NO FRIENDS BAND “TO ALL MY FRIENDS”
(UNION POLE)



NO FRIENDS BANDS uproots the testament of time, and the old / new Union Pole label does justice as to making a cassette of long lost recordings found again. NO FRIENDS BAND is one Kevin Cascell, musician and collage artist…also a leading former member of the seemingly ever-present 1990s rock outfit “TRUMANS WATER” - - I have my fair share of TRUMANS WATER seven inches, cassettes and lps from them years…always amazed in the seemingly jerky, house band appeal of their output. They were godsends back when Homestead released “Godspeed the Punchline” - - and similar affairs. Taking notes from all that was good, and blending it into a mess of avant –pop nonsense that was as catchy as it was reeling.

These songs are taken from basement recordings, filed : 1997-2004, and presented for the first time yesterday. I assume this is when the real Trumans Water sorta fell apart. I don’t claim to know much about their output as an esteemed follower…but I think some albums may have been released throughout the 2000s, which I am unfamiliar with. This or that,  could have all been the brainchild of SOUL JUNK, the proto-born again Christian outfit that was steamed from said  band. Is that who is also making these sounds??? I am unsure, again, I am not aware of the lineage, nor do I really care - - as this tape deals and steals a show or two.

13 songs of pure basement love. Rock and roll don’t stand a chance when the tape is gliding through the pinch rollers. Its all smushed and pushed and made un-accessible, yet so beautifully concrete. The punches thrown land on the ear, and the chest circa: dead center. Room sound recording hulls in overblown everything:  knarred up cymbal crash, guitars that sound like they been taken from another planet, and perfectly genuine pop-rock.  Cover songs by Dylan, Dead Moon, and Pere Ubu are kinda obscured from relative understandings due to the justice that is performed on them. Which is good. No one needs a duplicate. One only needs a copy of this cassette!

-- c. fischer