Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Sheryl's Magnetic Aura

"I first met the guys in Sheryl's Magnetic Aura when a band I was in at the time (Rapider Than Horsepower) was touring the East Coast during spring 2001 with another Bloomington, IN band called Sex Tiger. This tour was made possible by connections made in everyone's previous hardcore bands - Books Lie, The State Secedes, RaceBannon (still active) and others I'm probably forgetting. As I remember, pretty much everyone in Sheryl's was a SUNY Purchase student at the time. Another member of their entourage was the ever-couch-surfing Adam Dooling, who was in the beginning stages of forming the band Gospel.

Basically this was a bunch of hardcore kids playing in non-hardcore bands (progress?). Sheryl's being the energetic, catchy rock band of bunch, Sex Tiger the ironic cock-rock-worshippers (nudge, wink), and Rapider Than Horsepower sounding like US Maple switching to write sugary, demented pop songs about kittens, cotton candy, and Diana Ross. Yeah. Obviously this bill confused everyone.

Both Indiana bands were staying in Sheryl's SUNY 'dorms' - which were more like little duplex shacks you'd see at a campground. Much partying ensued, and the Sheryl's guys had this 'hobby' of smashing every finished beer bottle on their wall (inside wall) and spinning around on the broken pieces and yelling 'Wheee!' over and over again. Whole floor covered in broken glass the entire time we were there. Equally scary and hilarious. Who the hell does that? Its like spitting on the floor in your own house. (Even if your house is a crappy dorm made out of balsa wood, I guess. Still...)

Encouragingly, everyone who was in Sheryl's Magnetic Aura is still involved in music or creative work of some sort these days. Perhaps most notably, Jeremy Earl has gone on to build up the great Woodsist label (of which I have been lucky enough to master several titles, mostly the Woods' records) and before that the boutique cassette label Fuck It Tapes. Somewhere along the line Sheryl's Magnetic Aura changed their name to Meneguar and my current band (Aa) played several shows with them over the years. All good times, all good people. Bless their lil' hearts."

-Josh Bonati

Ladies and gentlemen, for your listening pleasure, Sheryl's Magnetic Aura.



Sheryl's Magnetic Aura Demo (Loose Change)
1. Arianna
2. The World Just Died
3. Like You Mean It
4. Winters In Utah


















Like You Mean It (Loose Change)
1. Like You Mean It
2. Bend Not Break
3. Everytime, Which Isn't That Often
4. That Boy Is Somebody Now


















Sheryl's Magnetic Aura/Rapider Than Horsepower (Neon Boombox)
1. Night Ministry
2. Sweat Like An Angel




















Sheryl's Magnetic Aura EP (Cosmonaut)
1. The World Just Died
2. Everything Happens To Me
3. Making New Friends
4. Get Out Of Town
5. Arianna

5 comments:

snivel and run said...

thank you SO much for posting all this!

freedomschoolrecords said...

Ha! Oh my God, I have that 1st 7" ... clip art cover and all!

djcrabhat said...

i loved this band sooooo much. that rthp split is so perfect. thank you!

Caroline said...

randomly googled sheryl's as i found an old album while packing and came across this. i was one of those kids in the dorm partying with you guys that spring. good times :)

Caroline said...

and just found a sex tiger button...amazing.