spy versus spy

so the other week i was browsing ebay looking for oop mineral singles and stuff when i saw spy versus spy's self titled release up for bidding, starting price: un euro solo (€1)

i'd heard of these guys on c-zine ages ago, and after sampling a few of their tracks (namely 'how the cat was invented'), i was immediately impressed. their sound is raw, all over the place, but held into place by some funky rhythms and some really crunchy but enviable overdrive on the guitars. mister lead singer's voice treads the thin line between passionately screaming, honestly declaring and forcefully presenting shards of emotion. there's soft bits where they matter, frenzy where it matters, and the little lines of lyrics you can kind of treasure to yourself.

sadly, upon a bit of research these dudes came out of stoke-on-trent/newcastle (wiki says former, cd cover says latter) and have since broken up. about six years ago in fact. makes me kind of sad, these guys would have been amazing to see live.

stand out track of the album at first listen appears to be "helpless, sign in please" ("do you remember when september began? we'll close our eyes and pretend"), but this is one band who knew how to be consistant in their tunes. though i must be fair and say that a lot of my love for this band is nostalgic; they slot nicely into my favourite genre, and favourite subgenre of that genre making them an instant favourite.

so they're on their seventh spin so far in my player. top notch effort guys. drew rating five thumbs out of five firmly UP.



for fans of: braid, rockets & blue lights, cap'n jazz

mp3: helpless, sign in please

southpaw

so i ran out of things to listen to for a little while. that's not to say i haven't been buying music lately! and it's not to say i've not been relistening to classics, either. but sure, i have some recent purchases such as the new converge album waiting to grow on me, but i doubt that my parents would be too chuffed at me spinning some hardcore punk at three in the morning. there was nothing left but to sit down in front of the stacks and choose some more obscure stuff that i hadn't listened to properly yet.

the winner was "trajectories" by southpaw.

let me explain. i had this phase back when i first turned 18 and got my debit card that consisted of me sitting on ebay searching for anything related to "mineral" or "sunny day real estate". so yeah i managed to get my hands on some absolute gems, such as the ethel meserve tamsen 7", and mineral's split 7" with jimmy eat world and sensefield, but at the same time i bought a load of other cds as well.

in buying these, it's one of the first and only times advertising has actually really helped me out, conciously. you see, a lot of these smaller labels would put their catalogues up on ebay, and in the title field of the item, they'd shove names of bands that the release sounded like. so i think i've got a load of shit discs that sound like spitalfield lying around that i bought just because they had "EMO sunny day real estate" appended to the title.

anyways, enough of my buying habits and onto the disc. southpaw's "trajectories" all in all cost me less than a fiver, postage paid, which was a fantastic bargain to be honest. released on the "boss tunage" label, southpaw seem to have disappeared from the internet; it's impossible to find anything on them anywhere, except for one zine entry. so that's why the album cover above consists of me holding up the sleeve and an awkward flash obscuring a bit. image searches for the actual band consisted of loads of different country western bands holding up acoustic guitars and looking about 35+.

the actual cd itself lies on the punkier side of 90s emo. released in 2003, it's a bit of a return to the sounds of this era, with melodic little guitar lines on top of grunged out powerchords. kind of a departure from other bands though, they slot in the odd pinch harmonic just to really freak you out.

if there's one track you hear from this band, make sure it's 'inertia'. catchy as fuck, blazing along like a rollercoaster. it's a really honest, pop-punk track that just cheered me up as soon as i heard it. i'm a fan, anyway.

really it's better to hear it. check out the mp3 below. catch you guys later.


mp3 http://www.megaupload.com/?d=ZZBR3QHD

if this doesn't work after a period, just give me an email at iamdrew@gmail.com requesting i send the file.
i've never used megaupload before.

ps southpaw, if you don't want mp3s up here, just let me know and i'll take them down.