The Aislers Set

The Aislers Set

The Aislers Set is an indie pop group from San Francisco, formed in 1997 after the break-up of Amy Linton’s former band Henry’s Dress. The line-up includes Wyatt Cusick, Dan Lee, Amy Linton, Yoshi Nakamoto, Alicia Vanden Heuvel and Jennifer Gunst. The band is associated with indie pop, twee pop and C86-influenced British indie pop, and its recordings are made with a strong lo-fi feel: the first album, Terrible Things Happen, is recorded in Linton’s basement studio on an analog eight-track machine.

Releases and reception

Terrible Things Happen appears in 1998 and draws positive reviews from CMJ, The Big Takeover and indie pop zines. It also builds enough attention to lead to a tour of Japan in April 1999. The second album, The Last Match, is named by Spin.com in its Top 20 of 2000, and the group receives further praise from Salon.com, the New York Times, NME, Gear and Alternative Press. Their third album, How I Learned to Write Backwards, appears in 2003 and is noted for a fuller sound with sleigh bells, handclaps, horns and dense reverb.

Touring and recognition

The Aislers Set tours extensively, including support slots with Sleater-Kinney and Bratmobile. In 2001 the group tours Europe and records four tracks for a John Peel session, which is broadcast twice. In 2002 Belle and Sebastian invites the band on a week-long East Coast tour that ends at New York City’s Hammerstein Ballroom. Later that year, the San Francisco Chronicle includes the group in its “Young Artists on the Verge” list. In 2003 the band tours for much of the year, including a month supporting Yo La Tengo and a week supporting The Shins.

Hiatus

The group goes on hiatus in late 2003. By then, Amy Linton is living in New York City and Wyatt Cusick is living in Gothenburg, Sweden.