Hooray for Wednesday

Oh man, how did I miss the boat on The Minders? With their insanely Beatleseque melodies and tight connections to Apples In Stereo and Elliott Smith and membership in the Elephant 6 diaspora, this should’ve been dead obvious years ago. Better late than never, I guess.

It was a long day at work, so here’s a brief bio from Allmusic (aka, the lazy woman’s blog post filler):

Yet another branch of the Elephant 6 collective's family tree, the Minders were led by singer/songwriter Martyn Leaper, a British expatriate living in Denver, CO. There he befriended Apples in Stereo frontman Robert Schneider, who agreed to release the Minders' debut EP Come On and Hear!! on Elephant 6 in the spring of 1996 . . . The Minders' first full-length effort, Hooray for Tuesday, appeared a year later; soon after the band splintered as Leaper and Cole relocated to Portland, OR, where they assembled a new line-up also featuring lead guitarist Adam Goldman, bassist Bryce Edwards and keyboardist Rachel Blumberg. The Minders' early singles were compiled in 1999 on Cul-de-Sacs & Dead Ends. The Down In Fall EP followed a year later. A third studio effort, Golden Street, emerged in spring 2001.

The only things I would add are this:

1. I don’t think they’ve broken up. Therefore Allmusic’s past tense is confusing.
2. Joanna Bolme—former Elliott Smith girlfriend, coproducer of In The Basement On The Hill and Jicks member (not necessarily in that order)—briefly joined as bassist for The Minders after they relocated to Portland.
3. Hooray for Tuesday, produced by Robert Schneider, is an album you should own. It sounds similar to, but better than, any single AIS album. The title tune—probably the most “famous” Minders song—is the best fake Sgt. Pepper 's track you’ll ever hear. Seriously perfect.

From Hooray For Tuesday:

Hooray For Tuesday (mp3)

Frida (mp3)

From Future Is Always Perfect EP:

Here Goes Nothing (mp3)

Elliott Smith's cover:

Hooray For Tuesday (mp3)

And from Minders/AIS satellite, Dressy Bessy

Side 2 (mp3)