Spent Saturday and Sunday with Billy Childish and Holly Golightly. Okay, not literally. Listened to some of their stuff from the fine British indie label Damaged Goods that was just added to eMusic. Actually heard each one twice, no small feat considering the lengths of the comps. I thoroughly enjoyed all of it and hope to pick up some more when my downloads refresh Wednesday.

Holly Golightly - The Good Stuff (1995)
Her first album as a solo artist. She was also a member of Thee Headcoatees at the time too. I like her best when she’s rocking out in the garage and there’s plenty of that here. Highlights include “Virtually Happy,” “Expert,” “Comedy Time,” and “Without You.” The whole album is pretty great.

Holly Golightly - Single’s Round Up (2001)
A singles collection, if you couldn’t tell from the title. They’re basically lined up A-side / B-side in chronological order. The B-sides are of equal quality so it works out to be a really strong anthology. You’ve got the whole range of Holly: garage, indie-rock, twang, and blues. This would be an excellent place to start if you were unfamiliar with her work.

Billy Childish - 25 Years of Being Childish (1998)
A two-disc set, although that’s pretty much meaningless in the mp3 age. Let’s just say it’s 114+ minutes of his recordings through the years. His catalog probably rivals Robert Pollard’s, so here again is a great starting point for the uninitiated. I had some of his stuff before but won’t even pretend to be an expert. There were only a couple of songs out of the forty-two that I recognized. I don’t know how many bands he’s fronted, but all of the ones I knew are included: Thee Headcoats, The Buff Medways, Thee Mighty Caesars, The Milkshakes, and The Pop Rivets. There’s even some Holly Golightly / Thee Headcoatees songs. First rate, all the way.

I also checked out these, from our Belgian correspondent:

Yuppie Flu - Toast Masters (2005)
I was given Pavement and The Strokes as comparisons for this Italian guitar-driven indie-pop/rock band. Sure enough, you can hear bits of both occasionally. Sounded good the first time through. I especially liked the song, “Make a Stand.”

Triola - Triola Im Funftonraum (2004)
Wow! I really liked this one. I’m pretty ignorant as far as electronica artists go, so I have no idea who to compare them to or which of the many sub-genres in which to categorize them. It’s krautrock-ish in a mellow, ambient with a beat kind of way.