The Capstan Shafts

The Capstan Shafts is the musical project of American lo-fi artist Dean Wells. He has been releasing material under the Capstan Shafts name since 1999, through various indie labels such as Yellow Mica, Asaurus and ''Abandoned Love Records''. Most of his albums are very cheap (four or five dollars) or even free.

His songs are typically short, ranging in length from 45 seconds to 2 minutes, and feature a full-band sound of guitars, bass and drums, all of which are played by Wells himself. Every Capstan Shafts release to date has been recorded at home, giving the music a fuzzy lo-fi sound similar to bands such as Guided By Voices and The Mountain Goats.

Despite a prolific output of recorded material (his total output amounts to ten EPs and seven full-length albums), Wells has only performed live three times. His recent album ''Her Versus The Sad Cold Eventually'', has led to an upsurge in media interest surrounding The Capstan Shafts; the album was given four very favorable reviews on music-news site Pitchfork Media by Matt LeMay of Get Him Eat Him.

Appearances

Dean Wells has also released a song as Vergel Tears, and has three albums under his own name.

On May 2, 2008, Wells opened for The Ruby Suns and Menomena at Middlebury College in Middlebury, VT. His temporary drummer, never having played live, returned from the bar just in time as Dean was about to be forced to start without him.

In 2010 the Capstan Shafts regrouped as a 5 piece band before playing shows across the U.S. east coast. Festivals dates at SXSW and CMJ followed before the band released their first studio LP "Revelation Skirts" for Rainbow Quartz Records.

Recently, National Public Radio chose the Capstan Shafts as one of "5 Artists You Should Have Known in 2010".

Discography

"'Revelation Skirts'" (2010) ''Rainbow Quartz Records''
#Fairwater Triumpalist
#Let Your Head Get Wrong
#Little Burst of Sunshine
#Versus the Sad Cold Eventually
#Class War Tease
#Heart Your Eat Out
#Successfully Into You
#From Revelation Skirts
#Quiet Wars
#Your Wasted is a Talent Here
#Cruel Streak Andes
#Versus the World-Hater
#Miss Stelliferous
#Great Reset Button of Life

Fixation Protocols (2008)
''Rainbow Quartz Records''

# Asymptonic Freedom
# Shaky Days, Bring Honey
# Eyeliner Skywriting etc.
# Middles of June
# Anthropecene Stealers
# Miss Cenozoic
# What Used to Become You (Now Befalls You)
# Communists in 19th Century America
# A Heart That Never Flies
# Get Honest
# Brightest Page in the History of Man
# Her Novel 'Canal Zone Poetry'
# Little World Saver
# Boy to Take You Nowhere
# Behemoth to a Flame
# The Hell With the Days Again
# The Stunted Kind
# Fixation Protocol
# Squeals of Resignation
# Song for Monometallists
# The Framers Blameless Enterprise
# Voting Hopeless

Miles Per Famine (2008)
''self-released''

# Main title miles per famine
# Perspective versus Evelyn
# (I dream about you because) you have such low standards
# Lemondrop hamstrung
# Contrary’s mom
# Trick years
# Second the devils esplanade
# The complete history of Ruth, Nevada
# Ethanol its cracked up to be
# Evelyn Halfstep?
# Hippolyte my life
# End title miles per famine

Environ Maiden (2007)
''Rainbow Quartz Records''

# Right on the Malthus
# Flip Cup Casualties
# The Dig Perpetual
# My Family Was Welsh, I'm Just Tired
# Sincere as a Windchime
# The Origin of Rain
# Trouble Peddling
# The Giving Earth and Her Oils of Love
# Girl to Scoff World's Ills
# The Ballad of Kid Butane
# The Complete History of Greenland
# Drop Dead Innocuous
# Vegans and Meteors
# Disko Bay (Good Years Left)
# Elected Head of Her Anarchist Group
# One of Us Should Be Further Away
# Hip to the Sweet Blue World Again
# Low Ceilings for Bedhoppers
# Oil Over Greenland! (Morsels of Fortitude)
# The Devil's Gazebo
# Favorite Eco-Terrorist
# Snakeskin Belt Through Loose Hoops
# She's Kick People
# The Flowering Universe Confounds
# Phase Appraisals
# Sick of Green
# Days from Work
# Better Get a Dream out of This
# Northern Me!

