I'm excited! I've been meaning to make this post for a while, but I never had the time for it. I'm happy to be sharing with you four early EPs by one of my favorite bands, Sooyoung Park's brainchild, Seam. What may be a familiar name to North Carolina indie rock aficionados as well as major fans of Codeine, Bedhead and other fellow slowcore giants may not be so to others (although don't let these comparisons fool you - they did a fantastic job of tiptoeing the slowcore line and reigning in a league of their own). Seam never enjoyed the popularity of the aforementioned bands however, and thus they are often overlooked by folks perusing the early Homestead and Touch & Go catalogs. It's a shame, really, given their talent, and their stupendous sophomore full-length The Problem With Me on Touch & Go. The only EP I'm missing is the Hey Latasha 7", recordings that I regretfully admit I haven't even heard. But it will soon stop evading me some day, I'm sure... same goes for their LPs, minus The Problem With Me..
Seam - Days of Thunder 7" Mediafire
Somehow the eponymous track was encoded in a lower quality than intended. Click here for a higher quality rip of that track. Sorry about that!
Their first EP is a straight up slowcore gem, tinged with a seemingly permanent melancholy heaviness found in Days of Thunder, which dissipates temporarily on the B-side with Grain, then finally kicks back in with mellower vibes with Which Way To Go?. Probably the best place to start.
Seam - Granny 9X 7" Mediafire
...and if not, this is the best place to start. Another great example of Seam's slowcore influence (Granny 9X) as well as their versatility (Look Back in Anger, a Television Personalities cover). Sooyoung's lingering regret and nostalgia shines through in his voice and his lyrics ("I threw my bike in the river / watched it sink into the night"). Distorted, loud, high-treble goodness - probably one of my favorite songs by them. On the B-side, they cover "Look Back in Anger" by Television Personalities, a version that I must admit I prefer over the original. Is that blasphemous?
Seam - Kernel 7" (Summershine Records Edition) Mediafire
A little note about this particular EP. This version I've uploaded is the Australian version on Summershine Records, a little known label from down under. This includes the two songs found on the American version as well as an extra song on the B-side entitled "Feather". I chose to rip this one for that reason.
Seam - Sukiyaki 7" Mediafire
Mirror Mediafire
Mirror Mediafire
Their final single, limited to and numbered out of 1000, has two covers to finish off their discography. "Sukiyaki" is a popular Japanese song originally written by Rokusuke Ei and made popular by Kyu Sakamoto, a Japanese singer. The B-side is "Heroes" by David Bowie.
Once I get a hold of the missing EP and the rest of their LPs, I will probably share them as well.
And if you haven't heard this band yet, why not?
Once I get a hold of the missing EP and the rest of their LPs, I will probably share them as well.
And if you haven't heard this band yet, why not?
35 comments:
Thank you so very much!!! This is the best birthday present ever, haha. Seam is my favorite band, and I've never heard any of this. Once again, so greatly appreciated!
Thank you for all of the Seam 7"s. The first track on the Sukiyaki 7" is corrupt though, could you please re-up that?
strange. here you go, sorry about that: http://www.mediafire.com/?zkwtjtzjejz
thanks! Do you have the Hey Latasha 7"? (with b-side "Mellow Noise USA")
thanks - didn't know that sukiyaki 7" existed!
i'm going to have to listen to all of the albums again, it's been too long!
sounds like mac from superchunk (former seam drummer) is singing the cover of 'look back in anger'. who sings the sukiyaki a-side?
Anonymous,
According to the insert, "Yan Pan" sings the Sukiyaki side. Thanks for reading.
My favorite band. Thanks a lot for posting, I own the albums and kernel (on CD and vinyl each) but have not been able to track these singles so far. You made my day and more than that. BTW, Temporary Residence Records is going to re-release all BITCH MAGNET stuff, remastered and expanded, as it seems. And... unfortunately I could not download sukiyaki, as tghere seems to be a problem with the very server that data is on, so I'm politely begging you to upload it a third time, hell, this is teasing... pleaaaase.
Uh, I don't wanna be bitchy, not at all, it's just that "Days of Thunder", the song, is encoded only at 128kbps, and I think it deserves more, which is to say I would like to hear it in all the glory possible. Of course I feel like a dork now... but hey, if you're going to re-up sukiyaki..., hm, anyway, thanks for this excellent post. you got some taste, sir.
that's really weird about the Days of Thunder track. i honestly have no idea how that happened and i apologize, as part of my intention is to provide all of my uploads in at least V0 quality MP3s. I'll fix these problems right now and update the entry.
thanks for letting me know and thanks for reading.
okay, there you go. I think that's great about the Bitch Magnet news by the way. i only have a beat up DJ's promo copy of Umber, but i still jam it every so often. a great band. thanks again for reading.
Pleasure's all mine. Thanks, Ryan. You might want to check out thepowerofindependenttrucking.blogspot.com to find some lossless BM, slightly tweaked and sounding really good...
