Friday, January 30, 2009

Ripe on Summershine

Ripe's 1989 debut, We're All Trying To Get There, has gone down in indiepop folklore not only for opening Summershine's account, but because just under 180 playable copies came back from the pressing plant.

We're All Trying To Get There has been reissued on a compilation, but its b-side, End, has lingered in obscurity for two decades. So here's your chance to download it.

Following this single, Ripe changed tack with the indie-dance of Sapce Suit 42 single (very good) and the Filterfeed album (don't play it that much but it has its moments). I lost interest after their single for Shock, The Most (there were only so many bands in the Swervedriver mould of shoegaze and grunge I could handle - that is, none) although subsequent work on Beggars and Sub Pop was popular with young folk for whom personal hygiene was a low priority.

Following a 10-year break, Ripe reformed in 2006, but their new material, while no great departure from where they'd left off, received mixed notices, possibly due to it sounding rather dated.

8 comments:

martijn said...

Thanks for posting this! We're All Trying To Get There is one of my favourite songs on that Summershine-compilation on Slumberland. I didn't know they did release anything after that single. Beggars? Sub Pop?

Fire Escape said...

Hi Martijn. Apart from the PolyEster and Shock releases I mention in the post, there was a second album on Beggars called The Plastic Hassle and there was at least one single on Sub Pop, but I wasn't taking too much notice by that time...

Anonymous said...

Prior to releasing this single, Ripe had a couple of tracks on a compilation called Sparrows, including a demo version of 'End'. I'd be happy to post these if you're interested.

Fire Escape said...

Thanks for the offer, Jim. I'd be very interested to hear those compilation tracks.

Anonymous said...

here you go:

http://rapidshare.com/files/209433343/ripe.rar.html

the tracks are 'oh dana' (a big star cover) and 'end (demo)'

enjoy!

Fire Escape said...

Jim - thanks so much. Unfortunately, I can't open rar files. Can anyone reading these comments open them. I can download the file, but I can't open it...

Anonymous said...

my apologies - try these

http://rapidshare.com/files/210998818/ripe_-_oh_dana.mp3.html
http://rapidshare.com/files/211001403/ripe_-_end_demo.mp3.html

Fire Escape said...

Thanks!