The internet age’s far reaching implications, in three oversimplified points: easy access to vast quantities of music, the proliferation of porn domains, and never being able to run from your past. So be careful what you post! And if you’re considering a career as a rock star, know that those early demos will be dug up and spread far and wide — especially if you’re in a sensitive indie rock band, and you used to be, say a snarling punk rocker. This morning, reader Caleb tipped us to a handful of MP3s featuring Ben Gibbard’s “awful high school punk band.” Explaining the songs’ origins in a blog post, Caleb elaborated:
About two years ago the cassette surfaced (I believe via the Death Cab message boards) and horrified fan boys everywhere. Gibbard can be heard sharing vocal duties (if you can call them that) and showing off a nasally punk-rock growl.
More specifically, the future Death Cabbie shares vocal duties with Justin Kennedy, now of L.A. quartet Army Navy, who’ve recorded a full-length debut but have yet to sign to a label. The songs include “the demo” and the real find, an unreleased track “Radio Static Scars” performed on Bellingham radio (formative Cutie!).
Call us crazy, but we can see something worthwhile in the power-slop. Yeah some sucks and none’s especially hot, but it’s definitely of that time: Makes sense they were cutting their teeth in the same town as Crayon ? and maybe they secretly dug a kinder, gentler Jawbreaker (check out “Honey and Acetylene”).
Head over to Hard To Find A Friend for the rest. This is kind of like a celebrity sex tape! Except that you’ll never see it on Perez. Thank god.
NOTE: Benjamin! What a cutie.
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Honey is definitely the best of the bunch
Agreed… in an early-Blink-182 meets Sunny Day kind of way. *shudder*
But, lets not be too harsh. High school punk bands rarely yield anything very good.
I think most musicians of that age were in some kind of crappy punk band in high school
recorded at studio x!!! My hs band recorded in my basement and we were better than this
Are we getting to the point where you have to grow up hip as well to be called authentic?
this is pretty darn good for a high school band… i certainly didn’t make music that good when i was in high school (and some would say i still don’t). back off the ben!
it’s not that bad! i would have been super into this in high school. ben gibbard is dreamy. *sigh*
C’mon… For a high school band this is pretty darn good… Sounds exactly like Sunny Day Real Estate, but most high school bands sound like kids having seizures with instruments… As far as this being a “secret”, I am sure that Ben has absolutely no problem with this at all. Probably remembers it fondly…
Are we getting to the point where you have to grow up hip as well to be called authentic?
Posted by: dannygutters at August 16, 2007 3:23 PM
Not at all! I think the demos are fun to hear (and sometimes laugh at) and a few of them are actually enjoyable.
This is hella better than my hs band.
Wow stereogum. I thought you knew about the good ol pinwheel project.
Pinwheel was actually a pretty fun live band – I saw ‘em a few times at the ol’ 3-B Tavern here in Bellingham. I didn’t like ‘em enough to buy this tape, but I do remember them being pretty popular.
“This is the best I can do right now.” Radio Static Scars-Pinwheel
I think this “demo” tape should be put in context. Pinwheel were a college band who recorded tapes like this to get them playing live in clubs, community centers, house parties…wherever. These were the days in which lo-fi recording was popular (later championed by local Elisnor Records) and getting anything on tape sounded good enough, good enough to get a gig at least or played on local radio station KUGS. Pinwheel recorded a couple of times after this and I hope they surface sometimes as they might better reflect where the band was headed and might hold up historically a little better than these tracks. The last recording session was recorded by our friend Chris Walla in the same house studio that the Death Cab songs that appear on “You Can Play These Songs With Chords” are from. Chris Walla even played live with Pinwheel at the end. The songs that were written and recorded at the end of the band’s time captured the band maturing and dropping their earlier influences and coming into their own (there was also lineup change with Matt Gomes playing bass) and you can really tell that both Ben and Justin would go on to do great work and in my opinion prove to be some of the best songwriters in indie pop.
-Jody Rodgers, former Pinwheel manager
I don’t know why anyone would hate on this. This is pretty damn good for that type of 90s punk style, especially considering how young they were. The drummer is super tight and it’s not like they’re sloppy or out of key or anything.