Mystery Kiosk

I love hearing about new bands from other bands, and what influences and favourites people have. Just like Brogues apparently, who recently linked to this fascinating article about Stephen Pastel's faves at 5-year intervals.

A band that Horowitz has spoken very warmly of is Cambridge's punk pride The Users, who only released two singles. I recently found one of them in Repeat Records here in Malmö for 120 kr, which was a bit expensive I thought (the same store that I found the Girl of My Best Friend single in, for 40kr!). Their first, "Sick of You" is simply amazing and will on its own warrant a purchase of Secondary Modern, a 9-track cd that was released last year. The group also have a presence on Myspace.

Grass Widow have taken it upon themselves to champion all-female post-punk group Neo Boys, which is lucky because there is scarcely anything about them online. They were from Portland, Oregon and shared labels with the Wipers. Only two records were released, a self-titled 7" ep in 1981 and the Crumbling Myths 12" a year later. Neo Boys is one of the best bands I have heard all year and it is nothing but criminal that there is as of yet no cd retrospective of their music. If you can, you should track down the History of Portland Punk Vol. 1 comp, which is the only digital source of Neo Boys music.

There's plenty more to find about Texas post-punk group Mydolls, who were three women and one of their male cousins on drums (one of the guitarists is pictured above). I found them through Brilliant Colors' Myspace, and they have their own page here. Mydolls too, only release two singles and a mini-LP called Speak Softly & Carry a Big Stick on the CIA label. The latter is all I have heard, but it's truly wonderful. The group play together every now and then and also have a double-disc compilation A World of Her Own out since last year. The best song I have heard by them so far is the relentless "21st Century Compliments"

CLOUD 96 Mydolls - 21st Century Compliments