MP3: Midget / Invisible Balloon

My apologies for the poor amount of updates recently, it's been down to an increase in uni work plus me and my girlfriend alternating being really ill for about the last two months, but luckily we seem to be getting over that now and I can get back to posting some more stuff. Now I couldn't find a good picture of Midget around anywhere, so thought i'd just settle for a picture of a band of midgets. In particular, Hermine's Midget Band (more info here). Hopefully their long awaited sophomore record will finally see a release soon. It's been much mooted. Anyway, Midget were formed in Stamford some time back in the late nineties under the name The Smokin' Lizards. They were (initially) a teen three piece punk/pop/indie band made up of singer/guitarist Richard Gombault, bassist Andy Hawkins and drummer Lee Major. Touring plus a demo tape soon bought them to the attention of Radar Records who signed them in 1996. Rather than getting started on a debut album right away, the band released a rather long series of singles and EPs. The first was Kylie And Jason, and the second and first to chart was Camouflage. Two four track EPs, named Welcome Home Jellybean and Optimisn, came out in 1997, and soon after the band issued a compilation of singles and bsides to date named Alco-Pop. Tis a britrock classic along the same lines as Silver Sun's debut, and well worth tracking down for any fans of the era. Yet more EPs followed in 1998, firstly All Fall Down, and secondly Invisible Balloon, the title track of which is the mp3 below. The band's debut album Jukebox finally followed in July of that year on Sire, and included a load of the bands previously released singles plus a few new songs. Sadly soon after the band were I believe dropped in the UK, but in the words of the genius Tom Waits, remained big in Japan. Their second album, 1999's Individual Inconsistent was only available there, as was their third, 2001's The Milgram Experiment. I'm not quite sure whether the band actually split, but a recent Drowned In Sound news article seems to suggest the band are preparing a comeback of sorts, as does their myspace page, which has some more songs and a very nineties Symposium-esque video for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy.


Download: Midget / Invisible Balloon - MP3 2.84mb (rapidshare)