A MEANS TO AN END (THE MUSIC OF JOY DIVISION) Various Artists 1995

 

Discogs

 

Joy Division songs covered by various alternative bands


Tracklist

1. Girls Against Boys - She's Lost Control
2. Honeymoon Stitch - Day of the Lords
3. Moby - New Dawn Fades
4. Low - Transmission
5. Codeine - Atmosphere
6. Further - Insight
7. Stanton-Miranda - Love Will Tear Us Apart
8. Starchildren - Isolation
9. Kendra Smith - Heart and Soul
10. Versus - Twenty Four Hours
11. Desert Storm - Warsaw
12. godheadSilo - They Walked In Line
13. Face To Face - Interzone
14. Tortoise - As You Said

REX self titled 1995

 
Discogs

Artist Biography by Marc Ruxin

An early version of slowcore band Rex originated in Maine in 1991, but at the time, drummer Doug Scharin was devoting most of his time to slowcore innovators Codeine. In 1994, Rex relocated to Brooklyn. With bands like Idaho, Acetone and the Red House Painters helping to keep alive the pensive, brooding slowcore movement, Rex didn't waste any time recording their self-titled debut for Southern Records that same year. This record fluctuates wildly between gentle, meandering guitar lines and powerful, emotive vocals.

The band's next album, C, revealed a significantly more mature version of Rex. The slow, rolling nature of the band was augmented by the addition of an occasional string accompaniment and a more restrained vocal and emotional focus. Adored by the critics, C established Rex as one of the premier indie rock bands earning them touring spots alongside the Sea and Cake, Sebadoh, and others.

The steady, driving nature of C neatly foreshadowed what was to come with 3. Enlisting a full-time string section for both studio sessions and touring, Rex was successful in trading their gritty slowcore/post-rock with a cleaner gentler sound. The band's maturity signals a further emphasis on clarity and composition, as opposed to previous efforts where crescendoed bursts of emotional power defined their art.

The band's ties to Chicago has incited a collaboration with Red Red Meat, released under the name of Loftus, and recording sessions in Brad Wood's Idful Studio. Doug Scharin has also recorded a solo sound experiment under the name HIM, also released by Southern.

Tracklist

1	Nothing Is Most Honorable Than You
2	Angel Tune He Hums
3	High School Dance Hit
4	Tortured Animal
5	Come Dawn
6	Ditch
7	A Good Time To Die
8	This Is A Recording
9	Come Down ( Dance Hall Mix )

HiM Egg 1995

 

Discogs

Dub-influenced post-rock band formed in 1995 by multi-instrumentalist Doug Scharin.
 

 

Tracklist

1	Creality	9:55
2	Sweatshop (3 x 5)	5:27
3	Three On A Tree	4:49
4	Painted Egg	9:23
5	E-Bola	6:37
6	Bookkeeper	4:28
7	Law	10:55

YOUR INVITATION TO SUICIDE Various Artists 1994

 A Tribute to the Songs of Martin Rev, Alan Vega

Discogs

Tracklist  

1	–White Flag With Two Virgins (2)	Speed Queen	7:27
2	–Thin White Rope	Rocket USA	5:35
3	–The Gories	Ghost Rider	3:47
4	–The A-10	Cheere	3:36
5	–Darkside*	Frankie Teardrop	9:11
6	–Mudhoney	Baby Oh Baby	3:46
7	–Honeymoon Killers*	Fireball	2:32
8	–Luna (5)	Dream Baby Dream	5:54
9	–Sonic Boom (2)	R&R Is Killing My Life	4:15
10	–Flaming Lips*	Ice Drummer	4:24
11	–The Nomads (2)	Magdalena	3:55
12	–La Secta	Raver	3:21
13	–Ben Vaughn	Jukebox Babe	4:42
14	–Angel Corpus Christi	Surrender	3:42
15	–Zenith (9)	Bring In The Year 2.000	7:24
16	–Codeine	Two Faced Man	3:04

BASTRO and CODEINE A L'ombre De Nous 7 inch 1991

 

Discogs

Tracklist

A	A L'ombre De Nous = In Our Shadow
B	Produkt

REVOLUTION COME AND GONE Various Artists 1992

Discogs

Tracklist  

1	–Tad	Jinx	3:03
2	–Six Finger Satellite	Weapon	3:26
3	–Rein Sanction	Creel	2:19
4	–Beat Happening	Revolution Come And Gone	4:16
5	–The Walkabouts	Maggie's Farm	4:48
6	–Truly	Heart And Lungs	4:21
7	–Mudhoney	The Money Will Roll Right In	2:30
8	–Supersuckers	Caliente	1:55
9	–Reverend Horton Heat	Marijuana	4:47
10	–The Dwarves*	Fuck Em All	1:37
11	–Bullet Lavolta	Rails	4:02
12	–Green Magnet School	Throb	5:46
13	–Hole (2)	Dicknail	3:38
14	–Steven Jesse Bernstein	No No Man Pt. 2	2:43
15	–Seaweed	Baggage	3:06
16	–The Monkeywrench	Call My Body Home	2:37
17	–Afghan Whigs*	Miles Iz Ded	4:42
18	–Love Battery	Foot	3:48
19	–Codeine	Cracked In Two	2:52
20	–Mark Lanegan	Woe	2:04
21	–Earth (2)	A Bureaucratic Desire For Revenge Pt. 1	7:18

