Various Artists - A Harem Of Hits

Artist: Various
Title: A Harem Of Hits
Label: Sultan Records 
Year: 1999
Tracks: The Daylight Lovers 1.) I Got News, 2.) Thunderbabe, 3.) Cookin' In The Kitchen ; Scat Rag Boosters 4.) Shoot For The Stars, 5.) Worried Mind, 6.) Something For You, 7.) Right In Your Hand; The Spaceshits 8.) 60 Nights Of Boredom, 9.) Everytime We Get Married, 10.) Girl Stop Givin' Me Grief; The Deadly Snakes 11.) Born To Burn, 12.) Sue; The Irritations 13.) Motorcycle Gang, 14.) Girl Skin Coat, 15.) What I Want; Scat Rag Boosters 16.) Take Me; The Deadly Snakes 17.) Cotton; The Daylight Lovers 18.) Theme From "Daylight Lovin'"; The Deadly Snakes 19.) Saturday Night; The Irritations 20.) Cavewoman; The Spaceshits 21.) Thinkin' About You; The Irritations 22.) 50$ Day

This is a digital catchall from BBQ/Mark Sultan's label of a few 7"s he actually released and a few more that never came out. As far as I can tell the only two that were ever officially issued were the Irritations and Spaceshits. Everything else was apparently never released. Unfortunately this CD isn't as complete as it could be. The Spaceshits' vinyl version of "60 Nights of Boredom" has four songs, one of which, "Teenage Crime Wave", is not included on here. The Irritations 7" has a song not on here, too, "Indian Giver". Oh, yeah, The Spaceshits' "Thinkin' About You" is originally by The Checkmates International from 1966. 

Sample: here

The Retardos - Come On Back

Artist: The Retardos
Title: Come On Back
Year: 1997
Label: Super*Teem!
Tracks: 1.) Come On Back, 2.) Shame

Their second and final release, with two more covers. "Come On Back" is originally by The Wild Ones from 1966. "Shame" is originally by the girl group Barbara And Brenda from 1963. 

Sample: here

The Retardos - Don't Want The Retardos

Artist: The Retardos
Title: Don't Want The Retardos
Year: 1997
Label: Super*Teem!
Tracks: 1.) I Can Only Dream, 2.) Girl Like You, 3.) Quit This Town

If The Mummies introduced a new generation of musicians to 50s and 60s rock and Teengenerate introduced kids to obscure 70s punk, I like to think The Retardos played at least a small role in introducing future tastemakers to power pop. The Retardos were a short-lived Bay Area group most notably featuring Brian Hermasillo before he started The Fevers and semi-notably featuring Kathy Walker, of Donny Denim and The Pinkz fame. 

Like the aforementioned bandaged ones and Fink and Fifi, The Retardos took an overlooked niche of rock music and gave it the budget treatment to breathe a little freshness into it. Unlike The Mummies and Teengenerate, this record doesn't have any original songs. It starts off with a Protex cover, moves onto The Explosives, and finishes up with the Eddie and The Hot Rods classic. Released by Darin Raffaelli's Super*Teem! label, my copy doesn't have a back cover but other ones do. I don't know if that represents different pressings or was an error. The Retardos would do one more 7" before moving onto other things. There's another, newer band called The Retardos and you probably don't want anything to do with them. 

Sample: here

Cheap Time - Demos

Artist: Cheap Time

Title: Demos

Year: 2006

Label: none

Tracks: 1.) Spoiled Brat, 2.) Killing Time, 3.) Take It Back, 4.) Out of Sight, 5.) Max Frost, 6.)  Jet Set, 7.) Push Your Luck

After the dissolution of the Rat Traps and losing interest in playing as a one man band, Jeffrey Novak discovered The Quick, Sparks, and Milk 'N' Cookies and immediately formed Cheap Time as a response with his then girlfriend Jemina Pearl of Be Your Own Pet and their drummer. Their first recordings were this 7-song demo CDR, of which only some of these songs would get official releases. Sweet Rot Records issued a 3-song 7" in early 2007 which included "Spoiled Brat", "Jet Set", and "Killing Time". "Push Your Luck" and "Max Frost" would get re-recorded for their first album, released by In The Red Records in 2008 with an all new backing band. The band is still very active, has had even more lineup changes, and is generally a lot better than in these early days, but for the completists out there, here is where it all began. Enjoy. 

Sample: here

The Sultanas - You're The One

Artist: The Sultanas

Title: You're The One

Year: 2005

Label: Boom Boom of Renton

Tracks: 1.) You're The One, 2.) Move On Now 

Prior to becoming an indie folk heartthrob with The Dutchess and The Duke and Case Studies, Jesse Lortz had a brief run as a Phil Spector, Kim Fowley, Billy Childish, Darin Raffaelli-esque impresario and manufactured his own "girl group" to be the face for a few of his songs. The Sultanas featured Jesse on guitar, Donnie from Nice Smile/The Dutchess and The Duke on drums, Ian from Coconut Coolouts on bass, and three female singers, one of which was Kimberly Morrison from The Fall-Outs, Thee Flying Dutchmen, The Intelligence, The Dutchess and The Duke, and others. 

Like his then prior output with Thee Flying Dutchmen and Fe Fi Fo Fums, Jesse squeezes the Sultanas' songs pretty tightly into an established genre, this time being the anonymous 60s girl groups, as documented by the Girls In The Garage series. I have no idea if the band ever played any live concerts, but would lean toward saying they did not. This is a fun document to the days when Jesse ran the Boom Boom empire as if it was all one big inside joke and he was the smartest guy in the scene. 

Sample: here