Sometimes I really struggle to figure out which song to post from an individual album. Especially when I’m pulling from an obscure album, I have a strong instinct to select a song that doesn’t seem to be readily available otherwise. I’m continually surprised by how much of the pop culture flotsam and jetsam of years gone by has found its way to information superhighway, and yet there’s still all sorts of material that is circling aimlessly, hunting for an on-ramp. If I’m going to post a song from an album that seems to mainly perplex Amazon and doesn’t merit its own Wikipedia page, shouldn’t I dig especially deep, exposing some splendid wonder from the inner grooves of the record? I shouldn’t just post something that can be heard after a smart YouTube search.

The music video for “Charlton Heston” by Stump can be found after a smart YouTube search. It doesn’t matter. I can’t resist.

Stump was a very, very odd band that released one full-length album in 1988. Entitled A Fierce Pancake, the record clangs and bangs and hiccups and generally sounds like a prototypical eighties Britpop band–Echo and the Bunnymen or The Smiths, maybe–was transferred to Silly Putty and given a few good tugs. At different times, I probably played every last track off of that album, but I did often edge back to “Charlton Heston,” which was the closest thing the band ever had to a hit single.

I feel like there’s so much more to share, but I really have to just point you to the song. I can’t do it justice.

Stump, “Charlton Heston”

(Disclaimer: The Stump catalog went out of print almost right away, as if it frightened labels into eradicated all sign of them. There was apparently a generous reissue just a couple years ago, but I find only the barest trace of it on the sites of the various online retailers. This song is being posted with the understanding that it can’t be acquired through any means that provides due compensation to both the artist and the proprietor of your favorite local, independently-owned record store. If I’m wrong, buy it now. I’ll also gladly remove it from the interweb if contacted by someone with due authority to make such a request who is making just such a request.)