Everything gets reissued these days. Blink and you'll miss a new and improved version of an album by some band that you were born too late to miss the first time around. However, sometimes the obscure and the unexpected get a second chance at fame and Cars Can Be Blue – the trading name of Becky Brooks and Nate Mitchell - are more than deserving of one more shot at gold. Dead on target, I'd go as far as saying that this album is everything a cult classic should be.
Admittedly, this is not really a mass market release limited as it is, on its second pressing as the first went to only 100 copies, to 200 copies on vinyl but that is hardly the point for contained within those grooves is something a bit special. For one thing, these songs have the potty mouthed and knowingly juvenile charm that readily carries this duo out of the safety of twee pop into a kind of snotty post punk minimalism.
With no less than 20 songs squeezed into the grooves, it would have been realistic to expect a few duds but expecting is not the same as getting. Instead, this is an almost criminally funny collection of oblique and dark, if not pitch black, humour put to music.
Take for example, the implications of metaphorically going out with a guy who is a superhero ("Dating Batman"). Come to think of it, it might not even be metaphorical but simply the result of an obsession with comics. Since I'm in a metaphorical mood, black and white drawings nicely coloured is pretty much the stock in trade of Cars Can Be Blue. So, while the not quite dumb simplicity of "Motorboat" does seem a bit conventional and something of a counterpoint to the venomous "(You're A Bitch"), the not very politically correct "Retarded Retard" or the so unsubtle they must be the lost children of Mojo Nixon "Abortion", that is hardly the point.
The voice of rebellion is heard in the most unexpected of places. I'm not saying this is a rebellious album. "All The Stuff We Do" is too smart an album to be that transparent. If there were to be a parallel drawn with, say, films then a valid comparison would have to be something from the top tier of B movie land like Assault of the Killer Bimbos and a big hitter like Lethal weapon 4. Lethal Weapon 4 might well have grossed vastly more but which movie is held in the greatest affection now?
Oh, the point? Music like this would not be entertained by the mainstream music business and is therefore the perfect example of independent music. The point therefore is that most independent music these days is so safe that it would be the stock in trade of the mainstream music business thus missing the point of being independent.
Finally, and perhaps surprisingly in the view of the limited budget, this limited vinyl edition sounds just fine. The pressing quality was likewise fine.