"mEMOries" Part 6 feat. Alex Miles (Is this Thing on?)

8 years ago, back on the old site, we did start a series called mEMOries. It was all about asking new Emo-bands or other scene affiliates about their all time favourite (Midwest-)Emo-record. It was about nostalgia. And it was about connecting the new with the old. I had big plans for this series, wanted to collect 20 parts and then release some sort of a sampler with an XL-booklet attached, that features all of the text pieces...

...after 7 parts the series was buried, when the end of borderline fuckup 1.0 was on the horizon. I'm still in love with the idea and tried my best to start a relaunch in 2021, but it mainly was a chore. However, I already have some new material waiting to be released. To start it off correctly I'll recycle the parts from the old site. Now, here's part 6 for your reading pleasure!

~

// The author // Alex Miles

Alex Miles from Kent in the UK was running a music blog called "Is this Thing on?", where he showed his dedication to Emo music more than one time. Prior to his writing activities he was part of various HC/Punk-bands. Here's what he wrote in 2014 about one of Great Britain's finest Emo-acts!

~

// The record // Spy versus Spy - Spy versus Spy (EP)

Release: 1998 // Label: Subjugation

~

Alex Miles on "s/t"-EP by Spy versus Spy

In 1998 things were changing. The band I was in (Babies Three) was moving away from the throw away pop punk that we’d been playing with mixed results for the past couple of years, we had a new drummer who hit really hard and new ideas influenced by the bands we were discovering at the time. As a band, our tastes in music ranged from lo-fi indie to full on metal but we were finding common ground with what was happening in the underground, d.i.y, punk and hardcore scene back then. We were all big fans of Fugazi but there were bands we were finding out about through friends, zine’s and other bands that were passing through where we were from (Margate, England) that were taking on the intensity of hardcore bands and mixing in quieter bits and a lot of melody and hooks. Pretty soon we found that we had a cohesive direction that we wanted our band to go in and then all of a sudden we were finding more and more like minded people, bands taking a similar route and a scene in the UK that was really starting to blossom.

We were lucky enough to play and tour with some really great bands around this time but there was one UK band that had a profound effect on me. Although, a lot of the music I was listening to at this time was American. It had been this way for years; I had shunned Britpop in favour of grunge and found it harder to connect to bands from my own country. But in 1998, Spy Versus Spy released their legendary debut EP and it changed all this. This band was standing shoulder to shoulder with any other band I was in love with, they had everything, the intensity, the ability to switch from loud to quiet and the songs would stick long in your memory after just a couple of listens. But they had more, there were different time signatures, some of the chords they used sounded like jazz and they made excellent use of dual vocalists who sang in English accents (which was refreshing back then). They were also one of the first bands I remember using a lot of screamed vocals over quieter music, all these factors really set Spy Versus Spy apart and completely blew me away.

It was so exciting at the time to know there was a band like this, as good as they were, in the same scene that we were a part of. It almost validated what we were doing. I knew very little about the band and still don’t really, Subjugation the label they were on didn’t really go in for a lot press and there was only limited info on my CD copy of the EP. I’m pretty sure we stayed over one or two of their houses after playing at an amazing show at the Star & Garter in Manchester but we were having too much of a laugh to really ask any questions. I only got to see them play live once but it was one of the best shows I have ever attended. They were quite high up on the bill at an all dayer at the Garage in London with Hot Water Music, Discount and others. They only played one song from the EP at that show but I didn’t mind, the new stuff that made up the brilliant full length, ‘Little Lights’, sounded incredible. They were so amazingly tight as a band that I just stood slack jawed in complete awe for their entire set. At that same show I bought ‘Clarity’ and ‘Nothing Feels Good’ on vinyl from a couple of distro’s, sadly days like that don’t come along that often.

Spy Versus Spy will always be legends in my eyes, that debut EP is up there with my favourite records of all time and will always remind of one of the most exciting times of my life.

~

"mEMOries" Part 1 feat. Mosey Jones
"mEMOries" Part 2 feat. Daniel Becker (Time as a Color Records, Amid the Old Wounds)
"mEMOries" Part 3 feat. Former States 
"mEMOries" Part 4 feat. Edie Quinn (Middle-Man Records, Coma Regalia)
"mEMOries" Part 5 feat. Human Hands