Obscure Song No. 3: "Tarmac"

Female trio Hazeldine aren't that well known. I'll be honest, I've had zero luck tracking down any of their stuff in the UK. But back in Sept. 1998 Uncut magazine gave away the first of their Sounds of the New West compilations, and the first track on that CD was the blasting and memorable "Tarmac," by Hazeldine.

The track discussed here also appears on their CD How Bees Fly, released on Glitterhouse.* As so often with the songs I love, this has a cracking lyric, but is considerably more upbeat in tempo than my previous two recommendations.

This town forgets to draw its blinds
I've seen its last ditch carnal crimes

The band is made up of Anne Tkach (bass); Shawn Barton (lead vocal); and Tonya Lamm (supporting vocal). Between them, they create a wonderful soundscape of country-esque thoughts driven by a powerful guitar-lick. But best of all, and this is what everyone will pick up on if you trace the song, there is the line about "Batman"...

I'm saying nothing more, 'cos it would spoil the surprise. Surfice to say that when we first played it, both Cloud and I looked at each other and said "did she really just sing what I thought she sang?"

And she did...

* Glitterhouse. Also home to David Thomas and the Two Pale Boys... Need we say more about this record label?