Yep Roc Records have reissued The Apples in Stereo's classic debut album, Fun Trick Noisemaker, on vinyl this week.Originally released in 1995, the album has not been available on vinyl in more than 15 years. The reissue includes all of the original artwork, liner notes, rephotographed paintings by Steve Keene, and a four-color poster insert.
Upon its original release in the spring of 1995, All Music Guide called The Apples in Stereo's debut full length "one of those records that marks a sea change in musical attitudes." Fun Trick Noisemaker facilitated that shift by moving the focus away from the negativity of the grunge era, towards a sunnier, more psychedelic vision of rock music.
As one of the flagship members of the famed Elephant 6 Collective, The Apples in Stereo spearheaded a seismic shift in indie-rock consciousness towards a more optimistic worldview. Their recordings echoed and helped revive interest in the likes of Brian Wilson, Van Dyke Parks, Arthur Lee, Syd Barrett and Burt Bacharach.
"It was a concept album about growing up, about summertime and the end of summer vacation, sunny but bittersweet," says Robert Schneider. "We spent our entire recording budget on microphones, compressors and an eight-track tape machine, with almost no idea how they worked, then we set out to create a perfect hybrid of Sixties psych-pop and the lo-fi scene we identified with, a fusion of Pet Sounds, Piper at the Gates of Dawn and Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain."
