Redirection - Sampler - Polyvinyl

Review by: Jennifer Perkins

You would be pretty hard pressed to find a shitty band on the Polyvinyl roster. Rainer Maria, Pele, Sunday’s Best these are all names that in Indie circles are synonymous with great music. Danville, Illinois’ Polyvinyl Records has an uncanny ability for scoping out hot up and coming bands and delivering the musical goods to the masses. All this being true, you can imagine that a sampler of Polyvinyl’s repertoire over the last 5 years is going to go over pretty well with critics and fans alike.

As a critic as well as a fan, I am pleased as punch with “Re-Direction”. The sampler comes in 3 different colors: orange, green and red (for the record I scored the red version). There are 19 songs offered, some are on previous releases, some are hard to finds, and some are previously unreleased. Most importantly, none are sub-par, and all worth the mere $4 bucks they are charging.

The CD starts out with a Sunday’s Best song “Saccharine”. They could not have picked a better song to kick things off with. This poppy upbeat number sets the mood for what lies ahead. Sunday’s Best appears again later in the sampler with a song previously on a 7”.

Of course the darlings of Polyvinyl grace the sampler, Rainer Maria are present and accounted for. 2 previously released tracks are offered here. I have yet to purchase their latest CD “A Better Version of Me”, but after having to listen to “Artificial Light” countless times, I think it is time I paid a visit to the record store.

The ever creative AM/FM donated 2 songs to the Polyvinyl cause. One is an unreleased track called “Come Suck Down a Cloud”. The song is quirky and poppy, just what you would expect from the Philly duo. The other song, “A Best Man” is featured on their stellar CD Mutilate Us.

The latest additions to Polyvinyl, The Ivory Coast are here with Swervedriver-esque guitars. There is a Kerosene 454 song, that stands out a bit. Aloha show us that a vibraphone can in fact be rawkin’ with their song “A Hundred Stories”. There are previously released Hey Mercedes and Braid songs. American Football is in attendance with their Pele meets Promise Ring sound that is always a delight for the ears. Filing in the gaps we have Matt Pond PA, Radio Flyer and the always entertaining Paris, TX.

Whew, did we get it all in? For those keeping track: that is 5 previously unreleased songs, 12 hits found on other full length releases and 2 ditties from 7”s and a random compilation. The best part is there is not a dud in the bunch. Polyvinyl has always been a great label with impeccable taste in bands, and all of this stands true with Redirection.

Read where: Aloha, AM/FM, American Football, Paris,TX, The Ivory Coast, Rainer Maria & Sunday's Best got their names from here.

Read where Polyvinyl got their name from here.

Read a review of AM/FM's Mutilate Us here or Getting Into Sinking here.

Read a review of Hey Mercedes here.

Read a review of Rainer Maria here.

Read a review of The Ivory Coast here.

Read an interview with AM/FM here.

See pictures of Hey Mercedes here.