Preston School of Industry

After adding three band-mates/ friends and losing one stalwart inspiration, and with five albums and many singles under their belt, a tour that barely misses Tanzania, a few college radio hits and a nice legion of loyal fans firmly intact, Pavement quietly disband in the Summer of 2000. Some say there was strife, some say the split was compelled by boredom. Finally and most reasonably, some simply say it’s better to fade away and quit your whining anyway.

Pre/post Pavement-demise Spiral continues writing music and starts Amazing Grease Records with friends, Ben Lutch and Mike Drake (Oranger, Overwhelming Colorfast). Amazing Grease releases records from the likes of Oranger, Carlos, Sunless Day, Cole Marquis, Aaron Nudelman, and the Moore Brothers. Then, after uncovering a four-track player full of tunes written for Pavement’s last record, Terror Twilight, and armed with an ankle-deep record collection reflecting his punk-rock and post-rock fanaticism, newly and firmly inspired Spiral steps to the mic. Rising from the dust, flack and emotional debris, Spiral decides that the post-Pavement lore has only just begun. Spiral gets intimate with his acoustic and spends early 2000 recording more melodic f*cked-up songs than you could twitch your ear at. He aspires to a hum-under-your-breath and tap-your-toes while bobbing-your-head-incessantly-to-the-music sort of sound and decides he may even use two (instead of Pavement’s customary one) takes. He dusts off his Tascam and upgrades his drum-machine with a couple of dried-out coconuts. He decides, "it’s time the music in my head met the sound of an electronic beat." Or was at least put to tape. (Yeah.)

Now, and with hardly a metallic flutter, his new project Preston School of Industry is born. PSOI taps into Spiral’s enthusiasm for all things Echo and the Bunnymen, Fall, Kinks and Clean--filtered through his Central Valley Americana roots. The results? Spiral puts down over twenty songs and in June 2001 Amazing Grease Records releases a small taste of things to come with Goodbye to the Edge City CDEP and 10" with grand ALBUM to ensue...

PSOI provides Spiral with the perfect environment and--most importantly--his first opportunity to combine his influences into a full-length release of his own, All This Sounds Gas and now have release yet another album, Monsoon.