Centro-matic - Fort Recovery

I often wish I liked Cento-matic more than I actually do. Will Johnson has an incredible voice and the songs are lovely and interesting. In fact, trying to put my finger on what makes me not like them as much as I should is turning out to be very difficult. On paper, I should adore this band, but instead I just casually and occasionally enjoy them. I just feel that maybe I'm missing something; lot's of people love Centro-matic but I can't quite get there. Maybe it'll come in time.

A series of excellent events ended in me buying a couple of Centro-matic albums (which is how all my favourite "how I got into this band" stories start). It goes back as far as August 2003 when I accidentally discovered one of my all-time favourite bands, The Paper Chase, but really starts 15 months later when I bought the split 7" they did with Will Johnson. I'd never heard of him at this point, but enjoyed his simple guitar-and-harmonica, 6-minute version of I Did a Terrible Thing greatly, so did some research. For a couple of years I thought little more about the name Centro-matic until, in the depths of exam-season of my final year of university, I found a copy of their 2003 album, Love You Just the Same, in the Oxfam Books and Records shop in Lancaster. I can't begin to explain quite how unexpected this was - the Oxfam in Lancaster had yielded very little indeed of any worth over the three years I lived there and yet on this day it had an album by a band I'd meaning to listen to for years for only £4. Centro-matic albums aren't exactly easy to come across at the best of times, so to find one like that in Lancaster (of all places) was quite a shock.

I enjoyed the album and picked up this copy of Fort Recovery on double vinyl in Colorado whilst visiting a friend (and later a promo-copy of Dual Hawks, a split album with Will's other band South San Gabriel). I neglected the album slightly upon getting home having bought far too many record whilst away, and I've never quite got into it as much as I'd have liked. Listening to it now, I'm certainly enjoying it, but still not as much as I feel I ought to.

Format: Double 12"
Tracks: 15
Cost: £8.13 new
Bought: Bart's CD Cellar, Boulder
When: 18/04/08
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no

The Paper Chase + Will Johnson - Split

This is a record I picked up about a year after I first heard The Paper Chase (a story you can read all about here). I was putting in a large order with Interpunk (the more you buy, the cheaper the postage!) and saw this one on there. "Punk" wouldn't be the first genre I'd put either artist into, but it's a flexible term, not to mention I think Interpunk works a bit like an uber-distro. Anyway, I was keen to hear more by The Paper Chase, so added it to the basket.

A split in what I consider to be the classic sense, both cover a song by the other. I'd never heard of Will Johnson at the time, nor heard The Riot Jack, but enjoyed it anyway. It was certainly less dark than what I'd come to expect from John Congleton and co, and more sparse, relying mostly on a drum beat, strings and John's strained vocals. A good listen, and not just collection-fodder.

On the b-side however, was a song I knew - I Did a Terrible Thing - the opener to The Paper Chase's second album Hide the Kitchen Knives. Will's take on this is to make it into a lovely, lengthy, almost country song. With a harmonica taking over from the strings on the album version, you hardly even notice the rather twisted theme of the lyrics. This turned out to be the highlight of the record for me. After hearing it, I did some research, picked up a couple of Centro-Matic's albums, and became a fan. In November I finally get to see him live, which I'm looking forward to greatly (in The Union Chapel, no less - one of my favourite venues). Some time ago, he was due to play with Jason Molina in my teenage-haunt The Railway, but the show got cancelled and Jason Molina sadly disappeared into rehab for a few years.

Anyway, it just dawned on me that after all these years, I've still not heard the original of The Riot Jack. I tried to find it at the time, but the internet was a very different place in 2004. However, modern technology prevails and in another tab I have open Centro-Matic's soundcloud page with Will's 2002 original. It's almost strange hearing it after so many years of only knowing The Paper Chase's version. Listening to it now, it's similarly sparse, but haunting and sweet, and completely different to The Paper Chase's take on it.

So, all in all, a great record both musically, and for where it led me.


Format: 7",
Tracks: 2
Cost: £5.56 new
Bought: Interpunk
When: 06/11/04
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no