East Village are another one of those great lost jangle and power pop bands from the 80's and 90's that Optic Nerve do such a great job of bringing back to life, in this case with an alternative version of the bands single Back Between Places coupled with a previously unreleased B-Side Violin. For anyone like me who has no memory of ever hearing of East Village before, this comes as a nice, overlooked surprise. The band originally broke up Live on stage at the Venue in New Cross which would have been the perfect place to fall apart.
The A-side Back Between Places is jangly power pop full of meaning and yearning in an Orange Juice or Prefab Sprout kind of way, the band in no way invoke the East Village in New York you might imagine it does, being far too gentle for that.
Violin on the B-side was totally unreleased when first recorded and is another rueful slice of Jangly intensity as they smash that violin in the pouring rain to signify just how badly wrong things have gone as you sit in your lonely bedsit hoping for less heartache.
Find out more at https://opticnerverecordings.com/products/east-village-back-between-places-7?_pos=1&_sid=c92d9d9f3&_ss=r&variant=31989659140207