"The Whole World Should Stop When I Bleed"

I was feeling nostalgic in my old age, thinking fondly of the teenage years on Brown St. -- Hence, new section. It's easy to pluck out the Amps LP or Alien Lanes, Brainiac or vintage Swearing at Motorists for a fix, but I really wanted to dig deeper. I'm looking for the quirky buzz of Cage, dirt-weed grunge mantras from Scorched Earth Policy, Candyass, Haunting Souls, Omatic, Real Lulu - the list is relatively endless. I'm so far removed from my collection of Dayton vinyl (where is it?) that I can't even find my Mercury Pusher (the band I really wanted to hear at the moment). They played spastic garage rock long before it was fashionable (now a commodity) -- four maniacs capsizing any ship that would have them. I did find some splinters of the MP in my copy of the Fakey Vampires EP Administer the Loving Touch (Olive 2001).

The band was stripped to Dan Corcoran and Xtian Spencer on guitar and drums respectively. I remember this coming in the peak of underground love for the White Stripes and the somewhat humble beginnings of the Strokes (there was a time when they just had that brilliant 7"). There's that spirit lurking at the heart of the recordings, barreling along a gravel road that runs through the factory carcass and trash dumps of Dayton, OH (a miniature Detroit and on the pipeline of I-75). Not so much blue-collar hollerin', the duo are from my knowledge are quite educated/intelligent, aware of the history involved, but also inclined to just let fat, numbing, riffs do most of the talking. It certainly sounds of the time, piquing my interest for those elusive Mercury Pusher archives even more.



In my quest for Brown St. I've already come across some extremely informative blogs of Daytonian nostalgia. Try The Buddha Den or I Remember Dayton.