City Fallen Leaves

Description

Formed in London in 1992 by singer and songwriter David Christian, Comet Gain were originally inspired by early Creation Records, Television Personalities and mod culture, drawing from the same ideals as Dexys, The Style Council and Vic Godard, and from the lineage of The Velvet Underground, The Byrds and the 13th Floor Elevators. In the ensuing years they have released eight albums on such esteemed labels as Wiiija, Kill Rock Stars, What's Your Rupture and Fortuna POP! that blend French New Wave with English kitchen-sink heart, Riot Grrrl with acid punk, and C86 with Post-Punk and Northern Soul, somehow outliving their peers and in turn inspiring a younger generation of DIY musicians. Comet Gain are all things post-punk, DIY, Indie POP, international pop underground, lo fi, garagebeat and folk & rock. Boy/Girl vocals, scratchy guitars, sweet noise and rough melodies, enthusiasm and pain. It's all right here. Put it on, turn it up and feel alive again. City Fallen Leaves' was first released in 2005 by Track & Field in the UK and Kill Rock Stars in the USA and is now being reissued worldwide by Tapete Records. This release originally came out at a pivotal point in the bands story and was also expected at the time to be the ending of the story. Me and Anne-aure who had slowly been finding her feet at first playing this lap steel I bought (seemed like a good idea at the time - she learnt a few things from a DVD we bought by someone called Cindy Cashdollar I think who was real and ended up playing with Ryan Adams - the one and only connection we will ever have with that guy) but it was a tough instrument and only worked sporadically with my very un-country songs - anyway she left it on a train from Leeds to London but still has the metal slide thing with her sticker initials on it - she then thought it best to take up the keyboards as nobody really played them as there lead instrument even though we had lots of the keyboard bits over our songs it was usually just Jon or me or occasionally Kay doing it with one finger - which is how I like it but yeh, we thought it would be good to have one person who actually does that properly - well not TOO properly - standards must be maintained. Anyway - i digress already - let me give you some context. "Realistes", our previous album, was a couple years done - I was living in deeper Croydon then for that record now I was back in north London - just off the Seven Sisters Road; prostitutes and crack heads, stella cans floating down the new river, me and Anne-laure and a revolving cast of flat mates - Phil Sutton who used to be the drummer, strumming away in his back room overlooking the jewish school at the back of the cat infested garden. Gabe who I knew from San Francisco and was DJ-ing or something with Har Mar Superstar (remember him?!) and would bring us back strange exotic booze from Ibiza where they were doing some kind of debauched residency and Dale Shaw another old friend who was part of the Huggy Bear crowd and was in Blood Sausage and painted the room black so he could concentrate on trying to write (it must have worked as he's done about 5 or whatever books now). The fridge was in the corridor and the local prostitutes used to throw used condoms over our hedge - ironically our landlord was one Steven Drew who also ran Track and Field records with the esteemed Paul Wright who both put this record out (in conjunction with our American label enablers Kill Rock Stars). This was gonna be my 'Forever Changes' - not in scope or genius or baroque-osity but in that Arthur Lee saw it as his final goodbye - he had apocalyptic visions and thought it was his last will and testament - a lot of the wonderful words reflect that propulsion into I'm ready for you oblivion - this would be mine because me and Anne-Laure were gonna be splitting to Bordeaux, France - her hometown - because she had got a job thing and for family and other now forgotten reasons and I thought, well okay why not, could be fun, so I was reflecting on the idea of leaving my town the one that had shaped me so much and friends and the streets and the sounds and all that glue that keeps you walking - i doubted we could continue the band so I guessed it was a fiery farewell. At this point I should add this is MY personal recollection - at the time if I recall Jon was shunting between Brighton and Catford, London (his mums), he had broken up with Jo Huggy Bear and was with Tobi Vail, but I recall he was in a happy Jon place - looking sharp, always ready for the whatever, Kay was getting more familiar with the hardcore punk scene and becoming a real London girl, Rachel was working at Beano's the biggest second hand record shop in Europe and was deep into a relationship with American punk dude Steve Dore (they remain married to this day) and Woodie was getting more and more into producing stuff - he did a great remix thing for Thee Headcoatees full of dub and weird beats - that was us then. Also i was more fucked up during this record than any other - as in mentally, psy

