THE BLANK GENERATION

Half String, A Fascination with Heights

(Series introduction provided here.)

Welcome to the letter H, brought to you today by Half String's A Fascination with Heights, which is located on the shelf between Half Japanese's Greatest Hits and Neil Halstead's Sleeping on Roads.

In a sonic sense, Half String reminds me of C-Clamp, who I rambled on about in my discussion of the letter C. Dreamy jangle-pop was Half String's specialty, which ultimately made their hometown of Phoenix an odd locale to operate from. I don't think of the desert when I think of bands influenced by the likes of My Bloody Valentine and early Primal Scream. At least, that was true for me when I moved to Phoenix in 1999. My stay there was brief--about three months. I didn't find what I was looking for; but, I did find a wonderful independent record store named Stinkweeds. Turns out, it was owned by Kimber Lanning, drummer for none other than Half String.

Much like my time in Phoenix, I've long since forgotten about this particular album, which was released in 1996 on Independent Project Records. Listening to it now, I can see why. It's actually a solid record with a few bright lights, but there isn't anything specifically unique about it. It's mellow, guitar-based psychedelia washed in reverb. Other bands came first and did it better: Felt, the aforementioned Primal Scream, Ride, Chapterhouse, The House of Love and The Ocean Blue, to name a few. Allmusic's summary does the trick: "The surprise is that Half String's work ranks right up there with the best of their predecessors', and like Ocean Blue, their American roots help them avoid some of the British scene's more flowery or overproduced tendencies. A Fascination with Heights is well-written, beautifully focused and does such a good job of using its dream-pop influences that it tends to sound more definitive than derivative--while its very independent roots kept it from receiving much attention, it's certainly as worthy as many higher-profile records." That conclusion might have been truer in 1996 than it is now. Frankly, the record sounds dated, and not in a timeless way.

What is remarkable about this album is the packaging. Keeping par with previous IPR releases, it's a digipak that is hand-letterpressed and individually numbered. The photo doesn't really do it justice.

I dug up my copy of the group's 1994 single, Oval, also on IPR. Memory told me that I enjoyed the seven inch more than the album. And, indeed, I do. "Oval" is an okay song, but I really like the vibe on the flip side, "Sun Less Sea." (On a side note, in the process of hunting down the single I turned up an old Godzuki seven inch that I hadn't listened to in ages. They were an off-kilter indie-pop band from Detroit, so I added them to the list. See the "MP3s of the Week" on the righthand sidebar for a fun Godzuki song.)

I believe that Half String vocalist/guitarist Brandon Capps eventually joined Bruce Licher's band, Scenic. I have no clue what happened to the rest of the band, though. I assume Kimber is still taking care of business at Stinkweeds. Oddly enough, Stinkweeds' site doesn't list Half String among its inventory. Parasol, however, has both A Fascination with Heights (on CD for $4.75!) and the singles compilation Eclipse, Oval, Hue, which features both sides of the Oval single along with two other singles. Buy them here. If you like what you hear, it's hard to go wrong for a measly five bucks. As for myself, I'd probably sell my copy of the full-length if I thought I could get anything worthwhile out of it. But, if Parasol can't move a new copy of the album for more than five bones, it's unlikely that I'll get squat for my used copy. Either way, I'm holding on to the seven inch, though.

Songs:

Half String, "BackStroke" (from A Fascination with Heights on IPR)

Half String, "Hurrah?" (from A Fascination with Heights on IPR)

Half String, "Sun Less Sea" (from the Oval 7" on IPR)

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 16 at 10:28 PM.

2 Comments:

I'm not sure about your opinion, and no offense to anyone currenly living there, but I think Phoenix is one of the most barren, godforsaken places I've ever been to. Anyone who likes to blandly drop cliches about LA being America's elite cultural wasteland oughta visit Phoenix and see if they don't revise their list.

By  Bedheaded, at 7:44 PM  

I would agree 100%.

By  thenoiseboy, at 9:29 PM  

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