Music Box 14/08/2021

We start this Saturday with Sacramento California alternative rock band Cake, who formed in 1991,and their brilliant single Short Skirt, Long Jacket (Columbia CD/casse 20010, also found on their fourth album Comfort Food  (Columbia 2001). The video is a lovely tribute to one of my own heroines, Mrs Emma Peel in the British 60s show The Avengers. Wonderful.

Steve Elgin hailed from Bath in Somerset but moved to London in the early seventies which is where he first graced the public with live performances. This was his only release, Seductress, the B-side to the single Don't Leave Your Lover Lying Around (Dear) (Dawn 7" 1974). Lovely.

Next up, some fuzz garage rock from the 60s. I know nothing about The Story Tellers, except that this was their only single too, Cry With Me (Tristero Records 7" 1967). Fab 'n' groovy.

Now for something modern. Waxahatchee (website https://www.waxahatchee.com/) is an American indie music project, formed in 2010 by American singer-songwriter Katie Crutchfield, previously a member of P.S. Eliot. The band is named after Waxahatchee Creek, in Alabama, where Crutchfield grew up. Originally an acoustic solo project, her recordings now tend to involve a backing band, and the music has increasingly been performed this way. This is the gloriously short Slow You Down, from her 6-track maxi-E.P. Great Thunder (Merge 2018). Buy here.

We conclude with a brace from New Zealand artist Tiny Ruins, who released one of the Best Albums of 2019 with Olympic Girls (NZ: Ursa Minor UK: Milk! Records 2019). From it we have the delicate Sparklers and the official video for the superb narrative of Olympic Girls. Hollie Fullbrook, who started Tiny Ruins as a solo project (now a trio), is one of the most interesting new talents, from a burgeoning modern New Zealand scene full of many interesting musical discoveries. Buy here. Until next week ...