Reseda Spleen [LP]

It's a bedroom record that doesn't feel like a bedroom record," says Bar/None Records founder Glenn Morrow of Reseda Spleen, Ventilator's long-lost 1996 album.After years in Permanent Green Light, Matt Devine realized he needed to move on. Devine threw himself headlong into his new musical chapter; with Earle Mankey serving as his sonic mentor, Todd Rundgren's 1972 classic Something/Anything serving as conceptual inspiration, and a used Tascam 388 - purchased from a stuntman on Mighty Morphin Power Rangers - setup in his North Hollywood apartment. Reseda Spleen should have rightly caught on with lovers of noisy, guitar-driven pop. Unfortunately, as with so many indie releases before and since, the album's existence went all but unnoticed, save for two rave reviews (from The Big Takeover and TapeOp) which appeared in print long after Reseda Spleen had vanished from the scene. "It's such a timeless album," says Rob Zabrecky [Possum Dixon]. "It doesn't have the horrible Polish that got slapped on so many bands back then, and Matt wasn't trying to make his guitar sound like Nirvana or go the lo-fi route like Pavement; he was so comfortable with who he was and what his vision was, none of that stuff affected him. It's just so joyous to have these songs come out again, because I think people need to hear them.