September 2001 Parasol Newsletter

Issue #46

Another volume of our Sweet Sixteen series is mastered and ready for the pressing plant. Adam Schmitt contributes an unreleased song that was originally slated for his suspended Treefalling album. Neilson Hubbard covers the Howard Jones hit "No One is to Blame" and Fonda merges dream pop with Motown on a version of the Supremes' "Love Child." Volume 4 also boasts a Jenifer Jackson home demo, new songs by June & the Exit Wounds, Angie Heaton, and White Town, a sneak peak of the next Starlet album, and first time Sweet Sixteen entries from Absinthe Blind, The Witch Hazel Sound, The Signalmen, and (woo hoo!) The Soundtrack of Our Lives, among others.

SPOTLIGHT

The Soundtrack of Our Lives

If you've somehow missed our raves regarding this clandestinely classic rock band, here's a whole page for you! When I personally bought the first one on import for $26 I had that same giddy feeling I used to get when I drove my parents car into Chicago to buy imports at Wax Trax with the money I somehow diverted from my college savings account. Sure, the album was destined to get a domestic release at $15, but I would have it first! A few years passed without America's knowledge of The Soundtrack Of Our Lives and we saw a UK distributor listing for an unfamiliar title. "Extended Revelation." Was it a remix as the title suggested, or a new album? Our patience was rewarded with the knowledge that Extended Revelation was in fact a new 16-song album. $26 more dollars left my wallet and I was glad to see it go. The new album was better than the first and a few underground publications - Ugly Things, Your Flesh - did long features related to the band. We bought as many copies as we could for Parasol Mail Order and customer after customer read our recommendations, bought both CDs, and told their friends. We started dealing directly with Warner Brothers Sweden and were able to offer them through Parasol Mail Order at a domestic price. Still, why had no big American label picked these up for the U.S.? All Music Guide said the band had signed to Sire, and we heard TVT was going to release Extended Revelation, but more time passed and nothing happened. All the while we were contacting the label, contacting management, contacting one of the member's girlfriends (ok, she directed the fan club), in an attempt to license the CD for U.S. distribution. We had little to offer but enthusiasm. We couldn't pay much up front, and were not sure how many we could sell, but surely when we mailed CDs to journalists - all of them, at their core, music fans - the word-of-mouth would begin. Still, there was no interest in licensing the CD to a small U.S. independent. Our disappointment was lessened by news that 2001 would bring album #3, Behind the Music. And then, more good news came; Hidden Agenda/Parasol was given the opportunity to license finished product for sale in the U.S. Now, we finally get to release music by our favorite rock band. The greatest living rock band in the world today. Note: Regular prices for all three are $11.00, but for the month of September you can buy them on sale for $8.50 each. An amazing deal!!

Welcome to the Infant Freebase
CD (AHA!030) $11.00

Extended Revelation: From the Psychic Weaklings of the Western Civilization
CD (AHA!031) $11.00

Extended Revelation - For The Psychic Weaklings Of The Western Civilization was released in early 1998, the band's second effort boasted a mere 16 songs and found TSOOL exploring a mellower, trippier soundworld. More mystical and darker than their explosive debut Welcome to the Infant Freebase, their second effort, the 16-song Extended Revelation is an album of breathtaking beauty: retro-pop alchemy and narcotic psychedelic rock. "From Gravity to Gold", "Century Child" and the "Jehova Sunrise" showed of the typical dramatic sounds that now had become their trademark, while "Impacts & Egos" was a close relative to "Instant Repeater´99" from Welcome To the Infant Freebase. "Psychomantum 2000," "So Far," and "Let It Come Alive" delved into more psychedelic territory, while "Safety Operation" displayed the sentiment of melodic 60s pop akin to The Kinks and The Who.

Behind the Music
CD (AHA!032) $11.00

In a way, it's a completely new band that emerges on The Soundtrack Of Our Lives' third full-length release, Behind The Music. The melancholic vibe that dominated the first two albums has partly been replaced with more hard hitting and groove-driven songs. Rockers such as "Keep the Line Movin'," "Independent Luxury," "Infra Riot" and the voluptuous "Sister Surround," burn with an incandescence that recalls the Union Carbide days, post-dated with The Rolling Stones and updated with brilliant studio alchemy. The band still keeps the balance though, with a handful of pure pop singles begging for radio play, "Still Aging" and "Nevermore" and the brilliant 60s psych-anthem-freakout "The Flood." The band also let their acoustic prowess shine through, delivering moody and introspective songs such as the masterful piano tearjerker "Tonight," - collaboration between keyboardist Martin Hederos and vocalist Ebbot Lundberg - and the serene lullaby of "In Your Veins." Once again The Soundtrack Of Our Lives created An Album Statement, like albums of era's past. Listening to Behind The Music, you can't avoid being struck by the fervor and force emanating from the songs. This is a band playing at the height of their ability, and enjoying every second of it. You'll be able to sample the song "Nevermore" on the forthcoming Parasol's Sweet Sixteen, Volume 4.

