[mp3] I'm carrying a torch for you; I'll carry your suitcase too.

Milky Wimpshake - "Clicking It" (mp3)

Everything about Milky Wimpshake (but, okay, especially the name) seems intended to defy a punk orthodoxy that Milky Wimpshake has largely outlived, which makes it doubly sweet that the band's website now gives out those early seven-inches as mp3s.

It seems like far more songs about good first dates than just "Clicking It" should come to mind, but I have trouble thinking of any. Some great low-fi records have been made where the sound quality suggests dust, hidden knowledge, an antique shop. This song, like everything Slampt! Records put out, goes way in the other direction: low-fi as a sign of vitality, community, spontaneity, and all that other stuff which singer Pete and Slampt co-owner Rachel exult in their rock band Red Monkey. (Pete and Rachel have last names, but I didn't know them until I looked them up just now, which on reflection seemed like a good reason to leave them out.)

["Clicking It" is from Milky Wimpshake's first seven-inch, 1994's The Deviancy Amplification Spiral. Tons more stuff and a colorful chronology are here; if hurried, skip to "Cheque Card", "Itchy Feet On A Tuesday Night" and "My Heart Beats Faster Than Techno".]