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Jon Ehrens Lets Loose Two of His Many Bands on Cassette

February 3, 2012
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Last year, I wrote a City Paper feature on the band White Life as well as a lengthy companion piece here on Noise about frontman Jon Ehrens’ countless other bands, many of which have never properly released a record. But Ehse Records, the same illustrious Baltimore label that released White Life’s debut album, is about to issue cassettes by two of those bands, Repelican and Sword Swallow, as part of its Suspicious Stimulus tape series, with a release party tomorrow at Str8 Cavin’.

Sword Swallow’s self-titled cassette was painstakingly assembled by Ehrens a few years ago as an experiment in collage, pulling together various demos and ideas into a deliberately patchwork whole–seriously, one of the tape’s best songs is called “A Veritable Hodgepodge.” The other tape, 21st Century Disasters: Random Repelican, is a career-spanning compilation of a couple dozen songs from Ehrens’s most prolific project, including tracks from each of Repelican’s three previous self-released albums as well as songs that have at times been credited to other bands like the Anywhere and the Failed Ygriega. Check out “Badmood Baboon,” which originally appeared on Repelican’s 2005 album Anyone? Anyone?, and the Sword Swallow tape’s opening track, “The Terrifying Prospect,” below:

“Badmood Baboon,” Repelican by EverydayElk

“Terrifying Prospect,” the Sword Swallow by EverydayElk

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