Every Twinkle of Your Eyes

It's no secret that I love to listen to WFMU, America's premiere free-form radio station, but dedicated to the station though I am, it's not often I hit up their (ridiculously extensive) archives, preferring instead to listen to the live broadcast (I'm kinda old-fashioned that way). For the past few days, though, I've had the archive of Bobb Trimble's recent live set on Talk's Cheap, WFMU's Tuesday morning music program hosted by Jason Sigal, practically on repeat.

For the unacquainted, Bobb Trimble is a Massachusetts singer/songwriter often compared to modern purveyors of haunted pop in the vein of Ariel Pink, although I think his music has more in common, at least sonically, with that of Death Vessel or Jeff Hanson (RIP), especially in the vocals department. Trimble self-released two albums of delicate, melancholy psych-folk in the early 80s (Iron Curtain Innocence and Harvest of Dreams) before sinking deep into obscurity. In 2007, Secretly Canadian finally gave these albums the wide release they deserve, and since then Bobb has re-emerged, performing live for the first time in decades with a new backing band, the Flying Spiders (which, speaking of haunted pop, features Gary War on guitar).

Along with songs from both of the aforementioned albums, the WFMU set also includes a few songs from Life Beyond the Doghouse, a vinyl-only European release from 2002 that compiles Bobb's lost mid-80s solo recordings. Since that LP is nearly impossible to find in the States, WFMU has made the live versions available for free download on their Free Music Archive. These songs are a fair bit heavier than anything on the first two records, which is just fine by me. Here are my two favorites:

[mp3] Bobb Trimble and the Flying Spiders - "The Camel Song"
[mp3] Bobb Trimble and the Flying Spiders - "Live Wire, Live Wire"
(from their live set on WFMU's Talk's Cheap - 6/30/09; hear more at FMA)

Be sure to check out the whole set here in the Talk's Cheap archives, and I highly recommend picking up at least one of the reissues from Secretly Canadian. In fact, here's a song from each, if you need convincing:

[mp3] Bobb Trimble - "One Mile from Heaven (Short Version)"
(from Iron Curtain Innocence; buy it from Secretly Canadian)

[mp3] Bobb Trimble - "Premonitions - The Fantasy"
(from Harvest of Dreams; buy it from Secretly Canadian)