From: Eric Hoffsten <hoffsten AT spacelab.net>
Subject: Chug poll '97
Date: Wed, 21 Jan 1998 21:05:20 -0500

So Doug, you know, I was thinking today about *why* it's taken me so long
to compile this, and it struck me that the reason must be that there were
just sooooo many excellent releases this last year that I'm thrown into
some sort of cognitive turmoil just thinking about whittling 'em down to
*20*.  I was planning on including notes, but at this stage of the game I'm
restricted to a simple list.  So be it.

And with the exception of the first one, these are listed alphabetically.

V/A  Anthology of American Folk Music  6xCD box  (Smithsonian Folkways)
  Certainly the most important (re)release all year, if not of all time.
The reissue job done here is astounding--the liners, the annotations, the
reproductions, everything... It's perfect.

CRUDE  Inner City Guitar Perspectives  LP  (Flying Nun)
BINGO TRAPPERS  Sierra Nevada  LP  (Shrimper/Sing, Eunuchs!)
BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL  (s/t)  CD  (Insample)
DAVIS REDFORD TRIAD  The Mystical Path of the Number 86  LP  (Holy Mountain)
THE DEAD C  Tusk  CD  (Siltbreeze)
JOHN FAHEY  Womblife  CD  (Table of the Elements)
EDITH FROST  Calling Over Time  LP  (Drag City)
THE GARBAGE AND THE FLOWERS  Eyes Rind As If Beggars  2xLP  (Now Sound)
IRVING KLAW TRIO  Utek Phatoo Mogoi  CD  (Road Cone)
JALOPPY  Owner's Manual  LP  (Womb Tunes)
MOUTHCRAZY  Open/Openwide  LP  (Ecstatic Yod's Center of the Ass Run)
PELT  Max Meadows  CD  (Vhf)
PLANET TR  Let the Cosmos Ring  CD  (Spirit of Orr)
(K)SALVATORE  Head Spinning Freely, Slowly  CD  (s@1)
SANDOZ LAB TECHNICIANS  The Tale of Pixielamb  CD  (Lotus Sound)
SANNDREYMI  (s/t)  CD  (Nano)
SURFACE OF THE EARTH  (s/t)  CD  (Corpus Hermeticum)
MIA DOI TODD  The Lamb and the Ewe  CD  (Xmas Records)
TONO-BUNGAY  Wunderkammer  CD  (Twisted Village)
WOOZLEBUG  Mullicana  LP  (Morning Frost)

Okay, that's it.  And I suppose that's 21, but hey, Doug, at least I'm
confining myself to that.  Lord knows if I kept going I'd be here all
night, and I told you I'd mail this by 9:00.  Besides, this is all
arbitrary, isn't it?  I mean, if I were to try to compile this two weeks
from now it'd likely be an almost entirely different group of records.  But
I digress.

Wait--the following reissues must be mentioned:

OS MUTANTES
MONKS
MARS

Okay, I really mean it now.  If anybody *really* wants to know what else I
enjoyed this past year, well, s/he can check the DroneOn archives for my
"More than top 10" post.

Happy new year, thanks for doing this *yet again*, and have a great year.

_____________________
Eric Hoffsten
hoffsten AT spacelab.net