Saturday, March 23, 2013

The Joey Sweeney - Barely and by Default tape (1995)

One of my best Ebay cassette discoveries in recent years.  Joey Sweeney is a Philly native, but unbeknownst to me at the time I picked this up, he had previously fronted the Barnabys, an early '90s indie aggregation I had some vague familiarity with.  At this point, I don't exactly recall what the Barnabys were all about, but the five inspired songs comprising Barely and By Default make it evident that Sweeney had heartily devoured the first couple of Pavement albums, and went back to the slacker buffet for more than just seconds.  Truth be told, our man mixes up the prevailing Malkmus vibe with a dash of Westerberg at times, though nothing heavy handed.  Default is credited to The Joey Sweeney, which has me questioning whether this was a solo endeavor or a full blown band.  Hmmm.  From what I've been able to glean online, after this tape he eventually billed himself as The Trouble With Sweeney, but presently his emphasis appears to be on editing and publishing Philebrity.com.  A compilation of his life's musical endeavors, Joey Sweeney Your Life is Calling: 1992-2012 is available on Bandcamp.  Something tells me I'm going to have to re-investigate the Barnabys... 

01. Tiny Ships
02. The Lever, Please
03. Flag Against Princess
04. Friday Evening, Friday Night
05. Agnes Irwin

Hear

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

please reup this one. Many thanks!