Emo wasn't always a dirty word. Before the haircuts, the “whiny” minor key pop songs, and all those other things people seem to associate with emo today, there was something else. Something more based on the sounds of bands like Slint and Moss Icon.
Active from 1993 to 1994, no band really represented this sound quite like Indian Summer did. They pushed the loud/soft dynamic to its extremes and rarely stopped to rest anywhere in between. They successfully merged the post-hardcore sound with Sunny Day Real Estate style indie rock. “Angry Son/Woolworm” is a seven and a half minute mini-epic with a Bessie Smith record playing in the background, and clearly audible during the quiet parts. “Orchard” is probably the nicest sounding studio mess-up ever, with a gauzy guitar line repeating over barely-there drums before it builds up into a throat-shredding climax, all recorded onto an overdubbed REO Speedwagon tape (according to the liner-notes).
All of their songs were limited to obscure, limited run, mostly 7” vinyl releases and the occasional compilations (Tree Records' Eucalyptus comp, and the now legendary Food Not Bombs benefit, specifically), had no titles except those given to them by fans, and the band never associated their actual names with any of it.
That is, until recently. Ex-member, Adam Nanaa's record label, Future Recordings, is reissuing the band's discography CD, which is pretty much all-inclusive except for the alternate version of “Touch the Wings of an Angel... Doesn't Mean You Can Fly” on the Eucalyptus compilation and the live tracks reissued last year.
Members
of Indian Summer can currently be heard in Her Space Holiday (who are
fairly popular, right now), We All Inherit the Moon, and The Eastern
Seaboard. Adam Nanaa is currently working on a film, and running the
band's MySpace page, where you can pick up the new discography CD reissue for a limited time.
