Last Summer on Earth / Grapey Day

"Pete Nichols is one of Brattleboro VT's many talented polymaths. He runs the Spooky Town Tapes label, records bands at Peter's World Studio, and is a member of Great Valley. This album - his first solo LP - collects the previously issued Grapey Day cassette, and adds a matching suite of songs for your listening pleasure. Nichols' muse is a bizarre pop/outsider hybrid, recalling everyone from Tracey Trance to Big Star at various moments. The songs are sweet nuggets of form, transmuted by itchy fingers into something both more and less than pop-tongue-aktion. The arrangements can be nearly straight (as on the sweet Yo La Tengo-ism of 'A Trip'), slightly off ('Staying Home's evocation of Peabody-era Chilton) or sound like a boll weevil from the cast of Godspell covering Jad Fair ('Girls Don't Like Guys in Bands Anymore'). Swallowed whole, the album will make your throat feel a little odd, but not in a truly unpleasant way. Indeed, some doctors somewhere are almost certain to prescribe it as a tonic. So you might as well get ahead of the curve and slurp through it today." -Byron Coley, 2014; includes download code. Edition of 250.