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:: Wingtip Sloat - M31 ::

:: Wingtip Sloat - Blessed Nimbus, Churning ::


When I lived in San Francisco and had basically no disposable income, a favorite passtime of mine was hopping BART over to Amoeba in Berkeley (back when it was the only one) and buying interesting looking CD's from their massive bargain bins. Not only were many of them only a buck, you got a free one for every three you bought. $10 could easily keep me in happy new sounds for a while, and I never felt too bad when I picked a real stinker, always assuring myself that one was the free one. An extra boon was finding label and regional comps from all over the country; I could hear 15 new bands in one sitting. I discovered Wingtip Sloat on one of these bin-diving trips, on a DC comp called Echos From The Nation's Capital. I'm sure I bought it because Edsel was on it, since I absolutely loved Edsel, but hot traxx from other bands like Tsunami, Candy Machine and Liquor Bike made this disc an instant fave of mine. The Wingtip Sloat offering, Waxing Neurotic, was plenty good, but not necessarily indicative of the genius I would discover later.

It was probably five or six years later when I found this 7" EP, and it completely blew me away. The terse energy of DC bands like Fugazi and Lungfish was comingling with the more classic sounds of Wire and Warsaw right there on my turntable, making it instantly familiar yet totally different than anything I'd heard. Every once in a while you get a sweet poppy melody, and it had the added benefit of sounding loud at any volume. This EP came pressed onto maroon vinyl, and the packaging was all done by hand. Mine came full of pieces of a cut-up crayon drawing, a photograph of a little boy at a birthday party, a receipt from a Safeway store, and a ripped third of a donation solicitation letter from the McLean Volunteer Fire Department.

These fellas were from suburban Virginia, and put out a few tapes, a few 7"s and two full-length CD's. They never made much of a splash nationally, and it sounds like they probably recorded a lot of their stuff at home. This is one of my all time favorite records, so I am putting 2 of the 4 songs up, and even in doing that I had to make tough decisions. Bon appetit.


Tony

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 25, 2005 at 5:57 AM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.