I’m Overdue, So I’ll Be Brief: Short Songs, Part 1

I promised myself that I'd keep Dalliance up to date when I started it, and I've honestly totally slacked off! Anyhow, I'm getting a new batch of stuff for you all to enjoy. To keep you from waiting much longer, I decided to give you a few things to whet your appetites.

The first is a track by the gay Dutch punk band from Nijmegen, Tedje en de Flikkers, who unfortunately have only a very minimal web presence on account of their relative obscurity. Their recorded output seems fairly sparse, with only a self-titled LP and one compilation track to their credit. Much of their material is fairly simple and keyboard-driven, yet arguably not-synthpunk, like the tortured and dissonant music of queer bands like the Screamers or Nervous Gender.

Secondly, I have a track from the Ann Arbor mid-90's band Galen, that at points along the way contained future-luminaries such as Aaron Dilloway (ex-Wolf Eyes reel-to-reel/axe menace and continual Hanson Records magnate) and Fred Thomas from twee-soulsters Saturday Looks Good To Me. They rocked the skronky, angular stuff while in high school that kids with stupid hair poorly emulated eight years later when "no wave" became popular again. How many bands like that had an oboe player? To my knowledge, just one – Galen.

Finally, I offer a hymn sung by the congregation of Laurel Regular Baptist Church, taken from the excellent Children of Heav'nly King compilation, put together by the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. This compilation features music sung by "Primitive" and "Regular" Baptist congregations as well as sermons and interviews with preachers. It's an incredible document of the religious traditions entrenched in southern Virginia and northern North Carolina.

• Tedje en de Flikkers: "Stukje Lul" – Tedje en de Flikkers (Spina Bifida, 1979)
• Galen: "Video Gizzard" – Galen (Hanson, 1995?)
• Laurel Glen Regular Baptist Church: "Doxology" – Children of the Heav'nly King: Religious Expression in the Central Blue Ridge (Library of Congress/Rounder, 1978-1979/1998)