So this will be the ending chapter for Kolya. Such a odd find for me or even for anyone. I honestly do not think many people were aware of this release until some blogspots uploaded the tape sometime in 2012 as the 1999 demo tape. This release is under as a "Unofficial" release. Probably some tapes done for some tour in 1999 its the only conclusion I can come up with. This was the last release as a 4 piece band. There's no insert or any info on the tape so I am not so sure if I have that missing. Two of the songs made it to the bands second 7" there's a file of this tape around the internet entitled as "1999 demo tape" this is the same thing. I tried to get the best quality while converting so its at 320 kbps. There's some minor glitches but not as bad as the original upload with the long pauses. Overall this tape is pretty darn nice of a find. Supposedly the tape was in storage for 15+ years unused but it was definitely used. The quality isn't so bad actually for a tape that's been around for about 16-17 years this is still in top shape. Whenever I think about how this tape was done I imagine the band members gathering up in a garage or basement one night and made the songs. As a band I have admired for about 8 years I can still remember my first time listening to this band. I don't remember which blogspot but I believe it was somewhere between Hardcore for nerds or Zen and the art of face punching but it was around there where I found this band. I spent the entire night listening to the 4 songs off both 7"s and two off the LP (Since the blogspot didn't fully uploaded the LP) Kolya will always be that band I will first tell people about on what sort of Emo, Post hardcore bands I like. Spending 85 dollars for this tape almost felt like some dying wish of my younger self. Honestly I would never give that amount for any tape but since it's kolya I was very curious about this tape since discogs only claims the tape had 2 songs.
Here is the breakdown of the tape, it starts off with The story becomes the vehicle as the first version (Not the 7" version since that version as Todd Giles as the lead guitar only) what amazes me are the songs Jet lagged and the other two instrumentals that were not cut for the 7". Jet lagged sounding the most mysterious one with some odd lyrics thrown. I still have no idea what the hell Todd is really talking about but it sounds hell of mysterious that gave me the chills upon hearing it the first time. It's still the strangest song from Kolya's discography. The instrumentals have a bit more of a early math rock feel with "An encounter with logic" having some tapping calm moments and finally closing with Conversations and smokescreens which I honestly love this version a bit more. Two guitars being involved with the song sounds more complete than the 7" version.
I did some scans today, the only lyrics I do not have are for Jet Lagged. I did write the lyrics (Which were 90% completed there were only like 3 words I couldn't understand from Todd. I'll post those whenever I find my book.
Lyrics to Iditarod 7"
Lyrics to The story becomes the vehicle/Conversations and smokescreens 7"
Caulfield records was a indie label from the late 80's I think but mostly known for Christie front drive's compilation self titled cd and the stuff it had on Giants Chair. They also released 2 Mineral 7"s, they had other amazing bands like Luck of Aleia, Eric the red, M.I.J, Traluma, Broken hearts are blue, Ethel Meserve and of course my favorite Caulfield release Kolya's self titled 12"/CD. Kolya's signature sound from the 2 7"s didn't completely vanished. It still stayed but also figured a way to introduce songs that are a little sing alongs and less focused on narrative vocals, it doesn't completely a bad thing because this is the only full length from Kolya. The first songs I ever heard from this album were "Robots dream in black and white" which is an amazing opening on the album and the third track to the LP called "Resuscitation" which flows more on Ka's previous sound with more narrative, same thing can be said on the song Robots. These songs might have been played after a few months on the release of Kolya's The story becomes the vehicle's 7" since recording began in December 2000 while the 7" was recorded in January 2000 (About 11 months later) its been rumored that nothing else was brought up after the release of this LP. It is still a hard 12" to get since it isn't sold in most places and wherever it is sold I see the price as high as 150 usd dollars. I recently saw that a seller on amazon was selling the cd for 6 bucks still shrinked wrapped and what not so I quickly bought the CD. I'd like to share and rip this one out for you guys. Who knows what direction the band might have been if they were still together, maybe it would've sound exactly like The Union Ares. Unfortunately Caulfield records ended sometime in 2003 2 years after the release of Kolya's self titled.
When I first heard Kolya, they were a addiction. I have never heard such an odd band play such a way they play. While Kolya may have the same concepts of spoken word such as the later Moss Icon, The Van Pelt, Native Nod and Slint Kolya is able to still be completely different than from those. Kolya has its own signature style with instruments and even the tone of the spoken words and even the lyrics themselves. The band sounds like energy glowing and keeps building up slowly, it mixes post hardcore/math rock (especially on the bands song Iditarod)/emo. Even at this day Kolya can easily be one of my favorite picks, although not my favorite band. The band was able to put out 2 7"s and a LP which has a few songs similar to the 7"s and others that have more singing involved. Now that doesn't mean its a bad thing but those 7"s are more memorable when it comes down to Kolya. In recent years a rehearsal demo tape appeared in a couple of blogspots the tape was after the Iditarod 7" which still had 2 guitarists, during Kolya's early stages as a band the band was a 4 piece only to note that the bands second 7" has one which is our one and only Todd who also does the vocals. The demo tape has early versions of the 2 songs off the second 7" only that it appears to have 2 guitarists playing.. Both versions are incredible and I can't come up with any reason saying one is better than the other. But it also has 3 songs that I have never heard when I first discovered this band that being 2 instrumental songs and one very odd and possibly the darkest Kolya song entitled "Jet Lagged" while at my college campus I had kill time by going to the library and writing out the lyrics to this song (about 90% I got done) the song still clearly makes no sense but the tone is so mysterious and dark it makes you wonder. There were no physical copies of this demo since it was just some rehearsal of some sort.
These 7"s took me years to find and luckily I ran into 2 near mint condition copies being sold for 25 bucks each from the same discogs seller, these are very very rare to run into due to the very extreme quantity of these. I am not sure how many were pressed but hell i couldn't find these anywhere and even now.
Iditarod 7"
This is the bands first two songs which has 2 guitarists, the songs have a mathy side especially on the song Iditarod. Both songs are equally good and they are good impression newcomers as the very first bands 7" this is also One week records first and only release by the label. The sleeve on this looks pretty neat, the lyrics to Still life with candle are pretty long but they fit on the sleeve. Some odd reason there is a deer. Not bad actually.
The tone tells the story/Conversations and smoke screens 7"
I remember playing this one a lot when I heard them, the same night I discovered them sometime in late October where my parents and I went to a family birthday somewhere deep in LA since I had picked up a couple of new bands like Kolya, I gave this one a listen first. I quickly fell in love with it yet my 16 year old brain at the time wasn't familiar with such music like this. Perhaps the bass makes up for the other missing guitar from the original recording in '99.
1999 Demo Tape
I believe I mentioned that this tape wasn't discovered until sometime in early 2012, I am not sure if the band themselves ripped the tape or if someone else did but thank you to whoever did it. You see these songs weren't on the internet when I discovered Kolya. It was the 2 7"s and the amazing LP they did on Caulfield. The songs are rehearsals of what later happened to be in Kolya's second 7" (or at least 2 of the songs) The other 3 "Cutting apparatus" and "An encounter with logic" are both instrumental while Jet lagged is one that could have made it into Kolya's second 7" and possibly turned into a 10" instead with Jet lagged being on side B. Well I wasn't gonna post this but since I fixed those tiny glitches might as well. In the end we really need more motivating bands like Kolya especially now, hell even I started my own Kolya-esque project on my own about a year ago which you can hear it here
