Do You Know This Band? MINUS STORY

written by alan williamson

Do you know this band? Do you... know... this band? Of course you do, but have you given their music enough time to plant seeds, to wrap it's tendrils around your ankles, wrists, and heart? If not, you should... you should give in to the music and spirit of Minus Story.

Minus Story is a band that doesn't get the respect it is due, or maybe I mean attention. If it got the attention of lesser acts that clog the blogs, it would rise above the cacophony of hype--hype that many lesser bands noisily surf to a minor career of two mediocre albums, an OC soundtrack appearance, and a predilection for minors, drugs, and booze--and arrest the attention of intelligent music fans everywhere. Granted, a handful of blogs have had the wisdom to give space to this band, but not enough, not nearly enough. Recently I've been revisiting the latest release from the band, No Rest For Ghosts, and it simply gets better with age.

How good are these guys? Well, to put it in plain context, they're better than Envelopes, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Cold War Kids, Tapes 'n Tapes, Be Your Own Pet, The Lovely Feathers, The Stills, Voxtrot, Cold War Kids, Arctic Monkeys, The Strokes, etc, etc, etc.

Nearly everything written about these guys offers up the descriptive term 'lo-fi'. Which doesn't really tell you anything other than it's not 'hi-fi'. Minus Story have been together a long time, long enough that their method of recording has evolved and grown as a species will evolve and grow over the centuries... but they haven't been together for centuries, don't get me wrong. What I'm trying to get at is that 'lo-fi' in this instance, as in many instances, refers to organic. These are artistic, creative people who blossom when writing music. Their methodology is lo-fi, the results are not.

It's beyond me why they don't get splashed all over the 'net, all over music mags, and hard pressed into the hands of bloggers and 'ziners by a top notch promo firm. When hype pushes the right buttons it can do wonders for a great band like Minus Story, all they need is the right ears listening and the right people writing (uhh, I don't mean me).


Here are some free mp3s found online and a song from No Rest For Ghosts which I offer up, as well.

+ hold on - No Rest For Ghosts 2005
+ little wet head - No Rest For Ghosts 2005
+ time wastes itself - Heaven And Hell EP 2005
+ you were on my side - The Captain is Dead, Let the Drum Corpse Dance 2004
+ under the knife - Moebius Syndrome 2001
+ quiet - Belle Ame 2001 Self-released

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Minus Story can be found at eMusic.