Description

Formed in London in 1992 by singer and songwriter David Christian, Comet Gain were originally inspired by early Creation Records, Television Personalities and mod culture, drawing from the same ideals as Dexys, The Style Council and Vic Godard, and from the lineage of The Velvet Underground, The Byrds and the 13th Floor Elevators. In the ensuing years they have released eight albums on such esteemed labels as Wiiija, Kill Rock Stars, What's Your Rupture and Fortuna POP! that blend French New Wave with English kitchen-sink heart, Riot Grrrl with acid punk, and C86 with Post-Punk and Northern Soul, somehow outliving their peers and in turn inspiring a younger generation of DIY musicians. Comet Gain are all things post-punk, DIY, Indie POP, international pop underground, lo fi, garagebeat and folk & rock. Boy/Girl vocals, scratchy guitars, sweet noise and rough melodies, enthusiasm and pain. It's all right here. Put it on, turn it up and feel alive again. City Fallen Leaves' was first released in 2005 by Track & Field in the UK and Kill Rock Stars in the USA and is now being reissued worldwide by Tapete Records. This release originally came out at a pivotal point in the bands story and was also expected at the time to be the ending of the story. Me and Anne-aure who had slowly been finding her feet at first playing this lap steel I bought (seemed like a good idea at the time - she learnt a few things from a DVD we bought by someone called Cindy Cashdollar I think who was real and ended up playing with Ryan Adams - the one and only connection we will ever have with that guy) but it was a tough instrument and only worked sporadically with my very un-country songs - anyway she left it on a train from Leeds to London but still has the metal slide thing with her sticker initials on it - she then thought it best to take up the keyboards as nobody really played them as there lead instrument even though we had lots of the keyboard bits over our songs it was usually just Jon or me or occasionally Kay doing it with one finger - which is how I like it but yeh, we thought it would be good to have one person who actually does that properly - well not TOO properly - standards must be maintained. Anyway - i digress already - let me give you some context. "Realistes", our previous album, was a couple years done - I was living in deeper Croydon then for that record now I was back in north London - just off the Seven Sisters Road; prostitutes and crack heads, stella cans floating down the new river, me and Anne-laure and a revolving cast of flat mates - Phil Sutton who used to be the drummer, strumming away in his back room overlooking the jewish school at the back of the cat infested garden. Gabe who I knew from San Francisco and was DJ-ing or something with Har Mar Superstar (remember him?!) and would bring us back strange exotic booze from Ibiza where they were doing some kind of debauched residency and Dale Shaw another old friend who was part of the Huggy Bear crowd and was in Blood Sausage and painted the room black so he could concentrate on trying to write (it must have worked as he's done about 5 or whatever books now). The fridge was in the corridor and the local prostitutes used to throw used condoms over our hedge - ironically our landlord was one Steven Drew who also ran Track and Field records with the esteemed Paul Wright who both put this record out (in conjunction with our American label enablers Kill Rock Stars). This was gonna be my 'Forever Changes' - not in scope or genius or baroque-osity but in that Arthur Lee saw it as his final goodbye - he had apocalyptic visions and thought it was his last will and testament - a lot of the wonderful words reflect that propulsion into I'm ready for you oblivion - this would be mine because me and Anne-Laure were gonna be splitting to Bordeaux, France - her hometown - because she had got a job thing and for family and other now forgotten reasons and I thought, well okay why not, could be fun, so I was reflecting on the idea of leaving my town the one that had shaped me so much and friends and the streets and the sounds and all that glue that keeps you walking - i doubted we could continue the band so I guessed it was a fiery farewell. At this point I should add this is MY personal recollection - at the time if I recall Jon was shunting between Brighton and Catford, London (his mums), he had broken up with Jo Huggy Bear and was with Tobi Vail, but I recall he was in a happy Jon place - looking sharp, always ready for the whatever, Kay was getting more familiar with the hardcore punk scene and becoming a real London girl, Rachel was working at Beano's the biggest second hand record shop in Europe and was deep into a relationship with American punk dude Steve Dore (they remain married to this day) and Woodie was getting more and more into producing stuff - he did a great remix thing for Thee Headcoatees full of dub and weird beats - that was us then. Also i was more fucked up during this record than any other - as in mentally, psy