Walt Mink - Little Sister
1996

Any band lucky enough to get a rating of 10 on Pitchfork today would probably be pretty happy. Maybe they'd even assume that such a strong endorsement would assure them a career. Certainly the Arcade Fire acts as if this is so, and they didn't even get a perfect score. But Walt Mink, a power trio from St. Paul, Minnesota, flamed out just as their critical star was rising.

Walt Mink began life at Macalester college in the early '90s and achieved a moderate level of fame. They scored a deal with Caroline for their debut album and sales were not horrible. However, the band's sound--Smashing Pumpkins as sung by the Chipmunks--was an odd one, and surely no one predicted these guys would become much more than cult faves. If not for their brilliant swan song El Producto it is doubtful that Walt Mink would even qualify as "cult."

On their final album, Walt Mink exorcized the naive posturing found on their first two records and found an original voice amid the rubble of punk, prog, and folk. An odd mix, sure, but the band delivered a bonified masterpiece just before they imploded and "Little Sister" is but one of this album's amazing tracks.