Rockets and Bluelights

"Go to Spiral Scratch, they've had this 10'' there forever by this band Rockets and Bluelights, you'd like it, it sounds like faster Promise Ring".

This is what my friend had said to me (or close to it...) after a band I was in a few years ago had finished a set in Buffalo. Needless to say, the recommendation was enough for me, and the next time my roommate and his girlfriend went to Buffalo, I tagged along. I remember this only because he made fun of me for going to Buffalo to seek out an obscure 10" that i wasn't even sure was there.

Well it was there. In a stack of 10" records at the old Spiral Scratch was this dusty and faded record called "A Smashed City With Flames and Music in the Air", and it was pretty cheap. Even the dude working was surprised I was buying it as he told me it had been there forever and he always wondered what it sounded like. I almost felt bad taking it. Apparently, the band was from Albany (?) and the record came out in 2003 on Redder Records (http://www.redderrecords.com/) aaand was recorded at Dead Air Studios (http://www.deadairstudios.com/). It does sound a bit like "faster Promise Ring", but there's a lot more happening in the guitars. "Andee" is my favorite track on the record. The song opens with some great sounding overdriven guitar and a massive drum fill before it explodes into distortion and a great twinkly lead just to come to a halt by a great off time bass line and buried vocals. I guess the only flaw with this band is that they were ahead of the game. I'm sure if they were still around now they'd be scooped up by Topshelf or something. I think they just lost to timing, but I honestly don't know anything about them other than what I posted. Enjoy.