austin label almost there records released rock folk suicide -- twelve previously unreleased ventilator recordings from 1997-98 -- on october 21st, 2008.
self-recorded in 1997-98 on an 8-track reel machine in matt's north hollywood apartment, rock folk suicide is atmospheric rock and psychedelia by way of analog design -- with tape vari-speeding, track bouncing and treating, and by embracing chance events.
featuring byron reynolds' inventive drumming and matt devine's and jeff caruana's colorful instrumentation -- including lap steel, toy keyboards, ukulele, magnus organ and tape loops -- rock folk suicide documents various headphone trips, such as the ambivalence in dealing with indie-rock machinations ("drift"), the diminishing returns of the nightlife (the byrdsy "fader"), and the sad good-bye ("morning prayer"). an impulsively recorded cover of stevie wonder's "have a talk with god" is presented, as well as an extended version of popular standard "bye bye blackbird" and two co-writes with brad laner (medicine, electric company): "cherry flavor night time" and "thanks".
ventilator's lone CD reseda spleen (delmore recordings) was released in 1996. unfortunately, the record suffered from poor distribution, but the response from the few people who heard it was positive. larry crane (tape op) dubbed reseda spleen "power pop of the highest order" and jack rabid (the big takeover) noted that "the arrangements are advanced beyond 99 percent of indie records, much less self-produced ones." despite limited resources, recordings for a 2nd ventilator release were begun in 1997 with a couple of demos produced by ward dotson of the gun club. during this time, matt's creative relationship with byron extended to include possum dixon, culminating with matt's contributions to their final release new sheets, produced by ric ocasek. as byron soldiered on with possum dixon to see out that band's final hours, the 8-track eventually fell out of alignment and ventilator dissolved. ventilator's follow-up recordings to reseda spleen would remain unreleased until now.
in the end, rock folk suicide is another piece of evidence that ventilator existed to make a strange and beautiful sound.
after leaving permanent green light in 1994, matt devine bought a second-hand 8-track reel machine to record reclusively in his north hollywood apartment. the melancholic songs were primarily acoustic to begin with, but soon drummer byron reynolds (of old friends possum dixon) helped tune subsequent tracks towards left-of-the-dial. jeff caruana, guitarist in matt's first garage band lazytown, lent his ears and pitched in. matt performed live with medicine in 1995 to support her highness, and brad laner returned the favor by contributing to recordings and encouraging matt to experiment further. ten tracks were released in 1996 on delmore recordings under the moniker ventilator and the title of reseda spleen (apologies to baudelaire), self-deprecatingly framing the songs' confessional feel (as in venting one's spleen) within the less-than-spectacular backdrop of the suburban blight of the san fernando valley where the band grew up.
opening up with an unapologetic ode to dandyism ("the tailor's lament", originally performed live by permanent green light), reseda spleen veered from anthemic ("happy new year") to stripped-down ("the daily drag") with topics ranging from the 1994 northridge earthquake that trashed matt's studio ("earthquake song") to the death of a friend ("jericho's pool"). unfortunately, the record suffered from poor distribution, but the response from the few people who heard it was positive. "earthquake song" was featured on vol. 3 of darla records' semi-quarterly comp little darla has a treat for you, and ventilator played some local shows at spaceland with fine players filling out the band's live sound. 1997 was an active year, as recordings for a 2nd ventilator release were tracked and matt and byron appeared on possum dixon's final release new sheets. as byron soldiered on with possum dixon to see out that band's final hours, the 8-track fell out of alignment and ventilator's follow-up recordings to reseda spleen would remain unreleased for some time.
larry crane, tape op 9 review: "i'll make no bones about it, big star's one of my favorite bands ever. it sounds like matt devine, the main ventilator, is a big fan too. one of the charms of the big star records is that they were given extensive recording time to perfect the songs that they had since the studio (ardent) was also the record company. matt circumvents that problem by recording his album at home on a tascam 388, which is one of those big 1/4" reel to reels with the built in mixer. so he worked very hard at the tracks on this record and it shows. power pop of the highest order. and then, being the smart cookie that he is, he enlisted veteran producer earle mankey to mix most of it, and brad laner of medicine to mix one of the songs. it sounds great, it's pop heaven and there's even a skip spence cover."
jack rabid, the big takeover review: "a battalion of bands are compared to big star, since echoes of that '70s memphis group still exist in teenage fanclub, the posies, and velvet crush. add l.a.'s ventilator to the list. right from the start, "the tailor's lament" borrows the riff and feel of "feel" from 1972's number one record, only main man matt devine's voice sounds more like alex chilton than chris bell. but unlike the other chilton disciples, devine isn't just interested in rockin' power pop. half of this lp also recreates the pensive, gloomy, subdued sweetness of the slower tracks chilton cherished (from "13" to "what's going ahn" to "kangaroo"), such as on "the daily drag" and "lansdowne." devine can also hint of '70s todd rundgren on the emotionally stuttering "happy new year," and the arrangements are advanced beyond 99 percent of indie records, much less self-produced ones like this. reseda spleen is lovely, however déjà vu-like."
