Lilys announces vinyl reissue of A Brief History of Amazing Letdowns via Frontier Records, shares previously unreleased track
Vinyl pre-order launches today at 11am EST, digital release out Feb. 12
STREAM: “G. Cobalt Franklin” –
YouTube
Today LILYS continues its ongoing reissue campaign with the announcement of an expanded vinyl and digital reissue of their 1994 mini album, A Brief History of Amazing Letdowns which will be available for pre-order today at 11am EST via the Frontier Records Bandcamp. It will be avail. digitally on Feb. 12. This record has been out of print for 25 years and has been going for up to $275 regularly on Discogs, it’s also an essential piece of the LILYS story since it includes the band’s biggest hit, “Ginger.”
This expanded version of the 2nd mini album from LILYS, A Brief History of Amazing Letdowns, includes remastered songs from demos recorded in the Spring of 1994; “Elsa,” “Timber,”
“Hymn,” “Coby” and the previously unreleased track, “G Cobalt Franklin.”
“(The) first five tracks make for one of the finest song arcs about relationships and friendships
one could find in the 1990s.” -All Music
“A Brief History of Amazing Letdowns ditches MBV as a reference point; the band has rediscovered
pleasant, straightforward guitar pop. “Any Place I’ve Lived” is the best melody Heasley’s written to
date; “Jenny, Andrew, and Me” (a Tsunami reference?) has a clever strummed solo over knotty
chords.” -Douglas Wolk, Trouser Press
The opening guitar riff and drums of “Ginger” became widely recognized in the mid-nineties
through use in the notorious CK1 Commercial, as part of Calvin Klein’s Unisex Fragrance Ad
Campaign playing constantly during American Late Night Television. Also used in the
Cadillac 2007 Summer Event Campaign, “Ginger” has been touted as the first Indie rock song
ever used in Corporate Advertising. The song “Any Place I’ve Lived” is heard during the closing credits of the 2006 film, Keeping Up With the Steins.
These recordings, made in Philadelphia between 1993-4, present what Kurt Heasley, LILYS
frontman, founder, and sole constant member, terms as “a maximum listen, that properly
represents the transitional phase” between the 1992 Slumberland LILYS debut In the Presence of Nothing and 1995’s Eccsame the Photon Band (reissued by Frontier Records in 2015). This 2021 version of A Brief History of Amazing Letdowns (also reissued with Frontier) has the previously unreleased track, “G. Cobalt Franklin” which replaces the track “Glosseder” on the original 1994 10 inch (the song will be avail. on the digital version). The songs “Elsa,” “Coby,” “Timber” and “Hymn” recorded in 1994 during the demoing process for Eccsame The Photon Band, were shelved, then released in 2000 as the Lilys/ Aspera Ad Astra Split EP.
Press photo by Noah Greenberg
LILYS
A Brief History of Amazing Letdowns
(Frontier)
Release Date: Feb. 12, 2021
[click here to pre-order on opaque pink vinyl]
Track Listing:
1. Ginger
2. YCJCYAQFTJ
3. Any Place I’ve Lived
4. Jenny, Andrew and Me
5. Dandy
6. G. Cobalt Franklin (previously unreleased)
7. Elsa
8. Coby
9. Timber
10. Hymn
11. Glosseder (digital only)