marble stature

I got a pair of records in the mail today from My Mind’s Eye in Cleveland, The Easter Monkeys' Splendor of Sorrow and Numbskull’s Final Days of Torture) and it got me thinking about all of the eccentrics in my life that are from Cleveland.

The New Year Newness Ends (Touch and Go, 2001)

Matt and brutha Bubba Kadane made a career throughout the 90’s writing sad and sleepy songs as Bedhead, a group that embodied the “slow-core” genre with a yawn and a stretch. I never really heard anything from them that ever got me interested enough to care (…I’m getting sleepy just writing this). That all changed around 2003, while cruisin' Pearl Alley, either coming from or headed to Bernie’s Happy Hour, (back when Tree of Snakes' singer Jeff Fernengel deemed it was “the thing to do” on a Friday night) with "the most eccentric" Vertical Phil (fact: "the most eccentric" is an actual award to be won at the annual CDR-BBQ). In his typical ecstatic Friday night state, Phil was worked up about this album from the Kadane’s new band, The New Year. This ain’t no Bedhead! It was upbeat and exciting (especially on the first three songs), and I think we officially had own minds blown by “Gasoline,” which is still up for download on the Touch and Go website… hurry! Packed tight with drummer Chris Brokaw, who has played drums for Codeine, the excellent Mission of Burma side-project Consonant, and Evan Dando (with that pedigree- it’s no wonder Phil liked The New Year so much), to name a few, The New Year is a fiery indie-outfit sized up like a Silkworm sans Shellac. When the tempo drops down a notch, we don’t get so much Bedhead, as we do get reminded of Canadaddies Broken Social Scene and Pitchforked and “rah-rahed” Ohioans turned Brooklyn babies, The National (can’t say that I agree much with Pitchfork these days, but I did like You Forgot it in People and Alligators).

Yeah- I think that Newness Ends should have been as recognized as those albums, and probably would have if it didn’t look so deceptively resemble "another Bedhead album." The New Year put out a follow-up to this called The End is Near, but I don’t remember much about it except that Phil dug it at the time. Maybe it’s time to give that one a listen, because my random impulse to reach for Newness Ends last night really hit the spot.