Jade Tree: First Five Years
Various Artists
Jade Tree
This collects all the singles from the Jade Tree’s first five years of existence save for the Swiz “With Dave” seven-inch, which you can find on the Swiz discography. It’s an interesting double CD time capsule showcasing a clear and steady path to becoming what the label is nowadays. Jade Tree’s tastes have always been along the same general lines, straddling the nebulous area where indie rock, punk, hardcore, and emo cross paths. For example, the fascinating odd pop stylings of Eggs share a split seven-inch with the dense, noisy indie purveyors Pitchblende, while Walleye’s yearning emo gets paired up with the chugged hardcore dirge of Damnation A.D. The label has evolved in tandem with the various genres, the obvious operating theme seeming to be that they have good taste.
There are some newfound treasures among the dust as well as some old favorites. I most likely never would have heard Jones Very’s “Ideas New Tomorrow,” the Pitchblende stuff, or most of the material on disc one without this, so kudos to Jade Tree for keeping these things from completely falling through the cracks of time. It’s nice to have the Edsel, Walleye, Leslie, and Universal Order of Armeggedon seven inches on CD format as well.
It’s been way too long since I’ve heard some of these songs. It’s time to go digging through the boxes and find some other old friends again.
Jade Tree, 2310 Kennwynn Rd., Wilmington, DE 19810; http://www.jadetree.com
