Bloomsday was always a curious CD in my collection – even amongst the numerous “Christian bands” of every flavor I’d managed to collect. Truth be told, my reasons for bringing them up now are: a) they were a Seattle band, and b) there doesn’t seem to be anyone offering a shared rip of this masterwork.
They had a dense and sprawling rock ensemble sound that I remember consistently recommending to Sunny Day Real Estate fans, yet the songs were so deliberate and pensive that most listeners seemed to forget rather early on that there was anything about ‘gawd’ in these tunes.
It seems there’s minimal solid, informative web info on this band, but I did discover that frontman Blake Wescott has a lengthy resume including time with Pedro The Lion, Saltine, and (it seems) some work with Damien Jurado and other Washington State luminaries.
Forget about it: Jesus wants you to check out this Bloomsday album…and he has guided my hands to divinely prod this here keyboard.
You can hear it for yourself, and then buy the CD via Amazon
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Thank You! I’ve been waiting for years for someone to put this up on the web. My old cassette is long gone!
This cd is in my player right now, and every few months it makes it back in there for a few weeks. Exellent cd. I was wondering, do you know of any other christian bands that have a similar sound/style? Thanks
FYI – Blake Wescott is currently touring with David Bazan as lead guitarist and some background vocals. Saw them play in DC a few days ago and talked to Blake after the show. He’s a really cool guy. Check out the rest of the tour: http://www.davidbazan.com/shows/
Thank you! my cassette tape is worn out and i listened to this album for months when it first came out. did not leave my cassette player at all. haha. i love this album! i just placed my order on Amazon!
Glad to know I was not hallucinating! I like the song Just the same the best of the two I’ve heard. RadioU in Columbus played Bloomsday when the station first was born back in 1996.
Thank you! I have a copy of the CD but after over the years it became just a little scratched. When I tried to rip it there were skips in it on a few songs. This really bummed me out and then I found this page! You just made my day.
I saw Bloomsday in concert when I was like 16…They did their album songs and did a cover of “Fake Plastic Trees” by Radiohead…It was awesome…They ended up being a big influence for me…I listened to that CD for the longest time…Like 5 or 6 years ago, I lost it…I couldn’t find it on the web…Thanks for putting this up…I have it to listen to forever now. I wish that there were albums like this put out these days…I never understood why they didn’t go further with this band…Its not often that there is an album that you can listen to every song and love it…
I got turned on to these guys by a friend who was, as you mentioned, into Sunny Day Real Estate. Classic late-90’s shoe gaze rock. Love this album. Thanks for posting!
So cool to see this. They also have a song on iTunes. The Sparkler vol. 1 has old Seattle-area/Christian stuff, including the great Poor Old Lu.
Ha… This last comment made me laugh as I put out the Sparkler Comp. :o) Every now and then I search for old rarities… One I’ve been looking for forever now is some songs recorded by Bloomsday that never came to light… They were supposed to release an EP after The Day the Colors Died on Brainstorm Records but it never happened. I heard a clip of one song and I’ve been hunting for it ever since as it did not make an appearance on the Velvet Blue EP. So, if anyone out there has any ideas what I am talking about and would be willing to share, please let me know… Thanks!
Hi,
I bought this online second hand a few years ago on CD and at the time took little notice of after first listening. It was purchased for all the wrong reasons, those being that I took it to be an early album with a changed line up as I already had the 1990 Bloomsday album ‘Fortuny’.
I had prior to that just came across The Bathers ‘Sweet Deceit’ album, which is truly magnificent. The Bloomsday of ‘Fortuny’ was a coming together of Chris Thompson of The Bathers and the remains of Lloyd Coles Commotions and although a bit rockier has some superb tracks on it.
I only now (what 20 years) discover that there are two groups named Bloomsday. Of course, taking some time to listen to ‘When the Colors Died’ does explain the diverage in the music’s sytle why I was not immediatley taken by it. Now, the other obvious tell is the word color -in English english, this is colour.
None the less I will persevere with the Colors – it sometimes easier to listen to something if you do not have preconceived idea of what you expect.
I do recommend both the alternate Bloomsday album and The Bathers (Sweet Deceit and Lagoon Blues), both are truly superb in places. If you like these, definetly go toward Tindersticks and some Blue Nile.
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