CODEINE - Barely Real LP (Vinyl, 1992 , Sub Pop, Germany, Slowcore, RARE)

	£		18
	$		24

Music to slit your your wrists to!! 'Barely Real' Mini LP/ Maxi EP from Codeine on Sub Pop from 1992. In the vein of Galaxie 500 & Red House Painters. Buy this for Christmas to get the party started!!!

FORMAT: Vinyl LP, 33rpm
RECORD LABEL: Sub Pop
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Germany
RELEASE DATE: 1992
CATALOGUE NO: SP 51/213 LC 8323

(NOTE: I am now play-grading all my vinyl. I can't promise to play everything all the way through, but will be checking for any curving or warping and/or excessive surface noise - hiss, snap, crackles & pops. And if there are any dodgy looking areas with gouges, scratches, pit marks etc. I will double check that there is no skipping or sticking, and that playback is not adversely affected)

MEDIA: Excellent
OUTER SLEEVE: Excellent
(Plain Paper Inner)

POSTAGE: £3.00 UK. £4.00 EUROPE. £7.00 THE REST OF THE WORLD.

STORED OUT OF SUNLIGHT IN VERTICAL POSITION. FROM A PET, DAMP AND SMOKE FREE HOME.

ALL VINYL CAREFULLY CLEANED WITH ACC-SEES PRO VINYL LINT-FREE, ANTI-STATIC RECORD CLEANING CLOTH & GROOVESHINE RECORD CLEANING FLUID.

ANY QUESTIONS OR REQUESTS FOR MORE DETAILED PHOTOS ETC, PLEASE DO NOT HESITATE TO CONTACT ME.

I TRY & GRADE ALL SLEEVES AND VINYL AS FAIRLY & ACCURATELY AS POSSIBLE, BUT IF YOU FEEL I HAVE GRADED THIS RECORD INCORRECTLY, OR IF ANY OF THE ABOVE INFORMATION IS INCORRECT PLEASE TELL ME.

ALL VINYL WILL BE POSTED IN A GLASS CLEAR, VERY BEST QUALITY 450G PVC SLEEVE, IN A CARDBOARD RECORD MAILER, WITH CARDBOARD STIFFENERS, REMOVING ALL INNERS TO PREVENT SPLITTING TO THE SEAMS IN TRANSIT.

Tracklisting
A1         Realize        
A2         Jr
A3         Barely Real
   
B1         Hard To Find        
B2         W.       
B3         Promise Of Love
       
LP Review (courtesy of Allmusic.com)

by Ned Raggett

A six-song EP that appeared between the two albums proper, without sharing any songs with either, Barely Real essentially extends the same musical and lyrical spirit of Frigid Stars, with a couple of slight but intriguing changes woven in. Admittedly, that won't be apparent on the first song, "Realize," which fully confirms that Codeine's combination of deliberate pace and electric guitar playing both, along with softly sung rumination courtesy of Immerwahr, is pretty much its compositional mode rather than affectation. Those put off by earlier Codeine won't want to continue; those taken by its way of doing things will happily embrace it. From there Barely Real makes its careful way over about twenty-five minutes, with some guest performers popping up to leaven things. One Jon Fine adds "noisy guitar" to the mix on "Jr.," with a quick stuttering main riff to its credit, while David Grubbs contributes both piano and arrangement for "W." It's a highlight of Barely Real, essentially a Grubbs solo performance, but still sounding exactly like something Codeine would write. Other high points include the echo and burying in the mix of Immerwahr's voice on "Hard to Find" and the slightly surprising conclusion, a cover of MX-80 Sound's "Promise of Love" done in a bit of a late-night jazz club style with more typical Codeine interjections towards the end.

Band Profile (Courtesy of Allmusic.com)

by Stewart Mason

The early-'90s New York trio Codeine is one of the founders of the slowcore scene that includes groups like Bedhead, American Analog Set, and Low. Taking audible inspiration from the third Velvet Underground album and scene pioneers Galaxie 500, but adding a more aggressive tone and slowing the tempos down even further, Codeine sounded almost entirely unique at the time. However, their style was immediately adopted by a number of other new bands, some of which do the tense and glacial thing even better.

Codeine was formed in 1989 by bassist/singer Stephen Immerwahr, guitarist John Engle, and drummer Chris Brokaw. Their demo, a tortured version of the Pete Ham/Tom Evans classic "Without You" that stretches the four-minute song out to nine, got the band signed to Glitterhouse Records in Europe and Sub Pop in the U.S. the following year. Their debut album, Frigid Stars LP, was released by Glitterhouse in late 1990 and Sub Pop in the spring of 1991 to generally positive reviews.

A lengthy EP, Barely Real, came out in 1992. Although the record varies Codeine's sound a bit with piano by ex-Squirrel Bait member turned art-rocker David Grubbs (Codeine had toured Europe with Grubbs' instrumental group Bastro) and a noise guitar freak-out by Bitch Magnet leader Jon Fine, plus a cover of MX-80 Sound's "Promise of Love," Barely Real is basically a continuation of the style perfected on Frigid Stars LP.

Beginning in 1991, Brokaw was pulling double duty, playing drums in Codeine and guitar in Thalia Zedek's band Come. Brokaw finally left Codeine in late 1992 to devote his full energies to his other band. After an already planned U.S. tour went ahead with Brokaw's hastily selected temporary replacement, Antietam's Josh Madell, Engle and Immerwahr began auditioning for a permanent drummer who could match their agonizingly slow tempos. Douglas Scharin, a member of the Brooklyn chamber rock quartet Rex (who unlike Brokaw, managed to maintain his dual band memberships), was selected and the newly reconfigured trio spent a summer in Grubbs' hometown of Louisville, KY, tweaking old material for touring purposes and writing new songs.

A single produced by Grubbs, "Tom," was released in the fall of 1993, followed by the full-length The White Birch in April 1994. Slightly more melodic than the earlier albums, but just as languorously paced, The White Birch is probably the group's best record. After an extensive U.S. tour, the trio split amicably to work on other projects. Scharin returned to Rex, then later worked with the instrumental post-rock project H.I.M. and the harder-edged June of 44. Immerwahr started a new band, Raymond.