Pencil...

Don’t know how many people remember this Indiana band, but Pencil put out two pretty good albums in the mid-nineties on Grass Records. I was actually reminded of the band when I happened to run across a website offering up a remastered digital download of their first album Skantron which originally came out in 1994, but suffered from some pretty poor sounding production quality. Anyway, I about fell out of my seat when I saw all fourteen songs of it just sitting there, I’d always wondered what some of these songs would sound like if I could actually here them with a bit more clarity. Well, I can say now that they sound excellent.

Originally formed in the early 90’s by high school friends Carl Saff (guitar) and Matt Wagner (drums), the two welcomed fellow Indiana University students Chris Morgan (vocals) and Karl Desch (bass). However, Morgan and Desch would soon exit the band and later be replaced by singer Rob Davidson and bass player Tyler Tribby. After playing around locally doing a number of shows they recorded a seven inch that sparked them a deal with Grass Records, which would go on to release their two albums Skantron (1994) and El Toro (1995). They also did a split with Big’n in 1993 on Spontaneous Combustion that featured in my opinion one of their best songs “Choice”, however the song can also be found on Skantron and thankfully now at a much better quality. The bass player slot was pretty much like a revolving door during the bands existence, as bassist Phil Sung would play on Skantron, later leaving the band after its release to then be replaced by Ryan Wilson for the recording of El Toro. They didn’t get much of a chance to make many more changes after that as the band broke up sometime in 1995 after the albums release. Carl Saff went on to play in the equally great Neutrino, with Brian Wnukowski of Big’n, Check Engine, and Cougars fame as well as doing work in the bizarro synth/guitar project Emperor Penguin. Saff can currently be found doing mastering work here. Anyway, definitely check out the tunes below from what I consider to be a couple overlooked math-rock gems.

Skantron:
Pencil – G.M.C. [MP3]
Pencil – Choice [MP3]
Pencil – Integrity [MP3]

El Toro:
Pencil – Cumulus Alto Cumulus [MP3]
Pencil – Zip it Up [MP3]
Pencil – Lickity Split [MP3]

As mentioned earlier, a remastered version of the bands first album Skantron can be had over here for download. El Toro looks to be out of print, however there are more than enough used copies over at Amazon for basically nothing but shipping. I’d definitely recommend picking up that album.