Years before bedroom recording became a feasible way to make an album, Matt Devine was trying to wring the most out of a 50-watt Marshall Plexi amp without getting evicted from his North Hollywood apartment. His three-pronged solution: a closet, a Tom Scholz Power Soak attenuator and presumably some understanding neighbors. The surprising results can be witnessed on “The Tailor’s Lament,” the first focus track from Bar/None’s upcoming reissue of Ventilator’s long-lost 1996 debut, Reseda Spleen.
“The guitar is a Les Paul Standard,” says Devine. “The solo was a nod to Clarence White—a lick of his from ‘Chestnut Mare.’ We’re big fans of the Byrds.”
Available October 9, the reissue gives Reseda Spleen fresh life after its original release was carried off on a gentle breeze. Devine recorded most of the album himself on a used Tascam 388, producing it with Earle Mankey (Runaways, Sparks, Beach Boys), who handled most of the mixing. Possum Dixon’s Byron Reynolds and Medicine’s Brad Laner also contributed.
“The Tailor’s Lament” was among the first songs Devine tracked for the project, and its chest-pounding power chords and defiant “I’ll hem that coat as I want to” chorus convey a sense of liberation. In 1994, Devine had left Permanent Green Light, the psychedelic power-pop trio he shared with Three O’Clock frontman Michael Quercio.
“I was 25 and happy to just stay home and work on my music,” says Devine. “It was the experience of discovering, ‘OK, what am I going to do now?’”
The answer was Reseda Spleen, its title a dual nod to trailblazing poet Charles Baudelaire’s Paris Spleen collection and Devine’s San Fernando Valley roots. Working at home gave him creative license to indulge an array of impulses, from the aforementioned Byrds-inspired licks to Stonesy country blues to noisy psych/pop to the novel textures coaxed from a 1950s Gibson parlor acoustic strung with electric-guitar strings.
Devine went on to play with the late-’90s iteration of Possum Dixon, and he eventually dabbled in a bit more music as Ventilator. Now, Reseda Spleen is a curiosity no more, with Bar/None giving it the full vinyl, digital and streaming treatment.
We’re proud to premiere Ventilator’s “The Tailor’s Lament.”
—Hobart Rowland
