indian summer were a punk/post-hardcore/reel skramz dude! band (depending on who you ask) from the mid-90s. "hidden arithmetic" is a collection of live recordings from their fairly brief existence released in 2006.the first 5 songs were recorded from a show they did at pitzer college in california circa 1993, which you can watch on youtube if you're interested. this show hadn't seen the light of day before this release. the second 7 songs were recorded from a radio session they did on KZSU and were previously released as the "live in the blue universe" LP.
the songs are pretty badly recorded, especially the pitzer college show and a lot of the lyrics are different but i prefer this release to their discography cd. the band that you hear on this album, for me, couldn't really be recaptured in a studio. everyone that's ever written about this band will always go on about the sheer energy and knife-edge emotion they play with but that's because it's what stands out so much more than anything else. strip it away and all you have are some guys with badly tuned instruments screaming disjointedly about anti-depressants and people's trains that may or may not be leaving but with it you have something really special.
this will stand out most on tracks 5 and 13, which are both recordings of, arguably, their best loved song woolworm/angry son (depending who you ask) which is an intense seven minute number full of shifts from soft twinkly guitar parts and brooding spoken lyrics to a cacophonous distorted chorus with a frantic yelped refrain that's hard not be be a little awed by. the pitzer college version descends into complete intelligibility, like the band were focusing on how much they could unnerve/move their audience more than hitting the right notes. the version at the end of the record pushes 17 minutes, with countless extra improvised verses, guitar parts and lyrics and sounds like a band that want to bare everything they possibly could with one song before never playing together again, which for all i know could've been the case.
listen
a little while ago indian summer were selling re-pressings of their discography, if you're interested hit up: www.myspace.com/indiansummersongs
hearts and crap, me
I was listening to their discography and wishing theI could hear soem more songs by them, and just now I discover this. Incredible. Thanks for uploading.
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