COMET GAIN - THE MISFIT JUKEBOX [CD]

Format: CD
Catalogue No.: TR540
Barcode: 4015698699241
Release Date: 02 Jun 2023
Genre: Independent

Uncut - 9/10 review - July 2023 issue "some lovely, intimate lo-fi documents like the gorgeous "My Time Tunnel" "

Reviews confirmed in Prog, Louder Than War 

Since 1992, the collective around David Christian has been stoically producing unique noise pop. Comet Gain are Comet Gain, a band in which the Swell Maps and the Undertones shake hands in the Wigan Casino. Admittedly, a skewed picture. But as with every outstanding band, one fails to describe the sound of Comet Gain. You just have to hear it. When the Corona shit hit the fan in 2020, David Christian, who now lives in the beautiful south of France, had the leisure to dig through the considerable Comet Gain archive and presented the astonished Comet Gain community with new compilations of outtakes, demos, live recordings and simply forgotten and never released hits every Bandcamp Friday. "The Misfit Jukebox" is now a compilation of these compilations, the toppermost of the poppermost from a hitherto unseen or unheard part of the CG universe. First time on LP and CD.

Misfit mumbles… 1992 or 93, I’ve escaped the London jungle to hide out in Oxford a while, working in a record shop, in an attic room 1 Divinity Rd with Phil Sutton, a shit guitar, a shittier amp with his feedback inducing ‘gain’ knob, cardboard drums + paintbrush sticks, the spirit of the times in out skinny fingers K + Kill Rock Stars, Creation + Kent, Swell Maps + TVP’s. Tapes + tapes of hasty half formed songs of chaos and studio joy ‘This Line Has Been Drawn’ being one I only found recently; another orphan of the memory war. We could’ve been bigger than the snivelling shits… fast forward a little, Jax, Sarah + Sam join the gang fun - 2 Oxford students + a guitar swinging friend from Holloway - early jabs at n. soul, mod cloth wearing pop Dexys + Style Council, punk grins from the 1st 45 “Goodbye Part One” being a good example as we stumble laughing thru that R+R door. “Like a Sparrow” recorded in Tom from Quickspace’s Camden Road garage one hungover afternoon, a godz song for a godz tribute; big Sams slide mayhem as I crawl into a vomiting sad sack ball thinking I’m a chicken dressed as Ron Wood. “Pinstriped Rebel” also from a tribute LP (from Le Grand Magistery – an El Records Tribute) sees us get a bit more tuneful + groovefull. But this era soon after during + after our 2nd LP attempt to blag our way into the pop boutique before someone noticed + kicked us back down the beanstalk of dreams, we made an LP of two sides, mine + Sam + Sarah (mainly) sophisticated pop - it never came out but you have “Only Happy When I’m Sad” with its lovely solo + beautiful B-side “Letting go“ before the next era arrives like a fleet of low fi 134 buses. So here I am with a new Comet Gain, old friends like Jon Slade + Darren Smith making demos in a London living room for whatever comes next. “Post USA” + “Skinny Wolves” both sung by Rachel Evans are more spiky elbowed little skeletons, sometime after the jagged rock opera of a 3rd album + pop over to Phil’s Highgateish flat near the shadow of suicide bridge to do some gentler songs among covers of Weekend + John Cale we do “My Time Tunnel” + promptly forget it exists… when the genial + sound stacke Woodie Taylor arrives we embark on an expedition of EPs, LPs, 45s in a non linear gibbering slow/rush of an almost career… “Never Die“ was a “Réalistes” LP outtake now home on “Beautiful Despair” 12” EP for Kevin Pedersen. “No Spotlite On Sometimes” + “Herbert Huncke Part 3” we somehow did in an airless east end dungeon while visiting punk guitarists stole some of the band for local pup crawls. This Herbert H was the 1st we did + meant for the Germs Of Youth 45 but a typical CG error meant the muckering-about-jam version ended up for the disc. “Fists In The Pocket” was a softer demo I lost before the band heard and “Weekend Dreams” was on Kiko Amats La Doble Vida split 45 with Hello Cuca! We did this in a feral one take before the neighbours got back from work. I like it that way. By the time we got to the almost professional “Paperback Ghosts” and “Howl Of The Lonely Crowd” we’d lost Jon + Kay Ishikawa but found Ben Phillpson, James Hornsey + Anne Laure Guillain, “When!?” + “Your Just Lonely” are B-Sides from the records featuring friends Alasdair MacLean + Lupe Nunez on vocals. This particular tale ends with the most recent song which is about the group I’ve just wrote of “Even This Could Be Beautiful” because yes even this erratic, warped, mumbling, innocent things can be.

It’s been fun so far. Enjoy the LP. X David

Tracklisting1) The Weekend Dreams (Doble Vida Version) 2) Pinstriped Rebel 3) Never Die 4) When?! 5) My Time Tunnel 6) Herbert Huncke Part 3 7) Only Happy When I'm Sad 8) Even This Could Be Beautifu l9) This Line Has Been Drawn 10) Like A Sparrow 11) Your Just Lonely 12) Post USA 13) Goodbye Part One 14) The Fists In the Pocket (Demo) 15) No Spotlite On Sometimes 16) Skinny Wolves (Demo) 17) Letting Go