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October 2001 Parasol
Newsletter
Issue #47
Our release schedule is just starting to wind
down for the year. After The Soundtrack of Our Lives triple blast of September
we bring you new CDs from The Witch Hazel Sound and The Melody Unit, and our
latest installment of the Parasol's Sweet Sixteen. Next month will be
dedicated to holiday releases including The Green Pajamas' Carolers'
Song mini-album ("Night Boat to Gondal" appeared on Sweet
Sixteen, Volume 3), and Stuck in the Chimney, Parasol's second
annual holiday collection. The 16 gift givers include Green Pajamas, Jenifer
Jackson, The Soundtrack of Our Lives, White Town, and Neilson Hubbard.
SPOTLIGHT
Various Artists-Parasol's Sweet Sixteen,
Volume 4 CD
(Par-Promo-004) $5.00
Though a few weeks behind our semi-annual schedule,
Volume 4 in our series of Parasol artist collections was as satisfying
to assemble as the previous three. We crammed as many songs as possible, 20,
onto our 74 minutes of allotted space. And, we still had to cut a
"wayback" track. The price is still only five bucks and the previous
volumes are all nearly out-of-print so no waiting! The Soundtrack Of Our
Lives-"Nevermore" From the greatest living rock band's latest
masterpiece, Behind the Music. White Town-"Can't Make the World Go
Away" This previously unreleased song is holding us over until the White
Town full-length is complete. More, please. The Witch Hazel Sound-"Music
Becomes Vibration" The new 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. Jeff
Kelly-"Cruel Velvet Sea" The Hidden Agenda release of Green Pajamas'
In a Glass Darkly led to Indiscretion, the new solo album from
the band's creative leader Jeff Kelly. The All Music Guide calls
Indiscretion, "one of (Kelly's) best albums period, including his
Green Pajamas records." Absinthe Blind-"Antarctica" An
ever-popular live favorite in Parasol's hometown, Absinthe Blind has paid its
dues and is starting to reap the rewards with its first Mud release The
Everyday Separation. Adam Schmitt-"Overdone" One of four songs
that Adam originally delivered for his prospective Treefalling album.
Previously unreleased. Lasse Lindh-"Bruised" We first heard Lasse
Lindh sing on Club 8's "Keeping Track of Time," and then were knocked
flat when we heard his full-length You Wake Up at Sea Tac. Neilson
Hubbard-"No One Is To Blame" During one of his many tours supporting
the Parasol release Why Men Fail, Hubbard stopped in Champaign-Urbana
for a live performance where he wowed us with a cover of this Howard Jones hit.
He was gracious enough to record a version especially for this collection.
Chitlin' Fooks-"Not Enough Tears" Bettie Serveert's Carol Van Dyk and
Sukilove's Pascal Deweze set the clock to a quarter past country on their
self-titled debut album, steeped in pure Americana. "Not Enough
Tears" is one of the CD's seven original songs that mingle comfortably
among the Flying Burrito Brothers, Jimmie Rodgers, and Webb Pierce covers.
Starlet-"When Sun Falls On My Feet" This Swedish quartet made it into
Spin.com's Top 20 of 2000 with their second CD Stay On My Side. This is
the title song from Starlet's forthcoming CD, their third for Parasol. June
& the Exit Wounds-"Where I'm Taken" Parasol Records' best selling
artist, June & the Exit Wounds (aka Todd Fletcher), has been recording the
follow up to a little more Haven Hamilton, please at home and at various
friend's abodes over the past year. "Where I'm Taken" is a rough mix
of one of the songs that might make the new album. Angie Heaton-"Teach
Me" Nearly three years after her last solo release, Angie Heaton dips her
toe back in the water with an advance song from her forthcoming album Let It
Ride. Autoliner-"Misunderstood" From Autoliner's latest album
Be, "Misunderstood" carries on the band's
kitchen-sink-of-influences tradition, adding trumpet blasts and wall-to-wall
three part harmonies along the way. Mark Bacino-"Downtown Girl"
"Downtown Girl" is the first song mixed for New Yorker Mark Bacino's
new album, which will be out on Nippon Crown in Japan, and Parasol in the USA
sometime in 2002. Fonda-"Love Child" It was a great summer of 2001
for LA's Fonda. The band released their second CD The Strange and the Familiar
