Black Tambourine - Black Tambourine

They released only a handful of songs their two-year lifetime, but Black Tambourinehas been hugely influential in the world of indie music. Conceivedas an explicitly pop band pop bands were pretty rare in America, they woretheir influences on their sleeves: The Jesus and Mary Chain, of course, butalso folks like Phil Spector, Smokey Robinson, Love, The Ramones, ShopAssistants, Pastels, 14 Iced Bears, Orange Juice and the list goes on Theband s dark, dreamy sound was consonant with the shoegaze sounds of theday, but the classic 60s-influenced songwriting gives their tunes a timelessappeal. Formed in 1989 as a side project by members of Whorl and VelocityGirl, they soon recruited Pam Berry as vocalist. Two singles quickly followed,along with a few compilation contributions. Alas, other obligationsbecame more pressing and the band called it a day in 1991.Though their recorded output was quite limited, the music continues toinspire indie, punk and indie-pop bands. As the band s 20th anniversary arrives,just about any review of or article about a noisy pop band drops theirname, and their influence on bands as diverse as Vivian Girls, The Pains ofBeing Pure at Heart, A Sunny Day in Glasgow, Wavves and Jay Reatard (!)reaffirms Black Tambourine s legendary status in indie music. It appearsthat 2010 is the year for Black Tambourine!Black Tambourine gathers all the songs released by the band, and handilytrumps 1999 s Complete Recordings reissue by including four unreleasedtunes. Songs like Black Car, We Can t Be Friends and Throw Aggi Offthe Bridge are foundation documents of indie-pop and sound as fresh todayas when they were recorded 20 years ago. And while classics like PackYou Up and Drown can stand on their own just fine, the band has taken therather unexpected step of reuniting to record four new songs exclusivelyfor this compilation. Consisting of two originals and two covers (of BuddyHolly and Suicide), these recordings include all of the original members andare quite true to the Black Tambourine spirit. The songs were part of theband s repertoire back in the day and never got recorded, so these addedtracks truly round out the Black Tambourine picture and make this a veryspecial release indeed.

PRESS: The words essential and seminal are thrown around a lot when talkingabout reissue compilations, but this is one case where those adjectives are trulyearned. Presented in an expanded and deluxe edition, and on 12-inch vinylfor the first time, Black Tambourine is one of the crucial releases of 2010. If there s any justice, Black Tambourine will see their name inserted intorevisionist histories of American independent rock. Pitchfork

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