Mustard – Trampoline
1996

Most bands don't take 11 years to release their debut album; then again, most bands don't name themselves after a condiment either. According to Daryle Goldfarb, who formed Mustard with Steve Tousand and Sean Whitley in 1985, the band was christened at Santa Monica Place, a mall in West LA. "We were throwing out names of random items around the mall," he said. "After tossing out things like Fork, Spoon, and Ketchup, 'Mustard' just stuck as a cool, 70's-sounding food name for a band."

The band recorded sporadically for the next few years and one of their projects included scoring a student film at Crossroads High School starring Jack Black. Before they all left for UC Santa Cruz, the band released a 7" single which somehow landed in the lap of a Rolling Stone editor who put the band's picture and bio in a college-music special.

In 1996, the trio finally got around to releasing a proper album, which was recorded between 1994 and 1996. Unfortunately, the trio was not able to capitalize on it at this time because they were all beginning to scatter across California after graduation. Mustard still occasionally gets together to record and Goldfarb is still threatening to release the follow-up.

Rex Aquarium - Remember
2003

Rex Aquarium were an LA band that seemed to be poised for success in 2004. They had broken out locally and their song "Alicia" was hotly tipped by the press. The song was indeed one of the highlights of their uneven debut. However, the band's second album sank with barely a trace and the bank broke up a few years later.

Like many LA bands, Rex Aquarium had members with showbiz ties. Guitarist/vocalist Charles Wadhams and his brother Christopher were the children of Bill Wadhams, the singer and songwriter from Animotion. The band bears no traces of a new wave influence, instead sounding more like an unholy fusion of Steely Dan and the Strokes. "Remember" leads off the debut CD and is a sleepy, sly tune that has a way of staying in your head for days.

Here is a link to the video for "Alicia."

Henrietta's Lovers - Monkey Barrs
1990

Led by charismatic frontman and trumpet player Alexander Davidowski, Henrietta's Lovers was formed at the University of Florida in 1990. The band didn't fit into any particular scene, as their sound was an odd collision of Joy Division moodiness, jazz-funk, and Davidowski's warbling croon.

Guitarist Matt Herrero coined the band name after a short story he wrote based on a family member.  The band remained coy about the exact nature of the story, and apparently Herrero's family wasn't all too keen on the name. Herrero also came up with the title of the band's only release, The Pagoda Woman, which was recorded in August 1990 at Mirror Image studios in Gainesville. According to Davidowski, the cassette sold a hundred copies or so. The band didn't really tour outside of Florida and after recording one last song "Crystal Castles," the band broke up.

Although uneven and amateurish at times, The Pagoda Woman is an engaging and unique album that gets by on the band's enthusiasm and wealth of ideas. Side one leans towards atmospheric jazz-funk and quirky pop while side two features a live set that veers from carnival barker trippiness ("Cat's Eye") to goofy garage punk ("Itomni"). The album closes with a minor-key, new wave dirge.

"Monkey Barrs," named after the slap-pop-happy bass player Ceb Barrs, is the quintessential Henrietta's Lovers track, showcasing Davidowski's unhinged vocal antics and the band's eclectic range of ideas. It appeared on their lone cassette, as well as a compilation of local bands called Gainesville Can't Dance.

(Corrected 4/4/11)

Bonus link to an old article on the band: http://ufdc.ufl.edu/UF00028290/00524/11j

Billy Crosbys - Ashtray
1996

Inspired by DIY label Shrimper, John Gleason formed the Billy Crosbys in Metuchen, New Jersey in 1992. By the late '90s the band's ranks swelled to include two female singers and a violin player, but the core always remained John Gleason and Jeremy Benson.

Like Shrimper, the Billy Crosbys primarily released handmade cassettes, issuing five of them on their own imprint Gugliano Family Picnic Records. They also released a string of singles, a cassette on Brassland Records and appeared on numerous compilations.

According to Gleason, "Ashtray" was inspired by the film Gorillas in the Mist. "I had seen it when I was younger and never forgot the image of an ape's hand being used as an ashtray. So, ‘that makes for a hell of an ashtray’ is actually a disapproving statement."

