| Comet Gain |
| Paperback Ghosts (2014) |
Comet Gain — Paperback Ghosts
↑↓ British indie band plays timeless, reverb-drenched indie pop that never sounds new but never gets old.
Formed: 1993
Location: London, UK
Album release: July 7, 2014
Record Label: Fortuna Pop
Duration: 44:50
Tracks:
01. Long After Tonite’s Candles Are Blown 4:50
02. ‘Sad Love’ And Other Short Stories 4:12
03. Behind The House She Lived In 2:19
04. Wait ‘Til December 4:09
05. Breaking Open The Head Part 1 3:54
06. The Last Love Letter 4:30
07. Sixteen Oh Four 2:05
08. (All The) Avenue Girls 2:34
09. Your Haunted Heart 2:59
10. Far From The Pavillion 4:33
11. An Orchid Stuck Inside Her Throat 3:14
12. Confessions Of A Daydream 6:14
Personnel:
♠ David Charlie Feck (vocals, guitar)
♠ Ben Phillipson (guitar)
♠ Rachel Evans (vocals)
♠ Woodie Taylor (percussion)
♠ Anne Laure Guillain (keyboards)
♠ James Hornsey (bass)
↑↓ Comet Gain return with their seventh album Paperback Ghosts, their first since 2011's critically acclaimed Howl of The Lonely Crowd. Recorded at Soup Studios with producer Simon Trought at the helm, and inspired by the psycho-geography of walks in North London woods and in the forgotten grey hinterland of the city’s back streets, Paperback Ghosts comes soaked in autumn melancholy. Tender-hearted but not miserable, defiant but not angry, it maintains the delicate balance that has always been Comet Gain’s strength.
↑↓ The album is about ghosts: the half-forgotten spectres of lost loves; the people who live inside their own sepia-tinted memories; the mystical phantom presence of previous owners retained by used books, the paperbacks haunted by old fingerprints. Blending psychedelia, folk-rock, garage muscle and 4am sadness, the songs draw on the esoteric that lies behind the ordinary.
↑↓ Comet Gain are David Charlie Feck (vocals, guitar), Ben Phillipson (guitar), Rachel Evans (vocals), ex-Morrissey/The Meteors drummer Woodie Taylor (percussion), Anne Laure Guillain (keyboards) and new recruit, Clientele bassist James Hornsey — a motley group of like-minded romantics, taking pride in an abject failure to care about the normal band model. Inspired at times by early Creation Records, Television Personalities and mod culture, drawing from the same ideals as Dexys, The Style Council and Vic Godard and from the lineage of The Velvet Underground, The Byrds and the 13th Floor Elevators, their mystic anarchist principles blend French New Wave with English kitchen-sink heart. For years they have drifted through scenes picking up people and emotional ties — from Riot Grrrl to acid punks, C86 to lo-fi — yet somehow outliving their peers and in turn inspiring a younger generation of DIY musicians like The Cribs, Love Is All, Veronica Falls, and Crystal Stilts.
↑↓ On each album they record, Comet Gain bring together their myriad of influences, creating a cohesive aesthetic between sound, artwork, liner notes and ideas. Paperback Ghosts is no different, offering us a glimpse into a haunted half-world with its strings, yearning harmonies, 12-string acoustic guitars and half-focused vision of pianos in reverb, while remaining at heart a pop record, a richly textured affirmation of Comet Gain’s twenty-year anti-career.
Artist Biography by Mark Deming
↑↓ Casino Classics Led by guitarist and vocalist David Feck (aka David Bower and David Christian), Comet Gain are a British indie pop band whose music is a freewheeling, literate fusion of folk-rock, twee pop, garage rock, R&B, punk, and any number of points in between. The first edition of Comet Gain was formed in 1992; Feck initially conceived the group as a trio with bassist George Wright and drummer Phil Sutton, but the band truly found its sound the following year, when Jax Coombes replaced Wright on bass and singer Sarah Bleach and guitarist Sam Pluck came on board. This lineup recorded the group's debut album, 1995's Casino Classics, which was released by the U.K. indie label Wiija. In 1997, Wiija issued Comet Gain's second album in Great Britain under the title Magnetic Poetry, while it came out in the United States via Beggars Banquet in expanded form as Sneaky. However, months after the sophomore album arrived in stores, Feck's bandmates walked out on him, and he assembled a new version of Comet Gain from scratch, featuring Rachel Evans as female vocalist, M.J. "Woodie" Taylor on drums, and former Huggy Bear member Jon Slade on guitar and bass. The new version of Comet Gain cut the 1999 album Tigertown Pictures, which was released by Kill Rock Stars in America and Fortuna Pop in the U.K. While Evans, Taylor, and Slade (and bassist Kay Ishikawa) have frequently played with Comet Gain since, Feck remains the only constant from the band's many personnel changes, and in a 2009 interview he claimed that 66 different people have been members of Comet Gain since the group's formation. Comet Gain's relationship with Kill Rock Stars resulted in two more albums, 2002's Realistes and 2005's City Fallen Leaves, while in 2008 Feck assembled Broken Record Prayers, a 20-song compilation drawn from the group's many single releases and compilation appearances. Released in 2011, Howl of the Lonely Crowd found Comet Gain receiving some production assistance from one of their heroes, ex-Orange Juice leader Edwyn Collins, while Ryan Jarman of the Cribs also contributed to the sessions.