Bug Tragic (2007)
''Archive.org''
# Thinking Done
# The Devil's Esplanade
# Moving Wrong
# Better Ways to Hang
# Arthouse Floozy
# Smoking Window Closed
# Sad the Gains of Statists
# A Senator Short of a Quorum
# Abomination Paint

A Brace for Hephaestus (2007)
''Archive.org''

# Going by Martian Years Now
# The Icecaps of Mars (Are Just Copying Ours)
# More Faults than the Tharsis Region
# Tart Collaborative
# Grapples and Orangutangs
# She's Kick People
# Second Porches Can be Closer to Mars

Kid Butane Goes to Greenland (2007)
''Archive.org''

# The Ballad of Kid Butane
# The Complete History of Greenland
# Drop Dead Innocuous
# Elected Head Of Her Anarchist Group
# One Of Us Should Be Further Away
# They Call Me Kid Butane
# The Giving Earth and Her Oils of Love

Consumption Violets (2007)
''Archive.org''

# Flip Cup Casualties
# Right On The Malthus
# The Dig Perpetual
# Death To The Martyrs
# Low Ceilings For Bedhoppers
# Champions Of Equanimity
# Tackle Factory

Dreamilys Throttled Revolts (2007)
'' Fall of the West Records''

# Half a Bottle and a Full Moon
# One World Government (is One Too Many)
# Your Wasteds are a Talent Here
# Sap for Clearcut
# The Better She Looks the Less She Will See
# Playing Doctrine
# Gravitational Pollster
# Quiet Wars
# Clammy Handed Favors
# She Makes Amazing Look Stupid
# When Gold Brick Twins
# Mosquito Net Worth
# Hopeful Grows the Molehill
# Dreamily Very Later
# Trickier the Wisdom
# Skirt Inversions
# Cool Green Sinkings
# Consumption Violets
# Interdiction Hips
# Box Store Apologist
# Abandoned Drum Circles
# ....and a Patriot's Lament

Her Versus the Sad Cold Eventually (2007)
''Asaurus''
website

# Wilds of Gloryville
# Kiss-You Advocacy
# “Lauren Behold” (A Discussion with a Stripper over Canadian Style Health Care)
# Can’t you tell a Slow Burn Woo When you Ignore One?
# He would Die for you (If it Were up to me)
# Bluejean V. Debs
# How Could China Fail?
# I Don’t Like the Movies
# If She Quivers?
# She Can’t Stand the Quiet (Unless it’s Me Shutting Up)
# Hearts to the Fore, We Storm Love Castles
# Your Alone Has so Many More People in It
# Pick your Dystopia
# The Trilateralist Told You not To
# Every Dog Has its Silver Lining
# Red Scarcity
# Goner Alaskas
# Saddlebags and the Age of Jesus
# The Onetime Milwaukee Suicide
# Proletariat Glow

The Megafauna Undermined (2006)
''SCTAS''

# More Lovely than Likely
# Big Oil Hackery
# Save My Down for a Sadder Day
# Tanning Wrong
# My Family Was Welsh. I’m Just Tired
# Old Skull, New Mexico
# Quarantine Lifter
# Hairtrigger Recess Appointment
# Sincere as a Windchime
# Finer Supercathedrals
# Catch you Next Divorce
# The Lightning Boy
# No Threat of a Good Time
# Suckers of Twiddled Thumbs
# The Worst Lessons from the Wrong People
# Handstander in an Age of Backflips
# The Complete History of England
# Goodlie Oddthoughts Journal of Woe
# Hit me Like the Greatest Car Song

Euridice Proudhon (2006)
''Kittridge''

# Everyone Plants Trees
# Sleepcure Theory Advancer
# Carbon Neutral Enterprise
# Orpheus in His Underware
# Signature Car Funk
# The Small of the Back the Crimewave
# Magical Dance Number Scene
# 61 Sideburns
# Gods Favorite Foreigner
# Most Cultures Were Wrong
# Use the Poets as Barricades
# Aching Tiny Everywheres
# I Don’t Mind you Dragging Me Down
# The Failure of History
# Sunshine Profligate
# Our Southern Ambitions
# Defenstration Makes Good Neighbors
# Polyestershines
# American Volume
# Griefseedling
# Good Riddence, Euridice
# Hip/Misguided

Springboard to the Boxwine Set (2006)
''Yellow Mica''

# Slow Day for Reasoning
# The Deli Girls Give me what I Ask for if I Am Careful What I Ask for
# Trouble to Shave
# They Call me the Etruskan Musket
# Tilting at Windchills
# Jackie Relief Map
# The Laziest Gypsies
# Cavacade of Sulk
# Sonny and Cher
# Failed Budhist Retreat Come-On
# God is in my Bitchseat
# Sealed with a Kiss, Opened with a Crowbar
# Dumb Bastard Parade
# Sideagle and Supereagle
# Half of the Toys
# The Great Instead
# The Wives of Halloween Whiskers
# Among the Many Things Pinned to you Are my Hopes
# The Crime at the Anchorage Marina
# Show me your Sunshine
# Some Birds Soaring, Some Roasting
# Tombstone in the Poor Choice Graveyard
# Boxwine Willies
# Beach Delay, or Lighten up, Fuzzhead

The Sun Don’t Get Things Done (2006)
''Ladder the Christmas Monkey Records''

# Hearthrobgoblins
# Lower Costa Rica
# She Sees the Good in Everyone
# Several Dozen Engines
# Don’t Let the Motorcyclists
# Avoiding Daddys on the Floor

