Flying Colors

In 1996, I had quit my job as a media consultant, moved back to my hometown of Saint Louis, and was pretty much just hanging out. During the day I waited tables at Blueberry Hill and at night I was going to as many shows as I could in Cicero’s Basement, the Side Door, Hi-Pointe, Off Broadway, and the Galaxy. I saw a lot of great bands that year, bands that I often wonder what the fuck happened to them. Bands like House of Large Sizes, Railroad Jerk, Combustible Edison, and Duotang.

That year Duotang released their debut, Smash the Ships and Raise the Beams, whose raw mix of post-punk and psych pop earned it a near-permanent place in my regular rotation. The duo of Rod Slaughter and Sean Allum would go on to release two more albums, 1998’s The Cons & The Pros and 2001’s The Bright Side, so where the hell are they now? Well apparently Sean is now a father and Rod is fronting Novillero.

Also recording on Mint Records, home to other Canadian indie luminaries like The New Pornographers, Neko Case, and Young and Sexy, Novillero is a bit more fleshed out affair, almost as if their sound is a composite of the nuggets from Nuggets: Original Artyfacts From the First Psychedelic Era 1965-1968. Also featuring Sean Stevens (guitars), Dave Berthiaume (drums and vocals), and Grant Johnson (bass and vocals), the quartet released their debut, Bridleford Follies, in 2001, and then kicked it into high gear with last year’s Aim Right for the Holes in Their Lives.

• Listen to Duotang’s Ghosts
• Listen to Duotang’s Change Your Mind
• Listen to Novillero’s The Hypothesist
• Listen to Novillero’s Insomnia

Buy some Duotang from the Public Radio MusicSource.
Buy some Novillero from Amazon.

Novillero is Spanish for “novice bullfighter.”