Not too long ago I saw someone whose taste in music I really respect talkin’ smack on an internet website about some tunes I’d previously waxed ecstatic about on this very blog and I was kinda taken aback at how strongly they felt. Knowin’ what I know about this person, I woulda figured this stuff would be right up their alley too, but…what do I know? It got me thinkin’… Is there anything worse than someone saying, “You GOTTA check this record out..I know YOU will LOVE it!” and then hearing said record and thinking, “Wow. You thought I’d like this shit?”? Since I started writing here I’ve highlighted a lot of stuff that I personally love but isn’t exactly considered “classic” or “a hidden gem” or even “good” to some folks. Regardless, if one random disc I pull out and waste an hour rambling about on here ends up on someone’s turntable and makes them happy, I still don’t really care. But that would be pretty cool. As they say: One man’s _____ is another man’s _____. I’ve spent a lot of time over the years in the dollar bins looking for cheap thrills and I still don’t think I’ve ever “settled” for some tunes just because they were easy on my wallet. As I’ve said before: just because a record’s expensive doesn’t mean its good…and just because a record’s cheap doesn’t etc etc etc.
All that being said, I definitely have a soft spot for sounds on the lower end of fidelity…the “lo-fi” if you will. Your band might sound like a carbon copy 5th generation Ramones rip-off but if you record your music using a cheap pair of headphones plugged into a Peavy amp as a microphone, you’ve already got a head start in my book. Bagpipe Operation’s “Little Twitch” 7″ from 1992 is a great example of a band whose indie pop sensibility is significantly enhanced by their appreciation for the warm sounds of a lo-fi recording pressed onto a cheap United Record Pressing Nashville vinyl 7″ (I’m just guessing. I held it up to the light and I can’t see through it.) Bagpipe Operation was a Sacramento band who only ever released 2 7″s and 2 cassette comp tracks over their lifespan. For an indie “pop” band, their songs aren’t exactly conventional but they’re also a little more composed start to finish than, say, some of GBV’s one minute ditties that were coming out around the same time as BO. Having lived in Boston from 1997 til 2002 or so I’m still mystified at how much I had missed in the years right before I had moved there, specifically some of the Fat Day House/100% Breakfast bands as well as the early years of Harriet Records, who released the second and final Bagpipe Operation 7″. Maybe (most likely) I was runnin’ in the wrong circles, but I didn’t even catch a whiff of the Harriet Records scene while I lived there, unless you count the Magnetic Fields’ rise to fame and bands like Tullycraft and My Favorite making waves in hipper locales far away. Bagpipe Operation is exactly the sort of band I found myself really lucky to have happened upon at a random basement show or maybe opening for someone “bigger” at a smaller venue but alas, I didn’t even know they existed until many years later when this record was recommended to me by a guy in Germany of all places. Even now, on Discogs there is exactly zero copies of this record for sale and it’s on only 18 users’ want lists. Normally this would appear here on MTS as a “Dollar Bin Dandy,” but its apparent scarcity makes me wonder if it’d even appear there? Anyway..if you’re a fan of Shrimper, Walt Records, early K/Yo-Yo Studio punk/pop, 18 Wheeler, the Communion label, hell even some of the non-Flying Nun New Zealand weirdo pop that’s been popping back up over the years, Bagpipe Operation is top notch ’90’s 4-track DIY pop at its finest, buddy.
Lucky us, as of a month ago, the Bagpipes have started a Bandcamp page where they’ve upped both 7″s, the comp tracks and a slew of other old recordings. They’re all up for your listening pleasure here: https://bagpipeoperation.bandcamp.com/. Have a listen, throw ’em a few bucks for their efforts, and think about how cool you would have looked wearing a skin tight ringer tee with their logo on the front, standing in the corner of a show in 1994, wondering wear Lou Barlow buys his glasses.
