Filed under: design of a decade, lists, music, people from rhode island | Tags: 2002, delphine, design of a decade, emily sparks
[My top 10 pairs of songs from 2002 continues with a pair of artists from Rhode Island, neither of whose album covers exist on the internet in a size large enough to fit my formatting style.]
7. Emily Sparks, Down In Virginia, and Delphine, Moderate Acoustic Rock Song
The release party for Emily Sparks’ What Could Not Be Buried album took place at the restaurant I always went to for lunch between classes. Enthusiastically I attended, sat about ten feet away from the singer (real name Bridget Mullen), and couldn’t hear a thing. She is quiet. So, so quiet. And a terrible, terribly shy live performer.
I bought her album anyway, though, and loved it. I still do. Much like this year’s album by Joker’s Daughter, unassuming folk songs are elevated to near-perfection by subtle, intricate production, with bloops and strange noises and guitars that are sometimes mixed louder than the vocals. It was produced by Dave Auchenbach from Wheat, another quietish band from the area.
The song Down In Virginia doesn’t appear on What Could Not Be Buried, though. It’s on the second edition of The Amos House Collection, a benefit for a Providence homeless shelter that also somehow managed to include songs by Elliott Smith, Bright Eyes, the Gentle Waves, Spoon and the Aislers Set. A straightforward folk song and one of the compilation’s quietest numbers, Down In Virginia is the kind of breathy acoustic thing that I’m not often drawn to, though when I am my love is such that I’m at a loss for ways to explain it.
Sparks was on Wishing Tree Records, a short-lived label based out of Warren, Rhode Island, a seaside antique mecca just east of Providence. Also on that label were Delphine, a more politely emo-ish group featuring a couple of guys I ended up taking creative writing classes with. They’re the kind of band I almost never listen to now, earnest and guitar-ish, though I was all over their songs during my Rivers Cuomo-glasses-and-ironed-jeans years. Moderate Acoustic Rock Song was the final track on their We’re Sleeping Better Now EP, a low-key effort that tread quietly, steadily, except for a few brief moments of noisy emoting.
Providence has had its fair share of indie-famous bands over the years, though around 2002 I was royally pissed off that all the attention was always on Lightning Bolt and all the hipper-than-thou noise bands coming out of Fort Thunder. Now I don’t care, really, though the local music scene has also died down quite a bit in the last five years.
Delphine broke up after this EP and singer Todd Belcher may or may not be making a living doing voiceovers. Emily Sparks moved to Seattle at some point and changed her name to Jet Sparks. She’s still performing, and who knows, maybe she’s even a little less shy now.
mp3s:
Emily Sparks, Down In Virginia*
Emily Sparks, Nothing I Can Say*
Emily Sparks, Downtown Cafe*
At some point in the last two weeks, because I am an idiot, I lost my Delphine CD in the mess of my apartment. But here’s another track, off:the compilation These Are Centre St. Tracks:
Delphine, The Part*
[*Actually, Fileden doesn't seem to be working. So I zipped all the songs and here they are on Rapidshare. If that doesn't work for you, let me know in the comments.]
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