Well, thankee!

Hello to all! I am very grateful for and excited over this lovely invitation to contribute to Logical Logic. Thank you!  It's an honor and privilege--and I really mean that. This is a wonderful, thoughtful, and tasteful blog, and I hope to live up to all that. And yes, indeed, I'll be posting songs from mostly the late 70s and early 80s. This is an era that gets an inordinate amount of attention, on the Internets and everywhere else, but I'll hopefully be posting gems that you haven't heard of, or maybe have heard of but never heard. In any event, gems they will be, and they'll every one of them improve your life. This I can comfortably promise. So, where Logical Logic hearkens to a time before Internet access to music, I'll try to take you back to a time before there was even any popular notion of "independent" music at all. When things were a mess, but when the music being made and recorded [often on big-ass labels] was fresh and original and exciting in a way that is hadn't been before and has never been, to my mind, since. That sounds like fuddy-duddism, I know, but hopeful I'll be able to convince you.

And...now to push this button that says "publish post"--can it be that easy? Will this thing publish something else altogether? Will it send this post straight to some creepy cyber void? I have no idea. I am as new to this as I could be, so I may fuck things up a bit at first, and I beg your patience ahead of time. I'll post some music in a couple of days, after I'm sure what I'm about to do hasn't killed the blog...

Announcement

My friend Evan (a man of impeccable musical taste) has now joined me in doing this project. He will be tackling stuff from the 80s primarily. Stuff that we can all love and learn from, I'm sure. Not sure when he'll get his first post up but thought I'd mention it!

Vivian Girls

A year ago this August I thought I was going to see Vivian Girls play a show in Brooklyn. It ended up that I was in Athens for the Popfest and missed them. I still haven't seen them and am starting to feel ashamed! A friend of mine in Oakland has even seen them and that's 3000 miles away. This goes to show how little I make it out for shows these days, I can't even see a band in my own backyard. Ah, well, perhaps this is the true worth of the internet - I don't have to leave my house to go stand around at shows. I digress...

I am puzzled by bloggers posting the longer songs by this band! There is absolutely nothing wrong with their bread and butter being songs under two minutes long. In fact, they should be applauded for not being afraid of having short songs. Too many bands these days are concerned with writing a 4 minute pop song when it's been proven time and again that you can get in and out in under 2 and show the world your brilliance in that time. It's fairly obvious here that I get much more enjoyment out of their shorter songs, no?

Especially this song!
All The Time
It reminds me of Tiger Trap, and that, my friends, is a great thing. Throw in a surf guitar lead and I might think I was hearing an early lost recording. This song exemplifies what Vivian Girls do well. You like this song and you will like the band.
Wild Eyes
This is a slower and sweeter version of what they do best. Based on their first releases it's clear that they have impeccable influences and I'm pretty excited to hear what comes next. Check the tour dates on their myspace page. You will probably see them before I do.

(Still more guests to come, a move to take place, and a vacation to have. Posting will continue to be sporadic until August.)

Team Dresch

Ah, queercore, we're talking about you yet again. If you were young and gay in the mid 90s you probably have extremely fond memories of Team Dresch. Probably the single most important queercore band, not only for being recognized as the band that helped bring the movement to the forefront of indie music for a short time, but also because of the fact that Donna Dresch and Jody Bleyle were both running labels that were focused on releasing good music, most of it queer. Also, the members of Team Dresch were all extremely talented musicians and that set the bar higher for the next crop of queer bands.

To this day my favorite song is from their first 7" release on Kill Rock Stars. The guitar lead is pretty much the best thing in the world. I spent much time bonding with someone over this song, two young queer girls obsessed with music connected by the usps. Hearing this song was a turning point - finally there was music for me, made by people like me - and I never looked back. Seeing Team Dresch and Bikini Kill at Gilman is one of those shows that will forever be burned in my memory. Anyway, the song...
Hand Grenade

Team Dresch released two full length albums and had assorted tracks on compilations. This song comes from the Free To Fight compilation that Chainsaw and Candy-Ass co-released. It's a fun and funny short song that I always liked for the slight silliness of it. Plus, a nod to Ann Bannon! Before the Ann Bannon revival was going crazy!
Song For Ann Bannon

Last summer I saw the band play. They had played shows occasionally over the years after their breakup. I had avoided seeing them, afraid of going back and ruining it all. It was actually pretty awesome to see the crowd last year. A great mix of those of us who were around the first time and a whole crop of kids who were too young to have seen them back then. Last I heard, they are supposed to be recording a new record and based on the new songs they played last year I'm pretty excited!