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One of the larger projects that Omnivore Recordings has undertaken in recent years is the Game Theory catalog. The alternative rock band (there are other labels that might apply, but the group\u2019s work is eclectic enough that none fits perfectly) led by Scott Miller released five albums and a pair of EPs during its time together, a period that nearly spanned the entirety of the \u201880s. And the group\u2019s work ranks among the most notable of that period.<\/p>\n
Omnivore has reissued all of those albums (the EPs Pointed Accounts of People You Know<\/i> and Distortion<\/i> were compiled as Dead Center<\/i>), and friends and associates of Miller (who died in 2013) completed an unfinished project, released in 2017 as Supercal<\/i>i<\/i>fragile<\/i>. That would have seemed to be the end of the story, but Miller was prodigious in his output: his other band, The Loud Family, released nearly as much material during its time together.<\/p>\n
As they say in advertising pitches, but wait: there\u2019s more<\/i>. Game Theory went through a number of lineups, with Miller as the sole constant. Aside from devotees of the band who worship every note that Game Theory ever recorded or played, many fans have a particular favorite era. (Mine happens to be the lineup that made The Big Shot Chronicles<\/em> in 1985.) By the tail-end of the \u201880s, the group included only Miller and Gil Ray from that lineup, and Ray had switched from drums to keys and guitar. So essentially, that final Game Theory was a wholly different group. And that lineup \u2013 also featuring bassist Michael Quercio of The Three O\u2019Clock and drummer Jozef Becker \u2013 never released an album.<\/p>\n Alas, they did record a fair amount of new material. And now Omnivore has compiled those tracks \u2013 fourteen songs, variously taking the form of home demos, remixes and a live tune \u2013 releasing them as Across the Barrier of Sound: Postscript<\/i>. In fact the CD version of the release appends an additional ten cuts \u2013 more demos, more live material \u2013 packing the disc to its limit.<\/p>\n The songs included on this new compilation say a lot about Scott Miller\u2019s (and his band mates\u2019) interests and influences. From a spare vocal and electric guitar reading of the Beatles\u2019 \u201cAll My Loving\u201d to a cover of the Nazz underground classic \u201cForget All About It\u201d to an Eno cover (\u201cNeedle in the Camel\u2019s Eye\u201d) to a live recording of the full band playing the Monkees\u2019 deep album cut \u201cThe Door Into Summer\u201d to Big Star\u2019s \u201cBack of a Car,\u201d the album highlights the eclecticism that was a hallmark of Game Theory. In fact, the covers are easily the best things about the set.<\/p>\n The ragged demo quality of the performances is generally offset by the high recording quality, but Across the Barrier of Sound<\/i> is most definitely not the place to begin a deep dive into the Game Theory catalog. Instead, it should probably be among the last thing one purchases from among Omnivore\u2019s reboot of the band\u2019s offerings. But that\u2019s not to say that it\u2019s inferior. If you\u2019ve bought any of the label\u2019s previous Game Theory sets and derived enjoyment from the second half (or in some cases, the second disc) of those sets, you\u2019ll find these tracks equally illuminating and enjoyable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" One of the larger projects that Omnivore Recordings has undertaken in recent years is the Game Theory catalog. The alternative rock band (there are other labels that might apply, but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18780,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,49,62],"tags":[875,1622],"class_list":["post-18779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-compilation","category-new-release","category-rawk","tag-game-theory","tag-omnivore-recordings","cat-19-id","cat-49-id","cat-62-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18779"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18779\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18908,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18779\/revisions\/18908"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}