Deep Elm used to send me their records back when the label first started in 1995; at that point, all of the label's releases were cute colored-vinyl indie rock 7"-ers in full-color picture sleeves, and had really nice packaging. I ended up getting six of their records in the mail, and I reviewed two of them in the fifth issue of Brushback.
I was pretty sure that both reviews were fairly positive, and you can still find the one I wrote for Muler on the Deep Elm web site ("seething with tumbling buzzsaw guitar lines and hoarse, disappearing vocals, so painfully post-modern that it's like punk rock was never invented"). In my Nada Surf review I said that Deep Elm was "an obvious trust fund label setting itself up as bait to the majors," and I'm guessing that's the reason why Deep Elm stopped sending me their records right after that issue of Brushback was published.
Deep Elm went emo soon afterwards-- the minute label chief John Szuch heard "In Circles"-- and if I'd kept my mouth shut I would've been swimming in bad Appleseed Cast records. Serves me right for being such a dick.
Muler themselves went on to make a really bad CD ("The State of Play"), but I still like the a-side to this single a lot; they have a nice Small/Superchunk thing going on here, and the song is hooky as hell.
Muler -
"On The Rug"
(this file is now listen-only)
3 comments:
My friend, our tastes overlap so much it's genuinely scary. I have some other Muler singles I'll post soon on my blog, but I have to disagree with you about "The State of Play," which I thought was great. Cheers.
wilfullyobscure.blogspot.com
I'm looking forward to hearing those other Muler singles. If I went to the record store tomorrow and saw another Muler 7", I'd still buy it, even though I didn't think their CD was all that great.
Spavid, aren't Muler from around your area?
And I still have the CD, so I could give it another listen just to re-establish that I still don't like it.
Hey, sorry, but the mp3 file on this post is now a listen-only (non-downloadable) file. For those of you who came to the party late, I will do my best to respond to any e-mailed requests for the original file.
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