Big Rock / Small Ribbon of Hope 7" (pre-1993)

ipr94

First 7" in the IPR Archive Series, this was sent free to all Archive subscribers. But for those who are not subscribers, grab one now because it's a limited letterpress edition of 2000, and the tunes are among the best from this San Francisco band. Pure jangly garage pop, among the most intelligent and thoughtful catchy music we've ever heard. A must.

7" single

$3.75

(03)

txe

An excellent single, very catchy A-side and the B-side will get stuck in your head big time. [4-4]

Scatological (pre-1993)

Release: IPR IPCD 27, no date on CD

ipr94

This, their debut release is a fine album. Strong, mature, and with catchy yet melancholy, thoughtful songs. A bargain at the following prices:

LP	$5.00	(08)
Cassette	$3.50	(03)
CD	$8.00	(04)

txe

Darker than the first single. The songs feel very "maple" to me: sweet but with a very rich, earthy undercurrent. There aren't a lot of bright hooks (though there are some catchy moments) and the vocalist is a little on the atonal/drawly side, but several of the songs (especially the uptempo ones) get the head bobbing. [3-2]

Tangent:

This is the case for many of IPR's bands: they provide excellent textural background, with not much focus on foreground melodies. I like it this way. You can get tired of hearing melodies, just like you can get tired of "experiencing" the same plot over and over again in movies and books. The best art, in my opinion, savors the low-level details such as rhythm, dialog, and cinemetography, rather than merely using them to communicate some high-level "gestalt" like plot, melody, moral, etc. Of course, other people might value the Big Picture more highly than I do. These people will tend to favor top-40 music and light reading, and are probably not reading this. :)

By the way, I enjoy listening to texture-oriented groups such as Phish, Can, or the Chameleons for hours and hours on end. You can pack 10 hours of MP3s on a CD! I believe it's the LACK of up-front melodies that makes these marathon listenings fun. The downside, of course, is that if you only have one or two albums by an artist, you can't get much of a marathon going. Hopefully this Encyclopedia will make it easier for us to collect LOTS of IPR music so that we can build up some IPR marathon CDs. :)

IPR 10th Anniversary 7"

ipr94

A split single with one track each from INDIAN BINGO and Chico, California's AMBULANCE. The Bingo rune is a real pretty thing and the AMBULANCE track (their only recording) is a garagey instrumental which grows to ever-increasing power. Limited letterpress edition of 1200 with a beautiful sleeve.

7" single

$4.50

(03)

par

In celebration of IPR's 10th anniversary! Numbered, Limited to 1200 copies.

IndependentProject-030

45

$4.00

Overwrought (1993)

Release: Rockville Records 6079-2

ipr94

Second full album from this San Francisco band, released on Rockville Records in CD only. While a little less focused than their debut, it still is a great listen, with some killer songs and a bit of a jazzier feel along with some heavy guitar workouts.

CD

$12.50

(06)

txe

The cleaner production lets you hear the individual instruments better, but also eliminates much of lushness and unique sound of the first album. The music and vocals are faster and more precise, but the mix seems hasty and too sparse in parts. Several songs fade out just as they are starting to enter "jam-mode" and become really interesting. My guess is that the band didn't have a lot of studio time available; they sound well-rehearsed but almost frantic. Despite the recurring between-song samples (political, maybe) there's no real cohesiveness to the album. "Father" sounds like it could have been on Scatology (catchy but a little muddy and sloppy), "Worm" sounds almost like Ivy at the end (very pretty), and occasionally I hear elements of the Sundays and Screaming Trees. It's a well-played melting pot of ideas and influences, but suffers from sounding impersonal and distracted. [3-2]

Indian Bingo EP (1993)

Release: Rockville Records 6133-2

ipr94

A five-song release, their latest effort, finds our boys continuing to explore the heavier, jazzier side of things. Includes their rendition of "Dream Away" from Rockville Records' Frank Sinatra tribute album, a really beautiful piece of work, along with several other nice tracks. Singer Mike Boul is really coming into his own as a vocalist and lyricist, and has never sounded better.

CD-EP

$9.00

(04)

txe

Great guitar solos, a better mix, and a more indulgent and confident feel make this a great album. The fuzzy guitars sound overly distorted at times, and the vocals occasionally get out of tune, but overall, the implementation is a drastic improvement over the band's prior releases. "Dream Away", which also appears on Chairman of the Board - A Tribute to Frank Sinatra is the excellent centerpiece, very gentle pretty at the start and powerful at the end. This is definitely the best-sounding Indian Bingo release. If only it were a full-length! Still, 24 minutes isn't bad, and I'm glad I bought this EP. [4-3]