| From Ritual to Romance | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Live album by | ||||
| Released | September 24, 2002 | |||
| Recorded | October 5, 1996; August 8, 1998 | |||
| Genre | Rock, power pop | |||
| Length | 54:11 | |||
| Label | 125 Records | |||
| Producer | Scott Miller | |||
| The Loud Family chronology | ||||
| ||||
From Ritual to Romance is The Loud Family's sixth full-length album. It is a live album released during a six-year hiatus from studio recording, which followed the expiration of the group's recording contract with Alias Records in 2000.
Scott Miller, the band's founder and frontman, signed with independent recording label 125 Records after the expiration of the Loud Family's contract with Alias Records. The album was the fifth release by the then newly formed label, [1] founded in 2001 by Joe Mallon and Sue Trowbridge, who had a long acquaintance with Miller and his bands. [2] [3]
From Ritual to Romance includes live recordings of two performances at different points in the band's history. The first performance, on tracks 1-7 and 14-19, is from a Hotel Utah show on October 5, 1996. Drummer Dawn Richardson had recently left the group, and for the 1996 tour supporting the release of Interbabe Concern , she was replaced by Mike Tittel, currently leader of the Ohio-based band New Sincerity Works. [4]
The second performance, on tracks 8-13 and 20-21, is from a show at the Bottom of the Hill in San Francisco on August 8, 1998, after the release of the album Days for Days .
The album includes cover versions of "Debaser" by The Pixies, "When You Sleep" by My Bloody Valentine and "Here Come The Warm Jets" by Brian Eno.
The songs "Not Because You Can," "Go Ahead You're Dying To," and "Curse of the Frontier Land" are The Loud Family's versions of songs from Game Theory, Miller's previous band.
The songs listed as "Nine", "Five" and "Eleven" are three of the untitled soundscapes from The Loud Family's 1998 studio album Days for Days . The numbered titles reflect track numbers on Days for Days , in which conventionally titled songs are alternated with untitled tracks that amplify themes of the songs that they follow. On Days for Days , track 9 follows "Way Too Helpful," track 5 follows "Good, There Are No Lions in the Street," and track 11 follows "Mozart Sonatas."
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   [5] |
Writing in the Boston Phoenix , critic Brett Milano called the album "typically unconventional, drawing on their most obscure album tracks," and featuring the band's "usual blend of finely crafted pop hooks, elusive yet resonant lyrics, male-female harmonies ... and more self-depreciation." [6] The review cited the album's opening medley with "dark, ominous keyboards ... and a throat-shredding Miller vocal; it's the sound of a band who’d explode if they hadn’t gotten to play those songs at that minute." [6]
According to Scram magazine's Kim Cooper, the live CD showed the band's "rough, antagonistic power" and "their willingness to take Scott's songs in their teeth and shake 'em silly, all of which made the fundamental prettiness of the music seem more touching and fragile," leading up to "a closing salvo that left me breathless and punching the replay button." [7]
AllMusic's Mark Deming wrote, "Given the difficulty of capturing the band's more delicate and layered material onstage, the Loud Family seemed to respond by turning up the amps and hitting harder, and From Ritual to Romance captures a band far more bracingly physical than you might expect." [5] Deming added that the live album "chronicles what made this band difficult for passing observers, as much as what made them so appealing to fans, and this is a gesture to Loud Family fans in the best sense. It's that rare live album that's as dense and demanding as a studio set, and one that also rewards a careful listen." [5]
Hotel Utah, San Francisco - October 5, 1996
Bottom of the Hill, San Francisco - August 8, 1998
Spiderland is the second and final studio album by the American rock band Slint. It contains six songs played over 40 minutes, and was released by Touch and Go Records on March 27, 1991. Slint's lineup at the time of recording comprised Brian McMahan on vocals and guitar, David Pajo on guitar, Todd Brashear on bass guitar and Britt Walford on drums. Spiderland was engineered by Brian Paulson and recorded over four days in August 1990. The music and vocal melodies were composed throughout the summer of 1990, while lyrics were written in-studio.
Game Theory was an American power pop band, founded in 1982 by singer/songwriter Scott Miller, combining melodic jangle pop with dense experimental production and hyperliterate lyrics. MTV described their sound as "still visceral and vital" in 2013, with records "full of sweetly psychedelic-tinged, appealingly idiosyncratic gems" that continued "influencing a new generation of indie artists." Between 1982 and 1990, Game Theory released five studio albums and two EPs, which had long been out of print until 2014, when Omnivore Recordings began a series of remastered reissues of the entire Game Theory catalog. Miller's posthumously completed Game Theory album, Supercalifragile, was released in August 2017 in a limited first pressing.
