Tag Archives: spanish prisoners

Exit Stencil Records Announces ‘Free February’ (MP3s)

Exit Stencil Recordings, Owl and Bear’s favorite Cleveland-based indie label, has a special Valentine’s Day gift for you.

No, it’s not chocolate or flowers, or even chocolate flowers. It’s better: the label has made twenty of their past releases available for free download for the entire month of February, and they’re apparently doing it solely out of the kindness of their hearts. They say:

Exit Stencil is happy to announce our Free February month, where nearly our entire catalog will be available for free digital download! This includes almost all full-length, 7″, EP, and split releases, totaling around 20 records! No gimmicks, no asking for donations, no limit to the number of releases available to each person — just a free chance to check out a bunch of bands that we’ve been happy to have had the chance to work with over the past couple of years.

Exit Stencil bands that we’ve liked in the past include Blake Miller (MP3s), The Dreadful Yawns (MP3s), Hot Cha Cha (MP3s), and, well, all the other ones. This is a great chance to check out some new music, so download away!

Spanish Prisoners – Songs to Forget

Spanish Prisoners
2008, Exit Stencil Records

Spanish Prisoners‘ first album, Songs to Forget, starts and ends sparsely, but definitely not forgettably.

The album begins with a nice guitar and strange vocals, and ends with a kind of combination medieval folk and Live In Chicago-era Joan of Arc. On the second track, lead man Leonid Maymind sings that there’s “No solace from the sunrise,” amid synth drums and loud guitars. The album continues along that vein for a while, then relaxes a bit in the middle (the swelling instrumental “This is Not That”). After this point, Spanish Prisoners seem to really get their footing. The tracks that follow, “Mantequilla,” “Dear Just Curious,” and “How the Fallen Fell,”–especially with “Fallen”‘s Neil Young harmonica–are the album’s highlights.

B+