Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Let's Dissolve

I should thank Brogues for finding a Juniper 7" in a record store this weekend and telling me to buy it, even though he later found out he didn't own it himself! Had I seen it I would have bought it anyway, just because it's on A Turntable Friend. I've been doing some research about the band in the Indiepop List archives and this is what I've found out so far. The band was started by a Jennifer Taylor in Washington DC in the mid-90s. They released three singles in 1996 and 1997, the other two on Fantastic and Orange Peel. The band plus Mike from The Ropers (Jennifer's boyfriend) undertook a tour across the continent, using only List contacts, with the intention of staying in LA permanently. Some of the members moved back soon though, and Jennifer, Mike and Doug formed Mondo Crescendo instead. Their music is reminiscent of The Aislers Set and The Ropers. They've also been compared to Poastal, but I haven't heard them myself. Both sides of the 7" are great, as is usually the case with ATF releases! Here's the b-side.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey squire ... glad I didn't talk you into wasting your hard earned! I have a couple of Poastal things (a 7" and a split with #poundsign# if my memory serves me well) that I can let you hear ...

d

Anonymous said...

Juniper were great! I think my favourite of their singles is "think and die thinking" on fantastic (the one with the lovely hand made cover). It's total crash pop heaven reminiscent of early Velocity Girl and, yeah, Poastal. Go for the Poastal single on Four letter words and the mentioned split with #Poundsign#. That's one of the best split singles ever imho. Juniper also have a track on one of those Motorway comp. 7"s and the video of "making gerard smile" (the a side from the orange label single) is featured on one of those munch compilations. You might also want to check out those Mondo Crescendo records (especially the 7"es). They're quite good as well. Ahhh, the nineties...
Björn

Anonymous said...

A third incarnation of the band as they moved back to Philly was called Vexers...also had an album, but have disolved...would love to know where the members ended up..

Scott said...

Hilarious. Getting on-line and having one of those "maybe I'll search that today" moments.

Decided to look up the old band.

Thanks for the comments! It's cool to see someone out there is listening to those records.

The original line up was:

Jennifer Taylor - guitar/voice
Douglas Armour - drums
Scott DeGraw - bass/backing voice

We put out those records then moved to SF in early 1997.

I quit the band in fall of '97 and Mike from the Ropers took over on bass and Juniper became Mondo Crescendo. They moved to LA and put out the EP and album, then I believe Doug left around '02 and Mike and Jenny moved to Philly and formed the Vexers.

Douglas Armour just released a record last year on Social Registry (http://www.thesocialregistry.com/douglasarmour/).

I've moved on to film and television production, but break out the bass and fuzz pedal on occaison...;)

Not sure of the whereabouts of Jenny and Mike, but think they are still in Philly.

Scott