days in december

for a long while i was under the impression that days in december had no output other than a split 7″ with sweater weather (http://www.polyvinylrecords.com/ although you would do well to find mention of this release on their website), which featured a song entitled ‘main in vine’, a song which fused sunny day real estate and the midwest emo style to great effect. so, i made do with that one song, rediscovering it for mixtapes every now and again, and rarely ever considering that there were other recordings out there.

until march of this year. someone unearthed a days in december live set, the ‘WEFT radio sessions’. 5 songs (including a version of ‘main in vine’) and almost half an hour that suggests that days in december would have been more than capable of producing one of the great mid west emo lps. and we should be rather upset that they didn’t. the songs are lengthy, often quite simple and repetetive in structure, and lean heavily on the sound boys life generated. this is a band still finding its feet, but they were truly onto something, a style which lay dormant for quite some time until rockets and blue lights blundered on in. the music here features gentle twinkles and vocals build into energetic bursts of noise and urgency. my pick of the bunch is the sublime ‘ad free radio’, which meanders elegantly and winds down into the final two minutes of waltzy repetition that will leave you on the floor. wow.

of course, there is probably a demo too. most bands have a demo. it’s just not been rediscovered yet. but for now, you can always make do with these songs. here comes the autumn.

download: Days in December - 5 song radio session