Kylewilliam Campol, the brainchild behind the constantly evolving swirl of folk and Midwestern 90’s emo known as Imadethismisake, is never going to be able to pull off an “Almost Famous” moment with me. If he had asked me to make him look cool when I told him his band was to be the subject of a story I’m writing I’d be hard pressed to pull it off. I suspect this is true for anyone who has ever spent more than five minutes with him. There was a time when he probably could though.
His band’s last album, 2008’s “It’s Okay,” was essentially a love letter to everything that made up the best moments of my high school record collection, all the parts I’d never be ashamed to tell people about in a bar no matter how cool they might look. It was political in a way that comes from having to comfort a friend after he gets beaten up for coming out, not preachy but sad for people who didn’t get it. The melodies always had a sly sense of tenderness to them, even if they were being shouted, that brought to mind the scrappy early work of groups like The Promise Ring or the Get-Up Kids. And yet under it all was the sweaty arms-around-each-others-necks-sing-a-long joy of a basement folk punk show, without the threat of getting kicked out for looking wrong. “It’s Okay” worked so well that had its writer really tried when we first met I would have believed him to be some kind of troubled genius. He had his chance; the guy was just too busy being grateful someone was listening to try.
That sense of gratitude towards the people who care about the music he has a hand in releasing is why his band decided to record a surprise cassette release for tour with their first acoustic recordings in three years. The cassette, entitled “Different Ghosts,” harkens back the project’s early days when it was just Kylewilliam, an acoustic guitar, and perhaps a harmonica or piano. The five new songs that make up the tape’s a-side could easily have been released to their fan base as a 7”, with three pre-order packages including t-shirt, poster, or a color of vinyl only available if you bought all six variants. A cash grab, if you will. Instead Imadethismistake took five songs that rank among the best they’ve yet released and pressed them on an inexpensive four dollar cassette tape. Until now those songs were only available on tape, but the band has been gracious enough to allow us to post a download of these five new songs for a week or two.
The password for the file is kylewilliam, and you’ll find the download here. I hope you enjoy these songs as much as I do. You can read our review of the whole tape here. Copies are still available at Tor Johnson Record’s webstore or here very soon. These songs and their creator might not be terribly cool, but they’re really fucking good. I’ll take that joyfully.
