Remastered. Limited edition of 500 black vinyl LP with download including 12 bonus tracks selected by the artists. Second album originally released 1997. First time on vinyl. Liner notes by Dave Heaton.
Last month a critic disparagingly called one of my favorite bands “a mix-CD band”, best heard in small doses. Holiday Flyer calls up a similar phrase for me -- mixtape band -- but a different definition. Their earliest songs sound like whispered or withheld secrets, like love letters and written confessions that may or may not get sent. They emulate, in sentiment and style, the idea you can subtly convey disappointment or desire by throwing into a mix a song that declares, “wish we could still be friends today”. The way their songs carry the weight of unexpressed emotions beneath an affable surface weds form and content. It’s as if the songs themselves are smiling at us while crying inside. They ask questions that might be rhetorical: “Can We Overcome This?”, “Can I Steal Your Heart Away?”, “When Will I Ever Learn?”
The communal angle of mixtapes applies too to the various-artists compilations of the era, which often felt like mixtapes. I first heard a Holiday Flyer song on one called Pop American Style, a survey of American indie-pop in 1996. That song, “Every Once in a While”, stood out for its humble earnestness, somewhere between Galaxie 500 and confessional singer-songwriters. It too asks a question: “Why won’t you send me a letter today?”
These earliest songs set the template for the style of music Holiday Flyer would play for their 1993-2002 existence; the tunes foreshadow the power-pop strength they’d build onto their songs. They have the dual vocals, the copacetic melodies, the feeling that a heart is being unburdened. And they anticipate the dynamic future, the mini-empire of related bands Holiday Flyer would spawn: Beanpole, California Oranges, The Sinking Ships, Desario, and Soft Science.
Try Not to Worry and The Rainbow Confection begin Holiday Flyer’s iconic (to us fans, at least) sound, but also remind us of the diverse musical touchpoints buried within. Listen through these albums and the treasure trove of related songs and try to pin their music down to one equation. You’ll keep stumbling across new variables; small ones awaiting discovery.
Here are songs that exist as worldwide hits within the alternate universe inside my brain, where people bop around the supermarket singing to themselves, “used to be sad / now I’m just lonely.” Actually that universe exists. Its inhabitants are just scattered across the globe, harboring their own wishes and secrets, humming them into the songs they adore.
— Dave Heaton, Erasing Clouds
1. Three Times Might Be Nice
4. Can I Steal Your Heart Away
9. Things That Made You Blue
11. Better There Than Here
12. Take Me Away
Download only LP bonus tracks:
13. Walking Through Walls (
Sweet and Sour CD single, Darla, 1996)
14. Just Be Happy for Me (
Sweet and Sour CD single, Darla, 1996)
15. Seen but not Heard (Various - Little Darla Has a Treat for You, Vol. 4, Summer '96 CD)
16. I'm Here, You're Gone (Various - Going Against Maz's Advice, CD, Four Letter Words, 1994)
17. Should Have Told You Then
(Various - Going Against Maz's Advice, CD, Four Letter Words, 1994)
18. Why Don't We Take it Slow
(Various - Going Against Maz's Advice, CD, Four Letter Words, 1994)
19. Sweet and Sour (Sweet and Sour CD single, Darla, 1996)
20. Don't Go Back Again
(Sweet and Sour CD single, Darla, 1996)
21. Answer
(Sweet and Sour CD single, Darla, 1996)
22. It's Getting Late (Various - A Tribute to Galaxie 500, 7", Elefant, 1996)
23. When Will I Ever Learn (Alternate Version) (Various - Little Darla Has a Treat for You, Vol.11, Winter '99, CD)
24. A Few Pages Back (Various - Little Darla Has a Taste for You Vol.1, 7", 1999)
