The Coolies “Dig..?”

sfilzen — Wed, 27 Mar 2024 17:32:58 +0000

The Coolies “dig..?” 1986. DB Records. This LP has been languishing in the should-it-stay-or-go box forever because I find the name of the band and the cover’s artwork super-offensive. Then I realized I could just blog about it, not cross-post it to my social media feeds and then finally get rid of it. Ah…the blinded 80’s where bands would call themselves a super-derogatory term for someone who works hard for little pay (and usually referring to a race or ethnic group on top of it). The Coolies were an alt-rock band from Georgia; dig..? is their debut album – they only released one more in ’88. dig..? is an alternative take on mostly Simon and Garfunkel songs, done with a heavy dose of Gen-X attitude of snark and sarcasm and reminiscent of the musical stylings of such other 80’s alternative groups like Dead Milkmen. They also cover Paul Anka’s “Having My Baby.” I don’t have any top picks, but a few tracks are almost palatable. The surfy “Mrs. Robinson” is kinda fun and listenable. The grungy rendition of “El Condor Pasa” is OK-ish, if nothing else for the early adoption of the grunge style, infused into a traditional Peruvian folk song. Their unfortunate country-twanged cover of “Cecelia” is painful, it’s one of my favorite S&G songs and I never need to hear The Coolies’ version again. And the rest is just not even worth more typing about.

I almost don’t want to offer this one for sale, so as not to inflect it on anyone else but just in case (you’ve been warned):

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The Swimming Pool Q’s “Firing Squad for God”

sfilzen — Fri, 06 Feb 2015 19:42:00 +0000

The Swimming Pool Q’s “Firing Squad for God” 1987. EP. DB Records. Today’s pull a totally random pick. I’m guessing this was purchased at a used record store in the late 80’s, but for some reason but I’m not familiar with the band and don’t recall ever listening to it much, if at all. So it feels like a fresh new listen!

The Q’s, according to some quick online research, are from Atlanta, GA and formed in 1978. They are classified as a new wave band but I’m not sure that label fits as I listen to this record (I cannot speak about their other releases). Perhaps “new wave” was thrown around as freely as “indie” is today; it simply provides labels and record stores a way to classify music that might otherwise be non-classifiable or belongs in its own teeny tiny subcategory. Another reference given to their music is “folk pop gone country,” but I don’t think this is necessarily accurate either, though they do employ blowharp and “pipes of pie pan on nut plate” on this recording, so I guess maybe that’s folk-pop-country? I was unable to find any links to songs from this EP but here is some awesome footage from their performance of “Big Fat Tractor” on Dance-o-Rama, a new wave TV dance party on Atlanta public access.

Vocally it feels rather Peter Murphy-esque, but without as much doom and gloom (it’s hard to feel gloomy when a blowharp is in the mix). The track “Reprisidente” on side 2 is just plain manic with gobs of guitar and vocal distortion. According to the band’s website, this EP is a satire of televangelism which in 1987 had reached its zenith and then saw its rapid decline with the Jim and Tammy Fae Bakker sex and fraud scandal.

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The Coolies “Dig..?”

The Swimming Pool Q’s “Firing Squad for God”