3 out of 5

Label: Insound

Producer: Various

I would really, really, really like to hate on this compilation since it’s sorta’ all Saddle Creek-y feeling (i.e. cute girls and skinny boys will enjoy it), but credit where it’s due and whatnot and I appreciate the Insound label, so… yeah.

The Insound Tour Support series kicked off with the intention mentioned in its title – tour support for select artists, quick and easy recordings to, as the liner notes on the CD mention, “to help touring bands… pay for food, gas and sleeveless sweaters.”  Insound would manufacture the discs in limited quantities, minimal cardboard packaging, half to the artist, half sold through Insound.  What I’ve never been quite as clear on is the music chosen for the discs.  Some of it seems original, and some of it seems like re-packaged stuff.  Regardless, what’s on the recordings is generally rare, and if you’re a fan of any given band, worth tracking down.

Is the label’s cache of artists that varied?  Well, they have their odd highlights that branch out, like Racebannon, but on the whole you could open up the skinny jeans store and play some Bright Eyes and whoever starts shopping there probably has an Insound release.  (Yes, the music world has changed and my Bright Eyes jokes probably don’t matter anymore it’s time to move on….)  Thus while it feels like our compilation here is slanted – The Rapture, Bright Eyes, Tristeza, John Vanderslice, Kind of Like Spitting – if you looked at IS’s roster, ‘Volume One’ does actually include a track from almost every Tour Support disc, so I can’t really hate on it for the selection.  It’s an honest representation.  And a pretty good one.  Although most of the bands / acts fall into the mundane for me (or annoyance, like Har Mar Superstar), I think an honest effort was made to grab a song that shows off that particular act’s style without just opting for an obvious single.  Like the Soul-Junk track is this totally washed out live recording – not gonna make any new fans unless you’re already into the Junk’s messy sound.  (No idea if SJ’s whole Insound release is like that, though.)  The opposite side of that statement is that this comp can be misleading if you’re using it as a test pilot to see what you like.  Dig that John Vanderslice track?  Me too!  Unfortunately nowhere is it mentioned that he’s backed by Spoon on that track (I read that on Allmusic), which is entirely what gives his contribution the energetic stomp his weepy songs normally don’t have.

Aaaanyhow, on the whole, fair assortment of the series or not, seeing as how most of this falls in the same genre it does get a little repetitive, and even when that song you were waiting for arrives its only 3 or 4 minutes before its back to a general emo-y sorta wash, and it’s also hard to say who this comp is for.  There’s nothing new here, it’s totally a sampler, but it’s a sampler of a label that isn’t a label, ya dig?  All the bands here have homes elsewhere, and if you like those acts, you’re going to track down their actual IS release and not this mix.  But?  Who am I to judge.   (Answer: I am legion.)