Lately, I've been listening to a lot of the Brooklyn band, Palomar, not only their new album, Sense & Antisense, but also their previous two records, Palomar III: the Revenge Of Palomar and the excellent, All Things, Forests. I love this band! I really enjoy their driving pop/rock sound and you know how much I like girl vocals, but they seem to sound somewhat familiar. I don't know if you remember the Canadian band, Jale who hailed more specifically from Halifax in the early to mid 90's. In the mid-90's, an explosion of great indie bands from the "Halifax scene" such as Sloan, Superfriendz, Thrush Hermit and Plumtree caught the attention of music fans not only in Canada, but in the U.S. as well. Jale became the second Canadian band (Eric's Trip, the first) to be signed to the American label, Sub Pop. At that time, Sub Pop was a big deal...a huge deal. Despite that, Jale only left us with 2 full length albums, an EP (Closed) and a handful of singles. The band broke up in 1996, only a few months after the release of their second album, So Wound after guitarist Eve Hartling announced she was pregnant and either left the band or was fired. The remaining members formed the Vees (I featured their lone EP a few years ago), but that fizzled quickly.
So, if you want to hear more of Jale, I'm posting some "rarities" from singles, promos and compilations that I received in a trade many years ago. The person I traded with put together this collection and gave it the title, Sleeping Off The Party. If you still can't enough of Jale, check out Palomar who I still think sounds a bit like Jale, but in fact they have expanded and improved (and updated) that sound for an equally satisfying listen.
Enjoy!
JALE
Sleeping Off The Party: Rarities
1993-97
- Lung
- Stepping Out
- River
- Brother (live)
- Nebulous (alt. version)
- More Or Less (demo)
- Stepping Out (demo)
- Promise (live)
- Leave It Alone
- Coincidence
- Blue Streak
- True What You Say
- From A Still
#2-3 "Gold Leather With Heel Detail 7" (93')
#4-8 "Promise" promo (94')
#9-11 "Hey Hey" single (96')
#12-13 "True What You Say" single (97')
Thanks! Always loved this band.
ReplyDeleteWhenever I see Mike Belitsky or Joe Pernice on stage or around town, my thoughts always tangentially drift back to jale.
Do you happen to have their cover of "Frightened Of" or "Traditional"? Those are the only songs I couldn't find online so far.
ReplyDeleteHey thanks so much for posting this, I totally love Jale.
ReplyDeleteI'm downloading this, googling Palomar and listening Dreamcake just to get in the mood. :D
thanks.
ReplyDeletei always love your east coast posts.
Wow, I'd almost given up. I've been looking for these tracks for years. All I could find was the Closed EP and the So Wound Japanese bonus tracks.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for posting.
Thanks. I can't wait to check this out. I only ever had a couple of Jale singles, and I want to hear more.
ReplyDeleteFor your reader Lucas Gelati, I do have "Frightened of", and I just ripped it from the vinyl. If I get around to it I'll post it somewhere.