Here is one record that will probably please quite a few people. I've sent tracks from this record to various people on mixed cds and every single person wants the original LP. Mood School was a quartet. They self-released this album, called Clutter Without Decay, on their own Brain Pan Records. I believe they were from Texas (the contact number has the area code 214, an area code for Dallas). As far as I know, this was their only release. However, it appears that they were recording music as later as 1993, as a music video was made that year for a song called Spoon Bender, which does not appear on this album. Fun fact: The guy who directed that video, Ruben Ellingson, went on to be an art director and concept designer on movies like Jurassic Park, Men in Black, and both Hellboy movies. Too bad that doesn't really have anything to do with the actual band, about whom I can find no information... Anyway, this is a great album that mixes post punk, goth, and electro. Most songs have female vocals. Songs like Time Traveler, Your Crime, and Searching should have been hits, but alas, nobody cared. It's not too late to appreciate the music though. Download it now!
Songs:
1. Blowbuth
2. Searching
3. Your Crime
4. Longest Day
5. All Us Humans
6. To Sir With Love
7. Illusions
8. Alone in the Palace
9. Stroll Through China
10. Time Traveler
Click here to download the album!
Posts
15 comments:
Wow. Way back in the day--sometime in the late 80s, I guess--I went to the release party for this record. It was in the house where some or all of the band members lived and where the cover photo was shot. I don't think I knew any of them, so we must have had a mutual friend...maybe at SMU? Or at Foley's, where I had a part-time job?
I live in New York now and found this LP when I was cleaning out my basement a couple of weeks ago. This blog entry seems to be the sole reference to this band. Wonder where they are now?
This is indeed quite nice. Has the typical mid-to-late 80s' sounds with their terrible drum machines, but the mixing makes it sound not too bad. Nice voices, inventive sound programming, good song-writing. 1983 style singing (sounding like Tears For Fears, Japan and Spandau Ballet all in one), musically it reminds me partly of early Ministry. Thank you for sharing!
Well, at second thought their main influence seems to be Japan. Listen to the perfect Japan clone "Stroll Through China", interestingly an instrumental although in other tracks the singer does sing like David Sylvian quite often.
I definitely agree about the Japan influence. I never even thought about that, but it is quite obvious...
well well.. after all these years. i'm the lead female singer from mood school. to the post that was at the release party - yup - we all worked at foley's. the band went on for 8 years with various members. after our year in dallas - went back to minneapolis. 6 cd's and many demos later, the band split and went our seperate ways. nice to know there are folks out there that appreciate our work.
Thanks so much Marty! I love the Mood School LP. If you have any extra copies, I'm pretty sure that there are people who want it, as I've seen it on several wantlists. Do you have a timeline and discography of your band?
What year approximately is this from?
Hey There -
the year was 1987 - we recoreded in texas - Deep Elm was huge then.
the mood school link is already dead, too. and i'm really curious about the japan refs. reup, pretty please?
could you please repost? please???
This is what happens when you listen to too much Japan! Fun late-80's nu-romanitic. A little late to the party but fun none the less!!
hello, i would like to read more information about this interesting topic.
Thanks so much for the post, quite helpful piece of writing.
I am super curious to hear this, but the link is no longer working. Wondering if you could be so kind as to re-upload this?
the japan comparisons above have got me intrigued. would it be possible to repost this? i would love to hear it.
Post a Comment