This is the 20th Anniversary double album re-issue of Adam Green's debut solo album Garfield that was mainly recorded before the Moldy peaches debut album, but not released till a little bit after Moldy Peaches. This is Adam at his low-fi Anti-folk best. This re-issue comes with a bonus album of live takes and demos and his Ep.
The album opens with Apples, I'm Home that is as low fi as you'd expect, faux naive with cheap computer synth noises as you figure out what kind of creature you wish to become.
My Shadow Tags On Behind is a sparse sung and strummed song that has some nice liquid pouring an old time feel to this adventure into a computer store.
Bartholomew is a sparse folk pop tune about wanting to stay in, but also that feeling that someone is watching them or following them.
Mozzarella Swastikas is the best song title on the album, it's almost as surreal lyrically as the title might suggest, as for what happens under the rainbow, this song isn't kid friendly, this is as bizarre an anti-folk song as you could want to hear.
Dance With Me has an insistent beat to get you onto that dancefloor with Adam, as he tries to get you to Dance With Me with a gentle accordion that reminds me of Angel Corpus Christi. Then the guitar freak-out squiggles its way over everything adding a nicely tangential edge.
Computer Show is a song about stalking and being followed into that shop, the weird computer glitchy noises add a paranoid edge to the guitar playing before Adam has a conversation with a chatbot.
Her Father And Her is strummed on an acoustic guitar, as this tale of what happens to this father and daughter, with some imagery about trying to make out, without the father realizing it's happening under his roof.
Baby's Gonna Die Tonight the studio version has a garage rock feel as the lyrics about gunplay in the bedroom gets going, the passion among the danger and the edgy nature of the act, he's suggesting should be part of normal love play, as the recorders add a distinctly off edge to things.
Times Are Bad has a low-fi cymbal led shuffling backbeat, some clarinet I think that wanders in and out, as the tale of just how bad things are unfolds.
Can You See Me sounds a bit like a traditional English folk song taking us to the forest, but as it goes on other elements come in, then it changes direction in a wonderfully odd way, before going back to the pastoral strum.
Untitled is a classic short reimagining of John Cage's 4.22 that has been mashed up with The Beatles Silence played very much in the style of Ciccone Youth.
Dance With me (EP Version) is a slow steadily strummed song with a repeating lyric line that all sorts of squiggly guitar goes over, very infectious.
Bleeding heart (Ep Version) is faster than the demo version and is a cool anti-folk anthem with some nicely re-worked nursery rhyme lines this is simple and very catchy indeed.
Computer Show (Ep Version) sounds more produced than the first version, is more clearly sung as we feel the paranoia of being followed around.
Mozzarella Swastikas (Demo Version) actually has more instrumentation than the album version, in that it has some lazy hazy drumming as this surreal odd song unfolds and Adam gets what he wants under the rainbow.
Steak For Chicken (Demo Version) has some adolescent blue lyrics on a basic strummed folk song, that admits they are trying to get away with artistic daylight robbery.
Bartholomew (Live at Makor) opens with Adam asking who owns an I-pod before this isolationist in the big city tale unfolds, over a softly strummed acoustic guitar.
Love Will Tear Us Apart remakes the Joy Division classic as a freak folk classic, with sparse percussion and a recorder playing the keyboard line, this is not as alienated as the original.
Times Are Bad (Demo Version) feels more on point than the finished version as the cymbals and guitar work together to make sure you understand just how bad a hand you've been dealt.
Father And Her (Live At Makor) is a cool solo acoustic anti-folk reading of this song of trying to hoodwink dear old daddy as you make out with his treasured daughter with some wonderful imagery and coded language.
Let The Kids Want What They Want has all sorts of glitchy interference noises and the title chanted over and over as the music gets weirder and more out there low-fi mangling ensues.
Shadow (Live At Sidewalk Cafe) isn't the punk classic, although he's still Lurking in that computer store looking at the tags, this is so quietly played it's a miracle the audience stays as quiet as it does.
Computer Show (Live at Pier 54) has a confidence about it slightly at odds with the paranoid nature of the lyrics as if being followed around is just what he wanted.
Bleeding Heart reworks some lines for childhood nursery rhymes into an Anti-folk anthem pleading that you'll cut out his Bleeding Heart.
Crystal Ship is a sparse cover of The Doors classic with carefully sung vocals and what sounds like a stylophone or super cheap Casio keyboard solo.
I Wish That I Was Nice (Live At Sidewalk cafe) has a good al fresco bootleg feel to the recording with his acoustic guitar resonating as he strums and explains just how he really was better than he is with a very funny pay off line.
Baby's Gonna Die (Live at Pier 54) has a 60's garage doors kind of sound with some driving guitar and impassioned vocals.
The album closes with Can You See Me (Live at Makor) introduced as being kind of mellow as this hushed almost English folk song starts to build that snowman once more.
Find out more at https://www.facebook.com/AdamGreenOfficial/ http://adamgreen.info/ https://orgmusic.com/collections/adam-green https://orgmusiclabel.bandcamp.com/album/garfield
