The Aislers Set
Encyclopedia
The Aislers Set is an indie pop band that formed in San Francisco in 1997 after the breakup of chief songwriter Amy Linton’s former band Henry's Dress
. The Aislers Set's music is heavily influenced by C86
-style British indie pop
.
, The Big Takeover
, and numerous indie pop zines, earning enough of a following to generate a tour of Japan
in April 1999. Terrible Things Happen (as with the rest of the Aislers Set's music) was recorded in Linton’s tiny basement studio on an analog 8 track machine.
Spin.com
placed the band's second album The Last Match on its Top 20 of 2000, saying, "Linton has cleared the cobwebs off the Pop conundrum and dolled them up in a perfect dress." On Salon.com
, Greil Marcus
wrote, "They make dream pop feel as easy to make as a can of soup, and as dangerous: Watch that jagged edge." High praise followed in the New York Times, NME
, Gear
, and Alternative Press
, and the band set out on lengthy tours supporting acts such as Sleater Kinney and Bratmobile
.
In the spring of 2001 the band set off on a three week tour of Europe
which was highlighted by an invitation to record a session for legendary British DJ
John Peel
. They recorded four tracks for the show which was aired twice by Peel. He said of the band "If you were in one of your difficult moods you could argue that there are lots of bands making that kind of noise particularly in the United States of America. And you'd say well, why are Aislers Set better than any of the others and I'd have to say, well I don't know they just sort of are..."
In 2002 the band was invited by Belle and Sebastian for a week long tour of the East Coast
, culminating in a show at New York City
’s Hammerstein Ballroom
in front of over 3,000 people. Stevie Jackson
of Belle and Sebastian was later quoted in a 2003 SF Weekly
article saying that "They are one of the best groups in America as far as I'm concerned".
Late in 2002, The San Francisco Chronicle
included The Aislers Set in its list of "Young Artists on the Verge," writing: "The Aislers Set's reinvention of '60s pop resurrects walls of garage guitars and rich, Spector
-esque sound, insouciance combined with insightful lyrics. But this quintet makes the past feel contemporary, borrowing from punk and pop to create a 21st century cool sound".
The Aislers Set's third album, How I Learned to Write Backwards, came out in the spring of 2003 with critical praise all around. NME
wrote "Sleighbells, Cuban trumpets, half-inched Smiths
lyrics and chasms of lovely echo all add to an insomnia-like reverie that clings on long after its mere half-hour is up." "When The Aislers Set hit their mark, they unveil a knack for tying together extremes without ever settling for the middle ground" said MOJO magazine. Pitchfork Media
summed up the 2003 version of The Aislers Set: "Here, Linton's indie quintet becomes a pop orchestra. The band's music is denser than ever before, laden with sleigh bells, handclaps and horns piled atop the conventional guitars, drums, bass and keyboards-- and all are drenched in cavernous reverb, providing the ambiance and intimacy of a gigantic, empty concert hall".
The band toured for most of 2003 including a month long stint supporting Yo La Tengo
and a week supporting The Shins
.
Since late 2003 the band has been on hiatus with Linton having moved to New York City and Cusick moving to Gothenburg
, Sweden
.
On Xmas Day, 2010, the band made a new song, Cold Christmas, available for download.
The Aislers Set's albums were also released in Australia
by the Lost & Lonesome Recording Co.
; The Last Match was released in the UK
by 555 Recordings and Fortuna Pop!
.
Henry's Dress
Henry's Dress were a band from Albuquerque, New Mexico consisting of Amy Linton and Matt Hartman, who both acted as singer, guitarist and drummer at various times, and Hayyim Sanchez as bassist, formed in 1993...
. The Aislers Set's music is heavily influenced by C86
C86 (music)
C86 is a cassette compilation released by the British music magazine NME in 1986, featuring new bands licensed from independent labels of the time. As a phrase, C86 quickly evolved into shorthand for a guitar-based musical genre characterised by "jangly" guitars and fey melodies, although other...
-style British indie pop
Indie pop
Indie pop is a genre of alternative rock music that originated in the United Kingdom in the mid 1980s, with its roots in the Scottish post-punk bands on the Postcard Records label in the early '80s, such as Orange Juice, Josef K and Aztec Camera, and the dominant UK independent band of the mid...
.
History
Their first record, Terrible Things Happen was released in 1998, receiving glowing reviews in CMJCMJ New Music Monthly
CMJ New Music Monthly was a monthly music magazine with interviews, reviews, and special features. Each issue included a compact disc with 15 to 24 songs by well established bands, unsigned bands, and everything in between...
, The Big Takeover
The Big Takeover
The Big Takeover is a bi-annual music magazine published out of New York City since 1980 by critic Jack Rabid.-Overview:The Big T usually appears in June and December, with most recent issues coming in around 200 pages. The review section, featuring Jack’s Top 40 for the issue, is regularly 60-80...
