You know you have great friends when you don't see them for a year (or more) and when you get together it's like no time has passed at all. You can't say that about everyone, but I have been lucky to have a small group of friends from both high school and college that have given me this gift. I realized in many cases, it is a shared love of good music that keeps us tight. No matter how far away we are from each other, we have the common bond of a good song or album. This past weekend as I sat outside with a few old friends, drinking beer on a warm afternoon we found ourselves talking about the Spinanes - a group that disbanded several years ago. Well before the White Stripes, Rebecca Gates and Scott Plouf created sparse yet beautiful (and rocking) songs as a two-piece on 7" (including the infuckingcredible "Hawaiian Baby") and their debut album, Manos. I was a college DJ when Manos was released and got turned onto the band when they were on tour with Fugazi back in 1993. They recorded two more albums as a band, the latter of which was really a Rebecca Gates album with some help from Jerry Busher of French Toast.As I searched the great world wide web for Spinanes' mp3s, I came across two good music blogs that had been off my radar. The first is Slowcode, which is run by Norm Arenas of Texas is the Reason fame. I first met Norm back in April of 1995 when he crashed at my apartment in Hartford after traveling up from NYC with my buddy Pat West for a Fugazi show. I went on to see him in Texas is the Reason and I was blown away by his guitar playing. Definitely the heyday of good emo (some may argue that is an oxymoron). The second is rbally, which is chock full of mainstream alternative live recordings. I just download some live Radiohead from 1995. Good stuff.
Punch Line Loser (mp3)
