Lotion - Nobody's Cool (spinART, 1995)

I am a self-admitted music snob. It is very hard for me to accept suggestions from other people, that is, unless they have a similar foundation of what I feel is truly brilliant music. Lotion was a band that was introduced to me by an unlikely friend after we realized that strong foundation existed. On the swim team we named him Pigpen (dirt clouds followed him) and he decided the school we were at was not the school for him anymore, and he went back to NY. Lucky for me, we had long enough to learn we each loved bands like Guided by Voices, the Promise Ring and Christie Front Drive but also that the New York local scene was where he grew up... cool. He let me borrow Lotion's Telephone Album and the Tear EP, to which I urgently found someone with a cd burner to make my own. I knew these guys were legit and began looking for the rest of their catalog right away. 

I found a promo copy of Nobody's Cool for $8 at the only good record store in Colorado Springs - Toons. As a NY band on spinART, I guessed that they had paid their dues, but also somehow felt like they made music for no one else but themselves, secretly letting us share in the rock. An added bonus, Pigpen made me a copy of a GbV tribute album where Lotion contributed a cover of their Quality of Armor...double cool. Swap out the liner notes for a review by Thomas Pynchon, an apparently well known NY fiction writer (thanks wikipedia, I should read more) and the answer isn't Nobody's Cool, but rather Lotion's Cool.

Nobody's Cool came out in what I consider the golden years of 1995-1996 when not only the most shaping music in my life was coming out but also marked my senior year in high school. Although I didn't get this record until closer to 2000, it took me back (and still does) to 1995 in the way it sounded and how I imagined Lotion being part of their own spinster NY scene. Nobody's Cool starts with a kick on Dear Sir, rarely drags on, even on the slower numbers like The Sad Part, and keeps you interested with side two kickers like Sandra, Juggernaut and, a radio show favorite of mine, Dalmacia 007.

"when will this be over, I can't stop wondering" - Dalmacia 007