, and numerous indie pop zines, earning enough of a following to generate a tour of Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
in April 1999. Terrible Things Happen (as with the rest of the Aislers Set's music) was recorded in Linton’s tiny basement studio on an analog 8 track machine.
Spin.com
Spin (magazine)
Spin is a music magazine founded in 1985 by publisher Bob Guccione Jr.-History:In its early years, the magazine was noted for its broad music coverage with an emphasis on college-oriented rock music and on the ongoing emergence of hip-hop. The magazine was eclectic and bold, if sometimes haphazard...
placed the band's second album The Last Match on its Top 20 of 2000, saying, "Linton has cleared the cobwebs off the Pop conundrum and dolled them up in a perfect dress." On Salon.com
Salon.com
Salon.com, part of Salon Media Group , often just called Salon, is an online liberal magazine, with content updated each weekday. Salon was founded by David Talbot and launched on November 20, 1995. It was the internet's first online-only commercial publication. The magazine focuses on U.S...
, Greil Marcus
Greil Marcus
Greil Marcus is an American author, music journalist and cultural critic. He is notable for producing scholarly and literary essays that place rock music in a much broader framework of culture and politics than is customary in pop music journalism.-Life and career:Marcus was born in San Francisco...
wrote, "They make dream pop feel as easy to make as a can of soup, and as dangerous: Watch that jagged edge." High praise followed in the New York Times, NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
, Gear
Gear (magazine)
Gear was an English language lad's mag published by Bob Guccione, Jr. in the United Kingdom devoted chiefly to revealing pictorials of popular singers, B-movie actresses, and models, along with articles on gadgets, cars, fashion, guy tales of sex, and sports.Gear debuted in September 1998, with...
, and Alternative Press
Alternative Press (music magazine)
Alternative Press is an American music magazine based in Cleveland, Ohio. It generally provides readers with band interviews, photos, information on upcoming releases, and music charts. It was founded in 1985 by Mike Shea, who is the current president....
, and the band set out on lengthy tours supporting acts such as Sleater Kinney and Bratmobile
Bratmobile
Bratmobile was an American punk band. Bratmobile was a first-generation "riot grrrl" band, which grew from the Pacific Northwest and Washington, DC underground...
.
In the spring of 2001 the band set off on a three week tour of Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
which was highlighted by an invitation to record a session for legendary British DJ
Disc jockey
A disc jockey, also known as DJ, is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience. Originally, "disc" referred to phonograph records, not the later Compact Discs. Today, the term includes all forms of music playback, no matter the medium.There are several types of disc jockeys...
John Peel
John Peel
John Robert Parker Ravenscroft, OBE , known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey, radio presenter, record producer and journalist. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly from 1967 until his death in 2004...
. They recorded four tracks for the show which was aired twice by Peel. He said of the band "If you were in one of your difficult moods you could argue that there are lots of bands making that kind of noise particularly in the United States of America. And you'd say well, why are Aislers Set better than any of the others and I'd have to say, well I don't know they just sort of are..."
In 2002 the band was invited by Belle and Sebastian for a week long tour of the East Coast
East Coast of the United States
The East Coast of the United States, also known as the Eastern Seaboard, refers to the easternmost coastal states in the United States, which touch the Atlantic Ocean and stretch up to Canada. The term includes the U.S...
, culminating in a show at New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
’s Hammerstein Ballroom
Hammerstein Ballroom
The Hammerstein Ballroom is a two-tiered, 12,000 square feet ballroom located within the Manhattan Center Studios on 311 West 34th Street in Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States of America. It is known for its elegant appearance and excellent acoustical design...
in front of over 3,000 people. Stevie Jackson
Stevie Jackson
Stevie Jackson is a Scottish musician and songwriter. He plays lead guitar and sings in the Glasgow based indie band Belle & Sebastian. Jackson's guitar playing is distinctively retrogressive and melodic, with a heavy use of reverb and minimal effects...
of Belle and Sebastian was later quoted in a 2003 SF Weekly
SF Weekly
SF Weekly is a free alternative weekly newspaper in San Francisco, California. The newspaper, distributed throughout the San Francisco Bay Area every Wednesday, is published by Village Voice Media, a 16-paper alt weekly newspaper chain that also includes the New York City Village Voice and the Los...
article saying that "They are one of the best groups in America as far as I'm concerned".
Late in 2002, The San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...
included The Aislers Set in its list of "Young Artists on the Verge," writing: "The Aislers Set's reinvention of '60s pop resurrects walls of garage guitars and rich, Spector
Phil Spector
Phillip Harvey "Phil" Spector is an American record producer and songwriter, later known for his conviction in the murder of actress Lana Clarkson....
-esque sound, insouciance combined with insightful lyrics. But this quintet makes the past feel contemporary, borrowing from punk and pop to create a 21st century cool sound".
