Cheer-Accident – Trading Balloons / Salad Days (2017)  

Review:
While still in high school, pianist Thymme Jones was browsing the racks at a Hallmark greeting card store when he noticed a category of greeting cards labeled Cheer-Accident. Since then, six lineups have passed through Jones’ band Cheer-Accident, and it has endured the loss of one of its members. The group, which plays pop songs with off-kilter chord progressions, has released numerous albums and a handful of singles for labels such as Complacency, Pravda, Skin Graft, and Cuneiform. In anticipation of the band’s performance at the 10th Anniversary of the reanimated RIO (Rock In Opposition) Festival, Skin Graft is releasing newly remastered special editions of two of the band’s greatest albums: Salad Days and Trading Balloons. Both albums extensively remastered by Todd Rittmann of U.S. Maple and Dead Rider and redesigned by Skin Graft Records’ Mark Fischer. “Salad Days” recorded by Steve Albini and pressed on vinyl for the first time ever. Record includes randomly mixed Colored Vinyl LP and collectible wrap-around Obi. “Trading Balloons” receives its first ever commercial release! Guests on “Trading Balloons” include Bobby Conn and Darin Gray of Dazzling Killmen and Brise-Glace.
On “Salad Days”, New York’s Downtown Music Gallery writes:
“Salad Days” is a feel good masterpiece of expansive, hypnotic math rock and so much more from the 1997-1999 period of Cheer-Accident. The orchestration is incredible, with extended lush passages fading in and out of proggy grooves and heavenly weirdo sing-a-longs. To me it’s like a math rock version of Hatfield and the North. It’s really that amazing. There’s no question it’s a classic of avant-rock, demanding the attention of a wider audience.”
On “Trading Balloons”:
Recorded just prior to “Salad Days”, and originally self-released by the band in a very limited edition, the 52 minute song “Trading Balloons” anticipated the direction the band would take in years to come – exploring a dizzying blend of musical styles: from Zeppelin-esque bombast to folk-tinged Americana to Stravinsky-flavored progressive rock to cinematic melodrama and beyond. — bandcamp



Track List:
Disc 1:
01 Graphic Depression
02 Insomnia
03 Graphic Depression
04 Post-Premature
05 Salad Days


Disc 2:
01 Trading Balloons


Media Report:
Genre: prog-rock
Country: Chicago, Illinois
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits
Compression mode: Lossless
Writing library: libFLAC 1.2.1 (UTC 2007-09-17)


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