No. 20 Arcwelder - Captain Allen

The final single from the letter A and its also the final Arcwelder single, which was released in 1995 and subsequently turned up on Entropy, their fifth album. It's another solid tune and it's backed with a decent cover of Volcano Suns' White Elephant. I can't find a video for this tune, so here's a link to a (badly synced) clip from Touch & Go's 25th anniversary celebrations, which suggests that Arcwelder  are lovely people too and includes an excellent cameo from Shellac's Todd Trainer. Sadly despite owning most of their back catalogue, I've never seen Arcwelder live - I should have seen them at All Tomorrow's Parties back in 2002, but I managed to miss them, I think because of a clash - whoever it was I saw instead had better have been damned good.

Fact fans will be delighted to learn that Bob Weston IV (now of Shellac) who engineered and produced this was in Volcano Suns (but not when they wrote White Elephant).

Next up, the first submission for the letter B. The tension is almost unbearable...

No. 19 Arcwelder - Raleigh

March has become a most challenging month professionally in recent years, thus the lack of activity on the blogging front. However the ocean of marking is now behind me and normal service can hopefully be resumed. Anyhow, next up its another fine offering from Arcwelder, the stop-start alt. pop of Raleigh, the band's first single on Touch & Go, which would eventually feature on their third album Pull. Two b-sides feature (Walls and Rosa), which is always good value, even if they're a little forgettable (which they are).

Chicago's Touch & Go Records was consistently putting out great records at this time; the was the era  of Girls Against Boys, The Jesus Lizard, Slint, Man or Astroman and plenty more fine bands. This certainly won't be the last Touch & Go release to feature as I work through the alphabet.

Sadly, I've concluded that this song (probably) refers to Raleigh, the city in North Carolina, rather than the Elizabethan sailor, son of the West Country and populariser of tobacco, Sir Walter Raleigh. An opportunity missed I think.

No. 18 Arcwelder - I Am The Walrus/Sign Of The Times

The cover version; so often a feature of the seven inch single, often as a b-side offering. They can be great, as we shall no doubt see as this project unfolds. But they can also be terrible (there's certain to be some of those in the mix too). I have spent many hours, often in the company of my good friend and fellow anorak @pomfob, trying to shortlist favourite cover versions and I wonder if there aren't certain ingredients for a good cover; don't sound too much like the original, don't think playing it faster is in itself entertaining, (though it might be) etc. It's probably also a good idea to avoid taking on songs that are broadly agreed to be classics, and therefore pretty hard to improve upon.

On that note, the next single is Arcwelder's brave double cover of The Beatles' I Am The Walrus and Prince's Sign Of The Times (I believe its actually Sign O' The Times, which always makes me think it's sung by pirates). Sadly, neither tune seems to exist on the interweb, so you'll have to take my word that the version of Beatles' tune is better than the Oasis one and that the version of Sign O' The Times (arrrr) is vastly preferable to the Muse one (but then, so is sticking rusty needles in your soft, fleshy parts).

No. 17 Arcwelder - Favor

It hasn't been particularly apparent from the first sixteen selections, but I have an abiding fondness for US alternative rock. Basically, if it featured in Michael Azerrad's brilliant, essential Our Band Could Save Your Life, then I'll probably be willing to champion it. So don't be too surprised if there's a fair amount of tunes like this one in the posts that follow.

Arcwelder may need an introduction; they emerged from Minneapolis at the tail end of the 1980s (they were originally called Tilt-a-whirl until the company that makes the tilt-a-whirl sued them). They released a half-dozen albums between 1990 and 1999 (I have all but the hard-to-find first) and its fair to say they never achieved massive commercial success (though they never really sought it either).

Favor was their 'hit' - it attracted the attention on Stereolab's Duophonic label and they released it as a one-off single - both Favour and the equally fine b-side, Plastic are culled from the band's second album, Jacket Made In Canada. It also made it into the 1992 Festive 50, reaching number 32. It is a fine piece of post-Hüsker Dü noise-pop, clocking in at well under three minutes. Give it a listen, you won't be disappointed.