LISTEN: Wild Carnation Shares “Cricket”
The Feelies-affiliated NJ band’s 1994 debut Tricycle reissued on Record Store Day
One of the deep treasures of last Saturday’s Record Store Day scramble was the reissue of Wild Carnation’s 1994 debut LP Tricycle.
The New Jersey-based trio, featuring Brenda Sauter of The Feelies on bass and leas vocals, guitarist Rich Barnes and Chris O’Donovan (Grey District) on drums and vocals, originally formed in 1993 where, after seeing them at a gig at NYC’s Wetlands, they were quickly signed to Delmore Recording Society as one of the label’s first acts. In 1993, Wild Carnation’s debut 7″, “Dodger Blue” b/w “The Lights Are On (But No One’s Home)”, taken from raw home demos recorded the previous year, became the second Delmore release.
A full-length album was then commissioned, and an evolving Wild Carnation holed up at Mix-O-Lydian recording studios with engineer Don Sternecker (The Feelies, Speed The Plough, Wake Ooloo) to record their debut. On Tricycle, the pastoral quality of their most beautiful ballads was captured to perfection, while retaining enough of the rawness of the live experience on their more electric material.
Tricycle was repressed on Carnation White vinyl as an RSD exclusive with only 500 copies made. And as a bonus, the album comes housed with a download card that contains the remastered album, demos, and a blistering live set recorded in Hamburg, Germany January 27, 1997. The live recording features unreleased originals and a selection of covers including Patti Smith (“Dancing Barefoot”), Ian Tyson (“Four Strong Winds”), and The Grass Roots (“Wait A Million Years”).
“Touring Germany was a memorable experience while there were only 8 shows across the country,” Sauter tells Rock & Roll Globe. “The audiences were receptive and enthusiastic, and I consider the band lucky to have had that opportunity to play there.”
The site is beyond privileged to have this opportunity to premiere a key rarity this afternoon in “Cricket,” a cut that was born in between Tricycle and the second Wild Carnation LP Superbus (2000).
“When we toured Germany in January-February of 1997, we were in between recording albums and ‘Cricket’ was still in its infancy with parts evolving,” Sauter explains. “While we pulled from the Tricycle repertoire during this tour, there were a number of songs that would find their way into the Superbus sessions in 2000. And Cricket was one of them.”
Listen below and hunt yourself down a copy of Tricycle immediately if you are a fan of classic NJ indie rock.
Tricycle will be released as a download and via streaming platforms on April 28, including the original album, all the live material, demos, etc.
- WATCH: Adam Birnbaum Digs Bach - September 26, 2023
- LISTEN: Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Shares New Song “Terror’s Pillow” (Live) - September 23, 2023
- LISTEN: Saruna are Seattle’s Latest Soul Purveyors - September 21, 2023
You May Also Like
-
January 6, 2023 -
May 17, 2022 -
February 2, 2023
I still listen to my original CD copy of Tricycle (or at least the copy I ripped to my computer) regularly and Wild Carnation was a memorable live performance at Maxwell’s decades ago.