Friday, July 3, 2009

The Raymond Brake - Never Work Ever


Label: Hep-Cat
Year: 1996

Every so often you just gotta get back on some of that ole indie rock shit, n'ah mean? And, for my money, the great state of North Carolina (Camel City...big ups!) churned out some of the best, and some of the most memorable of that indie rock back in the heyday of the stuff...the early and mid-90's. I mean, you couldn't walk ten feet without tripping over a band playing rockin, catchy, quirky indie rock in North Carolina. Sure, Chapel Hill got lots of the kudos, but Greensboro, with it's own liberal arts university in town had a sweet little scene as well. A lot of those bands were more abrasive, more primitive, or more artsy-fartsy than the bands centered around the Cats Cradle down the interstate, but The Raymond Brake could have easily competed with the Polvos, Archers Of Loafs, and Superchunks of the day. I think the easiest comparison would be Grifters, but that's me being pretty lazy and I'm sure you can come up with something better. 
Come up with something better because, I gotta go get my grill ready for some 4th of July all-American, independence-ass cooking out tomorrow.

5 comments:

Red Fang said...

wow.. i used to do acid with these dudes when we were barely 20!! You know, now Andy is the main force behind Vetiver - a band I know little about, but seem to be doing well. Kudos on taking me back to a fearless time when we were all kings.

Gray said...

red fang, now that's a good band...thanks for checking in. i didn't realize there was a red fang/north carolina connection, but if you were partying with the raymond brake, you must have been in greensboro. neat. even though i haven't lived there for...shit...15 years, i was born and bred in winston-salem, and still have a fondness for it in the old dead, blackened, heart. were you around during the blownapart bastards era? maybe before?

Red Fang said...

ha! Blownapart Bastards!! Yeah, I was in a band called Resol that did a split 7" with those dudes. 2 of us in Red Fang are from NC, me (John) and David. He was in totally bitchin band called Shiny Beast back in the day. Anyway, we dig this blog.
-John

Gray said...

well of course i have the resol/blownapart bastards 7"...doesn't any red-blooded north carolinian?! that's fantastic! i was a big brian tipa fan, especially when he was in naked angels. and shiny beast...hot shit, that band was great too. i was planning on posting some of their stuff, the split with regraped and the boner sessions. and now that i know the connection, that makes it all the more exciting.

hail red fang! hail north carolina! hail brian tipa!

Anonymous said...

can you re-up this?

 
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