Though his guttural croon is nearly impossible to forget, Graning's cohorts are a much looser, ramshackle bunch, flailing about like so many flannel-flyers from points due Northwest. Mouthpiece/focal point Chick Graning possess the same worn-in, raspy timbre Peter Searcy of Squirrel Bait became legendary for. Well, I suppose you want to know what they sound like before taking the plunge. Even by obscuro standards, this Beantown quartet (who ironically didn't boast any females in their lineup) were sheer unknowns nationally, despite distribution through Dutch East India Trading. 9 (Song 16)' a cut from this very album that I was exposed to by the grace of college radio. Just as much of an acquired taste now as they were when they first surfaced in the late '80s, Boston's Anastasia Screamed nevertheless made a relatively immediate impression on me with 'Searcher no. Incidentally, my copy of Shortcut is slightly blemished by a scratch that effects the first couple rotations of this very track, but conveniently, in 2007, Little Hits blog posted the song as well (sans the rest of the album), which is still available for the taking. There's no definitive centerpiece here, but the winsome 'Jim Is the Devil' was striking enough to be issued as a single in it's own right, shortly before the release of the album. Shortcut.evokes the vibe of a loosely strung together concept piece, which it may or may not be, only adding to it's charismatic mystique. The effect is startlingly akin to the Mersey Beat endebted XTC side project, The Dukes of Stratosphear, and more recently the work of fellow L.A. Profoundly unfortunate, because their debut LP, Shortcut Through Clown Alley, is a sophisticated psych-pop treasure, laced with sublime, Roger McGuinn-informed guitar fills, well placed flourishes of Farfisa organ, and ambitious songwriting. L.A.s The Jigsaw Seen arrived at the tail end of the Paisley Underground movement, but unlike Rain Parade and The Three O'clock, they didn't garner as much notoriety.

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