14
Dec

I find Sunday nights the best time to listen to music, especially vinyl. I rip them to mp3s, clean them a bit, there are no hurries. I have a beer. I have some pizza. I turn off the cell phone. A chess game against Emma, which for unknown reasons ends up as a draw. Around 7:30 p.m. I have my senses bright and acute. And when I play this song, it comes drilling through my brain. What a wonderful noise I say.

Today being noisy is the status quo. Especially if you come from the Pitchfork confetti-plumped Brooklyn. I wonder if the hipsters would rejoice if they listen this wonderful ramshackling, noisy and dreamy band. Most probably they won’t. This is too pure for them, they need some music critic filtering, they need some artsy haircut, they need some comfort zone, tell them that it is the RIGHT thing to like.

I wonder what happened to this band. Their first 7″ was Grip / Frances and was released on the Fluff label. If my memory doesn’t play tricks on me, the Leicester label released the first Boyracer 7″. Also they released Hood and a band I haven’t heard but always been curious about, Liechtenstein Girls. I’m pretty sure there was a split flexi with Boyracer and Hula Hoop also. More info, of course, would be appreciated. The insert of the single doesn’t give that much information either:

honey one is grip and frances. the players are stuart on skins, neil on strings and gogs on a fuzzy lump of wood. seagate studios housed the noise, stuart and chris processed it, we re-invented it. thanks to the foreman, paedo strangetrouser and the ones who haven’t loved or loved us. this vice will not release until I release myself and as soon as I can do that you’ll be free as well. you forgot you were an atheist. stay beautiful norm. bee.

Their second single appeared on Lust Recordings (home of the Lavender Faction and St. James Infirmary). It was a 7″ with a giraffe on the cover. It was a four track EP that included the songs Sunrise, Stunned, Happy Sunday Stories and Ignite. I still haven’t got around to get or listen this one.

Twee.net doesn’t list their third release. It was another 7″ and it was released on Fluff Records again. This one included the songs Demand Better Protection and Cradle. This release seems to be the rarest one to find. And they also contributed, with a cover version of James’ “Come Home”, on the tape compilation Bobby Stokes Salutes The Fall Of Manchester. This was released on  the exquisite Ambition Records.

And I believe this is it. I ask to the whole wide web, is there anyone out there?

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Listen

Aspidistra – Grip

3 Responses to “:: Aspidistra”

If it’s any help, I think they came from Perth (in Scotland) and also wrote a fanzine. I have very vague memories of them (and I’m about 60% sure it was them) promoting a little Sottish tour for The Badgeman with themselves and a band from Dundee in support.
Very nice guys I seem to remember, and all of ’em rather bright, which means they’re probably all doctors or something by now. =;o)

July 19th, 2011

I got the Sunrise single totally on spec in a sydney record store in the winter of 1991. I played it almost to death but never found anything else by them. There was a review in of the single in the NME, it might have been single of the week, can’t remember now.

mike
August 28th, 2012

I like Aspidistra. Actually the Lust Recordings single ‘Sunrise’ (with a giraffe on the cover) was their debut and released 08 April 1991. And Grip / Frances on Fluff was the band’s second single. Presumably it came out 02 December 1991.

Tinsel heart
October 27th, 2019