This is the 2nd album by The Flashing Astonishers from 1999, released on cd-r to around 1000-2000 people. The Star Off Machine was recorded over a few year period, in bedrooms, bathrooms, and studios. The indie rock gems are plentiful. It features some of the strongest 3 minute pop songs by the band, ("Period Exclamatory," "Stop Right Here," and "The Back Nine" while rest of the package shows the band doing spacey Verve-like 10 minute songs ("Angelfish"), instrumentals ("No News" and "The Villainous Priests of Manchester") and noisy four track bedroom recordings ("If Irritation Persists" and "Only Gone"). These two four-track songs appeared on a very early Clairecords comp cd back in 1998 (fern009).
Track Listing:
1. Stop Right Here
2. The Back Nine
3. Needle Exchange
4. If Irritation Persists
5. Ladles
6. Windbreaker
7. Cats Can See Ghosts
8. Period Exclamatory
9. Less Than Shadow
10. No News
11. Bean
12. For Now
13. Only Gone
14. Angelfish
15. The Villainous Priests Of Manchester
Some of the songs were recorded on ADAT at Doug White's Watchmen Studio, a few were recorded on a $20 used Tascam 4-track cassette recorder, and others were recorded on some old reel-to-reel 1" tape machine we really didn't know how to use....
The list of players on this album shows the varied flux of musicians that happened during the years of 1996-2000. It seemed like every show had a new line up, and there was lots of shows. Other than the main original members Dan Musclow and Gregg Yeti, this collection of recordings features Chris Gajewski, Greg Pier, Fred Cousineau, Bob Kane, Joshua Lee Loomis (who sang lead vocals on "Bean"), and Jay Fabbri. Sean Trinkaus and Ryan Zara both contributed song titles, "Angelfish" and "Cats Can See Ghosts".
As with all the free albums available on Koala Syndicate's blog, the mp3's are encoded at 320kbps and taste like creamy mint ice cream on a summer day. Full album artwork is included.
click here for the free full album download: THE FLASHING ASTONISHERS - THE STAR OFF MACHINE (1999 KR007)
