Lions & Ghosts >> Like a thief outside your window

I can't believe it's still California Month, tremor #42:

Lions & Ghosts - "Wild Garden"

(EMI Records, 1989)

This is another rare major-label song that I'll be posting once in a blue moon, and hence I made it non-downloadable.  I bought this CD, also titled Wild Garden, at a pawn shoppe in LaPlace in April 2007 for 25 cents.  I had never heard of them, but was intrigued by the band name and song titles, and even by the cool blue and black color scheme.  The album has been out of print for around two decades, so I'm just trying to spread the word about this great song.

Mind-bogglingly, this song was not even released as a single.  It could've been the biggest song of the year, if not of the decade.  ("Five & Dime" could've been a big hit as well, but was of course not released as a single either.)  "Wild Garden" destroys the Replacements at their own game (ragged, heart-on-sleeve rock with lyrics about heartbreak) without breaking a sweat, and the band was much more photogenic than the 'Mats.  Lions & Ghosts opened for lots of cool bands on the Sunset Strip in their heyday, and they were apparently quite big in Japan, where their breezy, Byrds-ish single "Mary Goes Round" was a hit:

The band broke up after this album.  Singer Rick Parker put out a passable solo album on Geffen in 1992, which I have.  After that he fronted a short-lived band called Sparkler, which put out one album, but I have not heard it.  I'm guessing the name Sparkler was a pun on Parker's last name?  If anyone knows anything interesting about L&G, please share, because I just cannot fathom why they didn't become huge.  Their previous album had another potential hit, the very Social Distortion / Church-esque "Love & Kisses From The Gutter".

Lions & Ghosts ca. late '80s; singer Rick Parker on right.  (Photographer unknown.)

I saw Memoryhouse at the Hi-Ho Lounge on Wednesday, in a crowd of about 10-15 people.  The band still put on a great show despite the humiliatingly low turnout, and I'll talk about it some more when I get around to posting a song by them.  The reason for the low turnout was that there is a new rule in that part of town (the Marigny / upper 9th Ward) prohibiting concert flyers on telephone poles or any type of public property.  I went over to Frenchmen Street to see if anything was going on; saw Gravity A at the Blue Nile for about 15 minutes (they covered some Meters song), and then Deja Vu Brass band at the Balcony Music Club for about 15 minutes.  Had no luck finding a Memoryhouse gig flyer anywhere.  The next morning I bought about 30 CDs for 50 cents each at the Bridge House thrift store, and a DVD player / VCR combo unit for $15.  They had a whole stack of them that a hotel had donated.  Despite all those newly-bought CDs, I kept playing Memoryhouse's The Hours CD EP, which I had bought at the show, over and over in my car, unable to force myself to take out out of the CD player for fear of breaking the spell it had over me.
Yesterday I went to a coffee shop called the Hey! Café for the first time, to see a show headlined by a band called City Of Ships.  I caught two good local bands (Brothers, Opposable Thumbs) opening, and got a grilled cheese sandwich.  I passed some time by reading a pamphlet/book by an anonymous author titled Abolish Restaurants.  (I was stunned to learn that restaurants only came into popularity in the mid 1800s, since individual food artisan guilds controlled food production before that.)  The show ran way late, so I had to leave to meet my sister and her friends so we could go to the Boris / Asobi Seksu / True Widow show at One Eyed Jacks.  We missed True Widow, which was the main reason I had come to this show, so I was really ticked.  The only "good" thing is that the girl from T.W. told me at the merch table that they only played for 30 minutes and did not play "A.K.A.", my favorite song of theirs.  So I didn't miss much, I guess.  A.S. and Boris were good, so it was worth it overall.  And two cute girls, including one from the Mushroom that I kinda have a crush on, came up and talked to me, which doesn't happen to me all that often at shows.  Wearing a baby blue sweatshirt to a show like this makes one stand out in a crowd, for better or for worse.  I didn't buy any merch.
Today I swung by Skully'z Recordz and nabbed an Asobi Seksu poster from their window and gave them a Skinny Puppy cassette (VIVI SECT VI) as thanks.  Then I went to the New Orleans Book Fair on Frenchmen St. and got 3 books and 3 CDs, plus an amazing sticker that says "READ MOTHERFUCKING BOOKS! ALL DAMN DAY."

All the anarchist / feminist / radical / Marxist literature at this fair can be off-putting, but there was some good stuff to be found.  I went to it about 5 years ago, but didn't buy anything then.  I walked over to one of the coolest stores in town, American Aquatic Gardens, and bought a cactus which I believe to be a Mammillaria geminispina, a species that I had been lusting after for a while.  Then I stopped in at Euclid Records, which of course turned into a stay of several hours.  I got Lee Ranaldo's classic From Here → Infinity on LP, which is something I never thought I'd find.  (Already had it on CD and cassette, but the LP has a lock groove at the end of each track, plus an amazing etching of a dragon on one side, and embossed writing on the cover.)  Also got a bunch of other cool or random stuff (Antipop Consortium, The Church, Maxwell, Michele Rosewoman).  The owner played Yo La Tengo & Jad Fair's Strange But True and The Replacements' Pleased To Meet Me in their entirety.  ("The Ledge" on the latter is one of the greatest songs ever.)  I don't think he ever put up the Live Skull poster I gave him in March at a Des Ark / Pygmy Lush in-store.  I wrestled in my mind all day with the idea of driving to Baton Rouge to see True Widow headline a show of their own, but decided to stay in N.O.  Man.  Missing them twice on consecutive days is gonna haunt me for a long-ass time.
Watching the #1 LSU vs. #2 Alabama game ("Of The Century") right now, which is in overtime, while clad in my purple and gold BEAT BAMA shirt.  LSU is about to kick a potential game-winning field goal...

Planets with similar climates: Screaming Trees - "Shadow Of The Season" (1992), Kitchens Of Distinction - "What Happens Now?" (1992), Social Distortion - "So Far Away" (1990), The Replacements - "Alex Chilton" (1987), Hüsker Dü - "Games" (1985), The Church - "Metropolis" (1990).