The Wedding Present-Bizarro (1990)

 

Artist: The Wedding Present

Title: Bizarro 

Brassneck/Crushed/No/Thanks/Kennedy/What Have I Said Now/Granadaland/Bewitched/Take Me!/Brassneck/Box Elder/Dont Talk, Just Kiss/Gone/Be Honest

Label: RCA

Format:  CD

Cat  2173-2-R

Year of Release: 1990

Country and Year of Edition Issue: US 1990

Listed Condition: VG+/VG drill cut in left corner of tray card

Sell Date: 4/29//22

Sell Price: $3.49

Discogs Last Sold: 11/2/21 NM/NM $3.00

Low: $0.99

Median: $3.00

Average: $2.75

High: $5.00

Current low price:$2.00 VG/VG

Current Number on Sale at Discogs:21

Have/Want: 292/38

Where Sold: Minneapolis, MN

Time it took to sell: 9 years

Where and When Bought: Nuggets in Boston used $10

Gwiz-gau Letter Grade: A-

Sad To See It Go: No

Quite solid album from the Weddos, the bonus EP I remember as a promo added tracks recorded by Albini including the Pavement cover "Box Elder Mo."  A John Peel wet dream!  Why I've blown off the write up?  Probably because I have the fancy pants expanded edition on my hard drive and I have to delete the rips of this one.  Short on time, I listened to disc one of the remaster, then pieced together this version track by track.  The US and UK edition were different, not to mention the vinyl and cd edition in the US.  So damn complicated!

Albini brought some ruff n tuff to the the jangle that got Gedge lumped in with Morrissey in the import bins  across 80's America.  The noise rock hijack was a revelation, along the lines of El Dorado by Neil Young.  A sonic shift, and a nod to the American Underground that was building the better part of the decade.  The aesthetic was loud guitars and live bands, not foppery,  A place of sonic exploration for a dilettante.  Or was he?

The songs whiz by, and I forget how little I remembered any of them save "Brassneck" and the "Box Elder" Pavement cover which perhaps was responsible for Pavement's rep pre-Slanted and Enfuckted.  But "Brassneck?," Oh what a song and so nice they included it on the US edition twice.  With and without the pig fuckery of Steve Albini.  The vinyl edition avoided this detour.

But what of the main producer of Bizarro more known for Depeche Mode, Steve Lyon?  It ain't foppery, it's a dominant guitar album.  In fact, at the end of the day, his tracks are just as good.  They blaze by in their anonymity.  These songs have been anonymous to me for several decades despite my kneejerk love of this particular album.  With Sea Monsters, this was not the case and I think it is better with Albini full on board.  A similar Weddos album for me is Watusi, whose "So Long Baby" blows the rest out of the water.    You certainly can find greatness, like "Grenadaland," if you dig, but it is an effort as the discography churns on.  Always A-/B+, never shitty, often straight up excellent, but you gotta wait for songs to jump out.  For me that was the quiet/loud part of "Bewitched" which is still in Lyon land.  That one was always my second favorite track of the main album.

This established 80’s band evolved throughout the 90's with a distinct sound and aesthetic.

“Brassneck" rose above.