15 Second Record Review - Customer by Collection of Colonies of Bees

You might be familiar with Volcano Choir , one of the indie bands of the moment (download the single Island, IS here for free), which is a collaboration between Collections of Colonies of Bees and Justin Vernon of Bon Iver .  Collections of Colonies of Bees was formed in 1988 to combine traditional folk/bluegrass rock with electronic soundscapes. They eventually signed with Polyvinyl where they debuted this album, Customer, which was included in my Box o' Swag .  This album sounds a lot more like Pomme Fritz era Orb than any Grandaddy album, which is what's suggested by their Bio. Nevertheless, it's an interesting album, and among the few from the Box o' Swag that I anticipate going back to.   B


Update: I almost forgot to add the very amusing track list from this album:
1. Fun
2. Fun
3. Fun
4. Fun
5. Fun
6. Fun
7. Fun
8. Funeral

PolyVinyl box o'fun

Back in June, I got an e-mail from PolyVinyl Records to say "Help!" They were in danger of losing some warehouse space, and 10,000 CDs were in jeopardy of being destroyed. So, they set up a little KickStarter site, hoping to raise $1,000 and give away as much product as possible. They had different donation points, from $5 for a Mates of State DVD to $50 for 26 CDs and 2 DVDs from various artists. Needless to say, I went for the $50 option. So did a lot of people, evidently, as the cause raised over $13,000. I guess my mailing address got lost in the shuffle as my package of swag didn't arrive until mid September (here's a picture).

Having lived in Poly-Vinyl's hometown (Champaign-Urbana) for 8 years, I've become pretty familiar with their artists as they played relatively regularly around town. So, much of what's in the box is stuff I've been at least casually exposed to. Nevertheless, much is stuff I don't already own, and none is anything I've previously reviewed, so stay tuned for several 15-second record reviews to come!