shooting from the hip for once

today brought about a change in direction.

out of nowhere i had the urge to delve into the archive and source all my 'arena rock recordings' albums.

back in 2003 arrco got themselves a distribution deal with rykodisc and by some strange twist in fate they became top of my list of 'gotta catch'em all for the next 12 months.

the starting point was when i found out that they were releasing a new album by grand mal ('bad timing'), have i not mentioned them before? surely i have - i like'em a lot dontcha know. anyway, this lead me to doing the google thing (was that live in 2003 as life before google is eradicated from my grey cells) only to find out that they had also been putting out records by my other fave fuzzed up heroes - superdrag.

so with a 100% hitrate i started tracking down other stuff. firstly, there were the weird and twisted, but rather compelling, by the 14th listen anyway, 'the mink lungs'. a band who could play perfectly formed indie pop one minute and the most fucked up psyched freak out the next. hmm .

but this was nothing in comparison to my next acquisition on the journey, the brilliantly named, 'pilot to gunner'. when their debut album, 'games at high speeds' hit the decks i was blown apart by the sheer forcefulness of the music. it rocked. large. but there was something else in the passion, there was an urge and insistency missing in most alt.indie.rock. the album flew by at breakneck pace, and didn't take any prisoners. the thing was a hard fucker to love, like a bad tempered teenager you had to gain the trust, take it out, pamper its needs, and only then did the excellence within reveal itself.

thankfully, by the time the follow-up album came out, 'get saved', i was ready and prepared, as were a lot of the music press. the band were going to take on the mainstream. the coverart was sharp, provocative, and beautifully executed, the band looked and sounded ready for total domination.

so what the fuck went wrong ? well i guess from a uk side - nothing. they never seemed to happen. maybe they never toured enough, maybe they pissed off the wrong journos. i dunno. but what i do know is that 3 years later the album still sends sparks flying when the title track is blasted out.

so, following my rediscovery of the band today i decided to see if they had continued with arena rock, whose distribution deal with ryko seems to have fallen by the wayside a long time ago. that revealed nothing. thankfully, a chance surf/messageboard question revealed that they have recently come out of hiding and are interacting via the ubiquitous myspace. so without further ado i ask you all to nip over there and send the guys some love, read the blog, it sounds like they've had tough times (the usual story i suspect - all that gorgeous packaging/recording costs have been put at the feet of a band well out of their financial depth), but recently things appear to be back in action - gigs, live recordings surfacing on the wire somewhere, etc etc.

let's hope they find some love this time around. they're certainly gonna get it from ireallylovemusic if they make more music as good as the 2 albums that are on my desk right now that's for sure.

pilot to gunner : myspace

record label : arena rock recording co

g'night.

mark e

ireallylovemusic