Laughing Clowns LPs are hard to come by, and their wild, unusual, jazz-influenced, wired post-punk worked best when they were in a more pop mood, as evidenced by this carefully selected best-of, Golden Days. It smartly starts with a typically visionary moment, the taut, sax-skronking “Eternally Yours” single from 1983, late in the band’s career (no relation to mainman Ed Kuepper’s earlier, incredible 1978 Saints LP of that name), and works its way through such earlier, outrageously (still) before-their-time tracks such as “Theme From Mad Flies, Mad Flies” (1981), with its great dirty guitar, and the driving “Possessions,” with more crazy, crazy horns and hot piano. The perfect tonic for any modern hipsters (or voracious fans) who despair over never hearing something new in modern music. – Jack Rabid