Still there with me?

Great. Awesome.

My offering this week is two fold.  I recently happened upon indie pop group Bag O Shells and, after hearing their Markers single on YouTube, ordered their other single, Pocketbook.  The seller graciously elected to also throw in another EP from some band called The Silly Pillows.  With that, I also pass this unexpected but not entirely disagreeable discovery on to you.  Both were a small step outside of my usual comfort zone, but one I'm glad I took.

I'm back and I have candy

   

...for a little while, anyway.  Ahem, so I'm assuming you're all just here for the download links and don't much care for a longwinded explanation of my five year absence right after launching this blog, I'll cut right to the chase.

This week's entry springs from the briefly lived and even more briefly enjoyed late 80s/early 90s blues revival.  Run a search on Denver Mexicans and you're far more likely to land heaps of info on the city's Mexican cuisine rather than anything resembling a cohesive biography on this obscure trio with their decidedly un-PC name.  It isn't the most engaging or innovative indie blues record to come out in 1988, not that the blues were a particularly indie thing at the time.  Still, compared with the modern übertreiben of apparent fomula advancers The Black Keys and Rival Sons amongst others, maybe a retro trip to a simpler, less socially conscious time is just what the doctor ordered.

The opening instrumental "Denver Mexican Theme" (because everyone needs theme music) is definitely one of the strongest tracks present. Immediately following is "Rain", a hokey pop song complete with period appropriate slide guitar licks.  Then things chill out fast on "Lonesome Road" before the rave-up "Cold Steel" finishes off the side.  "John Coltrane Stereo Blues" cracks open the second side with a bang, but it's the last song you'll likely remember there.

They did record a follow-up album, Empire Town, a couple years later and then apparently dissolved. That one's available for download on Amazon, but this first LP remains relegated to analog obscurity. Anyway, I'd say it holds up a lot better.  Have a listen and decide for yourself. Also included is the non-album track, "Boogie Song", which would later be done acoustically for Empire Town, but again, this one's way better.

Well hello

Music has been an obsession of mine all my life; the earliest memories I have growing up around various parts of Texas and Arkansas are filled with the sounds of music in all its genres and formats.  Growing up during the 90's my tastes gradually evolved from the usual Top 40 'flavor of the week' pop music to include various forms of rock, blues, ambient, electronica and others.  In the early 2000's I began a CD collection, discovered the obsessive joy of burning customized playlists onto blank discs and subsequently became engrossed in the compact disc format for many years while it was still a lucrative market.  However as sensibilities evolved and my focus narrowed away from other hobbies, I became more interested in not just the melodic or lyrical nuance of music but its sonic qualities as well.  In 2006, I began using the free audio production software Audacity during my free time to break down snippets of music into their most fundamental elements.  These samples would then be reprocessed through various filters and delays until a point at which they would often be rendered unrecognizable - the aural equivalent of clay - before being reinvented as original soundtrack compositions.  These compositions were of course not much more than simple loops interlaced within one another and layered in a way much like the early work of modern ambient composers Stars of the Lid, Biosphere, Labradford and others from whom I drew heavy influence. They were also badly compressed as I would often save my work into a compiled mp3 format then re-write it once more density had been added which would cause the finished product to sound badly compressed.  These demo quality soundscapes of mine would then be set alongside some amateurish abstract filmwork - also badly compressed.

By this point I was living in Plano - a industrious and quintessential part of central Texas' metropolitan area - and had begun frequenting various Half Price Books locations, a successful franchise in the region which housed a sizable vinyl section in each store.  Pouring through these would pique my interest to the point that, in early 2008, I began collecting records from these stores as well as online shops with the initial intent of merely framing them for decoration.  However, after acquiring my first turntable I quickly developed an infatuation with the format to the point of trimming down my compact disc collection, freeing up some of the cash necessary to better accentuate what I had made up my mind to be a superior medium and the ultimate form of musical ownership.  Now comes the inevitable blog as a tribute to my obsession with these things.  Here I will post information concerning various releases in my collection, recent finds, some brief thoughts on the subject matter, links to past reviews I've written (when applicable) and also the occasional song ripped directly from my copy of the vinyl.