Saturday, December 09, 2006

Racetrack Babies















In 1993, a compilation disc was released by Dutch East India Trading titled Buy This Used Compact Disc. I consider it an interesting look into what was available underneath the unfortunate and selective discovery of alternative rock music by the mainstream media at the time. *Note: track #1 was not New Radiant Storm King on the original release... it was a completely different song by American Music Club. (I am holding my old beat up copy now but knew it anyway). Track #2 on this release features Sebadoh's Lou Barlow screaming "Just give me indie rock!" If you haven't heard this compilation CD I highly recommend looking for a copy on ebay or other such places. What does this have to do with today's featured artist you might ask? As soon as this song started, I was warmed into an overwhelming sense that this could be a lost track from the above mentioned CD had the band been in existence back then. It's also not difficult to hear the influence of later Dinosaur Jr. material in their music. The song structure and vocals in today's feature make this an obvious comparison, while some of the other selections are in moderate contrast to the early 90's sound. It continues to amaze me how many current rock outfits here in the states struggle with (or simply ignore) their alternative or indie rock heritage while bands overseas seem to get it right on a constant basis.














Racetrack Babies are a 4 piece rock band from Denmark comprised of members Hans Christian Wayne (vocals & guitar), Morten Søfting (drums), Søren Hansen (guitars) and Minh Le (bass.) The band's first demo was recorded in 1998 and, since that time, there have been 3 albums and a couple of singles added to the discography. The latest full length album Summer Salt Santiago was released a month ago, November 7th, through the Copenhagen-based Musikministeriet record label. There is also a Musikministeriet MySpace Page with more good music as well as the label's California branch/contact Claus on MySpace. The new CD is available through Interpunk for $9.75 USD and, from what I've heard myself, is really good. Your next stop should be the Racetrack Babies MySpace where you can listen to more music and add on as a friend. They also have a secondary myspace page as a result of the first one getting hacked at some point. The Racetrack Babies Website is a basic (non-flash thank god) information site where you will find a ton of pictures in the gallery and current band news. Finally, there is a YouTube video of a song titled The Storm from the brand new album Summer Salt Santiago. Enjoy...!!



MP3: Unshined

No comments: