Wednesday, November 8, 2017

Holiday Slides - Ornate Coalmine (1989, $in¢ere)

An ace find here. What de minimis info that exists online regarding Holiday Slides somehow fails to mention this record.  For shame, because this New York trio come barging straight out the gate with "Fall of Rome," sounding like the best thing the Replacements didn't lay down for Don't Tell a Soul.  And believe it or not, it ain't downhill from there folks.  "That's Your Darling for You" is a glossy but wondrous slice of sophisti-pop faintly channeling the Three O' Clock and Squeeze.  In fact, the tenor of Ornate Coalmine feels like something of a precursor to soon-to-arrive conglomerations like Jellyfish, the Wondermints, Owsley, and heck, throw a little Sloan in there too.  Plush arrangements and polished songcraft utterly belie the fact that this was presumably a privately released album.  Not everything they fling at the proverbial wall sticks, but in addition to the aforementioned, make sure to investigate "Go to the Police With What You Know" and "Fe Fi Foe."  A cassette album that preceded Ornate, Can You Count the Brunettes? has been made available in rerecorded form on Bandcamp

01. The Fall of Rome
02. That's Your Darling For You
03. Fe Fi Foe (Be Big About This)
04. Down on Our Luck
05. Rick Wakeman
06. Astronauts on Your Birthday Cake
07. Ring
08. What a Lovely Surprise Karoline!
09. Have a Heart
10. Jason's Home
11. Go to the Police With What You Know
12. Terminal Hotel

Hear

4 comments:

Pekka said...

Thanks for sharing this gem!

JRT said...

A great find — and only the start of a fine career for Serene Dominic, who'd also become a great rock critic. You didn't mention the future pop star who shows up on background vocals, though.

spavid said...

Holy cow, I somehow overlooked that credit - Joan Osborne! Thanks for pointing that out JRT.

calle said...

A reupload would be very much appreciated,a precussor to owsley and jellyfish etc,wow