Out of Print

For Those Procrastinators among us, I submit for your moderate disappointment a couple of out-of-print curios I still listen to every now and then. One is "Gladsome, Humour, and Blue," a 1988 release by Martin Stephenson and the Daintees, a mostly forgotten band from Country Durham in the North of England. None of the tracks were really single-worthy (although there was a radio-edit of "Wholly Humble Heart" that got some limited play, a video of which is above), so it pretty much died a death upon release. An acquired taste, perhaps, but I keep coming back to this one, which I have on vinyl somewhere from back in the day, and was finally able to track down on CD a few years back at some Dutch online record store. Stephenson appears to be plugging away, and, in a burst of originality, apparently recently recorded an album of American roots music. [Correction: it turns out that this CD has since been reissued and is available at Amazon - I guess I wasted my Guilders on that one.]

The other is "The Taller You Are The Shorter You Get," a 1989 double LP by My Dad is Dead, a Cleveland band now based in Chapel Hill, and, to their gratification, appearing at SXSW this year for the first time after 24 years of recording. I was reminded of this one by the new Hold Steady CD, although you may find the comparison a bit strained. The album starts with a rollicking instrumental (much like Bossanova by the Pixes, which came out around the same time). This, and a few other efforts are available at the band website here.

Evidently I was never a music critic in an earlier life. But see what you think.