locket

so when people start to list off some the more influential records in regards to what they now listen to, you'll often get stories about some Bob Dylan or something else equally good, but glaringly obvious. my answers aren't far flung from that mode, but i do have a few oddballs of the bunch. the one i'm picking a track off of for today is Vol. 1 of the Little Darla Has A Treat for You series. released in the summer of '95, the compilation was sitting in the college radio music office i hoped to one day take over. i was doing a fairly generic indierock show during the day and then subbing the punk show at night. i began volunteering by reviewing cds i was directed to a box of soon to be discarded cds and offered to take whatever interested me. well such was how i ended up with the aformentioned compilation. it wasn't much different from the endless ada compilations we would get...a distributor putting together a compilation in a slipcase to hawk artists from various labels that they supplied. Darla, of course, was also a label with it's own artists, but connected to many small bedroom labels. the cd was the first time i heard artists like Bunnygrunt, Cub, Heartworms, Bug Skull and Vehicle Flips. a year later i would be dj'ing an indiepop show.

my favorite song on the compilation was one called "Locket" by the band 30 AMP Fuse. probably a good transition from what i was playing to the pure pop that i would be listening to so much thereafter. the group were a trio from knoxsville, tn that released three albums chock full of power pop (and one of the albums was recorded by steve and bill of the Decendents, not too far from where i was going to school at the time). 30 AMP Fuse would go on to be half the foundation of the more familar band Superdrag. this song is just killer mix tape material with it's declaration that "what you decide i will follow by it, whether i like or not."

30 AMP Fuse "Locket"