A Revelation

Take heed, (imagined) loyal followers, for I have news of note. Well, news in that it's news to me. I recently aquired a worthy album by a band known as Universal Hall Pass titled "Mercury." It's an excellent album, skipping and hopping between genres so often, I'm quite sure that's the reason All-music hasn't bothered reviewing it properly, even though it's been out since 2004 (lazy bastards). I'm trying to think of an accurate way to describe UHP's sound, and the closest I can come is a voice that sounds very reminiscent of Beth Gibbons(only more peppy and cheerful), sometimes more like a soft Regina Spektor, and occasionally just a hint of Björk. Don't let the styles of those compaired artists mislead you though, as the sound of UHP jumps the gambit from tracks with trip-hop and drum n' bass elements("Dragonfly") to laid back crooning("No one") to Alanis Morisette-like alt rock ("Special Agent").


The creative power behind UHP is a bright lady by the name of Melissa Kaplan. The name rang a distant bell for me...and rightly so, as I've discovered she's contributed to dozens of movie and game soundtracks. I became intrigued by her sound and decided to do a little more digging into her past musical forays, only to discover another amazing band she fronted by the name of Splashdown. Well, ex-band, I should say, as tragically, Splashdown is no more. Even more tragically, their albums and EP's are very rare indeed--the only copy of their first album , "Stars and Garters," that I could find is selling for $70 on Amazon. Yikes. Fortunately, for those of you who care only about the music itself, you can find a complete catalogue of the band's work available for free legal download here ,and this includes a complete album that was never released because of squabbles with their then-label Capitol Records (those swine!). You can read up on the full history of the band on that site, so i won't go into it here...needless to say, they were an amazing band with a lot of promise that got the shaft from a big record label. Shock and alarm, right? Man, what a rare and terrible occurence.

I'm getting off track here--the point is, you should check out this lady and if you like her stuff, buy it and support her cause, for indeed her music is worthy of praise and money. And cake.