Hang spring cleaning? Maybe not. With the big O out the way I’ve got chance to refocus. So what’s happening? God only knows.
Enough song and music references.
I pretty much closed down the whole record label thing (some 7”s are still for sale if you want one. Knock down prices). Been there, done that, don’t have the time to do it properly anymore. If I ever did. I sent out a whole bunch of last remaining few copies of sleeved up 3” CDRs the other day, slotted in with the long overdue orders that were still sitting around my inbox. Shoddy work, letting them sit there for so long, and I hate being shoddy and unreliable. Sometimes it’s something that cannot be helped of course, but there it is. As a ‘closing down’ action I made a series of full sized CDRs that collected all the 3” releases. Six volumes. 117 songs, 26 artists (if you include the unreleased Sarianna EP). I played them all last weekend as I struggled with pre-OfSTED preparation, and they sounded fantastic. It made me proud to have had a hand in helping them be heard by even a few more people than might otherwise have heard them.
Other people are doing the 3” CDR thing now, which is good to see. They do it better than I could. Or at least they seem to have more dedication to the cause, whatever the cause might be. Me, I’m in one of those withdrawal phases maybe. A lot of what I hear just passes me by. Kill Twee Pop. You know what I mean.
I love the Northern Portrait 'Fallen Aristocracy' EP on Matinee though. It sounds delicious. Uplifting, cascading guitars. You know the score. They sound like Gene if you remember them and if you care. Which means they also sound like The Faith Brothers. I always play that card, and hardly anyone knows what it means or if it’s even accurate. Not that it matters. I do not even own a Faith Brothers record. They are part of a strange memory of a strained time in the dreaded 1980s. Did they not support REM on their Reconstruction of The Fables tour? And were they not sparkling? Perhaps, perhaps not. But when I hear Northern Portrait I am reminded of moments in the sun and rain, holding out a hope for a dream that could never come true. And thank goodness for that.
Northern Portrait also remind me of the likes of Windmills and East Village and High Five and Hurrah! All those things that should mean a lot.
It made me go back and play the Damn The Lion tracks that I put out on a 3” a couple of years ago. For Damn The Lion reminded me of all those things as well, and playing the songs again now they still do. Precious. Hopefully we made it precious. Someone else will decide that though.
Too bad, I wanted to order the wonderfull Hacia Dos Veranos cd that I've forgotten in my precedent order... Never put to tomorrow things you could do today...(It makes sense in french, I'm not sure know if it does in english).
Posted by: Pietro | March 31, 2008 at 00:26