Dandelion Adventure John Peel Session LP
DANDELION ADVENTURE was a late ’80s UK band whose members went on to a host of significant endeavors (bands like DONKEY, the COMMON COLD, and STRETCHHEADS, labels like Pumf). DANDELION ADVENTURE put out a couple of great, overlooked records with songs that smile at you sideways with an infectious glee, as if the band is just as surprised as you that this spastic chaos actually makes some kinda sense. In 1990, they had the honor of recording a session at Maida Vale for John Peel’s radio show. Excited young lads that they were, they wrote four new songs for the occasion. Decades later, bassist Ajay Saggar revives his Wormer Bros. label to pair up these never-released tracks with their 1988 demo and some rehearsal takes. No surprise that the Peel Session sounds fantastic, showcasing the pinging logic that DANDELION ADVENTURE channeled like lab rats fed methamphetamine and let loose in a maze. Bursting out of the gate like the FALL after a good night’s rest, “Exit Frenzy Revisited” leads into “Bing Crosby’s Cathedral,” which starts like a consumerist daydream before tearing up the receipts and unleashing something like SONIC YOUTH trying to cover the MAGIC BAND. “Don’t Look Now” is chock full of the manic yet groovy rhythmic tussle that the bands on the Ron Johnson label excelled at, with nice, echoey vocals to let some air in. “All The World’s a Lounge” feeds an array of TV-tapped samples into DANDELION ADVENTURE’s avant-punk mulcher. The demo tape gives some early looks at tracks that later ended up on wax. While you’re definitely going to want to hear the studio version of “King Burger Autopsy,” the fairly straightforward punk of “Chickenfeed” sounds particularly great here.