Back in the late '90s when the
Four Dots compilation graced my cd player for what seemed like months, one of the unknown quantities on that disk,
Five Gears in Reverse, took up five minutes of glorious space in the shape of their contribution "Apathetic Regimen." Around that time, I learned they had several cassette releases under their belt, but alas, I was too lazy and/or cash strapped to mailorder them. Conveniently for me, someone was selling a couple of their tapes on EBay earlier this year and I was in luck. Despite calling Bellingham, WA home base, Five Gears didn't exude any resemblance to the Posies, or hometown boys done good, Death Cab for Cutie. Nonetheless, they operated squarely in indie pop confines, penning whip smart lyrical observations couple with hooks to die for. No hipster smokescreen to boot I might add. If you're looking for a RIYL shortlist, Five Gears would be in excellent company with Zumpano, Thrush Hermit, Pond and even
Blue album-era Weezer, judging by the colossal guitar crunch infiltrating "Menage a Trois." A full length cd,
You're Not Asking the Right Questions, materialized in 2000. In addition to
Trailer I also have a 5GIR cassette of Christmas songs, but I know there's at least one or two more tapes out there, so if any of you have a line on them please get in touch.
01. Spinning Ellipses
02. About Sound
03. Menage a Trois
04. Dakota
05. Apathetic Regimen
06. Eyesight
Hear
8 comments:
I'm listening to their Christmas song, "Silver Sheets" right now. Nice tune. I'm still researching them and thanks for the review.
I have a live show of theirs from 1999, good quality that I'd be happy to pass along. I know the lead singer is still recording from time to time. He ran the Montesano Records label.
I have a live show of theirs from 1999, good quality that I'd be happy to pass along. I know the lead singer is still recording from time to time. He ran the Montesano Records label.
Hi Mike!
I would LOVE to get a copy of that live show! Can you email me at ericholl at gmail dot com ?? THANK YOU SO MUCH!
Also, SPAVID, could we get a repost of this cassette? The link is down... Thank you!!
Just made a 5ive Gears In Reverse bandcamp site: 5ivegearsinreverse.bandcamp.com . When I get time to do it, the site will have more and more tracks that were not released back in the day; we recorded a lot of stuff.
Thanks for the link Caleb. I actually have You're Not Asking the Right Questions, and was thinking about posting it here at some point. Guess you beat me to it. Will keep checking back.
Hey everyone, just wanted to let you all know that the Xmas album, Trailer, the KCMU set, YNATFQ as well as an undated 5-track demo tape are all available in the Bellingham Local Music Library at Make.Shift (here in Bellingham). You can email me ericholl@gmail.com for any questions (or if anyone knows the date of that demo)!
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