Wreckless Eric _Le Beat Group Electrique_ / library CD sales

I love trawling the CD sections at library book sales. They're cheap, buying things supports the library, and sometimes they have great albums that were withdrawn after not getting checked out enough. Among them: Wreckless Eric's _Le Beat Group Electrique_, thanks to whoever purchased it for the Ledding Library. Great stuff, recorded quietly in a living room with a cardboard box for drums. Warm, low-stakes, charming:

 

Also useful: buying trashy 80s CDs that I want to listen to but that I know will follow me forever on the algo. So instead of having YouTroobpf keep asking me, hey, do you want to listen to Bleears for Flears's _Songs for the Big Blare_ again? Remember that time in August 2025 when you listened to it twice? Instead, I can put my laser vinyl into my laser vinyl machine and experience the shiniest version of that shiny 1985 sound without being hounded about it. It is weird to hear it at the correct speed - I was genuinely expecting the first song to be a full half-step lower, thanks to my crummy mid-80s tape deck and its unreliable dubs - but still kind of a pleasure, especially "Heed over Hells," whose bass line I had not paid sufficient attention to the first time around.

7" records in the 90s

Frequent readers of this blog (i.e. no one) will know that I'm kind of bleah on vinyl in general, particularly as a 2021 proposition. But it had its place in certain times, scenes, etc. One particular vinyl scene that I miss: The 7" record from the 90s.

• Somewhere between 4-8 songs. 33 rpm.
• Cheaply recorded and made - cover a photocopy/silkscreen/collage, label blank or one color at max
• Only thing ever done by band (aside from maybe a tape or an appearance on a compilation)
• Artifact sold at shows and in the occasional dollar bin.
• Sneaky good
• Preferably not listed on Discqogs or referenced anywhere on the Internet.
  

Oh, I love these! Maybe I should start a little series for these. Give them some airtime 25 years later.

Today I am looking at what appears to be the only thing ever done by Rosenthal (only appearance on Discqogs an appearance on some Yo-Yo compilation). Five songs, super haphazard 4-track recording quality, certain 90s cliches in effect (disaffected singing, lack of bass instrument) but a bit outside of time as well. 

Three dudes, first names only please, living room sound, address listed at a house next to the Triple Nickel on Belmont in Portland, 14 blocks away from where I would end up living a few years later, probably a $700K house at this point (!). I must have had some moment where they were at the same gross early-00s basement house party I was. Record label listed as being in Irvine, so I must have met someone when I was down there and somehow the record ended up in my possession? Who knows?!?!

Totally unassuming but also pretty good. The sort of thing that hides behind your speakers, but it doesn't look bad there. Pleasant if not catchy. Obscurity forever. I will take that as a virtue.