and recorded the end theme, "Spy Kids (Save the World)," for the hit
movie Spy Kids. The band recorded this cover of the Supremes classic for
a Motown tribute that has yet to be released. The Melody Unit-"Welcome
Back Tomorrow" The Melody Unit's self-released CD from 2000, Odds
Against Tomorrow, was a consensus favorite around the Parasol office last
year. We approached this Seattle band about recording a new album for Hidden
Agenda and we're pleased to release Choose Your Own Adventure this
autumn. Orange Alabaster Mushroom-"Valerie Vanillaroma" Canadian
psych-garage-pop-cult mastermynd Gregory Watson falls into the category of
those who have definitely had "too much to dream last night." Play
the album from which "Valerie Vanillaroma" is culled, Space &
Time: A Compendium of the Orange Alabaster Mushroom, at a Nuggets box set
marathon, and see who blinks. Signalmen-"Hold Me Down" The members of
Signalmen have been involved in a variety of local Champaign-Urbana bands over
the years (Proof Of Utah, Lonely Trailer, Weird Summer, The Outnumbered, The
Last Straw), but this current outfit may end up outlasting them all. Jack Logan
& Bob Kimbell-"Nothin' But Sky" Following the critical and sales
success of their Little Private Angel CD, Jack & Bob return with
another collection of personal, homespun stories. Jenifer Jackson-"Since
You've Been Away" This home demo is an exclusive track that does not
appear on Jackson's self-released CD Slowly Bright, or her
critically-acclaimed 2001 Parasol debut Birds.
The Witch Hazel Sound
This World, Then the Fireworks… CD
(AHA!028) $11.00
The Witch Hazel Sound's latest creation inhabits
a mystical, mythical fourth dimension, recalling eras past yet shot through
with a fractal-fractured future still shimmering in the wings… A more
intimate and earthy affair than their previous releases, it seems that rather
than being bundled up in their varied influences, in this breath The Witch
Hazel Sound have found themselves in their music. Yet for all the close-up
connection it is still a grand collection of blessed baroque-pop, crystalline
psychedelia, cozy 70s AM radio verisimilitude and winsome space-folk, infused
with ether-worldly atmospheres. While names like Brian Wilson and Van Dyk
Parks, Arthur Lee and Phil Spector are fully suitable touchstones, there are
the modern equivalents as well, like Mercury Rev and Grandaddy, The Lassie
Foundation and Kingsbury Manx… Previous and critically acclaimed Flydaddy
and Camera Obscura releases charted an evolution, This World, Then the
Fireworks… is The Witch Hazel Sound's epic revolution. The album's
lead-off track, "Music Becomes Vibration", is an undeniably hooky
slice of swirling psych-pop that is constantly ringing in our ears, and will be
featured on Parasol's Sweet Sixteen, Volume 4 label sampler. In addition
to sundry singles, The Witch Hazel Sound's discography includes their
critically-acclaimed debut album Landlocked (Flydaddy 1995), and the
more orchestral mini-album It's All True (Camera Obscura 1998), which
All Music Guide described as, "A dreamy, earthy sleepwalk through Brian
Wilson's sandbox". Members of The Witch Hazel Sound reside in Kent
Ohio.
The Melody Unit
Choose Your Own Adventure CD
(AHA!027) $11.00
This Seattle outfit's sumptuous
space-pop-folksongs are wrapped in a lush ambience, in a tropical
psychedeliciousness, in dense layers of blissful keys and guitars and guitars
(lotsa guitars) and sighing male and female dream-voices. Vocalist Jessica
Folsom has that seductive Julie Cruise (Twin Peaks) sensuality, her alto and
Kevin Kelly's baritone gracefully intertwine amidst the slinky metronomic-pop,
ethereal British folk, and sensual Euro pop grooviness. From the seven-plus
minute "Suite For Caesar" with it's Stereolabial pulse and tinkling
keys to the loping dynamics of "Kona Song" and the beautiful
"Snoqualmie", it is apparent The Melody Unit has joined much-loved
artists like My Bloody Valentine, Yo La Tengo, The Lassie Foundation, and All
Natural Lemon & Lime Flavors in the pink-noise-dream-pop pantheon. But
theirs is a more minimalist approach, less shoegazey, more melody-friendly,
allowing the actual pop-songs to shine through with some brilliant candlepower.
