Kola

Certain Songs #2409: Sparklejet – “Fancy”

July 27, 2022 by Jim Connelly

Album: KOLA
Year: 2022

…

Originally, the thought for the album that eventually became KOLA was that Sparklejet would head back to Chicago and record again with Steve Albini, but when Victor Sotelo was discussing that with Scott Oliver of the Miss Alans, he was taken by Scott’s thought that, since their last two albums were basically live in the studio, maybe this time, they could record it locally and make it a bit more produced.

And Victor was like, “sure, dude, if you’ll produce it” and Scott was all “sure, I can do that” and the result was an album that basically traded some — but not all! — of the intensity that had permeated the previous three Sparklejet albums for a bunch of catchy tunes.

Certain Songs #2408: Sparklejet – “At Prince & Elizabeth”

July 26, 2022 by Jim Connelly

Album: KOLA
Year: 2002

. . .

In December 2019, I started a Messenger thread with Victor Sotelo of Sparklejet and Scott Oliver of The Miss Alans. All three of our bands had been tracking new albums, and while none of our albums were quite ready to release, it struck me that maybe there was an opportunity here: it surely must be some kind of thing that three bands with roots going back to the halcyon days of the Fresno indie scene were all ready to release their first albums in 7 years (Sparklejet), 24 years (The Miss Alans) and ever (Sedan Delivery).