Russell Hoke - Someday Among Flowers
1984

In 2003, Chris King of Eleanor Roosevelt passed me an odd, mysterious CD-R by Russell Hoke called Magic of My Youth. It has a xeroxed cover and very little information beyond the song titles and dates. I later posted a song by Hoke on this blog, lamenting the fact that he never released anything on vinyl. Hoke soon got in touch to let me know that he did in fact do a tiny vinyl edition of another collection called Cosmic Outlaw. Pressed in an edition of 100 copies with handwritten song titles, the album is now hopelessly rare.

In 2009, Hoke belatedly released Magic of My Youth on vinyl, again in an edition of 100. The only place to buy copies is directly so contact him at at Russnbus@yahoo.com for for more info.

Kurt Vile: The Early Years


2003: "Me and Work"
2004: "Ocean City"

2009 is looking to be Kurt Vile's breakout year. He just released God is Saying This to You (Mexican Summer) and word of mouth has been mostly of the drool variety. This April, Woodsist is rereleasing Constant Hitmaker, Vile's sleeper disc from last year, and there is also a big label deal in the works.

I have been listening to Kurt Vile's homemade cd-r's for the past few years and it's been a pleasure to see him grow. Of course, that growth isn't always apparent to recent converts. Both God and Constant Hitmaker are actually compilations, handpicked from Vile's vast catalog of bedroom recordings. So what the new listeners don't get is the wider palette and occasionally rough edges of Vile's earlier work. "Detoxanne," from Kurt's 2003 debut Ten Songs, features clanging percussion and a vaguely klezmer feel. Rarities and Rejects, also from 2003, features a very indie cover of Pavement's "Zurich is Stained."

Still, these were diversions. Many of Vile's key songs from the early period (many of which have now been compiled) were his acoustic ones. At the time, Vile was most comfortable in Fahey mode, casting lonesome and haunting melodies over fingerpicked guitarlines. He also tended to write more direct lyrics. "Me and Work," from Ten Songs is a classic example, with Vile articulating a sense of purpose out of passivity.

Vile continued to broaden his sound on 2004's 9 Recordings with the Syd Barret-like "Ocean City" and the droning, sample-based "Best Love." By 2005's Trial and Error, Vile began experimenting with ambient and electronic elements and tightening his compositions. A prime weakness on his first two albums were overlong songs.

Vile really turned the corner in 2006 with the remarkable Accidents EP, which featured his strongest songs to date. By now he'd replaced the loner folk vibe with warped, cryptic pop and it fit him well. On "Don't Get Cute," he sang "I wanna be a success, give me my style." He emphasized the word "suck" as he sang "success," as if to make a point of the inevitable dilution of talent that comes with the territory. Perhaps he'd grown bitter, or maybe he could feel it coming. Either way, it was here that Vile finally synthesized his influences into a refined, cohesive aesthetic.

It will be interesting to see Vile move beyond his bedroom recordings. As the appetite for his work grows, Vile will have to create new material on cue, a challenge that often stumps emerging artists who have had so much time to tinker with their initial batch of compositions. When he does, I'll be the first in line to buy whatever this fascinating artist delivers.

Discography:

Full Lengths:
2003 - 10 Songs (Self-released)
2003 - Rarities and Rejects (Self-released)
2004 - 9 Home Recordings (Self-released)
2007 - Constant Hitmaker (Gulcher)

EP's:
2005 - Trial and Error (Self-released)
2006 - Accidents (Self-released)
2009 - God Is Saying This To You (Mexican Summer)

Love Child - He's So Sensitive
1990

In February 1990, Lovechild recorded Okay?, their debut LP for Homestead. Too schizophrenic and intellectual to ever capture a large audience, the band nevertheless predated many prevailing trends of the decade: riot-grrl, lo-fi, noise and angular guitar rock. The album barely holds together, but the band's wealth of ideas is inspiring and invigorating. An easy standout is bassist/singer Rebecca Odes' "He's So Sensitive," a song that seems tailor made for the Kill Rock Stars label.

