Barely Real
| Barely Real | ||||
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| EP by Codeine | ||||
| Released | November 1992 | |||
| Recorded | March–July 1992[1] | |||
| Genre | Slowcore | |||
| Length | 24:49 | |||
| Label | Sub Pop | |||
| Producer | Mike McMacklin, Codeine | |||
| Codeine chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Barely Real | ||||
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Barely Real is an EP by slowcore band Codeine. It was released on Sub Pop in 1992. While the EP retains most of the stylistic elements of debut Frigid Stars LP, some new sounds are introduced, notably on "W.", which features solo atonal piano played by David Grubbs (of Bastro, Squirrel Bait and Gastr del Sol).[2]
Background and production
Following the well received release of Frigid Stars LP (1990), Codeine accepted and invitation from David Grubbs and John McEntire to open for their group Bastro for a tour of Europe in 1991.[3][4] To prepare for the tour, Codein and Bastro met in a studio to record the song "Produkt" for the tour-only single "A l'Ombre de Nouse" seven-inch single for the label Glitterhouse.[3] The two groups alternated as the headlining band during and toured for 18 nights days in Austria, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, and Switzlerland.[3] Chris Brokaw commented that the group had very mixed reactions from the audiences. In Vienna, the group played to 600 people who "hung on to every not we played" and that it was "one of the best shows of my life".[4] In contrast, they later played in Austria to an audience of 70 or 80 where he felt that the audience would "just walk up and beat us senseless."[4] Following the tour, Immerwahr returned to New York working as an engineer at Mike McMacklin's Sound on Sound studio.[4] John Engle worked as a delivery man for a restaurant and Chris Brokaw waited tables and wrote songs with Thalia Zedek that would later be released on Eleven:Eleven, the debut album for Come on Matador.[4] Codeine did a group of live performances in early 1992 with bands such as Unrest, Fly Ashtray, Sleepyhead and Love Child.[4]
"1992 was a very hard year for Codeine. Unlike the two Frigid Stars sessions, all our recording went terribly"
Stephen Immerwahr on the failed recording sessions of The White Birch which became Barely Real.[5]
Towards the end of 1991, Sub Pop gave the group $1000 to record the July 1992 entry in the labels singles club series.[4] The group entered James Kavoussi's Toxic Shock Studios on Broadway in New York with Frigid Stars LP producer Mike McMackin to record early versions of "Realize", "Jr", and a cover of the MX-80 song "Promise of Love".[4] The recordings were not successful with only "Promise of Love" being usable.[4] John Engle felt that they wanted the song to be loud on both sides of the single, but could not get the song "Jr" to come together.[4] The group had already gone through most of their budget for recording, which led to the group going to an eight-track studio in the Boston suburb of Allston.[4] Immerwahr went into the recording studio where the group were able to complete a version of the song "Realize".[4] The group met up again to work in early 1992 towards their second LP The White Birch, Recording commenced in June at Harold Dessau Recording at 25 Murray Street in Manhattan.[6] At the studio, the group attempted to record versions of "Realize", "Jr", "Tom", "Wird" "Smoking Room", "Barely Real", "Something New" and "Sea" within a months time.[6] Immerwahr was not content with the recordings noting several issues: he was unhappy with his own vocals, he wanted the group to be record slower tempos, and that he heard high pitched noises in the recordings that no one else could hear.[6] On attempting to fix a broken toilet at the studio, Immerwahr accidentally flooded the clothing store below Dessau.[7]
Codeine decided to continue their recording sessions in July at the studio in Boston where the new song "Barely Real" and their third recording of "Jr" was completed.[7] The band then continued to Night Owl studio to record "hard To Find" with a drum machine.[7] Jon Fine from the band Bitch Magnet added guitar to "Jr" while Mike McMacking began to EQ the recordings from Toxic Shock, the Boston studio, and Night Owl.[7] On realizing their recordings were not going to be enough for their album The White Birch, Codeine decided to release the album as an EP.[7] To balance out the EP's sides, the band revisited the instrumental song "Wird" that was made as a tribute to the band Slint.[7] Immerwahr sent a tape of the it to David Grubbs to do a piano version of the song that was re-titled "W.".[7]
Music
Stephen Immerwhar, who writes the lyrics to the original songs on Barely Real described writing "probably the hardest work. Not that we have these prodigious texts, but there's a consistency between the lyrical subject and content and the presentation of the music."[8] Immerwhar described his lyrics as feelings of alienation and banality.[8]
