Phleg Camp - “Easy Star” from 1992’s Ya’red Fair Scratch.

For fans of Bastro, NoMeansNo, or Jesus Lizard: Phleg Camp’s sole album delivers all the trademarks of a Chicago Recording Company recording by Oh, Someone. This Bay Area(?) group’s sole full-length has fallen beneath the cracks over the time, which is too bad given how much they’ve changed each release.  Their earliest releases on Allied records, just a couple of years prior, sound nothing like this record.  They made the transition from funk-rock to a completely different type of funk-rock, essentially. “Easy Star“‘s finger-picking coda seals the deal.

Zazen Boys’ “Himitsu Girl’s Top Secret” (from 2005) is the calculus of “math rock”. Zazen Boys frontman Mukai Shutoko, used to front the equally loud but more resonant, texture Japanese indie rock group Number Girl, who could be seen as the Pixies of Japan. Shutoku’s new direction since certainly was more avant-funk for lack of a better term.  King Crimson? No Knife? Plastics?

Spare any integrals.  (Then again, the frontman did name his first band “Number Girl.”)

Garry Shandling, B-52’s, Cyndi Lauper at ‘89 Grammys giving away Best Hard Rock award.