Album track "Welcome Back Tomorrow" is featured on Parasol's Sweet
Sixteen, Volume 4 label sampler.
"The Melody Unit allow their fuzzy sound to bleed outside the lines…
takes the psychedelic ether of the Electric Prunes, and makes it into a
chiming, whirring, floating pop masterpiece… Vocalist Jessica Folsom is
the embodiment of ethereal lust- breathy and drowsy and high as a kite on
Mars" --- PUNCTURE
Coming Soon...
- The Green Pajamas-The Carolers'
Song (Hidden Agenda) CD mini-album due in November
- Various Artists-Stuck in the
Chimney: More Christmas Singles CD due in November (Parasol)
- Starlet-When Sun Falls on My Feet
CD due in December (Parasol)
- Lasse Lindh-You Wake Up at Sea
Tac CD due in December (Hidden Agenda)
- Acid House Kings-Mondays are Like
Tuesdays and Tuesdays are Like Wednesdays CD due in January
(Parasol)
- Club 8-TBA CD due 2002 (Hidden
Agenda)
- Doleful Lions-TBA CD due TBA
(Parasol)
- June & the Exit Wounds-TBA CD
due TBA (Parasol)
- Toothpaste 2000-TBA CD due TBA
(Parasol)
- Angie Heaton-Let It Ride CD due
TBA (Mud)
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT...
…Adam Schmitt's latest CD,
Demolition, has been hovering around the apex of Parasol Mail Order's
TOP 10 sales list since its release less than three months ago. As documented
in this newsletter, almost from its inception 46 issues ago, Adam discarded two
album titles and who-knows-how-many songs before settling on the ten that
comprise Demolition. Kevin Bronson of the LA Times endorses the
album writing, "Mixing boisterous and jangling guitars, he suspends
exuberant choruses from power-pop hooks and waxes world-weary in a way that
suggests an introverted Paul Westerberg." The TV show Roswell has
decided to use the song "Second Story" in one of its upcoming
episodes. And, to compound all of this welcome attention and good news, Adam is
working toward finishing a new album of even newer music. He's apparently going
back to Demolition title #2, Treefalling, for this next album. I
think we can now safely answer the question that the album title implies. Yes,
people will hear it when it falls.
SOME PARASOL RELATED ARTIST ANSWERS SOME
QUESTIONS
Club 8's Johan
Angergard
1. Mixing session you wish you could have
attended-
"Banking, Violence and Inner Life Today, McCarthy's masterpiece. Great
sounding album. There seems to be so much going on in the music all the time,
though I'm not sure if it is. I would also just like to hang out with the guys
a little."
2. Songs you think you probably shouldn't
like but just can't help yourself-
"People are so open minded nowadays so I'm not sure what to say. Are you
supposed to like Whitney Houston's 'My Love Is Your Love?' A few years ago I
could have said stuff like Sabrina's "Boys, Boys, Boys" or Jonzon
Crew's "We Are the Jonzon Crew" but all the kids love that stuff
nowadays."
3. Favorite record that you can't find on CD
(or CD you can't find on vinyl)-
"The Orchids' Lyceum. Wonderful, sensitive album. This is one of the Sarah
releases that stands the passing of time. I know it's been released on CD in
France by Midnight Music, but that doesn't count..."
4. First Concert-
"I don't remember my first concert. It was probably Bob Dylan or Ulf
Lundell with my parents when I was really young. I didn't start going to
concerts on purpose until I was 15 or 16 I believe. Wannadies, My Bloody
Valentine and Stone Roses were among the first I think. It was in 1989 or 1990
so I'm quite new at this."
5. Favorite Bass Player-
"I really liked the bass playing of that guy in Field Mice when I was a
big Field Mice fan. I don't remember his name I'm afraid. I guess that says a
lot of how interested I am in bass players, despite the fact that I actually
played bass with Lasse Lindh on his gigs in Sweden this spring."
Johan is one-half of the Swedish duo Club 8, is
part owner of Labrador Records, and performs in Acid House Kings. He is
currently finishing the 4th Club 8 CD which we will release in early
2002.
The Archive
September 2001 August 2001 July
2001 June 2001
May 2001 April
2001 March 2001
February 2001 January 2001 December 2000 November 2000 October 2000 September 2000 July
2000 May 2000 April 2000 March
2000 February 2000
January 2000 December 1999 November 1999
September 1999 August
1999 July 1999
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