[I have been very busy lately with work and family. Free time has been at a premium. To those who have commented and written, thanks for the encouragement!]
For whatever reason, there is a disproportionate amount of music released in 1992 that has always dominated my turntable/CD player/computer/iPod playlists. Among my very favorites from that year, and from all time, is Pell Mell's third LP Flow. This is gorgeous instrumental guitar rock music with just the right combination of noise and melody and quite a distinctive style. It certainly borrows elements from surf music and krautrock, but from my perspective this mostly sounds like... well, it sounds like Pell Mell.
All you middle-aged heads like me remember the major label feeding frenzy of the early 90s. For Pell Mell, it was kismet. Microsoft used a snippet of one of their songs (I think it was "Flood" but I am not sure, and the interwebs fail me on this search). Pell Mell's former manager was working as an A&R rep for DGC. I suppose that was as much "buzz" as one could have ever foreseen about for an anonymous, scattered,nomadic instrumental band which rarely played live and almost never toured. The result was Interstate, another gorgeous record which picked up where Flow left off.
Interstate was not gorgeous enough in the sales column, apparently. Pell Mell recorded another record for DGC but they got downsized instead. The resultant album - Star City - wound up on Matador.
A few years later I had a pleasant surprise watching the second episode of HBO's excellent Six Feet Under. Fans of that program should instantly recognize the first song on Interstate.
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