HEY there if anyone's interested? I stumbled upon this blog on pure accident. I am getting rid of my vinyl and I just happened to be posting this one..."Hey Latasha" B/W "Mellow Noise USA". Cheers!!!
http://shop.ebay.com/sly570m96/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=&_trksid=p4340
Any chance of getting these lossless? I would love to do some cleanup on them. I host The Power of Independent Trucking by the way... lotsa Seam and Bitch Magnet there!
i think that even if i did rip them again in lossless, it wouldn't be much improvement. my turntable and sound card are pretty sub par. i'll think about it though.
awesome post! thanks so much for taking the time to share this with all of us. Someone posted this link on Seam's last.fm page, if you cared to know how I came about this. So so stoked to listen to all of it. Seam is amazing. I only know about them because Texas is the Reason covered Rafael at their reunion show a few years ago. Great forgotten band. Another fun fact: they played the first Lollapalooza. Cheers
I'd just like everyone to know that once I finish my collection of Seam's EPs, I will re-rip everything with improved quality. Listening to these rips now, I can see that they're lacking quite a bit in comparison to rips I'm doing now.
hi, thank you for all the seam. once ago, at napster-times, i had downloaded seam-songs, which were tagged as 'acoustic - live at mbc". i still love these versions ...
-> broken bones / intifada driving school / kernel / new years day / petty thievery
here you go :-) http://ul.to/fatv76
and another one:
seam
- live -
1994-02-15
Gent. Belgium
source: soundboard
-> http://ul.to/bn6lx2
Anonymous,
whoa! what a great thing to wake up to! thanks for sharing these. if you have/know where to get more, I'd be most appreciative. I'm listening to the acoustic one and it's totally refreshing to hear these songs played acoustically.
Ryan
hi ryan, the upload was a "thank you" for your rare seam postings :-). i have a few more live-recordings mostly downloaded from dimeadozen.org a few years ago. mostly i like the few acoustic versions, i have uplaoded to your blog. i got one more soundboard-recording and ... i don't know ... a few audience recordings, but the quality is not really nice. it's much more for completists only. so, it's no problem to upload the sbd-sourced show.
i came to your blog, because yesterday i got a copy from ee's capital plans and now listen to all the older stuff from sooyoung park ... all the best
thanks so much, again! i appreciate the sentiments.
these Belguim tracks in particular are really amazing to hear - all of the best material written by 1994 is right here. you've inspired me to try and track down anything like this, too, so i'll be on the lookout for more live Seam.
Anonymous,
i took the liberty of tagging the Belguim tracks and re-uploading them. they're here - http://www.mediafire.com/?5r0ogxo5a72d70n - if you're interested.
hi ryan, thanks for the mediafire-link.
here is the next one:
seam
- live -
1993-11-19
Watt Club. Athens. USA
source: Soundboard
-> http://ul.to/1lxrqb
i am sure all of the readers will like this one too :-)
btw, i never have seen live-recordings of ee. if someone has some material and is willing to upload it, that would be more then great ...
thanks again Anonymous. I went ahead and fixed the tags for that one as well - hope you don't mind my doing so, it's more for my needs than anything!
http://www.mediafire.com/?r619nw8whqdlz2w
i don't know why ... i have lost sight of another live-recording of seam, which i have just rediscovered today. its seems to be *my* favourite seam-concert of setlist, quality and ... of course sooyoung park presence ...
Seam
- live in Korea -
unknown date & venue
quality: soundboard
tracklist:
01 - Berlitz
02 - Kernel
03 - Wig & Intifada Driving School
04 - Get Higher
05 - Broken Bones
06 - The Prizefighters
07 - Rafael
08 - Nisei Fight Song
09 - Port of Charleston
10 - Inching Towards Juarez
11 - Kanahwa
12 - Rainy Season
link -> http://ul.to/4j4oqz
HEAR LOUD :-)
Thanks for these, does anyone have the full setlist for their show at the Touch & Go Festival on 9/10/06? I think they did 9 songs.
Thank you, this is awesome!
Can anyone please re-up those acoustic songs? Thanks, you beautiful people...
i´m still looking for some of the EE stuff. anyone?
I found the acoustic! Here is the link! =)
http://www.mediafire.com/?76398vdoao3n3co
Great band.... just love them!
Thanks for the post!
@ryan Some ex-members of Seam and Bitch Magnet are in a new band called Bored Spies. https://www.facebook.com/boredspies
@creepy: That's *great* news. Marking the 25th to hear that single. Thank you for the heads up!
The Bored Spies single is out. http://realboredspies.bandcamp.com/
Thanks for all of this--and to the commenter who linked to the Bored Spies.
I posted slightly different rips of all the Seam singles here:
http://yrcoversblown.blogspot.com/2009/03/low-supply-5-seam-b-sides-etc.html
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