Deezleteens

Deezleteens existed as a fleeting studio collaboration whose tangled backstory requires far longer to recount than the music itself lasts. Two Posies members, Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow, joined forces with Tom Morgan and Nic Dalton from the lesser-known band Sneeze. During a July 1996 Australian tour stop by the Posies, Auer, Morgan, and Dalton laid down several power-pop-inflected alternative rock tracks that included Dalton’s own “On the Road,” a simultaneous rendering of both sides of the Replacements single titled “Replacements’ First Single” (“If Only You Were Lonely” b/w “I’m in Trouble”), Teenage Fanclub’s “Star Sign,” and Smudge’s “Ya We Are Cruel.” Stringfellow missed the session but later overdubbed lead vocals onto “On the Road” in 2000 while touring solo in Australia.

Everything except “Ya Are Cruel” eventually appeared on a 500-copy limited-edition 7” issued by the Australian Half a Cow label. Further technical distinctions reveal that Stringfellow and Auer perform solely on “On the Road,” Dalton and Morgan play and sing everything on “Replacements’ First Single,” and “Star Sign” incorporates Dalton, Morgan, Bill Gibson on bass and vocals, Jenny Shimmin on banjo, plus “the Gloomchasers Orchestra,” whose string parts were arranged by John Encarnacao. Prior to the 7” release, “Replacements’ First Single” surfaced on the Replacements tribute compilation I’m in Love...With That Song, credited to Erbs & Pisces instead of Deezleteens. Despite the modest final product, the picture-sleeved single carried all the hallmarks of a collectors-only artifact likely to gain rarity and desirability in later years.