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Racecar
From the same flourishing scene that brought us Velocity Girl, Unrest, and Slumberland Records, Racecar (who, until recently, were known as Paint) isyet another fine band from our nation's capital ready to rip-roar into the hearts of pop fans around the world. Led by Jina Yi (ex-vocalist for Lorelei), Racecar's fabled demo was produced by Rob Christiansen of Eggs and Jim Spellman of Velocity Girl. This tape featured the hit "Wonderment", which became a staple on local college radio and received plenty of airplay onlocal modern rock giant WHFS. In addition, the local media gave glowing reviews of the tape -- The Washington Post grooved to the "splashy three-song tape" and DC weekly Scene magazine (huge fans of the band) found Racecar's live show to be "full and loud and contagiously dancy." Kids flocked to their shows and in a few months, Racecar became one of the D.C. area's favorite local bands.
Racecar's debut album Girlish on Queenie Records was produced by Harry Evans, a member of Poole and Lilys. The album features 12 songs ranging from catchy, crunchy tunes about impotence ("Wonderment") to wistful ballads about falling in love with teenage boys ("Adam Timestable"). The lush "Corvair" is about an existential roadtrip in that infamous automobile Ralph Nader calledthe "most dangerous car in America." It is also a metaphor about America'slove affair with cars, and how consumption is speeding the decline of the earth. "Seymour Wants To Be An Artist" is a song Jina (who is a high school art teacher during the day) wrote after seeing a show at a museum which featured a D.C. artist who had built a religious shrine in his basement. The shrine was built out of found objects, and he wouldn't let anyone see it while he was alive. The song was named after the title character in J.D.Salinger's short story, "Seymour, An Introduction" because, like the artist, the Seymour in Salinger's story was so bashful that no one could see his inner beauty.
The album title Girlish is culled from the album closer "Saying It's Over". The title is our sneer at the people who try to dismiss indiepop music as"twee" or "wimpy." Perhaps it is! Racecar is proud of creating exciting and adventurous music which doesn't owe anything to heavy-handed arena rock sounds.
Racecar is:
Jina Yi: singing, gymnasium
Werner Paul: guitar first, then drums
Christopher Paul: guitar, pretty pictures
Brian McLaughlin: drums first, then guitar
Brian Gray: bass, spurious didgeridoo
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