Coming Soon...

• The Melody Unit-Choose Your Own Adventure (Hidden Agenda) CD due in October
• The Witch Hazel Sound-This World, Then the Fireworks… (Hidden Agenda) CD due in October
• Various Artists-Parasol's Sweet Sixteen, Volume 4 CD due in October (Parasol)
• The Green Pajamas-The Carolers' Song (Hidden Agenda) CD EP due in November
• Starlet-When Sun Falls on My Feet CD due in November (Parasol)
• Lasse Lindh-You Wake Up at Sea Tac CD due in November (Hidden Agenda)
• Angie Heaton-Let It Ride CD due TBA (Mud)
• Doleful Lions-TBA CD due TBA (Parasol)
• June & the Exit Wounds-TBA CD due TBA (Parasol)
• Toothpaste 2000-TBA CD due TBA (Parasol)
• Club 8-TBA CD due 2002 (Hidden Agenda)

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT...

…Club 8's new self-titled CD, is getting the recognition we hoped it would. First, thanks to you it likely will end up in Parasol Mail Order's top 5 sellers of 2001. Second, veteran rock critic Greil Marcus acknowledged its charms in a recent Salon.com column writing, "From a Swedish duo, dream pop with the undertow dream pop needs…It's a love-and-espionage sound that's been missing since Belgian band Hooverphonic's 1996 A New Stereophonic Sound Spectacular - apparently a sound only Europeans can make, or hear." Third, Alternative Press says Club 8 is "lovely and mesmerizing laissez-faire music that manages to be sweet and catchy without being cloying." And fourth, Rollingstone.com praises vocalist (and CD booklet star) Karolina "Komstedt's breathy vocals (which) hold the same sort of sensual allure as do those that anchor St. Etienne, the Sundays and the Cardigans." If you're a big-city female clothes shopper be sure to keep your ears pricked in Anthropologie outlets, which will feature Club 8 on their stereos.

SOME PARASOL RELATED ARTIST ANSWERS SOME QUESTIONS

The Witch Hazel Sound's Kevin Coral

1. Mixing session you wish you could have attended-
"Well, I could say something obvious like Forever Changes or Pet Sounds but instead I'd go with the mixing session that put Ennio Morricone's score to the film Once Upon a Time In the West. It would truly be awe-inspiring to see the work of two geniuses - one cinematic, one musical - come together to make something truly greater than the sum of its parts."

2. Songs you think you probably shouldn't like but just can't help yourself-
"A ton. Ummm... 'Weekend In New England' by Barry Manilow, 'Sister Christian' by Night Ranger, anything by America. I could go on forever."

3. Favorite record that you can't find on CD (or CD you can't find on vinyl)-
"Also a ton. Off the top of my head: Mustard by Roy Wood, Dream With Dean by Dean Martin, Someday Man by Paul Williams, Brasil by Joao Gilberto, Rewind by Johnny Rivers, and hundreds more."

4. First Concert-
" I really don't remember (I have an awful memory). I think it was Genesis in 1985. Yes, I was, and to some extent still am, a Genesis fan. Though by that time, they really began to suck."

5. Favorite Bass Player-
"For the sheer number of great songs she played on, it'd have to be Carol Kaye. Honorable mention to McCartney and Brian Wilson. Oh, and Mike Split of Witch Hazel Sound. He is the BEST bass player out there right now, bar none."

The forthcoming CD, This World, Then the Fireworks…, from Kent, Ohio's, The Witch Hazel Sound mixes the pop song elements of the band's critically-acclaimed debut CD, Landlocked, and their more orchestrated follow up EP, It's All True, which All Music Guide describes as, "A dreamy, earthy sleepwalk through Brian Wilson's sandbox…" Kevin plays guitar and co-writes the songs for WHS.

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