The Loud Family was a San Francisco-based power pop band formed in 1991 by songwriter and guitarist Scott Miller, who previously led the 1980s band Game Theory. The Loud Family released six studio LPs and one live LP from 1991 through 2006. After Miller's death in 2013, three Loud Family members participated in recording sessions for Supercalifragile (2017), Miller's posthumous Game Theory album.
Tone Soul Evolution is the second album from The Apples in Stereo. It was recorded from February to June and released in September 1997.
Plants and Birds and Rocks and Things was the 1993 debut album by The Loud Family, a band formed by singer, songwriter and guitarist Scott Miller after the dissolution of his 1980s band Game Theory. It was Miller's fifth album to be produced by Mitch Easter.
Slouching Towards Liverpool is an EP that includes live performances of songs from The Loud Family's first album, Plants and Birds and Rocks and Things, as well as some live studio tracks recorded at WNUR-FM in Evanston, Illinois.
Interbabe Concern is The Loud Family's third full-length album, and their first to be produced by Scott Miller instead of Mitch Easter. With the exception of keyboard player Paul Wieneke and Miller, this was a new line-up of the band.
Days for Days is an album by the Loud Family, released in 1998. The band's leader, Scott Miller, and the bass guitar player, Kenny Kessel, are the only members of the band remaining from the previous album. Gil Ray, who had been a member of Miller's 1980s band Game Theory, joined Miller for the album.
Attractive Nuisance, released in 2000, is The Loud Family's fifth full-length album. It has the same line-up as the 1998 album, Days for Days. At the time of its release, it was announced as the final Loud Family album.
What If It Works? is the Loud Family's seventh full-length album, a studio collaboration with Sacramento-based pop musician Anton Barbeau released in 2006. A March 2022 reissue of the album, with eleven bonus tracks, was announced by Omnivore Recordings.
Lolita Nation is the fourth full-length album by Game Theory, a California power pop band fronted by guitarist and singer-songwriter Scott Miller. Originally released in 1987 as a double LP, the album was reissued by Omnivore Recordings in February 2016 as a double CD set with 21 bonus tracks.
Tinker to Evers to Chance is a compilation album of songs by Game Theory, released in 1990. The liner notes describe the included tracks as songs which "reached national obscurity, as opposed to local obscurity." Band leader Scott Miller went on to form The Loud Family.
The Big Shot Chronicles is Game Theory's third full-length album, released in 1986. Produced by Mitch Easter, it was recorded with a new line-up of Game Theory members after leader and songwriter Scott Miller moved the band's base from Davis to San Francisco, California. The album was reissued on September 23, 2016, on Omnivore Recordings as part of the label's re-issue campaign of the Game Theory catalog.
Scott Warren Miller was an American singer, songwriter and guitarist, best known for his work as leader of the 1980s band Game Theory and 1990s band The Loud Family, and as the author of a 2010 book of music criticism. He was described by The New York Times as "a hyperintellectual singer and songwriter who liked to tinker with pop the way a born mathematician tinkers with numbers", having "a shimmery-sweet pop sensibility, in the tradition of Brian Wilson and Alex Chilton."
"Look" is an instrumental composed by American musician Brian Wilson for the Beach Boys' never-finished album Smile. Wilson later completed the track as "Song for Children", with new lyrics written by Van Dyke Parks, for the 2004 album Brian Wilson Presents Smile.
Alternate Learning was a power pop/new wave band from 1977 to 1982, based in Davis, California and fronted by Scott Miller, a singer-songwriter later known for his work as leader of the 1980s band Game Theory and 1990s band the Loud Family.
Real Nighttime is the second full-length album from Game Theory, a California power pop band founded by guitarist and singer-songwriter Scott Miller. Released in 1985, the album is cited as "a watershed work in '80s paisley underground pop." A 30th anniversary reissue was released in March 2015, on CD and in a limited first pressing on red vinyl, with 13 bonus tracks.
Blaze of Glory is the 1982 debut album from Game Theory, a California power pop band founded by guitarist and singer-songwriter Scott Miller. After Miller's death in 2013, the album was reissued by Omnivore Recordings in a remastered edition with 15 bonus tracks which was released on CD and vinyl in 2014.
George Gilbert "Gil" Ray was an American rock drummer, guitarist, and vocalist, best known for his recordings in the 1980s and 1990s as a member of the bands Game Theory and The Loud Family. In late 2012, he joined Rain Parade as drummer for a series of reunion performances.
Supercalifragile is the sixth and final studio album by Game Theory, a California power pop band founded in 1982 by guitarist and singer-songwriter Scott Miller. At the time of his death in 2013, Miller had started work on the recording, which was to be Game Theory's first new album since 1988. Producer Ken Stringfellow and executive producer Kristine Chambers Miller enlisted the participation of numerous past collaborators and friends of Miller to finish the album after Miller's death, using Miller's partially completed recordings and source material. Supercalifragile was released in August 2017.