Comprised of guitar-wizard Alan Licht, Odes, and Will Baum, Lovechild only managed to release one more album before falling apart in 1992. Licht went on to record one of the most baffling noise records of the '90s, Sink the Aging Process on Siltbreeze. According to Licht, the album deeply disturbed Mike Watt and Ron House, and Bob Fay reported that after listening to the first side, there was an earthquake.

Vinylstar - Rays
1994

Most of Vinylstar’s members were still in highschool in Valparaiso, Indiana when they recorded their first batch of songs in 1994. Perhaps Vinylstar never got the memo about the DIY revolution because none of their early material was released until much later. When it came to playing live however, the quintet was quite resourceful, often renting out the American Legion hall to play shows with other local bands.

After highschool, Paul Foreman left Valpairso to attend college at Indiana University in Bloomington. His band mates eventually followed him there, and Vinylstar slowly worked their way up the indie rock food chain. Although, as Foreman says, the band may have made this more difficult than it needed to be. "I know that we rubbed a lot of people the wrong way when we moved to Bloomington. We were kinda cocky jerks for a while."

Vinylstar finally got a chance to release their music when Clark Giles saw them at a big outdoor festival called Culture Shock. Although his label largely focused on hardcore and screamo bands, he liked Vinylstar enough to release all three of their albums. The final album I Like Today, appeared in 2003 and was produced by Vess Ruhtenberg of United States 3.

"Rays" comes from a posthumous, three-CD collection of Vinylstar's early, unreleased material.

NDolphin - Red Town
1990

My first post on NDolphin seemed to be popular, so I thought I'd upload a track from their second cassette, Wail. I spoke to Joshua McKay recently and he gave me a little more info on the band. He said the first cassette sold almost 5,000 copies. Quite a number for a band that barely toured outside of their hometown of Gainesville!

McKay was never really an official member, but he produced the first EP. The band produced Wail themselves, and at times it shows. Overall the songs aren't as strong as on the debut and the production work is a bit unfocused and muddy. However, "Red Town" is still an enjoyable track, and one that recalls the best of Jefferson Airplane's vocal interplay.

Click here to read my first NDolphin post. I finally got around to re-uploading that track. Sorry for the two year delay!

 

  Minerva Strain - Strum (1992)

Formed in Chapel Hill, North Carolina in 1990, Minerva Strain maintained a consistent line up for all six years of the band’s existence. Pat Johnson, Nick Lingg, Andy Shull, and Jason Summers all met while working at UNC student radio station WXYC. Shull was the primary songwriter, but Summers and Lingg also wrote. Ted Goss, who ran Jettison records, attended the band’s first show and agreed to release a single. "Fissure," backed with REM-ish "Strum," appeared in 1992. Minerva Strain followed their debut single with two more singles and eventually Blue Tarantella, a 73-minute album that appeared in 1995. An early song called "Anushka Babar" appeared on Cognitive Mapping II (Cognitive Mapping I was cassette-only), which is an excellent introduction to the ‘90s Chapel Hill scene. According to Shull, "Things just wound down sometime during 1996, as our futures pulled us all in diverging directions. There was no official farewell performance, so under band law, we are still a band."

Ton Bundle - Inbetween and Afterward
1992

Ton Bundle formed at Wheaton college in Illinois. Led by Rob Bell, they released a cassette in 1992 called "Taking My Donkey to Town." A friend made me a dub of the tape in high school and I actually listened to it fairly often. I forgot about the band a few years later, but rediscovered the tape when I was researching tracks for my Tiny Idols comps. I decided to see if I could find the band, and it turned out that Bell is now a hugely popular pastor at Mars Hill church. I left several messages with Bell's secretary, but she seemed dubious about my intentions and probably never even passed on the message. I never heard back from Bell.

Upon relistening to the tape, it does in fact have some Christian themes, if not overtly so. In hindsight I also now remember that the friend who gave me the tape was raised in a devoutly Christian home. A coincidence? Probably not.

