Saturday Morning...Sweet Joy Of Listening To Darren Hanlon, Fruit bats, The Kingsbury Manx, Love Tractor, Archer Prewitt & Teenage Fanclab...

Darren Hanlon..."Little Chills" 2005

A veteran of the Australian music scene, having completed stints as a supporting guitarist and keyboard player for the Lucksmiths, the Simpletons, the Deerhunters, and Mick Thomas, singer/songwriter Darren Hanlon officially stepped out on his own in 1999. A charming and clever songwriter, drawing comparisons to Evan Dando and Billy Bragg, Hanlon wasted little time in establishing himself as a compelling songwriter with his observational wit and memorable pop hooks. Releasing his Early Days EP in 2000, he quickly gained notoriety within the Australian indie music scene (his album topping their independent charts) and began touring Europe and the United States shortly thereafter. In 2002, his full-length debut, Hello Stranger, a wonderful mix of folk-rock and quirky songwriting, was released to comparably favorable reviews. By AMG

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Fruit Bats..."Spelled in Bones" 2005

Chicago's experimental folk-pop combo the Fruit Bats feature an ever-changing lineup based around singer/songwriter/guitarist/keyboardist Eric Johnson (not to be confused with the Eric Johnson from Archers of Loaf or the guitar virtuoso of the same name) and keyboardist/bassist/mandolin player Gillian Lisee. Johnson began playing and writing songs on his four-track in the mid-'90s before he formed I Rowboat, a Velvet Underground-inspired indie rock band. Johnson began dabbling in folk with I Rowboat guitarist Dan Strack and drummer Brian Belval as the Fruit Bats. When I Rowboat disbanded, Johnson played guitar and banjo with Califone. That group's Tim Rutili and Ben Massarella, who also own Perishable Records, urged the Fruit Bats to record their work for the label, which resulted in the trio's 2001 debut, Echolocation. Over the next two years the group toured and refined its lineup and sound, adding Lisee as well as more pop and experimental elements to its folk-rock base. In 2002 the group signed to Sub Pop, who released their sophomore effort, Mouthfuls, in spring 2003. Two years later, after relocating to Seattle and expanding to a four-piece, the band released their sophomore album, Spelled in Bones.
By AMG

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The Kingsbury Manx...s.t 2000

The Kingsbury Manx..."Fast Rise and Fall of the South" 2005

The Kingsbury Manx emerged in 1999 from the same North Carolina indie rock scene that spawned the Archers of Loaf and Superchunk before them. Band members Ken Stephenson (guitar/vocals), Bill Taylor (guitar/vocals), Ryan Richardson (drums/vocals), and Scott Myers (bass/keyboards) attended middle school together in Greensboro before going separate ways during their college years. Stephenson and Myers enrolled in creative writing studies at Wilmington while Taylor and Richardson both landed at UNC, Chapel Hill. During visits back home, the quartet began writing and recording the music for a demo. The band's break came when Overcoat Records owner (and former Thrill Jockey employee) Howard Greynolds heard the tape and agreed to fund their debut.

Kingsbury Manx was released by the label in 2000 to so little fanfare (failing to offer any information about the band or the recording) that it ended up creating a small amount of mystery. Managing to stay independent from any particular scene, the band cultivated a sound simultaneously derivative and original. The influences were timeless (early Pink Floyd, Simon and Garfunkel, the Beach Boys, and the Byrds have all been cited), but they were handled with such loving care and attention to detail that they were rendered largely insignificant. The album became one of the underground indie successes of 2000, landing in the year-end polls of the NME (Top 50) and Magnet ("Ten Great Albums Buried in 2000"). A short tour of the U.S. followed in support of Elliot Smith. Let You Down followed in 2001. It's Japanese counterpart release included two bonus tracks, "Dirt and Grime" and "My Shaky Hand." In support of the Afternoon Owls EP, which arrived in fall 2003, Kingsbury Manx toured with Sea and Cake. Additional shows with Gorky's Zygotic Mynci coincided the release of the band's third album, Aztec Discipline (2003). In 2004, the band started working on tunes for their next album at their practice space (Pine Manor) in Chapel Hill. They traveled up to Michigan to record the tunes atKey Club studios and, in early 2005, left longtime label Overcoat Recordings to sign with local North Carolina label Yep Roc Records. The band took the Key Club tapes to Chicago, where Wilco member Mikael Jorgensen mixed the album. The result was their 2005 release The Rise And Fall Of The South. By AMG

