Sixty Stories/Painted Thin – Different Places To Sit/A Loveless Kiss
(Smallman)

While this record is in fact a split between two bands, it is a little different from the typical label cross-breeding that has been plaguing the punk/indie/HC scene as of late. For starters, one of the bands on this cd is no longer active. Painted Thin were a pretty well known Canadian “art-punk” band from Winnipeg, who influenced a lot of people and a lot of bands during the years they were together. Their portion of this album, entitled A Loveless Kiss, features 5 previously unreleased songs that were recorded by a friend in his home studio while they were on tour in Germany in 1997.

I haven’t heard anything previously from Painted Thin, but these songs are great. The music is raw, yet melodic. It reminds me a little of Braid or maybe Small Brown Bike, but there is also more than a passing resemblance to fellow Winnipegers Propagandhi, partially due to the political nature of some of the songs.

The other half of the split is even better. It features 7 songs from ex-Painted Thin bassist Paul Furgale and a new band called Sixty Stories. Fugale plays the drums in this band, and instead of singing lead vocals, he now sings backup. Oh, and maybe I should mention, the other two members of Sixty Stories are females. Does that matter? Hmm… I don’t know, does it?

Sixty Stories are poppier and clearly less angry than Painted Thin. If Painted Thin can be compared to Propagandhi, then Sixty Stories could more accurately be compared to The Weakerthans. But don’t let that mislead you — there isn’t a single mellow folk song on this cd. Sixty Stories is an exercise in personal, heartfelt songwriting that still rocks when it needs to. There is also some additional instrumentation in the way of keyboards, triangles, and computer beeps, but the subdued vocal melodies are the thing that will really hook you in. Fans of The Get Up Kids would probably also enjoy this band, although Sixty Stories seem a lot more genuine and generally less repetitive than TGUK.

Hands down, the best song on the album is also the most energetic: the ironically named Silence Song. If everything they wrote sounded like this, the cd would be on permanent repeat in my home. As it is, the album is still a great listen, but there is also room for this band to improve significantly on future releases, and I’m looking forward to hearing what else they might happen to have up their sleeves. — Sean