20 Minute Loop

20 minute loop

Editorial Reviews
San Francisco Bay Guardian
"FROM THE FIRST tongue-twisting strains of this full-length demo, San Francisco's 20 Minute Loop align themselves with great (warped) pop groups like XTC and the Pixies. Their sound is idiosyncratic yet clean; well-crafted collages of harmony and errant meter sound like stream-of-consciousness ramblings but make perfect sense. The rock-waltz "She Hated Dogs" showcases lead vocalists Kelly Atkins (keyboard) and Greg Giles (acoustic guitar) enunciating in crisp, constant, tandem harmony; the wall-eyed verses of "Everybody Out" call to mind scenes in staged plays in which all the cast members talk at once. More often than not, Atkins and Giles (who interact like Black and Deal and sound like P.J. Harvey and Stipe jacked on Prozac) hone in on a phrase and repeat it, absentmindedly and effortlessly, while Joe Ostrowski's guitar does the talking. Self-described in the press release as "original music for the hook-hungry mob, the nervous foot, the jaded indie-phile," 20 Minute Loop write cutely complex songs that skirt the realms of schizophrenia and Platonic-ideal pop."

Product Description
Dynamic freak-pop debut from San Francisco's 20 MINUTE LOOP. Indie hooks in the vein of The Pixies, XTC & PJ Harvey. Powerful girl/boy lead vocals and infectious songwriting. Edgy and fresh.

20 Minute Loop

20 Minute Loop,20 Minute Loop,Fortune Records,Indie Rock,Pop,Rock,Rock/Pop

20 Minute Loop
20 Minute Loop
Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
  • Just buy it...
  • Dazzling
  • one of my favorite local releases
 20 Minute Loop
20 Minute Loop
Manufacturer: Fortune Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

GeneralGeneral | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music
Indie RockIndie Rock | Indie & Lo-Fi | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music
GeneralGeneral | Rock | Styles | Music
Pop RockPop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music
Pop RockPop Rock | Pop | Indie Music | Stores | Music
Similar Items:
  1. Decline of Day
  2. Yawn + House = Explosion

ASIN: B000031KII
Release Date: 1999-08-28

Tracks:

  1. She Hated Dogs
  2. Everybody Out
  3. Face Like a Horse
  4. Aeroflot
  5. Up on the Hill
  6. Disconnect
  7. You Know So Much
  8. Bunnyman & Chickengirl
  9. Hookworm
  10. All My Friends

Album Description

Dynamic freak-pop debut from San Francisco's 20 MINUTE LOOP. Indie hooks in the vein of The Pixies, XTC & PJ Harvey. Powerful girl/boy lead vocals and infectious songwriting. Edgy and fresh.

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars Just buy it..........2001-10-02

I hate all those review that compare band to other bands and try to slot them into a pigeonhole. So.... just go and listen to a few of their MP3 either here or on mp3.com. If you like those the rest of the first album is just as good. AND they have a new album out soon which sounds even better. I love it!

5 out of 5 stars Dazzling.......2000-10-13

This album is absolutely terrific. It's fun, tight, thoughtful, leaping, soaring, diving and beautiful. Highly recommended.

5 out of 5 stars one of my favorite local releases.......2000-06-24

This full-length demo release from the SF Bay's 20 Minute Loop is just plain incredible. the production is nice and tight, no frills, just letting the band's energy hit you full force. The songs bring together simple pop structures, then subvert them and twist them into a million unexpected places, topped off with off-kilter boy/girl harmonies. The lyrics are dense, tongue-twisting pastiches of obscure metaphors and punchlines that sneak up on you before dive-bombing into hooky choruses. 20 Minute Loop has one of the tightest ryhthm sections around; the bass and drums are just locked in to each other's grooves, letting the other instruments cut loose on top. If you ever get a chance to see these guys live, don't pass it up.
Yawn + House = Explosion
Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
  • Perfect Post-Punk Prog Pop!!
  • They really nailed it
Yawn + House = Explosion
20 Minute Loop
Manufacturer: Fortune Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

GeneralGeneral | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music
Indie RockIndie Rock | Indie & Lo-Fi | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music
GeneralGeneral | Rock | Styles | Music
Pop RockPop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music
Similar Items:
  1. Decline of Day
  2. 20 Minute Loop
  3. Sound of Silver
  4. Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
  5. The Crane Wife

ASIN: B0007CNXXM
Release Date: 2005-02-22

Tracks:

  1. Parking Lot
  2. Cora May
  3. Properties of Dirt
  4. Miriam Hopkins
  5. Book of J
  6. Carlos the Jackal
  7. Ambassadors
  8. It's Time to Honor Ghouls
  9. 5am to 9am
  10. Our William Tell
  11. I'll Never Forget you

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars Perfect Post-Punk Prog Pop!!.......2005-05-01

20 Minute Loop is one of those bands that is hard to categorize; think punk energy, pop hooks, clever vocal harmonies, and a "just right" sense of composition. The tasty guitar interplay between Joe Ostrowski and Greg Giles keeps their sound unique and interesting without ever crossing the line into the territory of "chops for chops' sake." Their music exists at a strange crossroads of catchy and cerebral that is both rare and refreshing in the post-2000 music scene.

