EARLIMART are basically the brainchild of one Aaron Espinoza, who by day produces fine records by vital American underground luminaries such as The Breeders, Elliott Smith and Lou Barlow's New Folk Implosion at his Eagle Rock, LA studio called The Ship.
In good old-fashioned independent (rather than 'indie') tradition, the studio has evolved into a collective encompassing a record label, a clothing line and a home for video director Suzie Vlcek over the past two years, and this feverish, 'anything goes' attitude envelops "Everyone Down Here," the fascinating third LP from Espinoza's crew.
Earlimart once had a rather ramshackle reputation for playing anarchic gigs where their equipment often left the stage prior to them, but their initial, heavily-distorted post-punk sound has since decayed into something far more moth-eaten and magnificent, as "Everyone Down Here" makes patently clear.
There are still traces of their original scuzzy charm on tracks like the irresistible "We Drink On The Job", where E-bows and cheapo synths crash the grunge-pop party and "Burning Down The Cow", which is a surefire contender for weirdly-brilliant-single-with-whirling-organ-bit of 2003. Both tracks, plus the frayed'n'melancholic "Big Ol' Black" feature the talents of mates Jason Lyttle and Jim Fairchild of Grandaddy fame and retain elements of the 'daddy's skewhiff sensibilities.
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Elsewhere,all sorts of spontaneous, mid-fi brilliance leaps out and confounds. Tracks like the soporific, sparse "Dreaming" remind a little of Wheat with the surprise drum loops, while the sombre "At The Movies" recalls Neil Young circa "Tonight's The Night", with its' moody piano and slightly ramshackle, but determined intent.
Perhaps best of all, though, is "We're So Happy (We Left The Piano In The Truck)", which crawls fabulously through stinging guitar chords, moping drum clatter and Chris Mills acolyte Fred Lonberg-Holm's under-rated strings to reach a gloriously deadpan conclusion. Espinoza and Ariana Murray's gorgeously vacant duetting on the repeated "We're so happy" refrain is surely the record's finest moment of all.
Lurching fairly randomly from lo-fi, but tuneful weirdness to brightly kooky alt.rock, "Everyone Down Here" nonetheless remains engaging and drags an attractive melancholy in its' wake. Aaron Espinoza may enjoy his day job too much to give it up, but the quality of his solo material suggests he may have to do just that.
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