SUPERSUCKERS La Mano Cornuda 1994

by request

 

Tracklist ▼

1		Creepy Jackalope Eye	2:24
2		Seventeen Poles	1:26
3		High Ya!	1:16
4		On The Couch	2:29
5		Clueless	1:59
6		Sugie	2:15
7		Mudhead	3:15
8		Gold Top	2:51
9		How To Maximize Your Kill Count	2:09
10		I Was Born Without A Spine	1:53
11		Glad, Damn Glad	2:23
12		She's My Bitch	2:10
13.1		The Schmooze	3:55
13.2		Untitled	26:32

 

IDAHO EPs

The Bayonet

1995

 

Tracklist

1. The Worm

2. Sliding Past

3. Losing Light

4. Only Maybe

The Forbidden 

1997

by request

Tracklist

1. The Thick and the Thin

2. Hold Everything

3. Goldenseal

4. Apricots to Armagnac

5. Bass Crawl

IDAHO Year After Year 1993

biography

[+] by Andy Kellman

One of the most prolific, consistent, and unsung acts of the slowcore movement, California's Idaho centers itself around four-string guitarist and vocalist Jeff Martin, a talented songwriter who has gained comparisons to Mark Eitzel (American Music Club), Mark Kozelek (Red House Painters), and Neil Young from the few journalists that have paid attention. Despite the lack of recognition from the press and a low profile, Idaho has gained a decent-sized underground following through a steady release schedule and sporadic touring. Martin and high school friend John Berry began writing songs together in the '80s, meeting up occasionally throughout the years as something to do without a great deal of seriousness to it. They gave a tape of their work to an acquaintance who knew someone at Caroline, and soon enough, the duo found themselves with a recording contract. The duo actually debuted with the "Skyscrape" single on Ringer's Lactate in 1992 and released their first EP, Palms, on Caroline the following year. The full-length Year After Year was released by the end of 1993, with Mark Lewis and Unsane's Vincent Signorelli providing help on drums.

Berry exited for 1994's improved This Way Out, leaving Martin to himself. Receiving assistance from another batch of guest drummers (including frequent aide Joey Waronker), he played every instrument, including piano (Martin is classically trained). Since Martin wanted to keep Idaho a touring entity, he enlisted a semi-permanent supporting cast and, in turn, gave up some of the writing responsibility for 1996's Three Sheets to the Wind -- he had found it impossible to teach others the songs and have them play them the way he wanted. As a result, the bolstered lineup made for Idaho's most muscular record, featuring their loudest guitars but not sacrificing any sense of intimacy. The thicker sound pricked the ears of more journalists, who generally find the record to be Idaho's best overall.

Despite their recent underground success, Idaho found themselves ejected from Caroline. The group reverted back to a duo, with Martin retaining guitarist Dan Seta while the other two members, Lewis and Terry Borden, formed Flotilla. They also signed on with the smaller Buzz label, releasing The Forbidden EP and Alas in 1997 and 1998, respectively. After leaving the label, Martin set up Idaho Music (thanks to a car accident settlement) and issued the live People Like Us Should Be Stopped and Hearts of Palm in 2000. Seta left for 2001's Levitate, leaving Idaho as one-man act. We Were Young appeared in 2002.

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LOVE BATTERY Confusion Au Go Go 1998

by request

 

Tracklist ▼

1		Confusion Au Go Go	3:39
2		One Small Step	3:55
3		Snipe Hunt	3:17
4		Corporate Memo	3:26
5		Colorblind	3:12
6		Get On Da Big Foot	0:30
7		Dead Boys	4:10
8		Hollow Body	4:41
9		Cute One	2:45
10		Punks Want Rights	4:45
11		Transendental Fornication	4:52
12		Guilty Of Every Thing	5:09
13		Monkey Brain	4:22
14		Faithfull	4:06

 

 

 

