Thursday, June 17, 2004  

"Tread on water / I just suck on sympathy"

Rollerskate Skinny, "Miss Leader"
from Shoulder Voices (Beggar's Banquet / Placebo, 1993)
Rollerskate Skinny, "Speed to My Side"
from Horsedrawn Wishes (Warner Bros., 1996)
Lotus Crown, "Well (Of a Mother's Symphony)"
Lotus Crown, "Riddle Me Sober"
from Chokin' on the Jokes (Warner Bros., 1997)
Kid Silver, "Devils and Demons" [via Moistworks]
Kid Silver, "Dead City Sunbeams" [via Moistworks]
from Dead City Sunbeams (Jet Set, 1999)

Rollerskate Skinny was an Irish band that initially featured Jimi Shields, the bro of My Bloody Valentine's Kevin. (I'm not sure Jimi's name has ever been written without reference to Kevin's, and I'm not about to be the pioneer, boss.) Jimi played drums in Rollerskate Skinny and overdubbed guitars on their early singles and awesome debut LP, Shoulder Voices. His drumming---usually falling-down-the-stairs beats, though you don't get that so much on "Miss Violence"---was integral to Skinny's sound, but he left after the first record. Rollerskate Skinny's Horsedrawn Wishes suffers from Shield's absence---it's much more polite---but it's still very, very good. You can find Horsedrawn Wishes in cutout bins from coast to coast. You may even find Shoulder Voices in those very bins because it got a U.S. issue on Atlantic some time after the Beggar's release came out in Europe.

Other Rollerskate Skinny sounds and samples here, and right thurr you can find a little recent-ish news about the ex-band members.

Oddball sidenote: See the cover for Shoulder Voices up there? Next time you watch the 1996 Jon Lovitz vehicle High School High---you know you own the DVD---look for that Feargal Fitzpatrick painting in his classroom; it's there.

Lotus Crown is what Jimi Shields did---and seemingly still does, albeit on the waaaay down low---after he left Skinny, stepping up to the mic and snappin' up an ax. Shields lived in Chicago for a while, but I dunno where he is now. The lone Lotus Crown album, Chokin' on the Jokes, is so damn good---and you can find it in cutout bins everywhere as well. Go here and scroll down to the Alternative Press review to read a younger man's japes. Lotus Crown just got caught up in the Warner Bros. machinery in the post-grunge-signing-binge era, and the album may as well have been released directly to used CD stores. More Lotus Crown samples and even a few live things are here.

Kid Silver is the project of Skinny's singer Ken Griffin. He released one completely great album as Kid Silver---and disappeared. Oh, I'm sure he's around somewhere, busking or something, but I don't think he's recorded anything. He needs to bust out the damn tape recorder again because Dead City Sunbeams was one of the best records of 1999 (even if the cutout bin came a-calling).

If any of you heads know, I'd love updates on Shields and Griffin's activities.

Posted by CP | Link |

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