Demos

Hopefully we are beginning to make up for our lack of coverage on The Damnwells of late.  First came One Last Century demos, followed closely by unreleased songs.  Today we've got even more demos, these a wee bit older than the last. 

My personal favorites of this bunch are Air Stereo and She's The NYC Skyline.  She's The NYC Skyline in particular features some poetic verses: "She's constant like the ringing in my ears / she's drowning out the silence of my fears" and "she surrendered 'I love you's with bitter shame".  Really, really great stuff.

Sadly, I think this exhausts my supply of The Damnwells demos.  If anyone out there has any that they think I'll want to hear (and trust me, I do want to hear), shoot me an email or leave a comment; anything by The Damnwells is well worth the time and the listen.

The Damnwells - More Demos
Air Stereo
Sell The Lie
I Am A Leaver
She's The New York City Skyline
You're Gonna Love Me
Have To Ask
While You Can
Electric Harmony

or download it all in a handy .ZIP file

Buy some already!: iTunes | Amazon
Go on the interwebs: Official | Myspace

This Labor Day weekend brought me back on a Damnwells kick.  It made me realize that I had forgotten some great music: demos, unreleased, and otherwise rare material from The Damnwells. 

Studio tracks can introduce you to a good band; demos and unreleased songs point out the truly great ones.  It's true, pause for a moment and consider: while stuff from the studio exudes a more polished and oftentimes over-produced quality, demos and other long-buried songs showcase a raw, passionate and powerful sound, one with a life all its own.  Sorry to wax poetic, but many of my favorite tracks from my favorite bands cannot be found on a major CD release.  Back to these particular demos, I prefer to start in the present and work my way back.  So, we'll begin with demos from The Damnwells's latest release, One Last Century.

The Damnwells - One Last Century Demos
Like It Is
Bastard Of Midnight
Closer Than We Are
Soundtrack
Jesus Could Be Right
Down With The Ship
Come To Me

(A big thanks to reader Doug for most these excellent tracks)

Buy some: iTunes | Amazon
Visit the sites: Official | Myspace

Loyal readers may remember my diatribe from waaay back in March about my long standing love of Flickerstick.  I'm here to let you all know the news.  Well, first - good news or bad news?  I always prefer my bad news first.  If the bad news comes first, the good news can come in and soothe the open wounds - kinda like a band-aid and neosporin.  Lollipops may also be involved depending on just how good the news is.. 

I've always likened the feeling of good news followed by bad news as akin to buying an ice cream cone and promptly dropping the scoop into the gutter.  This analogy also works with cotton candy.  With that said, bad news will come first.

Bad news:  It seems that Flickerstick is officially dead.  The only source of "news" now is from the official Flickerstick message board that happened (thankfully) to be hosted offsite.  The band's manager (a former regular poster) hasn't updated anyone on the status of the band in quite a while and no news has come from anyone close to the band.  In this case, it's doubtful that the old adage "no news is good news" holds true.  I'd assume it's quite the opposite here. 

Now that their domain is dead, their Myspace account hasn't been accessed in over a month and literally zero communication has come from anyone inside the "camp" I figure it's pretty safe to say the we've all seen the last of these boys.  It's a damn shame.  I'll keep praying Sarah Palin style though.

What lies ahead?  Well, for all intents and purposes Flickerstick was basically the work of two people - Brandin Lea (Vocals/Guitar) and Cory Kreig (Guitar/Vocals).  The rest of the boys added their nuances - Dominic with his thunderous drumming and El Dangeroso with his damn fine freakin' out on stage...but come on, Brandin and Cory were the masterminds. 

Brandin seems to be more engaged in his long standing side project February Chorus.  They have a 2 track EP out now, check their Myspace to listen to it.

Cory parted ways with the boys prior to their latest live album (Live From Atlanta).  The demos that surfaced post-Cory felt a little lacking due to this.  He brought a pretty distinctive arpeggio style guitar playing that left a heavy footprint on how I ended up playing guitar.  His guitar work, while sometimes simplistic, brought a lot of that pschedelic vibe that defined early Flickerstick.  Without him pulling the levers it just didnt' quite sound the same.

The "new" Flickerstick minus Cory sounded more like The Hives than the psych-pop I knew and loved.  It was still fine, just not something I would call my "favorite".  As far as Cory goes, he's rockin' it solo and has a demo up on his Myspace.  Check it out here.

Oh right, the good news.  Cory released the motherload of all motherloads on his Myspace a few days ago.  I'm talking 20-30 tracks of (for the most part) never before heard Flickerstick demos and tracks that didn't make the album cuts for on reason or another.  The demos range in the time frame from the ever elusive Chloroform the One You Love LP (their first actual release, predating Welcoming Home the Astronauts) to demos during the Tarantula sessions.  The quality is all over the place, though it's all listenable.  Most if it is quite good. 

A few notables among these tracks are studio cuts of Telling all the World and Believe (two versions).  Both tracks were featured on Flickerstick's first live album, Causing a Catastrophe and seemed to vanish from setlists after that tour.  It was a tragedy really, these two songs seemed to be loved by the fans and both tracks feature some of the things Flickerstick does best (build-up style rawk and trippy alt-pop).  I won't say these two songs are the best Flickerstick has to offer (they have far better, particularly on Tarantula where they really hit their stride) but I always felt a bit slighted that I was never able to have a proper studio version of these....until now.

It's not exactly how I envisioned Flickerstick going out (there's no explosions...yet) and I suppose I should be happy to have access to all this previously unreleased material.  Still, I'd trade it all in a heartbeat for a tour date in SLC.  Come on boys - make it happen!

Check it all out here - he's asking for 99 cents/song.  Not a bad deal if you ask me.  Here's a few tracks to help you decide:

[mp3] Telling all the World

[mp3] Believe (Cleversley Version)

Visit them online:  Flickerstick's Myspace | Cory Kreig's Myspace | February Chorus's Myspace
Get their music:  Amazon | iTunes