In lieu of a decent lineup of N-bands to offer you, here are my three favourite songs from Simple Machines' Neapolitan Metropolitan 7" Box Set, released in 1992. The three 7"s correspond to pistachio (Washington bands Bratmobile, Late [David Grohl's secret band], Lilys, Whorl), vanilla (Baltimore bands Tear Jerks, Candy machine Slack, False Face Society), and, erm, pink (Richmond bands Breadwinner, Coral, Burma Jam, Fudge). What's pink ice cream? Strawberry? Sure, let's go with strawberry. The box set came with a consciousness raising booklet about Ben & Jerry's good deeds, as well as those of two activist groups. For the completists in the crowd, I've included a link to the complete box set below. It's a mixed bag, just like an ice cream counter.
Strawberry mp3:Fudge - Montpelier Train Station
Pistachio mp3: Strawberry mp3:
Vanilla mp3:
Here is the full track listing for those with sharp eyes:
Here is the link to the complete box set:
Neapolitan Metropolitan 7" Box Set (12 song zShare archive)
12 comments:
YOU ARE MY HERO. I have crappy MP3s of this ripped from a cassette I made in 1994 and they just don't seem to do the music justice. Can't wait to listen to this over the weekend.
I thought neapolitan had chocolate in it?
don't forget that each box for reals came with its own little wooden spoon.
simple machines was the raddest. and were surprisingly inspirational in non-musical ways to the precocious 14-year-old that listened to this. i love it that jenny toomey continues to apply the simple machines ethic on an much broader scale with the future of music coalition stuff.
hey there -- i think your record player speed may be a bit off. i checked your recording of fudge's "montpelier train station" against my recording, and it's ~8 seconds slower than when i play it on my record player. the same is true for your recording of lorelei's song "burro" off the calling at duke street comp. wanted to let you know as i *love* your blog and think what you're doing is awesome. it would suck if the speed is off on all of the songs you're posting.
anyway, wanted to let you know. i would've emailed you directly but didn't see a contact address on the blog. mine's mgroovesATgmailDOTcom if you want to drop me a line. i can email you MP3s of my files if you want to do a comparison.
matt
Hi Matt,
Thanks for the feedback. I'm not sure that my record player or Audacity software are "slow". After all, we both chose arbitrary starting and stopping points within the sound file for those songs, so that will add variability to the track lengths. In these cases, if we each made an mp3 from the same record, then it's not clear whether your player is too fast or mine is too slow...there's no "gold standard". When I check the mp3 length of the songs I've ripped from 7"s against those I also own on CD (cf. the Fudge and Lorelei songs you mention) I find the lengths are all really close (within a few seconds) suggesting my record player is pretty good and those discrepancies are due to my choice of start/stop points not differences in speed. So, my hunch is the 8 second differences between your versions and mine are mostly due to me leaving more silent space at the start/end of the tracks than you do, maybe combined with slight differences in turntable speeds as you mentioned. I leave the pitch control at 0% on mine all the time, too, by the way. My recordings sound faithful enough to the originals for my purposes, and hopefully for others' purposes too! I do appreciate you bringing this to my attention though, and I'm glad you're otherwise enjoying the blog!
G
Hi again Matt,
I'm about to post the Twitch Hazel 7" EP, and the 7" version mp3 I made clocks in at 3:19 whereas the CD version I have clocks in at 3:25. So, based on track length, it would appear my turntable is fast, not slow. However, the CD version contains an extra 6 seconds of silence, so the song itself is the same length (3:19). So in this case, at least, my turntable speed is bang on. Plus, I saved y'all from having to listen to 6 seconds of nothing ;).
G
hey -- i may have been rash in assuming that your recording is slow.
jay over at clicky-clicky pointed out to me the zen-like quality of the question of whose record player is fast, and whose slow.
i posted both versions of lorelei's "burro" on imeem (
http://tinyurl.com/2msatu) so you can see the difference between the one you posted and the one i got elsewhere (yours is the second). of course i didn't rip the other version, so who knows whether they had a speedier player. listening to both versions, it's clear that one is off (though they both sound good to my ears).
thanks for posting the twitch hazel songs. i paid a silly amount of money on ebay to get that 7", and would have done the same for the ropers/tribbles split had i not stumbled across a copy for a quarter (!) in the clearance bins at amoeba records here in SF.
i just posted an imeem playlist of old-school indie rock and indiepop songs, primarily pulled from indie comps of the early 90s. based on what you've been posting on YSKOD, i think you'd like it -- poole, small factory, lois, versus, lorelei etc. -- check it out here: http://tinyurl.com/388aee
matt
p.s. -- included engine no. 9's "waterfall" on the playlist; it's another tasty "pre-Fudge artifact" that appeared on a bus stop records 7" and later on their peppermint stick parade comp. good stuff.
Your taste in music is unbelievable!
i love this blog so much. i've lived in maryland all my life, so i absolutely love the amount of dc and baltimore stuff i'm seeing around here on the blog!
thanks thanks thanks
SE AGRADECE DESDE CHILE !!!
WWW.DISCOSPUNK.BLOGSPOT.COM
GRACIAS !!!
I take it the end of the blog means no re-ups, eh?
:(
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