WORKING HOLIDAY Various Artists 1994

compilation on the Simple Machines record label

Discogs

Tracklist

1	–Scrawl	11:59 It's January	3:23
2	–Versus	Tin Foil Star	4:09
3	–Lungfish	Abraham Lincoln	4:47
4	–The Tinklers	James Brown	3:47
5	–Codeine	Ides	3:55
6	–The Coctails	Working Holiday	3:57
7	–Eggs	Roll Away The Stone	5:26
8	–Jonny Cohen & The Shoetrees	Christmas Trees Everywhere	1:32
9	–Veronica Lake	Saints Above	3:48
10	–My Dad Is Dead	Where Is Our Reason	4:31
11	–Rastro!	Kiss Me	2:30
12	–Nothing Painted Blue	Another Child Bride	3:30
13	–Lois (3)	Indie	2:07
14	–Small Factory	If You Hurt Me	4:31
15	–Tsunami (6)	Kidding On The Square	4:18
16	–Jawbox	Falk	2:52
17	–Crackerbash	Back To School	2:50
18	–The Grifters*	Under The Ground	2:36
19	–Crain (2)	Coalmine #666	4:08
20	–Pitchblende	A Penny For The Guy	3:50
21	–Superchunk	Night Of The Chill Blue	4:30
22	–Caterpillar (3)	Winter's Come	2:35

AFTERNOON DELIGHT! Various Artists 1992

Discogs

Tracklist

1	–Sebadoh	It's So Hard To Fall In Love	2:01
2	–Come (2)	Car	6:03
3	–Beat Happening	Other Side	3:34
4	–Unrest (2)	When It All Comes Down	3:45
5	–Steven Jesse Bernstein	This Clouded Heart	6:26
6	–Green River	Baby Takes	4:25
7	–Codeine	Castle	4:33
8	–Afghan Whigs*	Let Me Lie To You	4:35
9	–Smashing Pumpkins*	La Dolly Vita	4:15
10	–Seaweed	Clean Slate	2:37
11	–Vaselines*	Rory Rides Me Raw	2:27
12	–Rev. Horton Heat*	Where In The Hell Did You Go With My Toothbrush?	3:35
13	–Billy Childish & Kyra	Why Can't You See	2:33

CODEINE The White Birch 1994

by request

 

biography

[+] by Stewart Mason

The early-'90s New York trio Codeine were one of the founders of the slowcore scene that included groups like Bedhead, American Analog Set, and Low. Taking audible inspiration from the third Velvet Underground album and scene pioneers Galaxie 500, but adding a more aggressive tone and slowing the tempos down even further, Codeine sounded almost entirely unique at the time. However, their style was immediately adopted by a number of other new bands.

Codeine were formed in 1989 by bassist/singer Stephen Immerwahr, guitarist John Engle, and drummer Chris Brokaw. Their demo, a tortured version of the Pete Ham/Tom Evans classic "Without You" that stretches the four-minute song out to nine, got the band signed to Glitterhouse Records in Europe and Sub Pop in the U.S. the following year. Their debut album, Frigid Stars LP, was released by Glitterhouse in late 1990 and Sub Pop in the spring of 1991 to generally positive reviews.

A lengthy EP, Barely Real, came out in 1992. Although the record varies Codeine's sound a bit with piano by ex-Squirrel Bait member turned art rocker David Grubbs (Codeine had toured Europe with Grubbs' instrumental group Bastro) and a noise guitar freakout by Bitch Magnet leader Jon Fine, plus a cover of MX-80 Sound's "Promise of Love," Barely Real is basically a continuation of the style perfected on Frigid Stars LP. Beginning in 1991, Brokaw was pulling double duty, playing drums in Codeine and guitar in Thalia Zedek's band Come. Brokaw finally left Codeine in late 1992 to devote his full energies to his other band. After an already planned U.S. tour went ahead with Brokaw's hastily selected temporary replacement, Antietam's Josh Madell, Engle and Immerwahr began auditioning for a permanent drummer who could match their agonizingly slow tempos. Douglas Scharin, a member of the Brooklyn chamber rock quartet Rex (who, unlike Brokaw, managed to maintain his dual band memberships), was selected and the newly reconfigured trio spent a summer in Grubbs' hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, tweaking old material for touring purposes and writing new songs.

A single produced by Grubbs, "Tom," was released in the fall of 1993, followed by the full-length The White Birch in April 1994. Slightly more melodic than the earlier albums, but just as languorously paced, The White Birch is probably the group's best record. After an extensive U.S. tour, the trio split amicably to work on other projects. Scharin returned to Rex, then later worked with the instrumental post-rock project HIM and the harder-edged June of 44. Immerwahr started a new band, Raymond. In 2011, Codeine were contacted by the Numero Group about re-releasing all their albums in one giant box set. When I See the Sun, which featured almost as many bonus tracks as previously released album tracks, was released in early summer of 2012. Around the same time, the band reunited (at the request of longtime fans Mogwai) to play a handful of festivals and concert dates.

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