FOURTEEN, unreleased demos (cassette, 1995)

So I split with the girlfriend recently, which means two things. First: ladies, this stallion's available! (stop laughing, Gail) Oh yes, step right up and take your shot at becoming the next ex-Mrs. Jones. Who's calling dibs? crickets... Hm? louder crickets (damn... where's Lolita when you need her?)

Okay, well the second thing it means is... breakup music! Yes, my misery is your gain (as usual). I hadn't planned on posting today's download right now, but in between drinking screwdriver and listening to All Shook Down and throwing up (probably more from All Shook Down than the screwdriver) and whatnot, I remembered that I had this cassette with some mid-'90s emo-pop punk (see yesterday's post) on it. And as everyone with a heart knows, mid-'90s emo-pop punk is the perfect post-breakup soundtrack -- for men at least. I've never met a woman who drowns her sorrows in mid-'90s emo-pop punk (and the day I do is the day I meet the girl I'm gonna marry).

And just like every breakup I've ever experienced in my life, this music is a total mystery to me (smooth segue, no?). The only thing I remember about FOURTEEN is a dim impression that Dave Graeter used to know these guys. But I could be wrong even about that. And barring some help from you people, there is likely little more information on this band forthcoming. I'm not even going to bother typing "FOURTEEN" into any search engine.

I don't know who was in this band, how long they were together, where they might've played, or who they might've played with. The cassette bears the band's name, a list of songs, and the date "4/95." The tape is a consumer brand "That's as:II 60 High Position Type II" -- and I've no idea what all that means. As far as I can tell, these are unreleased demos. As usual, correct me if I'm wrong.

Anyway, what we lack in information on this one, we make up for in sound quality, which is about as good as it gets for a thirteen-year-old cassette: very crisp, very clean, very powerful. Excellent engineering and mix too. It's definitely professional sounding but with a good live, first-take kind of feel. If I had to guess, I would say that this was likely recorded at Hidden Music, where a lot of bands like this were recording back then. It certainly has the Hidden Music feel to it. And if it was recorded there, it was engineered by Steve Van Etten.

As I said, this is pretty straightforward emo pop -- representative of what a lot of bands were doing around these parts in 1995. Specifically, THE BARNHILLS and THE LARRY BRRRDS come to mind, but this is just a little less poppy and just a wee-wee bit slower tempo than either of those bands. I'd also say it's in the ballpark with my old band HEIKE, which was also playing around Dayton at about the same time. The guitars are loud, and the vocals are all whiny and morose but hopeful -- and every song's about a girl. Aces!

So download and enjoy this miserably up-tempo music with me -- at least until I slide out of the post-breakup cry-in-my-Milwaukee's Best phase (REPLACEMENTS, HUSKER DU/BOB MOULD, JAWBREAKER) and into the post-breakup all-women-are-bad phase (QUEERS, VANDALS, CRAMPS, oh yeah...) -- which I feel coming on pretty quickly.

Track List:

1. Intro
2. Polish Boy Never Gets the Kootchie
3. The Memory Song
4. Ohio-Penn
5. Overwhelmed
6. The Should-Be Situation...
7. I Like Food

Download It! (33 MB) (link re-upped on 2-1-2013)

take care

---Jones()