Happy Flowers

What initially would have been just that, a collection of Happy Flowers' four 7" singles on Homestead, became something more when, as the band said in the entertaining liner notes, "we were told that there wouldn't be a whole lot of music on if we didn't pad it out." The end result is a completely all-over-the-place (and all the more entertaining for it) overview of the bandmembers' earlier musical experiences, making it as good a place as any for newcomers to the duo's unique approach. Kicking off with the brilliantly rocking "They Cleaned My Cut out With a Wire Brush," the actual singles themselves are various explorations in Happy Flowers' aesthetic of "Five-year-old's shrill complaints meet devious genre takes and satires." Typical song titles: "I Ate Something out of the Medicine Cabinet," "Mom and Dad Like the Baby More Than Me," "Charlie Got a Haircut," and "These Peas Are So Green." Special kudos to the classic hard rock badassness of "Call Me Pudge," which has to be heard to be believed. A slew of rarities and unreleased cuts follow, including an intentional moronic set of live covers. Echo and the Bunnymen's "Bring on the Dancing Horses" only has the title in common with the one-minute keyboard/drum machine/noise weirdness, while the Beatles' "Penny Lane" and Nazareth's "Love Hurts" are left for dead. The final 12 songs explore the roots of Happy Flowers, and if nothing else, are as bizarrely unique as the band's own work -- there's a slew of stuff that still works in a weird, goof-off way. Highlights include: Lowest Common Denominator's distorted, spoken word, goofball creep-fest "Fish (I Like)" and its almost as odd follow-up, "Joe Hates Work," Psychodelic Trashcan's twee garage ditty "Home in the Jungle," and the various bizarro ditties by Bigfoot -- allegedly a "mysterious Swedish duo," but this is doubtful. ~ Ned Raggett, All Music Guide