V/A - Squirrel

Label: Level

Year: 1995

I think Level records meant to do a whole series based on rodents of North America, but they only got so far as this, the Squirrel, and the previous compilation Hamster. Both feature D.C. and D.C. adjacent bands, spanning the gamut of...a pretty narrow gamut. Although, on this release, the difference between where Tuscadero were coming from and where Bloodnation were coming from is pretty stark. So, I guess they did cover some ground.

Bands:

Tuscadero - twee pop that does it for some and not others. The whole Teen Beat roster was kinda a bust for me, but...you know, I'm super masculine, basically a fucking beefcake, so... When the song kicks in, it's actually fun, but it drags along for most of its duration.

Chisel - super weird that Ted Leo went from Citizen's Arrest to this, but, here we are. More "twee" that has a sorta mod take on Beat Happening or Vaselines. Not my cup of tea, but, again, blame it on the two gigantic, bulbous, hairy balls that dictate my wants and desires. It's evolution, baby.

Frodus - ok, now we're getting somewhere. Early era Frodus bringing the twitchy, DC heat that you want. 

Bloodnation- let's be clear, the only reason I bought this record was on the promise of this band. Bloodnation was a one-off collaboration between the members Bloodlet and Damnation AD, and this was the only song they released. Two vocalists (Mike DC and Scott from Bloodlet), one guitarist from Damnation (Ken Olden) and one from Bloodlet (Matt Easley), one bassist from Damnation (Alex Merchlindsky) and one from Bloodlet (Art Legere), and the drummer of Bloodlet (Charles King). If I was a betting man, I'd bet Ken Olden wrote the majority of this song, and then had the Bloodlet dudes come in and add some of their descending chord progressions over it to "swamp it up" a bit. Don't know if that's true, but since I just took the time to write it, then I suppose it's as true as you want it to be.

DL