Saturday, April 21, 2012

Engine
"Barrett's Privateers"

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Engine
Crescent Fire Co.
CD
(Sister Ruby, 1994)

There used to be this club in town where bands played. The first time I went there, I believe it was to see a couple of fine local combos: Magic Bone and the Go-Devils. My friend James's band, who are not local, played there several times, and he just loved the place. If you ever happen to see him (a relatively easy thing to do when his band Yo La Tengo are playing), ask him how much he enjoyed playing at The Point. Wear a raincoat, if you do, though, 'cause his head will likely 'splode into a million bloody chunks of brain and bone. Then, you can make sausage.

James's musical boss, of sorts, Gerard Cosloy, had a band for a while in the early '90s called Envelope. A band sporting that name was announced as playing at The Point, so I went to check them out, Gerard being a nice guy with good taste in music. Well, it was a different band with the same name. I don't think I ever did hear the real thing.

The other band on the bill that fateful night, however, was a local group called Engine. I ended up digging their set quite a bit, in fact. Several years later, me not being all that up on local music at the time, I discovered they had released two CDs, so I bought 'em, and today's tune is from the first one. For this particular number, they wrote the music, but the words are by Canadian folkster Stan Rogers.

Their second album, A Good End to Memory, featured an almost completely different line-up, but the sound is pretty much the same, albeit a bit more expansive, with horns 'n' such.

Aside from the two albums, they also had three cuts on a compilation of local bands. You might notice one of them is Babyfat. They later changed their name to Ultrababyfat, due to there being another Babyfat already extant. They also later gained bassist Britta Phillips, who went on to join Luna and is now half of Dean & Britta, who are kinda like Luna if you killed two of them.

NOTA BENE: Years after The Point closed, I happened to see their weekly ad in an ancient-ish copy of Creative Loafing, a local free rag that covers music, among other things. Whaddya know, KoЯn and Limp Bizkit played together at The Point. Golly.

3 biased opinions:

K. R. Seward said...

Dunno nuttin' 'bout nobody, but that Engine makes a nice sound. Thanks for posting.

Anonymous said...

Sometimes all you need to play is one chord if it is the right chord. Definitely some influences of Kevin Shields (My Bloody Valentine) and a polished Spacemen 3

Biki Honko said...

slower than my usual like, but this is rather good. interesting....