The American Analog Set
The American Analog Set (usually stylized as AmAnSet) was a five-piece indie-rock/slowcore band from Austin, Texas. They’ve released six records between 1996 and 2005. Although they haven’t done anything in seven years, there are claims all over the place that they haven’t broken up. Until I have proof that they’re still together and working on new material, though, I’ll refer to them in the past tense.
In their early days, it was easy to describe AmAnSet as Red House Painters + Stereolab. Sometimes they’re more RHP, sometimes they’re more Stereolab, but I’d say that it’s a pretty good assessment. They’re drone-y and poppy and mellow.
I always imagined that the first three records were meant to be a set. They probably weren’t, but that’s how I’ve thought about them. Today’s song comes from their third record. Or, as I would describe it, volume three of the trilogy. Maybe it’s because those three albums use a similar layout for the cover design. The artwork is totally different, but in each case, the band name and the album name are laid out in the same fashion, on a white background in the upper third of the cover. This left the bottom two thirds for the unique album art, but it was still a template. On subsequent albums, that template wasn’t used.
Those first three records were on Emperor Jones Records. After that, they switched over to Tiger Style Records for their next two. That label ceased operations in 2004. For their sixth and final record, they signed with the Toronto-based Arts & Crafts. I never got that sixth record. By then, though, they had drifted away from the drone-pop stuff and had started to just write pop songs. They were still AmAnSet, but they weren’t playing the “old” AmAnSet style of music.
One of the things that I always liked about AmAnSet was their use of percussion. Lots of hand-held percussion like maracas and egg shakers. The drums were often played with brushes, or were otherwise played fairly delicately. They also had tuned percussion. Vibraphones. As much as I like the glockenspiel, I like the vibraphone about ten times as much.
Today’s song has the vibraphone as a featured instrument. That’s probably why I like it so much.
“I Must Soon Quit The Scene” by The American Analog Set
Yes. It’s very repetitive. And if you get a hold of the lyric sheet, that’s exactly what it’s about. It’s about working all day and drinking all night. Then doing the same thing the next day. And it’s about getting stuck in that rut.
It’s eight to two when you’re drinking in town
And you turn around
For ten to seven in shipping and receiving
You remember when nothing was wrong
But it’s been so long
And you’re tired of the scene and you’re leaving
It may be about wanting to get out of that rut. It may be about getting too old for that “scene”. That “drink your paycheck away” scene.
As I said, I always will like the vibraphone just because it’s there. I like it in this instance because of how much sustain it has on it. It’s pretty crazy. Nigel Tufnel of Spinal Tap described his 1959 Les Paul as having so much sustain that “you can just hold it, go have a bite, and you’d still be hearing that one”. That’s almost how much sustain the vibraphone has in this song. And I dig it.
The odd thing about those lyrics is that you might not even notice that the song has lyrics. I myself didn’t even remember that they were there until I listened to the song a few times today and tracked down the lyric sheet. I guess I used to just get swept away by the vibraphone and carried into the ether.
I guess that was one of the defining characteristics of AmAnSet. The vocals were so understated and hushed that sometimes they blended in with the rest of the song. At least in the trilogy of The Fun of Watching Fireworks (1996), From Our Living Room To Yours (1997) and The Golden Band (1999). As they got less drone-y and more poppy, the vocals became more discernible from the bass guitar. I’m not saying that that development was a good one or a bad one. Just that it’s something that happened.
Order The Golden Band from Amazon here.
this is that song 
May 31st, 2012 at 6:14 pm
Well said. Love this tune so much… perfectly captures the essence of Austin from the late 90’s (I think any Austinite-youth of that era would agree).