Click on linked song titles to hear an mp3.

21 Shark & Bear CDEP
Three songs, eighteen minutes. Available December 2003.
Members of Fiesel, Superagent, Score One For the Fat Kid, and Harlequin
team up for a melding of visceral, spleen-venting rock, jazz-math dexterity,
twisted, textured feedback, and consonant melodies galore.
1. Sunday Crossword
2. Flammable, Ignored
3. A Good Clockpunching


20 vaguely star shaped, "the lamplight EP" CDEP
Four songs, fifteen minutes. Available December 2003.
Providence foursome continues to refine their altogether elegant version of
pop/rock. Choruses with anchor-size hooks, articulate song arrangements
mapped out to make a cartographer blush, and time changes so smooth
you won't notice you're tapping the wrong foot.
1. everyday superhuman [3.19 MB]
2. pretty early
3. when the sadness breaks
4. aspartame


19 The Nationale Blue / Shark & Bear split 7"
Two songs, twelve minutes. Released May 30, 2003. $3.
Released in conjunction with The Nationale Blue's European tour,
two jazz- and prog-influenced indie-rock bands put forth
songs rife with alternately interlocking and meandering guitars,
thick, resonant bass, and expansive yet tightly controlled drumwork.
A one-minute sample of the two songs [0.99 MB]
1. The Nationale Blue, "The Drift"
2. Shark & Bear, "M. Monstrosity"


18 Jeremy From Boise, "It's Called Finishing" CD
Fifteen songs, thirty-eight minutes. Released August 2003. $6.
Split release with Fort Hazel, Samsa, and Sao Bento Records.
A mix of rich, dissonant acoustic guitar, industrial noise collages,
and low, warm vocals. Recommended for fans of David Grubbs, Elliot Smith,
Beck, and/or Neutral Milk Hotel.
1. dull grey [1.83 MB]
2. the 2/3 least reciprocated
3. song for television
4. quilt
5. the first subdivision
6. fulfillment
7. my golden balls
8. the willing
9. 20any
10. can waste
11. 12. misery palace
13. led to luckies
14. someditch [3.09 MB]
15. fear is a good thing


17 Score One For the Fat Kid, "Plan B is for Suckers"
Ten songs, thirty-four minutes. Released March 11, 2003. $8.
Split release with Impress Records (LBP-017/IMP-002.)
Teetering haphazardly on the edge of poppy indie-rock,
merrilly trimming beats from measures and interjecting strident mischief.
Sing, shout, scream; a vocal style for everyone.
1. the sweetheart's compass
2. can you name these brain structures? [2.48 MB]
3. julienned
4. life was much easier when helmet was my favorite band
5. i took down all the xmas lights in somerville and spelled out your name
6. decrease the mass, and run like hell
7. diary of my indiana heart
8. the creepy claw descends upon lower allston [2.37 MB]
9. safetyquake
10. one over sleep


16 Words For Snow / Tristan da Cunha split CD
Nine songs, forty-one minutes. Released March 11, 2003. $6.
Snow: Incorporating the structure of classical composition,
the approach of relaxed jazz playing, and the timbre of sparse low-rock.
Cunha: Brilliant lunacy in the form of complex chord structures,
exacting disharmony, and a spectrum of voice, all with perfect, madcap execution.
Words For Snow (four studio songs)
1. paperweight
2. sham marriage [5.29 MB]
3. my uncle
4. rome
Tristan da Cunha (three live songs, two studio songs)
5. apple's got sauce
6. no great shakes
7. foursquare [2.25 MB]
8. happy playtime
9. sequestered perplexities


15 vaguely star shaped :: thebrotherkite, split 7"
Two songs, eight minutes. Released February 25, 2003. $3.
Intelligent, layered pop music from two of Providence's finest.
A triumphant song with snaky melodies and stutterbeats meets
a thick and harmonious shoegazing rocker.
A one-minute sample of the two songs [0.99 MB]
1. vaguely star shaped :: pretty early
2. thebrotherkite :: misery walk


14 Tristan da Cunha, s/t CD
Eight songs, thirty-two minutes. Released December 1, 2002. $7.
Somewhere, halfway over the gaping chasm between pleasant harmony and abject chaos,
stand three tightrope walkers hell-bent on perplexing you even as you shake your boo-tay.
Calling all spazz kids: the number on your dance card is up.
1. jesus marches with a little spider
2. re: maeve (everybody knows)
3. song number three
4. little white sneakers [3.73 MB]
5. too many boats
6. post-adolescent philosophy [3.00 MB]
7. narcosynthesis
8. world without end


