track listing :
i’m a believer
the other side
the sewer of affluence
from hartford to times square
it don’t mean nothing
cold as the stars
you should be so lucky
people change (maybe they don’t)
his baleful eye
c’mon
not a penny to my name
down at the country club
best con in town
released a few years back, but this morning i came to realise that this album/compilation needs to be given some long overdue attention.
beyond a few select souls that seems to mainly involve yours truly and every band within gear humping distance of bill whittens apartment (“so I made it a rule that you had to be in another band”), the excellence of grand mal has yet to be recognised by the majority of world, but thankfully, the people who run the swedish based record label groover recordings are also very much part of that secret society.
so much so that not only are they behind the release of the bands new album, clandestine songs, but the label has also put together a catch up package for anyone interested.
comprising of 7 songs from the bands last album, love is the best con in town, (only ever available on a very small nyc based indie meaning very few people ever had a chance to hear this lost classic) and 5 extras that have appeared here and there online, this is a cracking entry point.
love is the best con in town : full review : here
the extra tracks are more of a rocking nature meaning pianos are given a old time bashing, fuzzed up battered guitars are dirty as you like, and the overall vibe is one of a 70s themed booze fuelled saturday night in some back street nyc bar where moods swing from up-and-at-em party times to sunday morning hangover blues.
as ever, the sonic references are very much of the classic side of the 70s : velvet underground, mott the hoople, rolling stones, and david bowie of course.
so with an ingredient list as delicious as that, it’s no wonder that ireallylovemusic continues to fall under the bands spell.
which i do, willingly.
more detail : here – – groover recordings