Two more for the Groundhog

Because Groundhog Day should be Groundhog Week!

The Sneetches - Flying on the Ground Is Wrong [mp3]

During their decade together, the Sneetches were the kings of the cover tune. Besides this cover of the Buffalo Springfield's "Flying On The Ground", they also covered Colin Blunstone ("Caroline Goodbye"), the Easybeats ("Pretty Girl"), the Monochrome Set ("He's Frank"), The Left Banke ("She May Call You Up Tonight") , and the Raspberries ("I Wanna Be With You" w/Shoes). And that doesn't count their contributions to those tribute albums that were all the rage in the early 90s (Zombies, Bee Gees, Hollies).

This cover of "Flying On The Ground Is Wrong" was chosen because it came up in an iTunes search for "ground". It's from a 1990 single on the Bus Stop label, and sounds like it was recorded live. I have it on an import cd called Obscureyears, which collects all their non-LP singles.

The songs the Sneetches chose to cover, both on disc and in concert, were integral in expanding my musical universe as a young adult. For example, I'd never heard of the Monochrome Set before the Sneetches covered "He's Frank". And all I knew the Left Banke, and the Easybeats, and the Buffalo Springfield were the one or two songs they played on oldies radio. There was an earlier cover of "Flying On The Ground" by Kendra Smith & David Roback on the 1984 paisley underground compilation Rainy Day, but I heard the Sneetches version first.

And I kept discovering new things via individual Sneetches after the band broke up. A few years ago I saw Mike Levy play a cool song called "Caroline" at a solo show that he said was by a band called the Magic Moles (or that's what I heard). I looked up that on the internet, and couldn't find anything on the Magic Moles. Turns out it was by Robert Wyatt's post Soft Machine band Matching Mole. How did I go through my whole life without hearing that band?

The Sneetches broke up in the mid-90s, but have reunited a few times since for one-off gigs. Matt Carges moved away from the Bay Area in 2000, but the other three are still around. Mike Levy still plays the odd solo gig. Daniel Swan plays in a bunch of local bands. And Alec Palao plays in a band called The Magic Christian with erstwhile Flamin' Groovie Cyril Jordan.

The Sneetches' band name came (of course) from Dr. Seuss, and I think its extra cool that if you want to convert this Sneetches mp3 to flac or ogg/vorbis, just run it through the sneetchalizer!

Flying Color - I'm Your Shadow [mp3]

Flying Color were another San Francisco band from the late 80s who had one member in common with the Sneetches (a bassist/guitarist who did time in both bands before heading out on his own. He didn't appear on records by either band, so his identity makes a good trivia question). Anyway, I consider this a groundhog song because the title is "I'm Your Shadow", and if the groundhog doesn't see his shadow there will be six more weeks of winter. Flying Color was an anachronism in the Bay Area scene of the late 80s with their paisley shirts and jangly guitars, but their music still sounds fresh and new twenty years later. This self-titled LP (their only one) was reissued on CD by Munster Records in Spain in 1996, but it's way out of print in the US, and should be reissued.

Just The Songs:
The Sneetches - Flying On the Ground (from the CD Obscureyears)

Flying Color - I'm Your Shadow (from the LP Flying Color)