The Best Records of 2017, part 2 (30-16)

by attractive variance

Part 1, covering selections 50-31 can be viewed here.

Chuck Prophet – Bobby Fuller Died for Your Sins
For years in the early 1980s Chuck Prophet half fronted one of the greatest American bands most people don’t know, Green on Red. Their delicious blending of rural American styles and punkish wit set them within avenues that many more famous contemporaries have now become millionaires within (REM, Wilco, etc). But as is said for many originators, it was lonely at the top of inspiration hill, and thus they remain largely unknown. Once Chuck Prophet went solo, his records slowed down, he’d be most easily characterized as an American Graham Parker or Nick Lowe, but while they’ve decidedly softened as they’ve aged, Prophet’s razor lines remain brimming with a bloodlust he had in his youth. Plus, some of the stuff still absolutely screams, I can’t think of a more signature riff this year than the one that forms ‘Your Skin’ here.  

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Adding to the Canon: A Revival of the Fish Obscuro

by Jared Dec

As someone who has been actively reading Wonders in the Dark for the better part of a decade (although admittedly as a lurker), I can say that it is a privilege to actually be finally writing for the blog. I was lucky enough to have known Allan for several years before his passing. We communicated regularly and through his generosity of sending DVD-R’s and his many reviews, my exposure to film was widened considerably during my formative years. I have recently turned 23 and am a STEM major so I am not as qualified as most to write on film. I have however seen more films than most people my age (a little over 2,100 at the time of writing), and I am quite passionate about film as a hobby.

My favorite content on Wonders was always The Fish Obscuro, as the idea of the vast unexplored world of film outside the established canon had a wide array of possibilities that made me spend many hours tracking down obscure films to find the next unknown masterpiece even though I had yet to see much of the established canon. Since Allan’s passing, sadly The Fish Obscuro has sort of passed with him, and so I would like to attempt to revive it with semi-regular updates. My collection of films is far smaller than Allan’s behemoth of a set, but I do have some rarities which are sufficiently obscure to qualify. So to begin with, I will be covering perhaps the most obscure film I own, Sweat (1929, Tomu Uchida).

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