Wednesday, February 11, 2009

I Never Asked For The Truth But You Owe That To Me

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If you don't already have the self-titled Chinese Telephones LP from '07, you should grab it while you can (www.itsaliverecords.com), because it's definitely one of the best rock records of the past half-decade or so. I know that Chinese Telephones get lumped in with all the other pop-punk stuff because of the labels they've been on and the other bands they did splits with-- taking them off a lot of peoples' radar-- but they were really just an awesome, straight-up rock band with great friggin' songs, very much like early Replacements in that regard.

This is the Chinese Telephones covering Guided By Voices' "Game of Pricks", off their AOTU single (with a Queers cover on the flip) from a couple of months ago; normally I wouldn't post something this new without a reason, but the pressing of 350 is already out of print, plus some other blog already posted this recently and did a crappy job of it, so I felt the need to set things right a bit. You might remember that this single made my Fake Best Of list for '08; if you don't, then congratulations, the selective memory thing seems to be working just fine for you.


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Chinese Telephones -

"Game of Pricks"

(this file is now listen-only)


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3 comments:

Brushback said...

The mp3 file on this post is now a listen-only (non-downloadable) file. TOUGH LUCK, CHARLIE! No, actually, for those of you who missed the boat, I will do my best to respond to any e-mailed requests for the original file.

Empire Hancock said...

I love stumbling on unexpected mentions and praise of Chinese Telephones. They were a sweet-ass punk band. I'm glad to have known about them early, as I've known guitarist Daniel James for years, going back to when I was like 18 and wrote him a letter to tell him his then-Christian-oriented zine Non-Secular sucked. From that, we became pen pals and friends, go figure. They actually have some shows coming up 'round the east coast and midwest in May / June, I think, which I'm totally psyched about. I only got to see them once, since they only ever played in Ohio one time the last go 'round.

Brushback said...

Yeah, I heard about the reunion shows-- don't think any of them are happening near enough to me, though, which sucks.

The Daniel James Gang single is kinda okay, too, don't know what's up with them...