The Colourplates: Agony and Ecstasy (Green Monkey)

Because we all like to know about something no one else does, Elsewhere is pleased to bring you this collection (subtitled "Post-Punk Art Rock, Seattle 1979 - 1982") by a band that, by its own admission, played mostly for pals and some sailors, and at a friend's wedding ("They divorced eventually").

On the Green Monkey label run by Tom Dyer, this 21 track collection -- taken from cassettes and other such sources -- was Dyer's first band playing original material and the claim they were inspired by Ornette Coleman and the Dave Clark Five isn't to be sneezed at. There some free jazz playing and . . . umm, they have a drummer.

They were a kind of improv four-piece (Dyer plays squirreling sax and sings, there's a theremin player too) which drops in garage-ragged covers of Little Red Book, Purple Haze, Help! and Break on Through . . . and a sneering take on Sinatra's A Very Good Year.

Their orignals include Ornette, Kamikaze Teardrop and Drunk Munchkin Marching Band.

Macho Woman is a real angry scorcher, Purple Haze sounds like the Feelies on meth jamming with free jazz player who just happened to be passing, and the spirit of the mutant offspring of David Byrne, the Flamin' Groovies and the Sonics is endemic.  

Yep, all over the shop . . . but a lot of previously unreleased post-punk art rock enjoyment and about as obscure as you might want.

I've been loving this. But then I've heard it and you haven't.

Yet?

(For more on this album and other excellent stuff on the Green Monkey label like the eccentric and clever Jim of Seattle and Jeff Kelly's bands like Green Pajamas see here)