By Alex Hudson
↑↓ After more than two decades and many lineup changes, British indie pop lifers Comet Gain are still going strong. Following 2011's Howl of the Lonely Crowd, they've now announced a new LP will arrive this year. Paperback Ghosts will come out in the UK through Fortuna POP on July 7.
↑↓ The album was recorded at London's Soup Studio with producer Simon Trought (Allo Darlin', the Clientele, Television Personalities). A press release describes it as being "inspired by the psycho-geography of walks in North London woods and in the forgotten grey hinterland of the city's back streets."
↑↓ The results apparently blend psychedelia, folk and garage rock. For a taste of this, hear the melancholic album cut "Long After Tonite's Candles Are Blown" below. It's described as "[capturing] a moment in time, old friends together on one of those magic nights that sweep into morning, everyone afraid to leave the dancing and the drinking." (http://exclaim.ca/)
MySpace: https://myspace.com/thecometgain
Albums:
↑↓ Casino Classics (CD & LP / 1995 / Wiiija)
↑↓ Magnetic Poetry (CD & LP / 1997 / Wiiija) / "Sneaky" (CD & LP / 1997 / Beggars Banquet USA)
↑↓ Tigertown Pictures (CD & LP+7" / 1998 / Fortuna Pop! / Kill Rock Stars)
↑↓ Réalistes (CD & LP / 2002 / Milou Studios / Kill Rock Stars)
↑↓ City Fallen Leaves (CD & LP/ 2005 / The Track & Field Organisation / Kill Rock Stars)
↑↓ Howl of the Lonely Crowd (CD & LP/ 2011 / Fortuna Pop! / What's Your Rupture?)
↑↓ Paperback Ghosts (Fortuna Pop, 2014)
_______________________________________________________________
| Comet Gain |
| Paperback Ghosts (2014) |
↑↓ British indie band plays timeless, reverb-drenched indie pop that never sounds new but never gets old.
Formed: 1993
Location: London, UK
Album release: July 7, 2014
Record Label: Fortuna Pop
Duration: 44:50
Tracks:
01. Long After Tonite’s Candles Are Blown 4:50
02. ‘Sad Love’ And Other Short Stories 4:12
03. Behind The House She Lived In 2:19
04. Wait ‘Til December 4:09
05. Breaking Open The Head Part 1 3:54
06. The Last Love Letter 4:30
07. Sixteen Oh Four 2:05
08. (All The) Avenue Girls 2:34
09. Your Haunted Heart 2:59
10. Far From The Pavillion 4:33
11. An Orchid Stuck Inside Her Throat 3:14
12. Confessions Of A Daydream 6:14
Personnel:
♠ David Charlie Feck (vocals, guitar)
♠ Ben Phillipson (guitar)
♠ Rachel Evans (vocals)
♠ Woodie Taylor (percussion)
♠ Anne Laure Guillain (keyboards)
♠ James Hornsey (bass)
↑↓ Comet Gain return with their seventh album Paperback Ghosts, their first since 2011's critically acclaimed Howl of The Lonely Crowd. Recorded at Soup Studios with producer Simon Trought at the helm, and inspired by the psycho-geography of walks in North London woods and in the forgotten grey hinterland of the city’s back streets, Paperback Ghosts comes soaked in autumn melancholy. Tender-hearted but not miserable, defiant but not angry, it maintains the delicate balance that has always been Comet Gain’s strength.
↑↓ The album is about ghosts: the half-forgotten spectres of lost loves; the people who live inside their own sepia-tinted memories; the mystical phantom presence of previous owners retained by used books, the paperbacks haunted by old fingerprints. Blending psychedelia, folk-rock, garage muscle and 4am sadness, the songs draw on the esoteric that lies behind the ordinary.
