Thursday, November 04, 2010

Flop- And The Fall Of The Mopsqueezer!


Continuing with my mini-Seattle series (except for Candy Hearts), we have the debut album from the early-90's band, Flop. I first heard about Flop in an issue of Rolling Stone with an article about "bands to watch" and it praised, Flop & The Fall Of The Mopsqueezer. This was around when grunge broke and the Seattle music scene became the focus of music critics and fans alike. Flop wasn't grunge, but instead relied on great pop hooks, good humor and energetic playing. Every track on Mopsqueezer is solid with many highlights such as the opening track, I Told A Lie, Hello, Ugly Girl Lover and a Kink's cover, Big Sky. Actually every song is pure joy and it continues to be a much played record in my house. Mopsqueezer is one of the few recordings I have on all the formats; vinyl LP, CD, cassette and mp3's...and though it was released 18 years ago, it doesn't sound dated. The album was produced by Fastbacks/Young Fresh Fellow, Kurt Bloch who always leaves his fingerprints on the sound and he doesn't disappoint. At this time I was in a musical phase where I bought every album that Kurt Bloch had a part in, be it production or the bands he played in. My theory was that any project he was involved in was worth buying and I was never disappointed.

Flop only released 3 albums, but they are all worth seeking out. Rusty Willoughby's earlier (and after Flop) band, Pure Joy , also released a bunch of excellent, yet under appreciated albums and I continue to be a fan Rusty's solo efforts. His latest solo record, Cobirds Unite is a collaborative effort with Rachel Flotard (from Visqueen, another great Seattle area band). Seek it out!

FLOP
Flop & The Fall Of The Mopsqueezer! (1992)

1. I Told A Lie
2. Anne
3. Glue Factory
4. Tomato Paste
5. Entropy
6. Big Sky
7. Hello
8. Ugly Girl Lover
9. You Would Be Right Excerpt
10. Zeus My Master
11. Asthenia
12. Sistersmile
13. Parasite
14. Morton The Venereologist
15. Circus Freak
16. B

FLOP- Flop & The Fall Of The Mopsqueezer. rar

4 comments:

Bob Higginson said...

I completly agree with you comments... sounds like it was mixed and mastered yesterday....

Its always in heavy rotation in my house.

GREAT recording..

johnnybgoode said...

I always thought that song #2, Anne, was one of the best songs ever

Anonymous said...

I remember hearing one of their songs (I think from their 2nd album) on a Sub Pop compilation and thinking, this sounds influenced by early Squeeze, only BETTER than any early Squeeze track I can think of...so yeah, that good. Really looking forward to this, thanks!

Ken said...

First timer here. I have all their recordings as well.

I lived in Portland back then and caught them a couple of times.

Two of the best shows I've ever seen.

To this day I can't figure out why they weren't HUGE!!!

Tragic.

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