Brain Flannel – “So Dim” b/w “Symptom Set” – Grave Mistake
Price: $1.75
The Brain Flannel tape was permanently hot-glue-gunned into my tape deck and I listened to it enough that I swear to god the lyrics started actually making sense (they don’t). The art was perfect, the songs had punk hooks, and I’m a sucker for purple shells. I remember finding out there were going to be singles from the band, and then I found out they were going to be new recordings of songs from the tape! When the two singles came out the sound really blew away the tape. My favorite song from the demo was the faster-paced romp “Symptom Set” which has a gnarly guitar chord-solo that builds up to a mega-simple but pulsating drum fill straight into dual vocals. This single is much fatter sounding, and while the vocals are still mixed into oblivion, the harmonies can be heard. This band totally captured the post-Carbonas sound that so many bands were going for (and missing) towards the end of the last decade. Punker Busy Signals? American Gorilla Angreb? Swedish riffs but without doing the Cimex chord change? Sign me up!
The one complaint I have about the Brain Flannel output in general is that this isn’t what the band actually sounded like live. I loved the live act, LOVED IT, but the mess that was them live never really came out on record. On record, the guitars are actually listenable, the bass isn’t constantly missing notes, the drums aren’t as mind-melting and Elise isn’t drunk falling on top of everyone. The LP (that was out on Grave Mistake as well) is good. Is it as good as the two singles or the tape? Probably not. I think the mixing job was kind of botched or maybe they just over-listened to it or something. I really do love this band, and every time I see this single (or the second one, which I’ll write about later) in the markdown bin I buy it because everyone needs more dollar bin rippers like this!
-solid choice for a band insert-
64800 rotations per day
This record is a modern-day DOLLAR BIN RIPPER, but it might actually be worth paypal dollars in the coming months as a supposed second LP is on it's way to the plant.
-RD
The one complaint I have about the Brain Flannel output in general is that this isn’t what the band actually sounded like live. I loved the live act, LOVED IT, but the mess that was them live never really came out on record. On record, the guitars are actually listenable, the bass isn’t constantly missing notes, the drums aren’t as mind-melting and Elise isn’t drunk falling on top of everyone. The LP (that was out on Grave Mistake as well) is good. Is it as good as the two singles or the tape? Probably not. I think the mixing job was kind of botched or maybe they just over-listened to it or something. I really do love this band, and every time I see this single (or the second one, which I’ll write about later) in the markdown bin I buy it because everyone needs more dollar bin rippers like this!
-solid choice for a band insert-
64800 rotations per day
This record is a modern-day DOLLAR BIN RIPPER, but it might actually be worth paypal dollars in the coming months as a supposed second LP is on it's way to the plant.
-RD
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