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Love Tractor..."Themes From Venus" 1989

Along with luminaries like R.E.M., the B-52's and Pylon, Love Tractor helped establish the college town of Athens, Georgia as a Mecca of alternative music in the early '80s. Comprised of guitarist Michael Richmond, multi-instrumentalist Armistead Wellford, drummer Kit Schwartz and guitarist Mark Cline, the band's earliest material was instrumental, if for no other reason than that they could not afford a PA system. However, the approach set them clearly apart from other acts on the crowded Athens scene, and helped win them a deal with DB Records.

1982's Love Tractor documented their formative approach, which touched heavily on fusion and even cocktail music. By their 1983 follow-up Around the Bend, Richmond was taking the occasional stab at singing; after the 1984 EP 'Til the Cows Come Home, Love Tractor resurfaced in 1987 with This Ain't No Outerspace Ship, a full vocal exercise which also found the group tackling a cover of the Gap Band's "Party Train."

The quartet enlisted Mitch Easter to produce 1989's Themes From Venus, which, while comprised largely of vocal tracks, did contain the instrumental "Nova Express," effectively bringing the Love Tractor story full circle. Accordingly, in 1991 the group decided to take a break from the music business; they reformed periodically, and began writing and performing new material for a projected album.

During their hiatus, Wellford played in Gutterball with Steve Wynn, Bob Rupe, Sparklehourse, and the House of Freaks. Cline traveled, studying Italian opera and ancient languages, while Richmond studied art history. After several failed attempts at completing their "comeback" album, Love Tractor returned in 2001 with The Sky at Night, which featured original members Richmond, Wellford and Cline; former R.E.M. drummer Bill Berry helped out with percussion chores. In 2005, a new and revamped lineup of Love Tractor - with Richmond joined by new members Billy Holmes, Ben Holst, Tom Lewis and Darren Staley - recorded a new album, Black Hole, which found Richmond and company exploring a new musical direction influenced by progressive rock. By AMG

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Archer Prewitt..."Three" 2002

Archer Prewitt..."Wilderness" 2005

Musician and illustrator Archer Prewitt was born and raised in Frankfort, KY, going on to attend art school in Kansas City. There he co-founded the Coctails, a now-legendary quartet whose eclectic, Martin Denny-inspired kitsch-pop predated the lounge revival movement by a good half-decade; the band relocated to Chicago in 1991, issuing four albums and a series of singles before disbanding with a farewell show on New Year's Eve, 1995. By that time, Prewitt was also ensconced as a member of the acclaimed post-rock combo the Sea and Cake; after completing the band's 1997 effort The Fawn, he returned to the studio to record his long-awaited solo debut, the outstanding In the Sun. White Sky followed two years later. In addition to his musical pursuits, Prewitt enjoyed success as a graphic artist — a onetime colorist for Marvel Comics, he also earned acclaim for his brilliant independent title Sof' Boy. A third release entitled Gerroa Songs was released in fall 2000. Recorded on an old reel to reel recorder in Australia, it featured a far more stipped down sound. However, 2002's Three was a return to a more lush pop sound and detailed arrangements. In 2003, the Sean and Cake was back on duty, but Prewitt returned to his solo work and released Wilderness in early 2005. By AMG

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Teenage Fanclub..."Songs From Northern Britain" 1997

Teenage Fanclub..."Howdy!" 2000

Teenage Fanclub..."Man-Made" 2005

After first gaining acclaim for a densely melodic sound which anticipated the coming emergence of grunge, Scotland's Teenage Fanclub spent the remainder of their career as torch-bearers for the power pop revival, unparalleled among their generation for both their unwavering adherence to and brilliant reinvention of the classic guitar pop approach of vintage acts like Big Star and Badfinger. Blessed with the talents of three formidable singers and songwriters (Norman Blake, Gerard Love, and Raymond McGinley, respectively) all sharing an unerring knack for crafting immediately infectious melodies, Teenage Fanclub's radiant brand of pop classicism enjoyed only a brief moment devotion to its unapologetically old-fashioned sensibility yielded of commercial and critical vogue, and over time, the band's dogged increasingly dwindling fan base and virtually non-existent record sales. Nevertheless, almost none of their contemporaries can claim either Teenage Fanclub's consistency or longevity — though never groundbreaking or hip, their music possesses a timelessness and accessibility matched by precious few.

