Load

Hello again! It's good to be back. Thanks to those who left comments of support for the blog. I hope you like the new posts. To get us started back again, I am posting this cassette classic from my high school years. I grew up in the middle of nowhere in the pre-internet era, so for many years my only points of access into interesting music were when distant friends would send me mixtapes or zines. This cassette was the odd exception. It was given to me by, of all people, my grandmother, who worked in the dean's office at a private boys school in Washington DC. On rare occasions she would discover that some of the "boys" at her school had bands and introduce me to their music. Thus was I exposed to Load. (Several years later I would be similar introduced to Jonathan Fire*Eater in this way.)



Load released just this one cassette, the first song of which also appears on a split 7" that I will probably post soon. Both were put out on Level Records, which was run by Load's singer Damian. He and I actually corresponded (by letter!) after I got this tape and he sent me one other demo that I may also post at some point. This tape became a major part of the soundtrack for my junior and senior years of high school, and I still can't hear it clearly for all the associated nostalgia.

The funny thing is, just recently when I was thinking about putting this on the blog, I tried doing some research into the band. As you can see, the liner notes only list first names and, as noted, the band predated the web, so it's difficult to track down much information. But based on my searching I am now fairly certain that the singer is actually Damian Kulash, now the front man for OK Go, they of the manic viral youtube videos. It looks like a couple other members of Load were also part of the band early on. Crazy!

Anyway, Mr. Kulash et al are probably embarrassed by this music now, and admittedly it is a bit over-dramatic in places, but I still like it. Hope you do too.




Load, Load EP, 1993
Level, no. 1.5

A1. The Strike (4:13)
A2. Dive (4:11)
B1. All (3:56)
B2. Mirror (3:15)
B3. Cupid's Shotgun (4:05)

Get it here. Enjoy!