A Day In The Park: A Now Sounds Compilation (1995) [The Now Sound, NS 001]

A Day In The Park: A Now Sounds Compilation (1995) [The Now Sound, NS 001, LP/CD]

Tracklist:

1. The Dambuilders - Montana
2. Archers Of Loaf - Power Walker
3. Versus - Crazy
4. Spatula - Dinghy
5. Unwound - Eternalux
6. Grifters - Spaceship
7. Butterglory - Drop The Baton
8. Crayon - I Could
9. Nothing Painted Blue - Missed The Point
10. Small 23* - Eb
11. DiskothiQ - (There Ain't No Joy In) Irvine
12. Blaise Pascal - Library
13. Spent - View From A Staircase
14. Portastatic - Look, Honey, Peaches
15. Further - Over & Out 3
16. Refrigerator - The Last One

From the booklet, the notes on the relevant tracks (Refrigerator, Nothing Painted Blue, and DiskothiQ):

NOTHING PAINTED BLUE "Missed The Point"...2:11
Recorded October 1991, somewhere in L.A. and Produced by Eric Westphal and Robert Codicka.

DISKOTHI-Q "(There is No Joy in) Irvine"...1:58
Recorded in May, 1993 at Fartblossom studios, San Dimas, CA by Bob Durkee

REFRIGERATOR "The Last One"...4:45
Recorded August, 1991 live at KSPC, Claremont, CA and Engineered by Rael Lewis and Nathan Wilson

Quick notes on the above: I transcribe faithfully, and the "Robert Codicka" typo is a little funny; "Westphal" interesting. You'll see the correct names in a second.

This is a great way to hear "Missed The Point" by Nothing Painted Blue, if you don't already have the 1997 Nothing Painted Blue compilation Emotional Discipline. Some retrospective liner notes in that album's booklet are longer-form, but for this one, Franklin simply offers: "Written long before the band came together. Snotty. There's a rockabilly version out there somewhere." I like "Missed the Point" myself. It's a great Nothing Painted Blue song, because you get this catchy rock song, and after the first chorus Franklin comes back in with "when she told me we were / inexorably linked"... anyhow, there's no personnel listing on this comp. BUT! The Emotional Discipline liner notes attribute several songs to a recording session in October 1991 in Van Nuys with Eric Westfall and Robert Vodicka, including this recording, so we can confirm that Joey Burns was the bassist on deck.

Refrigerator's on this one, too, with a nearly five-minute song! A moody one, too. Again, this comp doesn't offer any personnel notes. Allen sings. If it was a recording from 1991, it's probably Joel Connell on drums? If it's secretly Chris Jones, mea culpa. Always nice to see Nathan Wilson of Shoeface credited here as one of the recording engineers.

The DiskothiQ song here is great. All-time stuff. I'll even put the lyrics here, as best I transcribed them. (italics are where frequent emailer Peter Chard helped out)

i got scabs and paper cuts on each and every digit
i'd love to swivel in my chair but i can barely fidget
fluorescent lights sucked the energy right out

there is no joy in irvine!
there is no joy in irvine!
there is no joy in irvine!
that's what this song's about!

i told myself i wanted to know the exact dimensions of hell
if i had the chance now i'm convinced i know them pretty well
8 feet high and long and wide of brown

there is no joy in irvine!
there is no joy in irvine!
there is no joy in irvine!
that's why i'm getting out!

i'd like to think it's obsolete this self imposed exile
this code by which i've lived and met in absolute denial
but reading through some diary it suddenly occurred to me
the extension to which my misery might be
a not quite so unwilling, anxiety-instilling, yeah
really self fulfilling prophecy

i pass the time in a closet lined with post it notes and pens
MBAs don't talk to me so much as condescend
someday i'll blow their fuckin' brains right out

there is no joy in irvine!
there is no joy in irvine!
there is no joy in irvine!
so get the fuck right out!

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