Press release for the 1994 Small Factory album For If You Cannot Fly, issued by U.S. label Vernon Yard Recordings.
For If You Cannot Fly was Providence indie pop band Small Factory’s major label debut. That’s right, Vernon Yard was one of those “fake indies,” a pointless imprint of a major label (here, Virgin Records) created in an era where “selling out” was a vague concept that people worried about. Whatever!
My actual concern was the increasingly rock-n-roll direction in which Small Factory was headed. But of course I bought this album and played it on my radio show, electric guitars be damned. Their live shows remained energetic and charming as hell. In fact, the open secret was that the band’s spirit live was never quite captured on record. Which is why I have at least three different Small Factory live sets I taped with my portable recorder.
