Down Mf Critically Acclaimed

A collection of the Michigan/Pennsylvania band's singles recorded between 1991 and 2002, the album is a crackling, emotionally draining selection of warped, lo-fi pop songs that draw from post-punk, the American Underground, early Flying Nun, the Wipers and the Who. It's stark, intense music that cuts deep to the bone, documenting fevered dark nights of the soul and the ravages of romance set to coruscated shards of guitar, powerfully ramshackle bass and drums, and the occasional dollop of junkshop electronics. Guitarist/vocalist/head honcho Scott Sendra started the band in 1991 and over the next decade plus they released a handful of powerful records creating music that hit with the impact of a baseball bat but had an unexpected sinewy grace too. Critically Acclaimed is a collection of 13 tracks taken from the band's five singles. The band's first two releases, 1991's Ride the Pine and 1992's Royal Crown, were hit-packed no-fi gems recorded in the Sendra family basement in Loch Alpine, a leafy subdivision outside of Ann Arbor, and released on Sendra's own Bonehead Rex. The scene shifts to East Lansing for 1995's Solid State single, a one-two punch of brilliant punk songs that barely lasted a minute each and came in a sleeve with a radio circuit board glued to the front. 1996's Toast of the Town single showed the band playing with some real crash-pop power on the A side and some hard-fought sensitive soul on the flip. Their 2002 swan song, The Law of Diminishing Returns, was recorded in Philadelphia and maddeningly featured their most intricate and emotionally powerful songs yet packaged in a sandpaper lined sleeve that ruined the vinyl after one majestic spin. Fred Thomas, known for his work with Saturday Looks Good To Me and as a solo artist, and a longtime down fan, helped to restore and remaster the original recordings for the newly formed Ann Arbor-based Loch Alpine Records, and Critically Acclaimed gives these songs a new lease on life.