maya shore - farewell to introductions

now, anyone reading this knows that no band ever managed to successfully sound like christie front drive. a few have tried. jimmy eat world stole a billion cfd riffs and turned it into the emo pop gem that is static prevails. emo diaries comps contain a few examples of some mis-steps. mostly if a band wanted to sound like cfd, they would have a really pretty, 2 minute long intro, and then suddenly stop, and play a rock song. it seems that no bands ever mastered turning that intro gently into something special. with maya shore i present to you the only band that i am aware of that successfully took the cfd template and made a really good record. i did hear a few good songs by a band called kilowatthours that were in the ballpark, but they had piano and the album as a whole veered off in other directions.

anyway, farewell to introductions is a lovely late night special of a record, maybe not something for 11.30am on a sunday, more so an october or novembers evening, it's dark, raining a bit, and probably chilly. this album will provide the warmth for you. now that the label 'twinkly' is applied to technical, mathy indie instead of bands with guitars that genuinely do twinkle like frost on a winter's morning, it may mislead you if i refer to this as such, but maya shore to me is the absolute definition of twinkly music. so much pretty guitar work on here, and the soft, not quite mumbled vocals glide over the top, you may not be totally aware of them as they hug the landscape so well. the gentleness of the music is also key here. maya shore is like sitting snugly on the sofa, the lights dimmed, next to someone special, intimate but not over the top, just next to each other.

as for the band, i know little. this came out in 2001 on music fellowship, i am pretty sure you can buy it and you should. one guy was in forty nine hudson who made a good album also. there is a 7" but i think the song is on this cd.

i hope you enjoy this as much as me. find it here.

treetops - twink-a-lee

ok, so this isn't that old or long forgotten but it is pretty obscure and you may have not been aware that this band existed. twink-a-lee was a band from Houston or thereabouts. they came along after die emperor, die! vanished, and they kicked out a sweet tape and this 6 song cdr. it is fittingly named as 'twink-a-lee', as it is all guitar twinkles and boys kissing boys, riffing off cap'n jazz and the promise ring before the world and his wife came along and had a go at it, mostly missing the point. treetops clearly got the point, this is full of ultra whiney vocals and gorgeous guitar spirals. the bass drives, the songs swirl, they wander out into a corn field in the middle of the summer and come to a sudden halt, before drifting lazily for a moment or two... then back it all comes again with a heady rush. if treetops were still around then 100 dorks on the internet would be having a massive cuddle over just how awesome this band was. i'd say this was the most midwestmo music that's been made since the rockets and bluelights 10".

anyway, i hope you enjoy these 6 songs and one day if i get my act together i will rip the tape or maybe someoene else already has, but i am not entirely certain that i know where my copy is. i have no idea what these kids are up to now, kirke was running a label that put this stuff out but i lost touch with him.

download the cd here.