Never Know What Expect Sometimes

More from the batch of extra cheap batch of indiepop seven inches I picked up last year.
I bought them blind. Having no idea what or who they were, but they were ridiculously cheap and based on the rest of what the seller had on offer seemed to be of a piece. So I plunked down my hard earned and waited to discover what I had gotten myself into...

Ego (1998)

Ego were apparently French.

Ego is a pretty terrible name for such a sweet twee little indiepop band. It sounds more like the name of a loud boring alt-rock outfit that might play one of the outlying stages of a large outdoor festival to thirty people while a further thousand mill about paying too much for bottles of water.

Not to mention that there are a full 52 different artists who currently or previously went by the moniker "Ego"

Not really a good way to stand out from the crowd.

I chose it because it was on Matinée Recording. I have some other stuff on the label, so I  kind of had an idea of what I was in for already, but without that I don't think I'd have paused on this release flipping through a bin at a record store. But such is the power of offering me records for ninety nine cents...

 Cecil Seaskull (1997)


Cecil Seaskull.

Now there's a name. Going to forever be the only one of those on Discogs. It's catchy and the sort of name that makes me wonder what that sounds like.

She/they win.


The insert uploaded above gives the particulars of this release. I don't feel like rehashing anything that's already right in front of your lazy eyes already, so go head and click on that and squint a bit.
I'm hungry and we're supposed to go out for some hamburgers tonight.

Cecil Seaskull/Nerdy Girl also released a full length the following year which I don't have.
Yet, anyway.

Storytime continues more or less.

Where did we leave off....

Aden (1997)

Those guys in the previous post who had formed a band and called it Dingle and then changed the name to Aden recorded and entire compact disc of material and set it loose on the world with a cover painting of two cows.

Who doesn't love cows? Or at least a good hamburger. Or cold glass of milk.

And really it was only an almost complete compact disc of material. There are a handful of songs that were on the previous two releases. Only this time in glorious digital fidelity.

Mid-90s vinyl can be pretty noisy and cheap sometimes.

But I digress...

This full length release brought them to the attention of Teen-Beat records which would go on to release a further three full length compact discs of Aden that I don't have, so this story doesn't really have much of an ending. Only a soundtrack. And a nice melancholy indiepop one at that. So....

the end?

Storytime

It's an old story.

Well, relatively so.

I mean, holy shit. 1995 was close to a quarter of a century ago....

Time flies even when you're not even having any fun.

Remember that and think of it sometime when you're about to fall asleep.

Dingle (1995)


So once upon a time there were three college kids in Chicago, Illinois who formed a band. They called this band Dingle.

Dingle was a good band. They played live and after a little while they went and recorded a little seven inch ep and named it after themselves. It had three little songs simply recorded and released it into the world for everyone to see. And nobody paid that much attention.

Aden (1996)

So our three stalwart and steady heroes made a bold decision. They changed the name of their band to Aden. That they decided was a much better name and one that was bound to grab them more attention and put them at the very front of the alphabet where people might see them. And then they waited.

And while they sat behind the hedge waiting they recorded another seven inch with three more songs on it this time. One of the songs on it was named "Aden" which they liked enough to name themselves after. It was a good bit of vinyl and they knew it.

And then they waited some more for people to notice.

(to be continued...?)

A Dearth of Vowels

Yeah, yeah.

It's the 13th.

Dial M for Merthyr (1997)

It's a double Lp compilation of Welsh bands from 1997.

I feel like that should speak for itself.

Lo-fi-fo fum

It's hard to come up with words to describe music while listening to other music.
I'm not so good at that kind of multitasking shit.

It gets even harder when you have to get up every five or so minutes to flip over the single that you're digitizing on the other laptop and you're listening to the record and typing.

As young Sarah Lynn was wont to say:

That's too much, man!

Me, My Drums and You (1998)


According to something else I read, Busytoby is an side band featuring members of Champaign, IL's own Wolfie which may or may not make it more enticing a listen to some.

 I'm not swung either way. I listen to this entirely on its own merits.

Lo-fi recording, cheap keyboards and strummy guitars on Parasol Records.

I'm in.

The Unlonely Songwriter (1999)


The other one on 100 Guitar Mania Records has a cover of Donovan's "The Sun is a Very Magic Fellow" on the b-side.

All in.

They had me at a Donovan cover.