The Toronto Star described the Codeine's music as slowcore, a style AllMusic stated was famous for having a slow pace and skeletal music with "melodies linger forever and rhythms lurch forward, all shrouded in thick, dank atmospherics."[8][9] Stewart Mason (AllMusic) described the music of Barely Real as a continuation of the style made on their previous album (Frigid Stars LP)."[10] The album noted the variations of the sound with the piano track "W." performed by David Grubbs and quick stuttering guitar riff on "Jr".[10][2] Ned Raggett (AllMusic) stated the these changes on tracks such as "Realize" continued the hybrid of a deliberate pace with electric guitar playing with softly sung vocals.[2] Raggett described "Promise of Love" is performed in a "late-night jazz club style" that only contains more traditional Codeine styled music towards the end.[2]
Release and tour
Prior to the release of the EP, a single for "Barely Real" was released on July 1, 1992.[11] It was released on as a seven-inch single on clear and whtie vinyl limited to 2,933 copies.[11]
Barely Real was released by Sub Pop in Germany in November 1992.[7][12][10] The cover of the album is taken from a postcard of Belvedere Palace Stephen Immerwahr had found on their 1991 tour of Europe.[3][13] Immerwahr felt that the image reminded him of the film Last Year at Marienbad which he described as a film that was "all stylish surface to the point where time itself seems suspended, and without the possibility of human emotional connection."[13] Immerwahr connected this with the bands only lyrical themes of an impossible need to connect with others.[13] Following the European release of the album, Codeine and the band Love Child did a five-week European tour in late 1992.[13] When the tour went through Vienna in 1992, the group stopped to visit the palace.[13] During the tour, Codeine would occasionally encore with the song "Broken Hearted Wine", a B-side on the single for "Barely Real".[13][14]
The album received a released in the United States through Sub Pop on July 1, 1993.[12][15] In 1993, Codeine opened for Mazzy Star on selected dates in the Midwest and toured through North America.[8][16] This tour had Codeine perform their first shows in Canada.[8] Stephen Immerwahr stated that audiences were people "who sit and really listen to stuff...Not people drinking themselves into oblivion."[8] Reviewing one of their 1993 shows, Mark Jenkins of the Washington Post stating that Codeine "purseues the intoxicating dislocation offered by slow-mo cinematography" and that the drumming of Doug Scharon "rattled rib cages throughout the club".[17] The review concluded that despite the self-imposed limitations that Codeine's music had, the result was a "curiously effective marriage of meditation and aggression."[17]
The Numero Group re-released Barely Real with nine bonus tracks on both compact disc and vinyl on January 19, 2012.[14]
Reception
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [2] |
| Pitchfork Media | (8.6/10)[18] |
| Spin | (7/10)[19] |
In contemporary reviews, Peter Paphides wrote in Melody Maker that the EP was "25 minutes of snowblind glory waiting here if you want them. Each of them is a towering monument to nothingness".[7] The Alternative Press stated that the EP was not "a progression from the gorgeously devastated Frigid Stars and I couldn't be happier. Codeine have hit upon a formula so pure and righteous it would be tragic for them to deviate from it."[7][20] The Washington Post gave the album a mixed review, stating that "There's not a lot going on here, but songs such as "Realize" and "Hard to Find" are hardly nothing." and that tracks such as "W." allow Codeine to achieve "both earthly aggression and unearthly calm."[21]
From retrospective reviews, The The Virgin Encyclopedia of Nineties Music stated that Barely Real was "on first hearing, slightly soporific and listless, but it rewards repeated listening with its depth and emotional texture."[22] Ned Raggett (AllMusic) gave the album a rating of four and a half stars out of five, stating that "Those put off by earlier Codeine CDs won't want to continue; those taken by the band's way of doing things will happily embrace it."[2]
Aftermath
Following the release of Barley Real, drummer Chris Brokaw left the group.[8] John Engle explained that it took a while replace Brokaw, where he "placed a classified ad in a New York paper, and ended up flooded with calls" and that "Half of them hadn't heard Codeine. I'd say, well, we play a very particular style that you should really know about."[8] The group hired Doug Scharin, who had attended Codeine's first show in Boston.[8]
Track listing
All songs written and composed by Stephen Immerwahr, except where noted[2][23][24].
