The 1981 Listening Post - Marine Girls - Beach Party

 Marine Girls - Beach Party

#48

1981 Housekeeping

Marine Girls

Beach Party

Genre: OG Lo-Fi

2.5 out of 5

Highlights:

Marine Girls

There are a handful of artists that push out their DIY thang in the early 80s. Daniel Johnston comes to mind. As does Jandek. And Marine Girls. Sadly, their debut, while possibly giving birth to Twee is also a challenging listen. The guitars are wildly out of tune and that wound’t be so bad if the songs weren’t so cloying and achingly pining. They really pull it together in a couple years but on Beach Party, there’s not so much a party as there is a basement gathering of David Lynch castaways. 

This is going to sound so much better when they get better in a couple years and then you will be just fine with Marine Girls. In fact, add some Cub and All Girl Summer Fun Band…maybe even Donora and you’ve got quite the lo-fi all female playlist. 

I like that they have their own theme song. And it’s the only song I like on the record, tbh. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/lazy-ways-beach-party/204669167

The 1983 Listening Post - Marine Girls - Lazy Ways

Marine Girls - Lazy Ways

#256 

1983

Marine Girls

Lazy Ways

4.25 out of 5

Highlights:

A Place in the Sun

Falling Again

Second Sight

THIS! I have been looking for this record for 30 years. There was a girl in college who used to play this all the time but I could never remember who it was or what it was called. I just remembered the cover. And that I liked it. Or I liked her. I don’t remember! It’s all a blur!

(It’s also very possible that I am misremembering all of this and my roommate had it and we just listened to it a couple times but there was a girl there that I was enamored of and I couldn’t bring myself to talk to and I just conflated her with the record)

I know, it’s basically a folk record but I think this is a harbinger of what’s to come. The low-fi, DIY sound is the seeds of so much that is coming in the next decade. One could think it’s basically an independent version of The Roches. But, it’s not. It’s where All Girl Summer Fun Band has its sound origin. And the Murmurs. 

Don’t get me wrong, this is definitely the sound of a smoky bar in in the east village where everyone smokes and wishes it was 1958 and the Marine Girls are the featured act on a Monday night. But you can’t believe they have a record to sell and you are just in awe of them because, fuck, they’re doing it!

PS: This is for the first half of the album linked. The rest is the other album Beach Party

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/lazy-ways-beach-party/204669167