Kicking Giant "Halo" cd (Spartadisc Records/1993)

I am actually surprised it has taken me such a long time to share one of my more "rarer" cds on this blog. I have been focusing so much on my vinyl and tapes that I haven't acknowledged the fact that I do have a large amount of obscure cds in my collection. And this cd Halo by the noisy indie/art rock duo Kicking Giant is certainly quite obscure, at least these days. This cd which is packaged like a 45 with a hard plastic sleeve, however the sleeve folds out to be a intricate 3-D structure of sorts with the inserts acting as "stands".  This cd version was released on Spartadisc while a cassette version was released on the band's own Loose Leaf label. Halo is a lengthy effort at that with 22 tracks!!! Remember this was the day of lo fi indie rock excess. Our parents generation had double and triple albums-our generation had Guided By Voices Bee Thousand! A few of the songs on Halo also appears on a few of their self released cassettes, namely Present and Secret Teenage Summer but given the even greater scarcity of those cassettes Halo was and is the only game in town for most folks to hear these tunes. While Kicking Giant's Alien ID on K Records showed off the duo's more noisier side I think it is safe to say that Halo documents the pure indie pop side of the band. The tunes on Halo prove that the song "She's Real" wasn't a indie pop fluke, Kicking Giant were superb pop songwriters. Halo does find the duo delving into more abstract, noisier elements at times but at that heart the album is pure pop. To me Kicking Giant were a perfect amalgamation of all that I loved about the 90s independent music underground. They were indie rock, bedroom pop, riot grrl, art rock, and punk rock all in one.

As a side note if anyone out there in blog land has a rip of the Present cassette please send it my way as it is the only Kicking Giant release that I *know of* that I don't have.  And as I was saying, releases that *I know of* that is reference to something I came across last year. I was looking through old college radio single play lists and I came across one from WCKS Fm from back in 1995. And on their list is a Kicking Giant 7 inch called Monogahella on Generator Records. I have never seen this record or it mentioned elsewhere. I was getting into Kicking Giant in 1994 and was able to snag most of their releases as they were coming out but this single is something that I never heard of until a year ago. So if anyone has information on this record actually existing or even a rip or (gasp!) perhaps a copy to sell drop me a line.

Kicking Giant Halo track listing
1. Satellite
2. Wierd
3. Three
4. Throw
5. Five
6. The Way That You Are
7. Rocket
8. Ruby Red
9. Suck
10. Go Girl (Riot)
11. Rachel's Song
12. Fuck the Rules
13. 13 13 13
14. This Sex
15. Mario
16. If Not You
17. Halo
18. Hi
19. Rocket Dreams
20. Stereo Hi Fi
21. Love Science
22. Come in Colors

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