Captain Audio
I'm sitting here listening to Captain Audio and thinking yet again how I love the two records they released so much more than the two they have released since moving to New York, losing a member, gaining another and becoming The Secret Machines. I'm sitting here wondering why it wasn't Captain Audio that got to be heard by everybody instead of "Captain Audio minus one". I'm sitting here being a local music fanboy.
I like Now Here is Nowhere just fine actually, though I think I like the EP that preceded it, September 000, a bit more. Its just that neither of those records just flat out excite me as much as My Ears Are Ringing But My Heart's OK and LUXURY or Whether it is Better to be Loved Than Feared. That feeling on the one hand that this band is totally formed and they can toss off perfect chaotic pop songs and moments of crushing beauty like its a bodily function... and at the same time the sense that these aren't just songs... these guys are actually trying to do something here... and they're slowly pulling it off, whatever it may turn out to be. The Secret Machines don't have that kind of depth, at least not yet, but they clearly aspire to it. Regina Chellew's absence definately leaves a hole.
Chellew released the fine album hitsthemiss in 2001 on Last Beat Records under the name Chao and has been promising another album and/or an EP ever since that never comes. Her website was offline for the longest time but now it's back with a UK address. It says she's playing in a band with former members of Bedhead and Comet now as well.
Part of the problem is/was Last Beat. I remember when the label was started with money from an inheritance by a rabid local music fan. I remember the interviews early on where that same rabid fan would talk proudly of her plans to run it as a farm label (her words) and get all the bands signed to majors and make everybody rich. Sure it all seemed a little fishy but they were putting out some great music at that point (Captain Audio, Comet, Pervis, Tomorrow People, rubberbullet) and most people figured that, at the very least, her master plan might mean a few more people might hear some of these bands. But all it ever got was a few cd reviews in Alternative Press and some minor label interest that went nowhere.
The only updates that have been made to the Last Beat site in forever, aside from the shrinking artist roster and vanishing albums (where did PiNKSTON's cds go?) is the return of Captain Audio to the roster, the relaunching of a Captain Audio page and what's surely a hefty repressing of their two records, which would certainly have been deleted as well sooner or later if Now Here is Nowhere had bombed. Now you can buy two of the finest records Last Beat ever released... and you should because they are also probably two of the most exciting records to come out anywhere in the last 10 years
Had Captain Audio been on Matador, they would have been huge. This fanboy is still holding out for a reunion.
Captain Audio - Take It Like a Pill [MP3, 4.6MB, 128kbpsVBR]
Captain Audio - Because of You [MP3, 4MB, 128 kbpsVBR]
Captain Audio - Star [MP3, 2.4MB, 128kbps]
Captain Audio - Know It All [MP3, 5MB, 128MB]
Chao - Gotta Go [MP3, 4MB, 128kbps]
Chao - Head Cold From New York City (demo) [MP3, 3.7MB, 128kbps]
-Ace Fu Records- (also selling the Captain Audio records now)
posted by peterbuldge at 1:39 AM
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