It was 2006. I was an idealistic Californian chasing dreams of utopia on a South facing East Bay hillside. Bishop Allen, a band I had recently discovered, was in the midst of a novel experiment in which they would release a new EP every month for a year. In October of that year I purchased the entire collection available to me, January-October, and was amazed by the cheerful pop.
Sadly, half a year went by before I got around to ordering the last two months and, alas, the EPs had sold out. Desperate, I scoured every independent record store in Berkeley but to no avail, I was out of luck.
Years passed and I have since temporarily removed myself from that California utopia in exchange for the happiness of a pretty girl. Now sitting mere blocks from Bishop Allen Drive in Cambridge, MA (the former home of Justin Rice & Christian Rudder while they attended Harvard), what better place to renew my search for the missing EPs.
May 31st, 2012. Stalling before a film screening, I stopped into our local “comic store” (that means record/cd store in Bostonian for some reason) as is my bi-weekly tradition, and to my surprise, an entire 12 month set of Bishop Allen EPs was laid out on the Used CD shelf at the front of the store. It must have been an overnight acquisition as I had been in the store not two days earlier checking for Brian Lopez (future post pending). Overjoyed, I split their set (muah hahaha), paid, and stuffed my new prized possessions into my bag.
Two days later I’m a happy man and my EP set is complete. I’ve discovered that Rice and Bishop Allen bandmate Darby Nowatka have been working on a side project known as The Last Names (future post pending) who in a similar fit of brilliant musicianship have embarked upon a 52 week/52 song covers extraveganza.
If you are missing Bishop Allen’s January-October EPs, they may still be available for $2/piece at Newbury.
And now you know.
[itunes id=”260945529″].
[itunes id=”261037486″].
I really like these two! Very happy rock out music. Hooray!