It's an oft-repeated but untrue story that all of the albums by Amon Duul I (the freakier precursor to Krautrock Kult Faves Amon Duul II) were recorded in a single acid-fueled 24-hour session that was eventually edited down into album-length chunks. As a result, the Shapiros probably win the award for having the most fruit fly-length existence of any band that released more than one single. According to the timeline in the posthumous compilation released in 2001 (also on Library Records), the Shapiros had their first rehearsal on September 7, 1994, played their first show nine days later, played their last show six days after that, and broke up by the end of the month. Four singles and a couple of compilation tracks (all from one session produced by Velocity Girl's Archie Moore) dribbled out over the next year or so, all of them rare enough that by 1997, lead singer/guitarist Pam Berry made me a mixtape of all the Shapiros material she had because the records were impossible to find.

Those who remember the names Pam Berry and Archie Moore from earlier Little Hits appearances (see November 5, 2005, Glo-Worm's "Wishing Well") have an idea of what the Shapiros were like. Although unlike Glo-Worm, the Shapiros had a proper rhythm section, they were equally defined by Berry's lighter than air voice and lovelorn lyrical sense. "Gone By Fall" is actually one of their more lighthearted tunes!

-Srewart Mason