Sunday, April 20, 2008

THE CENTIMETERS-PRESENT THE FACTS OF DESTINY, CD, 1999, USA







Completely ignored, this fiercely idiosyncratic L.A. unit existed (still exist?) in a bubble of their own creation whose touchstones, at least to these ears, seem to come from an earlier era of the L.A. underground via outfits like 45 Grave and The Fibonaccis. It's a very curious combination of quirk and quease and one that takes a few spins to assimilate, as arch, addled cabaret pop shares space with offkey dirges about wanting "a dead one". Anyone who downloaded the Iceplants' headscratching E.P. that I posted a little while back will find a certain simpatico to their ungainly approaches to songform in the sparely fucked arrangements here as well. Guest spots from ex-Germs/45 Grave/C.E.D.S. nutter Don Bolles and L.A.F.M.S. vet Joseph Hammer should go some ways toward providing a context for this curio cabinet of experimental pop maneuvers, but this is really it's own unique beast and deserves a reckoning from anyone with a yen for the peculiar.

Get it Here

23 comments:

Unknown said...

most excellent... many thanks for this.

Mr Fab said...

Great! Almost forgot about these guys. They were getting a fair amount of attention around LA for a bit, and are apparently still around - they have a MySpazz page, with a couple other releases for sale.

zladiq said...

I got to see Nora Keyes open for Dame Darcy a few years ago, it was a really good show. This is a even better.

Anonymous said...

that was awesome. Any releases from them are greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Anonymous said...

Thanks a ton for posting this. I had heard one or two songs by these guys and apparently seriously misjudged them. Very nice!

Llosef said...

Amazing!! Thanks!!

Unknown said...

Don Bolles... really?

weird.

Morgan FitzPatrick Andrews said...

Yep, Don Bolles was in the band. They lived in Philly for a spell, and yes, they were sadly ignored to often. Their live set was an uncontainable sonic monster, Nora's solo shows sheer bliss.

Anonymous said...

More about The Centimeters here:

The Centimeters
The Centimeters Tribute Page

Thanks.

Anonymous said...

They weren't completely ignored - Tom Smith from To Live & Shave in LA (who sometimes pops his head into your comment boxes) reviewed this album in Bananafish ca. 2000, and raved about it. He was probably one of five scribes to receive a copy of their album - that's the tragedy. The Cents should have been huge.

Patrick Hambrecht said...

just linked to this at http://cuniglius.blogspot.com/

Arturo Rodríguez Lara said...

I can´t open the link to download. I think the link is broken or damage.

vdoandsound said...

Puky Nocivo-just tried it. It works fine. Just make sure to type in the
letters on display when you're prompted to and the link will pop up.

Arturo Rodríguez Lara said...

Hey! Its downloading right now! Thanks!!!

Anonymous said...

Please repost this!

Anonymous said...

File no longer available...

Anonymous said...

a very good recording.can you please upload their second full-length?

brandumb said...

Could we get a re-up?

Anonymous said...

Can you please re-up this amazing album?

Greetings from Bogotá & nice blog.

John-Ernst said...

Hey, link's dead.
Can you re-upload this one ?
Lots of thanks from France for this record and tons of others you made me discovered.

Anonymous said...

dead link! dying to hear this album gahhh!!!

Anonymous said...

Mr mutant, please re-up this.

Anonymous said...

Please Re-Up this