The Mad Scene – Falling
Over, Spilling Over EP
Homestead, 1992
Acquired: Love Garden, Used, 2008
Price: $1
Odds are, if a band’s album’s cover art looks like it might
be associated with Flying Nun Records, the band is probably affiliated with
Flying Nun Records. Not only did the Mad Scene release their debut album A Trip Through Monsterland on Flying
Nun, but founding member Hamish Kilgour is the same Hamish Kilgour from the
Clean, which excites me to no end. I don’t know what it is about this album’s
crude pastel image of a table spilling over a bunch of shit, but there’s
something about the alluring amateurishness that matches the bands you
typically found on Flying Nun. People who weren’t career musicians who made
some of the most blissful alt-pop you’ve ever heard. I was just talking about
Flying Nun with Jenny yesterday, as she just fell in love with Lorde and of
course I had to get on my “You know what else is from New Zealand and paved the
way for all kiwi pop?” soapbox which she has probably tuned out a hundred
times. Oh, to live in New Zealand in the early 90s. Beautiful scenery,
excellent weather, and a government that funds the countries arts and music
scene.
Despite the New Zealand roots, the Mad Scene was based in
NYC. In addition to Flying Nun, the band was signed by a veritable who’s who of
fantastic indie rock labels throughout their career (Homestead, Merge,
Siltbreeze). While the sparse, post-punk forward title track is a bit sloggish,
the two tracks on this 7”s double A side are as joyful and pleasant as the
album’s cerulean vinyl. The guitars on “People to Talk to” chime and jangle in
that way that only guitars from Oceania seem to chime and jangle. There’s a
post-punk backbone to that track, but the delicious sunny riff shines over
everything. Vocal duties on the more indie-pop driven “Paper Plane” are handled
by Kilgour’s foil Lisa Siegel, who delivers the vocals in way not dissimilar to
Yo La Tengo’s Georgia Hubley (who, by the by, has been part of the band’s
revolving door lineup throughout the years). Wonderful stuff. Now excuse me
while I try to track down their full-lengths.
Here's "Choose" from their Merge-released sophomore LP Sealight.
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