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All songs written and composed by Stephen Immerwahr, except where noted[2][23][24].
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Personnel
Credits adapted from Barely Real initial releases liner notes and Numero Groups 2012 re-issue.[1][25][23]
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See also
References
- 1 2 "Barely Real: Credits". Barely Real (booklet). The Numero Group. 2012. p. 14. 201.2.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Raggett, Ned. "Barely Real". AllMusic. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
- 1 2 3 4 Picco, Judson; Shipley, Ken (2012). "Codeine: Barely Real". Barely Real (booklet). The Numero Group. p. 4. 201.2.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Picco, Judson; Shipley, Ken (2012). "Codeine: Barely Real". Barely Real (booklet). The Numero Group. p. 6. 201.2.
- ↑ Kulkarni, Neil (August 30, 2012). "A New Nineties US Edition Part Three: Codeine, A New Kind Of Stillness". The Quietus. Retrieved April 23, 2016.
- 1 2 3 Picco, Judson; Shipley, Ken (2012). "Codeine: Barely Real". Barely Real (booklet). The Numero Group. p. 9. 201.2.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Picco, Judson; Shipley, Ken (2012). "Codeine: Barely Real". Barely Real (booklet). The Numero Group. p. 10. 201.2.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Punter, Jennie (November 11, 1993). "Codeine Trio Feeling No Pain With Unique 'Slowcore' Sound". Toronto Star (Toronto Syndication Services). p. WO11.
- ↑ "Slowcore". AllMusic. Retrieved April 24, 2016.
- 1 2 3 Mason, Stewart. "Codeine". AllMusic. Retrieved April 23, 2016.
- 1 2 "Realize / Broken-Hearted Wine". Sub Pop. Retrieved April 23, 2016.
- 1 2 Robbins & Sprague 1997, p. 158.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 Light, Alan (2012). "Codeine: A Palace in the Sun". Barely Real (booklet). The Numero Group. p. 2. 201.2.
- 1 2 Raggett, Ned. "Barely Real [bonus tracks]". AllMusic. Retrieved April 23, 2016.
- ↑ "Barely Real by Codeine on Sub Pop Records". Sub Pop. Retrieved April 23, 2016.
- ↑ "What About the Lonely?". The Numero Group. Retrieved April 24, 2016.
- 1 2 Jenkins, Mark (July 28, 1993). "Codeine's Narcotic Influence". The Washington Post. p. C7.
- ↑ Stosuy, Brandon (June 28, 2012). "Codeine". Pitchfork. Retrieved December 23, 2015.
- ↑ Powell, Mike (May 2012). "Reissues". Spin. Vol. 28 no. 3. p. 90. ISSN 0886-3032. Retrieved April 23, 2016.
- ↑ Picco, Judson; Shipley, Ken (2012). "Codeine: Barely Real". Barely Real (booklet). The Numero Group. p. 12. 201.2.
- ↑ Jenkins, Mark (November 5, 1993). "Dreamy Mazzy; Effective Codeine". The Washington Post. p. N18.
- ↑ Larkin 2000, p. 91.
- 1 2 3 Barely Real (Back cover). The Numero Group. 2012. 201.2.
- 1 2 Barely Real (Vinyl track stickers). The Numero Group. 2012. 201.2.
- ↑ Barely Real (Media notes). Sub Pop. 1993. liner notes. SP207b.
Other source
- Larkin, Colin (2000). The Virgin Encyclopedia of Nineties Music. Virgin. ISBN 0753504278.
- Robbins, Ira A.; Sprague, David (1997). The Trouser Press Guide to '90s Rock: The All-new Fifth Edition of The Trouser Press Record Guide. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0684814374.
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