13 Fiesel, "The Ruins of This Life" CD
Seven songs, forty-five minutes. Released September 6, 2002. $6.
The three-headed rock juggernaut's first full-length.
Angular guitars, fuzzy melodic bass, thundering drums and acerbic harmonies = Fiesel.
1. better days will come
2. a lot can happen in the middle of nowhere
3. coin return
4. black as midnight on a moonless night / cold hardwood floor
5. stand alone in a storm [4.96 MB]
6. crime of the century
7. choke [0.87 MB]


12 "The Luxury Sounds of the Losing Blueprint" comp CD
Fifteen songs, seventy-one minutes. Released May 27, 2002. $5.
A map of genres colored by math-rock, indie-rock, and jazz.
The antimatter soundtrack to the radio formula.
A five-minute segue sampler of the comp [4.80 MB]
1. The Method and Result, "I Will Not Demand What I'm Worth"
2. Vaguely Star Shaped, "Waiting To Forget"
3. Fiesel, "A Lot Can Happen In The Middle Of Nowhere"
4. The Nationale Blue, "Silver Alien Pyjamas (Oryginal Vyrsion)"
5. Andrew Wagner, "Palmetto Acres"
6. PopCanon, "Make Reference"
7. Polaris Mine, "Getting Legal"
8. Words For Snow, "My Uncle"
9. Calumet-Hecla, "Crab"
10. Score One For the Fat Kid, "Paper Autogyro"
11. Notpictured, "Driftwood"
12. Centralia, "Nestled In The Swiss Alps"
13. Bird Gets the Smile., "Captain Of One"
14. A Radio With Guts, "It's Wednesday, Fuck You"
15. Tristan da Cunha, "Stealth Nights Revisited"


11 Fiesel, s/t EP
Six songs, eighteen minutes. Released October 5, 2001. $3.
The super-tight trio's first release, with songs in short, discordant bursts.
Fierce post-rock-til-you-shit-your-pants mayhem.
1. autoscan
2. reservoir
3. happy sweet 16, judi real
4. resonant frequency [1.36 MB]
5. action destroys perfection
6. vicksburg [4.28 MB]


10 Andrew Wagner, "Thank You, But Our Princess Is In Another Castle" CD
Fourteen songs, sixty-one minutes. Released October 5, 2001. $8.
Acoustic kung fu and labyrinthine lyrics.
Complex and catchy, intricate and percussive, furious and cohesive, autobiographical and aggressive.
1. the archduke descends upon me [4.84 MB]
2. mating song of the north american dork [3.92 MB]
3. your penmanship is deplorable
4. ever so convoluted
5. paradoxing
6. the glass engine room
7. my year as a grouch [3.95 MB]
8. the sound of five am
9. an allergic reaction
10. coriolis waters, spiral stairs
11. ars oklahoma [1.97 MB]
12. to sweat the synapse
13. congratulations on your decision to become a pirate
14. do the staccato


9 Holy Mary, Mother of Bert, "Mainstream Mayhem" CD
Fourteen songs, seventy-four minutes. Released April 8, 2000. $8.
For fans of They Might Be Giants, Weird Al, and REM.
Five guys, a plethora of folk and string instruments, harmonies and humor galore.
1. sancta maria mater bertis [3.90 MB]
2. pan in love
3. spleen
4. fedora borealis
5. dr. molly [4.25 MB]
6. mainstream opus
7. pi [3.20 MB]
8. walter geist
9. this pool
10. to dance the hello etcetera
11. valediction [4.80 MB]
12. the diner, 3 am
13. ragnarachmaninov
14. dear diver


8 Idiot Savant Garde, "Anathemathematica" CD
Nine songs, thirty-nine minutes. Released January 29, 2000. $5.
Instrument-swapping math-rock for the masses.
Bust out your dancin' shoes and your multiplyin' machines.
1. molecule and you [3.19 MB]
2. prailine
3. dyslexicon
4. fisticuffsmanship
5. ex-savant [4.68 MB]
6. sundappled and clean
7. boy scout resume
8. counterclockwise
9. the pachyderm's palindrome

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