1994 or '95
(originally produced & self-released by Guru Magpie on the tape 'Press The Pound Sign', winter 1995; reissued by Craig Jakubowski summer 1995; reissued in winter 1996 by Full Tilt Distribution)
A jug band-style bastardization of Nirvana's 'About A Girl' recorded on boom box soon after Kurt Cobain's death was quite an outrage to rock fans in the 90's, almost as blasphemous as walking into a sunday morning church service screaming "Hail Satan!" Nonetheless, it was all in a day's work for Guru Magpie. Sparing few sacred cows and dancing circles around the "Alternative Nation", while not an angry reaction to grunge, this Glen Arm area group's work was certainly a witty retort to the notion that 90's pop culture was more than just an entertaining novelty.
In the shuckin'n'jivin performance given here by Guru Magpie, Nirvana's mega-hit occupies the context of pure escapist fluff. With the musical iconography of good-timey Americana playfully mocking the loneliness and desperation of the song's original intent, 'Bout a Girl' boils grunge's mass marketed "angst" down to its bare essence: the maudlin hokum of road weary song-and-dance men, itinerant buskers hustling with the colorful caricature of a 'punk'/'hard rock' tradition as antiquated and innocuous as some dusty old jug band 78. - Mike Apichella
supported by 4 fans who also own “Guru Magpie - 'Bout A Girl'”
Sonic Youth is one of those bands where you easily run out of superlatives to describe what they created. This could've easily come off as a cynical cash-grab by a band that had broken up 11 years prior to the release of this record, but that's not what this is. Some of my favourite Sonic Youth instrumentals. sentient meat
Experimental label Hallow Ground challenges 16 artists to create pieces around the concept of epiphany on this transcendent compilation. Bandcamp New & Notable Mar 8, 2022
Grim motor-psycho music that goes from growling Steppenwolf jams to delightfully strange jazz/krautrock diversions. Bandcamp New & Notable Aug 24, 2020
Proceeds from this powerful, haunting new track from Elvis Perkins & Sam Cohen will benefit Emergent Fund, powered by RPM. Bandcamp New & Notable Dec 9, 2017
supported by 4 fans who also own “Guru Magpie - 'Bout A Girl'”
When you consider the very uniqueness of this group, why wouldn't you buy it? They really are a seriously spectacular live act as well as masters of the studio. Gavin Hellyer