In my research I discovered that Ton Bundle attracted a fairly devoted following at the time (I guess some were born to lead, huh?). Many of the old fans were dying to hear tracks, so I thought I'd upload my favorite from the cassette.

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.

Dallas - Let's Split
1999

Before blogs, bands still got hyped to death. Estonian band Dallas (big JR Ewing fans, I presume) racked up critical raves throughout 1999, including a spot in the Toronto Star's top ten albums of the year. But the band sat on their hands until 2003 and by then everyone was tired of Stereolab ripoff bands. Well, Dallas wasn't really a Stereolab ripoff, but they certainly drew from the same panoply of influences: jazz, lounge, pop, krautrock, etc. Still, their self-titled third album is a cutout bin surprise, with plenty of good songs and period touches like fuzz guitars, tambourines and canned strings.

Dallas formed in 1992, one year after Estonia gained independence from the Soviet Union. They released a few singles, an EP, and two albums before signing to American label High Park records to release the much lauded Dallas. The primary songwriters were keyboardist/vocalist Holger Loodus and guitarist Tauno Pääslane, but others were involved, especially vocalist Kristi Kindel who can be heard on "Let's Split" and pretty much every other song on the album.

Click here to buy the album from CD Baby.

PS: This is NOT the band's website.

Smack Dab - Right Smack Dab
1994

No, this isn't a novelty song. All of Smack Dab's songs sound like this. Short, catchy, and a little bit silly. Ahh, but I love it! Smack Dab's charm can surely be pinned on the inimitable voice of the eternally childlike Linda Hagood, who sounds like a primitive, purer version of Joanna Newsom. (Guess Hagood should have learned to play the harp.)

Trouser Press has an informative write-up on the trio here, but I have a story of my own. I first heard the band when their second album, Majestic Root, was originally released in 1994 (containing the above song), but forgot about them a few years later. Fast forward to 2001; I'm living in San Francisco and one night I go to a bar in the mission with a friend. I sit down at the bar and the female bartender says--in a squeaky, cute voice-- "What can I get for you?" I nearly fell off the stool. "You used to be in Smack Dab, didn't you?!" I asked. Strangely, she didn't even seem that surprised. She was more surprised that I didn't recognize her from the Double U, a San Francisco based-band she was in at the time.

The above photo is a recent image of Hagood. I couldn't find any cool vintage photos. See, Google Images doesn't have everything.

 

Palm Fabric Orchestra: The Garden (1994)

In 1988, Poi Dog Pondering quickly built a reputation as a lovable troupe of scruffy kids from Texas who often had trouble fitting on the stage, literally and figuratively. Orbiting around lead singer Frank Orral was a constellation of eight or ten folk journeymen and musical stragglers who played exotic instruments like the ukelele and accordion (what, you thought Beirut invented that?). And with their debut single and college radio hit "Living with the Dreamy Body," Poi Dog had the perfect song to launch a legend. Introduced with a tin whistle and Scottish drum rolls, "Dreamy Body" sounded like nothing else on college radio, and yet, with its nasal vocals and silly lyrics, was not so far removed from other alternative bands of the time. And then everything went to shit. The band signed to Columbia and released a really embarrassing album of crunchy granola folk that was too bland even for the '89 Earth Day festival. After that, Poi Dog went electric and tried rap and Smiths soundalikes. With one chord from Kurt Cobain, Poi Dog was rendered both obsolete and uncool. In 1992, Orral dissolved the band temporarily to record a new, one-off album under the name of Palm Fabric Orchestra. Thankfully, Orral didn't attempt to stay current by going grunge. Instead, he retreated into that strange boomer netherworld, New Age, and believe it or not, the album he recorded (with a bunch of other Poi Doggers) is actually a classic of the genre. Released on Carrot Top in 1994, Palm Fabric Orchestra's sole album Vague Gropings in the Slip Stream has held up better than anything in the Poi Dog catalog (except that first EP). Of course, it is New Age, so an open mind is most definitely required. After releasing the Palm Fabric Orchestra album, Orral kicked Poi Dog Pondering back into gear and continued to release albums. They are still recording and playing as of 2006.

