Pitchfork

Welcome to Asterisk, a new imprint from the Numero Group dedicated-- or so they say-- "to illuminated, omitted, footnoted, and unattested sounds." Continuing in Numero's fine tradition of crate-digging and beat-mining, this here Asterisk has announced a multifarious trio of inaugural releases, all out September 25, that sound awful good on paper.

Hartford, Connecticut's Johnny Lunchbreak-- described as a kind of Velvets/Modern Lovers thing-- were originally rediscovered in 2004 on an obscure acetate and reissued in a limited run on LP. Asterisk hunted down the original tapes, and the record became Appetizer/Soup's On.

The Four Mints' Gently Down Your Stream began its life as an LP on the Columbus, Ohio Capsoul label-- which, as you may recall, was the first obscure soul label whose catalog was anthologized by Numero. But when Asterisk happened upon some prime unreleased Four Mints cuts, they moved on bulking up the original Gently Down Your Stream LP.

Boulder, Colorado folk collective Propinquity's self-titled (and only) album also gets a reissue, with its ten original tracks supplemented by a couple unreleased cuts and a few from a 1971 compilation. Group member Carla Sciaky herself showed up on Numero's Wayfaring Strangers comp, a successful find that spawned this reissue.

Additonally, Asterisk will release a self-titled disc by Boscoe November 6, though we know nothing about it beyond the release date and tracklist. Those cats don't even have an All Music Guide entry! More like Most Music Guide, eh?

Appetizer/Soup's On:

01 A Very Papal State
02 Tinsel Days
03 The Same Could Happen to You
04 Never Found
05 It's Got a Hold on You
06 Take Me Baby
07 Amazing Pain
08 Not a Dry Eye in America
09 The Best That I Had

Gently Down Your Stream:

01 You're My Desire
02 Row My Boat
03 Why Did I Go
04 Do You Really Love Me
05 Too Far Gone
06 You'll Want to Come Back
07 Keep on Loving You
08 In a Rut
09 Can't Get Strung Out
10 They Were Wrong
11 Too Far Gone (rehearsal)
12 In a Rut (rehearsal)
13 In a Rut (instrumental)

Propinquity:

01 People Come
02 And I a Fairy Tale Lady
03 Tappan Square
04 You Don't Have To Hurry
05 Standing in the Doorway
06 Dorian: 240 Lament
07 Window
08 Binghamton
09 I'll Be Here in the Morning
10 Ohio
11 Miles Before Sleeping
12 Sea Song
13 Suite for Windy Spring
14 Child
15 Where I'm Bound
16 Chermaine

Boscoe:

01 Introduction
02 Writin' on the Wall
03 He Keeps You
04 We Ain't Free
05 If I Had My Way
06 I'm What You Need
07 Money Won't Save You
08 Now and Den