Monday, May 03, 2010

luck of aleia

whilst bumbling around on last.fm i noticed that these guys had under 500 listeners, which perplexed me. i never really thought of them being that obscure or unknown, for the simple fact that their album came out on caulfield, and therefore everyone remotely interested in that period of emo should have checked it out by now. i guess that's not the case though. ok, so luck of aleia only ever released this 6 song 10" / cd, and it featured caulfield head honcho bernie mcginn, formerly of sideshow - a band i never really 'got'. this six songer from 1999 or so would have been one of the last true midwestmo releases before that period pretty much shrivelled away. the music is bouncy and kind of poppy, with little mathy inflections not far off the braid path. my favourite song on here remains 'happy birthday', which is super catchy and has a great driving chorus. other bands that will come to mind whilst listening to this are the promise ring and superchunk. each song clocks in around the 4 minute mark or so, but they tend not to outstay their welcome.

if you are a fan of the midwestmo sound, then you should give this one a listen. it's a shame that this kind of style was pretty much consigned to the musical dustbin for almost a decade, but you can still hear some of the elements that make it such a fun listen in new bands such as everyone everywhere and pswingset.

you can download this ep right here

Friday, February 19, 2010

crash and britany - kids luv you lp

this blog had lain dormant for a while, but i suspect that the world did not grind to a halt or organised protests insisting upon its return. i have not felt like writing much at all recently, even reviews of new stuff, but on some internet back water someone asked if anyone had the crash & britany lp (kids luv you) available for download and i did, so i figured i'd do the decent thing and stick it up on obscuremo. i am kind of surprised that this lp is not out there and easily findable on some other blog but i didn't search to thoroughly and i felt like writing a piece about this lp as i really enjoy it. it's not an album i dig out too often, but when i do, it's always worth while. i first heard this record at a friends house several years ago. pretty much the second i got home i was on the internet, trying to hunt it down. i succeeded, not sure how much it cost but it was in some second hand store so not much. i think in the same haul i got the goddamn richard & the one eyed liars lp, and a candyland car crash shirt. not bad! that shirt is now riddled with holes and can only be worn in bed.

anyway, this lp is a good un. if you are downloading this, you probably know what you're getting. crash & britany was out from the west coast of the united states and played some airy, shoegazemo. basically it's all swirly guitars, live recordings, ham-fisted production, occasionally off key girl vocals, and great grooves. lazy shits like me would lump them in with ribbon fix and pot valiant, although ribbon fix were perhaps a bit more straight forward. to that extent c&b were pretty unique, which is a huge part of their appeal. it's miserable, drawn out indie rock that sometimes gets loud and galloping. and listening to this right now i realised that football, etc sort of sound a bit like this. grass widow also have one song on their first 12" that is pretty emo and makes me think of some stuff on here. i guarantee you no-one else ever will suggest that though.

c&b had a 7" featuring one song off here and one other. it is good. get it. they are also on the in memory of jason comp, which is kind of a mediocre comp with amazing bands on it. it's worth picking up though if you see it for cheap.

you can find the band on myspace : http://www.myspace.com/crashandbritany


you can watch this video of a song not on the lp here :



(i love the style of this vid, great song too)

singer kelly slusher has made solo music, i heard a cd, it was quite nice - http://www.myspace.com/kellyslusher


oh yeah, you want to download this here : http://www.collective-zine.co.uk/emo/obscuremo/27/crash.zip