(Slumberland, 1991)The first Lilys single is about as close an approximation of the uptempo bits on the Isn’t Anything-era MBV EPs as a guy’s gonna find, and in a still-growing sea of limp Shieldsian imitators, quality stuff like this is not to be sneered at. “February Fourteenth” in particular is heavier than the by-then chart-baiting Telescopes, crisper than the early BJM stabs at crudegaze, and more invested in maintaining a Rock undercurrent (see: drums) than even the contemporaneous My Bloody Valentine itself. Best American shoegaze record I’ve ever heard? Yup. Oddly enough, “Threw a Day,” which is absolutely the lesser of these two songs, is available on In the Presence of Nothing (as an unlisted track), while the pummeling A-side appears only here and as a bonus on the impossible-to-find Australian “Tone Bender” CDEP. If Kurt Heasley and/or Slumberland ever feels like fixing that situation, your iPod or Discman or whatever will be much the better for it.
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A note on the various versions of this thing: The pink oval + black vinyl pressing is the original, and the blue oval + blue vinyl is the reissue (I gave away my copy of the latter for some reason). There's also a super-limited edition (43 copies!) in a handmade sleeve... will write that one up next.
The lilys! These are classic! Damn I only have a couple of these, and didn't even know the rest existed. Totally jealous. My lilys connection: my friends band was briefly produced by Kurt and I got to hang out with him at Motorcity...he wanted my friend to sleep with a metronome.
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