Wednesday, March 05, 2008

The VSS / Rye Coalition split 2x7"

The VSS / Rye Coalition split 2x7" (Super 8 Records, 1997?)

This one is interesting indeed. No explanations about each band needed, The VSS are about to re-release their epic LP "Nervous Circuits" on Hydra Head (read about it all here), Rye Coalition are still around and could never decide whether they want to be big or stay small. I loved them to bits, perhaps still would if I knew their new stuff. Who knows. Saw them live and did an interview with them, they're fun to hang out with. (I almost saw The VSS in Vienna but their van broke down in Switzerland, so the show had to be cancelled. "Or so the story goes". Pleasure Forever made it here a couple of years later though.)

Well, this double-7" has both rather unlikely bands teamed up. The VSS have "In Miniature" remixed, but it's a rather lacklustre affair. The B-side is great however, an Echo And The Bunnymen cover. Nice idea, nice version. Great to hear that typical VSS-korg-sound applied to an older song like this.

Rye on the other hand simply miss the opportunity by only releasing "Fucking With Beautiful Posture" a second time (a great song off "He Saw The Cat"), and provide a remix of the very same song, which is also rather boring I'm afraid. However, I am providing the remix anyway, so please judge for yourself.

The artwork on this double-7"-single is great, and apparently, you can still get it from the original label, Super 8 Records. I don't really believe it though, that website looks very old. E-Mail them first, I'd say.

vss / rye split 2x7"
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mp3: The VSS - No Hands (Echo & The Bunnymen)
mp3: Rye Coalition - Fucking With The Rye Coalition

Sunday, March 02, 2008

Pecola

A little Canada-Special..

Pecola
Dat Hoang E.P. (Splipped Disc/Skull Geek Records, 1997)

Canada's a fun little country. It's an America that is happy to show and refer to its mostly European heritage. It seems that Canadians are much more aware of their Scottish, French, Irish or Czech roots, and it's pretty damn cute. And then there's the post-codes of course, a system that comes straight from the Royal Mail in Britain. It's fantastic. Now, if they just stopped clubbing the shit out of seals, that'd be grand.

This band here, Pecola, is a band I saw in Toronto in 1997, at a place called El Mocambo, and they appeared to be quite the thing in Toronto at the time. I got their Dat Hoang E.P., which is a great record. For me it came out of nowhere and gave me a pretty unique inside-look into local Canadian bands. I would have never heard about Pecola otherwise.

They were very typical of the type of indie/emo/etc. I would have liked at the time - very math-rock, very Donut Friends, but still kind of melodic. Does that make sense? To some it will. Incidentally I saw Harriet The Spy while I was in Canada as well, at Who's Emma.

Two songs, the best ones off their record. I'm sorry I don't know more about them, but if you google that EP you can find more songs, and they also have a myspace-profile you can check out. If you have more info on what happened to those guys, please add it.

Incidentally, I tried to add as many "ou"-sounds in this text, but failed miserably.

mp3: Pecola - Autostalk
mp3: Pecola - Class XXX

pecola_dat_hoang_cover
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