As musically satisfying as 20 Minute Loop is, it's the vocal harmonies that are their greatest talent and most recognizable signature. Kelly Atkins is one of the most talented female singers alive, with an amazing emotional range that expresses everything between "whisper" and "scream," and Giles' voice is a satisfying contrast that is sometimes mournful, sometimes brazen, and often tongue-in-cheek. Hearing these two deftly sing intertwining lines that dance around each other is a thing of unusual beauty, and it's rewarding to hear melodies so infectious woven with lyrics that are so smart.

This is one of those that really grows on you with repeated listenings, so do yourself a favor and buy it. You won't regret it. While you're at it, definitely check out their equally strong preceding disc, "Decline of Day."

5 out of 5 stars They really nailed it .......2005-02-25

I've loved 20 Minute Loop since their beginnings, and this has got to be their best release yet, with the best collaboration. Big, full sound with varying textures, and the ever-fantastic duets of Giles and Atkins. Semi-nonsensical, troubling lyrics, and mischievous melodic twists and turns (occasionally reminding me of the Pixies, Camper Van Beethoven, Duran Duran, and the Beatles, but, as the reviewers so often say about bands, "by no means summed up by their influences"). I leave this album singing. Favorite songs... well, Ambassador, most definitely ("I'd rather read this book than take a look"), Properties of Dirt, Miriam Hopkins, Our William Tell... but right now my toast goes to Carlos the Jackal. It's slightly messy and insane. Just slightly. The sense of being swung back and forth by sailors like they're gonna throw you overboard, but they don't, they don't, they don't....
Decline of Day
Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
  • Rock lives
  • An Amazing band, amazing album
 Decline of Day
20 Minute Loop
Manufacturer: Fortune Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

GeneralGeneral | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music
Indie RockIndie Rock | Indie & Lo-Fi | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music
GeneralGeneral | Rock | Styles | Music
Pop RockPop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music
Similar Items:
  1. 20 Minute Loop
  2. Yawn + House = Explosion

ASIN: B00005Q6NW
Release Date: 2001-10-16

Tracks:

  1. Jubilation
  2. Moses
  3. All Manner
  4. Daughter's Down
  5. Pilot Light
  6. Force Of Habit
  7. Mechanical Angels
  8. Elephant
  9. Mompha Termina
  10. Vaccine
  11. Hell In A Handbasket
  12. Aquarium

Album Description

"Belonging to the post-Pixies generation of alternative bands, 20 Minute loop brings on the guitars and male/female vocal interplay that was at the core of that influential group's sound, while it puts its own futuristic and gentle spin on the blueprint for modern-alterna music. Vocalist and keyboardist Kelly Atkins and guitarist and vocalist Greg Giles share the bulk of the songwriting and together they've created their own world of song-- simultaneously bleak and melancholic but nonetheless hopeful. The sadness comes in the form of spooky and downbeat melodies (as on "Jubilation"), but there's a lighter take on "Moses" and especially on "All Manner" with its lovely "la la la" choruses. Doubt, fear and cynicism are covered over by shining, ascending melodies ("Force of Habit"). There's an undaunted quality to the strength and determination of 20 Minute Loop's sound and a soulfulness all too rare during the icy age of early 21st Century rock." All Music Guide, ! 9/01

"...20 Minute Loop is one of the more refreshing musical experiences I've had in months and months. Decline of Day practically begs for stupid music review fantasy hybrid-type descriptions. So here goes: say you've got XTC. Now subtract the TC, and pair the remainder of John Doe and Exene Cervenka with J. Robbins in a six-by-six cell haunted by Frank Black's muse, with only a Radiohead CD, a Flannery O'Connor novel, and occasional visits from the members of Seely to break the psychosis...It's been a while since I thought I could only do an album a disservice by trying to describe it. What else can I say?" Pitchfork.com, 11/30/01

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars Rock lives.......2002-02-11

I first heard 20ML's "She hated dogs" in the discover section of Napster, and I loved their unique feel. Both this album and the first are studies in songwriting, and I encourage anyone who enjoys rock music of any kind to try them out!

5 out of 5 stars An Amazing band, amazing album.......2002-01-31

I first heard this band on a plane to Frisco, then live 2 nights later. I was blown away. The incredible precise arrangments on both albums are excuted perfectly live. It was another 6 months waiting in jersey till i laid my hands on DECLINE OF DAY. It stayed in the CD player for 2 weeks. Every song is a hit. This band is one of the few bands i know of that is making truly original music. Buy this disc, and their first disc, and you will be in for a non-stop ride.

Rock Music:

  1. 21st Century Blues
  2. 22-20s [Import]
  3. 23 Trax of Max (1965-82)
  4. 24 Hour Service
  5. 24 Hours of Throbbing Gristle [Box set] [Limited Edition]
  6. 25th Anniversary: Live in Amsterdam [Import]
  7. 25 Years of Eyeball Excellence [Import]
  8. 28 Plastic Blue Versions of Endings Without You
  9. 2 Years on [Import]
  10. 3

Rock Music

rock music