Radial Spangle is an awful name for a band, why anyone would choose it I really don’t know. Closely linked to Mercury Rev (before Fridmann left ad they went rubbish), Radial Spangle started out with a Flaming Lips ex-drummer, and were produced by the aforementioned Frimann. Unfortunately this all happened before either band carried enough clout to make much of a difference to the success of Radial Spangle.
There’s a Wikipedia page if you want to read it – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radial_Spangle
More importantly though, the band produced two albums, Ice Cream Headache, and Syrup Macrame. Ice Cream Headache is fine, but Syrup Macrame is a really lovely album, which I suppose you could compare with the first Sparklehorse album in some ways. If you take the genes of early ’90s Mercury Rev and Flaming Lips, you can probably work out what it sounds like, actually.
It’s a real shame that these guys didn’t manage to attract more ears though, as they wrote some really lovely songs, and Syrup Macrame is an album that I still listen to a couple of times a year I guess, which isn’t bad 15 years after buying it. You can find it at Amazon, or most likely in bargain buckets in what record shops remain.
I can’t find any live footage of them, and only one of the songs has a video, but have a peep on You Tube. Please do listen, it really is worth it, and as always, I think it really is an album that most people could find some enjoyment in – it deserved better than it got.
Categories: Music
No More Workhorse 
Just looking and they have a few ep’s from around the same era, that must be fun too. Might be a struggle to get them though, even with the interweb and all that jazz.
You ever hear of the charm pops? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Charm_Pops
or even the Feel Spectres? Another god awful name. Why do they keep doing it to themslves?
absolute magic. i adored this band. marble is perfect. my radial spangle tape vanished at some point… ah the days of lost tapes. perhaps the Luddites were on to something. maybe we should destroy the interweb, mp3 players and CDs and go back to grainy tapes of radial spangle…
i wonder will it ever be cool to listen to tapes the way its cool to listen to vinyl?
They interweb is over. Prince said so.
http://www.andymiah.net/2010/07/06/%E2%80%98the-internet-is-over%E2%80%99-prince-the-music-formerly-found-at-the-internet/