Well, okay, the update has been long overdue. It's hard to figure where to begin, not unlike when you stumble upon a close friend from a distant past, and you stand there slack jawed and staring at one another, unable to account for the years in between meetings. So why not ask "What have you been listening to lately"?

Ah, well, now that we've sussed out some of the awkwardness let's get to talking. The four song Moose ep "Baby, It's Over" is still available at a number of sites, and an additional 500 more may be pressed in the near future. As for the full-length "High Ball Me!" (coreleased with Le Grand Magistery) the official release keeps changing for reasons out of my control.

Marble Index, now sort of known as Chapter 13 (more on that in a moment), now have 7" available. It is a corelease with the good people at Drive In Records, and is very much in the vein of Factory Records synth pop. As for the name change, after the records and sleeves had been prepared, we received note that there is a band from Georgia called The Marble Index. Apparently they've been around for a number of years, and have formally released one song that appears on a Christmas compilation. Chapter 13, by the way, are from Brighton, England. A full-length cd called "The World From Heaven" is in the works...

A bit later on in the year, The Black Watch will have a new cd called Lime Green Girl. What makes this even more exciting is that in addition to nine new songs, there will be a couple of tracks from their four previous full lengths. A new album and a retrospective, all on the same disc! Good news indeed....

Finally, there are still 7"s available from Unbunny, and the band that inspired it all, Black Fantastic. By the way, both somewhat recently appeared together on a cd from the excellent Japanese magazine Beikoku-Ongaku (issue #13).

SEVEN INCH RECORDS

sw-001
BLACK FANTASTIC "Keep the Conversation Going b/w A Day's Wait"
Reminiscent of the Pale Fountains and early Orchids, this is the 7" that started it all. The debut and final release from the this short lived, collaboration of Matt from the Push Kings and Sterling from Madison Electric. Shimmering jangle, with a winsome touch.

sw-002
UNBUNNY (untitled, but has become known as the Viewmaster ep)
Fuzzed and distorted lo-fi pop reminiscent of the Mountain Goats and Robyn Hitchcock, this is the debut of the Seattle via Newmarket, NH singer Jared Del Deo known as Unbunny. The standout "Sci-Fi Nervous Breakdown" is as brilliant as the title suggests. One needn't have spent one too many Sunday nights alone at 9:00 to appreciate this one, but I suppose it might help.

7" sw-005/drive43
MARBLE INDEX (CHAPTER 13) "Love Talking to Boys b/w Plan K"
Debut 7", in which ex-Melody Maker journalist James Slattery and emerging DIY porn star Paul Rothwell flout all Beatles-fixated convention to bring you two slices of hard-won sidelong wisdom from the drear coke-dusted wastes of southern England. Tales of a youth misspent in the company of the latter day Sarah Records Mafia can tell only part of their story.
Their brief: To reinvestigate the lost horizons of a pre-86 pop music which wasn't afraid to indulge it's taste for the grand statement, the epic sweep... whatever happened to the art school poseurs who dropped out in monochrome dreams of glory and became art school pop stars? We are all so much the poorer for their disappearance.
The lush melancholy of a pre-ecstasy Factory Records, the steely synth precision of the conny plank-produced Ultravox, an in-depth knowledge of the finest mayfair perfumeries... These are the tools required to shape one of the first great pop moments of the 21st Century. The rest is just dust blown away. Nothing.
(Marble Index is will henceforth be known as Chapter 13)

COMPACT DISCS

cd-ep sw-003
MOOSE "Baby, It's Over"
The best place for Moose information is James Reeders perfectly lovely site. It has all the latest information, reviews, and discography. He is also responsible for the sleeve art of the latest releases, which are brilliant indeed.

cd sw-008
THE BLACK WATCH "Lime Green Girl"
Weather is often referenced in reviews of this windswept, atmospheric pop band from Los Angeles, and chiming guitars and the occassional touches of strings most likely have much to do with that. Their fifth cd not only finds them mining such meteorological territory again, but also collects a number of those past moments. Serving as both a new album and a retrospective, Lime Green Girl is a nine song album with seven bonus tracks culled from their previous releases, most of which are long out of print. Comparisons have have been made to the Go-Betweens, Yo La Tengo, My Bloody Valentine, and the Jazz Butcher among others. Pleasant company indeed. The release date is forecast (yes, one more weather reference) for early fall of 2000.

Each are $3.50, but for now I'll send you both for $6. Postage included. (Canadian $4.50 and $8, postage included), with checks made out to Michael Sullivan. Orders from further away should send me a letter or email first (The US dollar is supposed to be devalued soon, I hear).

All Saltwater releases are carried by:
Twee Kitten
Clairecords
Parasol
Little Prints