World Of Pooh - Tight And Loose

Utterly essential compilation of 45s, loose strays and hitherto lost/unheard recordings by supremely underrated San Fran three-piece, World of Pooh. An early outlet for Barbara Manning and one in which she was joined by Nuf Sed head honcho Brandon Kearney and Glorious Din's Jay Paget, the group were in operation for a total of seven years but only really managed to commit to a few official releases. Of those records, only the Land of Thirst LP really moves for any serious money now, suggesting that there's not really a huge audience out there waiting for this to land. Strange given who's involved. Stranger still, the otherwise great scene-surveying Strum and Thrum comp that documented the US indie underground of that same period didn't seem to be able to find a place for them on a double disc set which felt perfectly designed as a platform for the kind of sharp-eyed rockin' jangle World of Pooh excelled at (note that Manning's concurrent act 28th Day do appear, and was probably seem as a sufficient scratching of that itch. Nonetheless...). So if Tight & Loose isn't exactly widely anticipated, it is at least a bit of a revelation, hyper-melodic, whipsmart, taut n tense, and possessed of a unique intensity that walks a similar line to the wound-up drive of early R.E.M, Pylon and The Feelies. Perhaps because of Paget's time served in Glorious Din, it's also possible to hear elements of The Gun Club in some of the more post-punk adjacent moments, not so much bluesy, but possessed of a similar fire (of love?) as Jeffrey Lee Pierce et al. If World of Pooh turned up brand new today, there'd no doubt be a red carpet rolled out for them. As it is, they feel a touch lost to time. Tight & Loose might not end up turning the world to face anymore than these songs did first time around, but it is sure nice to hear them all lined up in a row like this, its own lockbox of secrets.
 
FFO: The Feelies, Pylon, 28th Day, The Gun Club