GHOST DANCE 2x7"

Two king-size legends this week, starting with one that used to go for a trillion duckets on eBay every time, before the nowaday when none of the kids-with-rich-parents seem to know who any of these bands really are, thus if I listed this one right now, I'd get one bid at most, and bid it adieu for roughly five crummy bucks. Like the one I just looked up. The seller tried giving it a Buy-It-Now option for $15.99, and received not a single bid.

But money doesn't matter, which is why I hung with this one through the thick cash and thin chances. She's a classic, straight from the mad-at-dad-but-I-love-him-still style of cough[emo]cough. 'Scuse me.

The Ghost Dance 2x7" sorta became an insert artwork template for the day's typewritten acts, who primarily rode Slave Cut, Council, Inchworm and Repercussion out of the midwest, northeast or plain ol' west (the heads of the southeast were, portion for portion, a little different).

Its line-up was definitely the day's board of commissioners, rife with a murky, mucky production that sounds immediately post-war (and we're talkin' your grandpa's war), save for the actual, well, genre. And the word "production" really had nothing to do with anything at this point, which I love.

We're rambling, but for everyone who requested this one, I'm sorry for being so lazy. For some reason, I looked at this double 7" and saw a workload. So I sucked in, rolled up the sleeves, burped and here we are. And you've got another one coming up after this...

TITLE: Ghost Dance
LABEL: Slave Cut
YEAR: 1994
TRACKS:
Indian Summer - Pills / From Ashes Of... - Theme For Memory / Third Rail Rhyme - Double Helix / Embassy - His Years / Cap'n Jazz - Bluegrass / Braid - Elephant / Embassy - How Can You

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EUCALPYTUS 2x7"

This is kinda the other one, if you know what I mean. The 'part two,' I guess.

Although sharing a couple bands--Embassy and Indian Summer, who were everywhere--the audio quality is cleaner, the artwork became the second template, the Current track is holy shit good, and it, too, fetched your top dollar on eBay before you went extinct.

In retrospect, I think I dig this one more, although at the time I think it took me a little longer to warm up to it with Ghost Dance still in the room. And although I just hit on Current's jam, it's Boilermaker who actually brings the dessert. It's a big song with a big sound captured darn well by Gar Wood, who seemed to've hit record on nearly every San Diego-area recording to boom in the early '90s. (And Gordie, if you're reading, I want my CD back!)

To me, its label, Tree Records, marked the period when the light, at its brightest, began dimming down. They came on the scene when all applicants' eyes and ears were sewn to this sound, and they happened to be in the center of the room with Eucalpytus, Owltian Mia, the Post Marked Stamps 7" series and Ethel Meserve.

Then I remember getting an email that the label was folding up, going splat. It's about this time I started seeing all these new names, new bands that, I dunno, just didn't seem the same. They all seemed real sarcastic and "revolutionary" in a ha-ha kind of way. Orchid. City of Caterpillar. Neil Perry. Not terrible bands, but they were the next wave and I wasn't riding. Although I did love Orchid for a minute. And I suppose I still do. But not many others.

TITLE: Eucalyptus
LABEL: Tree
YEAR: 1996
TRACKS:
Indian Summer - Touch The Wing Of An Angel, Doesn't Mean You Can Fly / Current - Bastille / Allure - I Think I Can / Shroomunion - Rain Dance Flood Come Rain / Boilermaker - Slingshot / Embassy - Blackness / Julia - I Will Not Be Ignored

Here's all the music discussed in this post.