Day 362
Monogamy: we start the week in Chicago with Monogamy’s EP “More Songs About Apartments & Lunch”. The poppy lo-fi EP is out now on cassette directly from the band. The EP has 4 songs, all recorded live this past January.
The Stammer: we continue in the US, now a band that I have featured back in the day. A long time ago I think! But I am well aware of the nice jangle pop this Philadelphia band makes. Their latest is a 10″ EP with just three songs! The songs included are “Burden on the Living”, “Wishing Well” and “Heaven”. Good stuff!
Miracle Legion: the classic New Haven band is on Bandcamp. I didn’t know! Their latest release there is actually a live album, “Live at Glam Slam 1992”. This club was a place invented and partly owned by Prince. They played there in March of 1992 and they did the 15 songs included here. Only digital it seems.
Citrus Clouds: another band that I enjoy and have featured in the past is this Phoenix, Arizona, combo. They have just released a new album titled “Collider”, 10 great slices of dreampop that are available on cassette and CD from Lolipop Records. This is a must for this month.
Firestations: ok, let’s move from the US to the UK now. There’s a cool limited CDR of the Firestations latest EP “Melted Medium”. It looks really pretty and it is actually the second installment in a trilogy of three EPs. Here are 6 lovely crafted popsongs that I totally recommend.
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I found two videos of the American band Syrup USA playing live. I have their album CD but I never put a face to the band members, nor I imagined them as a band. So this was really cool. These two videos I found on the channel RoadToRuane were actually full gigs. The first dates from October 26, 1996 at a venue called Middle East (in which city was this venue located?) while the 2nd is from is from April 28, 1997, at the Green Street Grill (which city again?).
The band’s first release was a 7″ on the label Tru Luv (SYRUP 3), which we can guess was the band’s own. This 7″ was called “Spinning at 45 Revolutions Per Minute” and included two songs, “Joie de Vol” on the A side and “Bulldozer” on the B side. Both songs were recorded by Eric Masunaga (from The Dambuilders) at the Cold Room in Boston, in October 1994.
On the credits we find that the art was created by Leela Corman while we see Seana Carmody on vocals and guitar, Matt Fein on organ, Orrin Anderson on drums and Sam Mallery on bass and vocals.
The band’s second release was again a single. Released in 1995, this new 7″ came out also on Tru Luv (Tru Luv 2). It had two songs, “Teen Death” on the A side and “Mysterious Dog” on the B side. Both songs had been recorded at Fort Apache Studios in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Then they were mixed at Q-Division in Boston. I think by now I am pretty sure the band hailed from the Boston area. The person behind both recording and mixing was Miss Christina “Sport” Files (who had been in the Swirlies). Eric Masunaga is also credited with helping in the mixing. The executive producer for this record was Nick Hubben.
The band’s album, “All Over the Land”, came out in 1997. This is the record.I own by them. I remember enjoying it quite a bit. It was released on both CD and LP and was even released in Japan by Nippon Columbia (COCY-80775). In the rest of the world it was released by Flydaddy Records (FLY 023). Flydaddy was the label of bands like The Olivia Tremor Control, Autohaze or Witch Hazel.
Again the band recorded at Fort Apache and Q Division Studios. The songs on this album were “People of the Lake”, “Joie de Vol”, “Thrill Fit”, “Parfait” and “Vaporized” on the A side and “New You”, “Trellis”, “Queen of the Beach”, “Stardust”, “Rosey Why” and “Harlequin” on the B side. 11 songs in total. The painting for the artwork is credited to Geoffrey Burns and the photos to Charles Peterson. In the mixing we see Owen Burkett and Richard Marr being credited. Christina Files was again the producer and engineer.
It is also worth noting that the Japanese version included three more songs, “Mysterious Dog”, “Teen Death” and “Bulldozer”.
Aside from these releases the band appeared on a few compilations in the 90s. The most well known is of course the 1996 comp “Pop American Style” on March Records (MAR024). This is a classic comp of course, and here the band appeared with the song “Thrill Fit”.
In 1996 their song “Rosey Why” appears on “Pipelin! Live Boston Rock on WMBR” double CD comp released by Slow River Records (VA016). That same year they contribute “After Dallas” to another CD compilation called “The Cool Beans! Texas Issue Companion CD” that came with the Cool Beans! magazine fifth number.
Lastly in 1997 the band had “Queen of the Beach” on “Explorer” a CD compilation that came with the 9th issue of the Japanese magazine Beikoku Ongaku and their track “Stardust” appeared on “CMJ New Music Monthly Volume 50 October 1997”, a CD that came included with the CMJ mag from October of that year.
Other worthy information that I could find is that Seana Carmody released a solo record in 2002 and was part of Raspberry Bang and the Swirlies. Sam Mallery was in the Hidden Driveways. Matt Fein seems to have collaborated with Sebadoh and Orrin Anderson worked in Seana’s album.
There is a Wikipedia entry on the band but doesn’t tell any other details sadly. So I keep googling… one interesting detail I find is that the band started in 1993 and disbanded in 1998.
And then I find a podcast, an interview with Seana Carmody. The podcast show is called All Your Things are Gone. And even better a Bandcamp with her latest release which is called “Barn Songs“. It is much folkier than Syrup USA but it is very enjoyable!
When it comes to Sam Mallery I find he has a blog! I found a mention of Syrup USA in this article, where he mentions they played Maxwell’s in Jersey.
Another good find is this review of their album on the Boston Phoenix. It dates from October 1997 and was written by Brett Milano.
And that’s it. Where are they now? Who remembers them?
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Listen
Syrup USA – Parfait