The Sleeved and Granddaughters of the Black List (2005)
''Abandoned Love Records''

# St. Paul?
# Can’t Climb a Tree (without Breaking a few Branches)
# A Gal Called Allegory
# Live Nudebranches
# Wonderful Lottery Ticket Way
# Sister Artworld Frenzy
# Grindcore Tribals
# Recovering Cheerleader, Recovering Greenpeace Canvasser
# Groovy your World View
# Here Comes Down
# Hominid Stickler
# Brush Cleaning Boy
# Testy and Half-Baked
# Chandelier of Bad Ideas
# Fates Hammer, Hollows and Powderkegs
# Leftcoast Intolerant
# “Cheery Magdelene”
# Whatever, I’m a Miracle
# A Bad Childhood and the Commerce Clause
# She Paints with Both Hands

Halaluah Moancoaxers (2005)
''Beat the Indie Drum''

# Love Pundits Bright Future
# Lessthreatening Day
# Petals on an Austin Rose
# Personals Surfer
# Sarasota vs. the Concrete Poets
# The Strategy of Daylight
# The Giddy Tramps Marching Orders
# Your Hipper Default Settings

Demon Dog of the American Park Service (2005)
''Yellow Mica''

# Drunken Eagles West Coast Bash
# Get your Cat out of my Sunbeam
# Lucky Monkey Briefs
# Kinder Springs
# Gone City Knock Out
# Negative Man, What’s the Anti Matter?
# 93 Approximately
# Take your Coat off and Stomp for a While
# Carrier State Anthems
# Light as Mantra

The Night Shrine of Well-Groomed Lawns (2005)
''Ladder the Christmas Monkey Records''

# The Gourgestest of Glorious Suns
# Good Mood Passes
# Tape-Opera
# Get Needy on Me
# Barnacle Geese
# Sometimes the Horns
# Particularly Mindsticking
# No Downer for the Skein

Unreconstructed Lo-fi Whore (2005)
''Ladder the Christmas Monkey Records''

# The Days Don’t Pass in Wonder
# Half-Drunk and Assless
# Landfill Dancers
# Anniversaries of Genodices
# Cuddleparty Renegade
# World-Hater Company Song

Her Chapbook Called “Tiny Grey Radio” (2004)
''Ladder the Christmas Monkey Records''

# Upstairs with the Anti-Christ
# Perfect Bound Someday
# Gift of Higher Aspirations
# Pome on Pg. 14
# She Reads Easy
# Tulipsqueaking
# Scripted Ass Collisions

Ample Tribes for Sullen King Pounder (2004)
''Ladder the Christmas Monkey Records''

# Posters for Cat Disappeared
# Dukes of the Ugly Sound
# No. 5 Aluminum Lake
# Alien Like Paraguay
# She’s the Moon Hoax
# Feed me Flowers

Hopegetswheels (2004)
''Ladder the Christmas Monkey Records''

# Hibiscus Wildzoo Pt. II
# Little Burst of Sunshine
# Shimmyshake on Monster Islan
# Dinosaurs to Drive Off
# Fireman Among the Eskimos
# Hibiscus Wildzoo Pt. I

Seal Cull Rebellion (2004)
''Ladder the Christmas Monkey Records''

# Birthdays and Middlenames
# Drags of Grind
# Datepanties
# Sacrificial Anode Rod
# Favorite Enabler
# Camel Lightyears

Great Reset Button of Life (2004)
''Ladder the Christmas Monkey Records''

# Virgin Queen of the Cattlemen
# The Tragedy of Empiricism
# Crownchafings
# All Your Little Happenings
# Some Good Factory Ass
# Blue Foreign Cartoons

Chick Cigarettes (2004)
''Asaurus''
website

# Good Judge of Witch Flesh
# The Day you Called me Pretty
# Auto Naval
# Ogre Finds
# Vulture Juice
# Qualms of the Azor Bombers
# Gentler Trending
# Cornflower Blues
# Froth of July
# The Battle of Metaphor
# Goddess of Provisional Affinity
# Felony War
# Shiny New Chain
# Too Much Shit (and not enough Ass)
# Dying Sun
# My Beautiful Days
# Sweet Lady of the Calmatives
# Good Morning, Please
# Revenge Sex Theater
# My Gal Lo

Some Creatures Have No Experts (?)

# In Favor of the Trees
# Felony Wear
# Three Beer Drama
# Precious Dimple Refinement
# To the Dreamy Pop Icons
# Alien Hand
# Five Reasons for Moonshots

External links

Unofficial Myspace page with many useful links and info

Last FM profile of The Capstan Shafts

Interview with Dean Wells

Crawdaddy! Profile, The Capstan Shafts, There's Blood On The Four-Track

Pitchfork Media review of three Capstan Shafts albums

Pitchfork Media review of Environ Maiden

NPR's 5 Artists You Should Have Known in 2010

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American indie rock groups