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updates coming soon.
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"depression glass" (devine) - matt: vocals, bass, guitars, keyboards; byron reynolds: drums. recorded by matt in north hollywood, 1997; released july 19, 2008 on austin label almost there records' compilation turn 4. also available on iTunes.
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"the tailor's lament", "earthquake song" and "in mysterium" are from the full-length compact disc reseda spleen. originally released in 1996, reseda spleen was re-released online january 2007 by lullaby press/minnow records & delmore recordings. recorded in 1994-95 in a 2-bedroom apartment and beyond, these tracks feature matt devine on vocals, guitar & bass, jeff caruana on lap steel and byron reynolds on drums. brad laner played bass on "earthquake song".
you can purchase reseda spleen on iTunes, napster and rhapsody.
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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 colorful instrumentation. 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 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"). 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 with a couple of demos produced by ward dotson of the gun club, a band ventilator revered. in addition, matt's creative relationship with byron extended to include possum dixon, culminating with matt's contributions to possum dixon's dark 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 fell out of alignment and ventilator's follow-up recordings to reseda spleen remain unreleased.
in the end, reseda spleen is the one concrete piece of evidence that ventilator existed to make a strange and beautiful sound.
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original reviews upon reseda spleen's release:
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."
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in case you haven't guessed it, ventilator edited this profile with thomas' MySpace editor v4.4.
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glowing tubes, i see one light.
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