The Aislers Set's third album, How I Learned to Write Backwards, came out in the spring of 2003 with critical praise all around. NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
wrote "Sleighbells, Cuban trumpets, half-inched Smiths
The Smiths
The Smiths were an English alternative rock band, formed in Manchester in 1982. Based on the song writing partnership of Morrissey and Johnny Marr , the band also included Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce...
lyrics and chasms of lovely echo all add to an insomnia-like reverie that clings on long after its mere half-hour is up." "When The Aislers Set hit their mark, they unveil a knack for tying together extremes without ever settling for the middle ground" said MOJO magazine. Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock...
summed up the 2003 version of The Aislers Set: "Here, Linton's indie quintet becomes a pop orchestra. The band's music is denser than ever before, laden with sleigh bells, handclaps and horns piled atop the conventional guitars, drums, bass and keyboards-- and all are drenched in cavernous reverb, providing the ambiance and intimacy of a gigantic, empty concert hall".
The band toured for most of 2003 including a month long stint supporting Yo La Tengo
Yo La Tengo
Yo La Tengo, sometimes abbreviated as YLT, is an American alternative rock band formed in Hoboken, New Jersey in 1984. Since 1992, the lineup has consisted of Ira Kaplan , Georgia Hubley , and James McNew .Despite achieving limited mainstream success, Yo La Tengo has been called "the quintessential...
and a week supporting The Shins
The Shins
The Shins are an American indie rock band comprising singer, songwriter, and guitarist James Mercer, guitarist/bassist Dave Hernandez, Eric Johnson of Fruit Bats, drummer Joe Plummer and bassist Ron Lewis. Their sound draws on several musical genres, including pop, alternative rock, indie rock,...
.
Since late 2003 the band has been on hiatus with Linton having moved to New York City and Cusick moving to Gothenburg
Gothenburg
Gothenburg is the second-largest city in Sweden and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated on the west coast of Sweden, the city proper has a population of 519,399, with 549,839 in the urban area and total of 937,015 inhabitants in the metropolitan area...
, Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
.
On Xmas Day, 2010, the band made a new song, Cold Christmas, available for download.
Members
- Amy Linton - vocals, guitar, trumpet, drums
- Wyatt Cusick - guitar
- Yoshi Nakamoto - drums
- Alicia Vanden Heuvel - bass
- Jen Cohen - organ
Contributing members
- Dan Lee/scrabbelScrabbelScrabbel was formed in 1999 by two old high school friends Dan Lee and Becky Barron. On the strength of their debut show in 2000 at a sold out event for the San Francisco Intl' Asian American Film Festival, they were approached by a label to record a record. They released their first full length in...
- organ - Gary Olson/Ladybug Transistor - trumpet
- Kevin Barker/Currituck County - guitar
- Michael O'Neill - bass
Discography
- Terrible Things Happen LP/CD (Slumberland RecordsSlumberland RecordsSlumberland Records is an American independent record label formed in 1989 in Washington, D.C. area and currently based in Oakland, CA. The label has released recordings from artists including Velocity Girl, Honeybunch, Lilys, Stereolab, St...
, September 1998) - The Last Match LP (Slumberland Records, May 2000)
- How I Learned To Write Backwards LP (Slumberland Records, February 2003), CD (Suicide Squeeze RecordsSuicide Squeeze RecordsSuicide Squeeze Records is a Seattle, WA - based independent record label that presses a significant number of 7" vinyl singles in addition to the more prevalent compact discs. The label was started in August 1996 with the release of a 7" single from 764-Hero. The label quickly grew from owner...
) - "Been Hiding" b/w "Fire Engines" 7" (Slumberland Records)
- "The Walk Pt.1" split 7" w/ Poundsign (Slumberland Records)
- "Not To Young To Get Married" split 7" w/ Poundsign
- "Hey Lover" split 7" w/ The How
- "Yeah Yeah" split w/ The Fairways
- "The Snow Don't Fall" one sided 7" (Slumberland Records)
- "The red Door" 7" (Slumberland Records)
- " Attraction Action Reaction" 7" (Suicide Squeeze Records)
- "Mission Bells" 12" (Suicide Squeeze Records)
The Aislers Set's albums were also released in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
by the Lost & Lonesome Recording Co.
Lost & Lonesome Recording Co.
Lost & Lonesome Recording Co. is an independent record label based in Melbourne, Australia. The label specialises in indie pop, and has released both recordings by local artists and local releases by overseas indie bands....
; The Last Match was released in the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
by 555 Recordings and Fortuna Pop!
Fortuna Pop!
Fortuna Pop! is a British independent record label based in London, started in 1996 by Sean Price. It specialises in indie pop and indie rock music, released on 7" single, CD and vinyl....
.
External links
- Official band web site
- the aislers set @ myspace
- PUNKCAST#256 live video - Williamsburg Publick House, Brooklyn, March 29, 2003 (RealMediaRealMediaRealMedia is a proprietary multimedia container format created by RealNetworks. Its extension is ".rm". It is typically used in conjunction with RealVideo and RealAudio and is used for streaming content over the Internet....
)