7/10/2023

Old Hearts Club - Discography (1996-1997)


    

    Old Hearts Club was an indie/emo band from Kent, Ohio.  They played a more melodic, post-rock style of emo compared to their friends and contemporaries in Ohio such as Harriet the Spy.  Formed by brothers Jay and Al Karpinski after their band No@h ended, OHC recruited Kyle Thompson (vox, guitar), Mary Mazzer (lapsteel), and Matt Eland (percussion) to record their self-titled 7" at Ralph Hausmann's Speak In Tongues.  Four songs were recorded in December 1996: three would be released by Happy Go Lucky records on the band's only 7", and the fourth released on Ape Records' Israfel compilation LP.  Matt left the band in summer of '97 and the band continued to play shows locally, eventually fizzling out in the fall.  Somehow, we have the privilege of watching a VHS recording of their second-to-last ever show in Cleveland - check it out here.


    Weeks before the band broke up they came to Velocity Studios in Cleveland to record their final effort.  The five songs would not be released on any labels spare for one track being featured on Troubleman's "Taking A Chance On Chances" compilation months later, in 1998.  The only release the full recording saw was a small batch of CDrs with folded, kinko's printed sleeves that Al gave to friends and local fans.  For a long period of time this recording was completely undocumented and inaccessible if you weren't one of the few (likely less than 50) people who had been given the CDr.  It wasn't until 2021 that it finally surfaced online in the form of some MP3 files and a pixelated photo of the front cover.


    With this in mind I'm extremely excited to provide the full discography in high quality from the original vinyl and CDr with scans of all inserts and covers (including the two different versions of the 7" sleeve).  Download the collection here.

Discogs: Self-Titled 7" (brown cover with glitter ink print)

Self-Titled 7" (white cover w/o glitter ink)

...To Be Whole, And Lonely Again

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