Singers/guitarists Blake and McGinley first teamed with singer/bassist Love in 1987 in Glasgow's short-lived Boy Hairdressers, issuing the single "Golden Shower" on the famed Scottish indie label 53rd and 3rd, before disbanding. After a brief stint with the BMX Bandits, Blake reunited with Love and McGinley to form Teenage Fanclub in 1989; drummer Francis McDonald, a fellow BMX Bandit, completed the original lineup, although McDonald was replaced by fan Brendan O'Hare during sessions for the group's debut album, 1990's A Catholic Education. Released on the Creation label overseas and on the fledgling Matador imprint in the U.S., the album's thick, murky squall staked out sonic territory subsequently occupied by the nascent grunge movement and made Teenage Fanclub an instant critical favorite; the God Knows Its True EP soon followed, but although American major labels came courting, the band still owed Matador one more record. They submitted The King, a ramshackle collection of instrumentals capped off by a tongue-in-cheek rendition of Madonna's "Like a Virgin"; instead, the record was summarily rejected by Matador honcho Gerard Cosloy, and after paying Cosloy what they felt the remainder of their contract was worth, Teenage Fanclub signed to Geffen.

Never shy about celebrating their inspirations — covers of the Beatles' "The Ballad of John and Yoko," the Flying Burrito Brothers' "Older Guys," and Phil Ochs' "Chords of Fame" are scattered across various singles and EPs — Teenage Fanclub's 1991 Geffen debut, Bandwagonesque, gloriously evoked the raggedly radiant pop manna of Big Star, the famed 1970s cult band led by ex-Box Tops frontman Alex Chilton and his singing/songwriting partner Chris Bell. With its newfound melodic ingenuity, brash guitar sound and gorgeous harmonies, the record was a massive critical success, and although mainstream pop radio failed to bite, the group found a warm welcome on collegiate airwaves. Although somewhat hard to believe in retrospect, Bandwagonesque topped Spin magazine's best-of-1991 year-end list in the face of staggering competition including Nirvana's Nevermind, My Bloody Valentine's Loveless, and R.E.M.'s Out of Time; a few months later, they were tapped as Rolling Stone's Hot Band for 1992, and at the peak of their success, the Fannies even performed on Saturday Night Live, that same year also opening for Nirvana.

Although the title of the 1993 follow-up Thirteen served immediate notice that Teenage Fanclub's Big Star fetish continued unabated, the album's bitter lyrical outlook and heavier guitar sound owed much to Neil Young, while the epic closer, "Gene Clark," honored the pioneering Byrds co-founder. Critical reception was decidedly icy, however, and in 1994, O'Hare was dismissed from the lineup, briefly resurfacing in Mogwai before mounting his own project, the Telstar Ponies. Ex-Soup Dragon Paul Quinn assumed drumming duties for the 1995 follow-up, the shimmering Grand Prix; by now, however, whatever critical cachet the Fannies had amassed was long gone, and after the disc sold poorly on both sides of the Atlantic, Geffen dropped the group from its roster. Sony picked up their contract just long enough for a U.S. release of 1997's Songs From Northern Britain, which again made few waves outside of the power pop faithful. Quinn left Teenage Fanclub in the midst of completing 2000's Howdy! More setbacks were to follow as Sony refused to release Howdy in the United States. The album eventually recieved distribution via Thirsty Ear in 2001, a year after its original release. A year later, the band brought a relationship they had developed with spoken word artist Jad Fair to fruition by backing him on the album Words of Wisdom and Hope. In 2003, the band took stock of its career by releasing the retrospective anthology Four Thousand Seven Hundred and Sixty-Six Seconds: A Short Cut to Teenage Fanclub. It took three more years for Teenage Fanclub to return to the studio, eventually working with Chicago post-rock icon John McEntire at his Soma recording studio. Forming its own label Pema, the Fanclub released Man-Made in 2005. By AMG

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