#aliasrecords

Tri-fold paper catalog for California-based label Alias Records, 1994.

Alias Records was an odd duck in the nineties indie scene. It acted as a springboard for Yo La Tengo and American Music Club, putting out early records of theirs before those bands moved on to bigger labels (Matador and Reprise, respectively). And I was absolutely thrilled when Alias reissued the early Game Theory catalog, as well as providing a home for Scott Miller’s most recent musical endeavor, The Loud Family. But at the same time it issued a bunch of, um... less memorable music. A real collection of hits and misses. Though I suppose you could say the same about most indie labels.

they are both pop laureates of the non-sequitur, but the main difference between scott miller, game theory's singer and chief songwriter (who conceived a double album called lolita nation and wrote a song called "the ballad of how you can all shut up," and author of the above hit-single-that-never-was "erica's word") and robert pollard is that miller didn't record and release every half-baked idea he ever had.

long island, NY's hypnolovewheel made a few records, apparently, in the late 1980's-early 1990's, on alias records, not coincidentally, a record label that housed at various times a number of Great Bands No One Listens To.

when someone laid the above sublime nugget ("bridget because" from 1992's angel food), on me some months ago, my first reaction, once I came down from the jangle-pop high that comes from listening to this song twelve times in a row, was to curse whatever fates allowed me to live on this planet for 37 years before ever getting to hear it.