STILL LIFE looks like tomorrow

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Tree's last post.

i know, two releases are missing.

but: one doesn't always have to fulfill the completist goal. plus, a collection's gasps are generally the best parts of it...

listen.

VERY SECRETARY nagarcot

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friendly, but not essential.

for the sake of completism, that is: for the idea(lism) behind Tree Records.

listen.

ETHEL MESERVE pierman

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out of the Underdog-universe, that i never really inhabited. admittedly a bit dusty.


listen.


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JEN WOOD sheltering for the birds

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discovered thanks to an upbeat sale-review from mr. michael stahl, back in 1997.

recently, she went more and more mainstreamish.

this song gives you an idea how she sounded in the old days.

remember: she's on JOAN OF ARC's Live in Chicago (btw, Tim Kinsella is on this Long Distance Lovers split with her) , BLACK HEART PROCESSION's 1 , and, exactly, POSTAL SERVICE's Give Up.

her first two solo albums will remain as essential parts of my heartbreak biography.

strange enough, i've never been a fan of the TATTLE TALE thing.


listen.


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RAINER MARIA black in the eye

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strange how fast this band tilted into an over-stereotyped pose following their first album.

i expect many of you to not agree.

this was the last long distance-lovers split-7" on Tree Records.



listen.


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ASPERA AD ASTRA black in the eye

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psychedelic weirdos doing semi-melancholic pop music.

the first minute of the track is - to me - the incarnation of the Long-Distance-Lovers-Spirit inherent to the Tree Rec.-split-series.

if that's what you're living right now: listen to this song at 5am in the greyhound / train /airplane that brings you to your beloved one.


listen.


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IDA post prom disorder

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the first Long Distance Lovers split 7" on Tree Records.

an early gorgeous Ida-song.

a song to fit in your twenties and, by how i can foresee it, also quite well in your thirties.


listen.


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URBAN LEGENDS casting stones

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interesting on a name-dropping level:
2/3 of THE THERMALS and former HAELAH members.

charming catchy psychedelic-pop.


listen.


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HAELAH cast into

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what a shame they didn't make it. very much mid nineties.

the second Tree Records release.

Hutch Harris (drums) and Kathy Foster (bass) later formed The Urban Legends and The Thermals. oh, and Kathy also played in The All Girl Summer Fun Band.


listen.


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GIANTS CHAIR lost dauphin

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a structure that nurtures expectations.


listen.


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BRAID forever got shorter

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on Tree Records - part of the split 7" series, this is #4. a different artwork though, made speci-fically for the european tour Braid shared with The Get Up Kids who are on the b side.
i got this record at Underdog Records - one of Cologne's indie-temples. best place in town for us-microlabel-vinyl.

emo in the mid-90ies was not exactly what it is in these days.


listen.


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K not here

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K, just in case you care, is Karla Schickele and a couple friends. she sings the alto-parts in Ida.

one of the most elegant Tree Rec.-releases.


listen.


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SWEEP THE LEG JOHNNY walking home

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n°8 of the Postmarked Stamps series on Tree Rec.
i didn't buy that one - M.S. added it for free to one of my orders. he did good.

this long-distance-lovers-split7"-series might seem totally obsessive, in its focus on the tiniest details - the musicians' neighboorhood map on each label, the envelopes with the multiple, yet sorted inlays, the stamps on the cover that had, for the last three issues, to be artifically made, due to a logistic backlash, etc.

but to be honest, for a microlabel, it seems to me that it just has to be that way.

more to come in the close future, as, following this ingenious gift, i became a Tree Records-completist.


listen.


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