↑↓ Comet Gain are David Charlie Feck (vocals, guitar), Ben Phillipson (guitar), Rachel Evans (vocals), ex-Morrissey/The Meteors drummer Woodie Taylor (percussion), Anne Laure Guillain (keyboards) and new recruit, Clientele bassist James Hornsey — a motley group of like-minded romantics, taking pride in an abject failure to care about the normal band model. Inspired at times by early Creation Records, Television Personalities and mod culture, drawing from the same ideals as Dexys, The Style Council and Vic Godard and from the lineage of The Velvet Underground, The Byrds and the 13th Floor Elevators, their mystic anarchist principles blend French New Wave with English kitchen-sink heart. For years they have drifted through scenes picking up people and emotional ties — from Riot Grrrl to acid punks, C86 to lo-fi — yet somehow outliving their peers and in turn inspiring a younger generation of DIY musicians like The Cribs, Love Is All, Veronica Falls, and Crystal Stilts.
↑↓ On each album they record, Comet Gain bring together their myriad of influences, creating a cohesive aesthetic between sound, artwork, liner notes and ideas. Paperback Ghosts is no different, offering us a glimpse into a haunted half-world with its strings, yearning harmonies, 12-string acoustic guitars and half-focused vision of pianos in reverb, while remaining at heart a pop record, a richly textured affirmation of Comet Gain’s twenty-year anti-career.
Artist Biography by Mark Deming
↑↓ Casino Classics Led by guitarist and vocalist David Feck (aka David Bower and David Christian), Comet Gain are a British indie pop band whose music is a freewheeling, literate fusion of folk-rock, twee pop, garage rock, R&B, punk, and any number of points in between. The first edition of Comet Gain was formed in 1992; Feck initially conceived the group as a trio with bassist George Wright and drummer Phil Sutton, but the band truly found its sound the following year, when Jax Coombes replaced Wright on bass and singer Sarah Bleach and guitarist Sam Pluck came on board. This lineup recorded the group's debut album, 1995's Casino Classics, which was released by the U.K. indie label Wiija. In 1997, Wiija issued Comet Gain's second album in Great Britain under the title Magnetic Poetry, while it came out in the United States via Beggars Banquet in expanded form as Sneaky. However, months after the sophomore album arrived in stores, Feck's bandmates walked out on him, and he assembled a new version of Comet Gain from scratch, featuring Rachel Evans as female vocalist, M.J. "Woodie" Taylor on drums, and former Huggy Bear member Jon Slade on guitar and bass. The new version of Comet Gain cut the 1999 album Tigertown Pictures, which was released by Kill Rock Stars in America and Fortuna Pop in the U.K. While Evans, Taylor, and Slade (and bassist Kay Ishikawa) have frequently played with Comet Gain since, Feck remains the only constant from the band's many personnel changes, and in a 2009 interview he claimed that 66 different people have been members of Comet Gain since the group's formation. Comet Gain's relationship with Kill Rock Stars resulted in two more albums, 2002's Realistes and 2005's City Fallen Leaves, while in 2008 Feck assembled Broken Record Prayers, a 20-song compilation drawn from the group's many single releases and compilation appearances. Released in 2011, Howl of the Lonely Crowd found Comet Gain receiving some production assistance from one of their heroes, ex-Orange Juice leader Edwyn Collins, while Ryan Jarman of the Cribs also contributed to the sessions.
By Alex Hudson
↑↓ After more than two decades and many lineup changes, British indie pop lifers Comet Gain are still going strong. Following 2011's Howl of the Lonely Crowd, they've now announced a new LP will arrive this year. Paperback Ghosts will come out in the UK through Fortuna POP on July 7.
↑↓ The album was recorded at London's Soup Studio with producer Simon Trought (Allo Darlin', the Clientele, Television Personalities). A press release describes it as being "inspired by the psycho-geography of walks in North London woods and in the forgotten grey hinterland of the city's back streets."
↑↓ The results apparently blend psychedelia, folk and garage rock. For a taste of this, hear the melancholic album cut "Long After Tonite's Candles Are Blown" below. It's described as "[capturing] a moment in time, old friends together on one of those magic nights that sweep into morning, everyone afraid to leave the dancing and the drinking." (http://exclaim.ca/)
MySpace: https://myspace.com/thecometgain
Albums:
↑↓ Casino Classics (CD & LP / 1995 / Wiiija)
↑↓ Magnetic Poetry (CD & LP / 1997 / Wiiija) / "Sneaky" (CD & LP / 1997 / Beggars Banquet USA)
↑↓ Tigertown Pictures (CD & LP+7" / 1998 / Fortuna Pop! / Kill Rock Stars)
↑↓ Réalistes (CD & LP / 2002 / Milou Studios / Kill Rock Stars)
↑↓ City Fallen Leaves (CD & LP/ 2005 / The Track & Field Organisation / Kill Rock Stars)
↑↓ Howl of the Lonely Crowd (CD & LP/ 2011 / Fortuna Pop! / What's Your Rupture?)
↑↓ Paperback Ghosts (Fortuna Pop, 2014)
_______________________________________________________________