Terrible Things Happen

Artist: The Aislers Set
Label: Slumberland Records
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1

UPC: 749846205520
EAN: 0749846205520
ASIN: B000007RTO

Release Date: 1998-07-31

Terrible Things Happen

Related Categories:

General

| Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

Indie Rock

| Indie & Lo-Fi | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

General

| Indie & Lo-Fi | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

General

| Rock | Styles | Music

Pop Rock

| Pop | Styles | Music

Tracks:

Friends Of The Heroes
California
Holiday Gone Well
Alicia's Song
I've Been Mistreated
Mary's Song
Why Baby
Long Division
London Madrid
Cocksure Whistler
Army Street
Falling Buildings
Jaime's Song
My Boyfriend (Could Be A Spanish Man)

Similar Items:

The Last Match
How I Learned to Write Backwards
Henry's Dress
A Certain Smile, a Certain Sadness
Starlit Sunken Ship

Customer Reviews:

Haunting wisps for the lonely indie rock cognoscenti.......2006-11-21

Not bad at all, although my "it's still their first album" disclaimer follows. I'm late to this SF quartet, having heard only a couple of years ago their third CD, "How I Learned to Write Backwards" (great title) playing at Ameoba Records in Hollywood and asking the clerk about this chipper songstress with an Ian Curtis jones who meets a band with a Ronettes + DIY postpunk blend. I found TTH the other day, and wondered about it being rawer and not as fully formed as HILTWB. TTH is thinner sounding, but this being indie label music, recorded mostly 'in Amy's garage,' it beats any neighborhood teens you might hear rehearsing in the carport down the block. Certainly this band has hit on a distinctive and oddly poignant coupling of carefree insouciance with existentialist dread.

Some tunes are whispered, others chanted. Male vocals pair with female only once: I wish there had been more variety in singing arrangements. Arguably, this is an element that may wear on you or entice you, as the consistency of the singing is The Aislers Set's strength and weakness. Why? Individual songs allow the combination of girlish delivery (but not sappy--see the Ronettes reference) and tougher indie-rock to reach their punchy, yet haunting blend of wistfulness and tension. But a dozen or so songs largely falling into this same pattern, the album does lag if only since the template is so fascinating to the band and they wish to trace it again and again-- an understandable trait.

I do recommend it, with these provisos. Lyrics that strive to make a point deftly but not dully are a bonus. Rather sketchy and understated arrangements that a limited budget and facilities undoubtably limited predominate, but the potential for richer production rests with you, the listener, to fill in these spaces with your own imagination. I reckon few listeners among the misguided millions will long for this studied sound, but if you are among the curious and are intrigued by reading about this CD, it's worth it. Best heard with headphones, late at night. Probably best heard alone, without a mate, on a balmy but gloomy evening.

Absolutely dreamy!.......2000-12-08

I haven't listened to the radio at all in about a week because I refuse to take my Aislers set CD out of my CD player. I never even heard of this band before last Sunday when they opened for Bratmobile at this puny little club in Olympia, WA. The live set was wonderful and I had to buy one of their CDs. Now I can't stop listening. They have the smoothness of Stereolab or Belle and Sebastian mixed with the innocence of Beat Happening (Read: they're cute, they're catchy, moderately low fidelity but with some keyboard effects.)They're mostly mellow with a happy sing-along moments like "Long Division" or "My Boyfriend Could Be a Spanish Man" The bottom line is that this is a truly great album and a must-have for the indie enthusiast.

The new Velvet Underground.......2000-04-15

This album is brilliant. A friend told me about The Aisler's Set and I was interstead and bought a 7" which a tottaly loved. Then after some delay, I bought this album. They really remind me of The Velvet Underground. I can just see Lou Reed with a whip and sunglasses on singing "California". Buy this album for something new. Check out their 7" records too.

Buy this album, and let the melodies and hooks infect you!.......2000-02-02

This album is INCREDIBLE! It is a CD for any day. I've owned it for nearly a year now and I still listen to it frequently. From the opening beats of "Friends of the Heroes" you know something is going down. Many songs on this album are so dense, with so many subtle things going on around you - a tambourine on the left, handclaps, two different, oppositely-panned drum parts, it requires several listens to be fully dissected. It's insane! Amy Linton, the pop genius responsible for this piece of brilliance, also knows how to work magic on songs with little more than just her voice and a guitar. More importantly, the songwriting is brilliant! "Mary's Song" flows continuously without specific song parts (but without the tunelessness and lack of direction found in many of the songs by others attempting to abandon "structure"), carrying you along as if you were in a dream, until you find yourself awake in an ocean of 'hey hey hey's. And get this - she recorded this album by herself at home on an eight-track! Talk about skill! With this album and her previous work in Henry's Dress (who you should also check out if you like this), Amy Linton has proven herself to be an incredible and important songwriter in today's indie-pop scene, and worthy of more recoginition. Check this album out...it's marvelous!

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