SCRAWL Nature Film 1998

by request

 

review

[+] by Andy Kellman

It was fitting for the bad-luck Scrawl that Nature Film's artwork included the intended street date of "05-12-1998" -- it wasn't released until a week later. Aware of the likelihood that it would be their last record for Elektra, Scrawl smartly opted to offer as few new songs as possible to the label. Why bake a cake for a partner who's mistreating you, knowing that you can save it for someone who actually deserves it? With that frame of mind Nature Film should be the sound of a band not giving their all, simply going through the motions. That isn't the case -- despite half of the record being actual new material, it's the band's second-best album. They had kept old material from the Rough Trade days in their live repertoire; through years of sporadic gigging, songs like "Rot" and "For Your Sister" turned from good to fantastic, and literally none of their fans could find pre-Bloodsucker releases in the stores. "Standing Around," "Charles," "11:59 It's January," and "Clock Song" also get powerful updates, finally capturing the band's live edge on tape. Most noticeable is drummer Dana Marshall's contributions to the older material. Marshall joined after Bloodsucker. More agile and forceful than earlier drummer Carolyn O' Leary, Marshall's style and advanced musicianship are more complementary to the band. The record isn't just a good trawl through the past -- the six new songs lack nothing in vitality. Bad relationships are still the forte of Marcy Mays' songwriting, who manages to keep it fresh; "You Made It a Crime" is scornful, "100 Car Pile-Up" is shameless rage, and "Guess I'll Wait" is empty resignation. Top it off with a storming cover of PiL's "Public Image," and there you have it: another great record from Columbus' finest.

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WHIPPING BOY I Think I Miss You 12 inch 1990

by request

 

 

Tracklist ▼

A1		Daze
A2		Highwayman
B1		I Think I Miss You
B2		She Makes Me Ill

WHIPPING BOY Submarine 1992

by request

 

Tracklist ▼

1		Safari	3:22
2		Beatle	3:27
3		Sushi	4:34
4		Favourite Sister	3:44
5		Astronaut Blues	3:21
6		Bettyclean	4:49
7		Buffalo	4:50
8		Snow	4:55
9		Valentine 69	4:15
10		Submarine	5:50

 

 

DINK self titled 1994

by request

 

biography

by Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Dink is an alternative band that draws heavily from funk-metal, industrial, and rap. Their self-titled debut was released early in 1995 and the first single pulled from the record received a fair amount of MTV and modern rock radio airplay.

 

 

 

THE BLUE AEROPLANES Swagger 1990

biography

[+] by William Ruhlmann

The Blue Aeroplanes are an art rock group from Bristol, England, that has drawn comparisons to critically acclaimed rock bands like the Velvet Underground because of their eclectic style and the songwriting sensibility of group leader Gerard Langley. The original core of the band included Langley's brother John on drums, Nick Jacobs on guitar, and multi-instrumentalist Dave Chapman. However, personnel other than Langley has varied, and (on both records and in performances) they have always been augmented by a large cast of semi-regular sidemen. (By the time of their 1991 album, Beatsongs, the Aeroplanes' lineup included guitarist Angelo Bruschini, guitarist Rodney Allen, bassist Andy McCreeth, drummer Paul Mulreany, and guitarist/keyboard player Alex Lee, with another eight musicians listed in the credits.) The group released Bop Art on the Abstract Records label in April 1984, then signed to Fire Records, for which they recorded their second album, Tolerance (October 1986), and their third, Spitting Out Miracles (1987), plus several EPs. Spitting Out Miracles was their first U.S. release, followed by the compilation album Friendloverplane (1988), a double LP on Fire in the U.K. that was reduced to a single LP on Restless in the U.S. The Blue Aeroplanes then signed to the Ensign division of Chrysalis Records and charted in the U.K. with two 1989 singles, "Jacket Hangs" and "...And Stones," as well as their 1990 and 1991 albums, Swagger and Beatsongs.

