Now available to download from https://thepigeonpost.wordpress.com/2009/12/27/weird-era-side-aa-download/
What you want and what you get for Christmas are two completely different things. So whilst I wanted to drink all day and eat until I popped, all I got was slightly tipsy at 2 o’clock, bloated and an early night. But there was also the tiny matter of an unexpected gift from Weird Era, who’ve got themselves together to record and release 13 tracks over two CDs, entitled ‘Side A’ and ‘Side A*’. So whilst my little brother spends his boxing day reading football annuals and devouring selection boxes, I’m being treated to what is surely one of the best self-released records of the year.
If you’ve listened to Weird Era before, you’ll know what to expect, with a heady mix of shoegaze, drone and lo-fi sweeping you away for 35 minutes. It’s almost unbelievable that this is being put out by the band themselves for free – it sounds like a seminal record already and it simply washes over you, and there’s a craft within each of the songs that belies the fact that they’re pretty much unheard of. If I wasn’t such a terribly frightened man, I’d make a record label just to put this out to a greater audience, and if someone doesn’t snap them up before easter then indie labels have got a lot to answer for. Obviously, there’s a lot of inspiration taken from Deerhunter and the usual My Bloody Valentine stuff, but this is material that stands on it’s own, with ease. More than anything, this proves why end of year lists shouldn’t be started until January.
If you want a copy, then you should either ask the band via their myspace (below) for a link, or they’ve distributed physcial copies around various outlets in Manchester, where you can pick them up for free. I’ve e-mailed the band asking if I can pass it on, so check back later if you can’t be bothered chasing it down in real life.
Weird Era – Fullstop (lower amp)
http://kiwi6.com/upload/hotlink?id=pnhsjl9h
Weird Era – Sleep Paralysis
http://kiwi6.com/upload/hotlink?id=cm2d3257
D’ya think they’ve taken inspiration from Amusement Parks on Fire, too? I can hear pieces of them in there too.
Followed a link from last.fm to your blog (twas about Tom Vek, yay for him returning eventually…) I shall keep nosing around here from time to time!
Hey, any idea where about in Manchester I could snag a copy? I know I could Myspace the band but that’d involve logging into Myspace (eww)….
From the band themselves:
“Just to let you know we have some songs out on a cassette and a CD we’ve put around various places in the Northern Quarter in Manchester. If you want a CD let me know as we’re giving them away.”
Hope that’s some help. The tracks are available for d/l now anyway.
We’ll be putting some more copies down on the desk of piccadilly records on tuesday, or… (unless someone’s found them already) if you go in Vinyl Exchange you might find a few to take buried in the flyer rack just near the entrance. Otherwise there’s an ace shop top floor of Affleck’s (Good Grief) that we’re gonna stick ’em in come new year.
…Failing that myspace private message us and we may send some stuffs out untill we figure something better out
WE x