Earwig & More

I've been on a bit of a musical nostalgia trip this last month, brought on by being given an old friend's record collection to sell (see the 'Records For Sale' page at the top of this blog). I spend a couple of formative years at the start of the 90s discovering a lot of music with this guy when I was a student. We used to spend time sitting around listening to records and drinking tea in his house all day. At the time we were really into a lot of the stuff going on in the Bay Area punk scene, and then I started to get more into 'hardcore' and we went in different directions. But inheriting this collection to sell for him has sent me back in time 30 years or so, and I've been really enjoying listening to stuff that I haven't spent much time with for a long time. I've put a lot of time and effort into selling these records, and we agreed that I would take some as my fee for all of the work. So my next batch of posts are going to be records that I have inherited from my friend's collection.

I thought I'd start with two Pegboy albums. My friends and I were all into Pegboy in the early 90s. I think a song of theirs cropped up on a skateboard video and then we managed to find their 'Strong Reaction' LP and it went from there. Anyway, the band's second LP 'Earwig' came out in 1994.

I originally bought this one when it came out, but ended up selling it not long after. This was because I was getting really into straight edge hardcore around that time, and Pegboy didn't fit with what I was into. But also because I hated the artwork on this record. The font especially looks truly terrible, and like it was drawn feehand by someone using Microsoft Paint.

Well all these years later and this record sounds great. The cover still looks terrible, but musically it sounds just like Pegboy, and I have been really enjoying this one throughout January. I'm glad to have it back in my collection 25 years after getting rid of it.

I also decided to keep the band's third and final album, 'Cha Cha Da More'. This one came out in 1997, at which point I had given up on this band due to the cover art of the previous one, and my new infatuation with Revelation Records. And whilst the cover art on this one also isn't great, it does at least look like a record cover.

Interestingly, the dude on the front cover is the father of the band's vocalist. And with me being picky, there is one thing here that kinda bugs me, which is that the bottom of back cover features an advert for their previous releases. It just seems weird to me that part of the back cover art for this record is 4 of their previous releases. I mean, by all means, add this in as an insert, but building it into the back cover... it just irritates me.

Again, I have been enjoying this record a lot the past month, and was feeling pretty happy about now having a complete set of Pegboy records. Well, until I checked discogs and found that they also released a split 7" in 1996 that I didn't know existed until today.