the Blues” which is a down-tempo blues song of longing and regret. These tracks are dirty and uber-cool. I’m sure the band brought a lot of promise with their early 7 inches. However, blues-based music in indie rock can have a finite existence.

At this point, I should address the odd way Matador releases are numbered. Even though “The Breadman” and “Fast Piss Blues” are consecutive releases number-wise (0026, 0027), there are about 12-13 other releases between them. “The Breadman” came out around 13 months prior to “Fast Piss Blues.” In fact, their whole system seems out of whack. It starts at the beginning: 001, 003, 002, 012, 005, 004, 007, 023… It’s a mess, but understandable. It seems – and someone who actually knows can correct me – that the numbers are based on the order agreements are made to put out records and not the eventual release. It also explains when some releases were skipped and never happened. I believe I’ve addressed these when they come up. I will continue to mention them when I can. The official discography lists the records in order or release and leaves out those Matador never released.

Moving on…

I’ve got the Shams’ Quilt (Olé-0028) and Bullet Lavolta’s The Gun Didn’t Know I Was Loaded (Olé-0029) coming up, but then there’s a gap. I haven’t been able to score the aforementioned Toiling Midgets’ Son (Olé-0030). Again, it’s not expensive or anything, but it’s hard to come by. What’s frustrating is there’s a record store in Japan that has this and about 10 other records on my wantlist, but they don’t ship to the US. At some point, I’ll have to just buy this from a European store, pay twice as much for shipping as the record itself, and wait as it sits in customs for a few weeks. So, I’ve got two more posts in this series before there’s a lull, unless I skip Toiling Midgets for the time being. I can get through the 0030’s pretty smoothly after that. We’ll see.

If you see Toiling Midgets’ Son in your local record depot, let me know. I’d likely pay double for it.