"Buddy", by Snapper.
And speaking, as we were, of Peter Gutteridge, I learn from Pitchfork that the self-titled four-song twelve-inch from his long-running Snapper project, originally released on Flying Nun in 1988, is being reissued for Record Store Day. If you only buy one piece of vinyl this year, it should probably be this one. I went to pull my own dog-eared copy off the shelf this morning, only to find that it was gone. Insert sad face here. As fond as I am of Gutteridge's solo XPressway cassette, "Pure", this might be the one essential Peter Gutteridge release. These four songs pretty much express the entire range of his talents; he has, over the years (albeit hindered by ongoing heroin, uh, "issues"), refined and developed them, but hasn't really, to my ears, taken them anywhere that is discernibly "better" than the songs on "Snapper".
This is not meant as a criticism; it is meant as, You need this record in your life. The surprising thing, listening to these four tracks in 2013, is how far their influence has spread in the interim: from Stereolab to Wooden Shjips. The other surprising thing, if you haven't listened to it for 20 years, is just how bloody good this record is.
"Buddy".
(By the way, if anybody out there can set me up with a zeros-and-ones copy of "Gentle Hour", a Snapper B-side that has been covered by both The Clean (perhaps not surprising, as it includes David Kilgour on guitar) and Yo La Tengo, and which also appeared on the "Where In The World Is Wendy Broccoli?" compilation, I would be very grateful. Consider it as payment for how much I have enriched your life, heh heh, over the years. Email at right.)
