The Good Ship Rediscovery: The Nectarine No. 9 – The Nectarine No. 9

Scotland. The Velvet Underground. Early morning hangovers. Indiscretions. Super lo-fi fuzz. This, my friends, just about sums up what makes The Nectarine No. 9 so very enjoyable. The five songs on this seemingly unavailable, impossible to find little firecracker could have been released yesterday, though they were recorded approximately 20 years ago. These are raunchy, rough, aggressive, charged songs. And you need them in your lives.

I've looked and looked and can't find it anywhere. But I want to talk to y'all about this record all the same. It's quite special. The almost gentle strains of "Un-Loaded For You" open the collection, and the song emits a similar white light as did The Velvet Underground on a Sunday Morning comedown. "I made it home last night/I won a gold star boy/What an achievement," goes the song, in a playful way almost mocking itself. A plugged-in burst breaks in two-thirds of the way into the song, lending an unexpected jolt of vigor.

"Pop's Love Thing" muscles its way through speakers much in the way The Stooges did; loudly, matter-of-factly, and in your face. The filthy wail of the guitar compliments the metronome-esque beat of the drum and the Lou Reed impersonating Iggy Pop (or perhaps vice versa) vocals. There's nothing at all subtle about this song. The interestingly-intro'd "Going Off Someone" (Jock Scott's brogue + heroin talk + sarcasm) features strung-out girl group vocals and enthusiastically indifferent fuzzery. Ending, of course, with what sounds like someone relieving themselves. Naturally.

"Chocolate Swastika" picks up on the beat of "Going Off Someone" and gives it a bit of seedy 70s lounge feel, full of stale sweat and ashtrays full of cigarettes and mornings of regret. "After all it's just a wall/And what's a wall if it don't fall," the half-sung, half-spoken line goes. This song, too, seems to poke fun at itself, giving off an air of who the fuck cares. The end of this 5-track romp comes with the most excellent "Don't Worry Babe, You're Not The Only One Awake," featuring some seriously fantastic 90s college rock radio guitar riffery and a delightful drollness, as though the band was this side of bored as they recorded.

If you're a wiz at tracking down the tunes, I recommend you find this one for yourselves. That Nectarine No. 9 was something else, friends. Something else indeed.

m4a: Pop's Love Thing (The Nectarine No. 9 from The Nectarine No. 9 - go here to buy other stuff)