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Various

Deep Elm Unreleased No. 1 (2002)
Deep Elm Records

Reviewer Rating:

Contributed by: Scott
(others by this writer | submit your own)

Published on July 15th 2002

Just the idea of this comp makes it worthwhile - all unreleased tracks. Labels, is it that hard to get unreleased tracks from your bands? Compilations nowadays are worthless without unreleased tracks [I couldn't tell you the last comp I bought that *didn't* have unreleased tracks on it]. So which bands from Deep Elm's deep back catalog and roster were chosen to appear? Here's a list:
01. Planes Mistaken For Stars - "Blinders"
02. Seven Storey Mountain - "6.8.2000"
03. Red Animal War - "Last Train Out"
04. Brandtson - "Optimist Club"
05. Triple Fast Action - "All Better Now"
06. Pop Unknown - "New Found Friends"
07. Five Eight - "Skin Deep Pretty"
08. Starmarket - "Hated"
09. Dead Red Sea - "Ice Skating"
10. This Beautiful Mess - "Unsuitable For Any Melody But Yours"

Only 10 tracks? That's it? Deep Elm has put out over 75 releases and worked with dozens of bands, and they could only get 10? Ahh, the press release explains everything: "UNRELEASED No. 2 is coming soon and includes..." I see, they're trying to milk this for all it's worth. Alas.

So, as for the songs themselves, they all fall into the "pretty good-to-great" category, and I think I figured out why. A lot of Deep Elm's bands, while most are individual in their own right, can wear thin on the ears over the course of an entire album. With a one track shot, all of these bands succeed at their own little subgenre of the "emo umbrella," if you will. Highlights are the first Planes Mistaken For Stars song ever recorded, a wicked Seven Storey song that would've fit in perfectly on their new album, and a great Triple Fast Action song that makes me wish they never would've broken up.

The downside to the comp was also revealed to me in the press release: "[P]lus brand new recordings from Brandtson, Red Animal War, Dead Red Sea, and This Beautiful Mess."
Brand new recordings? All four of those bands have just come out with albums - it makes me think Deep Elm purposely withheld songs for the sole purpose of an "unreleased" compilation. It's kind of shady, and it marrs my overall opinion of the comp. It's still good, but it could have been better. Also, to Deep Elm: on the next compilation, could you make the liner notes more expansive? Have the bands write something about the songs, include band info, anything. One card inserts are so minor league.

Planes Mistaken For Stars - Blinders [clip]
Seven Storey Mountain - 6.8.2000 [clip]
Brandtson - Optimist Club [clip]

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Anonymous (July 22, 2002)

Planes Mistaken For Stars is some of the best hardcore I've heard in years- I think PMFS and Himsa should do a tour together.

punky (July 18, 2002)

emo bands have lame names...but the review is good so it kinda balances things a bit.

Anonymous (July 17, 2002)

You can't go wrong with Deep Elm. I love all these bands, aside from Star Market.

On an unrelated note: The new Jets To Brazil LP, "Perfecting Loneliness", is out October 15th. Get it you mofos!

Anonymous (July 17, 2002)

Loserj,
Honostly all of Planes releases are incredible... Fuck With Fire is a little harder and harsher than their self-titled cd but both are amazing... You can't go wrong...
xEricx

Anonymous (July 17, 2002)

uhh, this is somewhat related. What seems to be the best Planes Mistaken For Stars release?

Scott, I submitted two reviews, Sonic Youth and Bikini Kill, they're both old albums. Are they just too old for posting or are they just plain bad? Can you tell me if you've seen them? Thanks.

loserj

kevtv (July 17, 2002)

wow, just breezing through the responses to this cd, that really have nothing to do with the disc itself...this site is for fun and sharing opinions/news/whatever and for you to get your balls tied up over something of yours not getting posted, i'm really at a loss of what to think. you might have succeeded in not getting anything of yours posted, if that was your mission, good work.

sickboi (July 15, 2002)

Get the fuck off Scott's back. Damn, you fuckers are some real pieces of work. These guys do this for you, for nothing, and you fucking bitch. Turds.

maverick (July 15, 2002)

To the guy 2 posts down:
The oldest review currently awaiting approval is from 6/18/02, and the only reason it's been there so long is I couldn't find the cover art anywhere [the guy has just sent it to me]. If you wrote a review before then and it's not up, it means one of a few things:
1. Your review was full of spelling and grammatical errors. I didn't feel like spending all my time fixing all your fuckups. PROOFREAD.
2. Your review, while grammatically appealing, sucked balls content-wise. If it says nothing, I don't run it.
3. We already have 2 reviews of the album you wrote a review of, and unless yours is expressing a completely different point, it gets deleted.

We get submissions for reviews almost every single day, and I'd say 50-75% of them get deleted for one of these three reasons. What's that, you say that your review passes all three of those criteria but is still not up? Well, odds are you wrote a review of an album that didn't come out this year. I'd much rather run reviews of current albums/concerts then run reviews of albums that came out before this year. I still run them, but I use them with less frequency.

In closing, chill the fuck out or go start your own website.

-Scott

Anonymous (July 15, 2002)

scott is a tool

Anonymous (July 15, 2002)

Scott, post other peoples reviews not only your ones.I'm waiting for 3-4 of my reviews, some that I've posted like 5 months ago.

maverick (July 15, 2002)

Actually, PMFS were founded in Peoria, Illinois. Give us Illinoisians some credit.

Chris - there's still a ton of backlogged reviews [27 at current count], and reviews of new releases take precedence. Yours will be up eventually...

-Scott

Anonymous (July 15, 2002)

Since when has Planes Mistaken For Stars ever been considered emo? Nonetheless, if you have never heard PMFS do yourself a favor and head down to the local record store and by ever single one of their cds.. They are one of most talented and inovative bands out right now and put on an incredibly intense live show.. .Not to mention the hail from the great city of Denver, Colorado...

Anonymous (July 15, 2002)

He's right, Planes are prob the only band on this emo comp worth anything.

Where's my BR review Scott???

-sickboi

jheisel (July 15, 2002)

i can't imagine any song on this comp being worth listening to aside from the planes mistaken for stars track.

sayin' and all.

Anonymous (July 15, 2002)

Don't most bands/labels withold recorded songs from releases?

The way I understand it is, a band records say 17 songs in the studio and only puts 12 or so on the new release. They then use the others as unreleased tracks for compilations or splits. I'm pretty sure this is a common practice amongst many bands/labels.

-Scotty