Long-time ChicagoBoyz readers know that Lex is a perhaps overly effusive fan of the various musical incarnations of Lisa Marr. (See this, and this, and this comment I left on Captain Mojo’s site.) So I will resist the urge to launch into yet another (potentially tiresome) verbal avalanche of enthusiasm. I’ll keep it simple. Many of you may not know about her wonderful first band, cub (always lower case for some reason.) I notice that there are several complete songs here, though the sound quality is quite poor. “My Assassin” is a particular favorite, as is their cover of Beat Happening’s “Cast A Shadow” (cub’s version is 1,000,000 times better) as well the pop perfection of “New York City”. If you find that you dig these, crappy audio and all, you will be very well-served to go back and buy the cds, (or here), which only get better on repeated listens. (I like them best in this order: Come Out, Come Out; Betti Cola; Mauler; Box of Hair. Box of Hair, the last one, actually has a flew weak songs, but also a few brilliant ones. The others are mix of songs which are brilliant ranging down to merely very good.)
4 thoughts on “cub”
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To say Lisa Marr’s cover of a Beat Happening song – or ANYONE covering ANY Beat Happening song – is seven orders of magnitude better than the original is to indulge in redundancy of almost Proustian detail.
Beat Happening was easily the most tiresome alt band of the eighties.
Lisa Marr, however, rates. Oh, my, yes.
That is all. Carry on.
Mitch, I suppose I was trying to be nice. It is not so much that it is a million times better as that she saw the potential to make something really great out of a Beat Happening song at all.
Glad to find another ChicagoBoyz reader who shares my enthusiasm for the greatness of Ms. Marr and her many glorious works.
Cub is good, but their albums can get a little repetitive at times. Marr’s work on LMX, as we’ve discussed previously, are masterworks. I actually fear how good her next album will be.
And what the hell ever happened to the beards?
Cub’s albums, I found, like with all her stuff, grew on me the more I listened to them.
The Beards — dunno.
New LMX will be great. She’s selling a demo with 7 songs on the LMX website. Worth getting. One sung by her guitar player I could live without — the others range from solid to brilliant.