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Showing posts with label Foolscap Fire. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Foolscap Fire. Show all posts

8/11/11

the Resonars

Lunar Kit LP 2002
On Matt Rendon’s releases as The Resonars he goes to the trouble to present the Resonars as a band with four real members who share the instrumentation and four part vocal harmonies, but everything is performed by Matt. It wasn’t always that way. They functioned as a real band that played live shows in the early years, but Matt, like all great musicians, probably came to the conclusion that he could get more done quicker by doing it himself. Plus it’s probably impossible to find good players that have as deep an understanding and love of 60s psych rock and pop music as he does. Sure you can find guys that wanna cover Hendrix and the Beatles at any shitty bar in any town, but Matt’s dipping into a much deeper well of 60s rock for inspiration. He can reproduce it so original and authentic sounding that when Dirty Steve, who also has a great knowledge of 60s music, first heard this album he thought it was some obscure gem from the 60s that flew under his radar. He has recorded a lot of my bands and the man can work studio magic with 60s technology. Title track refers to Keith Moon’s drum kit, the same model and set up that was used to record this record. He’s recorded at least two other full lengths since this record, all worth hunting down.

5/3/11

Foolscap Fire

2005 CD-R
Here’s a release that went criminally under-rated/unheard. I listened to this more than any other Tucson release in the years I was living in Flagstaff. Their sound reminds me of current Brooklyn hipster bands like Vivian Girls or Grass Widow mixed with a haunting Sonic Youth vibe. The Roger sisters played in a number of bands before this, but always seemed to chew up members and spit um out. Then Matt Rendon (the Resonars, Knockout Pills, Marshmallow Overcoat etc.) came into the picture and they came into their own. I don’t think it was due to Matt’s musical influence as much as his patience and ability to work with Cherish and Katie cause this isn’t like any of his projects before this. His talent is apparent though. They spent a lot of time recording this at Matt’s own Coma Cave studio and it sounds great, but then they went with generic rushed art work and did a limited CD-R release on Scott Moody’s Star Time Records. Moody’s releases are always reliable but he never dumped a lot of money into packaging, advertising, distribution and all that stuff. From what I understand Foolscap Fire quit because of Cherish’s problems with carpal tunnel and Katie’s busy schedule as a lawyer. Matt is probably recording a new record as you read this.