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WHIPPING BOY Heartworm 1995

review

[+] by Jack Rabid

Released in the U.S. several months after the import, an annoying tendency of Columbia's that has earned the ire of British-music fans, Heartworm is an earth-shatteringly powerful experience from a previously unheralded band. Light years ahead of this Irish quartet's obscure, out of print debut, Submarine (in terms of production, scope, songwriting, and ability), this sophomore LP is no "slump." Instead, it's filled with tense guitars, on-the-brink anxiety, guts, passion, brains, and fantastic production by Wayne Livesey with mixing help from sharp-eared Bostonian Lou Giordano (who did Sugar's colossal Copper Blue and Beaster). From the gripping, cello-crying, opening moment of "Twinkle," Whipping Boy (not the early-'80s San Francisco hardcore band of the same name) puts the listener on notice that a topsy-turvy ride is coming, and all 11 songs deliver. "Twinkle" is the standout, the cliché of the chorus ("She's the only one for me") cleverly obfuscating rigid self-defilement and disillusionment. But the barking twin guitars of Ferghal McKee and Paul Page blow Heartworm into the stratosphere on each free moment, and McKee sings like a man coolly possessed, like a devil neatly stepping from the flames of such breakdowns as "We Don't Need Nobody Else" (in the belly of the beast of spousal violence) and the self-explanatory "The Honeymoon Is Over." Yet, for all this fierce determination, McKee and band are also capable of tenderness ("Morning Rise") and the comic wonder of existence ("Personality"). This LP is so f****** good, so unsettling and dangerous, yet beautiful and moving, that Whipping Boy should be headlining Lollapalooza instead of the weak, pathetic pretenders with all their hollow gestures we get every year. But maybe we can't handle the real thing.

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THE LOUD FAMILY Plants and Birds and Rocks and Things 1993

by request

R.I.P. Scott Miller (1960 - 2013)

biography

by Stephen Thomas Erlewine

After dissolving Game Theory, Scott Miller formed Loud Family, releasing their first album, Plants and Birds and Rocks and Things, in early 1992 on Alias Records. Plants and Birds and Rocks and Things received good reviews and maintained Miller's cult following, as did the subsequent EP, 1993's Slouching Towards Liverpool. In 1994, Loud Family released their second album, The Tape of Only Linda. The group's third album, Interbabe Concern, appeared in the late summer of 1996, followed two years later by Days for Days. Loud Family resurfaced in early 2000 with Attractive Nuisance.

THE POPGUNS Eugenie 1990

biography

[+] by Jason Ankeny

Brighton, England, jangle-pop band the Popguns was formed in 1988 by former Wedding Present drummer Shaun Carman in association with vocalist Wendy Morgan, guitarists Simon Pickles (the group's primary songwriter) and Greg Dixon, and bassist Pat Walkington. Debuting with "Where Do You Go?," a flexi-disc included with the fanzine How Many Beans Make Five?, the group issued its first official single, "Landslide," in 1989, with the full-length Eugenie appearing on the Midnight Music label in 1990. Charnan left the Popguns in the wake of their 1991 follow-up, Snog, but the group forged on, although a three-year hiatus preceded the release of the single, "Star," their first effort for new label 3rd Stone. Their third LP Love Junky appeared in 1995, although since the release of A Plus de Cent a year later the group has remained silent.

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THE HANG UPS Comin' Through 1995

Thanks to Patrick

biography

[+] by Greg Prato

The melodic alterna-pop band the Hang Ups came together in 1990, while the band members were attending the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Consisting of Brian Tighe (vocals, guitar), Jeff Kearns (bass, vocals), Stephen Ittner (drums), and John Crozier (guitar), the band began playing the Minneapolis club/bar circuit. However, drummer Ittner was unable to commit to long-term touring, which all but extinguished the band's hopes of hitting it big with the original lineup. Ittner remained with the group as a songwriter and studio drummer, as the band released both their debut EP Comin' Through and full-length He's After Me in 1993 (band friend Bryan Hanna fills the drum slot for touring). The band gained a dedicated fan in Soul Asylum's Dave Pirner, who compiled the soundtrack to the film Chasing Amy and picked an old favorite from their 1993 debut ("Jump Start") for an important scene in the movie. It took the band a long three years to follow-up their debut with sophomore effort So We Go, but thanks to the film, the timing couldn't have been better. The track led to greater interest in the band, as a remixed version was quickly added to second pressings of So We Go. Second Story -- notable as the first pairing of producers Don Dixon and Mitch Easter since R.E.M.'s classic Reckoning 15 years earlier -- followed in 1999.

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