Redding, Ca Circa Early 90’s
Redding, CA’s Case For Radio formed as a group of high school friends with probably nothing better to do than to make some noise. Having grown up in Redding, California myself, I can vouch for the dull expansive vortex that is that town. Case For Radio was alive as long as the kids were still in high school and then morphed into a power trio similar to Velvet Crush/Nada Surf power pop with a shoegaze nuance. Kelly Bauman whom now lives in Portland, Oregon and recently put out an excellent album for Jealous Butcher sang on 99% of the songs, all of them examples of gorgeous indie rock, but it is this one penned and sung by Scott Zander that always slays me. “Anvil Hand” concerns itself with the age old literary theme of self-pleasure, and yet has a pervasive tone of melancholy. The guitar solo is one of those perfect ‘anti-solos’ that color rather than take over the instrumental break (think VU’s “I’m Set Free”). I remember commenting on how perfect the solo break was, only to have one of the guys tell me that was where they fucked up. Perfect Sound Forever? Yes.
And speaking of memories, I remember trying to convince people that CFR actually recorded Jon driving by really fast in his volvo while someone held a hose toward the sky so it would sound like a car driving by in the rain–instead of taking the fx from the board.