Sunday Morning Flashback: Arson Garden

• filed under Music

Arson Garden was a five piece out of Bloomington, Indiana, anchored by singer April Combs and her brother James.  They made three albums from 1990 to 1994.  The ectophiles guide describes their music as “beautiful and fierce art rock” which captures their sound well — edgier than the 10,000 Maniacs, more consistently melodic than the Throwing Muses.

I discovered the band as a grad student at Duke, in a record store that no longer exists.  I was lucky enough to see the band play in New York City at the CMJ Music Marathon that I covered as a student journalist in 1991.  This is how we found new music back in the days before the Internet; at little independent record stores in college towns, attracted by word of mouth or because an album cover seemed interesting.

Today I found a wonderful site that features all of Arson Garden’s recordings and a few live shows to boot. This is how we find music today.  It’s not clear to me which is preferable, but don’t let that stop you.  Under Towers is my favorite.

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Two Sisters

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Not Long Before

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