The Abecedarians were a three piece out of Newport Beach, California, consisting of Chris Manecke on vocals, guitar, keyboards, flute, and drum machine; Kevin Dolan on drums; and John Blake on bass. They took their name from an obscure anabaptist sect, quoth Wikipedia:
"Abecedarians were a 16th century German sect of Anabaptists who affected an absolute disdain for all human knowledge, contending that God would enlighten his elect from within themselves, giving them knowledge of necessary truths by visions and ecstasies, with which human learning would interfere. They rejected every other means of instruction, and claimed that to be saved one must even be ignorant of the first letters of the alphabet; whence their name, A-B-C-darians. They also considered the study of theology as a species of idolatry, and regarded learned men who did any preaching as falsifiers of God's word."
The Ab's were together from 1983 to 88, and to this day are still a bit of a mystery. Information about them online is scarce and pictures of the band are even harder to come by. The Abecedarians sound is characterized by lead-man Manecke's deep, rich and distinctive vocal delivery and idiosyncratic lyrics; along with guitarwork that swims in a gravy-like sea of reverb. the rhythm section is a sturdy, restrained anchor for the atmospherics their songs swim in, with the occassional synth part thrown into the mix for good measure. The band would alternate between more upbeat, poppy, synth-driven post-punk and slower, sludgier, and decidedly stranger dirgelike material.
Download : The Abecedarians - AB-CD
