OTR: Bankhead - Carnal Garage

[illusionofjoy]

And now a complete non-sequitur: the first track from Bankhead's album Carnal Garage, "Mildred Pierced" seems to have no relation to the Sonic Youth song "Mildred Pierce" from Goo. Apparently "Mildred Pierce" is also the name of a depression-era novel, which has nothing to do with the Sonic Youth song or Bankhead's "Mildred Pierced."

I'm listening to this CD for the first time since I reviewed it for WAIH years ago, and I honestly don't know how it got into my collection. I suspect that the promotional company sent one copy for the station and then several additional promos to give away (which usually meant that DJs would snatch them up for themselves). On occasion, we would get so many copies of a CD in that they would gain self-awareness for a time and literally walk into the dorm rooms of the staff members of the radio station. This is my theory as to how I came into possession of this particular album.

It isn't terrible, but it isn't wonderful either. It's just kind of...there. The aforementioned "Mildred Pierced" starts with an interesting concept, but kind of implodes on itself as the plot becomes more ridiculous. A navel-ring turns a girl into a stripper, which eventually leads her to pull an act of self-mutilation a la Oedipus? Yeah, sure - whatever. "Remember" has a nice hook, but is pretty much forgotten after its four and a half minutes are up. Everything else just goes by without much to make one lift their head and take notice.

If their online legacy is any indicator - that is to say that it is well nigh non-existent - Bankhead had their college radio promotional run and then promptly fell off the face of the Earth. There's a CD Baby page which doesn't seem to have been touched in ages and they had an official website which, hours ago was showing signs of severe neglect but now the existence of which is thoroughly denied by Google.

So, here we have a band who tried, failed and are pretty much the rule, rather than the exception when it comes to the music business. Sad but true: the back offices of college radio stations across the nation are littered with stacks of CDs that no one will ever give a shit about.