Chapterhouse - Pearl

Almost anyone who loved music and grew up in Jacksonville went to Einsteins at some point. It was an underage club so they didn't serve alcohol. Kids went there mainly to dance and to be seen on the scene. The uniform for girls was jeans or skirt, doc martens, and a white or blank tank top. People who visited from out of town were always mystified by the fact that people all faced in the same direction while they danced. People also tended to dance right in front of the speaker and air-guitar...a lot.

Anyway, this pic is from Einstein's early days, before the monodirectional craze kicked in. But I swear it's true! I was there pretty much every Saturday night.

One of my all-time favorites from the Einsteins playlist was Chapterhouse's "Pearl." It wasn't obscure at the time, but I bet most people under 22 have never heard the song. Download it now and imagine yourself dancing in front of the speaker, air-guitaring the night away, and it's like you're there.

Folky Goodness

Raven Sings the Blues is a nice little blog that profiles new and old music. In August, the site posted some mp3's from two amazing femme folkies, Linda Perhacs and the newly discovered Sibylle Baier. Click here to download some truly beautiful (and slightly weird) tracks.

Also, the brilliant Waxidermy blog posted on Mossy Davidson a while back. Mossy, who recorded this album in Alaska, is actually related to Jewel! She put out one double album of lonely folk tunes sometime in the '70s and it's definitely worth hearing. Click here for an mp3.

Azitis - Who's to Blame
1970

Released in 1970, the sole album by Azitis (pronounced "as it is") is regarded by some folks (mostly the band themselves) as the first Christian rock album. Certainly, the themes are apparent enough from the overtly religious album cover and song titles like "Judgment Day," but this claim is dubious. Most Christian rockers consider the first Christian rock album to be Larry Norman's Upon This Rock. Nevertheless, Azitis' record is certainly the first overtly Christian psych album, if that counts for anything.

The band started out as a fourpiece in Sacramento, calling themselves the very unchristian sounding Cambridge Coroners. The key members were Don Lower and Steve Nelson; other members came and went.

Somehow the band got signed to Capitol and drove down to LA to record Help, an album presumably concerned with more important issues than what John Lennon had on his mind when he wrote a song of that name. According to the band, the cover was a symbol "chosen to represent Christianity, piercing the earth. It was the theme for our earlier work. The invention of christian faith was overshadowing the other philosophies of mankind. Our message was, all religions give us hope and faith in our fellow man. The only solution for a crowded planet."

Draw your own conclusions about the band's philosophy, but the music is indeed an intriguing mix of Floyd-style space rock and LA-styled folk rock.

The band has a website that badly needs updating, but does contain some useful information and plenty of period pics.

In the past year a large number of psych/folk blogs have been appearing. Most of them post entire albums and the quality is generally amazing. I advise everyone to head over to Joy of a Toy, a new blog, and download Mellow Candle's brilliant Swaddling Songs.

Mosquitoes - Special Powers
2001

Sometime around 2001 I started up a record label to release a 7" by my then-favorite local band, Mates of State. After that single quickly sold out,it was apparent that Mates of State had outgrown the confines of little indie labels like mine. So without any artists to promote, I began attending shows in San Francisco looking for cool new bands.

I think I saw the Mosquitoes at the Edinburgh Castle, a Scottish pub in San Francisco that hosted big-screen soccer parties and shambling indie shows. I was drunk and tired when I saw the Mosquitoes, but their show captivated me nonetheless. They reminded me of the Bartlebees and the Television Personalities, indie pop bands with great songs and shoddy instrumentation. I talked to the Mosquitoes singer afterwards and he gave me an untitled, handmade CD with the songtitles written on a little card inside.

Last month I looked up the band and found out some real details. The band is largely the work of Drew Cramer, a San Francisco free-spirit who has worked as a gardener and dessert chef to pay the rent. He is a firm believer in DIY and does almost nothing to promote the band beyond playing the occasional show.

The band is bigger in Australia, where the Lost and Lonesome label has issued an official CD. Check the website here for more info and an interview with Cramer.